not an island

Shun wakes up. Which is interesting because he kind of hadn't been expecting to do that again, like ever. It's immediately clear that he's not floating in the open ocean anymore, but, much to his disorientation, he's not anywhere he recognizes either. He's on an uncomfortable but neatly made bed in a room that could be charitably described as rustic and exotic looking. A more honest assessment would call it a driftwood shack, but a really nice driftwood shack clearly built for the classier sort of island dweller.

This impression is reinforced when he swings his feet out of bed and they land on a cool, glass floor.

He takes the opportunity to explore his surroundings a bit. Perhaps even more surprising than the glass floor is a makeshift bookshelf sparsely stocked with old shonen magazines and some rather dry looking textbooks.

You're awake, says a voice from behind him.

Shun turns around to see a girl with pale pink hair standing in the doorway. She's taller than he is (though honestly who isn't) and looks to be about the same age as him, though she has the world-weary air of someone much older. Her face is familiar, as are the strange green glasses she's wearing-

She presses a cold glass into his hands and says Drink this. You're not on the brink of death anymore but you're still seriously dehydrated.

Shun regards the contents of the glass with suspicion. It's full of a slightly cloudy, colorless liquid with little white chunks in it.

It's coconut water. It just looks like that, there's nothing weird in it.

This is of course exactly what someone who had put something weird in a drink would say but Shun takes a tentative sip anyway. It's sweet and reminds him how thirsty he really is. He quickly downs the rest of the glass.

"How did you find me?" he asks, "I thought I was miles from land."

The girl shrugs, I was fishing in the area. You were lucky, I guess.

Lucky isn't exactly the word Shun would use to describe not only having the plane he was on go down, but also being swept away by the waves while trying to reach the lifeboat, leaving him separated from his fellow passengers with only his life vest to keep him afloat.

The girl snorts, Okay, maybe not lucky, but you're alive at least, and I'm going to make sure you stay that way.

"Thanks," Shun says, a wave of exhausted relief washing over him.

Right now, that means getting plenty of fluids and rest. The girl says gently steering him back towards his bed.

Shun spends the next couple of days drifting in and out of sleep. He doesn't see the girl again but every time he wakes up there is a glass of coconut water, or regular water, or some kind of fish and seaweed soup on the bedside table.

*

Kusuo considers what he should do with Kaidou. Obviously he can't keep him. He doesn't even know why he would consider it. Kaidou is a normal boy from a normal family. It would be wrong to let them go on thinking that their eldest son died in a plane crash. Besides, there's not a lot to do here. Kaidou would be bored out of his mind by the second week.

This isn't even to mention how having a troublesome person like Kaidou to take care of would undermine the whole living peacefully thing he's got going on.

Frankly, he didn't have to bring Kaidou here at all. He could have just taken him back to civilization as soon as he found him and just left him somewhere where someone was likely to find him and get him some proper medical attention. He can't think of any reason he didn't do this to start with save perhaps wanting to sidestep the risk of leaving Kaidou's life in the hands of someone less competent than himself.

The steps he should take next are really quite clear. He just needs to drop Kaidou off with one of the boy's parents. Maybe wipe his memory of the trip so Kaidou doesn't figure out who saved him. Though honestly there wouldn't be much point to that.

So then why does the thought of taking Kaidou back where he belongs make him feel so sick and hollow?

Oh. Oh no. He thinks he knows.

Humans are social creatures driven by instinct to seek out and bond with others of their kind. They are hampered in this endeavor by the fact that all the tools they've crafted in an attempt to communicate those innermost experiences that even they don't fully understand are hopelessly clumsy and flawed. This dooms them to hurt each other and be hurt in return whether out of carelessness, cruelty, or simple confusion. Yet despite all this they have no choice but to do it because they can't survive alone.

Obviously Kusuo isn't human. He looks human most of the time and both his parents are human so it would make more sense for him to be than not, but by some mistake or coincidence or great, unfunny cosmic joke he's something else.

Yet even as whatever he is that instinct to reach out still dwells in him.

It's stupid. He's been surviving on his own for the last three years and it hasn't been hard for him at all. He doesn't need anyone and certainly doesn't need Kaidou, who looks like he might blow over in a stiff breeze. Still, Kaidou's presence is reawakening a vestigial human urge to reach out despite the pain that will inevitably result.

Kusuo comes to a decision. He needs to get Kaidou away from him as soon as possible.

*

Once Shun feels better he decides to explore a bit. The only rooms in the driftwood hut are the bedroom that he's been sleeping in and the larger front room, a general-purpose living area which appears to serve double duty as a kitchen, if the headless fish laying on the low driftwood table are anything to go by. Both rooms are meticulously kept but plain, aside from the odd glass floor.

