Chapter Five: Missing Sister:

In a few minutes, Aiko looked up because it had become so quiet. Ayame usually complained while the family ran errands. The older girl looked and saw that her little sister was nowhere in sight. Aiko looked around slightly confused. At first, she thought that this was a game that the little girl was playing a game. Aiko sighed aloud.

“Okay Ayame-chan,” she said. “I don’t have time to play this game with you. Come out and let’s just get this shopping over with!” Silence. Aiko slowly became annoyed.

“Ayame-chan!!!” she shouted. “Stop it, I’m serious! Come out and quit playing around!” Still nothing. Aiko looked around nervously. Something told her that this wasn’t good. She turned Ise-san and tapped him on the shoulder. The man turned around to her.

“What is it, Aiko?” he asked. The young girl looked worried. She tried her best not to cause alarm at all.

“Did you see where Ayame-chan got to?” she asked. The man shook his head at her.

“No, why?” he asked. Aiko paused for a moment. She gave him a little chuckle.

“Oh no reason,” she lied. “I just think she wandered off out of boredom and I just wanted to make sure that she is okay with… you know…” He quickly got her message.

“Ah, I see,” Ise-san said.

“Yeah,” Aiko said nodding.

“Well, we better start looking for her then,” the man said.

“Right,” the girl agreed. And so the search began. Ise-san and Aiko asked around about Ayame’s whereabouts. None of the people in the market had seen the little girl. Each minute passing grew very grim. Aiko began to fear the worst. “What if…” she began to think. The girl fiercely shook her head of that notion. “Nah!” she thought. “I can’t give into that stupid legend! There has to be a logical explanation of why Ayame is missing. Yeah, that’s it. There has to be!” She and Ise-san kept looking around for any sign of her little sister. Finally, there came any answer neither one wanted to hear. They came to a rice vender near the back end of the market.

“Did this little girl have ginger-colored pigtails?” the vender asked.

“Yes!” Aiko said quickly.

“A little pink and white beach hat?”

“Yeah!”

“Little blue shorts and a white t-shirt?”

“Yes! Where did you see my little sister?” The vender’s face became very grim. Both Aiko and Ise-san noticed.

“Where did you see her?!?” Aiko pleaded desperately.

“I saw that little girl wandering in a blank daze all the way to there,” he said in a low voice as he pointed to the deep black woods. Aiko and Ise-san looked in that direction and became grimly pale. The vender didn’t help the situation either.

“She’s gone, my child!” he said in a creepy tone. “Koga Shinji has lured her away with the siren song.” Aiko tried her best to keep down her fear and confusion.

“Siren song?” she asked.

“Aye my child,” the vender said. “It’s the song he uses to lure small children into the woods to kill them out vengeful rage!” Aiko couldn’t keep up her mask anymore. The color drained from her face like soapy water in a sink.

“Oh no!” she yelped through her hands.

“Come on, old man!” Ise-san barked. “Don’t joke around like that!”

“I wish I was,” the rice vender told him, seriously. “I really do.” Aiko just couldn’t take it anymore. She ran straight into the woods without warning. Ise-san tried to grab her, but she was too far out of his reach by the way he realized what she was during.

“Aiko-chan, no!!!” he yelled.

“It’s no use, my friend,” the vendor said. “Her sister’s in trouble, she’s acting on instinct now.” The neighbor looked on at the girl running away shouting, worried.

“What should we do?!?” he asked. The vendor shook his head.

“There’s nothing that we can do,” he said. Ise-san looked over at him.

“What did you say?” he asked.

“All we can do is wait and hope for them to come back alive,” the vendor replied. Both men looked at the forest grimly. That possibility looked really weak already…