Chapter Text
Michinori Michimiya was born into a family of cartographers that used to travel through lands far and wide before deciding to settle down in a small town near a forest with a tall canopy, big trees, and light rarely passing through the leaves. Michinori had always had an increased sense of direction so they never got lost and they were always able to find their way back home. Michinori was an adventurous child leading them to go into the forest when they were ten.
Michinori’s parents, Mine Michiyama and Takeshi Michimiya, had gone into a panic because Nomad suddenly disappeared. “Please! Help us! Our child has wandered off and we don’t know where they have gone!” They cried.
A response came from the blacksmiths in the village, “We will tell the others in the village to aid you in your search.”
Unbeknownst to both families, the child of the blacksmiths heard of this and they decided to aid in the search. Knowing that the only people willing to search the forest would be children, he set off into the trees. After five minutes of searching, the child found Nomad.
“Pardon me, but it seems you've caused quite the uproar in the village.”
Michinori startled, then looked up. There was a boy who seemed about the same age as them.
“How’d you get up there?” Michinori inquired.
The kid dropped down, “I was searching for you with a higher vantage point. It’s easier to spot someone from up there.”
“What do you mean searching?”
“You don’t know? The village is panicking looking for you.”
“I didn’t mean to do that!” Michinori exclaimed, ”I just wanted to explore the forest.”
“And there is nothing wrong with that, your parents are very worried so we should probably go to them,” the boy replied calmly.
“We should… I just realized, I never got your name!” Said Michinori.
“Oh,” the boy replied, ”I’m Yukio Shibuya, who are you?”
“Im Michinori Michimiya, nice to meet you Yukio!”
“You too Michimiya.”
The two started to walk back to the village. There was a deafening silence as they walked on
“Hey Michimiya,” Yukio started.
“Yeah?” Came the reply
“Do you know which direction to go to get to the village?” Yukio asked.
“Yes! I do actually,” Michinori said. “If we continue to go east we should get there within three minutes.”
“Huh, that’s a nice skill you have there,” Yukio replied.
“I’ve always had a great sense of direction so I usually never get lost.”
“That seems more useful than what I have.”
Michinori was confused. “Then what do you have? A special technique of sorts?”
Yukio laughed. “Nah, I have an enhanced sense of proprioception, equilibrioception and constant hyper vigilance.”
“So you’re like an assassin.”
Yukio was visibly surprised at the words Michinori had just spoken. “Huh, I guess I am. Then that makes you a nomad, doesn’t it?”
Now it was Michinori’s turn to be surprised. They had never expected to have a mutual connection between someone they just met and themself. “Yeah, I guess it does! …So… is that our nicknames now?”
Yukio took a second to think before responding. It seemed as though he had never heard of nicknames before. “If you want them to be, I don’t really have an opinion on what I'm called as long as it’s not an insult.”
Michinori let out a small chuckle and said, “Okay then, Assassin. I suppose it's official!”
Yukio looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“We’re friends now!” came the cheerful reply from Michinori. “We need to start hanging out!”
“Now hold on a minute, I never agreed to this!”
“You did when you called me Nomad, you can’t get out of this now.”
Yukio let off a heavy sigh. He seemed tired. “I suppose not… Well, if I’m getting into this friendship and we are going to hang out more, there’s a spot in the forest we can meet at. It's a big clearing not far from here.”
Michinori was exalted at the fact that Yukio has a lot of knowledge of the forest and land nearby. “That would be perfect!” Michinori knew that whenever Yukio- no, Assassin. Yeah, whenever Assassin did something, they did it calmly and calculatedly. They were brought back to reality by Assassin telling them,
“Hey, Nomad, we arrived at the village. You should probably apologize for giving them such a big scare.”
Right, they had forgotten about that.
“I’m sorry everyone! I didn’t mean to scare you! I just had the urge to go explore the forest!”
Takeshi ran up to Michinori and hugged them. “It’s okay, we were all worried about you! At least tell us next time!”
Assassin chose then to speak up, “It won't happen again, sir. I’ll make sure you know where they are going if they don’t tell you themself. If you ever can’t find them though, just ask me. I should be able to track them down pretty easily.”
Takeshi looked at the boy, grateful for what he had just done, “Thank you for bringing my Michinori back to me, I shall be eternally grateful for your help, young…”
“Shibuya,” Assassin supplied.
”Young Shibuya, once again thank you. I feel as if Michinori is safer when with you, so please protect them for me.”
“I promise I will protect them as much as I can sir.”
Takeshi looked pleased with this response as the village returned to its normal state and people returned to their jobs. Michinori decided to say goodbye to Assassin.
“Bye Assassin! Meet me at the clearing tomorrow!”
“Cya Nomad! What time?”
“Eight in the morning!”
“Alright! I’ll see you then!”
Michinori excitedly ran back to their house, eager to see what tomorrow would bring.