The lost continent

Chapter 31

“You have bruises on your bruises.”

“You should see the other guy.” Kirishima smiles. Sero gives him a light clap on the shoulder.

“Yeah, Mina did a real number on him.” Sero grins. “Didn’t think I’d be so happy to see you up and about, but here I am.”

Kirishima chuckles. It feels nice to have the sun on his finally freshly cleaned skin, even if it makes his bruised and cut skin burn a little hotter. It’s been too long.

“Once it all settled down, you know…” Sero starts, chewing on his bottom lip. Kirishima looks down into the sea, embarrassed.

“It was hard not to blame you.” Sero settles on. “But it didn’t feel quite right. You were too stupid to have done something so underhanded, you know?”

Kirishima laughs. “I’m sorry, all the same.”

“Well, I’d say you paid for it.” Sero nudges him. “Bygones be bygones.”

Kirishima nods, and looks back to the water. “Thanks, Sero.”

“Don’t mention it. You’re a real pirate now, after all.”

Kirishima nods again, and keeps staring at the ocean, Sero quiet beside him. The water is clear- so clear it’s like it isn’t even there. They could be floating on air if it weren’t for the little ripples of the boat making their way over the white sand. There are thousands of oysters dotting the rippled banks, some pale and lined by the ocean flow, some dark, almost glinting in the heavy sun above. Kirishima’s eyes follow them as the Crepitus idles by, falling into though.

He’s better, now. Well, better meaning he can walk, and the freshest bruise in the one over his eye from when he fell trying to stand for the first time in weeks. Broke Bakugou’s mirror, too, having cuffed the vanity when he dropped. Mina was still drawing in her breath over the seven years bad luck. Who even came up with that anyways? Kirishima’s had bad luck his whole life, probably. Or middle luck, perhaps. All these bad things, but he manages to come out alive. And Bakugou. Bakugou was definitely good luck.

Kirishima sighs, and presses at the bruise over his eye, testing the ache of it, getting lost in the little bit of pain and subsiding pressure of it.

What did the poem say about oysters? There were a whole bunch of them, no wonder they were important. He’s not sure how well he can recall it, but he’s sure Mina and Bakugou could recite it backwards in a battle. Something about forgetting them. How the hell could you forget them when there were so many?

The supposed island was in the distance- far enough away that of course it was Hatsume who spotted it first. Bakugou’s dream was out there. He’s so close. Kirishima feels proud. But there’s something off. Even his pride feels misplaced.. There was something connecting them before that’s broken, now.  Or at least, it’s being mended. Like a gun tackle come loose, or frayed away. Whether it has to be threaded together again or re-tied, it’s not the same as it was before. There’s always something different in the way it feels when you use it. That’s how Kirishima’s heart feels, when he uses it.

“Can you fix a gun tackle perfectly?” KIrishima mumbles.

Sero squints his eyes at him a little. “One broken?”

Kirishima shrugs. Sero probably writes him off as something knocked a little lose in his brain, but that’s fine.

“What are those lines in the poem?” Kirishima asks. “About the oysters?”

Sero shrugs. “Hell if I know. That’s a secret for you higher-ups.”

Kirishima thinks, and his awareness of thinking so hard and getting nowhere suddenly enlightens him. “You need to know.”