Gravel and dirt crunched underfoot as Akari pounded ahead, holding her breath to avoid inhaling in wafts of dust. The Gananche Mining District. Didn't she just tell herself she'd avoid Luke by staying away from this place?

I guess I can't avoid being a troublemaker, she thought, carefully looking ahead. The forest clearing by the carpentry was probably the only place where she could find herbs today. Luke's mention of eating strange things off the ground in his letter reminded her of the colorful plants that she had seen growing there the other day.

They looked a little different from what I'm used to, though, Akari considered. In Mineral Town, where she came from, only small colored vines– called grass– grew. Her mother had taught her all the different ways to prepare them and all their different colors: blue, green, red, yellow, black, and so on. There were many different uses for them, but their healing and medicinal properties overshadowed all else.

Seeing Luke hanging around in the middle of the road ahead, just staring off towards the forest, caused Akari to jump. Having not expected to see him so soon, her heart jumped up and down, churning her empty stomach and filling her throat with what felt like acid bubbles. Turning back around, she hurried off to hide by the breezy mine entrance.

Was Luke always watching the forest? Was he going to walk down the street soon? Looking for somewhere to hide, Akari observed the cavernous mine and scurried inside. In a last effort to rethink her dwindling options, she remembered that her mother would sometimes find grass and roots in the local mine. It couldn't be much different here.

Hurrying along, watching her back despite knowing she was relatively safe, Akari paused when she saw a familiar muscled back rise from the hole in the ground before her. "Owen?" she asked, causing him to turn his head in regard.

"Akari!" Owen laughed, finally trudging away from the hole, which revealed a deep stairway carved in stone. "You're looking better, but is that any reason to explore the mines so soon?"

It took Akari a moment to remember what he was talking about, but when she remembered– it hit her like a lead brick. "That's right, you saved me the other day," she blurted. "I owe you now... For LIFE." She wanted to hold her head and scream in agony– but that would've been very rude.

"Don't worry about it." Owen laughed uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his head.

"Impossible! I have to pay you back– you'll accept– I'll leave fresh fish on your doorstep every day– but if that's no good, it can be something else–" She was cut short when he leaned over her and patted her head, gently, as if she were a small child.

"I said not to worry about it," he insisted. "You're a funny one, aren't you?"

Akari gulped, frowning at the burning sensation spreading across her cheeks. Owen closed his eyes and smiled at her, pulling his hand away.

"There you are. You've finally realized how silly you sound," he said. "Seeing that face is worth a whole boatload of fish. You're terribly cute when you're flustered."

Akari choked, frowning back a whole smile which threatened to stupefy her face. Cute? How could such a simple word bewilder her this much? Cute. Whenever her mother called her it, she was simply happy. Being called cute by him, however, made her entire brain boil down into strawberry jam.

Owen shook his head at her. "Geez... Guys will bully you at this rate. Now I'm worried," he sighed, slinging his hammer over his shoulder and stepping back down the stairs. "Let me know if you're ever in trouble again, ok?"

"T-that," Akari answered, instinctively taking up his offer.

"Hm?"

As soon as Akari saw his clueless face, however, she realized how unreasonable it was to tell him about her Jin problems. Being half kappa, and in secret, she had to deal with it alone. "Do things– I mean," she stammered, changing the subject; "do any plants grow inside the mine?"

"All kinds." Owen nodded. "Follow me."

"You've written a diary page for at least every day, correct?" Jin asked, marking a checklist on his clipboard. On the edge of the cot before him sat Gill, who was sulking affectedly and staring out the window of Meringue Clinic.

"At least," Gill answered finally. He clutched his green, leather-bound diary to his chest.

"Still staying at the Town Hall past seven?" Jin asked.

Gill jolted slightly but then huffed. "Work needs to be done. Somebody has to do it," he answered.

"What have I told you about overworking yourself, Mr. Shadow Mayor?" Jin said, hiding behind his clipboard. "I know that it sometimes feels like you will... but you won't live forever. You need to take care of your health to live a long life."

"It's just a LITTLE extra work," Gill argued. "I don't see what the big deal is. I've been doing this for years and my physical health is just fine."

"You and I both know that the Town Hall, being such an old building, is musty and debilitating. Its temperature fluctuates throughout the day and gets its maintainers sick. If you must keep working, bring it home."

Thinking about his departed mother, Gill considered Jin's suggestion for a few moments, but then spaced out. At last, he shook from his reverie. "I'll try," he assured the doctor.

"Now for your sample diary page," Jin said, setting his clipboard on his lap and holding his hand out to Gill. "Then we'll conclude your visit early."

Glancing aside, Gill fidgeted, frowning and holding his diary close with an iron grip. "I don't have a sample page this time," he said stubbornly.

"Gill. This part of our visit should come as no surprise to you," Jin said, sternly adjusting his glasses. "Were you fibbing when you said you've been writing?"

"No! It's just I–" Gill stopped, looking down at his own shoes. "I guess I should keep a second diary for these kinds of things..."

"Something personal?" Jin stood up, setting his clipboard down on the chair behind him.

"Huh? What are you–"

Jin wrenched his fingers between Gill's chest and the leather-bound diary– yanking it away in a single movement. "I will now read one page," Jin announced clinically, cracking the book open to somewhere in the middle. He quickly flipped a few pages until he found the most recent entry.

Gill opened his mouth to scream but got distracted by the page on which the doctor had stopped.

"..." Jin read the diary entry quietly. Because of the diary's amusing nature, it was always a struggle to read it with an objective mind. Gill's entries, all of them, were written in third-person as fairy tale narratives. That meant, to any other person, the diary would seem to be a short collection of such stories. In truth, they were wild and exaggerated retellings of Gill's daily life.

It was almost impossible to pick out the fact from the fantasy.

In Gill's stories, there were reoccurring characters coinciding with each person on the island. Noticeably, Mayor Hamilton was the king and Gill was the prince.

Jin himself was the wizard. He coughed into his hand and kept reading; he didn't want to admit it, but he was curious as to whom Akari would be:

On the first day of the first season, a cold and violent wind rocked the seas around the Kingdom of Waffle. On a foaming white wave washed ashore a strange creature.

This creature, as the storm cleared, dried in the sun and turned into a woman. Thirsty and searching for fresh water, she crawled onto the Royal Navy's docks and fainted. The Port Admiral, taking pity on her, brought her to the tavern to recover... Little did the kingdom know her true identity– a kappa hungry for human life and liver.

The story continued on that page, up until the point where the kappa met and fell in love with the prince at first sight. Silently, with much restraint, Jin stopped reading and handed the diary back to Gill, questions running through both their minds.

"...What did you think?" Gill finally asked, stepping beyond his fear of sharing.

"I think," Jin spoke, harsh and concisely; "That the prince should stay away from the kappa... or else he'll be cursed."