Chapter 3: Exploring Alofia

The Mayor was kind enough to hand over to me a map of the city that I deemed my new hometown aside from the one I had back on Earth which was Antipolo city in the Philippines. It seems Alofia bay is about half the size of Australia. I'm surprised it's still in one piece considering its massive size.

One of the maids, named Sarah, was transferred ownership to me. Meaning, she would serve from this day forth. The mayor claims its common practice in a starter town, and I'm free to do with her as I please.

Her body build is fair and she's beautiful; eyes of scarlet and hair of crimson reminds me of the fantasy character I designed back then in Dark Souls 3. I remembered the weapon I have that character. Speaking of weapons... I noticed there is a smithy so I had a look. Sarah comes with me wherever I go, so I always made sure I was at a slow pace so as to not overwhelm her, or even tire her. She noticed and advised me that I can run at the speed of light and she'll always be at my side. I smiled and thanked her.

I looked at all the weapons and had a hard time thinking. I love long weapons like polearms, I have tried to mimic the way the characters from games or anime would attack using those but my footwork is horrible so I need to sort that out first. Sarah also wanted a polearm so I asked for a custom made one that would fit her needs and the blacksmith agreed. I allowed her to use all the finest material she needs and we'll put a curse similar to what my storage ring has to prevent others from taking her weapon away. Only I and she can use it.

It's about 5 feet long, with the blade taking 1 foot of the entire length. The grip of the polearm is amazing and it's anti-slip and absorbent so even if she has wet or oily hands it'll be useable. That's what the blacksmith said at least. We have yet to try it. So we sparred at the backyard, well, practiced.

She taught me the proper footwork in wielding the polearm from the style of attacks I was using, which as unusual for me. Because she'd have taught me some other moves instead of basing it off of my style. I found it weird but I played along. This allowed me to explore more about how important battle styles, forms, stances and other factors would do when in battle. She even said to me that 'just because you have the strongest power or even the mightiest weapon doesn't mean that you're above all, for someone inferior can defeat you at the slightest misstep'. And those words shocked me.

It's as if she's telling me that 'just because you're mirroring the strikes of a person, and their poses doesn't mean you're as strong or as flexible. Thus, you're more just a flaw rather than an embodiment of perfection'. For me, her views are very important and relevant. I love it! As we continued, she kept correcting me. Each muscle movement, breathing, and coming up with my own follow up attacks... and more sparring. She made me realize that I'm way too far from being a prodigy of wielding a weapon. Heh, what more wielding a battleship?

"Perhaps we should move at the dojo just a couple blocks away to ensure we have enough space. Especially for your powers." She offered and I accepted. I asked what color roof the dojo is, and she said its maroon. I let her lead me there, and so she did.

I asked her more about herself so that I can ensure I can entrust myself and my belongings to her whilst I adventure or whatnot. Sarah says she hailed from a poor family of five, whose parents saw their children as their hope. Everything was taken away from them and since childbirth was the only option to move forward to gain protection from the government, they were able to get back up their feet. That... was millennia ago. Long, long ago. Sarah says she's about older than when the Earth was given life. That... is very shocking, unbelievable and if I were back on Earth still, we'd deem her crazy and out of her mind.

Anyways, as we walked towards our destination, we talked about ourselves more, and we found out we have a lot of similarities! She hates foods that involve liver, hearts and other such food and I do, too. We found that we love desserts, and savory and salt foods. She's never heard of cola, so I might make some for her. I asked why colas or fizzy drinks do not exist yet, and there's actually a religious reason for that. Valoria(the name of the planet) in its entirety do not consume fizzy drinks, due to a slow killing poison made by an evil reincarnated person who handed that said drink all across the world. "No more shall it be allowed," said their god 'Ethel', the same god who created this beautiful world, who protects and watches over every single individual. As mentioned, any similar effect of a fizzy drink is no longer allowed.

He's a very active god who mingles freely with the common folk, and there seems to be little to no nobility, except for those responsible for keeping the boundaries of the countries to signify the culture. Another whole interesting thing is that Ethel himself actually failed to detect the poison at first, until his wife, also a goddess named 'Celeste', guardian of all magic, actually drank it and said she felt like she's losing her life force each step she takes. That's when he took action against it. That is according to what Sarah tells me as much as she remembers from the scriptures.

Now, going back, we made it to the dojo and we got to an area where we can freely practice without getting in anyone's way. She got out her new polearm, which I took out my shapeshifting weapon and copied her polearm with the exact same details. Now, she began asking me to copy her exact poses to ensure I can wield the polearm properly and not make any mistakes at it, which I'm thankful for very much. After she teaches me the basic moves, also do's and don'ts while wielding the weapon, and other important factors.

Now, she goes and offered to spar with me. I nodded, and I felt myself become expressionless, but my mind sharper and her head tilted and she was on high alert I can tell. I went ahead and signaled to her that I'm about to launch an attack after counting to three. I had my polearm rotating and twirling around my fingers and entire body, also applying some sort of… artistic movement as if I'm gracefully dancing. It's something my body automatically did and I had no total influence. It's as if I was a whole different person.

She notices this but says no word. She was struggling to keep up, so I told myself to slow down, and back off a bit. My body heeds and listens to my desires, and I like that. However the feeling of no control during battle… is definitely something I have to work on because I want to ensure that I don't think about decapitating someone and the body just goes for it. Nah, no thanks.

