Chapter 19: The Way to Little Tengu

They followed Akira out of the forest and onto a back highway where Yuri, Kou and Mei-san was waiting for them in his pickup truck.

"Hurry!" Yuri called out from the driver's window.

"Sakamoto-San," Hinata whispered with sighed relief.

He and the other adults helped the kids into the back of the truck. When everyone was in, Yuri zoomed down the road that led further up the mountains.

No one said a word during the drive. Aiyama-san drew all the younger ones close to her, beneath a woolly blanket, to keep them warm. The older boys kept to their own pensive huddle under a blanket.

Their harden expressions broke Hinata's heart. He had hoped his place was one where they could be as carefree. In times of war, it was becoming impossible.

Sun was breaking through the dark skies by the time they reached the mountain range, miles away from the village.

Hinata frowned when he recognized the rocky dirt road they were driving along. It was one he had taken to his family Ohaka.

Rather, turning off to the Ohaka site, the truck drove on and further towards the mountains.

Morning light graced his iced cheeks when the drive took to rocky terrain up a mountain side. He held Mei-chan closer to his side and warmth, doing his best to ease her motion sickness. Aiyama-san taught him a skill of rubbing her stomach with a certain motion to ease some of her nausea.

Hinata did this, closing his eyes to the peaceful sounds of chirping birds, buzzing insects and mews from various small animals.

Eventually the truck stopped when it couldn't drive further. They were in the heart of a forest with a thick canopy of tall trees and their bushy leaves creating a barrier to the burning sun, allowing slithers of daylight to rain down on their heads.

Astringent musk, bitter-sweet flowers and wet Earth hit Hinata's senses when he stumbled out of the truck. He pushed aside his blanket, and numb ache, to make sure the children were okay, helping them down to the ground.

"Sorry." Yuri mumbled his apologize to everyone, knowing it would've been a hard journey out in the cold of the pickup truck's open back.

"No, you helped us." Hinata thanked the man with a bow. He noticed Yuri's peg leg was askew from the bunching of his pants around that leg.

"Your prosthetic!" He gasped, remembering the replacement he had sitting on Little Anvil.

"I have it. Honda-san asked me to carry it when he was frantically pulling things together in the shop for the journey," Mei-san said.

She helped Kou take a seat on a rock crop next to the older boys. Leaned back into the truck to grab a bag from the floor. She handed Hinata the prosthetic he had been working on for her brother.

"I'll do my best to fine tune this with what I can scrimp." He frowned to Akira. "Honda-san. Where are we?"

"The last place the Kenpei will look for the time being." Akira soberly answered.

Hinata sighed. He stowed the prosthetic bag to this satchel, with all his other survival items he had haphazardly gathered. His immediate attention was on the kids as they trekked up the rocky, bushy mountain terrain, being careful of not slipping on moss covered rocks and wet patches of dirt around ferns.

Akira dropped back to help Mei-san with her hard task of helping both her brother and Kou along the way.

"Keep going straight through the pillar trees until you see stone steps and image of the Little Tengu." Akira ordered Hinata and Aiyama-san at the frown.

The older teens ambled ahead to lead the way with confident strides. Hinata's cheeks were flushed with heat as he felt his body aching all over from carrying the bags and Mei-chan who had grown tired fairly quickly. She ended up hugging his front and dozing off to sleep as he continued to trek.

The burning midday sun was bearing down on them by the time they cleared through the thick brush and path of trees to reach a pair of little winged children statues perched on stone pillars.

They guarded a moss ridden flight of stairs up the mountain. Hinata groaned at the steep and snaky climb he would have to take.