Hikaru woke surrounded by solid blue walls, illuminated by soft purple neon spilling from beneath wooden panels. He was lying on a dark silk mattress. His heart raced. He sat up immediately. He was dressed. Free of his bonds. He looked around, trying to understand where he had been taken.
He crossed the room and entered another space. Transparent walls shifted their opacity, revealing supply storage compartments, a foldaway bed, and holoconsoles for navigation and entertainment.
He kept walking until he reached almost absolute darkness. Only the lights at the bow broke through the black.
He was aboard a small nanoboat. Its nanohull had a nanoaerodynamic structure built using quantumnano-technology, with integrated solar nanopanels. Its propulsion was so quiet that silence itself resonated like the silence of abyssal depths.
The vessel cut through the unpredictable waters of the Pacific like a shadow.
Kuso.
The mysterious figure was leaning against the railing. The man slipped the cards he was holding into his pocket.
Who was this guy, anyway? Hikaru was still trying to understand.
The stranger turned toward the nanoengineer. Finally awake. His eyes smiled, but something in his soul remained silent. An unusual strangeness lingered within him. It came from that presence. From the enigmatic Seven of Cups he had drawn while thinking of Hikaru.
"So Hika-chan decided to wake up?"
Hikaru stiffened. He knew his name. How had he gotten into this disturbing situation? Those bastards… the drug. That man. What the hell was happening?
"Who are you?"
The stranger's grin widened. The fear and vulnerability that had stirred so much interest in him had vanished from the nanoengineer's expression.
Now, before him, stood a wildcat. Feline features grew more pronounced in that tenacious face. For the first time, the man felt a strange pulse in his own heart. It hardly mattered. How much fun would it be to play with that cat?
"Saymon."
Saymon? What did he want?
Hikaru moved closer. Why did something seethe inside him in the presence of that being? His perception put him on alert in a way he had never experienced, not even among the members of the Ninkyō dantai. Saymon's aura exuded terror. Cruel greed. Something beyond fear. If only that were all…
But there was another sensation. Something that burned differently. Something Hikaru preferred to leave unnamed. The effects of Erosen had already worn off. And even so, he felt a… vibrating within him.
No. Madness. Unthinkable.
"Where are you taking me?" Something told him that confronting the man physically would be useless.
Saymon stepped closer. Close enough to almost steal his breath. Hikaru held that golden gaze and stood his ground.
"Trindade Island." The answer came in that husky voice, sending a warm shiver down his spine.
Hikaru stepped away. His shoulders sagged. A new weight pressed against his chest.
Tanu… Guilt bit into his thoughts.
"Worried about your friend?" Saymon's cutting tone made him turn.
Leaning against the wall was Tanu. Deactivated. But still there.
A gentle warmth of relief spread through Hikaru's chest. Even so, something still weighed inside him.
"Gonna switch him on?"
Hikaru nodded and leaned against the railing. "Forget it."
Perhaps it was better this way.
S-2876 • L3 Sintoluna
"Four days, one sky in living sintonira. Teceli steadies the step; Abete opens gentle space. Alonli lengthens the curve; Silenri seals the fine thread. Sintoluna guides the tide—and the story carries on in perfect pitch."
D20 Teceli
The waters were calm. The forecast, however, warned of storms on the horizon.
Saymon studied the nautical charts while Hikaru adjusted the nanoengines.
The boat crossed the ocean beneath a sky that had yet to reveal the intensity of the winds ahead.
D22 Abete
A tropical storm disrupted their planned route. Immense waves rose around the vessel. Cutting winds battered its structure, testing its resilience. They both used nanostabilizers to prevent damage.
Hikaru remained calm. He took charge of navigation, precisely correcting their course as the waters shifted.
Saymon tended to the supplies.
They exchanged few words. The storm demanded attention. And the silence between them seemed as charged as the sky.
D25 Alonli
After the storm, conditions improved. Even so, navigation remained challenging. Hidden reefs threatened their passage.
Saymon watched the water with keen eyes, identifying dangerous areas before they got too close.
Hikaru connected the nanosonar to map the seabed and avoid collisions.
Together, they kept the nanoboat moving.
That night, Hikaru dreamed. A golden-eyed fox circled him. Sniffed his fear. Savored his unease.
Hikaru woke agitated in the middle of the night. He left the room and walked to the bow.
Saymon was watching the horizon. "Nightmare, Hika-chan?" Wind and droplets of water brushed his untamed expression.
"Insomnia?" Hikaru asked. The heavy sulfurous smell of the polluted sea reached his lungs, and he had to suppress a cough.
Saymon closed the distance between them. His overwhelming aura filled the space around the nanoengineer. He raised a hand and stroked his cheeks with his fingertips. "How can I sleep near such a fun target?" A crooked smile formed on his lips.
Hikaru turned his back on him and returned to the room. Saymon watched him walk away.
The nanoengineer clenched his fists. His heart beat fast, wildly. Why the hell did it insist on racing like that? Chikushō.
D27 Silenri
They spotted another vessel.
Saymon approached Hikaru and touched his back. "That vessel looks suspicious. Let's steer clear," he whispered near his ear.
Hikaru ignored the shivers running across his skin. His heated face. His hair standing on end. He focused on the controls and activated the nanocamouflage.
Saymon watched him at his own pace. He shuffled the cards in a Rain of Chaos, a foxlike smile in his eyes. Each movement of his hands seemed like a brushstroke in the wind. The deck opened like a bursting cloud. The cards fell in a dry rain, chiming in the air like paper blades. Before they touched the floor, Saymon's fingers caught them in a fan, as though gravity were merely another puppet of his chaos.
And so they kept sailing through the restless waters. Crossing invisible frequencies that tested them.
At times they expanded. At times they merged.
A dissonant harmony.