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TITAN’S QUEST Part 3 From the cliff, the ocean looked peaceful. Rays of the rising sun bouncing off the surface of water making it appear almost normal. Almost – the sickly, purplish taint was still visible, and the morning breeze also brought with it the smell. Not particularly strong, or even bad one… But weird. Alien. And definitely acidic to some degree. Still, the view was beautiful, almost like on that trip to Croatia with his parents. The biggest difference was that swimming here would probably get him hospitalised. A slight rumble arose from one of the tents. After a few seconds, another rumble. Then, familiar quakes. Ichi looked out of her tent with a worried expression and scanned the campsite, until finally locating his tiny form. She let out a sigh of relief and walked up, then sat next to him, putting her legs over the cliff. „Thank God… For a second, I though I’ve crushed you by an accident,” she muttered, her usual, stoic demeanor punctured with worry and concern. „Good morning to you too, dear.” He looked up and smiled. „And do not worry, you’ve been a very… peaceful sleeper.” „Still, it was irresponsible of me. I apologise.” He looked at her with a curious expression. „Is something wrong?” she asked with a hint of worry. „No. It’s just funny. Never expected to hear that from a dragon.” „… You thought I was unable to apologise?” she asked, a little offended. „No no, it’s not that.” He waved his hands. „It’s just that you felt the need to apologise to… to me.” She looked at him curiously for a few seconds before a look of realisation appeared on her face. „No, of course I don’t see you as a plaything, little one,” she said affectionately and lowered her hand towards him. But then, with visible effort, stopped herself half a meter above him. „Can I pick you up?” He nodded. „How considerate. Of course.” Her fingers wrapped around him, gently enveloping him in the familiar warmth of tonight’s bed. „I could get used to it, you know… Being held like that is… nice.” he said, once pressed against her chest. „I can imagine.” she responded with a soft smile, beginning to gently pet his head with her thumb. The sun was now fully visible, revealing the coastline in its full, sickly splendour. Over time, the petting grew more anxious. He looked up and saw that she was staring behind her. „Something’s wrong?” he asked. She focused on him again. „No, I’m just wondering when my sisters will wake up.” He chuckled. „Well, you made sure they weren’t sleeping before we were.” Ichi rolled her eyes, her cheeks taking the slightest tint of pink. „Hush…” Her grip tightened ever so slightly. „I didn’t intend to go… as far as I did.” He thought about it for a few seconds. „Do you regret it?” She focused on his eyes, maintaining composure. „… No,” she replied cautiously. „Neither do I.” He shrugged. “So everything is fine.” She smiled at him, unconvinced. A loud rumble from behind followed by a loud yawn informed them that someone woke up. „Get up, Ken. It’s day already.” Ni’s voice echoed. „Mhhh…” came out a whimpering response. A slap and yelp followed. Soon enough, Ni emerged from her tent, pulling sleepy and unhappy Kendall behind her. Ni noticed them, a predatory grin appearing on her face. „Had a fun night, did you two?” Ni asked, eyelids fluttering. Ichi scoffed, but Peter smiled with a bit of mischief. „Ni, it seems like you do not know your own sister. She plays calm and collected, but when it came to it, she pounced on a man she knew for less than a day.” Ichi flinched at his words. He didn’t need to look up to feel her gaze – annoyed and embarrassed at the same time. Ni burst into laughter. „You bastard…” Ichi whispered right above him. As Ni continued to lose her shit, Ichi gripped him almost uncomfortably tight, stood up, and handed him over to Kendall. „Don’t let him get even more cocky,” Ichi commented, then slapped Ni in the back of the head, ending her outburst „Packing up.” “Awww, why the sour face, Cutichi?” asked Ni with a shit-eating grin. Ichi looked at her, resembling a pot of boiling water barely contained by a lid. “… I’m gonna kick your ass one day…” she sighed, choosing to double down on holding the lid “Pack up.” Ni obliged, but a mocking grin remained glued to her face. He found himself in the hands of the smallest dragon, while others went on dismantling the camp quickly and efficiently. „Uhmmm… h-hello… little one.” whispered Kendall. „Hello dear. Did you sleep well?” She smiled at him innocently and nodded. „Ni was nice to you?” Her eyes quickly glanced at her sister who was still on the verge of another outburst of laughter. „Y-yes… She was very nice… I mean not the whole time, b-but… she tried. It’s almost scary s-seeing her like… like this.” The entire camp was rolled and stuffed into two peculiarly shaped backpacks, big even for them. Two sisters put them on, but on their fronts instead of backs… which looked stupid, but was logical, considering their enormous wings. „Ready to go, Kendall?” asked Ichi. „Uhmmm…” she glanced at the water with anxiety, absent-mindedly squeezing him. Great, a new worry unlocked – getting crushed