ORIENTE 6, HEAVEN

What should I do at this time when I was lost? Well, I had lost enough time and the sun was setting. Again I had to make a decision, I could continue to follow the river and maybe the night will catch me with its possible death from hypothermia due to the cold, or I could stay here and try to prepare myself to spend the night inside the temple and with a campfire to continue my way back to the hotel tomorrow.

I decided not to take any risks, so I started to prepare the place where I would spend the night.

Since the small temple was big enough to sleep in, I began to repair it so that in case of snowfall it would not fall inside, also it had doors and I also began to collect wood and leaves to make a fire that could last a long time, since I had eaten enough I think I better not look for food because I have no idea if it can be edible or poisonous. I don't think this is too far from civilization, and in any case the angels will be looking for me even under the stones, since I still have the Codex tied to my hair. It will only be a day or two at most before I return to the hotel.

As far as getting the fire started, it was a little more complicated than I thought it would be. Well, it's not like I had any survival tools, almost everything I did required just putting something together and tying it down. I didn't even have a knife to help me do other things. But I did have my pistol and a single clip, so I improvised a bit and figured out a way to make fire with it. First, the bullets inside have gunpowder, so they can be used, but to avoid any risks, I took the bullet out of a shell and covered it with a piece of napkin I had from breakfast. I put the bullet in the gun and put the gun right next to the campfire and fired, although not perfectly, because with the force that the powder came out, almost all the leaves flew out on all sides. But what was left was enough to light the fire I needed.

Taking advantage of the fact that it is still daylight, I began to repair the interior of the temple in order to sleep inside. Since I have no idea how cold it will be, I decided to lay down enough sheets to sleep in as well. But when I got to work, I noticed that there were a few more things inside that I hadn't noticed. The first was that there was a stone on what looked like an altar, with a rope and several talismans attached to it, in addition to some clothes near it, they were from a kimono, they were a little damaged, but necessity is the mother of invention and that kimono makes an excellent blanket for the night.

I was passing the campfire as close as possible to where I would sleep, but preventing it from setting fire to my bed, when the crack of a branch sounded, it was close to me and the fact that I had not heard anything approaching made me think that it could be some dangerous animal that was hunting, so I took my weapon and turned to see the origin of the sound. It was a girl, she had blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes, although her appearance indicated that she was surely a foreigner from this place, her clothes were not much different from the ones everyone used around here, she also had a naginata, a type of Japanese spear, and a bow, she had a rabbit in one of her arms, she is probably a hunter with her dinner . Her face was delicate, but she also showed surprise when she saw me, it seems that she did not expect to meet anyone here. And probably I had the same face, because I could see my way out of this forest.

"Hi"

"You must be a hunter around here right?" I said with a gentle tone as I lowered my gun.

"A GHOST!"Said the girl as she dropped to her knees in fear.

"No wait!"

"I am not a ghost!"

"Yes, it is true that I am whiter than a normal person but it is because of something else!"

"I'm just a traveler who got lost when I went for a walk outside the hotel"

"So you're just lost?"

"If you could help me get out of this forest and get back on the road, you have no idea how much I would appreciate it."

"If I show you the way, won't you attack me?"

"I don't plan on doing it, I just want to get out of here before the night"

"Well that's fine, it's near here so I think you can get there fast."

"But don't attack me please" the girl kept asking for her life.

She began to accompany me to show me the way and to prevent me from getting lost again. We were already near the edge of the forest when the blonde girl started talking.

"You have no idea how sorry I am that you have to take the trouble to help me. Please let me give you something as a reward when we get to the hotel".

"No need, I don't want anything just to help someone"

"But how did you get lost?"

"This is not a place people like to visit"

"I got a little distracted thinking about my family and when I realized I was in the middle of nowhere"

"It's a shame that someone as old as me would get lost like that, but I don't know this place either."

"And what about you?"

"Are you a hunter?"

"Something like that, my house is here in the forest, so I don't go outside, I get everything from nature," the girl answered me with a slightly insecure face.

"Although I'm glad to meet another kitsune here, it's hard to know how they are doing when you can't get out of here. Although I have never met a pure white kitsune before, are you from the Arctic?"

"I am not an arctic kitsune, it is albinism, it is more like a kind of genetic disorder, although I do not know how to explain my case in reality".

"Originally, I was not completely white, but black."

"Wait, another kitsune? Is there one in this forest?"

The girl stood still as I finished speaking. She had a surprised face when she heard my question.

"Excuse me, did something happen?"

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"No, nothing, sorry"

"I'm just a little nervous"

It is not a good idea to stop suddenly without warning, I thought you had stepped on a trap set by other hunters.

"Are there other hunters here?" the girl asked.

"Well, I don't know, that's what Urakaze told me, by the way, she's the owner of the hotel, do you know her?"

"Does she live around here?"

"That's right, it seems her place was quite famous for this place, so I thought everyone knew it," I said smiling to cheer her up from whatever she had.

"Very well"

"It would be better to continue."

"I think I almost remember the way, so I think I can manage from here."

"I'm sorry it was my fault," she said.

"No, this is all my fault for getting lost."

"Wait, what are you doing?"

