Beelzebub adventures chapter 16
"Kouta, did you pack up baby powder?" Kunieda asked, looking over her things she packed.
"Come on, Aoi, I'm not that much of a baby anymore.
Kouta said, looking over his things.
"You're still five." Kunieda stated.
"Ok, as a good brother, I'll remind you not to forget taking the most important thing with you." Kouta said, packing up his powder.
"What are you talking about?" Kunieda asked, zipped up her bag.
"Your confession…." Kouta said, wsmirking.
Kunieda's face turns bright red. "Ok, enough! Let's get going."
Kunieda grabbed her little brother by the scalp and dragged him to the door, where her grandfather awaited for her, looking at the yard.
"Well. Thanks again…" Kunieda thanked.
"Thank my future grandson's determination and brawn. Reminds me a lot of myself back in the day. Send him my regards." Ittosai said, drinking a cup of tea.
Aoi smiled nervously. "I will."
"Take care, and please, do NOT tell anyone about THAT. Not even him, at least not yet." Ittosai said.
"Of course." Kunieda nodded seriously.
"What are you talking about, grandpa?" Kouta asked after freeing from Kunieda's grip on his scalp.
"None of your business, Kouta, and you better don't importunate your sister with that question in front of anyone else, is that clear?" Ittosai said.
"Yyyy—yeah, pops. Sorry." Kouta apologized.
"Go with my blessing, my children. Please, come back in one piece. Have a good time." Ittosai happily said.
"Thanks!" Kunieda and Kouta answered the same time.
After hugging him, both youngsters left the old man and headed to the stairways going downhill to the highway where they would take the bus. Kunieda thought of the words of his elder and his implications. As the days passed since her rescue, the issue in question had shifted from being little more than a voice from a dream, to be a growing presence that no longer could be ignored. It still wasn't dangerous, but its power could already be felt. Apollion's voice was starting to be heard again too.
"As long as I take my medication, everything will be okay." Kunieda thought to herself. Her willpower was implicit in that mental statement, as the other variable that would keep the danger at bay…would it? After all, a camping trip was a very good occasion for quite tense things to happen.
…
"Come on dad! We're going to be late!" Beel said, pulling Oga's shirt.
"Just chill out, brat. There's nothing to worry about." Oga said, eating his breakfast.
"We only have like ten minutes to get there!" Beel shouted.
"We can be there in five minutes. So shut up and let me finish my breakfast in peace." Oga said, continuing eating.
Suddenly, a flying pan flew in Oga's direction, hitting him hard in the face.
"Don't make your friends wait for you, Tatsumi! You're no longer a teenager, so act your 18 years of age or forget about us lending you any more money for fun!" Misaki shouted.
"Whatever, woman. Damn that hurts." Oga said, feeling the sting from the frying pan.
Oga finished his food and grabbed his backpack from the living room and sees Hilda, who's watching TV, and Nico, who's playing on the ground with a lot of toys.
"This is my last invitation. Since you can magically change clothes and make Alaindelon bring you whatever shit you need from the demon world, do you want to come?" Oga asked.
"Thanks, but not this time. Not with the final season of Crimson Horizon airing in marathon today." Hilda said, who's excited for her show.
"What about you, kid? Guess the girl will stay here to keep Hilda company?" Oga said.
"Daboo." Nico babbled before jumping to Hilda's lap.
"Ah, master, you really make Hilda happy." Hilda happily said, hugging Nico.
"Ok, then. I might bring you souvenirs….ohh crap, I forgot it." Oga said.
"What's wrong?" Hilda asked, letting go of Nico.
"Forgot that shit." Oga remarked before heading to the stairs.
"What shit, dad?" Beel asked.
"That's improper language, master." Hilda stated.
"Stay there, I'll be back." Oga said, leaving his backpack with Beel.
Oga looked around his room and he could not find what he's looking for. He looked everywhere from his closet, under his bed, and can't find it. "Do I really need to take it with me anyways? I mean…it may not even…"
Oga hesitated of continuing his search three times before he finally remembered where he had left it, behind his PS4 console, where it had fallen from his pocket the day before when he was unplugging an HDMI cable. He didn't pick it up at the moment, as he usually didn't give a damn in cases like that. He put it inside one of the leg pockets of his khaki pants.
