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

Ayumi refused to answer him. Her silence fueled the concerns 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. Scientists regularly visit Antarctica and have reported nothing of civilization. Do you have a reason for this Ayumi?”

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

Fumiko straightened herself up. “You haven’t said too much to us about Atlantis or Antarctica. So all we’ve had to go on is our imagination. It seemed like we’d understand once we got here, but it is still just as mysterious. You don’t have to explain everything right now, but something for us to understand.”

“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 need to know what’s going on here.”

Chapter 96 – Seeking Atlantis

“…a brief explanation…” Ayumi stepped away and forced a stricter stance upon herself. She only blinked, but when she finished preparing her mind the entire scene had changed. Everyone gathered 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 difference in temperature could be felt further away. Ayumi cleared her throat, forced to prepare herself all over. “My, our, homeland lies towards the very center of the continent. The borders of the kingdom are about eight hundred kilometers in, maybe more. We don’t exactly keep track since we normally stay inside our kingdom.”

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

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

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

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

“I’m not the one setting expectations.”

Saki stepped in between the two. “Alright! We don’t have time for this. Unless that boat of yours can transform into a snow truck or something useful. We’re going to have to start walking.”

“No it doesn’t transform, but we can 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 plan on how they were going to reach the border, a small meal was laid out from the bits of rations and food that everyone brought. It seemed only natural that Ayumi carried the most, knowing better than the rest the length of the trip. However, her supplies didn’t have enough to support everyone. The others supplemented their 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 laughed and joked around, Yuki sat at the edge of the cliff with his legs tapping against the cliff’s sheer surface. The lateness of the hour didn’t matter much to him. 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 back on that night he left. It had the same feeling of darkness and cold like the one that filled him. ‘…Momoko… I will be back… 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 piercing 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 act. What happened to keeping up your façade?” She waited until it became too exasperating to watch.

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Saki ripped his hair back with enough force to lay him out flat. She stepped around him ignoring the fact that a cliff was only centimeters away from her feet. She dropped down straddling him around his waist getting a lock on his eyes. “You can’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 lack of a response or even reaction made Saki lean and take hold of his shirt. “If it’s not that then what? Is it your family?”

A flinch in 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 played through her memories trying to piece things together and remembered it. “Your fight with Momoko?! I can’t believe you, Yuki! You knew you were leaving and you didn’t make up with her before you left?! Now you’re acting mopey because you’re regretting it now!” Saki hauled him up after getting off of him.

After Yuki returned to his feet she pressed her finger against his chest not shoving him with force. She pressed her position, not giving him quarter. “You wait all this time to start worrying 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, confused 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!”

“You’re going 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 own feet and keep moving forward!” Saki slapped 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 something better 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 letting emotions and regret run their course. We need his head in the game and a good fist to the face is sometimes what he needs to wake up.”

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

“When he collapses it’ll be up to his trusted partner to 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 having kept her back to her the whole time.

Yumi stared at her tall proud back and felt like she saw something deeper unnoticed by Saki. ‘Saki? Aren’t you the one he trusts the most?’

Yuki found his focus and everyone finished their preparations. Since Ayumi had the plan, she took the lead. A large 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 on the trucks, through the snow and ice across a wasteland, hung over everyone’s mind. Trust in what Ayumi claimed continued to be a point of concern for some. They barely knew her and her continued mysterious nature didn’t endear herself to them.

Everyone gathered up in their truck. In the distance on the horizon, dark shining mountains stood surrounding them with vast stretches of snow covered ice. Ayumi took the lead knowing their direction and Yuki followed behind. He didn’t have to worry too much about controls, 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 cabin. Most of everyone slept having not had the chance since arriving so late and unable to sleep prior. Some comfort in the land beneath them gave them peace of mind, that and heavy fatigue.

The endless scenery continued to pass them by with no sign of anything. Plentiful rest consumed their time, but it reached a point where even sleeping was impossible. Seiji unsurprisingly awoke the last from a slight stirring in the truck in a patch of rough terrain. He yawned deeply before working on his surroundings. The windows held a little fog to lighten up the darkness. “Hey, it is morning or afternoon, right? 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 front seat to 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 back. “This continent 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 truck. “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 Atlantis 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, on the last message Ayumi’s truck came to a stop. Yuki feared that her threats about walking turned serious. He stopped next to 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 uncertain looks back considering their situation. “Well let’s just find out what it is. We should be pretty close anyway.” Yuki hurried out of the truck not really wanting to face the looks further.

Ayumi stood out in front of the group of nine staring deeply at the endless abyss of Antarctica. She knew of their suspicions. Their answers would come soon enough. She turned back around and finished confirming 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 can be seen. But this is the land of Atlantis before you. Follow me and you’ll understand.”