So yea, hope ppl likes this chappie as well. Plz write me a review ne?^^
I should really stop writing in the dead of the night... guess what time it is... 3:50am. I started near 1am. Not a good habit to have. Nope, not good at all... *falls asleep on the keyboard*
Yuki charges at the white speckled brown boar, preparing to strike at it. His arm held the shield that the fairies Kisa and Hiro gave him earlier closely to his body since he has no other weapon at hand. He had to do something fast to save his cousin Shigure, otherwise the boar will surely get him...
"No! Stop, Yuki! Don't hurt her!" Yells Shigure.
Yuki slows to a halt and turns his head to face Shigure and gave him a puzzled look. His face seems to ask 'Are you crazy? I'm trying to save you here, why are you stopping me?'
Shigure calmly gets up from where he was sitting in the clearing and this time, he turns to yell at the boar, "Kagura, stop running around and come meet Yuki!"
Miraculously enough, the boar stops its mad running into the trees and very quietly trots up to Yuki.
"Hajimemashite, I'm Souma Kagura. Kagura the boar."
As Yuki is coming out of his dazed state, Shigure looked at him and asked him, "You probably didn't hear a single word I just told you, na Yuki?"
Yuki merely shook his head to prove Shigure's assumption.
"Very well, I'll just start from the start...
...Long ago, our family, the Souma's, all lived together on a huge estate. We all knew each other and lived together happily. But then one day, five women in the family got together and had a picnic on the lush green fields of the Souma's huge estate. Actually, there wasn't any wrong with women getting together and picnic'ing but after some time their conversation took a bad turn...
'Hey, which one of us do you think is the prettiest?' Mused one of the ladies.
'Of course it's me, I'm the prettiest amongst all of us.' States one confidently.
'No, how can you be the prettiest? I should be the most pretty out of all of us!' Cries one haughtily.
One of them just looked at the rest, made a crafty smile and said, 'All of you can be pretty, be as pretty as you want! But I am the most beautiful here.'
The fifth one eagerly puts in an answer as the other four bickers about which one is the prettiest and most beautiful, 'I think I'm more beautiful than all of you and my beauty is more than the beauty that any goddess possess!'
Unfortunately, when the women were bickering about who was pretty and who was beautiful, a goddess was passing through that particular area of the sky and overheard the chatter and the claiming of beauty surpassing any goddess. The goddess got angry and appeared before the naive five women. Once the women saw the goddess, they were afraid and bowed before her. But it was too late.
'Because of your self-centerness, I shall now put a spell on each of the you. Your first born babies will be born an animal. Only when someone accepts them for who they truly are and believe they are beautiful with their heart will they turn back to their human form.'
The five women pleaded with the goddess, but the goddess will not remove the spell. She gave a whisk of her long sleeve and vanished into thin air. The remaining five women were scared of the spell, scared of what they might give birth to, scared of what their husbands and family think. But what could they do? So, they went home and told their husbands and family what happened and the spell that was placed upon their soon-to-be children. But there wasn't anything anyone could do, so they all waited for those fateful days when the five women would give birth to the five cursed children.
The days came and passed when those five women gave birth. Even though when each of the child was being born, they were in their human form. But after each of their families were together with the babies for one single day, the children changed into their cursed animal form. Because the parents cannot accept having animals as children, they all agreed to not let anyone know they ever had the babies and decided to abandon the children in a nearby forest where the animals originally living there might take care of the babies for them.
The goddess that placed the spell on the children saw what the parents had done and pitied the children. But she will not remove the spell because of her pride, so she made the animals in the forest care for the children, each child going to a foster animal family that the child has taking the form of..."
At this time, Yuki decides to interupt Shigure's storytelling, "So, you're telling me that this little boar in front of me is a cousin of mine and her name is..."
"Kagura, Souma Kagura," finishes Kagura.
"I see... so that makes you one of my missing cousins. Who's the other four?" As Yuki finishes his sentence, new faces that he has met in the last couple of days flashed through his mind. "Wait... don't tell me..."
"By the tone of your voice, does that mean you already met them?" Mused Shigure as he watched Yuki's expression change.
"Kisa and Hiro..." started Yuki.
"Yes, they're your youngest cousins." States Shigure.
"Momiji..." continued Yuki.
Shigure nodded his head.
"...I don't know the last one..." hesitated Yuki.
"Yes you do, Yuki. You just don't want to admit that he's your cousin as well!" Shigure smiles mischieviously.
"It can't be... masaka... Kyo...?" Ventures Yuki regrettably.
"That's the one, Souma Kyo. That kid is even your age, Yuki." Shigure was all smiles while Yuki could only moaned in disbelief.
"So why do you not go back to your families if you know about your past already?" Questions Yuki.
