A raindrop for selvage! (3/3)

[stormies]

///

.sagittarius.
the archer

///

Sho preferred to face problems head on, or at least he had before Matsumoto Jun had come into his life. He was now on the sixth day of avoiding him, burying himself in work. Ignoring Jun’s messages. Knowing that Jun had come to the museum in person to try and speak with him every single day, if only because he’d told Masuda or whoever else was on duty that he wasn’t available to meet with that visitor (or any visitors). At least Jun hadn’t tried to ambush him at home, likely because he was smart enough to know Sho could call building security on his non-resident ass. Not that Sho would actually do that to him.

He’d finally gotten through the rest of Udo-san’s boxes of donations that evening, his eyes tired and back aching from sitting hunched over at his worktable, sorting through all the junk, assigning numbers to the things he decided to add permanently to the collections, entering things into his acquisitions database. He got up from the table, hearing various parts of him crack, shutting his computer and putting it back in the charging station.

Garnet South, the mysterious man with the blue topaz, and his fishing boat. Sho had done everything he could to not have to address it yet. He’d deliberately lost himself in every museum vault project he’d put off for ages, if only to try and distract himself from the idea of Jun considering something so reckless. Putting his life at risk so needlessly.

Jun clearly wanted to be the one to try and retrieve something Sho had spent the better part of his adulthood chasing. The depth of that devotion to him, the lengths Jun was willing to go to in order to make him happy did have an effect on him, he couldn’t lie. But Sho knew all too well that Jun equally wanted the opportunity to recapture a high he thought had been lost to him forever with his accident, to fly an untested prototype airship into the unknown.

No matter how Sho tried to busy himself with other things, he couldn’t ignore the truth that was staring back at him. That a future with Matsumoto Jun would mean so much more to him than those coins ever could. That was what had him so out of sorts. No object was worth the risk, no object was worth losing Jun forever in the attempt to find it. What good were twelve coins behind glass compared to how it had felt to wake up and feel Jun there beside him? To have someone look at him the way Jun did?

While Sho had been avoiding Jun’s messages and repeated attempts to see him, he’d at least read what had come through from Nino and from Aiba. They’d both told him that Jun was putting his Garnet South plan into action no matter what Sho did - didn’t Sho owe it to Jun to at least be supportive? Understanding?

Sho was angry with the both of them. If they hadn’t invited Jun to Sobu Hall the other night, then he would have never had these stupid ideas in the first place. Sho would have learned that Pisces was lost, would have eventually come to terms with it, would have moved on with his life - especially now that he had something else to better occupy his time. But no, Jun had been there, Jun had heard everything. The person with more ambition and guts than anyone Sho had ever met.

Of course Jun would want to find a way. Of course Jun would start formulating a plan to make it happen. Sho was a realist, but the person he’d fallen so hard for had always been a dreamer.

He shut off the vault lights, locked up for the night. Masuda was at security, watching the feeds as Sho went to his office, grabbing his suit jacket. He held it in his arms, making his way out to the main gallery. There were cleaning staff in here buffing the floors, and he inclined his head apologetically, knowing they’d have to do it again now that he’d come stomping through. He came to a stop in front of one of the display cases, one he’d shown Jun weeks ago on their tour. He remembered Jun’s thoughtful questions, the way he paid close attention.

“Items From a Forgotten Land,” read the card affixed to the glass, the words written by his grandfather and updated by Sho himself over the years, noting that the individual items in the case had all come from trades with Garnet South more than eight centuries ago. He saw the four gemstones to the left side, the smaller card inside the case beside them noting how unique they were. Those four blue topaz gems together would only be half the size of the gem the man from the south had worn around his neck, taunting them intentionally with it.

He remembered standing here with Jun, describing each item. Soon enough their conversation had drifted to Garnet South, to the things Sho already knew and the things Jun had learned in his work. Sho hadn’t known at the time that Jun couldn’t fly the way he’d done before, and when they’d discussed the prototype ship then, Sho had seen how desperately Jun wanted to be the one to test it out, head south.

And, his brain reminded him, you said you’d go with him. In a heartbeat.

He shut his eyes, the sight of the blue topaz stones seared into his mind.

“Damn it, Jun,” he muttered, turning on his heel and leaving the gallery behind.

Sho tugged his jacket on, Masuda getting to his feet as he came close. “I was just about to go out there, Sho-kun,” Masuda explained, gesturing to one of his security cam feeds. “An aircab just arrived, and it looks like Matsumoto-san came back again.”

He shook his head, waving Masuda away. “It’s alright, I’ll handle it this time, Massu. Thanks.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah,” Sho admitted. “I’m sure. Have a good night.”

“You too, boss.”

He headed out into the night, seeing that Jun had stopped at the bottom of the museum steps, looking a little surprised that Sho had emerged from the building just in time for him to arrive. One of the streetlights was angled directly at the Garnetian Museum steps for safety purposes, illuminating Jun in its glow.

Sho had missed him these last few days. He’d missed him so much it ached.

He headed down, staying a step up from Jun and looking down at him once he got close. “We’re closed for the night,” Sho said quietly. “No more visitors.”

“I see,” Jun replied, and Sho noticed even in the streetlight that Jun looked exhausted, his hair a tangled mess, a few days of stubble peppering his upper lip and chin. Where he usually was dressed like he had somewhere important or fashionable to be, he’d come to Sho now in only a wool coat and jeans, the same horn-rimmed specs he’d worn to the museum last time. While Sho had hidden himself in the vault for most of the week, Jun had clearly been working on his plan for Garnet South.

“You haven’t been sleeping,” Sho chided him, wanting to move a messy strand of Jun’s hair away from his eyes. Wanting to touch him again. The curve of his jaw, the broad planes of his shoulders and back, the softness of his mouth.

“Been busy,” came the response.

“I imagine so.”

Jun’s eyes were tired, but honest. “I’m sorry.” Sho didn’t interrupt him, letting him say what he wanted. “I’m sorry about the other night. I can’t help the way I’m wired. I’ve always looked for the next challenge, the next trouble I could get into. You were right when you said I was doing this for me. A lot of this is about what I can do, what I might be able to achieve. It’s selfish, like most things I get mixed up in, and I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry, but you have no intention of stopping, right? You’re not going to give up now that you’ve got the goal of Garnet South in your head, no matter what I say?”

Jun’s smile was sad. “No, I won’t.”

“Okay,” Sho said, taking hold of the handrail beside him to support him through the next question he’d decided to ask. “How many people can fit on that prototype ship of yours?”

“They’re exploratory ships,” Jun said, “bigger than an aircab but not on the scale of a skyliner. Built for a small crew of science nerds and their pilot and…why do you care? Are you going to have your private detectives smuggle themselves aboard to ensure I behave myself?”

“No,” Sho decided. “I wanted to know if there’d be enough room for me.”

It took a moment for Jun to react, standing there, staring up at him with confusion in his tired eyes. “What do you mean?”

“It means that if you’re flying to Garnet South to look for this stupid boat, you aren’t flying there alone.” Sho took a breath. “I’m going with you.”

Jun shook his head. “No…no way…”

“Why?” Sho asked, leaning down a little, into Jun’s space. “Because it’s too dangerous and you’re worried about me?”

Jun opened his mouth and quickly closed it.

“You’d be a hypocrite now if you used that as your argument,” Sho informed him. “I’m sick to my stomach at the thought of you taking this on, knowing you might leave and never come back. So I’ve decided that I simply won’t let you do that. This is not a negotiation. I know that you planned the Ship Graveyard excursion with my safety as your top priority, so I know that if I’m on board that prototype ship with you as your passenger, we won’t leave Torenomachi unless you’re absolutely certain it’s flight ready. We won’t leave unless you’re absolutely certain we’re coming back.”

“Sho, I can’t let you…”

“If I fly with you, I’ll know you’re doing everything in your power to keep me safe.” He gave Jun a poke in the arm. “It’s the only guarantee I can possibly have that you’ll be safe too.”

Jun stared up at him, looking slightly ill. “Do you realize what you’re agreeing to?”

“I’ll have time to regret it later. But right now, in this moment, I refuse to let you take this on alone. I’d never forgive myself.”

Jun looked down, shrinking inward a bit at Sho’s ultimatum. “Okay. Okay, I’ll figure this out. It’s going to take a few weeks yet, I’ve got a lot of plates spinning here…”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Jun’s laugh was soft, defeated. “Change your mind.”

He grinned in reply. “Not a chance.” Jun moved his hand, resting it on top of Sho’s on the rail. Sho twined their fingers together, squeezing tight. “Come home with me.”

Jun nodded, letting him go. Ueda was leaning against the aircab when they approached, quickly tossing away his cigarillo and standing up straight. Sho was impressed by how well his driver hid his obvious distaste for his companion.

“Back to Tower Zero, Ueda-kun.”

They sat quietly on the short flight from the museum to his building’s garage, Sho’s mind whirring with the decision he’d made. They might leave and find no trace of the fishing boat, no trace of Pisces. They might leave and no matter how hard Jun worked to get the prototype ship ready for their journey, they might still crash into the ocean and drown. Unlike Jun’s Night and Day race, as illegal as that was, he had people who knew where he’d gone, people who were able to rescue him and save his life. The only two people who would know where he and Jun had gone would be Nino and Aiba, who had no way of mounting any rescue attempts.

The two of them would go it alone, no matter the consequences.

Ueda didn’t need to be told that his services wouldn’t be needed until much, much later the following day, leaving them in the parking garage. Sho barely got his apartment door closed before Jun was there in the genkan embracing him, clinging to him tightly, desperately, the movement so fast it almost knocked the wind out of him. Jun sagged in his arms, leaving Sho to wonder how he’d somehow made it into an aircab and to the museum at all that night, given how tired he was.

“You should rest,” Sho told him, rubbing slow circles on his back, knowing that Jun was crying in what was likely a mixture of fear and relief. Jun really didn’t want him to come with, didn’t want to put Sho in any danger, but he was clearly grateful he wouldn’t be undertaking this mission alone. “Come on, you’re going to need a lot of rest to plan all of this nonsense properly.”

He helped Jun out of his coat, hanging it up in the closet, leaving their shoes behind in the genkan. They moved slowly to his room, Sho’s arm around him, feeling Jun shaking in exhaustion, emotions exposed. He all but pushed Jun into his bathroom, running a hot bath for him, letting Jun slowly ease out of his clothes and into the water. Sho changed into a comfortable pair of pajamas and then sat down right beside the tub, unwilling to leave him, watching Jun lean back and shut his eyes.

They sat like that for a while, Sho resting an arm against the tub, watching him. Jun finally taking a break after what had to have been non-stop obsessive planning for nearly a week. “I don’t think I deserve you,” Jun eventually said, opening his eyes and looking at him.

“Ssh, don’t say things like that,” Sho chided him.

He helped Jun out of the tub, letting him dry off and change into a spare set of his pajamas. Sho turned off the lights once Jun told him it was alright to do so. Jun got into bed beside him, Sho feeling him move to his side of the mattress just as he’d done during his last visit. Monopolizing the space, stealing part of Sho’s territory and claiming it for himself. Sho didn’t mind, heart clenching the slightest bit as he felt Jun turn, put his back to him. Letting Sho come up behind him, wrap an arm around his middle, feeling Jun’s hand come up to secure it there against him.

“I’m sorry,” Jun said again.

“Those words sound so odd coming from someone like you,” Sho gently teased him.

“They sound odd to me, too,” Jun admitted. “I’m not usually the apologizing kind.”

“We can order in breakfast in the morning. But for now you should sleep.”

Jun moved around a lot in his sleep, he had the last time as well, but Sho didn’t mind, enjoying the change. Someone a bit annoying was sharing his bed, but after so long in an empty bed, he welcomed it.

He woke first, finding Jun had moved to the other side, sprawling across every bit of the mattress he could, sheets tucked both on top of and around him. Sho got up and had a shower, but changed back into lounging clothes, calling ahead to the museum and saying he wasn’t coming in. Jun was still sleeping like a rock when he came back in, had gone ahead and claimed the entire bed for himself in Sho’s absence. Sho decided to leave him alone, busying himself with other things. Cleaning the bathroom, putting his and Jun’s clothes from the day before in the wash, looking through his photographs from the Ship Graveyard again. Remembering how much it had meant to him. Not just seeing history up close, but seeing it with Jun by his side. Jun who’d worked so hard to make the impossible possible for him.

He eventually heard his toilet flush, heard the shower go on. He brought in a change of clothes along with a spare razor and toothbrush for Jun, leaving them on the sink counter. By the time Jun emerged, looking much better than he had the night before, Sho had already picked up breakfast from one of the restaurants on the ground floor of his building, was setting out rice, fish, and tamagoyaki for them.

Jun murmured a good morning, joining him at the small table in his kitchen. Sho watched him closely, seeing him devour his food. It looked like in addition to not sleeping, he hadn’t made much time the last few days to eat properly either, so focused had he been on Garnet South.

Jun finally realized the time as they wrapped up their meal, panicking when he noticed the clock read 10:43 AM. “It’s so fucking dark outside I didn’t even realize…”

“It’s okay,” Sho told him. “I don’t have to go anywhere today.”

“Thanks,” Jun said quietly. “Really.”

“You need to take better care of yourself. We don’t need to rush into this.”

“I get tunnel vision when I’m prepping for something big. I was like this with races, back then,” Jun admitted. “I just want everything to be right. I neglect everything but my goal.”

“Well, as your co-pilot, I’m simply not going to allow that,” he said.

“I’m not letting you fly it.”

He waved his hand, laughing. “It sounds better to me than passenger, so deal with it.”

Jun offered him a half-hearted scowl, getting up, insisting on being the one to clean up their dirty dishes. Sho stayed at the table, watching Jun’s back as he cleaned up. He found himself wanting this, wanting Jun here with him, as often as he was willing to be. Sho selfishly wished he could wake up like this every day, but that seemed so impossible, forcing Jun to live here in the dark with him forever.

He decided to appreciate it while he had it, getting up when Jun finished drying the plates, turning just as Sho approached. Ready and happy to accept Sho pressing him back gently against the counter, hands coming up to find his face as Sho leaned in to kiss him. They stayed there in the kitchen a while, kissing lazily, Sho wishing they could prolong this for much, much longer. Eventually they’d go back to their respective workplaces, and Jun would dive back in, lose himself in all of the details until he surfaced again. The plan had likely been insane enough before the added complication of Sho coming along. But Sho knew Jun wouldn’t be able to cut corners now, would have to put their safety first.

Sho eventually broke their kiss, reaching between them to palm Jun through the soft pajama bottoms he’d lent him. Jun let out a soft and all too encouraging moan, and so Sho gave in to impulse, sliding down to his knees, freeing Jun’s erection from the confines of the pajamas and boxers he was wearing, tossing them out of the way. Sho found Jun’s hand, bringing it to the back of his head, letting Jun decide exactly how fast he wanted Sho to go. Letting Jun decide if he wanted Sho to do the work all by himself or demand even more. Sho listened to Jun’s quiet sighs of contentment, feeling Jun’s nails scratch his scalp, fingers tightening in his hair as Sho took his time, took in as much of him as he could manage, took Jun to the back of his throat.

He brought Jun almost over the edge, but Jun stopped him before he could, a hand between them. “Can I take you here?” Jun asked in a shaky voice. “Can I take you right here?”

Sho nodded, liking that idea very very much, getting to his feet, running his hands up along Jun’s body as he did so. “I’ll be right back,” he said, moving to get what he needed from his bedroom and returning.

Jun had another request, more an order when Sho came back. “Touch yourself.”

Sho liked that idea too, letting Jun help him out of his shirt, out of the rest of his clothes. He turned, bracing himself with one arm to the countertop, the other wrapping around his cock and stroking slowly. He could feel Jun watching him, feeling rather exposed, hips and ass back as he jerked off. Eventually Jun came closer, sending goosebumps up and down Sho’s arms, up and down most of his body as he teased his fingers up and down Sho’s spine, down from his shoulder blades, down his back, squeezing his ass.

