Chapter 6

The bath was simply amazing.

At first, Isaiah wasn't too keen on bathing using the ancient style as it was very alien to him. Neither was he familiar with the Japanese way of bathing as in the middle-class Filipinos baths with either a showerhead or by using 25-gallon buckets filled with water, the only time he was able to use a bathtub was when they were in a hotel.

But that wasn't the worst of it all, just to the side of the wooden tub were the jars and bottles which were all without labels which only added to his confusion.

'Am I just overthinking things?' Isaiah wondered as he took a sniff on one of the jars. 'Smells fragrant, probably soap. Hopefully.'

Isaiah placed the jar down and then he placed his feet just above the water to gauge its temperature.

'Warm.'

Isaiah was quite hesitant to plunge his feet down further but after the fourth try, he was in the tub, standing.

He took one last look around the room before he sat down, and just stared at the wall, for it was bliss, it was heavenly, only now did he realize why warm baths are superior to colder ones.

'Nya nag reklamo pako noon na init ra kaayo.' (And to think I complained before it was too hot)

Isaiah then slowly sank himself lower as he closed his eyes while enjoying the pleasure of bathing when once again he noticed the wide array of jars in front of him.

He quickly shifted his weight over to the side as he opened all the lids with his magic, and then he gulped.

Inside was a wide selection of powders and creams that could be used for bathing.

...

Now normally, Isaiah wouldn't really care about this kind of stuff, anyone wouldn't. But, Isaiah did notice something.

He just remembered how incredibly powerful Senki was as she dragged him around the house, not only that she didn't even notice much less flinched from Isaiah's slams which he didn't hold back from and slammed with full force.

With this, Isaiah deduced that they might have increased physical abilities, which was a very common trait for beastmen in the mangas, or she was just a higher level than him. So it's safe to say that they too have enhanced smells.

'Test kaha ni??' (Is this a test?)

Just as they all say, 'first appearances are always important' and the Japanese were all about dignity and 'face'.

Seeing that today would probably be the day that Isaiah would meet the mother and father of this household, he was not planning to embarrass himself in any way possible and would like to present a perfect version of him especially since seeing that he would be staying here for quite a while before moving on to wherever he would go next. So it would be best to have good impressions.

Now usually, Isaiah would just use all of them, but...

'Kung trap ito, hay nako, mga Hapon bat ba kasi kinocomplicate nyo pa ung pagliligo? Simple lang sana yun.' (If this is a trap, come on, the Japs Why is it that you complicate bathing? It was only a simple affair.)

Isaiah decided to sniff on one, and his face quickly sank as this one had no smell.

'Mga (Those)! Masked smells, wow, very wow.' Isaiah rolled his eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Isaiah sank himself down towards the tub, with only part of his head floating as he relaxed for a minute. He had already said 'yes' and thereby had accepted the challenge and so there was no turning back.

'If only I asked for her help.' Then Isaiah realized how awkward it was to ask a minor for help. And so, having made up his mind, Isaiah randomly choose 5 of the jars and used them.

It took him ten whole minutes before he got out of the tub and changed into his new brown obi which was neatly prepared right next to the bath.

Swinging his body to the left and to the right, Isaiah checked himself over in the mirror. 

'Nothing seemed to change, except that I got skinnier.'

That settled as if wearing a tuxedo, Isaiah 'nudged' the neck portion before leaving full of confidence.

'And it's gone.'

As soon as he got out, he saw a group of fox-men riding horses all heading for the house.

'To think they invited a party just to see me, is this a slave trade or so...'

Gulp.

Isaiah then saw Yumi who seemed to run towards him.

"Ahm, Yumi, that..."

Yumi, however, didn't answer but instead pushed Isaiah back to the bathhouse before entering herself and closing the door.

"Ahh, Yumi?"

"Shhh." Yumi gently opens a tiny bit of the door to see outside.

"What is going on?" Isaiah asked as he took a peek. Placing his head slightly above Yumi's.

Outside, he could see the party of 10 horsemen trot proudly near the entrance gate of the house.

