D-007.
13 Hours since launch.
Planet Foralon.
BANG, CLANG!
Icarus jolts awake from the sound of falling metal, he quickly gets up frantically…until he takes notice of the small blue metal box next to him. He looks ahead and sees Itadori, giving him an annoyed glance.
Itadori: "Don't look at me like that, nothing else could wake you."
Icarus groggily rubs his eyes "Man…it seems you didn't even try anything else."
Itadori responds with a dismissive "hmph!" as he turns around.
Itadori: "Come now. We landed on the planet a few minutes ago."
Icarus: "Oh! Is it a snow planet?"
Itadori: "Is that just a random guess or do you know that for a fact? The ship automatically tints the windows pitch black before we even arrive so why assume a snowy planet of all things?"
"...Why else would you have snow on your shoulder?"
Itadori looks over to his left shoulder, finds nothing, then glances at his right and finds a pile of snow on his right shoulder. Disgruntled, he wipes it off, and doesn't answer Icarus' question.
Icarus shrugs and catches up with Itadori, and Cosmo drops down from above and joins them soon after.
Itadori presses a red, round button next to the door…smoke comes out as the stairs make way…and they take in the sights.
A soft, bright blue sky interrupted with fluffy, wavy purple strokes is what catches their eyes at first. They look above as they notice that the sky seems significantly taller than that of Earth, the highest dome Icarus and Itadori had ever seen. Oddly enough, the star lighting up the planet is nowhere to be seen. The crew take a moment to feel the ground on their feet. The ship has landed on a hill. And they see below them the drop down to a forest…of flowers. The size of Earth's skyscrapers, the flowers bloom in golden pedals, the bright coloured green stem of them contrasting the dark-coloured grass below. Ahead of them, far in the distance and obscured by light grey, dense frog was an enormous, aged tree formed of tangled and curved trunks, its top obscured by the clouds soaring above.
Icarus: "...Woah."
Itadori waves his arms around, and notices how easy and light it was.
Itadori: "How bizarre…the planet is significantly larger in scale than Earth…and yet, its gravity feels so much weaker…"
Cosmo: "A common misconception, planet gravity has a plethora of factors, finding out why is irrelevant."
Icarus: "So, where should we go for the emerald or whatever?"
Itadori: "Well, I am far from a planet expert, but I believe the best course of action is to follow the conveniently placed tree."
Cosmo: "It is not convenience. Did you not recall the fox mentioning that the ship would land within range of the emerald?"
Itadori: "Apologies, I am not as infatuated with a married man as you are."
Cosmo: "...touché."
Icarus walks slightly forward and peaks down the hill. He notices how it curves upwards at the very end, looking like a natural ramp.
Itadori: "Icarus. Whatever you do, do NOT-"
Before he gets to finish, Icarus jumps high in the air…and rolls into a ball.
He goes ZOOMING down the hill, dust and rocks fly over the hill, going way over the ship…he then reaches the top of the ramp, and SOARS through the sky!
He unrolls from his ball form and looks down below.
He can see so much.
The highest he ever was.
The air hitting his quills.
The world slows down, slower than it already was for him.
He spreads his arms and legs like a bird, witnessing a new world for what it was.
Despite this being the first time he leaped off a ramp with his speed…
It felt so natural.
So right.
Instinctive.
…
He begins falling.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHHH-"
Itadori looks away from the crash, Cosmo face palms and shakes her head in disappointment.
Icarus' face gets buried as he lands head-first in the dirt.
He plants his feet and hands to pull himself out of the soil, he almost gets his entire head out but the last part is stuck.
Suddenly, he feels someone, or something pulling on his ears, his screams of pain are muffled as he gets forcibly pulled out of there.
He almost trips over himself walking back, however he finds his footing and takes a look around to find himself in the middle of the flower forest, then looks ahead to try and see who or what pulled him out, but finds nothing.
He then looks down.
A small, short monkey looking creature with dark brown fur, sporting little black dots for eyes and a thin green fabric covering its torso, held together on the shoulders with a thick, sturdy rope hanging on its shoulders.
Icarus: "Oh, hey there little guy. Were you the one who helped me out?"
The monkey leans its head to the side and scratches its forehead with a bewildered look on its face.
Icarus: "Man, language barriers have been kicking my butt recently…"
Icarus then tries to describe what they want here and who they are.
Icarus: "Ooh…ah ah…" he points to himself "ah, ooh ooh, ah", he points at himself, does a peace sign and then points backwards, trying to describe that there are 2 others with him. "OOOOH, ah ah oh ah ah….ah?", he tries drawing the shape of a chaos emerald, before completely forgetting what they looked like. "Ah ah…ahhhhh" he points forward and upwards, towards the tree. "Ah ah oh-"
"Icarus!"
"GAH!"
Icarus and the monkey both leap back in shock as Itadori and Cosmo appear behind Icarus.
