Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Navigating airports was hard enough for Ru when she was in countries where most everyone spoke English. Flying to Japan would’ve been completely overwhelming if Ivy wasn’t fluent in Japanese and Mandarin, especially when they had to switch planes in Shanghai. Luckily, the gentle-natured Keeper had managed to keep all of them in line and they’d made their way to Shizuoka Airport with little incident, though Rider complained about the lack of legroom on the commuter jet nearly the whole flight. Thank goodness for headphones, Ru had thought to herself.

The entire van ride from the airport to their hotel, a place Ru hadn’t even attempted to try to pronounce for fear she’d embarrass herself, her eyes were glued out the window. From the buildings, to the natural surroundings off in the distance, to the smiling faces of those they passed along the streets, Ru was fascinated. By the looks she was getting, so were the people staring back at her. Five tall blondes with blue eyes traveling together might’ve made some people think they were some sort of rock band or that they were filming a movie. This time, however, Ru didn’t mind the eyes focused on her. She smiled and waved at several people as they made their way to the hotel.

Their accommodations were out of the city a bit, closer to Mt. Fuji, and subsequently, the forest. Ru began to grow uneasy again, even though using her black power to explode several boulders and start a brush fire that challenged Lyric’s extinguishing abilities had definitely helped control it. Still, that had been the day before yesterday—by her calculations—and now she was on the brink of facing her demons, literally. She doubted she would get any sleep while they were in Japan, not until she knocked herself out on the battlefield, anyway.

Climbing out of the van, Ru breathed in the fresh air and stepped away from the noise of other disembarking passengers to peer out at the landscape. From here, she could see the top of Mt. Fuji kissing the clouds in the distance. Someday, she might return to visit the natural wonder, but for now, her focus was on the forest that lay between them. And even from several miles away, Ru could feel a massive amount of darkness breathing among the trees, using their canopy, their leaves and branches, to hide in waiting. A tightness filled her stomach and gravitated up toward her chest, blocking the fresh air from fully entering her lungs. Out of the blackness, a solitary heartbeat called to her. He was here. There was no way she could possibly escape her fate now.

“Ru!”

She turned to see four concerned pairs of eyes staring at her from the sidewalk. Ru looked down to see she’d gotten halfway across the parking lot without even realizing it. Luckily, there’d been no traffic, and as far as she could tell, her feet had never left the ground.

“Coming,” she said, turning around and heading back to her friends. Though their eyes asked a dozen questions, none of them voiced a single one, and Ru took her bag from Cutter, as he protested, and headed into the hotel, hoping she could stay awake all night. Falling asleep under the circumstances seemed extremely dangerous.

Aokigahara sprawled in front of her like the untamed wild it was, trees encroaching into the neighboring farmlands and open spaces as if the forest insisted on reclaiming what used to be hers. From this direction, it was difficult to tell where the forest began and civilization ended, though Ru thought for certain she’d know when she crossed the line.

She stifled a yawn and kept moving forward, one boot at a time, toward what might be her very last mission, if she had her way. Though she had fallen asleep for a few hours, for the most part, she’d gotten her wish and was able to stay up most of the night, with Cutter’s help, and the activity he’d chosen to occupy her certainly didn’t make her feel less worn out. The few hours she had spent in oblivion had been dreamless, as far as she knew. At least, if there had been dreams, they had been unmemorable.

Her friends surrounded her as they made their way into the forest. Cutter was in front of her, Rider behind her, and Ivy and Lyric on either side. She wasn’t sure if this was their own plan for protecting her or if it had been some secret directive from Sky, but she felt safe, if not a little ridiculous. She wasn’t any more important than any of them, after all.

Before Alfred, the codename Sky had given their team, even began to make its way through the thick trees, sounds of battle reached them, and occasionally, Ru would see blue lights flashing off in the distance or feel a particularly strong gust of wind. Lyric had informed them that the attack had begun almost four hours ago, and by now, if things were going as planned, they should be able to get to the portal without any issues. While Lyric was able to pick up strong vibrations of success from her sister, it was impossible under the circumstances to get a clear message. Sky was commanding a fair number of troops after all.

