Together

It became, unexpectedly, the quietest part of the day.

Soro had moved to the kitchen to make tea, which he normally always did badly and without apology. Raiko remained at the table, having taken out a small worn journal from somewhere in her travelling clothes and apparently finding it more interesting than anything else currently happening, though Mika noticed she wasn't actually writing in it, but instead reading it.

Maya sat cross-legged in front of him, her staff across her knees, her hands moving slowly and carefully over the worst of the bruising along his ribs.

The boy sat stiffly, very aware of his own bare skin. He could feel the afternoon light touching the lean lines of his shoulders, the way his ribs moved visibly beneath the bruises whenever he breathed too deeply.

"Ouch!" Mika let out, feeling slight pain.

"It'll feel better soon." The girl responded. Where her fingers passed, a faint warmth followed, a soft blue-white light, the color of shallow water in sunlight. Mika could feel that the sharpest edges of the pain dulled gradually to something more manageable.

Her expression while she worked her magic was focused and quiet. The kind of focused that meant she was thinking about something else entirely.

"You should have told someone, you know!" She said eventually, without looking up. "Before you ran in there. You should have gotten an adult, or—"

"There wasn't time, and you know that!" Mika responded as he rolled his eyes.

"There WAS time. Ryota said to get the adults, didn't he?" Maya wasn't about to let him off the hook so easily.

She's aware her brother did what he did because he cared for her, but that doesn't mean it makes her feel any better to see his body like this.

"Ryota..." Mika said, with considerable restraint, "Can say whatever the hell he likes. He left you there."

Maya went quiet. She was trying her hardest not to think of that. She doesn't need any more pain right now.

"I'm not sorry I came." Mika continued. "I know I lost. I know I couldn't— " He stopped. Swallowed. "I know I wasn't enough. But I'm not sorry I tried! AND I would do it again!"

Maya's hands stilled against his ribs, her fingers brushing the lines of muscles.

"You could have died..." She said, her voice very quiet, as if she was afraid to even say it out loud.

"So could had you!" Mika's voice cracked slightly, the raw honesty of it catching them both off guard.

She looked up at him then. Her blue eyes were bright in a way that had nothing to do with magic. "..That's different."

"No it's not!"

Raiko, just for a second, took a glance at the twins. "These two sure are loud." She thought to herself before she went back to reading her journal.

"Maya, listen..." He held her gaze. "You're my sister. Did you honestly think I was going to stand outside the forest and wait? Did you think for one second that was something I was capable of doing?"

She looked at him for a long moment. Then she looked back down at her hands, resuming her work, and didn't answer.

Which was, Mika understood, her way of saying 'No. I didn't think that. I never thought that.' He thought it was cute how she always refused to outright admit he was right in moments like these.

"Thank you." She said finally, so quietly, he almost missed it beneath the sound of Soro clattering something in the kitchen.

"You don't have to thank me." Mika muttered, shifting slightly where he sat.

"I know I don't have to." She smoothed her fingers one last time over his ribs, the light fading gently. "I want to."

She set her staff aside and reached for her sewing kit, which she'd retrieved from her room at some point between waking and now, because Maya was the kind of person who always knew where her sewing kit was. Mika can't count the amount of times she fixed his torn clothes before.

"...Can she really fix the damage that creature did though?" Mika wondered to himself, unsure.

Maya shook out his torn shirt and examined the damage with the same focused expression she'd given his injuries, as if a ripped shirt was a problem with the same weight and deserving of the same care.

"I remember buying him this shirt..." Maya murmured to herself, fingers tracing the edges of the claw marks.

Mika watched her thread the needle. It was then he realized now maybe was a good time to talk about some important things.

"Raiko told us something." He began. "While you were sleeping. About you."

Maya's hands paused for just a fraction of a second. "About me? What do you mean?" The young girl was a little confused. Why would a woman she only met today know something about her? She couldn't begin to guess.

"Yeah, about you." Mika nodded, unsure how his sister will react. "About your magic, to be more exact." He hesitated, glancing towards Raiko, who at this point was only pretending to read.

Despite finding this strange, Maya's hands resumed their movement, needle pulling thread through the torn fabric in small careful stitches. "My magic? What did she say?"

"That your gift runs deeper than you know. That what you radiate — Just naturally, without trying — Is what drew that monster, the Shadow Ape, here." He paused. "That it's going to keep drawing things, Maya. It won't be the last time."

