Notes:
1. Yo-kai will be spelled "yokai" for convenience
2. THIS IS NOT A SHIPPING FIC
3. At the time of writing this fic, Sakura Orochi has not gotten a localized name, so for the sake of consistency I will be calling him "Bloominoct"
"Dear Lucas…
I'm sorry I had to leave in such short notice.
There's... some matters I need to attend to.
I can't really offer any explanations
but I hope you understand
Don't go looking for me
I promise I will be back soon.
PS: Please try not to get in trouble while
Im gone, will you?
Venoct"
"It's already been 4 days since you left thou..." Lucas whispered in a rather melancholic tone as he read the old handwritten note he found stickied on his fridge first thing after he woke up.
It was the morning of April 18, a week has passed since Springdale made honor to its namesake by covering itself with the most beautiful shades of pink and white, today in particular was the day the cherry trees were at peak bloom, and people- both humans and yokai didn't waste any time on setting their picnics everywhere to hold the customary 'flower viewing', a yearly tradition that simply consisted on enjoying the beautiful scenery provided by these marvelous trees.
Everyone in the town was in their highest spirits… Everyone except for a certain black haired, glasses wearing boy. Lucas, who was watching the people passing by from outside a window, he was eager to share these couple of days alongside his friend and regal aide, Venoct; specially today when the flowers look the prettiest… but alas, the serpent's sudden and prolonged disappearance had the young kid feeling pretty down in the dumps.
"I know he likes to disappear all the time, but never for this long... just... why?" Lucas said to himself, deep in thought, there was really no one else he could go on a picnic with; Lord Enma was too busy as always, and it would probably feel odd asking Katie out, as she was probably spending quality time with her family and yokai companions, his own adoptive father was on a business trip at the other side of the state, and others… Lucas didn't particularly felt too close with.
"I just wish he didn't hide so much stuff from me… m-maybe taking a little stroll will help me clear my mind..." Lucas whispered, he wiped and put on his glasses, his favorite yellow sweater and headed out to start the day.
"Sigh, the cherry blossoms started blooming a week ago but they certainly look pretty today, I wish Venoct was here to see it..." the black haired child lamented as he was strolling his way around town "I know he told me I shouldn't search for him, but I'm worried… maybe I should pay Mt. Wildwood a visit!"
At Triangle Park he noticed two of his classmates- Bear and Eddie, it seemed like they were trying to enjoy a nice picnic on their own but they were suddenly interrupted by the yokai Rockabelly, who inspirited Bear and forced him to do that ridiculous belly dance, making a complete fool of himself in front of Eddie, the hazelnut haired kid was already on tears from laughing.
Funny, Lucas didn't feel particularly close to those two, but he was aware that for some reason mischievous yokai just loved to target them, the black haired boy felt bad about not being able to tell them about the small invisible creatures breaking mischief right under their noses… at least they seemed to be having fun, and got a chuckle out of Lucas, who was now even more determined to find his serpentine friend, maybe with some luck they would be still on time to eat some dangos together before the day ends.
As Lucas made his way to the Mt. Wildwood shrine, which was now drowned in the same layers of pink cherry trees just like in the downtown, the young boy couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed, he could feel a tremendous amount of spiritual energy being released from the trees, specially coming from the sacred tree just a little ahead, Lucas was a yokai too after all, so things like these couldn't escape him. He didn't hesitate to make his way to the sacred tree, only to find out the torii gate- which was the only way to access the tree- was completely blocked by a series of ropes, something that appeared to be very old police tape, and a load of paper talismans hanging on them.
"Oh no! I forgot they close down this path during cherry blossom season!" Lucas placed both hands on his hair, maybe it was to keep seasonal tourists away from vandalizing the tree? Maybe to prevent any more accidents like the whole McKracken fiasco, he could tell this barrier was made for yokai as well, as he sensed a magical barrier right behind the ropes and talismans.
"I guess this discards Venoct being here" Lucas scratched the back of his head, what was he going to do now? This was probably the last day before the flowers start wilting and he really didn't want to spend it alone, the melancholic boy looked at the sky in hopes that an answer would fall from it… and lo and behold, he saw something at the very least very unusual, a figure suddenly jumped out from the direction of where the sacred tree is.
"What… is that? Lucas narrowed his eyes, it was too far away to get a good look at, and it was moving too fast, but he could see that whatever it was, it made its way to the summit of Mt. Wildwood.
"It's… kind of a stretch but what if that was supposed to be Venoct? No other yokai around here can fly that fast…" the boy pondered, he figured he best make haste to the summit just to make sure it was either Venoct, or some other evil being that came to invade the human world, it was a long way from there to the mountain top, where's a Mirapo when you need it?
Along the way he found himself watching people taking pictures of the scenery, some couples were just enjoying a nice lunch under the trees, a couple of classmates were too busy hunting for beetles and would only greet Lucas with a "Sup Luke?"