in her hands by an accident during the flight. Ichi spread out her wings. „Let’s go then.” Then, the world exploded. All three took off, each flap moving untold masses of air, ripping out grass and bushes from the earth beneath, each loud as a thunderclap. He covered his ears, hiding below the line of Kendall’s fingers in genuine fear of going deaf from the experience. The gravity increased. All he could see from his position was Kendall’s neck and face – currently focused on something in front of her – flanked by two titanic wings. Incomprehensibly strong, yet beautiful at the same time. Sublime was the right word. After a while, the direction of gravity changed, the intensity of the wing claps decreased, and they began gliding. Finally daring to look outside he saw the purplish waters of the ocean hundreds of meters below him. He pulled back, trying to get a better grip on Kendall’s finger. Following Kendall’s eyes, he saw Ichi’s form gliding in front of them, and Ni’s a little to the right. The rays of sunlight hit their forms, scattering on the scales of gold and created golden halos around them. They looked angelic. No, divine. He shook his head, reminding himself not to become a cultist of some strange new faith. The wind blowing into his face forced him to retreat behind Kendall’s palms. Not that he minded. Soon, he got pulled a little closer to her chest, almost forcing him to cuddle against it. Her attention returned to him. „It’s incredible!” he shouted, trying to push his voice through the wind and thunderclaps. Kendall smiled happily at him. „I’ve told you. F-flying is quite something, little one.” „Something? It’s the best thing ever!” He heard an amused rumble inside her chest. „Y-yes, but we are going to fly for several hours. Try getting… comfortable.” „Don’t worry about me! I could spend days in your hands!” She chuckled, focusing on flying yet again. As the hours went by, the same, repetitive view below got boring. He exchanged an occasional word with Kendall but overall left her alone to focus on flying. Distracting her for too long risked falling into water. After a long while, he felt a sudden decline in gravity. A moment of panic subsided when it became clear Kendall wasn’t falling, merely losing altitude. Towards a massive island he could not see the other end of. As Kendall got lower and lower, the terrain features became recognizable. A volcanic island, created by an entire chain of now dormant volcanoes running along its middle like a rocky spine. But the most peculiar thing about the island… it was not a toxic wasteland, unlike nearly all others since the Kaiju fiasco – the coastline was definitely roughened, but the inside still teemed with lush, exotic vegetation intersected with small lakes and rivers. A paradise. It hit him that he had stared for too long and the ground was now dangerously close. Curling into a ball the moment Kendall’s feet hit the earth, leaving small craters and sending vibrations through his body. „Is… Is everything all right?” she asked, her voice dripping with worry. He opened his eyes again, encountering her concerned gaze. Still a bit shaken, he uncurled. „Y…Yes… I’m fine.” She smiled with relief and petted his head one last time, before setting him down on the ground, next to her right foot, before stretching and relaxing her sore from exertion body. Once again, he felt incredibly small – the perspective change too drastic to adjust to. His brain insisted to stop messing around and stand up, that he was lying on the ground and that’s why the trees were so big. Reality quickly adjusted to his brain’s insistent wishes – a massive foot hit the ground a few meters in front of him, tripping him. „Damn it’s good to be on the ground again…” Ni muttered, putting her backpack on the ground and stretching herself. „Certainly,” responded Ichi, following through. He watched in silence, equal parts intimidated and awestruck. „Where’s the midget?” Ni asked. „Wher…” Ichi tensed up. “WHAT?!” She eyed Kendall in panic, noting her empty hands. Before Kendall could respond, Ichi ran up to her. „KENDALL WHERE IS HE?!” Ichi screamed, shaking her by the shoulders. „I’m here!” he shouted from behind Kendall’s foot. And quite literally at that since Ichi’s footsteps managed to make him lose balance once again. Ichi’s eyes darted towards him. She let out a huge sigh of relief, got on her knees with enough force to knock him over for the third time in a row. „Kendall… You can’t just put him on the ground without telling anyone.” Ichi whispered, cradling him like a treasure. „Yeah… I almost stepped on him… Sorry, midget,” Ni almost apologised. He cleared his throat, the true extent of what had just happened finally getting to him. He almost became a stain on her sole… „W-well… I’m glad you didn’t… But you did manage to knock me down…” he responded, trying to defuse the situation at least a little bit, seeing Kendall still hiding behind her hands. Ichi held him close. And very firmly at that. Almost… possessively. Ni smirked a. “Eh, I bet you like getting knocked on yer mini-ass by big girls like me anyways.” He huffed but returned the favour. “Big girls? Are you calling