Chapter 4
…
I could hear the faint rustling of grass around me as a gentle wind lapped at my face. My eyelids immediately fluttered open to find myself standing upright in a middle of a wide spring field. I looked around in confusion, wondering where I was. It was then did the recent details of what had happened before started to sink in. A cliff…falling…a hand reaching out…
Did I die?
I blinked hard and stared blankly into the horizon of the azure blue sky forever stretching ahead and only merging with the golden landscape in the distance. I did feel quite astonished at my predicament. If so, if I had died, what has happened to me? Where was I? What about Takashi-san, was he alright?
"Hotaru-chan…"
A familiar voice called out from the wind behind me. I snapped out from my excessive list of worries and whipped my head around instantly reacting to that call which tugged at my heartstring. There, a figure stood in the distance with the lower half of the body submerged within the tall swaying grass. The half-hidden man that I definitely was sure of wore a simple white-collar shirt that had intricate designs of faded flowers and butterflies on the right sleeve. In the middle, the outer shirt was left opened to reveal another layer of a red shirt beneath. But what caught my eye most was that this man had a mask of a fox fully worn over his face, only faintly showing off stray silver stands of hair sticking from under the mask. I knew who the person in front of me was.
"Gin.." I breathed, feeling a mixture of both shock and relief. I finally could see him again. My knees where already buckling from the sheer bliss of happiness and my vision became blurred from the tears of joy welling up from the inside of me.
"G-Gin." I smiled calling out to him again with my choked voice. Underneath the fox mask, I was sure he too was smiling and rejoicing our long-awaited reunion.
I slowly stepped forward, trying to approach him. Strangely enough, Gin instantly turned around and swiftly walked away from me.
I froze in puzzlement before continuing my steps, slowly speeding up as I tried to catch up with him. "GIN!" I yelled with my hands instinctively reaching forward for his figure ahead, "Where are you going?" Despite my tearful pleas and vain efforts of trying to run to him, Gin seemed to ignore the fact I was closely following behind and continue forward never looking back.
Suddenly I felt myself trip over something in my way and I found myself tumbling over to the ground below. I winced as I propped myself up from the earth, looking ahead to find Gin's back becoming smaller and smaller ahead. Desperation hit me like lightning and I clumsily stumbled up. Just as I was about to take off, a hand wrapped around my left ankle pulling me back and I looked down startled.
My eyes caught sight of a bloodied hand. My sight followed the hand to find it belonging to a crimson-stained body in black sprawled messily on the ground. Upon closer inspection, I fearfully realized that I recognized the black outfit the figure was dressed in was none other than a typical male high-school uniform. The figure lying in its own pool of blood suddenly moved and threw back its head at me.
I stared at the equally recognized face covered in red filth gazing back up at me with haunted sandy-brown eyes. It was Takashi. I stood rooted to the ground in horror as I watched Takashi open his lips that had a streak of blood flowing in a thin line from the right corner.
"Hotaru-san. Don't go… It's a trap." He gasped in a pain filled voice before violently wheezing out spurts of more body fluid from his mouth. I quickly got down and turned him over such that he was now lying on his back. I saw that Takashi's source of bleeding was from a huge puncture wound at his abdomen that had tore itself cleanly through his blood soaked uniform and buried deep into his flesh beneath. In desperation, I tried to stop the dangerous bleeding by firmly pressing the wound with my bare hands.
At the same time Takashi screamed in agony and I felt him writher in suffering under my hands. "Takashi-san! You must hold on!" I called out in desperation to him. He unexpectedly grabbed onto my shoulders and despite having a face contoured in sheer pain, he looked me in the eye.
"D-Don't bother with me. You m-must get out of here…He's here…" And with that Takashi went limp in my arms.
"Takashi-san? TAKASHI-SAN! NATSUME TAKASHI STAY WITH ME!" I sobbed in frustration attempting to shake him awake. He did not respond and I looked around in hopelessness.
My gaze rested on Gin who miraculously turned back and was standing at a distance away from us. I called out to Gin, pleading him to help us. But Gin did not move. Instead his arms moved up to remove his mask and I watched in dread as it fell apart to reveal a cold smirk plastered on his face beneath. His eyes glowed eerily in gold and turned crimson red and I witnessed in despair as Gin's head also started to appear red in color. His body started to transform into something enormous formed.
I could now feel the violent wind slapping into me and I realized that the sky had turned dark above, casting a creepy shadow onto the field below. Where 'Gin' had once stood was now replaced with a huge goat-like youkai brandishing a dangerous club in one hand, and in the other carefully handling a small green book. Its terrifying aura overwhelmed me as it lumbered towards where Takashi and I were. I knew very well what or who it was. It was the reason why we were on this wild goose hunt in the middle of a desolated forest.
"Jaakuna no Yagi." I venomously glared at the youkai that was now towering over us. The youkai swung his club over his head and started to heave it towards us. As the heavy club flew towards us, the last thing I could remember was that I shielded Takashi's unconscious body before it was all black.
