The Boy by the Shore

by starrloid

Summary:

When Oliver meets a mysterious boy along the coast after a long voyage, his interest is instantly piqued as to why this boy refuses to speak. It's only after Oliver truly opens up to him that Fukase finds his own voice.

In which the two boys embark on a fantastic adventure...

Chapter 1: Red

The first thing about him that struck me as odd was his bright red hair. As soon as I had jumped off of my older brother’s cargo ship, the first thing that caught my eye was that boy’s hair as I clutched at the railing to stop myself from toppling over from vertigo. With the breeze blowing it about and the sunlight filtering through it, his hair looked like a flame on the beach.

I squinted my eyes, trying to make out his face beneath his top hat. Who even wears top hats anymore? I found myself thinking, as I stood on my toes to get a better view of him around the bay. After tagging along with my older brother on his cargo boat, what I really wanted was to get a fresh shower and away from the salty clutches of the ocean breeze, but my curiosity locked me in place.

He was hunched over, idly fiddling with the sand. For a few seconds he’d draw in it, then he’d find some dry sand and let it sift through his fingers, or throw a clump of the damp sand into the ocean. Despite his simple and childish actions, he looked at least my age or slightly older. Even though it was a warm evening, he had an off-white coat and wore boots even in the sand.

“Oliver, help me out, wouldja?” my brother Yohio called out to me.

“Yup, coming! Sorry!” I yelled back and hurried towards him, vertigo forgotten.

When I finally arrived at the scene, I was still out of breath when he spoke. “Typically, the stevedores would unload the cargo, but I just got notified that I’m getting promoted! Our next departure is in two days, so we need all of the crew members to help out this time,” he said.

“That’s okay! And congrats on the promotion. Where are you working next?”

“I’m going to be a cruise ship captain!” he sang, beaming.

“That’s awesome! So we get to travel to all the best resorts in Japan now?”

“Pretty much. We’re going to the Yaeyama archipelago first.”

“Yes!” I pumped my fist in the air. I’d always wanted to travel there. It was reasonably distant from where we lived right now, in Oma, the northernmost city in Honshu. “That’s pretty far though, how long is it?”

“Twenty days. Not much different from our usual voyages, so it shouldn’t be too out of the ordinary,” he replied, excitement edging into his voice.

“That’s long for a cruise though.”

“Kind of,” he replied. “Let’s finish unloading, then you can get packed up.”

I grinned back at him and hurried up onto the deck to help the stevedores.

~~~

By the time Yohio sent me back to our small apartment, it was already past midnight. The sky that was painted with the yellows, reds, and violets of the sunset was now nearly pitch black. The light from the city even washed out the stars that I had grown used to seeing on our voyages.

I hurriedly trudged into my room and flopped onto my yellow futon with a sigh. I wasn’t used to unloading cargo myself, and at such a fast pace at that…

Slowly, my eyes wandered to the window. I found myself trying to spot that boy’s flame-red hair through the dark. Obviously it wasn’t as visible as it had been in the light of the sunset, but even still, I could slightly make out the silhouette of his body against the white ocean froth.

I got up from the futon and quietly went over to the window. I squinted at him, trying to get a better view while ignoring my reflection. He was still sitting there, hunched over, fiddling with the sand. My gaze only faltered when I peered too close and my nose bumped the window.

What am I doing, stalking a boy at the beach from my apartment window in the middle of the night? What kind of creep does that? I thought, pulling away from the windowsill. Maybe he’d be there tomorrow and I could meet him for real. Until then, I decided, I would get some rest.

After hurriedly going through my nightly routine, I sank down into the plush blankets and switched off the pale lamp on my nightstand.

“Goodnight, Luna,” I whispered, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 2: Coral

I awoke early the next morning to the squawking of seagulls.

When I had first moved from England to Japan to live with Yohio, I had found it annoying to be constantly surrounded by the loud seagulls. I had even argued with Yohio about getting boards to cover the thin window panes to block out the noise. After three years, though, now I was perfectly used to it. It just seemed natural to wake up to them.

“Good morning!” I sang to them in my best Disney princess voice. The sky was still painted with dawn colors, I noticed as I took a deep breath of the salty ocean breeze through my open window. The color of the sky reminded me of coral with its bright vermillion hues. I glanced at my nightstand clock; it was only 5:30 AM. Even though I had gotten little sleep, the excitement of going on a cruise with Yohio hadn’t worn off and motivated me to start the day anyway.

I rushed through my morning routine and dressed myself in a simple poet shirt and jeans. As I hurriedly ran my fingers through my hair in a lazy attempt to tame it, something outside caught my eye.

That’s right! Redhead ocean boy!

I rushed to the window and peeked outside. Sure enough, the light from the rising sun filtered through his hair and seemed to set it on fire. He was curled up in the sand, with his coat on backwards like a blanket. He clutched his top hat to his chest like a stuffed animal.

I almost awww’d at him curled up like that, but held myself back. Even from my limited view, he seemed strangely cute. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would choose to camp at the beach without a tent or even a sleeping bag, but I had seen stranger things and chose not to question it. Besides, I could ask him myself later anyway.

Suddenly even more excited to meet him, I dashed outside my room to find Yohio sitting at our small dining table. Although it wasn’t exactly fair to call it a dining table since we hardly ever ate there anyway.

He was quietly reading a book, so absorbed in it that he didn’t even notice me walk in at first. I softly cleared my throat and he looked up.

“Oh, good morning Ollie,” he said cheerily.

“Yes, good morning to you and your book too,” I replied.

He just rolled his eyes and smiled sheepishly. “You’re up early. Considering I sent you back here so late last night, I expected you’d be asleep for at least a few more hours.”

“Nah. The birds woke me up and I figured it would be a waste to miss the sunrise.”

“Fair enough. Anyway, what do you want?”

“I was thinking that I’d take the day off today, and I’ll pack later tonight and finish tomorrow morning before we leave—”

“I was asking what you wanted for breakfast, not your plan, stupid.”

“Ohhh, that.” Now it was my turn to offer an embarrassed smile. “Uh...I don’t know?”

While we were at sea, it was easy to choose what to eat because we ate whatever we had in the cabin pantry. Since we had been at sea for so long this time, our apartment was devoid of food.

“I figured you’d say that. You remember that place that was under construction before we left? What was it called…?”

“Miso Factory!” I snapped my fingers, recalling the small hole-in-the-wall-esque breakfast restaurant that hadn’t been quite finished when we had left.

“Yeah. I heard that they opened a few days ago, do you want to try it?”

“Sure, why not? Is it close enough to walk?”

“Probably. If we go now, we can get there before eight.”

“Alright, then let’s go!”

~~~

By the time we got to Miso Factory, the sky was already bright. Even though the sun was out, the ocean air still felt slightly cold through my thin shirt. I was grateful to escape the wind once we got inside the restaurant.

“Hello there, good morning!” A lady with bright amber hair greeted us at the entrance. “My name is Daina. Please come with me and I’ll give you a table!” The restaurant was mostly full, I realized, as we followed her through. It was much warmer here than outside, so I was grateful when we got a table far away from the windows.

Daina handed us our menus and said that she’d be back in five minutes, so we thanked her and began choosing our meals. Since we didn’t know what was supposedly good here, we both ordered the classic breakfast—steamed rice, miso soup, and grilled miso fish. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the rest of our morning was surprisingly uneventful.

I was satisfied when we left, but still eager to go to the beach and meet the flame-haired boy. I briefly debated with myself about telling Yohio, but decided against it, knowing he’d just chastise me for wanting to bother strangers and tell me to go pack. But could he really blame me? It’s not like I had ever sustained a concrete friendship or anything.

Instead, I decided to go back to the apartment with him and tell him I was packing. When he wasn’t paying attention, I’d slip away.

We walked in comfortable silence back to the apartment and I tried to match his pace. What I really wanted to do was get back as fast as possible, but of course, he’d find that strange.

When we finally got back, I told Yohio I’d go pack.

“I thought you wanted to pack tonight,” Yohio said skeptically.

“Yeah, but I changed my mind. Might as well be productive while there’s daylight, right?”

“Since when were you productive?”

“Hey, I’m always productive!”

“Doing what?”

“I help you out when I go on trips with you.”

“Yeah, that’s only like 5% of the time, though. The rest of the time you just sit around listening to music and reading about the French Revolution.”

“Hey, the French Revolution is cool. I bet they could make an anime out of it, it’s that dramatic.”

“Whatever you say. But you’re not that helpful.”

“I help out whenever I’m needed.”

“True.” Yohio was quiet for a few moments, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. “What were we originally talking about again?” I smiled. “Me packing now and going into town later rather than the other way around.”

“Oh yeah, whatever. As long as you get packed in the end, do it however you like.”

“If that was going to be your answer in the end anyway, then why would you even bother going through this whole conversation?!”

Yohio just chuckled as we finally arrived at our apartment.

Finally, I thought. Now I just have to get back out. Sweet irony.

I quickly hurried into my room to pack a little bit before I could leave. I left the door slightly open to spy on Yohio for an open moment. Depending on how long he took to get absorbed in his book again, I might even get to completely finish packing. I didn’t have many belongings to begin with; other than clothes and essential items, I didn’t really have anything important to me. I never ended up taking any more luggage than my carry-on; no fancy suitcases or anything like the rich folks I had seen on incoming cruises in the past.

I had just finished packing my clothes when I dared to peek outside my room. Sure enough, Yohio was absorbed in his book, facing away from the door. All I had to do was make sure the sound of the door opening didn’t startle him, and I’d be free to go.

I quietly crept out of my room, careful to be light on my feet so the floorboards didn’t make a sound. He didn’t react. I immediately made a beeline for the door and slid outside. When I didn’t hear any footsteps coming from inside, I allowed myself to do a small victory dance and dashed away.

I ran outside, back into the bright sunlight and the cool, salty breeze. Almost instantly, the boy’s familiar ruby red hair caught my eye. I speed-walked down to the shore, eager but not wanting to come off as creepy. It had been forever since I had experienced any form of friendship; Yohio and I were constantly out at sea and I never had the time to stabilize relationships.

Today, hopefully that would change.

Chapter 3: Cerulean

The near-noon sun felt warm on my face as I jogged down closer to the coastline. I smiled at the idea of finally making a friend as the cerulean waves grew ever closer.

I had almost reached him when I heard a voice call out to me somewhere to my left. “Hey blondie! Oi, look at me!”

I turned and searched for the voice’s source. A girl with long pink braids was waving over to me. I sighed and ran up to her.

“Uh, hi?” I asked. “Can I help you or something?”

“You were going to try talking to Fukase, right?” she asked right back.

“Fukase? The guy with the red hair?”

“Yeah, him.”

“Oh. Yeah, I wanted to see if he’d be good company. I don’t really stay on the mainland a lot, so I was wondering if he’d be someone I could be friends with while I’m here,” I replied, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye.

The girl only shook her head. “He doesn’t talk. A few of my friends and I tried getting him to say something, but he didn't respond. He’s been like that for years.”

“Years?” I asked incredulously. “How can he not talk at all? Doesn’t he go to school and have a family or something?”

She shook her head again. “Nope, nothing. He just sits there. He doesn’t have a home, or school, or a family, and has to go to local restaurants for food. I don’t even know how he has the money. No one’s seen him in the city, only at the beach.”

I looked back at Fukase. With his bright red hair and eccentric attire, he seemed like he’d be an open person. I sighed and finally made my decision. “Well, I might as well try talking to him, right?”

“Go ahead, no one’s stopping you. But if he doesn’t respond, don’t take it personally.”

I smiled at her and thanked her for letting me know, before turning around and walking back to where Fukase was seated.

“Oh yeah, the name’s Rana!” she called after me.

“And mine’s Oliver!” I called back.

~~~

I finally reached him and casually waved from his side, trying to get his attention. He looked up at me, his face expressionless. Now that it was bright and his hat wasn’t covering his face, I noticed that he had bright ruby-red eyes that starkly contrasted with his pale skin. He wore a red tunic with an off-white coat on top, and matching red and beige boots. Wrapped around his neck was a bright red cravat bow tie.

I plopped myself down next to him in the sand and offered my hand. “Good morning! My name’s Oliver,” I said, trying not to sound awkward. After anticipating this for a while, I had no idea what to say.

Silently, he shook my hand.

“It’s, uh, nice to meet you.”

He was still quiet.

So Rana really wasn’t kidding… I thought. That’s fine. I’ll find a way to get him to talk. I had no idea where this determination came from. I could’ve just been friends with Rana and joined her friend group for the short while I was on the mainland; but no. I was determined to figure out what was up with this boy.

“So, someone told me you don’t talk much. I guess if you’ve gotten used to it for so many years, then it’s probably not a big deal for you now...but I can’t imagine not having a voice.”

Fukase just looked at me strangely.

“Or… maybe you do have a voice? And just don’t use it?”

He rested his chin in his hands and didn’t respond.

“Well, this is officially the most one-sided interaction I’ve had with anyone before. But that’s okay, it’s not the end of the world. I really just wanted someone to be with other than my brother.” I paused my monologue to stretch out my legs before me.

“Well, if you won’t tell me about yourself, I might as well go ahead.

“When I was twelve, I moved here to Japan with my older brother. I used to live in England, by the way. He’s a sailor, so I usually end up tagging along with him on all his voyages. Because of that, I’ve never really had a set home or school since then… I mean, we have our apartment, but it’s more like a hotel room to drop into in between our trips.”

Fukase didn’t respond, but I could tell that he was interested.

“Usually our trips are just from Honshu to Hokkaido, we never go anywhere interesting. You see, my brother’s been sailing cargo boats this whole time, and we usually only transport cargo within Japan. We’ve been to Korea a couple of times though. I wish we’d get to stay there for a few days to look around, but we hardly get the chance to be tourists. Other than eating local food, we never get to do anything interesting.”

I briefly considered stopping my rambling and leaving him alone, but he was watching me with such a sad and invested expression that I found myself getting carried away.

Even though Fukase didn’t utter a word, he was a good listener. He was following along with my stories and I felt like a pirate from the 18th century telling tales of my voyages. As long as he was paying attention, it seemed like progress from what Rana had told me.

Before I knew it, the sun was already setting and the sky was colored pink again. I had finished telling my stories for the day a few minutes before; we sat in silence staring at the blue waves and every now and then, Fukase would steal a glance at me. I pretended not to notice.

I found my mind wandering to reasons why Fukase didn’t speak. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t have a voice, or if he just didn’t like to speak. Maybe it was something else entirely. Nevertheless, his company was strangely comforting.

I sighed as the sun began to dip below the horizon line. “I’d better get going. My brother probably noticed I was gone by now, and I have some work to do…”

He smiled with understanding and waved slightly. I stood up and waved back.

“I’ll be back tomorrow!” I promised and walked back up the shore, cerulean waves racing behind me.

Chapter 4: Maya

“Where the heck have you been all day?” Yohio was furious.

“I was...exploring the town,” I said, unsure of whether I should tell him the truth or not. If I told him I was talking to someone I didn’t know, he’d flip out for one of two reasons: either it was too dangerous to talk to random people, or I shouldn’t be bothering other people. Of course, there was a slim chance that both reasons would occur to him.

“Exploring? We live here, Oliver.”

“Yeah, but I don’t really know the place. We hardly go out when we stop here. I don’t even know anyone here!”

Yohio just looked tired and unamused. “Let’s go have dinner and then you can come home and finish packing, okay? Don’t go wandering off without telling me. The town is small, but still...after what happened to you in England, I’m worried about you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yohio, that was four years ago. I was eleven. I’m much more responsible now. But fine, point taken,” I added.

Yohio and I left soon after to find a place to eat dinner. We chose a familiar spot in town, and the rest of the night was uneventful.

When we got back, I was careful not to waste time. Even though I had quite little packing to do, I wanted to finish quickly. I had plans for the next day. As I packed, I thought through my encounter with Fukase.

So he really is completely silent...just like Rana said. But if he’s generally responsive, and implied that he does have a voice, why wouldn’t he use it?

Maybe he’ll tell me when he’s more comfortable around me.

Maybe he never will.

I sighed and leaned back against my light yellow futon. I had found it rather amusing how his face changed in response to my stories, yet he never said a word. I could picture him smiling and leaning in with anticipation, or with his eyes wide with concern, or his face relaxing with relief.

Suddenly I realized that what I had thought earlier about his personality was true.

Just because he didn’t speak didn’t mean that he wasn’t an open person. He seemed like a good listener and was easily invested. He’s definitely a friend I’d want in my life. I smiled at the thought.

“So, care to explain why you’re smiling at the ceiling?” Yohio said, startling me out of my thoughts.

“Could you knock?”

Yohio just rolled his eyes. “At least tell me you’re done packing.”

“Yes, I’m done packing,” I said, glancing at my carry-on. The small bag was mostly full, but it had everything I needed for the twenty-day trip.

“Great. Try to sleep early tonight, okay? We have to board early because some guests prefer to arrive the day before.”

Board early? I tried to hide my disappointment and covered it with a smile. “How could I sleep early with your room next to mine?”

“Hey! What are you implying?!”

“I think you know what I’m implying. Anyway, shoo.”

He was about to say more, but I quickly closed the room door and flopped back down on the futon. Closing my eyes and sighing softly, I thought about what I would tell Fukase the next day. He seemed like the type of person who had been left behind countless times; I didn’t want him to think that I was giving up on him already.

If I get up early enough, I might be able to meet him before we board the ship, I thought. But even then, he might forget about me by the time we came back. Or he might not even be there at all.

I sighed again and changed into my thin pajamas, tired of wandering around town and thinking. Hopefully my mind would be clearer the next day.

~~~

I found myself wandering towards the beach early the next day. Yohio hadn’t been awake when I had left, so I’d written a note telling him I’d be gone for an hour or so. Hopefully he would believe my alibi about wanting to buy snacks and wouldn’t be suspicious of anything else.

It wasn’t exactly a lie, either; I had planned to get snacks for Fukase and I anyway along the way to the beach. There were small seaside shops that sold everything from popcorn to souvenirs, so I knew it would be easy to find something.

It was only when I got to the small row of shops that I realized I had no idea what Fukase would like. I briefly debated asking him and just guessing to surprise him, but then a flash of pink hair to my right caught my eye.

“Hey!” Rana called out breathlessly.

“Oh, uh, hey. I didn’t expect to see you out here now, it’s still early.”

“Morning yoga,” she said nonchalantly, and followed me into a store. “What brings you here?”

“I was going to get some snacks for Fukase and myself.”

Rana gave me a quizzical look. “Why? Did he talk to you or something?”

“No,” I said, shrugging, “but I thought that maybe if I got something for him, it would help him warm up to me.”

She sighed. “I’m telling you, it’s no use. He won’t talk.”

“But I have nothing else to do, so I’d might as well try.”

“Fair enough. Is it okay if my friends and I join you though? I mean, we’ll pay for our own snacks, of course…”

I smiled. “Sure, of course.”

We quickly moved forward in the short line that had formed before we’d arrived. We picked our snacks, and I randomly chose a packet of spicy potato chips for Fukase, not knowing what else to get.

As we walked out onto the shore under the bright, maya blue sky, three girls who I guessed were Rana’s friends walked up to us.

“Hey Rana!” A purple-haired girl said. “We were worried you’d run off without us. Who’s this?”

“This is Oliver, a friend I met yesterday. Oliver, this is Mikoto, and her with the matching hairstyle is her sister, Hime. The one with the coral hair is Miki.”

I smiled slightly nervously. “Hey, it’s nice to meet you all!”

They were all dressed expensively, and certainly looked unique, to say the least. Hime had bright, short pink hair with ribbons streaming from it. She wore a short white tunic dress with a longer pink skirt underneath it, and mismatching stockings. Mikoto wore the same, but her hair was light lavender. Miki, on the other hand, had long, streaming, sunset-orange hair and a short tunic-dress decked with stars.

I feel so out of place… I thought. Hopefully they wouldn’t mind my contrasting simplicity.

“Nice to meet you,” Miki said politely. “Are you the one who tried befriending Fukase yesterday?”

“Uh…yeah, that’s me.”

Mikoto and Hime exchanged hushed giggles.

“Well, let’s see what progress you made,” Miki said with a smirk and skipped down to the shoreline, the other girls following suit soon after.

“As if he’d ever talk,” Hime whispered as she walked off. “I bet he has one of those super ear-grating voices that should never see the sun.” Mikoto chuckled in response. “I’m just kidding,” she added after she noticed me staring.

I was starting to get skeptical about letting them come along. From what I could tell, they saw Fukase as a freak. Not as a person, but as an unsolvable puzzle. Then again, who was I to stop them from tagging along? All I could do was hope they’d be nicer than they let on.

Chapter 5: Cherry

I quickly caught up to Rana’s group and passed them up, eager to give Fukase a heads up before they reached him.

“Hey, Fukase,” I said quietly when I reached him. He turned and smiled, but as soon as he spotted the other girls, his smile dropped. “What’s wrong?”

He turned away from me. That’s right, Rana mentioned that they had tried talking to them… I guess it went worse than she had let on…

Rana seemed to catch on as well. “Don’t worry Fukase, we’ll be nicer than last time. Oliver said that you had warmed up to him yesterday, and if you’re his friend, you’re our friend too.” Fukase still looked anxious. “Don’t worry, those three aren’t as bad as they seem,” Rana whispered to me.

As Mikoto, Hime, and Miki settled down beside Fukase in the sand, I leaned over to Rana and asked her quietly, “What happened last time?”

“Well…” Rana paused and flicked her braids behind her. “Last time, we all came down to the shoreline, much as we did today. We started asking him some questions about his life, where he went to school—you know, just trying to figure out more about him.

“However, he ignored all of our questions and that irritated Hime. So… she got mad, and started complaining, and you can kind of guess how it went from there. Fukase probably remembers that incident, which is why he isn’t exactly warm to us.”

“I see.” I sighed. “Well, what’s past is prologue. There’s nothing we can do about it now but hope that the same thing doesn’t happen twice—”

“Come on, what’s your problem? If Oliver can be your friend, why won’t you talk to us?” Startled out of my conversation by Hime’s outburst, I rushed over to them, trying my hardest not to get sand in my shoes.

“Hey, what happened?” I asked, even though I had a pretty clear understanding of the situation now.

“You said Fukase was nice, right? Said he’d cooperate? Well guess what, nothing’s happened.”

“I never said any of that.”

“Whatever. Let’s go, Mikoto. This is hopeless.” With that, Hime stormed off with Mikoto trailing closely behind her.

Rana smiled cautiously and sat down to Fukase’s right, with Miki settling down beside her. “Don’t worry, Miki and I won’t be so harsh.”

I sat down to Fukase’s left, copying Rana’s movements. “Yeah, it’s just us now.”

Fukase smiled slightly, but otherwise didn’t say anything.

“So...any plans today?” Rana asked, desperate for conversation.

Miki cleared her throat, taking the hint to start talking. “Well, I’ll be seeing off some of my friends today. They said they were going on a vacation or something for about three weeks. It’s sad that they both have to go and I get left behind, but at least I have you and the twins.”

“Seeing them off? Where to?” I interjected.

“They’re going on a cruise. Yaeyama, I think.”

I immediately perked up. “Really? So am I!”

Fukase looked at me, slightly startled. Oh. Right.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a few weeks, Fukase. I’ll be back before you know it. And Miki, who are your friends? I’d like to meet them, if I can!”

“There’s Flower and Piko. They couldn’t be more different from each other, but they’re always together. Flower has this light lavender hair with a dark black streak through it, and wears this bright violet vest—and Piko has silvery-gray hair with one blue and one green eye. They’re impossible to miss, you’ll spot them in an instant,” Miki spoke at a fast, excited pace and I struggled to keep up.

