Mizuki Kazakami. The beloved.

  She became the 'mascot' of the Children's early meetings in Alola. Tenshiro would pass her around the ring of devotees, Yūra's trepidation be damned, and allow them to lay their hands on her. She'd shut her eyes in her odd infant autocentrism, ignorant to the adults gushing over how pretty she was, and how pretty she was destined to grow up to be. Several times during his sermons Tenshiro would hold her in his lap as he spoke, stroking the flossy black wisps sticking off her scalp.

  She helped ground him, he thought. At last he'd come so close to resolving that ache which, by this point, had troubled him for almost twenty years.

  Later, as Mizuki aged and learned to toddle on her little feet, Miki took her position as the Children's morale-booster; and by the time Minami entered the world, Tenshiro looked down at his followers from atop a stage, and had become jaded enough he knew he would never know that bliss again. Still, Mizuki remained the beloved child. Both for him and for the rest of the Children - apart from, ironically, the Children's children, who viewed her as even more self-righteous than the rest of them.

  the first time he laid a finger on her, pushed her aside and her little toddler legs gave out

  and her head snapped forward and she looked up at him and whispered, "please don't hurt me."

  he wasn't sure whether it was a plea or a command but he stopped breathing

  the second time

  the third time

  the fourth, fifth

  to the point he could not, when asked, articulate why; he had a degree from one of the most prestigious universities in the world and still could not speak of love or hate or any of the other cursed emotions melting him into char; the matters of his self-created 'heaven', in its abstraction, welcomed him concretely...

  No one knew for certain what the truth - Truth, with a capital T, the objective Truth - was, or if it even existed. When the people lived without its warmth, they pined for it; were drawn to it as a flower is towards sun. And yet, when born close to its light, they desired its opposite.

  How beautiful it was, then, that on the very last day the occasion would be a leaving.

  On this particular day the dissenter was called Justin. Eighteen, half-Alolan, and pocked with freckles and birthmarks all over his lanky arms, he desired to leave both the compound and Melemele entirely to study mechanical engineering on Ula'ula. Well, that was the reason he gave to the elders: the real reason was he had found himself doubting the existence of the beast living under the islands or the world-dreamer or the Ariados spinning fate, and the many stressors that had built up over the course of his adolescence had stolen his ability to smile.

  So it began.

  "Apologies, it seems we've lost your..."

  "This form, sir, it's gone missing..."

  "There's been a technological error, and we couldn't process this... you'll have to do it all over again, so sorry, so sorry...."

  Yes. Unfortunately, what would attempt to be Justin's undoing was the No. 1 Barrier To Good in the free world... if one could ever describe his world as 'free'. Nevertheless, he persisted, and insisted on being a thorn in the Children's side, until they had little choice but to renege and permit him to leave.

  In the compound, the difference between leavings and funerals was the Children were able to accept a dead person was truly gone. The dead left amicably; the dissenters, not so much.

  The dead never spread rumors. Or the truth.

  "D'awww. Ain't she a cutie, Sun? The little sleepy Slakoth."

  Lillie lay tangled amongst the layers of her bed, her arms splayed out, with Mirai Kazakami resting on her torso. The baby's head, positioned on the girl's stomach, bobbed up and down with each breath Lillie drew.

  "Made her watch the lump," Mizuki explained, gesturing in their direction. "Seems she doesn't have any issues with sleeping on the job. But..."

  In lieu of any further rumination she strode towards the desk and picked up a cast-off shell of aluminum foil, balling it up until it was no larger than a gumball. Anxiety led Sun to turn his attention towards Mirai, and study the way she was situated atop Lillie's body... what if she slid off and cracked her head wide open? Or Lillie turned over and crushed her, or Dang it, Sun, there's no good reason to dwell on any of this.

  Still, he thought aloud, "that isn't safe."

  "I know," Mizuki said. Her gray eyes settled on the baby, cold and aloof. "I know. But keep it down, now. She'll get all moody if you wake her."

