“I will break both your legs; you won’t be able to do a thing.” She responds confidently.

“Unfortunately for you, we’ve been in here for 7 minutes now.” He replies, “My leg has already healed and as soon as I leave this realm, I am destroying your tree.”

Exiting the mind realm, Kenta with his now healed legs stomps on the ground, and charges in the opposite direction.

“There he is!” A woman yells out.

As he reaches the entrance of the farm, he meets a mob of people, all from the village.

“Kenta, how could you?” Akira says from the side, “We trusted you.”

“It wasn’t me!” He yells, “I would never do something like that.”

“Well, we still don’t know.” Akira says, “We’ll need to investigate first, but until then you are to be locked up in a holding cell.”

“You have to be joking.” He responds, “If it were any other night I would accept, but right now I can’t.”

“Please, don’t make this a struggle.” Akira states, “Since you did assist with the bandits, we will offer you jail rather than death, but if you struggle we will be forced.”

“You can’t be serious!” He says as he takes a step back.

“Kenta, we just need…” Akira says as he’s interrupted.

The scarecrow is walking towards him just 20 meters behind.

“Don’t you guys see that thing.” He says.

They all tilt the heads in confusion, wondering what he was looking at.

Screw it, I’ll explain it later.

Using minor ground stomp, he causes the closer villagers to fall off balance. Activating glass ninja, he sprints in the direction of the ancient tree.

As he gets out of sight of the villagers and into the looming darkness of the night, straw ropes come flying from behind. Unsuccessfully trying to sweep his legs.

Running on the dirt path, Kenta reaches the dirt trail leading down to the river.

Not much further now.

Charging down the hill, a rope sprouts out of the earth like a root and wraps around his ankle, tripping him.

“I will kill you!” She says, “And when I’m done with you, I’ll wipe that pathetic little village out of existence!”

Unable to see where the voice is coming from, he rips the rope off, before running once more. Standing in front of him, the scarecrow is blocking the path, it no longer has a smile on its face. He charges the ancient spirit, ready to pierce its chest.

*Woosh*

Before reaching the scarecrow, multiple roots with incredible speed pierce through every part of Kenta’s body, the injuries are fatal. He falls to the ground.

…

Quietly sneaking past in the surrounding bush, he sees this happen, and makes note of how long it takes for the illusion to disappear after dying, 3 seconds. Moving through the bush, he reaches the bottom of the hill, right in front of the river.

“You take me for a fool!” She yells, “I will make you pay for your arrogance!”

Chasing close behind, she sends out as many ropes as she can, easily over 20. Some flying towards him aiming to pierce and some going in front aiming to trap, the situation looks bleak.

Using his new-found skill, he aims his hand back, and sends out a rope of his own, sweeping the straw legs of the scarecrow. With the ropes falling alongside the scarecrow, he reaches the routine fishing spot. Next to it he can see the tree.

He reaches the bruised tree and prepares to chop it down with his sword, he already has his full intent behind it.

“Stop!” She begs, “Don’t do that!”

“And, why shouldn’t I?” he replies, “You’ve caused me nothing but trouble, and sure maybe I deserve to be punished for disturbing your special little tree, but you made one mistake. You involved my friends, who did absolutely nothing wrong, you killed innocent people.”

“They’re all pathetic anyway…” she retorts.

Swinging his sword down towards the tree’s bruised trunk.

“Stop! I’m sorry!” She states, “Please, let’s just talk this out.”

Stopping the swing mid-flight and calming his intent before anything is done, he looks over towards the spirit.

“You want to talk? After everything you’ve done.” Kenta retorts.

“Fine, I’ll accept your deal.” She exclaims, “I’ll bring back your friends, but you have to promise to leave.”

“How can I guarantee that you’ll abide by the deal?” he replies, “As soon as I walk away, what guarantee do I have that you won’t just kill me or my friends?”

“As a spirit, I can form a contract.” She answers, “If both parties accept, the with the powers that be, neither will be able to break it. With this, even if I wanted to kill you, it would be impossible.”

“Well, how do we form this contract?” he asks.

“Simple.” She replies as a glowing orb appear between the two, “I, Da’ku’elm, offer, Kenta Yoshida, a trust contract. The conditions are that I promise to bring back his friends and to not to kill Kenta Yoshida nor his friends, in exchange that he leave. Kenta Yoshida, do you accept the terms?”

“Yes, I accept!” he says.

The two glowing orbs split into two and fly to both parties, assimilating into each of their bodies.

“The contract has now been formed.” She states, “As per the contract, your friend has been resurrected. Now leave this place and never return.”

“Wait, what do you mean my friend?” he quicks asks, “Don’t you mean my friends?”

“Hahaha, foolish mortal.” She retorts, “Do you really believe that those bears really counted as friends. Don’t be so silly.”

“Fine if that’s how you want to play it!” He shouts.

With all his intent and power, he swings down his sword and splits the tree at the base.

*Shunk* *Thump*

The ancient tree after so many years has finally fallen and been laid to rest.

“You!” she yells, “I’ll take you with me!”

With her remaining energy, she sends out all the ropes aimed to kill. Flying towards him, they stop inches from his body, blocked by some unknown invisible force. The contract held up.

“Remember, you can’t kill me.” Kenta says as he grins, “You twisted the contract, so I did to.”

Watching on with anger, there is nothing she can do. With the flow of the next wind, she fades into ash and disappears forever.

…

“Now, I’ll leave.” He states.