Spirited away

With today being the last day of the trip the students of Kurogin were naturally given free rein over their schedule since tomorrow it was back home though each was given a pamphlet of suggested locations. For most of the morning the gang debated what they would do all day, Hyuuga suggested going back to that haunted house ride but after the boys encounter with the vengeful ghost of the Peony princess aka Umeki no one agreed to this option. Finally Umeki made a suggestion of her own.

"why don't we go back to Shuri castle?" she said casually fingering her short locks of hair as she did "we did ditch that day so I'd like to go back and actually get a look at the place."

"n-no way" Take responded shaking his head "you remember the story! That evil princess could be lurking around there" he placed his hands over his face "I don't want my face to be ripped off..." he muttered

"It's just a ghost story" Umeki pointed out rising an eyebrow at the now palling faced of her friends. She smirked "you act as if you'd seen her ghost already" she had to suppress a laugh when the three boys sitting across her exchanged looks of horrified recalling. "Ryu" Umeki hummed looking beside her at the boy who nodded in response to her call "did you hear any screaming a few nights ago?...you know...that night after we went to that amusement park?"

"...now that you mention it-"

"Fine we'll go!" Hayato bellowed grumpily to the satisfaction of Umeki. She smiled brightly at the horrified expressions of the boys. Perhaps she over did it when she scared them...

"Young man is that your sister over there?" Hayato followed the pointing finger of the cook at the stand he stood before. Umeki was the person at the end of this old cook's finger too busy taking pictures of the mountains that loomed over head to notice she was the subject of someone's conversation. Shuri castle turned out to be not as comfortable as the first visit for the group. The boys, Hayato included, couldn't relax while they were there. They were too busy keeping an eye out for that scary princess to enjoy the castle. Finally the uneasiness became too much to take and Hayato made the group leave. After Shuri castle the five Kurogin students split up to places of their own interest, Hayato and Umeki wandered off together on what Hayato called a date but Umeki called an outing. Hayato watched his girlfriend, was it just his imagination or did the sun just seem to hit her perfectly from where she stood. Lowering her camera from her face Umeki shielded her eyes from the sun as the clip Hayato had bought her sparkled under the light. Hayato turned back to the man and shook his head.

"No" he answered "she's my girlfriend"

"Ah, you should keep an eye on her" the old man spoke turning back to his work as he did "you don't look local so I would guess you wouldn't know but young woman like her often go missing in these parts"

"Huh?" Hayato faced the man fully now. Missing? He couldn't help but think of the ghost story, if the princess was real then the samurai had to be real too! "What happen to them?" Hayato asked "were they ever found?" the old man nodded.

"of course" he replied "they're always found a couple days later wandering the mountain trail dazed and confused" he finished up the takoyaki and packaged it "they say a spirit roams the mountains and lures women up there, no one knows why or why the spirit let's them go. Spirits usually lure the living for one reason or another" the man rambled on, Hayato nodded curiously to this "I for one think it's lookin for someone" he offered the packaged food.

"Who do you think they're looking for?" Hayato asked taking it and paying for it. The old man shrugged his shoulders.

"can't say for sure" he said "perhaps a lost love, I'm sure you know how those tragic love stories go" the old man chuckled and so did Hayato before thanking the man and turning around to call to Umeki but that was just it...

...Umeki was gone!

"Uki-Chan?" Hayato stayed rooted to the spot looking from left to right, he didn't see her!

"Something wrong young man?" the old man spoke peeking past Hayato. Hayato ran over to where Umeki last stood, all that was left of her was her camera that lay on the ground. Hayato picked it up, the screen revealed the last picture taken.

"Uki-chan..." he muttered gazing at the picture that showed an image of Umeki standing in the open path leading up to the mountains. "Umeki!" Hayato took off for the path; no damn samurai ghost was going to take his girlfriend!

"Wait! Wait! Young man!" Hayato skidded to a stop and looked back, the old man came hurrying towards him his shaking hand holding out a lit lantern. "it will be dark soon, take this with you"

"Right, thanks"

Meanwhile elsewhere Umeki found herself walking along a dirt path under the shade of the woods. Where was she? How the hell did she get here?

"...what the hell?" the girl muttered rubbing her eyes that for whatever reason felt heavy with sleep. The last thing she remembered she had been taking pictures of the mountains waiting for Hayato. Umeki stopped walking and placed a hand on her head trying to think of any possible way she could have gotten wherever she was.

