- # # # 1 # # # -

Once again, Rocko approached Ranoiko with another idea that was likely bound to fail. Ranoiko accepted it out of obligation, but soon after, she requested a private meeting with Ryuto in her hut.

Ryuto entered her hut, asking, “What did you need me for?”

Ranoiko, who was walking in circles, replied, “I can’t keep doing this, Ryuto.”

“‘Ryuto?’”

“Chieftain Ryuto. I said ‘Chieftain,’ right?”

“I... don’t think so. It’s no big deal. I’m more concerned with what you meant when you said you ‘can’t keep doing this.’”

“With your son... I just can’t keep indulging in these ridicul— in these dangerous ideas.”

“Why?”

“Why do you want me to? It’s your son! I’m basically enabling suicide with the things I make him.”

“With or without your help, he’s going to keep trying.”

“Why are you letting him do this?”

“Because it would be too cruel to tell him to give up on his dreams.”

“His dreams?”

“Has he not told you?”

“No.”

“With all of the time he’s spent with you trying to make things, he seriously hasn’t even mentioned it?”

“No. Not that I can remember.”

“From what I understand, he wants to explore the stars.”

“‘Explore the stars?’ Oh, that’s right. You did mention something about stars when you first introduced him to us.”

“I expected that he’d bring it up himself, so I never went into detail. I guess he’s more secretive with it around others.”

“So... wait a second. He wants to go to the stars... so he’s trying to make wings to fly to them?”

“Yeah, basically.”

“If only the Matron was still around...” Ranoiko quietly said to herself.

Ryuto gave her a sharp instinctive glare.

“Uh... s-sorry,” Ranoiko said. “I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s okay,” Ryuto assured her. “I agree. That would have made things easier... in all sorts of ways.”

“Yeah... um... aren’t there like... steps before trying to go straight to your goal? Isn’t he rushing it?”

“It feels like it, but I have no idea where else he’d start, or else I’d have said something to him already.”

“I see... I mean, I still don’t think it’s right for him to be thinking of anything other than becoming Chieftain, personally...”

Ryuto remained silent.

“...but... I uh... as a parent, I understand wanting your child to be happy. In the spirit of that — if it’s alright for me to say so — I would suggest trying to find a way for him to start smaller, and work his way up, however that would work. Smaller would be more feasible for me, too. Oh, uh, I don’t mean literally smaller, but that works, too!”

“Yeah, it’s alright. I completely agree. I just... I really don’t have any ideas on how else he could start. His goal is to go to the stars, so where could he start aside from something that helps him get closer to them? How am I supposed to tell him to start smaller if I can’t even give him an idea on what that might be?”

“Well, sorry to say it, but that sounds like your problem. I can’t keep doing this. One of these times, he’s gonna get himself killed. I’m gonna get him killed. Beyond that, the entire village is mocking him. They’re mocking you. They’re mocking me, too. Unless something more reasonable can be arranged, I can’t keep accepting his ideas.”

Ryuto had nothing to say in return. No agreement. No argument.

“Thing is, I already accepted his latest request. So, I’ll do this last one. After that, I’m done. At least until he makes less destructive requests.”

Ryuto nodded, and silently left.

Ranoiko sighed in relief. “See, Ayo? There was nothing to worry about,” Ranoiko said, turning to the bedroom entryway behind her.

In response, a child stepped out from the room.

- # # # 2 # # # -

It was early morning, not long after the adults returned from the Morning Harvest, but still too early for most of the children to be up. Unlike most kids, Rocko was usually already awake by this point. This time in particular, Ranoiko had already given him the finished contraption. Little did Rocko know, it was the last flying device she’d make for him.

Despite how early it was, Rocko wanted to test it immediately. To that end, Alita was woken up much earlier than she should have been, and prepared a trampoline of vines in the Barrier Level for Rocko to safely bounce on should he fail to fly.

Not long after these flight attempts first began, Alita had stopped making giant walls of vines, figuring that Rocko wouldn’t try to go over the outer edges. After roughly a dozen attempts, her judgment had been consistently correct, as he never did.

