Late evening arrived on the ship. Yuki already repced Ayumi, who slept mostly peacefully. The switch left everyone very mu edge and uo sleep immediately. They stood on something teically not real, a sihought could ge that reality.

  The other half proved less pin and more rag on their bodies. None of them had ever been away from Japan before and some never evehe city. They watched as they sailed away from their home and found fn skies above them that gave less fort to a sore soul.

  Like the rest, Yumi wahe halls of Yuki’s cruise ship uo sleep. Her restlessness came less from the uainty of falling into the o like the rest. She trusted Yuki and that gave her strength against such fears. However, a different matter troubled her far more deeply. It kept her from being able to trate on anything. Her mind was fixed to oter, Ayumi.

  She couldn’t escape the thoughts in her mind and the squeezing pain that ed around her heart. It was tormentieps as she strolled through another random hallway. ‘What’s wrong with me? Why ’t I stop thinking about it?’ Each time it rose within her images of Yuki and Ayumi fshed through her mind.

  In the hallway, Yumi found that she roag the ballroom where Yuki focused on keeping the boat together. ‘Maybe talking to him would settle everything down enough to sleep…but what about?’

  Yumi hesitated before the door, not certain if she could make it into the room. Even her retly discovered strength wasn’t enough to keep her heart from faltering upohreshold. She had thought that she had ged. Yet it seemed that nothing had bee different. ‘I-I just o…Yuki…I—‘

  A deep pei fell upon her heart dragging all of the air out of her. There were no thoughts, just the pounding in her chest making her go deaf. Soon her arms began to shake along with her legs. She felt ready to colpse at any moment. All Yumi mahen forced her to flee the se until she made it to her room. She fell to the floor still feeling every part of her shaking violently. A hot boiliion started to grow within that verted the shaking into spontaneous anger.

  No thoughts trolled Yumi. Only simple emotions fueled her as she threw things across the room that decorated the spabsp; Value or preciousness didn’t matter to her. She demanded a vent to release the iions inside. Yumi froze in the middle of throwing a gss statuette at the wall. ‘What am I doing?!’ She jerked back as she looked around the room to see the shattered pieces of what she had destroyed strewn everywhere. ‘What did I…’

  As her mind traced backwards through the hazy it became clearer to Yumi. “Ayumi…why was she…” He meditated on his powers, but rolled up peacefully and defenseless was Ayumi on her side. She looked exhausted from holding together for half a day.

  Yumi looked around the room again. It made her drop to the side of the bed, hanging her head down. A tear streamed down her cheek prepared for the sorrow that welled up. “I’m losing…it… I-I… What’s happening to me? What is this feeling?”

  Chapter 95 – The Looming Fog

  he front of the cruise ship the restless gathered. Yori held off his uneasiness by fog on problems that spun in his mind over the day. He hadn’t asked for ao join him, but realized the tinued pany that he had throughout the day. Fumiko and Seiji frequently stayed nearby. The others seemed satisfied with keeping to themselves, a poor quality froup.

  Yori o himself how far they had e. ‘The speed that we must be going to have already passed the equator in a single day… It’s very clear that this isn’t a normal vessel even if it does have the appearance of one. The flexibility that they have is staggering. Will they really need us to do anything with such overwhelming abilities?’ He looked back at the others that stuearby dwelling ohought.

  Seiji shifted his weight against the wall of the debsp; He looked frustrated and exhausted. No one said anything i few hours. He was left with only his thoughts and that could only sustain him for so long before he became bored. “Damn it all to hell! I ’t take all of this silenbsp; Are you all just asleep or something!?” The moment after he yelled the other two stared at him with an annoyed expression that made him regret running off his mouth.

  Yori turned his focus to Seiji. “Didn’t realize you were such a chatty individual.”

  Fumiko kept her eyes closed, while listening. “Thought tough guys were all silent types except when in a fight.”

  “How the hell you all be so quiet?! Don’t you have anything to say or talk about?!”

  “This isn’t an afterschool hang out.”

