The Cycle

None of it made any sense to Yumi now. “So it’s not a dream? Yuki?!”

She immediately remembered what was happening and jumped forward grabbing Yuki away from the window. “Everyone get back now!” Everyone else didn’t have the same sort of reaction that Yumi had, but given that their positions had never put them into danger, their slower movement didn’t matter as much.

The explosion ripped up through the floor throwing Yumi and Yuki through the hall sliding through to the other side just as it closed behind them. “Urgh…that hurt more than I expected.” Her hands were sore along with her arms, though thankfully that didn’t seem to be broken. Though things played out different than she expected.

Yumi jumped up to her feet and rushed over to the closed bulkhead. “Damn, got blown all the way out…” Next to the closed sealed door she accessed the panel to open the hall for them. The computer refused her until the pressure and gravity were restored. Her finger impatiently tapped for it to be ready.

Finally open, she got everyone through and into safety. “Let’s get further inside before anything worse happens!” While she waited on the sealed section to open, she already programmed a route for her to follow.

While she walked ahead of everyone, her mind tried to process everything. ‘I saved Yuki this time and everyone’s still alive. But I’m back here… What’s going on with me? Is this how the world works? Is this what happens if I die? Things just reset?’ All of the questions made her head hurt or maybe the fall from the explosion. Neither were very good for her health. She didn’t know what she was doing anymore.

Once they arrived at their resting point, Yumi slumped down on the floor tired. ‘I don’t want to have to keep repeating this…I just want to complete this stupid world! Give me five years over this!’

Chapter 483 – The Cycle

Her friends noticed something was up with Yumi, despite her efforts to the contrary. They looked around at each other with Saki and Seiji expressing the most concern. Though it was Yuki that interrupted them as he grabbed Saki’s hand before she got too far. She broke free of him, though found things were weird when she did. “My strength…”

“Yeah, all of our powers are gone,” Yuki confirmed for her quickly.

“So we’re just normal humans?”

“Seems that way.”

“But last time we had our powers.”

“Different rules I guess.” He looked over to Yumi who remained troubled. “Yumi?”

Seiji stepped forward, though Yuki once more stepped in the way to stop him. “Is losing her powers getting to her that much?”

“No, it’s something different. Right, Yumi?”

“Yuki?” she said, lifting her head up. It had only been about a week plus since she had a conversation with him. Hearing his voice nearly made her heart stop. She didn’t realize how much she missed him in that short amount of time. But her friends halted the emotions that started to bubble up.

“What are you talking about, Yuki? You know what’s going on already?”

“How the hell do you know what’s going on? We only just arrived here!”

“How many times has it been, Yumi?”

She stood up as surprise took her over. ‘He really has figured it all out already! How?’ This was the sort of man that she remembered. He seemed a little different from the last time, when he was pushing everything on her. ‘What’s changed? He’s been insisting on being so passive before…’ Her foot slid forward a little as she found herself excited that he was so willing to help her.

However, his eyes met her quickly and she saw clearly into his mind. He opened it up to her and made it very clear. Her foot pulled back. Things hadn’t changed. His look told her that. Yuki wasn’t here to take over for her, this was still her story. ‘Right…this is how it is…I can’t hand it off to him.’ Remembering who she was, Yumi firmed up her stance understanding what he wanted. “Twice, this is the third time.”

“That was going to be my guess. The look in your eyes said as much.”

“Will someone tell me what the hell is going on here?!”

“Groundhogs Day.”

“Huh?” he said with the same amount of confusion as before.

“I thought our policy was not to name other properties,” commented Saki.

“Yeah, I couldn’t really help it in this case. It really is sort of the namer of the trope.”

Seiji jumped in, pounding his foot between the two of their banter. “You’re not making any damn sense!”

“American film. Endless Eight?”

“That one doesn’t help him anymore than the last one, Yuki.”

Yuki beamed with delight as he dropped his index finger in Saki's direction. “But you got that one!”

“Only because you made me read it. It didn’t make any sense.”

“You still had a choice not to read it. You did it despite that thought.” He grinned mischievously at her, though he got a glare from her that told him to be quiet. Despite Saki’s intensity, he didn’t seem to be backing down that much from his teasing.

Seiji leaned over towards Nerine, as they both watched the two of them get into an even more heated argument. “Yuki seems unusually bold right now.”

“Probably because he knows that she’s about the same strength as him right now.”

“So he’s taking advantage of the fairness while he can.” A bit of sweat dripped down as Seiji watched their antics continue without interruption. At least until the guards finally showed up, as they appreciated just the right amount of comedic timing.

“What the hell is going on here?!”

Yumi immediately jumped out in front of everyone to get the guards attention, though also with guns pointed at her. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant Winhelm!”

“Do I know you?” the Lieutenant asked, his eyes getting narrower not remembering Yumi, despite her familiarity. His gun remained firmly pointed at her for the answer.

“You probably don’t remember me. I only just arrived last week. We were in the last transport before the lockdown.”

“The work crew?”

“That’s right!” His eyes moved away from Yumi and to her friends behind her. They had all calmed down and started to look serious, which she was thankful for. Though it was a bit too late, since they are goofing off in front of the guards. “A little argument, the attack shook them all up a lot and this is sort of how they cope.”

