Intro: I should maybe stop doing an all-nighter to finish a whole chapter as I am losing sense in plot, although about the grammar, yeah please forgive me it's not my weakest points but I'm still not good at it, but I know I'm not that bad… that that bad. But aside from that I'm doing my best please forgive my lack of vocabulary and wrong grammars T_T. Although it's highly my fault the plot is going nowhere :(.
Disclaimer: I do not own Touken Ranbu and Cardfight! Vanguard and other material which came from the said Game/Anime, they are owned by its original creators. The making of this story and this story is made for the fans and the writer XD. Although the plot and some changes in the story are from me ^_^.
Chapter 25: A silly day
~In the afternoon~
Miwa sighs in delight as he enjoys his time in the citadel while watching the toudans go back and forth at doing their tasked chores "If you ask me this place is like paradise. It's so quiet and peaceful. And to top it all everyone does the job for you!" While watching the toudans Miwa slowly peeks at Kai who is leaning against a wall who is sound asleep "And I can see that someone other than me enjoys it well."
"Although we are not supposed to be welcome here in the first place." Kamui pointed while eating a snack that is offered to them before.
"Well we weren't exactly welcome it was a secret that they needed to hide." Miwa explained. "So logically we are still welcome they are just in hiding" Miwa stood up from his seat.
"I don't see what the difference is" Misaki sighed as she watches the toudans do their usual routines in the citadel although to tell the truth she does enjoy her stay here for this past few days as she can feel relax and calm.
*BANG* But then the peacefulness they feel went away in an instance as they heard a loud bang and although their group couldn't see it, a group of crows went flying away from the direction of farm.
"I wonder what that noise was." Kamui took interest in the loud sound that they have heard.
"It's none of our business anyways if ever." But Misaki decided to not get involved.
They didn't mind what has happened since they thought that they have nothing that they can do about it or they don't have the authority to snoop around and because of this Miwa thought of taking this opportunity, placing one of his hands to his side while the other pointing at the citadel "So why don't we ask for a tour around this place?"
Misaki and Kamui looked at each other who seems to be curious as well but thinks otherwise since they are practically going to be a hindrance in the chores of the others inside, but before they could answer something or rather someone caught their attention.
"I TOLD YOU TO NOT USE THAT HERE" It was Hasebe's screaming that end up waking Kai in the process opening only one eye but closed it after to continue sleeping once again.
"I don't think we can keep not getting involved" Miwa said looking at the direction of the field and seeing as it has escalated they thought they might need to help sort things out or something.
Agreeing with each other Misaki, Kamui, and Miwa hastily ran to the scene of the crime where a kneeling Mutsunokami is on the ground, with an angry Hasebe scolding in front of him, with a bitterly smiling Shokudaikiri who is trying to calm Hasebe and with a Yamanbagiri and Nikkari tending to a damaged crop and the other surrounding it.
They wanted to intervene but seeing as Hasebe the self-proclaimed attendant of Aichi is there and also a familiar face they saw who is Shokudaikiri thought that maybe he can handle this so they decided to be a witness to the scene that is unfolding to them.
"He said it himself Hasebe he was just trying to scare away a group of crows that is eating the crops, it was not his fault to damage the crop" Shokudaikiri explained what happened to Hasebe who is still seething with anger comically.
"Besides we saw what happened since we were with him that is going to be tending to the crops, we can assure that no one got hurt nor it was his fault that the crops were damaged." Nikkari claimed as he noticed that Hasebe's reaction was a bit too much.
"But that isn't the only thing" Hasebe slowly raised his hands in a fist that is slightly shaking upon hearing Hasebe say those words a scream was heard.
"KYA!" It was Mina's voice and then afterwards something that broke can be heard, and hearing that it was from the direction of the kitchen the toudans expression become pale especially Mutsunokami and kind of understand why he reacted like that. After a short while a scream was heard full of anger "MUTSUNOKAMI!" the shout was from Mina meaning the name mentioned should prepare themselves.
