FORK

Chinatsu woke up at the first light of dawn. He didn’t remember being such a light sleeper, but maybe that was a quirk of Miyabi’s body. It wasn’t his turn to take over on night-guard duty, but he was already up and might as well.

Though Peony had put up a barrier at the entrance to the garden–something the Elf explained would hide the group’s presence as long as they stayed within it–danger was still omnipresent. The remnants of the Shambler were proof enough of that. They were to keep watch in shifts.

Chinatsu heard splashing at the pond and sat up. Peony and Masha were still fast asleep. Joel was…absent? He was supposed to be the second watch. Furthermore, where was Miyabi?

The sun wasn’t high enough in the sky yet to peek over the stone walls, but the twilight of dawn cast a soft, blue glow. Chinatsu got up to inspect the pond. Could it be another Shambler? What are the odds of that? Maybe a Kappa instead?

As he got closer, he saw bubbling under the water. He looked back at the group. Should he sound an alarm?

Chinatsu nearly jumped out of his skin when Miyabi popped up out of the water.

“Oh, you’re up already?”

She was shirtless!!

“What are you doing!? Where’s Joel?” Chinatsu whispered.

“He snuck off a little while ago,” she said, getting out of the water. “If he wants to try to get through this on his own, then that’s his decision.”

She was fully out of the water now, and Chinatsu could see she’d stripped down to boxers. The nerve! The hypocrisy!

“So you’re allowed to parade my body around in underwear, but I can’t do the same? Isn’t girl’s underwear just like a bikini anyway?” he grumbled.

“It’s different! It’s not the same,” she said, sitting on the grass. “I didn’t peek if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Chinatsu said, sitting next to her. He could feel his face getting hot.

He kept staring. He couldn’t help but keep staring. Why? It was his own body! He’d seen it a million times before, so why was this time different? Chinatsu’s heart raced, and he felt something in the pit of his stomach that was indescribable.

“You still have that slime in your hair. And mud. Here, let me help you wash it,” she said, running her fingers through his hair. Miyabi suddenly felt way, way too close.

It was too weird! Chinatsu couldn’t take it anymore!

“I’ll do it myself!” he said before crawling over to the pond and dunking his head in. Chinatsu did his best to rinse the grime out of his hair. Miyabi’s hair was only shoulder-length, but Chinatsu wondered how she could even stand to take care of it like this.

He looked back for a moment and locked eyes with her. She averted her gaze. This girl…

Chinatsu looked at his reflection in the pond. The face that had once belonged to Miyabi stared back at him. This wasn’t something he could get used to.

“It’s weird for me too, you know,” she said.

“Do you think we’ll go back to normal?” Chinatsu said, returning to the spot on the grass next to Miyabi.

They both laid back and watched the sky. The stars were gone now, and there seemed to be no clouds in this world. Just a blank sky that swirled with the colors of dawn. Birdsong was beginning to harmonize with the lingering chirps of crickets.

“I hope so. But I have to admit, having your strength has been really convenient.”

“Well, I can’t really say the same.”

“Hmph,” she rolled over to face away from him. “At least your girly name suits you now.”

“Excuse me!? You wanna repeat that!?” She was deliberately trying to get under his skin now. She knew that kind of thing bothered him, so why did she have to mention it?

“Well, whatever. It doesn’t matter. You’re on watch duty now, so I’m going to sleep,” she mumbled.

She was still undressed!!

“H-hey! At least get dressed before you do that!” he scolded. But she was already fast asleep. The ability to fall asleep anywhere, instantly, was Chinatsu’s special ability. A quirk of his that his body must have kept.

Chinatsu draped the uniform button-up shirt over her shoulders like a blanket before patrolling the perimeter. He wasn’t actually sure what “guard duty” entailed. The remains of the Shambler were still in a pile near the edge of the pond, and even though they’d defeated it, just seeing it made him feel uneasy.

Before long, the morning sun had peeked over the walls of the maze, and the others woke up. The eastern sun was bright and warm, but the air still felt cool and refreshing. The four of them nibbled on some leftover bread as they got ready. Joel’s absence was noticed immediately.

“Honestly, if the Wraiths didn’t already get him, then something else will,” Peony said, yawning.

“That seems a little cold,” Masha sighed. “Though it was extremely foolish of him to go off on his own.”

The four of them cleaned up their makeshift camp and set off into the maze with Peony leading the way. Chinatsu gave the green oasis one last look. Even though they had encountered something dangerous there, he was going to miss the relative comfort and safety that the space had provided.