“Cope?”

A bit of a nervous laugh came from Yumi as she hoped that he was buying it all. “Everyone’s a little different.”

“Right…” His weapon lowered finally with the tension dropping and the rest following his lead. “The attack is over now. So report in to your section lead for orders! We’ve got fires we’re fighting all over the facility.”

“Right, sir! We’ll get on it immediately! Sorry to make you come all the way out here.” It wasn’t until they completely disappeared that she felt safe again. A sigh came from her lips with the strength falling out of her back. Yumi leaned against the wall needing a little support.

Yuki walked over to Yumi giving her a little help back to the group. “The first time?”

“Second.”

“They shot us all last time?”

“No, thankfully, they’re not violent. But being locked up in a cell for a day throws things off.”

“This is new territory then.”

“Unfortunately.”

“What do you know then?”

“They were under attack from an unknown enemy. They bought some time, but they’ll be back. The facility needs to be stabilized before they can continue their work. We need to get over to the mirror control room, I’ll explain the rest on the way.” Yumi started over to the panel looking for a path from her current position. It was all new for her, so she didn’t even know how to even start.

Saki stepped forward following most of what was happening. “Won’t we have more to explain if we show up in some strange place?”

Her focus on the task kept her from answering Saki immediately even though she heard the question. Once it was finished, she turned around leaning a little to the way that the light directed them. “It should be fine. I know them well enough that I’ll find some way to make it work.”

“Yumi, that seems like a lot of assumptions…”

“Yes, I know, but that's all I got right now. We’re short on time and I need to know if this will give me a fighting chance or not!” She marched out of the hall ahead of everyone with expectations. ‘Something different has to happen this time!’ If it was a loop as Yuki suggested, she needed to solve its mystery. ‘This isn’t happening for no reason. It must be part of the solution…’

When she arrived at the mirror control room things looked a little worse than she remembered. The time difference made the room seem like it had only been trashed by the destruction. But open fires still blazed uncontrolled along with live electrical currents. A different sort of danger presented itself. “Dammit…I figured that they would have had some sort of emergency system take care of this.”

“Oh damn! Everything’s on fire!”

Yumi tilted her head over her shoulders to see that everyone else had finally arrived. This wasn’t the scenario that she planned for, but she had to live with what things were dealt. Everything was unknown territory now. She still knew what she had to do, though that was going to be a little more complicated than normal.

Judging what was happening, she quickly put together a plan in her head. “Yuki think you can figure out the computer?”

“Probably, is it fairly straight forward?”

“Yes, just uses different words than we’re used to. Find the suppression system so that we can get the fires under control.” She looked over to the rest needing something for them. “The wreckage needs to be cleared out before we can do repairs. I’m going to speak with someone I know at the command room to get their help.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Seiji enthusiastically agreed, quickly taking to trying to move something far larger than he could alone. “Urgh…right damn, no strength. Saki?”

“What would you do…”

‘Now let’s hope that I can convince Karen to help me without knowing who I am.’ Yumi went over to the interior terminal of the mirror control room. She quickly found the communication opening a line to Karen. “This is the work crew reporting to Mirror Control B. We’re currently suppressing the fires, but we can’t start repairs without the lines being cut. Please advise.”

“U-um we have a crew in the Mirror Control?” The sound of her voice made it clear that she was off guard and scrambling to try to figure out what was happening.

“Yes, that’s correct, ma’am. My team is clearing out the debris, but I can’t risk them getting closer with the danger.”

“Oh right! Yes, of course. I’ll reroute the power around and shut it off for you.”

“Thank you, ma’am. We’ll have this functioning within the hour.”

“That sounds great! Keep me apprised if there are changes. The facility is still suffering from sporadic explosions from damaged sections.”

“Understood!” She closed the line quickly letting out a sigh as she leaned up against the wall. “Glad that worked…”

“You’ve changed Yumi,” commented Saki as she lingered in the room holding a smaller chunk of paneling.

Yumi looked up to Saki, not realizing that she watched her. “I have?”

“You kept her on the defensive, unable to think about if it was right or wrong. You played her quite skillfully.”

“I just know that she doesn’t do well under pressure…” she answered, having trouble accepting the compliment from Saki. Yumi turned away, putting herself to work on checking the lines as Karen cut off the exposed sections. It had only been twice before that she did the work and she couldn’t remember it clearly from recall, but as she went through the motions and saw familiar parts she knew what to do.

The work finished up smoothly and even the hall was safe giving them a quick return to the command room. There she found things in a very different state than she had seen before. Half of the ground floor was filled with crew that she never even saw before, even doing deliveries. ‘What’s going on? Is this the planning that I missed before?’

Their appearance in the room drew more attention than she wanted, especially from Sumiko. Yumi saw her meet eyes with her nearly immediately as though she had been waiting on her to show up. Her back stiffened up quickly as the tension in the room increased. Sumiko motioned to the gathering letting her walk through to Yumi. “The brave work crew returns ignoring dangers and orders. We’ve been curious to see the faces of the team that picked risk to life over the recall order.”

Yumi found herself staring directly at Sumiko with a different expression than she had seen from the woman before. It wasn’t the way she expected to meet her. ‘I made a mistake…this was the wrong choice…dammit!’