Some other yokai were also busy minding their own business, inspiriting poor unsuspecting by passers, some would notice Lucas' presence, and whisper "hey, isn't that the prince over there?" This made the young lad roll his eyes in response. Lucas really didn't enjoy being given special treatment due to his regal origins, surely it helped him to have some sort of political influence to let the gates between the yokai and the human world reopen, once Whisper seemingly sealed it for good some months ago, but otherwise he was happy enough with being just a normal kid.
After a long walk, Lucas finally made it to Wildwood's summit, he knew this was one of Venoct's favorite spots to hang out, he would sometimes rest on the trees nearby or under the elevated platform in the middle of the barren area, but to no one's surprise, Venoct was nowhere to be seen.
"Im... not sure what I was expecting" Lucas quietly said as he tried to catch his breath, he slowly climbed the stairs to the coin operated tower viewers on the platform, since he already made it this far may as well take the chance to get a good sight of Springdale from the binoculars and find whatever thing he was chasing after. As expected, it was view was breathtaking, which only made Lucas' longing for Venoct to be there with him even stronger.
He knew Cherry Blossom viewing was not actually much of a big deal, still, Lucas just wanted to be with his serpent friend, his brother-like figure, whom hardly gets to spend some quality time with, create a nice new memory with him, lay under a cherry tree and laugh together, hold hands, all that mushy stuff.
"But in perspective… in the end is just a bunch of trees" it sounded kind of uninteresting when put that way, and Venoct prolly did have more important things to do other than wasting time on corny stuff, maybe that's why he refused to explain why he left.
The black haired child buried his face on his hands and started growing more and more distressed as more anxious thoughts began piling up, that thing he saw a while ago was not around here either, he began to think it was all just a trick of the light… but then as soon as the boy lifted his face up he could see something at the distance.
"T-there it is again!" Lucas quickly walked back to the binoculars to get a better look at it, but it was no longer operative, and he just happened to have already run out of coins to make it work again.
"Well, if I'm gonna keep chasing after whoever that is, I need to find a fast way to walk back down," Lucas had already wasted half a day walking up the path to the mountain and certainly didn't feel like spending the other half walking down, so there was only one option left.
"WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Lucas, of course, choose to use the Jumbo Slider, a ridiculously large slider that went from the summit all the way down to the mountain's base; the poor buy could've sworn he saw his whole life flash before his eyes.
Once he reached the end of the slider he had a rather harsh landing, fortunately he just got his clothes a little dirty.
"Woah, I didn't know you were the type to enjoy strong emotions, young Lucas!" a voice spoke by from not too far; when Lucas turned around he saw a tall blonde man, wearing glasses and a lab coat, it was Lucas' science teacher Mr. Barton.
"T-teacher!, what are you doing here?" the black haired boy asked, trying to shake off the dirt from his pants.
"Oh you know, taking a breath of fresh air before heading back to school, classes starts next week and I need to make plans for the rest of the semester" the teacher calmly replied. "Still you almost gave me quite the scare appearing out of nowhere like that, what were you doing all the way up there anyway?"
"I… I was… I was looking for Venoct...sorta" Lucas replied shyly "is there a chance you may have seen him anywhere, teacher?" he asked.
"Venoct? I certainly have no idea what are you talking about~" the blonde man shrugged with a rather uninterested attitude.
That was… until he felt Lucas' frustrated glare piercing through him, bad enough to even make him expose his fox ears for a short second, Mr. Barton loved to play innocent with the likes of Katie, but there was no fooling Lucas … it takes a yokai to know another yokai after all.
"Okay, okay I give in! You're lucky there's no one around here to hear us..." Mr. Barton scratched the back of his head "But the truth is… I have honestly not seen your friend Venoct lately myself."
"I see..." Lucas sighed in disappointment.
"Did… something happen between you two?" Barton tilted his head in curiosity.
"He just… disappeared several days ago without any explanation- I'm trying not to think about it too hard but… I'm worried…is he mad at me?" Lucas confessed, placing both hands on his chest and lowering his head.
The older man bent down on one knee and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, looking at him straight in the eyes, he said "Listen Lucas, try not to take it too personally, Venoct is just the kind of boy that likes to keep to himself a lot, but he clearly cares about you."
"I just wish he trusted a little more, otherwise I wouldn't be this worried about him…" Lucas replied.
"Hmm, you will have to confront him about that, then" the mysterious teacher gave Lucas a smug smile, standing up once more "By the way; did you see that strange flying thing earlier? It looked like it was heading to Blossom Heights" Barton asked.
"OH! I completely forgot I was chasing after it! Thanks for the chat, teacher!" and without even giving Mr. Barton enough time to reply, Lucas made haste to the direction the mysterious flying object… or person… headed to.
"Heh, kinda hard to believe he's the son of King Gouen," Barton couldn't help but laugh.
