A/N: Times I wonder why a lot of my plot muses like to come out when I was out of my house www. I mean, I sort out the issue with baby Kei while on the bus too... XD
Ace sat beside the hospital bed again before taking hold of Keiwa's left arm. Ace glanced up at Tsumuri as he appeared unsure.
"So... what should I do, Big Sis?" he asked because the first time he entered that dream world where he met a younger Keiwa... had been purely by chance. And so far when he tried to recreate the situation he doesn't seem to be able to do it, let alone fall asleep. Since he'd be too self-aware of himself by then.
That probably made sense.
Since unlike his mother and Tsumuri, Ace doesn't usually activate his powers of creation through prayers.
Tsumuri placed a hand on Ace's shoulder, as she tried to reassure him.
"Take a deep breath... and empty your mind of any other thoughts, Ace-sama. Just focus your thoughts on the desire to see Keiwa-sama again."
Ace closed his eyes as he tried to empty his mind like how his sister was telling him to do. He held Keiwa's hand and pressed it against his cheek as Ace thought about seeing Keiwa again and just Keiwa...
.
When the sound of bells finally rang, Ace's consciousness already left his body.
.
"Whoops!" Michinaga let out a loud cry as he hastily caught Ace's body before Ace's head could crash onto the nearby cabinet. The young man let out a cry of surprise when he looked down and saw Ace completely passed out.
He turned around to exchange glances with the rest of his companions, completely befuddled.
"I didn't expect that to actually work!"
xxx
He found himself in a small forest, not quite in the same area where his sister's Inari shrine... but somewhere that felt like it was nearby. There was an old shed nearby, that seemed to beaconed for him to come and check it out. Sara told him that Keiwa used to have a 'secret' hideout where he ran off to when he wanted to hide from people—so this might be the place!
Ace carefully entered the shed without making a loud sound before a loud gust blew in, causing the door behind him to slam shut and making him jump in surprise. And just at that very moment, Ace's ears caught the sound of someone moving not far from him.
He was not alone in this shed... but of course.
He turned around towards the direction of the sound as he started to call out towards the other person.
"Hello—? Is someone here?"
"Go away!" shouted a young-sounding voice as right away Ace received his reply. The voice sounded slightly less high-pitched compared to the last time he heard that voice, but Ace could guess who was the owner of the voice already. "This is MY secret hideout! You got no rights to get in, whoever you are!"
Ace couldn't help feeling a slight joy over hearing that child-like voice. "K-Keiwa... is that you? It's you, isn't it?" Ace spoke again as a young boy stood up from behind one of the stacked boxes and chairs.
"How did you know my name?" exclaimed the boy as Ace smiled at him. The boy was much older than the one he met last time, but he was sure of it now. There's that pert-looking small nose, familiar-looking eyes (normal or bright blue, it doesn't really matter to him) and lips... but most of all, Ace could tell that the boy standing in front of him was Keiwa just because his heart had said so. This is Keiwa! And they've met each other again...
.
The boy flinched away from his touch when Ace tried to brush a finger towards the light bruise on young Keiwa's cheek and cut lips as he frowned.
"What happened to you?" Ace asked as young Keiwa shrugged at his concern.
"It's nothing. Just the aftermath of a fight when some idiot tried to make a bad joke at my expense. What's so funny about having 'great' parents and showing it off to people who lost theirs very early in their life? Those brats were just asking to get punched!"
Ace chuckled in amusement. "You're talking as if you're not a silly brat yourself. I can't believe you had this side hidden in you... after all these times..."
The boy sitting in front of him glared at him. "There you go again—acting so familiar again with me. Who are you again?"
Ace just grinned at him, lifting up his hand to show him a fox sign. "Just an 'annoying' fox wanting to say hi to you, is that bad?"
Young Keiwa frowned at him before fiddling with his own fingers.
"A fox... huh? Sounded like we wouldn't be able to get along well. Foxes and Tanuki had always had a pretty bad relationship—"
Ace started leaning over towards the boy as young Keiwa edged away from him. "You're a Tanuki, huh? Who'd have guessed that?" said Ace teasingly as Keiwa stared at him wryly. "But I believe that the two of us would get along well together just fine."
Keiwa scowled at him when he said that. "Are you an idiot? Have you not read all those stories about foxes and tanuki and the battles they had between them? I mean, don't you even read about Danzaburou Danuki?" scolded the boy as Ace grinned at him widely.
"He—he, so our young Keiwa's a fan of folktales like that?" he teased again as Keiwa's cheeks started to become red.
"Sh—shut up! Don't treat me like a little kid! Why are you here anyway?" snapped the boy back as Ace shrugged.
"I just wanted to take you back home. Sara-san and a lot of people would be worried if you stayed here too long, don't you know?"
Keiwa let out a soft snort. "Big sister... huh? Yeah, she'll definitely worry about me... but I can't go back home now, looking like this. It'll just make her worry about me even more—" Keiwa glanced up at Ace before shaking his head. "I don't know what you meant by 'a lot of people'. Aside from my big sis, I don't think there's a lot of people who gonna worried about me being gone—"
Ace smiled at the young boy weakly.
You're wrong... Keiwa. If anything bad happened to you... a lot of people would definitely be worried. Especially me...
.
Ace woke up from his slumber to find that the room had already become darker. He sat up to find that everyone else had left, except for him. Though he could see someone left behind some packed food on top of the cabinet—which was probably for him.
He turned his attention towards the bed again as Keiwa remained sleeping. Ace held up Keiwa's hand that he was still holding before placing a soft kiss on the back of Keiwa's hand.
I'll get you back here, safe and sound. Wait for me, Keiwa...
A/N2: Though I wanted to add a few more trips to the dreamland before posting this up, but nah... let's take our sweet time while at it. Though it felt like we'll be finishing this in two more chapters