Chapter 137 - A Shrine Of Watching Eyes

The Orb Hunters were based in an old shrine temple, set in seclusion, atop a tall flight of stone steps leading up the side of a mountain. A sacred, holy place, as was determined by the multiple torii shrine gates one had to pass through in order to reach it, instead of parrots it was crows that could be heard cawing in the trees—as if they were little messengers of the gods, sounding an alarm at the approaching pair of uninvited guests.

It was rare for outsiders, even locals like Mina, to visit the temple. Usually, when an Orb Hunter had business with the villagers, typically in the way of acquiring food provisions, an agent was sent to handle the delivery.

To trespass here uninvited...Mina had never thought to make it this far.

Her original plan was to kill the boy, if she'd failed to convince him to turn back and give up the chase. So now, she could only pray for leniency on the part of the Yako-nin: Ceres and her kin, who were no doubt lingering nearby, in camouflage, having been surveilling the boy at all hours since he was first discovered; ready to pounce, at a moment's notice if given the order, as the two continued their grueling climb up the gauntlet of steps.

"Mina-saaaan!" Hotaru whined. "Can you please carry me? My feet hurt!'

Mina scoffed. "Shouldn't you carry ME?"

He wiped the corner of his eye with one finger, making a pathetic face. "You're a hardworking country girl, though, so of course you're way stronger than me."

Mina was too preoccupied with looking around to pay him much mind.

'It's no use: even if I saw one of them coming, we'd still be far outnumbered and wouldn't stand a chance in a fight with a team of highly trained assassins. Not when it's just me, a first aid spiritual magic specialist, teamed with—'

Hotaru's stomach growled, disrupting her thoughts.

"I'm hungryyy!" he complained.

Mina groaned. "Then MAYBE you should have eaten before we left the house," she said, through gritted teeth.

"No way!" he sobbed. "That magic bean soup looked so gross! And besides, YOU'RE the one who slapped a sandwich out of my hand just a few minutes ago—because of YOUR mistake!"

"My mistake…?" Mina softly cackled to herself, discreetly smirking. 'Was letting you stay alive this long!'

Then again, she thought...

It's not too late for her to strangle him…

But just then, a flock of crows swooped past her head, making her stumble as she cried out in surprise.

"Eyaaah!"

"Mina-san! I've got you!" 

Hotaru moved quickly, catching her just as she was about to go for a tumble down the stairs.

"Are you okay? Did you twist your ankle?"

"Heh...not bad, kid," she grumbled,as he held her with his arms wrapped around her body. "It would've taken a lot more than a few licks to patch me up, if I had fallen down all these godforsaken steps."

"I've never seen a crow attack someone before." 

Mina's gaze suddenly sharpened. "Yeah, well, these aren't just ordinary crows." Glancing up into a tree, she noticed one of the birds was perched there—seeming to be staring straight at her.

Locking eyes with it, Mina growled. 

"Eh?" Hotaru said, looking between her and the crow; confused.

"You're touching my breasts, by the way."

"I'm what"—glancing down, Hotaru let out a loud gasp when he saw that she was right. "AH! I didn't mean to, I promise! I'm sorry! My face still hurts from where Lu-chan already slapped it earlier, so please spare me!"

Mina giggled, tauntingly brushing her tail against his face. "It's fine," she said, placing her hands against his. "Consider this your reward for rescuing me."

The crow turned its head, as if curious.

As she kept her eyes on the crow, biting her lip and smugly grinning, Mina gently guided Hotaru's hands across her chest so that they perfectly cupped her, lightly squeezing his sweaty palms against her erect nipples poking through the thin fabric of her blouse.

"How's that, hero-boy…?" she coquettishly whispered, as then she proceeded to angle one arm to slowly slide her hand along his neck, down to his shoulders.

"Mina-san, it feels…" Hotaru gulped nervously. "Super good."

All the while, Mina had never broken eye contact with the observing crow as it anxiously puffed its feathers; sidled to and fro on its branch, with apparent unease; produced tiny, tiddling squawks of growing discomfort: by every indication, acting as a bird would if it didn't like what it was seeing.

