"... Horikita?"
In front of me is the unexpected sight of Horikita, she is holding a repeater, still pointed at me. She is wearing a red vest with a brown coat.
A few yards away is a horse which I can assume to be her horse, it has a big build with strong looking legs. It's coat is dark brown with small white spots.
"... Ayanokouji-kun?"
For a second, Horikita's crimson eyes soften a bit at the sight of a familiar face in this unfamiliar world, but she quickly regains her serious look again.
"I apologize for the scare, I was simply taking precautions." She lowers her repeater and hangs it around her back.
I lower my hands and crouch down to pick my revolver up. "I didn't expect to see anyone else here, I thought that I was alone."
"I feel the same way, I am glad to see someone that I know, I will admit, I was a little shaken up when I came to my senses and found myself alone."
Horikita then stops and she now looks disturbed.
"Ayanokouji-kun... w-what happened to those men?"
Horikita is referring to the corpses of the 2 men that tried to rob and take me in to the sheriff.
"I did what I had to do, they were going to rob me and then kill me."
I decide to not inform her that they were trying to turn me in to the sheriff for a bounty.
"Oh... well I guess I can understand why you had to do that. Are... they dead?"
"Yes, once again, I was left with no choice."
"I understand, but..."
She looks into my eyes, no, she tries to analyze my eyes.
"You still seem indifferent, I already knew you don't show much emotion on your face, but I thought you would at least show something this time..."
I don't understand, why would I feel anything for eliminating someone that threatens my life? I guess it's not easy to simply take the life of another for other people.
"No... I do feel pity, I just don't show it on my face."
"Even in this type of situation? I really don't understand you."
Though Horikita still seemed disturbed by the dead bodies, sometimes glancing at them, she tries overlook it.
"Well let's just try to ignore... that. Horikita, how do you have that equipment?"
It should've been around 3 hours since I woke up, maybe she woke up earlier than me?
"Oh this? Well when I woke up I was near a town. I was behind a saloon when a drunk man approached me and tried to.... well that doesn't matter, I took care of him fairly easily with a quick, unexpected attack and simply took his equipment. He also had a horse hitched nearby."
"Really? What about what you have on?"
"I took it from him mostly because it was pretty cold, and also because it might prevent future assaults of random strangers who think my choice of clothing invites them to do what they want with me." She says this with clear disgust in her face.
Previously on the ship, girls were allowed to wear very short skirts, in this time, clothing like that would incite dangerous interactions with lustful men, Horikita's cute face only added on to this.
"Wait, so you woke up near a town? Where was it?"
Ignoring her recall of her bad encounter, she responds. "It's actually opposite to where you were heading."
"Really? I was actually there earlier, though I wasn't as lucky as to waking up near the town, the lucky part only being that you were in a town, I came to my senses in some field of grass. I had to follow a trail to get to that town."
Before Horikita could get a word in, a bullet whizzed past us.
"I hear gunshots here! There are 2 dead men, and I can see that yellow eye man! He has a companion with him! Get him!"
The law? I guess that shot I put into that man's skull was heard by them, we should leave.
Horikita wastes no time, she gets on her horse and starts sprinting, I unhitch my horse and start riding after Horikita.
Though there is a slight problem that I have just now realized.
I have no idea how to ride a horse.
This wasn't exactly a curriculum taught in the White Room, I notice that Horikita also seems to be having trouble controlling her horse.
Luckily, our horses were sprinting in response to the shots fired, both of them were going in the same direction.
By a stroke of luck, our horses were able to get the law off our trail. Though now comes the problem of stopping.
"What do we do!"
Horikita starts to panic, mostly because of the bullet that almost hit her.
"I think we wait, they should slow down at some point."
And surely enough, they slowed down to a complete stop, I get off my horse and hitch it nearby.
Horikita is laying her head on the mane of her horse, trying to catch her breath.
"Why... were they so quick to draw their guns at us?!"
I go over to her horse and help her off.
"... now that I think about it, they called you like they knew you already, have you already had a run in with the law?"
I truly didn't expect for the law to show up again so soon. "I admit, I may have been chased by the law earlier when I was in town."
"Wait, that was you?! So you were the one who killed that man?!"
"Wait wait, that was in self defense, I only bumped shoulder with him and started to get violent, he was drunk, he pulled a gun out on me, I had no choice."
Horikita still seems doubtful, but decides to believe me. I really am telling the truth you know?
"Well, now what? I'm pretty sure they now think that I'm an accomplice of yours, now I'm also an outlaw because you killed a man!"
"Hey, I already said that it was self defense, this isn't like Sudo's case, it was a matter of life or death."
"Great, now what?"
"Well, first of all, we have to hide our identities, I can't remain in these clothes, I can't do much about my hair or eyes, so I will have to hope that changing my clothes will be enough."
"Yeah, Ayanokouji-kun, I want to confirm this, but can you also understand what they are saying?"
"What do you mean?"
"When the law was yelling at us, they were speaking English, but for some reason I could understand them clearly."
It seems that for some reason, Horikita could understand English well, I was already fluent in various languages to begin with, so I wouldn't have noticed.
"I didn't realize, I was too focused on getting away from the law."
"That's strange, but convenient."
Horikita pauses for a moment.
"Ayanokouji-kun, are we in America? I've already had my suspicions just by looking around my surroundings, but I want a second opinion."
"Yeah I agree, I also believe we are in the late 1800s."
"The late 1800s.." She pauses for a moment. "Ayanokouji-kun, do you think the others may have also been sent back here with us?"
"There is no reason to believe otherwise, I can't imagine that it was only the two of us that was sent here."
I hand her some gin that I drank earlier, she looked at it hesitantly.
"Oh come on, if you don't drink this than I can't guarantee that we will find something else to drink for a while."
"Fine." She snatches it away, she looks at it with hesitation, but her thirst triumphs over her pride.
"Hey, is that smoke over there?"
Horikita squints her eyes. "Yes, should we identify the cause?"
I nod my head. "Just a quick peek, we can leave if anything goes wrong."
We both go on our horses and head toward the source of the smoke.
Upon arrival, we discover a campfire that was already put, out.
"Hey, whoever was here left their tents."
Whoever occupied this area left 2 tents. "We can definitely use this, we're not allowed in that town (we should really learn the name of the town), so we should sleep here."
The sun starts to set, I hand Horikita come canned beans.
"Well we should rest, we should figure out what to do tomorrow."
Horikita takes off her coat. "I agree, goodnight Ayanokouji-kun."
After her short reply, she enters her tent. I stay outside, pondering as to what I should do now.
Should I find a way back to our time? If I go back, I'll also return to the White Room eventually, but is it really that much worse than where I am now?
Bandits, lawmen, and random violent people, is that really better than the White Room?
I guess it doesn't matter much, I don't think we can even find a way back. With that, I go into my tent and fall asleep.
A/N:
I DECIDED TO HAVE HORIKITA KEEP HER MEMORIES, NOW SHE HAS ALSO JOINED AYANOKOUJI ON HIS JOURNEY TO SURVIVE IN THIS DANGEROUS OLD WORLD. I HAVE PLANS FOR THEIR WAY TO LIVE IN THE WILD WEST.
Character Count: 8157