Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Kazuyuki - Kazuki's Origin ❯ The Trouble that Lies Ahead ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 4

“The Trouble that Lies Ahead”

 

They had stopped where the floor of the outside hall dropped down with a few small steps to meet the backyard. Kazuyuki stood frozen at the sight that met his eyes. His mother was in the backyard as he feared; she was laying on the ground motionless at feet of one of those Anti-Shikigami. The monster looked worse from the ground then in the air. It was all black and had large leathery wings similar to that of a bat's but that's where the similarities ended. This beast had four legs, and looked more like a large ugly dog; a very large ugly dog. It stood about six feet tall and was about five and a half in length.

Kazuyuki continued to stare, frozen at the scene; Kane on the other hand took immediate action. Kane began to form his attack as he charged energy between hands and prepared to fire at the beast. The monster ignored Kane and looked at Chise instead. It's piercing yellow eyes narrowed and to Kazuyuki's surprise it spoke; it was a hoarse deep voice as if it was rarely used.

“THE ONE HAS BEEN FOUND - “was all it was able to say before Kane's attack hit. Kazuyuki wasn't sure if it was part of Kane's attack or not but the beast was vaporized upon impact and nothing was left of it. The attack was enough to snap Kazuyuki out of his shock and he ran over to his mother. H was very relieved to find that besides a few cuts and scrapes she was alright. Chise walked over to them and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Don't worry, I'll heal her” she said. She than leaned over and with her hand held flat hovering over his mother she began to glow. She looked up to see him give her a questioning glance and she smiled at him. “I can only produce healing tears when I'm in my true form.”

About an hour later everyone was awake, filled in to everything that happened. By that time Kazuyuki's mother was conscious and sat propped up comfortably in the main bedroom. She apologized many times for the trouble she caused them, regardless of what any of them said against this. Now that she was perfectly fine the others didn't seem worried about the attack but it kept bothering Kazuyuki; and by the looks of things, Kane as well.

Kazuyuki waited until that evening when everyone was relaxing by the fire in the sitting room to move over to Kane and whisper to him, “I need to speak to you…”

“Yes, I imagine you would” was his response. The two of them managed to leave the sitting room without being noticed and Kazuyuki led them to his room. Once there Kazuyuki turned around waited as Kane slid the door shut. “I think I'm right in saying that I'm not the only one unnerved by what that monster said. I talked to Chise about and she's acting like it didn't happen.”

“Yes,” Kane replied “the way things sound, that thing was looking for Chise but found your mother first and decided to go for her as well.”

“I guess that makes sense, but why would it be looking for Chise? Could whoever sealed her be trying to find and seal her again? And for that reason, why?” Kazuyuki asked.

“Those are good questions but the answers to those kinds of questions are rarely easy to find.”

Kazuyuki sighed. He was beginning to hate having questions that were always hard to answer. Now that he thought about it he always had this problem ever since he was little… “I figured as much. I don't want Chise in danger but I don't want the rest of you in danger either…”

Kane frowned and gave Kazuyuki a stern look. “Kazu, I know what you are thinking and now is not the time to consider that option yet.” Kazuyuki balled his fists in anger so tight his hands shook. “But I can't just sit around waiting for those things to attack again!” he cried. Kane gave Kazuyuki one of those examining looks he knew so well and put his hand on Kazuyuki's shoulder in a pacifying gesture.

“Leaving isn't the only action you can take Kazu.” Kazuyuki who wasn't expecting this was caught off-guard, forgetting his anger in exchange for confusion. “Eh?” was all that came out of his mouth. Kane smiled at him, “Because of what's been going on you and Chise haven't trained together. A Shikigami and their partner can only be strong when they learn to work together as one. I suggest that now would be a good time to work on that. Become one with Chise so that when the time comes, whither you have to fight or flee, both of you will be prepared for it.”

Kazuyuki nodded his head realizing the wisdom in these words. There was a knock on the door a second later and Chise's voice filtered through. “Kazuyuki are you in there?”

“Yeah” he replied. “You can come in.” Chise opened the door and walked in and closed the door behind her. “So this is where you were. We all wondered-” She stopped when she saw that Kane was in the room as well. “We were talking about what happened this morning.” Kazuyuki replied, suddenly getting a bad feeling about this “and what to do about it.” “Oh,” Chise replied in a would-be casual voice “I'm sorry I interrupted then.” She then turned around and started for the door.

“Chise wait!” Kazuyuki cried, cursing his stupidity in leaving her out of a conversation that involved her greatly. “I'm sorry I forgot to include you but I wanted to get his opinion.” She said nothing but didn't leave. Kazuyuki took this as a good sign and continued. “It was really stupid of me, I'm sorry, it won't happen again.” He finished in a pleading voice.

Chise sighed but when she turned towards him she had a small smile on her face. “Okay, I'll forgive you this time but try not to make a habit of it…” Kazuyuki's face broke into a smile “You got it!” Chise then turned to Kane and said, “So, what did you guys come up with?”

“I told Kazu that it would be a good idea for you two to start training together.” He replied.

“Alright, but I don't really see why it's so important to start right away. I mean we still have the villagers to deal with…”

“Well unfortunately we do.” Kane replied dryly. “Kazu and I don't think that this morning was a fluke; meaning that there may be more attacks.”

“You're talking about what that monster said?” Chise asked looking confused. “Those Anti-Shikigami did that sort of thing before when I was partnered with Kaito. It's nothing new.” Kazuyuki and Kane looked at each other with identical looks of shock. Kazuyuki turned back to Chise. “Let me get this straight, you're saying that this -isn't- the first time these monsters have targeted you?” She looked between the two of them, “Well, yeah. They were attacking everyone back then… You don't mean to tell me that that thing was only after me this morning…”

“We think it was…” Kane replied. “If that's the case, then you may have some connection with them. The one who controls them could easily be after you. As for the villagers they are going to have to learn to accept things the way they are.”

Kazuyuki had been following things until what Kane had said about someone being after Chise. Honestly he thought that it was just the monsters that were after her but if there was someone behind the scenes than that was even worse. “Wait, you don't think that whoever sealed Chise is out to get her again, do you?” He asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

“That's a very good possibility and the one I'm most worried about. Let's hope that we're wrong but for now it's better to be prepared for the worse.” Kane stood up “And speaking of being prepared, I want you two down at the training field at dawn tomorrow.” He said, gaining more of strict tone of voice and then turned to leave “Goodnight you two.”

As the door shut behind him Kazuyuki turned to Chise. “He's right we should get some sleep.” He winced slightly “I heard from Hiroshi that he can be a slave-driver.” Chise smiled slightly in a pained sort of way. “I seem to be causing this family more problems then helping…” Her head was suddenly pushed up by Kazuyuki's hand so that she would look him in the eyes. “That's not true Chise. You are part of this family and nothing that could possibly happen will change that. You're too hard on yourself. I'm sure things will turn out fine in the end but we may have a long way to go before then.

“It all starts tomorrow with the beginning of our training.” Kazuyuki quickly got changed and got into bed with a quick `goodnight' to Chise. Chise watched him sleep with a smile on her face thinking over the words he said and how much they meant to her.

He was right though, everything started, tomorrow.