"Ahh, doesn't this feel nostalgic, Issei?" I smiled back at him as we made our way above the islands, "Soaring through the clouds on the airbike, the fresh air just hitting you straight on... Nothing like it!"

"My ass, I hate riding this thing!" Issei angrily shot back, "Dammit, I totally forgot how scary this is. And what the hell do you mean fresh air!? The air pressure is so low that I'm having way too much difficulty breathing!"

Right, he never was good with this thing. To each their own, I guess. Ah, speaking of getting scared, looks like my dear wife is clinging to my back super tight. On one hand I'd like to tease her, but I can also understand that she's probably never been this high up in the air before.

"Cecily?" I smirked.

"This thing just shook. I'm telling you, it's not safe!" She shook her head, both Eyes shut tightly out of fear, "Ed, calm down with the steering!"

"Are you saying we didn't do a good job with constructing it?" Issei and I frowned.

"Moreover, are you calling me a poor pilot?" Ed looked even grumpier than us, "I'll have you know this baby's being perfectly cared for. I'm even going a tad slower just to make sure you guys are safe."

"As for the shaking, you'll be happy to know that's just a bit of turbulence." Issei assured her.

Well, telling a person unfamiliar with the term that it's turbulence probably won't make them feel any better about the situation. This is Cecily's first ever time flying, so I think it's best to just let her understand it for herself and find out it's safe after we land. No use in saying useless stuff like "calm down", right? As if it's that simple.

"Turbulence?" I chuckled, "At this point, we're already way past that-"

"It's turbulence." Issei stared directly into my Eyes, "Stop trying to worry her more."

"But turbulence only comes during takeoff." I reasoned, "Y'know, like when we're gaining altitude."

"Turbulence? Altitude? Gah, I don't know what those words mean, but I definitely feel something thrashing about inside this thing!" Cecily flailed her legs about in a panic, "Can we stop to check if everything's alright just in case, after all?"

"Oh yeah, sure." Ed surprisingly agreed.

"Thank you!"

"Lemme just take the keys out and pause mid air. I'm sure that's how the laws of physics work, Cecily." He continued his sentence just to diss her question.

"Screw you! Mnn, Lune, tell him off!" She hissed back before dishing out an order.

"Ed, you're flying this great. Just keep doing what you're doing and we'll be fine." I nodded, "And Cecily, everything's in tip top shape, so-"

"Ah, there's Lem." Issei pointed to a lone raft way down below.

"Where!?" We looked about.

"Down there!" He pointed, but given Ed took a peek as well, he accidentally swerved a bit unpredictably, leading to Issei falling off the side.

"Whoa-!? Oh no~!!"

Jeronimo, I guess. Well, it's a good thing he kept his backpack with him, that thing's got so many doohickeys in it that I'd honestly be surprised if it didn't also double as a parachute. Any second now and he'll deploy it... Yep, aaaany second.

"Holy shit, he hit the water!" Ed was shaking all over from the shock, "He's dead!"

"He's fine, calm down." I tried taking over the steering until he cleared his mind a bit, "Look, he resurfaced. Oof, but was it just my imagination or did he belly flop? Hmm, can't see from this angle..."

"W-Wait, Lune! Stop!" Cecily clung to me tightly, disallowing me from moving away from my seat.

Thus, all had devolved into utter chaos in the blink of an Eye. All of a sudden, thing's weren't as hanky panky as we had first assumed they'd be. And to make matters that much worse...

"Sniff, sniff..." I smelt something burning, "Gah, the engine's on fire!"

"We're so gonna die!" Ed was on the brink of tears.

"Die!?" Cecily heard a buzzer word that made her open her Eyes finally, "Hell no! Not until Nelly's safe!"

Like clockwork, she immediately let go of her fears in favor of pushing both me and Ed aside to grab hold of the smoking hot handlebars. If I had to give an estimate of our time before this thing went kaboom, it'd probably be counted in seconds. Either way, she masterfully took control of the situation, swerving us towards this one giant tree in the distance.

"We're not gonna make it that far, Cecily!" I took her hand, "Look, the island below us has a tall peak! We can just safely land there!"

"Let go! That island's no good, the terrain is too rocky and steep!" She argued, "I'll land us in that tree's crown, it'll save the landing!"

"We'll have burnt up ages ago by then!" I couldn't waste any more time, so I just jumped off the airbike while still holding onto her, "We can make it! Come on, Ed!"

"Ack, why'd you jump, you idiots!?" He hollered from the airbike, "...Look, I'll land at that tree, then I'll find a way over to you guys!"

Dammit, Ed! Stop complicating things! Crap, to think I'd be ticking off skydiving with the lady this early on in my life...! Well then, I better get to work on trying to save us from going splat!

"Lune!" She called out to me, tears flying off her face, "What now!?"

"I didn't know you turned into such a scaredy cat over the years, honey!" I grinned back, "I don't mind, obviously, but it hurts that you have such little faith in me!"