The sun had peeked out from the clouds in the middle of one of Umeki's pictures making a bright glare. She pulled back from the camera and covered her eyes in hope of blocking out the sun. What a bummer, the sun probably just ruined a good picture... Umeki checked her pictures over just to make sure but to her surprise she didn't see the bright light of the sun in her camera she caught someone standing in the clearing that leads up to the mountain. Normally there would be nothing wrong with that but this person... Umeki tipped her head at the picture and examined the person, it was a girl. She had to be at least Umeki's age but she didn't dress like she was from this time. She wore a deep red and brilliant gold kimono and her hair was held up by what looked to be a red ribbon braided to look like a peony. In the picture she held up a lantern and looked around almost nervously. Was she an actress for some reenactment group? Umeki recalled looking up to see this strange girl with her own eyes. The two of them locked eyes and then...and then...

Umeki groaned as her memory generated nothing but fuzz as to what happen after that. All she recalled was feeling dizzy and then... Here she was...

"Where the hell is my camera?" Umeki muttered noticing her camera was gone. Maybe she dropped it somewhere down the path. Umeki was about to turn back the way she thought she had come from but that was when she saw it, that girl! Umeki met eyes with her, she stood perfectly still in her lovely kimono and her blank expression before she turned ever so slowly and raised her lantern high and walked away from Umeki. "Wait!" Umeki called stumbling over her own feet before running after the girl but she had vanished in a matter of seconds leaving Umeki to run in the direction she went hoping to catch up.

She blindly chased the girl farther up the mountain until the sun had set and the darkness of night left Umeki in a panic. She felt around darkness holding her arms out in front of her incase she ran into a tree or another person or something. She couldn't have counted on having to watch her footing too. Suddenly the ground crumbled from under her feet and Umeki screamed as she found herself dropping sideways and quickly tumbling downward a moment later. It was too dark and she was falling too fast to know for sure where she was falling. Umeki grunted as she slid past tree branches and through bushes that scratched at her, suddenly her head collided with what could only be assumed was a rock and Umeki was out like a light.

Hayato cursed loudly after he tripped over a fallen tree branch he didn't see. It had gotten dark out faster than he had expected it to and now the 3D leader was walking almost blindly through the dark with a lantern, why the old man gave him a lantern and not a flashlight was beyond him at this point, calling out the name of his girlfriend and hoping she would respond. He was getting nowhere so far, either Umeki was too far along the trail or she had actually been... Hayato shook his head of this thought. No, it was just a stupid ghost story originally meant to scare the crap out of Umeki. There was no vengeful princess or ghost samurai wondering the moutons luring young woman away and killing them! That old man had said it himself! The woman who went missing always turned up eventually. Hayato didn't have a few days though and know Umeki the girl was probably in some kind of trouble right now, she could be seriously hurt walking around in the dark like this. "Umeki!" Hayato called out squinting his eyes to the darkness hoping to see something- anything!

That was when he saw it, a sparkle of something reflecting the light from the lantern Hayato held. He approached it and when got closer his eyes grew in size. Lying in the middle of the path was the peony hair clip, the one Hayato had last seen on Umeki's head. "Umeki..." he muttered true worry etching itself onto his face, a moan responded to him making the usually tough boy almost jump out of his skin. A pile a branches and bushes alongside the path moved after another moan rang out through the silence. Something flopped out of the pile falling beside the clip it was...it was a- "a hand!" Hayato almost yelled in terror, his legs were just about ready to turn tail and run away screaming but his worry for Umeki kept him rooted to the spot and even urged him forward. It could just be her, gathering up a slowly dwindling courage the boy reached out a shaky hand and yanked back the mass of debris his fingers had circled around. "Oh god Uki-chan" Hayato almost immediately set the lantern in his hand down as he took it the image of his girlfriend. Her head was bleeding somewhere leaving a line from the right side of her temple to left and to the ground and there cut all across her face. Hayato gave her a hard shake "Uki-chan... Umeki!"

Umeki moaned again as consciousness slowly came back to her. Someone was shaking her and yelling at her. What the hell did they want? Stop it, that hurt! Everything was hurting. Umeki winced as her head have a painful throb and she actually stopped to register the person yelling at her.

"Uki-chan!"

"Yamero" she groaned out to the person making them stop their horrid yelling. "You're making my head hurt" she felt who ever this person was release her shoulders and hold her face in their hands calling her name again. It took her a bit of an effort but Umeki did open her eyes and until the dim light provided she locked eyes with a worried looking Hayato. Upon seeing her open her eyes a relieved smile came to the boys face.

"Thank god" he breathed bending down and kissing Umeki on her forehead before pulling back and examining her. "Are you okay? What happen to you?"

