Part 5[edit]
(November 10th – Kauai – Napali Coast – From UAV Lesser Emperor #300)
Napali Coast was registered as a state park, but the areas deeper into the park could only be reached by heading along a few kilometers of saw tooth-like cliffs where no normal car could pass. A log house stood in that deep cliffy area.
Harzak Lolas, a large man who towered over two meters tall, was tending to a terraced vegetable garden he kept near the log house. It had originally been to grow food, but chaos had taken over ever since its proper owner had started growing flowers in it. Harzak was not growing food in it either. Unbefitting of his large body, he was replanting a small seedling from a planter into the garden with delicate movements of his hands.
Suddenly, the log house’s door opened.
Without turning around, Harzak spoke to the girl who had to stretch up and turn the knob with both hands.
“If you aren’t going swimming, you don’t need to wear a swimsuit.”
“It’s hot. The power generators and the solar panels aren’t enough to keep the air conditioner on all day. And it’ll be hot tonight, so I have to save up power in the batteries. Also, I’m gonna go fishing again this evening.”
That conversation was a custom of theirs, so Harzak was not actually trying to fix the girl’s habit. He changed the subject and said, “Your textbooks are in the mailbox.”
“You’re the one that brings the mail, so you don’t have to just leave it in the mailbox, Harzak.”
“This is your house, Lindy. I am only here to help out. More importantly, you need to check the textbooks to make sure none are missing. I’ll make that long trip as many times as it takes.”
“…I don’t like textbooks.”
“No one likes studying.”
“I’d rather listen to your stories.”
“Unfortunately, those won’t be of any use to you,” Harzak said as he adjusted the soil where he had just transplanted a small seedling. “Will you gain the knowledge of a citizen of the United States or of a native Hawaiian? Both have value. I don’t make the cut on either count. You can tell just by hearing my name. My parents did a poor job of naturalization, so I don’t have a good grasp of the native language or culture. And yet I can’t get used to life in modern America either.”
“Mhh…” The girl named Lindy puffed out her cheeks. “But I still like your stories.”
Having said what she wanted to say, the girl grabbed the textbooks wrapped in plastic and headed back into the log house.
Harzak truly thought she was a good, pure girl, but that was exactly why he could not let an idiot like himself influence her too much.
He had heard that a true king still lived somewhere in the Hawaiian Islands, but he had never even seen a hint of it being true. Was this king in some unexplored land or had he blended into the cities? Harzak had lost even the slightest desire to search him out and become a member of his kingdom. He was sick of running out of strength partway up the mountain and heading back down.
After finishing his work on the garden, Harzak stood up, wiped sweat from his face with his arm, and looked up into the blue sky that was thinly covered by volcanic ash.
It was rare for the ash to make it all the way to Kauai. He started to wonder if he should cover the garden in plastic if it was going to continue for much longer.
That was when he noticed something odd.
He saw what looked like a twenty or thirty cm long dragonfly.
But that was not what it was.
It had a body made of polycarbonate and wings made of ABS resin, it moved around using a motor, and it was equipped with a transmitter and a camera, so it could hardly be called a normal dragonfly.
“…A lens…A camera…” muttered Harzak.
He then recalled why Lindy Blueshake was living in a place like that. He recalled what it was she utterly loathed. He recalled why government workers had introduced her to that “unexplored land” that lacked any and all presence by the mass media.
“Not good… Lindy, Lin—!!” Harzak started yelling as he turned back toward the log house, but a hand reached from behind him and covered his large mouth.
He had no idea when, how, or from where someone had gotten there.
Still having no idea what was going on, Harzak was pushed down to the side of the garden as if his opponent had used some kind of magic trick. Due to the glare of the sun, he could not see his attacker’s face, but the silhouette was enough to tell him he held a handgun.