The Crooked Silhouette

Chapter 7: The Deceitful Bull

“Um, so what now?”

            The atmosphere remained unchanged as Shishi vanished in the air. The pitched black sky worsened their eyesight, hence they chose to stay there overnight and carry on their journey on the next day instead of wandering aimlessly. Mizugame fell onto his butt, settling down and huffing as his pounding heart almost killed him. Tatsu and Hikari crashed into each other’s hug, mumbling confession and pledging to not get split again.

            Yagi’s course moved around, inspecting the milieu macroscopically. Basically he sensed nothing but flying bugs and blowing wind brushing against their hair. “We sleep here for today,” came as an answer to Mizugame’s inquiry.

            “Do you guys, by all mean, have something to blanket us?” Hikari asked innocently. His pure expression quite calmed both The Zodiacs, and Yagi did not find it exasperating. However, they could not fulfil Hikari’s requirement, hence he shook which disappointed the latter.

            “What if we stay close to each other? Like, you know, animals?” Tatsu’s suggestion lured sharp glares by Yagi and Mizugame, “I didn’t say you guys are animals. Or are you?”

            “It’s initially an insult,” Yagi chirped in displease. Past time replayed like a theatre in his mind. “The Demons really hate us to the core. They never cease offending us just because they were on the same level as The Angels, and none of us – even The Angels, couldn’t really defy them.”

            A delicate stillness staggered the mood. Tatsu lowered his head, apologizing as he accidentally brought up sensitivity. Mizugame insisted that it was all right for him to mention about it since he was a Human who fundamentally knew nothing.

            “We do have the characteristics of the animal we represent as, but we aren’t animals. Animals are Earthlings, just like Hikari and you, but calling us an Earthling means you are downgrading us completely,” Mizugame slumped under a shady tree which could shelter them for at least a night. “For sure, all of us are irritated.”

            Tatsu and Hikari exchanged looks. The Dimension was a world full of hidden surprise and treasure that it would not be enough to use up three days to travel. How could they find another three Humans – Kei, Takeru, and Koichi – together with The Zodiacs abducting them?

            “Tatsu, I am so worried of Takeru, to be honest.”

            They rested on the grass with large banana leaves as their blanket. They literally shared their warmness as it was quite chilly and Humans’ body temperature was dissimilar to The Zodiacs. Apparently Yagi and Mizugame concurred on Tatsu’s recommendation to sleep tightly with each other to obtain affable refuge.

            “Whatever he’s having now, I hope he’ll be just fine,” Tatsu exhaled a long sigh as his unpleasant thought emerged out of the blue.

            The topic enthralled Yagi and Mizugame since they were lying at Tatsu’s and Hikari’s sides respectively. If they were not mistaken, Takeru should be one of their missing friends, and he might probably get kidnapped by The Zodiac as well.

            “What’s with that Human, who the name was, Takeru?” Yagi shifted to face Tatsu as he spoke. His big stature confidently provided safety for Humans and even The Aquarius since Mizugame was shorter and less bulky than him.

            A brief glance was passed to Yagi.

            “Well, I don’t think it hurts to tell you about our friends. It might help our search later,” Hikari glimpsed at the contemplating Tatsu. “Takeru had one big brother and he obviously loved him too much since he was the only sibling he had in his life. They were always seen going everywhere together most of the time despite being in different ages, and his big brother had friends too. However, an accident caused the death of the big brother which kicked off Takeru’s depression. He could not concede the realism of his brother’s passing, and his mental state brought him to torment.”

            A bug looked like a fly safely landed on Tatsu’s forehead. He noticed it but did not get bothered. Bigger matter he had to think of at the moment caused him to just abandon its presence. “I think it happened around seven years ago. He repeatedly skipped school, and he tended to run away, like, he would see his brother passing by the corridor of his class. He is just as lucky because we never discovered him attempting a suicide.”

            “But in this world,” curling his body inwards, the half-awake Hikari mumbled, “Anything could happen. I still remember seeing him in The Forest of Eve, and poof, Mizugame caught me…”

            The chilly night they braved on felt short as they fell asleep almost immediately. The story was left hanging as Hikari and Tatsu nodded off before neither Yagi nor Mizugame could find out more. Buzzing of bee-lookalike was their only alarm, and an unfamiliar face seemingly came into their view before they discerned their current situation.

            “Hey-ho!”

