A slight purple tint applied itself to the dark night sky that covered the earth. James, Komni and Haruki stood in front of the airport that towered over them. It took on a similar appearance to the other airports James had been in, though it lacked comparability in size.

Though it was still impressively large, big enough to allow thousands within, though was near empty; the odd college student sitting on a metal chair, impatiently tapping their foot, or a dodge with a black hoodie smoking closely outside the building in the designated areas.

James looked around at the building he found himself situated in, looking at the roof made him feel like a midget. A sense of safety and peace found itself residing within James, as he knew it was unlikely for a group of teenage stranglers to chase them to the other side of the country, and even if they had attempted, it would be near impossible to get to where James was currently situated on foot in the same day.

James focused his vision towards Komni to his right, who was nervously looking down at the filthy, white-tiled airport floor, reminding James once again of his situation. Even after his conversation with her, he still felt rather tense and nervous about his upcoming new life in Japan.

The thought of asking Komni about her concern crossed James’s mind, though he didn’t put it into words, rather putting his hands in both of his pockets as he, Haruki and Komni continued to walk, timidly staring at the floor.

The airport was still dead silent by the time they had made it to their flight’s waiting area: sector D4. The silence continued to add to James’s slight feeling of uneasiness as he once again slowly began to stress over the situation, though show his emotions he did not as he laid in his uncomfortable metal seat next to Komni, his hands still situated within his pockets.

The time was now 11:46 PM, with their flight leaving at 5:55 in the morning, meaning they had plenty of time before take off.

Haruki sophisticatedly sat in his seat, situated 5 chairs from James and Komni, his back perfectly straight and his usual serious face present. Despite James usually wanting to impress him, he did not have the strength nor will to.

Komni, her head buried within her hands, only added to the stress that once again found itself building up within James.

A dozen or-so minutes passed before James gathered up the courage to say something. He turned to Komni, while he wanted to put on a calming, soft smile, he had not enough energy to do so.

“Hey…what’s wrong?...” James inquired, managing to add a soothing tone to his voice.

Komni stood idle briefly, before wrapping her arms around James and burying her face in his hoodie.

“I’m sorry James,” Komni apologised, a sad tone to her voice.

“Sorry for what? You’ve done nothing wrong,” James assured her.

“I’m sorry for all of this!” Komni cried.

“Komni, didn’t we already talk about this? I…”

Komni lifted her head from James’s hoodie, staring at him with big, brown teary eyes, a colour similar to her hair.

“You…what?...” she asked.

“I…never mind. I don’t want to stress you,” James answered.

“James…I’m so sorry…”

James sat still this time, staring down to the floor.

“I’m sorry I’m causing…you all this…all this stress. I just want you to be happy, because you’re right. We can’t get out of this…so let's try to make this the best it can be,”

James continued to stay silent, sombrely gazing at his reflection that resigned within the tiles. He didn’t just see him, he saw Komni too, holding onto him, her head leaning into his stomach, gazing out the windows into the clear, empty night sky.

“I haven’t known you for very long James…but we’re stuck together, I am going to know you for a long time. We should make each other as happy as possible. Because…we’re…we’re…we’re together…”

It was at that moment that it set in for Komni and James, that they were in a relationship, they were a couple, and people don’t date for the hell of it, they’re searching, they’re continuing a search that’s been going on for the duration of their life to the moment they’re in. A search for love, a search for the person they’d be spending the rest of their lives with. That’s a special person. It’s not everyone you want to be with forever. A person like that really has to be like no other.

James then truly realised how much of a dick he was. He began to question what Komni saw in him. As he though and thought, he looked down at her, and then he realised:

Komni was that person.

James had not the faintest idea if Komni thought that about him, and after his revelation he doubted it. But he hoped that she might just prove him wrong. Never had such a raw feeling of desperate want graced James. But he knew if he wanted to be with her so badly, he was going to have to put the work in. He couldn’t just continue being an ass, he had to improve; a monstrous task indeed, though one he was willing to put the work in to accomplish, if it meant he could continue being with Komni. It wouldn’t happen overnight, it would take a long time, he’d need to get help. Hell, he didn’t even know where to start. But he was willing to do all of it.

Every single desire even vaguely related to staying in America was gone; because if leaving everything he loved behind meant being with the person he cared for most, then so be it.

James continued to stay idle momentarily, before taking a long, deep breath.

