"So... what exactly do we do now?" Leo asked, eyeing the storage area at the back of the ship.
It had been three days since they introduced themselves, and Haruo had suggested they explore the ship. Turned out, the interior was a lot bigger than any of them expected.
There were two bathrooms, three bedrooms—each with two beds—a kitchen, storage, and the plaza which had multiple compartments and where they first introduced themselves. But that was just the interior. The back of the ship held a wide open space, large enough for sky fishing.
It was like a yacht, but in the skies. The front held the control room, where Ren had been piloting the airship toward the northern regions. They hadn't seen him leave the room since they first boarded, but no one was too worried—every afternoon at exactly 7:30, he gave them a quick update.
He probably had his own food in there too. It kind of reminded Haruo of the times his master would stay holed up in the arsenal for days. And it was those occasions where Haruo was in charge of the house—cooking meals, doing chores, and keeping everything in order.
"What else? We throw Theodor out and use him as bait for the Skavilens," Haruo said while casually tying a rope around Theodor, who was eating their final food.
He dusted off his hands before adding, "Y'know, it's always weird. You guys are completely different when you're fighting. But outside the battlefield? You're worse than kids causing trouble. Five semi-pures—yeah, the same ones who are supposed to be potential representatives of their countries. Well, except for Isaac—he's mixed and actually somewhat behaves."
Tatiana raised a brow. "Hold on, I've mostly stayed quiet and behaved this whole flight. How come I'm getting criticized too?"
"Back then, when you said you'd keep your brother in check, you didn't. It just made everything more chaotic than it had to be—with you running around the ship to get Theodor and constantly yelling at him. Yeah, not exactly what you'd call quiet and behaved."
"BUT, but, I don't blame you. You were trying to hold Theodor down—which is basically like trying to leash a stray dog that weighs a hundred pounds. So your also half exempted."
Tatiana simply nodded in satisfaction. Leo glanced at the group with a worried look in his eyes, then let out a sigh.
"Well, looks like we really are going to need to sky fish now. Never thought I'd have to go hunt Skavilens again—not after the last time." His expression immediately soured, and so did everyone else's—except Ena.
"Skavilens are like the sky version of fish, right? Just making sure," Ena asked.
Haruo nodded, covering his mouth to hide both his disgust and frustration. Judging by their expressions, almost all of them had some kind of history with sky fishing. Ena only knew what it was and how it worked in theory—but not the actual process.
It was kind of like how classes mentioned when soap was invented, but never how it was actually made—unless it was a science class, of course.
Haruo shifted his gaze toward Isaac. "Isaac, go check the freezer—see if he ate everything in there too. And while you're at it, check the next compartment for any materials we can use for sky fishing."
Isaac gave a quick nod before walking off.
The storage was divided into three compartments: the first held canned goods, vegetables, fruits, and other basics. The second was a freezer for anything that needed to be kept cold, like meat. The third—and largest—was for general storage: weapons, necessities, medkits, and anything else they might need along the way.
Haruo didn't doubt that Theodor had gotten into and ate everything at the freezer too. The guy had already eaten most of the ingredients—things that weren't even supposed to be edible, like yeast, or whole eggs, shells and all.
'Doesn't it hurt to eat all that? What is he, the personification of gluttony? Maybe I should've been the one checking him instead of Tatiana,' Haruo thought, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Back then, when they were deciding on roommates—since there were only three bedrooms—the original plan was: Isaac and Haruo, Leo and Theodor, and Ena with Tatiana.
But both Haruo and Tatiana—especially Tatiana—realized that putting Leo and Theodor together might lead to trouble. So, they decided to change the plans. Again.
The new plan was: Tatiana with Theodor, Haruo with Ena, and Leo with Isaac. At first, Haruo wasn't on board—he was already sick of having Ena as a roommate, especially after what happened the last few nights before they met Kilian. She had gone outside to use the bathroom and ended up leading a creature straight to their cave.
During that time, Haruo's scarf had been damaged beyond repair. He hadn't been able to make a new one either—there were already too many things he needed to take care of.
So the second revision of the plan was: Tatiana with Theodor, Haruo with Isaac, and Ena with Leo.
Neither Haruo nor Tatiana complained this time—because Ena did it for them.
Her reason was simple—she didn't trust any man except Haruo. She even said something along the lines of, "He was already my roommate for two months, so I'm already used to him anyway."
Because of her constant complaints, they changed the plan again. But the new arrangements that followed were even worse and came with too many drawbacks. So, in the end, they went back to the first revised plan—just after the original one.
All this planning—just because Theodor couldn't control his hunger. and yet they still failed.
It wasn't long before Isaac returned. He confirmed that the freezer was completely empty now too, and also mentioned that there were materials for sky fishing in the next compartment.
Isaac gave Haruo a quick glance before looking away. "So, um… I uh—most of the materials were there."
Haruo just stared at him blankly, recognizing that gesture all too well… First Ena, then Leo—even himself at one point. And now Isaac. He knew exactly what that meant. And it wasn't a good sign.
Haruo's expression changed a bit before saying: "Isaac... What did you do?"
Haruo's expression dropped even lower at those words.