“Rana, you sure know some very… colorful people,” I teased. Miki and Rana both laughed, but Fukase was still looking at me anxiously.

“A lot of people here in Oma are particularly colorful. The town’s so small, there’s nearly no one to judge them,” Miki said. “Most think that people are more open in the larger cities, but while that’s true, Oma has always been a bit… different.”

“That makes sense, sort of. Although, I feel a bit left out now.”

Rana smiled. “Don’t worry, you’ll catch on soon enough.”

“Imagine if Flower and Piko transformed Oliver during the cruise. And when he comes back, we might not even recognize him.” Miki noticed my confused expression and began to elaborate.

“Flower and Piko have this very influential aura to them. They’ll turn you into whatever they want you to be. It’s insane. And trust me, if they ask you to do something, just do it. It might be weird, but in the end, they plan everything out and it’s super fun.”

“There’s something about those two, I can’t put my finger on it…” Rana started. “I don’t know. They’re like partners in crime or something.”

“Maybe their persuasiveness?”

“Yeah. It’s a bit off-putting.”

“Hopefully I’ll meet them on the cruise. Since my brother Yohio is running the ship, I’ll probably run into them at some point—”

“Hold up, your brother’s the captain?” Rana asked incredulously.

“That’s so cool!” Miki chimed in. “Does that mean you can eat from the buffet as much as you want?”

“You don’t have to pay for pool games?”

“Unlimited drinks?”

“Uh… well, I mean, I wouldn’t really know…” I stammered.

“What do you mean you wouldn’t know?” Rana asked, slightly disappointed.

“Well, this is my first cruise. Usually, we just go on cargo voyages.”

“At least you get to go on one. I’ve never been on a cruise before, unlike Flower and Piko, who are so rich I’m sure they’ve been on plenty during their short fifteen-year lifespans…”

I chuckled slightly. “I can ask Yohio if I can invite you guys,” I piped up, but immediately regretted it. This was Yohio’s first cruise job, there’s no way he’d let people board for free on his first try. It might even go against the company’s policy for all I knew.

“Seriously?” Rana brightened up, her face splitting with a wide grin. “That would be awesome. But wouldn’t it be difficult to get rooms for all of us and our parents?” she paused. “I mean, Miki and my parents…” she mumbled quietly.

“Uh...I don’t know. Like I said, I’d have to ask. Plus, we leave tomorrow and I don’t know if your parents would let you leave on such short notice.” “That’s okay! I can go ask right now,” Rana said, her eyes shimmering. “Come on Miki, let’s go.” She stood up with a start, her cherry-pink braids swishing behind her.

With that, both Rana and Miki trotted up the shore, quietly chattering to themselves. Fukase and I were alone.

I turned to him, and after a pause, I asked carefully, “What about you?”

He looked at me, surprised. Surely he had known that I planned on inviting all of them.

Even if he never spoke a word, I thought at that moment that it would be nice to have his company throughout the trip. The silence with him was comfortable. Just his presence was enough to keep me feeling fulfilled.

“You’ll come, won’t you? I mean, I don’t want to pressure you, but since you have nothing else…” I trailed off softly.

Slowly but surely, he broke into a grin. “Sure,” he whispered, “I’d love to join you.”

Chapter 6: Bronze

“Yohio, will you slow down and listen for a second?”

“Oliver, no. Do you have any idea what might happen if I let people on board? Last minute? For free?”

I sighed. I had known it would be difficult convincing him, but had hoped he’d give in before this.

“Yohio, seriously, just think about it. There are extra rooms, right? And besides, Rana and Miki said their parents would let them go on their own as long as we looked after them. They can share a room, it’ll be easy—”

“And what about your other friend?”

“Uh…” I hadn’t thought that far. If he was reluctant about giving away even one room, how would Fukase come along? There was no way he’d give away two free rooms. The only way Fukase could come along was if he shared a steward’s room, unless…

“Fine! I’ll share my room with him,” I finally said.

Yohio looked at me in surprise. I had always been adamant about having my own room when I moved to Japan, and had even made Yohio move to a bigger apartment for me. After what had happened with my parents back in England, I had always been uncompromising about my privacy.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, really,” I sighed, answering his unasked question.

Finally he gave in. “I’ll see what I can do. But until then, change into something more suitable! We have to board in an hour.”

“Yes! Thanks, Yohio.” I gave him a quick hug and went to go change in my room.

~~~

Ten minutes later, I was back at the beach.

“So? What did he say?” Miki asked curiously.

“He said yes! All of you three can go. Miki and Rana, I hope you two are okay with sharing a room.”

“Fine by me,” Rana said.

“I don’t mind at all. What about Fukase, though?” Miki asked.

“Fukase will stay with me.” I glanced over at him to see his reaction, and he didn’t seem to mind.

“When do we board?” Miki questioned.

“Well, I have to board today, but tomorrow’s the official embarkation day,” I explained. “Only a few people board today to get into ‘vacation mode’ or whatever rich people like to do.”

“I bet Flower and Piko get to board today…” Miki grumbled.

“You guys can board today if you’re ready,” I replied. “But usually only the rich people have a ton of luggage and prefer to board a day early to get settled in.”

“Heck yeah, I’m going today!” Miki said, sudden enthusiasm lighting up her face. “Come on Rana, let’s get our luggage—”

“Actually, I think I’ll board tomorrow…” Rana trailed off. “You know, I wanna tell my parents more about it… and spend time with them…”

“Aw, you’re nervous, aren’t you?”

“I’m not nervous! I mean, kind of…”

“Fine. But at least walk back with me to get my bags.”

I chuckled at their banter as they walked off, and then turned to Fukase. “What about you? Do you want to board today or tomorrow?”

He waited a few more moments to make sure the girls were out of earshot. “If you’re going today, then I’ll go with you,” he said.

I smiled. “Do you have anything you’re taking with you? Like, extra luggage, clothes…?”

“I have a few things I’ll bring, but it’s not much. Don’t worry about it,” he replied, idly pushing sand around with his fingers.

“Alright,” I said, shrugging mildly. “Anyway, I’ll go get my things and you can get yours. I’ll tell my brother to stop by here to get us before going to board, okay?”

“Fine by me,” he replied, and we went our separate ways.

As I trudged back up and away from the shoreline, I found it difficult to resist watching Fukase to see where he’d go. If he had things to bring, then surely he had kept them hidden somewhere.

But that wasn’t my business.

He’d tell me when he wanted to—if he wanted to.

When I neared our apartment building, I noticed that it was almost noon. Embarkation opened up to cruisers at one, so there was still a bit of time left before we could board anyway. Yohio and I had already gotten most of our luggage to our cabins, but that was all we had time for. Unpacking would have to wait until tonight.

I stepped into the apartment and was immediately greeted by my brother.

“Oh, Oliver! I was just going to come looking for you,” he said. “You have everything, right?”

“Yeah. I just wanted to double check.”

“Okay, fair enough. I already loaded everything, so I’m going to grab a bite and then head over to the ship,” he replied. “You want anything?”

“I’m good, thanks. And stop by the beach before you go, okay? I think Miki and Rana would want to meet you.”

“Sure.” With that, I stepped around him to check my room.

With most of my few belongings gone, the room looked even more blank than usual. The only sign of color was my yellow futon, and even that was washed and pale. From my window, I could just make out the bronze mermaid on the hull of our cruise ship. I couldn’t see what the copper letters wrote below it, but I knew exactly what they read: Umi no Hime. The Ocean’s Princess. A fitting name for a ship decked up with bronze, copper, and gold shades.

Since there’s nothing I need here, I might as well go and wait for the others… I thought. As I walked back into the main room though, I noticed Yohio’s book peeking out from under one of the sofa cushions. 1984 was written in bold red letters across the cover. A book that was written twenty-seven years ago… but took place nine years in the future.

I sighed. “Why does he always choose the weirdest things on the shelf to buy?” I wondered aloud, but tucked it under my arm nonetheless. No doubt that Yohio would be disappointed if he left it behind.

With the small book in hand, I wandered back out to the shore and was surprised to see the other three already waiting for me. Rana and Miki had changed into clothes more suitable for a vacation—Rana wore light pink culottes and a loose white peasant blouse, and Miki was dressed in a simple, floral shift dress.

Fukase was dressed the same, but next to him was a large white suitcase that climbed up to his chest. It startled me for a moment since it contrasted so much from Rana and Miki’s small carry-ons, but I decided not to address it.

“What it is, what it is,” Rana greeted cheerfully.

“I thought you said you weren’t coming today!” I said to her.

“Yeah, well… Miki convinced me.”

“I have learned the ways of Flower and Piko!” Miki said, waving her hands mysteriously.

Rana rolled her eyes. “Only sort of.”

I smiled. “Shall we go then?”

“Sure!” Miki replied eagerly. “That ship looks off the hook, by the way.”

“It really does,” I replied, grinning widely as we walked towards the towering vessel. I tried to ignore the loud swishing sound Fukase’s colossal suitcase was making in the sand.

“What’s it called?”

“Umi no Hime.”

“That’s a pretty name,” Rana replied. “Fits the ship nicely.”

Miki nodded in agreement. “Flower and Piko are going to get a shock when they see us there…”

“You didn’t tell them?” I asked.

“Of course not! That would ruin the surprise.”

“I doubt they’ll be very surprised,” Rana said coolly. “They don’t seem like the type to be easily influenced.”

“That’s true,” Miki replied, “but at least I get to rub it in their faces for a few days. They’re not the only ones who can afford luxury!”

“You can come sit with Yohio and I at the captain’s table if you’d like.”

“For real?” Rana exclaimed, excitement shining in her eyes. “You had better not be psyching us.”

“Of course not, I’m serious!” I laughed as we finally got in the shade of the ship’s bronze hull. “Oh, and here are your room keys.” I whipped the blue cards out of my pocket and handed one to each of them.

“Thanks,” Miki said, scrutinizing the shiny card carefully. “Come on Rana, let’s find our room!”

“You don’t want me to take you?”

“We’ll figure it out! It’s more fun that way.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t get lost or anything,” Rana added. “And if we do, you’ll probably find us anyway. Catch you on the flipside, Oliver!”

And with that, both of them wandered onto the ship and disappeared from my view.

“I’d… rather not risk getting lost, if you catch my drift,” Fukase said once they were gone.

I smiled. “We’re sharing the same room anyway. I’ll take you there to get settled.”

“You get a bigger room since yours is one of the captains’ cabins, right? Does it look luxurious? I’m sure there’s a nice view, right?” Suddenly Fukase was full of questions.

“I think it’s best if you see for yourself.”

Chapter 7: Pearl

The ship was quiet, nearly deserted, as we wandered through the silent halls to get to the captains’ quarters. I was painfully aware of how the tapping of our shoes and consonants of our small talk echoed against the walls. The official embarkation day was tomorrow, so it made sense that the ship was quiet—but the stillness was almost eerie. I found myself missing Rana and Miki’s chatter even though Fukase was with me.

Fukase seemed to recognize the quietness that surrounded us and spoke in a hushed voice. “Are cargo ships much different from cruise ships?” he asked.

“Well, for sure. Cargo ships are a lot more empty, and not nearly as decorated. It’s pretty much just a few levels of long planks of wood, and then cargo stacked up on those levels. And then, of course, the captains’ cabins.”

“That makes sense. Is the cabin different? Or about the same?”

“On a cruise ship, the cabins are a bit bigger… but that’s all I’m telling you. I don’t want to ruin the surprise,” I replied as we approached the bridge of the ship.

“Fair enough.”

“Here, this is the bridge,” I explained a few moments later, and pushed open the door to the bridge. “It’s where the captain and ship crew mainly work, but right now it’s empty. The crew’s probably somewhere else. All the nautical charts are here, and the controls…”

I trailed off, noticing Fukase’s expression. His eyes were wide with wonder, as if he’d just walked into Disneyland for the first time. I couldn’t exactly blame him either; when I had first stepped foot into the bridge, I was amazed too. I had been on container ship bridges, but this was entirely different.

“Can I...go look?” he asked, slightly bewildered.

“Of course!”

He immediately left his suitcase and went over to the large window panes that surrounded the horseshoe-shaped control panel. His awe wasn’t unlike mine the first day I had set foot on the bridge of a cruise ship. It was much larger and more luxurious than the bridge of any cargo ship I’d been on.

I couldn’t help but smile at his eagerness as he peered out of the window, staring at the bright blue waves that lapped against the vessel. He walked over to the starboard bridge wing and out to the lookout deck, and beckoned for me to follow.

“This is the view we get every day?” he said, gazing out to the back of the ship and then turning to grin at me.

“Yup. Oh, and you haven’t even seen our cabin yet! It’s above the bridge, so if the view is what you’re interested in, then it’s even better from up there.” I tugged him along with me to the port bridge wing. Tucked in the corner was a small staircase that led up to the captain’s cabin.

The staircase was short, but steep. Soon, we reached the top where it leveled out at a small platform. The carpet was short, and a light pearly beige color that was neatly paired with the warmer-toned oak door that stood before us.

“You can do the honors, if you’d like,” I said, gesturing to the door.

Fukase smiled slightly and pushed it open. His eyes widened and I heard him give a light gasp when he stepped through the narrow doorway into the bright living room.

Sunlight filtered through the thin curtains, falling in streams over the blue sleeper sofa sprawled next to the windows. In front of the sofa was a teal carpet with sand-colored stripes thrown across it. A black coffee table rested lightly on top.

Further in, to the side there was a door leading outside to the balcony. There was a view that reached out to the front and back of the ship—similar to the bridge wing deck we had previously gazed out from.

The entirety of the cabin was themed with bright blues and aquas, highlighted here and there with beige touches like sandy shores to a vast ocean. Fukase turned to me, a wide smile on his face. “You’re telling me we get this whole place to ourselves, for three weeks?”

“Us and Yohio, but essentially, yes,” I replied. “By the way, you left your suitcase on the bridge. Do you want to unpack yet?”

“Oh yeah, I might as well get it now.” He chuckled sheepishly and quickly left the room.

I sat down on the couch with my hands tucked under my legs as I heard his footsteps move down the stairs. I had spent so much of my thought process before wondering about what his voice would sound like, but after I had heard him speak for the first time I had never stopped to appreciate him for it. His voice was soft, but warm and velvety.

Like chocolate melting in a saucepan to make fudge that would coat chocolate cake.

Although, since his aesthetic was red, maybe he was more like red velvet, so the fudge would coat red velvet cake instead of chocolate—

Wait a second, why am I comparing Fukase to cake of all things? I wondered, forcing myself out of my thoughts.

“Oliver, can you help me with this?” I heard him call from the bottom of the staircase.

“Sure, coming!”

~~~

When we had finally gotten Fukase’s majorly oversized suitcase inside the room, we both paused to breathe. “Why does your bag have to be so huge? Couldn’t you have just brought two smaller ones?”

“I don’t have anything else,” he replied, pulling the handle out again. “By the way, where am I sleeping?”

“Oh, I forgot to show you the bedrooms! There’s only two bedrooms, but one of them has two beds… The bigger one is for Yohio, of course, and I was planning to take the other. If you want, you can sleep in there or out here on the sofa. It opens up to a real bed, by the way.”

“I’ll sleep wherever,” he replied.

“The bed is probably more comfortable.”

“Fair point.” He grabbed the handle of his suitcase and continued maneuvering it through the room.

I hurried around him to open the door to our room so he could get through. Please don’t run over my feet with that thing… I found myself thinking. Of course, he didn’t.

Two beds were lined up against the wall; one for me and one for Fukase. Since I had already settled and unpacked my things the day before, he was left to lay his suitcase down on the unoccupied side of the room, next to his nightstand. He glanced at my small carry-on, now empty, standing in the corner.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just...tiny.”

I rolled my eyes. “No, yours is just too big.”

He snickered, trying to hold back a laugh. Realization dawned on me and I gasped.

I grabbed a pillow from my bed and threw it at him. “I bet you’re all talk and no trousers, anyway.”

Fukase was laughing at full force now. “‘All talk and no trousers’? Who even says that?” He giggled. “How British of you.”

“Is there a problem?”

“No, of course not.”

“Good.” I huffed and sat down.

“Hey, if this is our room, what type of room did Rana and Miki get?” Fukase asked me after a while.

“I don’t know, some empty suite. There are only so many rich folk, but the ship is small and there was only one suite left.”

He nodded. “Should we go find them?”

“We probably should. I bet they got lost on the way.”

He let out a soft laugh and then stood up, but there was something behind his eyes that told me something was wrong.

“Hey, when are you going to tell them?”

“Tell them what?”

“Well, that you can speak.”

His breath caught in his throat and suddenly, his nervousness was much more prominent on his face. “I...don’t know yet.”

“That’s ok, take your time. But please, do tell them at some point…”

“I will.” He smiled, in an attempt to reassure us both. “Soon.”

Chapter 8: Silver Lilac

The ship was bustling with stewards and stewardesses as I expertly navigated us through the residential halls, trying to get to the suite Rana and Miki stayed in. It was later in the afternoon now, and the amount of people walking around just for the sake of taking care of the ship was slightly astounding. It was nothing like the small crew and open deck that I had been used to from sailing on cargo ships.

“How do you know where we’re going?” Fukase asked. “You haven’t even been on this ship before yesterday.”

“Yeah, but I explored a lot of it yesterday. And besides, I know enough about how ships work to know the general layout.”

He only nodded, seemingly impressed. “Who were the others that Miki was talking about?”

“Flower and Piko?”

“Yeah, those two.”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen them yet. Or anyone that looks like them.” Then again, I hadn’t exactly expected to. Miki had described them somewhat casually, and embarkation day was a rather formal occasion. It would make sense that I wouldn’t notice them until the next day.

Finally, I arrived at Rana and Miki’s suite. It was a similar size to the captain’s quarters, but the living room was much smaller. Other than that, they were nearly identical.

I knocked on the door, in case the two of them had already arrived. To my surprise, someone opened the door.

“Oliver!” Rana said excitedly. “Did you know we’d be getting this huge suite?”

“Of course I knew.”

“And you didn’t tell us?!”

“That would’ve ruined the surprise, wouldn’t it?”

“Is that Oliver?” I heard Miki call from inside the room.

“Yeah,” Rana replied. “Oh, come in, come in.”

Fukase and I stepped into the room. I could tell he was impressed, but of course, not as impressed as he was with our room.

“Oliver! When do we get to meet the man?” Miki asked, her eyes wide with anticipation.

“The man?”

“Your brother. You know, the captain? The man?”

“Oh. I don’t know, maybe later today? He’ll be a bit busy tomorrow, but like I mentioned before, you can sit with us at dinner and stuff.”

“By the way, aren’t there activities and excursions we get to go on?” Rana asked, plopping down on one of the big, plush chairs that adorned the corners of the room.

“There are, but I’m not sure if we’re allowed to go,” I replied.

“Don’t worry about it, I can get Flower and Piko to invite us along,” Miki responded, sitting down next to Rana. Fukase and I sat down across from them. “Oliver, do you know how many stops there are?”

“Sort of. There’s two in Shikoku and one in Kyushu, and then we go straight to Yaeyama. Then there’s three or four stops on the archipelago...and then we come back.”

“Okay, so tomorrow I’ll see if we can meet up with Flower and Piko to see what their plan is. Their parents probably already booked the excursions, so we’ll have to go with their schedule.”

“That’s ok,” Rana chimed in. “They’ll choose well. As long as we get to go river rafting, I’m happy.”

“Why river rafting?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“I don’t know, from what I’ve read and heard about, it’s really fun! You get to pile into this big rubber raft, and then paddle down a gushing stream…” she went on describing her fantasy, wildly whooshing her hands from side to side as if mimicking the river rapids.

“That sounds kind of dangerous though,” Miki replied when she had finished.

“Don’t worry, there are professional rafters controlling it. We’d be fine. Besides, Flower is strong. In a worst case scenario, if the raft tips over she’ll save us.”

Just then, there was a loud knock on the door.

“Come in, it’s open!” Rana called.

The door swung in silently, and standing in the doorway was a tall, lilac-haired girl. It was tied up in a messy ponytail with one dark gray streak and hung just to the nape of her neck. She was dressed in a long, violet vest with white fluff at the edges, and dark purple culottes that reached her ankles.

“So it is you two!” she said cheerfully. Her voice was powerful and surprisingly charismatic.

“Flower! Piko! We were just talking about you guys,” Miki said, standing up to greet them as they walked in.

“Flower told me that you guys somehow got on, but spared me the details,” Piko said. “I didn’t believe her at first, but here you are.” His voice starkly contrasted from Flower’s, I noticed—he sounded much softer, mellower, and almost shallower than her. Even though his tone was quiet, he somehow still shared the same attention-grabbing charisma.

Although, maybe it was just his looks. He was dressed expensively in comparison to Flower, with a pure white dress shirt and dark blue jeans, with polished, jet-black dress shoes to finish off the aesthetic. His hair was a bright silver-white, and his eyes were colored slightly differently; one looked more blue and the other was more green.

Maybe the light was playing tricks on me.

“Wait a second, how did you guys even get on? Embarkation day is tomorrow.”

“Ah, you must be Oliver,” Piko said, ignoring my question. “You’re the captain’s brother, right? Somehow I pictured you… taller.”

“Hey…” I pouted.

“No matter,” Flower said with an air of superiority. She plopped herself on the coffee table and crossed her legs. Piko settled himself down on the coffee table beside her, but sat much more politely.

Fukase offered me a quizzical look, and I could only shrug back at him.

“So… we were wondering, you guys were planning on booking excursions, right?” Rana asked.

“Of course! They’re the best part of any cruise,” Flower responded.

“Can we go river rafting?” Rana’s eyes shone like stars.

“Yes!”

“No.”

Flower and Piko had responded at the same time.

“What do you mean ‘no?’” Flower asked, incredulous.

“River rafting is absolutely dangerous.”

“River rafting’s fun!”

“It’s dirty.”

“It’s just water. You can stay here and be a wimp if you want, but I’m going,” Flower decided.

“Yes!” Rana cried, pumping her fist in the air.

“I guess I’ll go too,” Miki piped up.

“And me! If my brother lets me, I mean. What about you Fukase?” I asked.

He smiled and nodded eagerly.

“Great! So we’re all going. Except Piko the girly girl,” Flower concluded, shooting him a smug look. Piko just rolled his eyes, seemingly unperturbed at being called a girl.

Their confidence was slightly foreign to me. Flower and Piko continued to joke about each other, each response more passive-aggressive than the last. Neither got flustered nor bashful; it was almost as if they were putting on a show for the rest of us. Something about them seemed a bit off.

Don’t be paranoid, I thought to myself. Just because Rana mentioned they were a bit strange before doesn’t mean they’re bad people.

“O-li-ver,” Miki said, poking me harshly and startling me out of my thoughts. “Show us around the ship! It’s our first day, so you owe us a tour.”

“Indeed,” Piko agreed, “it’s only fitting. Flower and I have been on cruises before, but all ships are different, I’m sure.”

“That’s true, they really are,” I replied. “I guess I could show you around. We have a few hours before dinner, anyway. And since none of the other guests are here, we can go to places that are usually off-limits!” I added, suddenly excited to show them around. Was this the effect Flower and Piko had that Miki had mentioned before?

Ignore it for now, but stay cautious, I reminded myself. If there’s no lighthouse, then trust your instincts to guide you to the harbor.

“Off-limits? Why would anywhere be off-limits?” Rana asked.

“Well, places like the bridge, or concert halls or whatever. Places that are restricted to the majority of people on the ship.”

