Chapter 23 - Sealed Memories 4
As time gradually went by, the sky eventually became dark. Me and Mokuzai seized this opportunity and set off; as Mokuzai held me under his arms before somersaulting out from the window.
"Ooi, Mokuzai, what do you mean by holding me in this way." Being held under Mokuzai"s arms, I said with a tone of dissatisfaction.
"Of course it"s because I"m afraid that the clumsy waka-sama might alert everyone while we"re sneaking there. What if you"re being caught by the surveillance guards and was reported to Master, we"ll be in deep trouble then."
"Urrrgh. Then why don"t you just carry me onto your shoulders, at least try to make me look more cool; your actions right now, holding me under your arms is quite embara.s.sing you know."
"Then waka-sama, do you prefer that I princess-carry you, or to continue holding onto you like this?"
"I choose....... death."
"Alright, waka-sama. I"ll continue to tightly hold on to you like this, I won"t let you easily fall to the ground." Mokuzai then chuckled towards me, as he glanced forward as he proceeded along the pathway.
Seeing the shadows of the various trees quickly flying past my vision, I felt rather giddy due to the strong wind that repeatedly whipped onto my face from Mokuzai"s fast running.
While Mokuzai still held onto me, he easily climbed up a rather tall tree and placed me onto a tree branch before rummaging past bunches of thick leaves for a vantage look-out point. Looking through a tiny slit among the leaves, he keenly observes a small hut that"s located far from our current position.
"Are you observing the guards?" I looked at the observing Mokuzai and carefully asked.
"Yes, after this batch of guards have finished their surveillance, we will be able to enter, please hold on for awhile waka-sama."
Boredly plucking away leaves from the tree, as the time went on, I actually fell asleep while waiting; and I was in the midst of a good sleep when Mokuzai nudged my elbow, waking me up from my nice dream.
"What happened?" I rubbed my eyelids as I looked confusedly at Mokuzai.
Mokuzai said with a pained expression on his face: "Of course it"s because that the guards have left already, I so painstakingly focused on keeping a look-out yet waka-sama actually slept................."
"Ahahaha, sorry about that, then Mokuzai can we enter now?"
"Mm."
Mokuzai then held me under his arms, before suddenly jumping down from the tree. The resultant force shook my entire body vigorously, nearly causing me to fall off from his grip.
"Bas***d Mokuzai!! Can"t you be a little more careful!? Wakasama-I am still here you know!!"
"Heh heh, sorry about that waka-sama." But as I looked, there"s not a trace of apologetic expression on his face, he was in fact evilly grinning instead.
Afterwards Mokuzai carefully observed the surroundings, and after some glancing around he turned to me and said: "Waka-sama, just go right in, I"ll keep watch atop a nearby tree just in case. Remember, you have only two hours, when I knock onto the door you must come out to let me carry you away."
"Sure-sure-sure."
After I hurriedly agreed with Mokuzai, he nodded and then ran up the nearest tallest tree around us; seeing the rather comical way of him climbing up the tree, I laughed rather vivaciously.
Turning around in a fashion, I noticed the door behind me
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
had rust on it. Using both hands to push it, the door made a "Ku-chak" noise, frightening me into jumping.
Seeing the pitch black darkness within the hut, there"s only a slight glimmer of moonlight from where the windows were positioned, making this house look creepier and scarier by the second.
"Asaka? Asaka are you around? Hiroto is here to deliver some food to you to eaaat~"
Standing by the doorside and shouting for a while, there wasn"t any response from Asaka. Looking at the rather pitch dark hut, I felt rather nervous, and continued to shout for Asaka as I walked towards the only source of light in the hut, hoping that it might somehow provide some ease of relief.
"Uaaaahhh! Asaka no big baka, what are you doing."
Suddenly somebody behind my back had attacked me, pouncing me onto the ground. I felt the rather familiar heavy sensation, it"s Asaka no doubt.
"Only waanted to give you a scare, nooo fun, Hiroto actually knew that it"s me..... I knew Hiroto would definitely come to deliver food to me." Asaka sat onto my back as she said with confidence in her tone.
"Asaka no big baka, quickly get off, the food I"ve brought you are all in my hands, they"ll be crushed!!"
After hearing that Asaka quickly got off from me; I adjusted my position from lying down to sitting upright, and revealed flattened onigiris from my arms.
