A Fun Time, Not A Long Time: Skull Island 1.3 (ch. 3) (Patreon)

‘Scary! Scary! He's so scary!’ The thoughts rang around Hitori Gotoh -- henceforth dubbed Bocchi because Momo startled her when she tried to give her name. She stared up at the figure, trembling like a leaf and feeling faint as he sat on top of a veritable mountain of monkeys after he beat them all up. Even the cute ones! Heartless! A heartless monster!

It was a really big shock to see him at the front of the crowd. Even if they were monkeys, it was her first live performance! She was nervous! She had her eyes closed so she could pretend that she was practicing in her closet like she always did, but then she heard a really human 'woo' and she got curious! She didn't expect to make eye contact with a hot guy, okay?!

‘I wanna die. I wanna die. I should have let the monkeys eat me.’ Cringe! The cringe was killing her! She hadn't expected to see him there and she got spooked. And she made a fool of herself. And now… now he was just scary because orangutans are really strong, aren't they? How strong do you have to be to beat one up?!

"So, you two woke up together, huh?" King Monkey Man questioned, looking down at her and Momo. Bocchi couldn't bring herself to look up at him, afraid that he might take eye contact as a challenge.

Thankfully, Momo was here and she… wasn't like her. "We did, several hours ago. We decided to head inland in hopes of finding an elevated position to understand our situation better. It was then that we were beset by the primates but Bocchi noticed them long before I did and started humming a tune that they found enjoyable, stalling their attack." What? That's not what happened at all?!

She had started humming because she hoped that Momo would ask her what song she was humming and they could talk instead of walking through the forest in horribly awkward silence! She didn't know there were any monkeys there until they started cheering!

"Oh? Nice going, Bocchi!" King Monkey Man praised her and Bocchi fought to not collapse to her knees. ‘That's not my name! Don't praise me for something I didn't do!’ "Well, it looks like you two are in the same boat as us. Me, Tink, and two others woke up on the island a few days ago now. We've been looking for others," he informed… and… eh? So he wasn't a native to this scary island? She thought he was like Tarzan! Except blue!

'What are you doing going native so quickly?' Is was she wanted to demand, but instead she dared to look up at King Monkey Man. He was handsome. Pretty boy kind of handsome. The kind that would look her way and smile, and then she’d realize that they were smiling at someone behind her and she could only hope that they forgot about her entire existence because that was vastly preferable. Actually, she wished she could forget those memories too.

Long shaggy dark blue hair, eyes that were bluer than the sky in hue, sunkissed skin… muscles. Lots of muscles. They were all… ripply. Is that why they called it being ripped? Defined biceps, broad shoulders, and a six pack. His legs were revealed too. The only thing that was covered was his… you know, and that was only with a leaf skirt. He really threw away all of his clothes at the drop of a hat?!

Momo focused on the more important thing, Bocchi realized in hindsight. “There are others? Do you know what brought us here? I was on my way to my hero course entrance exam when I woke up with Bocchi.” In response to that, Primate Man scratched at his head before standing up. The monkies whimpered and groaned with every step. That was some serious animal cruelty, wasn’t it?!

“Wouldn’t say we have answers, but we know a bit more than you do. Oh, I’m Cassian Kaine, by the way,” Kaine introduced himself with a wide smile… weren’t his canines a little too sharp? “It’d probably be easier to explain everything back at Skull Mountain.” Skull Mountain?! What kind of name is that?! Scary! Scary! This guy was scary! They shouldn’t go anywhere with him! Bocchi looked at Momo in the hopes that she was getting the same vibes as she was, only to find Momo looking relieved.

“My name is Momo Yaoyorozu,” Momo introduced herself with a small bow. Kaine looked to her expectantly, and Bocchi avoided eye contact.

“I’m-” she began before a thought struck her. Momo assumed that Bocchi was her name and not her nickname. If she revealed her name now, then how would Momo react? Would Momo hate her for lying? Or, worse, would she cry because Bocchi hadn’t cleared up the misunderstanding before she was embarrassed?! No! She couldn’t. There was only one thing to do… “Bocchi… Bocchi the Rock…” She answered lamely, a lifeless sigh escaping her.