  "The baby, or Lillie?"

  Mizuki looked back at him, but her stoic expression did not shift. Her fingers edged towards a lock of Lillie's hair and curled around it. For one awful moment Sun feared she would yank it out - her fist tightened - but there would be no violence against Lillie, no violence against Mirai, at this hour. She let go of Lillie's hair and took the baby into her arms with a learned, but clearly unnatural, gentleness.

  "All she does is sleep and sleep and sleep. She's a burden on my family, and on the whole world... and, yes, on Lillie, too. I don't know if you’re aware of this, but Lillie gets a real kick out of pretending to be all weak and wan. She's so kind to the lump, even though the lump's real selfish... no, you didn't know any of that, did you?"

  That seemed to Sun an excessively unforgiving appraisal of Lillie's behavior. When he didn't indulge her, Mizuki let out an odd burbling noise and raised her palms.

  "Ugh, you're watching me like a Hawlucha," she whined. "And you're so obvious about it. You just gave yourself to me, so don't you trust me? Or even like me?"

  Act natural, Sun. "I was under the impression I would be getting a lunch?"

  "Oh. That.” Mizuki relaxed. “Well, did you appreciate your choc-o-late?"

  Here Sun was forced to admit, yes, he truly did appreciate the chocolate, and, yes, it truly was a selfless thing to do, to spend her tickets on him or whatever. But Mizuki didn't display the flicker of joy he expected from her, and he couldn't hide his own discontent.

  "I'm mostly just glad you didn't try to poison it or something," he admitted after a few moments, hoping that would defuse the tension.

  Mizuki’s eyebrows shot up. "Hmm? Is that what you think I do? Poison people?"

  Sun fumbled at hearing the venom in her voice, and interlaced and unlaced his own fingers, again and again and again. "Well, uh, no, not really..."

  "Okay, well, why'd you say that, then?" Mizuki tossed her hair over her shoulder at him, and avoided his eyes; instead, she looked at Lillie as if the latter were no better than a booger hanging off her nose. "You do think I'm like that, don't you? That is the type of person you think I am."

  "No, no... I just misspoke, that's all."

  "That's right, you did," Mizuki bit out, and reached into her watermelon purse with her free hand, a scowl set deep into her face. She tossed another foil wrapper unceremoniously into Sun's hands. "There you go, tongue-tied. Now, I'd love to stay here, but - " she motioned to the clock " - the leaving. Turns out it's later than I thought, and I have to go attend to my father, of course."

  "'Attend to your father'?"

  "What I mean is, it won't be long we'll have to suffer now." Mizuki reached down to tickle Mirai's cheek; the baby didn't stir. "Everything happens at once, unfortunately. Lucky for us that Lillie's not awake yet, or else we'd have to deal with her kvetching about it. Keep an eye on her while I'm gone, will ya?"

  "But we just got here," Sun protested - but Mizuki was already slinking out the door, and her dour expression indicated the matter was not open for debate. "Mizuki, augh..."

  He sighed in surrender, keenly aware of his throbbing ankle, and limped over to settle himself precariously on the edge of Lillie's mattress. The sleeping girl still looked so peaceful in spite of everything.... in spite of everything. Sun recalled the evening he'd first found her and thought, she'd sleep through Armageddon.

  Upon unwrapping his sandwich, he found Mizuki must have cobbled his meal together from whatever scraps of food waste the Children had left over. His slices of bread had the texture of cement blocks, and the slab of mystery meat between them had a few too many speckles of some vomit-colored substance in it for it to appeal to his appetite. He'd find food elsewhere, he decided. Still, he couldn't exactly begrudge Mizuki for going to the trouble of making it for him. Who knew what she had had to work with.

  A loop of something wrapped around his good ankle and he flinched, putting his sandwich aside to dredge up Lillie's drum bag. Out of curiosity or stupidity his palm met the spot he knew he'd find, the one that had gotten himself into all this mess in the first place...

