Sato Kenta had lured her out in the dark. He'd used the same ploy to coax Akane into his clutches and yet, she hadn't even considered that the Naseru she was chasing could have been Kenta. She let out a puny gasp for air.
There was a knife in his hands; a durable, steel blade, that was thin and angular, likely stolen from the site kitchen. Kaho's heart was hammering, her body felt heavy, like it was turning to stone under her. If her breathing got more erratic, she was convinced her ribs would collapse. She couldn't take her eyes off the blade, how it gleamed in the torchlight.
She screwed her eyes closed and ground her teeth, trying to ground herself.
"Why?" she squeaked.
"Hmph. Stupid question, kid," Kenta sneered, his voice sounded like a reverberated, distorted mockery of hers, "Poor little Aigawa, follows her little boyfriend into the woods. Ha. What a pathetic way to go."
"You," she said, through gasps for air, "You didn't answer my question."
The air in her lungs felt thick, like she was inhaling treacle. She glanced from the point of the blade to Mr Sato. He squared his shoulders, nostrils flared.
"Why? Because I fucking can, little girl."
He reached for her shoulder with his empty hands, and clutched her upper arm in a fist, squeezing tightly.
Kaho was hyperventilating, adrenaline coursing through her at breakneck speed, and felt something white hot settle in her core. Panic, a completely different kind of panic to when she'd been faced by those creeps with Naseru. But was it really all that different? There had been a knife back then, and there was definitely a knife now. Last time she'd been faced by a blade, she had been against the man's chest and his knife had been to her throat. But this time, she was staring death in the face, instead of having faith in something she'd seen in a film before. She felt sick.
Kaho's only anchor to survival, instead of succumbing to futility was the phone in her fist. She slid her thumb across the screen, unlocking it without even glancing at the screen.
Kenta's knife was just inches away from her, and he was eager to close the distance. He dragged her like a ragdoll toward his chest. She bit her lip. He had the knife in one hand and her arm in the other, his nails digging into the soft flesh of her upper arm.
Kaho took a quick breath and wrenched herself forward, spurred by her panic, and slammed the heel of her hand into Kenta's nose. He let out a cry and dropped his knife, clutching his nose in both hands as he staggered back, releasing Kaho from his clutches.
Her head whirred round. She turned back to her phone and began to run the way from which she'd come, her foot getting caught under a tree root. She fell on the floor scuffing the skin on her chin. She'd opened her music app and blasted the first sound she could find at the top of her listening history.
A powerful guitar riff blared out of her phone speaker. Alerting every animal in the vicinity of her location. And Kenta. She heard rustling in the brush around her as the song transitioned from riff to lyrics, a heartbroken pop singer lamenting through the speaker.
If any policemen were patrolling, they might be able to hear it; a suspicious power-pop song was much more likely to be considered suspicious, especially since the officers were suspicious people from the basketball retreat were hooking up on hiking trails. She was sure that if they could hear her, they'd come, expecting to find the infamous Jun and Yoko from the Hoshimiki Beetles.
Instead of the confident footfalls of a patrolling policeman, Kaho's ears latched onto another sound. Her stomach dropped as she scrambled back, wrenching her foot out from under the root and scuttling away.
An animal's heavy snort-breaths sounded from one of the inclines above. A massive boar staggered from its den, thick greyish black mottled fur glistened like spilled ink in the moonlight. Kaho retched. She hadn't wanted to summon that. She couldn't remember any of the advice that Mr Shirotani, Mr Tsukishima, or Taiga had given on that first day. But, staring down a cranky, sleep-deprived boar, seemed like the lesser of two evils. It kicked the dusty earth underfoot as it prepared to rush at her.
Kaho squeaked and scrambled to her feet, fleeing from the animal. Her phone continued to blare the song she'd used as a distress flare, as she headed back to the clearing where she'd abandoned a bleeding Kenta. As she ran, she recalled what Taiga had done when he'd been rushed; launch himself up to higher ground. The longer she ran, the more angry the boar was going to be. She could hear footfalls behind her. It was on her tail. She didn't dare turn around, even as she skidded to a halt at the mouth of the clearing, where she, ignoring the moans and groans from Kenta, hoisted herself up onto the trunk of the nearest tree, scraping the top layer of skin off her knees as she climbed.
Kenta looked up at her. Her knees buckled as she stood on a branch that sagged under her weight. Standing on it. Kaho was only maybe half a meter above Kenta's head height.
Kenta stood, panting heavily, there was a trail of blood gushing from his nostrils to his chin. He wiped it on his arm and strode toward the tree, licking his blood off his bottom lip. He'd just reached the tree where Kaho was desperately scrambling to hoist herself higher, when she heard the boar skid to a halt.
Kenta swore, holding one palm out in a calming motion, "Easy boy, easy."
The boar's nostrils flared, no longer focused on Kaho in the tree. She squeezed her eyes closed and held her breath. Her muscles felt like taut elastic and her heart felt like it would explode in her chest, beating like a swarming murmuration of wasps.
Kaho turned off the music, trying to keep the beast's attention firmly fixed on her adversary. The branch her feet were balanced on was dipping, cracking under her weight. But the boar's eyes were laser-focused on Kenta.
It rammed Kenta straight into the wooden post, knocking him flying backwards into the stream. He cried in horror, plunging the knife into the boar's side as it forced him over further. The boar's tusks bored into the flesh of Kenta's torso, puncturing the soft flesh of her chest, sending more streams of blood pouring toward the water. The boar wounded boar shook the knife free of its fur and wrenched itself free of Kenta's insides with an aggressive shake of its head. Kenta let out a futile, puny wail, choking on sobs.
At the very least, Kenta was incapacitated. The wooden post had blocked the flowing stream, congesting the flow of water, and bringing it higher. clinging to the tree, Kaho called the one person she knew would get her some help. Taiga.
"Kaho? Are you okay? Do you need new blankets?"
Her voice cracked, "Taiga. I need your help."
"I'm coming, I'm coming, stay where you are. Wait- where are you? I know Fumiko's in that Akane girl's room- did they hurt you?"
Her voice cracked as she spoke, "I'm- I'm in the woods. On the hiking trail with the boars. The caretaker just tried to attack me in the woods, can you get the cops?"
She was crying, fat, ugly tears trickled down her face toward her chin. Her phone screen had cracked in four places, and her skin felt like it was on fire. She held the phone against her shoulder with her head as she carefully adjusted her weight on the branch, hearing another quiver and crack as it struggled to hold her weight. She sniffled, still clutching the branch by her head.
"I'm coming, Kaho. Your big brother's coming. It's going to be okay. Promise."