AnonnymousHayase—Glad you like the story! I've been back in the states for a few days but have been visiting lot of my friends and trying to hang out with the all, so I haven't been able to write much, but I'm glad you like this story!

Anonmymous—Yeah, actually I was planning to keep both going for now. If We Never is still one of my main focuses, since it kind of got me started on this archive, but this one is a nice change of pace once in a while, since it fits the themes I'm used to writing!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've been running frantic enjoying my time visiting people while on leave back to the states, and I don't have a computer to write with, so I have to manage on my phone, which isn't something I'm used to at all.

Let's begin!

Chapter 3: Worlds Apart

Here he was—and where was that?

Where was he?

He pulled himself once more up the bank to the tall tree that had grown coconuts form its top and sat again with his back against the rough bark. It was hot now, but the sun was high and to his rear and he sat in the shade of the tree in relative comfort. There were things to sort out in his mind.

He left on a Saturday, which meant it was probably a Sunday. The small little island that was expecting them had surely already noticed the ship's tardiness that he was on, and he was sure phone calls were being made as the police had been notified.

News channels had probably already made headlines about the event, it was rare that a ship such as the one he was one to be lost at sea, of course, such events still happened, but they were uncommon.

They would come, they would look for him. The searchers would get government planes and cover both sides of the course plan filed by the captain and search until they found him.

Maybe even today. They might come today.

This was the second day after the crash. No. He frowned. Was it the first day or the second day? They had gone down in the afternoon and he had spent the whole night out cold. So, this was the first real day. But they could still come today. They would have started the search immediately when Naoto's did not arrive. Yeah, they would probably come today.

Probably come out here with those amphibious planes, small bush planes with floats that could land right there on the sea and pick him up and take him home.

Probably.

And then came the hunger.

Naoto rubbed his stomach. The hunger had been there but something else—fear and pain—had held it down.

Now, with the thought in his brain clear, the emptiness roared at him. He could not believe the hunger, had never felt it this way. The coconut water had filled his stomach but left it hungry, and now it demanded food, screamed for food. A new pain that hit him like a sledgehammer to the gut, making his insides feel like they were twisting into tight knots. Like his stomach was grasping at nothing.

When he stopped there was a sudden silence, not just from him but the clicks and burps and the gentle cawing of birds of the forest as well. The noise of his voice had startled everything and it was quiet. He looked around, listened with his mouth open, and realized that in all his life he had never heard silence before.

Complete silence.

There had always been some form of sound where he lived, from cars passing by, to planes flying by overhead. It lasted only a few seconds, but it was so intense that it seemed to become part of him. Nothing. There was no sound. Then the bird started again, and some kind of buzzing insect, and then a chattering and a cawing, and soon there was the same background of sound again.

Leaves rustling, waves crashing, the cawing of birds whipping itself to new heights as he felt his senses grow only slightly from the profoundness of it all.

He thought again about the people finding him. If they knew the intended course of the ship he was on, then it wouldn't take long… assuming he was on the original course of the ship. But he wasn't.

When the storm had started, the first wave that hit them had been so large it threw people off their feet. The ship had had ended up jerking to its side very abruptly, which meant they were no longer on course since the first wave. And they were in the storm for a few hours, easily.

At first, the search team would look for survivors around the path. Look for the life floats on ships that were meant for survivors to use if the ship sunk. But they went down with the ship. His worry returned.

They would then look around a few miles around each direction from the path. Which could take a while. A few days…

They might not find him for two or three days. He felt his heartbeat increase as the fear started. The thought was there but he fought it down for a time, pushed it away, then it exploded out.

They might not find him for a long time.

And the next thought was there as well, that they might never find him, but that was panic and he fought it down and tried to stay positive. They searched hard when a plane went down, they used many men and planes and they would go far and wide, they would know he was off from the cruise path, they knew a storm had assaulted them… so they must have known right?

It would be all right. They would soon find him. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

Soon.

He began to eat at the flesh of the coconut making sure to be careful to not choke himself and keep the wonderful food that had saved him down and in his stomach.

'Soon,' he thought once more. 'Surely.'

…

Today was a day like any other, but the strangest thing was that she hadn't seen her Senpai at all. He was walking to school, he was in the art room performing his normal work of painting a still-life image on a blank canvas without much heart.

And what made it more strange, was that all the students and staff had been gathered to the auditorium. Called in by the school principal, Nagatoro found herself sitting beside her friends, who all had their eyes peeled at the entry of the auditorium watching each of the students as they entered, each of her friends and herself looking for the new member of their friend group: Naoto. Their Senpai.

