As I crossed the doorway of Master Kagami's office, I staggered to a stop, disconcerted, at the sight of the person holding himself there in front of the master's desk.
I didn't know that he was back. I didn't know that he was going to be my partner for the mission that I was about to be assigned.
Shirane Nakagiri.
We hadn't seen each other ever since the day I had been kidnapped. He had ensued one mission after another consecutively after that episode.
Recovering my self-possession, I greeted Master Kagami and listened carefully as the latter gave Shirane and I the details of our mission, while I avoided the harsh looks of the red-haired boy.
When the formalities were completed, without speaking a word to each other, Shirane and I stepped outside of the office, ready to leave on mission.
Tsunan came out into the corridor with us and I paused down to talk to him while Shirane went up ahead.
'Here!' said the doctor as he held out to me an Omamori. The amulet was wrapped in a small red bag, the cloth well decorated. 'I've asked for it to be made to offer protection against evil creatures, specifically demons.'
Moved, I gazed at him, smilingly.
'Thank you from the bottom of my heart,' I whispered, gratefully, accepting the gift. 'I will always keep it on me.'
***
A moment later…
'Do you intend to stay mute during the whole time of the mission?' demanded Shirane, abruptly; shattering the intense quietness between us as we reached the train station of Toda.
My head snapped up instantly.
He was walking a few steps ahead of me and was now staring backward at me past his shoulder.
'Do you want us to talk about the mission?' I asked.
Without any warning, he jerked to a stop and flung around to face me with an angry look.
I flinched, coming to a halt.
'Don't try to act smart with me!' he snapped. 'Who was that guy of the other day? He's a demon, isn't he? You seemed to know each other! Why did he take on you like that?'
Tadashi…
I began to feel sick in the pit of my stomach; my heart palpitating.
Shirane was there that day in that abandoned building. Of course, he witnessed everything!
But apparently, he hadn't told anyone about it.
'I- I don't want to talk about it,' I whispered, breathlessly.
Keeping my eyes down, I tried to walk past him but he didn't allow me to.
Seizing me by my wrist, he shoved me against the side wall impulsively, pinning my hand against it while he exclaimed furiously, 'I'm not going to let you off so easily! Are you going to answer me, yes?!'
I stared at him with wide eyes.
'Shirane, let go of me!' I told him in a shaky voice.
He seemed to come to at that moment, his eyes shifting from my face to onto his grip on my wrist and back again.
'Leave her alone!' shouted a masculine voice, out of the blue, and our heads snapped to the side at the dark-haired boy – whom I recognized instantly- coming into our direction in the empty station.
Shirane backed off immediately to stare at the other male and I guessed from the redheaded boy's mortified look that the girls had spread the word about "Kōmori-san".
Shirane's lips seemed to be burning to say something but he simply turned around and walked away gruffly, without uttering a word. I followed him with the eyes for a few seconds, still a bit disheveled by our little altercation, before I turned my eyes onto the dark-haired male standing a foot away from me; unsure about how I was supposed to react or what to say.
'I know that I've told you that you'll never see me again, but will you please hear me out for a minute?' the latter said. 'There is something that I absolutely need to tell you and Hatsu has made me understand that I should say it to you, not just to him.'
I blinked in confusion. 'Hatsu?'
He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, explaining, 'When we parted, I bumped into Hatsu Sho and he offered me refuge at his place.'
'Oh, I see,' I murmured and waited for him to tell me what he had been wanting to say.
'The first time that I met you, you have really intrigued me and you kept intriguing me over and over again. You were simply a mystery that I needed to solve, but at some point, this has changed,' he told me, slowly, and then, pressing his eyes shut, he declared, fervently, 'I've never truly had a family, until I've known you, Shun! And this is why I wish to stay by your side!'
My eyes went wide at him in astonishment.
'You consider me... as a member of your family? And you want... to stay with me?' I asked, mechanically, and he nodded, keeping his eyes shut, as though, he was expecting a rejection or even, a blow.
I looked down, thoughtfully, contemplating what he had just said.
'Are- Are you sure?'
His eyes blew open at this question of mine and he stated, 'You are like a gleam in utter darkness. It's hard to keep oneself from approaching the light. So, yes!'
