The Façade

“Eleven days?!” Yori exclaimed, confused with this sudden new piece of information. It had everyone a little off balance. Yori saw the pieces lining up from the actions that Ayumi took throughout the previous days. “This is the first any of us heard about being on a deadline. You couldn’t have mentioned this to us sooner? It would have saved us a lot of questioning.”

Yuki raised his hand absentmindedly. “I knew!”

“Then you’re just as guilty as her.” He focused his efforts on Ayumi. ‘I can understand a certain degree of privacy for personal reasons, but this seems like she’s deliberately withholding important information only giving us more when we force her into a corner.’ Not many times did Yori feel really angry with anyone, but Ayumi pushed him. “Now I want some actual answers out of you about what’s going on here and what we should be expecting. No more keeping us in the dark for your own convenience. That’s how people get hurt.”

Ayumi lowered her eyes contemplating her options. She focused her sight back on Yori. Her course left her with no other action. “I’ll give you the information you need when you need it.”

“Because you know what’s best for us?”

“Yes, I do. This is my home and only I understand it. You forced your way to come with us. I didn’t ask you. So I’m not obligated to give you anything!”

“Still sitting on that high and mighty attitude of yours, I see!”

His sister came up behind Yori touching his forearm. She knew that Yori needed to say what he did, but the limit came to arguing. “Yori…”

“No, Yumi! This needs to be dealt with now. I can’t trust someone that thinks of us as baggage.”

“He’s right!” chimed Seiji. He stood up behind them adding his presence.

“Tch! Until I see a reason to think otherwise you’re just trouble.” Ayumi tried to turn away, but caught a glimpse of Yuki over their shoulders. He gave her a piercing stare locking her down. It made her sigh to herself. “You treat this like some school trip. Yet you fail to realize the seriousness of the situation. The moment they know Yuki is here this won’t be about capture and throwing us back out. They’ll kill all of us without a second thought. I can’t allow them to twist everything my King has worked for and oppress my people! You just don’t understand!”

Yori’s sister shifted around her brother to get in front to address Ayumi clearly. ‘I can sense how passionate she is about this. It’s like a struggle between discipline and emotions.’ She did not know if she had the right words for the task. Yet to stop before she tried would leave them frozen. “It's a challenge…for you, isn't it?”

Ayumi staggered back a step, a little confused and shaken by the look that she got from Yumi. It felt piercing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

She smiled with warmth knowing the correct path had been found. “It’s the endless struggle between your training as a soldier…and what you feel as a human. You’re overcompensating…to cover up one with the other. You’re in conflict, right?”

“How dare you speak like you know me!?” Ayumi found her feet stepping back at the girl’s approach. It grew further unsettling for her. She suddenly felt the urge to run away, cornered.

Taking the momentum to add his piece, Yuki came out of the sidelines to take a flanking side. “She's right, Ayumi. I’ve seen it as well. You bury your passion.”

Teamed up against, Yuki dug Ayumi back further. The face that he made at her made it difficult for her to resist. She ground her teeth frustrated and trapped. “Dammit, you’re so troublesome…”

Chapter 99 – The Façade

“Let’s get moving. I’ll talk as we walk.” She looked around at the group knowing that she had to start making good on being more forthcoming. Her arm stretched out to the horizon ahead of them. “There’s a small border village a few hours by foot from here. It’ll be where we can rest for the night and resupply since we’re lacking enough food to make it to the Capital.”

Seiji and Yori stared at each other a little confused by the whole emotional exchange that happened. “What the hell just happened? I thought we were arguing?”

“I’m not quite sure.”

Fumiko joined them from behind looking a little amused by them. “Humans are complex creatures.” She looked forward to Ayumi. “Especially ones that are soldiers.” The tall teen stepped on through them to join those that began to move on.

Both of them still felt lost. Chiharu from behind them with her arms folded up at the back of her head pressed through. “She’s saying you’re idiots.” The ninja casually continued without missing a beat.

Haruo had no words for them and passed on, keeping his usual distance at the back. Yori and Seiji gave up after a few more seconds of trying to figure it out. They rushed out to catch up with the party that had already put some distance between them.

Once Ayumi saw that everyone had caught up to them she began her explanation. “My real name is Eudokia Ismene, as you probably figured out Ayumi Nishimura and everything about her is a false identity.”

“Eudokia?” Yuki worked the foreign name through his head.

“My full title is Captain of the Royal Guard. I’m…was…the King’s personal guard and it was my duty to protect his life.”

“You knew my biological father?”

“Yes, very well. He was the strongest man I’d ever seen and the most gentle as well. He could be strict and fair, but then loving and caring the next moment.” She began to drift in her thoughts away from what she planned. A distant longing appeared on her face as she traveled through her memories. While fond memories came to the surface an awkward pause developed making Eudokia self conscious.

She cleared her throat trying to track back to where she had gone on a tangent. “The King holds a very important position for us besides governing. The King maintains Atlantis and allows for the continued survival of his people.”

Yori saw that she finally reached a point that explained the impossible reality that they faced. Atlantis defied all logic in existing in an almost tropical environment while being at the South Pole on a frozen continent. He had to know more about Atlantis. “What do you mean when you say ‘The King maintains Atlantis’?”