He tried not to think about Jun’s injuries, hoping this position and angle wouldn’t hurt him too much. He felt Jun reach for the lubricant, shutting his eyes and groaning softly as Jun started to touch him, felt the cool wetness of the lubricant against his ass. Jun stroked him, slow at first but gradually quickening his pace, moving his finger within him as Sho touched himself. His arm on the counter shook a little as Jun worked another finger into him, his movements slow again until Sho adjusted around him.

“Faster,” Sho eventually told him. “Please…”

He got a little more than he bargained for, Jun gently but firmly changing the angle, driving his fingers in deeper, harder, turning up the intensity in a way that had Sho begging him for more, barely able to keep up, getting so close, so close, so close. He found himself pushing back against Jun’s hand, needing it, needing him, not caring how ridiculous he probably looked, standing there in his kitchen. He could feel Jun’s palm bumping against him, pushing back against it, back against it until he couldn’t hold out any longer. He came as much into his own hand as he could, knowing some had hit the kitchen drawers, some was on the floor.

Sho felt Jun withdraw, soon finding a kitchen towel pressed against the hand still shaking, grasping his cock. He was breathing heavily, feeling overwhelmed and yet finding that to be just perfect. He registered the sound of the condom packet opening, feeling Jun come close again just as he was finding the energy to clean himself. Sho let the towel drop instead, bracing himself with both arms against the counter now, feeling Jun’s hands on him, rubbing his palms up and down Sho’s arms, sliding down his sides and making him jerk a little at the ticklish feeling.

He could feel Jun position himself, moaning his name as soon as he felt his hard cock slowly push inside. It wasn’t slow like it had been when it was just Jun’s fingers. He’d had to stand there a while, listening to Sho beg for it, beg for him. He’d had to stand there and watch Sho come already, so he was clearly not able to control himself. It felt so good, feeling Jun sink into him again and again, hearing the rough smack of Jun’s body colliding with his own, the crude, slick sound of Jun’s cock filling him and pulling back.

Jun’s hands were at his sides, near the base of his spine, holding him steady. God, it felt so good, letting Jun take him like this, feeling his desperation, feeling the strength in him, the adrenaline pushing him forward. He could tell Jun was close, almost there, when one of his hands moved, away from Sho’s hip and up higher, tightening at his shoulder and pulling all of Sho back against his cock. Sho cried out wordlessly, unable to keep it in, hoping that his neighbor across the hall wasn’t home as he felt Jun hit him just right. That was all Jun needed to hear, Sho’s desperate, needy cries soon joined by his own. Jun’s hips slowed, both of their bodies trembling from the intensity of what they’d just done. It almost ached to feel Jun leave him, ached even more when Jun pulled him back up, flush against his body. Jun turned Sho’s head, desperate to kiss him, Sho smiling into it anyhow, no matter how sloppy the attempt.

“I know I haven’t been awake very long,” Jun eventually admitted to him, still unable to keep his hands away, “but fuck do I need a nap.”

Sho found himself in agreement, knowing they’d both be sore later if they didn’t rest. They managed to shower separately, lest they truly exhaust themselves, and tumbled together back into Sho’s bed. He lay there, looking at Jun across from him, a little embarrassed to be face to face again after what they’d done. It was silly to think and would be even sillier to say, but he wanted to be embarrassed like this again and again, to come together like that with Jun until one of them had to give in. From the pink in Jun’s cheeks as their eyes met, Sho suspected he felt the same.

“I’m going to keep you safe,” Jun whispered, just when Sho was about to fall asleep.

Sho batted at him gently, grumbling at the interruption. “I know that already, take your damn nap…”

He felt Jun’s fingers softly brush through his hair, heard the hesitation in his voice when he spoke again.

“Thank you,” came the words Sho was barely able to hear. “For giving me a reason to look forward again. And not just back.”

He didn’t know what to say, not in response to something like that, so instead he reached between them and found Jun’s hand, brushing a kiss to his knuckles as he gradually drifted off.

///

He’d had no choice but to loop his father in, if only to ensure that no leaks got out from R&D. He’d hidden the Ship Graveyard trip, had just thrown money around the way he always had in order to get results. But he couldn’t do it this time. There were too many things that could go wrong if Matsumoto Air Company didn’t know. Jun couldn’t just take a prototype from the aerodrome without people noticing.

His father had been livid, just as Jun had anticipated, refusing to sanction an off-the-books research mission, or so Jun had called it in his proposal. He’d spent three weeks on the proposal alone, itemizing everything he needed installed in the prototype. Top of the line instruments, the still-in-development camouflaging paint that would make the hull a little harder to spot. Jun had gone over every budget, every presentation the various groups had delivered to him since his arrival in Torenomachi. All of their pipe dreams. He’d picked from as many of them as he could, justifying the reasons for their inclusion.

Everyone in R&D who had the opportunity for one of their pieces of software or hardware to participate had backed Jun fully, something he had been counting on. Instead of the indifference they’d shown him upon his arrival in Torenomachi, they now clamored to meet with him, knowing he wanted to take one of the prototypes out, take it south. They’d flooded him and even headquarters with their requests, their hopes that Jun’s test flight would bring back valuable data that the company could use for future research. Not just research on Garnet South, but research that could be applied to other areas of development.

Jun had framed it all as a research opportunity, and it was truthful enough. He could have kissed Mizukawa in Covert Ops when she’d submitted her letter of support. She had one of the biggest budgets in the company. “If we don’t allow this mission to proceed,” she’d written, “we are at extreme risk of losing our competitive advantage.”

Did he explain that the ultimate goal was to see if they could retrieve a worthless coin? Did he explain that the person accompanying him on the test flight was not really an investor from Sobu Trading Incorporated, but his boyfriend? No, obviously not, although he was certain that family spies knew he wasn’t spending much time at the Sumire Hotel these last few weeks. He was certain they knew exactly who Sho was and the sort of relationship they had. He didn’t really care. The research he’d do in flying there and back was explanation enough. He’d used the information Nino and Aiba had provided to bolster his arguments, had spun it as an opportunity for discovery. He’d shown the pictures of the fishing boat, sailing south. Nino and Aiba had even coordinated interviews with people on the other boats that had seen the mysterious man out on the water, people with no reason to lie.

But still, his father was refusing, not wanting to put their government contracts at risk. One lousy fishing boat wasn’t enough to go on, he’d argued with Jun. And so Jun had been left with no choice but to go over his head and go to his uncle with the proposal instead. He’d presented it all, every detail, every contingency. His uncle, who’d refused to let anyone go south for decades now, asked him the question his father hadn’t even considered.

“If we fund this mission and let it proceed, you promise you’ll come back and head up Racing like we’ve discussed?” his uncle asked, speaking to him over video. “Is that the ultimatum here? That you’ll refuse otherwise, stay in Torenomachi unless we drag you back kicking and screaming?”

Jun felt his heart breaking as he nodded. “That’s the ultimatum, sir.”

This was the part he hadn’t told Sho. He’d told him everything, hashing out the entire plan with him, everything except this. Jun was pouring his blood, sweat, and tears into seeing this mission through. One last time together, him and Sho, flying off on a final adventure. Jun’s last chance to make him happy.

They’d locate the fishing boat or they wouldn’t. They’d find a way to land and find the mysterious man or they wouldn’t. They’d get the Pisces coin or they wouldn’t. Either way, the mission ended with them returning to Torenomachi together safely.

And then Jun would have to leave him behind, return to Orunitia.

His uncle could have hired anyone else, surely, hand picked any number of experts or loyal employees. But he knew deep down that if he really wanted Racing to succeed, really wanted the government money to come pouring in, then he had no choice but to ensure that Jun was the one in charge of it. They’d ended their call without a final answer, but it came through a few days later. Budget approvals and non-disclosure agreements from the company attorneys. The mission was a go, and his uncle had accepted Jun’s terms.

Everything moved quickly from there.

Sho had entrusted Nino and Aiba with the knowledge of where he’d gone, to be the ones to have to notify his family in case something went wrong. Otherwise, the only other people who knew the mission was proceeding already worked for Matsumoto Air Company. Jun worked hard all day, overseeing the progress of the mission, before returning to Tower Zero, just in time for Sho to have wrapped up his own work for the day.

The guilt ate at him slowly, hour after hour, as they shared meals and Jun updated Sho on the progress made that day. Knowing he was keeping this from him, not wanting to shatter the happiness he’d found with him these last few weeks. They’d talk together, relax together, sleep together. Sho kept him sane, holding him as they drifted to sleep, telling him this would all work out because he trusted him. Believed in him.

They lived a shared life that Jun had only dreamed of having with someone, but each day together brought Jun one day closer to having to leave him. Sho never spoke of what might happen after, what their future would be. He wondered how well he’d kept it hidden from Sho, the dread in his belly, the knowledge that when this was over, he’d have to return to Orunitia. But Sho was too busy looking for different signs of stress in him, looking for signs he was pushing himself too hard with Garnet South, not knowing there was some other thing eating him up inside.

The flightpaths were planned and simulated up until the point where they had no navigation data. Jun would have to play it by ear from there. The installations on the prototype continued one after another until finally it was done, and they were only a day out. They’d made adjustments to the Supersonic, had built a new airlock and docking mechanism onto the bottom of her. The prototype could be detached and then re-dock, the skyliner taking them out to a safe spot over the ocean where Jun would then take over, departing the Supersonic to complete the next leg of the journey. It would save fuel that way, since it would be nearly twelve hours from Torenomachi to their actual departure point.

They’d trained the scanners to look for the mysterious boat, long-range scans that would send out pings for something that matched the boat’s description. Jun had initially requested three days to conduct experiments and investigate, which could be done thanks to the brand new fuel injectors he’d had installed. Since he had no idea about the search for the Pisces coin, his uncle had instead given him half that time. If Jun didn’t re-dock with the Supersonic or at least notify them he was en route within thirty-six hours, they’d consider the prototype lost. It would be a tight window, but he was up to the challenge.

Instead of one last night at Tower Zero, Jun decided to stay at the aerodrome, inside the prototype conducting tests until he was satisfied. He was in the cockpit for hours with his R&D leads, since not everyone was entitled to know about the mission officially, although he knew it was the talk of the company at the moment. If Jun was able to confirm there was life at Garnet South, that would have consequences. The company would have a duty to report it to the shogunate, who would then act or not act on it. Of course Jun had every intention of pushing the mission beyond the parameters he’d set in the proposal, determined to not just find the fishing boat that had been lying in wait in Buranbaru, but to land nearby and seek out its owner. Act first, apologize later.

Eventually he couldn’t run any additional double or triple checks without keeping his people late so he dismissed everyone, locking things down tight and making his way to the new airlock, climbing up the ladder slowly and emerging in the Supersonic’s cargo hold. He wasn’t surprised to see Sho was there, had probably been there a while. He’d slumped down, sitting on the floor with his back against a crate, waiting for him.

Jun walked over, upset he had to wake him, but knowing this might be their final night. He didn’t want to think of it that way, because he’d been more obsessed with safety protocols, abort codes, and emergency landing scenarios than he’d been with any other component parts. He’d promised Sho they’d make it back together, and Jun would not let him down. At least not without trying every option available to him. No matter how much he’d prepared, Garnet South’s tech might still be too strong, but ideally they’d figure that out sooner rather than later, with plenty of time to back off and return safely.

He prodded Sho with his shoe, seeing him startle awake, looking alarmed at where he’d found himself. “I need my co-pilot to get a full night’s sleep,” he said softly, holding out a hand.

Sho took it, letting Jun pull him to his feet. He met Jun’s eyes, staring at him with admiration, with hope. Sho was a practical guy, Jun had learned that a while ago now, but as the mission planning had progressed, Jun knew that he’d started to believe, even if just the slightest bit. Sho likely believed it was only a one percent possibility, that they’d be flying home in less than two days with Pisces in their possession, but one percent was higher than zero.

“Everything look okay?”

“I’ve been over every inch of the hull the last few days, every panel, every instrument. She’s as ready as she’s ever going to get.”

Sho let him go. “Are there any pre-flight rituals I should know about? Do you pray or meditate or something?”

“Usually,” he said, keeping his voice light, “I distract myself entirely by picking someone up at a bar and letting them fuck all the anxiety out of me.” The immediate flash of jealousy in Sho’s eyes, the flare of his nostrils, made Jun crack up. “That was a joke, Sho-san…”

“I was asking you seriously…”

“And I love that about you,” Jun reassured him, limping a little as they headed for the exit together, to go up to the mid-deck and turn in for the night. He’d been sitting in the cockpit a while, seeing how long he could sit in front of the controls on his own before he’d have to give up and take a break. He’d have to go the entire flight without his usual painkillers, having to take something weaker since they wouldn’t make him drowsy. “What I really do the night before, honestly, is just sleep.”

They’d probably still be asleep when the Supersonic took off from the aerodrome. He’d wanted to hire Taka’s crew to get them there, but instead his uncle had refused to allow a third party access to Matsumoto Air tech. Jun had at least been allowed to vet the crew, choosing people he’d known in the Test Corps or the kohai they recommended. There’d be no time to get up and admire the dusk barrier as they crossed over this time, no scenic approaches, no slowdowns. Once Jun was awake he’d be back in the prototype, running his final checks until they reached the departure point.

He’d had guest quarters prepared for Sho, but wasn’t surprised when he followed him into his own master suite instead. He wasn’t sure how he was going to readjust once he was back in Orunitia, not having Sho’s obnoxious snoring to soothe him back to sleep when he grew restless in the middle of the night. No longer waking to find Sho standing in his bathroom doorway, trying to brush his teeth quietly, watching Jun with that dopey, adoring smile on his face. No longer having dinner at that small table in Sho’s kitchen, listening to the stories Sho told him about items in the museum’s vault Jun hadn’t seen yet, the people who’d come for tours that day, that asshole donor that wanted to hold a party celebrating his divorce in the main gallery.

For a while, Jun supposed he might still be able to hear those stories over video, stay up late on his side of the world so a Sho who was already awake the next morning in Torenomachi might wish him a good night. How often would Jun be able to get away from work, fly out for a day here, a weekend there? It wasn’t like Sho could come to him. They’d never be able to sustain that.

Apparently his sad thoughts were showing on his face, Sho leaning in to rest a hand on his shoulder.

“Did you want to sleep alone instead? I…well, I know that I snore so…”

He wouldn’t cry, he wouldn’t, so he simply leaned in, wrapping his arms around Sho and hugging him close. Jun thought about Sho, the first time they’d met. Those ridiculous red pants, their walk together through the Sobu Hall gardens. The horrified, offended look on Sho’s face when Jun outbid him. He never could have imagined they’d end up here, like this. He never could have imagined that Sho would become his lifeline, the one to pull him out of the misery and listlessness of his last year. The one to argue with him, believe in him, maybe even love him, even when his impulsive decisions made supporting him so frustrating.

Sho kissed him gently. “Come on, then.”

After all these weeks planning, all the time he’d spent ensuring he’d done everything he could, Jun was grateful to rest, not even waking until he felt Sho slip out of bed beside him, drawing the blackout curtains they’d forgotten to close once the Starside light started to creep in. They showered, dressed, ate, taking advantage of the Supersonic’s luxuries before descending together with their bags into the prototype ship, Sho on the ladder sealing the airlock as Jun had taught him, if only because Sho had more strength in his legs to balance.

The prototype ship wasn’t much more than a cockpit with science workstations, a few sets of bunk beds, a small washroom, and the engine room. But for the next few dozen hours, it was their home base, and Jun conducted his final checks now that they were sealed within, ensuring that every system was properly powered, that his readouts were telling him the truth. They were, he discovered, registering them on Starside, over the vast ocean that covered much of the southern half of this side of the planet.

Even though the cockpit glass had been properly treated, he turned back, gesturing to Sho’s bag. “Get your specs on.”

