Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Hitori could not believe what he had just heard from  Kakashi. The haunter, it was back. And it was haunting Kakashi from the moment it came back.

He took slow steps, but he reached Kakashi at the end. He leaned down and Kakashi did not hesitate to offer his forearm.

Hitori's heart was beating fast, he was worried about seeing the same gruesome scene again, but this time he had to face his fears.

He grabbed Kakashi's forearm, then turned it around. Nothing was visible on the forearm, then he looked at Eya.

Her face was right beside Kakashi's face, and she was looking at Hitori with her eyes wide, and hope in her eyes– perhaps Hitori will do something, or at least pass out a decision.

Hitori just got off the floor, staring at Kakashi, and asked, "How much does it hurt?"

Eya pulled back in disbelief. Reon gasped when she heard him say that, she stepped forward to stop Hitori, but it was too late.

Kakashi leaned back and rolled his arms under his chest, clutching the pain. Then he looked straight into Hitori's eyes and said, "Not enough to stop me and call off this mission. Let us go."

Eya grabbed Kakashi's shoulder. "You do not have to do it. We can always—"

"We can not always attack him," Kakashi said, turning to Eya, "you do not understand, Eya-nee, this is a race against time."

"But—" Eya would have continued if Kakashi would have not clenched his forearm again.

But this time, he stayed on his feet. After a grunt, he looked at everyone, panting. Hitori pursed his lips and walked back to Kakashi.

"What is happening?" he asked. "Just what does the Haunter want? Is it trying to say something? Is it trying to tell us we are in danger? Is it laughing because we trusted it?"

To all of the questions, Kakashi shook his head. Hitori stopped in front of him and asked for his forearm, but Kakashi refused by shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Hitori asked. "Let me see—"

"It talked to me," Kakashi said and Hitori paused, he lifted his eyes and looked at Kakashi as he continued, "It told me something…"

"What something?" Hitori gulped.

"He told me Tengoku is coming back." Kakashi straightened his facial muscles, as if expecting criticism from the others, but prepared to take it.

"And?" Hitori asked. "So what if Tengoku is coming back?" Hitori asked, but Kakashi stayed quiet. "You want us to go back? To listen to that traitor and go back?"

Kakashi nodded. With a straight face, he nodded. "Yes. We should go back to attack him."

Eya gasped and glanced at him in disbelief. "You know the haunter is not with us, right? It was planted by Tengoku to fool us, to make us believe, then kill us."

Kakashi was still looking straight at Hitori, then he shook his head again. "No. Somewhere in my gut, I know this is not set up by Tengoku. I mean, even if Haunter was set by Tengoku, why would it let it go back?"

"To test our faith in it," Hitori said, turning around. "If we believe it, we are dead. If we do not believe it, we will be ambushed. There is no telling—"

"There is telling what is true." Kakashi lifted his forearm and showed the faint green and brown shade of the woods forming on his forearm. "Are you the one with this on your forearm or am I the one?"

Hitori had a light guess at where Kakashi was taking this. But still, he nodded, because he wanted to know. "You are."

"Then I know what it is telling me. I know this genuine feeling. It is not Tengoku's pet, it is a real being living behind your house. It is the Guardian Spirit."

No way to prove it. Hitori wanted to say, but he held his horses. He just took a breath, then exhaled it. "So it is about the gut feeling. Are we going to take life or death decisions based on your gut feeling?"

"You are not the one to say, Hitori," Reon said. "At least he is not acting on his own, unlike you."

Hitori glanced at Reon, then the reality hit him with a little sense of self-awareness. He took a long pause before continuing, "So Tengoku or Onogi?"

"Onogi is not going anywhere. But Tengok would not come every day." Kakashi stepped closer to Hitori. "We did what you asked us to, we were about to do what you wanted us to, but not this time. But some trust in me, boy, and let us go to that house. It needs us."

Hitori looked down, unconvinced. He thought giving Onogi a chance will ruin their chance of defeating him.

"You do not have a choice, boy," Kakashi said. "Either do it willingly, or I can make you do it, Hitori."

Hitori cringed the moment Kakashi called his name. He frowned and stepped back. "No need for that," he said. "We have to kill them both anyway, so what does the order matter?"

It mattered to him a moment ago, but now it does not. Of course, after Kakashi threatened him, Hitori had no choice.

"But if something goes wrong, you need to promise one thing," Hitori said with his eyes on Kakashi.

Kakashi bobbed his head. "What one thing?"

"If our plan goes wrong, or we are trapped, you will have to make sure everyone gets out safely. No one dies."

After not so much consideration, Kakashi nodded. "No one will die. Because we will never be in a bad spot. From this point, we take over the conflict."

Hitori turned and started walking. "How do we get to the house?"

"Teleportation or the Forest."

"Do you know when Tengoku is coming back?" Hitori asked, glancing at Kakashi over his shoulder.

"He is around a mile or two away from the house."

"How do you know that? Please do not say gut feeling," Akira said, then scoffed.

"It just knows about the approaching beings within its radius, which is around two miles."

"Can we really trust it?"

"We will see," he said, "we will see."