All three vessels had now left the island—with the two captain ships closely sailing behind Lady Social’s.

Most of the people she picked up were now down below in their respective quarters. The incident at the beach had worn them out and they needed some time to recover.

Everything had now calmed down. But with not much going on, the experience of being at sea was beginning to affect Kenzo. As the sunlight weighed over him, he was now leaning over the side of the ship as he struggled to deal with the sea sickness.

“A seasick hunter? How rare.”

With drool sliding down his mouth, he turned and saw Lady Social behind him.

“Wow, you look awful,” she said. “Here. Drink this and follow me.”

She handed him an open flask. 

Kenzo smelled the opening as he wasn’t sure what was inside.

“It’s just water,” she said, as she started to walk to the front of the ship.

Just to be safe—he smelt it once more, then began drinking it as he followed her. By the time they reached their destination, the flask was empty. With everything that was going on, he never found an opportunity to request for some water—making this his first drink of the day.

Once they reached the front, Lady Social took back the flask and shook it.

“Looks like you really needed that,” she said. “You should feel a bit better here. Always face the way the ship’s moving when you get sick like this.”

After wiping the drool from his mouth, Kenzo looked forward and noticed the nausea was subsiding. Now he didn’t have to focus so hard to not throw up.

Lady Social took a few steps toward him.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“K-Kenzo,” he stuttered, as it had been so long since he’d said anything.

“So Kenzo. How did you get onto the ship?” she asked.

What should he even say, he wondered. He didn’t know where he was—let alone how he got here. His new suspicion was that this may be a prank being filmed. There were videos like this online, but he’d never seen someone kidnapped just for a prank. He thought that if he asked, she might tell him if it was indeed a prank.

“Is this a prank?” he said.

“What?” she asked.

She looked quite annoyed by his question, so he was worried to ask it again.

“I don’t know how I got here,” Kenzo replied.

She began to laugh. “So you have what—memory loss? That’s what you want me to believe?”

Kenzo looked down and didn’t answer.

Her laughing stopped. She grabbed Kenzo’s chin and turned his face toward hers. For a few seconds she stared, studying him—as her one eye alternated between his two. The seriousness of her look began to fade the more she stared. After awhile, she had let him go.

“So, what do you remember?” she asked.

“I was on my computer, in my room.”

“On a what?”

“A computer. It’s a—It’s uh…um.”

As he looked at her, he saw the confused look on her face. It was clear she had no idea what he was talking about. He was now paranoid that she would get angry and throw him off the ship if she didn’t believe what he was saying. So he wasn’t sure what else to say.

After a moments pause, she leaned on the ship and looked at him in contemplation.

“Earlier, I noticed you had this bump over here,” she said, as she touched the back of his head—making him flinch. “Maybe you had an accident and hit it hard enough to develop amnesia. But whoever you are, it’s impressive that you got on my ship without anyone noticing.”

Kenzo knew he got that bump from hitting the table in the cabin. But apart from suspecting it was a dream, he was starting to believe amnesia could be a reason as to why he didn’t remember coming here.

Lady Social then turned his face toward hers again and stared. “It’s strange though. To do that, you would have to be a rather skilled hunter. But, you don’t quite feel like one,” she said.

Kenzo had no idea why she just referred to him as a hunter. But he decided maybe it wasn’t important.

“Well, you being here isn’t such a bad thing. I happen to be in terrible need of a babysitter.”

Lady Social stopped leaning onto the ship and looked behind them.

“There’s a few children onboard. I can’t watch them all the time, and Vic is better suited at watching scarier people,” she said.

A soft breeze passed as she placed her hand on Kenzo’s shoulder. 

“So you can be their caretaker for today. There’s only three, so it shouldn’t be hard to find them. Take a little breather, then go look for them.”

She tapped his shoulder and started to walk off.

“Oh, and Kenzo. Welcome to the Unity Cruise,” she said, as she smiled and left.

Kenzo felt a slight relief to have a little time to himself. There was an intensity that came with her presence, but also a comforting one that he didn’t quite mind.

He turned round and looked out at sea, as the sun shimmered across the waves. It had been awhile since he’d felt this bright of a sunshine. But with such an endless sea, Kenzo felt a heavy amount of anxiety knowing he was now trapped on a ship with so many unknown people onboard.

After a few minutes of rest, he went off to look for the children.

While searching, Kenzo noticed he no longer felt quite as tall as he usually does. There were a few people around his height or taller walking around the ship. Blending in was usually hard for him, but here—it was easier to go about unnoticed. 

Even so, being around so many people was suffocating. He planned to retreat to a corner somewhere once he had found the children.

Kenzo soon remembered encountering a little girl in the cabin he woke up in. As his eyes looked toward the two large doors to the cabin, he began to walk to them. But when he reached for the handle, someone stepped in front of him from the side.

“I don’t think so,” the man said with his arms crossed. “Whatever you’re looking for isn’t in there. There’s just Lady Social inside.”

Kenzo took a step back and decided to look around the deck instead. However after searching but to no avail, he decided the children were probably down below.

He had purposely avoided going down there as the two captains—as well as some of their associates, were currently there. But if the kids were down there, then that’s where he had to go. So he slowly descended down the decks stairs.

To his surprise, once he reached the bottom, the little girl he’d encountered before was next to the stairs. She was facing the wall and counting—while covering her face with her hands.

“Hey,” Kenzo said, as he interrupted her.

She slightly jumped and stopped covering her face.

“Yes….Oh, I met you before,” she said.

“Yeah. Captain—um, L-Lady…Social…asked me to find you,” he said.

“Oh, okay. I’m playing hide and seek, so everyone is waiting for me,” she replied.

“You mean the other kids?” he asked.

The girl nodded.

“I’ll help you find them,” Kenzo said.

She smiled and pointed in the direction she heard them run off too.

While searching, they got to what looked like the ships kitchen. Even though someone was in there making food, the girl wanted to look inside. Kenzo decided to be the one to go in, so he told her to wait. When he walked in, the cook looked at him, but then rolled his eyes and went back to cooking. 

Kenzo then heard shuffling behind him. 

He turned, and saw two people hiding behind the door. There was a small boy and someone else he recognised from the beach. It was the young man who came with the extremely angry woman.

“What do you want?” the young man asked, with a deadpan expression.

The small girl came in and poked her head behind the door as she heard his voice.

“Found you,” she said.

The cook, who looked quite annoyed, turned around. “Alright, they found you. Now leave.”

The young man, who now looked rather grumpy, left the kitchen—alongside the small boy. After Kenzo and the girl also left, they heard the door slam shut behind them. 

The young man then stepped in front of Kenzo. “Who even are you. You ruined the game,” he said.

“I wasn’t looking for you,” Kenzo replied, as he then pointed at the small boy. “I was looking for him.”

“Well he was with me and….wait. Your the guy that sneaked on the ship aren’t you,” the young man said—crossing his arms. “If you’re still here, that means she didn’t get mad at you. Well, knowing her, she’s probably impressed with what you did.”

Kenzo wasn’t really paying attention to what he was saying. He just wanted to find the last child and go someplace quiet. But he didn’t need to reply, as something had caught their attention on the other side of the corridor.