Sho didn’t protest, letting out a jokingly obedient “Yes, Captain” as he located the tinted lenses and wore them as he had the last time they’d flown together on Starside. Once he’d looked the entire ship over, he eased himself into the pilot’s chair, Sho sitting down and strapping in to the seat at the closest workstation behind him.

“We’re about ten minutes out,” came the voice of the Supersonic’s current pilot. “Prepare for final approach.”

“Acknowledged,” Jun replied. “All systems are a go for departure.” Sho stayed quiet, letting him work.

Jun could feel the Supersonic begin to slow, descending from her cruising altitude. The Supersonic would maintain position once they left, circling the area slowly, awaiting their return. He communicated with the pilot once the ship had slowed enough that the separation was now possible.

“Sobu Liner ready to disengage,” he announced, receiving the go ahead. It really sunk in once he saw the green all-clears showing on the various panels before him. It was time. For the first time in over a year, Jun would have an airship entirely under his own control, the yoke in hand, the horizon before him. There was a slight screeching of metal, an anticipated annoyance, as the prototype ship fully separated from the Supersonic. “Sobu Liner away.”

“We read you, Sobu Liner. Safe journey to you.”

He gently pushed the thrust lever forward, picking up speed once they were safely clear of the Supersonic. There wasn’t much time to celebrate, to enjoy the sheer freedom of flying yet, not when he had so many things to check once they were in motion. Everything was working as anticipated, the various scanners already engaged, other systems and components activating, everything being recorded to benefit the scientists and engineers who’d use the data moving forward.

It was nearly an hour before Jun was able to slightly relax, confirming everything he needed to, verifying they were on course. He needed to get up, not just for the sake of his leg but also to run the first test of the automated guidance system to ensure it would keep on the path he’d programmed into it, to ensure the notification alarm would go off if the ship drifted even a few meters off the course Jun had spent days plotting. Now that they were in uncharted territory, he’d only had history to guide him. The records from Matsumoto Air Company’s prior attempts to chart the region had been more limited than he’d anticipated. Fortunately he knew someone with access to old textbooks and maps, so with Sho’s help, he had scoured everything in the Garnetian Museum’s vault that could give him clues about the best route to take into the largely unknown skies.

They’d run mostly on auto until they reached the point where Matsumoto airships had gone missing before, their locations not so far from where some of the invasion fleets the Empire had sent out to sea centuries earlier had been lost. Once they reached those areas, Jun would take control once more. They’d reduce speed dramatically, running scans, flying largely in a holding pattern until the readouts implied it was safe to proceed another few miles in the continent’s direction. All they could do was inch forward, see if they got any pings for the fishing boat, got any sense of the route they might navigate toward land.

Once he ensured the guidance system was operating normally he got up, breathing through the throb in his leg. When he turned, holding on to the back of his pilot’s chair, Sho was sitting there with an odd grin on his face.

“What? What happened?” he asked.

Sho sighed. “The Sobu Liner?”

“Ah,” Jun said with a quiet laugh. “The company doesn’t usually give prototypes real names, just numbers tagged to their respective research projects. When I told Ninomiya-san and Aiba-san, they found that to be unacceptable.”

“You could have named it anything else,” Sho complained, though Jun knew he liked it anyway, the connection to his lifelong friends.

He leaned down, getting into Sho’s space. “Like what? The Sakurai? That’s a terrible name for an airship.”

“Do you know how difficult it is sitting behind you, watching you fly?”

Jun smiled. “Got a thing for pilots now?”

“Maybe.”

Jun moved a hand over, undoing the safety belt keeping Sho in place. He was up soon enough, removing his tinted specs to kiss him, unable to keep his enthusiasm to himself. Jun could only allow it for a short time, returning every kiss as long and hard as he could even as he listened for any sounds of trouble. Sho stopped first, stepping back and laughing.

“Sorry,” he said, waving his hand apologetically, diligently returning the spectacles to his face. “Sorry, I just…I don’t know. I like seeing you in your element, seeing how different you look.”

“Is it that dramatic a shift?” Jun asked, already missing Sho’s closeness.

“It’s that dramatic a shift,” Sho confirmed for him. “You seem…really happy. This is the most terrifying thing I’ve done since, well, since you brought me to Starside the last time. You don’t seem scared at all. I’m happy for you, truly.”

He nodded, blushing a little. “Well, I love to fly. I told you that…”

“Hearing it is one thing,” Sho said. “Seeing it is another. Well. You gave me homework to do, so I’ll review the stations back here, ensure everything’s running the tests they should be. If there’s anything else I can do to help, let me know.”

Jun continued to monitor the guidance systems, joining Sho in the checks of the other systems, checking the engine readouts as the engineers had taught him, the level of sophistication beyond any type of training Jun had needed to fly a prototype before. He felt better doing it, going a step beyond with every system, every component.

Eventually they reached the dead point, a few miles out from where the last test flights had been lost, the last point where a signal had been sent out. Jun took control again, easing back into the pilot’s seat and slowing them down. He was used to his craving for speed, but he refused to let that desire take hold of him now. Instead he checked the pressure gauges, the readouts that told him how the air currents were impacting the hull. So far it had been a smooth flight. Probably not as smooth as Sho might have been accustomed to, but smoother than Jun had experienced when he was younger, pushing airships to their limits. Today, however, they wouldn’t push any limits. They could only proceed forward with absolute caution.

The Sobu Liner spent the next few hours creeping forward, as soon as the readouts told him there was no change in pressure, nothing in the air that signaled that there was any interference ahead. He had his hands on the controls almost the entire time, not able to do much more than stretch a little, lift his ass out of the seat and flex his leg before sitting back down. Sho continued monitoring the screens behind him, keeping him updated. He’d willingly attended a week of training to understand the basics of what he was looking at, and as expected, he’d been a quick study. As Jun slowly moved them forward, Sho kept calling out what he was seeing. Nothing abnormal on his end.

They passed the six hour mark.

Then the eight hour mark.

Jun backed the ship off once they hit eight hours, reversing course if only to put on the auto-guidance for a few minutes, getting up and relieving himself, taking the solitary pain pill he could afford to. Sho handed him onigiri as he passed, forcing him to eat once he was back behind the controls. He ate slowly, scanning daylight and cloud cover ahead. There’d been nothing to see for hours, flying across the ocean, but by the time he was finished with his food, the long-range scanners were picking up a landmass only fifty miles away. The southern continent…they’d found it.

“Sho, get back to your seat and strap in.”

He couldn’t afford to look back behind him, only listening for the click of Sho’s safety belt, his verbal acknowledgment following soon after.

He slowed them down to a crawl. No ship, by sea or by air, had come this close. Not in centuries. He brought them down from the clouds, feeling his ears pop. He could see it in the distance now that they’d decreased in altitude, could see low mountains, greenery, finally something that wasn’t cloud cover or endless ocean.

“Land ahead,” he announced. “I’m going to change course, now that it’s in visual range. We’re going to stay back at least twenty miles, see if we can circle around, pick up any trace of that fishing boat before we get any closer than we already are.”

He opted for a counter-clockwise approach, keeping the landmass to his left as he adjusted their route. He took it nice and slow, refusing to let his mind wander. The ship’s mapping software was updating while they moved, filling in the coastline, Sho informed him, only able to look at the monitor in front of him and what it was tracking. “It’s not picking up any natural harbors so far,” Sho said.

“And I’m not seeing any myself yet,” Jun replied, scanning the horizon, keeping them steady.

The maps Sho had had in storage had barely given them a sense for how big the southern continent was, but as Jun kept them flying, keeping their distance from shore constant, he had a feeling it was far, far smaller than the northern continent where he’d grown up. Smaller than the landmasses of Nightside. Whoever had selected it as a landing site nearly a millennium earlier had definitely made things difficult for those first settlers. He hadn’t seen any flat fields so far, no wide open plains. Only low shorelines rising steeply, hills and mountains in the interior. But there was still plenty to map.

They’d been circling for an hour when he got a ping. The ping he’d been waiting for. The ping that meant they’d found a match for the fishing boat.

“Gotcha,” he muttered to himself, adjusting the scanner, concentrating it more fully in the direction of the signal he’d received. “Okay, let’s see where you’re hiding.”

As soon as he had the scanner engaged, watched it begin to triangulate the location closer to shore, one of his screens in front of him flickered suddenly, then another. Damn it.

“I’m backing off,” he announced, keeping the scanner on. “Nice and slow.” Not now, he thought. Not now that they’d finally managed to find it…

He eased them back anyway in accordance with safety protocols, away from the craggy shoreline, only for one flickering screen to go black, then the other.

“Fuel injector and turbine monitors out,” Jun said, flipping a few backup switches. “Moving to secondary systems…”

“Jun…” he heard Sho murmur, voice shaking.

He saw four more screens go black before him, green lights on his panels skipping right past yellow and straight to red. Even the yoke was growing stiffer in his grip. Okay, this wasn’t a random failure. This was intentional and happening way too fast. Something was messing with the engine, the electrical systems, the hydraulics too. All at the same time. There was no time to think too hard or second guess. He could only react, rely on his quick reflexes. “I’m going to take us back a little faster, okay, it might be a little rough in a moment…”

“All the monitors back here are starting to turn off too.”

“Acknowledged,” he said, pulling the thrust lever back for a full, hard reverse. Instead of moving backward, the ship suddenly dropped a few dozen meters instead. Shit, this wasn’t good. Jun steadied them as best he could, keeping them from rolling or dropping any more.

Sho’s breathing behind him was growing panicky. “Jun, please talk to me.”

“Control column’s not responding properly. Get your shoulder harness on now.”

“What’s wrong…what’s happening?”

“Is your shoulder harness on?” he asked, keeping his voice calm as he pulled his own on, tightening the straps. “Confirm that for me, would you?”

“It’s on, it’s on,” Sho said, and Jun could hear the clicks he desperately needed to hear, confirming Sho was secure. “Why aren’t we backing off?”

He took a deep breath, scanning his remaining readouts as they too started to flicker and die. Water was too risky, too much potential for sinking, so he turned them about and toward land. Toward the ping he’d received from the boat. Manual all the way in, he decided, going ahead and turning a few more things off before they went ahead and died on him anyhow. “I think we’ve been hit with some sort of disabling…mechanism.”

“And that means what exactly?”

He was going to get them back. He wasn’t sure how, not at the moment. There was too much to do, too much that required his absolute focus and concentration. First he’d get them through this, and then he would get them back home. This was a promise he refused to break.

“Jun, what does that mean?”

“I need you to brace yourself right now. Bend all the way forward with your head down, your hands on top of your head. Keep your elbows in, you need to make yourself small. Do that now and confirm that you have for me.”

He heard the whine of Sho’s shoulder harness as it stretched, allowing him to get into position. Sho’s response was directed at the floor of the ship. “I’m there, I’m doing it.”

“Good,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the horizon, only allowing a few quick glances back to the gauges he still had available, taking them down as much as the yoke allowed him, keeping them level. “On my signal, you’re going to first hear a pop. That means I’ve released the chute. That sound is a good sound. Once it’s fully deployed, we’re going to jolt back a bit from the force of it, but it’s going to help slow our approach. We’re going to be okay.”

He didn’t get a response.

“Sho,” he said. “We’re going to be okay. Say it.”

“We’re going to be okay.”

“I’m glad we’re in agreement,” he replied, looking for the most open spot ahead, taking her down. “Listen for the pop in five seconds.”

“Jun…”

“In three…two…one…”

///

.capricorn.
the goat

///

Sho had never been in an airship crash before, so he had no real point of comparison when they hit the ground, hull screeching at the impact but not breaking apart. The force of it knocked the tinted specs from his face, his body shaking but the harness holding firm as the Sobu Liner collided with what he presumed were tree branches and dirt, hearing them thump against the glass and hull as they skidded to a stop.

He was trembling as he removed his hands from his head, lifting the specs from the floor and slowly sitting up. One lens was missing when he set them back on, looking out the glass and seeing tall trees, nothing but brown and green, sparse sunlight pouring down between gaps in the canopy. He was alive, in one piece, a little shaken but no injuries he could spot or feel. So they were here now, Garnet South. They’d made it, although not in the way he and Jun had planned. Wait…Jun…

He wrestled with the shoulder harness, with the belt at his hips, stumbling out of the seat and moving forward. He said, nothing, seeing that Jun was there, none the worse for wear, was flipping some switches on and off, conducting some checks. It seemed like some of the screens that had gone dark in the air were flickering back to life now that they were here on the ground. “Jun,” he said, reaching out a hand and finding his shoulder. “Jun, are you okay?”

“So far I’ve confirmed we’re not leaking fuel, engine’s fully intact, and it looks like none of the data was lost. Just interrupted, but I need to run more checks.”

He wasn’t paying attention to Sho, not really, speaking to himself in his pilot language that Sho couldn’t translate. He was in some mechanical mode, started rambling about this system and that, running down his checklists.

Sho gave him a shake. “Jun, are you okay?” he repeated.

Jun finally looked over. “Yeah, I’m fine, this isn’t my first emergency landing on manual control. It’s probably my smoothest one, actually…”

“That is not what I’m asking you.”

“Oh.”

The magnitude of what had just happened finally seemed to catch up with him. From the moment the instrument panels had started acting up, he’d completely checked out from what Sho thought was normal reality, had switched over to crisis mode, his voice almost too clear, too calm. Obviously that ability to switch had kept them alive, gotten them to the ground as safely as possible, but soon enough he was going to realize how fucked they were.

He watched Jun rub his leg absent-mindedly, smiling weakly. “Yeah. Yeah, it looks like the bad leg’s still bad, but the good leg’s still good.”

“And the rest of you?”

He flipped a few more switches before disengaging his harness and safety belt, getting to his feet. Thankfully, he really did seem okay. “The rest of me needs you to move with me to the bunks and ensure our emergency packs aren’t damaged.”

Together they retrieved the two packs, the ones Sho had needed to be told about, but that he’d mostly put out of his mind as their planning had gone on. There was no way something like this could ever happen, they would take every precaution. If something messed with the prototype ship, they’d have enough time to back off and abort the mission. Instead something had happened in an instant. Nothing had rocked the ship, nothing had hit them. One moment they were proceeding so carefully, the next the ship was falling out of the sky. Without Jun’s quick thinking and calm, they’d have probably crashed into the ocean, would be on their way to becoming fish food at that very moment.

“I don’t think we’re going to make our thirty-six hour window now,” Sho said quietly as they unzipped the packs, ensured that the water, rations, and other supplies were intact.

“I found the fishing boat.”

Sho paused at that, looking over at him. “Seriously?”

“Yep,” Jun confirmed. “Right before everything went to shit. The scanners found it, small little inlet. Now I’m not the best estimator of distance or anything, at least not on the ground, but it should be about eight to ten miles…” He moved away from his pack, heading for the cockpit, gesturing out the glass to the right. “…that way.”

He sighed. “Did you purposefully ignore the part where I said we’re going to miss our window, and our friends and families are going to assume we’re dead?”

“We’ve still got a full day to work with,” Jun said, reaching into his pack and pulling out a spectacles case. “Here, you need new ones.”

He accepted them, switching out his broken specs for Jun’s reserve pair. “I’m guessing you have a plan? Head for the fishing boat? It’s pretty obvious the people here don’t want visitors, if they were able to take out the ship before we could even blink. And you’re suggesting we just walk over to them?”

“Yes, we’re going to just walk over to them,” Jun replied. “Should take a few hours, but that still gives us plenty of time to negotiate safe passage for us out of here.”

“Why would they be so generous? We’re the bad guys here, the invading northern forces here.”

“Sho,” Jun interrupted him, eyes serious. “I promised we’d get home together. I don’t like to break my promises.”

He looked down. “I think this situation is a little out of our control.”

“Our only option is to try and negotiate, simple as that,” Jun said. “Now, I need to back up the data we’ve gathered because we’re definitely not getting out of here in the Sobu Liner. By the time I finish that, your face, neck, and arms should be glistening and almost sparkling with the amount of sun blocking lotion you’ve put on.”

