The Words That Hurt Me

Two Dozen

"Remember Goo: Go. For. The. Eyes."

"Yes, Ms. Ramirez, I know. And after the eyes, you go for the knees,"

"Muy bien!"

The sun hadn't yet crept above the horizon, yet the Yokai Village was buzzing with life. Well, only the close friends of Mikey and Goo, but the kids would be up if they'd been given the choice.

Mikey doesn't know why they were leaving so early, or even why they needed to visit even earlier. What difference does it make if they leave later in the morning? Oh, it was probably 'cause the roads were clearer. That makes sense.

Goo had made all the necessary arrangements for themselves, quitting their job and packing clothes. (They had a summer job ready for when June came, so they weren't too worried about quitting) They did want to make some stops at the trails Kit mentioned, which was fine by Mikey, he wanted his friend to have fun after all.

Usagi, while they were preparing to leave, offered to let Goo borrow his motorcycle helmet.

"You have a motorcycle?" Mikey had asked.

"Yup!" Usagi happily thumped his foot, "I used to ride it all over the city, even went to Jersey on it once,"

He gave a soft chuckle, reminiscing on younger days.

"I take it around at night sometimes," He said, turning his attention to Goo, "But safety first, you'll need a helmet riding on that bike of his,"

The two figured out how to connect the radios in the helmets, so they could talk on the drive up. Mikey was fairly excited for that too, figured that Goo would be able to answer some questions he had about the sights he saw.

So here they were, giving their goodbyes before they departed. There were no tears thankfully, just a lot of advice about facing the dangers of New York. Even Ryan was there.

"You two be careful now," He said, barely awake himself, "I don't wanna hear about y'all in the news,"

"Don't worry dude, I know the sewers like the back of my hand,"

"Sewers?" Usagi asked, bewildered, "That's...pretty smart actually,"

"Yeah, his family are sewer people," Goo giggled, "Kept them outta harm for this long,"

"Haha! Well, that explains a lot!" Gen laughed, giving Mikey a slap on the back, "Who'da thought?"

And with that, they were off.

.

The first day was uneventful, seeing as there were no trails for a long while. Still, Goo insisted that they stop every so often to stretch their legs.

One of these times, they stopped by a horse pasture. The horses were standing a bit away, grazing peacefully. Except for the little foal jumping around in the weeds.

"Y'know, I rode a horse once," Mikey said, watching as the foal rolled over in the dirt.

"Really?" Goo asked, looking over at him. Mikey guessed they were making a surprised face under the helmet.

"Yup! It was because something really weird happened," He answered, "Me and my brothers were summoned to another dimension by some wolf guy, it was crazy,"

"Jeez, what's with you and dimensional travel?"

"The thing about this world, though, was that it had Yokai, actual Yokai," He continued, "Like, turtle people, cat people, all that. And we met a rabbit samarai there,"

He took a moment to gaze out at the foal, who was munching on some grass near the fence.

"His name was Usagi,"