Chapter Two: Encounters
Naruto Udgard, prince of House Udgard and a member of the Magical Committee for Environmental Preservation (in addition to holding several other titles), stood on the very same beach he had first set foot on upon arriving on American soil. Now, however, he was watching over the men who had attacked a young girl and her pet—or at least, that was how it appeared on the surface.
Earlier, he had made sure to return the two children to their respective homes. This had required him to enter their minds to determine their places of residence, a rather confusing process. The geography of the United States had changed drastically in recent years, and the constellations were not the ones he knew. As such, saying that he got lost a couple of times would be a severe understatement.
Now, upon reflection, he wasn't entirely sure what the hell was going on. Everything was utterly confusing. For a moment, he thought Azazel had somehow sent him into the past, to a slightly more primitive era—but that made no sense. One could only travel forward through time, not backward. Besides, after obtaining a newspaper, he discovered that it was the very same day he had assisted that old idiot crow in his teleportation experiment.
This wasn't particularly surprising, considering that fifty percent of the idiot's inventions usually ended in an explosion, while the other fifty percent were devices that—put politely—would have earned him the eternal hatred of the female population, were it not for the fact that he was incredibly rich, powerful, and handsome.
The point was that all of this was strange, and he was at least partially certain that he had just become the victim of yet another one of Azazel's failures.
He had to calm his mind somewhat in order to make sense of the situation. The most likely explanation, given that he did not recognize the skies he had known all his life, was that he was located in a different part of the galaxy. However, that seemed improbable—what were the odds that two planets would share the same culture and the same names for their countries? Practically none. Therefore, it had to be some kind of alternate dimension or something similar.
At the very least, this would silence those who mocked Azazel for believing in the multiverse—even if Naruto would probably strangle him the moment he got the chance. Of course, for that to happen, he would first need to find a way back home.
Setting that aside for the moment, and seeking information, he turned to the Legilimency he had refined over the years, penetrating the minds of the soldiers. This exercise revealed quite a lot. For starters, he learned why the army had responded so quickly: they had detected energy readings similar to a phenomenon that had occurred in this world less than a year ago, when the Bifrost had nearly destroyed a small town in New Mexico.
He wasn't entirely sure how the Rainbow Bridge possessed the power to cause such destruction, but he chose not to investigate further. After all, meddling in Norse affairs was troublesome—especially if the information he had picked up about something called "the Destroyer" was accurate, as it sounded disturbingly similar to one of those weapons of mass destruction his father kept locked away deep within the palace.
Additionally, he gathered basic information about the world from each of them. Then he proceeded to erase their conscious memories of the incident involving the teenagers. Despite his aversion to "non-magicals," so far they hadn't actively tried to kill him… except when he had thrown stun charges at them and they had responded by shooting. He considered it mutual provocation, and therefore judged them to be "even."
Once he was finished, he simply stood up and waited for someone to come pick them up. He kept his back to the soldiers who were slowly approaching, weapons in hand, ready to open fire once more to rescue their comrades and neutralize the threat.
This didn't concern him in the slightest, as Sirenian skin was resilient enough that bullets would barely leave a mark. Even so, he did nothing to provoke them and waited until they were close enough that he wouldn't have to shout.
"There's no need to worry—they're not dead," Naruto said calmly as soon as one of the soldiers was close enough to hear him.
The soldier froze in place upon hearing him. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed the man's hand trembling slightly; whether from fear or the urge to shoot was something he genuinely didn't know—and didn't get the chance to find out. Moments later, the soldier raised a finger to his ear, most likely receiving instructions that Naruto could only hear as meaningless gibberish… probably some kind of code.
Eventually, whatever the man heard was enough for him to straighten up, secure his weapon, and take a couple of steps back, allowing a different man to approach.
Naruto turned to face this new individual and committed his image to memory. He was a middle-aged man with plain features and a friendly expression, but Naruto had dealt with enough soldiers in his life to know better than to trust appearances alone.
Even so, when the man was close enough to speak, Naruto simply made a small motion with his hand, releasing the soldiers who had been trapped in a magically induced sleep. This was something only he could do, as he doubted these non-magicals had the means to break the spell themselves. And well—the whole rumor about true love's kiss was… well, let's just say it didn't work.
"Hello, I'm Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division). I was sent here to investigate the loss of contact with some of our agents, who were looking into an incident in this area. Could I ask for your cooperation? It's never easy delivering bad news to the Director, and no news at all is already bad news," the man explained.
"Good morning. You can call me Naruto. As for what happened here, I'm afraid that's information I can't freely disclose—it's a matter of British security," he replied.
Normally, given the identity of his first wife, he would have said it was a matter of Russian security—but, well, he was on American soil, and that would have earned him a generous spray of bullets to the backside. Even if he was bulletproof, they would still sting. Besides, Artoria had named him Duke of Britannia when the Black line died out in 1995, even if he had refused the title and delegated the responsibility to the first idiot he could find.
Fortunately, just as he finished speaking, the first of the men began to stir again, which visibly relieved the agent. Coulson gestured for a few men to go check on their fallen comrades.
"MI6? I assure you we have an excellent working relationship with all British intelligence agencies—and most European ones," Coulson commented.
Internally, Naruto rolled his eyes. Of course they did; NATO was essentially held together by American capital.
"Agent Coulson," he replied, keeping his thoughts to himself and using the most polite tone he could manage, "you have no idea the kind of day I've had. I need to contact my people through my own means before I can share any information."
Naruto noticed a faint glimmer in Coulson's eyes. Though the agent was good at hiding it, it was nearly impossible to conceal things from elven sight. He could tell the man was trying to piece things together. Not that he would succeed—Naruto quite literally didn't exist in this world. Besides, for some reason, the name of the organization sounded familiar, though he couldn't remember why.
"I understand. Until you're able to contact your people, we can provide you with lodging and something to eat. Do you need anything from us to communicate with them? Of course, we'll also arrange transportation to your destination."
The offer wasn't really an offer—it was a subtle way of telling him they wouldn't let him walk away. Naturally, he could leave right now if he wanted to, but the truth was that he wasn't in any hurry to return. In fact, he had no idea how to get back, so he needed time to come up with a plan. For that, he first needed to figure out where he was—or, in the worst-case scenario, call Charlie or Milim to come get him if he couldn't return on his own.
"That's very kind of you. I'll accept… I just hope it doesn't take long for them to contact me," Naruto replied politely.
Agent Coulson nodded and walked over to one of his men, who had been questioning the soldiers. So far, they had only been able to determine that the men had extremely hazy memories of what had happened. They only remembered finding a girl standing alone in the darkness—and then nothing. Absolutely nothing.
To make matters worse, their digital equipment had been completely disabled; every single recording device had been fried. This, of course, prompted Coulson to cast a direct glance at Naruto, who remained as unperturbed as ever.
Nevertheless, all he did was bring the conversation to an end and return to the redhead.
"Follow me." After saying this, he simply began walking toward the road.
"Where are you taking me?" Naruto asked calmly. In truth, he wasn't worried—but he had no intention of being taken to a military facility.
"We have an office in Malibu, but it's just an office building. Most of the personnel who work there buy or rent nearby, so we'll be staying at a hotel," the agent replied with a faint smile. "You can order room service. From what I understand, it's tax-deductible—depending on which agency you work for."
"Seriously… the oldest trick in the book," Naruto commented dryly, not returning the smile.
Any idiot with two functioning brain cells would have noticed that this was a rather crude and clumsy attempt to extract information from him. Unfortunately for Coulson, Naruto had been born into a culture that had quite literally been hiding for more than four hundred years. To him, this kind of game was second nature.
End of Chapter