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Chapter Rating: T

Heroes and Villains: Blue Moon Island

[Superpower Verse]

Part 8

There was none of the laughter and lighthearted banter that had characterized the hike up the mountain on their return trip. Instead, the entire party moved in a pensive half-daze of wonder, disbelief and unease. A few members of the hiking group were visibly shaken—even fearful. Others wore expressions of shock or speculation.

Shinichi could sympathize. He too was experiencing a little of all those reactions as well. It wasn't because there had been anything particularly frightening about the ghost ship or even the idea of ghosts—the existence of which he still had his doubts. Rather, it was the aura that the ship had brought with it.

It had had a…a presence. That was the only word he could think of to describe it. It was that chilling presence more than anything else that made the ship so real. No mere illusion or projection could engender such a feeling.

The deep, cold stillness of that presence sent chills up his spine even now when he was merely thinking back upon it. There had been power there. There was no doubt at all in his mind about that. What kind of power, however, still remained to be seen.

The guide called a halt to rest halfway down the return trail. The instant he gave the okay, everyone split off from the group either alone or in pairs and wandered to different corners of the little rocky plateau, expressions pensive and eyes still watching that ship sailing into the cove upon the canvas of their memories.

Shinichi was no exception. Every time he closed his eyes, that ship would be there, glowing silver white, gliding across the still, black sea between the arms of the cliffs guarding the cove.

He shivered.

He felt as though the images had taken root inside his mind. It was disconcerting in a way that had nothing at all to do with the ship itself.

"So what do you think?" Kaito asked, careful to keep his voice low so as not to be overheard.

Shinichi shook his head slowly. "I don't know, but I don't like it. What about you?"

"Well, it's no mere illusion, that's for sure," the magician replied, face grim.

Shinichi snorted. "Obviously that goes without saying."

"Which leaves us with a few options as I see them," Kaito agreed. "One is that someone with a power that can create extremely convincing ghost ships is out here working his magic every night. He would be an opportunist, I say. Someone who saw the possibilities when the treasure was dredged up to bring in the tourists and spice up life in general on this lovely but peaceful island. Of course they might have other reasons for wishing to spread the ghost ship legend, but we'll go with the tourist trap for now because it's already well under way and bringing in a whole lot of money and attention. In that scenario, the entire thing is harmless, and we can ignore it. Whether they get tired of the hoax or hang in there and keep doing it, it'd just be entertainment."

"I guess that would be the easiest explanation," Shinichi mused.

"Indeed," Kaito agreed. "Which, in our lives, often means it's the wrong one."

Shinichi grimaced. "Maybe so, but let's not count it out."

"Naturally. Even you have to see some good luck sometime."

"…Anyway, I suppose another option is that someone is doing it but for a less commercial reason like to scare or threaten someone or to bring attention to the cove for some reason."

"So a message."

Shinichi nodded. "Yeah. But if that was the case then they've been doing it for a long time, which would suggest it's not working."

Kaito laughed. "No kidding. It's much more likely that it's actually a curse or some equivalent thereof. It could even be the byproduct of something else entirely, but I suppose we should leave that option for once we've exhausted the others."

"Yeah." Shinichi let out a quiet sigh. "I wish those news articles had named the diving students who found the treasure. It would help if we could talk to them."

"We could always swing by the newspaper office and ask the journalist who interviewed them," Kaito suggested. "They might also be able to tell us which other people got souvenirs from the treasure trove."

"That's a good idea," Shinichi agreed. "We can go tomorrow."

"Just so long as we make it back for the taste testing," Kaito replied. "I don't intend to miss out on all those great new dishes we were promised."

Shinichi rolled his eyes but secretly admitted that he was pretty interested in the taste testing too. It wasn't every day you got to sample the new creations of an internationally renowned, award-winning chef.

"Is everyone ready to go?" their hiking guide called out to the group in general. There were some murmurs of ascent and some nods that were only barely visible in the darkness. The members of their hiking group began drifting back together until they were once again assembled and ready to resume their trek down the mountain.

"In a moment, we're going to reach a fork in the trail," the guide announced as they walked. "We'll be splitting up at that point. Those of you who want to visit the local exorcist will be coming with me. That route is a little difficult to follow, so we'll have to be careful. The other route goes straight back to our starting point and should be easy to follow, so anyone who isn't going to the exorcist should have no problem following it on their own. If you're not comfortable with that though, you're welcome to go with us to the exorcist and just wait—or watch. It could be an interesting experience."

Kaito nudged Shinichi with his elbow. "What do you think? Want to see what an exorcism is like?"

Shinichi snorted. "No, not really."

"You sure? You heard the guide. It could be an interesting experience~."

"I'd say our lives are stuffed full of more than enough interesting experiences already. We really don't need to go looking for more, especially not in the middle of the night. I'd much rather go back to the inn and see if we can actually get some sleep before the sun rises. Besides," he added in a lower voice. "With my luck, if I go to an exorcism, we'll probably end up witnessing the world's first real demon summoning or something."

