After 2 weeks, the day had finally come. We were all told to assemble on the school grounds before 4 A.M. I departed from home at 3:30, and before leaving, mom had been repeating the same thing about making sure I didn't do anything wrong, stayed with the group, etc.
It was still pitch dark when I reached the school. The school grounds were completely packed with kids excited for the trip. Everyone was talking to their friends, or trying to get a quick nap. I started searching for Charles but instead bumped into Edward. Now who is Edward? Well, he is one of my classmates, he isn't much of a close friend but he is a cool guy. He is pretty good at studying 3rd in the whole class, wears glasses but looks cool with them, and well he is quite handsome even though a nerd.
He keeps getting love letters from our classmates and even those from the other classes, he is quite charming and has also got a friendly personality.
I asked him if he had seen Charles, but sadly he hadn't. I asked if he would find him along with me and he agreed, saying he didn't have anything to do. But I am sure he was just feeling lonely. We both tried to find Charles for a long time, we met a lot of our classmates but Charles was nowhere to be found.
I heard a voice calling out to me, "Eien!!"
I looked back and saw Cassie running towards me, She gasped for air, "I was searching for you-", she noticed Edward. "Oh. Good morning, Edward"
Edward replied, "Good morning to you too, didn't expect to run into you today. ", they were kind of like rivals and didn't talk to each other a lot since she was first in the class and he was third. They didn't particularly hate each other but didn't like each other either.
"Yea, so where were you all this time?", Cassie asked me
"I was right here all this time.", I replied
"SO, why didn't I see you all this time that I was searching for you?"
"Because I was searching for Charles so I wasn't standing in a single place for a long amount of time, I guess that's why you didn't find me earlier."
"Maybe…..", she paused. "So, did you find Charles?"
"Can you see him here?", Edward replied instead
"I wasn't talking to you.", Cassie sounded like she was about to start a fight
"Well, but you looked like you didn't have any eyes to see that he wasn't here.", Edward replied,
"YOU-", Cassie shouted but I interrupted
"Stop it, you guys. We aren't here to fight let's just enjoy the field trip alright?",
"Fine.", both of them murmured.
"So-", before I was able to speak anything, the speakers gave off a loud buzzing sound.
"ATTENTION EVERYONE! WE WILL BE DEPARTING SOON, ALL STUDENTS ARE TO GET INTO THE BUS AT ONCE.", the speakers announced
We had to abandon the search for Charles and get into one of the buses as soon as possible or else we would not get a seat together, Cassie went into a different bus with her friends, and Edward and I climbed into the bus we were closest to.
We luckily found a good seat, I took the window seat and Edward sat beside me. Soon the buses departed, Most of the kids were now sleeping, including Edward. I was looking out of the window. Ever since a few weeks ago, I had started to see things that no one other could. Just about 2 weeks ago I had fought a 30-foot-tall golem and a demon who could control blood. I had gotten serious injuries both times when I fought, I had become a donut when I fought against the demon.
But each time I defeated both of them, I woke up somewhere else and had no wounds, no scars, and no pain. All of the wounds and the pain were as if left on the battlefield. Because of that, at some point, I had started to wonder if it was all an illusion.
But the thing was that there were too many things that didn't fit in, if it was an illusion then what was the book that Grandpa left behind? Why were the trees on the school grounds broken like that? The main reason I had for going to Kyoto was to find the Izanami clan that Maryu spoke of. I had found zero information on them, but If I could find them that would be one more thing that would help me believe that all of this wasn't just an illusion.
We soon reached Kyoto, I woke Edward up and we got off the bus, we were supposed to live in a traditional Inn where all the boys in a class were given only 1 room.
We reunited with our class teacher and he led us to where the whole class was assembled. But I still couldn't find Charles anywhere. I asked sir if he had seen Charles and we got to know that he had some kind of accident and wasn't able to come. We asked sir if he knew whether the accident was minor or not but he said that he didn't know anything.
