“Faye, do you want to know where we’re going?” I asked her, leisurely walking down a rough sandy road.

She didn’t answer.

“Umi, the sea,” I stopped and drew the Japanese symbols of the word into the ground with my finger, it consisted of boxes and slashes.

“You see?" I pointed it out to her, "you could also refer to it as Kaiyo, it’s written with the same symbol as Umi but with the Yo symbol, which I think means western.

But it’s not pronounced as Umi-yo, weird, isn’t it? If you would write Kai on its own it would mean 'times'."

The symbol for it looks like a square with a smaller square inside of it. 

"I can’t make much sense of it anymore. My Japanese is a bit rusty cause I haven't really used it for around two decades, and to me, that's a really, really long time. At least half my life span, having in mind my previous life, then I am actually a thirty-six year old man.”

More silence from her.

“People love the sea. Everyone I knew did, I think everyone I currently know does and Japan especially loves the sea, or rather their characters are often fixated on it. The pale blue beyond. I fear the sea, y'know. I fear the idea that when I go into it, it swallows me, taking a hard grip on my being and never letting me go. Or the fear stems from imagining what kind of creatures just lurk inside it. I know, I know, 'oh no, a tentacle or something with scales! The unimaginable horror!' or something like that but that's just who I am, even with the power I have gotten, something in the back of my mind just shudders when I think of being in the middle of the ocean. The sheer vastness of wet, no land in sight. I have horrible thoughts sometimes."

I switched topics, neither japan, my life nor the sea were of much interest to her.

"...You wouldn’t, by any chance, own a swimsuit, do you?”

Still no answer.

“Faye, how come I have never asked for your stats? Can you show me your 'information'?”

-

[Faye]

-

[Paragon]

-

“That's, uhhhh, very informative?” I said, looking up and down the information box.

“Satisfied?” She asked rhetorically, she seemed very smug about it.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go find an inn or a resort close to the sea.”

Then we wandered.

"In anime, filler content is usually, or more often than I'd actually like something like a beach episode, or a visit to the hot-springs, which I wouldn't mind if the story in them wouldn't be so down-right dog-shit. There, I said it. It’s bad, it’s something like: The male characters are excited to see the female ones in bikinis and attempt to sneak a peak while they, meaning the ladies, are in a hot spring or wet. But something like the between us is very unlikely to happen. I honestly just don't see that episode. You see, you’re just not my type. Know what I’m saying? And you're not technically human, so I don't really want to cross an unknown boundary here, also,” I made a cupping motion to my chest, “You haven’t got any breastages. That's a pretty big deal breaker for me. Do you know, by any chance, how a young man could find a young woman to swoo?

“You could always try to buy a slave,” she said without any concern to the moral implications of what she was saying.

I stopped dead in my tracks, “hold up. Lets rewind to what you've just said now. Are you meaning to tell me that slavery is legal?”

“Yes and no. Slavery is allowed in a few countries and banned in others. But there are always black market ways,” she explained like it was usual business talk.

“In what country are we in right now? And where might one find of those black market auctions?” I said with great interest.

“We are in Alaran and there are black markets in every country.”

“What kind of slavery is it? ‘You are beneath me and my property’ kind of ‘You are a servant and can live here with me and stuff’ kind?”

“In Alaran specifically, there is a vast underground chattel slave trade going on.”

“You know what? Fuck the sea. Fuck hot springs, that can wait for another 200 episodes in some sort of filler. 

Let’s go free some slaves.”