It was obvious Isaac was debating whether to say it or not—but if he didn't, he'd just be forced to say it anyway. "So, I uh… might've accidentally broken the Velo…"
Both paused and stared at each other. Then Haruo lunged—no expression, no hesitation, nothing. Just lunged straight at him. After a few minutes of running, yelling, and nearly tripping over supplies, Haruo finally caught Isaac and tied him up right next to Theodor.
"I take back everything good I said about you. You both suck."
Haruo raised his hand, then lowered it. Then raised it again. He was clearly debating whether to hit them or not—not out of guilt, but because it might lower the quality of the bait. He raised it once more, but in the end, he lowered it again. After all, one of the reasons why sky fishing sucked was because Skavilens were picky creatures after all.
"You guys are so lucky, I would've beaten both of you up by now." He sighed before looking at leo.
"What's the humidity of the weather right now?"
Leo closed the door to the storage and looked back at Haruo. He shook his head lightly before shrugging.
"No idea. But earlier, I went to the control room and asked Ren if there was a storm coming. Unfortunately, there is—right where we're headed. Oh, and he said the storm might be huge and hard to maneuver through, so it could take about a week to get past it."
Haruo clicked his tongue, scratching the back of his head before grabbing the edge of the rope that tied Theodor and Isaac together. He retrieved his sword from his mana storage and, with a quick slash, cut the rope—letting both of them go. Then he turned to look at Ena.
Still holding part of the rope, he tossed it to her. It was just about long enough to stretch from her neck down to her feet. Ena, confused by the gesture, looked at the rope, then turned back to Haruo.
"Go to the storage with Tatiana and grab the materials we need for sky fishing."
She stayed silent for a moment then said: "What's the rope for?"
"Isaac probably broke the thread of the Velo. You can't accidentally break metal, so I'm guessing he only broke the thread instead… hopefully. So use that as a replacement."
"Be back before we ascend. It'll be hard to navigate once we're above," he said, turning to Leo. "You tell Ren to ascend in five minutes."
Then he gave a dark look at both Theodor and Isaac. "You guys are coming with me."
They both gulped down their saliva, but didn't argue or try to escape. Of course, that didn't mean they couldn't—they could run if they really wanted to.
Well, unless they felt like being frozen from head to toe.
Not only that, but he could probably make it look like they weren't frozen at all. All Haruo needed to do was freeze their joints while avoiding key nerves, lock their vocal cords so they couldn't scream, and pose them in the most natural way possible—just enough so the Skavilens wouldn't suspect a thing.
They knew how precise Haruo could be with his ability… well, sometimes. So naturally, they didn't fight back—being able to move was better than not. Without a word, they followed him to the dock.
***
The division gathered on the dock at the back of the ship. The storm loomed just beyond the horizon. None of them could see it yet—it was still too far—but Haruo could. He watched the swirling clouds and distant flashes of lightning creeping closer to their ship.
This might be their only chance to sky fish before the storm approaches.
"Alright, just to make sure, we have everything we need, right?" Haruo asked, glancing around at the division.
They nodded and held out what they had. One of them presented a large tied-up bag. Haruo stepped closer and loosened the knot, revealing a collection of herbs and bottled liquids. He examined each item carefully, checking their condition, then closed the bag again with a nod.
Second was a set of six leather belts, each wide enough to wrap securely around a person's waist. Attached to the back of each belt were four small curved metal frames—arched loops meant to hook them to the ship, keeping them from slipping or falling off during the process.
Then finally, the most important item of them all—the Velo.
The Velo was a large, dual-bladed weapon. Its blades were massive—each one about the size of a person's head—long, sharp, and perfectly symmetrical. The sides were slightly thicker than the rest, housing two small hidden blades, ready to spring out when triggered.
At the handle, there were two key features: a button on the side, and a metal loop at the bottom where the rope connected the two blades together.
Near the tip of the blade, there was a small, smooth screw that seamlessly blended into the metal. Haruo crouched down and picked up one of the blades and pressed the button on the side. Almost instantly, two smaller blades snapped out from each side of the main blade, forming a harpoon-like shape.
He nodded and pressed it again, closing the blades to its original form. He placed it back down then before standing back up. Then a radio then went static then said:
"We're entering the Ether Zone in one minute. I repeat: entering the Ether Zone in one minute."
Then it went static again, Now it was silent. Haruo sighed again, by now he lost count on how many times he sighed the past week, probably more than 30 by now.
"Wear your belts. Unless you wanna fall off, of course—be my guest."
Of course, no one was mad enough to actually do that. So each of them took one and carefully wore them on their waist. Haruo then went near the railings and and looked around until he saw on the floors a lid, then he opened it and saw a four hooked rope connected to it to his belt.
He looked around and saw the others doing the same, by then everyone was all geared up now. He looked at the velo, on the ground and grabbed it before attaching it to his side.
Then the radio announced that it was ascending. All of them grabbed onto the railing as the ship began to rise at great speed. It wasn't as fast as they were in the short term, but it was still fast—fast enough, to say the least.
After a few seconds, they were high in the atmosphere—a place caught between Earth and space. Everything around them was foggy. Haruo couldn't see anything at all, just a blurry expanse of gray.
They were now in the Ether zone.