Chapter 15: Runaway
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Tahiko quickly rushed back home. He was excited to maybe be able to get closer with Amasa thanks to the advice from Chisa and Fukuna. Those two had been nothing but kind to him, so he was grateful to have them aiding him in this situation.

“Amasa!” He called out upon going in through the door. “Amasa, may I request and audience with you?”

“Oh, you’re finally home.” Her mom was the one to greet her. “Where have you been? And why are you calling for Amasa?”

“What do you mean? Didn’t Amasa tell you where I was?” That was strange, the girl did promise him that when they separated after class.

“You mean you two weren’t together?” She appeared surprised to hear that they weren’t sticking together as they normally had. “Oh dear.”

“Is something wrong?” It was apparent now that the girl hadn’t come home as she normally did. Tahiko found it strange since she had only preferred to come straight home and lock herself alone in her room. “Where is she?”

“You should sit down.” She led him to the living room to explain the news. “I was hoping she wouldn’t do this while you’re here, since we’re still trying to help you adjust. But you see, Amasa has a bit of a tendency of… Running away.”

“Running away?” He repeated her words. “But then, we should be out looking for her this very instant.” Tahiko quickly stood up from his seat, but that was where her mom stopped.

“It’s never been anything serious.” She informed him. “We live in a safe area, and she always comes back home before it gets late.” The way they put it made him think them strange. She was their daughter, so surely they’d be doing everything possible to find her, even if she left of her own accord. After she told him of this information, there was knock on their door. “She can’t already be back, can she?” Answering the door only proved that thought to be incorrect when Fukuna and Chisa came to greet her.

“Hey, is Tahiko already back?” Fukuna asked. “We just wanted to see him.” After allowing them inside, the boy gave them the rundown of what he was told in private. “Sheesh, that girl only knows how to cause trouble, doesn’t she?”

“I think it’s quite serious. How come no one here is concerned at all?” Again with these two who admittedly weren’t her friends by any stretch by any imagine. People just didn’t seem to care she was nowhere to be found right now.

“Well, I didn’t want to tell you when I learned you were siblings.” Chisa explained her stance. She did assume he already knew, but the gist was that the girl had a habit of disappearing when she wanted to get away from people. While she didn’t know the exact reasons, generally that girl wanted to avoid others to do something they didn’t know about and come back later. Of course, she didn’t have the full story as these were just the murmurings of students with gossip.

“And I can tell you those rumors are completely true.” Fukuna followed up. The first time it happened did cause a bit of a stir with the girl’s parents asking around to see if anyone had seen their daughter. Over time, it happened less and less frequently not because she stopped running away. But because they stopped bothering everyone about it as nothing bad ever happened. “Look, she’ll probably be back before the end of the day, so why don’t you just relax and let things play out like they always have.” They did have the same recommendation as before about allowing her to do as she wished. It’s not as if she was going to be gone forever.

“I suppose I should trust you.” They knew that girl better than him it seemed. So there was now way for him to argue about it. “But, with this news I don’t feel the desire to spend time with anyone right now.”

“Aw, fine.” She was disappointed to hear that. While it wasn’t a surprise, Fukuna would’ve preferred to keep him company to help ‘console’ him on the matter. Chisa felt the same way, but was a bit relieved she didn’t have to find ways to console anyone. She was never sure what to say to help anyone feel better. “Guess we’ll just see you at school. With Amasa too.” With that, those two girls went their separate way as he bid them farewell.

These people truly did confuse him in their actions. Of course, living in Enatis where people were used to fearing demons attacking, having someone go missing was cause for concern. Though hopefully due to his efforts of taking out the wizard, while the rest of the brave warriors he fought along side were able to pull out victories.

“My allies of light…” He muttered to himself, sitting along in his room. “Do you miss me?” In a sense, what happened to him during the great battle was not too dissimilar to what was going on with Amasa. Surely they had to have known he was disappeared somehow, but without knowledge at all to what had occurred. There was no body left behind, so clearly they he didn’t die on the battlefield.

So with him being gone, did they miss him? Did they even realize he was missing from the world of Enatis? Or was the celebration of victory cause them to forget him? And that was not to mention the possibility his allies had lost and the demons had controlled the realm.

No… He clenched his fists tightly in thought. They had to know he had been taken away somewhere. His allies must’ve been searching for him this entire time as he had been wasting it spending time with these people on their daily lives. And just like that, he had come to the decision that he couldn’t allow Amasa to fall into the fear of darkness. People do care about her, and he was going to show they’d be willing to seek her out when she was gone.

With newfound determination, the boy left the house to go on the search. Even if she was to be back before late, he decided that was too long of a wait. So he headed towards places the girl might find herself be when she decided to make herself scarce. Well, it wasn’t as if he knew her that well, but there were places she liked going to.

The first being a nearby convenience store. She did like going there for a short stop to pick up some snacks or drinks before coming home from school. Perhaps she chose to stick around longer than usual. “Did Amasa come by here today?” He asked the clerk running the register. It was the same person they normally saw, so he should know who exactly he was speaking about.

“Yeah, she did come by today.” He responded. “Did something happen between the two of you? You weren’t there with her.”

“I was with some other friends.” He answered. It seemed this source was not of aid, though he did know that she stopped by here earlier. The girl had picked up a bottle of soda and bag of ships. Odd, that should indicate a day where she planned on going into her room and locking everyone out until it was time for dinner. Whenever she brought that stuff, Amasa made it a point to tell him to not even consider bothering her until the night got late. He had no idea what she was doing alone in there, but it must’ve required this ritual for some reason.

“She ran away again?” The man asked. He didn’t want to answer in the positive, especially now that he had some suspicions on how true that was.

“It’s not important, I’ll just continue my search for her.” He replied and began to exit.

“I know the new night manager worries a lot when she does it.” The man continued to speak, trying to get the information out before the boy was gone. “So I’ll let him know when his shift starts. If he sees her, he’ll make sure to get her home safely.” So there really were people in this world that cared for this young girl. Even those he had never met had concern for her well being.

“Thanks so much.” Tahiko bowed down in gratitude as he walked out the automatic doors. Whatever those things were, he continued to be in awe of them in their manner of working. How could a world without magic have something so majestic?

At this point, he was running out of locations to go to. So the only other place the boy could come up with was a nearby park. Perhaps she had decided to just play on some of the equipment of just sit at one of the benches by herself. Unfortunately, walking there and calling for her name yielded no results. It wasn’t a large park, and it still was bright, so he was able to scan the entire area and she was nowhere to be seen.

This was bad, he had no idea on where else she could be. Surely there couldn’t be that many places to run away to in this town, was there? Admittedly he didn’t know the area completely, so there were likely to be many hidden spots out of his view. “Maybe I should just trust them and let her come back on her own.” He mentally kicked himself for being unable to track the girl down.

The problem though that ran through his mind was her actions leading up to this. She didn’t act like someone planning on running away. It seemed like today was like any other considering the stuff she picked up along the way. Then again, he had never experienced her running off somewhere, so maybe these actions were normal for that.

However, as he began to make his way back home, the boy’s eyes caught onto something that had fallen into some bushes on the path back. It was a bag of chips, unopened to be precise. Odd, who would leave something like that? When he went for a closer look, another thing came into view that made his heart sink. A bottle of soda, the one that just so happened to be Amasa’s favorite brand.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up in an instant. His body knew this feeling. He was in that dangerous feelings as he had felt when spending too much time with Fukuna. Quickly, the boy turned around and got into a battle stance. Readying himself for what was to come.

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