Ooyama Kusakyu woke up the next morning still inside his puppet Saisei, a large wooden contraption in the shape, and appearance of a lion. Controlling Saisei took some getting used to, but being able to hide his small frame from curious eyes was something he'd always wanted to do, and so he made building it his first priority under Endou's guidance.

  Endou had also shown him the ways of the Red puppet style; a method of puppeteering specializing in variety as opposed to a particular set. While generally useful against most shinobi, Endou had told him that it would not fare well against other puppeteers that opted to specialize in the Black, or Blue puppet style. Ooyama didn't expect to deal with other puppeteers any time soon so Red was the obvious choice.

  A calm gentle light poked through the cracks in the lighthouse's interior indicating that it was daylight out. Saisei slowly got up, and using his chakra strings Ooyama guided the lion outside, and into the cold rain.

  Just past the lighthouse was a small empty beach, and beyond that was the ocean sea stretching for miles, and miles without end. Ooyama guided Saisei out and onto the sand. Wanting to feel the beach beneath his feet he considered exiting the puppet. The boy looked around peering out through the puppets' eye holes. Just when he thought the coast was clear he saw something - someone laying face down in the sand.

  Ooyama approached them carefully, and saw that it was a girl about his age; she was soaked in water, and unconscious.

  "A-A mermaid," Ooyama said.

  He scooped the girl up in Saisei's arms and brought her into the lighthouse where he started a fire to warm her up.

  Ooyama stirred uncomfortably inside of Saisei. He was scared, what if the mermaid tried to kick him out of the lighthouse, or to take his money?

  After a couple of hours the girl started to shift a bit before finally waking up. She sniffled before instinctively moving closer to the fire. She wore nothing but a long black dress, and a tie for her hair. Her eyes were as black as the night, and she was smiling excitedly.

  As she warmed her hands she looked straight at Ooyama through the holes in his puppet. The boy flinched in fear causing the puppet to fall to the ground.

  "I was saved... by a bear," The girl said.

  "H-He's a lion." Ooyama replied softly, his voice quiet and opaque.

  "How many of your kind are there? Take me to your king."

  "M-Mermaids sure are weird..."

  "What?" The girl stood up for a moment, "these are legs. Mermaids don't have legs! They have fins!"

  Ooyama blinked, and while Hitomi couldn’t see his eyes she could tell he wasn’t getting it.

  "F-I-N-S. Fins!" She spelled out.

  The girl then looked at Ooyama through the eye holes again.

  "Wait a minute!" She said, "you're an impostor!"

  "N-No, I'm a bear."

  The boy blinked again, and before he knew it he was under attack. The girl had launched herself at him, tackling Saisei to the ground.

  "S-Stop i-it you'll hurt him."

  "LET. ME. IN."

  The two thrashed around the lighthouse breaking shelves, and crashing into walls. The entrance to Saisei was located on the lion's back, and it seemed the girl had realized this as she was prying at the entrance.

  "N-No, I-I'll be e-exposed!"

  Ooyama used his chakra strings to seal the entrance shut, but the girl was far too strong. After several more minutes of thrashing about it was settled.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Having opened the hatch she peaked inside analyzing every nook and cranny of the Saisei.

  "This is super duper spacious! How do you see out of this thing?"

  She waited for Ooyama to answer, but instead all he did was cower, and shake in terror. She couldn’t see his face, and his body was covered with what looked like an over sized trench coat.

  "Get out."

  “Hmmm, okay,” Hitomi said, closing the hatch.

  Afterwards she sat down across from Saisei and stared at him intently.

  "W-What's your name?" He asked.

  "I'm Hitomi! I hope we can be great friends!"

  “I'm Ryu." He lied. "A-Are you okay? I-It looked like you a-almost drowned e-earlier."

  "Mmmm don't worry about all that."

  "O-Okay."

  Ooyama was a very short boy at 4 '5, and he was quite frail as well. He wore a mask that covered the bottom half of his face, and his hair was short and purple. He generally wore a large gray trench coat that hid most of his body, and under Hitomi's gaze he seemed to be cowering under it despite being inside Saisei

  "Where are we anyway? Can we go hunting?"

  In truth Ooyama wasn't sure where he was. He'd never been outside of the village, even when he lived with Endou he preferred to stay inside and work on his puppets. After all, if living inside Kusakyu Castle was hell, the outside world couldn't have been any better, Endou just so happened to be a rare exception.