After that the group fell silence, because of the silence in the group they can clearly hear sounds of footsteps running around inside the citadel "UWAH!" a scream was heard yet again and this time it was Horikawa's voice.
Another scream was heard hastily afterwards "OI OI OI!" it was Tsurumaru.
After thinking that it had ended, well… it did not… a small sound of a glass breaking can be heard and then after that "TSK" although it wasn't loud they swore that they could hear that it came from Yagen clicking his tongue in annoyance and anger, making the group fell more silent and more paler resulting to them having no kind of color in them anymore.
"Just… what… what just happened…?" Miwa spoke after making sure it was alright to comment.
"Actually I'm more concerned of what will happen to them considering what they look like right now" Kamui spoke looking at everyone especially Mutsunokami who looks like his soul has left his body.
After a short while the whole group thought that maybe all the commotion has stopped and to make sure that it did, coming from the garden the Tantous came running with tiger cubs in their chest, Gokotai having two of them while Sayo, Imanotsurugi, and Midare has one each.
After catching their breaths Gokotai bowed his head and spoke "I'm sorry, my tiger cubs caused trouble" and a very perfect timing that Yagen, Horikawa, Tsurumaru, and an oddly warm and soft smiling Mina came up to the group that made them shake in fear as they can feel their doom, as Gokotai saw the four of them approaching he bowed to them and apologized for the trouble while the four simply declined his apology saying that it isn't the tiger cubs fault nor his to begin with so they either shook their head or their hands.
Regaining their color back aside from Mutsunokami, Shokudaikiri was the one to recover and ask what has happened so that the pieces of the puzzle can be solved.
Nikkari was the first to raise a hand which Shokudaikiri approved of him to speak "Let me start first" Shokudaikiri and Hasebe nodded "Me, Yamanbagiri, and Mutsunokami were assigned to tend the garden, so we did as we were told, but as we came here we saw a group of crow eating away a bunch crops." Nikkari started.
But then he looked at Yamanbagiri as if signaling him to continue on, getting the message so they could testify for Mutsunokami he closed his eyes as if preparing himself then once he think it was okay, he opens them and spoke "But since we are still far away from the flock and we need to fend the crops immediately to save it, and seeing as Mutsunokami has his gun with him coming from shooting practice he used it to scare them away faster." Yamanbagiri closed his eyes as if saying he can't no more.
Understanding this Nikkari continued again "But even after we did scare the crows away, we weren't able to save the crops since they were already damaged." He pointed to the said crops and some feathers of the crow.
After they finished their explanation Shokudaikiri continued on to tell their part of the story "As we heard the loud band and a flock of bird flying away me and Hasebe who was in the kitchen with Mina-nee rushed here to see what had happened through her orders."
"We were getting ready for dinner, so the thing… she broke… must be the plates." Hasebe slowly lost his colors a little.
"Since we only heard one shot..." Mina started to conclude.
"Then it wasn't Mutsunokami's fault, instead he helped a lot." Misaki finished her sentence that made Mina smile at her.
"It wasn't him that damage the crops." Yagen added.
"Instead it was the group of crows." Tsurumaru added too and all that finally made sense and brought to light and now Mutsunokami is safe.
But it isn't finished yet as they didn't know what happened inside fully and the screaming "So what is your side of the story?" Miwa asked Gokotai who seem to be not letting go of the tiger cubs nor Sayo, Imanotsurugi, and Midare.
"W-we were about to go to the kitchen to help with dinner" Gokotai staggered to speak as he was timid "But then we heard a loud bang when we were at the entrance of the kitchen…" Gokotai paused.
"And the tiger cubs suddenly started panicking and running around." Imanotsurugi continued while smiling and laughing as if he saw something very amusing which the other toudans didn't agree with.
"Then we saw Mina-nee holding a stack of plates where the tiger cubs ran, we got one of the tiger cubs but when we got out of the kitchen we heard something broke and saw one of the tiger cubs running outside." Midare continued.
