The Dream Shifter

Chapter 163

"We've got further to go inland," Ayumi replied flatly. A completely brief and short statement left almost hanging with the expectation that there would be more added in a moment. However, the moment never came.

Always the vocal one to bring up complaints, 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 anything here. It's just a bunch of ice. There's nothing here!"

Ayumi refused to answer him. Her silence fueled the concerns everyone else had. Doubts grew among the group to question if it might all have been a lie. Yori took the time to speak up giving voice to the rest of the group in a calmer manner. "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."

The slow breakdown began between everyone. Those that sided with their doubt held a stronger voice than the others that in their silence left themselves undecided. Fumiko straightened herself up wanting to give an explanation to their concerns. "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 agreed. He had had enough of being left in the dark. The last month he left things go as they had been. He never planned on agreeing to go back with her so he did not think it matter that much. However, he was on another continent in the middle of nowhere. There had to be answers. Yuki leaned in with a step of his foot hoping that his time with her would open her up more than the others. "I'm tired of being in the dark. If I'm going to be helping you I need to know what's going on here."

The proximity of Yuki to Ayumi made her suddenly uneasy and pulled away. She tried to keep the red from filling her cheeks. "…a brief explanation…" she compromised. 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 taken off guard. "Out of my face!" yelled Ayumi, once she found her composure again.

Everyone fanned out further away from her while still keeping close to the center of the field. A definite difference in temperature could be felt the further away making it clear that the powers weakened in face of the strength of Antarctica's frozen might. 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 on 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. I didn't think it was possible, even though it still manages to have your usual vagueness."

"Are you making fun of me?!" Ayumi rumbled, raising her fist up in anger. "After I gave you an answer you're going to be ungrateful about it now!"

"H-Hey, Ayumi! I'm sorry," flailed Yuki, praying that he could calm Ayumi down. "I shouldn't have said anything! I'm sorry!"

Before Ayumi grappled Yuki to the ground Saki stepped in to split them. "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."

Ayumi snatched herself back away from Saki. She calmed down her emotions and evened out her voice, surprisingly quick. "No it doesn't transform, but we can make vehicles for travel. It'll still be half a day or more to get 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 did not have enough to support everyone. The others supplemented their food, but after two days it started looking very meager. They all knew if food was not 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 did not 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 of that night he left. It had the same feeling of darkness and cold like the one that filled him. He had fought with Momoko the night before he left. Even after he spoke with Saki he was left unable to finish his conversation with his sister. The weight of what he said and not knowing where to go with it cut off all of his thoughts. They both stumbled around words whenever they crossed paths in the house in the last day.

As he stood out in front of his house in the early morning uncertainty kept him company. It weighed his feet and tightened his legs. Yuki closed his eyes having heard the hundreds of questions in his mind already. '…Momoko… I will be back… Keep them safe until then…' He thought that something more would have come to him. He hoped that Momoko knew and tried to confront him. There was no hope for him. Yuki turned away, hearing Ayumi calling to him.

Yuki tossed a piece of ice that broke off during their arrival. 'I shouldn't have left with us still fighting… What could I have done differently?' He heard in his mind the fight replay through his mind. It remained as vivid to him as it had when it took place. 'I can't believe I said that out loud. I couldn't even admit that to myself…' Yuki choked up a laugh as he thought about it. 'Saying it doesn't make me feel any better though. It only feels worse knowing how much I buried it. Pretty pathetic that it's such a barrier for me…' A sigh escaped his lips.

From behind him, a sharp smack came to Yuki's head. "Still moping around, Yuki?" grumbled Saki, leaning 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. Saki became annoyed quickly. "Enough with the emo act. What happened to keeping up your façade?" She waited until it become too aspirating to watch.

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 was not going to get anymore from him. It forced it upon Sako to figure it out. 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!" She had had it with Yuki's endless self pity. 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. "Damn it Yuki! You're worse than an irrational girl sometimes!"

Yuki did not know what to say until he heard the last line from Saki. Not too surprising, her comment that compared to an irrational girl struck the hardest and provoked a response. "I'm not being irrational!"

"He didn't deny the girl part," Yori commented from the background quietly amongst the others.

"I'm not sure what that says for him," Fumiko replied back.

Chiharu stood in front of them and added her opinion, "Just goes to prove that he's a weakling not being able to suppress his emotions."

"You know arrogance is an emotion as well." Fumiko did not receive a retort back from Chiharu, preferring to remain quiet.

"So prove it!" yelled Saki keeping in Yuki's face.

Yuki made sure to lean in a little as well having become challenged by Saki. "I will then!" he replied not really considering his answer. It just came out of his lips as instinct.

"You're going to do 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, but made her presence known. "Violence doesn't solve everything. There's a heavy weight on his shoulders—"

"I know!" Saki interrupted and on the edge of snapping. 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 guys need to wake up."