“Komni…” James said, attempting to hold back tears as he did.

“Yeah?…” Komni quietly responded.

James took one more deep breath, before wrapping his arms around Komni and exclaiming:

“I LOVE YOU KOMNI! I-I…I WANT TO SPEND EVERYDAY WITH YOU… AND I’M GOING TO BE THE BEST ME I CAN BE, TO MAKE YOUR LIFE THE BEST IT CAN BE!”

Tears flowed out of James’s eyes like a river as he told Komni his feelings, hugging her tighter after he finished saying his sentence, which sent Komni into a similar bawl.

“I DO TOO JAMES, I DO TOO!”

“BUT WHY. I’M SUCH AN ASS, I DON’T WANT YOU TO BE INFATUATED WITH A DOUCHEBAG. I’M GOING TO IMPROVE FOR YOU, FOR YOUR SAKE,”

“Oh James…”

The two continued to sob into each other's shoulders, their tears slowly fading into nothing more than sniffles as they continued to hold each other somberly.

“I’ll try my best Komni…” James whispered into her ear.

“Me too James…me too…” Komni replied in between her sniffs.

The sky a dark purple, the airport’s air still, the atmosphere indescribable, this is how James old life was ending; embracing Komni the same way he was the future.

***

James’s eyes began to open enough as to where he could see a blurry depiction of his surroundings. He felt slightly light-headed and couldn’t remember exactly what had happened before he fell asleep. That was until he sloppily looked to the floor and saw Komni peacefully sleeping; her head on his lap. James suddenly snapped awake when he remembered that Haruki was only five seats adjacent to James’s right, and had more-than-likely witnessed James and Komni’s whole interaction.

James swiftly turned to his right, only to see a pleased Haruki nodding in approval. James let out a large sigh of relief as he laid his head back on the tip of the uncomfortable grey metal chair, though only for a brief period of time as he was reminded by himself to check the time.

It was 3:47; not too long until their departure.

As James once again closed his eyes and began to doze off, he was interrupted by a rather unpleasant feeling within his stomach: a hunger pain.

James felt bad about asking Haruki to buy him some food, proceeding to keep quiet.

The pain made it difficult for James to fall asleep. He eventually gave up on trying to get any more rest and figured that he’d get some on the flight anyway.

Having nothing else to do, James began to examine his surroundings. It was a rather regular-looking airport; a depressing colour scheme made up of almost exclusively greys, large white pillars dotted around the structure, a commercial district and depressing waiting areas. Though out of everything in the airport he took extreme notice to Komni; of which, cat ears a similar light brown to her hair were now situated on, sending James into immense shock.

James continued to stare in shock at Komni until she awoke.

Komni lifted her head up from James’s lap, rubbing her eyes as she did. Once she had fully regained consciousness, she took note of the expression present on James’s face.

“What’s wrong?” She asked tiredly.

“Y-y…y-y…your…” was all that James was able to mutter as he pointed his finger to Komni’s head.

In response, Komni began to feel her head in an attempt to find what James was pointing in such shock at.

“Huh, what is it-”

Komni was sent into a state of paralyzation from the mixture of shock and embarrassment that washed over her. She swiftly curled up into a ball atop of her seat, an embarrassed moaning sound coming from her as she did, her ears going down.

Unaware of the fact he may have offended Komni, James continued to stare and point at her, his mouth wide open, not even bothering to ask what was wrong. It was clear from the perspective of an outsider looking in that he’d have a substantial amount of work ahead of him if he wanted to improve as a person.

Komni began to quietly sob herself, her clothing muffling the sound.

“They said this wouldn’t happen again!” Komni quietly muttered to herself.

“Huh? Who said what wouldn’t happen again?” James inquired out of pure curiosity.

Komni lifted her head out of her legs and stared at James with big, teary eyes.

“When I was around 9, this exact thing happened…I one day just woke up with these cat ears on my head. They would react to everything I did: if something scared me, they’d quickly spike up. If I was feeling sad, they’d flop down…”

James listened closely, attempting to hide the feeling of joy that found itself upon him.

“...I was bullied and harassed for it…everyday, people would stare and whisper about me to each other…I felt awful…”

James did not like where this story was going, as he liked her cat ears. He also questioned who wouldn’t want to see Komni with cat ears.

“...my dad took me to our private hospital and got the doctors to examine me. They told us they’d never seen something like it, and that they weren't even too sure if it was an illness. Quite a large number of them told me I shouldn’t try to get rid of them…”

“Finally, someone I can get behind,” James thought to himself.

