Chapter 3: The Bear

"So where are we headed?" Ieyasu asked as he swatted a low hanging branch with the flat of his hand.

"There is a small, secluded pond not too far from here." Sayo answered. "It's calm, peaceful, plenty of wildlife to view, and, the best part, there is a fish that taste's ten times better than anything you've ever had!"

Ieyasu's mouth began to drool at the thought.

Tatsumi smiled. "How much further?"

"Hmm," Sayo squinted her eyes and placed a hand over her forehead to shade from the sunlight. "It shouldn't be that much further now. I would say about another fifteen minutes of walking, and we should be there."

Tatsumi sighed with relief, the three of them had been walking for hours ever since Sayo woke the two of them up before the sun even broke the horizon. However, for Tatsumi, it was a nice change of pace.

Every morning he is abruptly woken up by the war cry from Esdeath signaling that she was beginning her hunt, usually him. In an effort to avoid being caught, Tatsumi would find himself waking up in the middle of the night to start running and covering his tracks as much as he can, but, Esdeath always catches him. This time, it was different, thanks to Sayo informing Esdeath that the three of them would be out hiking and fishing, he was able to get a good night's sleep for once and didn't even mind that he hadn't much time to pack for them to go.

"Almost there now." Sayo informed as she brushed her hand across the trunk of tree with a clear cut from a dagger engraved in its wood.

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Ieyasu excitedly said, his drool spitting out in all directions.

"Easy now." Tatsumi tried grabbing his excited friend.

However, Ieyasu could not contain himself any longer as the heavily salivated boy darted off ahead of the two, leaving them both in a trail of dust and leaves. With a sigh, as she tried to contain her frustration, Sayo took off after him leaving Tatsumi puzzled before noticing what was happening and ran after his friends.

It didn't take long for the brown hair boy to reach his friends as he passed by Sayo calmly standing while he took a head dive into a large pond right on top of Ieyasu who had fallen in prior.

"I knew I should've stayed home!" Tatsumi shouted as he swam back to the land with his friend tailing him.

"Then you shouldn't have ran so fast." Sayo teased as she helped him up.

"You could've warned me that the water was right there!" Ieyasu angrily shouted.

Sayo smugly looked at the drenched boy. "Maybe you shouldn't have ran ahead, especially since you had no idea where this place was."

Ieyasu opened his mouth to respond but decided to accept the loss this time as Tatsumi helped him out of the water.

As Ieyasu got out, Tatsumi looked at the scene behind his friend and gazed in awe. The water was so clear that you could see the bottom. Several fish, big and small, habitually coexisted with one another as mother nature intended. Surrounding the pond were many plants dipping their stems to water their roots with a few blooming vibrant purple flowers along the ends. Several other flowers, some Tatsumi has never seen before, shielded the water plants in a colorful wall of reds, yellows, blues, and oranges. Scattered along the plants were several birds pecking about the ground in search of seeds or insects to feed on. Amongst the group were small, squirrel like creatures running about and climbing up the strong standing maple and birch trees that tower above everything else providing shade from the sun and the wind making the temperature calm and relaxing like a bath in the hot springs.

"This place is beautiful." Tatsumi commented as he sat down near the water's edge.

Sayo grinned. "I thought you'd enjoy it!"

"So, when do we fish?" Ieyasu energetically asked.

Sayo rolled her eyes and pulled out a collapsible fishing rod she had stored in her bag amongst other things. Ieyasu happily accepted the rod and began building it up before finding a nice spot along a small ridge that sat a little higher than where Tatsumi and Sayo were and tossed his line into the water.

"Hehe, come here fishy fish." He hummed to himself.

"Tatsumi," Sayo approached with another fishing rod. "Would you like to fish as well?"

Tatsumi politely shook his head. "I think I'm going to take a nap and enjoy the scenery."

Sayo smiled. "You do what you feel is best." She said as she revealed a book in her other hand and sat underneath a tree and began reading.


What felt like hours had slowly passed as the three enjoyed their leisurely activities; Tatsumi napping, Sayo reading, and Ieyasu fishing.

"I could spend the rest of my life like this." Tatsumi happily thought.

"Tatsumi! Wake up!" Sayo shouted.

Tatsumi's eyes shot wide open as he saw Sayo immediately climb up a tree while Ieyasu was sharpening the end of his fishing rod with a knife. Looking around, Tatsumi could hear noise of a loud roar and several grunts.

"What is it?" He asked Sayo as Ieyasu mimicked Esdeath's war cry and went towards the direction of the sound.

"It's a bear!" Sayo hollered back.

"A bear?"

Right as he said that, a large, brown bear came crashing into the area as Ieyasu jumped from his spot, his fishing rod fully sharpened like a spear. With no hesitation, the bear seamlessly smacked Ieyasu into the pond.

"Ieyasu!" Tatsumi shouted before turning his attention back to the bear.

He wasn't sure what he could possibly do in his current predicament, he had no weapons or anything nearby to use as such and Esdeath wasn't around to break all its bones with just her pinky finger. The bear, on the other hand, seemed extremely furious as if in a frenzy.

"Tatsumi! Duck!" Sayo shouted from a top the branch she was on.

Taking his friend's warning, Tatsumi ducked just in time as the bear took a swipe at him, just slashing a few hairs from the top of his head.

"That was close!" He thought as he side stepped to the left just as the bear tried slamming it's front paws on top of him.

Taking the moment the bear needed to recover from the shock of hitting solid ground, Tatsumi quickly dove into the water joining Ieyasu.

The bear recovered and angrily stared at the two.

"Haha, come get us now you land lubber!" Ieyasu taunted.

"Land lubber?" Tatsumi questioned while Ieyasu grinned.

"I once read a book about pirates."

"Wait you can read?!"

"Don't go in the water dummy!" Sayo yelled. "Bears can still swim!"

"Huh?" The two unanimously voice as they noticed the bear dive into the water and began paddling towards them.

"Swim away!" Ieyasu yelled as he pushed Tatsumi towards the bear and began swimming the opposite direction.

"Don't push me towards him!" Tatsumi yelled as the bear managed to reach him and tried taking a bite.

With nowhere to go, Tatsumi took a deep breath and dove under the water's surface, once more narrowly avoiding a disastrous fate.

Opening his eyes underwater, Tatsumi could see the panicked legs of Ieyasu as they struggled to lengthen the distance between him and the bear. Looking up, Tatsumi could see the bear now focusing it's attention on Ieyasu as it began to swim towards him. As it's back was now facing Tatsumi, the young man noticed something sticking out of the bear's fur that did not seem natural.

Breaching the surface, Tatsumi caught his breath while watching the wild animal shorten the distance between it and Ieyasu.

"Tatsumi! Quickly! Get out of there!" Sayo ushered.

Swimming back to land towards his friend, Tatsumi couldn't help but get the image of the foreign object sticking out of the bear's fur.

"I'm going to regret this." Tatsumi groaned as he turned back around towards the bear.

"Tatsumi?" Sayo questioned. "Where are you going?"

Not answering, Tatsumi took a deep breath and dove underneath the water to avoid being seen by the bear. Underneath, he could see the bear trying to get through some plants that have gotten it tangled up.

Taking his chance, Tatsumi quickly swam towards the now flustered animal as he grabbed the random foreign object and pulled it out with all of his might. The bear let out a thunderous noise that even Tatsumi could hear clearly underwater as he backed away.

Running out of breath, Tatsumi began to surface until the bear, in all it's rage and sounds of pain, thrashed around, and managed to connect a paw to the top of his head causing everything to go black.