"I told the others already, but we all decided that we won't return to our families until all of us have broken our spells."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I guess we just want to mock our parents and show them we don't need their acceptance and help to get back what was originally ours..."
Yuki notices the sorrow that has seeped out onto Kagura's face. He was never the person that can comfort others so he decides not to ask anymore questions about Kagura's past.
"So, tell me Kagura, were you the one hurting the woodsmen that came here?"
"What woodsmen?"
"The orange-haired woodsmen that came here. They all left here in bruises and injuries claiming that it was the work of a mad boar..."
"Ohhhhh~ those woodsmen... Well, at first I thought they were Kyo because I saw their orange hair and so... I just got a little carried away..." explained Kagura a little embarrassedly.
Yuki eyed her carefully and asked her, "So... all this time, you were not hurting anyone on purpose... You were just trying to find Kyo, am I right Kagura?"
"Yes, that's right. I never meant to hurt anyone on purpose. ...It's all Kyo's fault for leaving me and not coming back..."
Yuki furrows his eyebrows and goes into deep thought for a moment, trying to take all of this in.
"Ok, Kagura, you still want to see Kyo, correct?"
Kagura gave a frantic quick nod.
"Alright, I need you to do something for me then. Come with me to the castle and help me explain that you didn't mean to hurt those woodsmen to the King and the Queen. Lets hope by doing so, my brother Ayame will be set free from imprisonment."
"Why should I do that for you? I don't want to leave the forest and go into a castle where it's full of people..."
"Because Kyo is inside the castle right now."
"Ok, I'll come with you!"
"Is Shigure alright venturing into the forest alone?" Asks Yuki.
"He'll be fine. Besides, the forest is not that big and he has been here for a couple of months already." Explains Kagura.
'She's right, I shouldn't worry too much about Shigure. I hope he finds Haru like he told us when we went our separate ways.' Thought Yuki and then he turns to Kagura and asks, "So, are you sure where Akito exactly is?"
"Yea, of course, I saw them just yesterday but they didn't see me. And let me tell you, that Ritsu person, I think he'll have a breakdown if he keeps on panicking about everything."
Yuki only smiled. 'Ha~ that's Ritsu alright, I wonder how Akito is doing with a person like Ritsu... Even though he dislikes me but he's still my cousin so I better go see if he's alright.'
Yuki and Kagura arrived before a huge mansion nestled deep within the forest.
Yuki puzzles, "what are we doing here? Is Akito here in this mansion?"
"He was near this area yesterday night, and by the direction he was going I'm pretty sure he is going to stop to rest in this mansion. The owner comes to stay here every summer."
Just as she finishes talking, they see a trio walking through a thick foliage into the clearing in front of the mansion. The two parties see each other and as Yuki's eyes meet Akito's, Yuki saw the change from surprise to something almost sinister cooking up in Akito's twisted mind.
Even though, Yuki knew Akito is up to no good, he still courteously gives a little bow to Akito and addresses him. Akito, on the other hand, does not return the gesture but simply puts a smile on his lips and walks up to Yuki.
"Yuki, my beloved cousin, I see that you have found the boar. But is that the real boar? Or is that just some simple-minded boar that you have found to act as a lie to the people?" Torts Akito.
Yuki avoided the question and in turn says to Akito, "I'm glad you are doing alright, Akito san. I'll be going now."
Beside Akito, the man called Hatori notices that something is wrong with his master and coldly suggests, "It's late now, lets all rest in the mansion for the night."
Akito glances at Hatori and nods his head in approval.
"Shall we, Yuki?"
Hatori waited until Akito was led away by the owner up to his room for the night with Ritsu close behind still blabbering his never-ending nonsense into Akito's already very much annoyed ears.
"...I'm sorry Akito san, I couldn't be more hospitable. But this is not my house so I couldn't be more hospitable. Oh, I didn't mean to be rude. I'm sorry, Owner of this mansion, I didn't mean to intrude on your property. Am I being annoying? Do you find me annoying? I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!! GOMENNASAI!!! I'll appologize. I'll appologize to Akito san for not being able to find the boar for you. I'm sorry the boar is not in your hands. I'm sorry I couldn't help Yuki san to get the boar. I'm sorry... sorry.... sorry..."
Then Hatori turned towards Yuki and Kagura, eyed them for a moment and simply said, "Do not stay for the night, Akito plans to kill the both of you." After saying that, he turns and follows the already disappearing Akito down into the hallway towards the bedrooms as if he was just talking about something as common as the weather.
Yuki and Kagura could only look at each other wide-eyed.
Later that night, Yuki and Kagura quietly and carefully slips into the dark blackness without waking anyone in the whole mansion.
To be cont...
HK's little glossary of random jap words:
na = can be used as an equivalent to 'ne' for guys, girls usually do not use it
masaka = could it be?