Hitori Gotou? Who is that?

“Wh-whoa!” Kaine seemed stunned, and she could practically feel his genki eyes beaming at her. “Your name is awesome!” She looked up to see that he was beaming at her, and it genuinely hurt her eyes to see such radiant good vibes, but he seemed to be honest. Ah. Should she have complimented his name- “I can fly you up to Skull Mountain. It’s a short trip -- only an hour or so. It’ll take you the better part of the day on foot.” Ah! She was too late to return the compliment! If she tried now, then she’d make one of those really awkward pauses that disrupted the flow of a conversation!

“Do you possess a flight quirk?” Momo questioned and in response, Kaine simply grinned. A quirk was that weird thing that Momo did with the guitars and drum set, right? The monkeys had been bearing down on them, so she never got a chance to process it, but… pulling a guitar from your cleavage wasn’t normal, right?

“Ah, no -- that would be her,” Kaine said, pointing up and…

Bocchi's jaw dropped. A fairy? She was about an inch tall, yellowish skin and wearing a green dress. She fluttered down, landing lightly on Kaine's outstretched palm and presented herself with a proud twirl with an expression that could best be described as smug. Bocchi was in awe, hardly believing her eyes. She was looking at a real life fairy. Somehow, that was more incredible and unbelievable than Kaine beating up a bunch of monkeys or Momo pulling a guitar from her boobies.

"With a pinch of fairy dust and some belief, you can fly. It can take a bit to get used to, though. Would you mind, Tinkerbell?" He asked and the fairy- Tinkerbell started to mime something out. "Eh? You want a reward? Sure, that seems fair. What would you want, Tink?" Kaine asked before Tink looked the her and Momo. Bocchi had stars in her eyes, her excitement rising.

Then Tinkerbell pointed at them and slashed a line across her throat with the thumb of her other hand.

"Ack-" Bocchi did a spit take while Momo simply raised a hand to her lips and muttered an 'Oh, my.' That was kind of extreme, wasn't it?! They just meant and the fairy wanted to kill them? Bocchi wanted to cry. Not even a fairy from a fairy tale wanted to be her friend.

"Come on, Tink -- you know murder isn't an option. I'll give you what you want, the skies the limit here. Just don't ask something that can't be given back, you know?" Kaine bargained and he seemed worryingly unbothered and unsurprised that his fairy wanted to murder them.

Tinkerbell pouted for a moment before she lit up. With an exaggerated swaying of her hips, she strutted forward while her hands lifted the hem of her green dress. Bocchi's face went red hot and she slapped her hands over her eyes, but even still, she couldn't help but perk through them. Momo let out an even more surprised, "Oh, my!"

Kaine didn't seem bothered by the promiscuous request. "Well, if that's what you want. There is the matter of logistics, though. My dick is literally bigger than your entire body," he pointed out and Bocchi's gaze was drawn to his groin. Tinkerbell was really tiny, so that didn't mean a whole lot. So how big was his-

"P-please take these!" Momo abruptly interrupted, pulling a pair of… shorts from her chest. Bocchi has been too panicked to notice it before, but… magic boobies? And they were big. "A-and this! One should always wear protection!" Momo added, turning bright red as she passed Kaine a condom. He held it up, his brow furrowing for a moment before he turned to their makeshift stage. A drum set, a guitar, and an amp. All pulled from Momo's magic boobies.

"That ability of yours… is there a limit to it?" Kaine asked, his voice becoming serious as he tucked the condom into the shorts' pocket before- Bocchi snapped her fingers shut as the grass skirt started to fall. How could anyone be so brazen?! Where was his modesty?! Was this sexual harassment?

"I'm limited by food intake and understanding the physical makeup of what I am trying to create," Momo answered. "I do much better with physical creations rather than chemical ones as it's difficult to precisely replicate chemical reactions." Wait, wasn't that kind of really incredible?

