4 Time Flies When you are In the Dark PT 2

Hello Author-baka here! With another installment of Billy! So I would like to clear up some things! I am not following cannon!

Some things may be different here and there, dates mixed up, and different sensei! So if you see something weird like Baki Hanma walking around Konoha, Just go with the flow, lads, enjoy the story, and don't think much of it.

Now let's get on with the story shall we, lads?!

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Billy woke up in a strange place, illuminated with bugs of all colors trapped in glass jars, mushrooms as big as chairs and tables littered the place, green moss covered the floor like a carpet, and walls that are carved with strange shapes and lines.

(Something like this)

Then he heard a soft, childlike voice, "did it wake up?"

Another voice, more feminine but childlike, "I don't know; I mean he is not glowing so?"

"I am going to poke it with a stick!"

"No, don't!" he heard shuffling, "Big brother said to not bother it!"

"Well, big brother is not here, so that means I am the big sister now! And I say we poke it."

"Please don't! what if it bites?!"

"Don't worry if he is mean; I am going to tell on it!"

Suddenly From the darkness, two fluffy glowing ears peak out, then big round eyes look at him with suspicion and excitement.

From the sea of moss and mushroom crawled a small fuzzy creature. It walked on fours, and it had paws that are shaped like small fluffy hands, it strangely did not have a mouth, on its end, it had a tail longer than itself, it glowed with light-green light, and in its hand is a gnarled stick, slowly the creature moved towards Billy, and when it reached him.

(I took inspiration from ori and the blind forest )

Billy got poked with a stick, then the creature said, "Poke… poke."

The creature turned around and said, "It's not awake; I poked it and everything!"

From the sea of mushrooms peaked a pink and smaller creature that looked shyer. "Are you sure it's not awake?"

"Yes, come out, Nina! Look, poke…poke, see nothing."

"Ok, but don't be a meanie, Lulu, and do a nasty prank."

Slowly the pink one came out and looked curiously at Billy, then she approached, "Can I poke it, Lulu?"

Billy deadpanned, "I am awake" Quickly, both Nina and Lulu disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind some colorful round rocks.

Then from the mushrooms, light green ears poked out, and its eyes peeked at him with suspicion; both Billy and Lulu stared at one another, then Lulu quickly stood up and pointed behind him. "LOOK A MONSTER!"

Billy didn't turn around, but Lulu quickly moved to the place she poked him with, and picked up the colorful round balls and the stick, and ran away again.

He heard them whisper, "I got the candy. Nina, don't cry."

He heard Nina cheer up. "Thank you, Lulu, but what about the thingy?"

"Don't worry, I can deal with it" small fluffy ears peeked out and looked at him. "Hey, if you hurt us, I am going to tell on you; Big brother is going to be so mad, so you better be careful!"

Billy slowly brought his hands up to his head to massage it, then he saw the ears disappear again with an 'eep.'

"Hey, I won't hur… be mean to you, so come out alright."

Slowly the ears are back again "you promise?"

Billy sighed, then he remembered something from John's memories, something about a pink pony. He gathered himself up and started making the motions, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

Lulu started giggling, and she came out of the mushrooms. "You are funny!... so, what are you? I can't just say thingy every time I see you?"

Billy smiled. "My name is Billy, and I am a Human," Billy extended his hands for a handshake, "and what is your name, little green thingy?"

"I am not a green thingy! My name is Lulu!" Then she looked at his hands questionably.

Billy understood her question, "You shake my hand, Lulu, like this," and he showed her how by shaking his own hands, "This is how we say hello to another Human."

Attentively Lulu approached and extended her hands; when they shook, Billy noticed that her fur is so soft like a plushy kid's toy.

"So, is your sister coming out? I can see her peaking." Then he heard another eep, and Nina's ears disappeared.

"She is shy, but don't worry, she will come around, so do you know my brother? I mean he brought you here, and you were covered with water, and you were all sleepy."

"I don't know your brother, and I don't know if the place I was in was real or not, but I think your brother saved me somehow, so is he around? Maybe he could give me some answers?"

