The Looming Fog

Late evening arrived on the ship. Yuki already replaced Ayumi, who slept mostly peacefully. The switch left everyone very much on edge and unable to sleep immediately. They stood on something technically not real, a single thought could change that reality.

The other half proved less plain and more racking on their bodies. None of them had ever been away from Japan before and some never even left the city. They watched as they sailed away from their home and found foreign skies above them that gave less comfort to a sore soul.

Like the rest, Yumi wandered the halls of Yuki’s cruise ship unable to sleep. Her restlessness came less from the uncertainty of falling into the ocean like the rest. She trusted Yuki and that gave her strength against such fears. However, a different matter troubled her far more deeply. It kept her from being able to concentrate on anything. Her mind was fixed to one matter, Ayumi.

She couldn’t escape the thoughts in her mind and the squeezing pain that wrapped around her heart. It was tormenting her steps as she strolled through another random hallway. ‘What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I stop thinking about it?’ Each time it rose within her images of Yuki and Ayumi flashed through her mind.

In the next hallway, Yumi found that she was approaching the ballroom where Yuki focused on keeping the boat together. ‘Maybe talking to him would settle everything down enough to sleep…but what about?’

Yumi hesitated before the door, not certain if she could make it into the room. Even her recently discovered strength wasn’t enough to keep her heart from faltering upon the threshold. She had thought that she had changed. Yet it seemed that nothing had become different. ‘I-I just need to…Yuki…I—‘

A deep penetrating weight fell upon her heart dragging all of the air out of her. There were no thoughts, just the pounding in her chest making her go deaf. Soon her arms began to shake along with her legs. She felt ready to collapse at any moment. All Yumi managed then forced her to flee the scene until she made it to her room. She fell to the floor still feeling every part of her shaking violently. A hot boiling sensation started to grow within that converted the shaking into spontaneous anger.

No thoughts controlled Yumi. Only simple emotions fueled her as she threw things across the room that decorated the space. Value or preciousness didn’t matter to her. She demanded a vent to release the consuming emotions inside. Yumi froze in the middle of throwing a glass statuette at the wall. ‘What am I doing?!’ She jerked back as she looked around the room to see the shattered pieces of what she had destroyed strewn everywhere. ‘What did I…’

As her mind traced backwards through the hazy it became clearer to Yumi. “Ayumi…why was she…” He meditated on his powers, but rolled up peacefully and defenseless was Ayumi on her side. She looked exhausted from holding together for half a day.

Yumi looked around the room again. It made her drop to the side of the bed, hanging her head down. A tear streamed down her cheek prepared for the sorrow that welled up. “I’m losing…it… I-I… What’s happening to me? What is this feeling?”

Chapter 95 – The Looming Fog

Near the front of the cruise ship the restless gathered. Yori held off his uneasiness by focusing on problems that spun in his mind over the day. He hadn’t asked for anyone to join him, but realized the continued company that he had throughout the day. Fumiko and Seiji frequently stayed nearby. The others seemed satisfied with keeping to themselves, a poor quality for a group.

Yori noted to himself how far they had come. ‘The speed that we must be going to have already passed the equator in a single day… It’s very clear that this isn’t a normal vessel even if it does have the appearance of one. The flexibility that they have is staggering. Will they really need us to do anything with such overwhelming abilities?’ He looked back at the others that stuck nearby dwelling on the thought.

Seiji shifted his weight against the wall of the deck. He looked frustrated and exhausted. No one said anything in the last few hours. He was left with only his thoughts and that could only sustain him for so long before he became bored. “Damn it all to hell! I can’t take all of this silence! Are you all just asleep or something!?” The moment after he yelled the other two stared at him with an annoyed expression that made him regret running off his mouth.

Yori turned his focus to Seiji. “Didn’t realize you were such a chatty individual.”

Fumiko kept her eyes closed, while listening. “Thought tough guys were all silent types except when in a fight.”

“How the hell can you all be so quiet?! Don’t you have anything to say or talk about?!”