This time, he did.

Not only did he jump over the outer edges of the village, he jumped from the Residential Level instead of the Plaza Level — twice as high as normal from the Barrier Level.

After previous failures to fly, with varying degrees of success in at least gliding and directional control, he believed he cracked the code and that his latest set would be the one that finally worked. It was based on a combination of all the most successful aspects of what he'd tried in the past so far, so he had no doubts. The only worry he had was that due to it being heavier than a typical glider, there was a risk it wouldn't work immediately like normal gliders did, and may need more time and space. So, he decided jumping higher would give him that time. He chose the outer edge to avoid accidentally hitting the Plaza Level platforms, as well, in case it took too long. He was confident it wouldn't fail, however, and that even if he fell too far, he'd be able to fly back up.

Thanks to exhaustion from both being up too early and putting her specialty to hard work so soon after waking, Alita was a bit slow on the uptake of the change in plans — to the point she remained behind on the Plaza Level without realizing Rocko had gone up — so, Rocko had already jumped off the edge by the time she realized something was different.

Once she realized, however, she didn’t hesitate to act. Rocko had passed halfway down the Plaza Level when Alita saw — in effectively slow motion — him falling outside the village’s borders, with propeller blade-like wings on his arms and a flaming glider with ruptured miniature hot-air balloons on his back. She immediately became conscious of the situation, and abandoned the floor of vines on the Barrier Level — which rotted away — as she grew several brand new rope-like vines from right in front of her, and charged them at Rocko.

The vines managed to catch him just before he’d fall past the Plaza Level. However, the impact that resulted was hardly forgiving. These vines weren’t designed to bounce like a trampoline, nor were they fluid like water. They needed to catch him, so they were perfectly solid.

After the vines caught him, they just as quickly wrapped around him, taking hold of him like tentacles wrapping themselves around an object. They then tore the burning contraption off him, safely pulled him to the Plaza Level, and dropped him off not far from the edge, where Alita could see him.

Once Alita confirmed Rocko was placed safely on the ground, her eyes stopped glowing, and the vines rotted away in a near-instant.

Alita fought against losing consciousness as she stumbled forward to investigate the state of Rocko’s body, hoping he wasn’t injured from the catch.

Unfortunately, his injuries were nothing to scoff at. He had fallen nearly twenty times his own height, after all. There were a couple large bloody flesh wounds and likely several as-yet undetected broken bones. His legs and hips suffered the most damage, as they were where the vines first caught him and thus where he took the brunt of the impact. Fortunately, his upper body and head took almost no damage whatsoever, and there was no indication he had been burned by his failed device. He was alive.

So, not only was the latest idea a failure, but for multiple reasons, Rocko almost didn’t make it out alive.

Seeing the wounds, Alita’s eyes glowed lime green once again, and a series of flat, wide vines emerged from the ground between them.

Rocko immediately caught on to what she was doing, and once the vines were at a suitable length, he used his quills to cut the vines from the ground. To Alita’s surprise, one-by-one, Rocko wrapped and tightened the vines around his open wounds like bandages. His legs were difficult to bandage, as every movement was met with sharp, aching pain.

It was one of the many things he learned through tedious observation when going through his training to be the next Chieftain. Every so often, a villager or more would get injured by predators during the Morning Harvest. Every single time, Rocko would be forced to watch as their wounds were tended to while Ryuto explained the details of the procedure. Rocko would also always be quizzed on it later. Since Morning Harvests were a daily necessity, it was a common occurrence, and he came to know most medical procedures quite well — especially the simple ones.

Having verified that Rocko was safe, Alita collapsed to the ground, allowing herself to lose consciousness and get some much needed sleep.

- # # # 3 # # # -

The fact that someone jumped off the edge of the Residential Level didn’t go unnoticed. Those who first saw it, Alita excluded, immediately informed everyone they could, and word spread like wildfire that someone ‘attempted’ or ‘committed suicide again.’ The commotion had awoken the rest of the village earlier than usual, including all the children. Within minutes of Alita passing out, nearly the entire village was on the scene.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened once one saw Rocko and Alita in the states they were in.