"We chased the tiger cubs around the citadel to capture and calm them" Sayo calmly finished their side of the story.
"So Mutsunokami wasn't the perpetrator on the broken dishes." Hasebe murmured and then felt an aura of darkness and decided to stop.
"So what about the three of you." Misaki spoke looking at Horikawa, Yagen, and Tsurumaru.
Horikawa raised his hands signaling that he wants to go first in explaining his side as Misaki and the group faced him and waited to listen he started his story "I was putting down the laundry when one of the tiger cubs ran beside my feet making me lose my footing and ended up dropping to the ground, thankfully the sheet was saved by Imanotsurugi and Sayo while Gokotai was holding one of the cubs and Midare catching the one that startled me." Horikawa finished explaining his side of the story.
After Horikawa's side Misaki proceeded to face Tsurumaru "Oh it's my turn now huh." Tsurumaru smiled "Well I was helping Horikawa with putting down the laundry. I have a basket full of clothes with me where I saw a running Imanotsurugi almost clash at me, I almost lost my balance because of it but Sayo was able to catch the basket I was carrying, and then I saw Imanotsurugi catching the tiger cub, also Midare, and Gokotai." Tsurumaru placed his hands on his hips signaling that his part is finished.
After everyone's story is finished the others did not dare even ask what has happened to Yagen's part nor Mina's side of the story because they know well enough what have happened.
"So what happened to you?" Kamui dared asked that surprised the toudans who was daring enough to ask that question well it was understandable since they weren't living here so they wouldn't know.
"I was making medicines for Aichi-sama…" His voice was cold as ice and full of anger making all of the toudans flinch with the exclusion of Hasebe and Shokudaikiri who sweated instead "One of the tiger cubs ran on top of my table… there I separated a certain medicine from the others, since that medicine was special… it was Aichi-sama's medicine that I was supposed to add a flavor that Aichi-sama prefers…" Yagen wasn't finished but he paused for a short period while fixing his glasses and exhaled and showed a smile that made the others flinch "But thankfully it was a different glass that it broke that is still in progress and the medicine for Aichi-sama is safe" Yagen finished his side of the story holding a bottle that has a thick layer as if saying that that is the medicine while smiling.
"Fortunately it broke something else" Miwa said as if he can be able to breathe again as the atmosphere started to be suffocating after he showed the bottle he hid it from his pockets just to be safe.
Mina sighed and all the toudans were now free from something invisible that is binding or choking them when Mina came to the group "So in the end Mutsunokami didn't do it on purpose" Mina smile was back to the way it was and without the ominous feeling they felt before "So how can I get mad… but…" It was too early to say it was safe "Don't ever do something that could be trouble for others, for example what if this kind of incident happened differently and it broke the medicine Aichi-kun was supposed to drink." Mina inhaled slowly then let it out in a huff.
"So from now on, don't use anything that could startle animals or anyone here" Mina pointed to Mutsunokami's gun to which Mutsunokami responded by bowing and continued apologize to everyone especially Mina "I'm happy you did it for the good of something but it's still a little troublesome".
"So I guess it started from helping that ended up in a big mess" Miwa concluded.
"Although to be honest it was kind of funny thinking about everything that happened though." Tsurumaru remarked at the incident.
While the group further talks about the topic, Yamanbagiri kept silent and was about to continue tending the damage crops, but he noticed four silhouettes coming out at the direction of the garden "-sama…" his voice croaked staring at the figure he was seeing before him.
Nikkari who is near Yamanbagiri heard the whispers from him which he wasn't able to understand instead turned to look at him who seem to be fazed at what he is seeing at and decided to take interest and look at the same direction he is looking but the same thing happened to Nikkari, a surprised expression can be seen from his face.
The others finally noticing their strange reaction and expression got curious and looked at the same direction that they were looking at.
"He woke up from his rest because of the commotion." A certain fox scolded but jokingly.
