Child Of The Unseen | GoFushi

Inevitable Fate

Megumi's grandma, Tsumiki, like everyday walked the path to the cursed forest in search of her grandson who had vanished days ago after she had left him alone in her house for only a few hours. She always reminded him that it was forbidden to leave the house by his own. If he wanted to go outside, he needed to be accompanied by someone every time.

Megumi had always been an obedient boy, always listening and obeying every word his grandmother spoke. That's why she knew that something must have happened to her grandson for him to leave the house.

Yet every time she reached the forest, she could not find a single clue about his disappearance. However this day was different from the past few days, since a lonely white butterfly was fluttering around.

Tsumiki quickly saw it, unable to ignore it. "Did you got lost, little butterfly?" She asked, feeling silly right after. "Why I'm even trying to speak with a butterfly," she laughed.

Although in her eyes the butterfly looked like it was waiting for someone, she tried to not pay attention to it anymore.

Megumi was all she could think about right now, to the point that the thought of the butterfly being one of the guardian angels of her grandson never crossed her mind.

"Maybe, I should enter the forest," the old lady said to herself, not knowing where else to find Megumi. She had thought about this days before, but she never had the courage to do it.

There was two different reasons that stopped her from entering the forest. The first one, and the one that scared her the most, was finding the lifeless body of her grandson. The second one was because of the dangerous creatures that lurked inside.

Being a normal human, there was no way she could survive inside a place full of curses. Even so, deep down, she was completely sure that a creature have taken Megumi away. There was no human who would want to kidnap him, especially because he was invisible to almost everyone.

Having made up her mind, Tsumiki, with slow steps, got closer to the entrance. Thankfully, after being only two steps away from entering, a voice coming from behind her made her halt.

"Megumi is not there. Although, he still in the Human Realm, a human will never be able to find him that easily."

Confused by the sudden words, she turned around to try to see where the voice of a male was coming from, but there was no one to be seen. Not even the white butterfly that she saw moments ago fluttering around was present anymore.

"Could it be..." The worst crossed her mind after understanding the voice's words: maybe the Red Butterfly has already appeared and took her grandson away! That could explain why she could not find him no matter where she searched.

"If Megumi was really..." Her voice quivered. "There's no way," she did not want to believe it. "But if that was really the case, then I'm sure he's okay. I'm sure his guardian angels will protect him," she tried to reassure herself, taking right after a deep breath to calm down.

Once she managed to regain her composure, Tsumiki decided to go back. There was no way she could stay still after knowing that the Red Butterfly could possibly have taken her grandson away. Even if she couldn't do much to save him, she at least could try to seek help from the villagers.

......

It did not take long for Tsumiki to arrive at the village. Since she had always lived here all her whole life, she already knew the few people who were able to see the curses, and the ones who suspected about the existence of the child of the unseen.

But it was hard for Tsumiki to ask help from any of them. She wasn't close to anyone in particular, and the day her daughter got pregnant with Megumi, she distanced herself even more. This behavior only alerted the villagers, creating different rumors among the elderly.