"To cross the ocean, you first need the courage to lose sight of the shore." -Red Devil

I got up jumping off my bed. I looked around and realized that Charlotte walking in while I was showering was a nightmare. I turned around and see Kasai sleeping next to me. Ah, that’s right, she knocked on my door that night asking to sleep with me, and I couldn’t say no to my own girlfriend. I would say that she looked like an angel sleeping, but the scene was ruined by her saliva running across the pillow. I smirked and caressed her cheeks, in the end, it’s about who she is not just about how she looks. I got up slowly trying not to wake her up and walked over to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth to get ready for the day. I walked back to look at her while brushing my teeth when I noticed that she still seemed perfect for not wearing any makeup, all this time I thought that she had made upon, but apparently I was wrong on that aspect.

Since I was a kid I also had unusual eyes, not only they were gold but it seemed like I wore some eyeliner too; people thought I did so sometimes they loved bringing it up, but for Kasai it appears as if its stronger and more defined-- she is a girl after all, so I’m guessing that plays a big part in it. I took a bucket and started to fill it up with freezing water. I’m going to need this in a second…

I kept thinking on all the similarities that Kasai and I had, and yet our blood and our birth date are not even slightly the same; I have to look into this after everything is finished, but who knows, maybe Shizuka’s parents are already doing that for us since they are scientists. The bucket ended filling up, I took it and carried it over to the bedroom. I’m sorry baby, but you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to do this.

I threw the whole bucket of freezing water at her while she was sleeping. She jumped out of bed shrieking while I was chuckling. She looked confused around her for a couple seconds, and then looked at me.

“…” Complete silence from her while I was chuckling.

“This is part of the reason why I wanted you to sleep here.” I thought I was going to die, but instead, she started giggling with me. I didn’t expect that reaction at all. “Why are you laughing?”

“I’m just thinking of multiple ways I can get you back.” Oh no! That was an evil giggle! She slowly got up, wet from head to toe walking towards me while I was slowly walking back.

“Listen here my love, my life, my everything. This was just a onetime thing!” I tried to persuade her as much as I possibly could.

“Aww, you’re so sweet!” She hugged me tightly and softly kissed me. Her wet and soft lips made this even better, but now from the hug, I was also wet. She slowly moved her head towards my ear and whispered,

“I’m still going to get you back though. But for now, how about we shower together?” I bet she expected me to shy off, but I wasn’t going to.

“Alright, this day had to come sooner or later right?”

“W-Wait what?”

“Yeah, let’s go!” I pulled her to the bathroom. “Get undressed.” She started blushing and looked away,

“You don’t have to be so forceful.”

“You suggested it.” She started taking off her cropped sweater by pulling it up.

“Y-You are my boyfriend after all, so there is no problem in seeing me undressed I guess…” but right at that moment, someone knocked on the door.

“Rukito!” I heard my master’s voice. Ah, come on!

“Just stay quiet Kasai, act like I’m still sleeping.”

“It’s not like I can talk, remember?”

“Right, you can still proceed to undress though.”

“B-But what if it’s an emergency?”

“The ship is rented. It’s actually going to be unavailable after 10, and it’s 9:15 AM!”

“Ah damn… we have to go, Kasai, let’s just dry up really fast and get our stuff.”

“Alright.” We got ready, grouped and went to the port ‘Yellow Dolphin’ which was a couple minutes away. My master already pre-ordered the ride, so we got on as soon as we got there. The sweet smell of fish and salt water filled our noses, the people around the port doing trading and talking made the scene even better. Seagulls flying over the ships and coast was the cherry at the top.

“Where’s the captain?” I asked my master.

“It’s me!”

“You?!”

“Yeah, I’ve been a captain since I was 15.”

“Oh wow…”

“How come?” Asked Shizuka.

“Well my father was one already, but I always used to be with him on his sailings, so I learned a lot, and many crew members supported me, so they all voted for me to be the next captain.” He got onto the steering wheel and yelled,

“Lower the sails! Pick up the anchor! We’re sailing off boys!” Every crewman did as he said, and we were sailing off, a whole week in this ship is going to be interesting.

“Where can I put my stuff?” Asked Shizuka.

“In the private sleeping quarter, it’s right under me.”

“Ok.” Kasai and Shizuka went down to put their stuff away, while I stayed with my master.

“So what’s your fiancé’s name?”

“Maria Elledan.”

“Nice name!”

“Yeah, she also is beautiful! I really want to marry her as soon as possible, but I have to wait a while.”

“Can I meet her when we arrive?”

