The girl was about 6, the same age as his current body. The first thing Haruki noticed were her eyes. He immediately thought of a proud lion, staring at prey. Their half-Asian shape gave her a unique, exotic look that helped solidify her intense beauty. Even as a child, she still carried the feeling of a lady.

Her hair was shiny, straight and black. Tied back with a blue ribbon, it lazily waved back and forth across her tiny back. Her delicate, curved nose had a light smattering of freckles, giving a contrasting youthfulness to her otherwise mature look. Even as she stood still, her white, one-piece dress was in constant movement. Around her slender waist, a large blue ribbon was tied with a large bow. Flapping carelessly, it drew his eye to the small, plain dagger attached at her side. It looked just as plain as his own, so it was probably only cheap iron.

'Hmm, seems carrying a dagger is normal here. This scene would have caused a riot in my old world.'

She had a serious expression on her face as she sat down and stared blankly at the river.

'Ouch, I've been ignored!'

Sighing softly at the newcomer, Haruki lost interest. After making a few squirming movements to get comfortable, he settled into the roots for a quick nap before dinner.

In between mouthfulls of his dinner, Haruki happily rattled off his various stats to his father. “Hou, sounds like you might have some talent, my boy!” and another heavy impact hit Haruki's shoulder, followed by the usual loud laughter.

'This man needs to learn to control his strength... I hope he's not this rough with Okaa-san...'

“When you're 10, we'll take you into the academy in the city to get your affinities tested. They'll teach you more about magic if you pass, plus you can make some friends while you're there.” Ayako chimed in. Haruki had yet to actually introduce Suzu yet, so she was constantly worried about her quiet, lonely child.

Haruki lived in a small village, so the surrounding children were all uneducated commoners. He felt no bond with any of them, beyond 'fellow humans'. On top of the age barrier, there was also a culture barrier that was exceptionally hard to overcome. Haruki simply couldn't relate to anyone, so he spent his time alone.

In fact, his village was so small that it didn't even have a name. It was considered to be under the jurisdiction of the nearby city, Touhama, which was actually the capital of the entire country. It had many schools, a large magic academy and even a massive Roman-Catholic styled cathedral that housed most of the nation's religious rulers.

Haruki shovelled down the last of his meal, excited from the talk about the academy. He only had a few more days until he could finally start learning to read and write, but it felt like it was going take forever. His family had collected quite a few books and he had been dying to read them. Especially the one that seemed to be about magic!

3 Days passed in the blink of an eye, despite Haruki's constant worrying. Around midday, a grumpy, mostly balding fossil-man arrived. Kestrel introduced him as the new tutor, causing Haruki's heart to drop slightly. The twisted body of the man barely looked like it could hold itself up, let alone a book. His crooked, hooked nose and balding head gave him the look of a vulture, waiting in ambush.

'He looks like an angry old boot that headbutted a wood-chipper...'

Every day, Haruki woke up, trained with Ketrel for 2-3 hours, had breakfast and then studied hard. In his past life, he was a total bookworm. Since he didn't have any friends, he read to keep himself occupied. At the end of the day, he'd go to his favorite tree by the river and nap while the strange girl often came to sit in silence.

“Read it again PROPERLY!”

“Yes Sensei”

Haruki was currently in his third month of schooling. He'd forgotten how much he hated it... The one bright side was that the language was easy to pick up. As he suspected, it shared a lot of similarities with English, so it was mostly a matter of learning the new alphabet and sounds. The hardest part of getting used to it all was the honorifics. He didn't use them in Australia, everyone just called each other by their first name, so the concept was hard to get used to.

Thankfully, the right to left reading / writing style was easier to adapt to after all the manga he'd read previously. Despite all that, his reading speed was almost up to the level of his old speed, so he felt satisfied at the improvement.

“I'll be done with you soon, at least you're not a total failure.”

'Those are almost words of praise!'

“A month later, I'll depart. Don't make me ashamed to have taught you, after you enter the world.”

