The Postcard

Skipping backwards in time a little, it was late night about to breach into the dawn. However, it seemed as though the dawn would never come. It felt like something held it off in perpetuity, as though some cruel hand toyed with dolls never satisfied. The sun desperately waited to give its light to the poor souls forced to walk out their terrible fate. Yet it waited—

“Enough already! It’s about damn time,” snapped Yuki, the target of his sudden outburst was unknown.

Saki looked over at him, a little confused by his words. It had been, admittedly, awkwardly silent in the group. They had someone naturally anti-social, Haruo, someone secretive, Ayumi and someone upset, Yuki. It was a little difficult for Saki, let alone anyone else to try to start up a conversation. She suspected none of them even thought about trying to talk. However, she knew she needed to respond to Yuki. “What are you yelling about?”

Yuki bent over a little, clearly bothered by something. His fingers were spread out and shaking in trying to manage the emotions. “The whole rescue was only supposed to be half as long as then return back to us. But twice the length! We’ve been ignored for fifty chapters! Fifty! And now we’re back!” A grin came across Yuki’s face in contrast to his previous emotions.

She couldn’t help but respond with a flat disbelieving expression. “Are you angry or happy? You need to make your mind up.”

“I’m angry! I’m the main character and nothing for fifty chapters! The reader’s have forgotten all about me!”

“Didn’t you say you quit before? I thought that’s why we weren’t back.”

Such words made Yuki jolt a little, but he turned away to ignore the reaction. “I’m the main character, did you think I was being serious? It’s just a hyperbole.”

Lowering her eyelids a little, Saki narrowed in on Yuki. “Couldn’t find work elsewhere? Also you’re not the only main character. We’re an ensemble cast.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Yuki crossed his arms, turning back towards Saki. He looked a little calmer. “Besides, it’s not like I’m angry with the ending or anything like that.”

‘Tsundere now?’ Saki started to feel like she was losing grasp on Yuki’s thoughts. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about now.” She sighed a little. It was a while since he was so difficult to manage for her.

Yuki flung his arm back in a seemingly random direction adding to his dramatic posture. “I’m talking about the cliffhanger!” Pulling something from behind his back, Yuki changed his posture once more. His voice altered to a soft more delicate tone. “Teasing aside, we have some questions for you before we can proceed.” Once he finished reciting the line, he tore away the Fumiko mask he wore.

He closed his hand to leave only his index finger pointed out in said random direction (not random, the actual location of Team Yumi). “To leave with such words of expectation and then be treated to us in the next chapter. That’s so cruel to the reader! If this was a manga I’d throw it across the room and stop buying it!”

“So what you’re actually mad about is a mean cliffhanger where the reader is being withheld from important plot related information only meant to drag out the tension and suspense of what the truth of the story is while teasing the reader?”

“Yes!”

“So you’re not mad about being ignored?”

“Yes! No! Of course I’m mad!”

“Enough you two,” barked Ayumi, “I don’t think the fourth wall can handle the beating anymore.” The two turned from each other to look at Ayumi, a little surprised she jumped into the conversation.

Yuki jumped out near her holding two things in his hands. “Don’t worry I’ve got brick and mortar to fix it!”

Reflexively, Ayumi close fist backhand and whacked Yuki in the head, dropping him to the earth. Her expression stayed serious as ever, despite the situation. “Enough with the jokes. The readers will lose interest with too many jokes. This is supposed to be a serious point in the story.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Yuki replied, sort of obediently. He tossed away his props. A moment later, he stood up straightening himself out. Yuki glanced away looking directly at something. A wicked grin drew across his face. ‘Chapter title page starts now!’

Another fist came down on Yuki. “No more.” Ayumi’s face held a darkly serious expression that said to move on (moving on, yes ma’am.) It managed to turn even darker than before.

Chapter 175 – The Postcard

Emotions settled down as their walking continued. The pace remained brisk for them. Saki had no trouble maintaining speed, but after the hours of marching Ayumi, even trained, showed signs of fatigue. Sweat dripped down her face. It went ignored by her, refusing to acknowledge it.

Tired of ignoring his body and plain tired as well, Yuki spoke up. The silence already broke with his last tirade. He no longer concerned himself with the smaller matters of awkwardness when resting came to the front. “I need a rest,” he declared, before dropping down in the grass.

Ayumi naturally protested his action. She turned around, still working the serious face from before. “We can’t stop. Time is short and if we don’t—“ A hint of a shaking tone bled through her words.

Yuki stopped her before she got too far on her usual response. “We won’t be any good to anyone if we’re too exhausted to move.”

“You’re too soft. You need to be stronger and more disciplined. No one else is complaining, but you.” She pointed out the perfect conditions of Saki and Haruo to him. The sweat on her face remained ignored.

Her answer made Yuki’s eyelids lower a little to flatten his gaze. “Did you really just try to compare these two to me? Unlike me, their bodies are superhuman now. Hell, Saki could run to the Capital and back and still not feel tired, right?”

Saki shrugged a little, not wanting to get dragged into the debate. The lack of backup bothered him a little, but he redirected to Ayumi. He lifted his hand to point at Ayumi’s face, though to something more specific. “Besides, you say all of this, but don’t try to tell me that you’re sweating so much because it’s a hot night.”

Ayumi’s face turned a little red as he finally struck on the point she had nothing to defend. She turned away from Yuki, unable to respond. Seconds of silence from her kept all of them wondering if she was thinking of a way out. At the end, Ayumi sat down in the grass, still facing away from them. “One hour.”