Miki looked ready to burst. “We get to see the bridge? For real? Like, the place where all of the cool navigation tools and buttons are?”

I nodded. Fukase looked interested in the idea of visiting the bridge again, even though we had just been there.

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen a bridge before,” Flower said. “Piko, have you?”

“Of course I have,” he replied. “The layout is rather fascinating, although there are a few flaws—”

“Not in diagrams and pictures, nerd. A real one. In-person.”

“No, but I can imagine—”

“Ok, so no,” Flower answered. I could hear Miki snickering and Rana was trying to hold back a smile. Piko looked slightly irritated, but ultimately ignored it.

I giggled slightly. “Come on, let’s just go.”

Chapter 9: Azure

As I led the group around the ship, I was slightly worried that people would be bothered by the noise we were stirring up. Even though there weren’t any residents yet, there were still quite a few people wandering the halls and tidying up for embarkation day.

Flower had a habit of talking with a loud, boisterous voice, and Miki’s ostentatious attitude didn’t help the volume either. Piko ignored their tone most of the time, occasionally offering a retort to some of their comments. Rana was either quietly listening along or cracking up. Fukase was either bored with them, invested in the tour, or giving me sideways pitying glances as I tried to keep up.

“Oliver, where’s the pool? We’ve been through half of the ship and I haven’t even seen one,” Miki commented.

“I agree with Miki,” Flower replied. “How many pools are there? Are they indoors or outdoors? Also, is there a jacuzzi?”

“Do the big ones have diving boards?” Rana asked curiously. We all fell quiet and she blushed slightly. “I mean, I’ve never used a diving board, and I just thought it’d be fun…”

“I’ve only seen one of the pools, but I think there’s two around the ship,” I told her. “The one I saw didn’t have a diving board, by the way.”

“We might as well see them for ourselves,” Piko piped up, seeming genuinely excited for the first time in the tour.

“Alright, follow me.”

“We already are following you.”

“You know what I mean!”

~~~

Both pools were on the second highest deck of the ship. I hadn’t been to the nearest one, so I figured we’d go to that one first and all witness it as a surprise. To my astonishment, it was much bigger than the first one.

“Whoa, this is amazing!” Miki said. “Let’s go swimming later!”

“Who cares about later? I’m going in now!” Flower exclaimed. She ran towards the pool and was only stopped when Piko caught the edge of her vest.

“Flower, quit being so immature. You’re not even in your swimsuit!” he chastised.

She just grumbled something about Piko being a killjoy, whatever that was, but otherwise didn’t seem to mind too much.

Fukase, on the other hand, was in utter amazement at the ocean patterns that decorated the walls and the inner sides of the pool; since part of it was indoors and part was outdoors, sunlight fell in ribbons down the length of the whole pool, and lit up the insides with waves of light. The water reflected around the room in shimmering caustics that further brought out the color of the aquatic designs everywhere.

Rana seemed to share his awe as she went to join him in examining the bright coral reefs, fish, and dolphins that were painted around. Miki and Flower went over to the pool, gazing at the family of orcas painted at the bottom and looking at them from different angles to deform the picture.

“Hey Oliver, come over here for a second,” Piko called from across the pool. As I trotted over to him I noticed that he was scrutinizing the tiny fish that were intricately painted into a beautiful scene of anemones. “How many of these fish can you name?” He asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

“Well, there’s the clownfish of course, then this black one with spots is the Domino Damselfish. And I think these over here are cardinal fishes, I’m not sure which kind though…”

He nodded his thanks, staring at the fishes as if he was burning them into his memory.

“Whatcha lookin’ at, Piks?” Flower said, jogging up to us with Miki, Rana, and Fukase by her side.

“Don’t call me Piks.”

“Sure thing, Piks.”

Piko rolled his eyes and continued, “Oliver was just telling me about these fish.”

“You can tell what fish they are just from a painting?” Rana commented, seemingly impressed.

“Well, these paintings are really detailed…”

“Yeah, I wonder how long it took to finish just this room,” Miki added.

“By the way, isn’t part of the pool outdoors?” Flower commented. “Both parts look conjoined.”

“That’s because they are conjoined,” I replied, grinning widely. “Come on, let’s see the outdoor part.”

Outside, the sun shone down brightly on us but the wind was starkly chilly in comparison. All of us were dressed accordingly save for Flower, who was shivering ever so slightly with her arms bare under her vest. Of course, Piko had to make it worse by splashing some of the pool water at her. She only flicked a little bit back at him, giving him a glare that said I’ll get you back for this later.

Miki and I both snickered at the occurrence, but Rana was completely absorbed with something else. The sheer expression of wonder on her face was nothing too short of how Fukase had reacted to seeing the bridge.

She had somehow already gotten across the pool from us, and was slightly leaning out the railing and gazing at the water.

“Guys, come over here and look!” she called out. “The water’s so blue!”

“No duh,” Miki replied. “Of course it’s blue. It’s the ocean.”

“But this is a different kind of blue. It’s so pretty. Like a giant sheet of liquid sapphires.”

“You’re right,” Piko responded quietly. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had a day this clear.”

“But the sun is annoying,” Flower said flippantly. “See? Even Fukase thinks so,” she added when she noticed him shielding his eyes.

“We can come back out later, in the evening. Besides, you guys wanted to see the theaters, right?”

“Yes, definitely! Let’s go,” Miki said, dragging Rana and Flower inside with her. Piko, Fukase and I hastily did the same.

The theaters were on the other side of the ship, and a deck lower than the one we were on. Hopefully they wouldn’t mind the walk.

~~~

The concert halls and theaters were considerably more underwhelming than the pool we had visited in the afternoon. Rana and Miki had found the rooms’ echoing tendencies quite entertaining, though.

After that, we briefly visited the bridge, but by then we had all had quite enough of the “tour” and decided to split up and go back to our rooms until dinner.

“I can’t believe we get to stay here for three whole weeks,” Fukase murmured softly once we got in and had settled on our respective beds. “The ship is huge! You’re so lucky your brother’s a cruise captain now.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I guess so. He really wanted this promotion, so I’m proud of him.”

“Speaking of which…” Fukase started nervously. “Is there any place you’ve always wanted to go, but never have?”

I thought about it for a moment. “The Americas.”

“North or South?”

“Anywhere. Although I suppose Canada would be the easiest to get used to, since England has a similar climate.”

His expression immediately lifted. “I used to live in Canada, when I was really little.”

“Really?” I sat up straight, my curiosity piqued.

“Yup. My family had a big house by a large lake. But then, of course, some stuff happened and I had to move to Japan…”

I could tell that he was no longer interested in talking about it, so I dropped the subject. “Well, like I mentioned before, I used to live in England. But then, a close friend of mine and her brother were kidnapped, and since my parents thought it was too dangerous and couldn’t stay near me a lot or supervise me, they sent me here to live with Yohio.”

“You were eleven when that happened, right? You mentioned you moved here four years ago.”

“Eleven when it happened, twelve when I moved.”

“And you came here on your own?”

“Yup. My parents are busy people. What about you?” I immediately cursed myself for asking, but he didn’t seem to mind too much.

“I came to Aomori when I was seven, but I had some friends of mine and their parents accompanying me.”

“You have family here?”

“Yeah, just my grandparents.”

We were both silent for some time, idly staring into space as the sun set below the sea and its golden light filtered through the windows. The reticence was finally broken when the clock tower from the promenade rang out. The sound was muffled since we were far from the main part of the atrium deck, but it was enough to make the growing quietness between us suddenly feel awkward.

I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. “It’s past seven,” I said suddenly. “Are you hungry yet?”

“Sure,” he responded. “Let’s go get the others.”

With that, we left the room making mild small talk, with the orange sun winking through the windows behind us.

Chapter 10: Crimson

As soon as Miki, Rana, and Flower caught a glimpse of my brother, they barreled him with questions. We had hardly just sat down at our table for dinner, but they were curious to know everything about him. Piko was a bit gentler with his questions, but kept demanding answers nonetheless.

“Is it true that you get unlimited drinks?” was the first question Miki brought up. “I mean, when you’re off hours, of course.”

“Technically yes, but I’m hardly ever off hours and don’t have time for drinking.”

“‘No time,’ hm?” Flower questioned, her expression dubious. “Looks more like ‘first time’ to me.”

We all snickered at that, but Piko was unamused. “Oh please, he and Oliver are from England. I’m sure he drank all the time.”

At this, the three girls burst out laughing uncontrollably, earning a “Hey, that’s not funny!” from Yohio.

“Everyone knows that Brits drink a lot, it’s no secret,” Piko replied nonchalantly. Yohio shot him an irritated look, but made no comment.

Once we got our food, the table fell much quieter and the rest of the meal was peaceful. It was refreshing to have dinner with people other than my brother, and I was flooded with a satisfied warmth as we meandered through the halls and back towards our rooms.

We all agreed to sleep early tonight in hopes of welcoming everyone and forming a larger group tomorrow, on embarkation day. Flower wasn’t keen on the idea of formalwear, but we assured her that it would be worth it in the evening when we’d go swimming since we hadn’t gotten a chance to go today.

When Fukase and I passed through the bridge to get to our room, Yohio was already there, talking with other members of the captains’ team. We passed quietly, both of us trying to go unnoticed although of course some of them turned their heads towards us anyway.

The rest of the night was quiet, although there was anticipation in the air as we awaited embarkation day. The moon hung serene and low in the sky, soft light filtering through the window in our room as we drifted off to sleep.

~~~

The next morning was brought by a loud knocking on the cabin door. I immediately heard Yohio stirring in the room beside us and the floorboards moving as he hurried to see who had come. Fukase was still in his bed beside me and the sky was barely light, so I checked the time on my nightstand.

5:00 A.M.

Who would be knocking on the door at this hour? On top of that, I was surprised that Yohio was awake. He rarely woke up before me.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I peeked outside our room door, trying to see who had come to visit. Behind Yohio, I could faintly make out Flower’s lavender hair tied in a high, wavy ponytail spiraling down to the nape of her neck. She was speaking to Yohio in her usual boisterous, flippant tone.

I ducked back into the room to freshen up and change. “Fukase, Flower and Piko are here,” I said as I made a hasty effort to tame my blonde hair. He was still in bed, but I could tell that he was awake from the muffled noise outside.

Even still, all I earned from him was a mumbled “shut up,” as I left to see what the commotion was about.

Flower and Piko had made themselves quite at home already and were sitting in the living room, sipping coffee and chattering with my brother.

“Oh, good afternoon, Oliver!” Flower said cheerfully when she saw me.

“Afternoon? Flower, it’s hardly five in the morning.”

“Close enough,” she said, shrugging and sipping her coffee. “Where’s the redhead?”

“Sleeping still, like a normal person.” I bit my lip, stifling a yawn.

“The buffet is open if you guys are hungry,” Yohio said suddenly. “I’m off to the bridge. Embarkation starts at noon, don’t be late!” With that he left the room.

“Now that that’s out of the way,” Piko began, standing up, “I think it’s about time we get to business.”

“What does that mean, pray tell?” I rolled my eyes.

Just then, Fukase strode out of our room. As expected, he didn’t say a word, but his expression was stormy. I felt a twinge of pity for him that he couldn’t voice his frustration about our early start.

“Oh, Fukase! Good afternoon to you too!” Flower called loudly.

“Ahem,” Piko grumbled, “I do assume that there will be an embarkation banquet?”

“Embarkation… banquet?”

“But of course. There’s a special meal for all of the passengers who embark on embarkation day rather than the day of departure.”

“I heard of no such thing,” I said, embarrassment creeping across my face. Piko was obviously displeased, but didn’t continue the conversation.

We were all silent for some time before we decided to look for Miki and Rana. Once we got to them, we went to the dining hall for breakfast where Miki, Rana, and Flower chattered endlessly. By noon, I was already exhausted, and I could tell that Fukase felt the same way.

I noticed people gathering outside the vessel as Fukase and I made our way to the main atrium. I trusted that Flower and Piko would have no trouble finding it, and they’d find their way to Rana and Miki as well.

“How many people are coming?” Fukase asked suddenly.

“I’m not entirely sure, probably at least two thousand though.” I smiled at the impressed look Fukase wore.

“What was Piko saying about the embarkation banquet? Are we supposed to have one?”

“As far as I’m aware, no. There’s no embarkation banquet,” I said, rolling my eyes.

As we entered the main atrium, I couldn’t help but gaze in awe at the new decorations since we’d seen it the previous day. It looked brighter, and more celebratory. I couldn’t help but be impressed at how much better it seemed.

The chandelier was lit up, with light refracting off of the shimmering crystals and creating patterns on the walls. Golden balloons hung in bunches in the air, tied to balustrades on the balconies. Streamers were strung around them too, and glittered in the light.

All of the crewmembers were dressed in gold, bronze, and black, which were the cruise company Hime’s colors. In the center of the atrium, a brass dolphin fountain stood regally.

I noticed Fukase eyeing the fountain with a puzzled expression. Finally, he turned to me and asked, “What’s a dolphin’s nose called?”

I blinked in confusion. “What?”

“Like, is it a snout? Or a beak?”

“Oh. It’s called a rostrum,” I said, suppressing a giggle.

“Ooooh,” he mumbled with a fascinated expression.

Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of bright pink hair from out of the corner of my eye. I turned towards it and found Miki and Rana walking over to us. They were dressed more formally now; both wore matching fitted dresses with skirts that flared out around them in a shower of pale pink.

Flower and Piko followed close behind them, dressed expensively as always. Flower had done her hair slightly neater, with her bangs tamed and her short ponytail bouncing behind her. She wore a lavender blouse tucked in silvery culottes, with tall, fluffy boots to finish the look. Piko wore his signature black and gray suit, with touches of silver outlining it that matched his hair.

I felt my face pale in embarrassment, thinking of the simple, plain dress shirt and jeans I wore. Then again, Fukase wasn’t dressed much differently; almost identical to myself, except he wore a dark crimson vest. At least I didn’t feel completely alone.

The six of us—save for Fukase—chattered amongst ourselves and greeted the guests boarding the ship for the following hours. The main atrium was crowded with colorful people; those from all over the world had come, in an assortment of outfits and styles that starkly contrasted from one another. It was nothing like the small crew and open deck that I had been used to from sailing on cargo ships.

For a while, even Yohio stopped by to greet some of the passengers. I had to constantly remind myself that this was a new experience for him, too. He seemed almost as if he was used to it, from the way he interacted with people.

From the longing look on Fukase’s face, I could tell that he wanted to join in. But still, as usual, he said nothing.

If he wants to talk and interact, why doesn’t he? I couldn’t help but be just a little frustrated at him. Maybe he’d tell me at some point, maybe he never would. For some reason, the thought of the latter reality made me anxious.

Dinner wasn’t too much unlike the previous day, except now, the tables surrounding us were filled with passengers. Most of them wore semi formal clothes (“I bet each of their outfits are worth enough to feed a family in Africa for a month,” Piko commented) that brightened the room and made the atmosphere dazzle.

Fukase and I were terribly out of place.

Despite that, the hours flew by quickly and before we knew it, the day was over. Stars sparkled above the vessel, inviting sleep as we prepared for the next day.

As I got into bed and tossed the blanket over myself, I noticed that the moon was almost full. It glimmered brightly in the sky, with rivulets of light streaming through our bedroom window.

“Goodnight, Luna,” I whispered, almost silently, as usual.

“Whadju say?” I heard Fukase mumble from the bed beside me.

“You heard that?” I shot back, incredulous.

“I mean, we’re right next to each other, so yes?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s a bit childish, but every night I like to say goodnight to the moon. Sailors back in the olden days used the stars and constellations to guide their way, but since I obviously can’t wish every star in the sky goodnight, I figured the moon would do.”

Fukase was silent for a moment. “That’s not childish at all,” he said thoughtfully. “Well then, goodnight Luna.”

Chapter 11: Turquoise

Finally, it was the day we had all been anticipating—the day of the sailaway.

Most of the passengers awoke early in hopes of heading to the sundeck and being the first ones there to see the ship leave the port, but of course, most of them were met with disappointment. Some of the earliest risers had arrived before we did.

Fukase was alright with the early start this morning, since it wasn’t in vain. We quickly gathered with the others and headed to the sundeck after eating breakfast. The ship would set sail mid-morning, but Rana, Miki, and I wanted to see what was left of the sunrise.

Yohio was nowhere to be seen until 9:00, when he appeared on the balcony of the bridge above us.

“Look, it’s the man!” Miki said excitedly when she noticed him. “What’s he gonna do?”

“Probably make some weird speech or something,” I replied, unamused.

“Don’t laugh at the poor man too much,” Piko piped up unexpectedly.

Once most of the passengers on the sundeck noticed the captain standing above them, they turned to see what he had to say with curious, oblivious expressions.

“Good morning and welcome, everyone! For those of you who boarded yesterday, I hope you enjoyed your first day aboard the ship. For those of you who boarded this morning, well, I hope you don’t mind the early start. Cruises are for relaxing, you shouldn’t have to be up this early.” Some of the passengers let out a soft chuckle at that. “Anyway, thank you all so much for joining us on Hime Cruises. I hope you all enjoy your stay for the following few weeks!”

The passengers all clapped politely, and I reluctantly played along. Bogus, I thought, talking as if he’s worked for Hime since the dawn of time.

He disappeared into the bridge, and after some time, the foghorn blew and the ship began to move. Rana and Flower rushed to the edge of the deck to peer out at the shore, and the rest of us followed suit. The water was a pure, clear blue as it reflected the bright sky.

After around half an hour, the passengers began to disperse. People went back inside to eat, sleep, unpack, and kill time however possible on the first day of the cruise.

“Alright, to the pool!” Flower decided with boisterous finality. “We didn’t go the day before yesterday, we didn’t go yesterday like you promised, so we are going right now.”

“Whatever you say,” Piko sighed.

“Yes, I agree with Flower! To the pool!” Miki exclaimed.

“Are you two coming?” Rana asked Fukase and I.

“Sure, I guess…?” I turned to Fukase but his expression was unreadable.

“Alright, to the big, pretty pool then! How does fifteen minutes sound?” Flower asked.

“Make that twenty,” Rana replied.

“Alright, twenty, whatever. See ya then!” With that, Flower left us, dragging Piko closely behind her.

“See you guys then!” Miki said, tugging along Rana in a similar fashion.

“Shall we go?” I asked once the others were out of earshot.

Fukase only smiled and nodded awkwardly.

“So… what are our thoughts on swimming?”

“For one, I haven’t done it in forever,” Fukase chuckled lowly, “and for two, I have no intention to do it again.”

I looked at him in surprise. “So you’re not coming with us?”

“Oh no, I’ll come along. But I’m not getting wet. I’ll just hang out on one of the lounge chairs or something.”

“If you say so,” I murmured quietly as I unlocked our room door.

I took a few minutes to change into my swim shorts and a thin Hawaiian shirt, and when I emerged from the bedroom into the living room,

Fukase had taken off his beige coat and was now in only his off-white tunic, a red skirt, and gray leggings. I found myself thinking that even just a few years ago, his feminine style would never be easily passed by.

At least he could pull it off, though.

A few minutes later, we were at the entrance of the pool. We entered just in time to see Flower cannonballing into the pool off of the diving board on the deep end.

“Heeeeey, Olikase!” she cried once she emerged from the water.

“Olikase?” I questioned.

“Oliver and Fukase. Together, it’s Olikase! I invented it. Don’t you like it?”

“Sure, I guess…?”

“Oh and by the way, redhead, you are looking fine in that miniskirt!”

Fukase just rolled his eyes and turned away to the lounge chairs, but not before I noticed his ears burning red. Piko shot him a glare of annoyance, and was that—jealousy?

“Oliver, look over here!” I heard Rana’s voice calling from the diving board. “I’m gonna jump, watch this.”

“Yeah right, you’ve been saying that for the past ten minutes,” Miki retorted.

“I know, but this is for real!”

“Bogus.”

“I’m serious.”

“Phonyyyyyy.”

“I’m not!”

“Just jump or I’m coming up there to push you!” Flower boomed.

“Okay, I’m jumping!” She mentally counted to three and jumped.

The splash was big enough to send droplets everywhere, racking the whole pool with waves. Fukase looked up from his travel magazine and glared at Rana, his entire left shoulder dripping wet.

“See? Wasn’t so bad, was it?” Flower said, clapping a hand on Rana’s shoulder. The frills of her swimsuit still waved and fluttered in the disturbed turquoise water around her.

“That was sick, I’m going again!”

Flower looked up as Rana dashed out of the pool. “Oi, what’s your deal?” she asked, noticing Fukase still glaring daggers at a blissfully ignorant Rana. “Hey hey, come over here.”

My hands began to sweat nervously as the tension made itself apparent.

Fukase placed the damp magazine next to him and silently stalked over to the pool. He crouched down at the edge next to Flower so their eyes were level.

“Listen, redhead, you’re cute and all but quit being such a killjoy,” Flower said authoritatively. “No need to plot Rana’s murder over it, it’s just a bit of water and chlorine.”

The cavernous room was silent as Fukase stared back at her challengingly.

“I’m sure he has a reason—” I started, ready to defend him.

“Let’s find out.” With a flick of her wrist, Flower sent pool water splashing over his face. Fukase gasped softly and stood up, stumbling backwards and clutching at his face.

“Are you ok?!” I asked, alarmed at his sudden panic. I handed him the first clean towel I could find and he immediately buried his face in it.

“I—I’m allergic,” he muttered, just barely loud enough for me to hear. “I’m going back to the room. You stay here.”

I did as I was told, shocked into stillness as he hurriedly left the pool room.

Allergic?

Great.

“Oh my gosh, I hope he’s ok,” Rana said softly. “I wouldn’t have jumped if I knew it would upset him so much, I swear.”

“It’s not your fault.” It’s Flower’s, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue.

It was only then that I realized that Piko had been silent the whole time. He just stood in the corner of the pool, quietly watching and observing.

He seemed almost invisible compared to his previous charismatic personality.

Something about the two was certainly wrong. Their actions just didn’t add up. Flower could be a bit much to handle at times, but she didn’t seem like the type of person to directly be so inconsiderate.

Miki seemed to feel the same way as she boldly told off Flower for what she had done. At least Fukase had two more on his side—Miki and Rana—and I hoped he knew that.

Now that the mood in the room was tense and sour, we all decided to go our separate ways. I, of course, decided to check up on Fukase first. I was worried about him, but also very curious to know why his reaction had been so sudden and panicked.

When I entered the room, he was sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea, staring idly into space. He looked up when I closed the door behind me, and I noticed that his left eye was significantly redder than his right.

“Are you ok?”

No response. He turned away, resting his chin on his fist.

“Hey, Fukase.” I crouched down between him and the coffee table, forcing our eyes to meet. “Is your eye gonna be ok? Do you want me to get eye drops or something?” I rambled.

“It’ll be fine in a few days.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

I stayed with him for another hour or so, sometimes making small conversation and other times just sitting beside him in comfortable silence.

Soon, we heard the door click open, and in strode Yohio.

“Oh, you two are here,” he mentioned in surprise. “I thought you all were at the pool.”

“We were, for a while.”

“Well, the lunch buffet is open whenever you’re hungry. Oh, and try to stick together when possible, ‘kay?”

“Hio, we’re not toddlers.”

“Ok, ok! See you around then.” With that, he was gone.

I stood up, but Fukase didn’t move. “Are you coming?”

“Nah. I’m not hungry.”

Liar, I thought. He had hardly eaten anything at breakfast, and there was no way he wasn’t hungry at this hour.

“Alright, then I’ll see you in a little while.”

~~~

Only fifteen minutes later, I was back at our room with two plates in my hands piled high—one for me and one for Fukase.

