Chapter 45 - A Night In Hinohara

Fumio is wakened from his sleep.

He immediately hears the sounds of crickets singing and leaves dancing in the wind from outside. It takes him a second or two to realize that he is spending the night at a humble farm house in Hinohara with Red and Kotone after a sumptuous dinner.

After leveling his mastery of the basic breathing technique, his senses have also become more sensitive. The sounds of nature therefore are more apparent to him, and it relaxes his mind.

A few seconds later however, that peace is disturbed.

"Umf…" d'pnhfgw…"

"odwgf…"

"ngvoi…"

"nnadfato…" .

He hears a muffled female voice, which he recognizes as Kotone's, speaking gibberish, coming from the room next to his.

He realizes that it must have been what disturbed his sleep. He chuckles for a second, finding Kotone sleep talking, amusing.

He is about to go back to sleep when, "FHAF…" "YJSDF…" "TRFSAD…" "BNTEA…" "AERAFHA…" Kotone's sleep talking becomes louder.

This time, Fumio is spooked as he feels a tinge of panic and fear in Kotone's voice. He gets worried so he immediately gets up and briskly walks out of his room.

Arriving in front of the sliding door of Kotone's room, he opens it a bit, just enough for Kotone's figure lying on a futon, to appear in his view. He then sees Kotone that has her eyes are wide open, her face is wearing a panicked expression, and beads of sweat on her forehead.

"…N-no…"

"Mom? …"

"Dad? …"

"Wake up…!"

"Haruto…"

He now hears Kotone's words more clearly and he figures that she seems to be having a bad dream. He is confused and scared however. He had not seen anyone have a nightmare before, much more someone having a nightmare with their eyes open.

As Kotone continues to mumble gibberish, Fumio carefully slides the room's door wide open, enters, and approaches Kotone.

"H-hey…" He calls out. Kotone however, is unaffected and her face stays the same, her eyes still open in fear.

"KOTONE." He then calls out more firmly this time, but just like before, his calls are useless.

"FHAF…"

"YJSDF…"

"TRFSAD…"

"BNTEA…"

"AERAFHA…"

Kotone's mumbling gets louder again, and Fumio's worry furthers.

He thinks fast, and only one thing comes to his mind.

"Boss. He might know what to do." He quickly leaves the room to find Red.

"Where'd he sleep though?" Fumio then remembers that there are only two bedrooms in the house and the living room, kitchen and dining area are one, so he quickly descends the stairs down to the first floor.

"Where is he?" Fumio's stomach drops finding no signs of Red.

He then runs outside the house and, "BOSS!" he calls out loudly, his voice piercing the sound of the rustling leaves and cicadas.

Fortunately, *WHOOSHHH* Red suddenly appears in front of him.

Fumio drops his curiosity of where Red has been, and, "Boss. Kotone's having a nightmare. I don't know what to do.", explains the situation promptly.

"Hm? Everyone has nightmares." Red says in a dismissive tone.

"But boss. She looks scared, like she's about to die. I don't think it's a simple nightmare." Fumio says and briskly walks in the house to lead the way.

Red tilts his head in curiosity and follows inside. 

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"Lalala… Lalala…"

A family of four is singing along to the song on the car stereo to fight the boredom while waiting for the slow rush hour traffic of the city main street to move.

The song on the stereo is the favorite of song of the two parents in their late 30s, and the two kids, a 13-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, have listened to the song enough times that they have grown to like it.

Suddenly *SCREAMS* *CRASH* they hear sounds of chaos from afar and slowly drawing near.

People stuck in traffic all rush out of their vehicles, abandoning them as they follow the people in the sidewalks that are running away from the main streets to safety.

The two parents' faces pale for a second having an obvious suspicion in their minds, so they too take off their seatbelts and their kids', and not long after, they are out of their car.

The father picks up his boy while the mother assists her daughter, making the family run faster.

They are not fast enough however to join the evacuating crowd.

The screams from the people fleeing grows louder, and the sounds of destruction that was quite away just a few seconds ago, are now drawing near.

*growl* *smash* *smash*

The family look behind them and they see a stampede coming their way, made up of oversized animals that are already large in size like bears, elephants, lions, tigers, and wolves.

These animals however are not made of warm flesh and hot blood, but of cold and hard limestone. These stone beasts are bulldoze through the cars in their way without regard for injuries.

The father and the mother know that these animals are not after them, but they know that they will surely be stomped if they cannot flee fast enough.

Unfortunately, the two parents, know that fleeing is longer an option, and can only stay in the road.

The mother embraces her son, hoping to provide at least a bit of protection.

The father meanwhile, embraces his daughter as he converts as much concrete off the road into a six feet tall wall, hoping to buy his family some time, or at least divert the stone beasts.

He is however, but an E Class Superiori and his big wall is immediately cracked by one of the stone beasts charging. A stone wolf then breaks through the wall and *thwack* inadvertently stomps the mother.

"NO!" The father and the teenage daughter cannot help but cry out in sorrow. But the animals are emotionless and are not even acknowledging the dying woman in their way. The father can only grab the son who was pushed aside by the mother, and pushes him to his daughter to keep the boy away from danger.

"Don't look… Don't look." The mother has enough strength left to plead her children to look away. The teenage daughter, in tears, simply grabs her brother for an embrace, and buries his head on her chest so he does not have to see what she saw. The mother, seeing her daughter's actions smiles proudly.

She gives one more consoling smile to her daughter before being released from her pain by a huge claw of a passing stone tiger.

