The Open Sea I

The Kenichi Modern landed on a small island just a few kilometers off the shores of the known Ka'Ilyah landmass. Sapphire seas embraced the golden brown sands of the island, its beach serving as a hard border between the water and the forest of bamboo-palm-like tree hybrids inland.

Haruki and Anemone had disembarked from the plane an hour ago to explore the island. They had decided to forage for food and supplies because who knew how far and long they'd have to travel to reach the Federacy?

Though if one were to ask Haruki, he wouldn't mind if he'd have to spend the rest of his short days on this island.

Last time he checked, there wasn't much left in the KM's tank—around 30% of its total fuel capacity. If the Federacy were around thirty minutes away, then he could make the trip. Doubtful.

If another nation were a mere half hour away, you'd think there'd be more humans visiting Ka'Ilyah on a daily basis. Not to mention the problems that'd arise from having borders this close together.

The dark clouds approaching from the direction of the Inverted City didn't help the cause, either. Anemone confirmed it wasn't a sign of the Sky Legion, but a passing storm. But in the world of aviation, a storm is just as likely to kill them as any evil army of demons.

Deciding it was best to wait the storm out, they gathered a pile of red coconut-like fruits and stored them in yet another cave within the island.

The cave opened into a muddy incline which took both some handiwork and magicwork to make safe. Otherwise, they'd have to slide and likely injure themselves going in and out of the cave.

By high noon, they had crafted a makeshift door to the cave as basic protection against the coming storm. As for the KM…

Haruki positioned it inside a clearing within the forest. He prayed the storm would only be of rain, not of winds strong enough to tear the plane hinge from hinge. Ironic, considering he's had to rely on the wind for everything so far.

He opened the storage compartment and, after having taken most of everything out, noticed a bottle-like shape fully wrapped in manila paper.

Taking it out, he unwrapped the paper and inside was a bottle of unlabeled sake. The only thing written on a plastered paper taped on it were the words “You might need this.” Surely a gift from Mr. Junk. Cheeky.

I'll partake, if you don't mind. He took a swig.

Warmth filled his throat and chest immediately. It wasn’t just the alcohol, but also the heat from the engine the compartment had trapped all this.

Not just that either—but the taste of home.

The Hollanroe of Ka'Ilyah was by no means swill, but sake just hit like home. Probably the best—save for the planes—part of life back then. He stopped when the liquor swished only halfway through the bottle.

Gonna save some for later, he thought, as he lurched back to the shelter. That sake hit harder than he expected.

He leaned on the cave wall, sweat dripping down his cheek. Water dripped from the walls. Haruki, at one point, could no longer feel which was his own sweat and which was cave perspiration. His head spun and his body heated up.

What the hell is this, poison? He stared at the sake bottle, vision spinning for a moment before returning as if nothing happened. Fatigue took him again.

I deserve a nap, he thought, the stress of the chase earlier finally having caught up to him. He closed his eyes.

He didn’t know how long he drifted—a second, an hour? A day perhaps?

But he woke to the sound of a hiccup.

When he opened his eyes, Anemone stumbled into view, sunlight still filtering in from the shelter’s door and onto her flushed skin. She held a bottle of sake in hand. Her face held a confused, unwilling smile.

Haruki darted up to his feet and caught Anemone stumbling. He took the bottle from her hands.

“W-wuz this…” Anemone muttered, words almost incoherent. “Yur Hollanroe’s preddy zstrong. Where’d ja get your hands on deez?” She said, reaching out to the bottle. Haruki swung it out of reach.

“No more for you,” Haruki said as he poured what little remained of the sake onto the ground. Such a waste. But he wasn’t aware Anemone was such a drinking hazard. He had also realized whatever Mr. Junk gave him was more moonshine than normal liquor.

“Naaw!” Anemone dove for the spilled sake, but Haruki caught her.

Anemone looked up to him, her eyes half-lidded and expression contorted into a half-smile. Her focus on him made it seem like she’d completely forgotten about the sake.

“Geez. You drink from other people’s bottles without permission?”

“Mizz alcohol,” she slurred out. “Father caught me dwinking from hiz wine collection and I really liked it.” Her arms dropped. “So I go out to town at night and dwink zumtimes. But I stopped doing even zat.”

Haruki sat Anemone down on the cave wall. “Shush. You’re barely making sense.” She was making perfect sense, actually—but he questioned just how much she was missing out, being disallowed alcohol.

She held a gaze at Haruki, cheeks flushed and eyes fluttering. Then, she reached out and pulled him close and stopped short of his lips.

His eyes rounded. She was so very close—he could smell her natural floral scent mingling with the stink of homemade alcohol.

He wanted to close the gap, but didn’t. He waited for her to pull him close. Though a feeling at the back of his head said he shouldn’t wait anyway. He pulled away and let the now drunken Anemone droop on the wall.

Barely conscious, she tumbled peacefully onto the cushion they had prepared beforehand. His eyes traced her body, studying its sudden redness, then followed back to the bottle of alcohol.

If Mr. Junk’s moonshine was enough to stagger a man like Haruki who had built an impressive tolerance to alcohol, then one could only imagine the kind of havoc it would wreak on someone like Anemone.

He didn’t have to imagine, of course.

Deciding to make the bottle an extra canteen for water, he took it and headed out the shelter. He returned to the island’s coast.

As he left the final forest canopy, he heard the shuffling of a creature behind him. Haruki turned quickly. Nothing.

He walked forward. Again, something scurried. But there were no shadows, not even the movement of plants being disturbed.

Huh. He thought that moonshine sake was still hitting him.

Ignoring his apparent hallucinations, he crouched by the swashing sea water and scooped up enough water to fill up the sake battle. He took a sip to taste.

The water didn’t irritate his tongue or cause him to belch. He had seen Anemone drink the water earlier and chalked it up to strange elf biology allowing them to drink seawater. But that wasn’t the case.

As he thought already, the sea in this world wasn’t salty. The sea was just as fresh as any river back home. It was perfectly potable water—at least he hoped. Perhaps drinking seawater would kill him sometime, but if it didn’t taste untoward, then there shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Before returning to the shelter, he ran a cursory inspection of the Kenichi Modern and inspected it for any significant damage. He’d already checked it earlier, but it didn’t hurt to check again.

Adrenaline forced open his half-asleep nerves when he spotted a strange gash on the wing. The damage looked like a talon may have caused it, but it was carved in the form of a scribble. It looked less like an attempt to damage the plane, and more like someone writing a squiggly signature.

Rush overtook him. He remembered the strange movement earlier. He hurried back to the shelter, catching himself twice when he almost tripped over stray tree roots.

The door to the shelter was left open, and he knew he had secured it before he left. He dashed at it, fists clenched—but something pounced him, sending him crashing to the mud.

He tried to shove the entity off him, but it struggled back and spun Haruki on his back. Though he could call himself modestly fit, his opponent’s strength was overbearing, almost inhuman.

The entity’s silhouette blocked the sun and cast a shadow over him. Feeling time slowed down, his eyes traced his attacker’s features.

Blazing, red hair tumbling over her neck and up to Haruki’s face, and eyes just as blue as the freshwater sea. When he looked down their torso to study their entire body, two great mounds of flesh blocked his view.

“A-A girl?”

“Yeah, so?” The attacker raised her brow, though the shadow made her expression almost invisible.

“What the hell is going on? And who are you?”

“Me?” The girl raised a fist high in the air. “Just someone collecting bounty. Don’t worry, you’re both wanted alive.”

She slammed the fist at Haruki.

And darkness came before the blazing pain.