"I didn't expect today to be leg day, to be frank..." Lucas told to himself as he jogged his way to Blossom Heights, once again, it was a bit of a walk from Breezy Hills and across Uptown Springdale, he internally prayed to the gods above to not randomly fall into Terror Time as he gave chase to his objective, it would be quite difficult for the boy to escape out of oni territory without Venoct's guidance.
"Oh Venoct… I just hope you're okay…" he thought, he really was missing his friend.
After a 10 minute walk, Lucas made it to Blossom Heights, problem is that he wasn't sure where the flying entity went to exactly, and the maze-like layout of this particular part of town would most likely make things harder, Lucas' best guess was to head to the yokai apartments.
"Maybe the yokai living over there can give me some clues…" he thought as he was making his way through the stairs passing right after the bridge.
But before he could go any further, he noticed a small white lion cub yokai heading his way, with tears in his eyes.
"Huh? Lie-in is that you? What happened?" Lucas asked, worried about the little fellow.
"L-Lucas! Oh my gosh... i-it was... terrible!" the small lion tried to catch his breath after running for dear life "I was at the Shoten Temple j-just minding my business, when a trio of bullies t-tried to beat me up and steal my katana!" he tried his best to explain in between sniffles.
"That sounds terrible! How did you manage to get away?" Lucas asked with concern, as he pet Lie-in's head in hopes to comfort him.
"A… A weird yokai came flying down out of nowhere and… they started fighting the bullies, during the commotion I saw my chance to escape and I took it…" Lie-in replied.
"A yokai came flying down out of nowhere? Did you see what they looked like?" the black haired boy asked attentive, suspecting that such yokai may be the one he's chasing after.
"S-sorry, it all happened so fast… when I started running I didn't even think about turning back to see who saved me…" Lie-in lowered his head, fidgeting with his fingers.
With a serious look, Lucas focused his view on the way to Shoten Temple "I see, guess I will have to check it out by myself, are you gonna be okay on you own, Lie-in?" he asked.
"I… I will be fine, but please take care Mr. Lucas! Those yokai like to play very rough!" Lie-in warned, as he waved goodbye to Lucas.
"Please be there still, please be there still!" the young boy repeated to himself as he ran to the temple, as he reached the stairs leading to the main gates, he had to slow down gasping for air as all the walking from before drained most of his stamina, Lucas lamented not being too athletic.
What he saw after he finally arrived to the front of the temples was quite a sight… or at least that's what Lucas would have wished it happened, as it looks like he once more had arrived a tad too late, as all he saw was a group of what he assumed to be the bully yokai, all beaten up and lumped on the ground, not too far from the temple's entrance; the yokai in question were Baddinyan, Rawry and Badude.
Lucas took a deep breath and cautiously approached the half-conscious yokai "I know I shouldn't be asking this but… are you guys ok?" he asked.
"Ggg….w...wha… who the hell are you?" mumbled the small biker, Rawry.
"Can't you... see we're too busy l-lying on the ground nya wimp?" the rebel cat Baddinyan complained.
"Uuuugh… if only that weird yokai hadn't meddled in our business… whadda hell was their damage anyway?" The big green hooligan yokai Badude said as he tried getting on his feet, but was too badly beaten up to do so.
"Who did this anyway?" a concerned Lucas asked, it had to be a rather powerful yokai to tackle on 3 enemies at the same time, and with one of them being as tough as Badude no less.
"Ow, ow… nye hell are we s'posed to knyow? It just looked like a wimpy kid... just like you!" Baddinyan coughed.
"The scarf tho… they had a scarf that bites… really painful bites… scarves is not supposed to do that, dude…" Rawry whined, covering the bite marks on his arm.
"A yokai that looks like a kid and has a scarf that bites? I knew it! It HAS to be Venoct!" Lucas deducted, there were no doubts in his mind now, at least until he heard what Badude had to say…
"He looked so weak thou… like… c'me on! a pink and fluffy yokai like 'em looked just pathetic! We laughed at 'em, thinking we could knock dem lights out in one hit, and we were WRONG!" Badude groaned.
"How we were s'posed to know they could punch like a friggin' truck, boss?!" Rawry cried, making quite a tantrum.
"Wait… Pink? Fluffy? That… that doesn't add up at all, who is that yokai then?" the young boy pondered, giving little regard to the injured yokai in front of them, deciding to make a run for it before they had the chance to recover, surely the monk in charge of the temple could take care of them.
"Why do I feel like the more I delve into this mystery, the further I get from finding the truth?" Lucas sighed, shoving both hands on his pockets, the yokai he was insistently chasing after may not be Venoct after all, but at the same time, the clues made it sound like it couldn't possibly be NOT him, what was he supposed to do?
He looked up at the sky once more, Lucas did that each time he was about to space out, the amount of physical activity he has done through the whole day was probably starting to get to him; just then, at the corner of his eye he noticed the eluding figure he has been following, yet it was so far away it almost looked like a tiny dot in the firmament, but maybe there was still a chance to intercept him if he hurried fast enough.
