Author’s Epilogue

Hello! Thanks for reading this far, feels good to know that you at least liked it enough to read to the finish. So thanks!

Wait, you want to know what happened after that? Really? Well…. Alright, I don’t want to give major spoilers on volume two, but this can’t hurt I suppose.

Doro created the bus, once again, to bring them back to Thurnax. Gorgo and him decided to see them back to their college place, and told them that they would be in the area for a while, as there was some dark energy they had to look into. Lawrence, Oku and Mark were practically devoid of emotion, but Doro told them to look into the Youkai library for ways to restore Youkai masks anyways. That at least brightened Mark’s mood, as he knew how much was in those shelves. If there existed a way to restore Youkai masks it was there.

Hato stayed in her cage, ate the food that Lawrence gave her, and hopped around as Oku talked to her all day.

She was just a regular dove now.

But could she be saved?

I hope that was enough for you guys, I know how difficult waiting in between books releases can be, but try to bear with me as I am a one man train.

After Story:

The Longest Road.

Why did he do it… Was there even a reason? He’d thought that for many hours now. He hadn’t known what to do… he was angry for god’s sake he couldn’t be expected to do nothing! But wishing her away... was that really the right choice? That meant he couldn’t even see Hato anymore.

He went back to his dorm and tried not to think about it, locking the door. He then put a sign on it stating that he had gone home for break. Lawrence sat down at his computer and watched a couple of videos before stopping and leaning forward. He looked down at his hands.

“I already regret my choice… how pathetic.”

It was so quiet there, nobody else to call him an idiot, or master for that matter. Nothing but his thoughts. He’d gotten so used to Oku and Hato chatting around him that it had become a comfort for him. Was it the right choice?

He was thinking about the rights and wrongs when he heard a banging on his door, and a voice. It was Mark. That only meant that he must be with Hato. He couldn’t deal with seeing him right now… Or was it that he couldn’t deal with not seeing Hato. He couldn’t be sure. Once they’d left, he thought about it some more. He was still angry at Oku, but he’d basically just taken it out on Hato and Mark as well. If he could just wish to get his sight of Youkai back that would solve a lot of it…

“Alright!”

If he couldn’t wish for his sight back he would just have to go find it. Mark had told him of his uncle’s story. He had gone into the woods one night and seen a Youkai that was vastly powerful. It was covered with eyes all over it’s body, and told Mark’s uncle that it would grant his family line the ability to see all Youkai. Sadly, his uncle was sterile and unable to have children, so the Youkai said that his brother’s bloodline would have the ability. Thus when Mark was born, he could see Youkai. He and his uncle were the only ones with that ability thus far.

The best part was, Mark said he had come to this college in part to get a degree and in part to find that Youkai. According to him it resided in the forest right outside of town. If he could find it and plead his case… he might just be able to see them again.

Sneaking out of the dorm without being seen seemed safe, and soon he was ninja hopping and crawling his way to the out of town side of campus. Once he’d arrived at the forest he immediately noticed that he couldn’t feel the weight of powerful Youkai anymore.

He was just a normal human.

He walked for a few hours until he came to a clearing in the trees. There was a round flat rock in the very middle of the area, which he sat on.

“H-hello? I’m here to see the Youkai that grants vision!”

No response.

Ten minutes passed.

Bad start.

“I said, I’m here to see the Youkai that grants vision!”

Another ten minutes passed.

Absolutely nothing…

“I’m here-”

“What do you want!”

He jumped out of his seat, as it moved beneath him. Great, he’d already disrespected the Youkai by sitting on it and he was going to ask for a gift. What could go wrong.

“You sit on me and keep yelling for a Youkai that grants vision!”

“I need to be able to see Youkai. I need to.”

“Well I needed to get some sleep but that didn’t go over well either did it.”

The Youkai was in fact covered with eyes, this was it. It sat up and put a hand under it’s chin. Meanwhile, Lawrence got down on the ground and groveled.

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“I need the ability to see Youkai, please. I heard you gave it to a friend of mine, which means you can give it. I desperately need to be able to see them.”

“If it means you’ll leave me alone sure… oh but first I need you to fetch a few… artifacts of mine. Here, I’ll give you the vision now so you can retrieve them.”

He took one of the eyes off of his body and threw it at Lawrence. The eye touched his forehead coldly, then was absorbed into his body. Immediately he saw a few Youkai walking around the open space, and his heart skipped a beat. There were a lot of them. Strangely enough all watching him…

“Shiryoku gave someone the sight?”

“He never does that.”

“Not since that one guy at least.”

“Oh yeah him!”

They were likely chatting about Mark’s uncle, but he didn’t have time for that. He needed to fulfill Shiryoku’s request. The Youkai looked dauntingly down at him. This wasn’t gonna be easy was it.

“In order to keep this ability… You must retrieve… My pillow and blanket!”

Lawrence almost fell over at the sound of that. He had to fetch something trivial like that?

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. They’re right over there by that tree.”

