Country Roads.

{AN: Made a discord server with the help of my friend, here is the link:

https://discord.gg/ZCX5F5cfKq

Don't worry I will also post the link in the comments session.}

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I continue walking with Shuten, filling her in with some basic info about Tamriel and the things that happened here. Warned her about the disgusting tendencies of the Thalmor. We continued talking mainly sharing information with each other about things from our worlds, I quickly noticed that Shuten is pretty proud of her Oni heritage. Thankfully it isn't on an excessive and bothersome amount, it appears that her mother managed to put some common sense into her head.

Soon enough we arrived at the place my teammates were at, they seem to be amicably talking with each other about some random things. But I quickly discovered something, no one is talking about the five days they spent in the desert, it is as if they are ignoring it, forgetting it, or simply put it so back into their mind that they will rarely think about it.

[Dragon Breaks] are really terrifying, and when none of them recognized Shuten, she showed a slightly troubled and fearful expression, my explanations and words from before bearing way more weight in her mind right now. Taking a deep breath she channeled a little bit of [Ripple] to make it visible, waving her hand amicably she quickly said.

"Hello. Nice to meet you All my Name is Shuten Douji. And I am an Oni."(Shuten).

Everyone looked a tad bit surprised, their reactions were mostly the same as the last time. But this time the suspicion of her being a Dremora wasn't brought up thanks to her showing her [Ripple]. Soon enough everyone made sure to introduce themselves, one by one.

With a curious face, Turalion brought up q question that was probably in the minds of everyone.

"What is an Oni exactly? Until now you look like just a very tall woman with horns, this can easily be explained by a magic accident or something of the sort. I don't want to be rude, I am just curious. What is an Oni?"(Turalion).

"Hmmm... Oni's generally are very tall and physically strong. An Oni can easily reach 250cm to 300cm in height, but much like my ancestor of the same name, I am on the smaller spectrum. We are also excellent blacksmiths, and we all are pretty good with physical combat and strength, sadly this made our magical talent be pretty shitty."(Shuten).

"Hmmm, so in summary you all are pretty strong physically and good blacksmiths, right?"(Elii)

"Yeah, that is basically it."(Shuten).

"But damn girl you are tall as hell. And you said you are on the smaller spectrum? Damn, your siblings must be giants."(Altair).

"Now that Altair mentioned giants... the way you'd described Onis sounds like some kind of evolved and smarter type of giants. With horns."(Turalion).

"Well, yes. But actually, no. Giants are way taller and clumsier, so we have quite a few distinctions."(Shuten).

Very subtly I talked to shuten in barely a whisper, her face a little bit confused due to the previous words. The others were thankfully way too concerned about the newer subject brought up by turalion to notice our side dialog.

"Shuten, I don't think they are talking about the same type of giant you are thinking of. Remember this is another world."(Jin).

"Ah, yeah. Almost forgot that, sorry."(shuten).

"Nah, don't worry about it. I commit mistakes all the time too."(Jin).

Elevating my voice a little bit, I addressed the whole group.

"So, everyone good to continue our journey? I reckon we are at the boundary that marks the end of the desert, so civilization must be close."(Jin).

"Yeah, we are closer than you can imagine. If I am not mistaken we can find the road towards sentinel some miles from here."(Turalion).

"Khajiit is just glad she is exiting the desert. Khajiit is ready to move."(Aahin).

"I thought your people lived in the desert or something?"(Elii).

"Yes. Khajiit likes deserts very much, but that wasn't a desert that was Daedric realm on Nirn."(Aahin).

"Well, I can exactly disagree with Aahin in this one. I am just happy I exited the shitty desert, and I am a Redgtuard for fucks sake."(Altair).

"*Sigh* Even I felt the scorching sun boiling my skin, and I am literally a Dunmer, fire is on my blood, quite literally I might add."(Turalion).

"So are we going?"(Shuten).

"Yeah, we are. Ah, before I forget, Shuten is basically a newbie with [Ripple], so I will be teaching her a little bit more during the trip."(Jin).

"Sure no worries. Are we going with the usual?"(Turalion).

"Yep, the usual."(Jin).

Shuten looked extremely confused by our slightly cryptic way of talking. She is probably boiling with curiosity, but she held herself back from asking a question she considered too invasive.

We continue walking, everyone in relative silence practicing their breathing, while I taught Shuten some more about [Ripple]. She seems pretty talented with the art, even more than turalion and I combined, it is like she has a lot of compatibility with the sun energy. Maybe because she is a Yokai? I remember that some Yokai have a very good affinity with manipulating life force, and [Ripple] can be considered pretty close to something like that... Huh, let us ask.

"Hey, Shuten. How good are Oni with [Senjutsu], and [Touki]?"(Jin).

Shuten how as concentrated on her [Ripple] training was suddenly brought to reality due to my question immediately dissipating her [Ripple] due to her lack of concentration and loss of rhythm. Talking while you practice [Ripple] is also a form of training, talking can disrupt your breathing rhythm so if you can talk and use [Ripple] at the same time can be considered a form of training.

"With [Senjutsu]? We are absolutely horrible with it, like... we are even worse than some humans with it. My race is simply too violent for something like that. [Touki] is another thing entirely, as we can't reach [Touki] by the normal means of using [Senjutsu], so we train our bodies until we eventually awakened it. My mother did it that way, and she was teaching me, but I am still pretty far from any visible result."(Shuten).

"Interesting... how strong are your exactly?"(Jin).

"Well, I am in the middle of the Low-class in strength."(Shuten).