“Of course!” The wind was hitting my face, we were finally out in the open Cloud Ocean, now we should be taking 6 days to arrive not counting today. I decided to go around and meet every crewman, we will be together for a while.

Six days pass, I got to know every single crewman, and apparently, they were all very interested in knowing if Kasai was my sister or not, but I said no, that she was actually just a friend. I couldn’t say she was my girlfriend since Shizuka might realize it. We were a couple hours away from the cloud elf kingdom. Hachimura and I were at the top deck of the ship looking at the horizon to see if we see land, but we didn’t. Kasai and Shizuka were in the sleeping quarters; Shizuka was reading a book while Kasai was practicing her martial arts. I mostly meditated throughout the sailing since I still need to pull that stupid katana… this better be worth.

Tin-tin-dan-dan-tin, every bell on the ship was going off. Then I heard,

“STORM INCOMING!” My master and I looked up and saw black clouds generating on top of us.

“What the hell?”

“Filthy humans! Don’t dare come to our continent!” We looked up and saw an elf on the clouds looking down at us.

“Oh no… It’s a rebel.” Said my mater.

“A rebel?”

“Yes, it’s a terrorist group made in the cloud kingdom. They want to kill humans because they still despise them, even though the last war was 118 years ago.”

“Oh, crap…” The storm started getting bigger, it started thundering and raining harshly; the winds were picking up. Shizuka and Kasai came out to the top deck and asked,

“What the hell is going on?”

“A rebel… I don’t know how we are going to get through this storm, he is known around sailors to destroy many ships made by humans.” We all heard a ripping noise and looked up, the sails were ripping apart.

“Crap, they might be old! PICK UP THE SAILS!”

“No! Rukito, tell him not to pick them up, or we won’t get out of this storm alive!”

“Master! Kasai said not to pick them up.”

“But what else are we going to do?” Immediately, Kasai climbed up the crow’s nest and balanced herself towards sails to pull them together so they could get out.

“Kasai! Be careful please!” I told her. The tides were crashing against the side of the ship making it swing left, and right, I was surprised that Kasai still managed to have balanced on that pole, especially counting the fact that everything was wet from the rain.

The cloud elf noticed what we were going to do so he came down himself and landed on the ship. Filthy humans! I’ll kill you all myself. He had blue hair and silver eyes like every other cloud elf. I ran down to the middle to face him.

“Leave! We have no intention of hurting any of you!” I said.

“Yeah right, like if I would believe that!” He had a spear filled with blue stones and charms. I’ve actually never fought someone that has a spear before so I don’t know what to do against it, but I wasn’t going to back down. I pulled out spirit daisho and said,

“Have it your way then.”

“No, Rukito! Fighting people with spears it’s a lot different than swords! Don’t try to fight him!” Said Kasai. She was still holding the sails together, so she wasn’t able to be here with us. All the crewmen got swords and yelled,

“Don’t worry Rukito! We got you!” They were all surrounding him but he span his spear around, and the wind blew the crewmen down on.

“You humans stand no chance against cloud elves like me!” I started realizing that the spear he had was able to control the wind, so I had to be careful of that.

“Rukito--I can’t hold on much longer to the sails.” Said Kasai. Tsk and my master is on the wheel… what can I do? Shizuka walked down to the center and said,

“Rukito! What’s going on?!” I looked back at her and yelled,

“Stay back! He’s dangerous-” Out of nowhere, the storm was gone in a split second. I looked back at the cloud elf and noticed that he was looking at Shizuka with distinctive eyes of love.

“W-Who is this woman?” Kasai quickly got down and hit him in the back of the head with a roundhouse kick. The elf fell to the ground and fainted. She tied him up, and we waited for him to wake up.

“What was all that about?” Asked Shizuka.

“I’m not sure,” I replied. The cloud elf woke up and quickly tried to free himself but couldn’t.

“Tch, let me go!” Shizuka walked up to him and said,

“Hi there.” There again, he had that same look on his face.

“Maybe humans aren’t so disgusting after all… I-I was just angry because humans killed part of my family 118 years ago!”

“Ah, I see what’s going on.” Said Shizuka with an annoyed face. She walked back to us and whispered,

“He’s fallen deep, and he has a personal vendetta.” She said.

“I noticed,” I said. “It’s not like it’s the first time this happens though.”

“Yeah… I know you don’t need to remind me…”

“Are you guys going to the cloud elf kingdom?” he asked us.

“Yes. Were you the one who created that storm?” Asked Shizuka.

“Wah-? Storm? I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Ah, yes, of course. Acting dumb huh?”

