*sighs* I find myself ill now. My 'sleeping regularly' didn't go so great and I... Ugghh...
I didn't know how bad sleep deprivation could get...
Please sleep well and try on time and eat healthy guys, it could get bad.
I don't own any of Shungiku Nakamura's works, besides my OC's.
*Badump, Badump*
"Hmm?" Misaki looks over at the Princess again, watching curiously as she glanced up and around at the trees. "Do you hear that?"
*Badump*
"I don't hear anything," Misaki says, sharing a glance with Shinobu, who didn't hear anything either. The soldiers milled about searching some feet away from them, and Akihiko was standing on a rock looking confused about something far away.
*Badump, Badump... Badump*
"That!" She says, frustrated, her blue eyes roaming the fauna. "It sounds so close! It's like hearing a-"
"..."
"Princess?" Misaki says, looking to see her suddenly stiffen, her eyes going distant for a moment.
"..It's like..." She hurries deeper into the clusters of trees. "Like finding two babies..."
"Babies?" Shinobu gives Misaki a look. "Do you hear a crying baby crying?"
"No..." Frowning, Misaki goes after her, with Shinobu following. "Let's go after her just in case."
"Waaaahhhh!" Hiyori and Chiaki awed in amazement as Ritsu and Masamune caught up to them.
"You're fast, Mr. Ritsu!" Hiyori praises, before pointing on ahead with the soldiers in sight. "They're just right there. There's no need to rush."
Ritsu accidentally, but harshly tugged Chiaki close to him. "There is a spreading fire. Protect her with your water," with that, he let him go.
"U-uah..." Chiaki swallowed and looking around to see smoke rising in the air before turning back and nodding. "Okay..."
*Badump*
"...?" Ritsu looks around. (What was that?)
*Badump*
He hears it again, glancing around to see that apparently only he can hear it. *Badump, Badump* He pulls on his ears. (This isn't something so far away...)
*Badump*
(It's calling me...) He gazes into the path full of trees.
Ritsu was about to open his mouth and say something, but held back seeing Masamune and them introduce themselves with the soldiers up ahead. He sent some furtive glances towards them, especially Masamune, before sprinting off into the greens for the source of the sound.
"Step up here..."
"Step down here, and up like this..."
"And-" Stopping in his trek up yet another snowy terrain, brown eyes narrow as a familiar sensation crept up on him.
(Something's going to happen.)
(But...)
He looks back up his path and kept going. (Not until you call for me, Ritsu... Prince...)
...
"Did you say Hiyo is in there?!" A wide-eyed Nowaki exclaimed to his fellow wolf-hybrid pal Takafumi as they met up along with a bunch of random kingdom folk.
"That bastard Sumi," Hiroki hisses, figuring that it was him, his feline tail lashing about in irritation. He had already examined what kind of fire magic was used. "Even water's going to have a hard time with this."
"Please don't tell me we have to dump sand and rock on this," the owner went up to them, an elder sage clad in grey and gray.
"That might work." Hiroki says, glaring at the fire. "Tch. As if I didn't wake already knowing somehow, things were going to go wrong..." He tugs on the leash he was holding. "What do you think, Professor?" He turns to see that his turned-full wolf Professor associate tore away the other end of the leash and went off.
"Damn it..."
*Badump, Badump, Badump*
(Almost there!) She felt excitement run through her veins. What was she going to find?
"Wait! Wait!" Looking behind her, she paused for Misaki and Shinobu.
"What are you looking for?" Shinobu asks, almost out of breath.
"I don't know." She looks back ahead of her, particularly at a pine tree among more pine trees. "That one, I think."
"Which one?" Misaki says in confusion, and he took a whiff in the air before he smelled something odd. "I smell... something weird."
"Misaki? Shinobu?" They look to see Ritsu walking out from beside some trees. "Did you hear something too?"
"You too?!" Misaki and Shinobu watch as the princess goes up to Ritsu and points towards the pine trees. "Over there, right?"
