I tensed, hearing those was no turning back now. It was real, all of it. The trial was real, and the possibility of getting Gin back was real too. I looked down at his mask that I still held in my hands, looking upon the worn and slightly scratched white surface. I pulled the mask up to my own face and hugged it close, taking a deep breath before flipping the mask over in my hands and placing it upon my own face. I'd worn the mask before of course, but every time I put it on it felt like seeing him again. It smelled of him, it looked of him, it made me feel of him. It was time to go get him.

I started down the trail jogging, but quickly resorting to a well paced walk. I realized about 200 metres into my run that running uphill with boots and a backpack was going to be a bit difficult. I thought back to what Ms. Shuzima said about the first trial, the trial of the never ending trail. It seemed pretty self explanatory, though I didn't like the sound of it.

It was only several hours into the walk that I realized how much I really didn't like it. I had been walking for hours, I could tell by how much the sun had fallen, the bottom of the floating yellow orb touching the valley in between two of Öyamatsumi's mountains. I wiped away the beads of sweat dotting my brow and stared down the path that seemed to wind around corners that came out of nowhere. I was always going up but I almost saw no difference in the altitude that I started at. I sighed in frustration, exhaustion, and a bit of bitterness. I wiped my hair from where it stuck to my forehead and forced my burning legs to take another step forward, and then one more, and one more, and one more…

I was really becoming frustrated now. It was nearly night time now, and the summer air was not uncomfortable at least, but a bit more humid than I'd like. I had to rest now, I couldn't stand the burn that walking up this hill had caused any longer. There were trees all around me before, but it seemed like now that I wanted to rest they all disappeared when I followed the path out onto the wayside of the mountain, onto a rocky outcropping that was implanted into the surface of this ancient mount. I sat down on the side of the path, leaning into the rocky wall on the left side of it. I wasn't out of breath from walking, but my calves felt like they were being eaten away. I slipped off my pack and reached in for the bottle of water, opening it and drinking greedily, suddenly wishing I'd brought more.

I placed the empty bottle back into the bag and brought out a small granola bar I'd thrown in, unwrapping it and being sure to throw every piece of trash I had back into my pack. I respected this forest more than I respected some of the people I knew, though of course now I didn't really know that many people. I thought back to my life at home, all of the friends I used to have. I wasn't that concerned with friends anymore, and I slowly just sort of drifted apart from everyone. I'd lost the only friend that really mattered to me, so now most of my days were spent running, struggling to pass my classes, or staring out of windows. That was a term my mother had coined for me.

"Hotaru stop just staring out of windows and do your homework." she would always say.

I chuckled through my mouthful of oats and took another bite.

Boom

I closed my eyes and cursed internally. The sound of thunder. I stood and looked around, seeing the grey clouds that I'd failed to notice in the low evening light which was now nearly gone, leaving the world around me tinted a strange purple. I hefted my pack onto my back and flipped the mask back down over my face, jogging around the next bend in the path until i came to the next cluster of trees.

No sooner had i sat under the protection of a tree had it started to rain. Luckily for me this was no drizzle, this was a monsoon. I pushed my pack over my head and felt the water soak through my clothes under the very shoddy protection of these trees, that is, until the rain stopped beating against my pack, and stopped soaking though my jeans. I could see the rain falling all around me, and hear it beating against a surface above my head. I looked up to see a red canopy over my head. Kasa Tsukumagami, the umbrella spirit. I smiled to myself and tucked myself under the protection of this kind spirit whom was a friend of Gin's. The spirit did not speak, but simply sat.

I thought for a moment and pulled my water bottle out of the pack and stuck it out into the rain, watching as in mere minutes it was filled to the brim. I took it back, screwed to top on, and leaned my head back against the slick bar of the tree. Not minding the little bit of wet I got.

I must had drifted off because I awoke in the morning, my legs screaming out in retaliation of being stretched out. The umbrella spirit was gone, my clothes still a bit wet but drier than they would have been were it not for that helpful little umbrella.

I pushed myself up from the ground and continued on the path, getting my legs stretched out for the long walk ahead.

Or so I thought.

Good Hotaru, you're doing well.

Came the voice I'd come to know as the Mountain God.

"So quickly?" I questioned.

Child, whenever is the first stretch of a run the hardest?

He reasoned.

To his question, I had no answer, and so I continued to walk. I heard nothing else from him, and so I assumed the trial cont-

"Hotaru." I knew that voice.

That was the voice of the silver haired boy who's saved me so long ago, back when I was merely six. I said nothing in return, simply stopping in my tracks, not knowing of what I'd heard was even real.

"Hotaru." Came his voice again.

I spun on my heel to face what I knew for certain was Gin, tears already brimming my eyes. I spun and expected to find him standing there with that stupid grin slapped on his face that just made me want to glomp him.

The only problem was, he wasn't. I bit back the tears and brushed it off as my overactive imagination again. I turned and continued to walk, wiping tears from my eyes with the mask moved atop my head.

"Hotaru!" I was positive I'd heard him this time.