All throughout the meal he was silent, and insisted on staying in our room for the remainder of the day as I wandered around the ship, occasionally dropping back in to check on him. By eight o’clock he was already fast asleep—or so I thought.

“How do you put up with them?” he asked as I settled down into bed.

“Rana and Miki are ok, it’s just Flower and Piko who are kind of weird.”

“I don’t know, they all make me unsettled. Then again, most people do, I suppose…”

“What about me?”

He was quiet for some time before he whispered, “I don’t know.” He sighed. “You’re different. Everyone who finds me always instantly interrogates me, and adults feel the need to drag me somewhere else to shelter or whatever. But you didn’t do any of that, you sat down and started telling me about yourself. I guess… I really needed that contrast in my life. So thank you.”

I stared at him bug-eyed with shock. “I didn’t think I had made that much of a difference to you, but you’re welcome, I suppose. A-although there’s no need to thank me, I hardly did anything anyway…” I could feel my cheeks burning and hoped he wouldn’t notice in the pale moonlight filtering through our window.

“Regardless, you helped me and I’m very grateful to you for that.”

“Well then, I’m glad you’re doing better! Besides the whole pool-water-in-your-eye thing…”

He chuckled softly. “It’ll be fine soon. I’ll just stay away from the pool for a little while. It’s only turquoise chlorine water, nothing fancy about it.”

I smiled. “Whatever you say.”

Chapter 12: Violet

The next few days moved by swiftly—and uneventfully. Fukase’s eye healed quickly, but the tension between him and Flower never fully settled. Somehow, Flower and Piko managed to pretend like the whole incident had never happened, which didn’t seem to appeal to Fukase. Of course, he didn’t say a word about it.

For our first cruise excursion, we stopped at Sado Island. It was a well-known attraction, and after much discussion, we decided to go to Senkaku Bay, a scenic place on the northern side of the island. They had hiking trails and a local aquarium, so we figured it would be worth the hour-long train ride from where we’d dock.

Rana seemed the most excited when we disembarked. “Whoo! I am so ready for this!” she cried, pumping her fist in the air. It was our first time being on land in a few days, and although I was used to transitioning from sea to land, some of the others weren’t. To my surprise, Flower and Fukase seemed completely on balance, but Piko and Miki were the ones having the most trouble. I couldn’t help but chuckle as they stumbled around dizzily.

“Come on, we don’t have all day,” Flower snapped at them as Piko reeled sideways, clutching onto one of the handrails on the edges of the dock.

“Yeah, you guys are dramafying it. Like yeah, it was weird at first, but even I got used to it within a minute or two,” Rana replied.

“It feels weeeeeeird!” Miki complained.

Fukase just rolled his eyes, floating past them on his red platform boots. It didn’t seem like a great choice of shoes for a hike, but I didn’t question it. Everyone else was dressed for the occasion though; even Piko dressed more casually today with black jeans and a plain t-shirt.

“Piko, I thought you and Flower said you’d been on cruises before,” Rana said, suspicion crawling into her voice.

“Yeah, we have, and he always does this,” Flower responded sourly.

“Guys, the bus to Senkaku Bay arrives in two minutes, so hurry up,” I urged.

The bus ride was long and jolting, and although it was expected due to the bumpy road and hilly pathways, it got old after a while. The scenery was worth it, though. Lush trees and grassy hills seemed to float by alongside us as the bus traveled across the island. The road followed a river, which also presented interesting sights every now and again. The sky was mostly clear, and the sunlight seemed to light up the richly colored earth. Small clouds appeared above us like popcorn against the bright blue.

To me, the ride across the island was more exciting than the hike itself. Watching the bright colors of the Umezu and Iri rivers from aqua to turquoise to teal was rather rewarding, as well as espying the ibis birds that spotted the landscape.

The aquarium showed much more promise though; Piko was the most excited since it was his choice. It was also the first time I had seen him express an emotion other than passiveness, boredom, or annoyance.

At the aquarium we were given bright violet wristbands that seemed to be Miki’s center of attention for a while, which I couldn’t help but start to get concerned about.

“Whoa, I can’t rip the paper,” Miki cried. “It’s just paper! Why can’t I rip it?!”

“You’re not supposed to rip it, stupid. Don’t take it off or they won’t let you in,” Flower chastised.

Miki immediately stopped playing with her wristbands, but of course, Rana and Fukase immediately started playing with theirs to see if they could rip them.

Just then, a tall woman who I could only assume was our tour guide walked in. She clapped her hands and we—including the other cruise members on this excursion as well—all snapped to attention.

“Hello everyone, my name is Sonika, and I will be your tour guide for today!” She said energetically. “If all of you are ready for the tour, then we can be on our way!”

Piko hurriedly followed after her, pulling Flower along, who pulled Miki, who pulled Rana, who pulled me, who pulled Fukase.

Sonika led our chain down the halls to the each tank exhibit, and bright aqua caustics refracted off of the tanks onto the walls and floor. “And here is one of our most interesting exhibits! In each tank is a different species of jellyfish,” Sonika explained. “There’s a placard with some info about each one, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask me!”

Fukase set out, examining each tank and placard carefully as if he was looking for a certain specimen in particular. The rest of us milled around the room, admiring the bright, fragile creatures. After a few moments, Fukase tapped my shoulder and led me over to a tank in the corner. Inside were minuscule jellyfish that were almost completely translucent.

“What’s this?”

“The immortal jellyfish,” Fukase whispered somberly.

“Immortal? That’s impossible.”

“Read the placard.”

So I did. Apparently, the secret was that the creature’s cells regressed in age when it was presented with danger.

“It’s fascinating, isn’t it?” Fukase asked once I had finished reading. His eyes were almost sparkling.

“Sure, I guess.”

“Jellyfish are one of the only aquatic animals to survive all of the mass extinctions. Did you know that? Well, water bears did too. And a few others. But it’s interesting how we regard these creatures as weak and fragile when in reality, they’ve braved through all of nature’s tests.”

“Yeah.” I didn’t know what else to say. “I had no idea you liked animals so much.”

“Of course I do! You remember how I mentioned that my family had a house by a lake? There were plenty of animals there. Two of my friends lived nearby, so we’d always go exploring the shallows together.”

For some reason, I couldn’t help but find his enthusiasm charming. “I guess you were pretty close with them, huh.”

“Yeah, I was.”

It wasn’t my place to ask, but I knew something had happened to transform him from an explorer to someone so reserved. So what had changed?

“Alright, if no one has any questions, that concludes our tour!” Sonika declared.

It seemed trivial at the moment, but the idea of Fukase’s past stalked my thoughts throughout the evening. Maybe it had something to do with why he had moved to Japan in the first place? Canada to Japan was a big change, so surely there was a reason for it. And what about his parents? Where were they in the picture?

Multiple times that night I had to hold myself back from asking. I didn’t have a right to pry, anyway.

~~~

“Oliver, I just realized,” Fukase started as we got back to our room, “If you’re from England and I’m from Canada, then we can both speak English so that the others don’t understand us.”

“I’ve never heard you speak in English.”

“I’ve never heard you speak in English, either.”

“Then, should we…?”

“Ok, but you go first.”

“Why should I go first? You were the one who brought it up!”

“Fine, then we’ll say it at the same time,” Fukase sighed with exasperation. “On three. One, two—”

“Wait, what are we supposed to say?”

“I don’t know, just say anything!”

We were silent for a few moments, and then we both collapsed into a fit of laughter. When we had collected ourselves, I finally spoke.

“Fine. This is what I sound like in English.”

“Aww, your accent is so cute!”

“I’ve never heard a Canadian accent before.” Fukase’s voice still carried that same velvety texture, but he sounded more casual. Unlike me, whose accent surely sounds stuffy in comparison, I couldn’t help but think. “We should probably sleep, anyway,” I said, suddenly eager to change the subject.

“Why? Are we going anywhere tomorrow?”

“No, not exactly…”

“Well then, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “Why exactly… did you move to Japan?”

“Like I mentioned the other night, two of my friends were kidnapped; they were twins. My parents felt that it wasn’t safe for me, and they were busy with work and weren’t around me much. So they sent me here, to Japan, since my older brother lives here. That’s all there is to it.”

“What about you? Did you want to move?”

I mulled over the question. Had I wanted to move? Or had I just gone along with my parents’ decision hoping that it would be the right choice? My memories of that time seemed foggy. What had I wanted? I couldn’t recall.

“I guess I just went along with whatever my parents thought was best. They were my only two friends, so I really had no reason to stay there, I suppose. What about you? Why did you come to Japan?”

Despair and grief flitted across his features for a second, and then they were gone. “Well, there was a fire. Our home was completely burned to the ground, and both my parents perished. My only family is here in Japan, so…” he trailed off uncomfortably.

“Oh. I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have asked.” I couldn’t think of what else to say. How did verbalizing sympathy work again?

“It’s fine. I haven’t told anyone, except for the friends who escorted me here, of course. It’s nice to have someone else know.” To my surprise, he was beaming. “Now we can sleep.”

“Goodnight, Fukase.”

“Goodnight, Oliver.” He let out a low chuckle as he flicked off the light. “Goodnight, Luna.”

Chapter 13: Sapphire

“Oliver.”

“Hm?”

“O-li-ver.”

“What is it?” I blinked my eyes open sleepily only to see Yohio hovering above me.

“Don’t tell anyone else, but there’s a malfunction on the ship.”

I immediately sat up straight. Wait a minute… “Then why are you telling me? What do I do about it?”

“I thought you’d want to know these things!”

“Yohio, it’s five in the morning. I’m going back to sleep.” My brother sighed and left the room. Although I had pretended to be disinterested in his affairs, I couldn’t help but wonder what he meant. A malfunction? There were a thousand different things that could mean. No doubt he was just trying to squeeze the curiosity out of me.

But if it was a serious malfunction, then…

“Yohio, wait for me!” I got ready within record time and joined him at the bridge. When I got there, Yohio was discussing something with who I assumed was the chief engineer. They chattered furiously between themselves, quickly spouting words I couldn’t comprehend.

Maybe I should ask him later—

The door to the bridge opened, and Fukase peeked his head through. I quickly went over to him before my brother noticed.

“What’s going on? What’s the commotion about?” he whispered.

“Well…” What could I say? Yohio made it clear that no one else was supposed to know.

“Did something go wrong?” I blinked at him in surprise. “It wasn’t hard to guess from that diagram over there.” Fukase pointed to a sketched diagram the chief engineer was holding up and gesturing furiously at.

Finally, I sighed. “Yeah. It looks like the engine is malfunctioning.” I silently closed the door behind me and then followed Fukase into the hallway.

“So then, what’s going to happen to the rest of the cruise?”

“We’ll probably find somewhere we can safely dock, and then we’ll figure it out from there. Since the engine started giving us problems late last night, the ship was knocked off-course a bit. Our next stop won’t be on the itinerary, unfortunately.”

“That’s fine. It’ll be fun with you around.” I couldn’t help but feel a light blush warm my cheeks at his comment.

“Try not to mention the problem to the others, ok? Yohio will make an announcement once he reaches a decision.”

“Yeah, of course.” He rolled his eyes slightly. It was so easy to forget that he didn’t speak in front of others since we were able to converse so naturally.

Before we knew it, we found ourselves at the dining hall. The weather seemed mockingly bright for a day when we had been delivered such dismal news. The sea reflected the sky with a deep sapphire that illuminated the room around us. There were no signs of birds, leading me to believe that we were a decent distance away from any piece of land.

The morning came and went with a flurry of my anxious thoughts until it was almost noon, and we met up with the rest of our group.

“I say we go to the pool today!” Flower declared almost immediately.

“I agree with that!” Miki piped up.

“Um, I really don’t,” Rana muttered.

“Aww, are you still upset about what happened last time? Don’t worry, I’m sure Fukase here has forgiven everything. Isn’t that right, ‘Kase?” Flower paused, but Fukase was unresponsive. She looped a languid arm around his shoulder. “C’mon, let’s go! Maybe you can swim this time too.”

Suddenly alarmed, Fukase pushed her away.

“Hey, there are plenty of other fun things we can do,” I said in a desperate attempt to keep them subdued.

“Like?”

“Like… karaoke?”

“Karaoke sounds fun!” Rana responded, and I shot her a grateful glance.

“Alright, sure, fine with me.” Flower shrugged dismissively and our decision was made.

~~~

“Karaoke? Really?”

“It was the first thing I could think of!” I exclaimed.

“Well, I sure hope you don’t expect me to sing anything.” Fukase kicked his legs impatiently as he perched on the edge of the sofa in our room.

“That’s fine. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to…”

“No, I’ll come. I just won’t sing.”

“Alright. Then why don’t you sing just for me?”

“What?!”

“I’m kidding! Although… it would be nice to hear you sing, I think.”

“Oliver—”

“Ok, ok, let’s go.”

We made our way down to one of the smaller concert halls, collecting the others on the way. Behind the stage curtain was a Juke-8, bright and shiny. We took some time trying to figure out how it worked, but once we got it set up, things went smoothly.

Our voices echoed throughout the near-empty concert hall, louder with each song as we all grew more confident. Fukase watched from the velvety seats in front of the stage, hardly reacting. I was caught between pitying him and internally scolding myself, knowing that he wouldn’t want me to pity him. But he looked so miserable…

Finally I made my way towards him. “Are you sure you won’t sing anything?”

“In front of these guys? Of course not.”

“You said you’d tell them you can talk, though. This would be a good way to do that, wouldn’t it?”

He considered it for barely a moment before rejecting the thought once more. I only sighed and left him to his thoughts once more. As evening approached and we began to get weary, Piko suggested that we leave.

“But I wanna sing more,” Miki complained in her usual petulant way.

“I second that,” Rana piped up.

“Me three!” Flower replied.

Piko huffed in annoyance and lambently tugged Flower off-stage. Miki and Rana in their lurid glory tried to refuse some more, but were interrupted by the PA system suddenly coming on.

“Attention all passengers,” came my brother’s voice, “this is your captain speaking.

“Due to some unexpected complications within our engine system, the ship will be stopping at Yakushima, an island off the shore of Kyushu. While we are terribly sorry for the inconvenience, this stop is being made to ensure the utmost safety for our passengers. Please stay alert for further announcements.”

Yakushima was a tiny, sparsely-populated island made up of mostly forest. There were small ports for ferries, but other than that, it might be difficult to find the tools necessary to fix our engine. We could bet on staying there for at least a week or two.

“Well, this should be entertaining,” Piko said with an unusual light in his eyes.

“Mhm, fun and games!” Flower responded cheerfully.

But the others didn’t share the same sentiment. “Isn’t that kind of… dangerous?” Rana questioned carefully. “I mean, the engine’s important, so what if we don’t get there in time?”

“We will,” I reassured her. “We can’t be more than a few hundred kilometers from the shore. I’m sure we’ll be there in a matter of hours.”

“If you say so.”

“Worrying isn’t going to help us with anything, and I’m hungry. Let’s go eat,” Miki demanded.