Yuki and Saki looked at each other grinning a little. Everyone took up their place in the middle of the field. Nothing existed for kilometers, with only trees to break up the horizon. They had no options for a place to hide.

“You get some rest too and sleep, Ayumi,” added Saki. “I’ll keep watch.”

“No, I’m more familiar with the situation. I’ll stay on watch.”

Saki pressed her eyebrows a little together, annoyed by her stubbornness. “Sleep. Like Yuki said, my body’s different from the two of you. You need to recover more than me. Plus, I know you’ve been using your power to keep our tracks hidden, though against Yuki’s wishes.”

“Ayumi!” Yuki exclaimed. He pulled himself back up from lying down. “I thought we agreed!”

“I wanted them to think we all went back to rescue the brother, if they tried to track us.”

Raising her hand, Saki interrupted Yuki before he protested any further. “I have to agree with her on this. I know why you did it, but I can’t say I agree with the ideal. We have to end this quickly before anything else happens like with Yori.”

Discovering Saki not siding with him took Yuki back. He expected her to always agree with him. The surprise made him feel oddly alone. Even surprised, Yuki continued with his protest. “But if they don’t know where they are, they’ll cause more trouble to those innocent.”

“Only if they believe we’ve gone to the towns. It should be pretty clear to them that we’re not hiding.”

“But taking such a risk—“

“Would you rather take a risk with us that you’ll end up regretting even more?”

“That’s…” Yuki leaned away reflexively. ‘I know I can’t have both, but even still I can’t…’

Saki thinned her lips watching Yuki. She wasn’t blind to her words, but knew Yuki needed to face reality. She wanted Yuki to survive and survive without more emotional baggage. ‘I know him well enough to know how he dumps everything on him. He takes responsibility for things that are out of his control, thinking he could change them. It’s the part of him that hasn’t changed through everything. He’s still trying to protect everyone but himself.’ Focusing back on Yuki, she leaned over to close with him some. “Yuki, I made you a promise. I’m not about to break it with you now. Even if I have to be a little harder on you.”

The word ‘promise’ snapped Yuki up from his thoughts to connect with Saki. His mind traveled back to when she made the promise with him. He shook his head a little trying not to think about it. The weight of the promise still bothered him. “You don’t have to anymore. I don’t want to keep holding you back from doing what you want because of your promise.”

She crawled over to Yuki and flicked her finger at his forehead. Considering her strength, despite holding back, it still stung a lot. He clutched his forehead from the eventual bruise to come. “I didn’t make that promise with you on a whim. This is what I want to do. So you don’t have to feel bad about it.” It was difficult to see, but Saki saw her words reached him a little.

Yuki slowly lowered his hands no longer focused on the pain. He caught sight of the warm smile from Saki. A small sigh came from his lips as he resigned his position. “Yeah, you’re right,” he replied, still a little melancholic in tone. Like all the times before, she forced him to relent on it. He looked back at Ayumi and suddenly remembered something else. “We seemed to have traveled from the original topic.”

“Oh you remembered? I guess I didn’t do well enough of a job to distract you.” Saki gave him a bit of a smirk.

“So that was your plan?” He went along with the pace she set. “That’s pretty mean of you. Toying with your best friend’s feelings by drawing up old memories.”

A bit of guilt suddenly surfaced in Saki as she saw how cruel she was. She tried to back pedal away from it. “I was only trying to make a point.”

Summoning up some crocodile tears, Yuki rubbed his eyes working up the emotions. Saki sputtered, failing to reach her words, caught in Yuki’s trap. He quickly dried his eyes. “I guess I’ll call it even then,” he said, with a grin.

Annoyed, Saki pulled back to fall on her feet with her legs folded up. “I just wanted you to understand the situation.”

Yuki’s face quickly turned serious along with the atmosphere. “I know I can’t have everything, but I still don’t agree with it being done behind my back. If you want to do something to change the plan, tell me.” He got a nod from Saki and looked over at Ayumi’s back. She gave him no answer, but he still waited. Once it appeared she was not going to give an answer he spoke up again. “Agreed?”

The silence kept everyone a little curious if Ayumi’s stubbornness surfaced again. Saki walked over trying to see her expression. She hoped to mediate the issue. However, Saki came to a stop when she looked at Ayumi’s face. Saki looked back over at Yuki. “She’s asleep.”

“What?!”

“Hey, hey! She’s probably more tired than you. Don’t raise your voice too much.”

“…right…” Yuki felt a little slighted by Ayumi even though he had no answer from her. Nothing was truly resolved between them. He unfortunately had nothing left to do. Saki insisted on him sleeping, after wasting part of their time. Yuki gave into her nagging, already knowing how exhausted his body was from the walk.

The hour passed swiftly and brought them back to their feet promptly, at Ayumi’s insistence. They resumed their march barely feeling revived. In the short passage of time, the night sky turned shades of pink, red and yellow as the sun’s light painted the bottoms of the clouds. It didn’t take long in their travels for dawn to arrive finally.

Unfortunately, the light brought another arrival on the horizon. The group came to a stop discovering figures in the shadows of the morning light. They stood in their path, as though expecting them. Out of the darkness, one figure revealed himself to the teenagers. Vangelis held a dark expression with a violence-craving look in his eyes. “You gave us a lot of trouble! But now it’s time to have ourselves a little fun!”