Yamaguchi woke up on his third day with Suga to a stifling heat and the pervasive smell of smoke. Suga frantically ran around the hut and tossed his few important items into a burlap bag. The animals were all gone, and the tense silence felt unnatural.
"We have to leave, now!" Suga sounded just as frazzled as he looked, and he waited for no response as he pulled Yamaguchi up to run.
Yamaguchi asked for no explanation, for he needed none. Barely thirty metres to the left, the entire forest was ablaze, and it seemed intent on spreading quickly. The wood and undergrowth of the forest, damp as it was, hissed and crackled as it burned and cast off its scorching heat. The sky above was dark and overcast, perhaps partially from the smoke, but the light rain couldn't douse the flames. Yamaguchi wordlessly accepted the pack Suga handed to him and continued to sprint through the yet unburnt forest and towards higher ground.
Distantly, Yamaguchi could hear what sounded like screams. Children cried, and families mourned as the fire spread and crept its way into their towns. The capital city of the island, as well as a few errant smaller hubs, were protected against the flames if Suga's sparrow informant was to be trusted, but all other places were left to fend for themselves against the ever-raging inferno. Yamaguchi was dead positive that the fire had been started at Daishou's orders, perhaps to clear land or flush out Yamaguchi himself. The island was too damp, and fires too scarce, for the spreading flames to have been anything other than man made. The freckled boy couldn't, not even for a second, imagine endangering such a large swath of innocent people for the simple sake of power. Surely many lives would perish needlessly to the flames; Daishou's callous desire for might seemed to reach no ends. Yamaguchi pitied the denizens of the Slithering Isles.
After a full day of running, Yamaguchi's legs ached, and his lungs stung with the smoke and exertion. He and Suga had, however, managed to reach the summit of the island's lone mountain. From there, they beheld a truly devastating sight. The entire island had been reduced to ash. Smoke and cinders rose up and darkened the air as the remains of the once beautiful rainforest smouldered, and in some places, still burned. He could see none of the finer details from the vantage point, but Yamaguchi was sure that the fire held many casualties, animal and human alike. The air was unnervingly still, and a solemn silence hung over the whole of the island, unbroken by birdsong or the rustle of wind on leaves. What had once been a lush green paradise was reduced to blackened ash and rubble. The only places unscathed were, unsurprisingly, the capital and the port cities on the shore.
Suga's mouth hung slightly agape, and his lower lip quivered, "Oh, what have they done to this place?" Suga's eyes shimmered with unshed tears, "I never cared much for the Daishou family or their monarchy, but the people, Yamaguchi, the people didn't deserve this. So many of them lived in tandem with the forest, with the wildlife around them, and he's gone and destroyed it all. For what?"
Yamaguchi found himself without any response. Truly, there was no justification for such actions, no reason for such mass destruction and pain. Still, they needed to keep going, to find a new plan; Yamaguchi simply couldn't bear to allow things to continue any further like this. "We should send a message to Tsukki and Daichi. They need to know what's going on"
Suga shook his head weakly, "I can't, Tadashi." The tears that had been building up broke free and fell from his brown eyes, "I can't reach anything anymore; the animals are all in hiding or dead. The birds have flown away, and they won't return, no matter how nicely I ask them."
Yamaguchi sat down and held up Suga's weight as the other collapsed and began to sob. They were stranded, well and truly stranded. Their ability to contact Kar, or anyone else for that matter, was gone and would continue to be gone until they managed to reach somewhere more habitable for animal life.
They had to leave the island; Yamaguchi knew that much. There was nowhere to hide anymore, and the few remaining towns were surely crawling with royal guards. Yamaguchi comfortingly rubbed Suga's shoulder and looked around to survey for escape routes. From the vantage point, Yamaguchi could see that many of the other islands, at least the close ones, were also aflame or already burnt. The whole archipelago, every island within eyeshot, seemed to have been razed entirely. Regardless of the state of the other islands, Suga and Yamaguchi needed to leave, so he turned his gaze to the port cities that had remained unscathed.
They seemed busy, exceptionally so. Yamaguchi was no expert on sea commerce, but every dock in every harbour was filled with massive ships, many of which had begun to make their exit. All of them flew flags with the insignia of the Slithering Isles, and Yamaguchi could feel the mechanical might stored below their decks, even from such a great distance. Those were no ordinary trade ships, nor were they for fleeing survivors of the fire, they were warships, and they were full to the brim with war machines.
