Present Time

A soft rustling woke Cloud up. He rubbed his eyes, a slight chill running down his spine. He turned. Kai wasn’t in the hut. His throat tightened.

He got up and stood just outside the hut, scanning his surroundings for Kai.

“Kai…Kai,” he kept whispering but there was no reply.

He was unsure what to do, in an unfamiliar environment where he struggled to even move around, with his only companion nowhere in sight. Cloud took a deep breath and ventured into the wild, fists clenched. He kept walking into the wood deeper and deeper, fog creeping in, curling around his feet… 

He kept calling out to Kai, but still no response. He glanced back and saw the hut had disappeared... An eerie presence began to find Cloud’s attention, but it was hard to tell where it was coming from… He kept turning and shifting…until finally, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

“Wake up, Cloud,” the voice whispered.

Cloud jolted awake, lying on the ground still inside the hut. He sighed with relief and looked back to see that it was Kai who woke him, squatting down next to him and his hand on his shoulders. 

‘It was just a dream.’

“Were you having a nightmare?” Kai asked as he stood straight.

Cloud tried to run his hand down his face but was met by the rough exterior of his mask. “Yeah, an odd one too.”

“Well, good thing I woke you up then. Come on, we need to keep moving, I think we overslept.”

Cloud slightly chuckled, “Overslept? I just closed my eyes.”

Kai walked out of the hut and stood outside waiting for Cloud, who joined him briefly after. He stood next to him, Kai’s head slightly tilted back. “What are you doing?”

“I’m waiting for the sky to clear up..”

Cloud also looked to the sky, the grayish clouds slowly drifting away…

His eyes widened, the moons were now only three.

“What the fuck?”

**

A Few Weeks Earlier

The night sky was beautiful, the stars shining brightly and the moon, full and glowing…

Takahiro was sat on the mat in his living room, reading a book in the comforting silence. But not long after, the silence was disturbed, a soft panting slowly approaching his home… He lowered his book slightly and peeked at the door in front of him.

Just outside, Cloud was dragging his feet on the dirt along with a small dead rabbit tied behind his shoulder. Sweat trickled down his face, each step he took felt like a hundred. But he refused to even go down to his knees, with pure willpower, he continued until he crashed against the door, opening it and falling to the floor.

His eyes barely open, he realized he had actually made it all the way to the house. With a slight smirk, his eyes came to a close. “I did it..”

…

Cloud slowly opened his eyes, the wooden ceiling blurry as his eyes were barely open. He could feel a small pillow cushioning his neck and a blanket over his body.

“You made it back earlier than I expected,” Takahiro said, sitting at his side as he continued reading his book. “The rabbit you got wasn’t too bad either, I was able to make some stew with it.”

Cloud turned his head and looked at Takahiro. “I can’t move.”

Takahiro turned to the next page and kept reading silently for a brief moment...

“Well, I hope you don’t expect me to feed you. I’m just training you, not volunteering to be your new caretaker.”

He stood and stretched his arms, “Come to the other room and eat up.”

Takahiro went to the other room while Cloud kept staring at the ceiling.

‘My body is so weak, I can’t move. It feels painful just thinking about it, like moving now would be something beyond my capability, like rain falling into the sky… But I made it back here. I went all the way down and back up in a few hours... It took me almost an entire day just to come up here the first time… That’s good progress in my book, determination is a strength I never thought would be this powerful..’

He rolled to his side, pressing his palm against the floor and pushing himself up with a loud grunt… Standing with possibly the worst posture, he shuffled into the other room.

**

Present Time

“What the fuck?”

Kai turned to Cloud, tilting his head slightly. “I didn’t think you were the vulgar type.”

Cloud quickly shook his head and bowed slightly. “Forgive me. I was just a little surprised and honestly confused. How is it three moons already?”

Kai shrugged and began walking forward. “That’s just how it is here… Time is odd in the yokai realm, there’s no sense of it here, hours could be days or even weeks.”

Cloud began to follow beside him…

“There was this man back home, he crossed over to the yokai realm and didn’t come back for about a month or two. We thought he had died probably but then he came back, unharmed, he didn’t even look slightly different than the day he left. For him, it merely felt like hours had passed.”

It was at that moment that Cloud realized he had much to learn about the Yokai realm, a mysterious place that made little to no sense.