“...my dad ordered for them to conduct a search into my condition and have a cure within the next week. They ended up finding a cure to not only my illness, but also cancer; they had to add entirely new elements to the periodic table, I feel really bad they went to that much trouble,”

“Wait, but then how come cancer is still around?” James asked in his state of confusion.

“Oh, it’s…never mind. Anyways…”

“...they gave me the medicine, and they went away but…now look,” Komni explained.

“It’s okay, I think they look great!” James told her, surprisingly not exclusively stating it because he thought they made her look hot, but rather in an attempt to genuinely cheer her up.

Komni stared at James, her mouth slightly open.

“Really?...” She asked.

“Really,” James answered as he gave a soft smile.

Nothing but silence was present as James and Komni both gazed at each other, a sense of pride washing over James as he was very aware of what he did, though not instantly did the feeling come, as for James, doing stuff like that for Komni was easy. He genuinely cared for her, she was different from other girls. Being nice to Komni was just second-nature to James.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Though the silence was swiftly interrupted by the surprisingly loud sound of James’s stomach growling, turning the romantic gaze shared between James and Komni into a rather awkward one.

“Hey uh…” James began.

“Yeah no, I’m hungry too,” Komni replied, despite James not even having finished his sentence, Komni knew exactly what he wanted to say.

“Er…I’m a…little nervous about eating with your scary dad…”

“Oh yeah, heh, sorry about him…”

“Oh there’s no need to apologise but um…yeah,”

“Here I’ll just go now and ask for some money to go get something to eat,” Komni explained.

“Wait…you’re asking…your dad…for money?...” James nervously exclaimed, wondering how Komni had the courage to carry out such an action.

“Yeah? You stay there; I’ll be back in sec, okay!” Komni told James as she walked away towards Haruki, a rather large smile present on her face.

James was sent into a state of panic as he frantically attempted to come up with a sentence that would stop Komni from asking Haruki for money, as he feared he may think James is too poor to even afford food, and thus would deem him unfit for Komni.

“Um…uh...what about your cat ears! Won’t he…”

James was unable to finish his sentence when he saw the shock and sadness that found itself present on Komni’s face. She swiftly pulled her hood up and ran back up to James.

“Hey um…uh…don’t worry! I think they look great! I said that…right?”

Komni remained in her state.

“Yeah no, I did. When I was like, really cool…and nice…and cool…and nice…”

His words did nothing to cheer up Komni.

James stood idle for moments, contemplating his next move as he watched Komni.

James looked behind him, subconsciously thinking that maybe if he turned around, a mystical being would come from the sky and solve all his problems. Though he was only greeted with Haruki’s daunting expression all but devoid of life.

And then it came to him; this was a test.

James assumed Haruki wanted to make sure James was suitable for Komni, thus, had begun putting James through tests that would reveal more about his character; and this was the first one.

By now, James had fully realised that he wasn’t going to become a saint overnight, and in his current state, was still a complete ass. Less so to Komni though, an ass nevertheless. Though if James could come up with sufficiently perfect solutions to these tests, he might be able to convince Haruki otherwise.

James sat in though briefly as he pondered what to do. He struggled to conceive a plan, though knew it was necessary to do so if he retained any sort of desire to continue romantically pursuing Komni.

The thought of asking Haruki himself came to James at one point, though he shoved it to the back of his mind before he was allowed enough time to process it properly. Despite his efforts, the thought pushed against the wave that came upon it as it tried its very best to shove it to the depths of James’s thoughts.

Though it came to the point where James began to give it a chance. He let the wave that so violently shoved the thought retreat, and allowed the idea to progress towards the front of his mind where James proceeded to ponder it.

As he gave it consideration, he lifted his head from his chest and gazed at the saddened Komni, where he decided that if he really did want to marry Komni, getting used to talking to her dad (and the one of the people he’d be living with) would probably be a good thing.

James got out of his seat, Komni unaware of what James was doing. Every part of his body was shaking as he slowly progressed towards Haruki. The more he attempted to mentally prepare, the more stressed that found itself upon him.

James stood tall above the sitting Haruki, who stared blankly into the distance, giving the idea he wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around him, though that was all but wrong. Haruki was like that.