He really didn't want to have to tell her that last part, but he knew if she had to hear it from anyone, it had to be him.

The sewing slowed slightly. The room was quiet enough that the sound of thread pulling through fabric was almost audible.

"...How much deeper?" She asked.

"She said she hasn't sensed potential like yours in a very long time."

Maya wasn't sure how to react for the first few seconds. It almost didn't sound real. She knew she had a talent for water magic, but she never expected to hear any of this.

"So I'm... I'm dangerous to be around?" Maya concluded, feeling her hands tremble as she knotted the thread.

"That's not what I said!" Mika quickly objected, grabbing her trembling hands.

"It's what it means..." Maya whispered, staring at her hands still held in Mika's. The needle slipped from her fingers, landing soundlessly on the wooden floorboards. She glanced up briefly. "It means Ryota bringing me into that part of the Island didn't matter after all... It means anywhere I go, I'm—"

"We." Mika corrected.

She looked at him, a little confused.

"Anywhere we go." He said, this time making sure she understood him. "You're not doing anything alone. That's not changing."

Maya looked at him for a moment, something flickering behind her eyes. She was trying her best to hold back her tears.

Few minutes later, she handed him back his shirt without a word. The tears were nearly invisible.

And just as soon after, the tea appeared.

It was not good tea, but it was hot, and nobody said anything about its quality because Soro was the one who had made it and certain battles were just not worth fighting.

They each sat around the low table, the four of them, cups in hand.

"So...." Soro looked at Raiko over his tea. "A Monster Seeker for nine years you say? How old were you when you became a Seeker?" Soro asked, not caring about the fact he should never ask a lady her age.

"...Since I was 18." Raiko answered, sipping her tea without flinching despite its bitterness. The steam slowly touched her face, softening the sharp lines of her cheekbones for just a moment.

"Hmmm." He leaned back, arms crossed. "And you passed the Seeker exam at such an age? That's young."

"It's been done younger." Raiko said simply.

Mika listened with both elbows on the table and what he was fairly sure was a completely neutral expression, which, based on the single sideways glance Maya gave him, was probably not as neutral as he thought.

"And you've always been a Monster Seeker?" He asked. "Since the beginning?"

"Since the beginning." Raiko confirmed. She turned her tea cup slowly in both hands. "Some Seekers change their seeking over time. I haven't felt the need."

Mika was trying his best to hold himself back, to not start asking the woman question after question, but the truth is it felt nearly impossible.

"Wait, there's an exam? Like, anyone can take it? At any age?" Mika leaned forward, his tea forgotten, fingers twitching like he was already imagining holding the pen.

"Technically, yes." Raiko answered yet again. "The exam has no age requirement. Only a survival one."

"A survival one?!" Mika's blue eyes went wide. He knew about Seekers, but he didn't know anything about this exam of theires.

"It means you have to survive it, genius." Soro said flatly, giving him the look. "Use your head!"

"I KNOW what it means!" Mika snapped, going red.

Maya, quietly sipping her tea, stared at Raiko. She wasn't sure what to think of the woman. On one hand, she did save her and her brother's life, so for that, she was thankful, but on the other hand, there was a part of her that wished Raiko wasn't a Seeker.

She knows her brother, and heck, nearly every boy she knows on this island, has at some point dreamed of becoming a Seeker, something she couldn't relate too at all. "What a boyish dream that is..." She whispered to to nobody in particular.

Mika looked at her. She wasn't looking back, just watching the steam curl up from her cup with an expression he couldn't quite pin down.

Soro turned his attention back to Raiko once more. "The Shadow Ape wasn't here by coincidence, as you said earlier. Does that mean more creatures might show up here on the island?"

Raiko set her cup down. "I can't deny that possibility. The girl's power will only grow as she gets older. The stronger it becomes, the further it reaches. Dolphin Island is small, which has helped so far. But it won't keep helping. What found her once will find her again." She looked at Soro with a serious stare. "I imagine you know what this means, correct?"

Soro said nothing, which was its own kind of answer.

"She needs real training." Raiko continued. "More than just healing. She needs to learn to pull it inward rather than let it radiate outward unchecked. That kind of guidance doesn't exist on this island, as far as I know."

The room went quiet.