  AWAKEN HER, SUN. DO YOU NOT RECALL WHAT I TOLD YOU?

  Sun would have protested, but the shock of the command caused him to lurch back and accidentally sit on Lillie's arm. She roused in an instant, bolting upright and scooting back against her headboard, with bloodshot eyes wide as saucers.

  "Oh - oh! Sun! What are you doing here?"

  Oh, screw you, Ishmael.

  "Um, hey, Lillie," Sun said, dragging his fingernails across his scalp. "Long time no see. Uh, I've been, uh... brought here, and I'd really like for someone to fill me in on what's going on..."

  Lillie's eyes darted around the room. "Have you seen Mizuki? I need to speak with her. It's important."

  "Um, on a scale of one to ten, how important?"

  "Are you using a linear or a logarithmic scale?"

  The question caught Sun off-guard - the question only Lillie would ever think to ask. He blinked, leaving her to fill the void with more mumbling.

  "She, um, told me her plans... I believe she's about to do something she'll regret, she... ah, um, Sun? Where's the ephialtimine?"

  "What's - what's 'ephialtimine'?"

  "Ilima's sleep medicine," she said, as if that elucidated anything. "She didn't take it with her, did she?"

  Again, Sun had no answer to supply, and she didn't wait for him to stammer any more. She dove past him, scooped up her bag, and began rummaging through it with reckless abandon. A certain puff of clouds slipped past the bag's lip, rose into the air, and cast the children a curious look; Sun bit his lip and forced a weak smile.

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  "It should be in here somewhere," Lillie breathed. "Nebby, you haven't seen it, have you?"

  The demon circled around her, waving its protrusions. "Kyew-kyew! Ka-pew!"

  "He's awake," Sun said, pretending the tautness in his voice was reverence and not terror.

  "They are," Lillie said. "Yes, they've been so exhausted recently... from using their power, I think. It's been a real issue... we've hardly gotten to bond, them and I. But Nebby's more intelligent than you might think." She turned back towards him and gave him a melancholy smile - did she know? Was this some sort of roundabout way of taunting him? No, she was back to searching, and had swiped at the bottom of her bag already... coming up empty-handed. She furrowed her brow. "But back to the medicine. I was holding it for her, but she must have taken it from me. Oh, no, no..."

  "Kyew! Pew, pew! Paa-yew!"

  INFORM HER MIZUKI HAS DONE NO SUCH THING.

  "If she did, I didn't see her do it, at least," Sun said. If there was a silver lining to this situation, it was that it had taken his mind off his swollen ankle, and he even felt comfortable enough to splay himself out on the bed, releasing some of the tension in his muscles. "She told me she had to go talk to her dad, or something..."

  But Lillie didn't care to listen. She'd gone back to muttering words too low for him to hear, apart from a few scattered snippets: "the label, I told her... listen, she..."

  Then her breath hitched. She froze, and the bag slipped from her fingers, tumbling onto the carpet. If she noticed, it didn't bother her.

  "Mirai."

  "Yeah," Sun said, nonchalant. "Mizuki - "

  Without another word, Lillie leapt to her feet and bounded out the door.

  They wouldn't require Mizuki to see Justin off. Children, only knowing how to parrot what the adults told them, made the most loyal soldiers in the war of faith... but the leaving would be painful, as it always was, and it would be best for their soft, malleable minds to be spared the trauma. That was why Mizuki's sisters had to stay home - save for the lump, whose mother couldn't stand to be away from its side for...

  Mizuki threw up in her mouth a little. An hour or so more of this, and no lies, useful or otherwise, would have to be told anymore. In the grand scheme of things, an hour was nothing at all.