yourself fat?” Ni blinked sheepishly, before snorting with amusement. “Fuck you, midget. Next time I will step on you on purpose,” she promised. Ichi stood up again, cradling him like a delicate treasure. “I-I… I’m sorry…” Kendall whispered through tears. “Hey! Ken! Look at me!” he snapped his fingers a few times to get her attention. She opened one of her bloodshot eyes. “I’m fine. See? Nothing happened. Just be more careful next time. Okay?” She slowly nodded, forcing her eyes to stop producing tears. “Yes… everyone needs to be more careful from now on. Understood?” Ichi gave them all a stern look. Kendall nodded and sobbed. “Well, no shit. The midget could get splattered by one finger,” Ni commented. „That includes you too.” Ichi informed him. “I mean… I could just scream the entire time when I’m on the ground. Would that help?” Ichi scoffed. “Damn you, you absolute moron. You almost died and that’s how you react?” she growled with a mixture of worry and annoyance. “Ichi… let it go, really.” He shrugged. “Yeah, she’s throwing a fit for no reason. Gimmie that, it’s my turn to hold him anyways…” Ni extended her arm to grab him. Ichi recoiled but then sighed and let her have him… at least for now. As he got comfortable in Ni’s grip, the other two sisters calmed down from their respective tantrums. Ichi began scanning the area, venturing a little bit into the forest. Suddenly, he heard a loud sniff above him. Looking up, he saw Ni’s snout lowering towards him to take a long whiff. “Damn…” Ni smirked. “So that did work…” He suddenly realised what she was smelling. He has gotten used to it at this point, but the fact of the matter was that his entire body still smelled like… Ichi. More specifically, like a certain part of Ichi. He invited her to lower her head. “I hope you will tease your poor sister for it for rest of her life,” he whispered. Ni snored, trying not to burst into laughter. “Don’t you worry… I never forget.” „Good.” He nodded. „Any… specific tips?” she asked slyly. He thought for a moment, then returned the exact same smile. “Ask her if she’d like another ‘massage’ and watch her reaction.” Ni giggled evilly and patted his head with her thumb. They looked at Ichi searching the forest for a few seconds before he realised something. She looked about as you would expect a normal person to look like in a forest… well, if you ignore tail, horns, and wings… But she was far from normal – she was a Titan. The trees around them were absolutely massive. “What… What is this place?” he asked curiously. Ichi turned around, focusing on him. “It’s an island of course,” she responded, looking Ni straight in the eyes. “No, I mean… How is everything here so big?” he specified. “I honestly do not know.” She shrugged with a weird stiffness. “But at least we know it is the right place.” “Okay, full stop…” He raised his hands. “Can you tell me WHY is this the right place? You know, tell me why you went through all this effort to bring me here?” Ichi sighed, looked around one last time and focused on him again. “I guess we are safe for the time being, so… okay… You see little one, there’s a… creature here on the island that we are trying to find. Or more precisely, to hunt it…” “Okay…” he slowly replied. “Why do you want to hunt that creature specifically?” Ichi quickly glanced at Ni, giving her a stern gaze, before returning her attention to him. “Because it’s extremely dangerous. If left alone, it’s a huge threat to everything and everyone. But currently it’s on this island and it’s the best chance to deal with it before it destroys anything else. As far as we know, it’s dangerous and unpredictable to the extreme.” “So like Ni?” he couldn’t help himself from commenting. “H-hey! Stupid midget, I’m not unpredictable!” Ni scoffed. “Ah right, sorry. You are extremely predictable,” he replied, looking up at her. She frowned. “Fuck you. You know what I meant.” Ichi was looking at their exchange in disbelief. “If you’re finished…” “Yeah, right…” He cleared his throat. “Ichi, I have to ask… How am I of any help here? I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but…” He gestured at his body. “… Couldn’t you just… let Ni loose and be done with it?” Ichi smirked but shook her head. “No, midget,” Ni replied. “I’m… I like to fight, but I’m not suicidal.” She shook her head. “We do not need you to fight it of course,” Ichi began once his gaze returned to her. “We have a problem to solve. Or rather, it’s a problem we brought you to solve, little one. We… need you.” “Well, I would be pretty mad if it turned out that you didn’t…” He shrugged. „Tell me what species the thing is or at least describe it.” Ichi nodded. “It is a member of the Kaiju species, or at least that’s how humans call them. From what we know, it appeared on this island a while ago and began wrecking and eating everything…” “Then it’s not a Kaiju,” he interrupted. She looked at him surprised. „… Why?” “Because Kaijus do not eat.” “What?” Ni asked, equally surprised. “Yes, it’s one of their basic traits. Kaijus do not have a digestive system. They have mouths, jaws, and teeth, but their only purpose is to fight and damage stuff, not eat. Instead of a stomach