Hitori started from the front. He heard the right while Reon checked the left side. They made the promise of not going too deep into the forest. They were closing in on the woods right beside the house.
Hitori waited for Reon in the front yard. He was done checking the front woods, and what remained was the woods on the side… and behind. A sun's ray fell on Hitori. Morning comes early in spring.
He looked at the sky and saw smoke coming from the corners of the woods, clouding the bright morning sky. It was a warm morning, just like Hitori needed.
He felt that again. That strange, churning feeling whenever he looks at his house. What has become of it? The house he grew up in was not disfigured. He could not save the place he grew up in. was that a shame?
The wood on the front was reduced to scraps. Some pieces were blown in the ceiling while the front roof over the veranda was blown away. Its pieces were lying over the house's roof, or below the veranda.
The walls were just patches of black ash and the remains of gunpowder from the scrolls. The pieces of glass that once lay under the door frame had vanished. Dispersed around the hall, or blown into pieces of atomic size.
Just like the nuclear blast had evaporated the houses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Well, the pieces of glass were Hiroshima and the dynamites were no less than atomic bombs.
The lamps and torches that once hung from the wall were either broken into pieces or reduced to pieces. In either case, they could not be used again. As Kakashi had said, renovating this house was going to cost more than half a million yen.
"Come one, let us get to the hard part now." Reon joined him, they exchanged glances, then went to the right side of the woods.
He smelled something burning in the woods. The roots and dry branches were on fire, he saw when he got close. Hitori sprayed water over it and made sure the fire was down.
Reon found another pit where a fire was burning– it was a smaller version, but still needed to be taken care of. Reon kicked the stones and sand on the fire till Hitori came and spread water over it.
Reon giggled. "This is fun," she muttered as she walked past Hitori, near the kitchen door.
Hitori watched her go, but in his mind, he thought, 'Where is the guilt of killing men now, huh? Looks to me you are alright.' He followed her.
Reon did not find any fire near the kitchen. The kitchen was barely damaged, so that made sense. The kitchen was either out of their range or was not their target.
Even when Hitori approached the backside of the house, he was worried more about an assassin hiding in the woods instead of the Guardian Spirit. But if someone was in the woods, Kakashi would tell him.
But still, for a just-in-case scenario, Hitori drew his wand. His sweat acted like a lubricant, which made holding the wand hard. If, god forbid, someone comes, Hitori hoped he does not throw his wand instead of the spell.
Reon was waiting for him around the corner, the exact backside of the staircase. "Why? Lost the fun now?"
"Stop teasing. We do not know what It is, it might even be—"
"No, Reon, it IS dangerous. But the question is: to whom?" Hitori walked past Reon. "Do you have your gun?"
"No," she said and Hitori stopped, "but I have Kamiya's gun." She lifted the gun with a sly smile.
"That will work too. Although I doubt we will manage to do any damage to the It." Hitori saw darkness under the sunlit sky. The rays of the sun never fall on the house's backside.
"Are there any snakes or a monster in the woods?"
Hitori shrugged as he crossed the staircase's backside. "Never seen one," he said. Through the woods where the sun's rays never fall, he was expecting the green glow above his head.
But when he lifted his head, nothing but the same old darkness remained. His eyes widened and his heart picked up the pace. Was this the worst that could happen?
His tone, though, seemed genuine. Why would the Guardian do that? He sounded really angry– pissed off at Tengoku for something… no way he is gone.
Reon approached Hitori, but when she followed his gaze, she froze. Then she stuttered, "W-Where is it…?"
Hitori shrugged. "If you ask me… well, it never helped us, did it? I doubt it was even the guardian. A guardian can not leave this place." Hitori studied the vines hanging from the top branches of the tall trees behind his house.
Those four or five trees were the tallest and the thickest ones. So were their vines and branches, the ones which once held the Guardian Spirit above everything, still hidden under the dense leaves.
"You do not mean…" Her voice drifted on the way.
Hitori nodded. "Yes. Tengoku had set the Guardian to give us confidence, but when it does not come to help, we will freak out and get ourselves killed. But he did not know—"
"Did not know we do not need the help from woods to finish our enemy," she completed.
"To kill Tengoku? We don't. But to keep his army away, yes we need it. But seems like it is gone…"
"B-But what was it then? How did he manage to get so deep into the woods? How did he manage to tangle it in the vines, and just what the hell WAS that?"
Hitori sighed, staring at the torn vines hanging from the branches, and the sun's rays trying to enter through the dense leaves. "Guess only Tengoku can answer those questions… but it looks like… we will never get the chance to ask him though."
She had an idea of what Hitori was saying– everyone had the idea of what was going to happen next– yet, she asked, "What do you mean? You can ask him when he is on his knees, begging for you to spare him."
Hitori turned to her. "You know that is not going to happen. I will be the one on his knees. I would not beg for my life, but I will ask him to hear my last words. And– if he believes I would not cast a spell– I will even get that chance to fire a curse." He looked into her eyes and said, "I messed up."
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