“It was you?!” a familiar voice shouted in distress. The originator cleared their way through the crowd, paying no heed to any other villager as they beelined to Rocko, all-the-while continuing their pained speech, “Rocko, what in the name of Ruter were you thinking?! How could you possibly think that was a good idea?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”

Just as the voice was familiar, so was the sentiment. ‘Are you trying to get yourself killed?’ seemed to be the one of the top questions on the minds of the villagers when it came to Rocko and his activities. This was the first time anyone had ever heard it from Ryuto, though.

As soon as Ryuto reached Rocko’s position, he grabbed Rocko by the shoulders, and continued yelling, “Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again! You hear me?!” Ryuto was sobbing, “I won’t lose you, too! I can’t lose you! Don’t you dare try to take yourself away from me like that again! Do you understand?!”

Ryuto had been practically shaking the already-injured Rocko in his blind despair. He almost lost his son, after all. And frankly, that was his fault for letting Rocko do something he already knew was dangerous. Not only was he despairing at the narrowly avoided tragedy, but he was furious at himself for the part he played in making it possible at all.

One could argue that Ryuto should have been happy that Rocko was still alive, and he certainly was, but — in a sense — it was by both his hand and Rocko’s own that Rocko almost died. If one tried to put a logical spin to emotions, one could say that happiness and relief were not emotions Ryuto could afford when he now knew that Rocko was willing to jump over the edge, and thus may very well try again. His top priority was preventing that at all costs. But emotions aren’t as logical as one would like them to be, so at that moment, in Ryuto’s blind rage, yelling his fears was all he knew to do.

As for Rocko, he could barely process what was happening. All that he knew was the pain in his injured body, the loud noise in his ears, the blurriness of his vision, and the dizziness of his head. Outside of that, he couldn’t distinguish sound or words, he had little grip on time and space, and he couldn’t even think. So, by what one might consider pure instinct, Rocko pushed Ryuto’s hands off of him — an attempt to free himself from the dizziness and regain a sense of awareness.

Ryuto may have been a telepath, but it wasn’t like he was always in other people’s heads. He couldn’t know how Rocko was feeling and he didn’t know what Rocko was thinking, and in that moment, he didn’t even think to look. What he did know was that his beloved son just swiped his hands away after basically attempting suicide. How was he, as Rocko’s father, already caught up in his own emotions, supposed to take that?

Even he didn’t know.

But he did realize he was handling Rocko too harshly. If Rocko was willing to throw away his life, what was such rough handling going to do to change that? Ryuto immediately regretted what he did. To top it off, Rocko was already injured, so what was shaking him going to do? Worsen his injuries! Stupid. Moron. The negative emotions continued to cascade. He realized he needed to calm down. He needed time to think.

So he regretfully fled the scene.

- # # # 4 # # # -

When Rocko regained awareness of his surroundings, the only sighting he got of Ryuto was Ryuto’s back turned to him, quickly leaving his sight.

Before Rocko could process what was happening, he was assaulted by a flurry of scorn and vitriol from the villagers.

But not a single comment was one he hadn’t already heard before.

When the spiteful crowd finally dispersed, Ranoiko approached him. Rocko, though disheartened and hurt, was not about to give up. Even after fourteen failures, he thought about what he could do to improve the next model.

Ranoiko knew this, of course, after so many times dealing with him.

“Rocko...” she said, breaking him from his thoughts.

“H-Huh?” Rocko looked at her in confusion, before finally registering who she was. “Oh! Ranoiko! What’s up?”

“I’m not gonna do this anymore, Rocko.”

“W-what? What do you mean? Why?”

“‘Why?’ Rocko, nothing has worked! The village is getting sick of you. You’ve become a liability, and you’ve brought shame to your father...”

Shame... to his father? Was his father ashamed of him? Since when? How long had that been so? They were supposed to go to the stars together, so why would his father be ashamed of him for trying? Or... was it that everyone else was ashamed of his father... but for actions that weren’t his father’s? No. It couldn’t be that. That made no sense.

