Test of Courage

"Remind me again why we're here", Akiko asked while hugging her arms tightly to her side. The group of teenagers was currently standing outside the mouth of a cave. 

"We're here because this was one of the town's attractions and I thought it would be good for us to visit every attraction here", explained Hiromi as she tried to disguise the fact that her knees seemed to be shaking slightly. 

"Does anyone h-here know the legend of this cave," Benjiro asked with a smile

After everyone had shaken their heads in the negative, the young man seemed to be buzzing in anticipation, "OK, so the legend goes like this: Evidently, during World War II, the Imperial army used caves like this one as hideouts and weapons depots so that when the Americans were shelling them, they could just duck inside, wait out the bombings and then pop out to kill people when soldiers started making their way onto the islands. The legend of this cave in particular, is that there was a soldier who was so devoted to the Empire that even after the war ended, he stayed in here, just waiting for his commanding officer to come along and give him his orders. But the officer never came and the soldier stayed inside this cave for the rest of his life. And now his ghost sits inside the cave, scaring off everyone who dares invade his sacred resting place."

After Benjiro had finished relating the local legend, he looked around at the girls and noticed how they all were certifiably pale and seemed rooted to the spot. 

Laughing and shaking her head, Daitan put her hands on her hips as she stared inside, "Oh c'mon, you people are a bunch of cowards. There's nothing scary about this cave. The only thing you'd have to worry about is the tide and that's not going to come in for a few hours."

After she had laughed off everyone's nervousness, a low groaning echoed from the cave and continued as the color drained from everyone's faces. 

"Eh he he", Daitan unenthusiastically chuckled, "Yeah, just a cave."

Saori held up both her hands as she dramatically pointed at Daitan, "All hail the Jinx Queen. Bow down before her ability to make things worse."

Daitan growled at the barb but Benjiro stepped between the two girls, "Alr-right everyone. Now th-that we're here, w-we might as well do what we c-came to do."

Cracking her knuckles, Mine grinned, "Man, I haven't done one of these things in ages. Benji, remember how we'd take turns seeing how far we could squeeze into those caves at the beaches back home?"

Casting a sly smile right back at his childhood friend, "I seem to remember you getting stuck in the one cave and after my Dad got you out, you refused to get anywhere near one for years."

Playfully scowling at Benjiro, Mine slugged him in the arm, "I seem to remember I once had to practically drag you out of the one cave because you were so scared of the dark that you could hardly move."

While the two friends were busy bickering, the other four girls were busy plotting ways of trying to get the object of their affections to walk with them into the cave. They had sticks with them that were carefully marked to show who would be the winner of each round. Each girl took her time to ensure there was indeed no way the other girls could cheat. After their curiosity was sated, the group gathered round to draw the straws. In the end, it was decided that Benjiro would walk with Hiromi while Akiko walked with Daitan and Mine would walk with Saori. 

The way it would work is that Benjiro and Hiromi would walk in first and each group after them would wait three minutes before walking in too. Taking a deep breath, Benjiro walked a few steps into the cave. Instantly it was like the outside world ceased to exist within this place. The sounds of the water were cut off and any light that might've been given off by the moon or stars was snuffed out. The only thing the two teens could hear was their own breathing which seemed almost wrong with how it broke the silence. Hiromi pressed herself close to Benjiro, which despite the creepy setting made his cheeks heat up.

"Um, H-Hiromi, do you h-have to be so c-close", he inquired.

"Well, it's rather dark in here, and I'd certainly prefer not to be separated from my partner," though her voice quavered, there was a hint of self satisfaction in there. Benjiro thought such a thing was rather odd. As they kept walking, despite the eeriness of the cave, the two teens were actually quite intrigued with the way the cave twisted and turned.

"Hey, Nojiri", Hiromi asked with a quaver in her voice, "Would you hold my hand?"

It was a good thing it was so dark because Benjiro didn't want anyone to see how right red his face had become, "Um, are y-you sure ab-bout that, Hiromi?"

Hiromi shook her head emphatically, "Yes, I'm sure. It's cold, it's damp and it's dark in here and I want to know that someone is close by."

"A-Alright", he affirmed before taking Hiromi's comparatively small hand into his own larger hand.

Hiromi was surprised by the size of the hand of the boy she had developed feelings for. It was a rather unusual hand. While the palm itself was rather soft, the fingers were covered in small cuts and calluses. Squeezing it tightly, Hiromi tried to commit every detail to memory. Meanwhile, Benjiro wasn't sure how he was allowed to feel in this moment. He was holding the hand of the girl he had admired and crushed on from afar for so long. Her fingers were so slender and her hands themselves despite being so soft and feminine, they carried with them the feeling of someone who had worked hard. As Hiromi squeezed his hand, a small thrill went through the boy's heart. As the two walked in, two distinct feelings were going through them. An excited shiver was traveling through their chests and spines and both weren't sure if it was because of how creepy the cave was or because of the physical contact with each other. 

Letting go of his crush's hand, "H-Hey, I have to use the b-bathroom really quick. I'll be b-back in just a minute."