Mika was staring at the table. He could hear the sea outside, the ordinary sounds of the village going about its late afternoon, the same sounds he'd heard every day of his life, and for the first time they sounded like something slipping away, instead of something which he thought would always be there.

Maya, on the other hand, had gone very still.

"Maya..." Mika let out, unsure what to say. He could feel the weight pressing down on her shoulders, and the worst part was that there was no way he could take some of it off of her.

"If I stay here..." Maya began after a moment, looking at Raiko directly. "What you're saying is that something else will likely come here, eventually, right? Something just as scary as that... Thing."

"Yes." Raiko said. Simply, without apology.

"And if I leave. If I train. If I learn to..." Maya searched for the word. "Pull it in. Like you said. It gets safer?"

"It becomes more manageable." Raiko corrected. "I won't promise you'll be safe for all time, but controlled is better than uncontrolled, as in most things."

Maya nodded slowly. She looked back at the table for a moment. Then she looked at Mika.

He was already looking at her, but the words simply won't come out. He couldn't figure out what he should say to make his beloved sister feel better. He wasn't sure if such words even existed.

Soro looked at the two of them. Then he picked up his tea, took a long sip, and set it back down. "Well..." He said. "This has been a wonderful afternoon."

"Huh?! How can you say that, old man?!" Mika snapped.

"I'm being sincere."

"No you're not!!" Mika snapped, hands slamming flat against the table. His tea sloshed violently but didn't spill.

"Finish your tea." Soro said, unfazed by Mika's outburst.

Raiko, for her part, said nothing. But Mika caught it, the small barely-there curve at the corner of her mouth that she didn't quite manage to suppress in time.

He decided that was enough for him.

...

Raiko left as the sun began lowering toward the water.

She gathered her things without ceremony, the way she seemed to do everything. Soro walked her to the door and said something low that Mika didn't catch, and Raiko answered just as quietly. Then Soro went back inside without further comment, leaving the door open behind him.

Mika followed her outside. He's not sure why, but some part of him simply wanted to see her off, even though he barely knew her.

They walked a few steps down the path together before she stopped and turned slightly, adjusting the strap of her pack.

"About the Seeker Exam..." She said, without preamble. "Port Calden to the north. It starts in three months." She glanced at him with those sharp dark blue eyes of hers. "I'm not telling you what to do with that information."

Mika was quiet for a second. "...You're telling me anyway though."

"I'm telling you it exists." She said. "And that the exam takes candidates of any age. And that three months is not much time." She looked at him steadily. "What you do with that is your own business."

He nodded slowly, filing every word away somewhere careful.

"You fought well today." She continued in the same unhurried tone she used for everything. Mika was a caught off guard for a second. He didn't think she would compliment him. "For what you had and what you knew."

"Soro, the old man, said I got saved by a woman." Mika muttered, toeing the dirt with his sandal.

"Does that bother you?" Raiko asked, tilting her head slightly.

"....A little, yeah." Mika admitted. "But—" His fingers curled into loose fists at his sides, then relaxed again. He hesitated before adding, softer. "Thanks.... For saving us, I mean." He couldn't help but blush. Just as he didn't like feeling he owed people anything, he also wasn't used to thanking them. "Without you, my sister and I wouldn't still be here."

Raiko almost smiled. He caught it this time, just barely, before it disappeared. He couldn't help but feel disappointed.

Then she turned and walked away down the path, her long dark hair catching the last of the afternoon light, in the direction of wherever she was going next.

"See you around, Mika." Raiko tossed the words over her shoulder like spare change, already halfway down the path.

Mika stood and watched until the path curved and took her from view. "I'm sure she has the prettiest smile... What a shame I couldn't see it." He thought to himself, kicking at a pebble and missing completely. "Damn, I should have asked her if she has a lover out there or not!" He inwardly kicked himself, though his face burned at the mere thought of being so forward.

Behind him, Maya's voice drifted from the doorway, quiet and dry: "Mika, are you coming inside? You'll catch a cold."

"Coming!" He responded as he went back inside.

That night, after Soro had retired and the house had gone quiet, Mika lay on his back in the dark of his room and stared at the ceiling.

Dolphin Island at night sounded like waves and wind and the occasional distant cry of a seabird, the same sounds he had fallen asleep to for as long as he could remember. They were good sounds. Comfortable sounds. The sounds of a life that fit around him the way an old worn thing fits.

