The Path to Euphoria

Chapter 2- the delicacy of Mochi

By Misao's Angel

Soujiro woke Misao bright and early the next morning. Always best to get an early start, he liked to think. Misao hated it though. Mornings were NEVER her thing. Oh well, there was nothing she could do about that now. She wanted to get away, and if this was the only way to do it, then fine.

Misao turned to where she heard the soft, familiar voice come from. As expected, there was Soujiro, standing outside of the window, as always.

"Have you packed yet?" He asked, grinning.

"Yeah, yeah. You asked me that like what, 500 times?" She replied bitterly. Seeing a sudden flash of pain surge in his eyes, Misao realized the true meaning of what she said. "Sorry Souji-kun... I'm jus' tired..."

"I'm sorry, but if we leave early today, we will be able to reach Tokyo by noon!"

Misao stared at him blankly. What is he talking about? That's impossible? She was pretty fast, and the fastest she ever had made it to Tokyo from Kyoto was two days! He must be crazy!

"Oh sorry... I forgot you don't know the Shukuchi... Oh well, If we leave NOW, we might be able to get there at noon tomorrow."

"'N 'kay... Jus' give me a minute."

At this time, Misao got ready for her big adventure. She brushed her long, silky smooth hair, and styled it like she always did; half her hair cropped short in a semi-A-cut left down, framing her face, and the rest tied in a long braid. She brushed her teeth, put on her summer yukata... (Soujiro was turned the other way of course) And when she was finally ready, she set off with only Soujiro and a small backpack at her side.

Misao was never one for material possessions. Her bag contained only a small variety of things; her ninja outfit, a yukata, her kunai, and (She kept this a secret from Soujiro) a picture of her family. Even though being with them hurt her heart, it would hurt worse to forget them. Though she couldn't, no matter how hard she tried. She could fail to recall their faces, each a blur in the back of her mind... but their voices... their words were something she could never forget. As long as she would live. The picture was just a reminder of what the speakers looked like.

After about seven hours of endless walking, Misao's feet began to ache. She HAD walked that long before, no doubt about that, but she had never tried it in her tall zori. In order to walk in those things she had to walk like a 'true' lady. But a 'true' lady can't walk very fast.

Noticing the sudden decrease of his companion's speed, Soujiro found that it was time to take a break. He decided on a small concession stand on top of the mountain they were climbing to rest at. He had been there before, and he was quite fond of the place. There was a nice old woman who tried to help him reach his destination... but the problem is, she only "tried". The path she said lead north actually lead straight into a river. Boy was THAT a hard dilemma to get out of... he didn't know that bears were so fond of the sent of mochi...

"Souji-kuuun!" complained Misao. "Stop spacing out! Let's GO already!"

"All right, All right."

The two set off to the mochi stand, silently preparing for the adventures ahead.

To be continued.

How was chapter two? I know it was kinda short but, did ya like it? Did ya hate it? Are there some spelling/grammatical mistakes you'd like to point out? Tell me! R&R!

Next chapter, Soujiro and Misao finally reach a small town. But there seems to be something wrong there, but they can't figure out what. No one expected the horrible secret that lays within the streets of this town...

Well, See ya next time!