  "I-I dunno."

  "Let's go look around then!"

  "I d-don't want to."

  "Pleeeeeeaaaaassseeee!"

  "O-Okay."

  Ooyama uncomfortably stood up, and started to attach his chakra strings to Saisei. After a few moments the puppet began to rise. Hitomi excitedly watched Ooyama use Saisei so easily.

  Ooyama guided the puppet outside of the lighthouse, and onto the beach with Hitomi following close behind.

  "Oh, I think I see some people over there. Let's ask them for directions!" Hitomi yelled, pointing towards them.

  "O-Okay, b-but you do the talking."

  Ooyama guided the giant puppet toward the group, but as they got closer one of them pointed at them and started to run away. The entire group began to scream, and bolt in different directions leaving all their stuff behind.

  "Whaaa? Why did they run away?" Hitomi asked.

  "I think they're playing tag."

  "Oh, that makes sense, hey look! At the ground!"

  Saisei looked down in the sand and saw a few bento boxes.

  "Oh no! They left their food here!"

  "W-We should probably e-eat it. We d-don't want it to go to waste."

  "But won't they be back? You said they're playing tag." Hitomi said sadly.

  "It's okay for us to eat them, it's a cultural thing."

  "Ohhhh so leaving food out for strangers then is like a huge deal here huh?"

  "Yeah."

  "Okey dokey then I can't say no to that!"

  Ooyama briefly opened Saisei, allowing a shock of cold air inside, and like a rat snatched one of the bento boxes. Hitomi grabbed one of the bento boxes as well, and then the two of them sat in the sand and began to eat.

  "Um, what are you doing?" Hitomi asked.

  Ooyama had turned Saisei around, and faced the direction opposite to Hitomi.

  "Eating."

  "But why are you turned around like that?"

  "Why aren't you?"

  Hitomi reached from behind Saisei, grabbing his head.

  "Eeeeeeeeeep!"

  "It's rude not to face your guests!"

  And so Ooyama turned Saisei around to face her. Even if Ooyama was outside of Saisei she still wouldn’t be able to make out his face. Ooyama kept his face still, hidden behind his mask, and covered with his arms. He looked down as he ate, his hair drooping down masking his already hidden features

  Afterwards Hitomi clapped her hands together. "That was delicious! If we see those guys later we need to thank them properly!"

  "Y-Yeah, s-sure."

  Ooyama did not finish his food, instead he covered the bento up intending to finish it later. Afterwards he thought to himself for a bit until he realized there was something he needed to see.

  "Um, Hitomi?"

  "Mmmmhmm?"

  "I'd like to go check on something, but it's very selfish so you don't-"

  "I'll come!"

  "O-Okay."

  Ooyama took control of Saisei again, and moved the puppet up and across a long bridge that was built over the Kaguya river. He followed it all the way back to where he was just the day before. He peaked around the corner, and saw what looked to be:

  "R-Rain shinobi," Hitomi said having followed Saisei

  She was right. Investigating the explosion were a handful of Amegakure shinobi, and it looked like it was a range of different ninja from genin to jonin.

  They were investigating a toy shop that had been blown to smithereens. It's where Ooyama had lived the last few years, and it was where Endou had now lost his life. There was a medical team on site as well, and they were picking up pieces of Endou's corpse, and stuffing it in large black plastic bags.

  Hitomi looked at Saisei’s eyes as the puppet looked at the scene. Although Hitomi couldn’t see the boy behind it, he was transfixed, and in a daze lost in some other world it seemed.

  Hitomi stepped forwards, and pressed a hand against the puppets' back.

  "You knew him didn't you? I'm sorry."

  "N-No, I should be sorry. It's my fault."

  "That's not-"

  "HEY YOU! STOP!"

  Ooyama regained his senses, and saw straight ahead a young shinobi wearing a headband. She was pointing right at Saisei.

  "?? ????."

  Ooyama turned Saisei around completely, and booked it back to the lighthouse, Hitomi tailing close behind. In terms of speed Saisei was fast thanks to its incredibly long legs. Its heavy arms also assisted in movement with each stride carefully pushing the large body along. Before he got too far Hitomi clinged onto Saisei’s back as it ran.