❖ TO EARTHLAND & BEYOND ❖ (D/Sarutobi)

Sarutobi Ichigo had only just arrived in Fiore a few days ago, after he had stowed away on a ship that was departing from Midi with nothing but the clothes on his back. Found halfway through the voyage, the young man from a rural village had had various threats thrown his way until he activated once more the powers that had been bestowed upon him, a power that would certainly put him above normal humans. As he had started his beat down of the ones at the front of the crowd, Ichigo’s fearsome violence diminished all of the merchant ship crews’ courage and prevented any further incidents.

He had been treated as a guest of honour after that, which he accepted without complains, for the rest of the journey. However, the moment he disembarked from the ship, it was back to square one for Ichigo. He was nothing but an illegal immigrant on this land of Fiore. And he was determined to fix it before attempting anything else. After asking around, the immigrations office had been where he was pointed to. And he had worked hard to earn the money required for the procedures at the immigration office.

Early in the morning, Ichigo had already rushed down the immigrations office, hoping to get it done with. What he never expected was the queue, immensely long queue of people that no doubt resembled a snake as the queue contained several sections of turns just to keep it manageable. Out of nowhere, the man standing in front him, a young man who looked to be the same age as Ichigo turned around and offered his space, a swap between them. At first confused by the sudden gesture of kindness, Ichigo quickly smiled at the kind stranger.

“Are you really sure? Are you? Erm, if you are okay with it then I will gladly take it,” Ichigo spoke while nodding earnestly in gratitude multiple times. For him, so far, kindness and generosity had been scarce and hard to come by, and yet Ichigo had continued to hope that things would change soon if he could make a name for himself.

After they had switched places, Ichigo turned to look at the stranger. He was blonde, with wavy hair that would normally belong to boys who lived near or on the sea, their hair conditioned by the salty breeze. A mark covered the left side of his face, over his eye, that Ichigo assumed was a birthmark.

“My name is Sarutobi Ichigo. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Ichigo said with another slight nod.

[429 words]

((For the sake of this thread having started with my character being called Ichigo, I'm just continuing it as it is. Let's act like his name was Izou all along when we move to the other thread where Fane is freezing to death))

“Yup, I’m from Midi,” Ichigo said with a smile, quite pleased that the young man speaking to him knew about Midian culture enough to recognize a name of local origins. The redhead let out a small chuckle when he heard his new friend try to dissect his name in a bid for a shorter name to address him with. A twinge of sadness almost overcame him when Fane mentioned Saru, a nickname that the villagers had given him for his mischievous antics and stuck with him as he grew up.

“Then I guess I will be addressing you as Fane-san then. I guess Saru is fine. I grew up with that nickname.”

While he kept his head turned around to speak to Fane, Ichigo’s feet was moving along with the queue as well. It seemed like there had been a sudden spurt of efficiency in the immigrations office, with the line suddenly shortening at a rapid rate. With a curious look, Izou tried to lean to the right and left to see what was up but failed to glimpse anything to satisfy that curiosity.
It was going to be his turn within a few minutes and as he turned around to speak to Fane, the blonde boy spoke up first. Ichigo brought up his hands in front of him and hurriedly waved them to the left and right in a fervent attempt to disprove Fane’s words.

“No no, don’t worry about it, Fane-san! We can continue to talk if you are interested after we are done with this boring task,” the Midian said with a grin on his face, displaying his sharpened shark-like teeth.

A cough interrupted him, prompting Ichigo to turn around and discover it was his turn. With a stifling silence from the clerk behind the table, the Midian quickly sat down and produced all of the relevant information that the clerk would need. After all of it was filled up and a photo of him with his wide grin taken, Ichigo was shooed out of his seat and waited to one side of the road for Fane.

[350 words]
[Total WC: 1519 / 1000]