Chapter Twenty-Four
I push through the gathering crowd to try and see what's going on. When I reach the point where I have a clear view, I gasp. There on the ground is a rag doll, drenched crimson with blood that drips from it as one of the visiting onmyoji lifts it up in disgust.
"Does anyone know who this toy belongs to?" he asks, his voice bitter and cold. No one comes forward, and it's no wonder. At six foot five, the onmyoji from Urausu is terrifying to behold. His muscles are large and toned and his face looks as though it has been smashed to pieces multiple times. "I have reason to believe that this toy belongs to the first hostage to be taken." The crowd seems to be circulating as people mind out of the way to let new people to the front to identify the toy, until a scream fills my ears. A blonde woman runs to the onmyoji and grabs desperately at his shirt.
"P-please, sir… That doll… It's my daughter's… Please find her… She's only five…" she cries in a Canadian accent. "Kaede… My little Kaede…" The onmyoji grimaces. Someone grabs my hand.
"What's going on, Korin-chan? Has the first hostage been taken?" I turn and nod at Takeshi.
"A five year old girl." I say. Takeshi looks deeply troubled- even more so than I would have expected- as he stares at the mother of little Kaede.
"That woman's daughter? Yoshida Kaede?" Takeshi asks. I nod. He frowns deeply. "Kaede's diabetic… She'll get really ill if we don't rescue her soon." I gasp and my hand involuntarily goes to my mouth. With every second that passes, the situation seems to get worse, and the guilt weighing down on me gets heavier.
"It's all my-"
"If you say that it's your fault one more time, I will knock you out and keep you tied up until either all of this is over or you can stop blaming yourself for something that isn't your fault." Takeshi says sternly.
"Takeshi-sama," the onmyoji man holding Kaede's rag doll says. "Come here a moment, please." Takeshi nods. He steps out in front of the man and scowls darkly. The man seems to cower under Takeshi's glare, which almost makes me want to laugh because of the massive size difference. The man is gargantuan with solid muscles bulging out of his tight shirt, while Takeshi is barely five foot two and chubby. It's so strange to see that it's almost funny, and I'm sure that I would find it hilarious under any other circumstances. Takeshi coughs into his hand, and the man reaches out one of his massive paws to place on Takeshi's shoulder. Takeshi side-steps to avoid it.
"I'm fine, Ryo-san." Takeshi says. The man, Ryo, doesn't seem convinced.
"Takeshi-sama, you should rest if you are going to be able to fight. Without you, anything we do will be useless." he says. Takeshi shakes his head.
"One of my friends recently witnessed a Kirin's earth magic. She would be perfectly capable of fighting if she chose to." he says. He glances over his shoulder and shoots me a teasing look. Ryo follows Takeshi's line of sight and makes eye contact with me.
"Surely that girl can't be the friend you speak of," he says, "She clearly has no onmyoji heritage." Takeshi nods.
"That is true. Very true," he says, and in that moment I know that he's going to make something up based on what he knows about my family. "But her mother is Greek, and likely descended from a powerful god or goddess. A Deity's Ichor runs in her veins." It takes all of my self control not to laugh at Takeshi's story. It's so stupid that there's no way Ryo would believe it.
"Very well. I will tell the others of her, but she will need to prove herself before she can gain my trust." he says. I bite my lip. He can't seriously believe that I'm descended from a god! Takeshi nods politely at Ryo and comes back over to me. He drags me away from the crowd.
"Oh my God, did you hear my beautiful story?" he asks. "It was almost as beautiful as my face!" I laugh.
"I guess we're going to have to tell Satoshi and Megumi and my brothers that I'm apparently descended from the Ancient Greek Gods now." I say. Takeshi shrugs.
"Look on the bright side. Ryo-san's little brother Kichiro-san turns sixteen next month, and he's seriously buff. Ryo-san will probably get Kichiro-san to be your personal bodyguard or something." he says with a laugh.
"To be honest, I don't really want a bodyguard." I say.
"You need one. You're thick as a line from a whiteboard pen and you care about other people. You'll end up getting yourself killed if you don't stop trying to help people, Korin-chan." Takeshi says as we round the corner at the end of our road. He yawns. "I'm going to make sure you go into your house and stay there, and then I'm going to sleep because I'm sleep deprived. In fact, I'll sleep on your lap if I don't think you can be trusted to stay at home." He takes my arm and all but drags me to my house. He pauses for a few seconds so that we can take our shoes off. The sound of footsteps rings through the silence as several people run down the corridor. Ezra, Xander and Jase stop in front of us.
Jase lets out a sigh of relief, "Didn't think to tell us where you were going, Kor?" he asks. Xander runs forward and throws his arms around me.
"Next time you leave the house, please tell us where it is you're going so that we don't get so worried. We were scared that you were the first hostage." Dad says, coming round the corner. He reaches out and ruffles my hair.
"We know who the first hostage is," I say, "She's five years old." Dad beckons for us to come into the house.
