Everything was indeed a lot to take in for Aki. He had seen things beyond his wildest imaginations that day, and then this girl came in and claimed herself to be his wife. Aki could no longer distinguish between what was real and what was not, He only hoped that his father was okay, waiting at home for his son's arrival, and that everything was going to turn back to normal.
HISAKO
Two fishermen coming back from their day's fishing found both Haruto and Akira lying in the ground, passed out. They immediately scrammed around both the boys trying to wake them up. one fisherman said to the other- "Maybe we should try to splash some water on their faces,"
The other fisherman replied- "Are you sure?" to which the former replied- "they don't look dead yet!" The other fisherman immediately dropped his rucksack on the ground and began scrumming around for his water bottle, when he finally found it, he opened the cap of the bottle and began to let the water fall off the edge of the mouth of the bottle into each of their faces. Both the boys immediately woke up to the fresh cold water which hit their faces.
Haruto almost screamed at the sight of these two men standing over their faces. Following his scream, Akira woke up as well and began to stare at the two strange men that stood in front of them. He looked around for signs of the huge beast that had appeared in front of them, the body should have been there but alas! there was no sign of the beast. More importantly, where was Aki? He immediately asked the fishermen if they had seen a third boy along with them to which the fishermen denied. Chills went down their spines when they finally realized that both the beast and Aki were nowhere to be seen. Where could he possibly be? what about the beast that they had seen in front of their own naked eyes? what about the sudden slashing of the beast's head? They both had seen the body with their own eyes. There were too many questions left to be answered.
Both the fishermen helped the boys reach the town safely. Upon reaching the town, the boys immediately thanked the fisherman for their kindness. After the two groups parted ways, the boys immediately ran over to Aki's house and looked for his father. Mr. Shiratori was in his garden cutting up some dead leaves when the two boys arrived at his doorstep. Upon hearing about Aki's disappearance, they immediately made their way to the police station where the boys tried to explain the happenings of the day. The policeman as well as Aki's dad found the stories hard to believe and were dead set on squeezing out a reasonable explanation from them. after all who would have believed that beasts like that could even exist? and on top of that a girl with magical powers? This was all a little too childish to be considered true for the policeman!
Following that day, A number of search parties were organized to look for Aki. Not a single stone was left unturned and yet there was not a single sign of Aki to be found. Where was Aki after all? maybe he'd left and didn't want to come back home yet? Maybe he ran away with a girl? all kinds of rumors rose about his disappearance since.
"That idiot! I always told him not to go near those woods and look at what this has bought upon us!" - said Akira.
"Maybe he really did run away? oh, how I wish that were true, but we both saw that beast with our own eyes that day."- said Haruto being stuck in a disbelieving cycle of events.
"No, this shouldn't happen, we can't let this stay like this just like it already is forever Haruto, we have to take matters into our own hands."-said Akira,
"But what can we even do? you saw that beast with your own eyes, what if we were to come across something like that! something that big!"- replied Haruto in an exhausted tone.
Akira found himself at a loss of words, he could neither say anything nor think of a solution to this mess.
"I know where Aki is."- suddenly a voice came from outside the door of the classroom in which Haruto and Akira were discussing their matters.
The door slid open slowly and a girl stepped in. It was Fumiko from their class, all though none of them had ever spoken a word to her, it was a pretty well-established fact that she was the popular girl in the school. All of the senior guys in the school had tried to ask her out but none of them had ever succeeded. Guys like Haruto and Akira could never even dream of approaching her and talking to her.
"I know where Aki is"- Fumiko repeated herself. "And I believe in your story."
Akira and Haruto took in the fact that the most popular girl in the school was standing right here in front of them, telling them that she believed in them. As if to make matters weirder, they would have never even thought of her as someone who would believe in monsters and magic powers.
"To tell you the truth, I could never have guessed this would happen, but your story is way too similar to the one my grandfather used to tell me when I was a kid" - said Fumiko.
"Fumiko with all due respect, this is no matter to joke about. This our dear friend Aki we're talking about here"- said Akira in a disbelieving state. He was never the one to trust a person easily and even now that someone was here claiming to know the whereabouts of his dear friend, He didn't want to put his trust on them easily.
"With all due respect Akira, this matter isn't something I want to take responsibility upon, yet this could be the only way I could help both Aki and Me, so I'm begging you, please trust me, just for once."
"How do we know that you're telling the truth?"- Asked Haruto in an attempt to join the conversation.
"You follow me, there's something that I want to show you."
Akira finally obliged to her request without protesting much. He wanted to know even the simple of things that could potentially lead to the answer to his friend's disappearance. Haruto too was ready to go with both of them. Fumiko was relieved to see both the boys ready to listen to her.
"Meet me at the gates after school ends, don't go anywhere."- said Fumiko.
After school ended, the clouds turned dark, and the rain started to pour in heavily.
"don't worry, we're only going to my house, we won't be out in the rain for too long." - said Fumiko.
without doubting her much, both the boys started to follow her.
Fumiko led them through the huge market in Hisako to the vintage cottage that stood in a hill not too far from the main town. When they finally arrived, Fumiko, without calling out to anyone quietly slid the main door and let herself in. Both Haruto and Akira stood outside the door looking at each other. This was the first time they were ever going to set foot inside a girl's house.
"What are you two looking at? come inside quickly."
Both of them finally let themselves in and looked around at the house. The Cottage was certainly a big one, it looked like it had hundreds of rooms as the hallway stretched. Whoever her parents were, they must have been making a lot of money to be able to afford a cottage this big- Akira thought to himself.
"Make yourselves at home,"- said Fumiko as both of them undid their shoes.
"Follow me," Fumiko led the two of them into a huge hallway area. Everything in that area had been arranged beautifully in a way which complemented the entire design of the house. even though the house looked hundreds of years old it was still constructed in a pretty firm way. The old aesthetic of the house only added to the design of the house. It was the kind of house where someone could finally live their life after their retirement, the kind of house that could give a person their 'big break'.
Fumiko quietly led them to another room; she signaled the two of them to follow her. She slid the door of the room as quietly as she could, trying to make as little noise as possible. Inside the room, there was an old man writing a book, he looked very concentrated on his book, hardly noticing Fumiko and the two boys enter.
"Grandpa, I bought them over, these were the two boys who saw the beast in the jungle"
The old man stopped writing upon hearing his granddaughter's voice. Slowly and steadily, he grabbed his walking stick and stood up from his place. He observed the two boys who were now seating in his room. After a minute-long stare on each of their faces he finally began.
"So, you two were the ones who came across a walker."