"Huh," Kaine mused. "Sounds like you're going to be the key to getting off of this island," he voiced and Bocchi peeked through her fingers to see that Kaine was now dressed in a pair of white cargo shorts that had a pink flowers stitched near the hem of one leg. "It'll be easier to show you everything back at the mountain, but we're the only people on the island and rescue is unlikely."

Momo stood straighter, "Then I won't let anyone down!"

"That's what I like to hear!" Kaine said, stepping forward, and Bocchi squeaked when she felt herself being picked up. Then again when in the middle of her flailing that she saw the ground retreating as Kaine flew up into the air, rising high above the treetops. Bocchi's jaw dropped at the sight, especially when they rose high enough to catch a glimpse of Skull Mountain that really looked like a massive Skull.

Being able to fly away was a common enough fantasy for her. A super power. She always imagined what it would be like to spread her arms wide and just fly away. This was probably as close as she was ever going to get to that fantasy, and…

'I'm being carried like a sack of potatoes…' He couldn't even carry her bridal style- no! No, no, no! That would be way too embarrassing! Fireman carry- but then her butt would be near his face-

Bocchi was so lost in her head, conjuring embarrassing scenarios that by the time she realized that she wasn't paying any attention to the view, the flight was already over. They flew into the mouth of the scary mountain, where Bocchi saw a bunch of old supplies. And more importantly, a group of people. Something Bocchi had to swallow her dread upon seeing.

There were four in total. One was an American looking girl with red hair and green eyes. The other looked Japanese, though -- one girl around her age with gray eyes, another was an older woman in her mid twenties with dark blue hair and a lab coat. The last was a girl with dark hair with a mole underneath one of her eyes that was receiving soothing circles rubbed into her back as she stifled her tears.

"Yo! Found two more! Meet Momo and Bocchi the Rock!" Kaine introduced them, landing on the ground in front of the group. Bocchi looked at them all -- they were all pretty. She tried not to squirm when the others looked at her.

"I found these two," the dark haired girl gray eyes said, gesturing to the crying girl and the woman in the lab coat.

"Tae Takemi," The one in the lab coat introduced herself curtly, her gaze sharp. Then she looked down at the dark haired girl, who was furiously rubbing her eyes. "And she's Kobeni Higashiyama."

"We're going to die! We're going to die! I should have become a sex worker instead," Kobeni wept. "First an eternity devil and now a sea monster and boxing gorillas!?" A Devil?

"... right. Uh, and that's Kim and Mikasa," Kaine introduced the red head and the gray eyed girl. "So, I have some good news. Momo here might be able to get us off the island!" Wasn't that a lot of pressure to just throw on someone's shoulders?! "She can make complex materials and electronics."

"Savior?!" Kobeni cried out, crawling to Momo and clinging to her like a lifeline.

Mikasa, however, seemed far more interested than relieved like the others. "Can you create materials that you aren't familiar with?"

That caught Momo's interest, making her pause as Kobeni wrapped her arms around her waist and cried into her stomach. "Do you have something that might help?”

“Perhaps,” Mikasa hedged, not wanting to promise anything as she handed over the tube. “Inside is a material from my… my world called iceburst stone. It’s an ultralight mineral that becomes a gas when exposed to nonfreezing temperatures,” Mikasa explained, sounding like she was reciting a lesson. Momo pulled out an entire microscope from her chest and… now that Bocchi had a little more understanding of how her power worked, it started to dawn on her how incredible Momo was.

To be able to understand something on the atomic level and be able to produce it with visual imagination? That was more incredible than the power itself, and Bocchi was so thoroughly overwhelmed by the fact that Momo had a super power in the first place.

“We use it for propulsion where I’m from,” Mikasa began, and immediately she was beset by questions from Momo about the material. Basically asking specifics of how it worked with her 3D gear -- how fast could it take her, conductivity, does it rust, how much could fit in the tank, and so on.

As they talked, Momo began pulling an entire workstation out of her body. A microscope, a freezer, glass slides, and a little stool for her to sit on while she poured over the substance while making the occasional sound.

