Seiji stepped forward, w through the crowd to face down Ayumi. He looked to be in more trol than usual when annoyed, but most of that was from having tasted the biting cold of the arctibsp; “I don’t see shit. It’s just a bunch of damn ibsp; There’s nothing here!”

  Ayumi refused to answer him. Her silence fueled the s everyone else had. Doubts grew among the group. Yori took the time to speak up, giving voice to the rest of the group. “He does raise a valid point. Most of us have said nothing, but we’re here and there are no answers. Stists regurly visit Antarctid have reported nothing of civilization. Do you have a reason for this Ayumi?”

  “Isn’t it a little te to be bringing up fws in her information?” retorted Chiharu, being a surprising terpoint. “If you have doubts perhaps you should have mentiohem while we were still in Japan and not half a world away.”

  Fumikhtened herself up. “You haven’t said too much to us about Atntis or Antarctibsp; So all we’ve had to go on is our imagination. It seemed like we’d uand once we got here, but it is still just as mysterious. You don’t have to expihing right now, but something for us to uand.”

  “They’re right, Ayumi!” Yuki leaned in with a step of his foot. “I’m tired of hiding my head in the sand. My past indecisiveness made it easy to ignore or push important questions off. But if I’m going to be helping you I o know what’s going on here.”

  Chapter 96 – Seeking Atntis

  “…a brief expnation…” Ayumi stepped away and forced a stricter stance upon herself. She only blinked, but when she finished preparing her mind the entire se had ged. Everyohered around her eagerly waiting to hear (except for Haruo and Chiharu of course). Ayumi pulled back even more, rising to one leg as she leaned away. “Some distance please.”

  Everyone fanned out further away from her while still keeping close. A definite differen temperature could be felt further away. Ayumi cleared her throat, forced to prepare herself all over. “My, our, homend lies towards the very ter of the ti. The borders of the kingdom are about eight hundred kilometers in, maybe more. We doly keep track since we normally stay inside our kingdom.”

  She thought about how much she could tell them. The previous problems with expining plicated matters to Seiji proved to her that she had to pick her words far more carefully than she wished. She khat the rest to be difficult to prehend, even by those that lived in Atntis. “The rest you’ll have to just trust me on. Atntis is there, but is not visible to normal people. The world doesn’t know about what it ’t see. If I tell you anymore now it won’t make any sense. It is just something you have to experieo uand fully.”

  Yuki held his hand to his appearing more thoughtful than was actually the case. “I think that is the most straightforward you’ve ever been with me. Though it still mao have your usual vagueness.”

  “You ’t expect straight answers from something that doesn’t follow the natural ws.”

  “True enough. Though all this mystery is really hyping up the big reveal. It going to live up to expectations?”

  “I’m not the oing expectations.”

  Saki stepped iweewo. “Alright! We don’t have time for this. Uhat boat of yours transform into a snow truck or something useful. We’re going to have to start walking.”

  “No it doesn’t transform, but we make vehicles for travel. It’ll still be half a day or more to get to the border, but it’s faster than walking.”

  Once Ayumi told them the pn on how they were going to reach the border, a small meal was id out from the bits of rations and food that everyone brought. It seemed only natural that Ayumi carried the most, knowier than the rest the length of the trip. However, her supplies didn’t have enough to support everyone. The others supplemeheir food, but after two days it started looking very meager. They all knew if food wasn’t found soon that fighting would be the least of their worries.

  While the rest of the group ughed and joked around, Yuki sat at the edge of the cliff with his legs tapping against the cliff’s sheer surfabsp; The teness of the hour didn’t matter mu. Any exhaustion he might have had became drowned out by his thoughts. His eyes locked on to the distant horizon where he pretended Japan to be. ‘I wish I had said something… I just left without a word…’

  Staring at the night sky made him think ba that night he left. It had the same feeling of darkness and cold like the ohat filled him. ‘…Momoko… I will be babsp; Keep them safe until then…’ Yuki tossed a piece of ice that broke off during their arrival.

  From behind him, a sharp smack came to Yuki’s head. “Still moping around, Yuki?” Saki leaned over the top of him a little with her hands on her hips. She bore down her pierg light brown eyes upon his head waiting for him to look up at her. However, he refused to meet her or even respond to the hit. “Enough with the emo absp; What happeo keeping up your fa?ade?” She waited until it became too exasperating to watch.

  Saki ripped his hair back with enough force to y him out ft. She stepped around him ign the fact that a cliff was only timeters away from her feet. She dropped down straddling him around his waist getting a lo his eyes. “You ’t ignore me now!” Yuki turned his head away from Saki, frustrating her further. “What is it? I thought we agreed on the ship about leaving Japan?!” The ck of a response or eveion made Saki lean and take hold of his shirt. “If it’s not that then what? Is it your family?”

  A flin Yuki’s face gave him away. “I thought you were going to settle things with them before you left? What happened?”

  “…I couldn’t…”

  “Couldn’t what?”