While my body is in battle, I instructed it to let Sarah instruct it and I go ahead and meditate on everything else. Like, who actually is in control of my body? Me? Someone else? Ethel or Celeste? So many questions, and I have no clue… So I decided to meditate on that. Whilst meditating internally, my body didn't feel tired or anything at all. It feels the movements, the striking and resistance of her defense… it just does what I needs it to do, and that's actually great. What about pain though…

"Sarah, I do not know if I can feel pain or such, can you just wound my left arm for me?"

"I…" Sarah paused. It's as if the request is completely against her will, but she nods and is nervous, but she goes ahead and does so, making a slice. The wound didn't bleed, but it shows the flesh is pink. I placed my finger on it, and I felt the touch but no pain. That's… dangerous.

"This is strange. I do not feel pain."

"Is that so? The other way to feel pain is to kick you in the nuts." Sarah says, provoking me.

"Go for it." I said, and the other people who overheard were gaping at me, questioning what they just heard.

The people in the dojo now ask if I still want kids or stuff like that, and I just answered: "Look, I don't know what this body has to offer, nor what limitations it has. I was transferred here from another world aboard a battleship and I have no idea what to do, so. Here I am." And with that said they nodded and agreed to find the answers I needed, all of them said.

I'm confused why everyone is reaching out to help me, and word of me being a clueless transferee spread out and it reached the mayor. The mayor send a librarian and an expert at research to aid me in my next steps. I still had Sarah kick me in the nuts, and my body just didn't react. I did look at her straight in the eye as she did it. I felt the kick, the impact, but no pain! Not even a single damn flinch or toes curling or even a sound! It's nice to not feel pain because you become fearless, but the anxiety of not knowing whether you still have limbs is something I'm very weary of.

"Okay, that's…" Sarah went to hug me literally after the kick and all the men and women reacted as if they were the ones kicked.

I sounded so monotonous and looked at her expressionless and said: "Well, that didn't hurt at the very least. Interesting…"

"And no, I will not stab you." Sarah said, tightening the embrace which I appreciated.

The librarian and the researcher went ahead and met up with me outside the dojo after we practiced a bit more, and the librarian's name is Janice, and the other named Michel. Janice, a human girl who seems like she's at her 20's, is well versed in her knowledge of books of all kinds. Be it novels, history books, science books… all books! Michel, also a rabbit like me, loves to figure out things by probing questions and getting answers no matter what; which sounds like a customer service agent to me.

"Nice to meet you, Michel, and Janice. Again my name is Bonnie, and this is Sarah. Your names… remind me of names from my planet, Earth."

"Oh, you mean 'Terra'? That blue globe destined to die off of pollution? Well, that's interesting. Also about the names…" Michel's curiosity and the way he said that didn't actually hurt, but about my planet in its end of life actually made me feel actual pain.

"Might I request you never again speak of my planet regarding it dying?" I asked him in a stern manner and he quickly apologized.

"Ah, well. Let's get your anatomy and all other details to see what could be the cause of you feeling no pain. And I see your sleeves slashed? What happened?" Michel asked, looking at the torn sleeve.

Sarah and I looked at it and the wound was gone. I'm thinking that the body actually regenerated itself after a certain period of time during our practice before Michel and Sarah arrived. I asked Michel to go ahead and wound me, but Sarah interrupts me and states that no fighting is allowed in public.

So we went to the docks again, and I took out my battleship. I noticed no deformation on it, nor any rust… and we just went ahead back aboard. I ensured we're out at sea as we checked me out for privacy reasons. Michel took and wrote down all my measurements, and used magic to filter out my fur and such to see what's inside my body. I do have organs and stuff, but there's this extra organ above my stomach, and its shape is like the gall bladder, where he says that's where my natural regeneration comes from. Everyone in Valoria has it, but its strength in regeneration depends always on bloodline or family history. I asked about my metabolism and other factors that I had a lot of problems with on my previous human body, and he states the facts and things I didn't understand.

"Uh, make it simple and easy for me to understand, please." I said, crossing my arms.

Michel blushed and was nervous, but I told him the reason I asked of that was because he was using some sort of Valorian English or whatever variation that I can never be able to depict. So he tries to make it simple and easy which I really appreciate.

"The Valorian digestion is very… unique. As you can see the stomach is the largest organ that we have in terms of per piece organ, and if we looked at the combined ones, the lungs would be largest. Your liver is separate in two different places, each resting underneath each lung, and so you have two gall bladders."

I smiled and was listening to every single detail… until he said: "In terms of your testicles… you are a rare breed. Your testicles rest just beside your kidneys surrounded by flesh. And your intestines, well, you have three I think? The common small and large intestine, and... OH! I can see you're a hermaphrodite which makes you extremely valuable… so the third thing I'm seeing is actually the feminine reproductive parts…"

He kept talking about my sexual anatomy or whatever which I'm very surprised about. I'm by the way lying down on the ground, forgot to mention. He was placing his paws over and sometimes on my naked body to demonstrate where each organs are.

"Wait, Michel. Sorry. Are you a doctor or what are you actually?"

"Researcher and former surgeon." He says, sighing. "I quit doing surgery after a patient asked for vasectomy… and it traumatized me. I understand it's their choice but eh…"

Sarah and Janice both went to comfort mister doctor surgeon bun here. And with all the information overload I barely know what to say now. I sat up, and he was apparently done.

"Ugh…" I felt a little… gross? Icky? I can't explain…

"So, I didn't even explain everything properly. And I call myself a 'researcher'? Pathetic! I know I can do better and I settle for this. Ugh!" Oop. Sounds like a perfectionist to me.

I got dressed back up, and they asked where we're headed, and I told them we're coming back to the bay with no issues whatsoever. It's such a short time out at the waters, but somehow it felt like an hour or so.

I guess I just have to keep on doing what I have to do, with these other three in my lives now.