"Beautiful city..." I murmured when we arrived around noon at the place our temporary companions had been so eager to reach.
"Brilliant, isn't it?" Emma smiled. "The festival itself doesn't start until August, when all the visitors and tourists arrive. That's a month away. Right now they're preparing and rehearsing. We're volunteers, and we'll also help our friends with a theatrical performance and the parade. But this way we can see everything calmly without the crowds. Edinburgh itself is a fascinating city too. That's why this is our second summer here. Hotels are quite inexpensive right now. A lot of our friends sleep in the campsite because it's more fun. The main rehearsals happen at this time and you can watch them for free, and volunteers get discounts at museums."
When Emma mentioned the campsite, Harry made a peculiar snorting sound but said nothing.
"You didn't know any of that, did you, Nart?" Jess narrowed her eyes slyly. "Right, RJ?"
We had altered our names slightly because Harry said 'Naruto' was difficult for English speakers to pronounce. I had no idea how his 'Harry had become 'RJ,' but that was how he introduced us. The boy learned quickly and didn't expose us in front of the 'Muggles.'
"You caught us." I sighed theatrically, then gave them a broad smile. "You're right, girls. We came with you simply because we wanted to. How often do you get the chance to meet beauties like you? Once luck is in your hand, you grab its tail." It occurred to me that women in this world could be clever and dangerous too. "RJ and I had nothing to do, and we'd had enough of stuffy London. Getting away with good company and changing scenery sounded like an excellent idea."
"All right, then." Emma adjusted her hair. "Walk with us while we register as volunteers, and afterward we'll show you around Edinburgh."
* * *
Even though the festival hadn't officially begun, preparations were proceeding at full speed. People were hanging posters everywhere, and the only thing I understood on them was the number '1996.'
When I asked Harry about the numbers, he said they marked the year. It seemed strange. They had a completely different calendar. Then Harry added that it meant 'the number of years since the birth of Christ,' which confused me even more. Our system was much simpler: years were described by a twelve-year cycle and an animal within that cycle. Everything was obvious. I, for example, was born in the Year of the Tiger of the Sixth Cycle of the Hidden Villages Era. Their method seemed needlessly complicated.
People were laughing, singing, and dancing while Harry and I stared at everything with wide eyes. Konoha had celebrations too, but here everything was done on a much greater scale—and this was only a rehearsal, not the festival itself. There really weren't as many people as in London, and most of them gathered in the center at what they called 'venues.' We also encountered what looked like soldiers dressed in bright uniforms. They marched in formation and played shiny musical instruments, producing completely unfamiliar music. It was strange. I laughed when I imagined such 'warriors' in the forests of Konoha with their 'music.'
Emma and Jess walked with us through Edinburgh's streets. The farther we moved from the center, the quieter and more peaceful it became.
In a public toilet, Harry thought to call Kreacher and ask him to exchange his gold ryō for local paper money. The house-elf didn't appear afterward, but a bundle of banknotes materialized in my pocket. It was funny. Perhaps the old dwarf didn't trust his master to spend responsibly, or perhaps he didn't want to disrupt my 'magic,' because Harry and I were still wearing my henge. I gave Harry the money, but he told me to keep half for emergencies.
Our girls chatted without pause, showing us local sights and telling stories. It was amusing. We visited a stone castle and a museum. I particularly liked a device that turned everything upside down. Harry cheered up and relaxed completely. He even began laughing now and then. When speaking to Jess, he started putting an arm around her from time to time, and she didn't seem to mind. Emma practically hung from me. It was a pity there were so many people and we were in a city... Though perhaps leading girls into bushes wasn't customary here. In Konoha, I would also have preferred a proper bed or futon.
"Let's go into that café," Jess suggested, pointing to a bright-red corner building. Above a doorway shaped vaguely like a torii gate was a gilded inscription of three words. I had already noticed that the first short word, made of three symbols, appeared very often. It wasn't that I'd decided to study the local writing, but natural observation did its work.
"What's it called?" I asked Harry.
"The Elephant House," he read, then explained, "An elephant is a very large animal."
"What, Nart, you don't know what an elephant is?" Emma asked with a smile.
"Never happened to meet one." I laughed.
"You boys are teasing us! RJ, you're teasing us, aren't you?" Jess tugged at Harry.
"Yes, we're joking. But I really haven't seen an elephant. What does it look like?" I laughed, deliberately playing it up. We went inside the café, which turned out to be quite cozy.
"That's what an elephant looks like!" Emma pointed to a wooden chair shaped like a fat, long-nosed, broad-eared animal standing on four pillar-like legs.
"Then I claim the elephant seat!" Laughing, I sat down.