I smiled, awkwardly. 'It sounds so cheesy!' I fixated him for a minute then. I didn't really understand him, but… 'Okay. If it's truly what you want!'
He grinned, happily.
'By the way, my name is Heihachi...'
***
A small while later, as we were seated on the train, leaving Toda…
Shirane glanced at me where I sat opposite of him, then at the small bat in the seat next to mine.
'You- You are going to take it- him along with us?' he demanded, clearly disturbed.
I nodded and the red-haired boy looked like he was going to explode or something.
'Decidedly, you're truly depraved!' he muttered, turning his red face away to stare out of the window.
I sighed.
Is the rest of the voyage going to be like this?
***
At lunchtime, on the other side...
Tsunan opened his bento box to have a look at what Shun had prepared for him and what greeted his sight were onigiri. His mouth watered; they looked succulent.
'Why are you fixating your bento box like this?' inquired Master Kagami who had entered the infirmary, soundlessly.
The older male's eyes fell onto the content of the box at that moment and he exclaimed, with excitement, 'Wow! Shun has prepared you a bento, with rice balls on top of that! Oh, it's so cute! Can I have one?'
His hand went for one of the onigiri but Tsunan didn't leave him the chance to take it, hitting the older man with his chopsticks on the back of the hand, with a severe and possessive look.
'Ouch!' whined the master who instantly pulled his hand away and shook it slightly in pain. 'Why are you so mean with me?'
'Do you think that Shun is going to be able to manage with Shirane?' Tsunan asked him, staring seriously.
The older male leaned backward against the doctor's desk and crossed his arms over chest, becoming serious too.
They both knew that, without any doubt, Shirane was going to demand answers from Shun about Tadashi Honjō and Shirane wasn't known for his tenderness. And it hadn't been a week yet since Tadashi had last brutalized Shun.
'I'm convinced that this mission will help them solve their differences,' the master replied after great deliberation.
Tsunan let out a sigh.
'Are you already missing her? Don't worry! You won't be separated from her for a long time. If they eliminate the target tonight, she must back by tomorrow afternoon,' he teased the doctor, with a playful grin, but Tsunan didn't share his humor.
'Can I really... not have one?' the older man asked then, swallowing back saliva, eyeing the rice balls with a famished look.
Tsunan's eyes narrowed at him in disbelief.
'Alright! But only one!'
***
We reached destination in the late afternoon.
Akagi Village was very small and secluded, bearing hardly fifty houses, surrounded by forest that stretched on for kilometers round.
The habitants of the village used to live a peaceful life until a week ago when, a Furaibi- a fire yōkai- began appearing every night, putting on fire several houses and even immolating people on its passage.
Our mission consisted of eliminating the creature engulfed in flames which has plunged the villagers in terror.
At nightfall, I took my position onto the roof of one of the houses of the village watching for the east- direction that the yōkai always took to enter and leave the village- while Shirane took his position on the ground.
For safety precaution, we had evacuated the villagers to the northern side of the surrounding forest where they had set up small camps.
Several hours after the sun had gone down, finally, I caught sight of a gleaming form coming towards the village.
I sprung to my feet, activating my Godai Shakujō.
I had never seen such a creature in my life before. The Furaibi had the form of an eagle-sized bird enveloped in fire. I wondered if legends of the Phoenix took birth from the sightings of these yōkai.
Noticing me, the Furaibi flew directly into my direction faster than an arrow. Instantaneously, I launched an attack onto it with my Godai shakujō, wishing to get it at one go, but to my astonishment, the yōkai skipped it.
Without missing a beat, I assaulted it with one attack after another but none of them managed to hit it, the yōkai moving at stupefying speed.
Fortunately, we had elaborated a plan.
I made the five shakujō pursue the Furaibi to lead the latter where I wanted.
Just as the yōkai was about to hit the ground by making a downward swoop, it shifted out of the way of the five shakujō after it to skip them by just and these planted themselves in the ground. But distracted by this, the Furaibi completely missed the blade of Shirane's scythe waiting for it, until the weapon had cut it dead, turning the fire yōkai into a pile of ashes on the ground.