“Masha, you said you’ve been here for four days already. What kind of dangers did you encounter?” Miyabi asked.

“Hmm…Well, the spot I entered this place had some terrible carnivorous plants. Lucky for me, the cooking knife I was using to defend myself against attackers came with me into this place, along with everything else. I was able to make quick work of them that way!” She made a chopping motion with her hand.

After encountering the Minotaur immediately after entering, Chinatsu thought that the plants sounded preferable. But maybe there were more dangerous things she’d encountered.

“Oh, and then there was some kind of nasty fungus. I got around that by putting my scarf over my nose and mouth so as not to breathe in the spores. There was a wee beastie on day two–but just one of ‘em–so I took it out with my slingshot. Then on day three, I saw a pretty evil-looking worm–”

“That’s enough, I get it!” Chinatsu interrupted.

Had she seriously only encountered such low-stakes enemies this whole time!? It wasn’t fair!

“What did you do at night?” Miyabi asked.

“I built a fire and made camp,” Masha smiled.

“Did you not encounter any Wraiths? We were almost killed by one on our first night here,” Miyabi pressed.

“A fire will keep the Wraiths away. Not that it harms them, but the light seems to repulse them,” Peony said.

That’s right, Peony had also mentioned that about the campfire on the night they saved Chinatsu and Miyabi from the Wraith. He wondered if maybe the phone flashlight would also work as a defense against them in an emergency. He dug through Miyabi’s bag to find her phone. It still had half of a charge, so Chinatsu turned it off to conserve battery and put it back in the bag.

Chinatsu bumped into Miyabi, who had stopped walking.

“Ow! Why did we stop?”

He looked ahead to see that they had reached a fork in the path. A stone wall down the middle split the route into two diverging paths.

A canopy of trees and ivy had created sun-shielding overgrowth that darkened the fork to the left. To the right, it was open and sunny.

“Um…should we flip a coin?” Miyabi asked.

“No, we can just take the right path,” Peony sighed. “They should both lead to the same place in the end.”

So Peony said…

But after walking down the right fork’s path for several meters, they found a roadblock–and a familiar face.

Joel was sitting on a large piece of stone rubble, smoking a cigarette. Behind him, more stone rubble piled up high and completely blocked the path.

“Ah, you lived,” Peony said.

“Don’t get too excited,” Joel said, taking a drag on his cigarette. “I snuck off because I thought I’d get a head start and beat all of yous out of here.”

“Unfortunately, it seems like you made the same mistake we did,” Masha’s tail wagged.

“Yeah, well, don’t think about climbing over this junk. I tried it. It’s too loose and dangerous,” he said, gesturing towards the rubble.

Chinatsu took a close look at the space. He couldn’t figure out where it all came from. The walls above seemed intact. The rubble also didn’t seem to have any lichen or moss growing on it like the surrounding walls did, so it looked like it might have landed there recently.

“Hey, kid, what are you doing there?” Joel asked.

Miyabi was holding the notebook they’d started their map in and marking the dead end. Chinatsu was impressed that she was still keeping up with it.

“I’ve been mapping this place out,” she said.

Peony looked over the crude map with awe. They pulled a roll of parchment out of their bag.

“You don’t have to do that! I already made a map of this whole place,” Peony exclaimed, rolling out their map. They pointed to a spot. “We’re right here. The center is where we are heading.”

“Is that where the exit is?” Chinatsu asked. He looked over Peony’s shoulder at the map. It was drawn with charcoal and presented a detailed diagram of the paths within the labyrinth, along with written annotations in a looping script.

He couldn’t understand a thing it said. What language was that? Elvish? Chinatsu was about to ask when the thought was interrupted.

“You didn’t mention you had a map before,” Miyabi questioned.

“That’s because I don’t need it. It’s all in here,” Peony said, tapping their head.

“Then what’s to stop me from taking it?” Joel loomed over Peony.

Chinatsu couldn’t tell if Joel was bluffing or not, but something about that guy was scary. Chinatsu put his hand in his pocket and touched the knife. It wasn’t much, but he could at least try to protect Peony.

“It would end very badly for you,” Peony replied. They gave off the same aura as before when Miyabi had grilled them about the exit. It was like Peony was calling Joel’s bluff, but also hoping that he’d try something.

Chinatsu let go of the knife in his pocket. He had to diffuse the situation before it got really bad.

“Why don’t we all just leave this place together!?” he blurted out.