'That's right, you three-tailed throw rug,' Mina thought deviously. 'Just sit there and watch.'

It fluttered off, before long, cawing madly. Leaving Mina to smile after it in victory, and Hotaru to look at her in perplexity; wondering, just what kind of person was Mina really...?

…

Hotaru's POV

I'm so relieved to have finally made it to the top of the steps.

Though, I can't shake this feeling…

Mina-san...just now, she let me touch her breasts like it was nothing.

Could it be that she's attracted to me?

No. I can't let it distract me. My main focus should be on saving Noriko-san, my only true love. Someone I've known for a long, long time...who really and truly knows me, like no one else does. And that's MUCH more precious, than even a pretty fox girl with amazing tits.

Noriko is always insulting me these days...because, I know, she's disappointed in me. In the lackluster person I've become. It was different when we were kids, and roughly on the same level; before she began to outstrip me academically...in sports...in popularity...everything. And maybe part of me is clinging to some hope that, if I can rescue her, she'll see me in a new, more flattering light.

That's just childish though, isn't it?

She'll quickly realize that I'm still the same disappointing loser as before, and leave me behind...again…

I remember a conversation we once had. We were still kids, playing in the park, like we always used to on the weekends. My dad was working part-time at HER dad's small bakery, at the time, before he began working in the game industry, and were close friends since well before we met. So, in a way, it was destined that we would find each other.

We had just got through playing make-believe pirates on the jungle gym, and were lying down next to each other on the neatly trimmed lawn, staring up at the flawless bright blue sky.

"I'm gonna be a sea captain when I grow up," Noriko had said, turning onto her chest as she stuck her feet up backwards in the air behind her, gently swinging them back and forth. Looking at my face, with those cheery big brown eyes, so close that I could hear her breathing. Waiting patiently for me to follow her lead, as always.

"If you're gonna be captain…" I glanced up at her, through the corner of my eye. "Then I'll be your first mate."

I could sense her frown.

"Dummy! Why don't you be captain too?"

"Because there can be only one captain, Noriko."

"Not if the captain says something else!"

"Eh? So you're saying there can be two captains…!?"

"Yes! But only you can be the second captain. Anyone else who wants to be captain will have to walk the plank and do fifty sit-ups!"

"They can't do sit-ups if they're dead, Noriko."

She leaned closer to me, hovering her face directly above mine so that she replaced the blue sky above me with her pouting face, a water tattoo of Akari-chan the cartoon squirrel glistening just beneath her left eye.

"Be my second captain, Hotaru."

"But I don't wanna," I remember I said timidly, feeling put on the spot.

"Why not? I'm telling you so."

"Because you're much better than me."

Her brows furrowed in anger. "You've never even tried, so how do you know?"

I wasn't sure of how to answer at the time, so I said nothing. It had only been a feeling of inferiority, at the time; before the oncoming years that would see me falling further and further behind my classmates...behind Noriko...could make it into a fully-fledged reality.

Why did I think that as a kid? Even though my mother and father told me to reach for whatever I wanted; that the sky's the limit, when it came to realizing my dreams…

At what point, exactly, did I completely give up on myself?

…

The temple shrine of the Orb Hunters, on its outside, looks to be spotlessly well-maintained, even though there's no sign of anybody around. Only more of the fox statues, that Hotaru had seen during their walk, were to be found in greater, more sporadic, seemingly random placements—like headstones, in a terribly disorganized cemetery—forming a winding maze which one had to navigate through first, in order to reach the entrance.

"It's kind of...creepy," Hotaru remarked of the silent crowd of stone foxes: giggling, without voice, as though at some unknowable joke whispered among them, and peering slyly at him from every angle; keeping tabs on and clandestinely mocking his every move.

The air smelled of incense, and clay and gravel; in this place where unseen spirits of the earth were praised and revered, yet also feared. Or so Hotaru felt deep in his soul.

"Remember, kid," Mina said, "you're the one who asked for this."

"That's right," he returned, with confidence.

Because, for once, Hotaru was going to be the captain of his own damn ship.