Hiromi reluctantly let go of Benjiro's hand and waited for a few minutes. As soon as the silhouette of the boy was gone, Hiromi was left to take in all the sensations around her. She could feel the cool breeze in the cave giving her goosebumps. The sound of water plinking made her head snap to one side. After a moment of waiting for Benjiro, Hiromi began walking forward, looking for her companion. Walking around a corner, she bumped into someone and the two began screaming at the contact. After getting the yelling out of their systems, Hiromi noticed that the person she bumped into was just Daitan and Akiko with her. 

Holding a hand to her chest, Daitan asked, "What the hell are you doing, Domon? I thought you'd be living it up being so close with Nojiri."

Not even having the common sense to feel embarrassed about the teasing, "Well, I was, but he had to use the bathroom and when I went to go looking for him, I ran into you."

Daitan raised an eyebrow and cracked a smirk, "You went looking for a man while he was going to to the bathroom?"

This time Hiromi did pause in embarrassment, "That isn't what I meant and you know it."

"Hey, what's going on up here", a new voice called, revealing itself to be Mine and Saori.

"It's just us up here", Hiromi called back, "Huh, it looks like everyone except Nojiri is all here."

Mine held up a hand, "Wait, back up, Benji's not with you?"

When Hiromi shook her head, Mine smacked a hand to her forehead, "Are you kidding? It's probably not as bad as when we were kids, but Benji hates being alone in the dark."

Hearing her blunder so clearly laid out for her, the group as a whole began looking for the errant boy. In their haste, when Akiko turned a corner, she wasn't watching where she was going and she tripped.

"Ow", she muttered as she rubbed her knee, "What did I juuuuussssttt-"

Mine came in a moment later, "Hey, Aki, are you ok?"

Akiko just raised a finger to point. Whatever everyone had been expecting, a dead body wasn't one it. Dressed in an old army uniform, and mostly decayed, it was just sitting slumped against the wall. Without saying anything, everyone knew this was the soldier of legend that Benjiro had told the group about before they entered. 

"OK, I've had enough of looking at that thing, so why don't we get the hell out", Hiromi voiced what the whole group was thinking.

As everyone turned around to go back the way they came, figuring they'd run into Benjiro along the way, a grating moan was heard.

"Haruoka, that had better be you playing an exceptionally cruel joke", Hiromi ground out.

Shaking her head, Daitan denied, "That wasn't me."

Turning slowly around, the body grabbed onto a rock and began lifting itself up. Turning it's torn open head and mostly blind eyes towards the group, the body let out another moan. Taking a step towards them on shaky legs, the group stood in stunned silence before Akiko let out an ear splitting scream. Shaken out of their stupor, the rest of the girls screamed equally loud and began running. Surprised by the noise, the body shook it's head before groaning louder and lumbering after the fleeing girls. 

The cave was cramped and hard to navigate, but just as quick as the group entered the cave, they eventually found their way out even quicker. After mercifully finding themselves back in the embrace of the moonlight, the group stopped for a moment to catch their breath. 

"What the hell was that", Daitan yelled out.

"I don't know", Hiromi jabbered out.

"You don't think that thing got-", Akiko stammered before getting cut off by Saori.

"Don't you dare finish that thought!"

The groups arguing was cut short as they heard the moaning from the body. In horrified silence, the group could only wait as they watched the mouth of the cave. Then, as the shuffling got closer, there it was. With gray flesh falling off it's face and eyes that were milky white from being inactive for so long and wearing an old, Imperial uniform the body lumbered out of the cave. Tilting a broken neck to look at the girls and letting out a strangled sound it watched them. 

What the group didn't expect was for the body to begin shaking. They wondered what was happening before the body began laughing. It started out small, but eventually it turned to full blown scream laughing. Falling to its knees and pointing at them, a familiar voice came from the body, "Ah hahahahhaahaaaaaa! You all should've seen your faces. Oh my gosh, that was priceless. Ahahahaha."

The body fell back on the grass, practically wetting himself with laughter. After taking a moment to collect their thought, Akiko choked out, "Nojiri, is that you?"

Through the fits of laughing, "Y-Yeah, it's meahahahahaha."

"You jerk, that really scared us", Daitan yelled at him.

"Then that means I did my job right. Oh you have no idea how long I've been wanting ot pull something like that off."

Narrowing her eyes, Hiromi asked, "You made up that legend, didn't you?"

"Eh, the thing about that specific soldier was made up, but it's true that thing happened a lot during the war. So, I made something up to go with it," After wiping his eyes, "And now, I made the one summer memory I've been wanting for years."

Picking himself up and dusting off, Benjiro noticed the girls weren't saying anything. Looking up, he noticed they were all staring at him with very unamused expressions. Cracking her knuckles and her neck, Daitan turned to the others, "Girls, what do you say we show this boy what we think about being so viciously pranked. Agreed?"

"Agreed", they all concurred as they looked at Benjiro with mal intent. Knowing better than to just stand around, Benjiro began running towards where they were staying. And he hoped to God he could outrun the girls wearing boots.