“...On top of that, I’ve been turned into a joke. Every time I make something for you, it fails, and every time, you need to be saved from falling to your death. I won’t indulge your harmful, selfish desires any longer. We’re done.”

With that, Ranoiko walked away before Rocko could say a thing. Not that it would matter if she stayed, as Rocko wasn’t able to form words to begin with. Rocko lacked the motivation to even bring himself to his feet, so he just sat there... and sulked.

The dark, cold shade of the Mother Root crept upon the village, marking an end to the morning sun’s light.

After a while, he regained enough motivation to try to stand up and go somewhere else, but the pain in his body quickly shut down any ideas of moving elsewhere.

So he continued to sulk.

And he sulked.

Rocko’s thoughts were interrupted by a nearby yawn.

Shortly after, Alita rose to her feet.

It was around the time that children normally woke up in the village, if not a bit after, so it should have been expected that Alita would awaken.

“O-oh! Alita!” Rocko exclaimed. “Are you... okay?”

Alita stared blankly.

“Is... that a yes? Um... I’m... I need to... I can’t really move on my own...”

Alita looked down her nose at him.

“Um... Alita?”

She turned away, saying with a downcast face and narrowed eyes, “I’m not... just a tool.”

Alita walked away, leaving Rocko to sulk further.

He wanted to cry.

He would not cry.

He couldn’t allow himself to cry.

As Ramento had explained to him on a number of occasions, crying is a sign of weakness, something which Chieftains weren’t allowed to display. While Rocko didn’t care about his image as a ‘Chieftain,’ he didn’t want to be weak. After all, if he was weak, how would he ever escape?

He ended up spending lunch in that spot. Never being able to move from there. Never being helped to move from there. Even from afar, he was unwilling to watch everyone eat without him, so he turned his back to the Dining Hall and faced the edge of the village.

It wasn’t until he turned that he realized how close to the edge he really was. He was far enough that, in his present state, he wasn’t able to get close enough to fall off, but still close enough to appreciate just how high the village really was off the ground.

He thought back on his fall earlier that day. Even after his device catastrophically failed, he wasn’t afraid of falling.

Even in that moment, when he thought about falling off the edge, it didn’t scare him. In a way, it almost seemed welcoming.

Almost.

He didn’t think he could really justify doing that, though, so it wasn’t welcoming enough.

He continued to sit in that spot even well after lunch ended.

- # # # 5 # # # -

Rocko had been gazing into space while sitting near the edge of the village for a few hours, lost in mostly negative thought.

“Whatchu doing?” an intrusively cheerful and unfamiliar voice asked him from behind.

He turned to see who was speaking to him. A young girl with a bright smile. She was his age, but a little shorter. She had reddish pink skin, which was lighter on her stomach and face but deeper everywhere else, and two bright yellow horizontal stripes circling around her torso. Almost like teardrops, she also had two pink circles vertically lined up on each of her cheeks directly beneath her eyes.

He had seen her three... no, four times before. Twice when he tried to get ink from the Inkbugs, once when he tested the second version of Ranoiko’s wings, and first when he met Ranoiko.

“It’s you!” Rocko exclaimed.

“No, you! What’re you doing?” she asked.

This was Ranoiko’s daughter. She even wore a fake flower on the left side of her head, which only Ranoiko could have made. What her name was, Rocko could vaguely recall...

“What was your name, again? Aya? Oya?”

“Ayo. You’re... Roku, right?”

“No! I’m Rocko!” Rocko frustratedly exclaimed.

Ayo laughed. “I’m messing with you! Of course I know who you are. How couldn’t I?”

“That’s what I was wondering...” Rocko pouted.

“So... whatchu doin’, Rock?”

Rocko glared at her, “‘Rock?’”

What? Rock? No! It was Rocko! He’d already told you that! Just get it right, already! How hard could it be?

“You like it?” she asked. “That’s your nickname, now.”

Oh. He finally understood. She was making fun of him. She was just another kid there to bully him. She should just get lost, then.

“My name... is Rocko!” he shouted angrily, swiping his hand at her.

