Act 4: Trial of the seven islands - Chapter 5

Kyusaku avoided his partner's eyes, looking anywhere but at him. Of course, he had to run into him in the hallway – his room was just in front of his, and they happened to get up exactly at the same time. For once, he would have preferred not to see him first thing in the morning. Miyaji gave him an inquisitive look, tilting his head to the side as he waited for him to say something since he was awfully quiet this morning.

"So, where are you taking me on a date?" The elf finally asked with a sigh, knowing he couldn't avoid the topic with Miyaji.

Miyaji gave him a puzzled look. "Why would I take you on a date?"

"We made a bet. Did you forget? I failed," he reluctantly admitted, "so you have to take me on a date."

"Ah, right– wait, you failed?!" His partner exclaimed, astonished; he looked like he was questioning his entire reality.

Kyusaku hurriedly shushed him. "Yes, I failed! No need to be so loud."

"But I don't understand... Aren't you disgusted by sex and even romance in general?"

"I most definitely am," he confirmed. "But nothing actually happened. It's just... It took the shape of someone close to me, and I didn't realize until it was almost kissing me. I kicked it out when I realized, but it still said I failed..." he added, still frustrated.

"Well, would you have kicked that person out if it was the real one?"

He didn't like this question one bit, and didn't want to have to think about the answer. He'd rather just forget everything that happened the previous night, and never think about all of those questions.

He knew that wouldn't happen.

"Why are you asking me such a difficult thing... I don't know, I really don't know!" he replied with a tired and a little bit desperate sigh.

"Kyusaku, this is just my opinion, but..." his partner began, carefully considering his words. "If you were truly disgusted by it, or had absolutely no feelings towards that person, it wouldn't be a difficult question."

He knew Miyaji was right. He was just reluctant to accept it. There had to be more to this, right?

He must have been making a pretty terrible face, because Miyaji hurried to put an end to this conversation.

"You don't have to think about it if you don't want to," he said as he placed a hand on his shoulder like he always did; only this time, Kyusaku almost brushed it off. "You look tired, did you not sleep well? Don't tell me it bothered you so much that you couldn't sleep..."

The elf let out another sigh as hazy memories from his not so peaceful night came back to him.

"No... I was able to sleep. It was all because of those fucking dreams that kept waking me up."

"Dreams...?"

"No, not that kind of dream, don't give me that look!" He hurriedly clarified. "I dreamed of that person trying to flirt with me, but everything my brain could come up with was so ridiculous I woke up laughing," he explained, trying to contain a laugh as he remembered some of the dialogue from his dreams.

"Should I lend you some of my romance novels?" His partner joked. "You could use a few references."

"No thanks, I don't think I'll ever need that if the only person I need to seduce is my dream self. At least that part of my night was entertaining. How was yours?"

The redhead shrugged. "Uninteresting. That illusion was so low quality, it couldn't seduce me even if I wanted it to."

Something clicked at Miyaji's words. Illusion..? Low quality..? It seemed like Miyaji had a vastly different experience! Now that he thought about it, considering the quality of the other illusions they'd seen so far, there was no way this park could afford such a high quality puppet, but he was too distracted the previous night to realize.
Then where did this puppet come from..? He should probably tell Miyaji about it, but he feared that his partner would figure out whose appearance the puppet used if they looked into it, so he decided not to mention it for now. I'll bring it up if it seems relevant.

"So, not only did you pass your trial, but I also failed mine; looks like it's a complete loss on my part. I guess I can't complain about you flirting with women everywhere we go anymore."

"If it bothers you, I won't do it again..." Miyaji said, scratching the back of his head. "And truth be told, I never flirted with any of them. I was actually just asking for some stuff."

Kyusaku always made sure to keep his distance and not eavesdrop despite his excellent hearing, so he actually had no idea what they were talking about, and just assumed based on context.

"Then what were you asking them?"

"Things like cool date ideas, nice spots for a date, and what romance novels are trending."

He was dumbfounded by this answer. He really hadn't expected that. But more than that, after having gone through this stupid bet – and failed – he was outraged.

"Then why didn't you say that earlier??"

A smirk appeared on his face. "You looked like you were jealous, so I just wanted to tease you a little bit."

"Jea– what?! How could I be jealous of that???"

He paused. With what happened the previous night, he couldn't help but wonder if he was indeed jealous. He quickly shook his head, dismissing that thought.

"Anyway, what are we doing for this date?"

"Uh, I don't know, I didn't think this far ahead."

"Well, I've never been on a date before, so you better make it worth my time."

To be honest, he really didn't want to do it. It would have been fine if the puppet had looked like anyone else; in fact, when Miyaji suggested that bet, he was even looking forward to it a little bit. After all, a date didn't necessarily involve anything romantic, so it might have been fun to go on one, and he trusted Miyaji to make sure he had a good time, especially since he seemed to have a lot of experience in this.

But why did it have to choose Miyaji's face?

The truth was that a part of him did want to know; but he'd rather not explore that train of thought, instead pushing it to the back of his mind and smiling to his partner as he changed the subject and decided to drown himself in work until he forgot about that night, and hopefully Miyaji forgot about this date. As long as I'm working, I won't have to think about it.

The moment they left the hotel, however, a staff member dressed as a prison guard stopped them on their way to the next island, informing them that since Kyusaku had been marked as having failed the trial, he had to be punished – then he was promptly taken to jail.
It wasn't for a long time – only an hour – but it was still an hour where he could do nothing but think about the previous night and the feelings that he'd rather ignore.

In particular, he was bothered by the slight anxiety he felt now that they were separated. Even though they had been planning to fail a trial since the beginning, they weren't prepared for only one of them to fail. Naturally, he was a little bit nervous, especially after getting cursed the last time he had to deal with the dead. After all, Miyaji was the expert when it came to ghosts.