He and Maya had shared this room for as long as he could remember. Two small beds pushed against opposite walls, close enough that they could talk without raising their voices, which they had done more nights than he could count. Tonight though, Maya's bed was empty. She was lying beside him instead, the way she sometimes did when something had frightened her, staring up at the same ceiling with her hands folded over her stomach.

Neither of them had suggested it. She had simply come in, looked at her own bed, and climbed into his instead. He had moved over without a word.

"You're not sleeping." Maya said quietly. "Am I bothering you?"

"Nah, never." Mika responded. "And neither are you."

She conceded this with a small tilt of her head.

"That woman... She told you something, didn't she?" Maya spoke, her voice soft. "When she was leaving. I saw your face when you came back inside."

Mika was quiet for a second. Then: "She told me about the Seeker Exam. Port Calden to the north. Three months from now."

Maya absorbed this. "Three months from now isn't very long..."

"No." Mika's fingers brushed against Maya's wrist. "Not long at all."

"We'd have to to train like crazy then, so that when it's time to leave the island, we'll be ready." Maya whispered, shifting slightly so her shoulder brushed against Mika's in the dark.

Mika looked at her, confused. "We?"

Maya met his gaze evenly. "Did you think I was going to let you go alone? I always knew becoming a Seeker was one of your dreams."

"Maya—" Mika began, only to be shut down.

"I heard everything Raiko said today." She said quietly. "About what I am. About what stays here if I stay here." She paused. "I've been thinking about it since she said it and I can't stop thinking about it and I think—" She stopped, taking a breath. "I think staying is the scarier choice, actually. When I think about it that way. I don't want the people I love here to possibly get hurt because of me, just like you did today..."

Mika looked at his sister for a long moment. At the way she was holding herself carefully, the way she always did when something cost her more than she wanted to show.

"Even so, you don't have to!" He began to object. "Just because I want—"

"I know I don't have to!" She looked at him. "But I want to." She paused for a second, trying to gather her thoughts. "Also you would absolutely get yourself in trouble without me there to keep an eye on you. You are hopeless without your sister." She teased him lightly.

"That is genuinely offensive..." He spoke. "But not totally wrong..." He whispered this last part, avoiding eye contact.

"It's also true." Maya murmured, shifting closer under the thin blanket.

He looked at the ceiling again. Then back at her. Something was sitting in his chest that he didn't have a clean word for. It felt too large and too warm and slightly terrifying in the way that things you've wanted for a very long time become terrifying the moment they start to feel real.

"...I was ready to throw away the idea of ever becoming a Seeker, for our promise." Mika began. "But if you're going with me then..."

Maya didn't hesitate as she raised her pinky in the dark.

"We go together." She said. "We stay together." A beat. "Until the day you die. Which, just so you know, I intend to make sure is a very long time from now."

Mika laughed. It came out rough and quiet and real.

Then he linked his finger with hers, the same way he had once before, when they were 6 years old and the world was burning behind them. In a way, that fire changed everything, but Mika doesn't regret it, not once.

Her skin was warm against his. He could feel the soft press of her thigh where it brushed his, the way her breath hitched when he didn't let go right away. Neither of them moved to pull apart.

"Cross my heart. Until the day I die." He agreed, repeating the words he had once spoken when they were just children.

Maya smiled at that — A small, genuine thing — And settled back against the pillow. "Let's sleep." She said. "Today was a very long day... We also have a lot to figure out tomorrow."

"Yeah." Mika agreed as he nodded, feeling his eyes grow heavy.

A comfortable silence settled over the room. Outside the sea did what it always did, indifferent and endless.

Mika stared at the ceiling. He thought about Port Calden, wherever it was. He thought about Raiko walking away like she always had somewhere worth going.

He thought about Maya at the waterfall, her reflection trembling in the pool, and the creature that had crossed an entire sea for her without her knowing.

He thought, briefly and carefully, about the fire from his childhood. In a way, that day was a dark day, and yet, despite it being a tragedy, he was pretty sure he wouldn't change a thing about it, even if he could go back in time.

Beside him, Maya's breathing had slowed into sleep.

He closed his eyes, both his mind and his body were exhausted.

And as the twins rested, outside, the sea went on being the sea.