“Atlantis is something that’s impossible. You should have all realized that by now. Even terraforming the land would still leave it a block of ice.” She motioned out to the scene around them to make her point. At the end she pointed to the ground. “We’re walking on a permanent Apati Agros, an Illusion Field.”

The news came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, but more awe. Fumiko admired the rolling green hills in the distance. She looked back over at Eudokia. “You mean to say that this is all an illusion?”

“It works on the similar principle as our powers, but on a completely different level from what is possible.”

“You mean it’s like Japan?” Yori inserted.

“Yes. The creation of Atlantis here is nothing more than legend and myth to most of us. Even those that believe someone was able to do all this could not explain how it was achieved. It is honestly beyond all of our understanding. I was never quite sure myself about how much of it could be true. I figured that stories embellished the facts to make them seem grander than reality.”

She stared over at Yuki for a moment. The moments when Yuki awakened and unknowingly changed the country floated through her mind. Even when she saw it before it still felt impossible. The longer that it continued the more she knew better.

Eudokia blinked and focused back ahead. “When I realized what Yuki had done I knew that everything in our history was possible and real. What Yuki did and what our ancestor did was vastly different, but the results are the same. Both created permanent change without maintaining a constant Field. However, the range is significantly different from what Yuki achieved. The ancestor that must have created it had to be several times more powerful than Yuki. Even more so, it’s said that it was a deliberate and controlled effort. Not an accident like with Yuki. Their knowledge of the Meso Prosecho powers far exceeds anything we have in the millennia of evolution.”

All of the history lessons took a heavy weight on Yuki as he tried to absorb it all. He hadn’t thought that someone else had done what he had and done so intentionally. It seemed like something impossible with the little understanding that he had of his powers. The thought that far more mysteries remained to be solved presented him with a long stairwell to climb. ‘To be able to convert an entire continent almost with their field… How far above me was my ancestor? Will there be a day that I reach their level? Can I undo what I have done once I learn all of the secrets? What more is possible with this power that I haven’t considered?’

“Does that mean all of the Atlanteans are special as well, like in Japan?” asked Saki, after panning around the group.

Eudokia shook her head. “No, the majority of the people living here are normal. Only a tenth of the population is believed to have the MP powers.” A few thoughts ran through her mind about Yuki. She knew his approach differed greatly from what they achieved in Atlantis. Before, there had been glimpses of his unconventional thinking. She regretted never realizing the foreshadowing until it came too late. “No, as I said before, what Yuki did and our ancestor here were very different.”

She focused back on the grass to begin her explanation. “The ground was converted from ice to fertile and rich land and that was the only change made. We were given all of the resources to build a new civilization, but had to do it with our own hands. Protecting our land is the barrier I spoke of before created at the same time. It also maintains the atmosphere and weather. And to protect us, there are the four gates, North, East, South and West Gates.”

Acting unusually serious, Seiji lifted his hand up like a part of a classroom. He managed to catch her eye long enough to know that she was listening. “I heard you mention it before. That we came through the South Gate, but aren’t we already as hella south as it gets? You can’t really go that much more south can you? So shouldn’t it be north?”

Everyone stared back at Seiji stunned by him saying something actually intelligent and purposeful (that and he actually seemed to understand everything that Eudokia told him). Yori took up the cue to explain. “You’re correct, but I’d imagine having four North Gates would be quite confusing. It also probably provides a certain sense of familiarity and comfort in a location that only has one direction.”

“But how the hell do you decide which is north then?”

The Atlantean sighed to herself seeing how it had become thrown off track again. The details that they debated over meant little in the grand scheme. However, they seemed set on figuring out an answer. “North is the direction that we arrived from when we first settled on this land.”

“Oh…that makes sense.”

She tilted her head away from them. ‘I don’t really know either… I’m just glad that they accepted the answer…’

Behind them, now an hour past, arrived a new squad of soldiers to the remains of the ruined search party. Most of the soldiers still laid unconscious from the assault that they took. Those few that managed to come around had a fog that settled over them. They seemed confused more than anything and not even the arrival of the Captain of the South Gate improved their attitude.

The Captain stood tall in a black uniform with gold embroidering along the seam to highlight his rank. The uniform covered up much of his muscular figure, but left well built arms and legs exposed. “Report, Commander!”

His second had led the search party personally. The failure to capture the intruders weighed on his shoulders making it difficult for him to face his superior. “I’m uncertain of what happened, sir. The best answer I have is that we were ambushed and instantly wiped out.”

“Any losses?”

“None, but most of the men are still out.”

The Captain looked over the horizon to where the invaders must have gone. He calculated tactics in his mind quickly to form his strategy. Once he finished he turned back to his Commander. “I shall go ahead to continue the search. Form squads out of those able to stand and spread out in flanking positions to my team. Stay behind until all of the men are back on their feet and out. After everyone is awake, resume the search as well.”

“Yes, sir!”

“The honor of the South Gate Division is at stake. Never in the history of our people have we let intruders past the border villages and that will not change today! We’ll capture these foreigners!”