There was no room to argue. Sho had never been in a situation like this before. Neither had Jun, obviously, but they were still on Starside, still in the sunlight. It was best to let Jun take the lead on this for now.

It was several minutes before Jun decided he’d gleaned as much as he could from the various systems, though it appeared that a lot of the data had been corrupted, a job for his geniuses back at R&D to try and fix. He wrapped up the data drives he’d disconnected and rolled them up in a spare shirt, tucking them at the bottom of his pack. He let Jun head up the ladder first, staying back in case he needed any help. Jun, being Jun, ignored him entirely and puffed out his chest, climbing as quickly as he could manage. There was an external ladder as well, and slowly they made their way to the ground, packs in tow.

They were in a fairly dense forest. Sho could hear the hissing of insects, and the outside air was cool enough to justify putting on the light jacket in his pack. It wasn’t freezing, but it wasn’t anything close to the heat they’d faced near the Ship Graveyard. The southern continent lay below the planet’s equator. While Torenomachi experienced no real “seasons,” it was summer by now in Orunitia. Down here, winter had arrived but they weren’t far south enough for it to be unpleasant. Jun made some final inspections to the hull while Sho moved away, taking in what they’d managed to survive.

They’d cut clean through a gap in the trees, leaving a small trench in the dirt as they’d skidded across the forest floor. That Jun had managed to navigate the ship here despite all the technical issues he’d been faced with, Sho felt truly grateful. What he’d done had taken skill and precision, although they’d certainly made a mess of things once they’d hit the ground. There were likely broken off chunks of the ship along the way they’d come, but their march would take them away in the other direction, toward the fishing boat they’d come halfway around the world to find.

It was possible that no negotiating table was awaiting them once they reached it. It was possible that only punishment or even death might be around the corner, since the residents here had already seen fit to try and knock them out of the skies with their superior technology. Sho wasn’t sure what kind of negotiating Jun thought he’d be able to do with people this far beyond them. He doubted Jun would be able to get away with an offer of money. They didn’t appear to have anything to bargain with, no good excuse to argue for both the ability to leave this place and to get back to where the Supersonic would be waiting for them. It all just seemed so impossible. Sho had no idea where Jun’s confidence was coming from. Perhaps the second near-death experience he’d faced in a year had made him stronger this time around.

Jun hadn’t brought his cane along from the Supersonic, and he was probably regretting it now, having to negotiate carefully around larger rocks, over fallen tree branches. The march was slow-going, Jun leading the way in the direction he and his compass seemed to believe were correct. Sho could only drink water, try not to think too hard about what he was experiencing. Nobody from the north (including their Nightside descendants) had set foot on this continent since the days before the Empire, the days before Watanabe Kuja had started to conquer all the northern settlements in hopes of building his power. This was something Sho might have only dreamed about before, finding out what had really happened to the people and settlements of Garnet South. But this experience wouldn’t matter in the long run if they were stuck here. Or killed here.

The land itself seemed suitable for supporting life. The constant sunlight, the temperatures. Sho had heard birds flying overhead as well, indicating there was at least something in the way of animal life aside from the buzzing insects of the forest. They walked for over an hour, the trees eventually thinning a bit, but so far there’d been no signs of any settlements. No traces of human activity like buildings, no sign that any trees had been chopped down, a smooth stump left behind by human tools.

They took a break to rest for a moment, drinking water, checking sun blocking lotion and how the brightness might be affecting Sho even with the specs on. He was fine, but Jun was very consistent in his concern for him on that front, and he appreciated it. But not for long, since they soon learned they were not alone out here. Sho heard the voices first before seeing them. They were coming from the fishing boat’s direction, not from behind.

“Stay where you are!” came a loud male voice. “Don’t take another step!”

A second male voice joined in. “You are outnumbered. You will drop any weapons you carry and come with us!”

The intonation of their speech, their cadence, was similar but not exactly the same as what Sho was accustomed to hearing back home or from Starsiders. With most media consumed by both Starside and Nightside viewers, with the introduction of the airship shortening the distances between them all, the language of the north had become more homogeneous over the years. Local and regional accents and slang existed, but were usually only spoken and used by people within their own enclaves, never outside them, never for business. The Empire had created a lot of standardization that the shogunates had largely continued. These people spoke Japanese too, but with enough of a detectable difference that Sho wished they’d come here under far different circumstances. What other changes had happened in their centuries of separation? There was so much to learn.

He and Jun both set their packs down on the ground in front of them, hands empty, waiting to be approached. It was a group of five, four men and a woman. Sho was surprised by their appearance, a mishmash of traditional and modern clothing, formal and casual, colors and patterns. He was almost reminded of the chaotic design of Sobu Hall. Slacks and sandals poking out from under long robes, a t-shirt for a Starside rock band tucked into hakama, the woman wearing what seemed like a school uniform jacket over a kimono. The band on that t-shirt, as far as Sho knew, had only had their first hit song and become popular a few years ago. The only way such a shirt would have made it south was if someone had brought it here from the north. Since there’d been no contact from the north as far as Sho was aware, that meant that the man with the fishing boat was not likely the only one slipping up north. Perhaps they were coming and going all the time. Perhaps they’d been visiting under everyone’s noses for years.

He doubted they’d answer his thousands of questions, though, as all of them were armed with spears or swords. Without needing to be asked, he and Jun both held up their hands.

A rather short man, younger than them by perhaps ten or more years, stood at the front of the group, eyeing them with suspicion. “You will come with us.”

“We’re looking for the owner of a fishing boat. Does he live with you?” Jun asked.

The group started laughing before the man in front hissed for them to stop, losing his cool. Sho realized then that this was no scouting party ahead of a larger army or defense squad. These weren’t trained soldiers but regular people.

“You will come with us,” the man repeated again, gesturing with his spear for them to pick up their things and get moving.

The group of five surrounded them as they headed on through the forest, saying nothing. Sho noticed that Jun did his best to keep pace with them, but there was still no hiding that he favored one leg over the other. The group made little effort to slow down for him, even though they had to have noticed, and Sho knew he didn’t have his usual medication with him because he’d needed to fly. He hoped Jun would make it to their destination without too much discomfort.

As they continued along, back in the direction the five strangers had come, finally Sho was beginning to see the first signs of habitation. Now he could see trees that had been cut, trees that had been newly planted. Their crash site was far deeper into the forest than these people had yet disturbed. In a few minutes more the forest gave way to what had to be the outskirts of their village or town, and soon he could smell a slight saltiness in the air. Sho had never been to an ocean before, only seeing the lakes and waterways of Nightside from behind dome glass, but soon they came around a bend and the dirt trail they were walking on widened. Buildings to the left, beach and shore to the right, stretching off into the distance.

There was a town here, not too sizeable, maybe a few hundred people as he counted what appeared to be their houses. He squinted through his dark lenses. No, not so much houses, not like the ones he knew. Not like the luxuries of Tower Zero he’d left behind. He was taken aback by the simple dwellings. One-level huts and cottages clustered together along the trail, looking like something out of the past. He was reminded of the first types of housing that had been built upon settlement here, only the most basic construction elements. Thatched roofs and mud-brick walls. The people who’d come to this planet were farmers, not builders, despite coming from the advances of Earth. The first settlers had had to revert to methods that they could understand, and it had taken decades for construction methods to advance.

So why did this settlement, this town, look like there’d been no change in almost nine hundred years? The historian in Sho was aching for answers, but no, their captors continued marching them down the path, not giving him any time to really process what he was seeing, trying to better understand how they lived in this town frozen in time, dressed in their mixed-up clothing. It looked like most people had been given an order to stay inside, but there were still a few people outdoors in the sunlight, dressed in the same odd combinations of garments, observing Jun and Sho with what seemed more like amusement than hostility as they passed. Older folks and younger folks, looking no different than the Starsiders to the north, save for their manner of dress, such as it was.

Sho looked toward the shore instead once they came around another bend, heading downhill now. A small harbor lay ahead just where the dwellings stopped, and bobbing gently up in down in the water was a boat. And another. And another. More and more, a few dozen of them, stretching into the distance. A fleet of them, all looking similar to the one in the pictures Nino and Aiba had received from their hired investigators. The boats seemed far more modern and flashy than the housing in the neighborhood here. The mysterious man with the blue topaz was likely just one of several fishermen or sailors that appeared to live here. Could all of these boats be navigated safely from this harbor, all the way north?

Their captors came to a halt at a dock beside a wooden building with no windows, Jun setting down his pack for some relief, shaking his leg a little. Sho hoped they were finished walking for a while now. One of the men unlocked the door with a key. If Sho thought it smelled fishy standing here on the dock near the water, the overwhelming stink that came pouring out of the building made his eyes water.

“We’ll have you wait in here,” the short man decided. “Who were you looking for again?”

Sho now understood why they’d laughed when Jun had asked if the owner of a fishing boat lived among them. “A man who wears a blue topaz around his neck or who has worn one before,” Sho said, trying to ignore the smell. Clearly they were using this building to dry out fish or squid. “He would have returned from the north on his boat about several weeks ago with a small coin.”

“Thought so,” muttered one of the other men.

Sho held up his hands, hoping they would listen. “Please, we’re not here to interfere with you or your way of life. We just want to talk to this person.”

“Get inside,” the short man said. “We’ll see if he feels like meeting you.”

“How long are you planning to keep us in there if he’s not feeling chatty?” Jun asked, even more obviously repulsed by the smell inside their potential holding cell.

“That’s for him to decide,” the woman said, tapping the dock with the blunt end of her spear. Sho could see that it was probably used for fishing, not for battle. Now that Sho could see the swords up close, no longer in the forest but out in full light, he wondered if they were even real. “He’s the boss around here, after all.”

“He’s your leader?” Sho asked.

“In a manner of speaking,” the man in the band t-shirt said, cracking a smile. “Not that he ever acts like much of one.”

Sho was a little confused by that, but he was confused and overwhelmed by a lot at the moment and didn’t protest when they urged him and Jun into the wooden hut. There were several barrels in the room, likely full of salted, preserved fish that had been dried out earlier in the constant sun. He and Jun said nothing, letting their captors close the door and lock it once more.

“Well,” Sho said when they were alone once more, setting down his pack. “They didn’t say we weren’t allowed to try the food.”

“If you open one of those barrels, I will never forgive you,” Jun snitted, gently easing himself to the floor so he could relax his leg, stretch it out before him.

Sho sat down close by, hugging his pack in his arms for a bit of comfort. “The design of most of the buildings here, what I assume are their homes…they’re almost too simple.”

“Especially compared to the boats in the harbor,” Jun remarked.

“Exactly,” Sho agreed. “These people took out the Sobu…” He paused, trying not to laugh at the reminder of the name. “They took out the prototype ship in seconds without us even knowing something was wrong until it was already too late. But yet they live here in simple cottages. I didn’t see any infrastructure, any power lines or sewer covers that might indicate any pipes or systems underground. Think I saw someone hand pumping water by a well.”

“But they’ve got clothes from up north, and who knows what else. Pretty sure that Garnet South wasn’t a stop for Stiltzkin the last time they were out on tour. And I’m not seeing any paved roads out of here, no vehicles. No factories where they might be manufacturing anything.”

So Jun had noticed the t-shirt too. “Our friend with the blue topaz is probably not the only one who’s come north.”

“Bet they’ve been spying on Starside for years,” Jun said. “And if they can get north, they can probably board ships from there to Torenomachi, if they got really curious. It’s amazing the shogunates never found them.”

“None of this makes a bit of sense,” Sho admitted. “They have the tech to keep us out, but then why not use that tech to improve their day-to-day lives?”

“Well, this is just one small town,” Jun noted. “We didn’t get to circle the entire continent. There could be all sorts of futuristic shit just on the other side of those mountains.”

They were quiet for a few minutes, their long hike finally catching up with them. Sho hadn’t worn a watch, but it had to be afternoon by now. By this time tomorrow, the Supersonic would probably already be reporting that they’d missed the meet-up time…

Those dark thoughts were eventually interrupted by a knock at the door of the hut, followed by a key turning in the lock again. They both got to their feet, not knowing what to expect. Their captors? Their death?

Instead a man entered, closing the door behind him. He wasn’t wearing the blue topaz around his neck today but was as casual as he’d been in the photos that had made their way around the world to Nino and Aiba. A plain black t-shirt, shorts that seemed more like swim trunks, and a pair of well-loved sandals. It had been a while since Sho had seen someone who’d been kissed so lovingly by Queen Garnet. He was tan, had an overall relaxed demeanor that the photos hadn’t captured. He was small and lean, his hair styled back from his forehead, away from his almost gentle eyes.

“That was some remarkable flying,” the man who’d purchased Pisces said. “I’m impressed you made it without any injuries.”

“Not something I’m that interested in hearing from the person who tried to kill us,” Jun grumbled.

The stranger held up his hands almost apologetically. “It was the first use of the pulse in years, poor Chinen-kun didn’t realize it was going to drop you guys like a rock. It’s why I sent him to go find you and make sure you were okay.”

“Chinen-kun” was probably the short guy who’d found them in the forest.

“Is the ‘pulse’ some sort of device or technology you have?” Sho asked. “You can disable airships flying that far from land? Is that how airships were taken out in the past? Is there another device you have that impacts the tides, a device that might have sunk the naval fleets from the north centuries ago?”

“I can’t handle that many questions at once, man,” their host complained. He adjusted his slouchy posture, standing a bit taller and probably trying to look as intimidating as he could manage. Which honestly wasn’t intimidating at all. He had a round, easygoing face. “How about we start with names?”

“Matsumoto Jun.”

“Sakurai Sho of Torenomachi.”

“Ah,” their host said. “One of those Matsumotos then, huh?”

Jun could only nod, clearly shocked that his family’s company was known down here, but that just reaffirmed for Sho that Garnet South had definitely not spent all these years here in isolation.

“Well, Matsumoto-san, Sakurai-san, your boldness in getting all the way here is pretty damn impressive,” their host admitted. “I’ve been told you’re looking for this?”

He reached into his pocket, Sho’s stomach clenching as he pulled out the Pisces coin. The final one, the one that would give Sho the complete set. It was now only a few feet away, held loosely between a stranger’s thumb and forefinger.

“I’m afraid it’s not for sale. No offense after how hard you clearly worked to find me,” he continued, still holding it out. “But yeah, I’m not giving it up, and that’s mainly because it’s a family heirloom.”

“What do you mean family heirloom?” Jun asked him.

“You gave me your names, so here’s mine. The name I was born with is Ohno Satoshi, and that’s the name I’ve always used. But this coin here, this odd little coin, was minted in the name of someone very special to me.” Ohno-san gave the coin a little flip, catching it in his hand. “I needed to get this coin, you see, because it was minted in the name of my grandfather. You might have heard of him, if you’ve been trying this hard to find it too.”

Ohno looked at them, meeting Sho’s gaze specifically, likely because his jaw had dropped in realization of what he was about to say. But this was utterly impossible…

“My grandfather,” Ohno Satoshi told them, “was the last son of the last Emperor. You might know him as Hironomiya Pisces.”

///

They were asked to explain themselves first, who they were and why’d they really come. Ohno-san let out an astonished laugh when they revealed that they really had flown all the way here for the Pisces coin, all so Sho could complete his collection and display it in his museum. Said out loud, trapped together in a building used to store dried fish, halfway around the world on a continent no northerner had set foot on in centuries, it did seem like a pretty shallow excuse.

Once they’d presented their rather weak case, Ohno left the stinky building, only to have food and water brought in for them. Jun would have preferred not to eat in here when there was fresh air outside, but he supposed he and Sho didn’t have much say in the matter. It was simple fare, grilled shrimp and rice, but he suspected Ohno-san was feeding them so they would let him explain his side of the story without them interrupting him.

“I never thought I’d actually have to tell someone all of this,” Ohno had whined in his slightly mumbling voice. Jun held back from letting him know he technically didn’t owe them anything, seeing as how he and Sho were the outsiders here. Sho would never be satisfied if he didn’t learn as much as he could, so Jun decided not to tease their host.