"Well ... huff... here goes nothing…" Lucas gathered whatever left he had of strength to begin running again.
This didn't last for too long though, as Lucas reached an interception, the traffic light for pedestrians switched to red, Lucas knew better than to commit jaywalking, since unlike most people, he could clearly see the piercing glare of the ever-so-hostile yokai Snartle from the other side of the street. Just… how did he know? Is there a Snartle at every intersection in town waiting to pounce on a poor unsuspecting victim with his sharp blades just for the sin of jaywalking?
Lucas tapped his feet impatiently as he waited for the light to switch to green, pushing the crosswalk button didn't seem to make any difference, he could only watch as the flying yokai disappeared from sight.
When the light finally switched to green… it was already too late, the mysterious yokai was already nowhere to be seen, finally leaving the poor boy without any leads at all.
"AGH! ENOUGH! That's it, I'm done!" Lucas finally snapped, crouching down on his knees, placing his hands on the back of his head, at that point he was in a rather sour mood, not even the beautiful sight of the cherry blossoms could cheer him up at this point.
"This was supposed to be just a nice, chill day, all I wanted was to have a picnic and… All I did was getting myself involved in a pointless goose chase… now I'm tired and hungry, and I'd rather just go back home and watch TV now…"
"Just… nothing of this would have happened had I decided to just leave Venoct alone, I don't… need to know why he left, nor I need to know every single thing about him… not like I know that much of anything about him anyway" the poor boy shoved his face on his knees, embracing himself for the coming waterworks.
"Uh… hello, are you okay?" a voice shyly asked from not too far away, Lucas turned around to see something purple and glassy, it was the mirror yokai Mirapo.
"M-Mirapo!? Oh … I am… I am just a little tired, where are your friends? I… could have surely used their help with all I've been through this afternoon you know…" Lucas replied, trying his best to regain his composure, it was pretty rare for him to snap like he just did a second ago.
"M-My apologies! most of my co-workers in the Springdale network decided to take today off-cherry blossom viewing and all that- I told them countless times people were going to need our services today but no one listened…" the mirror shaped yokai lamented, bowing a couple of times to show they were truly sorry.
"Oh… I understand..." Lucas sighed, he couldn't possibly vent his anger on the purple yokai, it was not their fault the others decided to ditch work today.
"Is… is there something I can do to make up for it? It would really suck for the Mirapo network if we got a bad review from the yokai prince of all things, surely there must be something!" Mirapo practically made puppy eyes at young boy at this point, Lucas just scratched his head, trying to think up something, surely he could use a lift to go back home but…
"Can you… can you contact the Mirapo at the Enma palace, please? I… I wanna talk to Lord Enma" the boy asked in a quiet voice, averting his eyes from the other yokai, such request came as a little shocking for Mirapo, but in this current circumstance, they had no choice but to accept.
"O-Okay, but only because you're the king's relative! ...now give me a sec as I try to contact line #9301" there was a bit of a wait, before Mirapo's mirror started glowing, then an image appeared at the other side, it was Enma's office all right, and not too far was none other than Enma himself, as usual, with a ton of paperwork piled on his desk, the blonde king looked less than pleased.
"Your majesty, looks like you're getting a call from line #0458," said a voice that was most likely belonged to the Mirapo at the other side of the call.
"What? who in blazes is contacting me via Mirapo ca- wait, Lucas, is that you?" Enma turned at the Mirapo in his own office, seeing Lucas from the mirror's projection, the young king approached the mirror to take a better look.
"H-hello big bro… I hope I'm not interrupting with work," Lucas sheepishly greeted the king with a small smile, being able to talk with his only blood relative seemed like it was already lifting his spirits.
"Heck no! I always have little time for my little bro! Plus… Zazel is not around sooooo I guess I can catch a 5 minute break~" Enma chuckled, the young boy would do anything to keep himself away from paperwork.
"Is there something the matter? You look a little sad…" Enma tilted his head, a little concerned about his younger brother-like figure.
The two boys then proceeded to tell each other about their day, it seemed like they both had a rather stressful afternoon, it was a good thing they both had each other to talk about it; it baffled Enma how humans found cherry blossom blooming so fascinating, as the trees in the yomakai were always in full bloom all year long, Lucas having to explain they only bloomed once a year in the human world is what made them so special
Lucas then explained his current situation with Venoct, in hopes Enma could give him some sort of answers.
Enma placed a hand on his chin, closing his eyes as he tried to piece all the information "I see, from all the stuff you've told me before, looks like Venoct can be kind of a pain to deal with, seems like he hasn't gotten the hang of being your friend AND your aide"
"Do you… do you know why he may be doing this, Enma?" Lucas asked, fearing not even the king himself may know the answer.
