Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 10 - Chapter 7

7. No Going Back

The man beside her wasn’t particularly tall. Maybe a little taller than Haruhiro. His sloped shoulders weren’t particularly broad, and were in fact kind of narrow.

Yume had thought the men in coats were all well-built. It seemed that wasn’t necessarily the case.

If she were to say one more thing, the coated group wasn’t just the nine who escorted Yume and the others back to the village. There were others, and this Tukotan guy was one of them.

Tukotan? No, Tokyon? Was that it? Coulda been Totokyan, too. Totokyan’s cute, so he can be that. Yeah, Totokyan’s good.

“Hey, Totokyan!”

When she called his name, Totokyan stopped and looked back at her. He grabbed the part of his hood that was covering his eyes and pulled it back a little.

His face was bumpy and purple. He had an upturned chin, his canines jutted out, and his nose was awfully big and long. His eyes were a reddish purple. His bushy hair was dark black, and glossy.

Totokyan wore a bow and quiver diagonally across his back. It was simple bow, but not poorly made. Care had been put into it.

Yume had been given a bow to carry, too. It was a small bow like a kid might use, and she’d been given twenty short arrows with it.

“This thing,” Yume said, touching the bow on her back. “Yume’s thinkin’ she’d prefer something bigger, y’know. This bow, it’s real tiny. If this’s all she’s got, her arrows aren’t gonna fly that far.”

Totokyan just looked at Yume, but didn’t say anything.

“Hm...” Yume tilted her head. How could she explain it in a way he’d understand? She looked down at the ground.

Totokyan went off the road and into the mountains, sometimes brushing aside grass or branches as he moved forward. He was choosing the easiest route to walk, though. It might not look like a road, but it was a path that Totokyan clearly used often.

Looking upwards, she sometimes spotted little birds chirping as they flew by.

“Tuoki,” said Totokyan, all of a sudden.

Yume said “Nyoo?” and blinked.

“Tuoki.”

“Tu-o-ki.” Yume tried sounding it out for herself.

When she did, Totokyan nodded, then pointed to his chest with his index finger.

Yume’s eyes opened wide, and she clapped her hands.

“Ohh! It wasn’t Totokyan, it was Tu-o-ki!”

“Yai.”

“Ohh. Tu-o-ki, huh. Tu, Tu, Tuuohki. Ngh... It’s kinda hard to say. Is Tuokin no good? Yume thinks Tuokin would be easier for her to call you by. It’s cute and all.”

“Tuokin...” Tuokin lowered his eyes, then shrugged his shoulders a bit. “Rei. Tuokin. Weiha.”

“Ooh. That mean it’s okay, huh? Hello again, Tuokin.” Yume extended her right hand.

Tuokin looked at Yume’s hand, seeming mystified for a while. Then, using his own right hand, he grasped Yume’s. When Yume gripped his in return, Tuokin tried to let go.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Yume, she’s not gonna do anythin’ to hurt you.”

Yume grinned and shook his hand up and down. Tuokin’s hand was soft and warm.

Tuokin seemed confused, but he didn’t try to pull back his hand anymore.

She could trust Tuokin. Yume sensed that.

“Mm-hm! Hello, Tuokin.”

“...Ah?”

“Um, lessee...” Yume brought her left hand over to Tuokin’s right hand, and clasped it with both her hands. Closing her eyes, she thought, Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, over and over. Even if he couldn’t understand her words, the feeling should come across, she figured.

Opening her eyes, she smiled. “Hello!”

Tuokin said, “Yai...” and lowered his chin. “He...llo.”

“Whoo! Hello, hello!”

“Hello.”

“Pah!” Yume let go of his hand for a moment, then immediately shook Tuokin’s right hand with both hands again.

Tuokin had said “hello” for her!

“Hey-ho!”

“Hey...?”

“Hey-ho, heeeey-ho!

“H-Heeeey-ho.”

“Ooh!”

When Yume closed one eye, Tuokin winked, too. Yeah, Tuokin really was a good person. He wasn’t a person, though. Well, person or not, it didn’t matter.

“So...” While Yume held Tuokin’s right hand with her right hand, she lightly tapped on the back of his hand with her left. “Tuokin, for Yume’s bow, she was thinkin’ she’d like somethin’ bigger.”

