WHOOP WHOOP SHIT'S 'BOUT TO GET REAL.

This chapter is already the longest one that I've posted thus far, so I'm going to keep this author's note as short as possible. I'll just once again extend my thanks to everyone who's been supporting this story so far. I really hope that all of you, especially those who've been following from the beginning, think that this fic has been living up to your expectations. You're all wonderful!

"You do realize that I'll have to leave at some point, right?"

Alibaba turned from his work to look at the speaker. "What do you mean?"

"Well...I still need to search for my eye," Hakuryuu replied. "That means I can't stay here forever. I'll have to keep wandering...before long."

Yellow hair bounced a bit as Alibaba nodded. "That makes sense."

Hakuryuu, who had been avoiding the gaze of the captain, now stared at him in surprise. He had expected a reaction of incredulity, anger, hurt-some form of protest, at the very least. "It...it does?"

"Well...yeah. I was upset the first time you left because you didn't tell me about it-which, by the way, I still consider a dick move. But I know how much you want to find that thing, so you can go when you need to."

"But...the others-"

"I'll make up some story to cover for you. Just promise me one thing?"

"Yeah?"

"...Don't be a stranger, alright? Come back sometimes, when you can. I'd like to see you."

Hakuryuu could only gaze and gaze again upon the golden boy. The words of his friend slammed into him all at once, and the impact dazed him so that he could barely comprehend the message fully.

Meanwhile, the corners of Alibaba's mouth slowly began to fall frownward. "Unless…that's not what you want anymore?"

"Huh? Uh, no! Of course I'd like to come back here! I mean, it's just not something I'm use to do—but that doesn't mean I don't like it! Really, I—"

"Hey, Hakuryuu?"

"Yes?"

"You told me that you've been around for centuries, and you're still young compared to others like you. Does...does that mean dragons live forever?"

The addressee considered the question. "Immortality? I don't know about that. I do know that I've never even heard of a dragon dying, unless it were killed by another. And the oldest of my kind that I know of has been around for about 8,000 years."

"Hmm." Alibaba picked at a splinter protruding from the floor of the wooden deck. "I guess that means my life seems pretty puny to you, huh?"

"...What do you mean by that?"

"You've seen so many things already, and you're bound to see so much more." The young seaman stared out toward the unreachable horizon. "Compared to all that, someone like me would be pretty forgettable, yeah?"

This time, Hakuryuu stepped in front of Alibaba and made sure to lock eyes with him, the color of the sun meeting the color of the sky. "Alibaba, dragons don't get to choose the people to whom they appear. Only a great person, destined for great things, can see someone like me in my true form. You saw me during your childhood, and knowing the kind of man you are now, it's easy for me to understand why."

For some time, Alibaba did not move, did not break the eye contact that held him so fast. It was his turn to try processing what he could not understand. Finally, his dark lips broke into an easy smile. "I guess I am pretty great, right?!"

And they laughed.

Fire. To him, everything is fire.

Nothing he can do could ever allow him to escape the inferno into which he has been thrown. Everything around him seems to burn him. His bed, once a reliable source of comfort, has turned to a torture rack on which he is forced to endure the unbearable heat. Even the air seems to burn.

And yet, no flames are to be found anywhere around him. The tongues of fire that consume him are invisible. In truth, they come from within.

"His fever will keep rising," the neighborhood shaman had murmured a few days ago. "Ain't no way to get the medicines to treat it, not now."

In the midst of his agony, he spots a figure emerge into his line of sight. Though everything else in his vision has been blurred by tears and delirium, this person appears to stand out in comparatively sharp focus, and his identity can be immediately recognized. His friend, his brother, Cassim.

He is drenched, Alibaba notices. Soaked, in fact. It reminds him of that one bright day when Alibaba had pushed him off the dock from behind when Cassim was reaching for his sandal that had fallen in the water and he pretended to be angry afterwards but it was all in good fun. Cassim is speaking now, or at least his lips are moving, but Alibaba does not hear. Any and all outside noise is drowned out by a constant roaring in his ears. His brother has a spherical package under his arms.

Alibaba attempts to talk in return, but his throat, too, has been scorched, and it is all he can do to release a rasping breath. In return, Cassim shushes him before bringing a bowl to his cracked and pale lips. Before he can close his mouth again, something salty and hot is poured down his throat, but amongst all the other pain he is in, the unpleasantness hardly registers.

His eyes turn slowly to notice that the package that Cassim had been holding now rests on the wooden plank which serves as their table. It has been uncovered, and the cloths which had been used to wrap it lie scattered around, adorned with stains the color of rust. As he looks at the item now revealed, it looks back at him.

He sprung awake, catapulted into consciousness without any warning. Sweat soaked him, as though his body had been trying to quench the heat that had engulfed him in his dream. His chest heaved rapidly.

A flood of memories swelled and swirled in his mind, dizzying him with images long suppressed. He remembered it all.

Looking around, he saw that night still veiled his sleeping quarters. All figures in the room distinguished themselves only as slightly darker shapes, the blacker against the black. Wrenching back his covers, he threw himself wildly into this blindness with a single, direct objective to guide him.

In his dream, Alibaba had witnessed something all too alien and all too familiar. And he had to know about it.

It took just moments before he reached another of the ship's cabins and burst inside. Doing so, he roused the lump curled up under the bedsheets. With a groan, Hakuryuu hoisted himself up. His hair had fallen in front of his eyes, and he had to shake it out of the way to get a look at his visitor, causing the locks to stand haphazardly on end. At any other time, Alibaba might have found it endearing.

"Hakuryuu, I need to tell you something!"