"No big brother went away, he said something about fixing stuff, but that's boring… hey, wanna play a game?"

Billy sighed, "No, I think I am exhausted."

Lulu puffed up her cheeks. "Boo! you are a grown-up! I bet you are boring too."

Billy laughed a little, then he noticed Nina approaching them, but at a much slower pace than her sister, in her hands are the colorful round balls.

"Hey, I know something fun we could do before your brother comes back."

Lulu's cheeks deflated, and she took on a curious look. "Fun?" then she grew a little bit excited about the prospect, and her little hands started clapping.

"Why don't I tell you a story?" Billy suggested.

"I love stories, Nina loves them too, don't you, Nina?" she turned around to look at her sister.

The quiet voice of Nina answered, "I like stories."

Lulu started jumping around. "Tell us, tell us."

Billy chuckled. "Alright, I will tell you, but I have to get something in return, and I am hungry" Then he looked at Nina. "Oh, what are those?"

Nina backed away, and hid behind her sister, then she spoke, "They are my sweets, big brother made them for me."

Billy hummed. "Well, how about a deal Nina, if you give me one ball, I will tell you a really good story, and maybe later I will bring you sweets that you have never tried before!"

Nina thought about it for a bit, then hesitantly asked, "You promise?"

Then Lulu started jumping and giggling. "Yeah, you promise? And you have to do the funny little dance!"

Billy sighed, and he did the same dance again with the promise, "Now can I have the sweet?"

Nina slowly walked towards his hand and put one shiny ball in his hand, then she backed away slowly.

Billy looked at the ball; it was strangely illuminated, and colors of purple, green, and red are dancing around the ball, then he slowly put the ball in his mouth. The first test was sweet, then it changed from sweetness to sour, then the test changed again to spicy, and finally, it settled with the combination of those three flavors; the ball started to crumble in his mouth slowly, and with each crumble, the ball started to pop in his mouth.

"This is really good; I will have to ask your brother how he makes them, alright now a promise is a promise."

Billy gathered his thoughts and how he will begin the story; the two sisters sat on the ground, eagerly waiting for the story to begin.

"In a cold town, the snow fell down, on a factory, where people gather and create candy, chocolate, and everything sweet."

"In this town, there lived a small boy with his family, the boy's name is Charly, and across the town, there was a factory, Willy Wonka's factory."

Billy gathered his breath and whispered, "This is the story of Charly and the chocolate factory."

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Billy spent quite a while retelling the story of Wonka and Charly, he acted around, showing the children how Wonka walked, and he sang some songs. The hardest challenge he faced while retelling the story was explaining some concepts that the two sisters did not know about, like chocolate or machines.

"In the end, Charly won a factory, but Willy Wonka has something even better a family. The end"

Lulu, barely containing her excitement, started jumping around. "Wooo! And they happily lived ever after! With all the sweets they want."

Nina smiled and clapped her little hands together. "That was a nice story Billy; thank you."

Billy smiled and bowed his head. "Oh, I am happy you enjoyed it."

Then suddenly, a deeper voice commented, "It was a nice story, thank you."

Both Billy and the little sisters turned their heads toward the voice. Leaning next to the hallway was a larger version than the sisters, while the sisters reached about 1 ft long, the bigger one was about 3 ft long, it had deer horns that are taller than him, and on the deer horns were some vines and moss. Attached to his horns and on his body were smaller bottles with illuminating fireflies, his fur was an illuminating deep violet color, and he was holding a gnarled old spear that is covered with living plants.

Suddenly Both sisters disappeared in a puff and appeared on top of the figure, Lulu the ever so brave, held into his horns, while Nina simply free fallen into the figure's hands.

Lulu started swinging on his horns. "Brother! You are back" she started spinning on his horn, then she released herself in the air, doing a couple of backflips, and she lands on the ground perfectly; Lulu started stomping her paws in an excited fashion. "How was your trip?! Did you hear Billy's story? Did you bring me a toy?"

The brother simply smiled and asked, "Did you finish your chores as I asked? And didn't I tell you not to interact with him until I come back?"