She dropped the rabbit and drew her spear against me, trying to hit me with it and making several lunges. Obviously I wasn't going to let her hit me, so I quickly backed away from her, out of range of her weapon.

"Wait, what are you doing, I didn't do anything wrong to you!?"

But she just got back into position to attack again.

"It's not a good idea to fight with people you just tried to help!"

"We are in heaven too, what do you think will happen when the angels find out that I am missing and you are responsible!"

"Shut up!"

"I will not let the hunters catch me again!"

"I know you will tell them where I am if I let you escape!"

"What are you talking about, you didn't bring me to the edge of the forest just to attack me here?"

"That makes no sense!"

But the girl did not listen to reasons and returned to the attack, trying to hurt me again. Forced to make a show of force to make her leave me alone, I fired my pistol at the ground near her.

"What was that?" she yelled.

"It was a warning."

"The next will be an attack"

"Two can play the same way."

Seeing that I had a long-range weapon, the girl decided to use her bow and tied what looked like paper to the arrow she would use. Seeing that she would try to attack me, I decided to take cover behind one of the trees, the arrow deviated a lot from me, apparently because of the haste with which she threw it, so that it hit another tree next to mine.

But suddenly something unusual happened, because a second later the arrow exploded like a grenade. Thanks to the fact that I protected myself with the tree, I did not suffer much damage from the explosion, but a piece of the exploded tree was embedded in my abdomen. Once again I was injured and fighting for my life even in heaven. What the hell did I do to deserve that?

I was still recovering from the impact when I noticed that a knife had fallen close to me, with another piece of paper in the handle. Knowing what would happen next, I ran without treating the wound to get out of the blast radius.

But when I ran about six feet, she unexpectedly came out and grabbed my arm. To free myself, I decided to shoot one of her legs, but I couldn't hit it, so I hit her several times with the butt of the pistol to free myself.

Thinking that the knife would explode at any moment, I threw myself to the ground, but nothing happened. It did not explode, it was surely a decoy from her to get close to me. So I picked it up and seeing that the girl was preparing to throw herself against me, I decided to throw it at her arm. It was a good hit, as I hit her on the shoulder, immobilizing her hand.

We were both hurt, staring at each other, neither of us wanting to make the first move to counterattack. But after a minute I saw that the sun was just on the horizon, soon it would be colder and I am losing blood, this is not good for me. She is in a similar situation because I managed to wound her in the arm as well, she cannot use her bow and her spear is far away from her, besides I have a pistol so I can attack her from a distance.

Since this would not end well for either of us, I decide to try to come to an agreement.

"Look, I know that you are not a bad person at heart because you are here in heaven and I am sure that they do not leave bad people there."

"What if we do the following:"

"We each go in a different direction, I go there and you go back to the forest where you live and no one will attack anyone. Okay?"

"Why should I believe you?"

"You'll just bring more people to attack me later!" replied the angry girl.

"Because I have a gun, you can't do anything, and because whatever else you can think of, I will really kill you".

The girl seems to realize what she just said and sees that I have the upper hand. So she replies with a frightened face.

"You're not going to attack me, are you?"

"I will try to get out of here as fast as I can, you can do the same if you want, or you can wait for me to leave, but I warn you that I am a good shooter, so I assure you that I can kill you from farther and faster than what you can do with the bow." I replied.

"Okay, let's both go to different places at the same time".

So I started walking backwards as I left. She gathered her things and did the same, entering the forest.

Once past the immediate danger, the next one followed, it is almost night, the temperature is dropping and I am losing blood, so I must find help immediately or I will not be alive within two hours. I can't risk losing body heat, but losing blood is also bad. Seeing that both are bad, I decided it would be better to treat the wound while walking. It wasn't a good idea to remove the embedded piece because I would lose even more blood later, so I decided to just take off my shirt and put it around the wound to lose less blood, and to try to keep some heat I started hugging my own tail, I don't think it helped much, but it was better than nothing.

According to Momo, when you die here in heaven, you have to go through a process of resurrection in the central district, near the side where the Security Division is. It takes several months and costs a fortune, so if you don't have any money, you're screwed and have to work for free for the next few years.

I don't have that time to waste!

I have to see my family!

As I kept complaining in the darkness that was beginning to surround me, I managed to see where several lights were coming on. Paying more attention, it turned out that the hotel was finally close, so I started to speed up my pace.

As soon as I walked through the lobby door, and without taking off my shoes full of dirt, I went straight to the reception, I think I even pushed someone on the way, but at that point, I didn't care. At the reception was Urakaze, who when she saw me started talking to me.

"I know you can be enthusiastic about the female body, but indecent scenes are not allowed in this hotel, so I ask you to wear a shirt every time you leave your room".

"Get me a doctor right now.

"Or you will have to explain to my father that his son died in your hands and you did nothing," I said.

"Doctor to reception now!"

"We have an emergency!" were her next words over the hotel speakers.

"You bring towels of whatever here now!" She said to one of the nearby employees.

"I'm on it!" replied the other.

"Give me a moment, I'll try to treat myself while help arrives."

But as Urakaze spoke to me, I began to see blurry and fell to the ground, fainting.