This time, he seemed to have gotten it, and using pantomime he explained that Jessie didn’t fully trust Yume and the others yet. While a small bow could be fired more quickly, it was only useful when closing in on prey in an area with many obstacles to shoot them, or in battles fought at relatively close distances. With a bow that had longer range and power, she could snipe from a distance, too. He couldn’t give a weapon like that to someone who might mean them harm. That was probably what it meant.

Yume crossed her arms. “Oh...” she said, puffing up her cheeks. “That makes sense. If that’s why, guess this’ll have to do.”

“Rei.”

“Okay, Tuokin, let’s go.”

“Yai.”

“But where’re Yume and Tuokin goin’?”

Tuokin held up his index finger, and rotated it in a big circle.

Yume said, “Ohh...” following his finger with her eyes. “Round-n-round, huh.”

“Wolla.”

“Sure, sure. Yume’s all ready. She’s good to go anytime.”

Tuokin started to walk, so Yume followed.

She wondered what her comrades were doing now. It looked like that Jessie guy had separate tasks for each of them. Maybe he meant to split them up when they ate and slept, too. If that was the case, she might not be able to see her comrades that much. Being away from Shihoru and Merry made her feel really lonely.

Tuokin turned back occasionally, and adjusted his speed each time. He was probably trying to be considerate to Yume.

“Tuokin, you’re real nice, huh?” Yume called out. “Yume’s fine, though. Yume, she can keep up, so you don’t need to be so considerate.”

Tuokin looked back at Yume quickly, then picked up the pace a little. From then on, their pace never let up.

Yume focused on keeping up with Tuokin, and surveying the area around them. Various things crossed her mind, but thinking about it wasn’t going to help, so maybe she was better off not thinking.

When Yume’s reborn, she wants to be a wolf dog. She suddenly had that thought.

There were times she felt like she wasn’t suited to be a human. She hadn’t told anyone, and she probably wouldn’t ever, but she felt like a person like her might be better off as something other than a human. If she weren’t a wolf dog, a nyaa could be pretty nice, too.

“Whoopsie,” she whispered, and chased the idle thought away.

Tuokin would occasionally touch the trees or the ground. It wasn’t something she noticed at first glance, but there were apparently stakes driven into them. Those had to be signs. Marks to confirm that this was their territory, maybe.

They took a number of short breaks. Each time, Tuokin offered a canteen to Yume and let her drink. He fed her these flat, brown things that were halfway between a bread and a dumpling, too. The water had the refreshing taste of fragrant herbs, and the bread-y, dumpling-y things were delicious.

How many of those marks had they encountered? She hadn’t been counting at first, so she didn’t know precisely, but it was probably the fortieth, or somewhere thereabouts. When Tuokin crouched down to check the ground, he raised his face and quickly looked around the area.

Yume also lowered her stance, and reached for the bow on her back. What was it? She wanted to ask, but it was best to keep quiet.

Tuokin was still crouching. Pulling the stake like thing from the ground, he put it in his pocket. Had there been something wrong with it?

“Yuuume.” Tuokin called Yume’s name in a quiet voice.

“Yeah. What?” Yume whispered back.

Tuokin covered his mouth with his hand, pointing up ahead. Then, turning the palm of his hand downward, he raised and lowered his right hand a number of times. He was probably trying to communicate that they would advance, but slowly.

Yume nodded.

Tuokin began to creep forward. Yume followed.

The sun was going down. They had walked a fair distance, but they weren’t that far from the village. The coated group’s job must be to patrol around the village looking for impending danger, then report to Jessie if there was any.

While walking, Yume put a hand on the hilt of the katana hanging at her waist. The coated group had collected Yume and the others’ weapons after Jessie had forced them to drop them, and then returned them to them before they left the village. Compared to her original machete, or the curved sword Wan-chan, this katana was longer and heavier. She’d gotten pretty used to it, and she could use it without it feeling weird at all now.

Tuokin was clearly on alert. There might be a threat nearby. He was probably searching for it.

The truth was, Yume had been sensing something for a while. She could only say that it was something, but there was a faint tingling on the back of her neck.

