I walk over slowly and examine the sleeping boy. He's dressed in the same thing he was wearing today! I observe. He even wears his hat. I examine him, sleeping soundly. I should not be surprised, he did seem pretty tired today, but I'm not kidding, the beds in this place are horrible.
I jump as Hanbei stirs, humming softly. I stand, rooted to the spot, and wait until I hear his consistent breathing before I creep to the door. I return to my bed and reluctantly lay back down, now feeling more awake than before. Finally, after what feels like hours, I drift into a fitful sleep, having constant, senseless bad dreams, most consisting of lots of irregular shadow movements (as in the shadows aren't doing the same thing their owners are) and Duskull.
Then, I have a somewhat different dream. I see that I am in Violight's castle, in a dark room. I hear a steady downpour of rain pounding the roof angrily. I jump as thunder lights up the room, showing me that Kanbei is in the room with me. If this wasn't a dream, I would be scared, but instead I ask him why we we're here.
"It's his funeral," Kanbei explains. I notice all the dark shadows in the back of the room seem to be moving, and when lightning illuminates the room once more, I see that the shadows are Duskull, and they all jump at me, screeching distorted cries.
I shoot up as I awaken from the nightmare. As I recall it, I feel a sense of de-ja-vu. As de-ja-vu always is, though, I have no memory of any part of the dream elsewhere. I get out of bed, dress, and saunter down the hall to the kitchen. I see Kanbei and Go in the room. Go sips some coffee from a black mug, and she frowns. There's probably no creamer. I get some orange juice and toast and eat, waiting for everyone else to wake up.
First, Magoichi stumbles out of his room, yawning and muttering in his morning mood. Then, Terumoto emerges happily, followed by his Petilil. He's a morning person. Finally… I would like to say that Hanbei comes out, but after a bit of waiting it is clear he isn't coming. I walk over to his room and, of course, he is laying there just as he was before. I walk over to his bed. I am about to start shaking him awake, but he opens his eyes and looks at me. I move my hands back to my sides and look at him.
"Hanbei, you need to get up or we won't make it to Viperia by the end of today, and it will take us three days to get to Spectra!" I exclaim, not loud enough to sound as demanding as I was.
He groans and says, "Hideyoshi just wants to ensure we get there five hours early. Viperia isn't-"
"We should have extra time in case something happens!" I yell, but it comes out like a whine.
Hanbei rolls over and sighs, "Fine."
I walk out of the room and wait for him in the kitchen. After a minute, he finally strolls into the room, yawning. We leave quickly, Hanbei and Magoichi complaining the whole while.
"I didn't get enough sleep the night before either!" Hanbei would whine.
"Viperia is full of poison and Spectra is full of ghosts!" Magoichi would protest.
Somehow, though, we make it to the border between Viperia and Yaksha. I tell everyone to take a rest, and we all loiter under the shade of trees for a few minutes. Hanbei lays down under a big oak tree and closes his eyes.
"Don't tell me you're sleeping again!" I say.
"A quick siesta isn't going to hurt anyone," he mumbles. I sigh.
"Just… Just get up when I tell you too, okay?" I start walking away, but turn around to look at him again. He smirked faintly, his eyes closed. He seemed so satisfied, calm, content. Would he forget the battle plans with all this carelessness?
After we all get rested, we begin the rest of the trail to Viperia. The cloudy forests are very ominous, but it isn't until I see the castle that I am really gaping. The castle has a poison moat! And when we enter, we see purple mist giving everything a grave hue. I take a deep breath; I can't show weakness in front of my comrades.
Dark-green vines grow along the castle walls, and though most of it is made of wood, two huge, still cogs loomed as well. I dawdle into the castle. On the inside, we found a ninja playing around with a bottle of wine.
"Is this Oichi and Hanbei?" he asked.
"I am Oichi, and this is Hanbei," I reply.
"Ah, you're as pretty as Hideyoshi said you were!" the ninja states.
I blush lightly and squeak, "Thank you." I've never handled compliments very well.
The ninja shows each of us to our rooms. Mine has a perfect overlook of the spooky forests, but the room isn't bad otherwise. There isn't any poison in it. As I sit on my bed, I hear a frantic knocking on the door. I walk over calmly and open it, and immediately Hanbei darts past me. I look down the hall, surprised, and see Kanbei turn the corner. He doesn't look happy.
I close the door and turn around. Hanbei hides behind my bed, looking at me with innocent eyes. I momentarily feel a jump in my heartbeat, but shake it away.
"What did you do?" I hiss.
He ducks further behind my bed. "I-I stole something from him. I was just gonna look at it, but he got really mad and I just ran," he explains.
"Why did you come to my room?" I ask.
"I didn't know whose room this was!" he argues.
A slow, rough knocking on the door shuts us both up. I look at him. He smirks at me and holds up a bottle of something white. I lean in and notice that it's make-up*, and I can't help but giggle.
"Hanbei, are you in there?" Kanbei sounds very angry.
"Quick!" I whisper, "Hide under the bed."
I walk over to the door and open it slowly. "What?" I ask. I am met with a very enraged and even somewhat sweaty Kanbei.
"Is Hanbei in there?" he snaps.
"No."
Kanbei peers around my room suspiciously, then walks away. I close the door slowly, then turn around. Hanbei crawls out from under my bed. He smirks again, his purple eyes shining.
"We fooled him, huh?" he says.
Under an impulse, I hold up my hand to give him a high-five at the same time he does. When our hands make contact, he grabs my hand just before it slides out of my reach, causing me to gasp. He lets go of my hand, still smiling thoroughly.
I feel my face flush and ask, "Wha-what was that?"
"Something we like to do in Ignis," he said, winking.
"Are you from Ignis?" I ask, surprised.
