𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙎𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝘾𝙖𝙣 𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧?

Chapter 10

I wake up, in a room that is not my own. Where am I? Am I at the main house? No, that's not right. This how place is filled with dust. Sickening dust, and paint?

I let out a cough, and cover my mouth. I think I'm going to be sick.

Daylight light streams in from the dust-coated windows. I scramble over to them. Trying to get them open, to breathe in clean air. 

As I reach the windows, I hold back the vomit in my throat. I can't, I won't throw up. I pull open the latch from the window, and try to push the window open, but it's stuck. And no matter how hard I push, it doesn't open. Instead, I just get more and more dust covering me hands. 

I slide down onto the floor, trying to get a hold of what's happening. What happened yesterday? I know I was yelling at Akito. And she got pretty mad. But, everything else, it's just a blur. And trying to think of it, makes my mind hurt, and my ears ring. 

Part of me wonders if I am in the Cat's Jail, but this place is too big. And full of too many boxes, books, and wall scrolls, and paint. Lots and lots of black paint litters the room. All of the cans are open. 

That's probably what is making me so sick. And who knows how long I've been hear. From how my body aches, I'd say, a day. Give or take. 

My mouth dries, so I decided to see if I can find a tap in this room. I'm sure there's one somewhere. 

Hatori's POV:

"I've asked all of her friends from college, and Mayuko Shiraki. No one has seen or heard from her." Shigure sighs. "Momo is going to go down to where they usually stay on vacation in the Fujiwara region and look to see if she's there. For now, we'll just have to continue to look around the estate and town."

"Tokyo is such a big place. She could be anywhere." Kisa whimpers, pulling her knees into her chest.

"And Akito?" I ask, my fists tightening.

"Refuses to say a word. She's a hard nut to crack when she's set on not telling you the truth. But we know she was probably the last person to see her. Because some of the servants heard the two of them in a very heated argument." Kureno quietly states.

"Do they know what they were arguing about?" Yamato, Natsu's father, asks.

"No. But, Ren also heard it, she told me so herself. She didn't say what. But, she probably knows." Shigure admits.

"Knowing her though, it's doubtful that she'll tell us either." I state. "Like mother, like daughter."

"Well, we need to continue to search. Keep thinking of places Akito would take her, and places she'd go if she were running away." Shigure says. 

"Has anyone checked the land out near the mountains? There are a few old homes there, they're just mostly used for storage. But... she could be there." Kureno suggests.

"If that were the case, we should look in the old Urusai area as well." My stomach turns over in my chest. I remember back as a young boy, when the old tiger of the zodiac was alive, telling us boys about the Urusai land. 

"It was once full of members of the Sohma family. Very lively, a beautiful place. But, when I was about your age, everyone simply disappeared. Vanished." He snaps his fingers. "Just like that."

"That's just a ghost story. I heard it had something to do with the War." I piped up.

"Oh, but is it? I've been there myself. The place feels haunted to me. Like if the people had lost their bodies, but their souls still lingered.

As a child, Shigure and Ayame wanted to go visited the deserted village. But, it was off limits. Because, just like I had said back then, everyone there was killed during WWII, due to a disease or they were soldiers killed. The disease then came nearly wiped out the main part of the Sohma estate, but my great grandfather, convinced the current head of the family to give him enough money to buy the cure off the black market. And so he did. Saving most all of the Inside family members, but unfortunately, a lot of the Outside family members were killed off.

"Why would Akito take her there?" I went to the place once. With my father. I hated it, the whole place rotted with the foul smell of death. My father said, I needed to know my heritage, and that if a situation like that ever came up again, I needed to risk my life to save the family, more importantly, to save the head. 

"Maybe Akito's trying to lure you out." Shigure gives a sinister smirk as the others leave, heading back to search for Natsu. 

I don't respond to his comment. "I'll go out to the land, check the old houses. You and Kureno go to the Urusai village, and look for her there."

"I'll get a car then." Kureno says. 

"I'm sure you won't only go to the land, correct?" I ask.

"No. I'll have a word with Ren." He heads for the door. "You're not the only one who loved Natsu, but only know realized it." 

Ever since two days ago, when Natsu's parents started freaking out because she hadn't come home, and she wasn't replying to their texts, and no one seemed to know where she was. The whole Main Estate has been in a frenzy. 

I don't think anyone slept last night. I know I didn't. But, I was driving all over the town or trying to convince Akito to tell the truth. But she still continues to swear up and down she had nothing to do with it.

When I've had a bit of quiet time, my mind is slurring out images from that day. How confused and angry she was. And how much hate I've had for something she couldn't even control from that day on. 

"You heard nothing about what Shigure said." I say to Kureno as we walk out to the car.

"I heard nothing." He agrees. It shows just how important Natsu is, if Kureno managed to get dragged into it. Almost as if she were the main lifeline in the family, taking the blood from the heart to the rest of the body. 

The drive is quiet except for my phone going nuts as Mayuko Shiraki keeps texting me. I feel bad for all of her friends outside of the family. They don't really know what's going on. They just think she ran away or got kidnapped by some stranger. But not what really is at stack. 

"Uh, did something happen between you and Natsu... I mean... besides what usually goes on between the two of you?" Kureno gulps as I reply to one of Mayuko's texts. 

I haven't told anyone that the bond is gone between me and Natsu. Which makes me worry about her even more. 

"No. Not out of the normal." I beginning to sound like Shigure with how I'm just lying back and forth. 

"Because... I did see her the morning she disappeared. In the Zodiac garden. Just shortly. I think she heard me. She... she didn't look good. Her hair was cut short. I almost didn't think it was her." He comments. 

"And you haven't said this earlier why?"

"I did. I mentioned it to Shigure. He asked me why she would have been there." I've only been in that garden once. I had to chase Akito down, and she went there. I hated the place. Just another reminder of the darn curse, and the fact that I didn't get to turn into a dragon when I transformed. I turned into a seahorse.

"And?"

"I think her curse broke. I think that's why she was...."

My phone begins to ring. "It's Shigure."

We both take a deep breath as I answer the phone. "Hello?"

"I found out from Ren... that Akito and Natsu were arguing about