…
Hotaru woke up in a jolt having suffered from a frightful nightmare. With adrenaline pumping in her veins, she flew up from her sleeping position not realizing that she threw off a certain black school uniform jacket that someone had covered her with and panickly studied her surroundings now that she was back in reality. She saw that she was before the warmth of a fire and that she was standing below a canopy of trees that opened up directly below a starry night sky. In the distance to her right, a lone mountain stood in the landscape of the dark forest sitting beneath.
Her noisy movements had managed to alert a particular boy sitting down holding a snoring cat snuggled in his lap. "Ano Hotaru-san, are you alright?" Takashi called out to her. Hotaru jumped at his voice and spun around with a deranged and wary look in her eyes. Realizing that she found the pair before her familiar, she stopped and sighed in relief.
"Baka-onna! Why would you get up in the middle of the night and disturb my precious sleep." Nyanko-sensei's condescending words flew out of his mouth as he scolded Hotaru the moment he woke up. She looked down guiltily having only just realized how much trouble she had made and immediately apologized with an embarrassed blush growing on her checks, which thankfully was hidden by the orange glow of the flame.
Takashi smiled and quickly forgave her, feeling awkward at her actions. She sat down next to him, both sharing the warmth of the fire. Nyanko-sensei humped at their sudden closeness before again disappearing into the trees stating his usual reason of wanting to find sake. Things started to quiet down and after some time Takashi glanced over to her and noticed her troubled look obscured by her overcast eyes. "Can't sleep?" Hotaru snapped out of her daze and looked back at him with a stunned expression. Seeing his soft look, she recovered and hesitantly replied yes.
Takashi gave a thoughtful nod and grinned back in attempt to unnerve her uneasiness. "Me too. I do find it hard to get some proper sleep in the middle of an unfamiliar place." He replied. "With all that has happened to us despite it having been such a short while, don't you too find it quite hard to believe as well?" Hotaru was taken aback by his warm smile and supportive words. Despite that what Takashi had said was implying a completely different reason to why she could not sleep, she strangely felt calmed by his presence.
The firewood clicked and Hotaru realized that her face was very near to Takashi's vey own. The flickering lights casted a soft glow on both of them and suddenly Hotaru felt very self –concious. She quickly moved back and Takashi having managed to read the tense atmosphere gave a nervous cough and leaned away.
The silence afterwards between the two was deafening, as both were uncomfortable with starting another conversation. As the time drew on, Hotaru started to recall her lingering nightmare and the events that had happened in it. She thought about Gin and as well as the words Takashi had been saying in her dream. Don't go…A Trap…He's here… Those phrases echoed in her mind. She looked up again to peek at Takashi from the cover of her long brown hair. Should I tell him about my dream and the youkai premonition as well? The time ticked on as Hotaru sat on a fence debating whether or not to tell him and as well explain her relationship with a spirit, Gin.
"Takashi-san, I had a dream abou-"
Just as Hotaru decided to open her mind and speak her thoughts, she was interrupted by a loud rustling noise as Nyanko-sensei came rushing in. "Something is coming! I just sensed their thoughts and from what I could hear they bring no friendly intentions. Be on your guard as I don't think my barrier would be able to hold them off for long!"
Takashi and Hotaru both scrambled up, looking vigilantly on their toes for the intruders. They stood back to back staring into the darkness of the trees ahead that could possibly hide a youkai lying in wait for an ambush. Time passed and no sign of the intruders were noticed.
"Nyanko-sensei are you sure that…" Hotaru suddenly felt her words going slurred as her vision became hazy.
"WHA-WHAT?!" Nyanko-sensei called up in alarm when he suddenly saw that it was raining black feathers above them. "Damn Tengu! I should have known it was them. Do not touch the feathers as they may have poison laced in them!"
But atlas it was too late. Nyanko-sensei's warning went heeded by none and the two human bodies of Takashi and Hotaru came crashing down onto the ground. Nyanko-sensei transformed into his Madara beast form in attempt to save them both but a seal appeared out of nowhere from the shadows and landed on Madara's head, instantly transforming him back into his cat form but in an unconscious state.
At this point only Takashi was the only one still awake, weakly fighting against the poison that apparently caused drowsiness and eventual deep sleep. He saw with straining eyes that of two dark humanoid figures with wings on their backs descending from above. He blinked and saw that they had cloth masks put on such that their faces remained hidden, but from the way they appeared and acted he knew that they were youkai.
"This human...awake Ukon."
"…Isn't…the one…book of friends…Sakon?"
Takashi could barely even hear them anymore as he slowly succumbed to the effects of the poison.
"…..Bring…..to Kurama-sama…"
These were that last of words he heard from their captors before he closed his eyes. The next time he opened them, he found himself being carried by one of them as they sailed through the night sky. In the distance, he saw the mountain that Nyanko-sensei had said that their youkai could be lurking on. The rocky profile grew smaller and smaller in size and before Takashi could ever figure out how far away the tengu were taking them away, he blacked out.
To be continued…
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A.N: Thanks for the reviews! I really appreciated them. They do make writing a whole much better. This chapter seems to be slightly longer than the ones before and the writing style may have a few alterations as well, but no worries cause they probably would not affect the storyline:P It seems like future updates would most likely be on a random basis as I would be busy soon. Btw Happy New Years to all and lets all hope that 2014 would be as awesome as this year:D