The sister's ears deflated. Lulu started to fidget around, "Well… The thing is that… euugh…. NINA DID IT!" and Lulu disappeared.

Nina hears that "LULU! You liar!"

Suddenly the brother's hand moved quickly for Billy's eyes and caught something invisible.

He lifted his hand towards his eye level. "You know that does not work on me."

From his hands, the invisibility disappeared, and Lulu was being held by the scruff of her neck, and she looked like a kicked puppy.

Then the figure smiled, "Here, have some sweets, but you can only eat them after doing your chores." Lulu's deflated look disappeared.

The figure opened his hand, and lulu did some acrobatics. "Thanks, big bro!" then she ran towards his leg and hugged it.

The brother lowered Nina. "Now go do your chores; I need to speak to hmm… Billy"

"Alright, big bro! Bye, Billy! come on Nina, I choose…" Billy could not hear them anymore.

Now Billy sat alone with his possible savor. "So I think you are the one who saved me; thanks."

The figure looked at Billy, and he walked slowly towards him, then he poked him with his spear.

Billy deadpanned. "Really?"

The brother laughed. "I am sorry I knew Lulu would have done it; I could not resist" The brother moved away from Billy and sat down on a mushroom. He brought a wooden moss-covered pipe, with the line etched on it; the pipe had the same swirly and squiggly lines that covered the walls. The brother opened one of the firefly's bottles and retrieved a firefly, then he inserted the firefly in the pipe.

The brother clicked his fingers, and a small purple flame appeared; he brought the flames towards the pipe and took some small puffs, then he took a big puff and exhaled a dark void-like smoke that almost sucked in all the lights around it.

Billy, baffled by this fantastical nature, "Did you just smoke a… bug?"

The brother looked up. "Why yes… I did" He took another puff. "Now, I have lived for a very long… long time, and you are the first Human since… That day, to see this cave, so let me ask you this question, how did you get in this cave?"

Billy hesitated for a moment. "Well, I was just exploring, and I found it."

The brother sighed. "This does not make sense?" he inhaled another puff and took on a thinking position. "You… no, that does not make sense… what if?"

Billy grew a little bit agitated. "What does not make sense? I saw a cave, and I went in there."

The brother sighed, then he extended two fingers in scissors action. "I think this is how humans say hello, right? It has been a long time."

Billy is looking at the offered fingers. "No, we do it like this," Billy showed him how.

The brother nodded and smiled. "Right… My name is I'ro" I'ro brought his hands back and sighed, then he looked at his pipe. "I think you…." he looked back at Billy, "Need a history lesson."

Billy looked around the room. "Fine, if that will stop you from being weird."

I'ro smiled "Back a long, long time ago, before when the trees spoke, and bees sang their honeyed songs" Billy grew a confused face "Back then the Humans and the spirit world could see each other"

He took a puff from his pipe and motioned with his hands; the smoke from the pipe changed into a drawing of moving pictures "in those days we lived in harmony, for we did not know greed, lust, power, or hate."

He looked at Billy. "The humans started calling us spirits, and we called them sons of mud and stone; our children played with their children, we traded with them, we asked for their help, and they asked us for help."

I'ro changed the smoke to a figure similar to him, but with moos horns instead of deer. "One day a shaman by the name of Eu'nub gathered all the elders of every spirit clan out there, and he told them that he uncovered a way to merge everyone's conciseness together, that way, they all could learn more from one another."

He sighed. "And that was the day the land stood still… Eu'nub of my clan, the Naa'hiss, truly did try to help everyone, but in his hubris, he signed our downfall."

Billy's curiosity grew, "what happened? Did it work?"

I'ro laughed. "Oh, it worked alright… in the beginning, after the ritual everyone felt more connected, more alive, they celebrated their victory of achieving harmony, and from there, they all went to their respective clans."

"But after a year, something changed in the shamans, their mood started changing, then they started feeling anger or despair for no reason. Then they felt a need to eat more, then one day, one clan member found Eu'nub in his tent; he ate his wife and children."

Billy, shocked, asked with a slight stutter, "Wa…what happened?"