“Yeah. Sounds good to me!”

~~~

The sun had set by the time we docked at one of Yakushima’s northern ports. The southern part of Japan was much warmer than the snowy weather I was used to back in the North, but the others seemed to welcome it wholeheartedly.

That night, Fukase sat on his bed, sketching by lamplight on a small notepad he had found in the room. His hands moved with subtle, graceful moments, hardly fazed by the lack of proper light.

His skin is so pale, I thought. Like porcelain.

“What are you drawing?” I asked curiously as I sat down beside him.

“Just one of the birds I saw earlier. I tried to draw it as accurately as possible, but… do you know what it is?”

He handed me the notepad to examine. It really was quite detailed and I could identify it almost immediately.

“It’s a North Pacific albatross. One of the few types of albatross that can actually survive in tropical waters.”

“It kind of looks like a giant seagull, at least the upper body, right?” He asked as he wrote the name down.

“I suppose. Although the neck is kind of longer…”

Our conversation about birds and their habitats lasted well into the night. For someone who didn’t speak much, it was surprisingly easy to make conversation with Fukase.

Any stress that was left over from Yohio’s announcement waned as the moon rose and we drifted off to sleep. The peace, as always, was welcome.

Chapter 14: Sable

The ship was in disarray the following morning. The few moments of peace I had shared with Fukase the previous night were well past over as passengers stirred and panicked.

As we walked through the halls to get to the dining room, the noise was apparent—people in their rooms talked in loud, corybantic voices and telephones clicked frantically as they tried to reach their loved ones. Even Fukase seemed concerned, which surprised me since he seemed to be pretty aloof about most affairs.

“Hey, Olikase!” Miki greeted us warmly once we reached the dining hall.

“Not you too…” I grumbled under my breath.

“Fine morning, isn’t it? The ship’s stopped at this… uh… this very interesting and unique island! Truly beautiful, right?”

“She’s in denial,” Rana said quietly.

“Yeah, it’s a nice morning,” I said, deciding to humor her for now. “Where are Flower and Piko?”

“Oh, they’re sitting over there.” Rana pointed behind us to a small table in the back of the dining hall. Flower was staring out the window next to them while Piko talked in a low, serious voice. Flower seemed mostly uninterested in whatever he had to say, though.

Miki, Rana, Fukase and I sat down at the table in front of them. Piko immediately stopped talking once he saw us coming over.

“Good morning to you all,” he said in his usual dignified manner.

“Morning,” Miki responded lazily.

“Any updates for us, Oliver? Do you know if we’re getting down at the island or if we have to stay on board?”

I felt my throat seize up as they all turned their attention towards me. “Well, I don’t know anything for sure, but I’m pretty sure we’re staying on the ship for now. Once my brother determines how long we’ll have to stay here, he’ll be able to tell us if we can disembark or not.”

“Fair enough,” Piko said after a moment of silence.

“Come on, there are better things to talk about!” Miki said. “Like, what if we played I-Spy? Yakushima edition!”

“Sounds good to me!” Rana replied in an attempt to lighten the mood.

As they played their game (and tried to get Piko and Fukase invested in it too), I couldn’t help but notice that Flower seemed out of it. She spent the entire time staring into the sable depths of the island’s forest, absentmindedly chewing her food. I couldn’t tell if she was just tired or if something was indeed on her mind.

Whatever, if something’s wrong, then she’ll probably talk to Piko about it, I thought gloomily.

They kept talking as if it was any other morning, but my thoughts began to drift. By some instinctive sense, I felt that it was absolutely necessary for me to get down on the island. I had always been a curious person, but this was different.

This was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. There was something outlandishly alluring about the island and its slim, gentle, sandy banks and its dim, cedar forests. It was easy to forget such a beautiful place even existed in Japan.

I made up my mind then and there to ask Yohio if I could go. Whatever it took, I wanted to explore the island. It was too unique an offer to pass up.

Besides, it seemed like something Fukase would like, too. Maybe it could get us some time alone. After all, there were some rather… sensitive things I wanted to speak with him about.

After breakfast, I solemnly walked over to the bridge where Yohio was, rehearsing my request over and over in my mind.

“Absolutely not.”

“But why? I’ll just tag along with you when you go down there! I don’t have to go alone or anything. It’ll be fine.”

“Oliver, this island is hardly inhabited. There’s a town with a ferry stop and that’s pretty much it. It would be way too easy for you to get lost.”

“I never intended to stray far.”

“No. Besides, if something were to happen to you, mom and dad would never forgive me. Especially after what happened back in London—”

He froze.

I averted my eyes compunciously. “I get it. Nevermind then.”

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up—”

“It’s ok. I’ll stay on the ship.”

I trudged back to my room, staring blankly into space. No way was I going to let such a trifling smudge from my past hinder this experience.

“Something wrong?” I looked up to see Fukase standing across the room from me. I had been so upset and lost in thought that I didn’t even notice him come in.

“It’s—it’s nothing major.”

“Then tell me.” It took me a moment to realize that he had said the words in English. He sat down beside me on the sofa and directed his full attention to me. His gaze was so intent that I felt my cheeks heating up with sheepishness.

“No, it’s just that I really wanted to go explore the island, but my brother won’t let me. He says he doesn’t want me to get hurt and brought up what happened in London…”

“With those friends of yours? Who were kidnapped?”

“Exactly. He’s just being paranoid though! It had nothing to do with me. Besides, that was London and this is Japan. It’s so much safer here, and the chances of something like that happening near me are extremely slim.”

“You’re right; it doesn’t make sense logically, but of course he’s worried for you. He cares for you a lot.”

I sighed ruefully. “But still, it’s been years. I can’t believe something like that, an event I thought we were over and done with is coming back to haunt me. And such great timing too.” I looked at him in his bright ruby eyes and suddenly, an idea popped into my mind. “Say, how old are you again?”

“Sixteen.”

Aha! If I convince Yohio that someone older than me will be with me the whole time, then maybe—

“I know what you’re thinking, and it probably won’t work,” he deadpanned in a heartbeat. “I don’t know your brother that well, but he doesn’t seem like the type of person to let up so easily. It’s gonna take a lot more convincing than that.”

I knew he was right, but didn’t want to face the truth. I could feel myself getting seriously agitated now—and it was over such a seemingly trivial thing, too.

I hadn’t wanted things to come to this, but it seemed that there was no other way. “Then we’ll just have to sneak out.”

“Oliver, are you crazy? What’ll happen if your brother finds out?”

“He’ll never let me out of his sight again, so the plan is to not get caught.”

Fukase sighed, but as expected, he gave in. “Fine. But at least tell me why you want to do this so badly.”

“I can’t keep living in the shadow of my past,” I answered simply. The slightest smile blossomed on Fukase’s lips, almost tiny enough for me to miss it. My brother had constantly been trying to protect me from the world after my parents entrusted me to him, but I had to do something on my own for once, right? There was simply no point in living in fear of something that happened years ago.

We quickly devised a plan for when the gangway was dropped and Yohio and his crew would disembark. So long as we could bribe the crew members into turning a blind eye when we left the vessel, too, everything would go smoothly.

“Should we take the others?” Fukase asked.

“No, it might get too messy. Do you want them to come along?”

“Not really,” he smiled and abashedly admitted.

“That’s what I thought. Come on, let’s go. My brother’s probably about ready to disembark by now.”

We exited our room and got to the lower deck as inconspicuously as possible, doing our best to avoid any prying eyes that might be following our movements. We made it down to the lower deck in no time at all and were greeted with the sight of Yohio putting his coat on, embellished with Hime’s crest. I grabbed Fukase’s arm and pulled him back around the corner to ensure that we wouldn’t be seen.

I peeked over the hall’s corner, covert as ever, and watched for the moment my brother disembarked across the gangway.

Fukase and I exchanged a few hushed words until, finally, Yohio and a few crew members started walking down the gangway. Once Yohio had finished crossing and turned away from the vessel, I hurried across the hallway, gesturing for Fukase to follow.

To our surprise, there was no need to bribe the crew members—they all turned a blind eye; it was like we didn’t exist. A part of me was deeply unsettled and wanted to stop and question it, but after remembering the strong surge of curiosity I felt upon gazing at the island, I abandoned my inhibitions.

I got to the gangway and sprinted across the pier, Fukase closely in tow. There was a cabin on the beach, just a few yards away, which we had decided to hide behind until the crew moved away.

“How long will it take before they leave?” Fukase asked. I was somewhat winded, but to my surprise, Fukase seemed perfectly fine.

“Shouldn’t be long. After all…the entire cruise ship’s waiting. He wouldn’t want to stray too far away from schedule and probably wants to spend as little time here as possible…”

It turns out I was right; within a few minutes, they had disappeared from view. Fukase and I grinned at each other, eager to explore the island for ourselves.

Notes:

Alright, that's all I have pre-written! I can't say when the next update will be, but hopefully it won't take too long. See you then~

Chapter 15: Vermillion

I briefly debated taking the beach path against the forest path, but Fukase and I both agreed that the forest path would be far more entertaining. Besides, the forest was what had drawn me to this island in the first place. It would be a waste not to explore it.

I pulled out my map of Yakushima, something I had procured from Yohio’s room in our cabin. Although there wasn’t much civilization on Yakushima, there were enough landmarks to navigate by.

The forest path wasn’t too long and therefore didn’t run a risk of us getting lost, but wasn’t disappointingly short either: a suitable adventure for two unfamiliar amateurs. We settled on the most direct path to the small town by a different beach than the one we had docked at.

And so, we steadily made our way through the dense foliage. I couldn’t help but feel envious of Fukase’s light, gentle steps as opposed to my cranky stumbling that was sure to alert the entire forest of our presence. Despite the noise I was making, however, there was still plenty of wildlife to explore.

Light, gentle birdsong permeated the crisp air, as well as the ringing of cicadas in high summer: they were singing a song just for us.

“Oliver, are these yakusugi trees?” Fukase asked, his voice hushed as to not disturb the quiet serenity of the forest.

Sure enough, yakusugi trees towered above us, stretching their branches to the vast, hidden sky. The ones closer to the beach had a more ashy color to their bark, but as we trekked further inland, their colors grew richer.

“Yeah, they are,” I confirmed.

“Do you think we’ll get to see Jomon Sugi?”

Jomon Sugi was a gigantic sugi tree, believed to be the oldest in Yakushima and possibly in all of Japan. In the unlikely event that we actually sought it out, it could take days to hike all the way there.

“Probably not. After all, it’s closer to the center of the island. We’re just remaining on the outskirts for now.”

Fukase pouted slightly, but I knew he understood. Even with a map, in a dense forest where almost every tree looked the same, it would be more than easy to get lost without a guide. Besides, we had to get back on the ship before my brother did, or we’d be in huge trouble if he found out.

Only Fukase would get pouty over not being able to go see a special tree, I thought adoringly. It was these strange qualities about him that were so endearing.

Our hike continued on in quaint tranquility; as I got more acquainted with the land, my footfalls grew softer and more adept, only stumbling occasionally. Just as I finished that thought, I tripped on what seemed like a mound of rocks and mud and was sent flying—

Only to be caught by gentle, firm arms wrapping around my torso and immediately hoisting me up.

“Watch it,” he hissed. I was shocked at his sudden change in tone before he continued, “you almost fell on that.”

“That what?”

“That.”

“Where am I looking?”

He tilted my chin, looking from over my shoulder and pointed to a small heap of sprigs and leaves by the base of a tree.

“That.”

It took me a minute to figure out what it was. There, hidden in the undergrowth, was a bird’s nest.

“I don’t know why it’s on the ground, though…” Fukase mumbled.

Only then did I notice how close he was to me—his breath tickled my jaw as he spoke. I felt color rush to my cheeks, but nonetheless tugged him along by the hand and ventured closer to the nest.

“It probably belongs to a ryukyu robin, then,” I murmured, kneeling and pulling Fukase down with me. “They often migrate to sea-level forests during the mating months and until August, so it’s not totally unbelievable that we’d find one.”

As we crept closer, a soft chirping was heard. We both peered over the edge of the nest to find a mother robin feeding her babies.

Fukase gave a slight gasp of astonishment, and it took everything I had not to do the same.

From somewhere above us, we heard another robin’s call—high and elegant and sweet.

“It must be this bird’s mate signaling danger,” I explained. “It thinks we’re predators.”

“We should probably get going, then. I don’t wanna scare them…”

The female bird in the nest responded with a call much more shrill and peculiar.

“Yeah, let’s go.” I stood up, only to realize that my hand was still glued to his. I let go gently, not wanting him to get the wrong idea from any abruptness.

We continued on through the dim forest, pointing out more birdsongs along the way, as well as any interesting insects that caught our eyes.

It wasn’t much longer before we reached a clearing. Not exactly a clearing, to be precise, but the trees certainly thinned, signaling a change in terrain. A bit more sun filtered in from above us, and signs of wildlife were fewer and sparser, too. The trees here seemed smaller and younger, as if this place had only been opened up mere decades ago.

Wait.

If there was a change in terrain, then…

What about the forest path we were supposedly following?

How far did I lead us astray? Moreover, how could I not notice?

I glared at my map, shooting daggers at it as if that would get us back on track. The sun was high enough in the sky that I could safely say it was already past noon.

Fukase’s silent steps slowed to a grinding halt as he noticed my ire-filled gaze. He didn’t even have to ask what the matter was—we were lost. All he offered was a sigh of quiet understanding.

“I’m sor—”

“Don’t bother.” He wasn’t even upset. The blankness in his tone was terrifying. “Don’t apologize to me. If I go missing here and no one hears from me again, it’s not like it matters. I was just living my life idly and in utter solitude anyway. But if anything were to happen to you…”

His gaze met mine and a pang of guilt hit me like a bullet train at full speed. What had possibly happened that caused him to have such a grave outlook on life? This had never happened, he’d never spoken like this before—

No. Now’s not the time to spiral. I needed control, I needed to be grounded if we were to get out of here.

“Nothing will happen to me. Nothing’s gonna happen to either of us,” I said, more to myself than to him.

Pleasant birdsong continued to permeate the air, far too cheerful for our current circumstances, and I turned back to the map. Such a change in terrain as the one we had stumbled across had to be noted somewhere.

I was so absorbed in studying the map that it took me a few moments to be cognizant of the lack of birdsong.

The air seemed to still and grow heavy.

And then, footsteps.

My head snapped up. Those footsteps were far too loud to be Fukase’s; he was hardly in front of me, anyway. The sound of those footsteps were further away, somewhere ahead of us.

Fukase glanced at me, then in the direction of those unnatural noises.

“Is someone there?” I called tentatively.

The air unfroze, and they ran.

“Hey, wait!”

Without a moment’s thought, I ran after them. This could be our chance of escape from the forest, perhaps from this island entirely.

I didn’t have to look back to know that Fukase was following me swiftly. The mystery person’s blonde hair flashed as they navigated expertly through the ever-thinning trees, as if they’d run this as an obstacle course thousands of times just for sport.

An attempt to lose us. I gritted my teeth and sped along.

The trees thinned further and were replaced with towering shrubs and bushes. I sharpened my vision as much as possible, trying to catch a glimpse of our rather subpar guide, but they ran low and close to the bushes, allowing them to obstruct my view.

Twigs and low-cut branches tore at my jeans, but still, I ran with Fukase close in tow—

Until I skidded to a blistering halt.

Fukase just barely stopped himself from crashing into me, and we clutched onto each other to keep one another from falling.

Wheezing and gasping for breath, I gingerly peered over the precipitous dropoff. It fell for some fifteen meters before another layer of land took over with a waterfall that crashed and roared beneath us.

I backed away from the precarious cliff, nudging Fukase further behind me. Within seconds, he had already caught his breath, but I needed more time. Whipping out my map, I scanned the contents with furious eyes.

We could only be at Okonotaki Falls, one of the few notable waterfalls on the island.

Fukase cleared his throat behind me. “Um, I’m sorry. For what I said earlier.” I blinked at him, puzzled. “I know you’re worried and just trying to do your best to get us back. It’ll be fine. We’ll find a way, so—”

“Find a way? What way?” My eyes grew misty. “We’re lost on a hardly-inhabited island that we know virtually nothing about with some shady weirdo out here trying to lure us possibly to our deaths—” I choked back a sob.

I wanted to show Yohio that I could take care of myself, that I’d be fine on my own. I had to prove that I wasn’t the same scared little eleven-year-old boy back in London, quivering over my friends’ disappearance. And of course, I just had to do it on a sparsely-populated island in the middle of nowhere.

I felt Fukase firmly gripping my arms, trying to ground me from my growing hysteria, but it was to no avail. His hands were too warm, and my body was too cold, and the cicadas were too loud and the wind was too strong and the water roared in my ears—

And as suddenly as the onslaught began, it disappeared.

Chapter 16: Garnet

I woke up with a start, unable to tell if it was dawn or dusk. I was in a bed of plain beige; it was lumpy and tough and I couldn’t imagine how I had possibly slept on it. I sat up, shoving away the blaring dizziness that assaulted me. From the looks of it, the room I was in was part of a log cabin. Layers of warm brown cedar lined the walls as filtered sun streamed in through a window opposite to my bed.

I tried to stand up, but a pang of vertigo shot through me. I cradled my head in my hands, pressing my palms to my eyes to staunch the dizziness.

After a few moments, the door clicked open.

Enter Fukase, holding a tray of breakfast foods—a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast with miniature jars of jam. The sunlight danced in a halo around his head, dyeing his hair in hues of gold and flaming garnet.

Wait, actually, was I still dreaming?

I gaped at him stupidly as he walked over and set the tray of steaming food on the table beside my bed.

“It’s a relief that you’re awake,” he murmured, and sat himself down. “What happened back there? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I mumbled, reaching for the tray of food. “Where did all this food come from, by the way?” I was desperate to change the subject.

“After I brought you here, I decided to explore the cabin a bit, and I happened to find some food in the kitchen. It looks like someone lives here or was here recently—but I figured it would be fine if I could get them to understand our situation. If they come back.”

I nodded, chewing my food thoughtfully. The bacon reminded me of home—of London. Yohio and I had eaten bacon very rarely in Japan, so I still mentally linked it to my earlier childhood.

“Say, where are we, anyway?”

“Actually, I thought you might know, since you were the one with the map and all.”

I fished for the map in my pockets, but it was to no avail. I must’ve dropped it by the waterfall. I hadn’t remembered seeing a cabin anywhere on the map, anyway. There was a small town, but as far as I could see outside the windows, it didn’t seem as though we had reached civilization. This cabin was the only “building” for a while.

“Anyway, after you fainted—”

“Fainted? I don’t faint.”

“Fine, after you swooned—”

“Swooned!? That’s even worse!”

“Whatever! After you passed out. How’s that?” I nodded for him to continue. “After you passed out, I waited for a few minutes because I thought you’d wake up. But you didn’t, so I looked for a place to stay for a while until you recovered.”

“So… then… did you carry me the whole way here?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you mean ‘yeah?’”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

If only I could’ve stopped my ears from burning through sheer power of will. Just how strong was he, anyway? He surely didn’t look muscular at all. Pushing the thought aside, I cleared my throat. “Well, anyhow, it’s not like we can stay here forever,” I sighed, “but I lost the map, we have no clue where we are, and no idea how to get back to the dock.”

Fukase picked at the bedsheets absently. “We could just wait for whoever the owner of this cabin is to get back.”

“But that could take ages,” I replied. “What if they’ve gone to the mainland? What if they’re planning to be gone for a while? Or what if this is just their vacation cabin and they don’t really stay here?”

“Hey, it’ll be fine,” he said as an attempt to comfort me.

It wasn’t working.

How could he be so calm about it all? Was he not worried in the slightest about Yohio’s ship leaving before we could find our way back? Clearly he was more used to being on his own than I was, but that was no excuse.

Suddenly, my mind drifted to what he had said back in the clearing. If no one ever hears from me again, it’s not like it matters, he had said. But why? It was so sudden, so out of the blue and unlike him.

“So…” he wrung his hands awkwardly. It was hard not to laugh. This was the Fukase I knew—peculiar but not weirdly so. “Um. Should I leave, or…”

“You can stay if you want.”

“Are you okay, though? Do you feel sick or anything?”

“I’ve got a migraine, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

“I’ll go check and see if there’s any aspirin around here.” He stood up brusquely—clumsily—and as he left the room, I noticed that his cheeks were flushed pink.

Cute.

~~~

Fukase hurried down the short flight of stairs, bumbling and inept, and cursed himself inwardly. Why, why, why?

Why had Oliver been looking at him in that sad, pitiful way, as if he was a kicked puppy on a rainy day? And why did he just have to spout all that miserable nonsense in the clearing?

He huffed a sigh of annoyance at his past self and brushed a few stray curls away from his eyes. The cabin was bigger than it had appeared from the outside, so searching might take a while. There hadn’t been any medicine in the kitchen, so he’d have to ransack all of the other rooms until he found something of use.

The pantry was filled with ingredients and spices galore, from paprika and pepper to star anise and cumin and saffron. Bags of flour lined the bottom and shelves filled with bottled spices layered almost until the ceiling.

But still, no medicine here.

He checked the drawing room and the study—Why is there a study in a getaway cabin?—but it was to no avail. The study was pretty, though: encyclopedias on plants and animals of Japan and the world decorated one shelf, while another was stacked with papers and parchments and writing utensils. A desk of cedarwood stood between them, a few ink splotches staining it instead of eyes of the wood grain.

With the tall windows above the shelves and the skylight above, it would be the perfect place to draw sometime. Fukase resolved to show Oliver the study before they left—it would be a waste to leave the place behind without appreciating it together.

Of course, there was no medicine to be found there, either; the search carried on.

Wait, don’t some old people put medicine in their bathrooms? Fukase thought, and went to investigate.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a bathroom connected to the master bedroom, only one downstairs. It was quite spacious, too; each area was separated and the powder area was surrounded by three mirrors.

Inevitably, Fukase caught a glimpse of himself. A glimpse which turned into a stare.

He hadn’t seen his own reflection in months, years perhaps. His red hair fell in unruly curls over his forehead and down the nape of his neck, and a night sky of freckles had made themselves at home on his cheeks. His eyes, once bright ruby red with a fierce and curious light, had dimmed to sputtering embers—but what did he care? He was barely alive. Appearance was the least of his concerns.

After a few moments, he tore his eyes away from his reflection and started sifting through the cabinets.

“Did no one ever tell you that trespassing is a crime?”

Fukase flinched grandly, slamming the cabinet shut. He whirled around, eyes wide as he tried to find the voice’s source.

“Oh dear, I didn’t mean to scare you,” the disembodied voice continued. “Think of it as a friendly reminder.”

Fukase swallowed dryly and tried to steady himself. “I’m, uh, I’m sorry. My friend was feeling ill, so I was looking for help when I found this cabin. I’ll leave if you want.”

“Don’t worry about it! Feel free to stay as long as you’d like.”

“Weren’t you just upset about us trespassing a moment ago?”

“Of course, you can’t stay here for free. Everything comes with a price.”

Fukase stifled a sigh. “How much do you want?”

“Oh please, I don’t need your money.”

What does this guy want? By now, he was annoyed. Why was everyone on this island an absolute nutcase? Or maybe… was it the same person who had led them to the waterfall?

“Tell you what,” Fukase began, taking on a negotiative stance. “Why don’t you show me who you are and we’ll work something out?”

The voice chuckled. “You’ve always been a clever one, Fukase.”

“How do you know my—” Fukase turned around and came face to face with someone all too familiar.

The air seemed to still and time stalled around them.

“Len? What are you doing here…?” His voice trailed off in disbelief. Standing between him and the mirror was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy—his childhood friend. The friend he’d known when his parents died, the friend who had supported him and whose family had taken him to live in Japan with his remaining relatives.

Fukase was filled with joy and confusion all at once. Of course he was glad to see his friend after years of separation, but he couldn’t push aside a growing feeling of unease that something was wrong, something had changed. That’s right, he thought—the person who had led them to the cliff was blonde, too, and shared the same neat, lithe form that Len did. He didn’t want to believe it, but forced the question out.

“Back in the clearing, the one who led us to the cliff—was that you?”

“No, of course not,” Len laughed dryly. “I’ve never been athletic, you know me. That was Rin.”

A twinge of dread wracked Fukase’s brain. Rin was Len’s twin sister: where one went, the other was sure to follow. Was this some kind of sick joke? Some conspiracy? Rin and Len were Fukase’s friends, so why would they want to hurt him? Nothing made any sense.

Len smiled disconcertingly—it didn’t reach his eyes. “Tell you what.” Fukase stiffened. “We’ll let you and your friend stay here for two days. We won’t bother you or pry at all! You get the cabin to yourself. Once those two days are up, I’ll send you instructions on how we’ll collect your…payment. Think of it as a rent, for now.”

“Alright,” Fukase tried to sound confident. “Deal.”

They shook hands and Len turned to leave.

“Oh, by the way,” Fukase started, “do you have any aspirin here?”

“Check the kitchen cabinet, the one over the sink. There should be something in there.” Len smiled. This time, it was genuine.

As soon as he left and the shock wore off, a million questions flooded Fukase’s mind. I should’ve asked why he’s here, he thought, and what he’s been doing and how he’s been all these years and why he never came to visit me and…

He shook his head, trying to clear the last of the stupor that his long-lost friend had cast over him. Was that even really him? He seemed so cold and strangely distant…well, it had been almost ten years, after all.

Choosing to ignore the sudden manner Len had disappeared in, Fukase made his way to the kitchen. Although he had previously found no medicine of the sort, sure enough, there was a small bottle of aspirin in the cabinet. He pocketed the bottle and made his way back to Oliver’s room, pausing only to glance into the study once more, before continuing on his way.

That’s it? Fukase wondered as he trudged up the stairs. The encounter with Len had left him with more questions than answers. Thinking about any detail in particular made his head throb with dull disquiet. Fukase had imagined being reunited with his childhood friends countless times over the years, but not even his wildest imagination had prepared him for what he just witnessed. It had all happened so fast; before he could understand the situation or even think about what he wanted to say, Len was gone. As if the shock, or maybe just Len’s sudden presence itself, had numbed his mind.

Fukase turned down the hall, resolving to shelve his thoughts for the moment. He knocked on Oliver’s door and paused a few brief moments before letting himself in.

“Hey, Oliver, I found some—”

But Fukase immediately shut up, because Oliver was already fast asleep, tucked under the pale beige sheets and out like a light.

Cute.

Chapter 17: Verdant

Afternoon came and went in a hazy blur. I woke up briefly and noticed that Fukase had left a bottle of aspirin on my nightstand along with a neatly penned note and a glass of water.

I took one aspirin tablet to dull the throbbing in my head and tried to read Fukase’s note. Something about staying in the cabin for a few days and a… a study? Why was there a study in a cabin in the middle of nowhere? I ended up dozing off in the middle of reading, and before I knew it, the next morning had arrived.

I awoke to the dawn sun’s red rays streaming through my window—it was becoming a trend, I couldn’t help but notice.

I trudged downstairs, still covered in a lethargic haze from sleep, to see Fukase already cooking breakfast for the two of us. The cabin seemed much brighter and alive than it had last night. It took me a moment to notice the reason why.

Fukase had cleaned up the place. Like, a lot.

The curtains had been properly dusted, letting daylight stream into the room much clearer; he had cleaned off most surfaces, too. The cedarwood table looked perfectly maintained—polished, even.

He must’ve spent the entire day yesterday cleaning, I thought. Well, it’s not like he had much else to do. I felt a bit guilty about him working hard all day while I slept, but I decided not to think about it too hard.

“Good morning,” Fukase said when he finally noticed me at the foot of the stairs. “You’re awake early today.”

“Good morning to you too.” I crossed the dining area to where he was in the kitchen to see what he was making.

Pancakes.

It was all I could do to stop myself from hugging him right then and there. I hadn’t had pancakes in what seemed like forever—

“I was going to surprise you,” Fukase said, pouting slightly. “Well, cat’s outta the bag now. Can you get syrup from the cabinet over there? It’s on the right.”

I grabbed the maple syrup and set the table with giddy excitement. What did I do to deserve this? I wondered as happiness bubbled in my chest. And also, why were pancake ingredients just lying around in this cabin, anyway? I resolved to ask Fukase about it later, not wanting to dim the mood.

A few moments later, he set a stack of steaming pancakes in front of me. I poured a generous amount of syrup on top and downed the whole stack within minutes. I grinned and finally looked up to thank Fukase when I noticed him staring at me.

Oh no, did he think my smile looked weird? Or, heaven forbid, was there food stuck between my teeth?

“Is something wrong?” I asked tentatively.

“Huh? No, of course not.” He cleared his throat. “It’s just… I’m glad that you can still smile in a situation like this.”

Oh. So that’s what it was.

“I mean, before, you seemed really anxious about our… predicament. So I’m glad you’re doing okay,” he continued.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m okay.”

Fukase cleared our dishes and took them to the sink, so I stood up to follow him and help.

“It’s okay Oliver, I’ll do it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” I nudged him out of the way to make space for myself at the sink. “I rested all day yesterday, so you don’t have to worry about me.” He looked like he wanted to object, but didn’t say anything. I smiled triumphantly.

Suddenly, I had an idea. “By the way,” I said, “I was thinking. Let’s go for a walk or something. Explore the area, maybe, and see if anyone’s around.”

He stopped and turned to me with an unreadable expression that shifted to discomfort. He looked like he was stifling the urge to sigh. “No offense, Oliver… but that’s a terrible idea.”

My smile dropped. “Why not… why can’t we go?”

He averted his eyes. “I mean, we have no idea where we are. It’s probably better to stay where we are and wait for help to arrive. If we move around too much, then they might not be able to find us—”

“Who might not be able to find us?” He flinched. “There’s no one here. We’d might as well take a look around, understand the lay of the land, you know? And what if civilization is closer than we think? What if we could get off this island right now? Are you really willing to give that up?”

Fukase switched off the faucet wordlessly. How typical.

“You think I can’t do it. That’s it, right?”

“No, that’s not what I—”

“Look, I’m sorry for getting us lost. I get that it’s my fault we’re in this mess in the first place, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try and get us out of it! There has to be something we can do rather than just staying here like sitting ducks!”

I stormed off to my room.

And immediately regretted it.

Fukase probably thought of me as some petulant, capricious child now—great, just what I needed. Right when I wanted him to start trusting me, I ruined things.

How typical.

I sighed and punched one of my pillows halfheartedly. I knew that our situation was my fault in the first place, so now, more than ever, I needed to take responsibility.

I padded down the hallway to the staircase, trying to silence my footsteps as much as possible. Fukase had left the kitchen and was probably in the study, so I didn’t have to worry about avoiding him as I made my way to the front door.

Warm air greeted my skin as I shouldered the wooden door open. It was our second day on the island—nature looked as bright as ever. Brightness in nature could mean beauty just as much as it meant danger.

Twigs and fallen leaves crunched under my sneakers as I moved ahead. To ensure that I didn’t get lost (again), I made mounds of green leaves next to a yakusugi trunk every few meters and hoped it would be enough so that I could make my way back.

This area of the forest was dense, much denser than it was when we were hiking before. The sun was heavily blocked by the canopy and the forest floor was doused in a verdant, mossy green. The breeze that was once welcoming and warm had turned balmy and sticky; even the birds were quiet and lethargic here.

This is impossible, I thought, I’m not getting anywhere.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, a shimmer of gold flashed up ahead. I stayed perfectly still and watched—it was the person who had led us to the waterfall.

This time, I knew better than to chase after them. This time, I’d make them come to me.

Or so I thought, until I heard a voice from behind me.

“Ollie, is that you?” I turned around and she came bounding towards me. “Ohmygosh, it is! It’s been forever!” She wrapped her arms around my neck in an embrace, but I was in too much shock to react. “You look so different now! See, I told you that you’d be taller than me when we got older.”

It took me another moment to find my voice. “Rin. What are you doing here?”

Rin, my childhood friend from London, was here in Japan. As far as I knew, she had no reason to be here, so why…?

“Nothing important! Just here on vacation. What about you?”

“I’m…on vacation too. Sort of. It’s a long story.”

“What a coincidence.” She nodded and I was thankful that she decided not to question anything. In any case, someone else should be here too.

