~ Chapter Sixteen ~

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~ (y/n)'s POV ~

As I walked out of their house, I closed the door behind me and made my was down the street. It was about noon the last time I checked, so even though my dad was pretentious and self absorbed, he would've known I was missing by now.

I looked over to my left and saw A forest that Toya had told me was a short cut to our house.

I, myself, had never gone through it before. But Toya reassured me many times that the route he took was perfectly fine. Even though his idea of 'fine' might be different that many others.

I didn't want to get yelled at and beaten by my father though, so I made a snap decision to go through the forest.

I slipped in between some trees and stood in awe at the beauty of the greenery surrounding me. I started to look around, remembering that Toya told me that he took the clearest path and almost always ended up home. Key phrase being 'almost always'.

I followed my brother's advice and weaved through the trees and bushes, getting some scratches from stray branches due to my shitty vision, but nothing serious. I kept making my way through until I saw the exit of the forest. My eyes widened in relief and excitement and I bolted to the clearing.

I was disappointed to find out that I was right back where I started.

I sighed, and decided that I would try one more time to see if I could make it out of the forest and get home quicker!

This time I decided to take a different approach to things. Instead of moving through the forest by foot, I would scale a tree and observe the best way to go. I found a tree with branches close to the ground so that my feet could reach them.

I hoisted myself up the first branch and then took a few deep breaths. For a five year old, that's pretty hard to do! I gave the next branch a determined look and hoisted myself up once more. I repeated this process a couple of times until I was at the sixth or seventh branch.

I felt empowered to keep going, but made the mistake of looking down below me. My eyes widened in fear as I saw that I was like thirty feet off the ground!

I started to feel shaky, so I reached for the trunk and clung onto it for dear life.

Oh, did I mention that I was terrified of heights?

I kinda forgot about that aspect before I started to climb the tree, so I tried to climb back down, but that ended up being more terrifying than climbing up. So I put my game face back on, and started to climb the tree, still terrified, but it was masked by false confidence!

I climbed, and climbed until I reached a point where the branches started to bend at my weight. I wrapped my arms around the trunk for dear life, and looked out at the view I had. Even though it was painstakingly long and terrifying to climb all the way up here, the view is what made all my pain and suffering worth it!

I chose one of the taller trees in the forest and was able to see out across a good distance, I could see the skyline of Mustafu! The trees were all reflecting the bright shining sun, making their colors even more vibrant! There was background noise of birds chirping which made the entire experience that more enjoyable!

I snapped myself out of my daydream, realizing the main reason I came up here; to find the quickest route to my house.

I looked around, and after a few seconds, I spotted out traditional Japanese style roof just barely brimming over the tree tops. I smiled to myself and  went to step down on the branch for my journey back down to the solid ground, when my foot that I was going to put my complete weight on totally missed the branch, and I felt my heart stop beating for a second. My stomach started to turn as I fell down the tree, branches scratching my face every now and then, making me wince at the sudden pain. Even though this was only a one hundred foot drop, it felt like a thousand by how time was perceived in the moment.

~ Watered Down ~ Todoroki Sibling ReaderWhere stories live. Discover now