Act 4: Trial of the seven islands - Chapter 1

After the last case they dealt with, Kyusaku couldn't help but feel restless. The rows and rows of mummified monks as well as the faceless creature were still on his mind, and whenever he tried to sleep, he was inevitably brought back to this mystery. Although something told him it was better to keep his distance and forget about this, he couldn't help but feel like that thing would come back.
Since that case had been handed to someone else, he had nothing else to do for the time being, and decided to pay a visit to the library, looking through everything he thought might be related to that creature he saw, but to no avail. Unfortunately, it seemed that if Miyaji didn't know about it, then the Archives wouldn't.

He let out a sigh, pushing the books he had been reading away so he could rest his head on his desk, using his arms as a pillow. The books around him were piled dangerously high, threatening to fall over at any time – yet even after thoroughly reading through all of them, there was not a sliver of a clue in sight.

Kyusaku's ears twitched when Miyaji closed his book, the sudden sound dragging him out of his thoughts.

"We've done enough, let's stop here," his partner said. "We might find more clues during other jobs, but for the time being, this is all the information we can get."

"You might be right," the elf admitted with another sigh.

"Why don't we take a little break?"

"But there's so much stuff I could be doing..."

Miyaji gave him a judgmental look. "Didn't you say you wanted to do stuff with me?"

"... My bad. What do you have in mind, then?"

"Let's go on a vacation!" His partner excitedly declared, jumping out of his bed, as if he'd been waiting for this for ages.

"Where?"

With his head tilted to the side, Miyaji thought about it for a moment before declaring, "How about the Seven Sins Archipelago? It's been quite popular recently!"

"...What's that?"

Kyusaku never really paid attention to what the other Archivists were talking about, and the name only sounded vaguely familiar. He had probably heard it in passing when others were talking about it.

"It's a theme park that opened not too long ago on an archipelago. Each island is themed after one sin, and if you can resist the temptation of all seven of them, you get a prize. It's in the southern sea too, so while it's quite far from here, the weather is warm all year round and you can also relax on the beautiful white beaches."

"The southern sea, huh... It's tempting, but it would take at least three days to go there."

"So what? You haven't taken a single vacation in eighty years," Miyaji pointed out, "I think you deserve it!"

The elf smiled sheepishly. "I've never been to a theme park before though. Is it fun?"

"Of course it is! And everyone has been talking about this one lately, it must be entertaining."

"Then I'll go tell Tsubari," Kyusaku declared with a smile as he got up and left the room.

Miyaji is right, a vacation might be good...Right now, it's probably the only thing that can take my mind off this creature.

Finding his superior was harder and took much longer than he wanted. Tsubari was often running around everywhere in the Archives; he didn't even know where to look for him, but he finally ran into him by chance around the library, and told him that he wished to go on a vacation for two weeks with Miyaji.

"Oh? You're going on your honeymoon already?" The bird commented.

He had to stop himself from hitting him.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm just joking. I'm glad to see you finally take a break, though. Otherwise, at this rate, you certainly wouldn't beat the elven lifespan record. So, where are you guys going?"

He ignored that comment and forced a smile. "Miyaji suggested the Sevens Sins Archipelago. It sounded interesting."

Crossing his arms, his superior seemed to recall something. "The Seven Sins Archipelago, huh? I heard some rumors about that place. Like people disappearing if they fail one of the trials, and stuff like that."

"... For real?"

"I haven't had the time to look into it though, so I have no idea if it's true or not. Do you think you could investigate while you're there?"

"I'm going there on vacation, you know..." The elf complained with a sigh, bringing a hand to his face in annoyance. "Fine. I'll talk to Miyaji."

Unable to keep his eyes closed and force himself to sleep any longer with such unusually bright light shining on him, the elf opened his eyes and sat up, grumbling about whatever, when his gaze fell onto something that shouldn't be there. Between his legs, peeking out from under the blanket, was a humanoid silhouette, its skin so dark the only features he could distinguish were its white eyes rolled back into its skull and its grin full of sharp, shark-like teeth.

Completely petrified, Kyusaku's body wouldn't move no matter how desperate he was to get away from whatever this thing was. He could only sit there in silence, face deformed by terror, as he listened to the creature's words.

"You've committed a sin, and I've come to devour you."

He woke up with a start, voice catching in his throat; he was ready to scream in horror and pain, the last images from his dream still vivid in his mind: row after row of razor-sharp teeth filled his vision as the creature pounced on him, fully intending to tear him into pieces.

He hadn't had another nightmare in a little more than a week, so he was particularly shaken by this one – he had gotten used to his sleep not being disturbed by anything, but that relief seemed to have been only temporary.
The elf couldn't help but glance towards the calendar on his wall, where a date was circled in blue. They were leaving for their vacation today, and he really hoped it all went smoothly. However, he had a feeling it wouldn't be that simple, the words from his dream echoing in his mind – the creature had mentioned a sin, so how could he not make the connection?

The elf took his time to stretch as he set foot on the first island, the Island of Pride; that was a long three days of traveling, but now that they were finally here, the excitement made him forget his sore muscles and exhaustion from the trip.

"We're finally here!"

"What should we do first?" Miyaji asked as they made their way to their room to drop off their luggage, unable to contain his excitement.

"We're on an island, so let's go to the beach!"