  “I couldn’t…”

  “Repeating yourself isn’t helping me!” Saki saw that she wasn’t going to get anymore from him. She pyed through her memories trying to piece things together and remembered it. “Yht with Momoko?! I ’t believe you, Yuki! You knew you were leaving and you didn’t make up with her before you left?! Now you’re ag mopey because you’re regretting it now!” Saki hauled him up after getting off of him.

  After Yuki returo his feet she pressed her finger against his chest not shoving him with forbsp; She pressed her position, not giving him quarter. “You wait all this time to start w about it! When you need your head in the game! You made the decision and now you’ve got to live with it! Stop wallowing and man up!” Saki paused to catch her breath and became further annoyed by the stunned, fused look that she received from him. “Dammit Yuki! You’re worse than an irrational girl sometimes!”

  “I’m not being irrational!”

  “So prove it!”

  “I will then!”

  “Yoing to do it that simply? Saying it doesn’t make it happen!”

  “I’m not just saying it. I’ll prove it to you!”

  “Then stand on your ow and keep moving forward!” Saki spped him on the back, jerking him forward into their gallery of friends. She knew partly that she drew an audience, but it still unnerved her a bit. She forced herself not to show that it affected her pushing through them now that Yuki returned.

  Everyone saw that the show ended and tried to make themselves appear like they had somethier to be doing. Yumi approached Saki from behind, keeping in her shadow. “Violence doesn’t solve everything. There’s a heavy weight on his shoulders—“

  “I know!” The pain within his heart was something all too clear to her. She watched him for years knowing. “But we don’t have the luxury of spending the time lettiions a run their course. We need his head in the game and a good fist to the face is sometimes what he o wake up.”

  Yumi tightened her hands out of worry. “But we’re only deying it and pushing it babsp; This isn’t resolving the problem. He’s got to have the time to sort them out.”

  “When he colpses it’ll be up to his trusted parto give him a shoulder to bear his feelings and support him. Until then I’ll make sure to keep driving him forward to where he wants to go. That is my job as his friend…” Saki walked off havi her back to her the whole time.

  Yumi stared at her tall proud bad felt like she saw something deeper unnoticed by Saki. ‘Saki? Aren’t you the orusts the most?’

  Yuki found his focus and everyone fiheir preparations. Since Ayumi had the pn, she took the lead. A rge vehicle materialized in front of her looking like a snow plow. It had enough seating for five as arranged. The girls partnered with Ayumi while the boys stuck with Yuki.

  A ride orucks, through the snow and ice across a wastend, hung over everyone’s mind. Trust in what Ayumi cimed tio be a point of for some. They barely knew her and her tinued mysterious nature didn’t endear herself to them.

  Everyohered up irubsp; In the distan the horizon, dark shining mountains stood surrounding them with vast stretches of snow covered ibsp; Ayumi took the lead knowing their dire and Yuki followed behind. He didn’t have to worry too much about trols, letting it do most of the work. The hours passed in solitude with only the rumbling of the engine and treads bleeding dully into the . Most of everyone slept having not had the ce since arriving so te and uo sleep prior. Some fort in the h them gave them peaind, that and heavy fatigue.

  The endless sery tio pass them by with no sign of anything. Plentiful rest ed their time, but it reached a point where even sleeping was impossible. Seiji unsurprisingly awoke the st from a slight stirring iru a patch h terrain. He yawned deeply before w on his surroundings. The windows held a little fog to lighten up the darkness. “Hey, it is m or afternoht? Did I sleep through the whole day? I thought it was only supposed to take us half a day to get to her home!”

  Yori leaned back from the froo address him. “It’s only been about half a day since we started.”

  “Then why the hell is it night still?!”

  “Because when you’re this far south during this time of the year it is almost always dark.”

  Seiji looked a little ruffled, but crossed his arms leaning babsp; “This ti is annoying and weird.”

  “Yuki! Make your Field smaller!” ordered Ayumi through the radio.

  Yuki glowered through the windshield at the back of Ayumi’s trubsp; “I’m trying to, but it’s not very easy as I said before!”

  “Just do it unless you want to walk the rest of the way there!”

  ‘I didn’t miss the old Ayumi this much…I like the new her better…’ The closer they came to Atntis the more often that Ayumi yelled at him. Yuki grew tired of hearing her reminding him of something that wasn’t possible for him.

  Another hour passed with Ayumi berating his failures. However, o message Ayumi’s truck came to a stop. Yuki feared that her threats about walking turned serious. He stopped o her vehicle and looked across towards the girl’s truck for answers. The doors to their truck opened giving them the signal that they did the same.

  “I guess we’re walking the rest of the way,” Yuki tried to say cheerfully to the guys. He got a couple of uain looks back sidering their situation. “Well let’s just find out what it is. We should be pretty close anyway.” Yuki hurried out of the truot really wanting to face the looks further.

  Ayumi stood out in front of the group of aring deeply at the endless abyss of Antarctibsp; She knew of their suspis. Their answers would e soon enough. She turned back around and finished firming what she needed.

  “So where is it?” Seiji stood looking around, still holding his arm crossed. “I’m not seeing anything but damn ice cubes.”

  “As I said before it’s not something that be seen. But this is the nd of Atntis before you. Follow me and you’ll uand.”