He looked where the large Youkai pointed and saw a creamy white pillow and embroidered blanket. They were literally just sitting there. He looked back to Shiryoku who was still smiling, and started walking. He reached them in a few moments and looked back. It felt like all the Youkai around were holding their breath. He bent over to pick up the pillow and blanket, and touched them. They were extremely soft and fluffy.

The surprise came when he tried to pick them up.

“What the hell!”

They were the heaviest things he had ever tried to pick up before…

“Something wrong?”

Shiryoku was smiling now, and condescendingly looked at Lawrence.

“Oh, I forgot to ask, why do you need the vision?”

He tried to flip over the fluffy pillow and blanket, but to no avail.

“Why?”

Shiryoku asked it again of him, and he barely knew himself. But he had nothing to lose.

“I need it for my friends.”

Instantly some of the weight left the pillow, and he was able to flip it over with all of his strength. The blanket was another matter however.

“Just your friends?”

“I need… I need to be able to see them, they’re all I have alright!”

More weight left the pillow, and he could lift it off the ground mere inches before the weight overtook him. The blanket could now be flipped over as well.

“How cliche, anything else?”

He sat down on the ground and prepared.

“Alright fine. Without them I’m nothing, nothing but a stupid college kid with no friends and a non-aspiring future. I feel that I can get through life thanks to them. I love all of them. Oku, Hato, Mark… I would be nowhere without them. I need them for myself. It is a selfish stupid reason.”

“Well that’s strange I thought you wished the fox away?”

“I did. I thought she only cared about herself… since she was apart of me she was always telling me to take care of myself so she wouldn’t get sick. I thought…”

Suddenly Shiryoku was standing right next to him.

“You thought the fox only cared about herself, which is reasonable. That gave you quite the sour look on Youkai at that instant didn’t it. You didn’t want to see any of them. Yes yes, sometimes the people we are closest to are the easiest to get angry at.”

Shiryoku bent over and picked up the pillow and blanket.

“At least there are people like you. People who can realize their mistake and try their damndest to fix it.”

He handed the items over to Lawrence, and they now weighed almost nothing.

“I’m really trying to figure out the name of these things… The bedspread of truth? Pillow of learning?”

“Those are terrible.”

The blanket felt lighter once more and Shiryoku chuckled.

“Yes well, sometimes the truth hurts, but at least you told it. Better to be honest than leave everyone guessing huh? Take that sight as a gift, from me.”

The Youkai cheered.

“Lawrence can see Youkai again!”

“Well it was his fault in the first-”

“Shut up, he’s going through some tough shit!”

“I was scared there for a second!”

Even the other Youkai were glad he could see Youkai again?

“See? Even the common Youkai respect you. I probably wouldn’t have made the trial this easy if I hadn’t heard so much good about you from all these little guys wahaha! Now get out there and get your friends back, but don’t forget we want you to help us out too!”

Shiryoku slapped his back and he started running back towards campus. He looked back and the Youkai were waving at him so he gave them a wave and looked forward. With so many on his side how could he fail? Energy renewed, he knew where he was going. He was going to get back his friends and make sure that he never let go of them again. It was time to face the place he had left behind over a decade ago.

Kazha forest.

When he left the forest next to campus he realized something was different. He was facing the front of Kazha. It was the same as it had been all those years ago. He looked back, but he saw not the forest at his college, he saw the town of Stuggard.

“That old fart.”

He smiled at the thought of all those friendly Youkai, and ran into the woods. After going for a while, he saw a large bear bounding towards him and his heart skipped a beat. He wasn’t going to get attacked by a bear again was he?!

The bear stopped short right in front of him and he realized that it was not a bear at all, it was Gorgo.

“What are you doing here?”

“Friend!”

Gorgo didn’t answer the question at all, instead scooping Lawrence onto his back and bounding back into the woods. There was a chance that Gorgo knew where Lawrence was trying to go, so he trusted him to bring him to the right place and clung to his fur so he wouldn’t fall off. Breaking an ankle in this predicament would not be good.

His grip tightened.

Whenever things had gotten rough he’d always retreated back and thrown away what he cared about most.

He wouldn’t do that this time.

This time he would be taking back what he cared about.

He saw the large tree he had dreamed about countless times, and Hato levitating off the ground.

He needed them.

Even if they didn’t need him.

He needed them.

He was no longer just a young boy crying because he couldn’t make friends.

He needed them. And he would get them back.

*So as to fix any confusion, I understand that I didn’t especially let anyone know how Lawrence got his vision back, so this short story will be here to let you know just how that all went down.

*Next, who likes new characters? If I had to guess you’d say “Well that depends on the character.”

Guess you’ll decide for yourself then huh?

Final Word:

Thanks a lot for reading through the short story, for a bit of insight into what happened to Lawrence.

I know that this “book” isn’t exactly as long as some other works, but I feel that whenever I can end a book I shouldn’t drag it out. For your sake more than mine. I’ll work on the next one, you know that, but until then, see you next time!