Chapter 62 - Body Training

A certain bus stops at a certain bus stop.

A middle-aged couple stand up together from their seats, being the only ones among the passengers to alight at the stop.

"Hm? That's odd." The husband furrows his brows as he takes his duffel bag from the overhead storage.

"Something wrong?" The wife asks.

"Huh? Where'd it go?" The husband shoves aside the other things in the overhead, looking for something.

"What are you talking about?" The wife asks.

"It's nothing. There was this wooden statue of a cat that was in the way when I stuffed our bags here. It disappeared." The husband explains.

"Well, it's not ours. Why bother looking for it?" The wife scoffs.

"Hurry. Let's get off." And she urges her man to hand her her carryon.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Here you go." Soon, the couple are off the bus.

"Whoah. It's been a while, and nothing's changed." The man says as he looks around Hinohara Village's center.

"I know…" The wife also gets in a daze, feeling nostalgic.

While they take in the view of their hometown, unbeknownst to them, a the man's duffel bag slowly unzips, and a cat's paw reaches out from the inside.

The cat's paw is then followed by a cat's head peeping to see its surroundings, and soon, an entire wooden cat silently jumps off the man's duffle bag before disappearing to the bushes in the side of the road.

'Phew…' Gin then looks around more to guess where he currently is and to his relief, he is in the village center of Hinohara, his destination.

While the place is a few hours from the city, and is a bit remote, he has been here before, and wanted to come here.

After all, Hinohara is a known spot for hikers.

But he is not a hiker. His former boss was.

When he was in his first year in his first reporter job at an independent news network, he wanted to make good impressions on one of the bosses.

One day, he overheard that his boss' hiking partner cancelled, he volunteered himself to accompany his boss.

Gin simply wanted to accompany his boss one time, but because he was liked by that boss, he was invited again and again.

Remembering his rookie days, Gin smiles bitterly.

'It's been ten years. If I went back in time to tell my younger self that I'll be a wanted fugitive, would the younger me believe it?' he chuckles mirthlessly.

After being contained by the Nikko Police for a week, and had not cracked from the police's interrogation, Captain Adachi passed him to Kumagai Clan where he suffered another week of waterboarding. And when the waterboarding did not work on his clear conscience, he suffered another week of solitary confinement under them.

And while he suffered, he also felt relief that the Ice Coffin Killer, or Hasegawa Hideki, never visited him during his time under the custody of Nikko Police or the Kumagai Clan.

Today is his lucky day. One of the guards who brought his food to him, neglected their duty, so he was able to escape his confinement room through the flap of his room's door. 

While he is resentful of the Kumagai Clan, he begrudgingly thanks them that they did not starve him, providing him the energy to be in his cat form for hours.

Even though he managed to get away, he was not able to retrieve his phone and belongings so he had no idea how to contact someone.

He then realized that it is a blessing in disguise. If he had his phone, and could not stop himself from contacting his family, his family will get in more trouble.

So, for now, he decides to disappear for a while, to somewhere isolated, but near enough the city to hear news.

And the only isolated place he knows is Hinohara Village. A place he figures, is a good place to start thinking about his future plans. It also helps that he made an acquaintance here after visiting the place with his former boss many times ten years ago.

'I'll head there. I hope she still remembers me.' He then starts his run to his destination.

<>

About ten minutes later, Gin is stuck at the bottom of a hill.

He is confused however for the past five minutes since he arrived. He has been wondering if the hill in front of him is the same one, he visited in the past.

The steep and almost straight clay access road he used to walk to reach the house in the middle of, and halfway to the top of the hill is gone as if it never existed, and is populated by bamboo trees and shrubs.

If it wasn't for the familiar looking boulders he recognizes, he would not be so sure.

The old access road is now replaced by a new road to the side, that he figures will spiral upwards to the top, following the natural shape of the hillside.

"Did Chuoko-san get a car? Why would she make the road longer and winding? Making it harder for her?" Gin asks himself as he goes to climb the path of where the old road was.

Being in his cat body, he can easily do so.

Not long after he started his climbed, he is stuck scratching his head.

In front of him, is a wall made of tall, thick, and lush bamboo trees. And arranged in a way that it does not even offer a peek or a glimpse of what is behind it. Therefore, there are also no holes or gaps that he can squeeze his tiny body in.

"Who's crazy enough to do this?" He can only shake his head as he walks alongside the wall to look for an opening.

"Okay... This is really crazy." Soon, he realizes that the wall of bamboo trees is spread wider than he originally thought. It is as if the one who planted the bamboo trees wants to cover the upper parts of the hill.

After walking some more, he reaches a part of the new road that he didn't take earlier. He already  expected to come across the road at some point. He also expected that a gate, connected to the wall of bamboo trees, will block it.

What he did not expect however, is the size of the gate. The gate in front of him, is made of long bamboos tied together, and is big enough to cover the opening of a Shinto shrine.