Upon noticing the silhouette coming towards them the first to react and come forward were Imanotsurugi, Yagen, and Shokudaikiri who ran towards the silhouette they saw, their eyes almost red and tears asking to come out because of happiness overriding their worry and sadness "Aichi-sama!" the three shouted with all their hearts.
The first silhouette was none other than Aichi, their beloved master who finally woke up from his deep and long slumber, and since he was still weak he was supported by Kiyomitsu with Konnosuke on top of his shoulder and Yasusada all the way. The fourth silhouette was Kai who woke up from his nap and decided to join the others to not be a kill joy he thought so but in truth he was just as worried and happy.
Upon reaching Aichi, Imanotsurugi embraced Aichi with all his might "I thought you were going to leave us forever." Imanotsurugi spoke as if speaking of their promise tears up in joy.
Aichi returned the embrace without a second thought "I was scared that I wouldn't be able to save you" Yagen spoke, hiding his tears Yagen used his arms to cover his face from Aichi, noticing this Aichi used his hand to remove them and placed his hands on his cheeks, responding to his kind and soft touch Yagen held the hands that was warmly placed on his cheeks and wasn't able to hold the tears anymore.
Noticing the toudans expression with Mina, Miwa, Misaki, and Kamui, Aichi spoke to say "Everyone, I'm back" as if to reassure them that what they are seeing isn't a dream and because of hearing that assurance all of them hurried to Aichi's side, upon reaching Aichi all the Tantous let's go of the tiger cubs and hurried to embrace Aichi.
"Aichi-kun!" Mina was the next one to give Aichi an embrace an embrace that made Aichi tap Mina's shoulder since she was almost choking him to death because of the tightness but it was because she was that happy to see him alive and well.
Seeing this happen, all the toudans and their visitors, with Konnosuke of course were finally able to smile and laugh.
"I'm glad that nothing has change." Shokudaikiri spoke "Welcome home Aichi-sama." Aichi nodded and smiled, with this everyone looked at each other and nodded, after that everyone inhaled and "WELCOME HOME, AICHI-SAMA." Forgetting the earlier incident.
"Yes, I'm back…" Aichi wasn't able to hold his side and let out the tears that he had.
Seeing the scene unfold to them Yasusada can't let the chance go to waste "Oh you guys were nothing, you should have seen Kiyomitsu cry-" But before he could finish Kiyomitsu elbowed Yasusada's stomach to stop him from speaking but it wasn't enough to make him stop to unveil the truth "-ing… when Aichi-sama, woke up… he-" but once again before he could finish what he was about to say Kiyomitsu tried a different approach and used Yasusada's scarf to strangle his neck to stop him from speaking.
Everyone was finally able to laugh from watching what they did, something that they weren't able to with what had happened with them.
Yagen was the first to stop his tears and wiped it off, since it was his promise to cure him of what ails him "Aichi-sama, this medicine will help you regain the strength that you lost, but of course this is just like first aid so you still need to do your part." Yagen handed a bottle to Aichi.
The Tantous then let's go of him so that he can be able to drink the liquid from the bottle then seeing as Kiyomitsu thinks he can let Yasusada go he loosened the scarf that made Yasusada cough out loud and breathe heavily and because of him becoming dizzy from being choked he fell to the ground with of course hitting Aichi in the process and since he was still weak Aichi lost his balance but with the help of Kai who was behind him, Kai was able to catch Aichi who was blushing at the same time.
But of course what of the bottle, the bottle got away from Aichi's grasp but since the Tantous was close enough they were able to catch the medicine, but little to their knowledge that Konnosuke also jumped in to save the medicine but even though his intention was to save it, instead of catching it he accidentally bumped into it resulting to the medicine getting away from their grasp.
"Ah…" Yagen puffed noticing something from the bottle that group wasn't able to hear since they were panicking at the said medicine.
"Wait doesn't that medicine look different?" Misaki took notice but the bottle already shattered upon hitting the ground.
Every toudan were sweating and trembling in fear because of Mina's menacing aura especially Kiyomitsu and Yasusada even Konnosuke.