and guts and… all that other stuff, they have their cavities filled with tissues meant to store energy…” He looked at their expressions and decided to clarify. “… you know, fat, or at least some equivalent of it. They use those energy reserves for bursts of rapid regeneration. That’s exactly why they are so hard to kill – unless you quite literally decapitate them or cleave them in half, they will heal within like… thirty seconds.” His lecture was met with silence and contemplation. “Wait, if they can’t eat, then how are they getting all this fat? And how are they even able to… live?” Ni asked, her brows furrowing. “Exactly.” He pointed at her. “They can not survive for longer than a few months. They use up all of their energy and die. And they also lack any reproductive systems. Which is exactly why we know for sure that they are NOT natural creatures, even in their place of origin, wherever that might be. They are living weapons, made specifically to be used, and discarded.” He paused for dramatic effect. “That’s how we know we are at war.” When he looked up, he saw that Ni was… concerned. Ichi and Kendall on the other hand looked like they would be sweating, were they not reptiles. “How do you know all of this?” Ichi prodded. “Well, we’ve been fighting them for decades non-stop at this point.” He spread out his arms. “They’ve almost ended the world, so it would be weird if we didn’t check what they were and how they worked, right?” Ichi nodded and began thinking about something intensely. “Question.” Ni raised her free hand. “You said that… you do not know, where the Kaijus come from? Aren’t they just… from the ocean?” He let out the air out of his lungs and scratched his head. Another lecture about stuff that was half-classified and half-rumours. “No. They come through… rifts. Portals.” He made a circle with his hands. “It’s like a door that leads… somewhere far away. Those rifts just appear at the bottom of the ocean, but from what I remember only below certain depth… for whatever reason,” he explained and saw that Ni was opening her mouth again. “Before you ask – yes, we’ve tried to close the rifts. Nothing happens if you bomb them from our side. We’ve tried that… a lot. I think we’ve managed to close the first one by putting a bomb inside a Kaiju carcass and sending it through or something, but it simply opened again a while later and even Kaijus couldn’t go back through it anymore. Then we tried to set up ships and outposts around the rift to just… kill Kaijus right as they were emerging. But after two weeks of that the rift closed and opened somewhere else. And it continued to do that whenever we found it and tried to set up around it. Earth’s oceans are simply too big to monitor, so we had to fall back.” “… It’s really bad, isn’t it?” Ni asked, her usual cockiness gone. He nodded. “You don’t know the half of it.” “Yes… that is all good to know I guess…” Ichi sighed. “But we are still quite certain it is a Kaiju. It looks like one and acts like one, except it also eats.” “Or maybe it’s just a feral Titan?” he proposed. She shook her head. “No, it’s a Kaiju. We know about it from a…” she hesitated. “A human researcher. Yes, we’ve met a human researcher who got stranded.” Ni raised an eyebrow, but Ichi gave her another stern gaze, which caused Ni to nod submissively. He watched their interaction, wondering if they were hiding something from each other, or just from him. Not that it mattered too much, seeing how dependent on them he was. “Riiight…” He rolled his eyes. “And what did this ‘researcher’ tell you then? Why is this supposed Kaiju so dangerous?” “It is bigger,” Ni informed. “Like, way bigger than other Kaijus.” Ichi looked at her with a hint of worry and nodded. “Yes, but its size is not the main problem. You see, apparently it is armoured. It has an almost invincible hide… I mean, we were told so that at least.” “Invincible armour?” he asked after a few seconds. “Yes. Nothing can hurt it,” Ni confirmed. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “So let me get this straight… You’ve brought me… ME.” He pointed at himself with both hands. “To defeat a creature that is virtually immortal?” he said, strongly accenting each and every word. “Yeah, it sounds pretty stupid when you say it out loud.” Ni admitted. Ichi sighed and rolled her eyes. “I know it sounds ridiculous. But the thing has a weak spot.” “Well, it would be nice to know what is that weak spot,” he grumbled. “It’s a… What do you midgets call it? That hole in the belly?” Ni asked, circling her abdomen. “Belly button?” he helped, noting its absence on either of them. “Yeah, that. It’s soft. The only place where it can be damaged. It’s like… half your height in diameter or something.” He paused and looked up at her, wondering if she’s serious. Apparently, she was. “That… is and INCREDIBLY specific spot. How do you expect to exploit it?” he asked, letting them know his frustration. “That’s exactly why we brought you. Humans are really good at figuring things out… At making things… So figure it out,” Ichi concluded. He sat down in Ni’s palms and began wondering how the hell he got caught up in this. “Have you tried