We flew on over to the location as per Sab's instructions. We found it puzzling how finding a single person in a nigh endless crowd could ever be described as hard to miss, but everything was clear once we turned the corner.
"Oh." I cocked my head back.
"I'd bet my mother's soul on that being Nerys's Heavenly Abode." Sheep smirked.
"In that case, I raise." Energy snorted.
A huge pirate ship in the middle of the land. Nay, more like a shipwreck if I'm being honest. Hell, even the ship's sails are the same Color as her clothes—Green and Red accents all over.
"Sheep, how in the world did you miss this huge Eyesore while flying about?" I turned to him.
"I was looking for people, not ships." He explained, "Not to mention, unusual houses aren't exactly that rare up in Heaven once you actually get a bird's Eye view."
"Indeed, you humans seem to have particularly strange tastes in choosing your housing spaces." Selz groaned.
"You're one to talk." Pry muttered.
...What was that?
"Sorry, ignore what I just said." He tried to backpaddle.
"Nope, say what you wanted to say." We urged him, eager for some more drama between the two.
"What's wrong with our Abode, Pry?" Selz asked, somewhat threateningly.
"I-It's just, y'know?" Pry chuckled nervously before explaining, "A huge mansion for giants in the middle of Heaven 2.0, with absolutely no proper gates to keep outsiders from barging in all the time."
"Hrm..."
"Kinda counterintuitive if you're just gonna keep complaining about all the visitors we get all the time, that's all I'm gonna say."
"What good is a perfect world if we cannot Behold it personally?" Selz refuted.
"Behold it pers-!? Oh, come on!" Pry yelled, "We can't even leave the damned place except for very rare and very dire situations! At that point, we might as well have just made our house up in the sky like Vastoria did!"
"Oh, and look where that got her...!"
"Ahem." I abruptly interjected, "How about we stop it here, while no one's gotten mad yet?"
Offending each other is fun, but don't bring her into this. She can't even defend herself with the state she's in, not to mention Vastoria isn't even at fault for your poor decision-making! You Two have officially crossed the line.
"Nonsense! I'm quite mad already-!" Selz announced.
"Sheep, if they so much as utter another word about this topic..." I said with a dark smile on my face, "Scoop them up and make sure they experience the fastest speed there is."
"I think they got the message." Sheep pointed at the two's knees shivering.
Wow, they really are traumatized. So Gods can get like this as well. Then again, I'm sure Pry will just choose to forget it and be done with it. Selz, on the other hand, well... He'll just have to learn to deal with it. Not like I care, I just wanna help Vastoria.
"Nerys~!" I hollered from in front of the giant ship, "Oi~, Nerys! You there!?"
"She's hiding from us, why would she answer?" Energy remarked.
"Oh, right." I bashfully quieted down.
"You don't have to hide anymore!" Sheep yelled after me, "This isn't a trick or a scam, you can come out! Nothing's gonna happen!"
"...Ye' shore?" Her voice replied in a quiver-like volume.
Oh good, we got the right address. I was getting worried we'd actually have to bust in and make sure it's hers for real. Then there's the nightmare scenario where it's actually not hers at all and we just burgled into a random dude's fancy ship house.
"Yes, we-" Selz tried to speak before she shot back.
"Oi'm not 'ere!" She interrupted him, "Git lost, almoighty Gods!"
"So does she respect us or not?" Pry turned to inquire.
"Does it matter?" I gave a brief reply before turning to her again, "We know you're in there, no use hiding once we've heard your voice!"
"...N-Nuh uh."
Well, glad to know this won't be as difficult as Sab's case was. Nerys isn't exactly the smartest fish in the sea, after all. Then again, this could all be an elaborate trick to lure us in...
"Nerys." I hollered once more.
"Yeh?"
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Could you let us in?"
"Nah."
"We need to find Elegy quickly!" Selz got frustrated.
"Sst!" I shushed him, "Nerys, we have something for you. I think you'll really like it."
"Wot issit?"
"Come on down and I'll show you."
Yeah, entering inside is definitely a trap, so instead we should lure her out to minimize the risk. Besides, she's only got the one place to exit from, unless she plans to jump down from the deck. Even if she did, I invited her to come to us so I can give her a gift. There's no way a treasure-hungry lass like her would turn away the opportunity.
"How'd Oi' kno' Oi' can trost ya'?" She asked sheepishly.
"Aren't pirates supposed to be brave?" Energy groaned.
Immediately, she was enraged by his underhanded comment. Livid, she ran up to the railing above us to wave her fist about, Red in the face.
"Oi'm a seafarah!"
"Now, Sheep!" I ordered.
A zip and a zoop later and she was already captured by the archangel. Now this may sound a bit cruel on our part, but we really don't have the time nor the patience to constantly convince these guys that it's safe to trust the Gods for now. At the end of the day, I never lied about giving her a gift, so it all evens out I'd say.
"Lemme go!" She tried breaking free of us surrounding her.
"Here." I tossed her my walkie-talkie before taking an extra one from Sheep's inventory, "Press that button there, and you'll get to talk to us and Sab whenever you want."
"Same goes for us, obviously." Energy smirked, "Marvelous, isn't it? Modern technology is the best treasure one could receive as a gift."
