Chapter 43 - Htet's Bamboo Combat Skills

Third person POV

 And so, Akira proposed to Hachi and Htet that they should enter the caves' premises at the same time the Yamauba would enter again via the invisible, magical barrier. While Hachi nodded in agreement, Htet expressed his hesitance and doubts about its possibility.

 "Well, there is a possibility that those yokai won't go out today at all," replied Akira back while thinking once again.

But, Akira was right when one of the Yamauba went out to get more ingredients for their midday, human meal while the others were preparing the fire and apparatus for roasting.

 Upon seeing that, the three detectives were stunned that it could happen today and decided to wait for it to come back. An hour later, at noon, the Yamauba came back with more herbs and some insects for garnishing and entered the caves' premises through the invisible, magical barrier. Akira, Hachi, and Htet then got their chances and went through the barrier as she went through and hid behind some trees adjacent to one of the caves. Those three are stealthy luckily and fortunately.

 And then, the Yamauba were now mixing the herbs, and one of them went up to the unconscious travelers and carried one of them, a man, to be roasted using the wooden roasting stick apparatus. Akira and his two friends are watching with horror as she is doing it. But then, the man woke up and became frightened and scared by what that Yamauba woman was doing to him. "Get me down! Get me down!"

Akira remained calm and didn't do anything to rescue him now.

Hachi, meanwhile, was about to act when Htet stopped him, reminding him that those Yamauba are strong with their teeth and magic.

But in response, the Yamauba noticed that the human was shaking to free himself from her and cast a sleeping spell on him to put him to sleep again.

 And then, using his tactics from movies and TV shows and as the Yamauba is about to tie the human to the roasting stick with handmade ropes, Akira comes out and shouts at her and the other Yamauba. Those yokai then heard him and looked at him, looking rather displeased at his intrusion into their territory.

 "How insulting!" one of them scowled at him.

But as Akira kept on shouting and getting their attention, Hachi and Htet came out and snuck into the caves to rescue the other three victims.

Htet then used a small bottle containing special medicine that will wake them up.

 In the meantime, the Yamauba became angry at Akira for insulting them too much and used their sorcery-style magic against him. But Akira dodged their attacks easily with speed and drew out and wielded his Damascus sword, which had a traditional Japanese talisman stuck on its blade to effectively strike any yokai, before deflecting their magical attacks at them in retaliation. The Yamauba got struck a bit hard and retaliated again with their magic and teeth.

At the same time, Htet's special waking medicine did the job of waking the 3 travelers up, and the three young people woke up all groggy and disoriented.

 "What happened?" one of them asked.

 "My head hurts…" another asked.

 "Where are we?" the last one asked.

But Hachi and Htet shushed them, silently telling them what was happening now and where they were now, as well as what had happened to them recently.

 Now shocked and alerted by this, the three travelers got up, quickly grabbed their nearby backpacks, and fled the area under Hachi and Htet's guidance. At the same time, Akira managed to grab the fourth human from the Yamauba with his right hand. Despite the weight of the man, Akira barely managed to hold his heavy weight, before tossing him towards Hachi, who then managed to catch him and get him out of the area. Seeing that made the yokai shocked with anger, and they decided to teach the youngster human a lesson by unleashing their biggest magic yet. While Akira used his sword to block it, Htet luckily saw that and ran towards the fight while wielding his makeshift bamboo weapon, which also had a traditional Japanese talisman stuck on its Damascus blade, to help Akira out. The junior detective managed to do so, much to the Yamauba's shocking chagrin. His skills are very good, and Akira was stunned that Htet had managed to defend him with his weapon. "Woah…"

 At the same time, outside of the perimeter of the caves, Hachi laid the unconscious, sleeping fourth man on the grass and used Htet's bottle of waking medicine to wake the fourth traveler up. The fourth man did wake up, much to Hachi and the other three travelers' relief.