Mild rays of sun peered through the windows in Daiki’s room as the three of them slept on the floor, surrounded by empty bags of snacks and cans of juice. Daiki woke up first and walked lazily onto the balcony. Summer mornings were always dewy and lightly misty in Haguko and he’d always loved how cozy it felt to wake up during summer vacations and see the lazy weather chill beside his room for a few hours, before it all gave way to a scorching day. He checked the time; 5:30 am. He walked over to the bedside and opened up his laptop. 

Asa and Botan were still fast asleep so he began looking for places to buy camping gear online, by himself. To his surprise camping gear sales seemed to be unaffected by the pandemic, if not fueled by it. Everything he checked was either out of stock or too pricey. Frustrated, he got up and walked back into the balcony. A familiar summer breeze blew from the mountains bringing with it an unfamiliar string of thoughts. All his life the mountains have been just another part of the town but now it struck Daiki like a strange creature seeking vengeance upon humans. 

Soon he heard rustling behind him and turned to find Botan and Asa awake, checking if there were any leftover snacks from game night. 

“Mornin’, you guys look dreadful”, Daiki beamed. 

“Thanks, you too”, Asa grumbled in a croaky voice, “What do you look so happy for? Don’t we have some finding-camping-gear to do?”

“Jeez relax, Krabby patty”, Botan teased, “Get it? Cause you’re crabby as hell”. When, as usual, his joke didn’t fly with Asa, he turned to Daiki, “Anyway what are we gonna do about the camping gear?”

Daiki sighed, “Takashi was our best shot. But I guess we can get some of Botan’s old scouting gear delivered”

“Wow, I remember somebody calling it cringe”

Daiki frowned, “Really? Who?”

Botan raised an eyebrow, “You. Anyway, it’s a lost cause, Daiki. If I call my mom and ask her to send over my old camping gear she’d rail me out” 

“Yeah we’re not supposed to go anywhere Daiki, please, for once use your common sense” Asa snapped.

Daiki rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Fiiine alright calm down. We’ll keep looking online”

“Daikiii!!!”, Kaede's voice came from downstairs.

“...We can just skip some of this equipment and get only what we’d really need” 

“Daikiiiii!!!!””

“I still have some cash from my part time job”

“DAIKIIII!!!!”

“Dude… I think your mom’s calling you”, Botan muttered. 

“Tch yeah mom what??”

“Takashi-chan is here to see you!!!”

Asa, Botan, and Daiki turned to each other so fast that their necks almost snapped. They exchanged looks for a couple of seconds and raced down the stairs to find Takashi by the doorway with Kaede. 

“Huh took you long enough, Daiki”, she chided her son and turned to Takashi, “I’m so sorry, Takashi-chan, why don’t you come on inside”

The four of them were soon sitting next to each other awkwardly on the couch until Daiki broke the ice.

“Soooo what brings you here?”

Takashi turned to them with the same stone-face that greeted them the other day at his house, “You can’t have my dad’s gear”

The three stared at Takashi in utter confusion.

“Uhh yeah. We know. You told us”, Botan replied. 

Takashi ignored him and continued, “You can’t have my dad’s gear but you can have mine.”

“Huh?” Daiki asked, “You have camping gear?”

“Not camping gear. But there’s something else that can help.”

The three listened closely.

“And what would that be?”

“Hm”, Takashi adjusted his glasses, “I have a drone”

Daiki blinked, “A drone. Huh. Sooo we’re not going into the mountains?”

“Nope. Why should we put our lives in danger? We just fly the drone into the mountains and spy on whoever is lurking in there”

“We?” Daiki asked, smiling.

Takashi rolled his eyes, “Fine. I want in.”

“Excuse me” Botan interrupted, “That sounds great and all but how long can this drone even fly? The mountains are pretty far away”

“My drone can fly 10km before the battery runs out. There’s only about 5-6 km from Daiki’s house to the mountains”

Daiki, Botan, and Asa exchanged looks and shrugged.

“Alright”, Daiki affirmed, “We’ll take you up on that offer”

Takashi noticed Daiki’s eyes beam with excitement and he sighed to himself. Then Daiki added as an afterthought, “So why did you decide to help out?” and winked cheekily. 