"Sorry pal… there's not much I can tell you... after all, when you were born, the old man assigned him to you, so he spent all of the time with you" the young blonde scratched the back of his head, feeling bad about not being able to provide a better answer, yet it seemed like he was starting to cook an idea.
"But you know who may be able to help you? Zazel!" he claimed.
"Z-Zazel?" Lucas narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"Yes, Zazel and Venoct used to be bitter rivals back in the day y' know? Always bickering and competing with each other in order to win over the old man's affection, if there's someone who knows a lot about Venoct, it HAS to be Zazel!" Enma folded his arms and nodded to himself, being proud of coming up with such a deduction.
"So uh… how do I..." Lucas asked nervously, not wanting to admit the thought of having to interact with Zazel of all the people kinda intimidated him.
"Don't worry! Even if he's not your aide he's still obligated to help you, should you require his assistance. Now I'll just have Mirapo here redirect the call to the line closest to Zazel, got it?" Enma explained.
"Thank you, Enma, you're way too kind" Lucas gave the king a sweet smile in response.
"Anything for my lil bro! Hope we can hang out sometime in the future, take care!" Enma waved goodbye to his little sibling before cutting off communication, now Lucas had to wait for Mirapo to find someone in the network that was close to Zazel to contact Lucas didn't know is that not too far away from him, there was another yokai hiding behind a corner, watching him closely.
"Nwehehe… I may've failed to snatch that stupid cub's katana away from 'em, but I'm sure this fancy nerd 'ere could surrender some plenty penny to me!" the yoka in in question was Badude, who managed to get up despite the bad beat up he got from earlier.
"Okay, establishing contact with line #6020" Mirapo said, keeping a concentrated expression, the image of their mirror projected someplace that seemed to be a library of sorts, Lucas believes it was most likely the palace's archives, it didn't take him long to spot Zazel organizing a few documents, removing and then taking some from be shelves; the Mirapo on the other side approached the older yokai as it seemed like he had yet not noticed its presence.
"Master Zazel? You got an incoming call from Lucas" the Mirapo sheepishly commented.
"And who is this "Lucas" and why in tarnation is he calling me?" Zazel asked, his voice sounding as frustrated as always, not even bothering to look at the other yokai.
"M-master… did you forget? t-that's the human name of prince Yamao," Mirapo replied, making the white haired yokai rapidly turn around in shock " Wait… your highness?!" he exclaimed.
"U-um… good a-afternoon, Mr. Zazel…" Lucas shyly waved from the other side of the mirror.
"Well, this better be REALLY important, because unlike your majesty, I don't particularly enjoy slacking off, you know?" Zazel shot one of his classical glares at the poor boy, he was definitely not in a good mood and he was not the kind of man who liked to sugarcoat things.
"I was… hoping you would help me out with something, actually…" Lucas was already feeling pretty discouraged by talking to this man.
"What? Is that viper boy of yours unable to assist you?" Zazel placed his hand on his chin, showing a nerve wracking smug smile, he sure sounded pretty please about the possibility of Venoct not doing his job well.
"That's the thing tho! I-I need to ask you something about him" Lucas nervously replied, trying his best to ignore the fact Zazel just called his friend a 'viper'.
"My humble apologies, your highness, but I have absolutely nothing to share about that obnoxious punk" Zazel said, slightly raising his voice, making it obvious he was growing even more irritated.
"Wh- b-but… Enma said you could help!" Lucas widened his eyes, feeling an utmost sense of disbelief at how uncooperative Zazel was being towards him.
"Tch, your majesty should know very well I don't appreciate having words being put in my mouth, now if you excuse me, I have a load of work to do" Zazel claimed, ready to cut off the call at any second.
"Ugh, Zazel I don't have time for this!" At this point Lucas had lost the little patience he had managed to recover after talking to Enma, he instinctively turned around and swung his around with force, as if to avoid hitting Mirapo, thing is... that he did end up punching someone else.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" it was Badude, who tried to sneak on Lucas from behind, and the boy had punched him with so much strength, he was knocked back at least 16 feet away, the green hooligan crashed against a nearby dumpster and had all the garbage fall on him.
"Oh… oh my god… I-I didn't mean… a-are you okay?" the dark haired boy covered his mouth in absolute shock, did he really do that? How did he do that? Even Mirapo and Zazel shared the same expression of shock.
Badude sloppily got up on his feet once more, his knees shaking badly, he has to use his nail bat to keep himself in balance "Ow, ow, OW! Two times I got beaten up today by these nerd-looking monsters, TWO! That's it, I call quits! I'm going back to do sumthing productive with me life, see ya never!" he yelled before running away as fast as his scratched legs could take him.
"Oh dear… I'm… My conscience is never gonna let that one go for sure…" Lucas mumbled, slowly covering his whole face with his hands.