"I...fell" Umeki responded weakly following Hayato's stares as he looked around them and finally stared at the hill beside them. A long train of broken branches and over turned soil was enough evidence to tell the couple that Umeki had fallen down from somewhere up that way. That was one hell of a fall that was for sure.

"Are you okay?" Hayato asked again.

"No" Umeki shook her head

"What's wrong? What hurts?"

"I'm laying on a rock" Umeki answered moodily pushing Hayato off her and rolling over from her side onto her back and glaring at the rock only it wasn't a rock. Hayato reached over Umeki and picked the green incense box up. "Hey" Umeki barked weakly "that's mine" her's? How did she get this? Hayato didn't even realize he'd lost this, all be it the point of having it was to lose it in the first place according to that old lady who'd given it to him, he rolled it in his hand holding it out of Umeki's reach.

"Where'd you get this?" he questioned

"I found it" Umeki answered "it was laying on the floor outside my room. Give it back I like it" she sat up and snatched it out of his hand.

"Glad to see you're well enough to be in a sour mood as usual" Hayato remarked but judging by Umeki's face she was pretending he hadn't. Relived that she was okay, Hayato got to his feet ready to get the hell out of there "can you stand?"

"I think...ah!" Umeki pushed herself up only to fall back down and grip her right leg. There was a long, deep looking gash running along the side of her calf. Umeki wouldn't be moving from this spot on her own. Umeki hissed as the pain shot up her leg from the cut.

"I'll go and get help" Hayato said after staring at the cut for a minute. Wait what? Umeki acted almost instinctively reaching out and grabbing Hayato by his jacket with a tight grip before he could get far.

"Wh-what?" she stared at him bug-eyed shaking her head wildly "no! Don't leave me here"

"Uki-chan I can get help faster if I'm not carrying you back down the mountain" Hayato explained but Umeki refused to let of his jacket. She wasn't ashamed of admitting she was utterly terrified of sitting in the dark by herself in the mountains, be brave all you want but after all Umeki had been through these past few days even she had to admit she was scared. Hayato must have seen it in her eyes because he turned and faced her fully "I'll leave the lantern here how does that sound? That'll make it easier to find you when I come back up"

"But what about you?" Umeki replied her grip growing tighter if possible "it's dark, you could get hurt out there and then we'd both be stuck out here! And worse we'd be separated!" Hayato sighed; Umeki wasn't making this easy... He watched her gripping his jacket tight with her left hand and gripping that box with her right just as tightly-wait! The incense box!

"Here" Hayato said kneeling before her and wiggling the glass item out of her hand "I'll take this with me. You like it right? I'll get it back to you when I come back I promise" why did that sound so familiar... Umeki loosened her grip and before she could stop him Hayato was running off into the dark of the night.

As a sign of their promise the princess gave him an incense box claiming it to be her favorite and that he must give it back giving him more motives to return to her.

That's it! This was just like that damn ghost story! Umeki frowned at this thought; did that mean Hayato would die out there and never come back? And Umeki would die here next to this lantern? That was tragic...

Somewhere in the distance a twig snapped making Umeki almost shriek jumping out of her skin. She looked over her shoulder in the direction of the sound in absolute terror. It didn't help that she could see a speck of light slowing making its way towards her. Oh god...

They say the last thing you see is the light of the princess peony pattern lantern that she used long ago to search for the samurai "why are you here?" you can hear her say before she kills you

"Why are you here?" a voice rang out from the source of the light. Umeki almost immediately shrieked as the light drew closer and closer.

Hayato was practically out of breath by the time he had finally gotten to the entrance of the path. He had to find help fast because something was definitely wrong, he heard Umeki scream a minute ago. He slowed down to a stop to catch his breath at the entrance resting his hands on his knees.

"Are you alright young man? Did you find your girlfriend?" Hayato looked up, it was that old man from earlier the one who gave him the lantern. He stood just before the entrance and made no moves to step further though he did look like he wanted to, it was as if something stopped him from passing onto the dirt path. Either way Hayato was on a mission.

"I did" he nodded "you've got to help me. She fell and she's hurt and she's bleeding really badly! I just heard her screaming a second ago!" the old man's eyes grew in size after hearing this and he nodded.

"Just a minute, I've got a first aid" he turned to get it but stopped short when he spotted the incense box in his hand "what's that you have there? Let me see" Hayato eyed the man strangely as he reached out and snatched up the item and looked it over "young man...where did you find this?"

"Does it matter?" Hayato couldn't help but glare impatiently at the old man "my girlfriend is up in those mountains by herself bleeding!" he reminded him.