“Urgh think nothing of it. I felt bad. And I’m a curious person. That’s it.”, Takashi said and turned away. He didn’t want to mention the bird creature from the night before. The more days went by after the incident, the less real it seemed to him. Still it bothered him deeply. He had to know what was going on before he began to question his own sanity.

Just as the four of them decided to go upstairs for further planning, there was a frantic knock on the door. They stared at it, puzzled as there were no usual visitors during this time. Then there was another knock, louder and more frantic this time. It was accompanied by a man’s voice, “Come outside. Quick!” 

Daiki and Takashi faintly recognized the voice as belonging to the town’s baker. But what was he doing here, they thought, and why did he sound so worried and desperate? 

When the knocking didn’t stop, Kaede came rushing and opened the door. Outside, a swarm of townsfolk were flooding the street, some still stumbling out of their homes, some already out, all of them heading in the direction of the mountains in some rush. 

“Fujisaki-san!”, Kaede called out to someone she knew. A lady with a long, thin face jostled towards her. “Fujisaki-san, what’s going on??”

“Remember Yūto-san who escaped from the mountains?”, the lady said.

“Yes?”

“Well he’s gone missing. We’re looking for him.”

“Wait, somebody escaped the mountains???”, Daiki shouted amidst the noise of the crowd.

“Yes, Yūto-san did”

Daiki, Asa, and Botan looked at each other and ran outside to get ahead of the crowd. Takashi heaved a sigh of regret and ran after them. 

“I was thinking, Yūto-san must have answers to all our questions about who’s haunting the mountains”, Daiki yelled as they ran, shoving and pushing the crowd. 

“We get that!” Takashi yelled, “But where exactly are we going?”

They forced their way through the sea of people and came up in front where there was some sort of a commotion. The crowd at the front had stopped moving and were gathering around a certain figure in an indiscernible, low murmur of confusion and curiosity. 

Daiki and his friends made their way through the group towards the figure at the center – a woman clad in a black kimono and a white haori, with long white hair that looks far too old for her young age; the only woman the town would trust when it came to inexplicable mysteries that haunted people – the witch doctor. 

“Hima-oba?”, Takashi whispered to himself. 

The woman stood firmly in place, almost as if she had led everyone there and was now beholding her target conclusively. She stared into the distance in front of her with an intense frown. The crowd tried to follow her gaze.

“That’s him”, she said sternly, pointing at a figure a few meters ahead.

“Yūto-san!!!”, the whole crowd exclaimed.

Sitting on the asphalt, leaning on a distant lamp post was the frail and hopeless figure of an old man. The entire horde started running towards him. Daiki, Botan, Asa, and Takashi followed. They ran past the witch doctor and gathered around the weak old man instead. A few seconds later the witch doctor emerged from the crowd. 

“Yūto-san, what are you doing out here?”, she bent down, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. Yūto let out a shaky gasp and looked up at the woman, helplessly, shivering all over. She glanced at him and placed her thumbs on his temples, like she’d done before. She slowly closed her eyes, rubbing the old man’s temples, and barely mouthing some sort of incantation. Daiki, Botan, and Asa watched inquisitively, while Takashi fixated on the witch doctor. The woman continued with her incantation, slowly getting louder and louder, until she suddenly stopped. Takashi watched. She snapped her eyes open and bewilderment flooded her face. No one noticed. No one, but Takashi.

Not grasping the situation, the crowd began to murmur again. A few seconds later, the witch doctor helped Yūto up, gradually, and handed him over to his frantically thankful family. “Please keep a closer eye on him”, she said to them and then looked at the townsfolk. She observed the crowd sternly and smiled.  

“Not to worry. Yūto-san is fine and safe. He was missing from his room in the morning without a trace and a few people, myself included, went out to look for him. We had no luck around the town for a couple of hours and we almost gave up but thankfully, we found him at last. Thank you all for being concerned. Please go to your houses and continue to follow safety measures until our petition to reopen investigations is approved.”, she announced and made her way through the crowd, walking off into the distance.