Releasing my breath, I got down from the roof to join the redheaded boy.
Shirane's weapon was quite impressive. The handle, which was a long simple rod, measured the height of his body; the blade, which was dark, looking sharp. His ability worked a lot like my Godai Shakujō, he could make it appear and disappear. He only had to extend his hand to invoke his scythe.
Shirane handled the weapon with great mastery, his movements being fluid, rapid and precise.
With the terrific weapon in his hand, he looked like a grim reaper, the personification of death.
'What? It's already over? Che! This mission is not worthy of me!' he muttered.
'Don't say that!' I told him, softly. 'People have lost their lives; others, their houses. It's not to be taken lightly.'
'Yeah, right, I'm sorry. It's not really what I meant,' he grumbled, making a face. He turned half around to face me then. 'You still haven't understood, did you?'
'Understand what?' I asked, perplexed.
'The master assigns to you only the least dangerous missions. Who knows why! Perhaps, it's because you're still a debutant or because of your narcolepsy.' He made a shrug with his shoulders, before he remarked, 'Even if, from what I've read, every time you end up managing to put yourself in high risks!' He added in a snort, then, 'Anyway, all this to tell you that because of you, I've been lumbered with this mid-level mission!'
I pondered over what he had said, for a minute. Master Kagami does this? There exists more perilous mission? Something occurred to me at that moment. What does he mean by "from what I've read"?
'I'm going to show you what a real mission is like!' he declared, suddenly, putting a sheet of paper up in front of my face. 'We're leaving for Kanbara Village!'
My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at the sight of what he was holding in his hand; it was an official form concerning a mission in the said-village.
'Where did you get this? We don't have the right to take a mission without the master's authorization!'
Did he intrude himself in Master Kagami's office? Why? Can it be that… he was searching for information on me, but he found nothing other than my reports of missions?
'Don't come if you don't want to!' he grunted out before he threatened, 'But I'm warning you, if something wrong happens to me, you'll be equally responsible because you refused to shoulder me.'
I cringed away, my mouth hanging open.
I was caught in a fix.
Shirane Nakagiri was fond of danger and apparently, he took keen pleasure defying authority. There was absolutely no way that he was going to back out now.
If I cannot stop him, I can at least shoulder him.
On these thoughts, I ended up tagging along with him.
Oh gosh! Master Kagami will not be happy at all when he'll notice that one of the mission forms has gone missing, I thought to myself, breaking into cold sweat. I don't even dare to imagine the moment we'll have to face him about it.
***
The next day, in the afternoon…
We had left Akagi Village immediately after having accomplished the mission we had been assigned by the master; Shirane being impatient to start our new mission which would lead us to Kanbara Village.
We had walked the whole night through the forest and in the early morning, when we had hit a small dirt road, we had managed to get a ride in an animal drawn cart which was going to pass by our new destination.
Kanbara Village was situated at the foot of a mountain. The village was quite big, with large wooden houses and bearing several shops, a bar or two and a few ryokan. Rice paddies could be found at the entry of the village.
On the slopes of the mountain were two big residences; one being that of the Shinoda clan, the other being that of the Shimazaki clan. Both residences shared the same stature.
It was for the former residence that we went for.
Behind the high compound wall could be discovered a small town of houses built in Japanese traditional style, just like with the Hitachiin's.
'From what I have understood, you present yourselves as monster-hunters from Gushiken Paranormal Organization and I suppose that you're here because of the strange deaths that have been occurring in my family,' said Saigyō Shinoda, the man who was at the head of the Shinoda clan.
The man was in his late forties, being tall and muscular, with tanned skin and dark-brown hair. Like the other members of the clan we had come across, he was clothed in a kimono and haori.
We were received into a traditional-style room, with cushions in the middle of the floor for sitting.
'What am I saying?! Murders, would be a more appropriate word!' he corrected.
I gulped. Murders?
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Omamori - a portable Ofuda
Ofuda - a household amulet or talisman; while an Ofuda protect a whole family, an Omamori offers support for personal benefits
Onigiri - rice balls
Ryokan - Japanese-style inn
Haori - a kimono-like jacket