They were all wearing a helmet adorned with red, blue, and green colors with what seemed to be a single leaf of grain as plumage and their armor was of light wood material colored black with three pentagon-shaped yellow coins as their symbols.

Leading them was a man who wore the same outfit except for his helmet which was a standard kabuto with protruding points for what would be his ears. Raising his fist, the party stopped exactly outside of the gate.

Horses neighing and halting, people getting out of the way and servants trying to distance from them, the leader scanned the vicinity before turning his eyes over to an uncle who was heading towards his way followed by a lady who despite having lost her charms, was still beautiful enough.

He then dismounted from his horse. The two couples bowed first followed by the man who bowed very slightly, almost as if nodding. And then the two men engaged in a conversation.

"What are they?" Isaiah asked. Despite having a deep knowledge of history, particularly in Asia, Isaiah had never heard of Japanese soldiers wearing that kind of helmet, neither does a 'stalk of rice' fall into the category of possible symbols that the clans might use.

"Tax-man."

"Tax? Well, that makes sense." Isaiah nodded as to why they used that funny symbol. "Is there a problem with taxes and this village?"

"No." She shook her head. "Its that, they take you, maybe." (reminder that Yumi can't fully speak in the language Isaiah can understand)

"Okay..." Isaiah turned his attention towards the two men conversing. 'So that's the father of this household, and it might be safe to say that girl is the mother, she does look like the two.' Isaiah turned at Yumi before refocusing his attention back at the slight opening.

"That's your parents?"

"Hmmm?"

"Mother and father?"

"Ahh, yes."

"Hmmm."

The room fell into a deep quiet.

Now, the fact that he was alone with a girl made Isaiah very anxious.

Should he talk to her? Keep her entertained?

How?

'I should've tried making friends before. Damn.' Cried the introvert. 'But then again, we might not be able to converse due to Sir Language Barrier.'

As Isaiah was hesitating to strike up some sort of conversation with Yumi, he then noticed some thuds to his hips.

It was Yumi's bushy tail that was wagging cautiously that kept hitting him there.

'Ohhhhh.'

For some reason, it had a sort of hypnotizing effect on Isaiah always, and then, before he knew it, he was staring straight at it with hungry eyes.

For a while that is, that's when he noticed Yumi's eyes staring back at him, her face facing forward with a questioned look.

Noticing this, Isaiah was flushed with embarrassment.

"There was something there..."

Yumi turned towards where Isaiah was pointing with his chin and began scanning the area.

"There was a bug, yes a bug there."

Yumi looked at that direction before turning back and nodding twice as she refocused outside. Isaiah sighed in relief that she took the bait before leaving the door and planting his palm on his face, his cheeks very red.

'Almost... Ahhhhh! What do I do, what do I do?'

Isaiah then went back to where the mirror was but stopped short.

'I've already seen myself multiple times. No need for narcissism.' He thought as he sat on a low stool nearby. That's when he saw the bathtub, it wasn't drained yet.

'Should I play with water to pass time?' He wondered but quickly rejected the idea. 'It would create a mess and what if they noticed.'

Sigh.

Isaiah turned to his back and saw Yumi still staring outside. 'Looks like it would take a while.'

There were no books inside the bathhouse and no entertainment stuff as well. Isaiah turned back to the tub.

He didn't really like the thought of not doing anything, as a hard-working type of person, a lack of action would make Isaiah really restless, to the point that he would try to do stuff even if they are unproductive as long as he is doing something other than staring into nothingness.

Isaiah clicked his tongue as he opened his right palm and then made water dance, following the movements of his fingers.

Soon, his mind began to wonder in sheer boredom till he remembered a film he once watched depicting naval battles during World War 2.

In that film, four steel behemoths, two battleships a battle and heavy cruiser, the mighty Bismarck and Prince Eugen vs The legendary Hood and Prince of Wales duked it out at the Strait of Denmark and fired salvo after salvo of massive shells upon each other.

