*𝘽𝙞𝙜 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧+𝙐𝙣𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙*
Kaori opened her eyes slowly, her vision all blurry. She felt sharp pain all over her body as she stirred, slowly regaining consciousness. Her eyes shot open as her brain started working again.
She was surprised as she saw that there was someone else who fell along with her; who had protected her from getting hurt as that person had engulfed her body in a hug and took the blow.
She pushed the body away to sit up straight but she gaspeas she saw who it was.
It was Yamaken. He had also jumped off the cliff in order to protect her when he couldn't stop her from falling in the first place.
"Yamaken?" She called as she nudged him, "Are you okay?"
He didn't move.
"Yamaken?" Kaori stopped as she saw blood coming out of his head and his left elbow that had a deep cut on it.
"Yamaken!" She immediately tried to pull him up into a sitting position and ripped the long sleeve of his shirt open.
The cut was indeed deep. Kaori checked the injury of his head to find out that it wasn't deep or anything. It was just a cut on his forehead which was being covered by his fringes, which were now drenched in blood.
As she took deep breathes, she said, "Treat the elbow first.. Let's do this, calmly," She took her hand up to the cut and touched it.
A glimpse of red, lightly glowed.
The blood that was coming out of the wound slowly reduced and soon, it was left as a clear cut.
Then she touched the cut and swished her hand over it. The cut slowly dissolved, leaving a clear skin that had some stain of blood.
Kaori sighed in relief, "Good thing that I have abilities."
She reached for Yamaken's forehead when a hand grabbed her wrist. Kaori startled but she eased when she saw Yamaken was half awake and he was the one who was holding her wrist.
"What are you doing?" He mumbled lowly.
Kaori slipped his grip off her wrist, "I'm treating your wounds."
As he heard her reply, he let her do what she was doing.
She cleaned the wound in the same way she had cleaned the wound on his elbow. This cut was much like a scratch, so it wasn't long before she healed it as well.
As Kaori stood up after treating Yamaken, he asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"
"Yes," Kaori ensured him. "Why did you do that?" She asked as she turned to face him.
Yamaken shrugged, "I had to protect you, both as my master and the hea-"
"Don't say that!" Kaori yelled, making Yamaken freeze, "Don't mention that."
"Why?" He asked, dumbfounded.
"No one should know who I truly am," Kaori explained, "Nobody. So don't ever mention it."
"But why?"
"We don't know where Fujinuma's men are lying, so be careful," Kaori warned.
"O-okay," Yamaken also stood up as he dusted himself.
Kaori was staring up at the cliff where she fell from, it was almost ten feet high. Yamaken stood beside her with folded hands, "What should we do now?"
"Are you sure you're feeling better?" Kaori asked instead of answering
"A bit dizzy, but it's fine," Yamaken responded, "Why?"
"Then hang on tight, we're getting out of here soon."
"Huh? How?" Yamaken asked as he was still confused.
Kaori winked at him and held up her hand, "Your abilities must be used to help yourself when nobody else can. You know what to do."
Yamaken instantly backed away, leaving Kaori standing where she was.
Kaori tapped on her wristband, "Yukine-kun?"
"Yes, master," Yukine's voice replied.
"Suggest me what I should do to get out of here in the most easiest way," Kaori ordered.
"....."
"Kaori, you have only one way that's coming to my mind right now."
"Say it."
"Blast the cliff off and make your way back to the garden of the inn. But if you do this, you'll definitely expose yourself to everyone-"
"No worries, I already have a plan," Kaori assured, "Thanks, Yukine-kun," She cut off the connection before the latter could say anything.
"Are you really going to do it?" Yamaken asked dryly from the back.
"Stay back," Kaori brought her hands together, making a cage with it.
𝘼𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝. 𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙙𝙚!
she slashed her hands through the air.
!BOOM!
****************************
Mr. Walker and Mr. Patt were talking with the landlord, Mr. Herbert, in the lounge as they drank coffee when they heard a loud sound and felt the earth rumble slightly.
