Paranormal
By Treasure
08042011
Chapter VII
Disclaimer: I don't own NnM
'Brzzzz, brzzzzz' Tsurara's phone kept on vibrating.
'Come on, pick-up the phone, pick-up, pick-up!' Said Rikuo, almost pounced his phone, if only Yura was not sitting beside him.
'Hello' Tsurara finally answered her voice was hoarse coming out of a nap. She tried to answer the phone as quiet as possible so Kiyo wouldn't hear any of her conversation especially when noted that the call was from her master.
'What do you think you're doing Yuki-onna?' Rikuo's voice was soft but was firm, a strain of anger can be hinted at once those words were out.
'Huh? Master, what did I do? Is anything the matter? Are there bad yokai around?' Tsurara began to panic, why was she taking a nap when she's supposed to guard the Third Heir, and now master Rikuo sounds mad at her, the very first since she took the job. And even before when she made small snitches, he would not reprimand her.
'What's wrong? Didn't you notice you're leaning too much at Kiyo's shoulder and he in turn was tucking your hair away from your face! Isn't that too much PDA to think that were doing school activity!' (Don't know why he's getting flamed over a small gesture =( .
'PD . . . . what, master?'
'Public display of affection! Doing sweet nothings as if you were the only persons around. Are you two now dating?' Rikuo could not believe what he was saying, but it all came out and he could not retract what he just said.
'No master, I just . . . .' Tsurara could not find words to explain. Then Rikuo just cut what she was saying. 'You should know better Yuki-onna!' Then Rikuo shut his phone and shove it in his pocket. This made Yura wonder why her seatmate suddenly became mad and was he talking to. Who is Yuki-onna? Which girl would like to be called ice lady, is she someone with a cold heart? Maybe Rikuo was turned down by a cold hearted girl?
'Who is Yuki-onna?' Yura could not help asking, as her inquisitive nature surfaced.
'Huh?'
'Who is Yuki-onna, and why did you suddenly became upset?' Yura repeated.
'No one you know of . . . . I apologize for speaking too loud and harsh, I think I disturb you.'
Sensing that Rikuo would not answer anymore of her questions, Yura decided to look the other way and closed her eyes, she'll try to get some rest as their journey would not be over for another hour.
Tsurara on the other hand was trying not to cry. She didn't notice how she ended leaning on Kiyo's shoulder when sleep overcomes her, she also has no knowledge of Kiyo tucking her hair away and now her master was thinking that she's exchanging sweet nothings with the head of the Cross Squad. She needed to explain that she only fell asleep and she's not flirting. She quickly opened her phone and push speed dial two. Alas, Rikuo is not answering his phone.
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Flowers, Chrysanthemums of different varieties greeted them in Hakone. The first stop on their field trip to Nakagawa Prefecture was on a flower farm. Here they saw how nature offers their beauty to mankind, sowing fragrant smell to appease one's body and mind. Farmers here can make forty to fifty flowers bloom from a single plant, and they even developed a technique where a single plant can produce a yellow coloured flower in one stem and a pink one in another stem. It was a truly amazing. (Saw it with my own eyes!)
Tsurara tried to approach her master but Kana was quicker than her. As soon as the bus stopped, Kana took four eyes' arm and led him out of the bus and into the green house. Shima went to her side and invited her to go to the green house as well as the other students are doing. An idea came up to him, he wanted to give her a flower just to say what he feels, things he can't say with words.
'Do you like flowers?' Shima could feel she liked them as she touches the petals while passing the flowers inside the green house.
'No, I don't like them.' She said, her mind out of herself as she saw Kana hugging Rikuo's arm as they continue exploring the plants. 'Can we just go out? It's kind of stuffy in here.' She knew master would be safe as she saw Aotabo walking not too far behind him.
Sitting on a bench outside the green house, Tsurara just bends her head and trying to clear her head. 'Hey, could you stay here for a while I'll just get us something to drink.' Shima run to the nearest kiosk he saw and bought them bottled orange juice. He somewhat knew that it's not only the heat that made Tsurara felt dizzy so he told her a story that would made her laugh.
Kana was pulling Rikuo's arm as they went out of the green house, they saw Shima and Tsurara enjoying bottled juice and she wanted to join them but Rikuo decided not when he saw and heard Tsurara laugh at Shima's joke. 'Maybe later, I'd like to buy some seeds for mom, she would love them.
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The next fieldtrip stop was the woodworks shops. There was a thirty minute lecture on the types of woods that they use in making their products like trays, bags, wallets, jewellery boxes, trinket boxes and more. Each type of wood used has its own natural colour. At first they seemed to get their colour from a natural dye, but as the host explained, each specific wood produces natural colour of their trunk, thus shavings from the woods pasted together form a kaleidoscope of patterns and colour a feast for the eyes.
Tsurara maintained her distance from her master. She told Ao that they'll switch places inside buildings as he's taller and could see anything ahead of them. Fine by him, he agreed.
After the trip to the wood shops, the students were led to the dormitory where they would stay for the night so they could leave their things and freshen up a bit. Then they were led to the bamboo forest park where they awaited dusk and then to the Toyogetsu foot bridge where those beautiful lanterns were hung.
"If only the teachers would give us free time tonight we could go back to the bamboo forest to see yokais." Kiyo was itching to get the investigation started.
"We haven't eaten Kiyo, so we need to postpone the yokai hunt, besides we have free time tomorrow so you need not rush anything today!" Maki said a matter of fact.
"Yeah and were tired too!" Torii agreed.
Kiyo is all fired up but what can he do when all he could see were tired and hungry faces, so he gave in. He tried to fall behind but not too far or he may get the teacher's attention and be fined by additional term paper. He tried to take photos in the dark hoping that he may caught something out of the ordinary on his camera.
Dinner came and one of the teachers announced that they will have a short program after meal. They had some song numbers and a short film to let the food go down before they were sent to bed. Before Tsurara reached the last flight of the stair on their floor Rikuo handed her a block of wood which she thought used as paper weight but received a text after a few minutes saying "if you can unlock the box you'll find a reward inside."
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It took a while to finish this chapter because of some obligations, I hope you've enjoy this chapter too. Pls. Post your review. Many thanks to all.