We placed our order, and the girls went to the toilet. There were elephants and elephant pictures everywhere, so I understood why the café had that name.
"Listen, Naruto—I mean, Nart." Harry leaned closer. "I... don't know whether I should kiss Jess. I'm not sure, and..."
"You've never kissed anyone?" My eyebrows climbed on their own.
"I have," Harry sighed. "But when it happened, the girl started crying..."
"You kiss that badly?" I asked in astonishment. I had never heard of such a phenomenon. Perhaps it was some manifestation of magic?
"Well..." He lowered his eyes. "I liked her, but she... liked a boy who died because of me the previous year. We were sort of going out, but..."
"Nine tails through my liver," was all I could mutter. "Don't worry about it. I don't think the problem was you or your kissing technique." I patted his shoulder. "The first experience is important, of course... Hmm. When I was little, I accidentally kissed... another boy in front of our entire class. That was something. We nearly killed each other, and the girls beat me up afterward." I paused, remembering the shame and humiliation. "My point is, yours could have been worse."
"True..." Harry muttered. "Didn't people tease you afterward?"
"It happened once, and it was an accident." I shrugged. "Sasuke later became my friend. Not because of the kiss, obviously; we were assigned to the same team. I like girls."
"Still... I'm a little uncertain," Harry changed the subject.
Emma and Jess returned. Our food arrived: noodles, though with a completely different flavor from those at home. We ate dinner with enthusiasm and remained in the café for a long time, talking with the girls. The large window overlooked the castle we had visited earlier.
At a table in the corner sat a middle-aged woman scribbling in a thick notebook. A few times she looked absently toward us. I noticed her because the owner brought her tea and also spoke to a little reddish-haired girl of three or four who hovered near the table playing with a doll and often stared at me. Probably because we were laughing and smiling. The child seemed a little sad.
"We need to return to camp," Emma said after checking her watch. "And you should find a hotel. There are plenty nearby."
"We could meet tomorrow..." Jess suggested shyly. "There's a great beach..."
"All right." I nodded. "We'll walk you back."
It wasn't far. We delivered the girls to their friends and started back.
"Should we really stay here tonight?" Harry suggested. "We have money, and there are lots of inns and hotels near the castle."
The streets were nearly empty, probably because most people were closer to the center, where rehearsals continued and music was still playing.
"Are you a wizard after all, Naruto? Since you can do all those magical things," Harry asked as we walked through the quiet streets.
"Well... We call it chakra. By the classification you gave me, I'm probably a combat mage. I can't brew potions—poisons and drugs, that is. I can't heal either. Medic-nin, or iryōnin, do that. What you called mind magic is our genjutsu. My friend Sasuke is good at it. He has special eyes... He can twist someone's head around completely..." I sighed. "Ninjutsu is probably what you call Charms. I suppose taijutsu, kenjutsu, and fūinjutsu were the only things you didn't mention. I don't know whether your world doesn't have them or whether you simply don't know about them."
"What are they?" Harry asked with interest.
"Taijutsu is the art of hand-to-hand combat. Chakra is infused into the body, granting extreme speed, striking power, and in some cases near-invulnerability. Kenjutsu is fighting with weapons, usually a sword, katana, or tantō. But few ninja use pure kenjutsu. It's not very effective against shinobi. Sasuke, for example, can channel his lightning nature through his sword..."
"Whoa, you have elemental magic too?" Harry stared at me.
"Of course. Everyone has an affinity for some nature..." I scratched my head, remembering Kakashi's explanations. "There are five basic ones: lightning, water, earth, wind, and fire. Some especially gifted people—and I'm not one of them—can combine basic natures into new ones. I met a boy who could create ice. One of my captains combined water and earth to grow trees... I also heard that someone in the Land of Earth possesses Lava Release, a combination of fire and earth."
"Wow!" Harry said again. "Your world is incredible!"
"My world is constantly at war," I sighed. "Shinobi are made to kill. We endlessly sow hatred. We avenge fallen comrades, and then their people avenge them on us... Let's not talk about sad things, all right?"
"All right." Harry smiled. "I'd still like to see what chakra looks like..."
"That's easy." I grinned, released chakra into my hand, and formed a small, simple Rasengan—hardly a combat version at all. "Just don't touch it."
"Wow." Harry's face was illuminated by pale-blue light.
"That's pure chakra shaped into a sphere," I explained, drawing the Rasengan back into my palm.
Something rustled in the bushes. I barely suppressed the urge to throw a shuriken. The cat that ran out was lucky my weapons were in the backpack.
"So, shall we find a hotel?"
"Yeah. Let's go."