"An earthquake?" Mr. Walker said in confusion.
That was when a servant came running, "Mr. Herbert! You must come and see this!"
"What's wrong?" Mr. Herbert asked with a frown.
"You should come and see this!" The servant said again in reply.
As Mr. Herbert raised from his seat, Mr. Patt and Mr. Walker also wished to go with him.
And so, the team of three men headed out - the male servant leading their way.
****************************
They reached the garden soon. The servant lead the way to the edge of the cliff where it was supposed to be.
In the meantime, words had spreaded all over the inn which caused most of the guests and other people of the inn to crowd over to the designated place to see the view before them. A mild noise broke out as the audience began to whisper among themselves. The sight before them was indescribable.
"It's a massive destruction," Mr. Walker squealed.
Mr. Herbert had lost his words as soon as he saw the sight.
The cliff that Kaori and Yamaken had fallen off from was completely destroyed as there seemed to have been a massive land slide. The whole air was full of dust and all the surroundings of the cliff were completely ruined, the trees down there and the field.
"Was the garden effected?" Mr. Herbert asked dryly.
The servant replied, "No, sir. Only the entrance to the forest has been collapsed."
"How did this happen?" A guest among the audience required.
"I felt a something a while ago..." One pondered out aloud.
"How can there be a cliff at the edge of the garden?" A man complained, "There might be accidents happening.. The inn authorities are so careless of the guests."
"The landlord isn't even checking whether the guests are okay, he cares about his garden more," Another scoffed.
Mr. Patt and Mr. Walker glanced over at the pale looking landlord with pity.
"How did this inn even get five stars?" A woman questioned with a sneer.
Mr. Walker spoke up, "Look, you are misunderstanding something here. A land slide is a natural disaster. Plus this inn was situated on top of a toft, so it's also natural to have a cliff at the edge."
"But it's also wrong to have not warned the guests about that," He looked over at Mr. Herbert who lowered his head.
"I was careless, I ask for your forgiveness," Said he.
"It's okay," Mr. Patt now came to the rescue, "He was just surprised by the sudden disaster," He explained to the people, "So he naturally forgot about asking about everyone's safety. He can just do it now."
Mr. Herbert cleared his throat and asked in a hoarse tone, "Is everyone of you okay? Is everyone here?"
"Willia, where's Kaori?" Dylanthy nudged her friend as she heard the question.
Willia looked over at her from the drama happening before her, "I didn't see her ever since lunch."
"Wait," Melissa reminded, "Didn't Kaori say she'd be in the garden if we needed her?"
At once, Willia's expression changed into worry, "No way."
Wood was listening to their conversation from the side and he remembered how Kaori had left him in the midway.
𝘈 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘦... 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘮𝘦.... 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪?
"I had met her in the garden sometime before this," Wood informed the girls, "Didn't she go back to the room?"
"No," Both Dylanthy and Willia replied immediately.
"Kaori," Melissa said out quite loudly, "Is she missing?"
Most of the people heard her words when Robin spoke up, "Sir, Yamaken is missing as well!"
****************************
As Kaori's hands slashed through the wind, her attack striked at the tall cliff and made it crack in the middle.
Kaori had jumped away backwards before the whole cliff crumbled as it collapsed down with a slight quake. The air was filled with dust and soil was everywhere. The whole place looked like a completely destruction.
"Kaori.." Yamaken called, "Since when did your strikes become so powerful?"
Kaori stepped forwards over a small mount of soil as she looked up at her achievement, "I was surprised at first as well, but now I understand the reason why my power got stronger - It's bound to get stronger after I became the headmaster."
A way up to the garden was made. They could climb back up again now.
"Such power," Yamaken muttered.
Kaori smiled at him, "Don't worry, I'll be careful. Now let's go."
Yamaken followed his master as she began to climb up the way.
As they had climbed back up, they saw a huge crowd of people coming their way. In order to avoid extra questioning, the duo quickly hid themselves behind a big tree and began to watch what was going on over there at the edge of the cliff.
