Forget Me Not (Discontinued)

Chapter Thirty Eight: Removing the Bear's Fangs

Inumaki, Panda and I are waiting in an underbrush near the curse user's camp. Panda holds his nose with his giant claws, "Maki, how long until the signal? I don't know how much longer I can take this smell."

Panda is not exaggerating the horrid scent in the slightest. Even I with a normal human's sense of smell, couldn't stand the odor of rot and decay coming down wind. "Quit complaining, we have to wait for Gojo to text us. This mission hinges on precise timing, so just bare with it." Despite scolding Panda, I find myself silently praying for our stupid teacher to give us the damn signal already.

"Mustard leaf." Toge says to get my attention before handing me his phone.

I look at the screen and smirk, "Well, let's go have ourselves a bonfire."

We hike up the trail to an eerily desolate camp site. While I am accustomed to the smell of death, this scent is so overwhelming that I find myself nearly doubling over and gagging. Just how many bodies does this curse user have hidden up here?

"So we just have to burn the bodies, right? Then we can go?" Panda asks as his body gives way to involuntary shivers. 

"Yes, but first we need to find all of them and dismember them in case the curse user gets privy to what we're doing." I look back at Panda, "Ok get to it."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Sniff out the bodies and dig them up. Obviously you have the best sense of smell out of all of us and your claws should be able to dig up those bodies in no time." 

He glares at me and growls, "You're just giving me the grossest job because I'm an animal! This is workplace prejudice! I refuse to work in this hostile work environment." He declares turning his nose up at me. 

"Fine, then do you want to wait here while Toge and I blindly dig up this entire camp searching for bodies? It'll take a long time due to our shortcomings as humans." 

He huffs a loud sigh, "Fine...but you owe me for this one. I mean it, you're paying for my next meal and it's gonna be a big one."

"Yeah, yeah just get to it so we can get off this fucking mountain faster." I leave to go cut down some wood for our fire. The rain has made everything so wet that I doubt we could even start a kindling; our only hope is that the snake familiar Chiko Kubo left with Toge will work as he told us. Just as I'm about to leave with the damp wood, I feel a hand grab onto my leg. I drop all of the wood and attack with my black sword; swiftly cutting off the hand that grabbed my ankle. I jump back to find us completely surrounded by dead corpses. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Tuna mayo." Toge points at the edge of the campsite, alerting us to talismans that must've been set up to move the bodies in case of intruders. Which means...she must've known that Gojo was here. Damn it! Would it kill that idiot to be more subtle?!

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Oki suddenly flinches, the movement was so subtle that I almost missed it. But it was there and it made me wonder if Fuyuko had noticed any of the kids. I have to do something drastic to keep her focus on us and away from the students.

We currently have a suspect for who the curse user is. I tell him to grab the curse user's attention.

My brother snaps his head in my direction and Oki goes still for a moment before asking, "Oh? And who would that be?"

Someone from my piece of shit father's side of the family. I glare at my aunt's puppet.

Oki studies me for a moment, calculating and evaluating their next move. The corpse settles down with a look of calm contempt. "My condolences for dealing with that unfortunate family, but mind telling me why exactly you think it's one of them?"

Now it's my time to dance around the questions and hold onto my aunt's attention for just long enough for the students to finish up with their plans. I stare at my dead friend's reanimated corpse before I begin to waste their puppet master's time.

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All of us are hacking and slashing our way through the reanimated corpses, but it almost seems like there's no end in sight of them. I glance over at Toge who's already coughing up blood from over exertion. Then it hits me, we need to work smarter not harder.

"Toge! Make the puppets all gather into one place! We'll burn them all at once!" I yell at him.

He lifts down his high collar and says, "Gather!"

With that one simple command all of the corpses walk slowly over to form a small crowd. Even bodies that weren't awake yet gather together in one grouping.

"Toge now!" I shout.

I see Toge throw the snake shikigami and command, "Burn." The snake erupts into flames, transforming its small body into a large serpent of blue flames. The fire consumes all of the gathered corpses and turns into a great heap of ash. The shikigami shrinks back into its normal size and slinks over to Toge who says, "Return."

After that command he kneels to the ground and coughs up more blood before quickly taking his cough syrup. Panda wander over and picks up our weakened companion. I pull out a flare gun and aim towards the empty space between the trees. I shoot off the bright red flare into the sky and look on down the mountain. "I am not looking forward to the trek down this damn mountain."

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Oki suddenly stands up knocking over the chair; his eyes are wide with shock. He looks at us with all the vitriol that one can muster and asks in a deep voice, "What did you do?" All is silent for a couple of seconds before he screams, "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY PUPPETS!!!???"

"Ah so the kids must've finished up destroying those corpses. Gojo, did they send up the flare?" Chiko calls out to his brother in law.

"Gojo!! You said he was gone!"

"Nah, I've been here the whole time. And since we're done messing around, the real hunt can begin." Satoru says; his eye covering gone and a look of sadistic glee on his face. "Oh and don't bother running, I already know exactly where you're hiding Fuyuko."

A giggle escapes Oki's mouth, "So I've been found out. But if you think that's the only trick up my sleeve then you're dead wrong."

"And if you think that we didn't predict that, then you're even more wrong than us." He looks to me, Chiko, and Atuy before signing to us, She's out in the forest where Takara and I were attacked by a bear. Go, I'll be behind you to provide back up.

We sprint out of the house; as we run out we hear Oki's body crash to the ground, finally being granted his much deserved rest. Satoru sets up a black curtain surrounding our vicinity, allowing me to fully transform into a snake to hunt down my prey.