"What the hell is up here?" His journalist spirit is awakened.

It does not take a genius or a journalist that something intricately walled and gated, has something interesting in it.

He then starts to climb the gate. Unlike the wall of bamboo trees he cannot climb, the bamboo gate is easily climbable to him because he can grab the ropes tying it together and use them as footholds.

Soon, he reaches the top of the gate and, "Wow…", he cannot help but take a deep breath by what he is seeing.

The vegetable farm he last saw that was populated by crops, now has various lush herbs, flowers, berry bushes, and fruit trees. Their varying colors make the vegetable farm no longer look like a farm, but a paradise-like garden.

He then looks at the direction of the house that he used to visit, and to his surprise, the house still looks the same. It even looks newer than he last remembers it. The pathway adorned by vine arches leading to it, adds an ethereal effect to it; as if a deity resides inside.

*Whooosh*

Gin suddenly feels the breeze blow, and it pulls him out of his daze. He does not know how long it has passed, and he realizes that he must have been lounging at the top of the gate for quite a while.

'Chuoko-san is definitely not here.'

He realizes that the property has either a new owner, or a new inhabitant. And he gets curious of that person's identity.

'Well. Trespassing is trespassing if only I get caught.'

He then scales down the gate and heads for the direction of the house.

Soon, he finds that the doors of the house are open, so he enters, and after entering, he looks around in interest.

'Still the same. But all look new.'

The kitchen, the living room, the furniture, still look the same as he remembers.

The only difference is the patina and the vintage smell of the house is gone, the signs of families being raised in it are no longer there, making him feel like he is visiting a different house.

"nfoif dfjnwq"

Suddenly, with his sensitive cat ears, he hears a female voice coming from the backyard.

He notices that the sliding door to the backyard is also open, so he carefully prowls, trying not to make his presence known as he takes a peek at the backyard.

Then, he sees, in the grass lawn in the backyard, a young couple wearing what looks like expensive-looking training kimono.

He cannot help but feel jealous that young lovers like the two are living in a beautiful place like this, making the perfect picture of a married couple.

The young lady is beautiful and looks like the ideal wife, appearance wise.

The young man, while not possessing the handsome face to match the young lady's, has an athletic body, and gives out an aura of competence and respect; the impression a competent husband has.

Getting over his jealousy, Gin notices something strange. 

The young man is sitting cross-legged, with the entirety of his top exposed, and the young lady is kneeling behind him, drawing something on his back.

Gin then looks more closely and sees that there are irregular shapes drawn with black marker throughout the young man's torso and arms.

Soon, the young lady stands up and puts a cap on the marker before putting it under her kimono robe.

"Ready?" She then asks the young man.

"Yes." The young man nods and hands a wooden sword to the young lady.

Gin is about to wonder what the two is up two when he sees *whoosh* the young lady casually swing her wooden sword downwards, *thwack* hitting the young man's shoulder.

His eyes widen in surprise. Not only because of the ridiculous sight, but also because of the speed of the young lady's movements. He can estimate that the lady is at least a D-Class physically enhanced superioris while the young man might be stronger for letting the young lady do that to his body.

"Stronger." Gin hears the young man order, and *thwackkk* the young lady complies without question, hitting the young man's shoulder once again, producing a louder sound.

"Okay. Please start." He sees that the young man seems satisfied with the strength of the swing.

As if he isn't already surprised earlier, he sees the young lady swinging her sword again. Not just once, but continuously, and hitting the same spot on the young man's shoulder. He notices that they young lady is hitting one of the shapes she has drawn on the young man's shoulder. 

Gin shudders at the sight. He knows he will not survive a few of those. With that thought, he is curious as to why the young man is silent.  He then looks at the young man's face, and is in further awe seeing that there is not even a frown on it. It is as if the young man is not feeling pain, and is simply in a daze.

Gin can only continue to watch as the young lady moves on to the other 'shapes' she drew on the young man's body after the young man asks her to.

From time to time, he also hears the young man remind the young lady of something about breathing.

A few minutes later, Gin's interest and surprise of the sight has already worn off.

He already got used to what he is seeing, and figured that it is a form of training for physical type superiori. He is also no longer sure if the two are husband and wife, or even a couple.

Even though the two are sharing the space, he notices that it is as if the two are lost in their own thoughts, their minds focused on different things. 

Suddenly, from the top of his vision, Gin notices a figure of a man, wearing cream-colored kimono, standing on top of one of the trees beyond the backyard.

He thought his eyes are playing tricks on him, but as he looks more closely, he indeed is looking at a man who looks to be a decade or two older than the young pair training on the backyard,  standing on top of a tree.

Not on a branch, but on the leaves on top of the tree, swaying along with the movement of the leaves being made to dance by the wind.

Then, his stomach sinks.

He realizes that the man is also looking at him.