Kaito burst out laughing, earning them strange looks from their hiking companions.

When the fork in the road appeared as promised, the guide asked for a quick show of hands to see who would be going which way. Shinichi wasn't sure what to think about the fact that he and Kaito ended up being two of only six people who had decided not to visit the local exorcist. Did everyone else really believe they might have been cursed? Or were they just in it for the experience? Well, perhaps it didn't matter.

Their little group of six bid farewell to the rest and followed the guide's directions down the left hand fork in the trail. Since it seemed their group consisted entirely of couples, they somewhat naturally separated out into pairs as they walked.

Kaito and Shinichi ended up in the middle of the pack. The couple behind them was literally wrapped up in each other's arms and all around being so lovey-dovey that Shinichi felt embarrassed just being near them. Naturally, the two were lagging farther and farther behind. Shinichi just hoped that they paid enough attention to the trail to make sure they didn't end up tumbling down the side of a cliff. Their overt public displays of affection, however, might still have been preferable to the fuming going on between the couple walking ahead of them.

Said other couple was moving quite quickly because the young lady was clearly trying to outdistance her boyfriend, who appeared to be trying to apologize. Being an outsider witnessing someone else's argument was never a comfortable experience, and Shinichi would really have liked to try and give the two their privacy. The problem was that, in this cool, still and silent night, sound was bound to carry, and they couldn't exactly shut their ears off.

Apparently, the girl in question had once had a bad experience with a snake that had gotten into her closet. Her boyfriend, however, had gotten the bright idea to play a prank on her during this hiking trip by slipping a very realistic fake snake into her bag. She had touched it when reaching into her bag for her camera earlier, mistaken it for a real snake, freaked out and thrown her entire bag, contents and all, away from her—and, incidentally, right over the edge of the trail and down into the trees below. The brilliant (not) boyfriend was now trying to placate her by saying that he would go search for her bag in the morning.

"As though that's the problem," Shinichi muttered under his breath, wrinkling his nose.

"Not a very bright bulb there," Kaito agreed, shaking his head. "A good prank isn't just about shock factor. It requires finesse."

Shinichi shot the taller agent a sidelong look. "I'm not sure you have any room to talk."

Kaito looked offended. "I'll have you know, my pranks are works of art. I wouldn't force-feed strawberries to someone with an allergy to strawberries and call it just a prank. And I certainly wouldn't then be inconsiderate enough to try to make it better by promising to buy an allergy pill and clean up the vomit."

Shinichi grimaced. "That's disgusting. What kind of metaphor is that?"

"An apt one, I say. You see it, don't you?"

Shinichi sighed. He did see it at that. He still felt that Kaito could have come up with a more elegant analogy.

From somewhere up ahead, the boyfriend under discussion exclaimed something that sounded an awful lot like, "You didn't even like that bag."

Kaito shook his head. "What a fool."

"Keep your voice down," Shinichi hissed. He might agree with Kaito, but there was such a thing as manners.

Deciding he would really rather find something else to focus on, Shinichi cast about the rocky, lightly forested path. That was when a sudden thought struck him, and he frowned.

"How long do you think we've been walking?" he asked abruptly.

Kaito raised an eyebrow but answered. "About twenty, thirty minutes. Why?"

"Shouldn't we be getting close to the Landing? Assuming the trip up and down are unlikely to differ too much in length, I would have thought we should at least be within sight of it by now."

Kaito looked thoughtful. "You have a point. But there are quite a lot of trees around. It could be that the landscape is getting in the way. Although I must admit that I don't remember the forest being quite so dense when we were hiking up."

"Do you think we took a wrong turn somewhere?"

"It's a possibility, but I don't recall seeing any branches in the trail after we left the other group," Kaito pointed out. "It seems more likely that we've simply underestimated the distance back to the Landing."

"I guess so," Shinichi agreed hesitantly. That was the most logical answer, especially since they weren't actually returning via the route they had left by. Perhaps this return route was more circuitous than it felt?

As though in answer to his confusion, a light blinked somewhere down the trail ahead of them.

"Oh, I guess there it is," he said, now slightly embarrassed. He supposed he'd just been being paranoid again. It was just that they had been encountering strange event after strange event ever since arriving on the island. And then they'd seen that ghost ship, and now he was feeling a little jumpier than he cared to admit. That, however, was no reason to let his imagination run away with him.

Kaito, however, frowned, eyes narrowing. "That's not the Landing."

"It's not?" Shinichi squinted. As they drew closer to the light, he realized that Kaito was right. "I'm a hundred and ten percent sure that we didn't see this building on the way up."

"Not even in the distance," Kaito agreed, frown deepening. "You don't think that tour guide sent us down the wrong trail on purpose, do you?"

"What for?" asked Shinichi.

The two agents traded looks then unanimously agreed to pick up the pace. They could already here the arguing couple that they had been following exclaiming in surprise at the sight of the building that had appeared between the trees.

-To Be Continued-