~Hotarubi No Mori E~ An Alternate Ending {Completed Oneshot}

Festival

I'm doing this only so that I can stop sobbing whenever I see the name, "Hatorubi no mori e" and live normally. Also, I'm too lazy and tired to type the whole story so this will start from the festival part. So enough of my ranting, let's get to the story.

This story is now available in German too. Visit https://my.w.tt/KMSRMEliSM for the German version. Translation by Schukuna

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~Narration~

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Gin invited Hotaru to the summer festival of the spirits. He said he always wanted to go there with her. Hotaru happily agrees and sneaks out of her house that night. She wears a cute pink yukata with a thin wristwatch on her left wrist.

"It feels like a date" she sighs with a smile.

"It is a date" Gin replies and ties her hand with his own using a white long cloth. Hotaru blushes vaguely on hearing his reply.

Together with Gin, she enjoys the festival. A few spirit kids see them together and tease them by calling them a couple, a bit to their embarrassment. Hotaru enjoys to her fullest and Gin is extremely happy to see her having fun in the festival.

After the festival, the two of them went for a walk in the forest. Gin takes off his mask, places it on Hotaru's face and gives her a sweet little kiss on the mask.

"You can keep it" Gin says softly, indicating towards the mask. (Really sorry, I don't remember their exact conversation >~<.)

Hotaru remains silent and the two continue to walk. All of a sudden, two kids who were playing tag, run around them and one of them was about to stumble and fall. Gin grabs the kid's hand and saves him from falling.

"Be careful, both of you" Hotaru called out. She turns to face Gin. He was found gazing at his hand with which he saved the kid. Little specks of light were leaving from his hand. Gin had touched a human kid. He was disappearing.

"Was that a human child?!" Hotaru exclaimed loudly. She understood the situation and realized that Gin was going to disappear. He smiles and opens out his arms invitingly.

"Come Hotaru, you can touch me now" he says happily. His other hand also starts to disappear.

Without wasting another moment, Hotaru runs up to him and Gin embraces her lovingly. They could hug each other briefly and then Gin disappears into little specks of light. All that remains of him is his mask and dark blue yukata.

Hotaru starts crying immediately. Of course it hurts to see her loved one disappear forever. The yukata was still in her armd. Some of the last specks of light were leaving from it. She looks up to the sky with tears in her eyes. Countless specks of light were slowly ascending towards higher altitude. Gin was leaving forever. Hotaru continued to cry like a child.

To her annoyance, the wind started to blow throughout the forest. It was harsh. The trees started to sway to and fro rapidly. Hotaru's grip loosened and the yukata flew away into the sky. (Lol, does that ever happen? Aren't yukatas heavy? I don't know. If you know, then please tell me in the comments)

She realized that something strange was happening. The yukata flew up the level where the specks of light had been floating. Slowly, the specks started to come together into the yukata. They started to glow really bright. Hotaru couldn't see properly due to the blinding amount of light. She squinted her eyes and noticed that all the specks had come inside the yukata and it was slowly coming down. It was still glowing. The yukata-clad figure landed on the barren earth. Gradually, the intensity of the light decreased and Hotaru recognized the person as Gin.

It was unbelievable, for both of them. Wasn't Gin supposed to disappear forever? He gave her a confused look. Though Hotaru was overwhelmed with joy on seeing Gin once more and wanted to hug him tight and never let go of him, she was afraid of what might happen if she were to touch him again.

Huhu, you two can hug each other, you know. A strange voice boomed from all the directions. Hotaru looked around confusedly to identify the source of the source.

"Mountain God!!" Gin gasped.

"What?" Hotaru exclaimed.

Exactly Gin. You're a smart little kid, just like the old times. Now, I'm sure you both are quite confused about what exactly happened to Gin. Would you like to hear an explanation?

"Yes!" Hotaru and Gin replied in unison.

Ok my dears. Gin, since you survived on my magic, that means a part of me lives in you. That also means I can read your heart and mind. I know each and every emotion that you've ever experienced. In short, I know everything about you.

Hotaru, the day you got lost in the forest and Gin helped you find your way out, I felt a change in his way of thinking. I knew from the very beginning that if Gin were to be with you for long he'll disappear for sure. But I also felt love in his heart. That love was so pure and true that I had to change my mind about the magic spell.

"I still don't understand what you are trying to convey, Mountain God" Gin says with a hint of confusion in his voice.

Gin, my dear, I lifted the spell and now, you are a normal human. You'd better thank Hotaru for this. If it hadn't been of her to fall for you, I wouldn't have turned you into a human again.

"But the forest spirits said that Gin can never return to his former self." Hotaru wondered aloud.

Hotaru, Gin, I'm Kami-sama. Forget what the spirits said. I'm the Mountain God. Nothing is impossible for me.

"I see..." Hotaru mumbled.

Huhu, yes my dear. Now Gin is a normal human, so he won't be able to communicate with the forest spirits anymore. Gin, you can live here, if you wish, but I recommend you to start living with humans. There's so much more to explain but I leave it for you two to find out. Good luck!

The voice started to grow fainter. Gin and Hotaru were still confused. The white-haired male shook his head, faced the female and opened his arms wide so she could embrace him. Hotaru seemed hesitant at first and then shook her head in denial. She was still afraid that this was just an illusion and Gin might disappear again. The strange voice of the Mountain God boomed once more.

Oh come on Hotaru, just go and hug him. It'll be alright. He won't disappear again. Trust me.

Hotaru smiled to herself and threw herself into Gin's arms. Gin embraces her protectively as she starts crying. He also feels the warm tears flowing down his cheeks.

"Thank you so much Mountain God" he whispers softly as he looked up towards the sky.

"Gin, I ..... I was so scared that I lost you forever. I never thought that you might return." Hotaru sobbed.

"I'm really sorry about this Hotaru. Even I had not known about this. I promise I won't leave you alone. Never ever." Gin replied while crying.

He then broke the hug and looked at Hotaru. She wiped away his tears and he did the same. The two of them smiled at each other lovingly. Gin pulled her into another hug, followed by a passionately sweet kiss.

"I love you Hotaru"

"I love you too Gin"

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~The End~

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One little note for Gin's parents- WHO ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE HUH??? WHY DID YOU ABANDON THE LITTLE GIN??? WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO DO SO????

Readers, please ignore my rants. Vote and/or comment if you like it. Although I doubt it's good cuz I didn't even bother to edit it. Anyway, thank you for reading.