Later into the afternoon, where everybody was going home for the day, but all the while, Shiro arrived at the gates of the old rusty fences with Flowers in his hands before arriving here.
In the meantime, Adam watched Shiro leave out of Admiral Sanda in frustration, feeling something's wrong, Adam arrived at the same place where Shiro was visiting, four minutes later.
Pushing the gates, the old building was a shrine, originally it used to be the childhood of Shiro as well as a family business but it was shut down after his grandfather died, and due to lack of people and souvenirs, despise this, Shiro was still happy
growing up here.
He remembers the time that a transparent jewel glittered as it reflected the sun through the paper door.
"The quintessence Crystal?" Shiro said, back when he was around the age of 8
"That's right! With this, not only will we be protected from danger, but our business will be even more prosperous!" his grandfather replied in a serious tone while holding up some sort of charm in his hand.
"And we're selling these glass marbles?" asked Shiro in a bit of a deadpan tone.
"Are you listening, child?" asked his grandfather, causing Shiro to sigh.
He could kind of understand why his grandfather was so intent on teaching him these kinds of things. After all, Shiro's old house was a shrine called the Shirogane Shrine. According to the signboards that his grandfather had placed around the grounds, it had quite the history, apparently had quite the imagination, acclaimed it had all kinds of legends from the universe. It wasn't a major enough shrine to be included in any of the tourist guidebooks, but it was known to the locals and people would come during the summer festivals or the New Years' shrine visits. those moments were great and treasures for Shiro, except for his grandfather's space stories.
"Now listen carefully, Shiro," said his grandfather, From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the universe, the quintessence Crystal was..."
"Oh boy, here he goes again..." Shiro let out a small sigh.
Back then, when Shiro tried to pay attention, he just couldn't remember. He honestly didn't care, though. He felt that the past didn't matter...As life was nature, it's always changing like the seasons as has it always been for this shrine. Since has been forgotten, people began to spray paint over the buildings and forest life had taken over, and in the backyard was a very tall 500-year-old bristlecone known as the great Tree, surrounding the tree were small garden stones symbols that spread in a
circle. There was also an old dry well in the old well house next to the shrine that had its legend. Pretty much everything at Shiro's house was legendary.
Shiro knew about the symbols meant, Earth, water, fire, air, and balance. before crushing down to give the flowers on the ground.
"Adam, I know you are there". he said.
"Huh," Adam said in surprise, No surprise there, Shiro has a heightened ability to sense people, animals, and objects.
"Bad day?" Adam asked,
"Yeah," Shiro replied, mumbled out as he rises.
"What'd Sanda say?" Adam asked.
"The Mission, the Kerberos one. Sanda what me out of the Mission. She had the nerve to say to me." Shiro said, annoying.
Adam said, "Maybe it's for the best, she is right, you only put yourself at risk".
A long pause lingered between them as the remark lanced through him, puncturing the swollen boil in his chest. A sudden rage exploded inside Shiro, and it poured out from his lips.
"It's for the best? It's for the best that for all their endless back-patting and praise for nothing, it's for the best that I don't ever get that I'm accomplished is for nothing except posing for recruitment brochures? It's for the best that I just wither away and die here, Is that it".
"That's not what I said nor what I meant, Takashi," Adam said, trying to calm him down.
"Save it, Adam I know what you're going to say," said Shiro.
"You don't know what I'm going to say!" Adam said, "After all, HOW important am I to you?".
"I...That not what I - " Shiro began, but Adam wasn't in the mood to hear Shiro defend himself. He walks from the tree to a set of stairs and ran out of Shiro's sights.
He walked down until he got a point to sit down and think about things since he was upset, which was a lot and nobody ever bothered him here, nobody except Shiro, anyway. Today, He hoped that Shiro would understand there are more important things.
"Every mission, every drill, I'm have been right there with him, but this is more than a mission, This is his life in sake". He asked himself. He starts to the sky, lost in thoughts for who knows low long. Around the time it started getting dark, he heard footsteps.
Shiro slumping down to sitting next to Adam. Adam turned from him.
"Look, I'm sorry," Shiro said, Trying to explain to him, "I know you're worried about me but happy and safe doesn't give my life meaning, Adam".
"I don't" Adam protected. "I'm so exhausted, you know? It's like you can't even see that you want to be happy and safe. That everyone does, for all you've given to them." Adam leaped from the stairs. He didn't want to be mad at Shiro but was possible.
As Adam walked back up the stairs, he stopped upon noticing a strange rumbling sound coming from the well house...and for some reason, he looked a bit nervous.
"Adam!" Shiro called, causing Adam to turn to look at him.
"What was that, did you hear that," Adam said, starred.
"The well, it's coming from the well" Shiro asked Adam.
Shiro knew the story of the legend of the hidden well and was never allowed to enter. But with no hesitation. The two closer to the hut to figure out what the sound was but the doors were closed.
"How are we gonna get in," Adam said, starred.
Shiro said. "Why don't we go find out", he held out a key dangling from a metal ring. Adam was confused. it looked like the key to the hut that Shiro had. Since he once lived here.
"No way," Adam said.
"Way" Shiro replied as he was opening the doors.
Adam only shook his head, "I take it all back", Adam said, sarcastically. "you're officially crazy, I can't believe you going in!",
"Checking out", Shiro corrected him. "One look that's all!"
Shiro and Adam passed through the wooden door sealed off by the lock and the rusty chains and stepped into the small shrine.
A damp, cool air wrapped about Shiro's body. The inside of the shrine was always like this. It was like it belonged to a different world from the outside, always filled with its distinct atmosphere.