"Hah! You didn't know? Me and Kanbei are the junior warlords of Ignis!" he declares, "Us and Hideyoshi are the original team!" Suddenly, his smile fades. "Oichi… don't you remember me?"
Surprised by his sudden mood change, I frantically try to remember something, but nothing comes to my mind. I suppose if he was the junior warlord of a neighboring kingdom to mine, he would expect me to remember. But he looked hurt. I pursed my lips.
"I'm sorry, but I don't," I finally admit.
He frowns and looks away from me. "You must have terrible memory or something."
"I have to go," he says and walks away, leaving me by myself to feel like a jerk. What is he talking about? I wonder. I sigh, and hear a higher-pitched echo. I turn to see Jigglypuff sitting on my bed.
"Oh, Jigglypuff, what did I do?" I ask her, not expecting an answer. But she stands up and starts strolling down my bed slowly, singing something. Then, she starts laughing her silly laugh, and rolling on the bed a bit. I just stare at her, confused.
"Puff!" she scoffs when she notices I don't understand. She points at the door, then points at me, then repeats her act.
"Do you remember something I don't?" I ask, trying hard to grasp what she was trying to tell me, but I just didn't remember anything.
We both lay down hopelessly, Jigglypuff understanding me. I get up and walk around the castle a bit, just like I did in Yaksha, peering into Hanbei's room to see him sleeping.
I don't recall dreaming when I wake up the next morning. I trudge into the kitchen, feeling like I was still in Yaksha, with the repetitious and gloomy feel of the castle. But when I enter the kitchen, I'm surprised to see Kanbei and Hanbei talking. They stop when I enter, both glaring at me. I remember the events from yesterday, and awkwardly wave to them.
It isn't long before everyone is up and we head through more weird forests. The group is strangely quiet today, as though everyone is trying to keep a secret from me. Maybe they are. We reach the border, and I notice no change in the biome or climate of the forest the path we took rode through. As we travel, though, I notice a very gradual change in the noises I hear. Instead of hisses and squawks, I hear less noise, except for the occasional rustle of a bush or hoot of an owl. It gives a very spooky mood to the area.
It feels like forever before we finally reach Spectra's castle. It is an ordinary shape for a castle of Ransei, but it has lots of creepy statues of Misdreavus and… I literally fall onto my rear when I see the floating blue wisps. There are six or seven, all floating around wherever they pleased.
"Geez, if this scares you, you should take a look at the person next to you," comment Hanbei sarcastically, "He's really the most terrifying thing on the planet."
I blush and try to calm myself down. The embarrassment helps me be braver. The inside of the castle resembles a haunted mansion, and nobody is there to greet us as usual. In fact, I haven't seen a single human since I crossed the border. We all choose rooms for ourselves. After I settle down, I decide to see if anyone lives in the small village I saw near the castle.
The village is a minute walk from the castle, and of course, it's a ghost town there. As I'm walking amongst the quiet place, I feel someone grab my shoulder suddenly, digging their fingernails into my skin. I scream and turn to see, of course, Hanbei. He explodes into laughter, and I blush again.
After a long time, he finally gets over it and catches his breath. He looks around the village and says, "I should live here. Everyone goes to sleep so early. I mean, the sun has just touched the horizon!"
"Are you sure it isn't just that nobody lives here?" I asked, still shaken.
"Eh, the crops look attended to," he said. "Oh, but ghosts need to eat to, huh?"
I laugh lightly at his joke, then ask, "Why are you here."
"I dunno. Why are you here?" he replies.
"I wanted to see if anyone lives here."
"Well, let's find out!" he says, and walks to the nearest door.
Before I can stop him, Hanbei knocks on it. A man slowly opens the door, then mutters something to him. The man then slams the door.
Hanbei walks back over to me and says, "Well, people live here. You can go now, since that's why you came, right?"
I leave, even though I want to know why he wanted me to so badly. I walk back to my room, kill some time, and then lay down to sleep. Just as I'm drifting off, I hear a growl. I stay still for about twenty seconds before looking around my room. I flicker the lights on. Nothing.
I had hoped this would be the first night I didn't wander the castle before sleeping, but my wish isn't coming true. I walk down the halls, guessing the growl must have been my imagination. I can hear snoring from all the rooms I remember people calling. I don't hear anything from Hanbei's room. The rooms here are closer together; I suppose it's because Magoichi snores so loudly I couldn't hear Hanbei's quiet breathing.
I peer into the room, then sneak over to his bed for the third time. Why do I do this? The question stopped me halfway across the room. Why do I always come to look at him sleeping? I think about it for a while. The answer hits me like a car hitting a deer.
"T-there's nothing wrong," I tell myself, "with thinking he's cute, right?"
I shouldn't refuse to tell myself something, but sometimes telling yourself you have a crush on someone (maybe someone like Hanbei) can be really difficult. So I stick with the thought that he's cute and nothing more. I start to make the rest of the way too his bed.
"What?" I jump as Hanbei speaks.
"Oh u-uh…" I discover it's really hard to talk to someone you just realized you like.
I suddenly wonder why Hanbei would still be awake. Usually, he's fast asleep by now. As I look at him sitting up in bed, I see his hat laid lazily on his lamp. The fact that he looks even better without his hat off isn't helping me talk to him. I flush red and look away.
"Why are you in my room?" he asks again.
"Uh… I'm… I'm sorry," I have literally no excuse, and under the pressure of his deep purple eyes, I couldn't think, either. So, I walked quickly out of his room and back to my room.
*I am a firm believer that Kanbei wears make-up. I will accept weird eye colors, but nobody has a white face, nobody has white and black hair, split in the middle. That's just weird. (Also, when I wrote this chapter, I was unaware that a part of the game highlights his white face, and I don't want to change the only truly funny thing in the story.)