"I want to keep a close eye on the four of you," he says. "You should probably get home, Takeshi-san. Your parents will be getting worried." Takeshi shakes his head.
"I can-" he coughs hard for a few seconds, "I can handle myself. Thank you for your concern, though, Belododia-sensei." Dad looks skeptically at Takeshi.
"Are you sure? That cough really doesn't sound good. You've had it for a while. You should be resting." he says. Takeshi frowns slightly.
"I don't mean to offend you, Belododia-sensei, but you're making it sound as though my cough is a badly behaved pet." I laugh at Takeshi's words. We enter the living room and sit down. Dad takes his phone out and signals for us to be quiet, because he's going to make a phone call.
"Hello, Hiroaki-kun? Yes… Yes… Yes, Takeshi-san is with us at the moment… Yes, yes. Okay. Bye!" He turns to Takeshi. "Your father wants you home by five, Takeshi-san." Takeshi nods.
"Okay. Thank you for letting me stay, Belododia-sensei." he says with a small smile.
"I'll see you lot later. I have a client in," Dad glances at his watch. "Seven minutes. Bye!" He waves and walks out of the room.
"Wake me up in an hour, Korin-chan." Takeshi says with a sigh, leaning his head against my shoulder and closing his eyes. Before I even have a chance to respond, he is snoring softly.
"Well, it'll be awkward if I need to use the toilet." I say. Ezra smiles at me.
"That's such a Korin thing to say." Jase says, shaking his head. I smile at him. He sighs sadly and checks his phone.
"What's wrong?" I ask him, and he shakes his head.
"Nothing. I just haven't heard from Grethe in a few days. That's all." I reach my hand out to him and he takes it in his own. I squeeze it and Jase gives a small smile, though tears are forming in his eyes. "Grethe's the first girl I've ever been serious with. I mean, the first girl who I haven't got with for a laugh. She actually makes me happy. I thought I'd be able to handle a long distance relationship but… I guess I was wrong… Or maybe I did something that offended her." I shake my head.
"I saw the way she was looking at some of the other boys at the resort… She thought she was too good for you, but you were the only one who had a language in common with her," I say. "She wanted to mess with someone. She did exactly what you always do. She's obviously just better at it than you." Jase glares at me.
"Thanks for being there for me, sis." he says sarcastically, pulling his hand away. Ezra shakes his head with a laugh.
"You have so little tact it's unbelievable, Korin. You're meant to just be kind and comforting until he's over her and then tell him that she played him the way he plays other girls." he explains.
"I've never had a brother having problems with a relationship before. You can't expect me to know what to do."
"Well, you're going to be learning what to do over the next few weeks as Jase recovers from his heartbreak." Ezra says dramatically.
"You honestly couldn't have picked a worse time to have problems with your girlfriend, Jase." I say exasperatedly. "Seriously, we're about to get attacked by a load of Yokai who want to take over the forest, and you're moping around because your long-distance relationship with a player isn't working out. Get a grip, moron." That's when I know that Jase's heartbreak is serious. Instead of coming back with a snide remark about what an awful sister I am, he just sighs and puts his head in his hands, breathing heavily. I want to go over and hug him, but I can't risk disturbing Takeshi. Ezra wraps his arms around Jase and strokes his hair. Jase sobs into Ezra's shoulder, whispering 'Grethe' over and over. Seeing him so weak, so vulnerable, makes me want to cry.
Takeshi groans and his head slides off of my shoulder. His eyes snap open as his head drops, and he suddenly sits bolt upright.
"How long did I sleep for?" he asks tiredly, "I told you to wake me up after an hour, Korin-chan." I shake my head.
"It hasn't even been five minutes." I say. Takeshi looks at Jase and Ezra and frowns.
"Is Jase-san okay?" he asks me in a hushed whisper.
"He's having problems with his girlfriend." I say. Takeshi nods with a grimace.
"You should go to him." he says.
"I was going to, but I didn't want to wake you up." I say with a shrug, and crawl across the floor to my brothers. Xander is looking thoroughly confused by the situation. He shuffles over to Takeshi and whispers something in his ear. Takeshi shrugs. I'm not sure whether he doesn't have an answer to Xander's question or if he just didn't want to tell him. Xander slides across the floor and joins the three of us in our group hug. My muscles tense.
"I'm proud of you, Korin," Ezra says when we pull away, "You willingly hugged someone!" I glare at him.
"It's not my fault people are weird and disgusting and hugs are horrible." I say, and Jase manages to give me a small smile.
"You're the dumbest sister ever, but you can always make people smile with your idiocy." he says quietly. I know that I shouldn't be happy about the comment, because he called me stupid, but the fact that my stupidity makes people happy warms my heart slightly.
"Thanks." I say with a light laugh.
"Feeling slightly awkward and left out over here," Takeshi says. The four of us turn to look at him and laugh. "Whatever Jase-san said, I probably don't agree." Jase rolls his eyes as the rest of us laugh some more.