  But it was also why Mizuki could afford to loiter around the rec room for a few minutes more, awaiting her kettle's cry. Yes, in spite of all her devotion, Mizuki herself had never been permitted to witness a leaving, either - even though she knew for a fact she'd be cut out for the job, that she could strongarm anyone into sticking by the Children, that her hope and optimism had no equal anywhere else. Now that she was mature enough to set out on an island challenge (in theory) Tenshiro had allowed her to be in the building, but expressed a degree of trepidation at letting her actually witness the ceremony. If she caught wind of her dear old dad showing no mercy, even to a dissenter, blood would start to trickle from her eyes and ears, and her little heart would shatter to bits.

  Every couple of minutes, it seemed, her emotions would swell in her chest and escape from her in the form of a violent sob. The more her mind wandered, the more unruly her inner maelstrom became, and the more everything seemed to be repeating itself. One cup, two cups, empty to full. Tendrils of steam curled up from them, twisting into spiral shapes. Mizuki imagined them forming letters like the blood back in Lillie's room, begging her, Mizuki, it's not too long to wait now, you'll be the goddess of the new world, Mi zu ki.

  Tenshiro's green tea was ready. The tinge of cyan at the bottom of the cup caught her eye, but after a moment's thought she determined it wasn't visible enough to arouse suspicion unless one knew to search for it. But of course Dad couldn't like black tea like Mom - it just had to be green tea, which, in Mizuki's humble opinion, tasted exactly like leaf water.

  ("Well, it is leaf water," Sun had said when she raised this concern to him.

  "But that doesn't mean it has to taste like leaf water. Or that I have to like it.")

  She placed the readied cups on a tray and realized her dilemma: she wouldn't be able to carry both it and the lump at once, and both items would be quite dangerous to drop - the tea in particular. The tea was more critical, so she'd take that first.

  She wandered through the hall as if lost in a dream, feeling almost manic. Ecstatic. The cups rattled and a few drops splashed over their rims. Don't be sad, don't be angry. Like a song I can't recall the tune to. Like two songs your brain stitches together and makes some amalgam, some uncanny valley of a nursery rhyme. Mend our broken hearts and...

  "And, with this act, you acknowledge no one will ever forgive your sins."

  "I acknowledge this," Justin said.

  "And you accept you are intrinsically a broken person, and you will never be able to put yourself back together?"

  "I accept this," Justin said.

  "And you acknowledge you believe a high salary - or your passion - is worth more to you than your immortal soul?"

  Both parties were mic'ed up, and their voices echoed out into the hall. But the closer Mizuki got to finding the shortcut to the backstage area, and the louder their voices got, the less sense their words made to her. Someone had propped open the double doors, likely to let some air into the stuffy gymnasium, and even the crowd's commentary was audible to her as she passed by.

  "And you acknowledge you the its didn't her seemed obstacle up stomach was on ankle reason I that remained couldn't her and the the?"

  "I acknowledge this."

  "And you accept you at as and could rhyme in intelligent at I of silent be to, um, kingdom trash medicine even our swiped into just breaths it really?"

  "I accept this."

  Someone out in the crowd cried out, "I still love you, my child." What an idiotic thing to say, Mizuki thought, to someone who meant to turn their back on everything you loved and stood for. She decided she pitied that person.

  When Mizuki did eventually reach the door, she had no choice but to balance the tea tray on her knee while she finagled the door open. With the way her hands trembled, it was a miracle she could hold anything at all. As she passed through she allowed the door to slam shut behind her and received a swift reprimand from a nearby assistant - "they'll hear you outside, you're disrupting the sanctity of the ceremony!" She could only stare at the boy, and at the glassy-eyed, unsmiling band members sitting in a circle waiting for their cue to retake the stage, and at Yūra, who was half-watching the camera feed from one of the techies' desktop screens.

  "Terrible, isn't it," the woman mused as soon as Mizuki reached earshot. Terrible, it was. Better to view it from the safety of a medium than to have to watch it up close, to have to see those faces turned red and twisted in malice and scorn.

  Mizuki said, "Here you go I made you guys tea but I spilled a bit I'm sorry I was just so excited to see you again my hands were shaking?"

