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Shalnark stood at the bow of the ship, looking out upon the cerulean waters of the sea towards the endless horizon. He knew it was called the bow because he had a helpful diagram opened on his phone. In his other hand he held a map, folded neatly to the part of the ocean they were currently stalled in. Or at least, where he was pretty sure they were.
“We are lost,” came a small, gruff voice from behind him. It startled him, and his phone slipped from his grasp and dived towards the water. Instinct drove him forward as he kicked the phone up into the air and caught it, safe once more.
“We aren’t lost,” Shalnark said, voice just chipper enough to sound convincing, “I’m just looking for the best route is all.”
Phinks stood behind Feitan, looking skeptical. “We are so fucking lost.”
“We’re not lost!” Shal said, turning to face them now. They held their laughter for all of a moment before leaning into each other in a fit of giggles. It was hard to keep his cool when the heat was this unbearable. One would think that having grown up in the desert would have made him accustomed to it, but the humidity was a problem he didn’t have exposure to.
“We are not lost,” Shalnark insisted, crossing his arms, “I have this entirely figured out.”
“Relax, Shalnark,” Franklin’s solid voice rose easily above Phinks and Feitan. He sat in the center of the deck with his legs crossed. The food they’d brought was laid out on a pleasant, checkerboard blanket in front of him. Most of it was still in the styrofoam coolers they’d found them in, but Franklin had been tearing apart a watermelon with his hands and setting the pieces down on a paper plate in front of him. “Have a beer and some watermelon. It’s a nice day.”
The others, Phinks, Fei, Shizuku, and Kortopi, settled on the blanket around him, and Phinks started passing beers around the circle. Shalnark stood awkwardly outside of them, trying to untangle the tense knot in his chest. He didn’t want to relax. Relaxing was not on his to-do list, not with the boss gone and Uvo-
He laughed, shook his head, and settled on the other side of Feitan. “Well, good to know I’m the only one dedicated to this mission.”
“Now you start to sound like Nobunaga,” Feitan said around his watermelon.
“I’m just kidding,” Shalnark laughed again, eagerly taking the beer that Phinks offered him, “Don’t start comparing me to that guy.”
Feitan snickered at that and passed him a sandwich to go along with his booze. Shalnark let himself dig in. This was a good haul. They were lucky that the boat they stole seemed to be setting out for a picnic.
“So, what’s the plan?” Franklin asked eventually. Instead of beer, Franklin had dibs on the bottle of champagne, and it nearly looked normal in his big hands. “We get to the island and then what?”
“Primarily, I want to confirm the theory that it’s a real place,” Shalnark responded, watching Shizuku open the big bag of plain potato chips.
“What if it isn’t real, what then?” Shizuku asked a moment before filling her mouth with chips. Shal opened his mouth to answer, but fumbled too long.
“We row around in the ocean for nothing,” Feitan said simply, onto his second slice of watermelon. Shal opened his mouth again to refute the idea, but Phinks cut him off.
“Then we get a well deserved vacation,” Phinks said, gesturing with his beer before taking a long swig. If Shalnark let himself admit it, it was kind of nice. It had been some time since he’d spent time with Phinks and Feitan with a few beers and some sun. Not that Feitan did anything besides remind them how much he hated the sun.
Shalnark took to his map again, unfurling it in front of the entire party. “If I’m right, we should be getting really close.
Feitan snorted, more malicious than friendly, “That is what you said today. Then we hit the sand bar.”
Kortopi reached across the map for the tupperware of what looked like potato salad. “Shalnark will get us to where we’re going.”
“Thank you, Kortopi,” Shalnark said, easily masking his frustration that the others didn’t seem to have as much faith in him.
“Eventually,” Kortopi tagged on, good naturedly as they popped open the top and reached in with a piece of the baguette. Everyone had a good long laugh at that, Shalnark thought bitterly folding the map back up. He scowled and the others seemed happy to see it. It was probably refreshing after the hollow eyed expression he had been wearing for weeks now.
“Well, do any of you have any bright ideas?” he asked, folding the map up again and shoving it into a pocket.
“This is your idea,” Feitan said with a shrug, “You can figure it out.”
“You are so helpful, Feitan,” Shalnark replied with sarcasm thick in his voice.
“What’s the idea behind this, anyways? Why not just play the game like normal?” Phinks asked, leaning back on his hands now. With the sun hitting his skin and hair like this, he looked like a basking lion.
At least this was something Shalnark had an answer for, “Most video games are made entirely out of code. If you can get into the code, you can get a better idea of how the game works and you can more easily break the game in your favor. This game is made of nen. I think if we can get there this way, without using nen to enter the game, then we can see more of the behind the scenes. We can break the game to our advantage.”
“And get the treasures?” Shizuku asked, before popping another handful of chips into her mouth. She didn’t seem to notice Kortopi reaching for the bag.
“Right!” Shalnark said, grinning now, almost genuinely.
“I can’t say I’m upset to have someone who knows what they’re doing with us,” Franklin said. He gently took the bag from Shizuku and replaced it with an unwrapped sandwich, before handing it to Kortopi.
“How exactly are we going to do it?” Kortopi asked between bites, “Get the items without playing the game?”
“That really depends on the game,” Shalnark said simply, “That’s why we have to find the back door first, and then we can figure out all kinds of things about Greed Island. What I’m really looking for is places where the nen is weak enough to slip between the game and the ‘real world.’
“If we do that, we can maybe convince the NPCs to just hand over the cards,” Phinks said. The look in his eyes was menacing.
If that wasn’t enough, Feitan added, “Yes. Convince. With Knives.”
Shalnark laughed. “That’s the idea, yeah!”
“You know, maybe we should have had Shalnark walk us through this before we stole the boat,” Franklin quipped as he crushed his beer can and tossed it over the edge of the boat before reaching for another.
Kortopi rolled their one visible eye at that. “We know Shalnark comes up with good ideas. The boss respected his input and trusted him, and so should we.”
Shalnark took a sip of his beer, hoping to hide any genuine smile or flush the compliment may have inflicted him with.
“As if you guys need a reason to steal something,” Shalnark said, following Franklin’s lead and tossing the finished can overboard. He stood and stretched.
“Back to it, navigator?” Phinks asked. His arm was around Feitan now. It seemed he meant it when he said he wanted to treat this like a vacation.
“You know it!” Shalnark replied, chipper, “Not a moment’s rest for your captain!”
“Captain?” Feitan asked, eyes impossibly narrow as he glared at him, “I did not make you captain.”
“Fine,” Shalnark laughed, “You can mutiny if you want, but good luck finding your way back. We blindfolded the guy who knows how to drive the boat.”
As if on cue, the six of them looked over at the guy in the driver’s seat, hands duct taped to the wheel of the boat, and he whimpered softly around his gag.