(TL note: onigiri = j.a.panese rice + some ingredients in the middle curved into a triangular-shaped compact s...o...b..ll, it"s quite delicious, go and try it!)
Asaka slid beside me and sniffed: "Hiroto, you"re so good to me.... you"ve brought my favorite onigiri along, but it"s a pity that it became flattened."
"Baaka!! It"s clearly after you jumped onto me thats why the onigiri would become like that....... forget it. Asaka, quickly eat before it gets cold and becomes not delicious any more, but the onigiri being in this flattened shape... I don"t know if you"re able to take a bite at it or not."
"As long as it"s Hiroto who brought me food, no matter what it is I would eat it ~ come Hiroto, have one too, come on~ come on~ aaahhhh"
Asaka took an onigiri out from the packet of onigiris and held it using her mouth, before taking another and trying to feed me with it with her hands.
Seeing the delicious-looking onigiri that was dangling by Asaka"s mouth, my appet.i.te seemed to have been opened and I then opened my mouth to munch onto the onigiri that Asaka held, taking huge bites as I ate.
After I finished eating this onigiri, I noticed Asaka was hungrily wolfing her food and said: "Big baka, eat slowly, I"ve brought a lot of onigiris."
Seemingly realising that I was watching her eating, Asaka"s face started to blush, and thereafter she proceeded to eat slowly with grace.
While watching Asaka eat, I recalled what Asaka had said when I entered the hut. "By the way, Asaka you earlier said that I would definitely come, but how come are you so sure on that?"
Asaka looked at me while smiling: "Because it"s Hirotoo!"
I became slightly gloomish as I said: "What kind of an answer was that, that response"s too half-hearted already.
As I watched Asaka munching on her onigiri slowly, I felt that she was rather cute when a sudden "Gu~ lu~ " sound appeared from a corner of the pitch-black hut.
"Uaaaaahhhhhh, what"s that sound, who"s over there?"
"Hiroto, is it a ghost, I"m scared......." Asaka leaned her head onto my shoulders as her voice slightly trembled as she said.
"Don"t be afraid, I"ll go take a look! Asaka, stay here and quietly wait for me, alright~?" I stroked Asaka"s hand several times, to give her some a.s.surance, before deciding to proceed to the corner of the pitch black hut to see what"s going on.
"Hiroto, don"t go, you"ll be eaten by the ghost." Asaka worriedly told me.
"I"ll be fine, Hiroto-me is extremely strong~" I smacked my chest and took in a deep breath in order to beef up my courage to check the area.
(Honestly speaking, I"m quite scared, but for Asaka"s sake I must be brave, what if it"s most probably a wild cat or something, if I don"t take any action and have a look I"ll be scared to my death doing nothing.)
Something in the darkness seemed to be shivering while giving off moderate noises, I kept encouraging myself as I approached it, frankly speaking I already didn"t feel that much frightened already.
After I had reached the corner of the pitch black hut, I realised with a surprise that it"s actually a small girl, she clutched her face as she trembled, hugging herself tightly in the corner.
Even through the darkness I could clearly see her hair color, it"s shockingly silverish white, what kind of age that this person must be in to be still having patches on her clothing.
(TL: patches on the clothes, it means that imagine there"s a large hole on your shirt, you would normally throw it away right? But you also could take another cloth and sew the hole up (albeit with a different color sometimes if you cannot find alternative cloths, as probably hinted in the text above))
Pulling away her hands that was tightly clutching onto her face, I gave a cry of shock, and a worried Asaka quickly ran over to check what"s going on, before yelping in horror too.
The small girl"s face cannot be described by mere words, it"s simply too frightening to even had a glance at it; a long scar ran through her entire face, and her eyes was one small, one big, her nose is completely flat, and pus was always dripping from her nostrils.... in comparison, her mouth was considered rather normal, except that it was rabbit-lipped.
"Hiroto onii-chan, have you seen enough already?" The horror in front of us actually knew my name, and she even called me onii-chan!!!"
I started to recall what Mokuzai had said before about Second oji-san"s daughter having pa.s.sed the test too, before saying uncertainly: "You"re Natsu?"
Asaka who was standing beside me suddenly seemed to remember and said: "Natsu? Second oji-san"s daughter?"