“Wh-whoa!” she hopped back, dodging the strike. “C-calm down!” she raised her hands in surrender. “I’m not here to hurt you! I swear!”

“Then don’t make fun of me!” his eyes were narrowed, but there were tears in their corners.

“I... I’m not... though?” she tilted her head.

“My name is Rocko! Got it? Rocko! Rah-ko! Ra-ko! Rocko! How many times does it take to understand that?!”

“I-I wasn’t trying to—”

“Just leave me alone, already!” Rocko shoved her aside as he tried to get away, but the sharp pain in his legs tripped him over.

He tried to push himself back up, but his arms shook with weakness. It wasn’t more than a few seconds before he gave up, and rested on the ground.

Though he tried his best to hold them back, he couldn’t help let tears loose. As he laid there, he softly sobbed.

A soothing ribbit brought him back to reality. When he focused his eyes, he was met with a mockingly outstretched hand.

“Take it,” the perpetrator, Ayo, told him.

Instead, he shoved it away.

“Rocko... it’s not like you to say ‘no’ to help, is it?”

Rocko’s eyes widened as he quickly turned to look at her again, “Huh?”

“What?”

“What did you call me?”

“‘Rocko.’ You told me to, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes... I did,” he looked at her still-outstretched left hand.

Her left hand welcomed his right’s grasp with its own, and pulled him to his feet.

“There ya go!” she cheerfully said, putting his arm around her shoulders.

“Wh-what are you doing?” he asked.

“Helping you,” she said. “What else?”

“O-oh...”

“Where do you need to go?”

“Um...” Rocko looked up, “nowhere we could get like this... probably.”

“Huh? Is that a challenge?” she smirked.

“W-wait, what? No, just an observation!”

“That’s definitely a challenge! But don’tchu worry, I’m great with challenges! I’ll getcha up there like it’s nothing!”

“Wha...”

“Follow my lead. Right foot. Left foot. Got that? Repeat after me. Right foot. Left foot.”

“R-right foot. Left foot.”

“Okay! Good! Now let’s put that into practice, got it? Right foot...!”

Rocko stepped forward with his right foot. It still hurt, but with Ayo’s support, the pain was bearable. However, when Ayo stepped forward, it was with her left foot. An insignificant detail, but it served to confuse Rocko just a bit...

“—Left foot!” Ayo said.

Confused about Ayo using the opposite foot to him and consequently becoming more focused on matching her movement than on her words, Rocko tried to move the same foot forward again, and tripped himself — almost bringing Ayo down with him.

Thankfully, she managed to catch him in his fall, and lifted him back to his feet.

“Whoopsies! We gotta match our movement, Rock— er, Rocko! ...I coulda just added the ‘o.’” She whispered that last part to herself.

Of course, with their heads practically touching each other, Rocko heard the entire self-exchange. It made him smile slightly.

They tried again, and this time they got it right.

With their footsteps synchronized, Ayo began her escort of Rocko.

Sunlight washed over the village. The afternoon sun had descended, bringing a warmth like none other.

A minute into her escorting, Ayo was the first to speak. “Why did you try so hard to hide your tears?” she asked.

“How’d you know I was trying to hide them?”

“Because I... Call it intuition, I guess,” she ended with an awkward chuckle.

Rocko hesitated. “Because crying makes me weak.”

“Hmm... and you don’t want to be weak?”

“If I’m weak, then how can I escape?”

“You want to escape?”

Rocko nodded.

“Where would you go?”

“...I want to go to the stars.”

“I see.” Ayo nodded with a gentle smile.

“...Huh? What?” Rocko’s eyes widened.

“That’s a nice goal,” Ayo said, smiling. “I hope you achieve it, someday.”

“I didn’t even say...” Rocko stared at her, completely taken aback. He almost stopped moving with her and nearly caused them both to trip, but they merely stumbled as he got back on track. “S-sorry, um... I’m just...” before he realized it, tears welled in his eyes.

“H-hey?! Are you okay, dude?! Did I say something wrong?”

Rocko chuckled at her casual form of address. “Y-yeah... I-I mean, no, you didn’t. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying...”

