Trailing behind Emi, I stared studiously at the giant bag swinging on her back. Every step that she took caused the bag to swing to one side, then to the other side with another step. The bag was big enough to shelter her entire stature due to her shortness, but since it was always tilted to the side, I could still see parts of her body, namely the back of her head bobbing as she walked, her strawberry blonde hair bouncing.

“Hey,” Emi turned to glance back at me, frowning, “why are you walking so slow? You’re going to fall behind, Ryo.”

I laughed nervously, waving my hands in front of me. “Don’t mind me, just keep walking, Emi, haha…”

She gave me a confused look, then shrugged, turning to face the front again.

I breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like she hadn’t caught on that I was purposely falling behind. That encounter with the boar made me realise how dangerous being alone with Emi actually was. It didn’t seem like she could control herself when she felt threatened, and what’s more was that she couldn’t recollect her memories during those episodes.

If I wasn’t careful, I might end up being chopped up into pieces by her machete. I shivered, thinking about the maniacal look on Emi’s face when she was fighting Luna and Mayu. It was completely different to the child-like expression she normally had on.

“Wait…” Emi raised a hand in the air, gesturing for me to stop. “I hear something…”

Uh oh… not again…

Emi glanced to her side with a grim look. She reached for the top of her bag, and the handle of her monstrous machete revealed itself. No surprise there. I swallowed, feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The air around us quickly became ghastly, reeking of something ominous.

“It’s probably nothing, Emi!” I squeaked. I wanted to run forward and grab her, but I was scared she was already losing control of her mind.

“Shh…” Emi motioned for me to be quiet, placing her index finger on her lips. Her face was completely serious, contrasting her usual look.

I obliged her command, my feet frozen in their spots. I could do nothing but watch helplessly and pray that she wouldn’t go completely berserk.

“HRGHH—!!”

Emi suddenly shouted, and threw her machete across her side, slicing the giant tree besides her in half. The tree didn’t even resist against her strength despite its great size. The machete shredded through its thick trunk as though it was slicing through butter.

“W-woah—!!” I yelped, seeing the tree crumbling down and I jumped out of the way as the upper half of the tree smashed into the ground, narrowly avoiding me.

I landed without much problem, my fall cushioned by dead leaves and dirt. I gazed up in disbelief at where the tree previously stood. All that remained was the bottom half of its trunk.

A frightened shriek came from the tree, jolting me out of my daze, and I realised that there had been a deer hiding behind it, which was what attracted Emi’s attention.

“A-are you serious?!” I shrieked, breaking Emi’s attention and allowing the deer to escape. It dashed into the inner sanctums of the forest, disappearing from our sight.

“You scared it off!” Emi turned to me, pouting and blowing up her cheeks. “Why did you do that?”

“W-why did I do that?” I repeated, bewildered. I shook my head, trying to get a hold of reality, then I stomped up to Emi. “Don’t just kill everything that you see that moves!” I grabbed onto her shoulders, shaking her body furiously.

“Ahh! Okay, okay!” Emi’s body flailed like jelly, not putting up a resistance to my hold on her. “I get it!”

I breathed a sigh of relief, letting go of her. It seemed that she didn’t always lose control of her mind when she was about to get hostile. It most likely only happened when she was about to use her synthesis. I glanced at Emi’s unnatural pale maroon eyes, and she glanced back at me, confused. I had to keep a close watch on her…

“Come on, keep leading the way…” I said, nodding my head forward. “We need to get out of here before sunset.”

“I know that.” Emi said, sheathing her machete back in the bag behind her back. It was scary how easily she could swing the giant machete with only one hand.

We continued on our path, Emi humming a playful tune while I walked besides her, making sure that she wouldn’t go berserk again.

The sun was beginning to set and we were still stuck in the forest. I sighed, glancing around us at our surroundings, then something struck me.

“Hey…” I called out to Emi. “Haven’t we already walked through here before?”

Emi’s body jolted sharply in response, and she turned back, smiling weakly at me. “I-I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t give me that!” I furrowed my eyebrows in disbelief. “You…” Then something sunk into my mind. “You… have no idea where we’re going, do you?”

Emi laughed, embarrassed. “Haha… you caught me…”

I sighed, placing my face in my palms and shaking my head. “We’re going to die…” Or probably I was the one that was going to die.

“Don’t panic!” Emi said, coming over to cheer me up anxiously. “I still have a better idea of where to go than a normal person.”

“Really?” I raised my head, giving her a dubious look.

“Well, I’m not as good as Luna and Mayu at directions, but…” Emi glanced to her side, avoiding my gaze, then looked back at me, trying to put on a firm look but it just made her cheeks puff out in a funny looking way. “Don’t worry, Ryo, I’ll make sure we get out of here alive.”

“That’s reassuring.” I sighed. The quicker that we got out of here, the less chance of Emi having one of her amnesiac, delirious episodes.

“Besides,” Emi said, forcing a smile, “at least we are spending time together!”

“Uh-huh…” I said slowly, then raised an eyebrow as another thought came to mind. “Emi… you don’t… uh… you don't like me, do you?”

