Tsuki ✔️COMPLETE

Chapter 17: Location, location, location

Patistar, Akali

The news of Takumi had made Rubi feel like she had been walking in the dark up a flight of stairs, only to find the last step missing. The weighty drop, the lurch of the stomach when you met only air and not the ground. The feeling of dread that you might fall forever.

It left the event of reuniting with Hiiro tainted, even more so than learning that the Man with a Hole in his Head was indeed a Perfect Immortal. At least that made sense to her.

Deep down, she knew that war was coming. A war between two god-like entities, one of whom was only a child, and one who had already started to flex his power. A war that could undoubtedly affect every living soul on the planet, and now she knew Takumi was willingly on the wrong side.

Kai had emphasised that Sama growing up with good influences around her was essential, but it also had to change the narrative of what Perfect Immortals were. Solitary, elusive, mythical. They recruited, they did not follow. Sama was as real and innocent as any human child her age. She had already experienced tragedy when she lost her mother, built a new family with Kai, and found a diverse group of role models to look up to with Gaku's and her shipmates.

That was an odd thought. Two groups of pirates as role models for a little girl who would have to save the world one day.

The passengers they had transported across the waters had almost entirely taken their leave of the inn. New lives were waiting for them in a free city, a free country. Indra, for obvious reasons, and a few others remained, still hoping to find sanctuary in the non-violent community when, and if, they found it.

Indra's parents would likely arrive tomorrow to see their son for the first time in so many years. Hiiro had taken a free room in the inn but Rubi and Gaku found themselves enjoying the couple's suite they had last night again. There had been no motivation to pack up and move rooms. But sleep was hard to come by after their conversation.

"I can't sleep." Rubi whispered that night. Gaku had tossed and turned so much he had to still be awake.

"Me neither." he sighed, rolling over to face her. "I'm so tired, but my head is buzzing."

"I feel like things are going to be different from now on." she confessed, scrunching up the pillow and flipping it over to the cool side. "We're a part of this whether we like it or not. This war of immortals."

"Is it weird that I'm not mad at Kai or Sama?" he asked. "Like, I get it. I get not wanting to feel alone. I get not wanting to leave when you've finally found a community that accepts you. It's not their fault at all that they're being hunted. Sama's a kid. She hasn't done anything other than be born."

"I never thought when we fished them out of the water that it would lead to this." Rubi said. "I never could have imagined it. I want to do the right thing for them, but I also need to look after Mimi and the others. Even Hiiro, whether he wants me to or not."

"He's tough. You don't need to worry about him." Gaku assured her. "As for Mimi, what do you plan on doing?"

"Maybe when we go to the weaponsmith with Kai we detour and try finding the place she came from. Find some answers."

"All you know is that she walked downhill for a long time in the east." Gaku said. "You can hit the books all you like, but the world is covered in hills and mountains."

"I'm hoping she'll remember more when we're close. She has to recognise something."

"So that's that then?" he asked, his face unmistakably sad. "We all part ways from here and wait until we run into each other again?"