Hime (4)

I was completely taken aback by what happened, but I knew that in this situation, the best thing to do was…

I raised my hands to show that I didn't mean any harm and slowly said, "Let's calm down and talk about this."

But Hime didn't do a thing as she kept pointing the spiked bat at my head.

The look on her face told a completely different story.

No matter how you looked at it, that was a look that was filled with hostility towards me. Though I had no idea what I had even done for her to feel this hostility towards me.

After a long period of silence, Hime finally said, "I don't like you."

I couldn't help being taken aback when she said this.

From what I could tell, I hadn't done anything to offend her. In fact, I don't think that I had any contact with her other than what happened today.

Well there was the time that we met in that supernatural plane where she smacked all those yokais around, but that really couldn't be considered meeting each other.

So I was very confused on where I had offended her.

After another long silence, she slowly lifted her spiked club and said, "If you make her unhappy again, I'll finish you."

Without even giving me a chance to say anything, she lifted her spiked club off of me and then turned around to disappear.

It wasn't that she moved so fast that my eyes couldn't keep up with her. It was that she disappeared into thin air all of a sudden.

I didn't know how she did it, but there was nothing that I could do about this since I didn't have a way of finding her.

I was just left there sitting on the ground with a lost look on my face as I didn't know what to do.

The plan was to befriend Hime and use her as a shield against Kyoko, but it seemed that this plan wouldn't work…

Who would have thought that she would have such hostility towards me?

As I sat there, there was a voice that suddenly rang out.

"Don't worry, it isn't your fault." Then after a pause, that voice said, "Or it could be said that it is your fault?"

I looked around and saw that there was another figure that was on the roof.

He was just hanging on the roof with his back stuck there and he was looking down at me with a smile.

I couldn't help scooting back a bit, but then I realized who it was.

It was Hachibe.

He jumped down and landed beside me before reaching his hand out for me.

I took it and he pulled me up before saying, "Anyway, are you alright?"

I gave a slow nod before asking, "What did you mean by that?"

He looked at me with a look like I was dense before shaking his head and saying with a sigh, "Let's talk a bit about the two of them, alright?"

Two of them?

I was a bit confused by this, but I gave a slow nod.

"The young miss and Hime have known each other since they were very young, you could even say that they are childhood friends."

Childhood friends?

But why had I never seen Hime before?

No, now that I thought about it, even if I knew about Kyoko's powers before, I had never really seen her fight since she had always fought in the supernatural plane. Until now, I had been someone that had been sneakily following her and peeking on them as they fought.

So it made sense that I never saw Hime before.

Hachibe had paused as if he was giving me a moment to think this through.

After seeing the look of understanding on my face, he continued, "Hime was found by the young miss' parents when she was just a baby and she was brought back by them to give to their daughter, who is the young miss. She was the young miss' first shikigami, though you could say that they were raised more like sisters than master and servant."

I slowly gave another nod in response to this.

Hachibe saw this and continued, "So you can imagine what kind of feelings she would have when she saw the way that you were treating the young miss. That was why she gave you this warning just now."

This time, I revealed a surprised look as I turned to look at him.

But before I could say anything, Hachibe suddenly raised his hand and said, "Stop, I don't care what thoughts you have on this matter. I'm sure that you have your own ideas on what kind of relationship you want to have with the young miss, it isn't my problem."

Then he revealed a serious look as he said, "I just hope that you will seriously consider the young miss' feelings and not hurt the two of them."

I was taken aback when I heard this, but I slowly gave a nod.

Seeing this nod, Hachibe gave a satisfied nod before turning around to say, "I hope that you will keep what we talked about in your mind."

Then without giving me a chance to say anything, he suddenly disappeared just like Hime had done.

As I stood there, I felt this strange sense of being defeated…

It was as if all of my thoughts had been seen through and there was nothing that I could do about this.

With a sigh, I turned around and headed back down to watch TV with Kyoko's father and brother.

As for Hime, there really was nothing that I could do about her.

…

Late at night, when the moon hung high in the sky.

There was a figure that stood on the roof of the building, standing there in silence in the darkness.

After a long time, that figure finally said something.

"It seems like we can use this. That boy is very interesting."