“This isn’t an afterschool hang out.”

“I know that, but—“ Their words fully sat in his mind. ‘What am I doing?! I have an image to maintain! I can’t let this get to me!’ Seiji straightened himself back up, appearing like he had shaken off his problems, but it only became more obvious to the others.

“Is the big tough guy getting scared?” whispered Chiharu into his ear as she appeared mysteriously hanging from the deck above. She gave him a wicked grin when he stumbled backwards startled by her entrance.

He wiped his ear trying to get her out of him as his feet danced about. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? When did you get there?!”

“Only a moment ago. But I could hear your whining across the ship. It penetrates everything obnoxiously.”

“You really are looking for a fight!” Seiji charged Chiharu only to find his fist in pain for slamming into the wall. “Shit!” Anger washed over any pain that he might have felt. He started to search the deck trying to figure out where she disappeared to. “You too afraid to fight me head on? You’re just a coward!”

Chiharu stepped out of the shadows a few meters away from Seiji. “I guess it would be boring to defeat you so easily.” She answered his fierce glare with a simple offensive stance that left too many openings.

He read her stance and smirked to himself, pleased to see that it worked. Seiji charged her ready to strike with his fists, however he found himself flying through the air. A moment later, his back slammed against the deck. He blinked trying to figure out what had happened and heard a muffled laugh from the kid. This fueled his anger even more, setting him on his feet to hunt down Chiharu once again.

It didn’t take long for him to locate her as she stood in sight taunting him. The charge he made ended in the same results. Repeating the process started to become embarrassing and painful to watch as Seiji didn’t show any signs of achieving ground against her. It made him tired.

Chiharu shrugged her shoulders looking bored. “You can’t even give me a good exercise. Guess you’re as disappointing as the weakling.” The stance she had suddenly changed, appearing to have had a new mood turned over with her decision.

“All you can do is talk!” Seiji charged the same as he had before for Chiharu. He went for a wide swing at her seeing leap away, but was prepared for it. ‘Got her figured out!’ His hand grabbed her ankle and spun her around to her surprise. When he finished he left her denting the wall and shattering the glass of the porthole window. Chiharu fell down to the floor having trouble moving. “Not hot shit without your speed huh?!”

Seiji grinned in triumph down at Chiharu. She glared up at him with defiance. It took her a while to get the feeling back in her body after being thrown so hard. ‘He read my moves… After all of that he can keep going… Damn!’ Chiharu refused to bow to him and forced herself back to her feet. However, before she could do anything a person’s back filled her entire vision.

“That’s enough Seiji! How can you pick on a little girl like that?! I thought you were a better man than that!” Fumiko turned around to check on how Chiharu was doing. “It’s okay. I’ll protect you!”

Chiharu felt Fumiko hand on her shoulder and turned away from the tall teen. “Tch! I don’t need you…” After those words she disappeared out of sight.

“Chiharu!?” Fumiko searched around the deck quickly and then ran off to hunt her down.

Seiji was left confused and puzzled trying to figure out why he had become the villain. “But…but…”

Yori leaned at the railing knowing that there had only been two ways for it to have turned out. “That is why you don’t do that. You lose and you look like a weakling, but win and you’re a bully.” He walked over to Seiji, patting him on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay, eventually.” However, Yori stepped back in surprise seeing that Seiji was completely lost. He sighed to himself. ‘How are we going to be able to survive like this?’

Travel to the south continued mostly uninterrupted. Ayumi swapped with Yuki in the morning and then again when evening came. It had already become very cold when the evening came and there weren’t enough winter clothes to go around. Ayumi only planned on three and the others didn’t pick for every weather condition. It kept them inside where it was still warm, but it soon became more of a concern navigating the ice that surrounded the continent.

The cruise ship pressed through cracking the ice along the surface proving again that it wasn’t to be taken for appearance alone. The siblings stood on the bridge with a view of their destination ahead of them and giving directions to the voice activated ship controls. “If what I’m seeing on the monitor is correct, the actual land is only a few miles away,” reported Yori.