“Um…er…uh…”

James felt as if he were about to collapse onto the hard, dirty airport floor, though just as the feeling began to truly set in, a thought came to James: if Haruki saw James faint as he was merely asking a simple question, surely he would deem him unfit for Komni.

James went numb, all thought evaporating as he impulsively blurted out the words: “Can Komni and I have some money to buy food. We’re about to die of hunger,”

Haruki looked up at James who was in a state of complete paralyzation and nodded in approval. It was clear that he knew what was going on; it was a little freaky how well he knew his daughter.

Haruki grabbed James’s right hand and took it out of its fist position, proceeding to put exactly $20.34 in his overly-sweaty palm.

James snapped back to reality, immediately noticing the money in his hand and putting together that he must have had the interaction with Haruki. Unable to remember how it went, (only being able to assume it was bad) he sprinted off back to Komni.

James witnessed Komni still in her ball-shape, a sense of pride washed over him as he once again glanced at the money situated in his hand.

“Hey Komni,” James softly whispered.

“Look what I got!” He continued, showing her the money in his hand. Komni looked up at James, instantly taking notice of the money present in his palm, her cat ears raising.

“Hey, where do you wanna eat?” James inquired, a soothing, kind smile present on his face. Komni timidly nodded as if to say she heard his question, her slightly opened mouth complementing her large eyes in that moment.

“Um…what about over there?” she quietly told James as she pointed to a small bakery stand.

“Uh, yeah, sure!”

The stand was nothing more than an appealing wooden box, an array of black chairs and tables situated closely away from it surrounded by a large fake bush, the pot it “grew” from being the same colour and material as the chairs and tables.

As they approached the stand, Komni was swiftly sent into a fluster as she remembered the cat ears on her head, causing her to come to a sudden halt and pull her hood over her head once again and her ears returning to their previous position.

James came to a similarly fast stop once he noticed the disappearance of Komni’s footsteps; turning around to see Komni in her state.

“Hey uh…Komni?” James quietly said to her as he walked over. James carefully considered his next sentence as Komni timidly stood before him.

“Hey um…I think everyone will love your cat ears. I mean, it’s not like they make you look worse. I would say they make you look better!”

A quiet mumble came from Komni before she spoke.

“I…I’m still…n-n…”

James could very clearly see Komni was in distress. While for someone else he would have made up some elaborate plan that would use less than 1% of his energy, he didn’t for Komni, and just walked over.

“It’s okay…I’ll hold your hand. You don’t even have to look at anyone if you don’t want to,” James explained as his fingers intertwined with hers, letting out a large sigh before he began to speak as to make his words sound more genuine.

There was a moment of stillness within the movement of James and Komni and the noises of the airport before Komni began to speak in her current nervous, soft voice.

“Okay…”

James and Komni both walked closer to the box, though stopped a decent distance away from it so that James could ask Komni what she wanted and then order it for her.

As they continued to progress towards their desired location, James couldn’t help but ponder the idea that maybe it would’ve been a better idea to have Komni order her food herself, practising her social skills and building her confidence. Though with how early it was in the morning, and their flight taking off soon, James deemed it unfair to force her into such a situation, also wondering how he himself still retained the energy to help Komni like how he had been.

Once they had come to the stand, a bubbly young, thin white male donning their uniform (Cargo pants covered by a black apron, a similarly coloured baseball cap mounted on the employee’s heads, the company’s logo printed on the front) walked up to them.

“Hey, welcome to our bakery! What can I get you-”

The jolly young boy stopped once he opened his eyes to see Komni, coming to a swift halt as he gazed deeply at her, his mouth wide open.

Though he did not retain his position for long when a tall, blonde woman with her hair in a ponytail came into view.

“Oh piss off will ya? Stop gawking over our customers and make yerself useful,” the woman snapped as she pushed him away.

“Sorry about that lads, he’s just a perverted no-life with nothin’ going for him. Honestly, I wish he would die, and then his family would die, then his dog would die, then his girlfriend(s) would die, than his wife(s) would die, then his cat would die, then his high school principal would die, then his college principal would die, and-”

The woman eventually stopped amidst her sentence, letting out a large sigh as she prepared for her next. James stood idle in shock towards the lady’s aggression, and was only able to assume Komni was too.

“Sorry, welcome to our bakery, what can I get for you today?” she asked in a rather annoyed voice.

James ordered two croissants and a sugary vanilla bun, while Komni ordered a small slice of pizza. They retreated back to their seats in the waiting area and began to eat.