Ru had wondered if any humans might see what was happening here and alert the media, but Cutter told her not to worry about it. They had ways of making sure they didn’t end up on YouTube, and that’s all she needed to know. The rest was too complex. Since she was tired of trying to wrap her head around the intricacies of how Heavenly beings operated, she decided to let it go—for now.

Stepping into the woods, Ru made her way through the tangle of trees so close together it was impossible for them to step through three abreast and the other two girls often had to leave her side for a few moments as they advanced. Though she’d spent enough time recently walking through thick woods, this place was different. It was green and alive, much more so than the woods around Reaper’s Hollow. What was even more different was the silence. It filled Ru’s ears as loudly as any cacophony she’d ever heard before, much louder than the sounds of battle they’d heard before entering. Even when she saw flashes of blue in the distance, or streams of black smoke in response, there was no noise whatsoever, save the sound of five pairs of booted feet on the ground. Ru could imagine how a person could end up here and feel so all alone that he or she decided to end it all under certain circumstances.

The ground itself was harder than solid rock beneath the top layer of discarded leaves and needles from the trees. The canopy above them was lush and green, streams of sunlight still managing to wind through enough to illuminate the path to some degree. It certainly wasn’t painted in shades of black and gray like the last forest she wandered through, nor was it dead and abandoned like Kayakoy. It was as if the forest itself was alive and it wanted to swallow all of them whole.

Despite the fact that she wasn’t in the front, Ru was leading them, drawn by the pull of the portal. She’d felt it immediately, as soon as she stepped between the first closely sited trees on the outskirts of the forest. And with each step, she knew she drew nearer and nearer. However, the pull was from the darkness inside of her, not the light. It was as if the portal was beckoning her home. Not only was it causing her stomach to ache, as they approached, the powers inside of her began to undulate, begging to be released, and Ru knew it would be just a matter of time before she had to do something to gratify the hunger, the burning deep within her soul.

Ru wiped her hand across her forehead. It wasn’t particularly hot, but the circumstances had caused beads of sweat to spring up all along her hairline and her upper lip. With one hand on her stomach, she carried on, longing to get the task completed as quickly as possible.

Cutter glanced over his shoulder, as he did every few moments. Ru assumed it was not only to make sure he was headed where she knew she needed to go but also to check on her. She offered him a weak smile, but he stopped, “Ru? Are you okay? Why don’t we stop for a moment?” The last part wasn’t really a question as he came to a halt in front of her, blocking her path.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, pulling a water bottle from the backpack she carried and leaning against the trunks of one of the trees. There wasn’t much else in it—some food, a map, her phone, and a flare. She didn’t think she’d need anything else other than the water, but they all had on similar packs, just in case. Ivy had also insisted they bring a pop-up tent and a couple of solar blankets, which Rider was carrying since he was the strongest. There was no way in Hell Ru was spending the night in this forest, not conscious anyway.

“Take your time, Ru,” Lyric insisted. “Sky’s winning. I can feel it.”

Ru could feel it, too, to a degree. While she could sense both sides as easily as the other, the force of white light inside of her seemed to be closer, stronger, while the darkness was fading. She was hopeful this meant she would be able to sneak in and get her job done while the Keeper forces were winning the field. But Lyric was right; if they didn’t slow down a little bit, she wouldn’t make it there without having to discharge the built-up negative energy within her, something she knew she couldn’t do without alerting others of their location.

“Where’s the perimeter?” Rider asked. “Can anyone feel it?”

“I don’t think it’s too far ahead of us,” Ivy replied. She was gazing off in the distance, her pretty face solemn, as if she was concentrating. “I feel Keepers of the Earth just ahead.”