"Yes..." Ritsu's ears perk towards the area, "It's so familiar..."
*Badump*
They give each other a look before rushing at the tree.
"Do they even know what tree? I don't know which one. Do you know which one?"
"No... But," Misaki begins walking after them.
"..."
"...? But what?"
"Um... Maybe they'll need our help?"
There is another moment of quiet.
"...You just don't want to go back to the soldiers and him or just stand here like idiots, huh?"
"Yeah..."
Ritsu may have beat her to the pine tree, but once he rested his eyes on those brittle looking branches he hesitated upon climbing them. A shiny glint caught his eye though; peering up to some many feet up, he spotted a dangling piece of jewelry hanging. (A necklace?)
*Badump, Badump, Badump, Badump, Badump, Badump...*
"That's it?" He was startled as the young woman suddenly said that from right beside him, and she noticed. "Ah, sorry."
"No, it's fine," he looks back up. "Does that belong to anyone you know?"
"I think it might be my late future mother-in-law's that my future father-in-law was looking for..."
"I see." Ritsu paused. "Then why are we hearing things from it?"
"I don't know..." She looks him over, finding him familiar. "Have we met?"
Ritsu looks at her, cocking his head to the side. "...I don't know. Maybe... Do you have amnesia too?"
"Yeah... You get found by some strangers 10 years back too?"
"Yes... Have you felt a strange sort of aura when you touch certain things?"
She looks at him in surprise. "Yeah, but, I'm a mermaid, so maybe it's normal to feel that in the water?"
"No, like..." He puts his hand on the tree. "Maybe you're touching like this, and you feel a sensation as if you can feel that it's alive even though you know it's alive."
"Eehh..." She looks at her hands. "I... I think I get what you mean; for me though, it's like more of a rush of-"
"Ritsu!" Shinobu shouts out, Misaki following along more slowly.
"Shinobu?" Ritsu says, "What is it?"
He points at Ritsu's hand on the tree. "That."
Seeing the lively contrast his hand had created in contrast to the rest of its body, Ritsu pulls his hand back to him quickly and in surprise.
"How'd you do that?" Misaki asks in wonder, now up to them and smiling as he closes his eyes temporarily. "It says 'Thank you.'"
"Come on, Misaki!" Shinobu pouts. "We told ourselves, no more tree talking out loud!"
"But listen!" Misaki tugs on his sleeve childishly. "It sounds so happy!"
"Wait, wait!" Sumiko looks back to the tree. "Sir, who threw that necklace up your head?"
"Huh? Necklace?" Misaki looks up and sees it. "Is that it? Excuse me," he carefully grabs ahold on the tree's branches on his small journey upwards.
As he was doing that, Ritsu put his hand back on the tree and looked around the other trees. "This one seems a little older than the rest, more delicate..."
"Mm, yeah." Shinobu nods, answering him. "He also says one day he just felt something plop on him and it never went away so he doesn't really know until someone brings it up."
"Geez..." Sumiko crosses her arms. "When we get back, I'm so going to get the full story..."
"FIRE!" Misaki shouts in shock from above. "THERE'S A FIRE!"
"Ah!" Ritsu sheepishly glances between them. "I remember now; there was a fire, so are you two alright? Are you feeling fine."
"Actually, I was feeling fine until Misaki screeched like a siren," Shinobu says, shuffling around uncomfortably.
"What should we do?" Sumiko wonders, steadying Misaki as he jumped down with the necklace. "Get everyone and go around?"
"But, the other trees and-" Misaki was stopped as they all widen their eyes at a explosion.
"No time!" Sumiko took the necklace from Misaki by the chain and put it around his neck, and then grabs his hand and pulling him along. "Let's go!" She sped off with him as Ritsu did so with Shinobu.
"Your water doesn't work?!" Masamune asked Chiaki, having tore off part of Hiyori's hood to wrap around her nose and mouth so she could breathe better.
"I just eats it up!" Chiaki shouts, flinging more moves at it before backing away to go back to the group.
