Moving Forward

“You think she’s the final hurdle you need to clear to complete this world?”

Yumi nodded, having given it a lot of thought. This is what she was afraid of the whole time, facing Sumiko once again. She was the center of everything. It became clear that she was like Masa, a unique person within the world that was superior to all others beyond equal, but like with Masa something happened to shake that perfect world. The journey to reach this point was certainly more taxing than anything that she had to go through with Masa. She never wanted to go through that again.

Never wanting to repeat it all left her unwilling to approach Sumiko, when she knew that she needed to in order to complete the world. She was the end goal, but one wrong word or mistake could cost her everything. Returning to that devoid world that she obsessed within wasn’t the sort of life she wanted. It seemed right at the time, but Yuki helped her to see how destructive she had become in needing to find the right answer.

So maybe an answer that was mostly right would be enough.

She hoped that to be the case anyway.

Chapter 495 – Moving Forward

Approaching the door to Sumiko’s home, she stood in front of it pausing. “Sorry I’ve dragged you and everyone through my twisted mind and personalities forced to die empty deaths because of my selfishness.”

“We all volunteered for this because we’re your friends. And if you’re selfish for this, I’m even more guilty for taking you all on my quest of revenge and resolution in Atlantis. We support each other, that’s what friends do.”

She squeezed Yuki’s hand with a bit of a distant look of melancholy in her eyes as she stared at him. “Thanks for being here with me.”

“Let’s confront your next personality!”

“Right!” Yumi pressed her hand up against the door for a moment before knocking on it clearly. “Even though you didn’t come out for the mob, I know you’re inside. I want to talk.”

Silence.

Yuki looked around at the window, which was blocked with an opaque film reducing the material to a sheet of black. Nothing of the interior could be seen. While Yumi made it clear that she knew that Sumiko was inside, the reality of it was that it was merely an assumption. At any point in the gathering, she could have slipped out the back or some other manner of escape that she might have built into the house.

“You think she ran?”

“No, she’s been running, but this is where she runs to. She’s not running away from this her only place of safety.”

“Not really sure I’d call building a house in the middle of the town safe, if you’re running away from the very people you don’t want to see.” He looked around at the house looking for any sort of signs that might help Yumi. They had none of their powers to use, so it wasn’t going to be a brutal force method that they could use.

Yumi knocked again trying to keep things polite and let Sumiko do it on her own terms. “Yes, I’m not sure I really understand it. I only have a vague guess of an idea of what’s going on. I need to talk to her if I’m going to understand her side of things.”

“We’re not going to be getting anywhere if she keeps the door shut.”

“Yeah, I hoped that she was going to be a little more mature about this. But she’s been running away, so I guess that was left behind.” After a third knock, Yumi gave up being kind about her approach and pulled out a couple of tools from her waist belt in a flash.

Taking a step back, he had a really good guess of what she was going to do next, but that didn’t stop his gut reaction. “What are you going to do?!”

“Thanks to her, I’m quite adept at this stuff now. I’m going to make her face me and everything today. I’m not waiting now that I’ve managed to get my courage up.” The panel popped off quickly with an effortless glide of her tool. None of the homes were built with the same level of sophistication that the Ark had, so it was actually easier to work on them.

It helped that she spent the last year working on a lot of the things that people used throughout town. Her familiarity with the way the technology worked and was used made hacking the door an effortless process. “All done!” she sang cheerfully, as the bolting mechanism that locked the door left a thud as it moved.

“It’s a little unsettling how good you’re at that now.”

“Benefit of years of technical learning!” She pushed the door open after checking on the status of the crowd behind her. They largely seemed to have lost any sort of interest in her or even Sumiko. Everyone had problems, the crash saw to that. More important things than trying to make someone feel even worse for failing were being dug up.

Sticking her head inside the gap, she looked around to see if Sumiko was just standing around waiting for them. Still she remained missing, though the home looked in far worse shape than she imagined. “Good grief…” she muttered as she pushed the door the rest of the way open. Opening the door fully did the sight no favors for improving the house.

“Is this everything that she’s been salvaging and dumping here? There’s hardly even a place to walk!”

Yumi immediately caught her eye on something that had her running over to the trash pile that should have been the living room. If there had ever been any furniture they would have been buried and she might have seen a peek of a couch, but that never seemed to be a thought. It was as though every room was only needed to be a dumping ground for all of the junk that Sumiko collected.

“What’s the point of all of this?” Yuki spun around trying to see if he could identify a clear way to go deeper. The path appeared to not be well cleaned as it was cluttered up with broken parts and scraps. But he noticed that Yumi’s attention had been drawn in by something in the pile. “Yumi? What’s wrong?”

Examining it quickly, she pulled out her pad letting it scan over the design. It finished soon giving what she already had guessed as an answer. “Damnit! Still making me look like a fool…” Yumi stood up with her eyes narrowing as she looked around at everything.

“What is it, Yumi? You learn something from this junk?”

