Starlight (Kojiro Nanjo)

Chapter Fourteen: Urban Myth

"What? So there's no hot spring here anywhere?"

"You should've checked before we left." Miya muttered back, unenthused.

"The hostess gave me this map." Cherry began to explain, unfurling the paper and placing it on the table where everyone could see. "It's in the mountains five kilometers from here, and it's listed as a secluded hot spring."

"Five kilometers, huh?" Joe mused. "Sounds like the perfect distance to have a beef."

"Ready for that rematch, are you?" Hoshiko chuckled, earning a narrowed gaze from the emerald hair man. "Ready to lose again?"

"In your dreams." He spat back, pointing a finger to the woman. "First match was a bad day for me, alright. You got lucky!"

"I distinctly remember you having, as you said, the best day ever." Cherry retorted. "Call it luck all you want, she might just out rank you."

"No way!"

"Did somebody say a beef?" Shadow had shouted, slamming open the bathroom door and revealing himself in his full get up; clown make up and spiked mohawk alike. "I'm in. Let's go!"

"I thought you were sleeping off your hangover." Miya replied, leaning against the table with a raised brow.

"Only the weak me is derailed by booze. Now, the mask is in control!"

"Oookay." Hoshiko nodded, glancing back down to the map. "Anyway, what's with the little face on the way there?"

"Maybe it's where the thing is that the hostess was talking about."

"They wouldn't draw something like that on a map!" Reki shouted, eyes turning white, heart racing. He sure was freaked out by this whole urban myth thing, wasn't he? "Come on!"

"Seems like you're afraid of it." Miya mumbled back, covering his ears at the redhead's sudden screaming.

"Oh, please. You think I'm afraid of some grade school ghost stories. I'm not!"

"Reki.. You're shaking." Hoshiko pointed out, causing the boy to somehow shake even more. "It's okay to be scared sometimes. Maybe it's just some grade school ghost story, but it had to come from somewhere, right?"

"Yeah, like.." Joe began, squinting his eyes toward the door. "Have any of you been hearing that strange sound too?"

"Stop, you're freaking me out!"

"That was one." Cherry had whispered, following the sounds of glass on glass. "There's two. There's three."

Miya had been shining a flashlight below the man's face, adding an extra eerie vibe to the atmosphere in an attempt to scare Reki even further than he already had. Cherry was stacking plates within the palm of his hands to make the noise, the glassware clinking together really had made quite the impression on the boy as he began to shake impossibly more.

"Okay, you're not funny!"

"You guys, knock it off." Hoshiko chuckled, turning the bedroom light on to render Miya's flashlight virtually useless. How the kid had managed to cut the lights and scramble back over there so quickly was a mystery. "Quit picking on him. It's normal to be freaked out! It's late at night, it's dark outside and the town's got some urban myth. They want people to be scared."

"So are you scared, Hoshiko?" Joe mumbled back in a taunting tone.

"Not in a million years."

"So you'll have no problems doing this beef with us. Perfect."