He’d started at the beginning. And by the beginning he meant the end of the Empire, the downfall of the Hironomiya line nearly a hundred years earlier. Although in this particular situation, the name “Hironomiya” was a bit of a misnomer. Ohno’s great-grandmother Akiko had been the one to give birth to Hironomiya Pisces. The baby, however, had not been the Emperor’s son - a fact that very, very few had known.

Emperor Masahiko was getting up there in age by the time he was ready to plant the seed that would grow into son number twelve, Pisces. Akiko, a maid in the castle in Orunitia, had been chosen to join the herd of potential mothers of the twelfth and final son. There was only a short window for conception, obviously, a timeframe of about a month when the old coot would shoot his shot with as many women as possible in order to ensure he got a healthy son number twelve born in the time of Pisces. Jun found the whole concept revolting, especially dehumanizing for the women who didn’t seem to have much value outside of being an incubator. He wasn’t a fan of the Orunitia shogunate, but at least they’d seen an end to this kind of thing.

The Empire was already in flux when Masahiko started the last step to reach his goal, didn’t really have the strongest vetting in place. The men that would eventually be the first ones to run the triumphant Orunitia shogunate had been some of his closest advisors and confidantes. Among them was a man named Tarui, who had a son close in age to Akiko. A son who’d apparently had a thing for the maids of the castle.

As fate would have it, Akiko discovered she was already pregnant little more than a week into the required conception month and only a day prior to her first scheduled “visit” from the Emperor. A little maneuvering here, a little lying there, and Akiko’s successful impregnation was announced a short time later, the Emperor none the wiser that the baby growing inside her was absolutely not his. And not really a Pisces at all, but an Aquarius, but such things were easily remedied by putting the mother on bed rest and sequestering her away. Fortunately for Akiko, there were three other “successful” impregnations that month. With the turmoil going on throughout the Empire, uprisings here, there, and everywhere, Masahiko couldn’t be bothered to remember or care which woman was which or what day he’d actually been with them. Frankly, he didn’t think of them again until the month of Pisces rolled around, and babies were born.

Three girls and one boy. The boy was certainly a large and strong infant, the Emperor had even remarked when baby Pisces was first presented, having no idea whatsoever that the squalling bundle in his arms was already a few weeks old. Masahiko’s sons mostly existed to stroke his own ego and reaffirm his beliefs that the Zodiac gave him power. It was only a week after baby Pisces’ naming ceremony that Tarui and the other advisors overthrew Masahiko entirely, murdering him along with all of his sons, even the younger ones. That this disturbing slaughter had happened less than a century earlier gave Jun goosebumps. This was the world his own grandfather had been born into.

Tarui, however, knew that baby Pisces was not the Emperor’s son but was his own grandson. Tarui, who had overseen the imperial treasury, had seen to it that the Pisces coin, minted only weeks earlier, came into his possession. An arrogant little trophy, but he’d given it to his son and his mistress to remind them just how close they’d come to danger. In the chaos of everything, another baby already lost to an illness had been substituted to confirm that all of Masahiko’s line had been killed. Tarui’s son, Akiko, and the real infant had been smuggled out of Orunitia before the violence, as far from the heart of the Empire as they could possibly get.

“Buranbaru,” Sho muttered then.

“Buranbaru,” Ohno confirmed.

Years passed, the imperial ways started falling away, only to be replaced by the more rigid, hypocritical morality and different style of corruption of the shogunates. Baby Pisces was raised under another name, though he’d been told of the circumstances of his birth. After all, he was the only surviving Hironomiya, since he’d had an official naming ceremony and everything. If the people ever soured on the shogunate…

But the shogunate persisted. He lived a happy enough life and eventually got married. He had a daughter of his own in the late 850’s when Jun’s own parents had been born, soon after his grandfather’s first triumphant flight. He’d named the girl Akiko for his mother, who’d endured and escaped something extraordinary. Even as the airship soon made Buranbaru’s role as a major Starside port of call largely irrelevant, Pisces, his wife, and his daughter continued to live a happy enough life.

The first Akiko had escaped the slaughter in the capital. The second Akiko, however, would have to escape death under the shogunate. A handful of years before Jun was born, the second Akiko married a man named Ohno, a fisherman who’d lived in Buranbaru for only a short time. He was quiet and focused on his work, as most fishermen were, but he was kind to her and had an odd sort of personality that she seemed to find amusing. His accent was a little different, but he always claimed to have grown up in a small town. There were things that Ohno didn’t know, obvious things about history, about the ridiculous people who’d left Starside to go live in the dark on purpose. Certainly the education in shogunate schools was imperfect, but everyone at least knew the basics. Ohno usually just waved her off, saying he’d hated to study. Their son, Satoshi, was born soon after.

Life in Buranbaru was rougher, nearly twenty-five years after the arrival of the airship. Both Akiko and her husband worked long hours to make ends meet, and her father doted on the baby, was largely responsible for looking after him during the day, telling him the extraordinary stories his mother had told him. “We were united in that, me and Grandpa,” Ohno told them. “We both had mothers named Akiko.”

Ohno’s grandfather would sometimes show him a gold coin, something that was kept in a small box in one of the drawers in his room. It wasn’t the same as the coins his parents used to pay for things at the store. It was worthless, Grandpa said, it only had any value to him. Nobody else in the whole world would ever treasure it the way he did.

At that part in Ohno’s story, Jun found himself looking over at Sho, grinning when he caught his eye. Sho looked away, reddening, as they continued to listen.

His grandfather had shown him that coin with the fish on it dozens of times, always telling him to keep it a secret between them. “Of course, I was a really dumb kid,” Ohno explained, his eyes growing wet with unshed tears. “I never realized how seriously he meant it when he said to never show it to anyone.”

And so Ohno, who’d always been so impressed by it no matter how many times his grandfather said it was worthless, had brought it to school for a show-and-tell session, had snuck it out of his grandfather’s drawer when he was making them lunch one day. His teacher, an elderly old bat and firm loyalist to the shogunate, had made some inquiries. There was obviously nobody registered in Buranbaru with the name Hironomiya Pisces, but the teacher remembered those coins and the evil excesses of the previous regime that the coins celebrated. A family with that coin was either a member of the Zodiac Cult or something even worse. Even more ominous, the teacher learned, was that her student’s grandfather, the old man living in that house who was registered with the name Tarui Seigo, had been born under the sign of Pisces in the year G-829.

Only a week after show-and-tell, he’d come home from school to find his house empty, ransacked. “I had no idea what the fuck I’d done,” Ohno admitted to them. “It was all my fault.”

He’d only been seven years old.

His parents found him, had already been tipped off about the shogunate thugs upending their house. They learned that Seigo-san, Hironomiya Pisces, had been taken into shogunate custody. It was Ohno’s father Mamoru that came up with the last-second plan. They’d packed their bags in less than ten minutes, only as much as they could carry.

Then they’d gotten onto his father’s fishing boat and gone south. It was only then that Ohno Akiko learned that her husband with his odd quirks wasn’t a Starsider from the north. He was from the south. From the utterly impossible south. And it was because of that that the shogunate would never find them. And because of that that Ohno never saw his beloved grandfather again.

“I know you want to know about this place too, huh,” Ohno said with a sigh, helping himself to some of the shrimp they hadn’t eaten yet. “You gotta give me a minute, I’m starving.”

They let him eat, but Jun was wondering why Ohno was being so generous and open with them in the first place, especially knowing why they’d come after him. He looked over, seeing that Sho looked about ready to explode with what he’d already learned. An account of what had really happened during the overthrow of the Empire, a story passed down the line from great-grandmother and eventually to great-grandson.

Jun got up to stretch, Sho doing the same. They left Ohno to eat, whispering together near the stinking barrels of dried fish.

“That person over there is technically the heir to the imperial throne,” Sho said. “Not that one exists any longer.”

Jun crossed his arms, unable to keep from smiling as their host dropped a piece of shrimp on the floor but picked it up and ate it anyway, scratching his belly.

“I don’t think he sees himself that way,” he pointed out.

“This would make for a very interesting movie,” Sho remarked.

“Are you going to ask him to give you the Pisces coin and the production rights to his family’s life story?” Jun teased him.

Sho rolled his eyes. “It’s a good thing I’m the one listening to this, not Nino and Aiba-kun.”

Jun knew that was certainly true.

Ohno eventually let out a belch that seemed to indicate he was ready to keep talking, and they headed back over, sitting down once more.

Mamoru and Akiko had arrived here with their son on Mamoru’s fishing boat. The settlement of Mumon was just one of a few dozen villages that dotted the small southern continent, populated by the descendants of those who’d landed at Site Beta. Site Alpha had had a lot more to work with as they’d gotten their civilization re-started on a new planet, but the folks at Beta never resented them for it. There were far fewer of them and by and large, a much more cooperative bunch. Many of the Site Beta settlers had been strongly religious. No Zodiac obsessives but adherents of Buddhism, Islam, and other belief systems that emphasized kindness and compassion for one’s neighbors. They traded with the north, found a number of them to be arrogant and pigheaded, and so it was agreed that trading would stop so that they might focus more on their own villages.

They also hadn’t liked what they were hearing about infighting in the north, villages and towns going to war with one another not even a century after they’d landed here to start over again. Hadn’t they been given the opportunity to move past that? Wars, arrogant leaders, and pollution had been the causes of so many disasters on Earth. Wasn’t it better to live as simply as they could, grateful for every day in a world with abundant sunshine, natural beauty, clean air?

The southerners embraced simplicity in their day-to-day lives, still did to this day, but in order to protect themselves and their way of life, they hadn’t rejected all technology. They put their energy into fishing boats for both sustenance and admittedly, for spying, patrolling their waters for signs that the northerners and their burgeoning Empire might seek to add them to their collection, to tax them and force them to enlist in their Emperor’s armies. Most of the huts and cottages in villages like Mumon housed their populations, but some contained machines they’d constructed, the knowledge passed from village to village so all of Garnet South might protect themselves.

The first machines could be loaded onto a fishing boat, placed like mines in a perimeter around the small continent and at other points a bit further away, in hopes of concealing where they were. Only the people of Garnet South had the ability to deactivate them, had maps that told them where the devices had been placed years earlier so they could navigate to the north for fishing or observation. The devices could create riptides, whirlpools meant to discourage ships from proceeding. Some sailed straight onto them, blowing a hole in their ship.

“I guess the thinking was that the Empire would stop wasting their time after they lost a few ships,” Ohno explained, shaking his head. “Why would they keep risking the lives of their people, sending them south like that?”

But as Jun knew, and as Sho probably knew in much more obsessive detail, the Empire hadn’t stopped. For years they continued to send fleets to the south and for years, many sailors never returned home.

“There was regret here, obviously, that the devices they’d built had resulted in those losses, but by and large, it was to protect how we live here,” Ohno told them. “We took in some people, those who’d been found adrift and still alive, but they usually weren’t too happy we didn’t have the comforts they were used to back home.”

Eventually one imperial family was overthrown, replaced by the Hironomiya line that vowed not to waste any more time with southern expeditions. The devices in the water were deactivated but not removed. Spying persisted. Some departed for a few months here and there, docking at Starside ports and living amongst them for a while before bringing news back home. Some tired of the simple life in the south, allowed to leave with their families for a more technologically comfortable life in the north so long as they promised to never reveal the truth of their origins.

Either way, the villages of Garnet South kept up with developments in the Empire, learned of the domed city that had been constructed on the other side of the world. Learned of the discoveries of zidanium on Nightside, its use as a far cleaner power source for engines and machines of all sorts. Carefully, liquified zidanium was loaded onto boats and brought south, paid for with the money the southern spies had acquired in their fishing work. It was zidanium that was eventually used to power a more recent machine the south developed, a “pulse” that could be activated at a distance, one housed in each village once the spies had returned with news that the north had developed airships. That their days of hiding were likely numbered.

It was the pulse that had fried the systems on the Sobu Liner, Jun learned. It was the pulse that had taken out the exploratory flights from Matsumoto Air Company before he’d been born. Just as they’d used their devices in the water in hopes of deterring unwanted guests, the southerners hoped the north would simply give up trying to find them instead of sacrificing their pilots’ lives. Jun was suddenly grateful his grandfather and his uncle had made that call years ago. No matter how strong the hull, no matter how advanced the tech, the machines the southerners used simply sent out an electromagnetic pulse that would fry their systems, knock them out of the sky.

“Like I said,” Ohno explained, “we hadn’t used it here in years, definitely not since my family came here. We just thought it would damage you, get you to turn back. I’m sorry.”

Jun looked over to his pack. “I know we said that we came here to see if you’d give us your coin, Ohno-san. But now that you’ve explained this pulse, I should probably tell you that the airship we came in was a prototype. This was a data-gathering mission as well, and I think your device probably damaged most of the valuable information we were trying to collect.”

“Well, I know you won’t like to hear this, but good,” Ohno replied.

“Not that it matters,” Jun said, trying to tamp down his frustration. “Since you’re probably in your rights to keep us here permanently like the sailors you all used to rescue at sea.”

Ohno let out an irritated sigh, scratching his head in frustration. “I don’t know…”

Sho’s tone was gentler. “Ohno-san, we’ll leave the data with you. We’ll leave the coin with you. There’s a rendezvous point we’re meant to get back to tomorrow, and if we don’t make it back, our families are going to think we’re dead. I promise you that none of what you’ve told us of your people will be made public. We will keep your secrets. You also have my permission to use any means within your power to ensure I keep my mouth shut. You can even send people to my home in Torenomachi to check that I’m true to my word. All we ask is safe passage to that rendezvous point. We’ll tell them we met with some interference and had to abandon ship. That it’s probably at the bottom of the ocean now.” Sho looked at him. “Jun, there was an inflatable raft on the prototype in case of a water landing right?”

“Sho,” Jun interrupted him, “we came all this way…”

“We came all this way, and we just learned exactly why we’re the only ones to make it here in centuries. Do you know how dangerous it would be for them if any of this information or any of that data was made available to your company? To any of the shogunates? It would ruin their way of life here.”

“So it’s fine for the rest of Starside and Nightside to remain ignorant?” Jun protested, gesturing to Ohno. “They’re going to keep coming north, poking around, and we should just let that keep happening?”

“They’re not trying to influence our governments or spread discord,” Sho shot back. “They only send people north to try and find out if we’re a threat to them. It’s self-preservation, not sabotage!”

“You’re saying we should just go back empty-handed though?” Jun argued. “We could try and tweak the data drives, erase everything recorded after a certain point, anything that could triangulate their location…”

“Jun, we can’t take any of it with us. Haven’t you been listening to a word Ohno-san’s been saying? It only takes one person to bring the data to a competitor, to another shogunate, to use any clues about Garnet South to try and profit.”

Jun knew Sho was right. He knew it after everything Ohno had explained. But so many people had worked hard on this mission, so many people had tried to help, none of them knowing that all of it was so Jun could do one last selfish thing for Sho. They’d return empty-handed, having achieved nothing. And then Jun would just…leave.

“I’ll agree to your terms,” Ohno said, cutting through their argument. “And I’ll hold you to them by any means necessary.”

“You’ll take us back to our people?” Sho asked.

“I will. I’ll do it myself,” Ohno agreed. “And uh…well, to be honest with you, I’ve never been much of a traveler. I really only went back north so I could find Grandpa’s coin. Someone had stolen it out of the shogunate’s custody years ago, it never actually left Buranbaru. But my father went to Torenomachi once, before he met my mom. He said it was the worst place he’d ever been in his life. I have to admit I’m a little curious, with a review like that…”

Sho snorted. “It’s not that bad…”

“Most of the people I met up on Starside seemed normal, but I still don’t think there’s going to be a point any time soon where the people here might be comfortable enough to want to make contact with you more officially. All I really know about Starside is what I learned from Grandpa and my parents. Hearing about your museum, I think I’d like to see it sometime.”

“I’d welcome you any time, Ohno-san, for the kindness you’ve shown us,” Sho replied, before turning to Jun. “Will you accept it? I think being able to return to our lives and keep their secrets is worth far more than airship data. Or a coin.”