If she was imagining it, great. But she might not be. Honestly, Yume thought it was more likely that she wasn’t.

“Tuokin,” she said.

“Ah?”

“There might be somethin’ around, huh? Yume... she feels like she’s bein’ watched, y’know.”

“Rei.”

It seemed Tuokin was sensing the same presence as Yume. However, she couldn’t see what it might be.

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched cry and a beating of wings. A bird, huh?

Tuokin came to a stop, so Yume stopped, too. It looked like it really was a bird. A bird that had been singing happily was startled by something and took off flying. It probably wasn’t Yume and Tuokin who startled it. It had to be something else.

“Hey, are Tuokin and Yume gonna search for it?” Yume asked.

Tuokin let out a thin breath. It seemed he was undecided.

“Tuokin.” Yume softly placed her hand on Tuokin’s arm. “When you’re not sure what to do, you don’t have to decide. It’s at times like that when you should be relyin’ on others for help. Listen, it’s important to try to do what you can on your own, but the end result’s the most important thing of all. Oh, and it’s not good to push too hard and put yourself in danger, either. You’ve got comrades, don’t you? If you end up gettin’ hurt real bad, no one’s gonna be happy about that. Hopefully you understand what Yume’s tryin’ to say...”

Tuokin said, “It’s okay,” the corners of both sides of his mouth twitching upwards. It was apparently a smile. “Datto anbu. O dea. U nens Jessie.”

Probably, Tuokin was saying something like, It’s getting dark. We’re going home. I’ll report this to Jessie.

Yume chose to understand it that way. “Okay, Tuokin, you wanna go home?”

“Yai. Wolla.”

“Be careful. The field trip’s not over ’til we get home.”

“Fi... eld... trip...”

“Um, a field trip’s... It’s kinda hard to explain, so maybe next time. For now, it’s time to go home!”

Yume patted Tuokin on the back, then turned to go the other way. Tuokin followed. It almost looked like Yume was the one in control of Tuokin like this.

“Tuokin, Tuokin, you’ve gotta go first, y’know!” she called. “Yume doesn’t know the way that well yet.”

“Wah.”

Looking a little embarrassed, Tuokin said, “It’s okay,” and gave Yume a thumbs up before passing her.

Yume giggled. “Tuokin, you’re so cute.”

What was going to happen after this? Yume did have her concerns. However, they would definitely be able to something about it.

Because Shihoru was here, Merry was here, and Kuzaku was, too. Shuro Setora and Enba wouldn’t try to sell Yume and the rest out to save themselves, either. That was what Yume thought, at least. Besides, her gray nyaa Kiichi was really cute.

While Haruhiro had been in bad shape, Merry had healed him with her magic. He’d wake up eventually. When that happened, things would be back to how they were before.

There was a stinging sensation in her chest...

“...Stupid Ranta.”

No, things wouldn’t be back to the way they were. They never would.

Would she never see him again, for the rest of her life?

She didn’t want to, of course.

But if she really couldn’t see him, that felt a little sad.

Just a little, though.

If she saw Ranta’s face, she might get mad and slap him. No, she would absolutely, positively sure she would punch him as hard as she could. But she’d probably never get the chance to give Ranta that clobbering.

It was best to think that way. That was the feeling she got.

If she did... she wouldn’t have to be disappointed that way.

Yume gulped and looked back.

Her heart was racing. Her breaths were quick and shallow. Her whole body felt cold, and she could tell she was sweating. What could this be? What?

That was it. It might be an exaggeration to say this, but she was hit with a sensation like something had caught her by the scruff of her neck.

Yume had already started drawing her katana without noticing. There was no way she could describe what it was in words. She could only call it intuition.

“Yuuume?” Tuokin asked.

Yume immediately shook her head. “Shh... Hold on. Just now, something...”

With her eyes as wide as saucers, she was looking for something. But what was she trying to discover?

The trees already made visibility less than great, and it was dark in the mountains, making it even harder for her to see very far.

She took two breaths.

Her chilly body began to regain its heat.

“Wora,” Yume said.

Tuokin looked suspicious, but nodded.

Before they started walking again, Yume looked around the area one last time.

Something was watching Yume and Tuokin. Of that, she no longer had any doubt.

The problem was, what was it?