She pressed the button, heard the radio static, then quickly got scared and smashed it on the ground.
"...I'd 'ave preferr'd ye' jus' gaev me sum' gold."
"W-We'll keep that in mind..." I weakly replied.
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***
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"Hello, Big Bird, do you read me?" Sab called me fat through the radio, "This is Top Dog, over."
"Who're you calling Big!?" I yelled before explaining to Nerys, "Sigh, as you can see, so long as I hold this button, my voice comes through everyone's devices."
"I thought we agreed to stop with the "over" talk." Sheep recalled.
"Of course, if any one of us presses the button..." Selz talked through his own walkie-talkie, "Migu can hear it through her own device."
"Oi' gettit nau!" Nerys seemed thrilled.
"You sure?" I warily handed her a brand new one, "Don't break this one, please? We don't have many left."
"Bot ye' got a whole box in dere'."
"We won't if you keep breaking them." Energy retorted, "Take care of it or you won't be getting another one."
Harsh, but true. If we wanna stay in touch with everyone and have easy access to multiple people's witness accounts, we'll need all talkies in working order. Nerys isn't a child to be destroying them willy-nilly like that, she should have learned to treasure her stuff more by now.
"Foine..." She pouted, stuffing it haphazardly inside her back pocket, "Den, izzat oll?"
"No, not in the slightest." Selz glared.
"We actually came here to ask you if you know where Elegy is." I explained, "We really need his help for Vastoria's sake."
"Nah, he went loike tha' wind, he did. Couldn't foind a trace a' him."
Again, I don't know if I should even be disappointed anymore. They already told us they went their separate ways, but it still hurts to know we sort of did this for nothing. Well, not completely for nothing.
"In any case, can we trust you to report to us over the device in case you do run into him?" Sheep asked nicely.
"Yep, sailer's werd!" She puffed out her chest, "Ah, bot' Oi' did catch a glimpse a' wherr' the lil' boye' went."
"Hats!" We all shouted in unison, "Where is he!?"
"Wid' tha' matey." She said as a matter of fact.
That doesn't help us at all! Hold on, she calls Elegy matey, right? In that case, it's like she said she doesn't know where he is either! Then again, I suppose it is more convenient to find the both of them at the same time than to have to go around the district looking for Hats after the fact.
"Well, there's two of them, so it should be easier to look for them at least." Sheep reasoned.
"Yeah, plus a guy missing an entire arm should be pretty obvious." Energy figured.
"I didn't even think of that." I nodded, "Energy, could you use your radar again to try and look for one of them?"
"No, I'd have told you if I sensed them already." He replied dejectedly, "Sorry for not being more helpful."
"Hmph, preposterous." Selz said with his arms crossed, "You've done plenty enough already. If anyone is being useless here, it's Migu."
"Hey! That was uncalled for!" I hissed back.
"Selz." Pry sternly looked at him until he apologized, "Drop it. Just a coincidence, remember?"
"...I will not concede this matter." He paused for a while before turning his back to us, "She has objectively done the least. In fact, it was her joining us that led to this whole extra debacle. I assure you all that we'd have already been done had she just went with Elegy and the others from the start."
He's...! No, is that right? That can't be... No, but, I helped out a bunch, didn't I? I helped these guys get their weapons! ...Which they didn't need to use even once yet. I-I warned them to... stay away from us, and now we're paying the price heavily. I-I...
"I'm sorry, I really did make a mess out of everything." I admitted.
"Migu, ignore him." Energy rushed to comfort me.
"Energy's right, nothing good will come of regretting your actions." Sheep added, glaring at Selz heavily with his hundreds of Eyes, "We're not out of options yet, far from it. Once this is all over, Vastoria will be happy to hear you offered to help personally."
"Vastoria..." I uttered.
At the end of the day, does it really even matter? The Vastoria we'll get won't be the one resting inside Sheep. All this effort, and she might not even be the same person. It's scary, it's unnerving. The uncertainty of the unknown makes my bones ache. Really, looking back I was the reason why any of this had happened in the first place. Had I just stayed still in my Heaven Home, everything would be okay.
"...Ahem." Pry couldn't stay silent anymore, "Migu, had you stayed passive all that time ago, I am afraid you would have never met any of these people. This includes Vastoria."
"Huh?"
"The question then becomes—would you rather have never met your friends, or would you rather have met them? Now, I'm not too well-versed in human emotions nor logic, but I assume you would pick the latter option, no?"
"Tch, what makes you say that?" Selz groaned.
"It seems relations, whether they be familial or friendly, mean a great deal to humans." Pry patted him in the back, "And I would have never learned this had Migu not gotten you angry enough to turn us into humans."
I see, in his own awkward way, he's trying to comfort me. But he's right, though—they all are—there's no use in regretting my actions. They may not have been the best decisions to make, and there were probably a ton of better ones to make, but in choosing them, I opened up this path for myself and everyone around me. This path, which would otherwise have been completely closed off otherwise.
"Thanks, Prylos." I smiled warmly at him.
"No problem." He responded in kind, "After all, it doesn't take more than a minute of Meditation to undo an hour of bad vibes, and that's a fact."