Jun nodded in agreement. There was no other option. “We’ll need the inflatable raft from our airship. What are you planning to do with it otherwise?”

“We have no need for airships here, not with all the rules the shogunates have if we tried to fly them your way. We’ll stick with our boats. So just like Sho-san said, we’ll sink it to the bottom of the ocean.”

Jun’s stomach ached at the thought of millions of credits’ worth of tech and all that valuable data vanishing under the waves, but he had no choice but to accept it. “I’ll give you the coordinates for our rendezvous point.”

“And?” Sho prodded him, looking at him pointedly.

“And thank you,” Jun said, seeing the amused smile on Ohno’s face. “Thank you for being kind enough to get us home.”

///

.aquarius.
the water bearer

///

Since Ohno’s boat could not travel as fast as the prototype ship, they’d had to make plans fairly quickly, calculating the safest route across the ocean and ensuring that Ohno could leave them behind without being spotted by the Supersonic, which would be patrolling in a wide arc. Though the sun continued to shine overhead, it was well after midnight when they departed the Mumon village harbor, Jun and Sho below decks resting in Ohno’s cabin. The seas were calm enough, but Sho had never been out here like this before, nor had Jun. It was nothing like the experience aboard an airship, instead an ongoing bobbing motion as the boat cut through the deep water.

Eventually Sho was able to sleep, waking only when Ohno knocked to let them know they’d reached the coordinates he and Jun had calculated together. They could carry only their emergency packs, nothing else from the prototype ship. Ohno’s people were probably trying to take it apart already, dragging it out of the forest to put various parts of it onto their boats and sink them as far from the southern continent as they could manage.

Jun was a little unstable on his leg as the fishing boat rocked up and down on the waves. Ohno brought the boat to a stop, showing Jun how to keep her steady while he instead helped Sho to deploy the inflatable boat, setting it down in the water. Once it was confirmed seaworthy, they said their goodbyes. It said a lot about the true kindness of the southern people that Ohno had agreed to do so much for them, despite their motives in traveling to Garnet South.

Ohno reached into his pocket just before Sho stepped down to join Jun in the inflatable boat. “Sho-san.” He held out the Pisces coin. “I know you worked hard. Thought you might want to at least hold it in your hand.”

He felt embarrassed at the kind gesture. None of the effort he’d put into collecting the Zodiac coins all these years could compare to Ohno’s reasons for pursuing Pisces. For Sho, it had just been money spent at another of Nino and Aiba’s auctions. For Ohno, it meant retrieving the only connection he still had to the grandfather he’d unintentionally betrayed.

Sho took the gold coin in his hand, lifting the tinted specs from his eyes to look at it up close, to see the fine detailing on the fish. He set it back down in Ohno’s waiting palm, feeling as though a burden had been lifted. His Zodiac quest, as ridiculous as it was, had finally ended. Though Pisces would not be coming home with him, he’d learned far more than he’d ever expected to.

Ohno Satoshi had entrusted Sho with the knowledge of Garnet South, information that he’d take to his grave. Keeping the secrets of the people here, who wanted only to live simply, live cooperatively, was Sho’s new charge. And a far more important quest than seeking out the coins of a long-dead Emperor. The coins that corresponded to the lives of eleven young men and boys that had been cut short, to the life of a twelfth person who’d been taken away from his family, had likely died anonymous and alone in a shogunate prison.

“Thank you,” he said, watching Ohno return it to his pocket. “I’m sorry for what happened to your grandfather.”

“He never forgot where he came from,” Ohno admitted. “The other eleven weren’t his brothers, not by blood anyway, and he’d obviously never met them, but he still felt connected to them. I hope you’ll let me see the other coins someday. I’d like to see them since Grandpa never got the chance. Thank you for collecting them and keeping them safe.”

He waved his hand. “No, no, it’s not a big deal. I look forward to showing them to you. I’ll be respectful when I display them. I promise.”

“I know you will. Take care, and I’ll come see you whenever I get in the mood to travel.” Ohno’s smile was a little teasing. “It’s probably not going to be any time soon, after the mess you made that I’ve gotta clean up now.”

Sho smiled too. “Take care, Ohno-san.”

Soon enough, the fishing boat was disappearing back in the direction it had come, only picking up speed once it was far enough out that its wake would not upend their smaller lifeboat. Jun knew the Supersonic’s flightpath exactly, he’d designed it after all. It would be coming around in perhaps an hour. They only had to stay afloat like this for an hour, and then they could return to the comforts of Torenomachi. The perpetual darkness and recycled air that Sho had always known.

He looked over, watching Jun staring out at the water. Sho was rather petrified, isolated here on the open water, ocean in every direction and no sign of land. Jun seemed a little tense too, probably felt guilty that Sho was coming home without Pisces. Sho didn’t know how to get through to him, didn’t know if he’d ever be able to. He’d cherish it forever, everything that he’d learned on this journey, this odd adventure that had been planned for weeks and fallen apart in hours. They’d come south and lived to tell the tale. Only the two of them would ever know the truth. Wasn’t that something to treasure, far more than a coin?

“You think there are sharks out here?” Sho asked, breaking their silence.

“Oh, definitely.”

He laughed. Probably shouldn’t have asked that.

“I just want to say…thank you for letting the data go. I know it will probably make things awkward for you at work, but they all knew the risks. They knew a mission failure was a possibility.”

“It won’t make things that awkward,” Jun said.

“Oh?”

Jun looked over, and Sho could see his slumped posture, the surprising hopelessness in his face. “Because I won’t be working there any longer.”

“What do you mean?” Sho asked. “You think your family would fire you for something like this?”

“Sho, they need me back in Orunitia.”

The small boat slowly rolled up and down over the waves, misting his skin with spray as he held tight to one of the safety straps. He said nothing, waiting for Jun to explain what the hell he was talking about.

“Some bigshots connected to the shogunate were getting blackmailed for participating in illegal airship racing. The government’s looking to us to help as they try to legalize it, to some extent. If something’s no longer scandalous to do, then there’s no scandal, right? Well, my uncle thought I’d be the best person to step in to work on it, expand our existing Racing Division to accommodate whatever new regulations get passed. Given my experience.”

“How long have you…”

“The trip home that I took, when we came back from the Ship Graveyard. They told me then.”

Sho couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “That was weeks ago!”

“It was,” Jun said, voice apologetic.

“And you didn’t think this was worth telling me all this time?”

“I wanted the time we still had together to be special,” Jun explained. “The only reason I got clearance to use the prototype was because I agreed to come home and take on the new role. This trip, colossal failure that it ended up being, was my last opportunity to try and make you happy.”

Sho held up a hand. “You’re hearing the things you’re saying, right?”

“Sho…”

“If I’d known about this from the start, I would have never agreed to go to Garnet South. I would have wanted to spend that time with you, all of the time I could spare and more. Not just waiting for you to come over to my place every night exhausted from spending every waking hour working on this grand expedition. Just being with you would have made me happy, why won’t you see that? Why didn’t you trust me enough to tell me any of this?”

Jun’s face was panicked. “No, no, that has nothing to do with it. I trust you more than anyone I’ve ever met…”

“And still you didn’t think I deserved to know you were leaving?”

“I wanted to leave with no regrets. I wanted you to come here, get your coin back. Finish the goal you started. I thought if I could make that happen for you, that I’d be okay with leaving. That I made you happy.”

“So you’re already under the assumption that it’s over, what we have? You decided all the way back then…before we even…”

Jun clearly didn’t know how to articulate his ridiculous choices any better, so he didn’t bother to try. “I’m sorry…”

Neither of them said anything, Jun clearly feeling guilty for keeping such important news from him, Sho trying not to let his anger rule his reactions.

“How soon do you have to go?”

Jun let out a heavy breath. “Once we’re back in the dome? A few days probably, mostly to write up some post-mortem reports for the prototype’s failure as convincingly as I can. To pack up my shit at the hotel and send it on ahead of me.”

Sho clung tight to the safety strap, if only to keep from sliding across the slippery bottom of the raft to give Jun a shake. “You’re thoroughly convinced this won’t work. You and me.”

“How could it?” Jun shot back at him. “Orunitia is a ten-hour flight from Torenomachi.”

“So you’re just giving up.”

“I’m trying to see reason, Sho. Something I’ve always struggled with, as you’ve probably figured out. Whatever storm I’m leaving behind in Torenomachi, the one I’m walking into back home is going to be even more stressful. More time-consuming. Even if I could fly back to visit you, it could only be a day here, a day there…”

“And that’s not worth it to you?”

Jun seemed confused. “What do you mean?”

“Let me try and understand,” Sho continued, trying to keep his voice calm. “You assumed that I’m trapped in Torenomachi, and since you’ll be so busy with this new role you’re taking on, you assumed I wouldn’t even try to wait for you. You assumed I could never be satisfied with only seeing your face once a week, once a month, once a year. Is that what you’ve been thinking all this time by yourself? That I don’t care enough to take every chance with you I can get and be grateful for every minute?”

“But you are trapped in Torenomachi.”

“My parents live in the Karuizawa dome. That’s three hours closer to Orunitia. I don’t have the credits in my accounts that you have, but I can afford to reserve a room in a hotel in the Kisarazu dome. That’s the closest dome to the dusk barrier. You seem to have it in your head that it’s all on you to keep us together, but you don’t think I’d even try to do my part? You think I’d say no to long-distance calls with a time lag? You think I’d say no to only getting a dinner with you once a year?”

Jun couldn’t look at him, but Sho refused to quit.

“I thought that between the two of us, you were the one who would never give up. You’re the one who’d always have another plan up his sleeve, could always find a way to make something happen. Look at where we are right now! We’re in the middle of the fucking ocean in an inflatable boat because you wouldn’t give up on an idea. Why am I the one supplying the creative solutions this time?” He shook his head, laughing. “Do you have any idea how crazy I am about you? All of you, everything about you, even the things like this that piss me off? Look at me, you idiot!”

This time Jun did, tears in his eyes but a soft smile emerging.

“It still might not work, in the end,” Sho told him. “Life is unpredictable, and so are humans. But I want to try. If that’s something you still want.”

“It’s something I want,” Jun said. “More than anything.”

“Then it’s settled,” Sho decided. “Go back to Orunitia and do what you have to. I’m not going anywhere, I have a vault full of artifacts that need me, but I’ll always be waiting for you to come back. And besides, you’ll probably be happier to not have to live in the dark full-time, freezing your delicate Starside ass off.”

Jun snorted, shaking his head. “That’s a good point.”

“See? It’s like you told me, right before the ship went down,” Sho said. “I believed you then, and I believe it now. We’re going to be okay.”

“Unless the sharks get us.”

Sho smiled. “Unless the sharks get us.”

///

Jun had grown accustomed to telling lies. Being a participant in illegal races for years had helped him get all too comfortable with the concept, and so he’d drawn on those skills that week, coming up with all of the causes of the crash that had resulted in the Supersonic finding him and Sho floating alone on a raft, the Sobu Liner nowhere in sight, already sunk to the bottom of the sea. His instruments had gone dead, likely interference from some powerful Garnet South technology, and they’d plummeted out of the sky, with time only to save themselves. There’d never be another authorized exploration, at least not for decades at this rate, if a top of the line souped up prototype couldn’t even find Garnet South successfully.

Ohno Satoshi and his people could continue their lives, could keep drying their fish and wearing their strange clothes without interference. Certainly they’d continue to come back north with their unregistered boats, poking their noses around to ensure that Sho and Jun had kept their word. Eventually someday another company might find a way to uncover their southern neighbors, but Jun had a suspicion that Ohno and his people would simply find new solutions to strike back against unwanted visitors.

He signed and stamped his official statements, recorded everything as had been required. And then it had probably not been a surprise to anyone at Torenomachi R&D when it was announced that Jun had been removed from his role there, was being transferred back to Orunitia to take on some lesser position in the company, his actual responsibilities to be determined. Matsumoto Air would never fire family, but they’d certainly pull them from one job and fling them at another without room for argument. It was a cover, a pretty good one, for the new work he’d be taking on once he got back.

Government bureaucracy was slow to change, so he’d spend the next several months in meetings that would feel like pulling teeth, trying to hammer out how Matsumoto Air Company could assist with the changing statutes and regulations around the underground races. Laws had been passed quietly in Orunitia and at least a dozen other Starside cities while he and Sho had flown south. It would be dull work, boring work. He wondered if the underground racing scene would crumble entirely, now that the allure of it being against the law had been removed. It would be corporate-sponsored, full of rules, and Jun, who’d been one of them for so long, would have to help draft up suggestions for how to sanitize it for investors, how to create a fanbase. How to try and get the most successful racers to stick around now that the real thrills had been stolen away.

But that was for him to worry about next week, once he was back home and could walk around Orunitia openly with his cane. Could tell anyone who asked why he used one. His friends, his colleagues, the media. It was bizarre to even imagine, knowing how hard his family had worked to act as though his accident had never happened. But now that cane, his limp, his titanium bones would be his badges of honor rather than shame. Proof that racing had its rewards as well as its risks, for anyone new looking to participate. It was tacky, and he’d had to swallow down how insulting it had felt when his uncle had told him to openly flout it if he could. The same uncle who’d signed off on Jun’s transfer to Torenomachi in the first place.

But acting hypocritical, even out in the open, out in the light, was the Starside way. It always had been, likely always would be.

Jun had wanted to spend his final evening in Torenomachi alone with Sho, a last hurrah until his uncertain return. Ninomiya and Aiba had had other plans, renting out the Sumire Hotel’s ballroom for a grand going away party. Well, it wasn’t really a going away party. Jun barely knew anyone in Torenomachi besides them. It was more of an excuse for Nino and Aiba to get in on the ground floor, to make money in new ways. Sobu Trading was now looking to expand and potentially invest in the hospitality business.

Now that illegal racing was legal, there was the possibility of races taking place on Nightside more frequently, given the added dangers and lack of infrastructure outside of the domes. Since racing was no longer outlawed, there had to be some thrills, and what was more thrilling to do or to watch than racing in the dark? Nino and Aiba presumed that once Jun had things up and running, Starsiders would come flocking to Torenomachi hotels to take in races, bet on their favorites. The party at the hotel tonight was mostly the start of their search for hotel properties to snatch up, to scan the crowd and see if word of no-longer-illegal racing was starting to make its way to the investor crowd of Torenomachi. Not everyone had someone from Matsumoto Air leaking information to them like Nino and Aiba did, but they felt it still couldn’t hurt to check.

It wasn’t as raucous as a Sobu Hall party, and Jun was indeed grateful for that, but Nino and Aiba had still enlisted his help to see if anyone would approach him about racing, if anyone knew he was a Matsumoto and wanted to connect with him. Jun felt he owed them this much at least, after everything they’d done to help him and Sho.

It had been difficult to lie to them though, especially for Sho, who’d been friends with Ninomiya and Aiba for the better part of his life. It still wasn’t clear to Jun if Sho’s friends believed the bullshit story they’d put together to explain their crash, how the ship had been disabled but Jun had still managed to get them all the way back to the Supersonic’s rendezvous point, hitting the water just close enough to the skyliner’s flightpath to be found.

Jun, frankly, didn’t care if Nino and Aiba knew they were concealing the truth. Sure, they already had their evidence that someone from Garnet South had come north, but no means of confirming it. Even if they wanted to find an outside party willing to travel south, it was unlikely any potential bounty hunter or tracker would agree to it, not with the knowledge that they’d probably never return, no matter how many credits they might make. Nino and Aiba were many things, Jun had learned, but they were not the type of people who’d send people to their deaths just to confirm something.

It was simply for the best that Nino and Aiba never learned about the village of Mumon, about the fleet of fishing boats they and other villages like them used to head north, or about Ohno Satoshi, the man who’d tricked them, snatching Pisces back before they could get their greedy hands on it. Perhaps someday Ohno would take Sho up on his offer, find his way to Torenomachi somehow and have a look at the dome, at the Garnetian Museum.

