First Day
Matsumino carried Gin's unconscious body down from the mountain to the village where he had been told that they were to live. 'Surely it will be easy to blend in with the humans…right?' he thought to himself as he began to feel his friend stir ever so slightly as they reached the entrance to the sacred mountain. "Gin?!" Matsumino said in shock as he did not think that his old friend would be coming around so soon. So in a scramble, he put Gin down so that he was leaned up against a tree as he knelt down facing his friend seeing if he was actually coming around. It was several minutes before Gin opened his silver eyes and looked toward a person he did not recognize.
"What happened? Who are you?" Gin asked slowly bringing his hand up to rest against his forehead since the last thing he remembered was him standing facing Hotaru as his body was disintegrating due to how he had touched a human boy at the festival. Then there was one small fragment of a memory of him holding out his arms to the girl he loved and had watched grow up from a young girl, saying how he could finally hold her as she rushed toward him as they had uttered words of love before Gin had vanished.
"It's me. Matsumino." Matsumino said as he was sure Gin was still out of it, that or maybe the Mountain God had done too good of a job to conceal who he really was even from his friend.
"But you are obviously a human." Gin said since the Matsumino he remembered had been one of the many spirits that inhabited the mountain.
"Well you see, the Mountain God gave me this body so that I could accompany you for the next year." Matsumino said as he was sure that was allowed to at least explain that much, just not the time frame being imposed. "He brought you back and gave you a new body that is not bound by the same rule as before so it will be safe for you in the village of humans." Matsumino said with a wide smile on his face. "Though I think for tonight we will need to camp out here and then go to the village in the morning." Matsumino said as Gin merely nodded.
"How long have I been gone?" he asked since he did not seem to have aged more than a few years even in his new body. Though if it had been too long then Hotaru may have forgotten him or worse…moved on. But was it right for him to wish that she had not done so? Since for all he knew she could have grown up, gotten married and had a family away from the village she once visited as a child.
Matsumino knew the reason Gin was asking so he thought for a brief second using the number of sad festivals there had been since that horrible night. "All I know is that it has been a while, but not super long." Matsumino said as in truth he knew that Hotaru was out of school and she had moved to the village and went so far as to visit yearly placing flowers at the entrance of the mountain in memory of Gin, something she had done not long before but in the dark the white lilies were not visible due to how the moon was blocked out by the clouds. "All I know is that Hotaru is no longer in school but lives in the village she used to visit as a child." He said as Gin looked toward Matsumino with a weak expression.
"Hotaru…" Gin said in a sad voice as Matsumino could tell Gin was reflecting on the one he had watched grow from a young child to a young woman. "How can I face her after how I hurt her…" he whispered closing his eyes as he felt beyond pained at the thought of how he had only seen the mask before she ran to him and embraced him smiling proclaiming that she loved him.
"From what I have heard she never did fully move past you, and misses you even now." Matsumino said as Gin opened his eyes to look at the strange human appearance of his friend as the clouds above shifted to allow him to see that his friend as a human had black hair and dark grey eyes that seemed to near blend with his hair at the moment. "And that is why you were brought back, to give you a chance to see her again." Matsumino said as he hoped he had not stepped out of line by telling Gin that much.
"I want to see her, at least to apologize for what happened. I should have been more careful I knew humans sometimes snuck into the festival so to grab a kid even if they were tripping was a foolish thing for me to do." Gin said only for his eyes to fall on the white lilies that were not too far away as the moonlight seemed to dance off of the petals. "What is that?" he asked as he looked toward them.
Matsumino turned to look back at the flowers as his face softened even more than before. "Those are from Hotaru. She placed them recently but besides that she never sets foot on the mountain anymore."
"I am not surprised by that…" Gin said in a sad tone as he stared at the white lilies. Something that reminded him of Hotaru in more ways than one because of how she was always one that was pure and one who never seemed sad in all the time he had known her. How she had embraced that he could not be touched or he would disappear, though with that it brought a saddening thought to the forefront of his mind. "I do not think I could bare to see Hotaru now, not when this body is frail." He said since it felt the same as before which meant if he touched her he would merely vanish.