After looking around his cell for a while though, nothing happened, and he was able to relax a bit. He was a little worried that ghosts would show up while he was alone, but apparently that wasn't how the disappearances worked here. There was nothing but silence around him, and not the slightest bit of resentment or energy that could come from the dead.
Is failing a trial and going missing afterwards just a rumor after all? In the end, I have nothing to think about but my feelings... If only I could just work... He tried very hard to clear his mind while he sat in a corner, but no matter what he did, his thoughts always wandered back to Miyaji. Damn brain that won't listen to me! With a sigh, he propped up his head with his hand, staring at the black bricks in front of him.

He had known Miyaji for ten years now, and although he found him annoying at first, he had realized by now that he really couldn't live without him anymore. He had carved himself a place in his life in such a way that he could never again fill the void that would be left behind if he left him.
Thinking back on it, Miyaji was the only one who never really upset him. Even with Tsubari, he had multiple tense fights in their years working together. Sure, Miyaji made fun of him for certain things and he had upset him a few times at the beginning, but it was never with any malicious intent, and if he seriously told him to stop, he actually listened. He took the time to learn what he liked, he genuinely complimented him and got him gifts – but the most important thing was that he was actually interested in his research and took this job just as seriously as him.
That meant a lot to him, who had never been able to find the right partner; because he was obsessed, while his previous partners' passion never matched his.

Miyaji wasn't just his partner anymore.

Even though, we're just friends. He's just a friend. A very good one, but just a friend. There's no way I would actually enjoy kissing him– right?

At this point, he knew he was just trying to fool himself; he was smart, so he knew. He had figured it out already, but was too afraid of what would happen if he gave this feeling a name – like a curse that became worse and worse the more you believed in it.

He knew, but he still tried to fool himself.

He frowned, suddenly realizing something wasn't quite adding up as he thought back on their earlier conversation. Didn't Miyaji say he met a "low quality illusion"? That wasn't right. That wasn't what he encountered. Come to think of it, all the other trials used illusions, not puppets – and this one was so complex it felt like a real person. It was incredibly odd when compared with the rest of the park.

The sudden cry of a bird startled him so much that he almost fell off the bench.

Raising his head, he saw a rather large bird outside the window – a maawup. These little guys were indeed everywhere on the island, and he started noticing them after winning that plushie.
This one was quite peculiar, however. Instead of red and orange, the feathers of its wings as well as its beak and legs were turquoise and blue. Cobalt blue. A mutation maybe?

The elf observed the bird for a while but quickly lost interest as it wasn't doing much and went back to his seat.

His breath almost came to a halt and his eyes widened slightly when something caught his attention on the wall that had previously been behind him. He climbed on the bench to examine a peculiar stone near the window. It was the same color as the other bricks, but had a symbol carved on it.

"An eye...? What could this mean..."

Come to think of it, some of these bricks look much older than the rest. Could they have taken them from the ruins on the island?

Before he could ponder the question any longer, a staff member came to let him out. An eye... Still bothered by this discovery, he ran up to Miyaji as soon as he spotted him. His instinct told him it was an important clue, as the symbol of an eye was often used in ancient spells – in particular, dangerous ones.

"Miyaji!"

"Someone looks happy to see me," his partner commented with a smirk. "Did you miss me? It was only an hour."

He instantly forgot what he wanted to tell him. There's no way I can have any romantic feelings for this bastard, he decided as he tried to think of something to say. Wait... If I just... kissed him... wouldn't that answer all my questions? He shook his head, immediately dismissing the thought. What am I even thinking...

"As if!" He exclaimed, rolling his eyes as they started making their way to the next island. "You're the one who missed me. I hope you've been doing something useful while you were waiting for me."

"How could I? I was busy missing you! I was about to send you a letter to ask when you'd be released or if you wanted me to help you break out of jail."

"Very funny. I actually found something in there, though."

"Wait, for real?" His partner asked in disbelief, stopping in his tracks.

He described his finding with as much detail as possible, and noticed that Miyaji's expression changed subtly when he mentioned the shape of the engraving, becoming more serious.

"Have you thought of something?" He asked, a little bit worried about what he would tell him.

"The eye symbol is never a good thing. It's often associated with the First Gods."

Kyusaku's blood ran cold in his veins just at the mention of their name. Anything that had to do with the First Gods was never good.

"But I don't think this case is linked to them," Miyaji clarified. "In many cultures over the world, the eye symbol is used in spells. Control spells in particular. We didn't find anything related to the First Gods here, so it's more likely that it's some kind of spell."

"That's good, then..." If this had been related to the First Gods, they'd have had a serious problem. "My guess is that this is the true link between the rumor and the disappearances. The theme park in itself most likely has nothing to do with it."

"Probably. I guess the only way to figure out the truth is to reach the eighth island... We still have two more islands to go. I can't wait to try the food on the Island of Gluttony..."

"You're always hungry," Kyusaku remarked, "yet you never gain any weight. Where does all this food go?"

"In my muscles so that I can get good enough at martial arts that you start looking at me like I'm a statue in a museum," he replied with a wink.

"I– I don't look at you like that!" The elf tried denying it, face reddening all the way to the tip of his ears. He wasn't supposed to have seen that. I hope I wasn't making a stupid face or anything.

"Hmm, you're right, actually– you were looking at me the way you look at ancient murals, studying their every detail."

"That's even worse, just stop talking already!" He yelled, hiding his face in his hands. "That's it, I'm never going to watch you fight ever again!"

"Then what's the point of putting in all these efforts if the person I want to impress isn't going to be there?"

Kyusaku was speechless for a moment. Maybe I should really try to kiss him.