A Night on the Town

As he didn't know where he was born, the only things Kite ever knew growing up were related to the monastery and the nearby forest. It was a humble life, one with few hardships, and he took his training seriously. When the monastery collapsed, he began traveling the world instead, where he found Ika Mazi who took him to Japan. He'd been kept in a confined area, not let out of Ika's sight for fear of what he may do, until recently. The fresh blood who had agreed to follow Ika in exchange for power and information were plentiful, and among them was a girl that made Kite's heart skip a beat upon first seeing her.

So when Rinoa came up to him after learning he hadn't ever seen any of the big cities of Japan and invited him out to learn about the world, he couldn't help but say yes. The travel was quick enough by train, but upon exiting it and looking around the city, he was starstruck to say the least. The habitations were so large it looked like they were piercing the moonlit sky. The second thing Kite noticed was how few stars were actually visible; from his monastic life he had grown quite familiar with the thousands upon thousands of stars in the night sky but here in Kyoto there were only maybe a dozen.

The other humans began to grow tired of Kite standing in the way, and it only took a few pushing past him aggressively for him to understand he needed to move. He headed off to a random isolated area and turned back to gaze upon Rinoa. There was a giant, shit-eating grin on his face as he pointed to the buildings.

"So tall! How do they even build that large?? And the sky! It's so empty! The city is amazing!" If only he knew he hadn't even seen anything yet.

Rinoa had been run ragged with her training under Ika Mazi, the man practically demanded she unlock her latent potential after she told him what little she knew about it, but had finally got a break. So she thought anyways, one of the other recruits under Ika named Kite had recently admitted openly that he didn't have any idea what a big city was like because of his temple lifestyle growing up. She had offered to guide him around Kyoto and see if he liked the city any more or less after getting to witness it for himself.

She wasn't necessarily tired, but her usual total cheer mood was slightly less than normal, not by enough to matter though. The train ride was pretty sleek and simple, though she wondered if they could have gotten here faster some other way. Brushing that aside though he seemed to be enjoying himself well before they even arrived in the actual city proper of Kyoto itself.

He immediately got wonder eyed as he looked here and there at everything he could, before noticing he was in the middle of the pathways and people kept pushing around him to keep going about their night routines. Eventually he moved over someplace else and Rinoa just stuck with him, smiling, and inwardly chuckling at how much like a kid he was acting.

"I don't know the specifics but they worked very hard at it. These buildings could last hundreds of years barring some natural disaster or those hollow things." Rinoa replied as he asked about the buildings, he then mentioned the sky being empty and she thought about it for a second while looking up at it herself, that's right he was from a temple.. they probably didn't have anywhere near as much light pollution there. "The stars and stuff are still up there, even here, they are just obscured by the massive amount of light the city is producing. Think of it like an illusion. If we were to go high above the city the sky would return to normal eventually."

One of the nearby food stalls hailed Rinoa since he saw a young girl and boy together and thought to capitalize on what he percieved as a date. Not thinking anything of it herself though she waved at him and motioned for Kite to follow, when they got there it was a takoyaki vendor. Sea food huh? Maybe he'd like that since he's probably never been to an ocean yet.

Either way Rinoa ordered a plateful for Kite and a plateful for herself, paid the man what was owed, and then sat at one of the stools by the bar to wait for the meal to get cooked. It wouldn't take very long, especially since he only had to know how to make one item, so by the time she had gotten comfy on the stool the guy would already have some food ready for the both of them.

Rinoa nommed one off it's stick and grinned because she always enjoyed sea food and this happened to be pretty delicious.

Kite hung on every word Rinoa spoke, slightly in awe of how much she knew. Kite wasn't exactly an idiot, but there was far too much information he had never been made privy too. Whether that was because of the temple lifestyle itself or the incident ending his training early, he wasn't sure; maybe they'd have taught him more if they had more time. Regardless, he was impressed by how much smarter than him Rinoa seemed to be. Maybe it was a cultural thing? She didn't look like she was from Japan either, but maybe she'd spent more time here than he had, or was from a similarly big city on a different island.

He followed her, as instructed, as they arrived at the takoyaki stand. The sound of the boiling oil, the smell of the seafood, and the compactness of the food stand was slightly overwhelming to him, but he peeked over the counter to see what was giving off that smell. He'd never seen an octopus in his life, and had only ever eaten vegetarian meals due to his upbringing. Meat had always been reserved for the sick, to help them recover faster, but he was far from reserved about trying it. As Rinoa ordered two servings and sat down to wait, Kite simply stood there and watched the chef work.

The process was quick and simple; the octopus was cut, rolled into a ball, coated in something, and dropped into the oil. It wasn't even in the oil for very long before it was skewered and handed over to the two teenagers. Rinoa ate hers without much fuss, so Kite followed suit: he took an unreserved bite of the takoyaki, and was immediately overwhelmed with flavor. Things he'd never imagined flooded his tongue and his brain, and for a moment he thought he could see things that weren't really there, but it passed as he swallowed his bite.

