"Aoba?"
"Hinata, are you okay?"
The girls still hadn't recovered from the sudden change of Aoba being engulfed by the pillar of light when Hinata's cry of pain drew their attention.
"I… I don't know either!", Hinata was clutching her eyes.
She only felt like her Byakugan was uncontrollably absorbing some kind of chakra.
Its hunger was ravenous, its devouring like wolves and tigers, and the feeling it brought was like long-droughted land suddenly receiving sweet rain.
But along with the sense of fullness from "consuming chakra" came an intense stabbing pain.
Since awakening the Byakugan, Hinata had never once experienced anything like this.
"Aoba-kun… is Aoba-kun all right?", Hinata asked in panic.
Yakumo and the other two looked at the pillar of light that had yet to fade, unable to figure out the situation, and could only turn toward Seramu, who also looked completely bewildered.
"What's going on?"
———
On the other side—
No, it should be said, in another space-time—
The dazzling light before his eyes faded, and a crisp, childish singing voice entered Aoba's ears.
"Light rises high above Roran, emotions mingling with a hundred feelings, oh Dragon Vein that must be protected, blade gleaming, gazing toward the sky… Sandstorms and winds entwine, blazing sun blooms bright, flowers dance in beauty, inheritance in spirals…"
'Someone is singing?'
Aoba came to his senses in a heap of rubble, seeing only dim walls around him, and sunlight shining down through a hole above, enveloping him.
He began to search for the unfamiliar singing voice.
Crisp, pleasant, childish.
Like it came from a little girl, tinged with sobbing.
Pushing past some broken stones, Aoba finally saw, among the shattered ruins, a little girl sitting on a large rock, bathed in the same sunlight as him.
She looked only eight or nine years old.
The singing voice just now… it must have come from her.
'This scene…'
Made Aoba feel a sense of familiarity he couldn't put into words, yet also strangely odd.
"You, you…", The little Sara had also noticed the sudden appearance of Aoba, and immediately shut her mouth.
Because she had been slacking in her training, scolded by her mother, sitting alone crying and singing was already embarrassing enough, but now, a strange man had seen it too.
Sara wiped the corners of her eyes with her hands, then glared in both embarrassment and annoyance at the man who had somehow slipped into Roran's forbidden grounds.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
'Could he be a bad guy?'
'But how could a bad guy look this good?'
Sara had originally thought of running away immediately, but after noticing this man's appearance, she paused slightly.
Still just a little girl, Sara judged people entirely by appearance, clearly lacking any real sense of danger.
"Who am I?", Aoba rubbed his hair.
Then he finally remembered. When he had unsealed the barrier, he had accidentally also undone the seal of the Dragon Vein, and was brought here by its power.
'But what about Hinata and the others?'
He looked around, but saw no sign of them. The last thing he remembered was Hinata clutching her eyes. He had no idea what had happened to her.
Most of all, he had no idea how to get back to the original time-space, 'In the original story, the plot was solved by killing Anrokuzan, but now he couldn't very well kill himself, right?'
He noticed the little girl was staring at him with strange eyes.
"And who are you? Where is this place?"
He couldn't help sensing outside. And discovered there weren't even a few proper tall buildings. Before developing the Dragon Vein, Roran was more like a weak, barren little town.
"This is Roran, and I am the princess of Roran, Sara!"
Sara proudly puffed out her tiny chest, introduced herself with a childish yet haughty tone, then pouted angrily, "You still haven't said where you came from!"
"This is Roran's forbidden ground. Only me and my mother are allowed here!"
"I… my name is Aoba."
Aoba didn't bother hiding his name, since that would only cause misunderstandings, "As for where I came from, you could say… I fell down from the sky."
As he spoke, he even pointed upward.
"Eh? Fell from the sky?", Sara looked up at the shaft of sunlight streaming from high, high above.
'Falling from a place like that, and still standing here like nothing happened, this guy…'
"You liar! Falling from that high, how could you be okay?", She grew angrier.
"I'll teach you a lesson!"
Sara decided to scare him.
As Aoba looked on in surprise, little Sara raised her hand.
At her feet, a magic array appeared, and brilliant light surged out from it.
The dark forbidden grounds were illuminated. Aoba felt a breeze lift the hem of his clothes.
And then… nothing else happened.
The light faded. Sara looked exhausted, but couldn't hide her pride.
"How about that? Pretty amazing, right?"
"Mm… that color looks quite nice."
Aoba nodded with a deliberately satisfied expression, offering praise.
"Mm!"
Sara immediately knew he was mocking her. Her little cheeks puffed up like a pufferfish, and her eyes reddened.
This made Aoba feel amused.
Perhaps because Anrokuzan was already dead, the queen of Roran, who, in the original story, had died from overdeveloping the Dragon Vein, was still alive and well. And Sara was growing up under her mother's love and care, carefree.
Like an innocent little girl who knew nothing.
"Do you want to see my ability?"
"Huh?"
Without waiting for Sara to ask, Aoba pressed his hands together.
And from the rubble at Sara's feet, a thick vine sprouted upward.
"Ah!"
The sudden rise of the ground made Sara cry out in surprise.
Her body instantly lost balance, and she tumbled from the vine.
Her shriek grew even louder.
At that moment, another thinner vine shot out from the thick one, coiling around her waist, suspending her in mid-air, swaying back and forth.
What had been a thrilling bungee jump instantly turned into a relaxed and pleasant swing.
Realizing she wasn't in danger, Sara's tense mood calmed down, and she even made a request.
"Amazing! Can this go faster?"
Aoba raised an eyebrow slightly, 'This Sara is much bolder than the princess in the original story.'
But since he already had experience looking after Hanabi, he knew how to coax little girls to be happy.
He sped it up a little.
By the end of the play, the vine tied around Sara's waist suddenly snapped.
"Ah!"
Another sharp cry, and then she fell straight into a very warm embrace.
Aoba didn't hold her long. He put down the dazed Sara, whose brain had turned to mush, and smiling, patted her head.
"You okay?"
"Y-yeah… I'm fine."
Sara pulled away from his arms. Although she felt embarrassed, she still tried to sound tough, "Your ability is… not bad."
Aoba naturally had no intention of competing with a little girl. He pulled a piece of candy from his ninja pouch and handed it to her.
"Want some candy?"
It had originally been prepared for Hanabi.
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