just… contacting the military and telling them about it?” “Humans do not react well to us, as you might’ve noticed,” Ichi responded dryly. “… Yeah, right…” he nodded, cursing himself for his stupidity. And so, he began thinking. Truth be told, he was certain that an artillery, or a tank shell could quite easily be fired with enough precision to hit such a small spot… Problem was, a single tank shell wouldn’t do shit, even if he had a tank. Same with a rocket – the smaller ones which would actually fit was more likely give the Kaiju a stomachache than anything else. He also had less than a snowball’s chance in hell to convince the military to intervene in the middle of nowhere that was this island. If killing it through the weak spot wasn’t feasible, there was also the option of simply going through the supposedly invincible armour. He doubted that it would survive a nuclear blast… But then again, how would he ever get his hands on a warhead? They weren’t exactly common, especially after North Korea demonstrated that using nukes to deal with Kaijus was extremely expensive and only worked if you haven’t run out of them. A strong enough railgun would also most likely shoot through the armour, but once again, how to get it? He could probably build one if he had a team, a laboratory and a shitton of resources, but right now, he had nothing. And even then, a clean shot through the Kaiju wouldn’t be lethal in majority of situations, even if it ripped through its brain… “We don’t expect you to figure it out right away of course, but time is of the essence unfortunately,” Ichi informed. “I’m thinking…” He raised his finger, trying to not lose the train of thought. The titans mumbled something between themselves and began walking through the forest in an unknown direction. All the vegetation was huge, not only the trees. Bushes, strange flowers, even the occasional lianas were massive. The island literally looked like it was made for bigger creatures. No, no sightseeing – problem solving for now, please. There was also the option of using heat-based weapons. If he made a flamethrower… No, stupid, those dragons literally breathed fire, they wouldn’t ask for help if they could just roast it. Something even hotter. Lasers? No, same issue as the railgun – small wound that would quickly regenerate, even if he could focus the beam long enough on one spot to breach the armour. All it left was plasma and… yeah… Good luck with that. Plasma made for a terrible projectile in the atmosphere. It left him with two options – either some sort of suicide plasma-spewer, or a plasma-based melee weapon. The first one he could maybe make, but he really didn’t like the concept of plasma getting wildly spewed right in front of the user… and even if, it would still require the user to get stupidly close, which meant that even if the weapon didn’t kill the user, the enraged Kaiju would. So, a melee weapon then? Yeah, the weapons that Jaegers of Mark 6 and onwards used would just decapitate it basically no matter what... But if he was already asking for a Jaeger, he might as well ask for divine intervention – it would spare him some steps and was about as likely. So maybe going through the armour was also unreasonable. Maybe there is a way to ignore it, or bypass it entirely? Radiation? Microwave beams, or… He raised his head. “That’s it!” he shouted, standing up. Three sisters stopped, directing their gazes at him. “You have an idea? Already?” Ichi asked curiously. “That’s… unexpected.” “Yes, but I need to know, what it eats,” he exclaimed. “What it…” She shook her head “What does that have to do with anything?” “Do you know, or not?” “I… I mean…” Ichi scratched her head and looked at Ni. “How would I know?” Ni shrugged. “It eats something, but I don’t know what exactly.” “Damn…” He punched his own head in frustration. “If we knew…” “Tell me your plan anyways,” Ichi encouraged. He took a deep breath. “Well… The creature is basically invincible from the outside, except for a stupidly small spot on its belly. There is virtually no way to exploit it in any meaningful way. And I do know several ways of piercing through its armour, even if its borderline invincible… but those methods are either unreasonable, or completely inaccessible to me. That being said… Why bother trying to play by its rules?” he asked with a slight smile on his face. “… What do you mean ‘by its rules’?” Ichi asked. He grinned and rubbed his hands. “It was made to be impervious from the outside. It expects attacks from the outside. But it is not armoured from the inside. How could it? We could simply hide explosives in its food and detonate them once the Kaiju eats it. Boom. You get minced meat in impenetrable armour.” Ichi looked at him sheepishly, visibly astonished. Kendall’s eyes were jumping between him and Ichi, awaiting a response in great anticipation. But it was Ni who broke the silence first. With laughter. “Pfff haha! Who would have thought the midget’s head would be so smart? You fit a lot of brain there, eh?” She squeezed his head between her fingers. “Blow it up from the inside… So simple that it’s almost stupid!” “C-could it… work?” Kendall asked quietly. He