            Ear-piercing shriek astonished the remaining three. Yagi abruptly rose, ignoring the dizziness hit in his head. Tatsu almost jumped off the spot while Hikari nudged Mizugame’s face away from him.

            “What are you, Mizugame? A female?” Yagi guaranteed a pebble being thrown right at Mizugame. “Hikari or Tatsu were supposed to scream, not you of all creatures here.”

            “I’m truly sorry! Can we talk about this later? We’re practically in a worse circumstances than yesterday!”

            “I speculate Yagi’s massive body has caused this,” Tatsu’s lame joke received nothing but sighs from Hikari.

            “Believably because of us, Tatsu.”

            The creature standing beautifully before them was a Zodiac too. Arms crossing against the chest and unwound body posture informed them that he was utterly gratified. His beam outshone his deed. The encaged Yagi, Mizugame, Hikari and Tatsu were purely dumbfounded disclosing themselves fastened by a rope and matter-of-factly immobile.

            While their mind basically immersed in puzzlement, another creature landed at his side out of nowhere. Tatsu and Hikari’s gaping mouth gave the idea to Yagi and Mizugame since The Zodiacs could not recognise who the other creature was.

            “That’s-“

            The Zodiac guffawed witnessing their indescribable feeling accidentally portrayed on the face. He paced nearer to those four, provoking them to attack him but it was almost impossible to do so with tied hands and legs, plus Tatsu and Hikari were Humans who practically powerless compared to The Zodiacs.

            “I feel really satisfied!” then he laughed again, this time along with pressing his stomach. Probably he got stomach ache for laughing too much, “Tsuya has already gotten new friends from The Earth! Oh!” he intentionally kicked Yagi’s leg. He had the guts to do that because Yagi was unable to fight him back presently. “The new King of The Capricorn Valley befriends him? And the coward King of The Aquarius Valley is joining the club? What’s this nonsense?”

            “You’re the one talking rubbish here,” Yagi gritted his teeth, holding his madness while his eyes fixated on the creature before them, “Oushi.”

            “Me? Talking rubbish?” Oushi, The King of The Taurus Valley jeered at the victims, “I thought you were extremely strong, Tsuya. But actually you just want to have some friends. Too bad that your method is too malicious to get accepted by any of The Dimensionals,”

            Yagi and Mizugame took a glimpse of the nettled Tatsu, and somehow Hikari did not seem to understand too. “I for now believe I caused this ruckus,” Tatsu commented with flat tone.

If it was Oushi, one of the five Zodiacs assigned to take five Humans to The Dimension, it was clear that another creature standing at his side was The Human who he took. The eyes was entirely white as if he had no pupil, and it was grateful enough that he seemed too fine for a Human living in The Dimension for two days. Has he gotten some sort of magical power or uncovered new ability? Or most probably he has been granted his own potential by The Deity?

            “Kei, what happened to you?” Hikari attempted on luring him to their side.

            The entity he called as Kei did not respond. He remained silent and undoubtedly neglected Hikari’s concern. Yagi and Mizugame struggled to release themselves from the rope, but it was knotted neat and firm.

            “Kei, we’re here looking for you,” Tatsu added as he noticed Kei’s expressionless reaction. He knew something was wrong with Kei but he could not tell why he thought so. In fact, the aura of being with Kei has changed to an intimidating miasma.

            “Don’t you ever dare of dragging Kei with you too, Tsuya!” a hard kick landed on Tatsu’s arm, causing Yagi and Hikari to shriek in resistance, “You’re wrong if you could attract anyone to follow you. You’re almost as evil as The Demons!”

            “Oushi! Stop with your accusation and please look closely!” despite his entrapped hands and feet, Yagi knelt on the ground to draw himself nearer to Oushi and Kei, “This is not Tsuya! I know how you feel, since I had the same inferiority once I saw him on The Earth. Yet, he isn’t. He is a Human, alive and healthy without any idea of who Tsuya is in his life.”

            The frowning on the forehead meant Oushi was confused with Yagi’s divulgence. “Impossible! We’ve seen him only once, but I am so confident of my memory. He is Tsuya and surely he’s pretending to show how pure he is to you!”

            Mizugame could only come up with a remark, “Apparently I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one being stupid for assuming Tatsu as Tsuya at first glance.”

