A day passes by as the group make their way through the forest. Along the way, the group gets separated. Upon realizing, Sharon complains in mild frustration.
“Why does this always happen?” - Sharon says as she sighs.
Sharon: It’s not just about getting lost too, but how it’s always happening right as we are about to approach our next destination! We could’ve actually been out of this forest by now! And this time it’s more than half the group! I expected this from Tatsuo, but Victor and Queenie too?
Meanwhile, Darren thinks in his head how Tatsuo could ever get lost with the incredible feats he’s capable of performing.
“Guess it can’t be helped. We’ll just have to go look for them –” - Sharon digs into her bag for the map, only to realize that it isn’t with them. Sharon and Darren look back at one another.
Darren: Uhm…
Darren (awkwardly): I think we are the ones that are lost…
Sharon (stammers): Wha–...! But…! I was following you!
Darren: Me? I was just mindlessly walking. I thought you knew where we were going. – He responds whimsically.
The two share another exchange of awkward stares at each other.
Sharon: ...Ok…We won’t mention any of this to the others, especially Tatsuo, got it…?
Meanwhile the rest of the group are in search of Sharon and Darren.
Victor: How is it Tatsuo? Are they nearby? Just let me know if you need to take another whiff of the map.
“Yeah. We’re getting close.” - Tatsuo answers as he sniffs out the nearby bushes and grass.
Victor: Man, and just when we made it out of the forest too.
Tatsuo: Usually it’s me being the one getting lost, but this time it’s Sharon.
Victor: Can’t you find them any faster?
Tatsuo: I can, now that we’re closer. It’ll still take a while. I hafta focus on their scent among other things in this forest. There’s a lot going on since this is a forest after all.
‘Sensory overload I see…I guess that’s a drawback from having oversensitive senses.’ - Queenie thinks in her head as she silently observes Tatsuo.
Tatsuo: Also, something has been throwing me off.
Tatsuo’s words piqued Victor and Queenie’s interest.
Victor: What’s up?
Tatsuo pauses. Shortly after he stands himself up, bringing the other two to an alert.
“H-hey…What’s wrong? Is everything alright?” - Victor asks worryingly as Tatsuo glances around the area.
Tatsuo (thinking): It’s getting closer…Sharon…? No…It’s much more ‘pure’ than her…’
Queenie also becomes alert as she senses something approaching them.
Queenie: Something is coming, I think.
Victor: Huh? How do you two know? Do you know what it is?
Queenie: Well…I’m not sure either.
Tatsuo paces around the area, constantly repositioning himself.
“Right here.” - Tatsuo says as he finally stands still to a stop.
The next moment, something drops right on top of Tatsuo. A loud “owch!” can be heard from the object as it crashes against Tatsuo’s head and flops to the ground afterwards.
Tatsuo looks down to see the unidentified object and the other two runs over to check it out.
The three find a small blonde girl wearing a white poofy dress, with glowing angelic wings protruding from her back; an angel. The angel is knocked unconscious on the ground from the impact of Tatsuo’s head.
“What on Beria…? This girl’s got wings on her…” - Victor says as the three of them stares in curiosity at the foreign angel before them.
Tatsuo: Mmhm. And she came falling from the sky too.
Victor peers up at the sky, squinting his eyes as he raises his hand to his forehead for cover.
“Where did she come from…?” - Victor wonders as he only sees a normal blue sky with clouds.
The angel suddenly opens her eyes. She immediately props herself up. The three flinch backwards at the angel’s sudden movement. Upon seeing the three, the angel gasps to herself.
Angel: WOW~!
Angel: So there really are lower people living beneath us! - She exclaimed excitedly.
The angel takes a look around her surroundings, and begins to gush over the discovery of grass, leaves and trees. The trio carefully observes the curious angel as she prances about happily in her newfound environment.
“So, uhm–” - Victor attempts to speak up to the winged oddity, but the angelic child rushes up to the group, her arms outstretched with a bug in her hand.
“Hey! What is this little thing called?” - The small angel asks, showing them a bug that has an over-sized head consisting of three large black balls stuck together with three antennae, each sticking out from where the balls connect.
Queenie: That’s…A Bolbba bug.
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“Hoooo~” - The angel says amusingly as the bug flies away from her hands.
Victor: So, uh…What are you…
“I’m an angel!” - The angel happily answers.
Victor: Oh…An angel huh?...Of course…
The word ‘angel’ brought up some questions into Queenie’s mind, as she is familiar with the term.
Queenie: Where did you come from?
The angel: I came from Heaven!
Queenie (thinking): Heaven! That confirms it…!
‘Is this actually real…?! So Angels really do exist then…!’ - Queenie thinks to herself in excitement.
Victor: Heaven? Where the heck is that?
Queenie: It’s a place that exists high above the clouds.
Her response left Victor flabbergasted.
Victor: WHAT!? You mean in the skies?!
Queenie: Yes. Specifically above the clouds. Rumor has it of places that exist high up in the skies. There are tales of people seeing it and having been there themselves, claiming they’ve met humans with wings. Some of these stories involve abduction from these beings. The details of these stories vary from where you hear it from, but most accounts call these winged folks ‘angels’, and the place that they hail from is called ‘Heaven’.
Queenie’s explanation immediately reminds Victor of a term Dr. Crogsbell brought up: sky islands.
