Perilous Park

October 13th – Suzuki Hanami

“What happened?” Kimura finally asked. That's what I wanted to know as well. My mother still seemed like she wasn't quite there, but she at least answered the question.

“Sophia told me that Kimuras mother was visiting her and then left in a hurry. That was about two hours ago. Now she could sense that she might be in danger and we should look for her since Kimura and Suzuki are the only ones that are able to fight if need be.”

“So she is being attacked by the Kälte?” I asked. Maybe it was because Kimuras mother was a sun once as well. If a monster found her alone it would naturally try to attack and kill her.

“Sophia didn't say, but I don't know what else she could mean,” answered my mother.

“We have to go.” That was Kimura. She seemed to be very worried, which was understandable of course. But I was wondering was her mother would be doing at Sophias place. I knew that Sophia had trained her and Yuto 20 years ago, but why visit her now?

“We can take the car,” my mother said and she went to grab the keys. Kimura and I also got up and were about to leave. Tanaka was about to do the same.

“Please stay out of this Tanaka.” I suddenly said. In a much colder tone of voice than I wanted to use. Tanaka froze and stared onto the floor.

“So that's what it's like,” she said in a barely audible voice. “I thought we were friends now. But turns out I'm just the dead weight after all.”

Now I was fighting with myself about what to do. I was looking at Kimura for some help, but she just seemed to be awkward about the whole thing so I felt like I had to make my own decision. I didn't want to exclude her but this was exactly what I had talked about with Kimura before. If we got into a battle where lots of Mana was used it could lead to Tanaka discovering her powers, with unforeseeable consequences. But at the same time, if I excluded her now it would only raise her resentment towards me and our cause and if she became aware of her powers at a later point, that would make it much more likely for her to become our enemy.

“Okay Tanaka, you can come with us. But please try to stay back and don't expose yourself to any unnecessary danger.” Those words had an immediate effect on Tanaka and I could see her face glow up and a look Kimura also showed that she was pretty happy with my decision. I still wasn't sure it was the right thing to do, but at the same time it felt like the only thing I could do. We all got into my mothers car and were on our way. Sophia said she wasn't sure were exactly Kimuras mother could have gone, but she probably wasn't very far away. That's what I was feeling as well. I could feel her presence, just like I could feel Kimura and to a lesser extent Tanaka. But that still didn't mean we knew where exactly she was right now. But suddenly my mother seemed to have an idea.

“I know where she is. She always went there back then.” I didn't know what she meant and looking at the two girls showed me that they were in the same boat as me. But I knew that my mother knew Kimuras mother from way back when and if she thought that she knew what Kimuras mother would do in such a situation, it was probably a good idea to follow that intuition.

“Where do you think she went?” asked Kimura. She sounded very worried, which was understandable considering we were talking about her mother.

“There is a park a little ways off. Back then we always went there on our bikes. She always went there on here own when she was feeling sad or something had happened to her. I picked her up there quite often back in the day.”

“Oh, you mean the park with the little hill?” Apparently Kimura knew what my mother was talking about. “My mother took me there a lot when I was little. But I didn't know she went there a lot when she was younger.”

“That's the one I'm thinking of. She has a lot of history with it, so I guess it's no surprise she wanted to show you. And it's a nice place to be in general.” After that we drove in silence. When I looked out the window I could see the sky getting dark. I looked at Kimura and she seemed to think the same thing I was. This was all the same as it was on the roof of the school. Which meant we probably had to fight again. At least we had a better idea of what to do now, but we didn't know what we would to face. If it was a stronger foe we might well be in trouble. I looked at Kimura again and she seemed very determined, which made me feel slightly at ease as well. Everything would be alright. Hopefully.

It took us maybe ten minutes to reach the park, but it felt a lot longer and the inside of the car felt a lot more silent than it should. Not only was the outside world completely shutoff, we were so deep in thought that none of us made any sound until we reached our destination and jumped out of the car. We frantically looked around for Kimuras mother. At first none of us could see her, but then we spotted her on the top of the hill. She seemed to be alright, but the sky was extremely dark and the temperature so low that it became obvious that an attack was imminent and so Kimura and I ran as fast as we could to reach her and as we almost reached the top of the hill we saw two things besides Kimuras mother: The monster that was about to attack and Sophia.