A scream from the outside drew his attention to his window. Furuichi suddenly jumped through the opening into the room, shocking him. "Oga! Were you taking a crap or what?! The guys are leaving in five minutes and we won't make it!
"Relax, moron. We have Alaindelon. He'll take us there in one second." Oga said casually.
"Guess what? I couldn't find the old man the entire day! I'm going to …to miss this trip because of you, goddammit!" Furuichi yelled.
Picking his ears, Oga walked outside the room towards the stairs. Furuichi followed him in incessant bitching all the way down to the living room, while he thought in a possible solution to the problem, without too much worrying however. Beel was lying on the couch near Hilda, shaking his legs in impatience.
"Ok, Beel, ready for some adrenaline?" Oga asked.
"Finally! Ok, how are we getting there?" Beel asked, taking his medication.
"Just watch." Oga said.
"Yes, look how this your stupid stepfather ruins every good time his friends are having!" Furuichi yelled.
Ignoring Furuichi, Oga said goodbye to his mother and Misaki and went out. Once on the street, he started to look around, pointing out the direction of the school. If he was good at something besides fighting, it was at locating positions.
"What are you looking for?! A fucking invisible fairy that can teleport us there!? We're not going to make it moron! I'm not that fast even with my tissues, neither are you!" Furuichi continue to yell.
"Done. Ok, Beel, hop to my back. Furuichi, extend your arms." Oga ordered.
"Www—what?!" Furuichi confusingly said.
"Extend your arms." Oga demanded.
"No!" Furuichi yelled.
"Ok, you asked for it." Oga said.
Oga tackled his friend in a double leg takedown, lifted him, and started to spin with him. In mere seconds, the three males had become a screaming tornado in the middle of the street. In the exact split second he calculated, Oga jumped with the momentum and send the three of them flying thousands of feet in the air, producing sonic booms that shook the entire neighborhood.
…
"C'mon Tojo, can you wait for them ten more minutes? I'm sure they had problems." Kunieda said.
"Sorry Kunieda, but the traffic will get awful very soon. I'll send them the GPS location to their phones and we'll meet them later or tomorrow." Tojo said.
Tojo started the vehicle and started driving. Kunieda looked down at her lap, hopeless. She had tried to call Oga three times, but no answer.
"Well, he got what he wanted, Aoi. He kicked your grandfather's ass so you could go with him, if he lost you would've spent way more time with him. Now you have neither. Isn't he an ungrateful bastard?" Kunieda thinks to herself.
Kunieda shut the inner presence inside her head and started breathing deeply, remembering the meditation exercises she trained with her grandfather. The anger was gone swiftly. The sadness and pain, however, were still there. She didn't have too much time to think about it, neither Yuka had time to start comforting her before a very loud booming sound shook all the occupants of the bus. An instant later, a big trash container exploded only a few feet on the ride sidewalk near the bus. A split second later, a scream followed by a sonic boom cracked the glass windows of the bus. Tojo stopped the bus and everyone went down.
"What the actual…" Tojo wondered.
"That thing landed and then made noise. It can only mean it was flying faster than sound so…" Himekawa remarked, amused.
"But what could that be?" Yuka asked.
"Don't tell me we're going to fight out of this." Nene wondered.
The trash mounds on the floor started moving, revealing a slightly bruised (but expressionless) Oga Tatsumi rising from it, half a rotten pizza and dirty napkins on his chest Beel jumped down from his shoulders, taking a banana peel from his head. Eight feet away, Furuichi took his head out of the dented trunk of a parked car, a rotten half of a watermelon and egg shells ticking on his back.
"Couldn't you wait five more minutes, you damn bastard? I had to aim in front of your way to catch up with you." Oga said to Tojo.
The bewilderment among the group soon became tension as the repressed chuckling of Kanzaki, Yuka and Natsume started to get out of control. Kunieda soon could not stop herself from feeling the amusement and could not repress her smirk. Furuichi finally got his head out from the dented metal and approached Oga, grappling him from his shirt.
"Don't fucking blame him…you damn moron, did you want to kill us all…" Furuichi angrily wondered.
"You're the one who will kill us all with that damn smell!" Nene squealed.
Kunieda and the entire gang erupted in laughter, when she noticed what looked like a small blue box protruding from one of Oga's leg pockets. He adjusted it before she could realize what it was.