“What? No! That’s not-”

“Throw him off the ship said Shizuka.”

“No please! I can help you get to the cloud kingdom faster!”

“Hm? And how?”

“I could carry you to it on my cloud, b-but I can only bring you and no one else.”

“Hmm…” Surely Shizuka wouldn’t accept that request from this weirdo, especially knowing that she will be leaving me.

“Ok, where is the cloud?!” HAAA?! A blue cloud appeared out of nowhere, he looked at it and said with a smirk,

“Right here. So how about it babe?”

“Ugh, call me that again, and you’re shark bait.”

“Ok-ok!” She freed him and said,

“Let’s go.” Shizuka got her stuff, and then they got onto the cloud. I was looking at them with an astonished face.

“Since you don’t seem to care much about me, I’m going to leave. You’re always around Kasai since the day she arrived; you completely forgot about me, I can’t stay at your side like this.” Said Shizuka to me while flying off.

“…” I was in complete silence, I had no idea of what to think. My best bet was that she is trying to use him as an advantage but with what she said it makes it seem not likable.

“What a bitch.” Said Kasai. I sighed, all crewman got back to try and fix the sails. I sat down and said,

“It was bound to happen one of this days… I just have to face the facts that she no longer only thinks about me.” Kasai sat beside me and said,

“It doesn’t matter, you have me! Plus, now you can reveal to everyone that we are together right?” I smiled and said,

“You’re right.” I got up and walked to my master.

“Rukito! What happened?”

“The weirdo fell in love with Shizuka, got her and left.”

“Wait… really?”

“Yup.”

“Wow, I wish I could pick up girls that easily.”

“I mean, did you see his packs? I think that has to do with it.” I said.

“Hey! You calling me fat?”

“You? Fat? Don’t make me laugh, you look like a stick.”

“Ha-ha, very funny.” He said with a sarcastic tone. “But who is the one that has the fiancé here?”

“Ouch, that would have hurt if it was true.”

“What do you mean?”

“Master… Kasai and I…”

“You’re a couple right?”

“What?! How did you know?!” I said blushing. He chuckled patted my shoulder and said,

“You know, the way you both look at each other says it all. It reminds me of my fiancé and me.”

“What do you mean?” I said while blushing.

“Come on Rukito, I can clearly see the love between you two. Plus that little couple quarrel you had back at the dead forest also showed it… and… I saw you kissing.”

“W-What?!” Said Kasai. She turned super red and looked away holding her cheeks. “I-it can’t be!”

“I’m proud of you Rukito.” He said with a smile. “I remember you coming from school always complaining that you never felt that spark inside of you with any girl you’ve been with so you always ended up giving up on love, so I’m glad you found it.”

“T-Thank you, Hachimura!”

“So when is the wedding?!”

“Wedding?! I-I…”

“Ah, I get it. You haven’t officially engaged yet huh?”

“N-no, but we’re planning to! We really love each other a lot… I don’t know what I would do without her… probably still depressed about my life in school complaining about how repetitive and boring my days were.” She giggled and wrapped her arm around me.

“I’m here with you now.”

“If she could talk it would make this scene a lot better.”

“Yeah, I know…”

Now that Shizuka was gone, I went around the whole ship holding hands with Kasai; whenever I’m with her I get the feeling that I never want to let her go… it’s truly amazing the feeling of finally finding the person you’ve been looking for your whole life.

“Oh! There’s the land!” We started seeing trees and mountains on the horizon.

“Finally! I’m so interested in visiting this other continent.” We then saw a giant fish circling around the ship which looked like a colossal piranha.

“What’s that? I’ve never seen such a thing.” Hachimura walked down to where Kasai and I were and said,

“That’s the ‘Arcana Eater.’ They are known to protect this continent from pirates. The elves tell them to not attack ships that have a banner at the side.”

“A banner?”

“Yes, the banner is basically a permit that allows you to cross onto the Cloud Ocean.”

“Oh, I see.”

“We will be there in a couple minutes, get your stuff ready.”

“A couple minutes? Isn’t it further than that? Plus the kingdom is in the sky, how are we going to get there?”

“You can see it from here can’t you?” I looked up, the clouds cleared and I saw the kingdom.

“Oh wow… yeah, I see it.”

“There’s actually a special way to get up there. Cloud Elf policy states that building any type of structure in the land is prohibited if found you could get exiled.”

“So there is no port?!”

“Nope, it’s in the sky.”

“But how…”

“You’ll see.” Kasai and I went down to pick up our stuff. I looked at her while she was picking up her stuff and said,

“You know, I still can’t believe Shizuka left.”