"Wait! Onee-chan didn't you say that you think the medicine is different?" Miwa was the first to notice her comment, hearing Miwa call her Onee-chan really wants to punch and retaliate but didn't in the end as this is not the time.
She sighs because of the latter but decided to continue "Yeah, the color is paler and the bottle is thinner." As expected from Misaki she was able to notice something different than others normally do.
Yagen opens his mouth to say something but before his voice could reach out "EH?!" can be heard from everyone, well with the exemption of Kai, Misaki, Gokotai, and Sayo who only gaped their mouths in astonishment.
"Y-you were going to let A-Aichi-kun drink t-that?" Mina stuttered while looking at the effects of the liquid inside that is very peculiar indeed, at a perfect landing spot there are weeds growing then as the liquid touch the ground and hit the weeds, the weed sparkled bright like never before and flourish and grew magnificently, for a weed that is.
"Oh… wrong bottle" Yagen stoically spoke and poker faced as if it was nothing making Aichi flinch.
But then a little while later they saw the weeds withering and then dying, everyone didn't shout but instead everyone flinch "Are you seriously going to let Aichi-sama drink something like that." Hasebe approached Yagen while stomping his feet then shouted in front of his face.
"It wasn't on purpose, I didn't notice." Yagen simply replied making Aichi tremble a little now with a teary eye.
"That was a creepy experimental potion, Aichi-sama could have been hurt!" Kiyomitsu too did the same thing Hasebe did to Yagen.
"I was about to stop him, but I already noticed it when Aichi-sama wasn't holding it anymore…" Yagen replied nonchalantly.
Everyone sighed in relief "So you were going to stop him in the end…" Hasebe and Kiyomitsu fell on the ground after they were able to once again breathe from another terrifying incident.
"T-thank you Kai-kun" Aichi thanked Kai when the commotion has subsided, although Kai didn't answer it was simply because he had nothing to say since Kai know and understood Aichi's situation that he can't walk yet nor stand properly so he decided to continue supporting him silently while the others are busy about other stuff.
"Here is the real medicine" Yagen brought out another bottle.
"Hey, you, woman!" Hasebe pointed at Misaki that made her popped a vein from annoyance making Hasebe flinch and tremble a little "I-is this the real medicine from before?" Hasebe wanted to check if it is really safe to let Aichi drink it.
Misaki can't be bothered and only sighed making Hasebe flinch a once but stopped trembling. Staring at the bottle Misaki inspected it carefully then answered "Yes, this is the same bottle as before."
"I apologize deeply Aichi-sama" Yagen apologize to Aichi while bowing his head a little and handed the bottle to Aichi.
"T-thank you Yagen." He was both flustered from the weird medicine he was about to drink and Kai who saved him from earlier.
Aichi was about to drink the medicine when "Alright Mitsubou I'll leave the preparation of the celebration to you!" Tsurumaru declared while grinning and shouting in excitement.
"Oh that's a great idea!" Miwa seconded the celebration idea and so does everyone we are sure about that.
"Sure, but I'll need lots of help!" it seems Shokudaikiri is geared up and ready.
"This is going to be fun!" Imanotsurugi jump from delight.
And so because Tsurumaru's sudden declaration the whole group became excited and decided to help with the preparation for Aichi's awakening. This made everyone geared up and forgot the whole mess about what Mutsunokami did and maybe because of that incident that woke up Aichi they decided to think that maybe that incident was a good thing.
The whole toudans knew and felt it themselves that they haven't smiled nor laughed for days because of the worry and sadness they felt for their slumbering beloved master and now that he is awake, they can now finally burst into laughter and happiness filled their hearts.
Outro: Alrighty… I hope I cooled the angst and eternal sadness for this story, I hoped to make more funny and no more depressing chapters… so I hope you liked this silly chapter and I tried my best for this!
I'm very for my vocabulary and grammars. Anyways Hope you like it, thank you for your continuous support everyone!
Thank you for reading! Please review or pm for any suggestions or problems on the story.