As all the students had their seats, some standing alongside the teachers and staff that stood against the walls around the students in their seats. As the principal and the vice-principal took to the stage with a microphone, there was an eerie feeling that settled over the students, causing rumors and gossip to spur and spread like a wildfire that filled the auditorium with bitter murmurs.

"I wonder what this is all about?" Gamo started, looking over to her friends to get possible ideas in return.

"I have no idea… usually something like this is only done when something extreme happens." Sakura said, adding her own knowledge of the situation to the fray. Nagatoro stayed silent, agreeing with Sakura that something like this was extremely odd indeed. Yoshi didn't mutter a word in response as well, opting to let silence take over the auditorium at last as the principal silenced them.

"I'm sure all of you are wondering why you have been gathered here today?" began the principal, his voice booming over the loud speakers. Their was an unsettling waviness in his tone. Like something weighed on him. "As I'm sure most of you are unaware, I will cut to the chase. This weekend… our lovely school lost one of it's brightest, most loved students."

Curiosity settled in and worry filled most students' hearts. Nagatoro tried to not worry, there was no way it was Naoto right? No way… she doubted he would ever put himself in a situation that would threaten his life, and she also refused to believe he would take his own life. He was more resilient than that, under all that awkwardness. But the principal continued, and her worry only grew with each passing second.

"Friday night, a ship that had set sail to a small island for a tour of a wildlife reserve was caught in the storm that I'm sure you all are aware of." The principal continued, beating around the bush and still not getting to the point that worried Nagatoro endlessly as she started to fear for the worst.

"The ship in question sunk that Friday night, and it was discovered on Saturday. Out of the thirty-six passengers of the ship, thirty-five bodies have been found. The last person hasn't been found near the crash of the ship, but search parties will continue to search the surrounding islands and at sea for the remainder of the week." The principal said, causing shock to form in the many students of the auditorium.

"With that being said… there is no good way to say this, but, Naoto Hachioji was the lost person. Some of you may remember him from the cultural festival as the representative of the Art club. He was the final person that has yet to be found."

Nagatoro felt like her heart stopped. Like all the fear she ever had came into fruition and attacked her in a single moment. She sunk into her chair deep, letting her bodyweight fall limo in the chair. The boy she had come to love, but was too shy and afraid to admit it, was gone.

Her friends looked at her, sensing a feeling from her that screamed to them she was anything but alright. And the feeling they gathered was correct. As they looked at the face of their friend, her race went blank before shifting into one of complete loss. Like a spouse who had lost their significant other, her face contorted in pain and sorrow. Her lips began to quiver and tears began to roll down from the corner of her eyes and fall to her chest.

And then everything hit her all at once. She was, in a moment, overcome by her sorrows. All the things she had said to him, how horrible she was to him sometimes. She hurt him, belittled him. But she loved him. She was hurt, upset at herself and disgusted. She felt ugly. Ugly and alone and hurt and alone and so completely miserable it felt like being in a pit. A deep, dark, horrible pit with no way out. She leaned back into her chair, bringing her knees to her chest and rested her eyes against her knees. And then she let it all out and cried, perhaps for five or six grueling, agonizing minutes.

Her friends moved to her side, rubbing her back as she wept into her knees. And as she looked around with teary eyes, more eyes were concerned for her than they were for the boy mentioned minutes ago. So many faces that had been around him for years, but wouldn't ever recognize him. People who had heard his name that disregarded it moments later. No one would ever be given the chance to meet the boy who had made waves in her life.

But she didn't say a word. She couldn't. Her tears were long, pitiful and wasted. She wasn't cognitively able to function properly. She couldn't bring herself to speak, and every time she tried, her words came slurred with the quivering of her bottom lip. She was sure she looked exactly how she felt—like an ugly, pitiful mess.

And for the first time since meeting him, she felt worlds apart from him.

…

At first, he thought it was a growl that had awoken him. In the still darkness of the night around him, with only the pale-faced reflection of the moon skipping across the waves of the ocean as they swept in long and deep onto the sand, sweeping curdles of their seafoam into the sand and dispersing as they went. But instead of a grown, it was the wind. A sharp, violent wind that promised storms wound up the leaves above him, and whistled through pathways in the trees that forced him away.