massaged his head, trying not to think about the pressure it was just subjected to. “Well, of course it COULD, I wouldn’t bring it up if I it couldn’t… but…” Ichi raised her head to look at him once again, her eyes filled with hope and worry in equal parts. “But… What? Are there any downsides? Low chances of success? Danger?” “Well for the main one... I can make some simple explosives, if you find me some saltpeter, but if the creature is bigger than you, we will need something high yield to damage it beyond its ability to regenerate. And I do not have the substrates… the ingredients, nor the laboratory to make them here….” He looked around. “I take you don’t have a hidden stash of weapons somewhere here?” Ichi shook her head and sighed. “No… We don’t have anything like that…” “That’s what I thought.” He shrugged. “Well, if you had told me what we were dealing with BEFORE we got to the island, we could have just grabbed some from the mines, shops, or… whatever...” He thought for a second and smiled smugly. „I guess you were just too busy moaning all night to think about it.” Ichi’s eyes went wide open, her face instantly flashing completely red. She turned away, hiding behind her hands. Ni coughed from surprise, then let out a sound resembling a giant kettle whistle, bent in half and laughed. “Midget stop! You’re killing me!” Ni yelled, then panted heavily, trying to compose herself. “… I wasn’t moaning… all night…” Ichi squeaked, which caused Ni to lose her shit completely, wheezing and coughing on her knees. He grabbed onto Ni’s shaking thumb, trying not to fall or get wiped into the ground, while Ichi eyed them with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Ni finally managed to somewhat compose herself after half a minute or so, though she was still shaking and giggling every few seconds. “High five.” Ni snickered to him, repositioning her right hand. He hit it with his own hand, making a slight plap. “Right… We still need to figure out how to get you those damn materials,” Ichi grumbled, trying to restore at least a sliver of her dignity. “There are some other issues as well…” he said, returning to a more serious tone „More minor than the… complete lack of fucking explosives, but still important.” Ichi nodded, trying to desaturate her face back into gold. “Which are?” “The main one is that neither me, nor any scholar has any idea how strong this Kaiju’s digestive acids are. I will have to make acid-proof casings for the bombs. The second one is that we need to have them remotely detonated, for… obvious reasons.” he shrugged, imagining himself getting eaten by a kaiju on purpose. “So I need some electronics for that. The third one is... The plan might just be impossible. If the Kaiju in question is some kind of... giant anteater, then hiding explosives in its food will be simply impossible to do, because of the size of meat it consumes.” He spread out his arms. “There are simply too many unknown variables, I do not know for which ones I should prepare. I... We need more data. More information. Simple as.” Ichi facepalmed and hesitated. “…Well… we do know that it is not an… anteater or whatever… That researcher said it was eating something larger. Right?” she looked up at Ni. “Pfff, yeah, about right.” She nodded, still grinning. He quickly glanced at Ni, before returning his gaze to Ichi. “I still would like some more information, before making any further plans, or promises. The best way would be to just… see it.” “We’ll… think about it…” Ichi responded. He nodded, prompting them to resume their march. The environment began changing, as they climbed higher and higher. Earth made way for rocky terrain, trees turned into bushes and the temperature noticeably dropped. “Another question. How quickly do you want it dead? He prodded again. “As fast as possible obviously,” Ichi muttered. “Before it ruins this island and moves on.” “What I meant was that… We have to figure out what it eats… And stall it with food until we are ready to strike. You know, get a lot of its favourite food and start dumping it around the place we want to keep it…” Ichi nodded. “A decent plan… And he might become less aggressive if he is constantly satiated.” “It works with Ni after all,” he remarked. Ni scoffed and knocked him over onto his back with one finger. “Shut yer damn trap, midget!” Ichi smirked, happy that he wasn’t sparing anyone… Or that Ni wasn’t sparing him either. Probably both. “First, we set up camp. There is a remote, hidden place on this mountain where it’s basically impossible for him to wander into by an accident.” Ichi gestured towards the mountain in front of them. “Yes… We can figure out the rest later…” “Why didn’t we just land over there in the first place?” Ni interrupted. “Well, the Kaiju could have seen us when we were flying, right? We landed on the beach, so if it goes there, we will be somewhere else,” Ichi explained. “But it’s blind.” Ichi suddenly stopped and turned around, giving her sister an incredulous look. “Uhhh… yeah, the researcher told us about it… remember?” said Ni, trying not to look her in the eyes. Ichi just stared at her in disbelief, then suddenly remembered about him, and