"Well, since we have some extra hands -- we need to make sure that we can survive until we can leave the island," Kaine began before he pointed to himself. "I'm pretty tough, so I can probably fight anything on the island." That was a really weird thing to brag about, you know? Even if it is true!

"What if you can't?" Kobeni questioned, her eyes bloodshot and her expression every bit as miserable as Bocchi felt. Never before had Bocchi felt such kinship with someone she didn't know.

Kaine seemed to think about it before he laughed, "I guess I'll die!" That's entirely too nonchalant!

Kobeni's expression fell, "Another Denji. I'm trapped on an island with another Denji." That just seemed to make Kaine laugh that much harder.

Tae Takemi let out an annoyed sigh, "I'm a doctor. Though, considering the circumstances, I'm closer to a sawbones," she remarked, sounding indifferent and now that Bocchi could really look at her… she didn't exactly look like a normal doctor? Underneath her white lab coat was a short green dress. She wore a red grommet belt, a black choker that was connected to a couple of necklaces, and black platform high heels. She looked more like a punk rocker than she did a doctor.

Then Tae looked to Kaine, "From the sounds of it, I'll be putting you back together more often than not."

"I'll be in your care!"

Kobeni seemed to compose herself, "I'm a Devil Hunter, but I'm not a very good one… please don't rely on me for anything." It was like Kobeni was reading Bocchi's mind and speaking her thoughts out loud.

"I'm a secret agent," Kim admitted after a moment and… what? "Well, sort of. I mostly freelance as a hero against D-lister super villains that try to take over countries or the world. I have a solid background in martial arts and nature survival… but I'm not sure how much good that would do here."

"Okay. Neat," Kaine decided in a vast understatement before he looked to Bocchi. Oh. Oh no. This… she got distracted and she didn't notice until it was too late.

There were few things more awkward than a sharing circle -- where everyone went around, introducing themselves and telling one unique thing about themselves. And she just came after a girl that saved the world and fought supervillains?! Any answer she could give would be lame but it would seem supper lame after that!

"I, er…" Bocchi trailed off, looking to the side. What could she say? She wasn't a super agent! Or a doctor! Or whatever a Devil Hunter meant! She was just a teenage girl that got press ganged into a band before waking up here! How was she supposed to compete with these incredible people?

No. No! That was quitter talk! This… this was an opportunity! This was a fresh start! She could make friends! They could talk about… about whatever friends talked about! She could socialize!

"I'm-!" Bocchi began, only to be interested by a howl. Her spine had the strength of a wet noodle and she immediately collapsed out of fear. She looked at the opening to see… a gorilla.

"Here for a rematch, Ippo?" Kaine greeted the gorilla who settled in a boxing stance? What? Wait, did Ippo just nod his head like he understood what Kaine said? "Alright. I'm always game for a fight. Have at thee!" Kaine shouted before he threw himself at Ippo and the two began to fight.

Bocchi could only stare. She got interrupted. And that gorilla really knew how to box.

What was her life?

…

It was amazing what you could get used to in as little as five days, I thought, floating over a cliff that offered a great view of the island and the ocean. I could still see the fin of the sea monster that circled us. Given that he had only snacked on one human, and how big he was, I'm guessing that the ocean was full of sea creatures big enough for him to get a full meal.

"So, we'll be flying," I told the grave that was dug underneath the shade of a palm tree. "Mikasa offered that iceburst stuff, and after a bit, Momo figured out how to make more of it. And with Tinkerbell and some belief, the ship should be able to fly. It's going to be a tight fit, though. Most of the room is going towards storage -- food and fuel."

We had scoured the island -- but we didn't find any more people. Though we did find traces of them. Little things like a carving on an old tree that said 'Jack+Jill 4ever' in a heart. A carving that had to be at least a hundred years old. The remains of some tools, some camps… little things that showed that people came before us.

What we found the most of, though, were the black bands.

There were hundreds of them.

"We still have a good week or two before we're ready to leave, but we'll be leaving. I'm setting up some instructions in case anyone arrives after us -- don't worry, I told them to take care of your grave. Even made a path up to it," I reassured, looking out at the island. To think, a week ago, I would be slaving away at my nine to five right about now. Instead, I got the beauty of an island as gorgeous as it was dangerous.

