Fear Hollow
Asuka Neko Kirikae
Note: This story takes place six years after the +Anima series.
Disclaimer: I don't own +Anima, duh. I can't draw half that good!
Cooro: Wait, we're not in our regular story!?
Husky: Heck, no! I'm out of character!
Nana: Love does that to people.
Husky: Whaaaaaaa-- You read this already!?
Nana: Weeeeelll... Yeah.
Asuka: NANA-NANA-NANA-NANA! You aren't supposed to tell people that!!!
Chapter One: Fear Lives in the Hollow
"Not a sound," said Cooro. "It's so quiet." Nana shivered in the darkness, glad she was traveling with a bunch of boys who weren't scared of anything (with the exception of Cooro.) "Huh," said the crow +Anima in question, "I guess I'll sing then"
"NO!" Nana shouted, her little voice sounding oddly loud in the eerie silence of the night. The forest was called Fear; did she really need Cooro to start singing? "If you sing, I can't hear something creeping up on us," she added, twitching her bat ears.
"Right," he sighed. "But gosh, don't you wish it was a little less creepy out here?"
"Oh, well who doesn't?" Husky asked.
"Maybe someone wants it to be scary, just to get intruders out," Cooro thought aloud. Nana shuddered again. Had something just… moved? The summer wind blew oddly cold, and the four wanderers jolted closer together.
"Oh, I hate dark forests, I hate dark forests, I hate dark forests," Nana squealed to herself. She suddenly felt a gloved hand slide into hers, and Husky's nervous glance told her that he wasn't entirely fearless. Something howled. "Eek! It's a wolf!" Nana exclaimed. Husky's hand gripped hers more tightly, and his other arm wrapped around her shoulder.
"What in all the world are you doing, Husky?" asked Cooro. Husky didn't answer. A piercing birdcall split the sky, along with a cat's high-pitched yowl. And then, nothing was left but a creeping silence, and the shivering of the trees under some unknown force. Something was crawling in the forest. Nana buried her face in Husky's chest.
"I can't stand this!" she squeaked, knowing that only he heard. At least Husky understood her fear of dark forests.
"Oh… what is that?" Husky said slowly. Nana looked up. It was a creature, easily taller than even Senri, with numerous glowing red eyes and an insect's body covered in coarse hair.
"Are you kidding me, it's a spider!?" she howled. Then, Nana couldn't stand it. She screamed, her bat instincts taking over, and everyone else was momentarily stunned. She looked at the huge spider-thing again, and shrank back into the darkness, not wanting to go near it. "Cooro? Senri? Husky?" she called. "Where are you guys? What's going on?" Something hard connected with the back of her head, and she fell, an odd winged shape standing over her. The figure nodded to the spider-creature, who stood and resumed a human form. Her short blond hair and bright eyes reminded none of a spider, especially not the being she became. She shivered.
"I really scared those kids, didn't I?"
"Heck, you did," said the other figure, "Now we've got to take this one back before she wakes up and pulls her bat-scream on us again. You're taking her back."
"Why me?"
"If I fly her, there's no telling what'll happen if she yells and knocks me out. At least you're only seven feet from the ground. Now get going."
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Nana awoke in a tent, wondering what had happened. She caught a silvery glint in the corner of her eye, and found Husky, Cooro, and Senri lying in the tent with her, all unconscious. "Um, Husky? Are you awake?" she asked, hoping he was. And what of Senri? It usually took a lot to conk him out. Even a full-grown bear and a bear +Anima and his power going nuts couldn't do much to faze him. Not to mention the time someone had nearly choked him and he'd fallen in the river… and still survived. Who in the world had attacked them? Right, it was that spider.
"Nana?" It was Husky, who was thankfully awake.
"Hey," she said, "what happened?"
"Hmm, one minute you were shrieking your lungs out, and the next, someone whacked me upside the head with my own staff," he said. "Embarrassing, eh?"
"So was it that spider or someone else?" Nana asked.
"You mean the +Anima?" Cooro said. So it had been a +Anima.
"I guess," said Nana. "But where are we now? And what is wrong with Senri, he's like… dead, or something!"
"He's asleep," said Husky. "He and Cooro passed out when you screamed but I saw it coming and jumped away."
"Trust Senri to fall asleep and make it look like he's unconscious," Nana muttered. "The man sleeps like a log."
"A bear," said Cooro.
"I know," said Nana. "Who brought us here?"
"That's what I'd like to YAAAH!" Husky shouted, as he opened the tent-flap and found a white-haired girl standing face-to face with him. "WHO ARE YOU!?"
"My name's Lola!" she giggled. "I think you might've heard me… and I was howling… did you? Was I scary?"
"You were the thing howling?" Nana asked. She nodded. "Gosh, you scared me!"
"Yay! I'm kind of supposed to scare people, because we can't have… intruders on Guinevere. They freak. Guinevere and Arachnea brought you here last night, and all of you were unconscious except for Senri."