“Yeah, that she’s still better than me with even worse materials. This room is frustrating to look at.” Yumi walked away from the trash into what should have been the kitchen, only to find the same results. It didn’t matter where she went, the house was filled with it. “Where’s the workshop, there’s got to be an entrance to it somewhere.”

“We haven’t found any doors yet. You don’t think she hid it?”

“I guess if she’s running away, maybe that makes sense.” It wasn’t something that she considered for Sumiko. She had been pretty open before this, so Yumi didn’t imagine her hiding away what she was doing. The whole thing went against what she was like. The woman that was the endless optimist and rallied people behind her fell this far. Yumi never would have imagined it happening. She never seemed willing to give up.

Pulling out the pad again, she ran a scan on the house checking for false walls or signs that might indicate that there was something more to the building. As Yuki had guessed, she did find something that was suspicious. Overriding the controls, she made the door slide open, working with greater efficiency than the rest of the house.

The opening of the door gave off a strong odor as though it had been bottled up behind the sealed door. It was strong enough to shake her knees a little, but she recognized it. A mixture of heavy water, melted poly-alimium and circuit fluid, all common components for work that she did, though not in such heavy concentration. It should never get that bad unless there was poor ventilation.

Yuki started to cough almost immediately, backing away from the entrance needing something fresher to be able to keep standing. “What the hell is down there?! It smells like your workshop, but so much worse.”

“I’m surprised you noticed,” she remarked, comforting him away from the door.

“I’ve been in your shop enough cleaning things up to recognize it. But it’s never been like that before.”

“Yes, I’m very curious what she’s got down there.” Even away from the entrance, Yuki hadn’t managed to calm down his coughing fit. He reacted to it far worse than she would have thought, but this was something that she was used to smelling. “Why don’t you stay up here and recover. I can see to Sumiko myself.”

“Sorry I can’t come with you.”

“It’s fine. This was something I had to do myself anyway.” Yumi made sure that his condition was improving, even if only slightly, before starting the way down. It wasn’t something that would kill him, that much she knew. The human body just didn’t agree with such things.

Down the stairs, she expected to find the workshop that she knew Sumiko used, but came up disappointed in that regard. Though not so with what she found as a replacement for that. “Karen and the boy,” she commented.

Karen sat in the corner with nothing around her, an unusual sight for her. Across the room was the Bravado Boy standing waiting for Yumi to finish coming down. For how messy every other part of the house was, it was a surprise to find that this was completely empty. There were no signs of anything that gave it a purpose, explaining why it smelled so badly.

Reaching the bottom of the steps, she stopped between the two of them as they watched her arrival. “That’s a pretty good trick being able to be in the HQ and here. Are we finally dropping all of the pretenses?”

“We don’t really have much choice with you standing here,” replied Karen. She still looked like she wanted the lie to continue. Yumi never was certain why she protected Sumiko from everything and allowed it to go on as it did.

“You’re not going any further than this though.”

Yumi crossed her arms, not impressed by his bark. “You’re not going to stop me.”

“We agreed, though, if she came here.”

“I don’t care how much she’s helped us! She still doesn’t show the right respect! She doesn’t deserve it.”

“But—“

“Let me handle this,” interrupted Yumi as she held up her hand to stop Karen. She faced the boy, seeing him trying to do everything that he could to stand up for the person that he cared deeply for more than anyone else. It meant more to his own life than what he did for her. That part of him had never changed.

He fought in staring back at her with his stubborn and foolish resolve. “You’re not convincing me.”

“No, I suspect that no matter what I tell you, I’m never going to win you over.”

“That’s right!”

“So let’s talk in terms that you are using, despite your lack of understanding.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about respect. You both claim to respect her more than anyone else, but what you two are doing is nothing of the sort. All you’re doing is aiding someone that’s unwilling to stand. You think what you’re doing is helping and being supportive, but all you’re doing is keeping the cycle going. That woman has locked herself away from everyone and everything and is refusing to face any of it! And what is your choice, you say you’re respecting her by keeping it secret and letting her do it! Bullshit! You’re enabling her and saying that it’s the right thing to do! That’s not what she needs right now!”

As Yumi’s voice rose to fill the room it started to make him back away. She kept her distance with him close as he found her unnerving. His body sweated not expecting this sort of assault from her. The boy seemed ready for violence, but all Yumi delivered were lashing with her words.

Throwing her hand down at the next flight of stairs down, she drew their attention to it. “You speak of respect, but I see none here. I respect her more than either you claim because I’m willing to go down those steps right now and drag her up!”

Yumi caught her breath as she had ended almost shouting without taking a pause to breathe. She then turned away from him and went to the stairs, seeing that he no longer had the will to stand against her.

He collapsed to the floor understanding her words too clearly for him to hold his body together. “She doesn’t want to come out…what if you are wrong?”

“That’s why you’re still a boy.” Yumi started down the first step. “I’ve learned you’re going to make mistakes, the point is to learn how to keep going forward with that weight. That’s what it means to be an adult…”