“Why do you care so much? Isn’t it better for us?”

“Yes, it is…”

“So? Let her be. If she wants to be reckless and possibly raped let her be.”

“Don’t say that…”

“It’s the truth! Who knows what might happen, she doesn’t even know how to defend herself; for being smart, she sure is naïve.”

“Kasai, Shizuka helped me a lot to get used to my new lifestyle, and when people started making fun of me since I had red hair and yellow eyes she stepped up and defended me; I can’t just ignore her like that.” She sighed and said,

“Whatever honey, you do what you want.”

“You finally choose a nickname?” She giggled and said,

“I’m trying to see what sounds the best; I might go with honey.”

“I like that one reminds me a lot of my parents,” I said.

“You remember your biological parents?”

“Not really… it’s all fuzzy and blurry. All I remember is their voices.”

“Really? I only remember my mother, and I too only remember her voice.” I finished packing up my stuff and said,

“Let’s go.” We walked up and saw the ship going towards the middle of two big rocks that were crossing each other forming an X shape.

“Hmm? Do we really have to look this cool?” As soon as the ship went right through the middle, the scenery disappeared, all our surroundings were flashing colors of blue, white and cyan; ancient writing was also going around the whole ship. My master walked towards us and said,

“Teleportation magic… the elders really know how to handle their magic.”

“The elders?”

“They are 10 great Cloud Elf magicians that reside in a shrine named as the elders. There, they use their magic to keep the kingdom on the sky, and to make these portals that allow entry up here.”

“Wouldn’t that be known across the entire sea?”

“No, they actually switch portals for every ship. These portals only allow up to one ship to enter.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, last time we had to go face on with a little tsunami, hahahaha.”

“… Wow…”

“I hope I get to meet them, they probably are able to tell me a thing or two about my singularity, and why I can’t pull the Katana even though I meditate almost daily.”

“Smart idea, but I heard they are pretty busy.”

“I’ll manage in one way or the other.” We finally finished teleporting up to the Cloud Kingdom. The ship was slowly moving towards a port. We docked and boarded off the ship.

“So you guys are coming to see my fiancé?” Asked my master.

“Yeah, probably tomorrow. Kasai and I want to settle into a hotel first.”

“Alright, I’ll let her know so she can cook something good up. I live in Comet Cloud; my house number is 1021. ”

“Ok!” Now that we are in the clouds it feels kind of weird since I know that every single cloud is meant for a zone of the kingdom. For example, the mall is basically in one cloud that is named the Coin Cloud, the residents are in the Comet Cloud. Kasai and I already planned all of this, so we know how it works. “I guess this is a good-bye then.”

“Good-bye? More like a see you later.”

“Right, see you around then!”

“Yup.” He walked off but then turned back to look at us with a grin.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Don’t break the bed!” Both Kasai and I instantly blushed.

“W-what do you mean?!”

“Hahahaha, nothing-nothing!” I sighed and said,

“What a guy.”

“He’s not wrong though!” Said Kasai.

“You shut up! We have more important things at hand, like saving innocent people getting killed.”

“Yeah but a little fun won’t hurt!” I chuckled.

“That’s true.” Since entertainment is a big part of Cloud Elf culture, I noticed that there are many amusement parks around the place. Knowing that Kasai always wanted to go to one, I secretly bought tickets for both of us for the best amusement park in the kingdom.

“I know, that’s why we are going to have some tonight!”

“W-Wait are you being serious?”

“You’ll see.” I held her hand and started walking towards Twilight Cloud, which literally was only the hotel named Twilight. Looking around we noticed that every single Cloud Elf had some cool tattoo which is their birthmark. They all had blue hair and silver eyes, and they also seemed very happy, I guess entertainment keeps people on their positive side, so that’s probably why it’s a big part of their culture.

“You know I thought that at this altitude it was going to be freezing cold, but it’s actually pretty warm.” Said Kasai.

“I think the elders might have something to do with it.”

“You’re right. So I’m guessing it never rains here huh?”

“Hmm… good question, but I don’t think so.” While we were walking around the kingdom every single elf looked at us, seeing two red-headed people probably wasn’t something they saw every other day, so we understood since we were looking at them with the same face of curiosity.

“Oh look! That one has a spider birthmark! It looks so cool!” Said Kasai.

“Yeah, it does actually. You think they mean something?” Suddenly a Cloud Elf guide appeared in front of us and said,

“Actually they don’t, it's just so everyone can be unique in their own way.”

“Oh, hi there!”