As the wind picked up, the wind screamed to new demonic heights as his head moved into fast alert. The sound of the whistling winds and the rustling of the trees terrified him. It was a sound that promised nothing but dread. His nostrils opened with a twitch, widening in an attempt to smell anything other than the sea, but he was met with a sad vista of reality once more. He moved his head away from the wind, looking into the darkness between the trees behind him. It was too dark to see, to dark under the leaves that did well to block the light from the moon and the stars above.

But he saw something that made his heart pump past redline with adrenaline. Eyes. Fiery yellow and looking through him. The first thought that ran through his mind was the one that scared him the most… he wasn't alone. He was alone on this island in the sense of people. But being alone… on an island with animals that wanted him for food was even more terrifying than the revelations of simply being alone to his own thoughts.

But something wasn't correct. Something seemed off.

What animal was it that was with him? How? He was sure it was nothing big, since it's eyes were too close together for something larger than a reptile. But still, his heart hammered in his throat, and rightly so. The thing moved rapidly, its eyes moving quickly towards him.

And then he heard the slithering. A brushing sound at his feet as the thing slid gently across the ground toward him, now near his feet. In a startled panic, he kicked his feet, knowing immediately it was a snake a wanting nothing more than for the things to go away and leave him alone.

And immediately, his leg was torn with a searing pain as of it had been lit aflame and jabbed with hundreds of needles.

Now he screamed. Pain and fear and suffering mixed together in a brilliant conglomeration to form a wailing sound that shattered the whistling wind. He continued kicking his foot outward, moving his body out from under the tree and onto the sands. As the light hit the thing that coiled around his feet and tried to yank out a chunk of his calve muscle, he realized how in danger he actually was now. If the bite was envenomated, he could be in for a severely painful few hours of his now possibly shortened life.

Thankfully, the thing let go before his feet hit the water and scurried away, leaving a graze in the sand as it went. Naoto, in pain and panic, move his leg into his head, the tingly sensation was something akin to his muscles going into shock at the sudden puncture wound that sunk their way into his flesh. Two holes began to gently bleed, and probably wouldn't bleed for long.

It was strange for snakes to attack people, but as he watched the things slither up to where he was resting, it burrowed into a hole that was just near the tree. It made sense to him now. Maybe he had gotten lucky… but he wouldn't know until it was too late and there was no one for him to call to help.

So fast did things change. When he had went to sleep, things were satisfactory for him. He had food, and plan to create a way to attract the attention of people in the sky, and he had finally settled his mind down that he was going to make it home. And now, the possibility of him returning home alive was greatly reduced. His worry returned in full force. He sat alone again, just as the sun was rising, wallowing in his self-pity, his leg aching, mosquitos found him again and began to swarm biting him at every chance once again. And it all weighed on him too much. He started crying. All the pain, all the sorrow and complete loss of hope crushing down on hi at once like quicksand sucking him in.

It was all just too much at once.

'I can't take it anymore! Alone, with no way of seeing at night, no good food. And next time what if its worse? Will there even be a next time? Is the snake bite venomous? How much longer do I have? I can't do this, I can't do this!' Naoto thought, putting his head down on his arms to shield his face, letting his back fall into the sand to stop the vampires from biting his back.

But why was he doing this? How was he going to survive when all he was dong was feeling sorry for himself? Feeling sorry for yourself never worked. Not that it was the wrong thing to do in his cornered mind, or that it was considered incorrect. It was more so of the simple fact that it just didn't work. When he laid in the darkness before sunrise and cried and cried until he was done, nothing had changed. His leg still hurt, he had still been bitten by a snake… but nothing changed.

And then there was light in his eyes.

And he was resting against the tree again.

He looked to his leg, looking for a conformation, but the only thing he saw was the dirtied and sandy skin of his leg, the muscle twisting into noticeable knots that brought him great pain with each movement. Pain so bad… it felt like a snakebite.

It was all a dream.

He paused for a second before letting out and breath of air he wasn't aware he was holding. There was a look in his eyes that wasn't normal, something sinister. He laughed.

Even his dreams were starting to taunt him.

End of Chapter 3: Worlds Apart

Sorry for the belated update. I've just been enjoying my time on leave, and honestly, been trying to make the most of it before heading back to Japan. Hopefully I can update If We Never and Can I Call You Mine before I head back.

Then I should be back on a simi-normal schedule. After I work fourteen twelve-hour shifts. Because military.

I've also been struggling to figure out how to upload this on a phone without a computer. So, I downloaded the FanFiction App and finally figured this out. I've been writing my Amazon story, and these stories using my mothers laptop, so please... bare with me!

Leave me a review, they mean a lot to me!

-Stay Awesome!