"Why not? You are not bound by the same spell as before. The Mountain God promised me that your body will not disappear should you embrace Hotaru." Matsumino spoke hurrying to assure his friend all due to how he had seemed very upset for a moment there.
"You are serious?!" Gin asked in shock as he looked to Matsumino with wide eyes to see his friend smile and nod. 'I will med your broken heart, Hotaru. And show you that I have missed you and regret hurting you the way I did when I made a foolish mistake.' He thought to himself as he went to force himself up. "We should go ahead and get going." Gin said only to fall back to the ground. "Guess I am not recovered enough to walk yet…" Gin said with a hint of frustration in his voice at that because of how he wanted to get to the village, find Hotaru and reveal he was back. However, part of his believed even if he had done so, that she would not believe him because of how she had seen him vanish.
"We will go in the morning. Get some rest." Matsumino said as Gin nodded but he had a hint of being reluctant as he laid back on the ground staring up at the moon and stars trying to shine from behind the clouds. "Hotaru…" Gin whispered as he slowly drifted off into sleep's chilling embrace.
/
Hotaru lay on her bed in a fitful sleep only for her blue eyes to shoot open as she stared at the dark ceiling, all due to how she had been dreaming about him again. However, this time she had been dreaming that he was back and that he came to her and was able to embrace her. 'Gin…' she thought to herself as she slowly sat up drawing her knees up closer to her chest as tears fell anew down her pale cheeks. 'Why does it hurt more than ever…' she thought to herself as she found herself wishing for some way to be reunited with Gin, even if it was in death.
/
Gin woke feeling a little groggy due to how the sunlight was burning at his eyelids prompting him to open his eyes. "Matsumino?" Gin asked as he turned his head to look to the left to see his friend sleeping at an odd angle, suggesting that he may have tried to sleep in the branches of the nearby tree only to have fallen out of it. Something that brought a chuckle to Gin's lips as he could not help but smile at that. He then looked to the bright sky as he shifted his arms as they felt much less stiff this morning as he slowly pushed himself up, barely having to strain to do so. Once he was sure his legs could manage it, he slowly got to his feet as he looked down to see he was dressed the same as he had been in his old body, sandals with pants, red undershirt and a white over shirt that hung open. 'Will she recognize me?' he thought to himself only to hear shifting as he looked back over his shoulder to Matsumino who was untangling himself from his own body. "Sleep well?" Gin asked with a smirk at Matsumino gave Gin a slightly annoyed look.
"As a matter of fact, I slept great once the ground helped me fall asleep right away." Matsumino said reaching up rubbing the top of his head. "I will say this though; this body is fairly durable." He said as he slowly stood up stretching. "So are you ready to get going?" Matsumino asked as he stood. "Oh and we should be good to get an apartment in the village because of how some of the other spirits have been finding coins that were left at the entrance along with as a possible trail for humans trying to venture into the forest to find their way back." Matsumino said reaching into his pocket pulling out a full pouch. "However for some things we will need to find jobs doing something to insure we do not draw attention." He said as Gin merely nodded showing that he was anxious to get going. "More so since this time your body will actually need substance to survive unlike before where you could go with or without eating." Matsumino said tucking the pouch back into his pocket as the pair started walking down the trail heading toward the human village.
As they walked in relative silence besides occasional conversation, Gin was focused on waiting for how the village would soon be visible, so when his friend had asked if he needed to stop and rest, Gin did not hear him as he had caught sight of the small cluster of roofs down below. Somewhere in one of those buildings was Hotaru.
"Gin!" Matsumino all but snapped because he had noticed that Gin had not heard a word he had said. So out of frustration he reached up catching Gin upside the head with his open right palm, sending Gin forward to the ground as a small bit of dirt was displaced up into the air for a brief second before it fell back to settle on the ground. "I was trying to tell you that you should not just outright tell Hotaru who you are since it has been a couple of years so she may not even consider the possibility and distance herself from you." Matsumino said as Gin leaned up and shook his head slightly.
"I already figured that much out myself." He said as he slowly got back to his feet and playfully hit his friend on the arm. "Payback." He said simply before he started walking again, not noticing the sad look his friend was giving him.
'One year...well less than a year if the Mountain God meant that it started from last night since he revived Gin about midnight. And I cannot tell him all that is really at stake or it will be a violation of what the Mountain God said.' Matsumino thought with a sad expression on his face even as he saw Gin stop up ahead and turn back toward him.