"Ohohoho..." They all look back at the raging fire, watching in shock seeing Sumi walk out to them. "Hello."
"Sumi," Akihiko spits out, glancing around to make sure Misaki was still off with Shinobu and Sumiko. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want," he says suggestively.
"Aauuggh, no."
"Yeah, no way!" The soldiers shout at him. "No way! He belongs with-" They shut up at Akihiko's glare.
"Who?" Sumi scanned the view. "Misaki? You know, I never got the pleasure to meet him yet..."
...
"Ohnononono..." Sumiko stops them before pushing Misaki behind a tree.
"What is it?" asked Ritsu.
"I'm feeling a 'Sumi' vibe. Whatever we do, we can't let him see Misaki." She grabs Misaki's shoulders. "He will mess you up, so stay out of sight."
"He will?" Ritsu frowns, glancing ahead of them before guiding Shinobu to stay with Misaki. "Protect each other."
"Oh, come on!" Shinobu protests. "We can protect ourselves and each other separately just fine-" he clamps up as Sumiko and Ritsu stare him down. "...Okay."
After they go ahead, Shinobu huffs before seeing Misaki look guilty and rolls his eyes. "It's not your fault some guy has unhealthy interests."
"But..." Misaki tries to tiptoe up to see more. "I can hear them..."
"I can too-" he does a double take. "Misaki."
"What-" Shinobu grabs him and makes him turn to see a huge black wolf yards away from them, sniffing around. "Oh my..." he pales. "What do we do?" he whispers.
Shinobu stares at it warily before he secures himself and Misaki behind the tree and back to try and looking forward to see what was happening to their friends. "Act natural. Like we don't see it."
"O-okay..."
Minutes pass, and Shinobu looks off his shoulder to see it still sniffing the ground. "Hey, it's still-" They get into eye contact and he looks away in horror. "It's knows we're here, it's faking!"
"What do we do?!" Misaki panics. "Sumi or it, which one?!"
"Obviously-" he stiffens upon feeling something bump up against him. "Misaki."
"W-what?"
"Something's touching my side."
Misaki gulps nervously, before looking to see and then blinking in confusion. "Shinobu."
"What?" he asked, trying not to sound shaken.
"I think it knows you."
Now Shinobu was confused. "What?" He looks to see the wolf at his side, sitting down and wagging its tail at him.
"Oh, hello." Sumi greets, and the group turns to see Ritsu and Sumiko emerge from the forest part.
However, Ritsu and Sumiko freeze as they look up to see the fire.
"Speechless?" Sumi smiles, proud of his work, "I-Ack!" He looks down to see a arrow to his stomach.
"..."
"..."
Everyone stares at Ritsu in surprise, apart from Sumiko, who just nodded in approval at what was happening.
Sumi laughs arrogantly. "Did you think that could kill me?"
"No."
"Oh?"
Ritsu just stares at him.
"What? Wanted me bleeding and begging for my life?"
"No." Perplexed slightly, Sumi looks down at the arrow piercing him, about to pull it out. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Why?"
"Because then you would start bleeding."
Scowling, Sumi made a thought to start pulling before he realized that he couldn't move at all. (What...)
(Why can't I move?) Hearing footsteps, he looked in surprise to see Ritsu walk up to him, taking away his dagger, small magic spell book, and his gun. Pocketing all those, Ritsu then takes out rope, and, with a sigh, he begins tying Sumi's hands together and working on it like basket weaving.
From a little bit away, the soldiers held back Masamune as the latter tried to call Ritsu back thinking there was a catch to this, but there wasn't.
Behind Sumi, the fire began loosening with no one to control it, yet it didn't begin spreading. Seeing this, Ritsu sat down to get more comfortable as he continued his rope work while scolding Sumi.
And that is how Ritsu defeats his enemies. XD Just kidding, he can get rough, but right now he realizes that he's up against a younger young man (younger than him at least) with confused hormonal yet dangerous tendencies.