We were to visit a fare that was taking place in Kyoto today and then come back to the Inn later in the night. We all kept our bags in our room and then got back on the bus this time, each class was given one bus, not like last time when anyone could sit in any bus.
We reached the fare, I was with Edward and Cassie. We tried a lot of games like dart throwing, fish catching, and a lot more. In shooting Edward surpassed all others and won the final prize, an iPod. In games that required physical strength, I was the one that always won. Astonishingly enough Cassie won all the games of pure luck.
We also found a scammer, it was a shooting game, and we had the option to either use a ball or a BB bullet gun to make the prize fall, We aimed for the top prize, which was an anime figurine. BB bullets shot by Edward were all hitting the box but the prize was just not falling over.
I then took over, I used the ball, it was costlier than the BB bullets but it was worth it. Instead of aiming for the anime figure, I aimed for the shelf with enough power to break it. It hit the point and the shelf broke, all other prizes started falling over except the anime figure. I could see the anger on the owner's face.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?", The owner screamed
"Well, First you should take a look at your top prize,", I pointed towards the shelf. "All your prizes except the anime figure have fallen, do I even need to say anything anymore?"
"Now, you better give us that prize or we will close this shop of yours", Cassie said
"Just you try." " the shopkeeper shouted at us, a lot of crowd had gathered because of the commotion, and the shopkeeper realized his situation and gave us back half our money and the anime figure as compensation. And then we went ahead to another game.
Cassie really wanted that figure, So I gave it to her. Overall we had earned a lot of prizes. The sun was setting and we heard an announcement on the loudspeakers.
"All the Lotus High School students are to return to their inn immediately."
We quickly hurried back to the inn, where we got refreshed and then slept. And that was the end of day 1, with no progress made toward finding Izanami Clan.
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It was day 2, we were supposed to go visit a shrine today. The shrine was situated at a mountaintop, the bus would drop us at the foot of the mountain and the rest of the path would be covered on foot.
It was around 9 AM when we reached the mountain, the sun was shining lightly, the winds were blowing calmly, and we could hear the birds chirp. I took a deep breath, the mountain air was cold pollution-free, and felt good, at least better than the air back at home in Tokyo.
We started climbing the mountain, it wasn't so hard but it was still taxing. A lot of girls were scared of bugs and would scream every time they saw one. Obviously, some kids would get tired every few steps. We had been hiking for about half an hour now, it would take another hour or so to reach the top of the mountain if we kept going at this pace. Everyone was now getting tired, Sir saw this and said, "Alright everyone. We will be stopping here for a few minutes, make sure to rest."
While everyone was resting, I slipped past into the forest. The mountains would have been the best place to try out my new ability, and with all these trees, I would have been able to determine how well it worked. The book called it QI perception.
What I had to do, was release QI, and by using that map out my surroundings. I would be able to see things even beyond my range of view, the only problem? It strains your brain, the larger the area, the larger the strain. I had practiced this technique quite a few times, but never on a large scale, now that I had the opportunity, I couldn't miss it.
I slowly started to release my QI, and I expanded the area, as much as I could. I could see, and feel the position of every tree, shrub, insect, and bug in the area, the only issue? My limit was only 6 meters. I was still too weak and had too little control to be able to have a range of more than 6 meters.
I suddenly sensed a human behind me, I immediately turned behind to find Charles.
"What are you doing here?", I asked him
"More like, What are you- doing here?", he asked back
I sensed something strong, flying towards us at high speed. I pushed Charles out of the way and ducked down, the beast flew over us. It looked like a lion, had wings like that of a dragon, and a tail like that of a scorpion.
I had hoped never to see this creature in my life. But who knew I would have to fight it so soon? Charles was looking frozen in fear, even if he couldn't see it, he would have been able to sense a creature that strong.
"Run!!", the creature returned, "NOW!", Charles stood up and ran back.
And the manticore scooped at me.