“Good.” Cutter stood with his hands on his hips, perspiration beading on his forehead as well, though Ru didn’t think it could be as prevalent as what she was feeling drip down the sides of her face now. She rubbed her water bottle across her forehead. “As soon as we get through our own first line, at least we’ll know nothing will be coming for us from behind.”

He had a point, and Ru turned to look over her shoulder. She didn’t feel anything there, but she decided it was time to move. “Let’s go.”

“Are you sure?” Cutter asked. “We’ve got time.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Ru nodded, and he took a deep breath and turned back around. She gave him a gentle shove in the correct direction and he headed off, Ru right behind him, as they walked on in complete silence.

It seemed like about twenty minutes passed before Ru saw something up ahead of them. Even though the trees were dense and it was darker near the center of the forest, the feathery white outlines of wings ahead of her was an indicator they’d almost reached the perimeter. The balance of power inside of her was still an ongoing battle, but she could sense the light in front of her and spurred Cutter on with another gentle nudge.

Out of nowhere, a tall woman dressed in dark green stepped out of the trees, blocking Cutter’s path. Her hair was white, and her eyes were blue. He hesitated for only a second. “God, you scared the crap out of me,” Cutter mumbled.

“Sorry,” she replied. “It’s hard to see anything in here.”

“Well, yeah, when you’re standing behind a damn tree.” Rider was clearly just as startled as Cutter.

Ignoring his remark, she pointed behind her. “I’ll escort you through the perimeter, Alfred.”

“Thanks.” Cutter spoke for all of them, and Ru was just thankful her actions hadn’t gotten her a blue lightning bolt to the head. “How are we doing?”

“Well,” the woman replied, leading on without turning to respond. “Our forces have successfully driven the enemy to the edge of the forest on the remaining three sides. We’ve taken or destroyed at least half of their forces with minimal casualties ourselves.” Her voice sounded confident, even cheerful, but Ru didn’t share the sentient. Something was wrong.

“Were they outnumbered when the battle began?” she asked, stepping up next to Cutter when she could get through the trees beside him and then passing him so that she was almost even with the woman.

“Greatly,” she replied. “It seems they either underestimated us, or this portal isn’t as important to them as we thought.”

Ru turned to look at Cutter and could see her concern mirrored in his face. Turning back to their guide, she asked, “Once we get to the portal, how far away from the perimeter will we be?”

She seemed to consider the question. “About a half a mile.”

“That’s too far,” Ru said immediately. “We need to bring the guard in with us as we go. There’s no reason to hold the perimeter this far off once we are beyond it.”

“Sky has placed us,” came the reply, blue eyes looking at her sharply before the woman turned around and continued to walk again.

“No, don’t you understand,” Ru said, pulling on her arm. She turned and looked at Ru and then shoved her hand off of her arm. “That’s what they want. They want us to back off.”

“We have our orders.” They were at the line now, and several other Keepers and a few angels stepped toward the disagreeing pair.

“Who’s in charge here?” Ru asked, looking at the others.

“I am.” The Keeper who stepped up looked familiar, and she heard Rider say a word behind her that even he seldom let slip. He had a jagged scar down the side of his face, but Ru was having trouble placing him.

“Great,” Ru said, smiling, though she knew it probably looked as fake as it felt. “We need the perimeter to tighten up behind us as we go. Otherwise, we’re going to have big problems once we reach the portal.”

“No can do,” he replied, crossing his arms across his wide chest. “I have my orders directly from Sky. You pass through, and we maintain our position.”

“Listen, Flint,” Cutter said, stepping back around her. “I don’t think what Ru is asking is unreasonable. I’m sure if Sky were here, she’d understand that.”

Flint. Ru remembered him from Holy Island. The only Keeper besides Sky who’d opened his mouth.

“Listen, Cutter,” Flint said, mimicking the other Keeper’s tone, though Ru could hear more animosity, “I’m in charge here. And I’m going to do what I was told.”