Letting go of her other hand briefly to make the hand sign, my Vision turned Blue as I looked below myself to Materialize a humongous cloth. I'd even go so far as to say that the blanket could easily cover the entire island. Perfect for what we needed it for! Quickly, before it all flew out of my hand, I grabbed the four edges and gave Cecily two. Immediately after, I locked our legs together to create a sort of two-man parachute with nothing but the cloth. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't at all work, but given I could make such a ridiculously large one, this parachute slowed our descent down to a leisurely slowfall.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

----------------------------------------

***

----------------------------------------

The rest of the fall was pretty fun, in all honesty. I should try this again in the future, though obviously without putting my wife in danger as well. In any case, it took us a while, but we eventually landed at the mountaintop of the island we were dropping at. The scenery we saw as we descended down was something else entirely, but even then, this little visage was a close second! Islands, open seas and lights shining amidst the darkness of night. Right, this is Schnell's Archipelago, meaning all of those lights must be from Schnell's descendants. Crazy cool!

"Lune? Lune!" Cecily snapped me out of it, "What do we do now? We got separated from Ed and Issei."

"They'll be fine, they're both headed for the Tree island, so I'm sure they'll reconvene soon enough." I reasoned.

"No, not that. What about us?" She looked around, "The plan was for us to take our time circling around every island until we found the one that housed Nelly and Lem, but now we're stranded here."

"You never know though, maybe the island we landed on is exactly the one where they are." I raised a smug Eyebrow.

"Stop that, there's only so many unrealistically optimistic expectations that can fit in that body of yours." She groaned, "Seriously, we need to find another way to get back up."

But Lem just left this island though, so there's no way Nelly isn't here. A-And hey, weren't you just complaining about how scared of flying you are!? Sigh, not like it matters though, since our only way to do that would be to make another airborne vehicle.

"Of which I only know how to make the airbike." I explained to her my train of thought, "Which, by the way, took a long ass time even with Issei helping me out."

"So what then?"

What then? At least that one's simple to answer. The only thing we have left to do, of course.

"For now, let's just take a look around this island we're at currently." I shook my head, "It's not like we have anything better to do while we wait for these guys to come over. We already found Lem, so Nelly's the only one left to search for."

"And if those three don't come over by the time we've looked everywhere?" She asked.

"Then we'll do the same thing Lem did." I shot her a thumbs up, "Make a raft and hop on over to the next island! Rinse, repeat, bada-boom, bada-bing!"

"......"

"............."

The look of distrust and contempt she gave me once I suggested this was, shall we say... bombastic. Of course I know it's easier said than done to travel the entire Archipelago one island at a time until we find where Nelly is, but sadly there's no such thing as a "Find My Nelly" in this world. Man, I should really talk to Issei about how to make that though. I used to always lose his phone around the house, so that feature was a saving grace, I tell ya'.

"Then, we better get to it soon." She finally gave in to my not so efficient plan, "It's nighttime thankfully, so we might not have been spotted by the locals. If we sneak about whilst making sure we aren't spotted, we just might..."

"Whoa whoa." I stopped her.

"What?"

"Who says we gotta sneak around?" I shrugged, "We're just looking for our girl, I'm sure it'll be way faster if we just ask the locals if they've seen her."

"...Husband, if you wanna get killed that badly, you can just ask me you know?" She threatened my continued existence because I showed weakness in the mental area, "The people here are enemies. This is an infiltration. We're not looking for our daughter, we're rescuing her from a crazed kidnapper."

"You always gotta live in such a scary world..." I returned a tired, deadpanned stare, "Seriously, not everyone in the world is our enemy, and especially not the Schnells. This isn't an enemy base, it's just a continent like any other. The only difference being these guys don't like visitors."

"And what are we, dear?"

"W-Well, visitors..." I muttered under my breath.

"Ergo, we don't wanna get spotted." She crossed her arms all smug, "Sometimes I worry about you, dear! What would you have ever done without me?"

"That's a trick question and you know it."

"Gah, you got me." She stuck her tongue out playfully.

I'd argue with that reply, but there's not a single soul that could defy such a proud little face. Happy wife, happy life, I guess. She always was the more logical one out of the two of us, so I better listen to her advice this time. When I think about it another way, I really did take this entire situation way too lightly. Our daughter's been kidnapped, for Prylos' sake!

"Alright then, let's go." I grabbed her hand, leading her carefully down the path, "We got off on the wrong foot so to speak, but now it's time for Operation: Find Nelly to officially commence!"

"Shhhh!" She shoved me into the bushes and covered my mouth, "Dammit, do you not know what stealth means!?"

"Mnf-!" I tried shaking her off, only to stop dead silent once I saw two figures walking up the very path we were just on.

"There! That giant tarp thing wasn't there before!" A young man sporting a daring Red leaf kilt pointed to our parachute, "I told you I heard someone! Ha, now what do you have to say about our daily scouting duty!?"

"I still think it's a waste of time." The annoyed girl with sharp teeth and a White blossoming leaf bikini sighed, "Dammit, Shak, this is why you can't get a girlfriend.

"I don't need one, I'm happy being alone until someone catches my Eye!" He shot back, "Not like you have a boyfriend either, Sheila."

"This ain't about me."

...Whoa, these guys are bold. Is this a fetish thing? Won't they get rashes? Such little attire, maybe it'd be fun if we too... Ow, Cily, stop! I swear I wasn't looking at the girl!