“By the way,” I started again, “Where’s Len?”

“Oh, he just had some… stuff to take care of. We can go meet him soon, though, if you’d like! We should totally catch up sometime, since we’re all here.” Her eyes sparkled brightly even though there wasn’t much light. She had always been like this, charismatic and shimmering and at the front of everyone’s mind.

“Yeah. That would be fun.” My mind had gone blank. There was more I wanted to say, I was sure of it, but all I could think was wow. After four years, I get to see Rin’s smile once again. How bitterly nostalgic.

“I assume you’re staying in the cabin, right? We’re not too far from it.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Great! I’ll tell Len you’re here and we can come visit!” There was a beat of silence. “Hey, shouldn’t you seem a bit happier to see me?” She pinched and pulled my cheeks painfully.

“Ow ow ow! Yesh, I’m berry haffy to shee you!” I mumbled.

She giggled and tousled my hair, just like she used to when she had a height advantage over me. “That’s more like it. I’ll see you soon, so take care, Ollie.”

~~~

Back at the cabin, Fukase’s mind was in turmoil.

He had finally gotten Oliver to lighten up again. Over the past two days, Fukase had learned of Oliver’s tendency to blame himself—and that was the last thing he wanted Oliver to do.

So Fukase did the only thing he knew to do in this situation—he left Oliver alone.

And decided to bake cupcakes.

Sweets would make him feel better, right? Fukase tried not to doubt himself too much as he made his way from the study back to the kitchen. There were plenty of ingredients, no doubt left oh-so-thoughtfully by Len and Rin, so Fukase was able to keep himself busy for the rest of the afternoon.

He baked batch after batch; chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet, until the cabin thoroughly smelled of chocolate and sugar. It was enough to feed a starving village for a month. The idea of sharing the cupcakes with Len and Rin briefly flitted across Fukase’s mind, but he pushed it away and went to check on Oliver instead.

Fukase knocked on Oliver’s door lightly. “Um, hey, Oliver? I know you’re upset with me.” He sighed and sat down by the door. “I didn’t mean to imply that you’re incapable or whatever. You’re one of the most capable people I know. And honestly, I really…” he paused, searching for the right word. “I really admire you for that.”

No response. The air was as still and silent as ever.

“It’s okay if you’re upset with me,” Fukase tried again, with increasing desperation. “Please say something. I’ll make it up to you…” he trailed off, his voice hardly above a whisper.

A few moments passed. Then minutes. Fukase tugged at the overgrown curls that curtained his forehead and stood up to leave. “I made cupcakes for you, by the way. They’re downstairs, if you want.”

Silence again.

Unease ate at Fukase’s mind. Something seemed off—Oliver wasn’t the type to hold a grudge like this.

He gingerly tried the doorknob. It was unlocked.

Fukase pushed the door open and peered in, dread flooding through his veins.

Oliver was gone.

Chapter 18: Jade

“Where have you been? ”

I hated the emotions on Fukase’s face—confusion, concern, frustration, disappointment. Not that I could blame him. 

“It’s just as I said earlier,” I sighed as I pushed past him through the doorway. “I wanted to go for a walk and explore our surroundings.”

Fukase stared at me in disbelief. A part of me didn’t even want to know what he was thinking. My own mind was jumbled enough. Out of all the things I imagined might happen when I stepped out of the cabin, meeting Rin was plenty far from any of them. 

For once, I was thankful for Fukase’s silence as I made my way to my room. A part of me wanted to ignore what was happening, but another part of me couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

Rin and Len were kidnapped years ago. So how were they here… on vacation, no less? Nothing added up. 

I sighed. “What am I supposed to do from here…”

~~~

I’m not doing this because I want to, but I have to.  

This was the mantra Rin kept chanting as she made her way back to the headquarters where her brother and higher-ups would be waiting for her report. Guilt steadily ate away at her, but what choice did she have but to ignore it?

“Rin! Over here!” Flower bounded over to her with Piko and Len close in tow. Flower was bright and cheery as usual, but Len wore a grim expression that Rin was sure matched her own. And Piko was, unsurprisingly, as nonchalant as ever.

They weren’t far from headquarters, so Rin walked back with the others. 

“I assume everything went smoothly?” Piko asked. 

“Of course,” Rin replied, trying her best not to stammer. 

She took a breath to say something more, but Piko cut her off. “The president wants to see you. Make sure you’re presentable and we’ll take you to her at your soonest convenience. Okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Len, you’re invited too.”

“Understood.”

A few moments later, they came to a shimmering glade. Dewy grass shone a shimmering jade and the air seemed to still around the party of four. The forest sounds grew muted as if mufflers had been placed over their ears. 

And then, as if time was unpaused, the wind and the sounds resumed as a tall, blue building glimmered into view. 

Whether it was magic or unfathomable technology, no one knew. The first time Rin and Len had been here, they were astounded at the surrealism of it all—but now, the glamoured headquarters had just become another part of their mundane reality. 

The window panes glinted in the dappled sunlight as it stretched up and into the forest’s canopy and Rin shivered as she passed under the building’s shadow. 

She and Len split off from the group to freshen up in their own rooms. The east wing of their headquarters was the residential area, where all of the President’s underlings stayed. Len and Rin’s rooms were separate but conjoined; it was a convenient setup for both of them. 

Rin tried her best to calm her sputtering heart as she washed her face, but couldn’t help recalling Oliver’s shocked expression when she had run into him in the forest. He had changed so much—no doubt she had, too. Four years was a long time, after all. 

But more than that, the guilt from what she had done before was growing unbearable. 

She had led Oliver and Fukase to the edge of a waterfall—they could’ve died if something went wrong. And then she had the nerve to break into the hidden cabin while he was sleeping and drug him? Oliver, her best childhood friend? 

What kind of monster had this island turned her into?

It’s not my fault. It wasn’t my fault, I swear… Rin slowed her breathing like her mother had taught her numerous years ago. Once she had gotten her breathing and heart rate in check, she left her room to regroup with the others. 

Flower and Piko “escorted” the twins to the President’s room, but in reality, the twins were like a storm cloud that shadowed their higher-ups through the halls. Flower had her arm linked with Piko’s as she chattered loudly about some cool frog she found in the forest, and Rin nodded along gloomily until they reached their destination.

“You’ve been here long enough, so we’ll skip the formalities of reviewing the rules,” Piko said, unlocking the door. He stepped inside to inform the President of their arrival. 

No more than a few moments later, the President’s voice rang out. “You may enter.” Her voice flowed out into the hallway, tingling Rin’s senses with frost. She and Len slipped inside, and the door was shut behind them. 

Before them sat the President at the head of her table. Her sea-green hair tumbled about her shoulders in two long twintails, rivers of color against her pale skin which shone like moonlight on a midnight sea. 

Everything about her radiated ethereal beauty. Rin resisted the urge to shudder as the President’s calm, sapphire eyes bore into her. She was too perfect—terrifyingly so.

“Rin and Len! I was looking forward to meeting you today. Please, take a seat and help yourself.” She gestured to the assortment of sweets and desserts that decorated the table before her. The sickly sweet scent was enough to make Rin’s head spin.

“Thank you for your hospitality, my Lady,” Len’s calm voice reverberated through the room, grounding her. As they sat down, the President’s name tag resting on the table shook, and its metal caught Rin’s eye. President Miku Hatsune.

The President waited for them to get settled before continuing. “I presume the seeds have been planted?”

“Yes, my Lady,” Rin finally found it in her to speak up. “We’ve made contact with both targets.”

“Splendid!” Miku clapped her hands. “You’ve worked hard these past few years, both of you. Tell me, is there anything you desire?”

Rin glanced at her brother surreptitiously and he nodded for her to go first. She took a deep breath and stated her wish. 

“My Lady, as you said, we have worked under you loyally for years. But despite that, we are still very unaware of what your goals are. All I request is that you… you might provide us with some knowledge. Don’t make us work in the dark, please.”

Miku sat back in her adorned chair and tapped her chin thoughtfully. Her sparkling eyes wandered up to the ceiling as she considered the request. “Why might that be necessary?”

“My Lady, we’ve been working diligently for you ever since you kindly brought us to this island and generously gave us a home. So please… just tell us what you truly want with our friends. This will only help us aid your cause.”

“My, my, bold today, are we?” Lady Miku smiled with chilling grace as her gaze returned to meet Rin’s eyes.

Rin could hear her brother suck in a nervous breath from behind her. To her surprise, he spoke. “My Lady, she didn’t mean anything by it. Please don’t heed her—”

“Len, darling, it’s no problem. Really.” Her eyes didn’t move from where Rin perched at the edge of her chair, head bowed. Her hands grew clammy as Miku’s gaze seemed to sharpen. “Come here.”

Rin stood up, trying to reject the tremors that wracked her every nerve. 

“You understand that what I’m here to do is for the greater good, yes?” Miku asked sweetly. Rin nodded for her to continue. “On this island, I’ve been collecting people. Like a doll collection! Isn’t that wonderful? However, I only collect the most special and gifted people to stay here with me—the most carefully crafted dolls, if you will. This island fuels those people’s gifts, and in return, such gifts bring power and life into the world. Do you understand?”

Rin shook her head like a school child who forgot to complete her reading assignment as Len watched with increasing concern. 

Miku chuckled with angelic patience. “Let me put it this way. 

“If, for example, your friend gives you food in a container to take home, what do you do when you’re done with the food?”

“You… return the container, of course.”

“But first, you put snacks in the container as a sort of ‘thank you’ for lending the container and giving you food in the first place. That way, it’s an equal exchange between friends and no one feels left out. Here, on this island, it’s the same principle. We draw power from the island, and in return, we use that power to help the wider population.”

“What does this have to do with Oliver and Fukase, though?”

“Those two boys are very special. Remember what I said about collecting people on the island? Those who I allow on the island must possess some power on their own. Your friends are two such people, which is why I have brought them here.”

Rin wanted to ask for more details, but didn’t dare to press beyond Miku’s patience. She pretended to be satisfied with Miku’s explanation and bid her well wishes. She and Len exited the room with quiet caution. 

The silence was hurriedly interrupted, though, as they ran into an arguing Flower and Piko. 

“Ooh, are those fruit snacks? Gimme one!” Flower grabbed at the packet of fruit snacks in Piko’s hand, looping an arm around his neck.

“If I give you a fruit snack, will it get you off of me?”

“Probably not.”

Piko sighed and handed her the whole packet of fruit snacks anyway. Flower pumped her fist and, as promised, ate her fruit snacks while glued to Piko’s side. 

Those two really are inseparable, huh? Rin thought wistfully. She and Oliver used to be like that, back when they lived in London together. For a long time, Rin thought that she’d always be closer to Oliver even than her own brother.

But oh, how wrong she was. 

If she and Len had never been brought to the island, she wondered, would she and Oliver have been like Flower and Piko? Maybe she never had a chance to begin with, but it was always easier to romanticize the past. 

At least she knew that Len would have her back. Len would protect her and support her as long as he was around. But of course, all of that could change with a snap of Miku’s dainty fingers. 

“Oh! Rin and Len! Did you get me any snackies from the Prez’s room?” Flower peeled herself away from Piko and searched Rin for any sign of cookies or cupcakes or scones. 

“Sorry, Flower, we forgot. Maybe next time.” Flower harrumphed in dismay and skulked off to bother Piko once more. 

Finally, some time alone, Rin thought as she heaved a sigh of relief. It was still early afternoon, so she and Len would have the rest of the day to themselves. Peace and quiet for a few hours would have to be enough.

Chapter 19: Emerald

As the afternoon drawled on, Rin knew just who she needed to visit. 

She walked through the residential wing halls, looking for the door she needed. She knocked twice, and within a few moments, her best friend answered. 

“Rin! It’s you.”

“Gumi!” Rin hugged her friend tightly, savoring her comforting warmth. Gumi’s green hair tickled Rin’s shoulders, but she didn’t care in the slightest. 

“You look a little pale, are you alright?” Rin shook her head wordlessly. “Come with me, let’s go for a walk and you can tell me about it.”

They exited the frigid building and stepped out into the forest’s humid heat. Rin was silent for a few minutes. There were countless things she wanted to say—countless worries that added to her piling anxiety. She was worried about her friends, about Miku’s plan, about her brother. How in the world was she supposed to fix her problems if she had no idea what the heck was going on?

The two were well away from the glade by the time Rin spoke. “I’m… worried about Len.” That’s good, let’s start with that. Baby steps. “He’s been really quiet lately. I mean, he’s always been a bit wary among the others on the island, but lately he won’t even talk to me, either. He always talks to me.

“And you know how he was seeing Lady Miku for some of his difficulties before? He’s still seeing her, but he seems… more wary of her. Like she scared him or something.” Rin’s voice became hushed. “I mean, she’s not someone to hurt people for no reason. But it’s still a ‘what if.’ I just…” she turned to Gumi. “I miss the way he used to be.”

Gumi nodded thoughtfully. “Are you sure it doesn’t have to do with him coming in contact with your targets? You both used to be friends with them, right? That could be tough.”

“No, this started a bit before that.”

Gumi nodded again, adjusting the goggles on her head as the breeze tossed her emerald hair about. “If he won’t talk to you, then there’s nothing you can do but talk to him. I’ve noticed it too, to be honest, and he seems like he’s suffering.” She picked at her jacket sleeves as she spoke. “If it’s really bothering you, then you should approach him.”

“But what if I drive him further away from me?” In the end, that was Rin’s biggest fear. She had lost everything when she came to this island—losing her brother would be unbearable. 

Gumi just smiled. It was a bittersweet expression. “Let me ask you something. You’re grateful to have your brother here with you, yes?”

“Of course. Sometimes I feel like he’s the only one keeping me tethered to reality.”

“Then I’m sure he feels similarly about you,” Gumi replied. “Of course, you shouldn’t pry too hard, but I know he appreciates you too. So don’t be so worried about driving him away—he’ll come back to you. He’s your family, after all.”

That’s right. It was rare to have blood-related family on the island; Rin and Len were the sole exceptions, to their knowledge. Surely that was something Len would appreciate too, right?

“Alright,” Rin agreed. “I’ll try my best.”

 

~~~

 

“Man, I wonder what kinds of goodies the Prez has in store today.” Flower sighed, gazing at the ceiling and swinging her arms happily as she walked down the hall. She and Piko had been summoned to Miku’s room later that day. For what, they had no idea yet.

“Is that really all you think of when we meet her?” 

“Of course I think of other things! And don’t sound so exasperated all the time.”

“Looks like someone learned a new word.”

“Hey!” She punched his arm playfully just as they reached Miku’s office room. “I bet she’s got cupcakes today. Oh, and maybe macarons! What do you think?”

Piko ignored her with cool composure and knocked on the door. 

“You may enter!” came Miku’s voice. 

They entered and Flower immediately gasped at the array of desserts. Cupcakes, éclairs, croissants, and madeleines decorated the table in a splendid display. The table was hardly visible underneath the collection of turrets and platters. 

“You enjoy raspberry chocolate cupcakes, right, Flower?” She nodded emphatically with stars in her eyes. “I prepared them specially for you, so I hope you enjoy them.” The two of them sat at the table, a respectable distance away from the President. “Bon appétit.” 

A few moments passed as they helped themselves to the pastries; even Piko couldn’t resist a madeleine or two. Miku finally cleared her throat, a subtle demand for their attention. 

“I’ve noticed how hard you both have been working,” she began with modest grace, “The job you two have isn’t easy. You’ve secured many targets for us, and for that, I cannot thank you enough.” She paused to take a bite of her red velvet cake. “I must admit, out of all of my top officers, you both by far have helped me make the most progress. You’re some of my most trusted agents, you know that?” Flower nodded enthusiastically once more, fully captivated. “I’m so glad I assigned you both as a unit for these missions.”

Piko laid down his fork with all the refined dignity he could muster. “Thank you for your praise. Coming from you, it’s the highest compliment. However,” he looked up, daring to meet her eyes, “with all due respect, please do not butter us up. If there is something you need, we'll work efficiently at your command.”

Flower, who had clearly been enjoying the shower of praise, glared at her counterpart. Piko pretended not to notice as Miku’s lips curved into a wry smile. 

“Sharp as ever, I see.” Her eyes twinkled with majestic light. “This next task will be slightly different from what you’re used to. You see, I need a glamor cast. Can you do it?”

“State the specificities and it shall be done.”

Miku’s smile only grew at his eagerness. “Cast a glamor on the ship. Make it seem as though those two boys never existed. Specifically the ginger—the previous targets didn’t need a glamor since they were nobodies, but this one will be a bit harder to cover up.”

Piko nodded. “It shall be done. But—and I mean no disrespect—you typically cast glamors by yourself, so why ask us to aid you this time?”

“There’s something else I desperately need to tend to,” she offered vaguely. “By the way, you may take two others to aid you. I recommend Kaito and Gakupo from the third division.”

“Understood. Thank you, Lady Miku.”

“You may take your leave.”

Flower thanked her cheerfully as they left the room. “Man, those cupcakes were good, weren’t they?”

“Were you paying attention at all? ”

“Of course I was! You don’t have to sound so exasperated.”

“But I am!”

 

~~~

 

That evening, Fukase came to my room in an attempt to coax me out of my sulking. I didn’t necessarily want to see him, but I knew I couldn’t ignore him forever, either. I let him into my room reluctantly and, to my surprise, he handed me a cupcake on what looked like a carefully hand-painted dish. 

“I made them while you were out,” he said. “I thought they’d get you to cheer up a bit.”

“So it’s bribe money.”

“I guess you could say that.”

I couldn’t help but smile as I took the dish from him. “Well, it worked. Consider me bribed.”

A look of relief washed over Fukase’s features. He sat down on the bed beside me and began carefully. “I know that you want to fix things yourself. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, either. I also know that you feel responsible for what happened and want to be the one to get us out of this situation, right?” I nodded sheepishly. “ But, we need to cooperate if we want this to work.” He paused as if steeling himself. “Besides, I may have… run into someone who could help us.”

I perked up when he said that. He met someone? Perhaps it was a local, or better yet, someone from the ship had found us!

I nodded eagerly for him to continue, but he seemed uneasy. “Actually…um. I don’t know exactly how to say this, but it was someone I knew from before. You know how I said that some of my family friends from Canada helped me move here?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well… I ran into one of them. Here, in the cabin. He came to visit, sorta.”

“What.”

I could do nothing but stare at him, dumbfounded.

“Let me explain. He came while you were sleeping yesterday—I wanted to tell you sooner, but couldn’t find the right time. Anyway, apparently this cabin belongs to his family, or something. But they’re willing to let us stay for a couple days or so. He said that they want some compensation, though, so we’ve gotta go meet them tomorrow.”

“Waitwaitwait, slow down.”  What he was saying didn’t even make sense. But then again… it wasn’t as if the same hadn’t happened to me. If I had met Rin, then it wasn’t impossible for him to meet someone he knew too, right? “So let me get this straight. While I’m sleeping, out of the blue, your long lost friend comes over to what is supposedly his cabin, and demands compensation for letting us stay here.”

“That’s right.”

“Okay.” I sighed. “Some friend of yours.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure there’s more to it. Besides, he said he doesn’t want money, so it’s probably important. Or maybe it’s actually something trivial.”

“That’s possible. But anyway, I’ve got a confession too. When I was out earlier, I ran into someone I knew from London,” I paused to meet his eyes, but his expression was unreadable. Suddenly, I had an idea. “Actually… What's your friend’s name?”

“His name is Len,” he responded, slightly puzzled. “If you think they’re connected, they probably aren’t—”

“Twins,” I deadpanned. “The person I met is his sister, Rin. They’re twins.”

“But then… that would mean that—”

“Our childhood friends are the same people.”

I was caught between wanting to believe it was a coincidence and cooking up some wild conspiracy to make sense of it all. Of course, it could be a coincidence, but in reality what were the chances? “In any case,” I started, “we’re going to meet them soon enough. It’s no use cracking our heads over it.”

“Did Rin ask you to meet, too?”

“She did. Although, she never said anything about compensation, just that we should catch up sometime.”

Fukase sighed, leaning back against the pillows in exhaustion. “This is too confusing.”

“It’s okay. It’s not like we need answers right away, so we’ll just ask them what’s going on tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Tomorrow.”

 

Chapter 20: Ashen

Notes:

Content warning for mentions and depictions of pyromania. Please read at your own discretion.

Rin paused at her brother’s door, her fist hovering over its surface, poised to knock. I’d might as well just get it over with, she told herself. He would never hate me.

As soon as she made up her mind, the door swung open. “Rin?”

She looked at her brother in his stunned eyes and sighed. “We need to talk.”

“What about?”

“Let me in first, would you?”

He looked like he wanted to object, but let her in anyway. Rin stifled a gasp as she took a look around his room. 

Len had lived like a monk for as long as they’d been on the island; his room had always been white and plain and sterile to the point where Rin would tease him for its constant ashen hues. But what lay before her eyes was the exact opposite. His room was in shambles; the dresser was messy and the wood was invisible beneath the layers of clothes, books were strewn across the floor rather than in their usual neat little corner of Len’s bookshelf. 

But worst of all was his bed. Along with the rest of the room, his sheets were disheveled—but worse than that, they were utterly in ruins. Scorch marks littered the sheet and charred it black, and in some areas, complete holes had been burned through like paper. 

She wanted desperately to call out to him, to cry and hug him and cradle his grief-stricken head in her lap, but pushed those thoughts away to settle for a far calmer response. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He was silent. “Why didn’t you tell me your pyromania was coming back?”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” he whispered. 

Ever since the fire eight years ago, when they were children—the fire that had changed their lives, the fire that put them into this whole mess, the fire that had pulled them away from their best friend for what they thought would be forever—Len had developed his strange taste for flames. 

At first, it was harmless; he’d light matches, watch the fire dance, and blow it out seconds later. But years later, it had turned destructive. He set notebooks alight, then stuffed animals, then curtains. He became a threat, much to his family’s despair—all until Rin and Len came to the island. 

He began seeing Miku to aid him with his pyromania, to keep his urges in check. It had helped, for the most part. He never set anything aflame, never even went near matches or lighters. 

But now, it was all coming back. The burn marks and charred holes in his sheets were proof enough. 

“I’m sorry,” he muttered guiltily, “I tried to stop myself, but—but I found the matches, and—”

“It’s okay.” Rin hugged him gently. “We’ll get Lady Miku to help you some more. You’re going to be fine, okay?”

He nodded, keeping his head buried in the crook of Rin’s shoulder. Normally, he hated being this vulnerable, but the only people who understood his urges and didn’t despise him for it were Rin and Lady Miku. 

What would Fukase think if he knew? Len wondered. After all, he’s the one who suffered the most in that fire. 

Both of them had been the culprits of the fire, but unlike his sister, Len was unable to let go of the guilt. It weighed upon him and sunk its claws into his soft heart. Rin had tried, multiple times, to explain that it wasn’t their fault. That they were just following orders and protecting themselves and their own family, but Len couldn’t believe her. So what if he escaped relatively unscathed if it meant that his best friend had to suffer?

Not that it mattered anymore. They were far too deep now to ever make amends. All they could do was follow Miku at her whim and fancy and hope that things wouldn’t end up much worse than they already were. 

Rin spent the rest of the day with her brother, talking with him, reading to him, taking care of him as she had wanted to for years. It was both unfamiliar and comforting at the same time, and Len was allowed to be content for the afternoon. 

