The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 21: The Answer to a Reluctant Question

It had been a full week since he had been given the vase and, remarkably, it was still in one piece. Young ninja do not always have the best aim with their kunai yet, but, when given a kunai, they are still very likely to try throwing it at something. He didn't think they had really been aiming for the vase, but the reality was that now the wall just a few centimeters shy of the vase had a fresh stab wound.

Other than that latest excitement, Axel had had a peaceful, largely unremarkable seven days.

Well, assuming he looked past the fact that ninja—actual martial-arts-magic ninja—had become a normal everyday thing for him. Which was pretty remarkable in and of itself.

Really, the thought that he had been hit by a car, sort of died, and woke up to find himself in a real-world version of a famous anime still baffles him sometimes. Still, that had been almost a full year ago by now and nothing nearly so world changing—for lack of a better phrase—had happened since.

Thankfully.

These days he mostly spent his time working in the forge, stocking up the shelves in the shop, or just sitting behind the register. Routine would be shaken up by the occasional visit from a friend, and of course customers—mostly ninja—would pop in throughout the day to chat and shop. And usually they would buy something, even if just a single kunai.

Axel didn't think a single kunai would have been worth a trip out to his shop, given his shop was basically the only thing in the abandoned district worth visiting, but whatever. Ninja were weird.

So, in short, nothing terribly exciting on a day-to-day basis.

This week wouldn't even have his friends dropping by for dinner, unfortunately, as Minato had gone off on an out-of-village mission six days ago and wasn't due back for at least another six. And given that Akaiko hadn't dropped by at all either, he guessed that she probably had some kind of super-secret mission as well.

Axel tried not to think too closely about what might happen during those missions.

Just like he tried not to wonder just where the kunai and other such tools he sold would ultimately end up. He just hoped that... that his customers were good at what they did. That they were efficient. And he tried not to let his hand in the matter bother him too much.

"Andere Länder, andere Sitten," he muttered to himself, making his way to his bedroom after locking up the front door of his shop. After all, when in a ninja village, the best choice is to steer clear and just let the ninja do their thing. And lock the doors, even if it probably wouldn't help much.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about anybody dropping in at his windowsill for the upcoming week, since the two people most prone to doing that were out of town.

Which meant that he had a chance to do something that he hadn't in almost a full year, and he was only slightly nervous about it; he closed his bedroom door behind him, checked the window for unexpected visitors, and then opened his laptop to the music app.

He hit shuffle, letting the computer decide what to play and then humming along in an only-slightly-off-key harmony.

But he wasn't just here for the music.

It was time to open that folder.

Although... since he was using the computer already, perhaps he should take a moment to see if he could find that German-Japanese dictionary first. Just real quick, while he's thinking of it. A few searches later, and he had determined that he probably didn't have that application downloaded anymore. Though he had found a couple of the assignments he had typed up for a language course at some point, which could maybe be helpful.