Kiyonori took a step behind him, a small noise of fright escaping from his lips, taken aback as the shadowy figure with a high pitched, singsong voice landed in front of him.
The person stood up, dusting themselves off, Kiyonori took into account their appearance as he did so.
He was surprised when the person appeared to be a girl, a rather cute one at that. She had mint green hair that fell in waves down her shoulders, over the back of the plain black hoodie that she wore.
She had the hoodie zipped up, the sleeves where baggy and hung over her arms, just covering her hands. She wore light blue denim shorts below it, he could see her skin was a pale colour, though not pale to the point where she looked sickly.
Her eyes where relatively big, underneath them she wore a cute smile, obviously pleased that she had surprised him.
"W-who are you?"
The girl grinned wider, extending her arm towards you, her sleeve pulling up as she did so to reveal the soft, pale skin of her hand.
"Yoshizaki Ayano, who are you?" she spoke. Kiyonori looked at the arm distrustfully, deciding not to take it and moving on to answer her question,
"Tenshin Kiyonori.. what was it that you where saying before?" The girl, -Ayako it seemed- who had been frowning at his rejection of her gesture of friendship, looked up brightly once again as she answered.
"You asked who made a game like this, I think that they're really cool!"
'What the hell!?" Kiyonori had to stop himself from blurting out his thoughts.
"Why would you think that? Someone died over there you know!" He exclaimed, looking at the still smiling Ayano, how could she still smile in this situation.
"Well, I was really bored, so I was climbing some trees when this guy walked below me. He started fiddling around with the thing in his bag, then 'BOOOOM!'" she used her arms to illustrate her point, expanding them outwards then giggling slightly. "Heehee, he's so stupid."
Kiyonori looked incredulously at the insane girl, "You saw a person get blown to bits in front of you, doesn't that make you feel bad at all?!" Ayano frowned slightly, a slight look of confusion crossing her face.
"But they where going to die anyway, what does it matter if they die in front of me or not?"
'This girl isn't just insane, she's downright dangerous! I need to find some excuse to get away from her.' Kiyonori thought, worried for his life.
"Hey Kiyonori-san, you took that guy's bag, does that mean you know what the things inside are?" Ayano was tossing a spherical shaped metal object between her hands, small rubber touch sensors lining the outside like blunt spikes. 'Cracker bim' Kiyonori realised, jumping forward to snatch the object out of the air,
"WHOA! Be careful with those, you know that if they're activated, they'll explode on if they touch anything!" Kiyonori scolded her placing the bim back in her palm, a look of anger flashing across his face. As she heard his words, it almost looked to Kiyonori as if he had turned off some 'psycho switch' in her brain, she looked down at her feet, drooping her shoulders.
"I-I'm sorry Kiyonori-san, I didn't know.." Ayano looked up at him, the look on her face showing him that she was being sincere. "Please don't get angry at me" Kiyonori sighed,
'geez, just how fast can this girl change thought patterns?'
"It's fine, just don't do it anymore, okay?" Ayano smiled at this, her face visibly brightening.
"Hai!"(1) she put the bim away in the satchel she carried, identical to his own. 'Wait, why am I being so nice to her? I need to get away from this girl before she mangoes to kill me.' Kiyonori remembered, turning away from Ayano as she zipped up her bim satchel.
"Well, I guess I'll see you around.. or not.." Kiyonori waved goodbye over his back as he began walking off, deeper into the jungle.
He had only taken a few steps when he felt a tugging on his sleeve. He turned to see Ayano giving him her cutest puppy-dog eyes, looking as if she was on the verge of crying.
"You can't leave me here! It's so booooring on my own, and it's lonely and scary! Will you stay with me pleeeeease?" she pleaded, wishing for her words to have some effect. It didn't. 'I'm too smart to fall for that, she's really a madman under that disguise.' Kiyonori thought as he chose his next words carefully.
"Look, I'm sorry but I think it'd be best if we each go our own ways, alright?" Kiyonori sighed, once again turning away.
"Fine then.." he heard Ayano pout. He began walking, the hand on his arm falling back to it's owner's side.
—TIME PASS—
Kiyonori had made his way over to the other edge of the jungle, looking out onto the, windy plains that covered the land on the other side. He looked up, the sky was darkening, the bottom edge of the sun just dipping below the horizon.
'Oh crap, I should start finding out where I can sleep.' he thought, turning back to the forest,
"Maybe I could find some sticks to build a shelter in he-" his voice stopped as he saw the side of a face poking out from behind a tree, a wave of mint green hair falling down towards the ground.
"What the hell are you doing here Ayano?" He asked, watching as the girl stepped out nervously from behind the tree, revealing herself.
"I know you told me to leave, b-but it's scary being alone.. so I followed you.." Ayano pouted, taking a few steps closer to Kiyonori.
"I told you, we need to go our separate paths, now go." He waved his hand, ruthlessly cutting her down.
"Please just let me stay with you for tonight? It's getting dark and I don't even know what to do." Ayano used those big puppy eyes again, looking up at Kiyonori until he finally caved.
"Ugh, fine fine just, only for tonight, you leave tomorrow morning, okay?"
"Yay~ Thank you Kiyonori-san!" Ayano ran up to him, jumping and tackling him, wrapping her arms around him. Kiyonori let out a little cry as he fell.
"Agh! You're welcome, now get off of me!" Kiyonori struggled under Ayano's weight.
