Burning Bright

The Cave

{ October 16th, Day 13 }

Torako and Kurusu-sensei were paused for one of many breaks. Yarai was going on ahead.

"I don't know where Yarai-kun gets his energy..." Kurusu-sensei said, trying to catch her breath. She still hadn't completely recovered from the poisoning yet.

"Well, his symptoms never got as bad as ours did," Torako said.

"Speaking of which, you're in pretty good shape yourself, Fukui-chan. It must be nice to be young," Kurusu-sensei said. "You're mostly stopping for my sake, aren't you?"

"I'm tougher than I look," Torako said. "And you're only twenty-five, Sensei."

"I don't doubt that," Kurusu-sensei said with a smile. Torako looked up and saw that the tamarind tree they were sitting under had put out its pod-like fruits. They looked ripe.

"Shall we have a snack?" she suggested. Kurusu-sensei followed her gaze.

"Is it safe?" she asked.

"I recognize them. I've eaten them before," Torako replied, standing up. She started climbing the tree to get the lowest hanging pods. "I'd stick to eating only a little at a time though, it's used as a laxative in folk medicine." Torako put some extras in her backpack for later and to share with Yarai. She climbed back down and shared her harvest with her teacher. They enjoyed the sweet and sour taste.

"Yarai-kun sure did go far..." Kurusu-sensei said. They were trying to catch up to him.

'That's because we weren't there to slow him down,' Torako thought. "The sun is setting, so he should be stopping soon." They walked further and eventually, as the jungle darkened, they cam upon the glow of a fire. Yarai was waiting for them with another deer. There was a small pond with clear water a few meters away.

"We found these," Torako said, showing him a tamarind pod. "Dessert." Yarai watched while she used the knife that used to belong to Ono to gut the deer and carve it up as Mikoshiba had done before. They roasted the meat and Torako set the rest of it up to smoke inside a shelter made from tree branches and leaves. They ate and drank and talked about the animals they saw that day. Mostly the little chipmunk-like creatures and birds. Torako had seen from the tracks she encountered that larger animals had passed through. Fortunately, they didn't encounter any of them, though Torako had the feeling Yarai might have wanted to, for a little excitement. Kurusu-sensei fell asleep first. That left Torako and Yarai alone together.

"..." Torako didn't know what to say or if she should say anything. She was awkward when it came to stuff like that. She smiled at the happy expression on their teacher's face while she slept.

"What do you look so happy about?" Yarai asked her, curious.

"Eh? Well... I was just thinking how Sensei reminds me of my dad," Torako replied honestly.

"Your dad?" Yarai asked.

"Yeah, they're both protective of the people around them, and they have easygoing and cheerful demeanors. They're very optimistic and quite naive. They're also both a little clumsy sometimes," Torako explained with a wry smile that became sad. "My dad was always getting into dangerous and sometimes crazy situations, but he always came out of it okay. His name is Taiga, so he was nicknamed 'Lucky Tiger' by the rest of the staff on the show..."

"... What happened to him?" Yarai asked.

"..." Torako hesitated for a moment, but she decided to tell him. "His luck ran out. We were 'home' in Japan. The street was wet. He slipped and fell backwards and hit his head on the curb. He's been in a coma ever since. Of all the things that could've...!" She blinked away the tears that threatened to form in her eyes.