Yamaguchi shook Suga out of his stupor as gently as he could manage, "Suga, we need to get to the ships. It doesn't matter which one, they're leaving for war, we can't stay here, we need to go!" His voice rose in fearful desperation. Yamaguchi had helped design the machines those ships carried, albeit unwillingly; he knew the damage they could cause.
Suga stood up and gave Yamaguchi a grim nod, "Right, right. We should go. I can send Daichi and your Tsukishima warning once we reach wherever those ships intend to go."
With as much speed as they could muster, the two synergists made their way back down the mountain and towards the coast. It was a risky trip, they both knew as much, the island no longer offered them any cover, so the ability to move with stealth was integral. Luckily, Suga was an expert on traversing rough terrain. He may not have had the animals to help him anymore, but he knew the island well enough without them. Suga led Yamaguchi expertly and swiftly.
They travelled throughout the day and the following night. They ran without rest, too desperate to take a break. Yamaguchi was covered in the ash that had been kicked up from the running, and Suga looked just as bad. The only undirtied skin on either of their faces were the thin lines where sweat and tears had run in rivulets and carried away the ash. Yamaguchi half wondered if either of them would be recognizable as humans, what with the layer of grime and the crazed look in their eyes.
Night had already fallen by the time Suga and Yamaguchi made it to the docks. The air was still and hot, and the moon was hidden behind great dark clouds. The gentle lapping of the water upon the shoreline would have almost been peaceful, were it not overshadowed by the hurried shouts of sailors. There was only one ship left docked and seemed near ready to leave.
The vessel sat ominous and alone in the dark water, as men carried cargo onto its deck and hull. The boxes, each about twice the size of a cow, thrummed loudly with the calling card of mechanical synergy. Four men carried each box, and every slight movement brought the telltale clank of metal on metal. The men, large and strong as they looked, struggled under the weight.
One shared look, and both Yamaguchi and Suga set their sights on the dwindling pile of yet unloaded boxes. Under the cover of a moonless night, the two crept to the boxes, ever careful to keep out of eyesight. Yamaguchi identified the box with the least machinery, and the synergists pried it open and clambered inside. The space was cramped, not that Yamaguchi expected anything otherwise, and the air was stale and reeked of oil. He couldn't see much of anything in the dark, but if Yamaguchi had to guess, he would say that they were sat upon the deconstructed parts of a cannon.
Not long after Yamaguchi and Suga secured themselves, voices surrounded them, and their box was lifted from the ground. The two sat in absolute silence for what seemed to be hours, and then they were set down again. Suga waited for silence before he pushed open the lid of the box, and motioned for Yamaguchi to exit. Together they snuck to the back of the hull, already piled high with crates upon crates of supplies. Many of them were machines, but there were also rations and clothes, for which Yamaguchi was thankful.
Crouched on the floor, Suga turned to Yamaguchi and spoke in a voice so quiet, it could hardly be considered a whisper much less sound, "We need to lay low, ships are never quiet, so I doubt we'll be able to go above deck very often, or at all. I'll try to find a way to get a message out. Can you do anything about these machines in the meantime?"
Yamaguchi simply nodded and turned to the boxes. Just looking at them, he felt himself awash with an overwhelming sense of guilt; he had helped create these machines, had helped design some. Even if the Slithering Isles had started it, he had allowed himself to get caught up in the thrill of invention, and in the process, he paved the way for war. The least he could do was to try and undo any advantage the Slithering Isles had.
Just as he made his way to the first box of machinery, Yamaguchi heard a voice, presumably the Capitan, call out, "Lower the sails, boys! We head out now, and there'll be no breaks 'till Fukoni! Glory to our Isles, onwards to our Goddess-chosen war!" The sailors above echoed the last sentiment with raucous cries for blood and victory. They stomped their feet and shouted as the ship began to move.
Yamaguchi shared a distressed look with Suga, who had managed to coax a green parrot onto his arm from the porthole. Yamaguchi had well and truly started to regret his decision to take Tsukishima's place in the marriage with Daishou, an action which felt like ages ago. Still, he could not change the past. His only hope was that his friends, or whatever Tsukishima was to him, were somewhere safe.
The opportunity to back out had disappeared some several moons ago, and all Yamaguchi could do was look forward. Ahead, to Fukoni, and to war.