SHADOW BOY

Chapter 2 - The Dagger

All mistakes either in grammar or typo are mine. Same disclaimer applied.

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"Remember, Ryo-chan! Be home before dark and don't go into the woods!"

"Yes, mom!" shouted Ryosuke as he ran to the playground with his new friends. His mother bit her lip in worry as she watched her son play.

"He'll be alright. Nothing's gonna happen. You worry too much," said Ryosuke's grandmother. "Come on, let's go home! We still need to cook that fish before your husband and daughter comes home,"

Reiko followed her mother reluctantly. Her husband's work had forced them to relocate from Tokyo to Osaka and her mother was kindly enough to offer them a place to stay before they found a permanent house in the city, closer to her husband's new office. Surprisingly, little Ryosuke took the news better than his older sister. The Yamada's eldest daughter was devastated when she had learnt that she had to leave her friends and had thrown a temper tantrum. It was a very trial week for the Yamada family.

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"Hey, let's play hide and seek in the woods!" suggested one of the boys and was agreed by the other three boys.

"But my mom forbid me to go into the woods," said Ryosuke reluctantly.

"Come on! Don't be a coward!" teased his friend.

"Ryo-chan is a coward... Ryo-chan is a coward..." The other kids started chanting.

"Come on, we've been playing in the woods countless times and nothing happened. You're just being a baby!" taunted the other kid.

Ryosuke who had never backed out of a challenge before felt insulted to be called a coward. "I'm not a coward!"

"Good! Then, let's go!"

"Tag! You're it!" one of the kids slapped Ryosuke's back before running away laughing followed by the other three kids.

Ryosuke chased them all screaming, "Hey! That's not fair! I'll get you for this!" Forgetting his mother's warning, he happily chased his new friends into the woods.

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"Ei-chan! Akio-chan! Take-chan! Nao-chan! Where are you guys?!" shouted Ryosuke in panic.

They had been playing in the woods for hours already. As the sky got darker and the foliage around them got thicker, Ryosuke was worried. He had never been into this wood and wouldn't be able to find his own way home but his friends convinced him that it would be alright and that they had played in the woods many times.

Eiji was the demon in the last game and he was supposed to look for the four of them but Ryosuke had waited for more than half an hour in his hiding spot without knowing that his friends had gone home without him. He had found himself a perfect hiding spot on top of one of the low branch of a huge tree. It was too good of a hiding spot that none of his friends could find him and had thought that he'd had gone home ahead of them.

Ryosuke eyed the branches around him trying to find a way to scale down the big tree when his eyes caught something odd. A kind of old knife was stabbed into the tree trunk few centimeters above his head. Naturally a curious boy, Ryosuke climbed onto the branch above him to get a closer look at the knife. Turned out, it was not a knife but a kind of dagger that was stabbed halfway into the tree trunk. Rusted iron chains was wrapped around the heel then looped around the tree as if to keep it stay. The handle was made of rough wood that was textured like a tree bark and one side of its guard was elongated like a twig.