No words were muttered for the first few minutes after they began to eat, James assuming that there would continue to be none, though he was shortly disproven when Komni began to speak.

“Thank you very much…this is really tasty!” Komni thanked, her voice still ever so soft and quiet.

James briefly sat in thought before he muttered his next words.

“Hey um…Komni?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t mean to sound rude or anything but…”

There was a moment of silence.

“But…what?”

James pondered on if he should, or rather should not finish his sentence.

“Never mind,” he decided he’d deal with her anxiety when it came to it. For now, they could both just close their eyes, and go to sleep, awaking when their ever so long flight would be taking off.

***

James and Komni were awoken once the iconic disembodied airport voice announced that flight D-4 would be taking off to Japan. This was the moment where James’s new life began. Soon yet would he be in his new country of residence, with his new friends, his new school, and his new life.

James stood up from his seat and gave a long sigh before turning to Komni and staring deep into her eyes; she could tell exactly what James was thinking at that moment.

The group slowly but surely boarded their plane. James’s heart was racing and standing in front of the entrance to the plane did not help. He once again attempted to calm down by giving a large sigh, though did even less to cope with the stress than his first.

Though James was so caught up in his worry that he took zero notice to Komni; who of which was standing next to James at the door, a feeling of guilt residing in her, as no matter how many times James told her that she took no responsibility for his situation, she still couldn’t help but shake the feeling that she did.

Komni turned to James. Seeing him in his distress, she instantly thought back to not yet 2 hours ago where he comforted her. Feeling as if she needed to repay his kindness, she impulsively clutched his hand and looked soberly to the floor, the warmth of her hand alerting James, who was now so oh so aware of Komni’s presence.

There was a moment of intense silence shared between the two.

“I’m scared too James…”

“I…I’ve told you I feel guilty and-I…I…there’s no going back now. We’re here. We’ve just got to…”

She let out a large sigh before finishing her sentence.

“...we’ve just got to do this together. Just as he discussed. Because we’re not going to be happy if we don’t try. Just like you said,”

James turned his head towards her, sombrely gazing into her soul before bringing her inside to their seats.

“Hey…” there was still a sombre tone to his voice, Komni assumed her words had done nothing to help.

“...do you know who’s getting the window seat?” he inquired, a mischievous, though comfortably happy grin to his face.

Komni felt somewhat of a warm sensation within her heart when she saw the smile on his face, and the light-hearted tone to his words, disproving her assumption. A warm smile came to her face, as did a strong blush. Her cat ears sprung up and her hood fell down.

“Ha, I see, there’s only one way to settle this, isn’t there?” James joked.

“What’s that?” Komni inquired, her smile getting larger.

“Well rock, paper, scissors of course!” His banter amused Komni who burst into laughter.

“ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS, SHOOT!”

James shifted his fingers into a scissor-like shape, Komni adapting her’s into a fist representing a rock, thus, she emerged victorious.

The two sat down in their seats: Komni rightfully sitting in the far one situated at the window, James sitting in the one adjacent to her’s. The seats were only in rows of two, meaning Haruki sat in the left far seat in the row by side of James and Komni’s.

The group sat idle in their seats as they waited for the remaining few passengers to board the vehicle, Komni and James exchanging small talk as they waited.

“Oh yeah, I used to know this one dude, he was in my class in middle school. You’ll never guess what his name was,” James began.

“Oh yeah? What was it?” Komni inquired.

“Okay, get this…De Cock,” he explained.

“Wait, what? That’s hilarious!” Komni bursted out laughing.

“Yeah, and whenever the teacher was taking attendance, he’d call everyone by their first name except him. So he’d just be calling out a bunch of generic names before he eventually said: Mr. The Cock? It was like, the funniest shit ever dude, I swear,”

“Wait, was his first name?” Komni asked amidst her laughter.

“Tom. So Tom De Cock. His parents must have been some dicks.” (pun intended)

“My goodness, what kind of person would change their surname to De Cock?” Komni jokingly asked after she and James had finished laughing.

“Yeah dude, heh, honestly,”

All of its passengers jolted as the plane took off. Shockingly enough, James was beginning to feel somewhat excited for what whimsical new things his upcoming life could have in store for him.

James and Komni continued to talk, as there was nothing else to do other than sit in idleness.