So vivid and clear was his memory of the clash that the 'tentacles' of water which was just aimlessly floating about was slowly changing to look exactly like battleships and soon, four of them appeared 'cruising' in the sky. Though the ships weren't accurate enough to be distinguishable it was still pretty nonetheless.

'Woah. Ganda (Beautifull).' Isaiah gasped as a genuine smile was etched into his lips. This time, however, it was moving not because of his hands, but rather his imagination.

'No movement is required for this... I can just do it telepathically?'

To test this out, Isaiah tried of thinking other things and as soon as he added mana into it, the mock-battle would begin to blur to change to whatever he was thinking. And if he will change how the scenery would be like, adding another ship or making one ship turn, it would follow suit with only a very slight delay.

'This is cool.' He thought as he watched the now historically inaccurate fight where robots and aliens started coming to fight both groups.

It was strange really, that he could effortlessly control this stuff despite being his first time with magic.

'First time?'

Quickly Isaiah opened his status page.

===================================

Name: Isaiah

Level: 14

HP: 1,448

MP: 362

STR: 24

INT: 24

AGI: 74

Abilities (Passive)

Blue Stat (LVL 2)

Mana Manipulation (LVL 1)

Skills (Active)

Manipulation (manipulation)

Electric (creation)

Taming (LVL 1)

===================================

His eyes locked on to the 'level' section and noticed.

'It's not level 1?'

If this was patterned after games, why are the stats at level 14?

...

More and more questions started to float towards his head.

'Di kaya, na transper ang akong kalag sa lain?' (Is it, my soul was transferred to someone else's body?)

But that was not plausible, although he received strange bruises and cuts, his face was still him, his body felt the same as if nothing change, barring those wounds, but it was still him. His old face, his old height and weight, the old feeling, it was his genuine body.

'But why is it that he started at level 14?'

And so, how much time has passed by, more and more thoughts came into Isaiah's head as he tried to make sense of why certain things didn't seem normal that he didn't notice that Yumi was already behind him.

"Ise-san?" She shook his shoulder.

It took only one shake for Isaiah to notice and looked back.

"Ahh, right, yes?"

"Are you good?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine."

"Good." A smile came to her face. "Let's go? They go now."

"Ahhh, right right, sure."

Senki was about to turn when she noticed the water bottle that was happening in the tub.

"Woah..." She gasped.

"Right, it's cool." Isaiah smiled proudly

"Coolu," She replied as she watched with intense interest. "You can magic cotton and skin and also water?"

"I can," Isaiah replied with a slightly embarrassed smile.

"Nice..." She said. "Ah, right... Let's go, I hungry." She then turned around and began walking to the door that's when Isaiah called out to her.

"Yumi."

"Hmmm?"

"This... Ahmm, how do I say this... Can you show me your status page?"

...

Yumi stared straight at Isaiah with a blank face as if Isaiah had just said something bad.

'Is it wrong to ask for one's statuses then?'

Well, a status page is considered as one's lifeblood, and having it revealed unnecessarily may endanger one's self. So Isaiah thought that he had to gain Yumi's trust first before she would show something that important, only for Isaiah to be surprised by her reply.

"Status Pageu?" She asked as a confused expression filled her face.

"Yes, a status page... You know, like a card in front of you with like numbers and names."

"Status pageu, status pageu..."

"Maybe its called differently, ehh this." Using water, Isaiah then created a 'status page' with random information floating in the air. "It looks like this."

Yumi stared straight at it, her face became a myriad of confused expressions as she tried to understand what this 'status page' was.

"Ehhh..."

"You... You don't have one?" Isaiah asked with suspicion.

"No." Came the reply.

"Huh, I see." Isaiah nodded as he too went into a confused state. 'Am I the only one seeing this or like...'

Isaiah then rubbed both his hands into the length of his face as shook his head. "Nevermind, I was just confused... Sorry."

"Status pageu, status pageu... Huh." Yumi kept on repeating as she turned back and left. Isaiah on the other hand followed after her, but for now, rather than finding answers, Isaiah found even more questions.

'They don't have status pages? Then why do I have one.'

Strange.

Chapter 6 Fin...

============================================================