“Of course, I like you!” Emi replied instantly. “You saved my life!”

“You like me—?! I, um… I don’t mean like as in…” Why was it so hard for me to ask her the question? My cheeks were flushing and it didn’t help that Emi was staring into my face. “I mean... more like… love?”

“Love?” Emi repeated, puzzled. She had a genuine look of confusion on her face. “What do you mean ‘love’?”

"Wait, how old are you?" I asked. I had just assumed that she was the same age as me, but she didn't look anything like it at all, and she sure as hell didn't act it.

"Thirteen." Emi replied, confused. "Why? You didn't tell me what's 'love'?"

No wonder. That explained her height and child-like face. Now I felt like a creep.

“Ah, forget it.” I shook my head, not even sure why I had asked the question in the first place. “Don’t worry about it, Emi. Let’s just keep going.” She probably knew nothing about love. The memory of Mayu's confession to me was causing me to be suspicious of everything.

“You’re funny, Ryo.” Emi laughed. “That was a weird question.”

“You’re right.” I laughed back, trying to change the subject. “Come on, where do we go now?”

“I don’t really know.” Emi was still laughing, her face carefree.

“Come on, seriously.” I was laughing too. She must be joking.

“I really have no idea.” Emi continued laughing, rubbing the back of her head with a hand.

I stopped laughing. “W-what… wait, didn’t you just say you have a better idea of where to go than a normal person?”

“That doesn’t mean I know where to go.”

“What—?!”

“It’ll be fine, Ryo!” Emi tried to soothe me again. “Worst that could happen is that we live out here in the forest for the rest of our lives.”

“W-worst that could..." I choked on my words. "That’s not good at all!”

“Come on, Ryo.” Emi laughed, seeing the look on my face. “We can play hide and seek!”

My face darkened, and I turned away from Emi, trying to gather my thoughts. She… she wasn’t bothered at all that we were going to end up stuck here. I knew this was a bad idea to trust Emi. At this rate, we were never going to make it out of here alive…

“Ryo?” Emi peered at me from the side. “Are you okay?”

I drew a deep breath…

…

Then shouted as loud as I could.

“LUUNNAA!!!”

“—Ahh!!” Emi squealed, clamping her palms over her ears with her eyes shut. Then slowly, opened her eyes again when my shouting ended.

“That should do it.” I said, satisfied. “Luna will be sure to find us now.”

“R-Ryo… you shouldn’t have done that…” Emi said weakly. “All the creatures in the forest are going to be attracted to the sound now…”

“What?!” I spun to face her, stunned. “I-I didn’t think of that.”

“Yeah…” Emi said, her face was still in pain from my shouting. “We should get away from this spot.”

“Oh, okay!” I said, following her lead as she started to walk.

At that moment, a low growling suddenly emerged from the trees in front of us.

“W-was that you?” Emi said, turning back to look at me, and I shook my head slowly, my eyes fixated at the spot from where the growling came from.

Slowly, an enormous shadow flickered on the ground of the already dimming sunlight, and massive claws shot out of nowhere, clutching onto the trunk of the wide tree in front of us. We stood frozen in our feet as a gigantic black bear emerged from behind the tree, snarling fearsomely as it did so.

My heart was about to leap from my chest, then I realised that Emi was standing next to me. “Hah…” I chuckled nervously, though relieved. “That should be nothing for yo—” I turned to look at Emi and my mouth stopped working when I saw her face.

“W-w-w-what i-i-is t-that…?” Emi mouthed, her body paralysed. She was staring at the bear with absolute fear.

“I-it’s a bear…” I said slowly. “Emi… y-you can defeat it…”

“It’s so big!” Emi shrunk away from the bear, edging behind me. Her voice was terrified. “I-I can’t do it, Ryo…”

A-are you fucking serious?! I wanted to say, but the realisation that there was an enormous hostile bear several feet in front of us and the fact that Emi was completely powerless against the bear made my mouth frozen. What… what the fuck do we do?!

Calm down, Ryo. Let’s assess this situation properly... At the moment, there’s a gigantic bear in front of us that’s staring our way. The distance between us probably gives us around 5 seconds to react before it reaches us. However, the bear still hasn’t made a move yet despite having clearly seen us…

I stared at the bear, it was standing rigidly upright, boasting its enormous size. It must had been at least twice my height. The thick tree next to it seemed like a skinny twig in comparison. Its black eyes were staring fixedly at us, watching. I guess the fact that we weren’t moving, also made it hesitant to move.

“Listen, Emi…” I whispered, my voice hoarse. I didn’t dare take my eyes off the bear. “If we slowly back off, we might be able to get away.”

Emi nodded, her face pale. “O-okay…” A barely audible whisper came from her lips.

We began taking a slow step backwards, keeping ourselves faced towards the bear. “Slowly…” I whispered, a sweat rolling down my temple.

The bear didn’t seem to react, still watching. That seemed like a good sign. I turned my eyes to Emi, and a flash of panic ran through my body as I saw a raised tree root at the spot where her feet was moving towards.

“Emi, watch—!”