Victor: Do you think this is tied to the myths of the sky islands?
Queenie: That is what some refers it to.
A smile forms on Victor’s face – ‘So they exist then…!’
Victor: Dr. Crogsbell…The sky islands…They ARE real…!
“But it being a rumor…I guess that’s no longer the case…” - Queenie says, looking at the little angel before her.
The angel: That’s because we’re not allowed to visit the lower world! The Archangels told us that we should never make contact with you lower beings!
Victor (mumbles): The way you talk to us sounds a bit insulting…I know you’ve got wings but…
Tatsuo: So how come you’re here then?
“Eh! He! He!” - The angel giggles smuggly.
“I snuck out myself!”
The angel: I’ve always been curious about the world below us, so I wandered off to take a quick look! Just once I wanted to see what the world beneath us looked like!
“The closer I got though…The heavier my body became!” – The angel expresses herself by stretching out her arms to make herself look bloated.
The angel: I suddenly found myself getting dragged down, and I did my best to get back in control! But I got dizzy and fainted!
The angel: And–And then–! I think I crashed onto something hard which is what I think you folks call the ‘ground’!
Victor: No, you just landed onto Tatsuo’s head. But the ground is indeed hard.
Queenie (thinking): It’s even more impressive that she’s still alive after that.
Victor: Is this okay though? You revealing all of that information to us?
The angel: Hmm…Well, I don’t know too much about why we shouldn’t visit you folks. But I don’t see why it should be a bad thing either. From what I've seen so far, most of the things here seem rather weak.
The angel: But the two of you seem really strong though…! – She says pointing out both Tatsuo and Queenie.
The angel: I don’t see how you folks would pose a threat to us. If we were to go to war, we’d easily win. I mean, you guys don’t even have wings! How can you live your life without that?!
Victor: That’s because you're still just a child! Just because you’ve got wings, that doesn’t make you better than us. I mean, the world is a big place and you’ve only been here for a couple minutes. There’s plenty of strong scary monsters out in the world.
The angel: Hmmm… I guess that’s true… This is my first time being here after all…!
Meanwhile, both Tatsuo and Queenie were having mixed thoughts, but both came to a similar conclusion; that what the angel said could be right.
For a seemingly young child, the two of them have been sensing a strong leakage of ‘energy’ exuding from her. From Tatsuo’s perspective, it looks as if white flames are emitting from her body. If a young girl like her can exude this much energy at her age without exerting herself, they can only imagine just how much strength an adult angel would have.
The angel: Well! It was interesting to see the lower world and meeting you folks! I really wish I could explore the rest of it though~!! But I don’t think I should stay here much longer. I’ll be in trouble if they find out that I’m missing. Archangel Raphael would be furious if he knew I met with you folks.
The angel: Allow me to give you a gift for this meeting!
The angel’s wings unfurl and begins flapping. She slowly ascends back into the sky.
“Hopefully we’ll meet again~!!” - The angel says as she bids farewell to the group waving back to them.
And just like that, the angel disappears into the sky as small particles of light showers the group, watching in awe.
The group sees something slowly descend towards them. Tatsuo reaches out his hand as the object gently falls into it. The group looks to see a bright golden feather.
Tatsuo: ...I guess this is her gift.
“H-holy shit…Was all of that actually real…?” - Victor says shooken in bewilderment.
Queenie gazes back up to the sky.
Queenie: I…Just witnessed something incredible…! An encounter like this…Is a miracle…!
Victor: Man~!! I still can’t believe all that! It seemed as if the entire world just expanded. Knowing now that there’s a whole other realm in the skies that we humans haven’t even explored yet!
The words Victor spoke had Tatsuo think back to what San lectured him about just how huge the world is and how much of it still hasn’t been explored.
Then, Sharon and Darren appear out from the nearby bushes, with Sharon yelling: I’ve found you guys!
“W-we’ve been trying so hard looking for you three! Seriously…! Look at you all, giving me and Darren a hard time…!” - Sharon says, trying to save face from the fact that it was the two of them that got lost.
Victor: Oh, hey Sharon!
Tatsuo: ...Weren’t it the two of you that got lost instead…?
Victor excitedly rushes up to Sharon and Darren to tell them everything that had just happened with the angel. Much to both their reactions, the two of them didn’t believe what they were told, insisting that the three of them imagined the whole thing and made it up to mess with them.
Sharon: Come on guys~ Drop the act already. Sky islands don’t actually exist. It’s all a myth. I’m quite surprised that you're also going along with their antics, Queenie.
Sharon’s words made Queenie self-conscious about if she’s really getting attached to the group. Victor on the other-hand gets riled up that Sharon didn’t believe them.
Victor: Hey Tatsuo! You got that feather right?! Go ahead and show them that! It’ll prove to them that we did saw an angel!
Tatsuo shows Sharon and Darren the luminescent golden feather, but the two of them are unimpressed.
Sharon: What is this supposed to tell me? It’s just a feather!
Victor: But it’s glowing?!
Sharon crosses her arms, still unconvinced.
Victor: I swear to god! We really did see an angel!
Darren: Yeah, how convenient that it all happened right before we found you three.
The three of them continue to bicker as a thought then occurs to Tatsuo.
Tatsuo (thinking): Ah…We didn’t ask the angel her name…
In the sky, the little angel looks down at the forest, happily smiling.