Ayo smiled. “It’s okay. No apologies needed! You’re just crying tears of strength.”

“...Tears of strength?”

“You were wrong, you know. Crying doesn’t make you weak. It’s the opposite, actually! When you cry, it’s because you felt strongly about something. And it’s because you can feel that strongly about something that you can dream so big in the first place! It’s proof of your strength! So, don’t stop yourself from crying! Show the world how strong you really are, and cry away!”

So, with some hesitation, Rocko ultimately did. With the brightest smile he’d ever smiled, he happily cried to his heart’s content.

It was the first time he was understood by someone else. Not just someone who understood that he was a real, normal child, but someone who understood his dream, understood his emotions, understood his struggle. He was understood.

He was, for a moment, truly happy.

“But you know...” Ayo began, “I’m just wondering... that’s the reason you were making the wings and stuff, right?”

“Yeah,” Rocko said, composing himself once more.

“Well, that’s a kinda big deal, going to the stars. Maybe I’m just too dumb to get it, but it doesn’t sound like the kinda thing you jump into, y’know?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean, great achievements have a process, right? You can’t just skip right to the final event, you gotta do... um... stuff... before it.”

“Wouldn’t that be me making the stuff to fly?”

“Yeah, but nothing you’ve done has worked, so I think you’re missing something.”

“Missing something? Do you know what that could be?”

“Uh... well... hmm...”

“...well?”

“So... uh... I think you’re just taking things too fast. You’re like ten steps ahead of where you should be, I think.”

“Ten steps ahead?”

“Yeah! You’re trying too hard to fly to the stars, so you’re making things like wings and balloons and stuff, but how much do you actually know about how, like, birds fly to begin with?”

“I know that they have wings, but beyond that I don’t know anything. The guards keep killing them whenever they come too close, and then they just fall, so it’s not like there’s any opportunities to learn, you know?”

“Sure, but that doesn’t change my point! You’re the Chieftain’s son, you know? The next Chieftain! You can do so much for the village, you know? So much! That includes, uh, telling people to do things, right? You can tell them to capture a bird, or something.”

“No, I’ve actually tried that. They don’t listen to me.”

“Oh...”

“Yeah.”

“Well... that’s dumb! They gotta eventually. Anyway, how much do you know about the stars themselves? They’re your goal, right? How much do you know about your own goal?”

“Also nothing...”

“Well, there you go! Learn more about them, then!”

“Trust me, I want to!”

“Then why don’t you know anything?”

“It’s not easy to learn about something I can’t even get close to. It might even be impossible.”

“Lies! You have my mom, you know? She can make anything! She’s awesome like that! Just have her make something that will help you learn about them!”

“That’s why I made the wings!”

“No, you made the wings so you could skip all the work and go straight to them. Right?”

“Well...”

“Make something else! Something that can help you learn without getting closer to them. Even then, if you learn something, that means you’re a step closer, right?”

“Hmmm... that’s... actually true. Yeah.”

“And, honestly, I don’t think you’ll have any trouble figuring out a different way to do it, since you’ve been able to come up with some pretty bizarre ideas all on your own already.”

“That’s also true...” a smile grew on Rocko, “Yeah, actually, I think you’re right!”

“Of course I am! I’m always right!”

Rocko laughed.

Not long after, they arrived at the nearest Dropoff platform.

- # # # 6 # # # -

The Dropoff platforms were the primary designated platforms for ascending and descending the village’s levels. Most villagers only used them to go between the Plaza and Residential Levels, but even then, almost any vine could be used to climb between levels. The ‘Dropoff’ platforms were just a more conveniently accessible way to do so, as they each had a hole in their center through which a single vine ran through, and that vine could be climbed between all of the levels’ Dropoff platforms. Thus, it passed from the Administrative Level to the Barrier Level, and all the levels in between.

In other words, it was exactly what they needed. Or... it would be, if they could climb as normal.

“H-how are we going to do this?” Rocko asked as the two of them stared up at the Dropoff vine.