"The clan member told us that Eu'nub skin started to melt, and Eu'nub kept on repeating the same word, 'Be me' "

"The clan member ran back to the town, he screamed of a nightmare for he did not know murder; the whole clan gathered up sticks, stones, and anything they could use, but when they arrived at the Eu'nub's hut, there was nothing, not even a drop of blood, the only thing left was the broken furniture."

"The clan called a meeting, and they all agreed that if anyone saw the shaman, they could either try to catch him or run away."

"And from that day, everyone lived their lives, trying to forget what they saw, but after years people started turning up missing, and everyone grew scared. The new shaman of the clan… my father, decided to call on a meeting with all the shamans from every clan."

"Every shaman answered the call except two." I'ro changed the smoke again; this time, it was a meeting place with shamans gathering. "My father reported on what is happening to his clan, and he told the shamans about what happened to Eu'nub."

"The shamans who answered the call reported similar findings, and one of them even mentioned that the missing shaman's clans have disappeared."

I'ro changed the smoke again, but the smoke changed colors to a pale blue light, which alarmed Billy. "In the meeting, my father was attacked by monsters."

I'ro wilted in his chair. "This was the day the collective attacked" he changed the smoke again, this time to the same monster in the river. "The first of them, Neeso, the mind breaker."

I'ro looked at Billy. "I think you saw that one; my question is how you survived until I came to you," he looked back at the image. "Neeso was a mute, but he was devious; he likes to break the minds of his victims with illusionary dreams, those who fall to his dreams never wake up again, and if they do most never sleep again. I hope you can sleep tonight."

I'ro changed the smoke again, this time into a deep dark brown color, then changed the shape into a shadowy goat. "Rarrariz, he who walks in the forest, I do not know much of Rarrariz; the only thing I can provide is that he has been dealt with."

I'ro changed the color again, this time into a light pink color, then changed the image into a simple cave. "This is Zar'e Kaz, the caved one; I fear he will reach this place someday" He sighed and took a puff from his pipe. "I do not know much about that one, sadly, much of the information I have is secondhand, and I can barely remember them now."

I'ro looked at Billy. "Do you wish for me to go on, Billy? Or do you want me to continue the story?"

Billy was on the edge of his seat in anticipation. "Continue with the story, I'ro. I don't know how long I can stay here."

I'ro nodded. "When the collective attacked, there was destruction in every town the clans lived in, the attack was calculated, and the collective had a purpose."

"I remember my mother screaming at me to run from their slaves, I remember the screams and blood that scattered the town, my mother gathered all the survivors and brought them here to this cave."

"She started a resistance, but the resistance was not to resist, but to survive. Every day we had one or two missings, and my mother grew desperate every day."

"One day, she made the final sacrifice, I was not allowed to know what she did, for I was, but a child, and my mother entrusted me with the eggs of my sisters."

I'ro started to shudder. "I still remember the screams in the cave when Neeso came; brother fought brother, sister betrayed sister, and then Silence."

"Days I stayed in this room holding my sister's eggs and singing to them, for I know they will hear, I started to etch the story of my mother's life, the walls speak to me of ages past."

"One day, I could not handle it no longer; I grew hungry, so I gathered my nerves and went outside, there, I saw blood and bones."

I'ro laughed a dark and shallow laugh. "No child should see his family's corpses stacked on top of each other like this" tears started to fall from his face. "But I saw hope, for there was one alive, a half-mad elder. I tended to the elder, I searched for food outside of the cave for him, and at night he taught me of our people; he told me, 'You must know everything, for you are the last!' he trained me in shamanism, herbs, history, and everything I know to this day. And when he finished training me, the elder, died"

I'ro, at that moment, looked defeated. "I am sorry, I just met you, and I am unloading my life story like this, its… it has just been so long since I talked to someone about what happened, and I can't do that to my sisters."

"It is alright, I'ro just… unload everything; I am not judging."

I'ro looked at Billy with teary eyes. "Thanks… where was I, right I buried the elder that day, then I gathered everything I own, and I brought my sister's eggs with me."

"I left the cave after years of watching it, the…."

