Chapter 7

Written by LongHairedMan

Hideko with Resutoa directly behind, walked through a forest filled with a mixture of bushes, tall grass and low baring trees. For the last hour or so, Resutoa had been forced Hideko to walk through the forest in a direction Hideko was uncertain about.

"So uh, what's this 'castle' like?" Hideko asked, turning his head around.

"Keep moving." Resutoa ordered.

Hideko sighed before turning his head back around, allowing him to barely dodge a low hanging branch.

"So first this guy saves my life, tells me I'm some Lord's son and now is forcing me to go to the castle which apparently belongs to my family. This is by far the strangest day I have ever had." Hideko thought.

"Look man, I don't think it's me you want." Hideko stated.

"It is. Now keep moving and shut up." Resutoa ordered again.

"Oh come on! You're gonna take me there against my will and not tell me anything about it?" Hideko asked.

Hideko walked a few more steps without a response and after making sure to not step into a small puddle on the ground, he turned around.

"Are you even listening to-AHHH" Hideko let out, startled by Resutoa who was standing directly behind him.

"Stop fucking doing that!" Hideko shouted.

Resutoa laughed to himself before his one eye focused on Hideko.

"Why would I tell you about a place you would know better than me about." Resutoa asked.

"Wu-what? Why would I know anything about this 'castle'? I've never even been to it." Hideko explained.

"I heard Lord Ikeda's only son was stupid, but this is a bit much." Resutoa said to himself.

"Are you listening to me?!" Hideko asked.

"A little as I can." Resutoa replied, giving Hideko a shove forward.

Hideko caught himself from falling on the ground and continued walking.

"I have no idea who this Lord Ikeda guy is! I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy!" Hideko tried to explain again.

"Just save you're breath kid." Resutoa stated.

"So reasoning with him is off the table. Maybe I can bribe him." Hideko thought.

Hideko stopped again, turning around and looking at Resutoa with a smile.

"What!?" Resutoa let out, clearly getting annoyed by Hideko.

"Hold on, just hear me out." Hideko stated, taking off his sun glasses.

Hideko held out his sunglasses to Resutoa.

"You know what these are?" Hideko asked.

Resutoa just glared at him, holding a look that said "if you don't move in the next ten seconds..."

"You put them on and the light from the sun is dimmed. Here try them." Hideko quickly offered.

Without breaking his glare, Resutoa slowly grabbed the pair of sunglasses out of Hideko hand and put them on. Upside down.

Hideko snickered to himself at the slight.

Resutoa looked around the forest, surprised.

"Hmmm, these could be useful." Resutoa stated, bit of smile showing up on his face.

"Right?! So since I gave you something useful, why not let me go huh? No way I'm worth the effort." Hideko said with a sly voice.

Resutoa looked back to Hideko. The smile that may have existed disappeared in an instant and he gave Hideko a forceful shove, sending him back a foot.

"Not worth the effort? Haha, your father will pay me in gold for your safe return. Now I'm not gonna tell you again, get moving!" Resutoa ordered, grabbing the handle of his sheathed sword.

Hideko did as Resutoa ordered, not wanting to join his arm collection.

"Are you fucking kidding me? I can't believe I've been taken hostage by a guy who doesn't even know how to wear a pair of sunglasses. Wait what if this guy is actually some crazy serial killer." Hideko thought.

Hideko looked back at Resutoa for a moment only to receive another glare from him.

From the back of Hideko mind, one phrase from a horror movie popped into his head in which the serial killer has trapped his victim in a hole.

"It rubs the lotion on the skin or else it gets the hose again."

"That's not funny." Hideko thought, making his mind go to a dark place

In his thoughts Hideko wasn't really focusing on what was in front of him and tripped on an up grown root from a tree. Hideko slammed face first into the ground, feeling the slightly damp dirt on his face and hands. Resutoa's foot steps stopped a few feet behind Hideko.

"Ow." Hideko let out blankly.

"Get up!" Resutoa ordered.

Hideko didn't move, instead feeling the damp ground with his hands. Instantly an idea popped into Hideko's head.

"Come on kid!" Resutoa let out.

Resutoa stomped over to Hideko and grabbed his left arm.

Upon feeling Resutoa's grasp his arm, Hideko closed his right hand and collected a ball of damp dirt. Hideko turned his head around with an innocent look.

"Sorry about that. I just tripped. By the way, those things I gave you are upside down." Hideko stated, with a calm voice.

Resutoa looked taken back.

"Really? Why the hell didn't you tell me that before?" Resutoa asked, letting go of Hideko arm so he could take off the sun glasses.

Hideko waited for Resutoa to take off the sun glasses and In one quick motion, he flipped on his back and whipped the dirt into Resutoa's unprotected face.

Resutoa grabbed at his face, taking a step backwards.

"YOU...BASTARD!" Resutoa yelled, ripping out his sword from his sheath.

Hideko didn't wasted a second. He wildly kicking at the ground until he got to his feet, stumbling once as he did. Hideko ran as hard as he could deeper and deeper into the forest dodging branches, random holes in the ground and whatever was in his path. Anything it took to put as much distance between him and Resutoa.

"RUNNING! RUNNING! RUNNING!..." Hideko thought, listening to his feet slam into damp ground over and over.

Finally after what could have been minutes or even hours, Hideko wasn't really sure. He stopped at a tree 8 steps away a cave. Completely out of breath, Hideko grabbed the tree and pressed his chest into it. Hideko's eyes scanned the area he came from, looking for any sign of Resutoa. As he scanned back and forth through the trees and grass, the sound of his heart pounding filled his head.

For a few minutes Hideko watched until he was sure Resutoa was not following him. His heart slowly slowed down and Hideko closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath.

"I lost em." Hideko said to himself, opening his eyes.

Hideko started to laugh a little, well until realizing he still had no idea where he was.

"Back to square one." Hideko muttered to himself, flipping himself over so that his back was now against the tree.

Hideko slowly slid down the tree until he was sitting on the ground. Free of distraction, Hideko could now see his once clean black school uniform was now covered in dirt, mud and grass. Along with that he could feel dirt on his face and see it on his hands as well.

"Ugh...Well I guess it doesn't matter now. Not like they're gonna let me back into school anyway." Hideko thought, laughing at little at the thought of Mr. Matsuo flying over a desk.

Hideko looked around.

"How have I not ran into a town, city or even a fucking gas station by now?" Hideko asked himself.

"This is because Japan has the highest forest density out of all the industrialized nations. Standing at about 67% of the land being covered in forest"

"Shut up brain." Hideko thought, pulling out his phone.

Hideko turned his phone on and scowled at the no cellular signal icon on his phone.

"WHY DO I EVEN PAY FOR – wait, the GPS doesn't need a cellular signal." Hideko realized.

Quickly Hideko swiped at the touchscreen on his phone until he got to the GPS app. The app loaded up and Hideko smiled.

"Yes! Now I can figure out where I am and-"

*Unable To Connect*

"-get really depressed." Hideko slowly said, his smile disappearing.

Hideko's arms sank to his side before he closed his eyes again.

"Now when I open my eyes, everything will be okay." Hideko said out loud.

A slow and low tone growl was heard in front of Hideko and he quickly opened his eyes to find the source of the noise was coming from the cave. Two green glowing eyes appeared from inside the darkness of the cave, staring him down.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Good luck Hide. You're gonna need it.

Does Hide like Monkeys? I doubt it. Especially if there slightly sticky.