>>5643727You redouble your speed and hope your stamina holds out. All those hours carrying heavy metal objects to the scrap yard have really paid some nice physical dividends. The cool September air fills your lungs, you can taste the crispness of the coming fall that will turn the countryside golden. Looming in front of you is the bridge. There are metal bollards placed to block any motorized vehicle from entering it. You run past them and don't stop running until you are safe on the other side of the bridge. It's only then do you take the opportunity to catch your breath and look behind.
The patrol car is still speeding on ahead. That stupid cop is going to crash headlong into the metal poles. Further away, by your house, you can see that your parents have started their own car and taking the far safer route of taking the road. But you don't stand idle, you need to get into the forest.
You turn away and run off again. Just as you get past the first trees, you hear a horrific crash as the patrol car rams into the barrier at the front of the bridge. That stupid cop really did ram his car into them. You journey further in the forest and take a pause to catch your breath and look at your cellphone still gripped in your hand.
<span class="mu-r">An Unwelcome Revelation</span>
There's a good chance your mother has placed a tracker on your phone too. If she respected your little sister's privacy so much to put some secret app on her phone, then there's a great chance she did it to yours too.
You place your phone on the stairs of a very lonely looking stone hokora. The heavy green moss cover it seems to gleam in the moonlight. It's the only significant landmark in this forested area. If you need to come back and pick it up, you'll know exactly where to look.
Now to run to Kasuga Shrine, your stamina easily keeps you going without pause. Your arrival in the large rambling grounds of the Shrine surprises Setsu who is talking with a group of young teens waiting in the dirt parking lot.
"You're fast, it takes an average 15 minutes by bike from your place to get to here with short cuts. Never mind running here," Setsu is wide eyed at seeing you actually at the Shrine. It probably didn't occur to him that you would run here rather than just hide.
"I was very very motivated. Where's this cave my sister went to?" You look at the girls huddling and crying on a very rough bench. You recognize them; they were with your sister at the Ministop for ice cream.
A girl points to the mountains behind the Kasuga Shrine and begins talking.
"We went to sesshoseki killing stone cave to do the last test of courage. We were supposed to take a piece of chalk and write our names on the back of the stone. There's a road you can take to it directly," the girl blubbers inelegantly. It was hard to understand what she was saying.
"Killing stone?" Bafflement colors your voice.
