Starry Night

After we've climbed the stairway, we've entered the forest and followed a walkway that leads to the shrine. There were a lot more movements coming from the grasses and bushes. I was barely able to prevent myself from screaming. Unlike me, Hiroisora was quiet. I tried to glance at her face once in a while, just to check if she was a little bit scared. Instead, I saw a calm face, almost at peace. While I was wondering what she was thinking, something happened.

"Aaaahhhh!" Hiroisora suddenly shouted. Then she grabbed on to my arm, closing her eyes.

"Wh-what's the m-matter?" I asked as I felt terrified of her being terrified of something. She pointed towards in front of us. I was looking sideways at her. For the record, I am very reluctant to look towards whatever she is pointing at.

"What i-is that, T-takaiyama-kun?"

"..."

"W-well?"

"..." I can't answer her because I'm not looking at it. Actually, I've shut my eyes closed. "Ah..." I don't know what it is, I haven't seen it. "Um... W-well, it's a..." If this goes on, she'll think of me as a coward. I can't let that happen. I decided to take a peek so I can give her an answer, and more importantly to look tough and manly. While I slowly, and reluctantly, opened my eyes, I saw a... tall person, wearing a uniform, like a soldier's, but without a... head?

---

What am I seeing? This is a nightmare, right? As I stood in shock, the tall person, err... ghost, started slowly walking towards us. *Gulp*.

"Hi-hirois-sora, um, are y-you tired?"

"No... Why?" She opened her eyes and looked at me puzzlingly.

"W-we're going t-to run!" I grabbed her hand and ran towards the trees.

We've drifted away from the walkway, running through the woods. I just held on to her hand as I ran as fast as I possibly could.

When I couldn't run anymore, I stopped, let go of her hand, and caught my breath.

" Are you... ok, Hiroi...sora...?"

"Yes... but, what... was that...?"

We continued to gasp for air before being able to talk normally.

"It was, um, a tall person..."

"A tall person? Then why did we run from him?" She asked confusedly.

"Well, you see, he was kind of, you know, headless."

"H-headless?!" Her face became shocked. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." I couldn't mistake that even if I was SO scared.

"Um, so Takaiyama-kun..."

"What is it?"

"Where are we?" She looked around us. There are trees everywhere. I don't even remember which way we came from. It's also quite dark.

"I'm not sure..." She was suddenly looking so worried upon hearing that. I have to man up in this situation. "But don't worry; we'll get out of here and get back to the hotel."

"Ok. But shouldn't we at least try to get to the shrine?"

"Why?"

"I kind of need that extra credit. Hehe." Wow. We're in this situation and THAT is what she's worried about. All I care about is getting out of here. Maybe we should go our separate ways. "Are you planning on leaving me alone, Takaiyama-kun?" She asked somewhat angrily.

"Huh? No, of course not... Hehe..." It's my damn facial expression again. I'll have to wear a plastic bag over my face one of these days.

We started to walk around aimlessly. I'm not sure if we are getting near the shrine or the hotel. I checked the time. It was about over an hour and a half since we started walking from the bottom of the stairs to start this Test of Courage. I hope they are wondering why we are taking too long and start looking for us. I might faint anytime soon, especially if we see another one of those ghosts.

I didn't notice since when it started, but Hiroisora grabbed (hugged) my arm and hasn't let go. I really don't mind, especially because it reminds me that I am not alone. That is enough to comfort me. Also, her chest is rubbing against my arm. Why would I complain?

"Takaiyama-kun..." She suddenly spoke. "Can we rest for a bit?" I guess she is tired after walking for so long.

"Sure." Though I don't want to stay in this forest longer than we can possibly avoid, I have to think of her well-being. We sat beside a tree. Our only source of light is our phones, which we have been using as a flashlight since a while ago.

"There is still no reception, huh..."

"Yeah..." Even though we're in this scary situation, something else is bothering me. I could have confessed to her earlier and my problem would have been solved. To top it off, she seemed happy I didn't.

"Takaiyama-kun." She suddenly said something after we were quiet for some time now.

"Yeah?"

"Hehe."

"What's so funny?"

"You don't have to pretend you're not scared."

"Wha-?"

"You really thought I wouldn't notice it? Hehehe." I could really use that plastic bag now. "Don't worry. I don't think less of you. I am scared, too. Also, everyone has something they're afraid of, right?" She sounded serious on that last part.

"I guess..."

"You know, I'm just glad it was you I was stuck here with." I think I blushed... a little."Well, that's enough rest for now. I think I see a little bit of light over there, maybe we should go to it." What if it's a ghost? "And I don't think it's a ghost. Hehe. Let's go!" She seemed to be livelier now. That's good.

We followed the direction of the light. As we were getting closer and closer, it was getting brighter. I think we're about to leave the forest. Hopefully we'll see someone out there.

---

When I said 'someone', I was expecting them to have both arms and not covered in blood. When we both saw the bloodied soldier awaiting us outside of the forest, we ran in different directions. She went back inside the forest, while I followed the light coming from the shrine's lamp post. It seems we did make it to the shrine. I checked to see if there was someone at the shrine and ask for their help. There was no one there, although I saw the box Nariyuki was talking about. I checked inside. There were only two pieces of paper inside left. I took both of them. I guess almost everyone already finished. Now that I have these papers, I could go back to the hotel and ask for their help to look for Hiroisora. I can't go back inside that forest all alone. I'm too scared. But... she's also alone... and scared.

