NekoMentals!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"What is that?" Yurika whispered to Damion with a slight tremble in her voice.

Before he could answer, a rabbit jumped out of the bush, its nose twitching as it smelled the air. Three more smaller rabbits, most likely its babies, hopped out after it. The family of rabbits ran as fast they could as soon as they saw Yurika and Damion, leaving the grass behind them swaying in their self-made wind.

She put a hand to her chest and exhaled. "I was so worried that it was Tama or the monster. I'm glad that it wasn't either of them."

"Me, too. That would have been awfully quick; we just got here," Damion replied.

Yurika placed her head on his shoulder, her right hand finding his left, intertwining their hands without thinking about it.

Soon dawn came, the sun peaking over the horizon. Sachiko tapped on their backs, letting them know that they could get rest while the other three watched out for Tama or the monster. Yurika crawled into her sleeping bag and fell asleep immediately, while Damion laid awake for a half hour before drifting off.

Kurogane sharpened his katana with a metal rod that he carried in his bag at all times, just in case he needed it. Sachiko and Aito sat on either side of him, both being cautious, though Sachiko a little more than Aito.

At around lunch time, something else rattled the same bush. From what they could hear, the footsteps were heavier than a rabbit's. Aito woke the other two up and made sure they had their katanas ready. The group of five all stood in front of the shack, clumped together and ready to stop anything that came their way.

Sure enough, the purple monster charged through the bush and swung its arm back, prepared to attack. Damion, who was at the head of the group, slashed his katana at just the right moment, to prevent the monster's arm from crashing down on his head.

"Kurogane and Aito, get the ropes!" Damion ordered.

The monster lifted its other arm, but Yurika intervened and slit her katana from its shoulder all the way to its forearm, drawing blood and getting splattered with it.

Aito carried some of the twine ropes, while Kurogane had his shadows ready to bind. Aito ran around the monster and tied its arms to its side, making a knot at the back so that it couldn't untie it easily. Kurogane used his hands to manipulate the shadows, instead of running.

It was a group effort to drag the monster into the shack. There, they used the rest of the rope to tie it to the window frame. They all sat down in front of it and looked at one another.

"What now?" Aito asked. "It's not like the thing can talk."

Yurika shrugged. "Why don't we try different things again and see what works. If it really is Chiyo, and she can understand our actions and comprehend what we say, then that might be the key. We could establish signals and all of that." She pulled the crystal out of her bag and held it up to the monster. It froze and had an almost melancholic look in its eyes. "See? She knows it's her life. How do we break it, Chiyo?"

As they expected, Chiyo didn't answer; she only struggled against the ropes.

"Wait," Damion grabbed the others' attention. "I saw another box that was locked in her bedroom. Maybe that's what we need?"

Yurika pulled her mouth into a thin line. "We can't go back into her house. She probably already knows it was us and she'll be ready for us when we come back. That would make sense though, to mislead the people who took it."

"Honestly, it's our best bet. We should search her house one more time, just to see if we missed any more hidden rooms or trap doors. All in favor of going back to Tama's house, say aye," Sachiko raised her forearm to her shoulder and received many ayes.