CHAPTER 38: THE AFTERMATH CHAOS

Once the fierce battle had calmed down, Yura and Kentaro found themselves aboard the Halcyon ship, where Yura was about to meet the rather... inattentive crew.

"Greetings, humans..." she murmured, gazing between all the new faces without a scowl, striving to adhere to Kentaro’s previous counsel:

Be nice.

Tenka stepped forward, smiling at her.

"Hi, Yura. It’s wonderful to finally meet you." She reached out her hand for a handshake.

Yura stared at it in confusion.

"I believe you’ve confused ’wonderful’ with ’honorable’... but I suppose this will suffice." She replied, accepting the handshake.

Kentaro could almost visualize an anime-style red tick mark forming on Tenka’s forehead, yet she managed to suppress her reaction and let it pass.

"So, Yui!"

Shogo strutted forward, striking a pose that would make any idol jealous. "It’s time for my grand entrance! I am none other than the magnificent, the hilarious, Shogo!"

"Tsch. How odd," Yura scoffed, her gaze fixed on him like he was a particularly strange painting. "Such a peculiar fellow... You called me ’Yui’, do you want to be wiped off the face of the earth?"

"NO NO NO!" both Kentaro and Shogo yelled in perfect harmony.

"Please, my lady! Allow me to have another go."

Shogo dropped to one knee, bowing his head as if he were auditioning for a Shakespearean play.

"My name is Shogo, and I am merely a humble servant, Miss Yura."

This time, Yura cracked the tiniest of smiles.

"Alright then. That will do. Well done... servant."

The crew, including Kentaro, stared at Shogo in disbelief as he gave them a goofy smile and a proud thumbs-up.

"Dumbass..." Tenka muttered under her breath.

She clapped her hands to reel the conversation back together.

"Right. Everyone listen. It’s been a rough day; what was meant to be training spiraled into chaos. Yura, please follow Haruka to get checked out. I’ve got some paperwork to handle. Kentaro, you can rest, we’ll call you once everything’s sorted."

Everyone nodded and started to disperse back to their stations. Haruka made her way to the door, which opened automatically with a sensor. She smiled at Yura, signalling her to come through as she waited patiently.

Yura, however, didn’t budge. She turned back towards Kentaro and walked up to him.

Kentaro panicked as her face got closer towards him.

"C-can’t you come with me? What if this woman tries something? Like attack me?" Her face was serious, too serious. But she looked cute.

Kentaro smiled softly and gently patted her head.

"Don’t worry, Yura. Haruka couldn’t hurt a fly. If anything happens, I’ll be right back, okay?"

Yura looked into Kentaro’s eyes and slowly nodded. Something about his calm presence seemed to pacify her.

"V-very well. I shall go with this woman. Her name was Haruka... I believe... Don’t go too far," she said with authority, slowly making her way over.

Kentaro chuckled, waving as the door closed behind them. Her expression lingered in his mind, not the broken, fearful look from the island, but something else... a sad reluctance to leave.

But the moment wouldn’t last long.

A small door beside him burst open.

BOOM!

"What the!?"

He couldn’t react in time, and a full-speed blur crashed into him, sending him staggering back.

He opened his eyes, but all he could see was dark hair covering his vision. He swiped at it quickly, trying to see the culprit.

"Kentaro... I’ve missed you."

The voice was familiar. The tone shaky. She was crying.

It was Serica.

For what felt like ages, Serica had been gone, undergoing tests to see if she was fit to return to normal life. Just now, she’d been cleared. The moment she was let go, she sprinted through the corridor looking for Tenka... she wanted to ask on Kentaro’s were abouts, but when she spotted Kentaro alone, standing there by himself.

She couldn’t help herself.

She tackled him at full speed.

"Serica... It’s really you. I’ve missed you too," Kentaro whispered, holding her in his arms.

But the embrace didn’t last long.

Because Kentaro realized something.

During the moment, he hadn’t felt it. But Serica wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath her oversized shirt. And the position they were in... meant he was getting about 80% of the full experience.

His face lit up like a bonfire as he gently pushed her off him and stood up immediately afterward.

He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

"So, Serica... how’ve you been?"

Serica, oblivious to why Kentaro looked so flustered, answered with her usual cute happy energy.

"Well, I had fun! We did some of that testing stuff, then Tenka gave me this. Sweet, it was sweet! It was so yummy! Kentaro, have you had it?"

