TKATD: The Island From hell

Chapter Ten: Beach Day

Waves crashed against the sandy shore, and a soft breeze flew by. Leilani leaned herself against a large rock on the beach, she hadn't realized how much tension she had been holding in her back. She let out a sigh as she relaxed her body.

After the group had escorted everyone back to safer places around the island, they had voted to go to the beach. A strange request when Leilani thought about it, Yuno had just reunited with the two people she was closest to before she joined the crew and now, after a mere hour or so, she's frolicking around in the water and splashing Fujita as much as she can. In the end Yuno was happy so Leilani didn't try to think too much of the topic.

Koko was squatting on a rock and talking to someone, or something, perhaps she was hallucinating, which wasn't a new thing though it was always concerning to Leilani.

Mursai sat next to Leilani, his knees up to his chest. Though he had already become good friends with Sakane, Mursai didn't do well around new people, and Fujita was very new. Leilani knew this, so she decided not to bring it up, and to allow Mursai to be as socially awkward as he desired.

Now that Leilani was sitting down, with some time on her hands, she allowed herself to slip into her endless thoughts. Questions and answers flooded her mind as she argued with her own conscience. Her main focus was the island itself, what was setting her off? What about this random island made her stomach turn inside out? She barely got to evaluate her options before Fujita was waving her down. He was walking towards Leilani, clearly with something on his mind. Perhaps it was similar to what Leilani had on hers.

Leilani told Mursai she would be right back as she got up and met Fujita in the middle of his path towards her. He gave her a small, but warm, smile and began to speak.

"I was told you'd be the best person to talk to about this," he spoke ever so slightly with his hands, Leilani noted.

"Perhaps," Leilani joked, "depends on who told you so."

"I have some important information to relay," Fujita's words seemed to become heavier as he continued, "It's about the island, or what has settled on it."

"What a coincidence, I was just wondering about the island," Leilani told him, trying to take off some of the weight of his words.

"You see, before I ran into Yuno and everyone, I was liberating part of the island, sort of."

"Liberating?" Leilani's head leaned slightly to the side as she thought, "so there have been missing people," she realized.

"Were you under the impression someone was lying to you about such?" Fujita raised an eyebrow.

"Certainly. The village back there was blaming anyone who wasn't human for all their problems, the concept didn't seem too far-fetched." Leilani reasoned.

Fujita hummed with understanding as he pondered his next words. "But yes, there is a bay on the east side of the island that has been settled by what I can only describe as true monsters."

"And I presume these 'monsters' are abducting whoever, or whatever, they can?"

"Pretty much," he shrugged, "and the worst part is it doesn't make nearly enough sense."

"Fujita," Leilani began, her tone dropping to a serious pitch, "what did you see?

"Enough," he answered, "I was going to go back out there but now that you guys are here-"

"You want us to join you?" She finished his sentence, "or evaluate a plan of action?"

"Precisely, and with more numbers we have a better chance of ending this horror."

"Well I for one, have been dying for some action, and I'm sure Yuno would kill to kick some ass."

"Sounds like Yuno," Fujita commented, his voice warm with remembrance.

Leilani smiled in response, then went off to round everyone up. It was relatively easy, once Leilani even mentioned anything related to a "family meeting" Koko and Yuno were jumping up and down with anticipation. Sakane followed Yuno, simply enjoying Yuno's company.

Lady Iris understood Leilani's intentions, she explained briefly how she too was investigating the eastward bay mayhem.

Mursai, though socially awkward, was just as excited to hear about their newest adventure, no matter how scary it was.

It took a moment for everyone to get situated in the line Leilani instructed them to sit in. Her and Fujita stood in front of everyone, preparing their sudden speech.

Koko was accompanied by a lovely looking woman, she had short curly brown hair that rested just above her shoulders, and her skin was almost entirely covered in golden scales, her eyes were a deep, blood-like, red color, but they seemed to sparkle in a special way as she spoke to Koko.

Leilani inferred it was who Koko had been talking to before, but she brushed over the topic and moved on. "So," she began, clapping her hands together, "no sugar coating or anything, Koko you were right some weird shit is going down on this island."

"I knew it!" Koko practically screamed.

"And as always we're gonna do something about it," Leilani continued, noticing how Koko's new friend shifted in a sort of uncomfortable way at the mention of something strange.

"Fuck yeah!" Yuno responded, hyping everyone up in the process.

"You may have heard the stories," Fujita started, "things such as desires luring you in, then being tortured by your worst fears."

"Isn't that what the villagers were on about?" Mursai pointed out.

"Yes, the difference is they're racists and blame everything on the wrong people. This is truly happening, and it's done by humans to my knowledge," Fujita told him, which was somehow reassuring to Mursai.

"We need to come up with a plan of action," Leilani moved on, "I'm not leaving this island until we get rid of this vermin."

Koko's friend winced at the word vermin, clearly, Leilani thought, something was up.

"We could have a man on the inside," Koko suggested, it was her go-to strategy.

Leilani thought for a moment, on one hand it was a decent idea; on the other hand, she didn't want any of her crew members to go through something horrible. Then again, she didn't want anyone to go through something horrible, whether they were her crew or not.

"We could-" She started, before being cut off by an unfamiliar voice.

"I'll do it," It was Koko's new friend, "I've already been through there so, perhaps my experience will be of assistance."

"Forgive me but, what is your name?" Leilani asked, wanting to know at least something about her.

"Kyve, you may call me Kyve."

Fujita budded in, "You've been through there?"

"Yes, I was among the few who were able to escape, thanks to you of course." She fiddled with a stone she had found.

"So the plan will go like this," Fujita started, leaning closer to the group, "Kyve will go undercover, be our man on the inside, if we don't hear anything back from her in a day tops, we go there ourselves."

"I've escaped once," Kyve shrugged, "I think I could do it again." 

{Wow, look at me actually contributing something to the plot and not just making Yuno/Sakane as well as Mursai/Zeke fluff. We're finally getting to the part where I start to care about where this book is going.}