36 Mahou Shoujo

THE NEXT following days, Sora cannot still put out of his mind what he saw that day. And until that day, the authorities haven't found the girl nor the big wolf. They just barricaded the entrance to the forest.

Now, Sora was back into the forest. He looked for another way in. Somewhere that has a broken fence. It still isn't easy to get in as he was tall than the average kids, but it was better than being seen getting in from the barricaded entrance.

This time, he made new markings on the trees so he won't get lost. It was his fifth day going from the trail that he made and it looks like it was farther than the other way for it was only today that he finally saw the flower bed again.

Same feelings emerged when he saw the flowerbed. He felt so comfortable. So at home. Something giddy inside him that wanted to run and jump onto the flowerbed. But this time, he stopped himself. Instead, he looked around the flower bed to where he tried to plant the flowers again.

{Why? Do you still feel guilty that you pulled her flower out?}

Sora stopped and thought for a moment. Did he just admit that he believed the girl that was a deity?

And there was one more question, he cannot find the flower that he planted. Makes him question what happened that day.

{Did it really happened?}

Sora frustratingly scratched his head. Was it really just him?

He scratched his head again and slumped on the ground. Should he give up and go home? Forget about this and go on his way?

Sora glanced at the flowerbed again, "Are you really not real?" he absentmindedly asked. Was he hoping someone would answer?

Annoyed. Frustrated. Sora stood up and decided to get out of the forest. Maybe he was bewitched. Like what the authorities said when they once came into their house.

But as he turned his back, there's some voice nagging him to pick one flower. Just one to have a remembrance. Just one to give as a gift to his mother. Just one to give as an offering to their shrine at home.

Just one.

Sora turned back to the flowerbed. Sat down and touched one flower. It wouldn't hurt if he just picked one. Just one. And then he will be gone.

"Is it okay, Dandy?" he asked as if the girl was in front of him. "Just one flower."

As if he was in trance. As if someone possessed his body. His fingers slide down to one of the flower's stems. Feeling it to look where it was soft, tender.

He was ready to snap it when out of nowhere, a shadow jumped from his back and landed in front of him. He cannot be mistaken that it was the same wolf. The same big wolf that took Dandy away. With those big fangs, those eyes as the moonlight. The grey fur. And would he have mistake those big paws that sounded like thunder when it ran?

It was the big and now furious wolf in front of him.

He was sure now that it was real! He wasn't bewitched!

"I…I…You…You're real!"

As if the wolf understood him, it snarled and growled at him. It stepped forward as Sora stumbled on getting up.

Sora can hear his heartbeat as he cannot tear his eyes from the wolf. Slowly, menacingly ready to pounce on him. His breath mingles to the warm breath of the wolf as it sniffed it back, almost as if savoring the fear that he was feeling.

"D-Don't kill me. Don't kill me like what you did to Dandy? W-where did you take her? Huh?"

Upon hearing the name, the wolf stopped snarling. It just stood there looking at him.

Sora found a little courage when he remembered Dandy. And it seems affected when he mentioned the name of the girl. Does a wolf have the capacity to remember its victims?

Sora took that chance to compose himself and tried to crawl back and away from the wolf. As he crawled, his hands made contact with something blunt. A broken branch. He grabbed it and stood up.

Facing the wolf now, he asked again, "Where did you take her? Where is Dandy?"

{As if it will answer you, Sora? I think it is better to run for your life.}

Right. What was he thinking?

But then again…

"Hey!" Sora yelled at the wolf when it still didn't move.

{Is he…afraid of me? Or is he waiting for me to run before eating me?}

Sora vehemently shook his head. It doesn't look like that. But why did he stop?

"H-hey!" he called again. "W-where did you take Dandy?" When the wolf still didn't respond, he searched for something that he could throw at it.

He then found a stone and didn't think twice and threw it at the wolf. His movement halted when its eyes looked at him.

{He wasn't looking at me? Then who…no don't look back, Sora. He might be tricking you. But what if…}

Sora's nape started to prickle like someone was looking at him at the back. He can feel the presence. Was it another big wolf? Or even bigger that's why the wolf in front of him isn't moving?

Out of curiosity and fear, Sora's head slowly turned but it wasn't a bigger wolf that greeted him but a face of an Oni!

Sora's screamed might have heard up to the elementary school up to his home. He never had screamed like that before. And it didn't end there as he kept screaming every time he turned his head to hide it from the Oni. The ambiance of the darkened forest as the night falls added to the fear he was feeling. Was he still in the forest or he had been already eaten by the wolf and now crossing to the underworld?

He then saw a Hanya, a Tengu, a Kitsune, a Kappa, Samurai mask…

{Noh mask? Hyottoko Mask? Okame mask?}

"Eh? Doraemon?" Sora then stopped screaming when the next face that he saw was different characters in an anime. "Oiii!"

The mask stopped moving and flying around, that was when he heard a laughing voice of a girl. Then it squeak and a rustle from the big tree made Sora looked up.

A gust of wind came whizzed in his side as the big wolf run.

"Dandy!" The wolf will attack her again!

But instead of jumping to get Dandy, the wolf spread his body on the ground as if making a make-shift cushion. And instead of Dandy falling onto him, she flew and giggled.

Dandy looked like a character in an anime. A pink-haired mahou shoujo.

"Ehhh?!"

****END OF CHAPTER****

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