Chapter Text
Prince, prince.. oh, where oh where was the lovely prince?
His bed was wrinkled and the blanket once adorned on it before was thrown about the floor, and the rest of his room just as messy and unkempt. The clothes from his dresser—several fancy tailcoats and regally designed shorts and blouses made by the most well known seamstress in the whole kingdom—strewn all over the place without a care; the birdcage in the corner by the open window was broken, the green bird he kept having flown free a long time ago; and the antique wind-up doll, now nothing more than a stud collecting dust on the floor, having been knocked down from it’s shelf… such a messy look is not very fitting for the prince, if you ask me~ But what would I know?
The rest of the family inside the pristine, marble castle doesn't seem to know where he is either, and they don't seem to care, as if it were a typical, everyday occurrence— and it kind of was! Prince Esu is just out on one of those adventures again!
He’s always been known as the spontaneous and rambunctious type; climbing every building and mountain, mixing every beverage into some awful concoction, saving damsels in distress on his royal uni-steed; he never backed down from something that would challenge him, or give him a new experience, so it was no surprise he was out again today…
Nyahaha, but if that was really the case, and it was just a regular adventure like usual we wouldn't be here today~ No, no no, Esu’s going into the forest today~!
Everyone always says the forest is filled to the brim with dangerous, evil monsters, who could kill you with one glare! It's been avoided for as long as our prince remembers, yet here he is, standing right in front of it today.
Observing the woods from the outside, he doesn't immediately notice anything visibly abnormal besides maybe a bit of rotten overgrowth and murky fog, getting on his tip-toes and squinting just to be able to see more of it. It definitely feels eerie and scary; it just had an air to it that seemed to freak him out— something telling him that he definitely shouldn't go inside. He fiddled with his fingers, his legs shaking from just standing outside the plantation, feeling the cold sweat building up on his forehead; what if he really never comes back out…?
He tried to reassure himself, get some of that confidence he’s so known for back. Maybe it was just a placebo! After all, no one really knows what happens when you go inside, right? Doesn't look like anyones actually been in there based on the untouched look of all the shrubbery and vines, so who really knows what's inside? For all he knows, it could be filled with cute puppies that need saving from the tangled, possibly thorny vines!! There's no way he was going to get cold feet now, right? Being an adventurer such as himself meant traversing scary and untouched land!
Pushing through his hesitation and fear, he took a single, cowardly step closer— “HiieEEEE?!” —and heard a crack, letting out an audible scream as he hopped back.
Nyahaha, it was just a branch, silly Esu~ Didn't even realize I put that branch there, did you? Oh, I wish he could hear me up here– messing with him is so fun~
Upon realizing his cowardice, and after a little bit of scorning himself mentally, Esu kicked the branch aside with a laugh. He was clearly just trying to make himself feel better, his eyebrows upturned and a shaky smile making him look anxious even still. He then, with a lot more caution than before, proceeded into the woodlands. He held his hands close to his chest and cowered as he looked down at the ground so as not to step on anything, even if there were no more branches besides the one he stepped on.
Throwing a leg over the deep green, almost rotten shrubbery and thick “definitely”-absolutely-thorned” vines, he winces as the thorns scrape against his skin and tear into the once regal shorts and tailcoat he adorned, leaving small red cuts on his thighs and rips in the hems of his clothes. Maybe shorts weren't the move today— but he didn't know that there’d be thorns involved!
“Ow– ow ow ow ow…..?!” He spoke in a hushed whisper, afraid something would hear him as he entered the forest. There was nothing he could do about the nicks in his skin right now, and they didn't bleed too heavily, only slightly blotting, so he just dabbed them with his finger and wiped a little bit of his blood onto a leaf nearby. He figured he’d deal with these when he’d get back to the castle, he could clean them and make sure they wouldn’t be infected. But, as for right now, he couldn't do much of anything, so he pressed on into the forest, wincing as the cuts in his skin periodically touched one another. Not even 5 minutes in, and he was already cut and torn… but he wants to figure out if there really is anything inside this forest!
And so, he presses on into the forest, through the fog and—
“Woah, Ibuki-sama? When did you get here?”
…What? Who was that?? Where did you—
“Sorry!! Sorry!! I’m right here!”
A lucid, ghostly white figure comes into my view, and.. oh? Raika? What is—
“What’re ya doing up here by yourself? Are ya a narrator of some kind? Ooh, is someone in the forest? Who’s here?” He asks excitedly, floating around ominously, but not maliciously. He’s looking around, turning his head and looking into every canny like a dog looking for a lost toy… Thankfully Esu is already far enough into the dense fog, so even Raika, the ghost of the forest, couldn't possibly see him right now. Though, I didn't know he could talk to me like that… maybe it’s some kind of supernatural ability?
“Oh, oh! What’s this?” He floats towards the bloodied leaves and thorns, examining the small shreds of expensive, silk-like fabric— the torn pieces of Esu’s clothes. Though he was unable to pick them up and feel the delicate texture of the textile (he tried, though his hand phased through it instantly.), he could see just how fancy they were through the shine of the material, and the minimal fraying even after being torn.
“Someone is in here, really? Uu, seems like they got hurt though…. are they okay?”
“Whether or not they're okay doesn't matter~” Interrupted another voice, this one much more slow and melodic than Raika’s. Following behind him and coming out of the fog, we can see the source of the voice.
He took the bloodied, crimson leaf into his hands and examined it, smiling to himself before dropping it, letting it fall back down.
“Prince Esu… Yume’s wanted to see him again for a long time now~”
“You really think it’s him? Really?”
“Yume’s sure. This blood is royal~”
Raika floated over next to him, leaving a trail of his spectral essence. He looked at the leaf from over his shoulder as it fell to the floor or the forest, and then looked right back up at him. Yume, however, seemed annoyed by his presence, rolling his eyes with a look of disdain on his face to match.
“Maybe we could go find him then! Do you think Kanna-sama would want to, too?”
Yume didn't reply, crossing his arms and ignoring him. Raika was about to add onto his sentence before he heard the rumbling of dirt behind him.
The leaves rustled and crinkled while the vines moved around the space seemingly on their own, if I didn't know any better, I’d be terrified right now.. but after a moment of the ground in that spot shifting, a pale, bluish hand reached out. It pulled itself up out of the ground, and there was Kanna~ His hair looked disheveled, and his whole face looked dead, his eyes empty and devoid of any highlights, but that's to be expected of him.
He didn't speak for a moment after coming out of the ground, just kind of staring at them.
“...Well? Kanna-san? Do you want to go find Prince Esu with Yume?” He seemed to be impatient, just wanting to go already.
“And me!” Raika raised a ghostly hand, to which Kanna nodded.
“I’ll go.” He spoke with a monotone voice, as usual.
“Great~” Yume smiled and started walking deeper into the forest, and into the dense fog. He seemed to know where he was just from the smell of his blood alone, walking with certainty in the direction he believed Esu went in. Raika (to Yume’s dismay) and Kanna followed closely behind, at times with Raika even flying ahead to examine things— footsteps in the leaves, little tiny droplets of the blood Esu left behind and the like. Yume continued to ignore him when he’d point things out, Kanna being seemingly the only one to listen to him, nodding at everything.
Nyahaha... Oh, Esu's fucked.