"Yes, I"m Natsu, Hiroto onii-chan, can you give me an onigiri?" Natsu"s voice sounded exceptionally nice to hear, which is in contrast to her face appearance.
"Sure, come and eat together with us."
"Thanks."
At that moment I couldn"t intepret Natsu" current expression on her face, because of her face, and I thought to myself that Asaka is really extremely cute to the max in comparison.
Under the moonlight, Natsu also seemed rather frightening, as she took an onigiriand bit onto it, tears dripped from her face.
Still slightly frightened, I looked at Natsu and asked: "Natsu, what happened? Is it because the onigiri isn"t delicious?"
"I.... I miss my okaa-san, ever since okaa-san had pa.s.sed away, I"ve never eaten anything as delicious as this onigiri, otou-san didn"t like me because of my appearance, and because I looked so scary, the children in the Takeno family kept throwing stones at me......" Tears dripped out from Natsu"s face that induced fear in people as she said.
My heart ached, and I walked to Natsu"s front and hugged her face close to my chest, letting her wail in my embrace.... and hearing her sobbing getting louder and louder, I gently told Natsu still embraced in my arms: "Natsu-chan, would it be fine if I called you this way? Actually a person"s appearance cannot determine a person"s worth, what"s truly beautiful is the inner beauty within a person, so cheer up, be more positive, as long as your thinking changes, your body and your spirit would definitely change with that too. If you"re always positive, you"ll naturally always have friends around y ou.... when I became sensible, my otou-san used to always say, me and Asaka"s okaa-san pa.s.sed away from problems when giving birth to us, and he often told us that, without any okaa-san we must be even more stronger, never to shed our tears easily."
The person in my embrace after hearing my consolation, had her sobbing eventually getting softer and softer, and at last she looked at my face and said: "Mm, I must be strong, I won"t easily shed any tears, then will Hiroto onii-chan mind what my appearance looked like?"
(TL: I can"t help it, I had to say: FLAG!!!)
I stroked Natsu"s hair, and said gently: "Of course I won"t, don"t be too concerned about your appearance Natsu-chan, me and Asaka will always play with you~"
Hearing my affirmative words, Natsu smiled even more happily, and said: "Mm mm, thank you Hiroto onii-chan."
------------------------------------------------------------
Watching Natsu lying in Hiroto"s embrace, a fierce anger erupted out of nowhere from the depths of my heart. As I gripped tightly onto the corners of my skirt and watched them hugging each other closely, a few poisonous words flared out form my mouth: "Who would want to play with that ugly b.i.t.c.h, look at you, what if you frightened Hiroto! Look at all the pus on your face, all of it got onto Hiroto"s clothes already, it"s really disgusting!!"
Hiroto glanced up to look at me with an expression of surprise on his face: "Asaka, how could you say this sort of thing, she"s our imouto too!"
(TL: imouto = "lil" sister")
"I don"t have this kind of imouto, I only have Hiroto, my most cutecuutecuuutecuuuuutecuuuuuute onii-chan."
Sobbing emerged from Hiroto"s arms, and Hiroto started to be a little enraged: "Asaka!!!!! How could you say this kind of things, hurry up and apologize to Natsu-chan, if you don"t apologize, I..... I won"t play with you next time!"
"Hiroto how could you do that, I"m then your nee-chan!!!! .... All right, all right, I"m sorry Natsu, I shouldn"t have said something like that."
After apologizing I saw that Hiroto"s face started to become better.... I knew that Hiroto won"t be angry with me in the first place, I had wanted to continue saying something but at this moment Mokuzai pushed open the door and entered: "Waka-sama, let"s go; two hours have pa.s.sed, if we"re being spotted then it"ll be disastrous."
"Asaka no big baka, make sure you play with Natsu-chan~ tomorrow I"ll come again to play with all of you." After hearing Mokuzai"s words, Hiroto hastily said to me before leaving, and thereafter he hurriedly left with Mokuzai.
"Bye Hiroto onii-chan." Seeing Natsu calling out to Hiroto onii-chan, I felt extremely p.i.s.sed off.
"Hiroto onii-chan is so kind."
Although Natsu"s voice is very small, I still managed to hear it.
"Hiroto is mine." I puffed furiously at Natsu, before walking to a corner of the pitch black hut; being silently angry at Hiroto while looking forward to Hiroto visiting again tomorrow.
-ch 23 end-