"I should hope so," he grumbled, rubbing his eyelid. "Or do you go around disturbing people's sleep just for the fun of-"

"I know where your eye is."

Any trace of tiredness instantly crumbled away from the young man. Hakuryuu's body became all tautness and attention. His intent stare bored into Alibaba, pressing him. "You...what do you mean, you know?"

"I swallowed it."

Hakuryuu blinked. "Alibaba, be honest with me now. How much rum did you drink tonight?"

"You asshole! I'm serious!" He slammed his hand down onto the mattress, causing Hakuryuu to jump back a bit in surprise. Sucking a deep breath in, Alibaba sat down on the bed and met his gaze. "Tell me something: Your eyes have the power to heal the sick, don't they?"

"Well, it's a bit more than that," he responded with a touch of indignance. "The eyes control water, so they control life..."

"So they can heal!"

"I…suppose, yes, but..."

"Hakuryuu, I...I'm almost sure my brother took your eye."

The dragon marveled at his words, open-mouthed. Alibaba seemed to see a dozen different expressions cross his face, a dozen different emotions battling for dominance. "But how...how could...your brother? A normal human stole from me?"

"Only the great can see dragons," Alibaba reminded him sadly. "And Cassim was a great man, or he would've been if he hadn't died."

Hakuryuu had stopped looking at him. The mismatched eyes, which many times in the past had brightened upon seeing Alibaba's approach, now avoided the face of a friend. Indeed, the entirety of the young man seemed to be drawn downward-body hunched, brow furrowed, mouth turned to a frown. He directed his gaze squarely at the ground, as though the answers he sought had slipped between the cracks in the ship's wooden floor.

At last, he spoke. "And your brother fed you my eye to heal you...is that it?"

Alibaba nodded. "He must've thought that it was the only way. Whatever I was sick with couldn't be cured, at least not by any of the medicines we could get our hands on." Quickly, he added, "I was delirious when the whole thing happened, so no wonder I couldn't remember it until now. I think...it was being around you so much that brought the whole thing back."

Still, Alibaba's urgent expression remained unmet. Hakuryuu paused, and then he said, "I see," and then he stood up, and then he walked out. No further reaction came from him.

The captain of the Dragoness, however, was not prepared to end the conversation. He hurried after Hakuryuu, following him up to the main deck. "So what now? Now that you know what happened, what's the next step? There's got to be-"

"Next step?" Hakuryuu cut in. "The only option I have left is to face what I've been running from all this time."

"You...what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I'm going to take my territory back from the Great Dragon."

Alibaba stopped in an instant. "The Great Dragon...you said that's the one who's been after you all this time. You're not saying you're going to fight her, are you?"

"Mmm."

"But you can't! You said you have half the strength of all the others!"

"Yes." The word came out bluntly and without any form of consolation. Alibaba felt the full blow of the raw syllable as it punched him in the gut and seemed to stay there, like a weight in his stomach.

He shook his head quickly. "There's got to be another way. I know there is!"

"I can promise you that there is none." The young man's voice had deadened. Words fell on the quiet air with a restrained, joyless monotone. And still he would not look up. "Alibaba, I want you to know how grateful I am to you for everything you've done for me so far. I never expected that anyone would be so welcoming to me..."

"No-"

"And if I hadn't been lucky enough to find you, I know for a fact I never would have made it this far."

"Shut up!" Unable to hold himself back any longer, he grabbed onto Hakuryuu's shoulder and forced the man to face him. "Don't give me any of that! If you really appreciate being here, then stay! You can't seriously be telling me you're about to throw your life away just...just for..." Alibaba's voice trailed off, the fire in his speech dwindling. He could now, at last, look Hakuryuu in the eyes-the eyes that drooped, the eyes that looked reddened, the eyes that seemed utterly defeated. In the dark, Alibaba noticed, the lovely blue irises seemed to morph into the color of a stormy grey sea.

"Alibaba," he began-and this time his tone was imbued with a sad softness. "If I were to stay here, I would be putting off the inevitable. Gyokuen will find me no matter how far I run, and if I have to face her, I'd rather do it on my own terms."

"So at least let me try to help you! I mean...I still don't know much about dragons, but at least we could...could come up with a plan or something together, right?!"

Hakuryuu paused. Then he sighed. "Our world...it's not a place for someone like you. I'm so sorry you had to be thrown into something you don't understand..."

"Understand?" Alibaba murmured suddenly. "You seemed to have no problem confiding in me before. But I guess you don't trust me to stand by you now, when you really need it."

"You know that's not what I m-"

"You said I'd be great man one day. You believed it too." Alibaba glared. "Not any more, I guess."

Hakuryuu blinked once, twice, in wide-eyed surprise as he processed those words. Then the wide, vulnerable eyes hardened into a glower. "You're trying to make me stay, Alibaba." He brushed the hand off his shoulder. "But nothing is going to work. I won't be humiliated again. I can't be."

He began to walk away, down the plank that took him down from the ship to the dock where the vessel had been moored for the night. Contrary to his expectations, Alibaba did not begin to follow him. His words however, did: "I thought I told you not to be a stranger here. But that's what you're acting like toward me right now."

Hakuryuu stopped. In that moment, everything in him prompted him to turn around. Back to the ship that had become his home. Back to the boy that had become his home. Had he gone back, he would have said that it pained him to leave. He would have said that he still trusted in Alibaba's greatness.

He would have, if he had turned back. But he didn't. He kept on walking, because he knew that if he hesitated now, he would never be able to regain the willpower to leave.

In the dark, he heard Alibaba's footsteps growing louder, coming after him. But he slipped into the sea before the man could catch up with him.