I couldn’t finish my sentence. The back of Emi’s feet hit the raised tree root, causing her balance to topple. I reached out to grab her, but as soon as I held onto her wrist, I felt my body falling fast towards her. What!— She was unimaginable heavy! It must had been the oversized machete on her back!

“Ryo—!” Emi cried as she crashed into the ground with me falling on top of her.

“Argh!” I landed above her, my elbows hitting hard onto the ground, keeping me from falling on top of her.

I heard a loud roar from behind us, and my entire body jerked awake as I flung my head back to see the giant bear bouncing towards us, running on all four legs and causing what felt like an earthquake each time its massive black paws hit the ground of the forest.

“R-Run!” I shrieked, pulling Emi up from the ground. Her bag carrying her machete had slipped off her shoulders, now lying on the grass where we had fallen.

But she wasn't running.

“Ahh!!” Emi screamed, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. “W-We’re gonna die—!!”

She was clutching onto my shoulders, her hands shaking uncontrollably and her feets frozen. I didn’t think for another second, I placed my arms on the back of her thighs and swept her off her feet, taking her by surprise. She was much lighter without the machete on her back.

“R-Ryo?!—” Emi blushed.

“Let’s go!” I shouted, as I pushed my feet forward, holding Emi’s petite body in my arms. Giant thuds pounded in my ears from the bear’s charge towards us. They were almost as loud as the sound of my heart thumping against my chest.

“C-come on!” I groaned to myself between clenched teeth. It was hard trying to manoeuvre across the tangled floor of the thick forest, while also carrying Emi at the same time. Not to mention, there was also a humongous bear right on our tail.

I jumped over the ledge of the path, narrowly avoiding several raised tree roots, and continued running, my breath dwindling rapidly. Where the hell should I go? There was no way I was going to outrun the bear! I didn’t even have a plan!— Fuck! What the hell do I do?!

The only way… was to hide!

I took a sharp right as I passed one of the many trees in the forest, changing my movement abruptly.

“Ryo?” Emi squeaked.

“I-I got a plan…” I panted, sweat forming on my forehead.

I took a few more zig-zag patterned turns until I was satisfied that the bear had lost vision of us, then I dived behind a tree, falling onto my back painfully.

“Erk!” Emi let out a short cry as I dropped her onto the ground.

“Shh—!!” I motioned frantically for her to be quiet, and she nodded her head quickly. I was trying my best not to breathe loudly, but I was so out of breath that it was taking up all of my strength. My chest was heaving in and out, and I closed my eyes, focusing on controlling my breathing.

Calm down, Ryo…

Let’s just visualise…

Imagine I’m in a peaceful place…

…

It felt like a long time had passed. I slowly opened my eyes, seeing Emi’s face, her pale maroon eyes, and strawberry blond hair that fell past her ears, touching her shoulders. She glanced at me as my eyes opened, her face still pale. Her lower lips were quivering, but she didn’t dare make a noise.

Instead, she slowly mouthed something to me. I didn’t catch it, and I gave her a confused look. She shook her head, then mouthed it again.

Is... It... Gone…?

I raised my eyes above, but could not see past the tree that we were hiding behind. Slowly, I shifted my body up so that I was no longer lying on my back. There were dead leaves all over the place, so I had to be extremely slow, otherwise the leaves would crackle. It was a miracle that I managed to do it without making a noise.

I peeked past the tree, my head hesitantly popping over.

…

It was clear… Nothing, except the thick wilderness of the forest.

I turned back to Emi, giving her a weak smile and a thumbs-up.

She immediately let out a sigh of relief, and a loud roar blasted in my ears, jolting my entire body awake. I fell forward into Emi from how loud and sudden the noise was, and landed messily on top of her as she screamed, staring behind me with a horrified look.

I glanced back, and came eye-to-eye with the giant black bear, towering over us, and its mouth wide open, revealing a line of dagger-like teeth.

How the hell did I miss it before?!

I shifted away from the bear, but still shielding Emi underneath me.

We were too close! There was nowhere to run or hide! We were actually going to die!!

The bear lunged for us, its mouth rapidly closing in.

“ARGH—!!”

A loud cry sounded from behind the bear, and the bear’s movements was halted sharply. It snapped its jaws shut, narrowly avoiding my face, as it was pulled backwards and away from us.

“H-hah?” I breathed, still in shock as the bear slid on the ground away from us, dragged by an unknown force.

“Don’t… you… dare…” Luna’s face appeared from behind the bear, wincing but with a firm resolve. She was dragging onto the bear by one of its legs! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The bear was struggling helplessly on the ground, unable to get out of her grip.

She drew a breath, then bellowed, “Don’t you dare eat RYO—!!”

On her last word, she twisted her body, dragging the bear along with her motion, mustering all of her strength to throw the bear into the opposite direction away from us, sending it flying into the air.

“WHAT?!” I jumped, flabbergasted.

The bear smashed into several trees, before crumbling down into the ground. As soon as it hit the ground, it jumped back up, scared and not seeming to care about its pain. It immediately fled into the forest at the direction in which Luna threw the bear, as though chased by something more threatening than itself.

I stared at Luna's back, stunned.