Cherry Blossom Abyss

Chapter Seven

I make my way through the forest carefully,in search of the clearing with the Willow tree.

It was around here somewhere.

I hear rustling in the trees and look up to see a crow staring down at me.

Except...it had a weird, familiar feeling to it.

Satoshi...?

The crow from that night I lost my mom.

Satoshi tilts his head at me,then flies over to perch on my shoulder.

I giggle softly.

"Long time no see."

"Vivian?"

I look over to see uehara cocking his head at me.

"Oh,uehara! Look,it's a crow!"

I gush.

He blinks,confused.

"Yes,I see Aosuke."

I freeze. "Aosuke..?"

"Uh,yeah. Aosuke Satoshi? You've never seen him in his bird form?"

I blink at aosuke.

So...I've known aosuke all this time? Before my mom had passed?

Aosuke looks at me,seeming to smile and uehara whistles at him.

Aosuke flies to ueharas shoulder at his command.

Uehara pets him.

"Why haven't you told vi about your crow form?"

Ao caws softly in excuse and uehara rolls his eyes.

"Anyway. You looking for the training area too?"

I nod and he nods at ao.

"Find the way."

Within a second,ao flies up above the trees and circles above.

Then,back in a second,he shifts to human form before hitting the ground.

Ao looks at uehara.

Uehara nods and looks at me.

"We're almost there,just keep heading north."

I awkwardly look away,my cheeks flaring.

Ueharas blinks in realization.

"Oh yeah,I forgot. You're a girl."

He looks over at aosuke.

"Ao,your dicks out. Do something about it."

Uehara throws a pair of pants at him and aosuke obediently slips them on.

Uehara looks at me.

"Now,let's roll."

We step over a few more logs and jump a creek before reaching our destination.

It was a huge clearing and a bunch of people were already there,stretching.

A bunch of whistles blow in unison and I look up to see ise trying to get our attention.

"Okay, we'll do one on one to start out with. You'll be paired up with someone with experience. There's not enough tutors to go around so we'll have to rotate, got it? Alright let's begin pairing."

Everyone begins forming into pairs and ise walks over to me.

"Vi,you'll be paired with me for now. Let's see what you got."

I fidget.

"Um..."

Ise suddenly shoves me to the ground.