“Hi, my name is Tsuki! I couldn’t help but notice that you are both new hair.”

“Yeah, I wonder how you figured that out.” I chuckled.

“Yes, I’m sorry, but it’s not often we see people with different hair color than blue.”

“We understand.”

“If you need any help going around just ask me. Here’s a map.” She gave us a big map which showed every single shop and amusement park. I instantly grabbed it and shoved it in my bag, so Kasai didn’t see the park.

“Oh! Thank you much! I’ll be sure to check it out when I get to the hotel.”

“Welcome to Elledan!”

“Thanks!” We kept making our way towards the hotel. We realized how far it was and our feet started to hurt... at least mine. “Isn’t there an easy way to do this?”

“Oh! There!” Kasai pointed towards a little shop that read, ‘COMET CLOUDS ON SALE!’

“Comet clouds?” We went up to check it out and apparently, they sold the same cloud that the weirdo rode away with Shizuka. “Ah, that’s what they are. I would imagine it makes it much easier to reach point B from point A.” So we bought one and rode it towards the hotel, apparently they were automated, so you didn’t accidentally crash into another one. Flying on the cloud made me feel like I was this kid in this anime I watched named Carrot, just that the cloud wasn’t named Nimbus.

We arrive at the hotel in an instant and walk in, bought the room, then the elf at the desk scanned our eyes and let us in. In the elf continent, there aren’t keys, they are easily copied and stolen, so the keyholes have actually iris detection which the door opens only if it identifies your iris. If it’s a visitor, then they would have to knock like usual. We entered the room, it actually had a lot of space with a little living room.

At the right of the living room, there was the master bedroom, which had a king-sized bed and a bathroom with a HUGE bathtub. At the left of the living room, there was a kitchen. There were many windows with view to the beautiful outside horizon of the ocean that we were just sailing on, while at the opposite side there was the unexplored land at the bottom.

“Wow, this place is marvelous.” Said Kasai.

“You can say that again… this view just blows our mansion out of the waters.” We organized all of our stuff and sat down beside each other cuddling in the living room’s sofa. I was sitting normally while she was sitting on top of me resting her head on my chest, with her legs relaxed and extended across the couch.

“I always wanted to cuddle like this with you… no worries, just me and you all alone.” Said Kasai with an emotional tone. I started caressing her legs.

“It seems like we are married and just bought a house huh?” She giggled and said,

“Yes, it really does.”

“Your legs are extremely smooth for being shaved.”

“Shaving? I never even have done such a thing. The hair on me is weird, it doesn’t grow on my arms, legs, face at all!”

“Really? Sounds like a dream to most girls.”

“It only grows on my head of course… I don’t know, it’s really weird.”

“Not even…” She blushed and said,

“No! Not even there!”

“Well on my side it does grow everywhere, so I don’t know. It’s annoying having to shave every other day to keep my face clean.” She giggled and said,

“It’s worth it though.” She kissed me and looked into my eyes. “You look very handsome like this.”

“I can’t be compared to you for sure,” I said back while kissing her again.

“Aww don’t say that, honey.” She pinched my cheek then hugged me.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, and that’s exactly why…”

“Hmmm?”

“I’m taking you to our first date.”

“Wait, really?!”

“Yes, we are going to an amusement.” She was frozen in shock for a couple seconds and then said,

“N-no way…”

“Yes, way.” She hugged me again, but this time it felt like I was going to get chocked to death.

“W-When are we going?!”

“I was going to say tonight.”

“Tonight? But…”

“Hmm?”

“You know I didn’t forget that today is your birthday.”

“Wait… really?”

“Yes?”

“Hahahaha, even I forgot that today is my birthday.”

“You got to be joking.”

“No, apparently there have been so many things in my mind that I completely forgot.”

“Oh, well now you’re 18! And I wanted to give you a present.”

“A present? Nah come on Kasai, you being here is more than enough. I couldn’t imagine asking you for anything, all I want is your love and affection as cheesy as it sounds.”

“I figured you would say something like that.” She said while giggling.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a surprise! I’ll show you later.”

“Oh, alrighty,” I said while smiling. “Just remember that you being in my life was the best birthday present I could ever ask for.” She smiled, and we continued cuddling until we wanted. From me sitting down it transitioned into her and I laid down hugging each other really tight. Sudden sleepiness hit me, I felt so relaxed, and at peace with her, I felt like I could stay like this with her for millennia, and I still would not mind. We both took a short nap until it was night time since we decided that we were going to go to the amusement park and have some fun. When we woke up, we showered and got ready for what was coming.