Shirayukihime and The Lost Fox

Chapter 5: Fateful Meeting

Akira POV

I had stayed up for most of the night, thinking of what Yuuto had said. At some point, maybe around the early morning, I had fallen asleep.

But I had anything but a restful sleep.

Memories of home had haunted my dreams. My mother, father, little brother, baby sister, and Mika all seemed so worried. "Where is Akira? Where did Bright-eyes go? Is Nii-chan okay?" They all said. I had wanted to call out to them and say, "I'm here! I'm here! Don't worry, I'm right here!" But my voice stuck in my throat. I couldn't follow after them, couldn't catch them, as they started to walk away, still trying to find me.

Then I woke up.

Shirayuki had her hand on my shoulder, seemingly to have been shaking me awake. I look at her. "Akira? Akira, why are you crying?" Concern was etched into her face. I touch my cheek and find tears leaking out of my eyes. I turn away so she couldn't see me. It's embarrassing for a boy to be seen crying, you know?

As I wiped the tears away I start to explain to her, "I, uh, was dreaming of my family," I turned back to her with a small pained smile. "You could say I miss them."

"Well, if you miss them, then why are you away?" She asks carefully. Curiosity and sadness filled her eyes.

"You could say something happened and now I can't go back." I say with a sad smile.

She looked at me with pity in her eyes. "Oh, please don't look at me like that! I hate to be pitied on." I tell her, trying to lighten the mood.

I heard some rustling on the other side of the wall. "Kiki, Mitsuhide! I'm going on ahead!" A male voice shouted on the other side of the wall. Running footsteps pounded the ground. "Hey, careful, bragger, you'll hurt yourself!" Another male voice called out. A boy with white hair jumped over the wall a moment later. I knew exactly who he was.

Zen.

It seemed as if time stopped for a second. Zen seemed to just stand still, mid jump with his hand on the wall. Shirayuki looked up, entranced by him. Then everything seems to go a little faster. Zen sees Shirayuki, his blue eyes widen, his foot gets caught on the wall, he falls.

I guess you could say that this is the beginning of that fateful meeting.

I close my eyes as Zen hits the ground. Upon hearing a groan, I open my eyes and see the white haired boy crouching, holding his forearm above his head. I look over to Shirayuki and see that she had pressed herself into the corner of the building and wall. Two people run around the corner. One was a blue haired boy and the other a blonde girl.

Oh, it's Kiki and Mitsuhide.

"I told you so, Zen!" Mitsuhide said as him and Kiki ran up to Zen. "Are you hurt? Did you fall on your head? Tell me, what's one plus one?" He questioned rapidly. "Purple." Was Zen's instant reply to the last question. "Wait, who are you again?" Zen questioned. "It's me, Mitsuhide!!" He said, panicked as he pointed to himself. "Oh, I forgot. Was that your name?" Kiki said flatly as she looked off to the side, her arms crossed. "Kiki!!" Mitsuhide exclaimed, panicked. "Not even helping a little bit!" Zen started to laugh at the scene before him. It was obvious that they didn't notice Shirayuki and I.

Shirayuki took her bag to her chest and started to crawl on her knees towards me. I still couldn't move, since my foot was still injured. Zen stopped laughing and glared over his shoulder. "Hold." He commanded with his eyes narrow. Shirayuki flinched but stopped moving. Zen stood up and swung his sword onto his shoulder.

"Mind telling me who you are? And what you're doing in the woods all alone." He smirked slightly at Shirayuki as she sat back on her heels, dropping her bag on her lap. "Oh! I just, uh, I just left my home and I was in a hurry," she said as she pulled her hood down over her face. "So I got rather lost and ended up on some random road, and..." as she talked, Zen's expression fell into a look of seriousness. "...here I am." Shirayuki finished.

Zen pointed his sword in front of her face before flinging it upward over her head, revealing her bright red hair. She gasps and touches her head. "You have very unusual hair." Zen stated cooly. "Yeah, I hear that a lot." She looks at his forearm. "Oh, your arm. It's injured!" She says. Zen simply looks at his arm and says, "Eh, I've had worst."

"Well, you're in luck. I'm an herbalist," She says as she starts to rummage through her satchel. "I have a healing poultice you can use, that'll help."

"No thanks." Zen cuts her off. Shirayuki looks up confused. "It could be poison or something. I'm not going to fall for that little trick." He says as he points the tip of his sheathed sword at Shirayuki. I can officially say that I have been forgotten in this little encounter. At this point, I've stopped listening, and have just watched it all play out.

After Shirayuki had proven that her medicines aren't poisonous, Zen breaks down laughing. He introduces himself and his aids. "I'm Shirayuki," She introduces herself. "And this is my temporary traveling companion." Everyone turns to me, probably noticing my presence for the first time. I give a short wave to them and say, "The name's Akira."

I knew that they couldn't get a good look at my eyes since I had pulled it down low. From what Shirayuki tells me, different colored eyes are rare in this world. And that could cause trouble for me, maybe even more than Shirayuki's hair...

"Would you mind taking your hood off?" Zen said rather curtly. I shake my head. "Sorry, but I can't do that." Zen points his sword at my face and tries to pull the same trick with Shirayuki. Quickly, I grab my kendo sword and knock his away from my face. "I wouldn't try to pull that one again. I'm not that stupid." I glare at him from under my hood. He looks at me, surprised. Shirayuki stares at me in awe.

"So, you know your way around a sword." He states. He crouches down to eye level with me since I'm still sitting on the ground. "You've earned my respect." He grins. I look at him, confused. "Hu-?" He quickly reaches out for my hood and pulls it off. I had gave him an opening in my confusion. Damn!

I grit my teeth as I use the hilt of my sword and hit his arm, right on his injury. He hisses in pain and retracts his hand, but I had been too late. He had pulled my hood off, and with it the pins that were holding my ears down. I have been exposed.

'Damn it, this wasn't part of the plan!'