When he gets outside, Shun is surprised to find how small the island he is on is. Even with his admittedly lackluster athletic skills it only takes him a few minutes to walk the perimeter. It's like one of those desert islands people get stranded on in cartoons complete with the solitary palm tree. Strangely the girl from earlier is nowhere to be seen anywhere on this small island. Nor can he see any other islands on the horizon that she might have gone to. Maybe they just went out fishing, he tells himself as he walks back to the hut. After all, hadn't she mentioned something about that being how she found him?

Still, it's strange. There isn't a pier on the island or even a little post to tie a boat too. There aren't really any structures on the island at all besides the driftwood shack. He supposes that she could just have a canoe or some other type of boat you can just carry into the water, but the empty state of the island only raises more questions.

Does she live here all on her own?

He decides to kill time waiting for her to come back (and distract himself from the dawning realization that he's basically trapped on this island until then) by looking through her collection of shonen magazines and notices that there aren't any from later than February of 2008. Is she some sort of extreme doomsday prepper who came out here when the possibility of global war had seemed terrifyingly imminent?

Wait, she'd have been a kid back then, making her the child of at least one extreme doomsday prepper instead, though that raises the question of where her parent(s) are. Maybe they died after coming here. That would be super tragic, especially since, despite how scary things had looked for a while back there, everything had more or less worked out okay in the end.

A small "ahem" from behind him snaps Shun back to reality and he turns to see the girl standing in the doorway of the room, her arms crossed.

You certainly seem to be doing better, she says, the ghost of a smile flitting across her lips, Won't need to stay here much longer at this rate.

"Yeah," Shun says a bit awkwardly. Then because he thinks it's important to let her know, he adds, "You don't have to stay here either. The whole situation with the esper blew over without anything really bad happening. People were scared for a while after he disappeared but now it's like everybody just collectively agreed to pretend that it didn't happen."

He doesn't really understand why. Such concrete evidence of psychic powers seems like it should be a pretty big deal, but four years later nearly all discussion of the matter has been banished to fringe circles.

It doesn't make sense.

It makes perfect sense. It's easier for most people to forget and move on than to try to find a place in their worldview for something like that. She pauses for a moment and adds, Also, a lot of very important people embarrassed themselves rather badly back then.

Shun nods. People in the forums he frequents are always talking about how the government hushes up things.

The girl presses her palm to her face, Don't take that as support for your weird conspiracy theories. I'm just saying no one who was in power at the time wants to bring it up because that would risk reminding everyone that they mishandled the situation so badly it almost caused World War III.

"Wait, if you know how that turned out why do you live out here?" Shun asks, his "lost child of doomsday preppers" theory shattering into a million pieces.

I didn't want people to come bother me, the girl says like this explains everything.

"Isn't this kind of overkill for that?" Shun asks. If she's just some kind of recluse, wouldn't it be easier for her to find a cabin out in the mountains or something? That way she wouldn't have to give up modern conveniences entirely, while still remaining fairly isolated.

Not for me. she says and, apparently considering the subject settled, goes to the bookshelf and begins divesting it of shonen magazines which she stuffs under one arm.

"Wait, if you're here to avoid people does that mean you don't have any way to contact civilization?" Shun asks.

Not exactly. The girl says without turning around. The bookshelf is almost cleared off now.

Shun's heart sinks. In that case how is he going to let his parents and Toki and Sora know he's alive? More importantly how is he going to get home?

Don't worry, The girl says. She reaches out with the arm not holding the magazines to touch Shun's shoulder. Shun feels a strange pull and suddenly the two of them are standing behind his school. Shun stares at her, realizing suddenly that he recognizes the sharp edges of her features and those bizarre green glasses. He gasps, "You're-"

Yes, I am. She cuts him off, pulling away from him. A rock floats to her now free hand and she grabs it.

"I thought you were a guy," Shun says.

I am, usually, the esper says, but I didn't want you to be afraid, so I took a form I thought you'd be less likely to recognize.

"Why would I be afraid?" Shun asks. This isn't too different from the beginning of one of his fantasies.

It's normal to be afraid of dangerous things, the esper says, tightening her hand around the rock and crushing it to powder, I was also worried you'd tell people about me, though it turns out I didn't need to.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shun asks, making a valiant, though admittedly pointless effort not to sound shaken as he stares at the fine rock dust coating the esper's fingers.

That no one will believe you, the esper says, giving Shun a soul piercing stare, Still, I'd rather you didn't tell anyone. I don't want to get a reputation for this sort of thing.

Then she turns and walks away.