  “I know that, but—“ Their words fully sat in his mind. ‘What am I doing?! I have an image to maintain! I ’t let this get to me!’ Seiji straightened himself back up, appearing like he had shaken off his problems, but it only became more obvious to the others.

  “Is the big tough guy getting scared?” whispered Chiharu into his ear as she appeared mysteriously hanging from the deck above. She gave him a wicked grin wheumbled backwards startled by her entrance.

  He wiped his ear trying to get her out of him as his feet danced about. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? When did you get there?!”

  “Only a moment ago. But I could hear your whining across the ship. It pees everything obnoxiously.”

  “You really are looking for a fight!” Seiji charged Chiharu only to find his fist in pain for smming into the wall. “Shit!” Anger washed over any pain that he might have felt. He started to search the deck trying to figure out where she disappeared to. “You too afraid to fight me head on? You’re just a coward!”

  Chiharu stepped out of the shadows a few meters away from Seiji. “I guess it would be b to defeat you so easily.” She answered his fierce gre with a simple offeahat left too many openings.

  He read her stand smirked to himself, pleased to see that it worked. Seiji charged her ready to strike with his fists, however he found himself flying through the air. A moment ter, his back smmed against the debsp; He blirying to figure out what had happened and heard a muffled ugh from the kid. This fueled his anger even more, setting him on his feet to hunt down Chiharu once again.

  It didn’t take long for him to locate her as she stood in sight taunting him. The charge he made ended in the same results. Repeating the process started to bee embarrassing and painful to watch as Seiji didn’t show any signs of achieving ground against her. It made him tired.

  Chiharu shrugged her shoulders looking bored. “You ’t even give me a good exercise. Guess you’re as disappointing as the weakling.” The stance she had suddenly ged, appearing to have had a new mood turned over with her decision.

  “All you do is talk!” Seiji charged the same as he had before for Chiharu. He went for a wide swing at her seeing leap away, but repared for it. ‘Got her figured out!’ His hand grabbed her ankle and spun her around to her surprise. When he finished he left her denting the wall and shattering the gss of the porthole window. Chiharu fell down to the floor having trouble moving. “Not hot shit without your speed huh?!”

  Seiji grinned in triumph down at Chiharu. She gred up at him with defianbsp; It took her a while to get the feeling ba her body after being thrown so hard. ‘He read my moves… After all of that he keep going… Damn!’ Chiharu refused to bow to him and forced herself back to her feet. However, before she could do anything a person’s back filled her entire vision.

  “That’s enough Seiji! How you pi a little girl like that?! I thought you were a better man than that!” Fumiko turned around to che how Chiharu was doing. “It’s okay. I’ll protect you!”

  Chiharu felt Fumiko hand on her shoulder and turned away from the tall teen. “Tbsp; I don’t need you…” After those words she disappeared out of sight.

  “Chiharu!?” Fumiko searched around the deck quickly and then ran off to hunt her down.

  Seiji was left fused and puzzled trying to figure out why he had bee the vilin. “But…but…”

  Yori lea the railing knowing that there had only been two ways for it to have turned out. “That is why you don’t do that. You lose and you look like a weakling, but win and you’re a bully.” He walked over to Seiji, patting him on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay, eventually.” However, Yori stepped ba surprise seeing that Seiji was pletely lost. He sighed to himself. ‘How are we going to be able to survive like this?’

  Travel to the south tinued mostly uninterrupted. Ayumi sed with Yuki in the m and then again when evening came. It had already bee very cold when the evening came and there weren’t enough winter clothes to go around. Ayumi only pnned on three and the others didn’t pick for every weather dition. It kept them inside where it was still warm, but it soon became more of a navigating the ice that surrouhe ti.

  The cruise ship pressed through crag the ice along the surface proving again that it wasn’t to be taken for appearance alone. The siblings stood on the bridge with a view of their destination ahead of them and giving dires to the voice activated ship trols. “If what I’m seeing on the monitor is correct, the actual nd is only a few miles away,” reported Yori.