****************************
"See?" At once, broke out yells of complaints, "Two people have gone missing now because of this. What have you got to say, huh? Who knows where the two kids are right now. If they are to die, will you take the responsibility?!"
Mr. Hebert tried to calm them down, "Ladies and gentlemen, please-"
"Keep your nonsense to yourself!" A shunt came.
Mr. Walker tried to help the helpless old man again, "Let's send a search team down there so that they can make sure nobody was hurt. If those two aren't there, we can be sure that they are safe."
"Whom are you suspecting of not being safe?"
All heads turned towards the direction of the voice to see a short haired good looking teenage girl who had a thin, slender figure and a tall handsome young teenage boy who was walking along with her. Both of their hair were black but while the girl's eyes were clear dark brown, the boy's eyes were blue.
"Kaori!" The three girls yelled out in relief, "Where were you? We were all so worried!"
Kaori stepped towards her friends and gave them a reassuring smile, "I met Yamaken along the way back to my room. So I took a stroll with him."
The six other friends let out a suppressed breathe.
Kaori then turned at Mr. walker, "What happened? What were you talking about just now? I'm afraid I've also heard some gossips along the way here."
"A land slide struck," Mr. Walker replied shortly, "We were just worried that you might've been hurt or fell down there since we found out that you were missing. So we had decided to send a search team but I guess that's not needed anymore."
Yamaken shook his head, "Not at all. We're here as good as new. Everyone else seems to be safe and sound, too."
Mr. Herbert finally got some strength back, "Okay, there is nothing else to see here. Everyone go back, please!"
He turned to ask his servant where the manager was and decide on the next steps to wrap up the incident. As he left with the servant, the crowd was slowly breaking away as well.
But Kaori managed to say before it fully did so, "Don't start to judge before you reach the ending. Sometimes the endings are the key to the whole story."
Most of the spectators had heard her words but decided on not to give her any replies.
Some man began to talk among themselves about the matter as they heard her, "She's kind of right. We shouldn't have slandered him without explaining things in all angles."
"I hope he wasn't hurt by our words, though.." Another said back.
Kaori had a victorious smirk on her face as she heard them talk. She then turned around to face her friends who were eyeing her and Yamaken with rather serious faces.
"Kaori, we need to talk," Tom leaded the gang.
Kaori let out a sigh as she heard his tone, "I guess I have no other choice. Let's go to the boys' room, shall we?"
****************************
The eight took seats at the room as they entered it.
Kaori sat down on the handle of the couch, "What is it that you want to ask?" She looked over at Tom.
But it was Wood who spoke, "It was you, wasn't it? The land slide."
A smile made it's way on Kaori's lips, "Yeah."
"Don't tell me you had fallen off of the cliff?" He asked in worry.
Kaori nodded like an obedient child who is bound not to lie to others, "Yes."
Willia at once stood up to check up on her, "Oh my god, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Kaori held the hands of Willia which had reached out to check on her, "Yamaken protected me, so I'm fine. Though he was injured, I healed him."
Tom had looked over at the tired looking young boy, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Yamaken replied with an assuring smile, "I'm just tired."
Melissa suggested, "Then we should leave so that you can have some rest."
"Wait," Wood interrupted, "I want to ask something."
Everyone waited for his question to be asked.
He looked over at Kaori and said calmly, "What will happen about this incident?"
Kaori blinked two times before answering uncertainly, "Well, after we leave this place everyone that witnessed or heard about this incident will forget about it. It will be automatically erased from their memory."
"Really?" Dylanthy said in wonder, "Does that really happen?"
"I mean," Kaori tried to explain, "We decide on these kinds of things, you see." She scratched her ear a bit as she continued, "Outsiders, whom we don't wish to know anything about us, those parts of their memories are erased. The same will go in this case as well."
"Aren't we outsiders then?" Robin asked blankly.
Kaori shook her head in reply, "I decided on it to let you know about our world."
"Oh."
"Okay," Kaori stood up, "Let's go, girls?"
"Ah, yeah, right," Willia stood up, indicating the other two to come along as she did so.