Down a staircase of about five steps, an old, wooden well was visible. The well was surrounded by bare ground, as the well was originally built outside, and the shrine was only erected later to shelter it. According to his grandfather's stories, the well had long since dried up and was now tightly sealed off with a heavy wooden lid, preventing anyone from looking inside.
Luckily they had their phones on, setting up the light.
"Ah, Takashi" Adam replied, as they walked down the stairs, only to see the boarded well in the center of the old hut but he jumped at the sound of footsteps from the floor.
" hello ~!" Shiro called. "Is someone there?"
No response except for the creaking of the old wood.
"I'm sure no one down there, somewhere," said Shiro.
"B-but Takashi," Adam began, "doesn't this place kinda creep you out?"
"What are you afraid of?" asked Shiro. "You're a man, aren't you?"
"Uhh..." Adam muttered, nervously, only to gasp upon hearing some sort of scratching sound, causing him to hide behind Shiro's shoulder. "S-s-something's down there!!"
"Who, no one has been down here!" Shiro asked, incredulously.
"Except for us!" Adam cried.
With that, they ventured down the stairs and looked around for the wayward person.
"Hello!" Shiro called. "Come out wherever you are!"
Just then, he heard the same scratching sound, causing her to look over to the well, where she saw the boards that closed it off seeming to move...and that's when she realized something.
"Wait...it's coming from the well?' he thought. 'No way...is...is there something inside there?"
Suddenly, he shrieked as he felt something brush up against his ankle, causing him to look down before he sighed in relief, for it was just a Munchkin cat with white and blue fur, dirty but not scary, "awe, what cat like you doing here" Shiro said as he was picked up the little animal, purring softly.
"Don't scream like that!!" Adam cried. "You scared me!!"
"Oh, sure," Shiro muttered, sarcastically. "See? I told you it was just a cat! Now let's go before we-"
Before he could finish that sentence, Adam narrowed his eyes at something behind Shiro before he gasped silently: the boards that closed off the well were cracked...and something was creeping out of it!
"Takashi! Behind you!" Adam cried.
"Oh, no, I'm not falling for- AAH!!" Shiro started, only to shriek as multiple arms suddenly reached up and grabbed him, causing him to look back and see a half-naked woman with long white hair with a green tinge that fades the bottom that covered her black halter neck net bra...and six arms!
"Takashi!!" Adam cried.
"W-what in the-?!" Shiro questioned as he struggled to get away as the woman pulled him down into the well. "H-hey! Let me go!!"
"Takashi!!" Adam cried as he ran to Shiro's aid, desperately grabbing his hand and pulling as hard as he could, even pressing his shoes against the well to anchor himself. Shiro struggled as she looked down again...only to see something he wasn't prepared to see: the woman was connected to an extremely long skeleton...and it extends way down into the darkness!
"Oh, no...!" he whispered in horror before she looked to Adam who was struggling to pull him away from the woman's grasp. "Adam, stop! Let go! She'll pull you down with me!!"
"I can't, I..." before he could finish his sentence, an arm accidentally scared him on the right side of his face.
"Ahhhhhh" Adam Shirked in pain by the attack.
"Adam" Shiro yelled, "What is this thing?!", Shiro tried to fight back, but it's dragged him towards the well with unbelievable strength.
The only thing he heard before being completely sucked in was Adam yelling out. "TAKASHI".
As for Shiro, he was falling through what seemed like endless darkness with the monstrous woman.
"What joy...!" she said in a somewhat raspy voice. "My strength...I feel it returning to me!" As she said this, green flesh began to form around her bare, dry bones...revealing the body of that of a centipede!
"A...a centipede lady?!" Shiro questioned.
"You..." the woman hissed as she opened her mouth, revealing a mouth full of fangs. "You have it...don't you, girl?" She then licked Shiro's cheek with a 12-inch-long tongue, causing him to shudder in disgust.
"Gross!!" he shouted. "Let me go!"
At that, Shiro pushed her hand against the centipede woman...and for some reason, a bright light seemed to flash from his palm that caused the monster to shriek in pain. The next thing Shiro knew, the woman had suddenly vanished, but the only trace of her that he found was her disembodied arm, which was still clinging to his sleeve.
"AAAAH!!" Shiro screamed as he smacked it off. "Nasty~!! Ohhh, I'm gonna need a shower~!!"
"I...won't lose it...!" a voice whispered, causing Shiro to gasp, for he realized it belonged to the centipede woman. "Not now...the quintessence Crystal...!"
"The... quintessence Crystal...?" Shiro asked before he suddenly felt himself drop down against the cold, shiny ground, where picked himself up from the good floor and grabbing his bag while remembering the quintessence Crystal... That was a crystal of mysterious power that was a legend at the Shirogane Shrine. The charm that his grandfather had shown him years ago was something made in the likeness of that legend.
"Wait...I'm still in the well?" he thought. "...Maybe I was dreaming." That's when he spotted the severed arm nearby, and it was still twitching. "...Or not."
"Adam! You're out there, aren't you?!" As Shiro shouted upward, sunlight shined at his face "Eh...?" When Shiro's face emerged, he couldn't believe his eyes.
But no answer.
Instead a white butterfly with wings detailed with a soft pink and black, frozen mid-air right in front of his face when he straightens and tilted upward in flight. Shiro stares at it, bewildered, and then, with a detached sort of curiosity, he reaches his hand out and touches it as gently as he can.
"Adam," he said, touching his head, there was no answer and to is his surprise, he wasn't in the interior of the hut, instead of lush land of greenery and a new forest life was to see.
Shocked and confused, Shiro began to walk hoping to find his way back home while thinking that about his situation rationally, believing this day has never even happened and he's been asleep this whole time, having the same dream again or hit his head on the walls.
Or drugs somehow were slipped into his system and he's hallucinating everything.
Or he was putting some reality show, making him so he has to find his way home.