Finally, Tahiko was able to enter the forest and see just exactly what the staff had to offer during this spooky day. All the while, Chisa was trying to remain calm, not out of dread from potential scares, but rather from the fact she was literally walking alone with this boy while holding his hand.
He wasn’t paying as much attention to that as she was, so the feeling was not mutual coming from the boy. Instead, he was more intently focused on looking around this darkening forest. The teachers sure did a good job at making it spooky. His body was firing off signals about danger, but that surely was just some people lying in wait to give them some jump scares. So as Amasa had told him, he wasn’t going to pay much mind to that either.
“So, isn’t this exciting?” He started off their conversation as the pair went deeper inside. According to the teachers, there were trees with arrows pointing to the right direction, so that they wouldn’t get lost and stray off the path.
“Um, yes?” She replied, still feeling tense. The girl wished she wasn’t like this right now. In this moment, she wished that perhaps she’d be a tiny bit less shy so that she could have a normal conversation with Tahiko. He had been a nice enough boy so far, and it seemed he didn’t mind talking the way they did. However, she did want to get a bit closer to him, and being quiet while having him prompt her questions was not the way to go about it.
“Are you all right?” He asked, taking note of her shivering now that his hand was touching hers. “We haven’t seen anything scary yet, but it appears that you’re shaking a lot. “I hope you’re not unwell.”
“No, just anxious, that’s all.” She answered. As expected their conversation got interrupted by a person wearing an oni mask, causing her to rush for protection by hiding behind the boy.
“It’s all right if you wish to stay behind me.” It was already normal for him to have people using him as a shield. Though most were of royalty, rather than some random timid Japanese girl.
“Thank you.” She blushed, realizing now how close she had instinctively gotten to him. Were she a more normal person, she thought, then perhaps this could be viewed as more of a romantic outing. However, her nature prevented her from expressing her feelings towards him. There was too much doubt clouding her judgment on deciding how he might’ve viewed her.
At the same time, something she didn’t notice due to her fear, Tahiko did have some of his own doubts in his mind. The first was his disappointment in trying to get to know this girl. She was nice, just like with Fukuna and Amasa, of which the latter would disagree. But his problem was his inability to feel like he could open up and connect with her, just as she had troubles with talking about herself.
It left them with many times with not much to say to each other. Of course, in his case it was fair since he didn’t want her knowing he was a knight from another world. However, being a knight was most of who he was, so that made things difficult to talk about most subjects since he had no idea of what other things laid as a part of his life. Let alone what even went on in this world as is.
So at this point, they were just two people who wanted to learn about the other. Yet unable to do so, as neither could truly say who they really were. “I’m sorry…” Chisa spoke up, breaking the silence that was growing between them.
“For what?” He asked. “It doesn’t bother me if you wish to stay safe by me.”
“I’m too scared…” She admitted. Not that he didn’t already know about that. Nor did that address his lack of concern of being used in this manner. “I mean, I barely told you anything about me, but you still want to be so kind anyway.” Chisa felt a bit selfish in this manner. It seemed too unfair for the boy with the way she acted around him. Even when he tried to learn about her, she refused to let him through her walls.
“Ida…” His tone took a slightly dimmer turn as he responded. “What if I told you… That I haven’t been honest with you either.” As much as she might have been holding back, he was keeping away from her something much more personal to him. All out of fear of what might happen were she to find out.
“Not honest?” She was confused. All the time she had spent with him, he seemed to be outgoing. Not to mention very upbeat and chipper. So what could someone like him possibly be hiding? “Well, it’s only fair because of how I’ve been acting.” Still, she just ended up taking this as another means to insult herself.
“No.” He disagreed with her assessment. “It doesn’t matter what you would’ve done. I still wouldn’t not told you the truth.” Tahiko hated it. As much as he understood the reasoning, he hated having to hide away who he was to her. This wasn’t the type of life he was taught, nor was it one he ever wanted to live. Yet what could he do? Should he… Break his promise to Amasa on keeping this away? And if he did say something, how would this girl react? Would she even believe him?
“I’m sure you have your reasons.” She was being very accommodating to him on the matter. “I don’t want to show my books to you because I’m worried what you’ll think of me after you see them. So I understand your feelings.” Tahiko stopped walking when he hear her say that. Yet again, just as with Amasa and Fukuna, someone else wanted him to consider his own personal feelings.
What was up with people around here? They always wanted him to think of himself, yet all he did back on Enatis was worry over others. Why would they want someone so insignificant as him, to think of himself? “Is everything okay.” She obviously took note that they had stopped. Now the girl was scanning back and forth to make sure there wasn’t anything about to jump out at them.
“Ida… I… I want to tell you.”
Elsewhere, Amasa and Fukuna were stuck going through this forest together.
“Ahh…” They both unenthusiastically yelled after being jumped scared for the first time. At this point, both their spirits were hampered from the bad news of not being able to go with Tahiko. All the while being stuck with each other as they went through this dark forest.
“You know, there are better ways for me to live my life than with you.” Fukuna complained as they reached a period of quiet forest. This part was to build dread among the students, but these two were too upset to care about that in the moment. “It’s hard not to hate you sometimes.”
“Relax, you’re just upset that you’re not going to be able to confess to him today.” Amasa fired back. Though in her mind, she did have her concerns in regards to Chisa. That girl likely also liked him as well, but was too shy to outright tell him of that. So while there was a tiny chance of her confessing, that probably wasn’t going to be the case when they met up after the forest.
“Ugh, after today, I think I’m going to splurge on some candy and dinner at a restaurant.” It was easy to do that when money was no object for this girl. “Hopefully with the holidays coming up in a couple of months. I might get my chance again.”
“I don’t get you sometimes.” If she was willing to confess today, then why wait for months just because the moment was supposedly right? Who cares if it was Christmas, just do it earlier. Though again, as before, Amasa did breath a sigh of relief that there was still time. Well… Not because she wanted Tahiko for herself or anything.
After a long and boring trek through the forest, where neither of them could say they were particularly frightened with the experience. Now they were prepared to see Tahiko and Chisa around to meet up with them, however that didn’t turn out to be the case.
“Where are they?” Fukuna asked as she tried to scan around the area. Her own friends were here, but she couldn’t see that boy anywhere.
“Weird, they should be around here.” Those two went before them, so it couldn’t have been that they were still in the forest. And even though the boy was an idiot, there was no way Chisa would’ve easily allowed them to have gotten lost. “Hey, has Tahiko come around here yet?” Amasa asked one of the teachers. According to them, they hadn’t seen the boy or his partner emerge from the forest. Now this caused concern among the staff, realizing that they could have students who’ve gotten lost. So they went and radioed the other staff members inside if they had witnessed them.
This news drove a chill down Amasa spine. While it was entirely possible they simply got lost. It wasn’t impossible to think of one thing that could’ve happened solely because this included Tahiko. “Come on, let’s go.” Quickly, she grabbed Fukuna by the arm, and once again they reentered the forest on their own.