As the four girls left the room, Robin asked if Yamaken was alright again. He replied that he needed some rest, so the four boys decided to leave the boy to have some rest.
****************************
In the afternoon, the students were called out to the front yard again by the teachers. This time, they announced that it was time for them to have a stroll into the forest.
After they grouped up - two village guides were coming along with them - they finally headed to the entrance of the big forest that was the main attention of this village.
****************************
The whole team was seperated into small groups and all of them were walking deeper into the forest as they listened to the continuous talks of the two guides which was filled with informations on this forest - what kinds of species of animals or birds resides within here, what kinds of trees are here, why this village was famous for this forest etc etc.
As the time passed by, the students began to converse among themselves than listening to the guides while the teachers were conversing with the guides with pure enthusiasm.
At the beginning of the journey, there was a strict rule of not leaving your group to go into your friends' group. The girls' groups and the boys' groups were strictly seperated as well. But now nobody actually cared who went where or who did what. Because they were already deep inside the forest with only the two guides speaking while all the others listened to them attentively. And as the students were young, they were easily bored with this activity.
Kaori was walking with her group of friends just like everyone else was right now. But Yamaken wasn't with them. He decided to listen to the guides as he had joined the teachers at the front and walked along with them.
While Kaori was quietly leading the group as she followed the teachers ahead; Robin and Tom seemed to be in some kind of argument about something that they couldn't agree upon. Melissa, Dylanthy and Willia were talking about girls stuffs while Wood was the only one who was walking beside Kaori quietly.
Kaori glanced at her friends as she took a look at the back, then she started a conversation with Wood with a question, "What do you think of this trip so far?"
Wood gave it a thought before replying, "Not bad, it's a different kind of experience, I guess?"
This answer was not to Kaori's satisfaction, so she let out a disappointed sigh.
Right then, her eyes widened and she came at an abrupt halt, making Wood and her other six friends come to a stop, too.
"Kaori?" Melissa called from the back, walking up to her.
Kaori cut in, "Don't talk."
Wood observed what Kaori was doing - she looked alert of something. Her eyebrows knitted as she took sharp glances at the surroundings.
At that time, he also felt something, which made him alert, too. It was a sound, a low sound of some kind of humm. It souded like someone, or something was calling out to them.
The wind gave a strong blow, making all of them shiver - it was cold.
"Guys?" Tom broke the silence in a dry tone.
Kaori only looked at him from the corner of her eyes, not bothering to ask him what it was.
But Robin asked, "What is it?"
Tom gulped as he replied, "I think- I think we got seperated from the main group," He announced dryly.
Indeed, he was right. As far as eyes could go in this deep, dark, silent forest, the eight of them were standing there all alone with nobody else near them.
"This forest," Willia began, "Why is it so silent?"
As the questions and facts were being stated, they were slowly getting the situation that they were in and it wasn't helping them any better. Except for Kaori, she seemed to be thinking about something deeply.
"We're seperated, I can hear odd sounds, this forest is too silent.. It all seems to strike me as weird," She spoke in a calm tone.
"And it's dark," Her eyes narrowed. "And somehow, I am daring for something to happen...."
"Guys, I shouldn't make you feel anxious by my words but.... All of this didn't happen coincidentally. We were made to be seperated," She stated, making a cold shiver run down her friends' spines.
"Wh-what?" Tom stuttered.
"This forest feels so spooky all of a sudden," Dylanthy commented.
"Yukki," As Kaori called, a long sword appeared in her hands that was glowing a mild blueish white light.
"Be alert, Yukine-kun," She said to her sword, communicating with him.
"Got it," He replied in an attentive tone.
"Stay back," She ordered her friends as she stood before them, as if she was ready to protect them from all kinds of harms.
No sooner had the words escaped her lips, all of them heard a voice. Well, not a voice, more like a bunch of voices saying all togther, "Smells-good, smells-good, the-smell-of-such-strong-power..."
"We-want-it!"
⭐🌟⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐🌟⭐