growled. “…Yes… Of course, how could I forget such a crucial information…” she drawled and facepalmed. “W-wait… he’s blind?” Kendall asked curiously. As he sat in Ni’s palms, he began wondering how long it would take them to stop bullshitting and tell the truth. He had a pretty good idea how the truth looked like but seeing them wriggle round like this was just too amusing. All stubborn as all hell and to a fault committed to the bit. “Right…” He sighed. “Since we’ve already left our scent marks all over the place for him to pick up, we might as well hurry.” Ichi nodded, approaching the limits of her patience. “We will be sleeping in a colder place than usual…” she grumbled, before getting a hold of herself. “And setting up the tents will take a more time than usual, thanks to the rocky ground.” “Doesn’t concern me.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t help you with that regardless.” “Yeah, you’re about as useful as a wet tissue.” Ni prodded him with a finger. He looked up and saw a mocking expression betraying just how desperate she was to get back at him for earlier. “Oh don’t worry, I will not forget how you’ve chickened out of this fight,” he scoffed. Her smile dropped. She didn’t like it. Not one bit. “Shut yer damn mouth, or I’ll bite yer head off, fucking midget!” she pressed down at him with a finger. “You like me way too much to do this…” he huffed, having trouble breathing. Ni recoiled. “Fuck you. I don’t like yer midget ass. I just… like your shittalk,” she angrily insisted. He heard an almost silent laughter coming from Ichi. Ni turned her head. “SHUT UP! Both of you! It’s not like that!” “Of course… You are simply shapeshifting into a tomato, that’s all…” he said as smugly as his compressed chest allowed, using the exact same lie she had used on Kendall a few days ag… no, barely yesterday… huh… She snapped back to him, but before figuring out a response, Ichi began laughing and nudged Kendall with an elbow, prompting her to do the same. She focused on them once again, desperately trying to put on a threatening expression. “SHUT!!! UP!!!” she yelled so loud that her words almost transitioned into a roar. But it had completely the opposite effect. Ichi laughed even harder, holding her stomach. “Ohhh… Ni…” She wheezed with a hint of malice in her eyes. “I’ve never seen you red before… You look so damn cute!” Ni was speechless. Her expression suddenly changed – gone was the rage, now she was about to cry. She shakily glanced down at him one more time, then closed her eyes, threw her hands into the air and ran off into the forest. There was one problem though. One almost unimportant detail. One overlooked blunder. The issue with her throwing her hands like that was… he was still in them. Well, not anymore – now he was flying through the air, over a hundred meters off the ground. Flying and screaming in absolute horror. Ichi snapped out of her laughing fit and located him when he reached the apex of his trajectory. Her eyes widened before she leapt straight forward, spreading her wings. She hit the ground at the exact moment his body made contact with her wing membrane. It worked almost like a trampoline, absorbing most of his momentum and launching him a bit into the air again. He rolled down her wing and ended up in the middle of her back. The wings folded and she reached for his tiny body, cradling him gently. He was shocked. Traumatised. And completely pale. She sat and lowered her head towards him. “Are you alright?” she asked softly, trying to hide her own fear. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily, before feeling a nuzzle. It still wasn’t the gentlest of touches, but the sheer amount of care she put into that gesture brought back enough sense of security that he was able to at least stop shaking. He raised his hand and stroked her snout a little in return. She let out a soft, calming purr. “…I… I think I’m… fine…” he mumbled with a pale face, his heart thumping like sledgehammer. She gently smiled and tried to look him in the eyes. “I’m so sorry… Ni can be such a damn fool sometimes…” He slowly nodded, the rapidly approaching ground still flashing before his eyes each time he blinked. “I caught you, right? I will always catch you, little one. I promise.” she whispered, nuzzling him again. “Yes… I… Yes…” he muttered, trying to regain his composure after the near-death experience. Ichi slowly stood up, still focused entirely on him. She gave him a reassuring smile that was only a little forced. It didn’t make things okay. It didn’t erase his fear… But nothing could. And it was comforting. When he finally settled in, with the sliver of calm spreading through his body, he noticed something. Kendall fiddled with her hands and shyly peeping at them with a… very happy smile. Like a girl watching an engaging story unfold. Ichi gestured to her to pick up the backpack that Ni left behind before they moved. “… Is anyone going to go after Ni? She shouldn’t run around here alone…” he asked, forcing himself not to resent Ni for what just happened. “She’ll be fine. She just needs to cool off. Bothering her now would make everything more difficult. Trust me,” Ichi grumbled, perking over her shoulder. “If you say so… Will she find us later?” She let out a slightly forced chuckle. “Ni might be a pain, but she’s really good at a lot of things. Tracking included.” After a few more minutes Ichi finally stopped in the shadow of an extinct volcano. It was a single, enormous rock shelf that was probably more akin to a stone plateau for someone his size. There was only one winding road leading up to it, with all sides being either a cliff fall, or a steep mountain side. “Nice spot,” he commented. Ichi hesitated for a bit and looked around anxiously. