CHAPTER 4

WELCOME HOME, KOINU-CHAN!

Is it really a dream or a reality? I can't differ both since just now…

Amar-chan climbed out of the well, looking around. Yep, the well house is the same like when he left it. He went out of the darkening well house, now looking at the sky. The area is now getting reddish by the second; a sign that it's sunset.

"Arikado? Resha? Sherry? Mokona? Is anybody home?"

Arikado, who was weeping under a mangosteen tree, stopped crying in an instant. His fox ears twitched when he caught the voice of his beloved dog brother.

"INU-NO-NII-CHAN!!!" He yelled, running to Amar Ma'aruf's open arms.

"Hey big guy. Did you miss me?"

"Yeah… you're gone for a day and mom is worried a lot about you, Inu-no-nii-chan…"

"Amar-chan!!!" Both Resha and Sherry yelled, heading to Amar's direction.

Suddenly, Resha the tomboyish fox hanyou caught him in a headlock.

"Hey!"

"Ne, koinu-chan, where have you been yesterday? We have been worried to death since yesterday!"

(A/N: For your information, Resha usually starts her sentences with 'ne' while Sherry starts her sentences with 'na'. TQ)

"I didn't go anywhere…"

"Na, you're a liar. I could sense blood on your T-shirt, koinu-chan, did you have a fight?"

"That's…" Amar-chan now is doomed. Looks like his feudal era secrets are broken, but maybe only to the 17 year-old twins…

"Ne, what's wrong?"

"N-nothing."

Oh, so there's his secret. Resha thought, after reading his mind.

"Ne, as a punishment, you MUST take a bath with us two!"

"W-what?!"

"Na, you heard him, koinu-chan."

"AAAAAAAH! NO!"

Resha lifted Amar Ma'aruf to her back, while Sherry tags along. Amar swished his white lavender tail to Resha's face, but she paid no attention to it. Getting inside the bathroom, the twins immersed Amar-chan into the bathtub filled with lukewarm water and bubbles. She removed the clothes the inugami were wearing, although he protested it.

Amar's face was a neat shade of red in embarrassment.

"Ne, shampoo please Sherry-nee-chan."

"Sure." She nodded, handing over a bottle of mint shampoo to Resha.

While she scrubs Amar's hair, she started talking to him.

"Did you know the well we used to have at our shrine?"

"Y-yeah?" He said with a shrill voice, looking at Sherry whom now wearing a one-piece swimsuit…

"The Soul Eater's well is said to be connected with the Bone Eater's well for some reason. There are sometimes during the Japanese invasion, some of the Nippon army personnel had encountered youkai in this particular area. The youkais, however, came out at night to protect the estate dwellers."

"…"

"Okay, Sherry, you go for it."

Sherry took over Resha's part, and she had a bar of soap in her hands. Later, she gently rubs Amar's ears.

"Na, koinu-chan, it seems like you'll have one kind of an adventure."

"Sure will." He replied, as Sherry washed the soap off his ears.

"With the semester holidays coming around the corner, you'll have a great adventure…"

Amar shivered when Sherry tugged his tail to clean it. He'd remembered the moment he first used Iron Tail against his bullies. He had enough of it he told the teachers that the bullies would be beaten. Well, nobody believed him, except the headmistress. When she arrived at the scene, the 12-year-old bullies, about 5 of them were found sprawling on the grassy field, holding their head while crying as loud as a horn. She also found Amar Ma'aruf facing them, smiling. He'd never been as violent as that before. No charges were applied to the inugami, because the group of 5 had what did they wanted.

After all, even rattan strokes were not effective enough, and thus, an iron-infused tail from an Akita hanyou did the cut.

"Rock on."

"Na, where are you going anyways?"

"To Japan's Feudal era."

"You're so adventurous…" She said while holding him in an embrace.

Unknown by the three of them, Reika heard their conversation from A to Z. She smiled and later she went downstairs to prepare dinner for everybody, including Hideki who just came home after a day's work at the mechanical lab.

After taking a bath with the twins, Amar dried himself with a towel, and then he wore a traditional pair of Malay clothing, a Baju Melayu. (He's wearing the Cekak Musang variation check Wikipedia for details.) After having dinner, he had a prayer before moving on to his History assignment.

At midnight, Reika and Hideki were having a conversation at Hideki's workshop at the house's basement.

"Are you sure that these will help him?"

"Yes, Reika. He'll have an expedition quite far from our senses. With these two, we could monitor him, as well maintaining his health. So we would have to worry too much about him. Also tomorrow's his birthday, so he'll accept these as his birthday gift."

"Oh."

After that, Reika slipped into her adopted son's bedroom, slipping two things into his backpack.

A/N: Yay! Another chapter! Sorry for the fluffiness, but the twins loved to do that on him. So, what do you all think? Read and review! TQ.