Help from the Shadows (Open Novella Contest)

4 (Chenhua)

"Wow!" was Rau's reaction upon arriving at the Shadowside realm, which we all agreed with as the 5 of us exited Ayame's portal and ended up in the park. I briefly recalled Choiseung saying that a good amount of major events had occurred here. But it didn't really seem like a place where an eleven-year-old kid would be beaten up by a gang, a dog Youkai would attack, and where a card battle would occur. 

"I honestly didn't expect it to be so normal, especially after all the significant things that has happened here," Choiseung remarked. I looked at him with wide eyes, wondering how he knew what I was thinking of. 

Ayame sweatdropped, "Don't worry, I felt the same way too when they told me."

Akino shrugged, "Animes are quite unpredictable to be honest." 

"Nice spot to transport us to, Ayame," Rau complimented, but Ayame frowned, "I didn't set it here, though. I set it to be at the Arihoshi shrine." 

"What?!" we all looked at her. I rubbed my ears to make sure that I hadn't heard wrong. 

"But if that's the case, why are we here?" I paled drastically as I realised something, "Guys, you don't think that the guy who kidnapped Natsume, Touma, Akinori and Keisuke knew we were coming and changed our portal's coordinates so they could attack us, right?" 

The others looked at me as if I had just suggested the worst case scenario, which, as we all gradually came to realise the eerie silence around us, could be true. 

Much to our horror, our suspicions came true in the form of a spider-like Youkai appearing right in front of us.

Their reactions varied. 

 Akino went pale in the blink of an eye. Rau stared at the Youkai like it wasn't supposed to be here. Choiseung was ready to run off. 

But Ayame was clearly the most shaken of all of them, which was proven as she stuttered out, "J-Jorogumo?" 

I did a double take hearing that. Jorogumo?! I had heard Jorogumo's story from Choiseung, who had explained how she had pretended to be the Princess when the sakura branch had reacted to Ayame, like how it had reacted to Keisuke in episode 37, and used Shutendouji and Douketsu to break out of the seal placed on her by Ayame's ancestor, the great priest Reibashi. Then, the Original Quadruplet/Quartet (the nickname I had thought up for Natsume, Touma, Akinori and Keisuke) had ventured out to find Genbu's sword and came back to defeat her. It was in that battle that Fudou Myouou Boy came to be. 

Now, I could only stare like a goldfish at her, "Wait, she's Jorogumo?! I thought you guys said that she had been defeated!" 

"Oh, is that what they said to you, Ayame-chan~" Jorogumo rose an eyebrow at her, making her shiver as she looked down, obviously terrified. We immediately grew protective.

"Don't you dare try to hurt her!" the four of us on instinct stood in front of Ayame and threw our arms above her, trying to shield her from Jorogumo. 

"Ara, so cute... But you can't protect her from me! I still have a bone to pick with her!" she suddenly screeched out as she forced us away and grabbed Ayame by her neck, putting a barrier between us and them. 

"Ayame!" Rau shouted as he ran to the barrier and began hitting it. We all followed suit, shouting for Jorogumo to stop hurting her.  However, she only ignored us as she focused her efforts on Ayame.

"You thought that I wouldn't  be able to catch up with you? Ohohohoho, how amusing and cute. However, you've forgotten, haven't you, Ayame? I won't back down so easily. I honestly want to finish your friends off first, but I have more important business with you. Don't you remember that you're the one who chose to push me away, Ayame?" Jorogumo taunted her.