"Huh… looks like you're slowly but surely starting to tap into your true potential, your highness," Zazel concluded, folding his arms and feeling quite intrigued as to what just happened. Lucas just brushed off the comment and mumbled "Zazel… please, just… just I wanna get this over with, Venoct disappeared 4 days ago without explaining why…
Is… is this a thing he does? Is this normal? Is he mad at me? Should… should I be worried?" Lucas was once again at the verge of tears at this point.
Zazel was starting to feel bad for the boy, as much of a pain he was to deal with, he was definitely not a heartless monster; he couldn't bear to see a child cry, much less if it was Lucas.
"Hmm… you said he disappeared about a week ago, and judging by all the pink petals scattered around the place, I can tell its cherry blossom season in Springdale, am I correct?" Zazel inquired, Lucas just slowly nodded his head.
"I knew it, he's still doing "that" thing, but I never expected he would hide that from you of all people..."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Lucas asked, now feeling more intrigued than sad.
"I don't expect you to recall since Venoct didn't reveal himself to you until McKraken tried to take over the yomakai, but this is actually something Venoct does every year" the white haired man shrugged and shook his head "sadly I can't tell you exactly WHY he does it though."
Yet Zazel smiled once more "However, if you wish to find the truth yourself, I suggest you go and wait at the sacred tree connecting Springdale to the yomakai"
"The sacred tree? B-but it's currently being protected by a barrier…" the boy furrowed his brows.
"With all due respect, your highness... you possess the blood of Enma, no "run-of-the-mill" barrier can tell you where you can or cannot go" Zazel explained, pulling his most serious face.
"I… I understand, thank you, mr. Zazel…" Lucas wiped his tears and once again stood on his own feet "You're not so bad after all…"
"Hmph! If that's everything your highness needs, then I will be going back to work, godspeed" with that said, the older yokai cut off the call, Mirapo's mirror went back to displaying its usual black color.
"Thanks a lot for your help too, Mirapo" the dark haired boy gave the mirror yokai a handshake of gratitude.
"I'm sorry I can't help you get to Mt. Wildwood faster tho" the mirror yokai averted its eyes in embarrassment; it felt wrong not being able to help someone with teleportation.
"That's okay, I think… I still have some energy left to go back to the shrine; I will be seeing you then!" Lucas said before heading off, waving Mirapo goodbye, as the purple yokai waved back.
"...I should really invest on developing a mobile app" Mirapo thought to itself.
The sun had begun to set by the time Lucas arrived to Mt. Wildwood once more, the wind was starting to snatch the petals from the cherry blossom flowers, creating small patches of pink on the ground that tempted the young boy to just give in and lay flat on them, alas, he had stuff to take care of.
"Funny how I had to go all the way back to where everything started, what a weird day…" he said, his legs were feeling a little shaky, how does Katie do this on a daily basis? Is it because she owns a bike? He thought he should probably save up to buy one for himself.
"So uh… what do I do now?" Lucas wondered, as he was now standing before the barrier that blocked the access to the sacred tree, Zazel said he had the power to undo the barrier himself, but the older yokai didn't quite explain what he had to do "Well, may as well start doing something"
Lucas took a deep breath and extended both of his arms, palms facing directly to the barrier, the dark haired boy closed his eyes and whispered "Please… please let me through, I need… I need to reach the sacred tree…"
But there was no response, the barrier, the charms and everything else didn't move an inch, figures, what were the chances to get it right on the first time anyway? Lucas sighed and tried the 'ritual' once again.
"Please I beg you! I really need to get through! I need to find out what's going on!" he whispered, still no reaction, this was already getting tiring, Lucas was starting to get a little irritated, wondering what part of his approach was wrong.
"You possess the blood of Enma, no "run-of-the-mill" barrier can tell you where you can or cannot go" were the words that echoed on Lucas' mind in that moment, he knew what he had to do.
Once again, the boy inhaled deeply, his usually soft expression turned into a harsh glare.
"YOU ARE LETTING ME PASS!" he shouted from the top of his lungs, suddenly, a wave of energy went through Lucas' arm and it exploded right at the palm of his hand, the shockwave was strong enough to obliterate the barrier and everything that was blocking the torii gate, the force of the recoil made Lucas fall on his back.
"...I don't think I will ever get the hang of these powers" Lucas mumbled in a monotone voice, staring blankly at the skies without being able to process what just happened.
When he finally got up, he hastily made his way to the sacred tree, there was nothing there but the good old gashapon machine and the light rain of cherry petals slowly falling on the ground, Lucas sat down behind the tree and decided to wait there for whatever "truth" was going to reveal itself to him.
"If anything, at least I will be able to rest a little here" the boy thought as he rested his head against the tree's trunk.
This didn't last long, as Lucas heard someone approaching, he felt his body paralyzing out of pure instinct.
"Haaah… haaah… w-who in blazes managed to break the barrier?!" said a concerned and yet exhausted voice "well… at least it looks like whoever it was… didn't cause any damage to the sacred tree…"
The voice sounded a little too familiar to Lucas, but he needed to listen one more time to make sure.
