Step into the parlor

Finally, it happened. As much as she had tried to seem tough, and defiant, there was nothing she could do to keep reality from crashing back down on her again. Natsuki initially cringed hard when Sprinkles touched her, but after a brief moment she simply buried her face in her friend's shoulder. The tears were quick enough to come, Natsuki curling up as best as she could in that position and quivering.

The last person on earth she wanted to see just had to land right in the middle of her safe haven. With the mention of the human charm, it was finally, fully confirmed to her that Tier was who she had suspected he might be from the beginning, and that was simply too much to handle. She wanted to tell Sprinkles that it was real, that it did happen, but as of now she could do nothing of the sort. Speech was currently an impossibility.

Sprinkles just glared back, increasingly becoming more annoyed and losing the restraint fear gave him. Natsuki's crying wasn't helping either. This guy was a freak. Some messed up thing Sprinkles' mind made to scare him. If getting over his fear of this island was what was needed to get out of this nightmare, then fine.

"Shut up! I know you're trying to scare me, and you know what, it's working, but the entire island is messed up and scary, and you're no different. I'm not going to let your speech about what it was like to eat us make me grovel to you. Maybe... Maybe you're right and you're telling the truth, but only in this reality. And..." Sprinkles' confidence wavered. Not out of fear, but confusion. Every time he brought up this theory out loud, it didn't feel like he could properly explain it. He felt a bit silly, really. It always sounded better in his head. "If you want to eat me, then fine, because whether this is real or fake, I'll be out of here. And if I keep on living, I'll make a better life and become strong enough that this place doesn't even affect me anymore."

With that, Sprinkles nudged Natsuki and tried to stand up. He wanted this conversation to be over. He was tired and angry and terrifed now that he realized he practically told a cannibal to eat him. What was he thinking, trying to make a dramatic speech like that? He hadn't even realized he was crying until he went to rub his eyes and came away with a wet sweater.

Whatever was left of Natsuki's former resolve had by this point utterly crumbled. The gruesome detailing by Tieragoran of how he'd eaten them was bad enough, but the revelation that they tasted the same as human was much more deeply unsettling. She had been banking in large part this entire time on the hope that they were different enough so that the various flesh eaters wouldn't be interested. That confidence she had shown earlier was now in her eyes, nothing more than a lie, and genuine terror began to envelope her for the first time since she had left the trading post.

Sprinkles' speech rang through her ears, but was only barely registered, covered by a persistent ringing instead. Her shaking got more intense, letting go of Sprinkles when he went to stand and immediately hugging her knees to her chest. Her face was nestled between her knees now, and even though they were shaky and slightly muffled, her words were easy enough to hear: "I want to go home..." Natsuki couldn't deny her fear to them anymore, her vulnerability clear as day. "I want to go back to Azuma."