"Heehee sorry~" Ayano stood up, extending a hand towards him, which he took, using it to stand up.
"Anyway, help me get some tree branches."
"Hai!"
They worked for a while, cutting down branches and putting them in a stable, square structure, using vines to lash them together at the joints.
"Whoooaaaaaaaa~ Thank you Kiyonori-san! It looks awesome!" Ayano happily stood admiring the small shelter with a smile on her face. They had used smaller branches to form a net-like pattern on top of the frame, putting leaves over it to make a roof, the shelter leant against a tree for support.
"It'll do for tonight," Kiyonori shrugged, "Let's just hope that it doesn't rain." He dropped to his hands and knees, crawling to fit through the opening into the low-hung, relatively small shelter.
He looked out of it and saw that Ayano was standing outside, looking around as if she was unsure of what to do. Kiyonori sighed,
"You can come in you know, I didn't just make this for you to look at." he invited her.
"Oh right, thanks~" Ayano happily crawled through the opening in the side and sat next to Kiyonori. 'It's a bit cramped, but it'll be fine' he thought, listening to his stomach rumble.
"Ugh.. what are we gonna do about food?" he grumbled. He heard a voice from his right,
"Well, I normally save these for special occasions, but I guess now will be fine." Ayano said as she pulled out a plastic bag full of cupcakes from the pocket of her hoodie.
"You carry cupcakes around with you all the time?" Kiyonori questioned, looking at her.
"Well, I might get hungry, you never know. It helps out now though, doesn't it?" Ayano smiled and handed him a cupcake as she nibbled on her own. "Mmmm I love sweet things~" she murmured as she bit into the icing topped cake. Kiyonori took the offered cake, nodding his thanks and eating it slowly.
They slowly finished the cupcakes, throwing the empty plastic bag to the side and laying down contentedly.
"I'm going to get some sleep, so don't do anything funny, okay?" he asked the mint haired girl.
"I won't I won't~" Ayano replied, "I'm going to go to sleep as well then." Kiyonori settled down, finding the most comfortable position and tried to ignore the sticks and rocks poking into his side.
—TIME PASS—
He woke up to a rustling sound, opening his eyes to see Ayano sitting on her heels, looking at him with a finger raised to her lips. Kiyonori got up as quietly as possible, mimicking Ayano's way of sitting on her heels as he brought his mouth to her ear.
"What's going on?" he softly asked, peering into the darkness outside their little shelter.
"I'm not sure, I definitely heard something moving out there." she spoke as soft as the wind, Kiyonori had to strain to hear. A cold wind blew through the small shelter, blowing away the warmth with a single breath.
It had been three minutes, and Kiyonori was getting tired.
"Alright Ayano, I think you may have imagi-" he was cut off sharply by a cry of "Look out!" from Ayano as she tackled him, knocking him out of the shelter with her.
Just in time too, he could see, as seconds later a low, dark shape crashed into the side of the shelter, sending splintered wood everywhere.
"What the fuck was that?" Kiyonori swore. As the creature moved away from the mess of broken branches and fallen leaves, Kiyonori and Ayano saw the light reflect of it's shiny scales, a head with a long barbed tongue protruding from a muscled body with four scaly legs and a tail.
It was the biggest lizard he'd ever seen, adding to his fear was the dark shapes that crawled out from the darkness, joining it in it's hunt of prey.
"Kiyonori-san, we gotta run, come on!" Ayano grabbed his hand, dragging him through the forest until he broke out into a run himself. Kiyonori casted a glance behind him, surprised at how fast the big things moved, a pack of five - six lizards following them.
"Run over there Kiyonori-san!" his attention was focused forward again, his eyes following the direction of her arm. There was a steep cliff, about eight metres high, topped with grass with moss running down the side.
"How are we possibly going to climb that?!" Kiyonori asked.
"Heehee, we don't have to." Ayano smiled as she reached the cliff face, pivoting 180 degrees and running forward, jumping onto the nearest tree in front of her, nimbly climbing up. She looked back down at Kiyonori,
"C'mon Kiyonori-san, up here!" she called out. The lizards had almost made it to the tree where Ayano climbed, moving in fast. Kiyonori took a deep breath, gulping the air and breaking out into a sprint, crying "Ahh!" as he jumped over the heads of the lizards, his feet just barely missed by their jaws.
He made it to the other side, quickly beginning to climb up the tree. He felt a hand grab his, and with the help of Ayano he made it up before anything down there could get him.
"Huff.. huff.. thanks, Ayano.." he puffed, sitting exhausted on a branch next to the smiling Ayano.
"You're welcome~"
The lizards had gathered around the base of the tree, hissing up at their escaped prey. 'Thank goodness that they can't climb' Kiyonori heaved a sigh of relief as they began retreating off into the shadows.
"You.. saved my life Ayano." he looked at the girl that sat next to him.
"Don't worry Kiyonori-san, I won't let anything happen to you!" she declared, smiling. There was a pause. "Anyway, we should catch up on lost sleep~"
"Yeah." Kiyonori settled down in his branch, closing his exhausted eyes, not minding the branches in his back this time.
'I mean, she is pretty insane and all, but I think she may be a good person.'
Hi guys! Sorry if I got Ayano's personality mixed up, it's the first time I've tried writing about someone with that kind of personality. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review if you want to have a say in how the story turns out.
Seeya, thanks for reading.