Kentaro saw the sparkles in her eyes. Though she wasn’t specific about what this sweet was, he saw she was practically drooling just thinking about the mysterious sweet.

"Haha, yeah, of course I have. It’s delicious, isn’t it?" he said, scratching his head still unsure what she was talking about but he didn’t have the heart to dull her happy mood she was in.

Serica nodded quickly.

"Yep! Yep!"

Then her tone shifted. From bubbly to shy.

She began twiddling her fingers.

Kentaro gulped. Uh oh.What’s this about...

"H-Hey K-Kentaro... Tenka said there’s that sweet on the island. C-could we maybe... get some?" she asked, her voice soft, like a kid asking permission from a parent.

Kentaro sighed in relief and smiled.

"Of course we can. It’s only been like, what, a day, and we’ve barely explored the island. We’ve got six whole days, we can do tons of stuff."

Serica’s eyes widened.

"Do you promise we can explore everything?"

Her eyes sparkled. There was no way he could say no to that.

"I promise," he said with a grin.

Serica smiled and stood up. But since she was only wearing a long shirt and had only pink bunny panties on underneath, Kentaro quickly turned away, his eyes clenched shut.

She ran to the main door, the one Yura and Haruka had left through, and shouted:

"OKI, Kentaro! I’ll hold you to that promise! But for now, I’ve got to go find Haruka, okay?!"

She waved as she disappeared out the door.

Kentaro waved back with a small smile.

"Sure. I’ll see you soon."

And just like that, Serica vanished behind the sliding door.

Kentaro finally let out a deep breath, his shoulders dropping. A long, wild day.

His thoughts lingered back to Serica as the room fell silent, how she seemed perfectly okay. It looked like she didn’t even remember what had happened just hours before. Which was mostly for the better.

He quickly shook his head, he didn’t want to go worrying about things that didn’t matter right now, as he turned and saw Shogo.

He was seated in a chair, eyes glued to a monitor playing back footage of the fight and the beach.

That’s when he noticed something and called out to Kentaro with a worried tone.

"Hey, Kenny. Look at this."

Kentaro walked over, peering at the screen Shogo was watching. It was the feed from the beach trip with Yura, nothing seemed off at first.

"What’s up, Shogo?" he asked.

Shogo didn’t reply to Kentaro, just zoomed the picture in and cleaned the image up.

And it was then that Kentaro finally saw what Shogo was talking about.

On the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean and beach... stood a figure.

Silver hair. Watching them.

And then, she vanished in a flash of light.

"Silver hair. Powers... Rin..." Kentaro muttered, piecing it together slowly.

Shogo nodded, also agreeing with Kentaro’s theory.

"Must’ve been her. She’s been watching you by the looks of it."

He leaned back on his chair, scratching his beard. "Wonder what her goal is..."

Kentaro frowned.

"Most likely, she wants something from me. Whatever she’s up to, she’s planning something."

As they discussed theories, Tenka walked into the room holding some paperwork.

"Hey, Shogo, finish these off and deliver them to HQ. Everything that happened today needs to be documented and sent up the chain."

But before Shogo could stand, Tenka’s eyes locked onto the screen.

She stepped forward, staring at the paused footage. Her eyes narrowed slowly as she fixated on the image.

"...Hmph. What’s your plan...?" she muttered, as if talking directly to Rin through the screen.

"You know why she’d be here, Tenka?" Kentaro asked.

Tenka shook her head slowly. "Not sure. But you need to be careful of her. She’s clearly watching you . And I think it’s safe to assume she knows what you’ve done."

Kentaro said nothing, but he agreed.

Whatever Rin was after... It had something to do with him.

The three of them continued theorizing until a fourth person stepped in through the door.

The door slide open as the three looked back there eyes met with hers.

Haruka.

She blinked a couple of times as she stared back at the three who were huddled around Shogo’s computer. She could tell instantly that if she didn’t say something, they would be there for a while.

"Ahem." She let out a dry cough to grab their full attention to her.

"Let Kentaro leave now, the school’s probably getting worried," she said, tone flat as always.

The group snapped out of their thoughts and agreed with Haruka before they stood up.

Shogo headed toward the exit, with the paperwork Tenka gave in hand. Kentaro followed after, walking to the teleporter.

They both nodded at each other before finally leaving to do their own thing.

ZWWWWP.

And just like that... they were off.

Each to their own next Chapter...