  She looked out the window into the thick void of the night where no civilizatioed. Only the moon and stars provided light to see by. “Are there any lights we turn on? Running into ice is ohing, but actual nd is going to be too dangerous!”

  “Would you like the searchlights to be turned on?” replied a soft male voice, the puter that took their inputs.

  “Yes! Turn the lights on!”

  “Uood. Activating search lights.” Across the front of the ship thick beams of light snapped on casting out pools of light over passing icebergs and floating ice debris. A faint glow of refleg i the distance sighe nd that Yori spoke about.

  “If there’s someo there they’re going to see the lights. I think it’s too dangerous to be alerting them.”

  She thought about it for a moment staring down at the fshing dispys of information that she mostly didn’t uand. “If Ayumi’s Atntis is out there then we’ve missed them. The coastline looks pletely empty.”

  “Ayumi’s people aren’t the only ohat I’m thinking about. Antarctica is regurly used by stists as well. We don’t want them to actally see us and then have to expin ourselves to them.”

  She nodded agreeing with her brother. “You’re right, but we also o be able to see. we turn down the brightness enough to see ahead while not being as easily seen?”

  “The lights are adjustable. Reduce strength by 80%?” answered the puter.

  “Yes!” The iy lowered suddenly, cutting her vision down heavily. ‘I guess I should be grateful that it’s some sce fi puter that’s smart enough to interpret questions…still very annoying all the same…’

  The door to the hall opened up letting in Ayumi. She took a moment to examihe horizon before speaking up. “How long before ndfall is possible?”

  “A few minutes would be my guess. So long as there isn’t any really thick ice to break through.” Yori flipped through the dispys on the s, starting to bee aced to the puter. He pulled up their targeted nd to show to Ayumi. “You do realize that it is over a kilometer high. There are other pces we go that are closer to sea level.”

  “Height doesn’t mean anything. Keep us on course.” Ayumi walked out of the bridge returning to the hallway.

  The siblings stared between each other a little surprised by how ung she was about the ditions. “She’s got i her veins…” remarked Yori trying to ighe bad pun that he had just made. He saw out of the er of his eye his sister giggling to herself. It forced him back towards the monitor. “We’ve got two minutes before we run into the cliff!”

  “I’ll let everyone know!”

  She sent out a message over the broadcast system inf them that they had nearly reached their destination. The pn gathered everyone in the ter of the ship. Ayumi retrieved arctic clothing that she requested Yuki to include in his ship. Once everyone was dressed for the weather they went out on the deck, Yuki included. His addition made everyone a little nervous, but Ayumi assured them very bluntly that Yuki had range (if nothing else).

  “We’re going to hit the cliff soon!” yelled Yori looking around at everyone on the main de front of the ship.

  Ayumi nodded in aowledgement and nothing more. The ship shook violently and most everyone began to panic as they floated in the air. “We’ve got a long way to go. I’d suggest remaining calm.” Ayumi stared up at the faintly outlined cliff ign everyone. Minutes passed in almost plete darkness before anything could be seen. A glowing light spread out in front of them from the moonlight dang upon the snow and ice that stretched out for endless kilometers.

  They found careful footing on the ice with their spiked boots digging giving them banbsp; Fumiko still mao slip and fall, but there was enough padding that it wasn’t as bad as she thought. She sat up not feeliain about standing at that moment. “What about your boat?”

  Her answer came quickly as a new Field made them feel very warm. After Ayumi prepared the Field, Yuki released his own Field f their arctic wear to disappear. Yuki created a new Field to cover her tasks. She focused orieving the boat from the ice down below.

  “Antarctica…” Yuki whispered to himself, sing the fn ti. He had always imagihat leaving the try would have taken him to somewhere a little more alive and warm. It left him feeling a little odd thinking about it. However, he khat he had to focus on the problem ahead of us. “So where’s Atntis? I sort of pictured it being along the coast…”

  “We’ve got further to go innd.”