  "That's very generous of you, dear," Yūra said, not taking her eyes off the screen. She accepted both cups and blew on hers. "I'll let it cool for a little. Thank you very much..."

  "Right I'm going to be right back to fetch Mirai," Mizuki said, and didn't wait around for her mom to acknowledge this.

  Now for the stupid lump. Back and forth, this way and that-a-way, the world-dreamer knew she'd spent longer running around this compound today than she had every other day of her life combined. The moment she returned to the rec room she pivoted on her feet and emptied her stomach into the nearest trash can, recoiling at the bile’s acrid taste.

  Nerves. Damned nerves. She had every right to be afraid, didn't she? After all, she'd technically just broken the law. Not technically - without a doubt, she had breached the codes of both legality and morality.

  for good reason for good reason useful lies useful crimes

  Anxiety wasn't pathological if it was justified. But in any case, the reaction was certainly an extreme one, and she reeled, taking a few steps back and forcing herself against the wall. Stilling herself, reminding herself deep breaths, deep breaths. The burning in her throat reminded her how foolish she'd been to tell Mizune's secret to the girl she couldn't trust.

  Yes, how foolish sin was. Only a fool would harm the people who loved them most, and only a fool would throw their life away for a moment's pleasure. As she took the big fat lump into her arms, stroking its wispy hair, she felt more certain of that than she had ever before.

  One last burst of energy took her down the hall again. The lump's presence slowed her, but Mizuki had little regard for its comfort, and eschewed conscientiousness in favor of speed. She ran...

  ...And nearly tripped flat on her face. She kicked the unconscionable obstacle that had intercepted her with all her might, only to gasp and rear back when it let out a strangled cry.

  "Ow! Mizuki! Why?"

  "Sun?" Her friend was lying prone on the floor, with what she could see of his expression bent in agony. His leg stuck out at an awkward angle. What caught Mizuki's eye in particular, however, was Lillie's secret drum bag slung across his shoulder: was Lillie's little cloud-friend still inside? "What are you doing here? I told you to watch Lillie. Are you incapable of following even the most simple of instructions? Even a braindead Mankey could keep an eye on a sleeping kid." Quieter, she muttered: "'Specially one as spineless as her."

  "She woke up, and ran away, and I can't get after her," Sun whined. "Agh, Mizuki, why’d you have to kick me while I'm already down..."

  "Tell me where she went."

  "I don't know, I don't know, she didn't tell me, she just took off..."

  As if on cue, the lump let out a wail, and Mizuki was one taut second from lobbing it at Sun's forehead. But perhaps her brain discovered some untapped reservoir of patience then, and she instead sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, and offered her hand to him. A voice in the back of her mind said better to leave him behind, and she felt inclined to agree with it, but...

  But two wrongs didn't make a right.

  "It's not your fault," she told him as he hoisted himself to his feet. "I'm sorry, this isn't your fault, she's just..."

  ...Going to destroy everything we've worked for.

  Sun bowed his head. "In my heart, I know that. But I've been so worried about her the past couple of weeks. I don't know what you guys have put her through here..."

  It didn't surprise her to hear that, but it did irk her. She huffed. "Why do you care? You hardly know her."

  When Sun didn't respond, Mizuki at first thought she had struck a nerve. His expression didn't budge from its solemnity, and he took his eyes off her to stare at a landscape painting of what must have been paradise - not the earthly paradise fools claimed Alola was, but the real one beyond the clouds. His reply held a gentleness she'd never heard from him.

  "Are you jealous of her?"

  "What?" The lump let out a soft googoo at Mizuki's interjection. "Jealous of Lillie? Have you met her? Why in the world would I ever be afraid of a depressed, socially anxious - "

  "Not afraid," Sun said. "Jealous. They're two different feelings, aren't they?"

  You tell me, Mizuki wanted to say, but her voice didn't manifest. She swallowed and hoped he couldn't see the blood rushing to her cheeks.

