Dawn had broken and the search continued. The party had diligently checked
every area the young boy was known to frequent, but came up empty. The men
were exhausted, but determined to find the missing child. As ambitious as they
were, hope had faded quickly that they would find the meek child alive. His
spiritual pressure was too large to miss even miles away. The fact that no one
could pick up even a hint of it was a grim omen.
Tohru refused to let himself dwell on the likelihoods. He tried to keep himself
detached as they had entered the dense stretch of woods as a last resort. It hat
now been several hours since they had entered the woods. Every second that
passed seemed to drive a nail through the young father's heart. His conscience
screamed at him. This was his punishment. He had not loved his son as the
miracle he was, so now he had been taken back.
Struggling to keep his mind on the task at hand, the man felt his heart stop
when he heard a crack. One of the men reached down and picked up a broken
pair of glasses. Tohru felt his head spinning as he tried to pass off the very obvious
grim message. "We have to keep going!"He bellowed and charged ahead.
Although he wanted to shut his mind off, memories flooded back to him.
Even while being pushed from his mother's body, Sousuke had not uttered a
sound. Instead, the infant appeared sleepy, as if he had spent his entire life inside
his mother asleep. The baby had deep auburn eyes that conveyed an earie sense
of understanding. Both parents had felt the daunting effects of the child's reitsu
immediately, but neither had the heart to make much of it at the time. They had
finally had the child they had always wanted.
After a bit more hiking, a clearing yawned open. The men were stunned to see
a large body of water out of the middle of nowhere. There was a hand full of
creeks scattered about, but no one could recall a small lake right in the middle of
the woods. Tohru had no interest in the site; he moved to walk around the lake's
perimeter before someone in the group blurted "Oh, shit!"
At this exclamation, Tohru looked over at the lake. He saw nothing beyond the
water's surface besides a flat rock rising from the water. Then, almost as soon as
he made the observation did he realize that he saw was not a rock at all. It was a
back. A child's back floating to the surface.
Several of the men moved to grab hold of Tohru as he screamed "Sousuke!"
The men fought to hold him back as Homura raced into the water and waded over
to the boy. Lifting him out of the water, Homura draped him across his back as he
swam back to shore. Laying Sousuke on the grass, the man went to work
searching for any signs of life. The child's crippling reiatsu had all but vanished.
Not wanting to give up, Homura placed his ear to the child's chest and
concentrated. Not only could he still feel a faint pressure, but he also heard a
shallow heart beat. In his excitement, Homura yelled to the group of men "He's
still alive!" At this, Tohru broke away and raced over to his son. Homura pressed
hard on Sousuke's stomach, while Tohru cradled his face in his hands. The
pressure made the unconscious boy gasp and cough, but failed to wake him.
Homura nodded to the men gathered around them. "He's breathing." Tohru
gathered Sousuke's limp wet body into his arms and held him tightly to his chest.
His voice was choked with tears. But he held them off. "We need to get him
home."