“Yes Sensei” Haruki quickly stood and bowed at the waist, then sat back down to finish the lesson.

After his lesson wrapped up for the day, he grabbed his new favourite book: “A Treatise on the Fundamentals of Magic, Spellcrafting and Adventuring.”

It was rather boringly presented, but the information was all highly useful. His father had bought it from one of the locals who had studied at the academy, so it was probably an old textbook.

“Skills”

A window appeared, showing a list of his Combat, Magic, Passive and Neutral abilities.

According to the book, Combat abilities were movement or physical attack based abilities that insert channeled mana into the body, weapon or armour. Magic was obviously related to any spells, Passive are any abilities that are like a permanent buff. Neutral has things like running or swimming.

Combat:

Duel Wield Proficiency: Level 1 – 49% Increases attack speed by 2% while dual-wielding

Short Sword Proficiency: Level 1 – 25% Increases Damage with Short Swords by 5%

Dagger Proficiency: Level 1 – 22% Increases Damage with Daggers by 10%

Light Armour Proficiency: Level 1 – 10% Increases light armour strength and durability by 5%

Magic:

Windstep: Level 1 – 55% Allows a range of 5m - 50MP

Passive:

Blessing of the Sun Goddess: Uses - 3

Neutral:

Sprinting: Level 2 57% Sprint 10% longer

Swimming: Level 2 3% Can swim 10% longer and hold your breath 5% longer

Climbing: Level 1 97% Chance of spotting good footing increased by 5%

'Blessing of the Sun Goddess!? I guess that makes sense, given the ring. Did I get a cheat item after all? Also, no skill explanation? Only that it's passive and has a limit on how many times you can use it... Really, what an annoyingly obtuse ability...'

Haruki glanced at the ring that had been with him since his birth. It was certainly magical, or else how would it have grown in size with his finger? However, nothing he'd tried could get a reaction from it, so he put the thought aside in his mind for later.

Grabbing his textbook, he decided it would be better to read it in his usual spot, so he set off towards the river. As usual, there was a familiar, quiet girl sitting in her usual spot. At this point, he was used to the awkward silence, so he casually pulled out his book and started reading.

After a short while, his brain couldn't process any more of the droning textbook, so he closed it and sat up straight, rubbing his temples. He was always hesitant to strike up a conversation with the girl. He was technically in his mid-30's after all, so he always had a creeping suspicion he was about to be arrested whenever he tried to speak up.

Today, however, he had decided enough was enough, so he decided to say something.

“Um, Hiya. My name's Abe Haruki.” he politely nodded towards her, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

Her head snapped in his direction, causing even his soul to shiver as they finally locked eyes.

'Why am I being intimidated by a fucking 6 year old!?'

“Seta Suzu...” Her quiet voice rang out like a crystal bell, almost seeming to linger gently in the air.

More silence.

'This girl's really quiet. Normally, I'd just try saying something stupid and childish, but I don't think she'd like that... So serious...'

“So, uh, you come here a lot. I didn't steal your spot did I?”

Suzu shook her head. “It's fine. It's quiet here.”

Silence.

Her eyes were still locked with his, not moving around or flinching away. Haruki felt as if he were staring into pots of molten gold, shining and swirling with light. His heart rate rose rapidly and even his hands were shaking slightly under her piercing gaze.

“Well, uh, if you're ever bored, I only live down the road I'm constantly bored so feel free to hang out there if you're bored. Uh... See you later.”

Haruki sighed and stood up to escape, flushed with embarrassment at his awkward phrase. He dusted the grass off his pants and stretched, before turning to go.

'Argh, why am I always so damn awkward!?'

As he turned, something had grabbed onto his shirt, causing him to pause and look back. Suzu's golden eyes were right next to his, staring intently into the depths of his soul. For a brief moment, his entire body refused to move and his mind simply stopped working.

“Thank you.” Suzu made a quick half turn and walked back up the river, leaving Haruki stunned for a moment.

'Sweet Jesus, that was unexpected. I guess she's glad I'm not being noisy in her spot?'