Although they usually shared a room when traveling, for once, Miyaji had booked separate rooms. They were using his own savings from the past ten years after all, not the Archives' limited budget, so they could afford to each have their own room. The elf quickly left his things on the bed, got changed just as fast, and immediately rushed to the beach.
Before his Master saved him, he lived in a mountainous area, and the Archives were located far from any coast. Unless a case took them near the ocean, he never really had a chance to enjoy the sea. The air alone felt soothing, and he almost fell asleep listening to the waves as he waited for his partner to join him.

The minutes passed, but there was no sign of Miyaji, and he was starting to feel bored. With nothing to do, he couldn't help but think about Tsubari's request. At first he thought it was just a rumor or an urban legend, but before they left, he had actually handed him a document with all the information he could find on the matter, including a list of victims. And there were actually quite a few people who went missing since the park's opening...
Not good, I'm supposed to be here to have fun and relax, but I'm already back to work... Of course the place they chose for their first ever vacation just had to have strange things going on that they'd need to investigate. He let out a sigh as he felt that he really could never catch a break.

Since Miyaji was a bit late and he didn't want to start having fun without him, he decided to wander around the beach and ask about the rumors. Of course, he couldn't find out more than what he already knew. Though, someone did have an interesting piece of information: an old local legend mentioned an eighth island that could sometimes be seen at dawn, supposedly hidden by magic and only accessible through certain conditions.

This was the first time Kyusaku heard about this legend, and of course it seemed like a promising lead – after all, not only would the locals know better, but all legends had a part of truth to them. Before he could find a chance to ask anyone else, though, Miyaji called out to him.

"Kyusaku! Sorry I'm late, I ran into some... old acquaintances on the way," he explained with a sheepish smile.

"How old exactly?"

"Eh, only a few centuries; you know, not that old," he replied with a shrug.

Miyaji looked pleased that his answer got a chuckle out of him.

"So, what were you doing?"

The elf told him about the legend he just discovered, but he hadn't heard of it either, despite having done some research before coming – Miyaji was the one who planned the entire trip, bought the tickets and made reservations for them, as well as researched all the activities available on each island. While doing his research, he found quite a lot of people talking about the rumors Tsubari mentioned, even a few people claiming to know some of the guests who went missing; but he didn't find anything about a secret eighth island.

"Of course, they didn't know what the conditions to access it were," Kyusaku continued, "but I know a few artifacts that make this believable. For example..."

"The return of Kyusaku the walking encyclopedia," his partner joked before he could start to list them all.

A bit surprised, his expression quickly darkened. "What did you call me?" He hadn't heard that nickname in a while.

"Everyone calls you that in the Archives; you have such a great memory, it's like you have an entire encyclopedia in your brain."

Kyusaku's frown deepened.

"My bad, I didn't mean to make fun of you," Miyaji apologized before adding, "You're my favorite encyclopedia, you know?"

Dumbfounded, the elf wasn't sure what to reply as pink dusted his cheeks and he averted his eyes. "... Why does this sound kinda sweet."

"It's because unlike you, I know how to romance."

"Whatever, it's not like I would need that skill," the elf said with a pout, crossing his arms over his chest, though he did feel a tiny bit offended and jealous.

"Sorry. Tell me about those artifacts, maybe I know one of them."

The elf quickly forgot how he was mad at him and excitedly listed all the artifacts he thought off, describing each of them in great detail, his ears twitching as he did so.
With all of this in mind, the legend of the eighth island sounded a lot more probable. They decided to purposely fail one of the trials and see if something would happen, and if it didn't, they would look for another lead. They settled on Sloth, since it was pretty easy to lose and it was also the last trial, so it would give them plenty of time to explore the other islands on the way.

"Nothing says we'll be able to pass the rest, though," Kyusaku commented, giving him a judgmental look.

"Why are you looking at me like that."

"There's a Trial of Lust, isn't there?" He reminded him.

"And?"

"And everywhere we go, I catch you flirting with women. They always seem to be flocking towards you for some reason..."

"I can't help it, have you seen my face?" His partner argued.

Well he couldn't deny that. Miyaji was very handsome. Objectively speaking.

"Whatever, I can't stop you from doing it, but you could at least wait until our job is done! It's not very professional," he pointed out, rolling his eyes.

"... Let's a make a bet, then," Miyaji suggested, suddenly sounding competitive. "If I fail the Lust trial, I'll never flirt with a girl again."

"And what if you pass?"

"If I pass, you can never complain about this in the future."

"Deal."

To his surprise, Miyaji had more to add. "However, if you were to fail..."

"Wait, wait, wait! How could I possibly fail this trial?"

"I know, I know, the probability is close to zero... but it's not fair if I'm the only one who has consequences to fear."

The elf let out a sigh but ultimately agreed; whatever, it wasn't like it could happen anyway.

"So, if I fail..?"

"If you fail... Let's see... How about you go on a date with me?"

Kyusaku blinked. Was that even really a punishment..? The whole point of this bet was that if they failed the trial, they'd have to suffer from the consequences, so how come it sounded more fun than annoying?

"Well, okay, sure."

There's no way I can fail this trial, though.

"Now I can't wait to get to the fifth island!" Miyaji commented, suddenly excited. "By the way, have I told you that you look good today?"

The elf was speechless for a moment, and he hated how he couldn't help but blush at the compliment – he actually didn't get many compliments on his looks and wasn't used to them; after all, he wasn't really known to take care of his appearance. There was a period of time where he barely took the time to comb his hair after waking up, and the dark circles under his eyes was one of his most distinguishable features. Wait, now that I think about it, Miyaji is the only one who never commented on that...

"You haven't... Well, it's getting late, let's go enjoy the water before we head back."