After pushing aside the grass, she saw a village and rice paddies, the village built of wooden houses.
Xu Zhiqiu narrowed her eyes at the village and raised a hand to her forehead to shield herself from the slanting sunlight. A gentle breeze swept toward her with a wash of heat, lifting a few strands of hair beside her ears.
The buildings here looked like houses from an anime set in Little Island Country.
To confirm her guess, she headed down the slope. At the bottom, a bridge spanned the river. When she entered the village, she saw the villagers going about their day.
The men wore plain clothes and carried hoes on their backs, with the hair above their foreheads shaved off and the rest tied into topknots. They looked like people from Little Island Country. The women held babies in their arms, with cloth wrapped around their heads and fabric sashes tied in bows at their waists. They were definitely from Little Island Country.
As Xu Zhiqiu approached, their expressions changed. One man said gravely, "Why has another woman in strange clothes shown up?"
"Go get Granny Kaede," another said.
Having gotten a clear look at them, Xu Zhiqiu had already reached a conclusion.
Ugh. Rotten luck. No words. How many lifetimes' worth of bad luck did I rack up to end up transported here? Being transported was bad enough, but I even landed in neighboring Little Island Country.
"Ring, ring."
It was the ringing of a bicycle bell.
Xu Zhiqiu turned to look behind her and saw a sunny-looking girl with long black hair riding toward her on a pink bicycle, dressed in a dark blue high-necked sweatshirt and a light blue knee-length skirt.
Seeing a crowd blocking the way ahead, Kagome got off her bicycle and