Chapter 141 - A Touch Of Miracles 3

Hotaru's POV:

"Owch! Iyt hwurts zall owver."

I am in pain: a bruised, battered and bloody mess, propped up on a stool in the kitchen back at Mina's house as she's treating my wounds...using her tongue.

This is just too weird.

Lulu is here, as well, looking on with concern as the "procedure" continues.

"Does that feel better, Hotaru-kun?"

I give a meek nod in reply: wherever Mina's tongue touches, it takes away the pain and leaves a nice tingling sensation. I can only imagine how such an ability works on deep bruises and broken bones, but I find I'm able to move my arm with less pain than before, as well.

"This is what you get for trying to act tough," Mina scolded.

Of course, she's right. I was far too bold.

For sure, it definitely wasn't a smart call for me to threaten those farmers with my "super special powers" that I don't even know how to use properly, only for them to fail in the exact moment when I needed them most. Still, I didn't expect them to beat me near half to death for it.

Lulu touches me on the hand, smiling softly. "You were so brave out there. I didn't know you had it in you."

Mina growled, "don't encourage him."

But I didn't listen; I was too intently focused on Lulu's eyes, staring deeply into my soul. The way my heart was beating like a drum in my chest, my head feeling light enough that it could just up and float away at any moment.

All we did was kiss by accident, right? It's surely nothing serious…

There's no way I'll cheat on Noriko!

…

Mina's POV:

After I finished tending to Hotaru's wounds, I told him and Lulu I would go out for a walk to pick some magic berries.

So, I went out to the village berry patch that we keep inside a chicken wire fence in a part of the jungle just outside of the village, taking my basket with me. Betting with myself, while I walked, over how long it would take before Ceres showed—

"I don't like that you're sharing your saliva with someone else."

Damn it. Startled me again.

I didn't expect her to appear in a tree—looking down at me, with this dead-serious expression, as though I'd just committed a grave sin.

Saving face, I grin back at her. "My saliva; my choice."

"You're wasting my chi."

"Excuse me? We only harmonize once a month."

She walks up, holding me by the waist, as she runs her fingers through my hair. "I know. It's my fault, for neglecting you this long. It can't be easy constantly walking around in a body like that."

"Like you would know," I mumble in reply.

As a Yang Vessel, she doesn't have to worry about accumulating too much extra chi in her breasts, legs and BUTT, like us poor Yin Vessels do. Which is why SHE gets to run around all thin and pretty, leaping off lighthouses with the grace of a swan, whereas I'M stuck having to lug around this giant pair of breasts and two tonne ass while I'm out working in the hot sun all day—all because Ceres has been too shy and brooding to come and milk her chi cow from time to time,g like she's damn well supposed to!

It's time we got to the bottom of exactly what kind of power Hotaru has.

However, in order to do that…

"No way, Mina-san," Ceres said, turning away from me. "That kid is your own responsibility, and I want nothing to do with it."

Stubborn as always!

Well, Ceres, I know just what to say to change your mind…

"That's funny, because I seem to recall an incident where you KILLED me, and it was 'that kid' who brought me back to life." I leaned closer to Ceres's face, as she was trying to look away. "Almost like you OWE me."

She scoffed. "Owe you? How absurd."

"There's no one else in this village who could teach him how to control chi, Ceres-kun. A power that can bring the dead back to life...why, I shouldn't need to have to tell you how beneficial that could be to our village. And there's no telling what other powers he might possess, if only he had the proper teacher."

Ceres sighed, and I knew just based on that I wasn't going to convince her easily.

"I don't know. You mentioned before that the boy said his father was the creator of our world," she said then looked at me sharply, biting her lip. "Is it his divine lineage that serves as the source of his powers?"

It's rare to see her this timid. Downright concerning.

"Are you...scared?" I ask straightforwardly.

"It is just as you say: there's no telling what powers he might hold," she says, striding around a berry bush slowly, grasping its branches in her hand with a solemn look. "Divine powers that completely defy the laws of harmony, the likes of which even he is unaware of...that could either be a great boon or a curse on us all."

"If he's trained...he'll be able to control it, right?"

"We can't say that for certain."

"But we can still try, and hope for the best," I insist, remembering who it is I'm talking to: a Yako-nin, from a long line of Yako-nin, trained to discard their emotions "It would be safer, for us all, to show him love and guidance than to leave him to find his way by himself."

After a moment passes silently, Ceres gives a slow nod. "Our first lesson will take place at the Killing Field, today, at sundown."

"The Killing Field? Are you sure?"

She draws her fan blade from her side, unfolding it. "You say we should treat him with love, and show him guidance. However, there is such a thing as tough love, as well."

But why at sundown—so close to night...?

What kind of training was Ceres planning?

…

The Killing Field is the name given by the locals to a particular section of the jungle, where newly christened Yako-nin are put through a number of grueling, life-endangering training regiments, in order to unlock the full potential of their chi powers.

Hotaru was at first skeptical when Mina told him he would be undergoing training at such a place.

"This 'Killing Field' sounds pretty...uhh, ominous," he wryly noted, as he was being walked through a thicket of occasional blackened, burned trees and shrubs, where an assortment of weapons ranging from swords and daggers to hatchets and throwing stars, were rained down in odd places; simply left as they were, wherever they had fallen, to become absorbed into the living greenery.

"You'll be fiiine," Mina nervously said—as minutes after, she had to swiftly maneuver Hotaru's attention away from the skeletal remains of a Kitsuna she'd noticed, brutally pinned against a tree by a ring of throwing stars.

"And you said my trainer is the best around...?"

Mina gave a nervous chuckle. "Well, more like she's the ONLY one around. Which—if you think about it—is basically the same thing."

Hotaru frowned. "Don't tell me, it's who I think it is..."

While lost in thought, his eyes began to wander. Until, inevitably, they fell upon Mina's chest—her magnificent breasts, jiggling with her every precise step among the jungle floor lined with jutting rocks and sprawling roots—although seeming somehow different than he recalled.

As then, it hit him:

Mina's amazing breasts...had become smaller! Albeit only slightly, but enough still to notice.

And not only her breasts, but her legs too!

Almost like she'd undergone liposuction since the last time he's observed her.

Rather than risk offending her, though, instead he remained awkwardly quiet as, eventually, the ruinous death-filled forest gave way to a vast clearing bathed in sunset oranges and yellows, where a lone figure in black awaited them...

"It IS you, after all," Hotaru said, with a furious glare. 

Hotaru's POV:

It's that bastard, Ceres, who killed Mina!

How can Mina trust her?! There's no way I'll entrust my life in their hands!"

"Boy," she says to me condescendingly—raising her head, peering down her nose at me like I'm some lowly ant…

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

Mina was standing back, watching, with a serious look.

How could she be okay with this…?

"The honest truth is," Ceres spoke calmly, "I decided to go through with this, because…" Her words trailed as she turned her side to me, facing the setting sun across the field, with both her ears standing fully upright and alert as a dog who can smell a stranger just outside the door.

Not that it was either the time or place to notice such things, but, contrary to my recent observation of Mina's shrinking chest, I thought Ceres's own cup size had, in fact, grown larger.

"I am truly thankful, boy: for how you were able to save my beloved Mina's life."

'Beloved' Mina? 

Wait...if he's calling her that, then does it mean…

Those two...could they actually be…?!

Ceres claps her hands, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Focus! You are here to learn. Which is why, from this point on, if you fail to fully comprehend every single word of my instruction"—

She pointed toward the setting sun.

"Your chances of surviving until dawn will be slim."