"Oh yes of course"

The old man quickly got his first aid and with the incense box in his free hand he practically flew up to mountain path like no old man Hayato had ever seen before. It took all he had to keep up as the sped towards to dim glow of the lantern farther up the mountain. Actually it took them less time getting up there than it took Hayato to get down and it was all because of this guys speed. He ran like an eager dog whose master finally let him out of the house. In the blink of an eye Hayato found himself making out the image of Umeki sitting on the ground beside the lantern but she wasn't alone like when Hayato had left her. Sitting beside her was and almost exact replica of Umeki. There were a few differences sure; this girl's hair was much longer and black, she had it held back out of her moon pale face and she wore a red and gold kimono. Other than those detail she could have been Umeki's twin! She had a lantern of her own resting on her lap.

"Umeki!" the two girls looked in Hayato's directions at the sound of his voice and Umeki's face light up.

"Hayato!" he pushed past the old man who stopped just a foot in front of him. Hayato dropped to his knees pulling Umeki into him tightly.

"Are you alright?" her held her face in his hands, she nodded.

"You came back" she stated

"Of course I came back, I promised I would didn't I?"

"Don't ever do that again!" Umeki scolded him teary eyed "you left me here all by myself! What if you fell like I did! It would be all my fault! If this lady hadn't shown up I don't know how I'd sit still and not worry about you!" Hayato couldn't help but chuckle watching his girlfriend wipe at her eyes "it's not funny" she sniffled.

"Gomen gomen" Hayato smiled "I'm here now...actually...who is this?" he was referring to the lady that looked so much like her. At the mention of the woman the teens both looked at her. She was standing now with her lantern in her hand; she smiled down at them and nodded meekly.

"Princess..."

"Hayato" Umeki gripped his jacket and gazed past him "who is that?"

"You don't recognize him? It's the old man from the stand by the entrance" Hayato raised an eyebrow at Umeki; maybe she hit her head harder than he thought. Umeki shook her head never tearing her eyes from the old man.

"That's no old man..." she pointed and this time Hayato looked. She was right, that was no old man. Standing where the old man once did was a much younger looking man with old loping clothes just like the lady. There was a swathed Katana strapped to his side and his eyes were fixed on the unnamed woman. What the hell was going on?

"Princess..." the man spoke again stumbled towards the woman before dropping to his knees before her and hanging his head in shame. "I'm sorry" he apologized sullenly "I failed you..." the woman, or princess, smiled at him wrapping her arms around his neck in an odd hug. "if I had been faster than..." he refused to look at her "forgive me"

"... Did you bring it?"

"Ha?" the man finally looked up at the princess in response to her question. She held out a pale hand to him.

"My box" she said "it is my favorite...did you bring it with you?" it took the man a minute to understand but when he did he held up his hand and placed the glass incense box in her hand. She curled her hands around it and smiled pulling the man to his feet before taking his hand. "Let's go" she smiled sweetly at the man and he smiled back. Hayato and Umeki found themselves wrapping protective arms over one another gazing at the couple in awe as they stared down at the teens. The princess smiled at them as she and the man shined a dim blue. "...Arigatou" were her last words before the two lost human shape turning into blue orbs. Hayato recalled watching with Umeki as they slowly drifted into the sky side by side.

The next thing he knew he was waking up to the relieved shout of his friends and... Yankumi?

"w-wha?" he rubbed his eyes awake taking in his surroundings. He sat on a bench just outside the entrance to the mountains. Umeki lay beside him with her head on his lap fast asleep, he stretched his arms over his head and yawned letting them drop back around Umeki who groan out and snuggled deeper into him. It was really dark out, had they fallen asleep? So that had all just been a weird dream?

"Yabuki!" Yankumi skidded to a stop before Hayato scanning him over for any sign of injury "we've been looking for you two! Have you been here all this time?"

"...Huh?" Hayato sounded dumbly

"Don't 'huh' me and look!" Yankumi fussed "Ume-chan is hurt! What happen?"

"Ha?" Hayato followed Yankumi's stares, what did she mean hurt? That was when Hayato saw it. Umeki hadn't stirred from her sleep but that's not what Hayato had noticed. Her leg, a white bandage was wrapped tightly around her calf; the same calf Hayato recalled her cutting. All of Yankumi's fussing finally woke Umeki up.

"Yan..kumi?" she yawned drowsily "what are you doing all the way in the mountains?... What happen to the princess?"

"Princess?" Yankumi repeated before looking to Hayato for answers but the boy simply stared at Umeki in shock.

Maybe it wasn't just a dream...