"Ok, guys, glad you made it, but forget about getting inside of the bus smelling like that. If you want to come with us, you'll have to stay on top." Tojo said.
"You gotta be kidding me." Furuichi said.
"If we waste more time here, the sun will be insufferable. So hop on unless you want an epic sunburn, guys." Tojo said.
"Be sure to drive that junker fast, Tojo. Beel and I want some more adrenaline." Oga said.
"As you wish, stinky." Tojo said, getting the bus started again.
"Let's go Furuichi." Oga said, sitting on top of the bus with Beel.
"I swear that if I fall again…" Furuichi said, climbing up on the bus.
Kunieda got into the bus again. Never before had rotten pizza smelled better to her than that day.
…
"Ok folks, we're here." Tojo said.
"Amazing! Who told you about this place?" Kunieda asked.
"My last boss. He comes here with his family every now and then." Tojo said.
"And they Japan is only an asphalt jungle." Natsume added.
"There are cute animals too." Chiaki said when spotting two deer at a distance.
"There's a lot of things we can do here: hiking, rock climbing, swimming, boozing a bit now that we're of age…and of course, fighting. As long as we don't make too much noise and bother other people, we're good." Tojo said.
"Where are the showers?" Furuichi asked wile hopping down from the bus ceiling.
"I brought a camping shower you can plug to a near pump, but if you prefer, there are normal showers over there." Tojo showed him the signals pointing to the place.
Kunieda hid her expressions at imagining Oga showering just near the tent place. It had been two hours of road travel despite Tojo driving like a true madman. The crazy voyage, however, had the most peaceful aftermath she could ask for. The Heigagawa Park they had arrived at was a truly beautiful place. The sides of almost every road were adorned by flowers, the trees are diverse, birds sang and flew from the trees to the ground and vice versa, squirrels could be seen hopping from tree branch to tree branch, small water ponds filled the spaces between tent places, and there was a small creek just a couple hundred feet away. Rocky hills could be seen on the distance. A girl like her, who loved exercising and who grew up in the city but treasured every moment she could spend at her grandad's sanctuary could not ask for a better location to start her vacations.
…..
"You…gotta..be fucking kidding me now…" Furuichi wailed with tears on his eyes.
"Tojo, come on! We can let her sleep in our tent!" Nene complained.
"First they crash in front of us, now this. This trip sure is getting interesting." Shiroyama said.
"Sorry Nene, but that tent is not mine and it's quite old and small. The owner is also a sentimental guy who loves that thing in a weird way. If he finds out it has even the smallest shred, I'm fired." Tojo said.
"But that doesn't even make sense, who the hell is that weirdo?" Nene angrily wondered.
"Believe me, he's not the weirdest boss I had." Tojo answered.
"I don't know man, this is too convenient…" Natsume added, with his omnipresent smirk.
"Tojo…you don't know what that Ogre might do to her if they HAVE TO SHARE A TENT TOGETHER!" Nene said while gripping him by the shirt.
"Doing what? Killing her with my smelly feet?" Oga complained with his phlegmatic style.
"They're good friends. Oga is not that kind of guy, you know that." Tojo said.
"The most likely outcome is that my dear Nee-san will be the one doing the molesti…oops!" Nene covered her mouth.
Kunieda looks at Nene with an angry look and everyone else laugh.
"Whatever, guys. We drew the straws and took our chances. We got what we got, so let's face it, I got the worst having to share a tent with this stinky fucker who reeks rotten yoghurt." Himekawa added.
"The smell of your hair products will kill me first, retard." Kanzaki replied.
Both men headed to their tent while arguing about switching sides or not, since there was a bump on the ground under Kanzaki's spot. The rest of the gang dispersed, Nene still vocalizing her fears and Furuichi his frustrations.
Kunieda's worst nightmare (and one of her craziest fantasies) had become true: the kids, Beel, Futaba and Kouta were going to share the kiddie tent. There were other four tents remaining for the other eleven youngsters. Two of those were for two people only. Since only Himekawa had brought his own tent (they had to pay Tojo for the others), they decided to draw straws on the sharing.
Kunieda could not avoid to believe that Tojo had fixed the drawing to troll them. Kanzaki and Himekawa drew the pink straws. Oga and her had drawn the red ones.
Her inner presence started to taunt him without her being able to stop it. "What did I tell you? Fate is conspiring…in your favor."