He chuckled to himself as he jogged home for dinner.

'I think I said “if you're bored” multiple times earlier... Ugh... I even invited her to my house... Smooth...'

A month went by and his tutor completed his stay. He grumbled something about “adequately passing” and “not an entirely worthless student” as he left. His Sensei was a no-nonsense man. He rarely spoke outside of class. He didn't even stop to wave goodbye after he received his final payment.

'What a tsundere...'

Finally glad to be rid of the man, Haruki's days returned to normal. Training or working, studying the various books his parents owned and finally, hanging out at the river with Suzu. She didn't say much else, after that first brief conversation. Just simple greetings and goodbyes.

This went on for another year before Suzu finally said something:

“Eto, what do you want to do when you're older?”

Haruki's head jerked up in shock. In the year they'd been hanging out, she had never once asked a question, so his mind was thrown into a complete sense of disarry for a moment. He coughed, clearing his throat, before turning to Suzu.

“Uh, sorry, what was that?” he asked. She repeated the question and he quickly sobered up.

'Don't forget... you're supposed to be 6...'

With an internal sigh, he pointed a proud thumb at his chest and put on his best naive farm-boy smile.

“I'm thinking it might be cool to be a big adventurer, like my Otou-san. But other than that, I don't have any plans besides the academy.”

Suzu nodded as if she was pondering a life or death matter.

“Then I will join you.”

“...”

“Let's be friends, Haruki-kun.” As Suzu spoke, she slowly stretched out her delicate hand towards Haruki. It took a moment for him to realize she was trying to shake his hand... With a startled nod, he gently gripped her hand while checking for flashing lights and sirens over his shoulder.

'Finally, someone who I can handle hanging around. Maybe my parents will stop trying to get me to hang out with the locals now...'

They sat and talked quietly for a short while longer. Suzu explained that she lived in Touhama with her father and that her parents had often traveled here with her in the past. It was her favourite spot, so she gladly walked nearly an hour each way to get there. Since she also enjoyed reading, Haruki gushingly offered to let her borrow some of his old books. Her eyes lit up with excitement and her face beamed with a smile as she happily accepted.

“I've read every single book in my house already, thank you.” While Suzu was usually serious and stoic, her rare smiles made Haruki feel as if he were being embraced by the sun itself. Blinding and warm, yet comfortable and familiar.

“No worries... Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask... You said thanks a while ago, what was that for?”

“...”

“Ahh, nevermind...”

“Nn...”

Silence...

'We're back to this again? I've completely forgotten how to talk to women! Baka!'

Suzu quietly turned back to face the river, her expression as firm as always. “It's nothing much, I was a little sad and it felt nice to have some quiet company.”

Haruki stammered to say something, then gave up in exasperation. It was a weird gap, such an old personality in the body of a 6 year old. He felt like he was talking to an Auntie, sometimes.

“Ahh, it's like that. Well, if there's anything I'm good at, it's awkward silences” he said, pounding his chest with his fist. He'd always despised his inability to speak freely, so it was a refreshing feeling to finally be thanked for it instead.

Suzu smiled a little at his words, nodding eagerly.

'Don't agree so easily!'

As the sun was setting in the distance, the two wandered back towards town. Stopping at the plain metal gate, the two shared a brief goodbye, before parting ways for the day with a backhanded wave. Haruki had to stop himself from skipping up the dusty garden path, he was grinning so hard.

In his mind, he had always believed he wouldn't find a real friend until at least his mid teens. But now, he was starting to feel quite comfortable around his odd new friend.

As Ayako stirred the stew, she quickly noticed Haruki's constant grinning. With expert skill, she broke him immediately. Even a master spy wouldn't have survived the barrage of teasing and poking...

"Ufufufu... Suzu-chan and Haru-chan, eh?"

As Haruki buried his burning face back into his book, Ayako vanished into her own, strange fantasies. Stirring the stew and giggling occasionally, Haruki chose to ignore her and focus on reading.

'At least she didn't ask for grandkids...'