Icarus: "Oh hey…it was just negotiating with this…kind fellow and-"
For what feels like the millionth time in the last week, Cosmo rolls her eyes, ignores Icarus' mumblings and walks forward towards the monkey…thing.
She goes down on one knee to be of relative height to the creature, and begins talking to him in what sounds like utter gibberish. However, the monkey also responds in similar sounding gibberish, so Icarus and Itadori figure that she is talking in their native language.
Icarus steps next to Itadori and leans into his side to whisper to him.
Icarus: "So, can you understand them too?"
Itadori: "Why on Earth would I know?"
"Well, you both speak nonsense, so-"
"I thought I already told you to not insult my culture."
"Okay, but seriously though, you gotta understand my position. I mean what kind of culture has parents name their kids the exact same name. I mean sure we sometimes do that for loyalty, but I never heard of a guy naming their daughter with the same name as themselves…or, actually…maybe if a king was named something like Alex…and then gave birth to a girl…."
"What…are you on about?"
"What I mean is, it's weird that your name is Kujo, which is also your father's name, which is also your daughter's…"
Itadori raises an eyebrow of confusion…but then it hits him like a bolt of lightning. He then mutters under his breath: "Manuke…"
Icarus: "Huh?"
Itadori takes a deep breath before answering.
Itadori: "From where I come from, we put the family name before our first name. In your records, my name would be "Itadori Kujo" rather than 'Kujo Itadori'."
Icarus: "...oh."
Icarus looks away in embarrassment. Although Itadori wants to appear annoyed, he can't help but flash a smirk of amusement.
Soon after, Cosmo gets up, and the creature begins to walk forward, Cosmo following him.
Without looking back, she calls for the other two. "Let's get moving."
The two begin walking forward. Itadori looks ahead while Icarus takes in the sights, rarely staying in one place.
Itadori: "So, what did you learn from him?"
Cosmo: "He's taking us to their leader to discuss the emerald."
Itadori: "I see."
Itadori crosses his arms and closes his eyes…while still walking. Somehow.
Icarus finally stabilises and walks side by side next to Itadori. He looks over to him to make conversation. But he isn't there. He looks around for him, and then finds him back in his spot, still walking.
Icarus imagines he must be seeing things, maybe it's something to the atmosphere or whatever? After all, they are on this foreign planet without spacesuits…wait, why aren't they in spacesuits? Why do they not have oxygen tanks or whatever like the humans do when they go on Mars?
Weirdly enough, that's nowhere near the strangest thing that happened in the last few days, so he puts that thought in the back of his mind.
He glances over to Itadori again, and notices a leaf on his orange shoulder.
He gently grabs it without Itadori noticing and inspects it, before looking upwards.
There can literally be no orange leafs here, and it looks extremely Earth-y…where did that even come from?
Like a lot of thought trains lately, this too goes off course as they finally make it to the bottom of the tree. The entrance is a giant, oval shaped carving on the dated tree. The creature stands aside and signals them to come in, while refusing to follow them inside.
The trio albeit a bit hesitant, step into the area.
It's dark. Pitch black.
Then…
The area lights up in torches.
As they stand at the bottom, the trio glance around and witness the enormous dome they are placed in as its gets lit up in the natural golden light of flames. The hollowed out inside of the tree, the roof was nowhere to be seen as the top was engulfed in darkness. The wild creatures, looking identical to the one who guided the trio here, stand on the top of wooden platforms on the right and left walls, lighting up torches on each hand. Meanwhile, a wooden platform below each set houses another set of creatures slamming on hand drums.
"Dun dun pan pan…
Dun dun pan dun…."
The sound was almost deafening as the drums echoed through the area.
However, the centre of the dome remained shrouded in black. Only a subtle green glow can be seen.
Then, one last torch lit up, bringing into view a 5-metre-tall wooden platform supporting a giant makeshift-looking ligneous throne, where a more human sized monkey creature sat. As opposed to the simple robes the others were wearing, he wore a dark blue gi with stripes containing a burnished glow that marked the sleeves. He had something resembling a beard as the fur on his face extended downwards with a pointy edge.
The crowd only grows louder. More frantic. Their expression of neutrality unchanging.
His left hand rested on the armrest of the throne, but his right hand held a cane with a curved, oval shaped top, housing the green Chaos Emerald
He looks down on the trio and lifts the cane upwards.
DUNDUNPANPAN DUNDUNPANPAN
DUNDUNPANPAN DUNDUNPANPAN
DUNDUNPANPAN DUNDUNPANPAN
DUNDUNPANPAN DUNDUNPANPAN
…
Icarus raises his hand.
The king raises an eyebrow in curiosity, before gently double tapping his cane on the platform.
The room falls to silence.
...
Icarus smirks.
…
Icarus: "Yo!"
Itadori immediately smacks him in the back of the head.
END OF CHAPTER.