I immediately whirled and caught myself letting a single tear fall, truly having hope that I simply hadn't seen him. But yet again he wasn't there. I was truly beginning to hurt from these tricks. I brushed away the tear and turned again, continuing walking.

"Hotaru!" I didn't turn around.

"Come on Hotaru don't be like that." Tears were forcing their way to the corners of my eyes but I suppressed them, but only barely.

"Hotaru, I'm sorry." I felt a hand land on my shoulder.

That broke me. The fact that the Mountain God would play such foul tricks on me was disgusting. Making me not only hear but feel him in his absence, only to have nothing there when I turned. I felt a single sob rack my body. Making me shake forward, my face contorting and a choked noise of sorrow coming from my throat, and the it all spilled. I felt my body shaking violently in tremors of loss as the weight of the trick hand never moved from my shoulder where it never should have been. I kept on trying to choke back the sobs only to let a small, pathetic sounding cry to come out as my tears stained my cheeks. I took my left hand and reached up to my right shoulder where the phantom hand rested, laying it on top of nothing but my own shoulder, the weight now gone.

The cries truly came out now, I never knew how much even the apparition of Gin had affected me to the point of him being gone causing all efforts to choke out the sobs to disappear, leaving me weeping and sobbing as loud as I possibly could in the middle of the forest. I reached my hand up to my face and took the mask off, pulling it to my chest and going down to my knees with it. I held it close and rocked, not unlike any time I had done before thinking of Gin in my room. I had held my face in a pillow and held Gin's mask in my hands and fallen asleep, sometimes failing to wake up for school on my own in the morning.

I could feel the heat in my cheek where Gin had kissed me, though his lips had never actually touched my skin. I could feel the heat of the kiss until it actually burned. Where my face had rubbed against his neck when we'd finally hugged, his warm skin touching mine for the first time, not to be the last. It was when I knew he was still human, not only a spirit or an imaginary friend I'd made up. I dug the nails on my fingers into the palms of my hands until I'd bore small crescents into my skin, and screamed and cried until it hurt to swallow my own spit. Instead I screamed it away, not only screamed away the spit but screamed away the pain, the sadness, the anger, the frustration.

"Hotaru…"

"No!" I forced between sobs, "Y-you... you aren't real. You. Aren't. Him."

I didn't hear his voice or feel his touch again, left alone in this forest to cry. Just the way I liked to cry, alone, in peace.

My eyes had been plastered shut while I cried, but as I slowly went from sobbing to labored breathing and hiccups I opened my eyes. I was no longer in the forest, or I thought I wasn't, I couldn't tell. It was so dark I couldn't see the mask in my hands. I was beginning to scare myself, not knowing if somehow I'd been made blind, if this was another trick, a test of the mountain god. I carefully stood and felt my way to a solid object, which was no doubt stone. I felt up the rock, the jagged and rough surface damp.

Suddenly, my hand was dimly lit with a weak green light, the water in the stone reflecting the light and making bright spots on the stone pillar in front of me. I had confirmed that I was no longer in the forest, and I was definitely in some sort of cave. I turned to search for this eerie green light, and when I turned, there was a small flake of green. It was reminiscent of a firefly, but there was no bug, only this small piece of green light. It was a familiar green, a friendly green. I walked towards it and reached out my finger, but as soon as I had almost made contact with it, it disappeared, leaving the cave dark once again.

I looked around, searching for the small flake, mere seconds later, the cave lit up as if it were daylight, were the sun fluorescent green. I spun and saw a large line of the flakes, hovering in air. I walked up to the first, and when I reached for it, it disappeared and reappeared at the back of the line of flakes. I smiled and walked forwards, through the line of flakes, which seemed to warm me from the inside out every time I got close to one. It took me too long to realize why. The small fireflies were the same eerie green Gin had turned that fateful night three years ago.

I gave a light hearted smile, for the second time today, tears brimming my eyes. This time it was for a different reason, a better reason. I held his mask close and nuzzled my face against it, chuckling a bit into my arm as I continued to follow the lights, that seemed just that much brighter.

I wiped the tear from my eye, placing the mask over my face and continuing on, until I'd reached the exit of the cave. The last light was waiting for me there, wavering in the air. I crouched down in front of it, looking it over.

I whispered to it gently, "Thank You."

I then lifted the mask and blew the flake away, the light falling into oblivion once more. I smiled as I replaced the mask, standing and exiting the cave.

Impressive.

Boomed the sentinel of the forest.

No one has ever completed those tasks so fast.

"I had help." I responded.

I see, may your next challenge begin, and good luck.

I felt as if the Mountain God had begun to warm to my presence, even wishing me a good luck in his challenge. I continued on the path, walking another 100 metres at the least before coming across what must have been my next challenge. A stone altar was sitting in the middle of the path, beckoning me towards it. It was made of the same stone as the pillars at the entrance of the forest, Gin and I's meeting place. I still felt the spiritual pull on my soul towards the altar, seemingly begging me to come nearer.

I obliged, walking up to the stone altar and reaching out for it. The world around me was sucked away as I felt myself slip from consciousness.