The father and the daughter's hearts break but they have no time to grieve. The father gets his concentration back and summons a concrete dome around him and his children. He then puts his arms around his children, making himself be another layer of the kids' protection.

The dome however is but a nuisance to the stampeding beasts.

One stone elephant just happens to kick the dome, immediately breaking it apart. Along with the pieces of concrete, the father and the son are swept by the kick and they fly a few feet to the side before smashing to a car.

The teenage daughter meanwhile, is miraculously safe until the last of the stampeding beasts have passed through.

The crisis passing, the daughter immediately runs to her father and brother, hoping to help them.

She then notices that her father is pale, with blood leaking out of his mouth.

"*cough… T-take him away… He's hurt." The father manages to instruct his daughter.

"What about you father?" The daughter asks.

"Don't worry about me. Your brother needs help." The father says one last time before going limp and collapsing to the ground.

"HELP THEM!" Some of the remaining pedestrians, having witnessed the family's tragedy, rush to the teenage girl and her brother immediately.

The teenage girl, now in safe hands of the crowd, finally processes her loss.

"Mom… Dad… Wake up…" She can only cry in denial.

Despite her tears, her loss is too heavy for simple crying to relieve it, and her world goes dark. 

She does not know how much time has passed but as she opens her eyes, "Lalala… Lalala…" she is back in her family's car, with the family still singing along to the song on the stereo.

She felt like she just had a nightmare. As he is about to sigh in relief, she realizes that she cannot control her body. Her body is still singing without a care in the world. She tries her best to warn her family what is about to happen, only to no avail.

The next moment, *SCREAMS* *CRASH*, the scene from earlier replays once again.

The stampede of the stone beasts, her parents suffering their tragedy, her powerless to stop it, and finally her blacking out.

"Lalala… Lalala…"

…

"*cough… T-take him away… He's hurt."

She does not know how many times the scene has replayed, but the fear, and the pain from the loss has not eased one bit.

"*cough… T-take him away… He's hurt."

As she prepares herself to watch the tragedy once more, something has changed.

After blacking, she no longer returns to the earlier scene in the car with her family. Instead, she now finds herself among a dark void. She does not have the time to process the new development as suddenly, a transparent figure of her parents materializes in front of her.

"M-mom, D-dad." She then sees her father and mother smile at her bitterly.

"I'm sorry." Her father gets the first word in.

"W-why did this happen?" The girl can only ask, unwilling, and resentful that her family had to be the victims.

"I don't know, dear. But it already happened, and there is nothing we can do." Her mother answers.

"I'm just sorry that we have passed early. I'm sorry that we won't be there to see you and your brother grow up to be fine adults." She walks towards her daughter and caresses her daughter's cheek.

"And I'm sorry for being a weak father, my princess." Her father too gets closer to her and gives her an apologetic smile.

"Y-you're not weak, dad." Tears run down the girl's face once again.

"You saved us." She adds.

"A father will always want to do more more for their children…" Her father says as he plays with her hair with his fingers.

"But now that we're gone, I can't buy you that purse you always wanted. And I can't get the action figure your brother wants." He continues.

"I don't want anything…" The girl can only shake her head strongly, in tears.

"I just want you two back."

"We want to be with you and your brother too, baby. That's all what we want in the world... But we can't. You also know that we can't." Her mother gives her a consoling smile.

The girl cannot say anything else.

"But maybe you can do something for selfish parents like us?" Her mother asks.

"A-anything." The girl tries to be strong.

"You and your brother only have each other now. I hope that you always love each other, help each other, take care of each other. Can you do that for us?" Her mother asks.

"I will!" The girl promises, with resolve in her eyes.

"That's my girl!" Her father chortles in delight.

"I already know you will grow up to be a strong woman!"

"As do I… And knowing that makes us happy." Her mother says.

"Honey, I think we can leave this world without worry." Her father says.

"I'm relieved as well." Her mother smiles to her father.

"Uhn! My little princess..." Her father turns his attention back to her.

"Dad and mom will leave now, is that okay with you?" He asks.

"I-I'm not okay… but…" The girl is still in denial but she has no choice but to nod.

"Good girl." Her mother gives her an embrace.

"I guess this is goodbye." Her father joins the embrace.

After the long while, the three release each other from their embrace. The lass is now feeling much better. She then sees her father offer his hand to her mother, which her mother takes. The two then turn away from her, which breaks her heart.

She wants to stop them from leaving, but she knows she cannot.

"One last thing." She feels hopeful as she sees her father look back to her.

"I know I didn't say it enough as a father should, but… I love you, Kotone."

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Kotone wakes up to the sound of chirping birds, the rustling of leaves. She opens her eyes to see the bright sunlight hitting the white paper panel of her window.

While in a daze, her dream replays in her head.

"That… didn't happen before…" She is confused however, because the latter part of her dream is a first. 

She then takes a deep breath, not knowing what to make of it. Suddenly, she feels wetness on the sides of her head, bothering her. She then flips around to see that her pillow is wet. She then touches her eyes and realizes that they are wet too, including the back of her head.

She realizes that she cried again in her sleep, for the first time in a long, time.

"Mom, dad…" A sense of nostalgia then hits her and she smiles.

Unlike the plenty of times that she woke up from her nightmare feeling terrible, she feels great today.

*knock* *knock*

"Kotone, are you up?" She then hears Red knock and call out to her from outside her door.

"Yes, Kichirou-san." She replies and she immediately sits up from her futon.

"Good. Fumio and I made breakfast..." She hears Red say before his footsteps fade away.

"Breakfast…" She utters, Red's invitation making her feel warm.