I ran towards the forest. I started shouting her name. "Hiroisora! Where are you?!" I don't know where she went. I only hope she can hear me and follow my voice. "If you can hear me, answer back!" I continued to scream, hoping she'd somehow hear it. I was feeling desperate. "You know if I continue to scream like this, those ghosts will hear me and come here. So you have to come out no-" Someone grabbed my hand. I was too scared to look at who or what grabbed me, until it spoke.

"Thank you... for coming back for me..." Hiroisora was crying.

"It's ok now. Let's get out of here."

---

We were able to get out of the forest with relative ease this time. We weren't as deep inside as we were before. We only had to take a small distance to reach the end of the forest and saw the walkway. We ran as fast as we could while we were on the walkway towards the stairs going down. I was holding her hand the whole time. We finally reached the stairs.

"We... finally... made it..." I was catching my breath after all that running. I let go of her hand.

"Uh-huh..." She had her hands on her knees while catching her breath.

"At least we didn't see any more ghosts..." I was really relieved. We rested a little bit before going down.

"Hey! There they are!" Someone shouted from below. It was one of our teachers. "Where have you been? We were worried about you!"

"Sorry about that, sensei... But we saw a ghost... and ran away inside the forest, then got lost." I tried to explain what happened.

"A ghost?" Our teacher's face looked incredulous.

"Yes." Hiroisora was backing me up. "We saw two ghosts, one was covered in blood and one was even headless, and-" She was trying to describe what we saw in the fastest way she can.

"Hahahahaha!" Our teacher suddenly laughed really hard. Why? Is our story funny? "Those guys are working at the hotel. We asked them to put on costumes for this event. We got our money's worth, for sure. We've already asked them to come back. They've been gone for a while now."

"Huh?!" Hiroisora and I were both in shock.

---

We came down the stairs with our teacher. Everyone turned their gaze on us. Then the uproar began.

"That damn Takaiyama! What did he do to Hiroisora?!" Some guy screamed.

"I can't believe he took advantage of this situation to get his way with her!" Another guy shouted.

"That jerk! He'll never leave this island in one piece!" I think it is way safer in the forest than to be here.

Then, it was the girls' turn to voice out their grievances.

"I wonder what they did there, taking so long."

"Yeah, and look at Hiroisora-san's eyes, it looks like she cried."

"No way, was she rejected?"

"Or you know, they say it hurts during your first time... Maybe that's why she cried..."

"No!" A collective cry from boys and girls alike was heard.

After a while, Nariyuki and Jirai came to us.

"What happened?" Nariyuki asked, teasingly.

"Are you finally a man now, huh, Takaiyama?" Jirai asked me with a curious face.

"What the, what are you talking about?!" I was pissed. "Nothing happened, ok?"

"Sure." Both Nariyuki and Jirai answered in disbelief.

"Thanks for worrying about us." Hiroisora thanked them sincerely.

"I don't think they were worrying about us." I really don't.

"Of course we would worry." Nariyuki then grabbed Hiroisora's hands. "Who knows what this animal would do to you, with his raging hormones and all?"

"I wouldn't do anything!" Why am I being treated like a criminal here?

"He didn't do anything to you?" Nariyuki ignored me.

"No!" I answered her.

"You can tell me what happened." Nariyuki continues to ignore me.

"Um..." Hiroisora hesitated in answering.

"I knew it!" Nariyuki exclaimed.

"Ah, no, it's not like that, Kosui-san." Kosui? When did they become so close? "Takaiyama-kun protected me." She answered Nariyuki with a smile. I really couldn't remember the part where I protected her. All I remember is that I was careful not to faint.

"Oh..." Nariyuki answered disappointedly. "I thought it was something else. Oh well. I really didn't expect this sorry excuse for a guy to do anything to you, anyway."

"I'm still here, you know. I can hear you."

"I know." Damn you, Nariyuki.

"Hehehe." Hiroisora laughed lightly. I guess she's okay now.

"Everyone, gather around here." A teacher called out. "We will now conclude tonight's activity." When everyone was settled, the teacher spoke again. "Well, everything happened tonight as expected." I wonder what he means by that. "In our history of doing this Test of Courage, very few have finished it, which is why we were very confident to give out special credit to anyone who finishes it. Being generous, we still placed pieces of paper inside the box located at the shrine. But only two pieces. Also, we would like to thank the staff of the hotel for dressing up as bloodied soldiers to serve as ghosts. It really was convincing, I can tell you that. Tonight, only a few were able to go up, but after hearing the screams of those who went ahead first, no one wanted to go after them. And so, since no one finished the test..." Wait, there were only two pieces of paper?

"It's a shame we weren't able to get it, after all we went through." Hiroisora said to me. I smiled at her.

"Sensei! Wait!" I shouted. "Are these the pieces of paper worth the extra credit?"

Everyone was amazed, or maybe surprised?