 

~~~

 

Miku hissed with pain as blood from her fingertips dribbled onto the Jomon Sugi’s roots at her feet. 

No matter how many countless times she had done this, the pain never seemed to quite fade. As if the massive tree didn’t just want her to enter its cavern with an offering, but with a warning as well. 

The tree’s maw opened up as Miku’s blood was soaked into its roots, disappearing into the rich earth. As she had done many times before, Miku stepped inside and the wood grew tight and closed behind her. 

A small ghost of a smile twitched on her lips as she beheld the sight before her. The tree’s core glowed a brilliant pink and aqua blue; roots and vines shrouded a semi-hidden human figure. 

“Hello, Luka.” Miku’s voice was abnormally gentle as she made her way over to her friend’s sleeping figure. 

Although Luka had been fueling the tree’s core for decades, her hair continued to grow and now overflowed across the roots and soil. Miku gathered it and gingerly set it around her shoulders, framing her body in pink locks. 

“It’s been a while since I paid you a visit. I’m still trying to gather enough power to set you free… but I think I found someone for the final push. He’s a kid from overseas, with hair like a flame and eyes of stars.” Miku’s smile grew, thinking of the child she had carefully scouted since his youth. “I think you’d like him. He reminds me of you, a little bit.” 

Miku stroked Luka’s cheek with her uninjured hand and stooped down until her lips almost brushed her forehead. “I hope it’s enough power,” she whispered. “It has to be enough. But you never know. This tree, this island, is one of greed.” 

Frigid roots began to wrap themselves around Miku’s ankles. “Yeah, yeah. Relax,” she snapped, standing up straight. “A bit of teasing never hurt anyone.” Reluctantly, the roots retreated. 

The grinding sound of wood splintering and parting began as the tree’s maw opened again. 

“Miku?” She spun around to face her intruder. “I had a feeling I’d find you here.” He sighed, dabbing at his cut palm with a handkerchief. 

“Kaito,” Miku narrowed her eyes suspiciously, “Why are you here?”

Kaito stepped forward, his blue scarf fluttering as the tree’s maw closed behind him. “I heard that you ordered Piko and his partner to cast a glamour over the ship. Is that true?” 

“But of course. Fukase’s legacy is etched in many minds, and he’s proved to be slippery in the past. This was the best way.” 

“Very well.” His gaze shifted to the sleeping girl at the tree’s core, shrouded in pink light. 

“You have another thing to ask.” Kaito nodded. “Don’t hesitate. Ask away.” 

He paused for a moment more and met Miku’s gaze. “If this doesn’t work,” he started softly, “what will you do? Will you search for more power, or will you finally give up?” 

“I have to keep trying,” Miku replied, almost desperately. 

Suddenly, she was the same little girl as she was decades ago, watching her best friend get swallowed by the massive tree. Dread had filled her every cell as she screamed out Luka’s name. The tree’s roots and vines wrapped around her, and as her consciousness slipped away, she became the tree’s core. Whatever powers that had lay latent within her became the tree and the island’s fuel and steadily drained away from her. What had started out as a fun graduation trip between two friends had suddenly turned into an irreversible nightmare, and Miku had stayed on the island by Luka’s side ever since. 

“I can’t give up on her. Not yet.” She gazed at Luka’s sleeping face. “I need to get her back before all of her power is gone.” 

“Yes, but at what cost?” Kaito pressed. “How many lives are you going to ruin in order to save just one?”

“Well, I don’t see you coming up with any better solutions,” Miku spat. 

“You can’t keep lying like this, no matter how much you think you can. You won’t tell anyone what you’re doing, you won’t let anyone actually help you. You’re using them. And one day, they’re all going to turn on you.”

“And you? What will you do?” 

Tension hung thick in the air. A few moments of silence felt like a lifetime between them. 

Frustrated, Kaito finally broke away from her gaze. “I’m trying to help you here, but you don’t get it. One of these days, we’re all going to be in danger. And no one—not even you, with whatever power you think you have—will be able to stop it. The island won’t give you a thousand second chances.” 

Miku was furious. She seethed quietly, scowling at Kaito as she took in his words. “ You are out of line,” she hissed. “Get out.” 

“I warned you.”

“Get out! ”

With that, Kaito turned on his heel and left, throwing one final disapproving glance Miku’s way. 

As soon as the tree’s maw closed, he sighed and leaned back against it. “Why don’t you get it?” He whispered aloud. “I want you to be as happy as anyone else, so just let go already…”

 

~~~

 

“Are you sure this is the right way?” I frowned at the messily scrawled map that Fukase had provided for us. It was supposedly a hand-drawn map from Len, so I couldn’t help but be skeptical. 

“You’re the one who’s supposed to be good with directions. You tell me,” Fukase retorted. 

“How am I supposed to be good with directions when the map we’re supplied with looks like it was drawn by a fifth grader with a D+ in geography?” I sighed. “We’d probably get there faster if we wandered around the island hoping for the best.”

We trekked through the forest for a few more minutes before coming to the plateau where the trees thinned out. The sun came through the trees a bit stronger here in the glade, which is why I thought I was seeing things when a bluish gray building shimmered into view in the middle of the clearing. 

“Hey, Oliver. Why’d a building just appear in the middle of the island?”

Apparently, I was not just seeing things. 

Before I could respond, two familiar figures emerged from the building—Rin and Len. 

“You made it!” Rin cheered. “It’s almost sunset, so we were starting to think you guys wouldn’t show.” 

“I still can’t believe you guys are really here,” Fukase said, sounding somewhat glum. “You guys were so cryptic about everything, too.”

“Cryptic?” Rin questioned. “I thought I was quite clear.”

“The cryptic part might’ve been me.” Len offered a guilty smile. “Sorry about that. Anyway, let’s go in before it gets too dark.” He beckoned lightly. “We’ve got a lot of explaining to do, so we might as well do it over tea.”

Notes:

Sorry for the delay with this update! I was traveling and fell off the side of a mountain and stuff... but I'm back :D I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'll be back next week!

Chapter 21: Argent

“Ughhhhh,” Flower groaned unceremoniously. “So much work to do. Why does Miku always give us so much work?”

Piko ignored her and kept moving ahead. They were almost out of the forest and were nearing the cruise ship Fukase and Oliver had arrived on. 

By now, it had been a few days since they had arrived on the island. No doubt the ship would be in an emergency state with four passengers “missing.” They were the perfect conditions for glamour casting—when people are in a disheveled state of mind, confused and fearful. 

“Oi, Piko.” Flower picked up a pebble and chucked it at his back. 

Piko let out a reserved sigh and finally turned back to face her. “It’s a privilege to be trusted by Lady Miku as much as we are, so quit complaining and have some decorum, would you?”

“Decorum? In the middle of a wild forest?” She scratched the side of her head and looked around. “Eh, I don’t think it’s all that necessary.” 

Piko went back to ignoring her as they neared the beach and the dock. Flower couldn’t help but sulk, kicking up sand and shuffling her feet. She glanced at Piko again, wondering how he could stand to be so overdressed in the humid summer evening air. 

“Hey, I’ve got a real question this time,” Flower said, hoping Piko would turn back. He didn’t. “How come you didn’t take Kaito and Gakupo like Miku suggested?”

At that, Piko finally paused. “Why, you think I can’t do it on my own?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out.” Flower went around to face Piko face to face. “Did you just… make a lighthearted comment? Are you feeling okay?”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t get used to it. I just didn’t want to bother them, that’s all. Besides, Kaito’s been kinda… I dunno, different lately. He’s got his own agenda nowadays.” Piko averted his eyes, thinking about his senior. Out of all of the members of the organization, Miku trusted Kaito the most—even more than himself and Flower. He worked harder, faster, and most of all—he knew more. Much more. 

“Either way, I can do it by myself, so don’t worry about me.”

“I wasn’t worrying.” 

“Of course not.”

“But I really wasn’t!”

A small smile touched Piko’s lips as he prepared to cast the glamour. A soft white light began to emanate from his palms and tendrils of energy crackled in the air. A crust of silvery, argent energy that only he could see settled over the cruise ship, steadily thickening as Piko poured more energy into it. 

Flower frowned as she noticed Piko furrowing his brow with concentration. He was overexerting himself again. He always did this—ever the overachiever, he pushed himself to his limits when it came to his work. Maybe that would be a good thing in any other situation, but when his goal in mind was something as fickle as Miku’s trust, Flower couldn’t help but pity him. 

“Alright, all done,” Piko said at last, finally pulling back. His shell of energy lazily seeped into the ship, disappearing from view. He didn’t move for a few moments. 

Gingerly, Flower stepped towards him and rested her hand on his shoulder. 

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll go in a minute. I just need to sit down—” He plopped himself on the sand, cradling his head in his hands. 

Flower was dying to say something stupid like I told you so, weak little princess boy, but kept it to herself. Instead, she sat down in the sand with him so that their backs were touching. Piko startled slightly when he felt her weight against him, but didn’t move. 

“Man, sometimes I forget how pretty this island really is.” She let out a lazy sigh and closed her eyes. “It would be nice to stay in a place like this if we didn’t have to work…”

“I think the work is worth it, though.” Piko murmured softly, almost silent against the ocean’s waves. “It’s not like the work is that extensive. We only have to deal with people once in a while. It’s quiet, it’s secluded, peaceful…we don’t have to pay rent, either, and we’re given good food. Not to mention how beautiful it is out here. If you think about it, it’s almost like a dream…”

Flower felt herself relax more as Piko went on. This was probably the most words she had ever heard him say at once, ever. 

“And… it’s not lonely,” he finished. “Everyone on this island has been here for so long, we’re like family. It’s really comforting, you know?”

Flower couldn’t help but smile, somewhat bittersweetly. “Yeah. I know.”

 

~~~

 

“Make yourselves at home,” Rin said, somewhat nervously, gesturing to the tea room before us. Len took that as a signal to start preparing tea and biscuits for us. 

Just like how things were back in London. I couldn’t help but reminisce. Our families were close, so we had seen each other often. I briefly wondered if it was the same for Fukase while he knew them back in Canada. 

Within a few minutes, Len had set everything out. He poured a reddish tea for each of us—floral with notes of peach. His long time favorite. 

“I imagine you’ve noticed that this island isn’t exactly… normal,” Rin started. I thought back to the strange pull I had felt when I was still on the ship, how desperately I had wanted to explore. Fukase and I nodded for her to continue. 

“There’s no scientific way to explain it, so let me just say it plainly. This island is magical. Everything that breathes on this island is able to survive because of a magical core this island possesses.” She paused for a moment, letting it sink in. “You probably felt a strong desire when you decided to come here. That was the island’s core calling you.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Fukase interjected. “How come it’s just us? Shouldn’t the core or whatever have called us all down here?”

“Because the core only calls things and people with similar magical properties. So that means you—both of you—are a match.”

We all fell silent. 

“Wait, so what you’re saying is,” I leaned forward over the table, “Fukase and I both coincidentally have magic? That somehow matches the island?”

“Think of it as… a chick imprinting on its mother, and when they reunite after years, they know by instinct that they’re family.”

I rested back against my chair again. “Okay. That’s not what I was expecting to hear today, but okay.” I could’ve sworn Fukase snorted with laughter. 

“Okay, so what do we do about it?” Fukase asked. “Can we just…leave? And ignore it?” He continued hopefully. 

“Unfortunately, no.” Len spoke at last. “You’ll be called back to the island, over and over. Before long, you won’t be able to resist it. Whether you like it or not, you’ll be back.”

“Are you speaking from personal experience?”

“…I can’t answer that.”

“Says who? Who else is on this island?”

Len fell silent. Since when did the air get so tense?

“Len, who else is on this island?!” Fukase pressed. 

I bit into my biscuit a little too loudly and they all turned to face me. “Um, sorry,” I said sheepishly, putting the biscuit back in my tea saucer. “You guys can carry on.”

Rin sighed. “To answer your question, Fukase. There’s an organization here that keeps us all together and safe. They manage our magic so that the island’s ecosystem stays in balance and so that we have a good relation with the island’s core.”

“So, do we get to meet them?”

Rin lit up at his question. “Yup! You’re scheduled to meet the President later today, actually! She’ll take care of you guys in no time at all.”

I was still wildly confused about the situation. I had let Fukase ask most of the questions up until now, but there were a few things still gnawing at the back of my mind. 

“If we really do have some kind of magic,” Rin turned to me attentively, “how come we haven’t noticed until now?”

“Because everyone’s magic needs a catalyst in order for it to physically manifest,” she replied smoothly. “The president will deal with that, too.”

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Rin stood up, too cheerfully, and answered it. I twisted to see who was outside, but her figure blocked my view. 

“The President is ready to see you,” a voice said from beyond the doorway. 

Rin turned to us and smiled excitedly. “You hear that? Let’s go!” 

Fukase and I stood up and left the tea room, following Rin down the hall with Len close behind us. I glanced at Fukase, wondering how he was taking all this—the answer was not good. His eyes darted around anxiously, as if he was looking for an escape. 

I was tempted to take his hand, to reassure him that there was nothing to be nervous about, but Len caught up to us and walked beside me before I could say a word.

We were about to turn a corner when Fukase jolted. Len turned to him, concerned and about to say something, but Fukase grabbed my arm and ran in the other direction. 

“What are you doing?”

“Just run!”

I was about to ask what we were running from—or rather, what we were running towards—but then I saw it. Sunlight gleamed through the crack beneath a mini door, camouflaged into the wall so that we could barely see it. Fukase opened it and ducked through, pulling me to follow. 

And so, for unknown reasons, we ran. 

I struggled to keep up with him as we cracked over twigs and leaves and mud, almost tripping over tree roots multiple times, but I managed to follow his breakneck pace until the trees grew dense once more.

“Fukase, wait up!” I huffed, trying to catch my breath. “Why’d we do that? Why’d you run?”

“What, did you expect me to let some stranger mess around with us and our supposed ‘magic’ and just hope for the best? No way I was taking a risk like that!”

I sat down at the base of a tree and waited for my sprinting heart to slow down. “Well, what now? If we go back to the cabin, they’re just gonna find us anyway. We should’ve just stayed.”

He turned to me, suddenly annoyed. “If we do have some kind of magic as they say we do, then do you really think it’s okay to let some random ‘president’ deal with it? We don’t know how that’s going to affect us.”

“And if we don’t?”

“What?”

“What if we don’t have magic? What if it was some elaborate prank and the ‘president’ they told us about was going to be their mom or something? Did you even think of that?”

Fukase blinked and finally sat down beside me, lost in his own thoughts for a few moments. “It’s possible,” he said slowly, “but I’m glad we didn’t take the risk.”

We stayed silent like that for a few minutes, listening to the birds and the wind in the trees. This island would’ve been much more beautiful if we weren’t marooned here with no escape. 

Something changed in Fukase’s demeanor and he stood up abruptly, beckoning for me to follow. 

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t know yet,” he responded coldly. “Somewhere far away from here.”

Chapter 22: Aureate

Although it seemed to me that we were aimlessly wandering the forest, Fukase insisted that he knew exactly where we were going. Despite that, he refused to tell me his plan of action. 

Supposedly, we would try and find the seaport town where Yohio and his crew were supposedly mending the ship, but we had no idea where that was. It was hard enough to tell if we were going deeper into the forest or approaching the outer edges. 

I tried to pay attention to where we were going to gather any clues of our whereabouts, but the incoming clouds coupled with the humid air were starting to make me drowsy. It took an hour of walking or so, but I could sense by the change in air and altitude that we were headed inland. There was a mountain in the middle of the island, and we seemed to be near it judging by the subtle change in flora; towering cedars of the laurel forest gave way to maple and oak as we drew further away from the shoreline. 

Just when I was about to suggest that we stop and take a break, we spotted someone up ahead. 

“Hey, let’s ask that person for directions,” I suggested, moving to follow the person up ahead. 

They were wearing stark white with a blue scarf that fluttered about their shoulders, and had royal blue hair that stood out against the deep green of our surroundings. Those features alone were enough to make them easy to follow through the thick forest. 

They must have heard Fukase and I coming because they turned around once we got a bit nearer. 

I was about to ask for help, but he spoke first. 

“What are you kids doing so deep in the forest?”

I sighed. “Actually, we’re lost. We got here on a cruise ship, but it needed repairs and so we had docked at the seaport town on the northwest side of the island. Do you know how to get there?”

“I sure do,” he nodded. “I’m out here to get firewood, but once I’m done, I’ll head back with you guys. It shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.”

I smiled. By some stroke of luck, we had found a way back. “Thank you so much—um, what was your name?”

“Just call me Kaito.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Kaito!” 

As we followed him through the forest, we headed up to higher ground in search of drier wood. In my relief at finding someone to help us, it was easier to ignore the pain and soreness from my tired legs. 

“You said you were on a cruise ship,” Kaito started, “Why’d you get off in the first place? It’s easy for two kids like you to get lost in a forest.”

“That’s true,” I murmured, somewhat sheepishly. “But it would’ve been a waste not to appreciate the island’s beauty.”

He scoffed as if such an idea was ridiculous. “You can see a beautiful island again, I assure you. But if you got lost in the forest and ended up stuck here forever? There wouldn’t be any more island hopping after that.” 

I couldn’t help but think that he sounded a bit sad, almost wistful, but even as he lectured us there was some kind of mirth in his sapphire eyes.

 

~~~

 

“You can’t be serious.” Fukase muttered just loud enough for me to hear. The feeling was plenty mutual. 

After we had filled one of Kaito’s bags with firewood, we hiked back through the forest and he tossed it in his jeep which was at the foot of the mountain. There weren’t any paved roads that went up high enough, he had explained, so he always made multiple trips to get enough wood. This time, since we were tagging along, he didn’t make any extra trips and had to be satisfied with just one hulking bag full of wood. 

We piled into his jeep, despite Fukase’s distrust. 

“Relax, if his first instinct when he saw us in the forest was to lecture us, then he must be a responsible adult,” I had told him. 

“What kind of logic is that?” Fukase chastised me, but we went along with Kaito anyway. He clambered inside begrudgingly, but we didn’t have any other alternative.

But when we arrived at our destination, I immediately regretted not trusting Fukase’s concerns. We weren’t at the seaport town. We were back at the glade where we had met with Rin and Len—where the blue building shimmered into view. 

Somehow, it seemed even more ominous this time around. 

We followed Kaito inside like chagrined students who had been caught skipping class. It was clear to both of us by now that we’d just have to figure out what was going on for ourselves. 

This time around, I made a silent pact with myself to just observe. I had done enough damage in getting us to this point in the first place, so maybe it was better to sit back for now. In tough situations, that was often what I did best, anyway. 

“Observe not just the water,” Yohio had said to me years ago. “When you’re caught in a storm, watch the wind. Watch the clouds and the air current and check your visibility, too. Just following the water’s roughness won’t be enough to get you out, after all.”

I doubted that Yohio meant for that advice to be used in such a situation as the one I was currently in, but oh well. The point was to get leverage over multiple means of information—whether it was directly helpful or something more subtle. 

From the dim gloom of the building, another figure approached us. A young woman with two long, blue twintails seemed to walk slightly above the grass as she came to stand before us. 

“Thank you for bringing these two kids back, Kaito.” Her voice tinkled like the sound of chimes in the summer breeze. “You can take Oliver to the library for now. I’ll take care of Fukase.”

Naturally, I wanted to question how she knew our names, but held my tongue.

“Of course,” Kaito replied. “Come on, Oliver. We’ll leave them for now.”

I hesitated, looking to Fukase to see what he would think. To my surprise, he spoke aloud. 

“It’s fine. Go with him. I’ll find you later.” He held my gaze for a moment more before following the other woman into the building, leaving me alone with Kaito. 

“Don’t worry, they won’t take long,” he told me once the others were out of earshot. 

“How do you know?”

“I could tell as soon as I laid my eyes on that boy. Miku is grossly underestimating him. Anyhow, let’s go to the library, shall we? It’ll give you some time to yourself.”

“I don’t suppose you intend to give me an explanation, do you?”

His lips twisted into a sad smile. That was all the answer I needed. 

I pondered his words as he steered me towards the side of the building. To some extent, what Kaito had said made sense. Although I was the one who wanted to explore the island to start with, Fukase had been on high alert the whole time. Maybe we had all underestimated him. 

To the side of the building was a tall, black gate that was overgrown with vines. Intricate designs lined the sides of the gate. I wanted to study them more, but Kaito unlocked the gate and led me inside. 

A gentle breeze seemed to guide us through the garden that overflowed with hibiscus and iris and orchids. Before long, we came to a small patio with a grand double door that led inside. The colors of red and peach and violet of the garden taunted me as Kaito procured a key ring from his coat and unlocked the door to the library. 

As he opened the door, a current of air blew the curtains aside, clearing a path for us to enter. With a sigh, they fluttered back to their resting place as Kaito closed the door behind me. 

I tried not to show my awe as I looked around the library. Even when Yohio and I had traveled abroad, I had never seen a library of such proportions. 

“Not many people come here anymore,” Kaito said, his voice barely a whisper. “But it’s quiet and it’s a nice place to relax with the garden just outside. Feel free to visit anytime.”

“Are you the one who takes care of it?” I asked, not meeting his gaze. 

“I am,” he said with pride, “and sometimes another friend of mine comes in to help.” 

He left me on my own after that, for better or for worse. The late afternoon sunlight drifted through the windows, casting a golden glow on the shelves and desks here and there. It was spacious, yet cozy; it was both vivid and dreamy all at the same time. 

Fukase would love a place like this. 

Well, there would be plenty of time to show him around. It seemed that we wouldn’t be leaving for a while, anyway. 

With that thought in mind, I chose a few books to keep myself busy: a detective novel, a book on the flora and fauna of Yakushima island, and a copy of 1984 . 

I set the three books down on a desk that faced a gaping window. The sunlight seemed to cast the pages aglow. Maybe I could ask Kaito for a notepad and some pens later. Fukase liked to draw, and the lighting here was ideal. 

As I picked a book to start with, somewhere in the dim confines of my mind, I realized that I could occupy myself here for a very long time. 