“That’s the fun part! I have no idea!” Ayo laughed.

“What?! Hold on, this could be really dangerous, you know!”

“Yeah, but when has that ever stopped you?”

“That’s... not a good thing!”

“Oh, so you knew? Well, it’s okay! I wouldn’t try something that I thought could hurt me!”

“Yet you’re going to try this?”

“I don’t think it’ll hurt me... so, yes! I even have an idea, now! Hold me tight, and grab hold of the vine! If you follow my lead like usual, then we’ll be fine!”

Rocko used the finger pads on his hand to hold onto Ayo’s shoulder and reached his other hand to grab the vine. In that position, Ayo’s leg reached up to Rocko’s back — going between his legs to support him — and used its finger pads to hold on to him. She then used her free hand and foot to grab onto the vine, one at a time.

Once they had a secure grip on the vine, they climbed as per her lead with great success — all the way to the Administrative Level.

When they reached the top, Ayo had to get off the vine first in order for Rocko to safely get off. Once they did...

“Woo!” Ayo exclaimed. “That was good! But there were a couple moments where I was seriously worried we weren’t gonna make it!”

“What?! I thought you said you wouldn’t try something if it could hurt you!”

Ayo chuckled teasingly. “It all worked out, though! Didn’t it?”

“W-well, yes... it did.”

“See! So it’s fine!”

”Y-yeah... um... I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

“Whatchu mean?”

“Well, just, in general, like... with the tears thing, and the stars, and all the advice, and the walking me home — even carrying me up, and just... everything, really.”

“Well... what else are friends for, if not to support each other?”

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

“W-well... that word... what... friends?”

“Yeah! That’s what we are now, isn’t it?”

“I... I don’t know. Is it? What are friends, exactly?”

“Oh. So we have to start from there, do we?! I see! I see how it is! It’s okay! I’ll guide you through it, you can count on me!”

Rocko nodded confusedly.

Ayo continued, “Well, it’s really just like I said, friends are there to support each other. Also teasing, hanging out, playing games... AH! That’s right! I won the challenge, just so you know!”

“The challenge?”

“You thought I couldn’t get you up here, but look at what we have here, you’re up here, and I did it! I won! See?!”

“Uh huh...”

Ayo playfully stuck her tongue out. “Anyway, I probably shouldn’t stay up here.”

“Why not?”

“Rocko!” a nearby, familiar voice shouted.

“That’s why,” Ayo said. “I think my services are no longer needed!”

Ayo gently released Rocko, helping him sit down. She then reached to the vine to climb down. As she got in position to climb down, she turned to Rocko, and said, “See ya later, Rocko!”

“Um...!” Rocko called out after her, “Y-you can call me... ‘Rock...’ if you want to.”

Ayo smiled. “Okie dokie! I’ll see ya later, then, Rock!”

She hastily climbed down the vine.

Ryuto hurriedly arrived on the scene. “Rocko! Are you... are you feeling better?”

“Gee! I wonder about that?! Why did nobody come help me until now?! I literally couldn’t move!”

“W-what?! I assumed... no, that’s right. Ah...! Dear Ruter!” Ryuto clasped his head. “I’m so sorry, Rocko, I didn’t mean to leave you there like that. I’ve been very out of it today, and I know it’s no excuse for my actions, but I really haven’t been able to think or act with a clear mind since this morning, and I’m really sorry for leaving you like that!” Ryuto kneeled down to lift Rocko from the ground. Holding Rocko in his arms, he said, “I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“It’s okay, Dad. I forgive you.”

“I love you, Rocko.”

“I love you too, Dad.”

Ryuto carried Rocko to their hut.

Along the way, Ryuto smiled and said, “Anyway, I see you’ve made a new friend.”

“Yeah!” Rocko smiled back. “And! And! And! And! I know what I have to do, now!”

- # # # 7 # # # -

Though Rocko was bedridden for the third time in his life, his motivation had returned as though it was never lost. When he finally recovered, he immediately went to Ranoiko with an idea in mind. One that wouldn’t injure him... one which would actually work.

- # # # CHAPTER END # # # -