TKATD: The Island From hell

Chapter Eleven: A Gift to the Night

Mursai decided he would talk to Koko, he didn't really know why, but the pixie seemed to be uneasy after Kyve traveled east towards the bay. Koko did tend to make attachments quick, whether healthy or not.

So Mursai stayed by her side, making conversation when he could.

"Is she cool?" He asked after a small silence, "Kyve, I mean."

"She's fucking awesome," Koko answered, a sparkle in her eyes. Mursai couldn't tell if it was from admiration or drugs.

"Go on," he suggested, letting Koko know he was genuinely interested.

And so Koko went on, and on. Mursai found it made him happy to see her in such a state of pure joy, but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. He doesn't want Koko to go, and he knew deep down she wouldn't, but something else inside him said she could, and might. But he listened intently.

"-It's like I've met her before," Koko ended the ramble.

"How so?"

"Well I'm not sure," Koko paused, then the light in her eyes grew brighter, "Mursai holy shit."

"What?"

"When I told her I felt like I knew her before, she said 'perhaps in another life.'" Koko looked at him, waiting for the understanding to gravitate to him.

"And this makes sense because?"

"Remember way back when I told you about being a human?" She moved her arms around dramatically as she spoke, "how I mentioned someone named Lorelai?"

"Oh yeah!" Mursai finally realized.

"What if Kyve is a reincarnation of her?" Koko looked at him, a sort of seriousness to her dilated pupils.

"That would be--" Mursai thought aloud, "--entirely plausible actually."

"Exactly!" Koko exclaimed.

"Leilani would probably know more than me on the topic though," Mursai pointed out.

"Yes, but she will use big words that I can't understand," Koko reasoned.

"Fair point," he shrugged.

The conversation went on, for quite a while too. They even ended up talking a bit about Mursai, which he enjoyed to some extent, but only a bit.

Later Leilani and Yuno joined the conversation, closely followed by Sakane.

It ended up being a giant session of just catching up. Everyone had been doing so many things in the past week alone, and it was overall nice to just hear everyone enjoy each others company. No matter how much he liked adventuring, Mursai couldn't help but love being casual. He loved just existing, and knowing that his friends existed with him. Maybe, he thought, that's why it hurt a little to hear Koko talk so passionately about someone new. Because Koko could stop existing in his existence.

Truly, he adored every single one of his friends, he didn't feel at all threatened by Sakane, because Sakane began existing with him. In the end, Mursai was insecure, and he knew this, he knew it well.

Leilani was able to catch onto this very small feeling, whether Mursai displayed it or not. She made it a goal to be able to pick up every social queue from her friends, she never wanted them to feel at all bad in any situation. She took upon every parental role she could, she essentially made herself their guardian. She knew none of them really had anyone else to go to, Yuno just got reintroduced to the idea of a father. Mursai had never had a family. Koko had a family but no longer recalls their faces. Leilani herself has a complicated family dynamic, she hadn't spoken to her mother, or her sister, for centuries. Leilani sort of filled in the places everyone needed, and if she were to be honest, she didn't mind.

Eventually everyone was lying on the sandy beach, staring into the starry sky and listening to the sound of waves crashing against the shore, listening to the sound of wildlife settling for the night.

Leilani had excused herself for a moment, and when she had returned the sun had disappeared under the horizon, making way for the moon.

Yuno steadied her breathing as she thought quietly to herself. Her thoughts normally screamed at her, only to be dulled by the taste of bitter liquor running down her throat. But as she held Sakane's hand and gazed at the intrancing sky, she found herself at ease. She hadn't really had a lick of alcohol since she had gotten off the ship, and she realized it was for the best. A part of her missed that feeling of letting her mind slip into auto-drive as she got incredibly drunk, but another part of her enjoyed just sitting there so much more.

Sakane didn't want to ever let go of Yuno's hand, similar to how Fujita promised himself to never let Yuno and Sakane go ever again, but Sakane felt a sort of bitterness towards Fujita though he would never voice it. It was this sort of resentment he had, a grudge perhaps. He just couldn't let go of a past that was always ignored. He couldn't ignore what everyone had always wanted him to.

And similarly Fujita would never forgive himself, could never truly ignore his own actions, could never ignore his loss. And so he vowed, he pledged, he promised a better life for those around him. He knew he couldn't make a better life for himself, he was a pitiful old man. But he would try his hardest to make sure that those he cared about would never, ever, feel the same pain he has.

Lady Iris, though she began feeling like an outsider to the group, she felt overwhelmingly welcome. No one had bothered her about who she was, what she was particularly. No one seemed to see it as relevant to their views of her. And she loved it. She adored these kids, she admired them in a way she didn't quite understand. She was used to research, she was used to black and white, good and bad, love and hate. This ragtag team of friends was a mixing pot of just about everything. And Iris was just the thing to make it even better.

Koko was in agony, sitting still, thinking. Eventually she let her trip take the lead as psychedelic swirls filled the night sky, at least as far as she could tell. She thought endlessly about Lorelai, all the memories she had repressed, all the faces she struggled to even remember. She supposed some of those faces were better off forgotten, but not Lorelai's. Loreali deserved to live longer than Koko ever had, or perhaps has. She felt that somewhere someone else knew of Lorelai and her reign, her affects on Solis itself. She tried to imagine her lover's face, but she only saw a blob of color, wearing a crown.

Collectively, they all felt a few tears roll down the side of their faces, a silent cry given to the night.