            “For your information, mister,” Tatsu butted in as he guessed he should do so, “I’m Tatsu and I’m from The Earth. All right, I don’t really grasp the whole ordeal in The Dimension. All these sicken me – The Zodiacs, The Dimensionals, whoever you guys called as Tsuya. I. Am. Not. Tsuya.”

            Tatsu’s insistence deepened Oushi’s furrow until his brows entangled to each other. Soon after he and Kei arrived at The Forest of Eve of The Dimension, they went literally everywhere in the woods. He did not want to give Kei to Tsuya as he acknowledged how skilful Kei was while fighting against him as he opposed the idea of ‘visiting The Dimension for an hour’ by Oushi. Wishing that Kei would stay by his side as his citizen or such, he determined to flee instead.

            Through hours, or supposedly a day, of running away, they manageably dodged any evitable contact with anyone. As a Taurus, a Zodiac which was granted an additional ability to foretell the existence of the Dimensional set with a bull-like physically toughness, they succeeded in averting Shishi the Lion, Ite the Sagittarius, and Kani the Cancer. Even though he was perplexed that there were Zodiacs other than the five of them in The Forest of Eve, he put his trust mostly in his instinct to escape.

            “And you’ve caused us more workload than abducting Humans, you silly!” Yagi stressed his grievance.

            “So you said there were three Zodiacs other than five of you here?” Hikari’s troubled face demolished the spoilt mood Oushi has erupted. “What’s with that?”

            “The Dimensionals are originally forbidden to set foot here,” explained Tatsu according to the information Yagi has disclosed to him through their journey. “Realizing their presence here means Tsuya was able to make the rule re-regulated, hence more Zodiacs can come. It could be other Dimensionals are here too.”

            “Expectedly there will be a harsher voyage ahead of us,” Mizugame pursed his lips, might be as well thinking of anything he could contribute to the group.

            Yagi thoroughly pondered. “Guess Shishi, Kani, and Ite are Tsuya’s spies to inspect our activity here. Remember we were attacked by Shishi last night? I don’t think he would just pounce on anyone if he was to encounter any creatures here – either The Humans or The Dimensionals. But I did wonder why he behaved so since the Shishi I know was far more composed than that despite having outspoken trait in him.”

            “Hey! Seems like you guys have forgotten us here!” the tone was pressurizing, and Oushi was too impatient. By a little gesture, he commanded Kei to threaten them with a blade.

            It was a mystery to be divulged on Kei. They did not know how Kei could be a dummy since Oushi’s secondary ability was foretelling and not mind controlling. Kei implemented Oushi’s direction without refusal, including the latest one. He took out a blade under one of his arm sleeves and pointed it right at Tatsu’s nose.

            “Kei! Please stop!” Hikari was more to begging, but Mizugame shushed him.

            “You don’t have to get worried of him, Hikari,” Mizugame said with a grin. “He tied us because of insecurity, trust me.”

            “Yeah,” Yagi rolled his eyes, utterly annoyed, “He dislikes the sight of you walking in carefree with us, so he attacked us when we were unconscious instead on coming head-on.”

            “It’s a sign that he’s an actual wimp among us.”

            Then Mizugame and Yagi giggled to themselves, entertained by their own mocking towards the incensed Oushi. He huffed and puffed as The Aquarius and The Capricorn belittled him that he heaved a slap to get it landed on either of their cheeks.

            “Stop it, Oushi!” Tatsu half screamed to halt his plan.

            “You shut up!”

            On top of Oushi’s head formed a pair of horns, looking alike as Yagi’s at first glance but Yagi’s curled inwards like a sheep’s horn, whereas his was built straight and pointed at the end. His horns were also detachable but none of them were fully aware of which would provide the best offence using the horns.

            “Seeing you flooding the woods last night enthralled me, Mizugame. And you both, The Humans, were looking courageous despite your slender bodies and thin limbs compared to Kei,” Oushi snarled while he severed one of his horns. In split seconds, the horn transformed to a very long and sharp sword, much longer than Kei’s blade. It shimmered under the moonlight which indirectly revealed its natural blue colour. “I know Yagi was a martial artist, and Mizugame’s power works the best at long range attack. Hence while you’re still stuck in the rope, let me ease your muddled mind. What will happen if I’m the one bringing him three Humans at a time? A fine reward is not enough, I must say.”

            “You won’t get your chance, Oushi!” unknowingly Yagi has torn the rope tying his wrists and instantaneously swooped the unguarded Oushi.