Thankfully, nobody approached Jun during the party to speak to him about racing. It seemed like Sobu Trading would likely be one of the first to get on board, and much as Jun was dreading his new work assignment, at least he’d be coming in with one of the oldest and largest companies in Torenomachi backing him and backing racing. The guests departed, heading out, and Aiba Masaki found him, toting around a glass of beer and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“Ah, Matsumoto-kun, we’re really going to miss you,” Aiba told him, steering him away from the ballroom and to the dinner reservation he’d made for the four of them at the hotel’s restaurant, Bittersweet.

“Well, invite me to your next auction, and I’ll see if I can sneak away.”

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say,” Aiba cheered. “Since we’re going to miss all those credits of yours almost as much as your face.”

“Aiba-shi,” Ninomiya complained, arm in arm with Sho as they found them along the way. “What a thing to say to someone.”

“He was pulling right from your standard phrasebook,” Sho teased.

Nino pretended to be shocked. “I have no idea what you mean, Sho-chan.”

They made it to the restaurant, a hostess escorting them to their reserved private dining room. Before Jun or Sho could protest, Nino had a seat beside Jun and Aiba beside Sho across from them. Sho looked at him, offering an apologetic shrug of his shoulders. They ordered more food than they’d be likely to finish. Jun had a feeling Sho would be the one to take the leftovers home, hating to waste anything.

Nino and Aiba didn’t bother to pester them for any additional details of their Garnet South adventure. They’d determined already that Jun and Sho had nothing further to discuss on that matter, so instead the dinner conversation was kept light. They didn’t speak of Orunitia or Matsumoto Air Company. They instead asked if Sho had any new ideas about what he’d like to collect for the museum, if he had any new exhibits in mind and how they might be able to help make it a reality.

“I think I’m going to take a break from buying odd, scattered items,” Sho declared, having a sip of his beer. “I’ll see if you end up finding any single pieces worth bidding on. No more collections of things to acquire.”

“Everything we collect is worth bidding on,” Aiba scoffed, giving Sho a playful shove. “It’s not our fault you only like to buy boring historical things rather than jewels.”

Jun sat back, letting the three childhood friends bicker over auction items and Sho’s finances. He was grateful that Sho had friends like these, no matter how much they teased him. He was grateful Sho had people close by who loved him, took care of him. That he could go to them when their separation grew tough, as it surely would in the weeks and months to come.

The Supersonic was scheduled for departure at 7:30 AM, and Jun had already scheduled himself to depart at the last possible moment that would get him home in time for his first meetings with his uncle, the first of so many to come. It was already after 1:00 when Aiba started to get drowsy, apparently the clearest signal that their gathering needed to come to a close. He returned the hugs of farewell they gave him, the little whispers in his ear to come back and see Sho again as soon as he could before they headed for an aircab home.

Sho was outside, taking the leftover food out to his aircab driver, Ueda, who still looked at Jun with a scowl on his face every time. The guy was probably relieved that Jun was getting out of town. Jun waited in the lobby for Sho to return. “I just need to grab something from my room,” he said, confusing Sho.

“I thought we were, uh, going to your room,” Sho mumbled, turning a little pink.

“Do something else with me,” Jun said, and Sho didn’t ask him what, simply following him to the elevator banks. Jun retrieved his heaviest coat from his room, the thick wool standing in contrast to the blazer Sho was wearing. From there it was a walk up a staircase and a swipe of his hotel keycard to a panel at the door to the roof.

He hadn’t told Sho about this, not Nino or Aiba either. All around, the Hospitality District was awash in bright lights and neon bulbs, an obnoxious glow at the south end of the dome. Usually there was a rooftop bar with dancing every hour of the day for guests. Jun had rented out the entire roof instead, paying the staff well for their discretion and for their kind treatment of him after his months in town. The lights on the Sumire Hotel’s roof were off, and they had to rely on lights from the other buildings to guide them to the sofa lounger near the abandoned bar.

Jun rested his cane against the back of the sofa, moving around and having a seat. Sho looked at him, a question in his eyes, when Jun patted the thick cushion beside him. Sho joined him, sitting at his side, letting Jun interlace their fingers. “You’d rather sit on the roof than have sex?” Sho asked, voice amused.

“I want to sit in the dark with you until it’s time to go. I want this to be the last thing I take with me.”

“Another romantic Matsumoto Jun statement. Well, I guess I have no choice, although it’s been my understanding all this time that you hate the darkness here,” Sho reminded him, giving his hand a squeeze. “And it has to be a bit chilly for you, no? Even in that bulky coat?”

“I don’t hate it as much as I used to.” Jun moved a little closer. “Indulge me, Sho-san.”

“Haven’t I done that since we met?” Sho teased, giving in to him once more.

They were both tired after the ridiculous party, after their long and chatty meal with Nino and Aiba. Sho set an alarm on his fancy watch for 6:30, ensuring Jun had plenty of time to get to the aerodrome in case either or both of them drifted off right here, sitting on the sofa together in the dark.

He leaned closer, tilting his head in Sho’s direction. He shut his eyes, feeling Sho press a kiss to his head before leaning his own against him, the two of them slumping a little so they could look straight up, away from the Hospitality District lights, up through the thick, treated glass of the dome that separated them from tonight’s clear, dark skies, the seemingly endless black, the occasional faint spots that indicated stars in other systems. In some of those systems, there were other settlers from Earth. In others, he had no idea if there were other planets, other peoples.

Yes, it was pretty cold up here, but having Sho’s warm body beside him helped. Offered him a comfort he’d miss dearly. He’d start counting as soon as the Supersonic took to the skies, exiting the airlock and heading for home. He’d start counting the days until he could have this with Sho again, this comfort. This calm.

“There’s not as much light pollution in Karuizawa,” Sho said quietly a short time later. “Better chance of seeing the stars there, if that’s something you’d like to do together sometime.”

“I would. Definitely.” He yawned a little. “There’s probably a lot of things Nightside that you could show me, huh? I’ve only ever come to Torenomachi, and I’ve spent most of my time here at work or in your bed.”

“It wasn’t all bad, was it?” Sho joked. “I have a really nice mattress, don’t I?”

“You do, you do,” he said, laughing. “I’ll have to get one when I get to Orunitia, since my back really got used to it here. What’s the brand name?”

“I’ll send you all the details.”

“Send me all of your measurements too. I’ll order a custom body pillow shaped like you, in case I get lonely at night.”

“I’m definitely not sending you that information.”

“Come on,” Jun whined, voice already slurring, snuggling closer and making Sho laugh. “Come on, let me make a Sho pillow of my very own.”

“Learn to live without instead,” Sho said, speaking softly, just as slowly. “It’ll be worth the wait when you come back to me.”

Jun felt warmer. “Whatever you say.”

“If you custom order something like that either way, don’t send me pictures of it. I’d prefer to be kept ignorant this time.”

“Can’t believe I love someone so boring. Well, good night.”

It took a moment for Sho to respond to that.

“Can’t believe I love someone who wants to own me in body pillow form.” Sho released their hands, only to wrap an arm around his shoulder, bringing him closer instead. “Good night, Jun.”

They drifted off to sleep soon enough, sitting close together, the two of them alone in the dark.

///

.pisces.
the fish

///

The New Niigata Brotherhood of the Twelve Signs was in the main gallery for their monthly meeting, Sho in his office sitting on his hands and watching the monitors nervously. Another yearly cycle would soon come to a close. Businesses on Starside and Nightside were wrapping up accounts for the fiscal year now that the time of Pisces had come around again. Schools were carrying out their final examinations, with graduations and similar celebrations around the corner. Soon it would be spring again, the return of Aries, but for now it was the month of the fish, each member of the Brotherhood eating his own weight in sashimi from the finest restaurant in Torenomachi.

Instead of Watanabe Kuja’s writings, he’d opted to display some of the items he had celebrating the history of New Niigata, which was celebrating its five hundredth anniversary of existence that month. Old keys to buildings that had been torn down centuries earlier, a few chairs that had been crafted in one of the city’s earliest workshops. Sho had begrudgingly agreed to allow the Brothers to sit in one of the chairs, to take all the photos they wanted, since he technically had two of them in the collection. The celebration would soon come to a close, and come morning, the Brotherhood would return to the aerodrome for their flights home.

Sho knew more about the Torenomachi aerodrome’s flight schedules than he’d ever bothered to learn before, as he’d only traveled sparingly in the past to other domes. He’d mostly been to and from Karuizawa visiting his parents, but in the last few months, he’d probably been to every dome that was closer to Starside than Torenomachi was. He knew exactly how long a flight was from Torenomachi, how long from Orunitia. The impact of the time changes on the already overworked person he was meeting,

He hadn’t been able to engage in a lot of tourism once he’d arrived in any of the other domes. He’d mostly gotten to enjoy various hotel rooms, their room service options, the water pressure in their showers, the feeling of their mattresses beneath him. Perhaps one day he’d get to visit those domes for their actual tourist attractions. In three weeks, he’d head to Karuizawa once more. Jun had been able to arrange for a break of two whole days, and while Sho had already reserved their accommodations and desired restaurants, he figured it was pointless to look into anything else.

Jun didn’t like to talk about work when they met up, hinting only that things were going well enough, but that he wasn’t very happy having to report to both internal Matsumoto Air Company management as well as the shogunate folks overseeing the enhancements to racing. Jun had ideas about what would work best, had been brought in as an expert, but again and again, it seemed like the government folks were overruling him on various things, cutting the budget requests he made. It sounded frustrating, especially since Sho had never been beholden to anyone in terms of what to display in the galleries, how to run the museum once his father had retired. He couldn’t imagine how stifled Jun felt. But he knew what he was getting into, had kept his promise to his family despite how they’d treated him.

Midnight soon rolled around and Sho departed his office to see the Brotherhood off. Inohara-san was taking one last batch of photographs in the New Niigata chair, and Sho waited in the doorway, smiling at his enthusiasm despite the late hour. Sho’s cleaning crew was already coming in, clearing out the food to distribute amongst themselves and take home, courtesy of the Brotherhood’s generosity. Inohara spotted him, waving him over.

“Sakurai-san! Let’s have a photo together. Ken…Ken! One more, one more. Me and Sakurai-san together.”

Inohara’s fellow Brother waited patiently for Sho to come over. Inohara leaned back in the chair, striking a rather regal pose, gesturing for Sho to stand behind him. Sho did so, gently resting his hands on his guest’s shoulders.

Photographer Ken pointed the camera at them. “Alright, say ‘Pisces’!”

“Pisces!” he and Inohara shouted together, and several snaps later, Inohara got out of the chair, shaking his hand vigorously.

“Thanks again for coordinating the food, it was amazing. Just want to let you know that we might have to delay a week for next month’s celebration. I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more. Nagano-kun’s wife is due in a few weeks, but he’s got it in his head that he might get an Aries baby since his last kid was born a week late too.”

Sho looked around, didn’t see that Nagano-san was still in the room. “Ah, I didn’t even know. You should have said something! I didn’t get to congratulate him!”

Inohara waved him off with that big, cheerful smile of his. “I’ll get you his address, you can just mail him a card.”

Sho sighed. “A card isn’t enough…”

Inohara gathered his jacket and his briefcase, shoving his meeting minutes and other materials from the gathering back into it. “Sho-kun, you’ve always done too much for us. You send that guy anything more than a card, and he’s going to start sending you gourmet cheeses and other weird foodie things. It’ll just turn into an escalating war of who can spend more on thank you gifts, and I’m speaking from personal experience here.”

“Whatever you say,” Sho laughed, patting him on the back and escorting him out of the museum and out to the aircab queue.

He returned, exhaling a sigh of relief for another successful event. The cleaning crew helped Sho move the chairs and other New Niigata items to the vault entrance, heading back for the rest of their tidying. He took the items back into the vault, placing things back in their proper areas. He was leading a few school group tours the following day since Suzu-chan had exams to study for, and he spent a while at his work table ensuring he had some fun things to bring out that were okay for the kids to touch, things that weren’t terribly rare but old enough to have them bragging a little to their parents when they got home. He was just wrapping up when the intercom buzzed. The cleaning crew had already departed, so it was likely Masuda coming to tell him to go home and sleep already.

He pressed the button, seeing Masuda standing there with a happier than usual expression. “What are you so excited about?” Sho replied, unable to suppress a yawn. “It’s two in the morning…”

“You have a visitor,” Masuda said. “Hironomiya Virgo-san is back.”

Sho opened the vault door. “Go home!” he shouted back behind him as he took off running, hearing Masuda’s laughter echo off of the walls. He turned the corner, hurrying for the gallery. All of the tables and chairs from the Brotherhood meeting had been taken down and put away, leaving the gallery looking much like it had the first time Jun had paid him a visit here. It seemed like ages and ages ago.

This time he was standing in front of one of the newer displays Sho had put together a few months back. The Hironomiya Line: Decline and Fall. He had newspaper front pages on display, an audio box where visitors could listen to a radio announcement that the Emperor had been overthrown with the press of a button. To the right side of the case were twelve notches, eleven of them filled with a coin. Each with a name and information about the sons who’d been lost.

Jun didn’t bother to turn, standing there with his back to him, cane in hand and dressed in a dark blue trenchcoat, his hair a little longer than it had been the last time they’d met, over a month ago. Sho waited for a noise in the distance, the sound of the rear employee door opening and closing, proof that Masuda had done as requested and left. Finally he heard what he was waiting for, walking over to The Hironomiya Line: Decline and Fall and standing beside his unexpected guest.

Sho flinched a little as Jun tapped the glass with a fingertip. “The coin celebrating the birth of the twelfth and final son of Emperor Masahiko is missing,” Jun said, reading the placard in the case aloud. “It was rumored to have been aboard a skyliner bound for a collector in Estogaza when it crashed in heavy fog shortly after takeoff. The coin has not been and may never be recovered.”

“Did you come all the way here to critique my writing?”

Jun was in one of his well-loved pairs of specs, eyes tired and a few days of stubble dotting his face as he looked over. He was working too hard like always. “You’re making up your own history now? Doesn’t that go against everything you stand for?”

“The shogunate makes up history all the time,” Sho pointed out. “One little white lie in a museum full of truth is something I can live with, if it keeps people safe.”

Jun smiled at him. “Hi.”

“Hi. You didn’t say you were coming.”

“No, I didn’t,” he replied. “Thought it would be fun to surprise you. I actually have a meeting with our friends at Sobu Trading Incorporated in the morning, so I’m here on official business. I just got in an hour ago, thought I’d try you here first.”

It was the first time Jun had come all the way to Torenomachi since he’d left, and Sho loved that he was here, back at the museum, back in the space Sho cherished. He let Jun lean in, give a little tug on his tie to pull him close. Sho had never been so glad for a surprise, returning Jun’s kiss and wrapping his arms around him. Sho would have some security cam footage to erase before he could leave for the night, but for the moment, he didn’t care, enjoying the feeling of Jun’s mouth on his, the warmth of his body so close after weeks apart.

He was tired, knew they both were, but Jun removed his specs and put them in his pocket, giving Sho a push, backing him up until he hit the gallery wall, a few items rattling in a way that would usually give him heartburn, but he was too preoccupied to care. He had Jun’s tongue in his mouth, Jun’s hair between his fingers, Jun’s body pressed against his. It had been scattered moments like this for months now, almost all of their time together given over to physical need. Much as he enjoyed it, much as he craved it, he missed the rest even more. The smaller moments they’d shared, the feeling of waking up together, sharing a meal and simply enjoying each other’s company. It was difficult, their current arrangement, but it was better than nothing. Better than not having him in his life at all.

He eventually leaned back to catch his breath, still stroking his fingers through Jun’s messy hair. “Getting long,” he muttered.

“I’ve got a cut scheduled once I get back. I’m literally just here for the meeting, and then it’s back I go.”

Sho frowned. “That’s it?”

“That’s it, I’m afraid. You know Nino, he won’t do virtual meetings. He hates the lag time, doesn’t feel it’s secure enough.”