She looked out the window into the thick void of the night where no civilization existed. Only the moon and stars provided light to see by. “Are there any lights we can turn on? Running into ice is one thing, but actual land is going to be too dangerous!”

“Would you like the searchlights to be turned on?” replied a soft male voice, the computer that took their inputs.

“Yes! Turn the lights on!”

“Understood. Activating search lights.” Across the front of the ship thick beams of light snapped on casting out pools of light over passing icebergs and floating ice debris. A faint glow of reflecting ice in the distance signaled the land that Yori spoke about.

“If there’s someone out there they’re going to see the lights. I think it’s too dangerous to be alerting them.”

She thought about it for a moment staring down at the flashing displays of information that she mostly didn’t understand. “If Ayumi’s Atlantis is out there then we’ve missed them. The coastline looks completely empty.”

“Ayumi’s people aren’t the only ones that I’m thinking about. Antarctica is regularly used by scientists as well. We don’t want them to accidentally see us and then have to explain ourselves to them.”

She nodded agreeing with her brother. “You’re right, but we also need to be able to see. Can we turn down the brightness enough to see ahead while not being as easily seen?”

“The lights are adjustable. Reduce strength by 80%?” answered the computer.

“Yes!” The intensity lowered suddenly, cutting her vision down heavily. ‘I guess I should be grateful that it’s some science fiction computer that’s smart enough to interpret questions…still very annoying all the same…’

The door to the hall opened up letting in Ayumi. She took a moment to examine the horizon before speaking up. “How long before landfall is possible?”

“A few minutes would be my guess. So long as there isn’t any really thick ice to break through.” Yori flipped through the displays on the screen, starting to become accustomed to the computer. He pulled up their targeted land to show to Ayumi. “You do realize that it is over a kilometer high. There are other places we can go that are closer to sea level.”

“Height doesn’t mean anything. Keep us on course.” Ayumi walked out of the bridge returning to the hallway.

The siblings stared between each other a little surprised by how uncaring she was about the conditions. “She’s got ice in her veins…” remarked Yori trying to ignore the bad pun that he had just made. He saw out of the corner of his eye his sister giggling to herself. It forced him back towards the monitor. “We’ve got two minutes before we run into the cliff!”

“I’ll let everyone know!”

She sent out a message over the broadcast system informing them that they had nearly reached their destination. The plan gathered everyone in the center of the ship. Ayumi retrieved arctic clothing that she requested Yuki to include in his ship. Once everyone was dressed for the weather they went out on the deck, Yuki included. His addition made everyone a little nervous, but Ayumi assured them very bluntly that Yuki had range (if nothing else).

“We’re going to hit the cliff soon!” yelled Yori looking around at everyone on the main deck in front of the ship.

Ayumi nodded in acknowledgement and nothing more. The ship shook violently and most everyone began to panic as they floated in the air. “We’ve got a long way to go. I’d suggest remaining calm.” Ayumi stared up at the faintly outlined cliff ignoring everyone. Minutes passed in almost complete darkness before anything could be seen. A glowing light spread out in front of them from the moonlight dancing upon the snow and ice that stretched out for endless kilometers.

They found careful footing on the ice with their spiked boots digging giving them balance. Fumiko still managed to slip and fall, but there was enough padding that it wasn’t as bad as she thought. She sat up not feeling certain about standing at that moment. “What about your boat?”

Her answer came quickly as a new Field made them feel very warm. After Ayumi prepared the Field, Yuki released his own Field forcing their arctic wear to disappear. Yuki created a new Field to cover her tasks. She focused on retrieving the boat from the ice down below.

“Antarctica…” Yuki whispered to himself, scanning the foreign continent. He had always imagined that leaving the country would have taken him to somewhere a little more alive and warm. It left him feeling a little odd thinking about it. However, he knew that he had to focus on the problem ahead of us. “So where’s Atlantis? I sort of pictured it being along the coast…”

“We’ve got further to go inland.”