I heard footsteps coming up from behind me and I glanced over my shoulder to see that it was Tae. She had ditched the lab coat, mostly because it was impossible to keep clean. "You sure do talk to them a lot even if you didn't know them," Tae remarked, giving me an even look.

If I had to describe Tae in a single word, the one I would pick would be aloof. Not friendly, but not unfriendly either. "She was stuck alone for who knows how long. And she'll be alone again after we leave," I answered with a small shrug, earning a noise of understanding from Tae. "What brings you here? We're kind of out of the way."

"Mikasa ratted you out. You fought Ippo again," Tae said, and I just crossed my legs, hovering in the air. My fights with Ippo had become something of a routine. Every day, Ippo would show up to fight. Sometimes he'd ambush me while I was out hunting for food. Sometimes we fought as many as ten times a day. "Don't try flying away and let me make sure those cuts don't get infected."

I tsked. Then I hissed when she pressed alcohol soaked bandages against the cuts -- Momo really was something else. So far, we hadn't found anything that she couldn't produce with that quirk of hers. She could even make food, but the apple that she gave as a proof of concept tasted pretty weird.

"Don't be a wuss," Tae chided me, her bedside manner nonexistent. "If you can't take a little disinfectant, then start learning how to dodge. Or, better yet, stop fighting gorillas," she added, mercilessly cleaning the scrapes that I had picked up.

"Can't. So long as Ippo keeps getting in the ring, I'll get in it too," I said, flinching away when one of the cuts stung in particular.

Tae offered a noncommittal hum, a small beat of silence blossoming between us. "I didn't have the tools to confirm it until now, but your body is pretty weird," Tae announced with the grace of a hammer to the face. I blinked in her direction, hoping for a follow up statement to explain what she could mean by that. "Your body runs hot. You have an average temperature of a hundred and fifteen degrees. Normally, you'd be dead with a fever like that. Or at least have some brain damage." That last comment carried a sarcastic edge. "But, more than that, your breathing is weird."

My breathing? What's wrong with how I-

"Urghk! Gughk!" I choked, making Tae's eyes go wide as I fell on my ass from where I hovered. My lungs felt like they were balloons getting squeezed until they were about to pop, but as I pounded my chest, the feeling lessened, though- "Hic," I hiccuped, a fate that was arguably worse than death.

"What was that?" Tae questioned, her eyes narrowing into slits.

"You -hic- made me aware of my -hic- breathing," I answered, trying to hold my breath and breathe normally again. I hate having the hiccups. I think how utterly miserable I looked convinced Tae that I was being honest more than words ever could have. "It felt like my -hic- lungs were going to pop."

Tae frowned at that, "Whatever is going on with you, it's connected to your breathing as far as I can tell. I'll need to at least do some blood work to find out more." She said, sounding vaguely interested. “What you do is pretty far outside the physical limitations for humans. Far outside of it, actually.”

I shot her a grin, “Curious what makes me tick?” I asked her, cuz I had to admit, I was curious myself.

She just hummed, turning her gaze out to the island. “I created medicine back home. In my world,” she added, sounding ambivalent about being stuck here in a whole new world. “I was a prodigy -- graduated medical school at eighteen. For all the good that it did me.” That sounded like a story, but one I don’t think she would share. “I knew what to expect there. Here, I don’t even have a clue. What you do is impossible. What Momo does is especially impossible. So, I suppose I am curious on what makes you two tick.”

I laughed, “So long as you put me back together when you’re done.” From the sounds of it, Tae didn’t fancy our chances of finding a way back to our home worlds. Or, at the very least, she was interested in staying here like I was.

“I make no promises, my little guinea pig,” Tae replied, placing the last bandage on me before stepping back. She cast one more look at the view before she started away. “You picked a good spot,” she told me, and I think that was the first time I heard anything resembling approval coming from her.

Turning my gaze to the unmarked grave…

“I think so too.”