"That was amazing! Meat is delicious!" He quickly scarfed down the remaining takoyaki, but was quickly disappointed when it was all gone. For a moment, he thought about taking the rest of the stock the vendor had, but determined that he didn't want to steal it and had no understanding of money yet, so he sighed softly and threw his stick in the trash can nearby. When Rinoa was also done, the two headed towards downtown, with Kite still awestruck at the craftsmanship of the buildings and the cars. He didn't want to overwhelm Rinoa with questions, so he tried to keep his curiosity to a minimum. Shortly afterward, they came across another street vendor, this time selling something completely different. Kite's eyes glistened as he peeked over the counter, and his mouth began to water, but he restrained himself and returned to Rinoa's side. Clearly he had a lot to learn, and a lot to experience, and the night was very young. They could eat again later, he figured, but he was absolutely done with the instant ramen Ika had been handing to him. There were too many flavors out there he had to experience, too much variety to be stuck eating instant ramen and white rice for the rest of his life.

"Where too next, chief?" He asked excitedly, glancing around rather than staring straight at Rinoa.

He seemed delighted by the food, not surprising given what Ika Mazi had been feeding him, sure it mostly matched his old lifestyle choices, but it was awfully bland in comparison to this. He questioned where they would go next, Rinoa thought about it for a moment, "You are a monk that used to live in a monastery yes? There happens to be a temple for monks and prayer here in Kyoto. Let's go see if it is anything like what you had or grew up around? Yeah it's night time but they don't generally close to the public unless it's for a ceremony."

Assuming Kite agreed she would lead him off in that direction, it would take a bit though considering the huge amount of stairs leading up to the temple itself, plus the journey to the bottom of said stairs taking a while all on it's own since they'd have to take one of the city trains to get there in a reasonable timeframe. Not that Rinoa was complaining since it meant she could sit a bit more and rest her legs for the hike up to the temple proper itself.

The train ride was relatively uneventful barring the energetic and excitable Kite soaking in everything he could like a sponge. Some people recognized and thanked Rinoa for various reasons up to and including saving them from hollows, but for the most part they were left alone. Upon arriving and finally reaching the Temple steps, she stopped and groaned slightly, "Here we are.. The steps. ..Time for fun!"and began to climb the stairs herself.

Kite probably wouldn't notice or care about the common people's "endurance issue" when it came to climbing stairs like this, but that just meant he was definitely a monk.

Once at the top however, Rinoa would perk up and wave a hand around gesturing at everything they could see, "Welcome to one of the best scenic views in Kyoto. At least in my opinion." the area, though looking far more recent than some of the other buildings they had already seen in Kyoto thus far, was still stunning. They had an entire section that made it look even more fantastic because of the amount of natural looking and authentic amounts of the gravel and rocks that formed the various gardens, as well as the giant gate that they were now under, the temple itself was no slouch either, she couldn't tell if this version of the building had 9 or 12 floors, but she didn't intend to go that far into the tour in the middle of the night so she didn't see any reason to figure that out.

As Rinoa explained where they were headed next, a wave of sadness passed over Kite. He hadn't spent much time reminiscing about his old life, and this would be the first time in over a decade that he'd stepped foot on a temple's grounds. Would he be rejected for the devastation and destruction he caused? Would he be punished for wiping out an entire monastery in a single day? They couldn't have known what he was capable of, and he'd spent tens of thousands of hours practicing to make sure he never repeated that mistake. As quickly as the sadness washed over him, it was gone, as he'd decided he was forgiven; even he couldn't have known what would happen that day. Kite wondered if Rinoa noticed his momentary sadness, but regardless the two got on the train and started heading towards the monastery.

He spent the train ride staring out the window at all the tall buildings and numerous people they passed by. Part of him wondered why there were so many people out and about this late at night, then he remembered that he was out with Rinoa and it was entirely possible that they were all on dates of their own. Briefly he wondered if this outing with Rinoa counted as a date, but he let the thought bypass him as he realized he wasn't qualified to answer that. He didn't know why people even went on dates, much less what dates were and how to quantify them. He did notice Rinoa being thanked by a few people throughout the train ride, and wondered just how popular she was; was she a celebrity? Eventually they arrived at their destination and got off the train once more.

Kite climbed the stairs without huffing or hawing at all, as Rinoa was correct in regards to this being normal to him. In fact, there were less stairs to this temple than he was used to, so he never once got out of breath or upset at climbing them. Only when they were at the top, and Rinoa pointed to one of the best scenic views in Kyoto, did Kite start to realize how much damage he'd caused back then. Could he do it again, even if he wanted to? Kyoto was a much larger city than the very small village that helped feed his monastery, and they were wiped out in an instant from the rockslide. He had grown in strength, but also in discipline, and wasn't entirely sure he could unleash enough power to wipe out Kyoto even if he wanted to due to his own traumas. He shook off the thought, wondering why he was dwelling on the past so much tonight, and stared out over the pretty view.

The buildings seemed even taller now that he was higher up, and the monastery itself seemed far bigger than his. His was a modest life, one where having a third story on the temple was unnecessary. This one had so many floors, and the buildings off in the distance still looked even taller despite them being on a hill.

"It's incredible. Kyoto is so massive. This is nothing like where I came from." He sighed softly, trying to once again supress the memories. "So many people.... all because of me...." Before Rinoa could even ask what he meant, he perked back up. And you say Tokyo is even bigger??"