My Ninja Girl 4 by Gideon Caldwell (latest novels to read .TXT) 📕

found a night robe and slipped it on, the hood going over her head after she’d swept her dark hair back. Yuri stepped out of the room, and brought her sword with her.

This piqued Micah’s interest.

As soon as the door slid shut, he hopped down from the top bunk and slowly exited, catching the ends of her robe as she turned the corner down the hallway.

Micah crept after her, and from there up a flight of stone steps that led to the shrine above. He paused at the door, the creaky floorboards of the shrine telling him that Yuri had stopped for a moment. He waited until he intuited movement and moved to the next space, ducking behind a thin wall made of paper, one meant to be used as a room divider.

He lost track of her, and the darkness of the shrine’s interior didn’t help, even if there was light coming in from outside. Surprised the place wasn’t better lit, Micah scanned the outer walls of the room until he located an open window. It was the only place that she could have left through, unless she had gone through the sliding door at the front.

Figuring he would trace her steps exactly as they were laid out, Micah also went through the window, and soon found himself in the courtyard of the shrine. He glanced around for her, and when he didn’t see a hooded figure, he began making his way around the compound, small as it was. Even with its urban surroundings, it was peaceful here, as if the shrine existed outside of town and space.

Micah soon ended up where he had started. Did she leave the shrine? Where had Yuri gone?

He made his way down to the entry, and peered through the alley created by diplomatic apartments. He listened, even though that would do little, Micah catching the sound of some murmuring from one of the lower apartments, the breeze that night on the floating district nonexistent.

Where could she be?

Micah started to grow worried. He didn’t think Yuri was the type to simply disappear, yet he couldn’t find her, and if she had run off somewhere, it was going to be damn near impossible to find her. Did this have something to do with Milsung’s death? Micah was just about to step out to the alley when he heard a whistle above. After another long pause, he looked to the rooftop of the shrine to see Yuri seated with the hood still over her head, her knees in front of her, and held tightly to her chest by her right arm.

Micah approached the building again. “How did you get up there?”

“I jumped.”

“Ummm…” Micah didn’t think he’d be able to jump it. After another glance around, he saw that one of the statues had a ladder lying beside it. He propped the ladder against the edge of the roof and climbed it, joining Yuri.

“I hope I’m not bothering you,” he said as he sat down next to her, Yuri still with her hood over her head, her face not visible at the moment.

“I’m glad you did.”

“Not a bad view,” Micah said, even though they were mostly looking at the apartment buildings in front of them. Still, he could see the stars beyond, and the moon happened to be full tonight, adding a mysterious pearl-glow to everything. It was quite the setting.

“I needed some fresh air,” she said.

“I can’t blame you. It was stuffy down there.”

“I should have asked if you wanted to join me.”

“I really hope I’m not bothering you.”

Yuri looked at him. “Of course you’re not.” She scooted closer to Micah, and looped her arm through his, placing her head on his shoulder. “You have yet to bother me. I don’t know how you do that.”

“It takes great skill, and plenty of distractions,” he joked.

“We certainly have had plenty of distractions.”

“Tell me about it. But hopefully we’ll make some progress here over the coming days, and things can calm at some point, go back to normal.” Micah’s own statement caused him to smirk. Normal? He thought. What is normal when you live with three ninjas from the past, your grandmother, your best friend, and rebellious nun?

“I used to sit somewhere near here, you know,” she said, nodding toward one of the apartment buildings.

“You did?”

“Uyanga was less crowded then. No buildings like this, and you could still see the sky. There used to be a small hill there with a garden in front of it. I suppose they demolished the hill to build the building, but it was a nice spot to sit. At least once a week, that’s how often I came here,” she said. “Unless, you know, a work assignment came up.”

Micah nodded. He didn’t actually know what a typical assignment would have been like back then, but he didn’t want to interject at the moment. It was nice hearing her talk about the past, especially because she often kept it to herself.

“I don’t wish time travel upon anyone, and even if it is sad to see both the extent to which things have changed, and stayed the same, it is also fascinating. It’s nice to know that your people somehow continued onward, that lives were lived, that everything progressed, even if that progression was stilted in a way by the monks.”

“Do you miss living in your own time?”

“Things were cleaner then, but the demands on my time were greater, considering I had a squad of ninjas to lead. Leadership suits me, but to answer your question, no, I don’t miss it too much. I have come to like our little situation. I only wish…” She trailed off for a moment. “I only wish things with Milsung had turned out differently. We weren’t as close as we should have been back then, and maybe this