"Hah… please, please just let this day end already, I can't take it anymore! Lucas must… not see me like this…"
"I knew it! It was you, Venoct!" Lucas finally jumped out from his hiding place to confront the one who was presumably Venoct; however, what Lucas actually saw actually shocked him.
The person standing right in front of him did seem to be Venoct, but there was something strikingly different about him, his characteristically dark green hair was now pink, and his ponytail was shaped as a cherry flower, his now green eyes had a gentle gaze as opposed to his usual golden sharp eyes, his dragon scarves were a pale pink color and the rest of his vest was patterned with pink and purple flowers.
There was a long and uncomfortable pause of silence between the two, just like Lucas, 'Venoct' was also pretty shocked to see the dark haired boy, confused as to how did he know he was going to be here or how did he get here at all.
"L-Lucas… what are you… no, no! You shouldn't be here! G-go home!" the serpentine yokai told Lucas off before he turned his back on him and began flying away.
"Venoct! No! Stop!" Lucas was definitely not in the mood to continue this goose chase any longer, so as much as he disliked the idea, he had to use his last resort.
"VENOCT! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Lucas shouted from the top of his lungs, this made Venoct immediately stop dead on his tracks, that's an... order…? Venoct thought, he knew very well Lucas always detested the idea of using the power he held as a prince- unless it was something like an emergency- Lucas never gave orders to anyone, unless he was incredibly upset.
Alas, as the prince's aide, Venoct had no choice but to comply "As you say… your highness…" the scarfed yokai quietly replied, slowly floating back into the ground, he slightly turned his head around to see Lucas, but had to immediately turn back as he realized the boy's face had begun to tear up, it was clear he had to give that order with all the pain of his soul.
"Venoct… surely you know why I'm here, right? Please tell me what's going on… why did you leave? Why are you avoiding me?" with each consecutive question, Lucas slowly approached the pink haired yokai, until he was right behind him.
There was silence again; the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the wind pushing the flowers from the trees, creating a light rain of petals.
Venoct then took a deep breath and sighed in defeat "I-I suppose I have no choice but to explain do I?" he said in a deadpan voice.
"You see Lucas… every year around this part of spring… the cherry blossoms bloom, and release a tremendous amount of spiritual energy, when all trees in the city bloom, the energy released is so strong that some yokai are affected by it" Venoct explained.
We Venoct as a species, are highly susceptible to the magic properties of the environment, and we change into various forms due to this, the form you see right now is called 'Bloominoct' " then Venoct - who's known as Bloominoct- paused before covering his face in shame "And… as you can see, we don't exactly choose what we look like..."
"Is… is that why you look like that?" Lucas inquired
"Yes! And I hate it! I hate it with all my being!" Bloominoct quickly turned around, revealing a clearly upset face, even making Lucas take a step back in surprise.
"Look at me, Lucas! I am supposed to be stronger in this form, yet I look like a ridiculous pansy!" Bloominoct finally lost his composure, his voice getting more intense and broken with every word "E-even when I look like this, I still have to guard over this town and yet… as soon as other yokai see me they start laughing and calling me names! Saying how stupid and weak I look! Just like those brutes that were trying to attack Lie-in!"
"But Ve- I mean, Bloominoct, you don't look like someone who lets mean words get to you..." Mao's expression was now one of concern from his serpent friend.
"Yes! But for some reason in this form I can't… I can't keep my emotions in check, I… have become… too soft..." the pink-ish yokai shook his head, and covered his face once again.
"And… that's why I didn't want you to see me!"
"Huh? W-wait what?!" Lucas was undoubtedly taken off guard by that last sentence.
"Lucas, I… usually disregard what other people think about me, but you're an exception, you are very important to me! And if you were to think I look lame, or if that you were to decide to no longer see me fit as your guardian because I'm an emotional mess… I… I don't know what I'd do" as Bloominoct said this, tears started falling from his face "I thought it would be fine if I poofed out for a couple of days, but I didn't expect you to actually come and look for me…"
The serpentine yokai then clenched his fists and turned his head to the side, avoiding any sort of eye contact "S-so let's get this over with already, laugh at me! The anxiety is driving me crazy! I bet I look pathetic to you too-"
But before he could say anything else, Bloominoct felt Lucas' arms wrapping him in a rather tight hug, his face completely buried on the snake yokai's muffler, surprising him quite a bit.
"Bloominoct, you fool… y-you big fool… has anyone ever told you how much of a fool y-you are?" Lucas' muffled voice could be barely be heard, Bloominoct's face showing clear confusion as to why Lucas was saying thing.
"S-sorry for calling you a fool but… we could have saved a lot of time if you only just talked to me about this… H-here I thought you were mad at me or something…!" the dark haired boy turned up to look at the other yokai face to face.
"But… Lucas…" were all the words that Bloominoct could formulate.