"Sorry if I am being rude, but isn't that kind of low? I mean 145 years and all..."(Jin).

"*Sigh* Don't even get me started. I don't know why but my training always progressed at a snail's pace compared to others... My mother seems to know something about that but she never told me the why? and how? she always encouraged me to continue trying, or simply prioritize my studies focusing on sharpening my mind, as I didn't have much talent for the other things..."(Shuten).

Hmm... this is starting to sound more and more like her mother is hiding something pretty important from her... Her father maybe? she never mentioned him, but maybe it is a sore subject for her, I will ask her on a later date, we just met each other so spilling life stories doesn't sound good right now. Put on a smile, even if it is useless seeing as my whole body is covered by fabric and armor, I said to her.

"Well, if this serves as a consolation, you have pretty good talent with [Ripple]. From what I am able to see you're nearly mastering the part of walking, talking, and using [Ripple] simultaneously. And not even an hour passed since you acquired it."(Jin).

"Thanks, but you don't need to spew some flowery words to make me feel better."(Shuten).

"Nah, I am not the type to do those kinds of things. If your talent is crap I would have said so. With these kinds of things is better to be blunt, than let someone get killed by overconfidence and ego."(Jin).

"I understand."(Shuten).

Silence dominated the air once more, Shuten keeps practicing her newly acquired [Ripple], but right now she was way more motivated. It seem s that my comment on her talent with the art did indeed boost her motivation, I guess she is pretty pumped about finding something she is especially good at. Seeing another opportunity id decided to ask another question.

"Do you know about [Ki] cultivation?"(Jin).

"[Ki]? Nah, I know about [Touki]... but cultivation... I can't seem to remember anything."(Shuten).

"Hmmm... I was planning on teaching my teammates when we have a more stable environment, I guess it won't hurt to include you."(Jin).

"Thanks, but as I said. My talent isn't that great."(Shuten).

"Don't worry, a lot of cultivation is more dependent on your strength of [Spirit] than anything else. And seeing that you even continue to train for all that time even with such minimal results, I bet you [Spirit] is extremely strong."(Jin).

Shuten seems to smile a little at my new information, before saying.

"Heh, so your [Spirit] must be something truly monstrous. Billion years old virgin..."(Shuten).

"*Sigh* Whatever. I am just happy to see you are dealing with this another world stuff pretty well."(Jin).

"Meh, it isn't permanent. If I arrived here, there is probably a way to go back. Even if my mother misses me, she can wait some years before I am able to return."(Shuten).

"Heh, indeed. I never looked at it that way. For me, I was looking at this new world as my new home, not a transitionary place."(Jin).

"Why? Isn't there some people who will miss you or something?"(Shuiten).

"No, there isn't."(Jin).

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-."(Shuten).

"Don't worry, I had a very long time to come on terms with it. But that doesn't mean it won't bring back some bad memories."(Jin).

Shuten seems a little sheepishly and awkward due to our talk, she stayed ins silent for some time as if she was mulling over what to talk about next, then her face set on a slight smile and she said.

"Well I am pretty good with blacksmithing, so if you have the materials, the tools, and the place I can probably whip up some really good armor and weapons to everyone."(Shuten).

"Even for me? I am quite big you know?"(Jin).

"Eh, it won't be a problem. As I said Onis are generally way bigger than you, and I normally made armors and weapons for them, so you are pretty safe for now."(Shuten).

"Huh, that sounds cool. But right now we all are piss poor. Our first priority is having a good foothold in the city first and foremost, after that I will think about upgrading our equipment."(Jin).

We continue walking forwards, the desert now just on our memories of harder times, the terrain now was rocky and filled with dirt, but the changes were immediately welcomed by everyone. I doubt anyone would want to return to the desert any time soon. Heck, I even saw green for the first time since I arrived in Tamriel, it was just some low bushes and small trees but it was still way better than the desert. Feeling the need to troll everyone for a bit I shouted.

"LOOK! A giant dragon flying in the sky."(Jin).

Everyone quickly looked towards the sky in reflex, madly searching the said flying Dragon. And I? I was just laughing my ass off, I can't believe they fell for my shitty joke. turalion was the first to speak.

"Hahaha, very funny.*Visible Irony*"(Turalion).

"Come on boss, that one was one of the worse ones."(Altair).

"Khajiit thinks the scorching desert fried his brain."(Aahin).

"Don't say that Aahin, it was just a joke to try to improve the mood a little."(Elii).

Shuten, the poor girl, was very confused with things right now. She seemly quite lost at the missed joke.

"I don't understand?"(Shuten).

Everyone looked at her in curiosity, then finally realization struck them. they all looked towards me as if asking "what should we do? It's your secret to tell".

"Don't worry about it people, it is not much of a secret anyway. Well Shuten, I am kind of blind."(Jin).

"Wait... You are blind? And how the heck is someone kind of blind?"(Shuten).

Deactivating my [Sharingan] my eyes stopped shining red for a moment, Shuten finally saw my glassy and unfocused back orbs.

"Yeah, when my eyes are Red I can see in a 10 meters radius, but when they are like this I am as good as blind."(Jin).

"How something like this could have happened?"(Shuten)

"It's just the consequences of my actions. nothing more, nothing less. Now Turalion, can you give me a description?"(Jin).

"Sure thing. We are close to the road, I can already see it on the horizon, in around two to three hours we will be able to arrive there. there is no danger in sight as of now, so we are pretty clear."(Turalion).

"Good. Maybe we can arrive in the city before nightfall."(Jin).