Chapter 9: Island of Light Part 2


Mint woke up and stretched. They looked all over for Kira, but they found no trace of her anywhere.

"Kira?! Kira where are you!?"

As if on cue, the Inkling had dragged in a bunch of coconuts, bananas, fish, honeycombs, and jars of honey. "I'm alive, don't worry."

Mint ran out to her and gave her a hug. "Oh my cod! Kira where were you?"

"Collecting food so we don't starve here?" She replied, handing her octoling friend a coconut, a banana, and grabbed a stick to fry the fish over.

Breakfast was served in a matter of minutes. All three dug in and melted with delight at the satisfaction of food in their stomachs.

Kace spoke up as he held his food in the air. "Delicious!"

Mint nodded in agreement.

Kira pulled out the book Misery gave her and examined it again. "Mint, if you're ready to go, I have a perfect place we can start looking." She pointed towards the cliff side. "According to the book here, it says that there are tunnels in these cliff sides. We can fly in them and could possibly find the crystal in one of those segments."

Mint gulped nervously. "A-As much as I like the idea... I don't like heights... They make me dizzy."

The Inkling let out an aggravated groan. "Fine, we can walk."

Mint quietly sighed in relief. "Thank you so much."

Kira put away the book and stood up, walking towards the pathway to her right. Mint hopped up and followed hastily after their friend


Chili sat with his arms leaning over the rail. Watching the water slowly roll across the boat. "How much longer until we get there?" He complained.

"It shouldn't be too long." She responded. "The island is a few more miles away."

He nodded. "Good." He pulled out the silver locket of him and his family, all together at Wahoo World, smiling.

"She actually gave it to ya, huh?" Akari wondered. "Knew she'd do it eventually."

"Whatcha mean Akari?"

She sat next to him and pointed at the sterling silver locket. "Before all this, she was going to give that to you. As a way to tell you she really cares about you."

Chili's ears lowered as he clutched the locket tightly in his palms.

"You mean the world to her." She continued. "She once told me you were the older brother she wish she had."

"R-Really?" He blushed softly at the compliment, baffled by what he was hearing.

She chuckled. "Well, of course. She cares about you so much, the time you went down in the metro to find Captain, she begged for Agent 2 to let her go after you."

"Huh. So THAT's why Kira slapped me when I came back." He pondered. "To be honest, I was expecting more or less a hug."

Both laughed a bit and looked up as the island fast approached. "Here we are... Everlight Isle."

Chili was the first to get off the boat and spotted the tracks in the sand, and the dying camp fire. "They recently left here. Come on."


The hunt for the crystal was not a fun one. The summer heat made both Mint and Kira miserable. For the first half of the trip there, Mint explored every nook and cranny, and examined every plant they passed.

"Mint, I swear, every time you see a plant, you drop everything to examine it." Kira commented, batting her wings to keep both her and Mint cool.

"Not true" They huffed. "I'm not that easily-" They gasped loudly, "OHMYGOSH IS THAT A HYDRANGEA?!" And ran over to feel the petals.

The inkling crossed her arms. "Case and Point." She told them smugly.

Mint rolled their eyes playfully and continued walking along with Kira. Looking high and low, both examined the area in sweltering heat and found nothing.

Mint leaned against a shady tree and breathed hard. "Can we take a break?" They asked, wiping sweat off their forehead with disgust. "This is hard on my legs!"

Kira groaned inwardly. "Oh woe is you little princess." She muttered as she went over to Mint and extended her wings a bit. "We can fly over and look from the skies if you want to cool off."

Mint nodded eagerly and looked Kira over. She managed to keep dark form in the heat, the armor was gone and was replaced with a black tank top and dark violet shorts. The black wings were feathery and provided a nice form of shade and air.

"Turn into octo form and I'll carry you." The inkling told her.

Mint hesitated and crawled into her arms. "Are you sure this is okay?" The small voice from the octo asked.

Kira nodded. "Here we go!" She leaped up and began hovering over the island. The island looked small from high above in the air. Mint had their eyes shut tight and chirped softly as the cool breeze relaxed them.

She didn't understand why they did that, but she didn't question it. And all Kira hears from beneath her is,

"HOLY CHRIST IS THAT KIRA?"

Kira groaned. "Fun's over I suppose."


End of chapter