Around a quarter through their flight, an attendant asked if they desired any refreshments. James, not having the best experience with aeroplane food in the past, was about to decline the offer, though figured he’d probably not survive without food for 9 hours. The sandwich he and Komni ordered and paid for with the remaining money he had from what Haruki gave him, was rather rank. But food is food and they chose not to wine.

James and Komni eventually ran out of conversation. With nothing else to do, they both decided to sleep to pass the time.

***

James was once again awoken, but this time by none other than Komni, who seemed rather eager to tell him something. James, in his half-awake state, listened.

“Sorry to wake you up but, we’re kind of…going through a time travelling wormhole in a second so, prepare yourself for that,”

James sprung to life after Komni’s words escaped her mouth.

“I’M SORRY, WHAT-”

James was interrupted barely before he began to even speak as he was swept into a blue tunnel. James screamed as he was taken at mach 5 through the hole, confused as to how he was suddenly taken out of his seat into where he was currently situated, floating through the air.

Though James’s fear was short lived as he was swiftly returned to his seat in the plane. Unable to comprehend anything at that moment, James did nothing but pant heavily. Before being alerted to Komni after he had calmed down.

“Finally, my phone!” Komni exclaimed as she lifted a vertical black screen surrounded with a bright pink cover to her face.

“Um…w-w-w-what’s t-that?” James nervously questioned, still in his state of shock.

“Oh yeah, you don’t have these kinds of phones in 2007,”

“K-Komni, t-t-that’s n-not a p-p-phone,”

“Oh yeah heh, sorry, Japan is actually 15 years ahead of the rest of the world, so we have all these cool technological advancements,” Komni explained.

“W-wait, so, you’re telling me, we’re in 2022? The future?” James inquired, slowly recovering from his shock.

“Yep!” Komni happily answered.

“With…jetpacks?” James asked.

“Ha, we haven’t quite gotten there just yet,”

“Shit”

“But you should see video game graphics-”

“Wait,” James interrupted, a very serious tone to his voice.

“What volume of Keen Can Talk are they on?”

Komni rummaged through her bag before pulling out the 99773746373675th volume of “Keen Can Talk” , the number so large the text displaying went off the paper of the cover. James starred in complete shock.

“The future is awesome man,”

James continued to ask questions, repeating the phrase “The future is awesome man” basically every time he learned something, though their chatter came to a halt when Tokyo came into view from across the sea.

It was 6:23 am, the faintest pink line ran across the sky to represent the sunrise. The bright lights from the skyscrapers, apartments and stores lit up the darkness like a christmas tree, saying the sight was magical would be such but an understatement, yet a testimony to the sheer beauty of the view.

James and Komni gazed into their new life; a beautiful one. Nothing but bliss washed over the two of them at that moment. They cherished it. And lucky they did because it was swiftly interrupted by a loud

BOOM!

A sudden gust of wind followed by shrieks appeared as the plane had been sliced in half! James managed to stay calm and grab Komni by her hand, though not before clutching the end of a chair.

“Hold on Komni! It’s going to be alright!” James called out to Komni, who was in complete tears at that moment.

James frantically looked around in an attempt to find the culprits, though didn’t have to look for very long after he heard an awfully familiar voice.

Joseph’s.

“KOMNI YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” Joseph shrieked at James’s ever so precious girlfriend.

James couldn’t do anything but watch in shock, mouth wide open as Joseph and Matthew fell down from the sky onto Komni.

“JUST SO YOU KNOW JAMES, IF I ACCIDENTLY HIT YOU WHILE TRYING TO HIT KOMNI, I JUST WANT YOU (Joseph more so) TO KNOW IT WAS DEFINITELY AN ACCIDENT AND I TOTALLY WASN’T TRYING TO KILL YOU!!” Matthew shouted down.

“WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU BASTARDS!?” James asked, not really expecting much of an answer.

“I’M SORRY YOU-”

Matthew was unable to finish his sentence as Haruki jumped to a debris that fell below Matthew and hit him with the handle of his sword so as to not hurt him. Being Haruki, he knew that Joseph and Matthew were James’s friends, and figured that killing them in front of him would be slightly heartless.

Matthew was sent flying below into the sea, Joseph, caring about his friends so much, followed suit of Matthew to try save him. Both swiftly became out of view.

James’s grip on the end of the chair was slipping, his hands were in pain, tears silently escaped his eyes and Komni and him were about to plunge into the cold sea below them.

Not much hope was shared between them.