  "But I don't know why you would be," Sun admitted. "I just remember: at the malasada shop. You kept shooting her these dirty looks, like she'd pissed in your soda, even though she hadn't so much as said a word to you. And I know you were mad at Ilima, but there was no reason to take it out on her."

  It took Mizuki a moment to dredge up the memory in question: so much had happened to her recently it seemed a hundred years had passed since that morning. But his words did fire a synapse. "Well, it's just that, uh, we've always been a trio, you and Hau and I, and then this random-ass girl - " she forced every ounce of loathing in her heart into that one word " - bursts in here, and, and..."

  She trailed off, because Sun had returned to staring at her once more, and his face told her he'd taken her defense as a confession. She cast her eyes to her shoes and resisted the temptation to take out her anger on the lump's appendages.

  "I bet you've got a crush on her," she said. "It's like every anime ever made: some weird new girl comes in and disrupts the friend group dynamic, and the main character guy instantly falls in love with her, and forgets all about his good old childhood friend. I expected you to be more deep than all that, Sun."

  She expected the tension to deflate: Sun would chuckle at the inherently hilarious implication he was the main character, at the implication there was a main character, at the implication their lives were nothing more than mere pulp fiction... but she at last caught on to her own implication.

  The real implication.

  Oh, fuck.

  "No! It's not like that! I don't like you, is what I mean! I've got to hold myself to a higher standard, yannow!"

  Mizuki's mind had shifted into full-blown fight-or-flight mode, and she flailed for anything, anything, that could help dig her out of this hole. Every shred of rhetorical skill she had ever developed evaporated from her, and her mouth could spout only stutters and word salad.

  "I'm not! I mean, I've got to, honesty and integrity! Responsibility! And I'm, yannow, I'm honest, um, I'm integral, I'm perfectly responsible, and you're not... I mean, you - you are, kinda, I trust you, but..."

  Wasting time, Reason reminded her. Lillie could be anywhere. Get yourself out of here.

  "Agh! Uh, I've got to get going. Stupid moron, can't even." She wasn't speaking to Sun anymore. "Probably hurting the lump's ears with all this shouting."

  Despite the display, Sun didn't seem perturbed. As she prepared to turn her back on him, he reached out to her, looking unsteady on his feet again.

  "Um, if it's not too much of a bother, can I have something to wake up Harmony? He's fainted, and I don't know if we'll come across someone we'll have to fend off. I understand if you, um, aren't exactly thrilled to, after that..."

  A real glass half-empty kind of Trainer, wasn't he. Mizuki rolled her eyes and reached into her bag, producing a sun-colored rhomboid implement. She tossed it at his feet and smirked as he dropped to his knees to scoop it up.

  "'Course the lil' weakling fainted," she said, relishing in the jab.

  Sun didn't give her the satisfaction of a reaction. He turned the Revive over and over in his hands, his eyes narrowed.

  "And how exactly am I supposed to use this?"

  "Beats me," Mizuki said, and she began to wish she hadn't even bothered. "If something happens to Frostfire, I just let him sleep it off, and that always seems to fix him right up. Besides, Revives aren't even powerful enough to heal all your Pokemon's injuries. You'll have to splurge for the more expensive ones if you want the full package."

  She wasn't going to wait for him to figure it out, but to his credit, he didn't complain when she took off again. He couldn't keep up, of course, but at least he was being a good sport about it this time. She tossed her raven hair over her shoulder, and the lump watched him with a gleam in its eyes.

  "You are one of us no longer. With this act, you give up your claim to the kingdom of heaven..."

  A conglomeration of words that would never make sense. Mizuki hovered by the backstage door until she heard the band pluck the first few notes of "Leaving You Behind", and pictured Tenshiro coming back, accepting his tea from Yūra, and taking a long, refreshing sip. Maybe he'd bitch about it having gone cold, or maybe he'd absently wonder about the nature of the blue residue staining the bottom of the cup. In a moment she'd waltz in, fawn over him, and, perfected with pure, childish glee, await the moment that would seal his fate.