Sho nodded. “That sounds like him. Well, if you’re only here for a short time, are you just staying at the aerodrome aboard the Supersonic?”

“I can’t believe you’d ask me that,” Jun replied, his voice low and seductive. “When I came all the way here so I could impose on you for the night.”

It was then that Sho noticed that Jun had set an overnight bag down next to the display case. Sho in his hurry to see him hadn’t paid attention to anything that wasn’t Matsumoto Jun in the trenchcoat that fit him so well. “And what if I say no, I can’t have any visitors, my place is a mess?”

“Please,” Jun said. “Save the lies for your museum exhibits.”

He smiled. “I have a few things to wrap up, I’ll be ready to go soon. Just give me ten minutes.”

Instead of waiting for him in the gallery, Jun wouldn’t let him go, following him to his office, laughing and tickling him as Sho tried to erase the footage of them. “What, you think your security guard wouldn’t be happy to know you’re getting laid tonight?”

“Just for that, I’m ordering from my favorite breakfast place in the morning. Not yours.”

“I fly ten hours, and this is the treatment I receive,” Jun complained, ruffling his hair. “Don’t delete it, make me a copy to take home as a souvenir. Your ass looks so good in those pants…”

He clicked decisively anyhow, erasing it, turning in his chair to look up at him. “Oops. Sorry.”

Jun patted his head. “Let’s get out of here.”

Poor Ueda-kun was forced to fly them both to Tower Zero. Sho’s driver was never going to warm up to a Starsider, no matter how happy Jun made him. Sho decided it wasn’t a fireable offense. They’d made short work of their clothes once they were back in Sho’s apartment, tumbling into his bed. Soon enough Jun was back where Sho felt he belonged, by his side, breathing heavily as they came down from the highs they’d reached together. This was what he missed so much, having him here where he needed him, knowing he’d wake in the morning and still smell Jun’s scent on his sheets, would probably not bother to wash them for another day or two just to take comfort in knowing he’d been so close, lying beside him during the night.

Jun was already drifting off when Sho reached out, tracing his eyebrows, his cheekbones, thumb brushing the small mole beneath his bottom lip. Every little thing he adored.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Jun muttered, not opening his eyes, used to Sho’s poking and prodding whenever they met.

“Why are you meeting with Sobu Trading anyhow?”

“Top secret.”

“Top secret,” he repeated, grinning, loving the mumbly way Jun spoke just before sleep came to steal him away.

Jun brought his finger to his lips, nearly smacking Sho with his arm with the sudden motion. “Ssh, super ultra mega top secret.”

“Okay, okay,” he laughed. “Are we still on for Karuizawa later this month?”

“Of course. Aiba-kun said you should finally introduce me to your parents. Said your mother is the best.”

“He would say that,” Sho grumbled.

Jun leaned into his touch, obviously craving it as much as Sho craved his. “Don’t wanna talk about Karuizawa. Just wanna sleep now.”

“Okay,” Sho agreed, eyelids heavy, but he kept his eyes open, desperate to prolong the time they had together. He watched Jun, the rise and fall of his chest, the beauty marks that dotted his skin, memorizing every little detail he could until his body forced him to rest too.

///

He’d had to decline the last seven auction invites, the green envelopes with golden ribbons finding their way to him in Orunitia, but finally Jun had been able to accept one. The first of many, he hoped.

He hadn’t been to Torenomachi in nearly a year, but in the last few weeks everything had started to move and move quite fast. He’d arrived first, sending word only to his hosts that he was accepting their invitation. The Supersonic had barely docked before Jun was hurrying out, dressed in the most obnoxious outfit he’d been able to pull together before he’d left Orunitia. A purple plaid sport coat with a light yellow shirt and green polka dotted bow tie to show his gratitude for his hosts and the many invitations they’d sent him since they’d met.

Torenomachi never changed very much, nor had the grounds of Sobu Hall as the aircab dropped him off for that evening’s event just before midnight. He almost thought he wouldn’t make it, as there’d been a backup at the dome airlocks to get into the city, an unanticipated traffic jam. Nakamaru-kun was pleased to see him, taking the invitation from his hand and welcoming him again after his long absence. “The boss will be happy you’re back,” Nakamaru joked.

“I don’t doubt that,” Jun replied, heading in and finding that the decor was just as ridiculous as he remembered, men and women mingling and laughing as a small orchestra performed in the ballroom. It was Aiba who found him first, walking around with that glittery green eyepatch he certainly didn’t need. Jun remembered meeting him in person for the first time, Aiba’s laughing reaction when Jun had discovered that he hadn’t actually lost an eye.

Aiba pulled him into what he presumed was a servants’ passage. They made it several feet before Aiba started to slow down, turning back to look at him with an apologetic expression. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t think about…” He looked down. “You didn’t bring your cane tonight?”

“Been walking for a month without it,” Jun admitted. “I’m never going to win a race, but I’m doing a lot better.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it, especially since you’re probably going to be walking around, inspecting things a lot now, huh?”

Jun smiled. “I certainly will be.”

“We haven’t told him a thing, I swear,” Aiba said, escorting him down the corridor. They took a staircase up, emerging into the mansion’s grand library, where Nino was waiting for him on the balcony. Aiba disappeared, heading off to prepare for the auction.

Nino looked him up and down, taking a sip of his drink before opening his mouth. “You look ridiculous.”

“Only the best for you.”

Nino wrapped an arm around him, giving him a squeeze. “It’s good to see you, no matter how ugly your clothes are. I’m glad you could make it. Got lots of pricey shit up on the block tonight.”

“I bet you do,” he said with a laugh.

“Well, is it happening?” Jun nodded, seeing the huge smile on Nino’s face. “Wonderful. When?”

“Actually, as of tonight. We got the final land clearances we were waiting for, so the firms we’re contracting with will be starting preliminary work at the site in a few days.”

“Holy shit,” Nino cried, “you work fast, Matsumoto!”

He shrugged. “Just good at my job.”

“Well, you’ll have to let us know where you’re staying. Aiba-shi and I already picked out your housewarming gift. Surprise, it’s a bunch of lamps we just picked out replacements for here at the house.”

Jun laughed. “You guys are so cheap.”

“Ah! Ah, there he is.” Nino looked just past his shoulder. “He’s been wearing those flashy red pants to the last few auctions like they might have the power to summon you. Looks like they finally worked.”

Jun turned, heart catching like it still always seemed to do when he saw Sakurai Sho from across the room. He was on the lower level, walking among the casino tables, oblivious to the conversation happening on the level above. Everything had moved so quickly the last few months, they hadn’t been able to meet. But there he was, looking not so different from their first meeting. A little older perhaps, but still handsome and charming as ever. Jun loved the way the light caught his eyes, the way he smiled when he greeted and spoke to people. And of course those red pants that still fit his ass like a glove. Had it already been two years since that ridiculous night? The night Jun had bid on a boring-looking coin and his life had changed completely?

“Go on,” Nino urged him, giving him a playful shove. “Go tell him the good news.”

Jun was nervous, wasn’t sure exactly why as he eased his way down the spiral stairs to the library’s main floor, the roulette wheels spinning and the cigarillo smoke rising into the air as he saw Sho move to the double doors that looked out to the dark gardens of Sobu Hall. Perhaps he was remembering a night just like this two years ago as well. He approached quietly, waiting there until Sho finally saw the reflection of him in the glass, his body going slightly rigid in shock.

Slowly Sho turned, wearing a black jacket tonight instead of the shimmering silver one he’d worn when they’d met. But he still looked perfect. Absolutely perfect. And he said exactly what Jun expected him to say, even though they hadn’t seen one another in person for months.

“Where the hell did you find an outfit like that?”

“Toma,” Jun replied. “He sent it to me as a birthday gag gift last year.”

Sho smiled. “What are you doing here? You told me you were in meetings all this week.”

“I was. I have business in town.” He tried not to laugh when he saw Sho’s face fall, the obvious assumption that Jun was here only for a quick business meeting. “Hey,” he said, reaching out and patting Sho’s arm. “Can we take a walk?”

They headed out onto the patio, the pebbles crunching under their shoes as they left the mansion behind. Without words, they’d already decided where they would walk together. It was still difficult for Jun, returning to the darkness of Torenomachi after so many months away from Nightside, but he found that he almost welcomed it, the chilly dome and its dry air, after so many months answering to the whims of the Orunitia shogunate bureaucrats that nitpicked every damn thing he tried to get done.

There were more lights added to the fountain, at least more than Jun remembered, the jets of water spraying in elegant arcs, the multicolored lights bouncing off the mist, leaving a rainbow shimmer in the air as he and Sho came to a stop at the fence that surrounded the fountain and pond.

Sho turned sideways, looking at him fondly as he took in the fountain after such a long time away. Jun was about to explode with the news he had to share. Sho would probably be annoyed to find out now when this had been in the works for a while, but all the way up until the moment Jun had boarded the Supersonic to depart Orunitia, he’d expected his uncle or his father to change their minds, to pull him off the project and tell him he couldn’t go. But he’d been cleared, had left for Torenomachi with the Supersonic’s cargo space full of everything he’d ever owned in his life.

This was really happening.

“We finally got clearance for the manufacturing plant I was telling you about a while back. The one I’ll be running where we’ll be building racing ships exclusively.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Sho exclaimed. “I know you’ve been stuck on that for ages. You never told me what city ended up winning the bid for it. You said it was between what, Orunitia and Madainsari, right?”

“Actually,” Jun said slowly, tapping his hands nervously against the rail, “we received a new bidder about six weeks ago. We were just about to hand it to Orunitia, but this other city wanted it really, really badly. There was no way we could turn them down, even though they were late to the party. Orunitia and Madainsari combined wouldn’t have been able to top their offer. They promised us complete autonomy, prime real estate to construct the plant and land rights to it for at least the next fifty years. No taxes on anything, something the shogunates would never have been able to come back with, since they always take their cut. Basically, the city gave us everything we needed and more because it’s going to create a lot of skilled jobs here.”

Jun watched Sho absorb the information he was giving him. It was only when he brought up the no tax thing that he saw Sho’s jaw drop.

“So yeah,” Jun continued, keeping his voice nonchalant. “We went with them over Orunitia and Madainsari. I’ve been working my ass off the last few weeks getting the final approvals on it, since we didn’t know if Orunitia was going to file a challenge, but luckily I had some local backing in the city to smooth things over, keep things on track. I’m really going to have to drop some credits in the auction tonight to repay Nino and Aiba for everything they did to help me.”

“Jun…”

“Yes?”

“When you told me before that you would be running this plant, you said that you’d be overseeing the entire operation. Construction, launch, and so on.”

“Hmm,” he replied. “Yeah, I think that’s what I said. You’re right. I have to relocate permanently since, after all, that manufacturing plant is going to be the future of the Matsumoto Air Company Racing Division. It only makes sense that I need to live where that plant is going to be built. But I’ve still got one problem I haven’t solved yet, and I was actually hoping you could help me.”

Sho was smiling now, and in the light from the fountain, Jun could see his eyes were were full of happy tears. “I’d be glad to help you. Anything you need, you know I’m always here for you,” Sho replied.

“Great,” Jun said, turning to look at Sho straight on. “Here’s the problem. I’ve just moved to Torenomachi, but I don’t have a place to live yet. Do you have any recommendations?”

Sho moved so fast that Jun thought he’d knock them both over with the force of it, but Jun reached out to the railing for support as Sho kissed him, wrapped his arms around him. Jun smiled against Sho’s mouth, taking his face between his hands and returning Sho’s kiss with equal enthusiasm.

“Wait,” Sho said suddenly, moving away, Jun feeling his heavy breaths against his face. He tried to lean forward, continue what they’d started, but Sho was laughing.

“What?” Jun asked, exasperated, nearly vibrating with the need to kiss him again. “What, what’s the problem now?”

“When you were here…last year…and you had a super secret meeting with Sobu Trading…?”

Jun exhaled, giggling at Sho’s ridiculous memory. “You don’t forget a damn thing I tell you…”

Sho’s arrogant look in reply made Jun ridiculously happy. “No, I don’t.”

“Well,” Jun explained. “That meeting was where I first presented my plan for the plant. I told them we had offers from Orunitia and Madainsari already. And I asked what would need to happen to get Torenomachi to put in a winning bid, knowing construction would be starting…well, now. We eventually figured it out, so here we are. And here I am. With you. Forever.” He ducked his head, a little embarrassed. “Which I’m assuming is fine with you.”

“You kept this from me for a year.”

“I have a bad habit of concealing things from you, I know, but there was a reason for this, I swear. If the Torenomachi bid fell through and I got your hopes up…”

Jun jumped when he saw the flash overhead, saw the colors and heard the loud bang, clinging to Sho as the fireworks surprised him. They looked up, taking in the beautiful display together, the way the dome lit up and the shimmering light faded, only to be replaced with the next surge of color and the next.

He felt Sho take his hand, squeeze tight, once the fireworks ended, the darkness returning as the smoke was sucked away by the dome’s air filters. Sho’s voice was rather teasing when he spoke again. “I bet you can’t make it all the way through the auction without giving in.”

Jun laughed at the sudden challenge. He hoped that was one thing that wouldn’t change between them, no matter how long they were together. He supposed he’d just have to buy up everything at the next Sobu Hall auction. “I bet you can’t even make it inside without giving in.”

“I bet you can’t even make it back to the garden path without giving in.”

“Yeah,” Jun decided. “you’re right. I can’t.”

He didn’t care if the ugly purple plaid jacket got covered in grass stains, didn’t care if anyone else was out in the gardens that night. He lay down, tugging Sho along with him, touching him, kissing him like he’d been waiting to do for months.

Two years ago, he’d hated what his life had become, surrounded by strangers, trapped here in the dark without a reason to keep going. Without any motivation, without anything to excite him. He was lucky, so damn lucky, that he’d jokingly lifted that auction paddle, bidding on a worthless coin and starting him on the path that had eventually led him here.

Back to this fountain.

Back to these gardens.

Back into the dark.

And back into the arms of the person he loved. For good.

Comments

[mae74]

Just finished this story - it was so good! I loved all of it 😊

[64907]

Ahhh this was such a fantastic read!! There’s a lot of great things here, obviously, but I really want to let you know how much I liked the idea of Ohno being this chill, carefree dude living his best life in some secret, Bermuda Triangle levels of a place. It fit him so well, and given his backstory, I was really relieved the coin went to him in the end. No offense to Sho’s passion for the things but damn, Ohno deserved to have that particular one, and I was happy that Sho here felt the same.

Ofc the development between hotshot daredevil MJ and his history nerd of a bf was a delight too; chef’s kiss to all that teasing and betting back and forth they’ve got going on, good for them, good for them!! Really like how Nino and Aiba acted as the best support system for them to find their way around one another, bec lbr, without outside intervention, it would probably take them even longer than they already did in this fic to get together lmao.

Shoutout to your amazing cameos btw: Udo-san and her generous donation (if Sho doesn’t appreciate them I will), Yoshimura and his cute relationship with Jun, Toma who’s a genius and the perfect dude to consult for any MJ-quality, ott surprises, and ofc, the “you hurt Aniki and you die” Ueda. I kept laughing whenever Ueda didn’t bother to hide the threat in his gaze.

I gotta say I was a little worried these two would settle for LDR for good but I’m glad Jun once again brought out his “I hate surprises but I love planning for them” attitude and even had Nino and Aiba help him with it. Nothing beats having a lonely, broken dude finding happiness in the most unlikely of places with the most unlikely person. Much as I love Sho, I really felt a lot for the Jun here, so I’m just relieved that guy gets to stay with his bf in the end.

Thank you for creating this entire universe! I did say in the other comment that I never played FF, so I’m sure there’s a couple more great stuff I missed, but the ones I didn’t, well, they certainly created this wholesome image in my head. I’ll be happily thinking of this AU for a while, that’s for sure. So thank you for sharing this wonderful fic! Truly had a blast reading it. :)