 

~~~

 

Fukase’s mind was blank as he followed the woman ahead of him through the halls, weaving into the deepest areas of the building. He tried to follow a little bit behind her—there was something eerie about her presence that he didn’t want to test. Her skirt of deep teal flowed around and pooled at her ankles as she floated gracefully across the floor. There was liquid in her every movement. 

“I suppose the twins gave you a brief rundown of why you’re here?”

“Only that magic exists here and that I’m supposed to meet some organization president… or something.”

They came to a door and the woman stopped, turning to face Fukase. He tried not to flinch at her unsettling gaze as her eyes pierced his. 

“You don’t know who I am, do you?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m the president you were supposed to meet earlier today. Most of the others refer to me as Lady Miku. I’ll be catalyzing your magic.” She flashed him a perfectly radiant smile, then turned to the door and opened it. 

He followed her inside without being told. The room was small, but not cramped; there was a desk with a chair on either side and a cabinet for papers and writing utensils. He sat down at one chair as Miku settled into her chair on the other side. 

“Let’s get started then, shall we?

“Fukase. You’ve been brought here for a special purpose. As the twins told you before, you possess magic that belongs here, on this island. 

“Magic is a give and take, you see. The island will provide your soul with magical energy as long as you give back to the island and exist in harmony with the rest of us here.”

Her words were strangely cryptic, as if she had been told to recite this speech without knowing the true weight of what she was saying. As if she was offering him the surface of the truth when she herself didn’t know the whole story. 

He didn’t demand a more thorough explanation. Rather, there was something else he wanted to know. 

“And if I don’t? What if I choose to leave? Or what if I don’t want any magic to begin with?”

The president’s sparkling eyes fell as they lost their luster at his question. The corners of her lips turned down in disappointment. “The magic is binding,” she explained unhappily. “It is life itself—yours and mine. You are bound to this island by life, and it will do good for you in return.”

Clearly, he wasn’t getting any more information. Whether it was the truth or not, he knew at that moment that he would never hear it from Miku’s lips. 

Fine, then. He would go along with what she said for now. Worst comes to worst, he could regroup with Oliver and devise a plan later. 

Yes, that’s right. As long as he goes along with it for now, he’ll be fine. 

Accepting his silence as agreement, the president took his hands in hers. 

A soft, aquamarine glow emanated from the tips of her fingers, traveling up to the backs of her hands and finally to her wrists. 

Suddenly, there was a spark between their hands. Miku pulled back; finally, her perfect facade dropped and he saw an expression of pure shock take over her features. 

“You knew,” she whispered. “You must’ve known.” Fukase made no move to acknowledge her as she lowered his hands to the table. “You’ve already been catalyzed, haven’t you?”

He sighed. He was about to explain that yes, he had been catalyzed before he had even set foot on the island, but Miku stood up sharply and called out to someone beyond the door. 

“Lock all the doors leading outside! Put the building on lockdown this instant! I don’t want a single soul stepping outside this institution!”

“ What?!” Fukase stood up, knocking over his chair in a rage. If he had just had a little bit more time, he and Oliver could’ve found a way to escape. But after all his dodging around being kept here, now he was stuck?

It wasn’t often that he was truly enraged. He wasn’t impulsive, either; his every move was calculated and precise and carried out with purpose. He acted according to reason and his own best interest. 

Until he met Oliver, with his impassioned eyes and curious grin, who acted on capricious impulse regardless of the consequences.

In that moment, he too was overtaken by his emotions—by fear and panic. 

For the second time that day, he ran. 

There was nothing else he could do, after all. If he couldn’t find a way out of this place, at least he could find Oliver. Together they’d be able to figure something out for sure, right?

He burst out of the room in a frenzy, darting further down the hallway into the deepest holds of the institution. He threw open door after door, blinded by panic, only to slam them shut with growing frustration.

As his rampage came to a close, he reached the end of the hallway. There stood a double door, towering and sublime with its ornate carvings and polished wood. 

Fukase didn’t care for it, though, as he pushed the doors open with all his strength. 

Before him, shelves that towered with books sprawled across the room, rivaling even the library of his childhood home in the West. And yet, they were all a blur compared to the sole figure he noticed at the opposite end of the room. 

Sunlight streamed in through the windows, casting an aureate glow upon his hair like a halo. He stood up and turned to face Fukase, who was still standing in the doorway. 

He sighed with relief. Finally, he and Oliver had been reunited.

Chapter 23: Luminescent

Miku sighed as she closed the door behind her. 

In all her years of living on the island and carefully gathering them together, for the first time she was faced with a challenge like this. Such a challenge could quickly grow into a complete and utter failure if she wasn’t careful. 

“Miku.” A soft voice interrupted her thoughts. “I’ve shut down the building. What’s going on?”

She sighed again as Kaito drew near. There was no point in keeping the truth from him, she supposed. “That boy had already been catalyzed,” she said simply. “He already had his magic unlocked, somehow or the other.” Their gazes locked. “Did you know?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, how could I have known?”

“Well, you were the one who found him and brought him here after he escaped the first time.”

“That’s right. Shouldn’t you be thanking me for that?”

Her lips twisted into a wry smile. “I suppose I should. At least one good thing came of you tracking me down in the forest. And, I must admit, it’s admirable how quickly you were able to earn his trust.” 

“To be fair, it wasn’t his trust I earned. It was Oliver’s.”

“That’s right, the other boy.” Miku looked thoughtful for a moment. “Perhaps he’s more important than we thought.” 

Perhaps you should think of them more as people than as pawns, Kaito thought dismally, but he found no point in voicing his opinion. Miku was bound to ignore him anyway. 

“Either way, I really am glad you brought them back,” Miku continued, sincerity tinging her voice. 

“I wonder if it really was a good decision or not,” he muttered. 

“What was that?”

“What are you planning to do, now that Fukase’s been catalyzed?”

She tapped her chin, leaning back against the doorframe. “Well. Typically, when I catalyze people myself, I’m able to supply their powers straight to the tree. If I’m unable to channel his power through myself…this truly is a dilemma, isn’t it?” Her expression was complicated. 

Miku was an anomaly when it came to magic—that much Kaito understood. Miku was connected to the tree directly, as she had been when she first swore herself to the island in exchange for Luka’s eventual freedom. In order for Luka to be freed, she had to catalyze those with latent magic and channel their energy to the tree through her own body. 

It was a taxing process on both her body and mind, but thanks to her own abnormally potent abilities and her devotion to Luka, she was able to endure it.

“Wouldn’t it be best to find out what his real catalyst was?” Naturally, that would be the first step in this case, but Miku tsked and waved him off. 

“Theoretically, that would be ideal. The problem is that we don’t know when he was catalyzed—his catalyst might not be around anymore. It could’ve been something intangible like an event from his childhood or a person who’s no longer around. And even if we did know what or who his catalyst was,” she paused, meeting his eyes again. “That catalyst wouldn’t have any connection with the island. Not like I do.”

“Then what do you propose we do? If there’s no way to—” Kaito steeled himself, choking out his next words, “ use him, then shouldn’t we just let those kids go?”

“No, we can’t do that either. No way am I losing such a great amount of magical potential. All of that, wasted, when it could be just the right amount to save Luka! No way am I letting him go!” Her voice grew higher and more petulant as she ranted on. 

At this point, Miku wasn’t in the right state of mind. Although she tried to keep calm, in reality, she was quite devastated. 

Kaito hated seeing her like that, but it wasn’t fair that other people had to suffer with her and because of her.

With nothing left to say, he took his leave.

 

~~~

 

Time froze when I heard the double doors to the library open behind me. 

I hadn’t expected to see Fukase again so soon, but there he was, distressed and bewildered as he stood in the doorway and stared back at me. 

“Fukase…?”

Before I knew it, he was running towards me. I braced myself as he tackled me into a hug, almost knocking the wind out of me. I noticed he was shaking as his hands fisted into the back of my shirt. 

“Hey, it’s okay,” I murmured, carding my fingers through his hair in an attempt to calm him down. “Just breathe, and you can tell me what happened.” 

He drew in a few, shaky breaths, white noise against the birds that twittered carelessly outside and the double doors that silently creaked shut, unattended. 

Moments stretched to minutes before he slowly detangled himself from me. “It’s Miku—the president—she put the building on lockdown. We’re stuck here now, and we might never get out,” he muttered, eyes trained on the ground. It was a few more moments before he could meet my gaze. “Oliver, I’m so sorry.”

I waited, assuming there was more, but it never came. 

“Look.” I cupped his face in my hands. He trembled like a leaf between my palms. “If it’s anyone’s fault that we’re here, it’s mine. You’ve done nothing wrong, so don’t apologize. You said it yourself: if we’re gonna get out of here, we have to stay calm and work together. Yeah?”

He nodded, averting his eyes once more. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. They can’t keep everyone cooped up here forever.” He let out a forced chuckle and pulled my hands away from his face. His fingers were still trembling slightly, but he looked infinitely better.

“Let’s just wait here for now, okay? We can try looking for Rin and Len later. I’m sure they’ll have something to say to us.”

“Yeah,” Fukase agreed readily. 

He milled around the library for some time after that, looking at books and skimming their summaries. He was mostly quiet, but every so often I would hear a shuffle behind me or the soft thud of a book cover or a rustle of a page that reminded me of his presence. 

Before long, the sun had begun to set. It was the only indicator I had that time was moving at all in that golden library. It steadily crept towards the horizon, blinding me through the window I faced, and so I opted to gather my books and sit with Fukase in one of the pockets of the library. There were two couches and a coffee table in that corner, and he looked up when I sat beside him. 

Suddenly, I remembered a question that had popped into my mind a few hours earlier, but I couldn’t help but hesitate before asking. What if the answer did nothing but make things more complicated? What if it was something he wasn’t ready to say, or something I wasn’t ready to hear?

I pretended to be engrossed with my book, but my head was a mess. I had done enough harm just by being curious, so I shouldn’t ask. But also…

I sighed, finally giving in. “How did you know?”

“Know what?” He tilted his head to the side, staring at me quizzically. 

“About the magic being real. I thought it was some elaborate prank, but for some reason, you knew it was true. How?”

He pulled on his knuckles, eyes downcast. “There’s another thing I should explain first.” He sighed. “The reason why the president put the building on lockdown is because my magic was already catalyzed. When other people come to the island, it’s dormant. But for me, it had already been catalyzed, and apparently the president didn’t like that.”

“Did you know?”

“Well… kind of. It started when I first met you, actually. That day, when you started talking to me on the beach—” he paused, choosing his next words carefully. “I just had this feeling that something supernatural was about to occur. So I think—this is just my hypothesis, but—I think it’s safe to say that you were my catalyst, Oliver.”

The birds outside fell silent. 

I tried to ignore the heat that suddenly flooded my cheeks. It wasn’t as if I had done anything special, so why…?

“Is that weird?” he asked quietly. 

“Wha—? No, of course not!” I felt bad that he had misunderstood my silence as judgment. “It was just unexpected. That’s all.”

For the first time during our entire escapade, I was glad I let my curiosity get the better of me. Once again I had been reminded that even though I didn’t think I was doing much, just talking to him meant a lot. I had made a lot of mistakes in the past couple of weeks, that was for certain, but maybe my meddling had some positive impacts, after all. 

I didn’t notice how late it had gotten until I turned back to my book and realized that I had to squint to read the small text. Fukase seemed to notice the same thing as he stood up and told me that he’d find someone to ask about dinner. 

I watched his back as he made his way to the double doors, flicking a switch that illuminated the library before stepping out into the hall. 

 

~~~

 

He sighed as he stepped out into the hallway, leaving the towering shelves and countless pages behind him. He felt somewhat better after telling Oliver about his so-called catalyst, but he wasn’t sure if that was the right decision. After all, it was still just a hypothesis. It could’ve been something completely different and he’d be none the wiser. 

To be fair, he thought as he started walking through the cavernous hall, magic was just as foreign to Oliver as it was to himself. Sure, he could feel it somewhere in himself: it was a bundle of luminescent filaments that buried deep in the marrow of his bones; but, it had never physically manifested. Not that he had ever really tried to manifest it. After all, what was the point? 

From now on, though, he didn’t have the luxury to think that way. His magic might very well be the make-or-break method for their escape away from the island once and for all. 

His rumination was interrupted when he spotted a lock of golden hair up ahead. Not unexpectedly, it was Rin, who sent a cheerful wave in his direction. 

“Fukase.”

“Rin.”

“I heard what happened.” Despite her sympathetic tone, the words were clipped. “It’s okay. Not everyone reacts favorably when they get here.”

“Gee, I wonder why.”

She smiled with pity in spite of his sarcasm. “You know, it’s not as bad as you think. If you gave this place a chance, you’d realize it in due time.”

“And do what? Leave everything behind to just sit here idly?”

“Leave what behind?” She paused, waiting for an answer, but it never came. “And besides, we’re not sitting here idly. I’m sure Lady Miku explained it to you, but we have a purpose here. You were brought here for a reason, just like us.” 

“Yeah, but still! What about the real world?”

“This is the real world.”

“You know what I mean.”

Rin sighed. “You’re just like Len when we got here, you know?” She reached up to her hair, playing with the white bow that held half of it up. She did that whenever she was uncomfortable or remembered something unpleasant. Fukase would always draw her a picture of a butterfly or bird or fashion her a hairpin out of spare carving wood to make her feel better, or Len would—

He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts of the past. This was dangerous territory. 

“What about Oliver? Is he just supposed to stay here, too? He has a family and friends to go back to,” unlike me, he nearly said, but held himself back.

Rin’s lips parted in surprise, but then her expression was thoughtful. “Actually… I’m not supposed to tell you this. But since you mentioned him, I suppose I could… anyhow. I heard from one of the higher ups—you haven’t met him yet—that you’re actually the only one with magic.”

“What? You mean, Oliver doesn’t have magic at all? If that’s the case, then why did you drag him into this?”

“Well, to be specific, he does have magic. It’s just a very small amount.” 

He let her words sink in. So Oliver was his catalyst, but didn’t have much magic of his own? It seemed a bit paradoxical. 

“Anyhow, my point is,” Rin continued, “In theory, you have enough magic to suffice for the both of you. So if you cooperated, Oliver could go home to his friends and family. And you could stay with us! Just like when we lived at home. That would be perfect, wouldn’t it?”

Fukase felt as though he had been hit with a ton of bricks. With the weight of this knowledge, the blow might as well have been physical. 

“Fukase?”

“I— uh? Yeah. I’ll think about it,” he mumbled. 

As she left him, he sank to a sitting position against the wall. By the time Oliver left the library and found him there, the black velvet of night had already fallen.

Notes:

FINALLY AFTER 37K WORDS THEY HUGGED YOU GUYS!! HALLELUJAH

Next update might take a bit longer since I'm working on commissions!! Stay tuned :>

Chapter 24: Beryl

The next few hours passed by in a daze for Fukase. Honestly, he didn’t remember much of it at all—he had let Oliver lead him through the steps and tuned out all the rest. Before he knew it, he had finished his dinner in their conjoined room. 

Now, he was tucked in bed, waiting for Oliver’s breathing to even out so he could make his move. They had left the door between their rooms open (“Just as a precaution,” Oliver had insisted) but Fukase still had to strain his ears a bit to listen for the other boy’s soporific sighs to make sure he was completely asleep. 

Fukase had the whole plan ready. He would sneak out of his room, and then navigate his way back to where Miku’s “catalyst room” had been. Of course, it wasn’t her that he wanted to speak with—it was Kaito. He was the closest adult to sane on the island, and so he decided that that was his best bet. Considering how buddy-buddy he had been with Miku earlier, his room most likely wasn’t far from hers. 

He slid out from under the blankets, listening carefully for any changes from Oliver’s room. There was nothing. He just had to get to the door and—

Creaaaak.

Fukase froze. A creaky floorboard? Really?  

“Fukase? You up?” Oliver’s voice called from his room and Fukase cursed inwardly. “I thought you fell asleep already.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to get some water,” he lied smoothly. 

The light flicked on and Oliver came into view. He rubbed his eyes and glanced at Fukase’s nightstand. “There’s a jug of water right there, though.” 

He turned away, embarrassed at being caught. There went his brilliant plan. He had been so close to keeping Oliver safe, but once again, he messed up. 

“Where were you really going?” Before he knew it, Oliver had sat himself criss-crossed on Fukase’s bed and beckoned him to sit together. He propped his chin up on his fists as Fukase settled in. “You’ve been pretty out of it ever since this afternoon, and then things only got worse…” he murmured. 

“Yeah. There’s a lot of information I’ve been trying to process.”

“Like what?” Fukase hesitated. “You can tell me.”

“Well,” he sighed. “As I told you earlier, Miku—the president—found out that my magic has already been catalyzed, and my theory is that you were the catalyst. There’s one other event I can think of that’s a possible candidate for catalyst though, but…” he shook his head, as if to clear such a notion from his mind. “I doubt it was that.

“And then, after I left the library, there was something else.” He paused again. Oliver nodded for him to continue, but otherwise waited patiently. “I ran into Rin, and she told me some things.” He swallowed nervously. “She said that I have enough magic for the both of us, and that if I stayed back, they would let you go home.”

Oliver’s eyes widened with disbelief the more Fukase went on. “So that’s it? You were just going to give yourself up as some sort of sacrifice? You were just going to—” He paused, took a deep breath, and sighed, trying to calm himself down. “What were you thinking?” He asked softer. 

“Isn’t it a good compromise?” Fukase asked back. 

“No, it absolutely isn’t.”

“And why not? You can go home, Oliver. Your life will go back to normal like none of this ever happened.”

“Yeah? And what about you?”

“Maybe I’m okay with this.” 

“Well, you weren’t okay with it just this afternoon. You were panicked just over the idea of the building being on lockdown. You want to go back home just as badly as I do, don’t you?” Oliver looked at him pleadingly. “Right?”

Fukase averted his gaze. “It’s not like I have much to go back to.” 

“You have me.” Fukase looked back up at him, surprised and frustrated all at once. “If I go back alone, then what am I going to do? You’ll have me to go back to then, won’t you?” Oliver stood up from the bed and stared down at the other boy sternly. “I’m not just going to leave you here. You’ve been abandoned enough for three lifetimes over.” Fukase stared up at Oliver for a few seconds, partly in shock and then in wonder. “Now, you’re not going anywhere. We’re both going to bed, and we’ll figure out a way to escape to-ge-ther tomorrow.”

And then, Fukase snickered, which turned into a giggle, which turned into full blown laughter until he was holding his sides as he shook with mirth. 

“Hey! What’s so funny about that? We’re having a serious conversation here!” Oliver fumed. 

“No, it’s just that you reminded me a lot of a mother hen just now,” Fukase gasped out between giggles. 

Oliver gave him a glare of exaggerated disbelief, but he couldn’t hold it for long. Fukase’s laughter was contagious, and before long, he too was laughing at the absurd situation. It was a few more moments before the hilarity between them died down and they were able to breathe properly. 

“Alright, alright. Really though, we need to sleep. You especially,” Oliver said, sighing. “I’m going back to bed. Wake me in the morning if you’re up first, okay?”

“Sure thing.” Fukase watched his retreating figure as he stepped through the door to his own room and tucked himself in for the second time. 

He got up from his bed, expertly avoiding the creaky floorboard, and headed to the bathroom. There was just one thing left before he could sleep for real this time. He felt around on the wall for the tiny light switch as he closed the bathroom door. Once the light was on, he headed towards the drawer to the side of the sink and pulled out some makeup remover and cotton pads and got to work. 

Of course that fire from his childhood didn’t leave him unscathed. Of course, over ten years later, he was still concerned with covering up the blotchy patches of discoloration and the strange texture of his skin. To some extent, he didn’t mind the scars too much. They had healed so well that it was nothing short of a miracle and now they looked like lightning streaks across the skin of his left arm and the left half of his face. That foolish, boyish part of him almost thought they looked sort of cool, but it was safer to cover them up than risk getting asked about it once too often. 

As he did every night since arriving on the island, he thanked his lucky stars that his foundation powder and the bottle of makeup remover had been in his coat pocket when they disembarked from the cruise ship. He had forgotten why he put them there, but it definitely came in handy. There was still half of the bottle of makeup remover left, and in that moment, he decided to use it as a timer of sorts. Before the bottle was finished, they would surely make their escape. 

After he finished wiping the foundation from his face and left arm, he tossed the cotton pad in the trash can and returned the bottle of makeup remover to its place in the drawer. Finally, he watched his reflection in the mirror copy him as he grinned. His conversation with Oliver replayed in his mind, as bright and uplifting as the real thing. The situation was still quite bleak, but somehow, his chest felt warm with hope. 

 

~~~

 

Fukase woke up before the sun that morning. He rubbed the bleariness from his eyes as he adjusted to the darkness. He leaned over the edge of his bed, squinting at the clock to try and make out what time it was, but he leaned too far forward and ended up tumbling to the floor. 

Sighing grouchily, he picked himself up and toed on his slippers before glancing to Oliver’s room. Of course he doesn’t wake up this time, he thought with a huff. 

But as he looked around, something caught his eye. A shimmer of blue shone gently outside his door; he could see it through the crack between the door and the floor. He walked over and crouched down, peeking under to see if he could tell what it was. A beryl-blue powder was scattered on the floor, illuminated by moonlight to look as if it was glowing. 

Nervous but intrigued, he cracked the door open and slipped outside. He shivered as the colder hallway air brushed his skin before crouching beside the blue powder. Taking some in his hands, he sifted the powder between his fingers to try and figure out what it was. 

After a few moments, he stood back up, brushing off his hands and letting the powder fall back to the floor. Up ahead, he could see another pile of the glimmering blue powder, and before long he realized that it was a trail. He walked over to the next pile, then to the next, following them down twists and turns and a flight of stairs until he was finally led to a door. 

He opened it, and his vision was flooded with light. He squinted against the light assaulting his eyes, blinking so that he could adjust, and realized that he had come to a…kitchen?

Fukase took a few nervous steps into the kitchen, looking around to see if there was any more blue powder on the floor. 

“Ah, you made it.”

He flinched as he heard a voice from the back of the kitchen. Someone stood up from behind the counter—a someone with very blue hair and a sheepish smile on his face. 

“Kaito.”

“That’s me. Sorry to startle you.”

“No worries.” Fukase winced as he remembered that his scars were uncovered. “So, um… do you mind if I ask why you’re in the kitchen at 4:30 in the morning?”

“Oh, you know. Just a post-midnight snack,” he replied, holding up a bowl of ice cream. “Want some?”

“I think I’ll pass.”

“More for me,” Kaito said with a shrug.

“In any case,” Fukase continued, trying to stay on track, “was there any reason why there was a bunch of blue powder on the floor in the hall? That wouldn’t have been you, was it?”

“Actually, it was me.  I had a feeling you had something to talk to me about, so I led you here.”

“And how would you possibly know such a thing?”

“Let’s just say… my spider senses were tingling.” 

Fukase sighed, deciding to drop the question since Kaito insisted upon being so evasive. “Fine. Yes, I do have something to talk to you about.” 

After lying awake for a while the previous night, Fukase had decided that he needed to talk to Kaito after all—but for a different reason. If he and Oliver weren’t to be separated, then they would need a new solution. That solution was something only Fukase could provide. 

As Kaito nodded for him to continue, he took a bite of his ice cream and Fukase resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I want you to teach me how to use my magic. More specifically, I need to learn how to properly manifest it.” 

Kaito nodded again, deep in thought this time. “Now, why would I do such a thing?”

“Because I know you want to get off this island as much as I do. And in order to get out of here, you need my help.” If Fukase’s judgment of character was right, then that should do it. Rin had suggested that Fukase was quite powerful, and if he and Kaito had the same goal in mind, then Kaito should want that power on his side, right?

“What a difficult position you’re putting me in,” Kaito said, sighing. “It’s true that I’ve been looking for a way to leave this island for a while now, and the fact that you’ve deduced that much in such a short amount of time is only proof of your potential. But…” he was distracted by his thoughts for a moment as he trailed off. 

“But?”

“Let’s make a deal,” Kaito said suddenly. “I can make a plan for your escape, and I’ll teach you everything you need to know to make it a reality. But you have to promise me one thing—that you’ll help me get everyone off of this island. Not just you and Oliver, not just me. Everyone.”

“If your plan allows it,” Fukase said carefully, “I’ll do my best.” 

“Then we have a deal.” They shook hands over the countertop. “By the way, are you sure you don’t want any ice cream?”

Fukase looked down at the bowl in Kaito’s hands. “Hm… what flavors do you have?”

Kaito offered a knowing smile before opening the freezer for Fukase to take his pick. It was going to be a long day.

Notes:

Sorry this update took so much longer than expected!! The end of the school year was super hectic for me and we're traveling in a few days so I've been busy (￣□￣」)

Also as I was writing this, I remembered that given the time period of this fic, Fukase probably would have read the original Spider-Man... hence the reference hehe

But in other news!! Click here if you want to stalk me on other sites!! I love interacting with my readers sooo don't be shy :>

Hopefully the next update won't take as long! See you then :D

Notes:

Heyo!!

Dear Ao3 audience, I hope you all enjoy this! Thanks for stopping by. I started this when I was just getting into writing after years of break, so the first few chapters might be a bit messy, but I hope it's enjoyable nonetheless.

Don't be shy to share your thoughts! :D

~Dia

 

This fic was first published September 7th, 2020 on Wattpad.