"Hey! You coming, Matsumino?" Gin called as it seemed to shock Matsumino out of his daze for the time being as he had rushed to catch up and then fall into stride beside Gin. "Though I was just thinking, should you go by an alias?" Gin asked looking sideways towards his friend as they continued down the path.
"An alias? But what is wrong with my name?" Matsumino asked giving Gin a disapproving look for how he had dared to suggest he go by anything other than his name. More so when to Matsumino there was no reason for something such as that as his dark eyes narrowed.
"I mean because Matsumino may not be a human name that blends in from the types of names that Hotaru once told me were common. Think of it as a code name or nickname." Gin said brushing off how his friend seemed upset.
Matsumino thought about it for a moment before he sighed and shook his head. "Alright, just nothing degrading." He relented.
"I was actually thinking that Matsu would work, just a shortened version of your real name." Gin offered as Matsumino gave him a confused look. "Because you were not wanting something that might be insulting toward yourself, so why not just shorten your name while we are around humans but when it is just the two of us talking I will still call you by your real name." Gin said as Matsumino nodded at him figuring that would work so long as his friend remained true to his word.
By that evening, the two had gotten to the village, gone to the market and got a few things after they had leased a small apartment that was a single open room with a bathroom off to the side along with a small kitchen. Though Gin did not want to stay in the room but go out looking for Hotaru since he had yet to see her yet, but Matsumino insisted that after all they had done that Gin needed to rest for the time being to just insure he did not lose any strength the next morning due to how he was in a new body. So after a heated debate once they had settled, Gin relented and settled down to rest for the evening figuring that he would see Hotaru the following morning since it was not that big of a village so surely he would be able to find her. A thought that stayed with him even as he drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.
However, during this time Matsumino remained to the side watching his friend as he could not help but wonder a few things. Was a year going to be long enough? Would Hotaru be able to bring herself to love Gin again the way she once had? A pure love that had never been one sided since the first day when Gin had first led her from the forest. Something that Matsumino along with all of the other spirits had watched from a distance while Gin slowly got closer with the young girl who seemed to bring light to Gin's dark world. A world he was never meant to be part of since he was born a human. At least until he had been abandoned in the forest and to save his life he was all but made into a spirit with that one flaw or had it been a curse?
At that thought, Matsumino thought back on the earlier days of Gin's previous life once he had grown to a small child and had been playing with Matsumino near a stream that ran through the forest on the mountain. Where Gin had first expressed sadness at his fate, because he longed to go find out why his parents had abandoned him but he knew if he did he would disappear because of how the outside world was filled with humans. So Matsumino had insisted that he would be Gin's family, like his older brother. However, that had only seemed to cast more darkness on Gin's world due to how he was not like the other spirits and at times had longed for contact with another human even though he knew it would mean his life would be forfeit.
'I knew from the first time I saw Gin with Hotaru that she was the one meant to bring light to his dark world, but I never thought that it would lead down this path.' Matsumino thought as his dark eyes fell on his friend who was resting at the moment. 'But I cannot help but feel that one year will not be long enough…' he thought sadly as he did not want to lose his friend again as a thought suddenly dawned on him. 'Wait! If Gin does manage to succeed…he will become a human and not be able to be around me anymore or anyone else that he knows from the forest…' Matsumino thought as he angled his face down casting his eyes into shadow. 'But it would be what Gin wants, he has always wished to be with those who are like him, and Hotaru makes him happy so with her is where he would truly belong.' Matsumino thought to himself as he found himself feeling selfish for how he wondered if he left Gin and went back to the Mountain God and asked if he could stabilize Gin's body but make it so he once again could not be around humans to keep his friend with him.
A/N: I do not remember if I put this before, but I do not own Hotarubi no Mori e or the characters recognized from the movie or the manga. This is just meant as what I thought as a possible continuation from the movie that was amazing but unbelievably sad at the same time. Now I want to take time to dedicate this chapter to the first to review this story, miyonochan and also to nekosakixramnoff. Also to those who are following and favorited the story. I am very thankful to all of you for giving this story a chance and I hope that all of you enjoy this chapter.