"Yup!" Cooro chirped. "He's still asleep!"
"Ha! He's funny… like weird, almost. Oh, you've never met Arachnea and Fen and Guin and Flora!"
"There are only girls here?" Husky asked.
"I thought you were over that?" Nana said. He nodded.
"I am." Husky had hated girls previously because most people thought that he was a girl, probably because of his straight silvery hair and bright blue eyes. Nana had even thought so at one point. Well, she didn't care about that anymore. Besides, Husky had gotten a lot older, and most people didn't guess that he was a girl anymore.
Lola lead them out to a clearing where four other people were sitting around, talking about something. "YOU GUYS!" she shouted, and they all turned around.
"Oh, hey, you finally woke up!" said a woman with short blond hair. "I'm Arachnea, and… I'm really sorry for scaring you so much last night." She looked at the ground shamefacedly.
"You're the spider +Anima?" Cooro asked. She nodded. "Golly, you don't look a thing like a spider!"
"I know, I hate them," she said. "But, I became one, so that's just how it is. I can't change that."
"I don't like bats, either," Nana said. "But I feel like I've never met anyone else who doesn't like the +Anima they are."
"Sure!" she laughed. "I hate spiders! I'm afraid of them! But anyway, I at least have more respect for them now." The other three girls looked like they were around Arachnea's age, or maybe a little older. One of them didn't ask any questions as she looked at them, but the other just looked a little annoyed.
"So," said Lola, "That's Guin," she pointed at a girl with long curly black hair and bright brown eyes, "that's Fen," a tall girl with vivid red hair, "and Flora." She was the oldest woman, and somewhere in her twenties.
"Hey," said Nana shyly.
"Hey Nana, Cooro, Husky," said Guin. "Oh, gosh, this is going to be interesting."
"Did Senri tell you who we were or something?" Husky asked.
"Or something," Guinevere replied. "Sorry about seeming intimidating. But I read minds, so I already know you guys." Cooro's eyes doubled in size.
"WHOA! YOU'RE KIDDING!" he shouted.
"She's not. She seriously is not kidding," said Husky. "That is amazing, how did you do that?"
"I was genetically altered by a mad scientist who was my master in Sailand. You've been there. You know what it's like," she explained. "He didn't care about me, only the fact that he could use me for his experiments."
"I get it," said Husky bitterly.
"Heey, where's Senri, you guys?" Nana asked, changing the subject.
"Hmm, Senri?" said Guin. "Uh, he's still asleep."
"I told you he sleeps like a log," Nana said. Guin nodded.
"You guys do know that he doesn't dream," she said. "He has no memories, so he can't."
"That's sad!" Cooro sighed. "Dreaming is fun, I like it! Even though most of my dreams involve apples…" Husky promptly bonked him on the head.
"Yeah, like you have to tell everyone," he hissed. "We're trying to make a good impression on these people in case you haven't noticed."
"Is it just because they're a bunch of pretty girls?" Nana said slyly.
"NO!" Husky shouted, and looked like he was about to whack her. "You had better not insult me like that!" Senri appeared behind Husky, and pulled him back.
"Don't," he said quietly. Nana grinned.
"You didn't have to do that, Senri, he wouldn't hurt me," she said, "I'm too cute for that!"
"Since when?" asked Husky, who was a very bad liar in front of Nana, Cooro, and Senri. They all knew that he thought Nana was pretty.
"Okay, sure Husky," said Cooro doubtfully. Guin slowly strung another daisy through her black hair, looking thoughtful.
"What'cha reading?" Lola asked previously.
"Husky's mind, does that bother you?" Guinevere asked. "I gave up on the others."
"What do you mean?" asked Nana.
"Cooro keeps thinking about apples, and Senri's mind messes me up, it's so meddled with. And I already read your mind Nana. I'm really sorry for sounding so weird about this, but if I don't read someone's mind as soon as I meet them, it'll annoy me," she said.
"That's odd," said Cooro. She shrugged.
"Nobody thinks it isn't," she said. "And that is probably because the chances of meeting another telepathic person other than me are about zero. Even though you guys do travel, you haven't met any yet I don't think."
"You know who we've met on our travels?" asked Cooro.
"Senri's only memories are of those things. It's not hard to find," she said. "But he's forgotten some people, because the rest of you remember more people than… er… flowers." They all laughed, thinking about Senri's weird habit of putting flowers in a small book that he carried everywhere. That was how he remembered things, if there wasn't a flower to remind him or something, he promptly forgot it.
"So, does this mean our mission is able to be completed?" asked Flora.
"Mission?" Husky questioned. Flora nodded, and tilted her head down so that her long wispy brown bangs fell in her eyes.
"We have a mission. We have long searched for more +Anima, but needed new people to go out looking. We'd like to ask you to go. With Guinevere, of course, but… I hope we're not putting too much of a burden on you. But there's something important about +Anima that you must know."