At that moment, Billy stopped him. "Wait, years? When do these eggs hatch?"

I'ro looked at his hands. "Well, at least a thousand years, the first five hundred the eggs are dormant, then for the next five hundred, the child grows and learns in the egg."

Billy's eyes widened, "So, how old are you?"

I'ro looked at the wall. "I don't know, let me check" he stood up and walked towards the wall. "I was here, and then this happened… hmm," he brought his pipe up. "Yup, I am currently 99,564 years old."

Billy's jaw hit the floor, "Holy shit, you are old!"

I'ro sighed. "Look, let me finish with my story; wherever was I… Yes, so I gathered my things and traveled outside with my sister's eggs; for years, I traveled the land, I saw the aftermath of battles that took place, I was desperate to find anything, anyone who is alive."

"I found animals, I found humans, but something was off about them, and I was too scared to approach, and finally, I found a surviving spirit. She was of the Rur'rus"

I'ro looked at Billy. "The Rur'rus are similar to us, but they are more… woody, their bodies are made out of wood."

"She told me about what truly transpired; she told me that the collective attack against the shamans had failed, and they survived" He walked to the back of the room and brought some water, and offered some to Billy.

"She told me that my father fought with the collective to the bitter end, but not before he had the last laugh, my father sacrificed our clan to trap the collective. My father commanded our clan to cage Neeso in the river, and with Neeso, they could put the collective in an illusion that trapped every collective member in a sleepless sleep."

I'ro laughed. "What a joke," he sighed, "we started this, so we might as well stop it."

I'ro looked at the up. "After knowing what was going on, I kept traveling the land, and with every century that passed, something happened; Humans no longer took notice of me; I did not even use any of my abilities; it is like there was a veil, that separated me from them, and a veil that separated them from us."

"When I noticed this, I thought there was no one to talk to anymore since Humans had forgotten us. So, I returned to this cursed cave; I made a home of this place to welcome my sisters, I tended to the moss and the fireflies, and I watched over our prisoner. And the rest is history."

"So, let me ask my question again… how a human did not only stumble upon our hidden cave, survived Neeso with no effects upon him, and you, a Human after thousands of years, could see me. So, Billy care to answer me this simple question?"

Billy grew nervous from the inquisitive stare that I'ro gave him, and he answered, "I dunno," while shrugging his shoulders.

I'ro glared at him. "Fine, keep your secrets, but let me warn you, if you try to hurt my sisters, I will murder you."

Billy stood tense, his body locked tight, but his eyes stared in defiance. "I will never hurt your sisters; this is a promise" I'ro looked at Billy, and Billy looked at I'ro. Their very fate has been sealed with these words.

I'ro turned his face. "Fine, I will accept your promise, and you are allowed to come here again if you so wish it."

Billy sighed a sigh of relief. "So I guess I should get going then" Billy stood up and stretched his body just before he walked towards the hallway.

"You forgot your stuff, Billy, here," I'ro threw Billy's supplies.

Billy turned around. "Huh?" and he instantly got hit with the bags.

Billy rubbed his face, "Man I'ro not cool; you could have just said they were there!"

I'ro sighed. "Why do I even bother… Do you even know where the exit is?"

Billy looked offended. "What? What type of question is this? Of course, I know where."

I'ro deadpanned, "Just follow me" I'ro led Billy around the cave and tunnels.

For hours I'ro leads Billy around until they reached the exit "there you go, Billy, Now don't forget if you ever wish to visit, follow the same path."

Billy nodded. "Thanks for everything I'ro; I know you didn't need to save me, but thanks, and I owe you a life debt" Billy bowed his head.

I'ro nodded and turned around to the cave.

Billy smiled. 'Man, what an adventure; I go in there to explore a cave, and BAM! Landed into, I don't know what the fuck was that, but it was neat… It feels like I am forgetting something… Eh, if I forgot it, it means that it was not that important to begin with.

And so, our hero walks back to the hidden leaf village after facing death and living while gaining three new friends!

Now he walks back home at a leisurely pace, completely forgetting that he missed six days of work while Yamazaki-Oyabun is worrying about him.