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “I just… don’t know where to put you. I really don’t want any more close calls…” “Oh…” He also looked around, finding about as many viable spots as she did. “… Just put me near the wall.” “That’s a bad idea,” she snapped at him. “It’s only for a few minutes, right? I will… scream very loudly if you get near me.” She huffed, a little amused this time. “Fine… But please, don’t run around…” she pleaded, placing him on the ground. Two sisters began setting up their tents, their footfalls quickly reminding him to sit down. Ichi quickly set up the first one next to the mountain face to the south and began working on the second, while Kendall struggled with the ropes of her own tent. Ichi finished setting up the second one and walked up to her sister, showing her how to do it properly, her expression one of an infinitely patient, but extremely tired teacher. One that was just asked to show the exact same thing for the thousandth time. When the third tent got erected, Ichi collected some massive branches out of the relatively sparse forest beneath the rock shelf and set them up on a pile in front of the tents. “Would you want to light it up, dear?” Ichi motioned at the pile. Kendall nodded, gathered herself and breathed fire on the pile of wood. “Good job. I’m proud.” Kendall closed her mouth and smiled like a teenage girl who was just complemented for her princess costume. He joined in with applause, getting their attention again. “Everything’s ready…” she announced, picking him up with relief. “Are you sure we are safe here?” he asked, looking at the enormous fire. She nodded. “It’s virtually impossible to find this place without a bird-eye view. Nothing will find us, unless it’s by a complete accident… Realistically, you’d have to wander aimlessly to find us here. Almost no creature is that brainless.” “Don’t single out Ni like that,” he scoffed, regaining a semblance of cockiness. Ichi chuckled. “Well, maybe she specifically would manage it.” He smiled slyly at her but then began wondering about the third sister. “It has been a while since she ran off…” “Don’t worry… At worst, she will come back when she gets hungry.” Ichi waved dismissively. “Oh yeah…” he glanced at his finally acknowledged stomach. “Hungry. Do we have any food?” She raised an eyebrow. “Are you hungry again?” “Well, yes, I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday.” She cocked her head. “And that’s… not normal?” “No… Humans eat around 3 times per day. Don’t you?” Ichi blinked and then smirked. “No. We eat once every day at most, usually once every other day… I would have been too fat to stand up if I did…” “Well, that’s…” He paused, waving away the intrusive thoughts that tried – and thankfully failed – to imagine it. “Good to know, I guess. But I am still starving.” “Well…” She scratched her head. “I didn’t plan for this, truth be told. I can go and hunt something for you, if you want… And now that I think of it, it would probably prevent Ni from throwing another tantrum when she comes back,” she added thoughtfully. “Yes… That would be very nice… to not starve.” Ichi rolled her eyes. “Take care of Kendall for me, okay?” she said, handing him over to her sister. He looked at Kendall, then back at Ichi, wondering if she was joking. “Uhmm… Will do…” Ichi nodded and walked off the rock shelf, glancing at them from time to time until she lost line of sight to them. Meanwhile, Kendall defaulted to petting his head like one would pet a kitten. “Little one?” she blurted out. He looked up to meet her gaze. “Yes, dear?” “Can I ask… S-something a bit… p-personal?” “I guess… Okay?” he responded, a bit intrigued. She took a deep breath. “Tell me… D-do you… like Ichi?” He raised an eyebrow. “I like all three of you.” he responded, surprising even himself with the fact that… it was the truth. “N-no…” She shook her head. “That w-wasn’t what I was a-asking about…” “Then what were you… oh…” She slowly nodded. “I… I t-think she like… really likes you… but don’t t-tell her that I’ve said that…” she added quickly. “D-do you… like her b-back?” It was indeed a rather personal question, but she did warn him about it. And truth be told… he did not know the answer. Yes, as crazy as it sounded – with her being over 70 meters tall titan. He did not know. “I…” He paused. „You know, Kendall… we only know each other since yesterday… I think it’s a bit too early to tell…” “Oh…” she said a little disappointed „W-well… You will… s-see then… Yes?” He nodded, once again staring into the crackling fire, reflecting on his own feelings. ***