"Bloominoct, I could never say those mean things to you, the truth is… that you look beautiful!" Lucas gave his friend one of his endearing sweet smiles.
"W-What?!" Bloominoct widened his eyes in surprise to such words, already feeling his cheeks turning a burning red.
"You look pretty, just like a flower! And… you feel so soft too, you even smell a bit like the cherry blossoms, how could I possibly hate this?" Lucas said in a gentle tone, unashamedly nuzzling Bloominoct's soft muffler.
"You should have known by now… Cherry blossoms are my favorite flower" the child added.
"Oh… Lucas…" Bloominoct began tearing up again, but this time while feeling huge sense of relief, his tenseness began to mellow down as he finally returned Lucas' hug, and even began to nuzzle him too "I have been a fool indeed… I shouldn't have doubted you, you have to be the kindest person I've know in my life..."
The two boys stood embracing each other for a while, suddenly Lucas started to feel all the weight of Bloominoct on his shoulders, making both lose balance and fall on the grass.
"W-wha- Bloominoct! Are you okay?!" Lucas immediately got up, concerned about why the pink yokai suddenly collapsed like that.
"Ah… d-don't worry about it, I'm just a little fatigued, this form drains a lot of energy actually..." Bloominoct softly replied "This is also a sign that I will probably going back to de-evolve soon…"
"Oh… I just learned about Bloominoct and you're already turning into Venoct?" Lucas said, feeling slightly disappointed.
"Like the cherry blossoms themselves… the lifespan of this form is very short, so that's why almost no one knows about it…" the pink yokai explained.
"Haha, if only you waited for me a few more hours, I would have arrived home before you went searching for me…" Bloominoct weakly chucked, much to Lucas' embarrassment "But… maybe it was better this way, I should really stop holding so many secrets from you..."
"Bloominoct…" the boy mumbled, softly stroking the pink yokai's hair.
"I promise… next year we will have a proper Cherry Blossom viewing picnic, just the two of us eating lots of dango, this Bloominoct shall hide from you no more…" the snake yokai placed a hand on his own chest, Lucas smiled in response.
"Anyhow… you should probably head home nonetheless, I usually take a nap as I let my body slowly turn back to ...normal" it was rather evident Bloominoct was starting to get really sleepy, even letting few yawns slip out.
"What about the barrier, aren't you afraid of being attacked as you sleep?" Lucas tilted his head in curiosity.
"Don't worry, I've set the barrier to auto-regenerate as a countermeasure" the serpent boy nodded, reassuring Lucas that he would be fine.
"Well, in that case..." Lucas removed his glasses, laid down and cuddled up next to Bloominoct "I'm gonna nap here too, if that's okay, trying to follow you all across the town left me quite tired as well…"
"Heh, I don't mind…" Bloominoct smiled, wrapping Lucas with his arms and pulling him closer, allowing the boy to gently nuzzle his face, gosh, he didn't want this soft and warm feeling to ever end.
"Lucas… I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble, it looks like I still have a long way to go before I become a proper guardian, so... thank you for being patient with me" Bloominoct pushed down his scarf to plant a small kiss on the boy's forehead.
Lucas' couldn't help but blush a bit too, this was the first time Venoct has been so open about his feelings, he almost seemed like a completely different person; which could explain why he was so fearful of being rejected… What if this was how Venoct truly feels every day and always hides it under a 'cool and edgy' act?
Whatever was the case, Lucas was determined to remain by his friend's side no matter what, growing and learning together as they come to terms with their respective roles in life.
"Bloominoct?"
"Yes?"
"I'm happy I got to know another side of you today, it doesn't matter which form you take, you're still you, and I will keep loving you all the same!" Lucas said, happily returning the kiss.
"T-that's not fair, you're gonna make me cry again, ha,ha…" the pink serpent tightened his hug on the dark haired prince, and thus, both boys eased up to the gentle whispers of the wind and slowly drifted off to sleep.
A couple of hours later, the sun had completely sunk in the horizon, and the stars had already made themselves, the young serpent yokai, Venoct, slowly awakened from his nap, his body had already returned to his usual appearance.
"Uuh… Is it… is it night time already?" Venoct said, trying to wipe the haziness from his eyes "Wait, where's Lu-"
As he quickly turned around, he noticed Lucas was indeed lying next to him, the boy was still fast asleep and hugging one of Venoct's scarf dragons, the green haired yokai couldn't help but smile at such adorable sight.
"King Gouen… even to this day I still don't know why you thought I was the right person to take care of your son, but… I'm really grateful that you did" the young snake thought.
Venoct them carefully lifted Lucas up on his arms "You must be quite exhausted after having to run all over the place for me, so the least I can do is to give you a lift home, right?"
Lucas only quietly mumbled "That... would be great…" in response, still not letting go of the dragon scarf.
"Heheh… can do!" Venoct smiled gently, taking slow steps before finally lifting off, and heading back to their home, sweet home...