Departure

Yori and Fumiko managed to sweat a little surprised and stunned by his solution. “Guess he really does only think with his fists,” commented Yori.

“Yeah, after all that about saving his energy. He probably only was doing it so that he could punch him…”

Seiji snapped his head back at the two commenting on him. “Stop with your commentary!”

“He’s got good hearing…”

“Yuki!” screamed Yori’s sister coming quickly to his aid. She tore him away from Seiji so that he couldn’t be beaten up any further. “What do you think you’re doing!? Punching him isn’t the solution!”

Seiji looked down at the girl’s pleading face, but held his ground. “I know him better than any of you do! I know what’ll get through to him!”

Amongst the arguing Yuki pulled himself back to reality. The sore throbbing pain in his cheek told him that something happened. In his confused state, he tried to figure out why his face hurt so much. Eventually, he realized that Yori’s sister and Seiji were standing in front of him yelling. The pieces quickly fell into place for him afterwards. Yuki pressed forward pushing at Seiji. “You hit me didn’t you! Why?”

Yuki’s voice pierced through the yellingi. Seiji immediately turned to face him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here? Planning on leaving without telling anyone?”

Chapter 93 – Departure

The accuracy of his accusation made Yuki lean away from Seiji in hesitation. ‘This is what I wanted to avoid.’ Yuki remained quiet, not giving Seiji a response.

“You got anything to say?!”

While Yuki held his lips shut, she uneasily watched them. As the seconds passed for her it became more difficult for her to keep quiet. She understood the reason for why Yuki left without a word. She was certain that Yori and Fumiko knew as well. ‘There’s nothing going to be gained from forcing Yuki to say it. I’ve got to do something!’

She stepped between the two boys locking stares with Seiji. He didn't scare her despite the intimidating aura he amassed around him. “I think it’s pretty clear why Yuki did what he did! Beating him up won’t change that!”

Seiji started to protest, but Fumiko and Yori appeared at his side and started to pull him away. “Just give him some room. Pretty sure you’ll figure it out once you calm down.”

“Stop patronizing me!”

Fumiko looked over to Yori and commented to him, “The little ninja girl’s right. He does know big words.”

“I have a name you know. I’d suggest you use it in the future,” Chiharu ordered, quietly appearing behind Fumiko.

“You?!” Fumiko stumbled away from Chiharu and Seiji. The sight of the little girl before her had stolen her breath and a year of life, she was quite certain. It took her a while to recover enough for words. “When did you get here?! I thought you decided against coming!”

Chiharu narrowly glared at the tall girl like she was trying to make it seem like the height made no difference. She didn’t even give an acknowledging glance to Yuki as she examined everyone that was present. A slight lowering of her eyebrow was all she gave. Once she finished she looked back at Fumiko. “It’s for me to decide what I do. An explanation to you is unnecessary.”

Fumiko recovered enough by that point to become offended by the little girl’s arrogant attitude. While she might have been using her height as an advantage, ninja being small made her fear her less than before. “Now listen you!”

“See!” interjected Seiji, seeing a moment to find a comrade against his obnoxious foe. “You understand why I can’t stand her!”

Haruo sighed to himself, already starting to regret his decision to follow them. The idea of a group of noisy kids made him want to turn around. ‘Perhaps it would have been better to remain behind after all…’

Through all of the confusion, Yuki happened to glance around noticing Haruo keeping to himself. “Hey, Haruo!” he yelled out cheerfully, seemingly forgetting the fact that he did not want all of his friends around him. Yuki noticed the wincing Haruo, from being spotted, and he grinned.

During the greetings, Seiji had a surprising moment of awareness and clarity. He threw his hand out pointing over at Haruo appearing to be accusing him. “How did you get here? Were you following us the whole way?”

A couple of the teens exchanged looks feeling equally curious to know how Haruo had found them. Yori’s sister came out from around Yuki wanting to invite Haruo into the group, seeing out far away he kept himself. “Is that true? You were following us? You could have just walked with us.”

When he glanced at Yuki he received a look from him that tried to encourage him. Haruo got the feeling that Yuki wanted him to take the opportunity. He remained reluctant, but gave into the request. “I was following about a kilometer behind.”

“What?! A kilometer!” Seiji’s incredulous reaction drove him over to Haruo needing more of an answer. He peered down at Haruo with a demanding expectation in his stance. “That’s impossible! You couldn’t even see us in this darkness!” He pressed his position nearly invading the same footing with Haruo to get an explanation that made sense to him.

Lacking the height against Seiji didn’t make a difference for him. The rough exterior of Seiji had no effect on him either. Standing his ground unaffected made more of an impression than words. “I tracked your smell.”

“The hell? My smell?” Confusion for Seiji dropped in first, but followed by something less expected. Rather than becoming angry for what could have been easily seen as an insult Seiji started to check himself. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Just because I slept outside doesn’t mean I smell! You some sort of dog?”

“No, I had my bloodhounds track you.”

Seiji looked around Haruo trying to find the dogs that he spoke of, but failed. “I don’t see them. Where are they?”

“I released them. I don’t need them at this moment.”

“That’s enough. You shouldn’t keep pressuring him.” She saw that the half answers that Haruo was responding with finally started to get on Seiji’s nerves. They had just begun to get along together and she did not want to jeopardize that so soon.

The priest-in-training begrudged her the request. However, he stomped back over towards Fumiko. It didn’t seem that he was finished yet. He hadn’t forgotten about Chiharu. “And what about you? You keep popping in out of nowhere like you’re some sort of shadow! How’d you get here?”

“I tracked you by your smell,” she mocked. It did not matter to her how much it was pissing him off. She allowed herself a small curl at the end of her lips being certain that she could see his face turning red with anger. “You’re an easy one.”

“Why you…”

After one fire was fought off Yori’s sister dragged herself in to prevent yet another one. She forced her body between them, separating them. “Don’t fight again!” She fixed them with a long glare each that actually seemed to work in making them back down.

Yuki managed some awe-shocked looks watching her handling everyone with surprising ease. He leaned over to Ayumi while she finished up with them. “What happened to Yumi? I don’t remember her ever being this direct or commanding.”

“Perhaps she’s showing off for someone.”

“Perhaps…”

“Does it really matter? She’s keeping them under control. You should be glad.”

“Guess you’re right. She actually looks pretty cool out there putting Seiji in his place.” Yuki became drawn in a little by the changing that she created before his eyes. He snapped himself back to reality quickly. “I’m glad to see everyone again, but why are you all here?”

“I think that’s pretty obvious! Same reason as me!” Saki shouted from behind Yuki, arriving late.

Yuki turned around surprised and glad to see Saki had finally come. A quick second of relief flowed over him before he ran over to meet her. “Saki! You were able to find us!”

She saw Yuki coming at her looking to give an overly excited hug. Saki took a swift side step, which blurred briefly, dodging Yuki’s tackle. As Yuki began to trip from missing her, she reached out to stop him. “You know I wouldn’t leave you to go off into the unknown without me!” Afterward, she positioned him back into an upright stance.

“Thanks…” He looked back at the rest of his friends that were wrangled together. Seeing how many that showed up left him a little surprised. It certainly pleased him and worried him. The thing he feared the most if he had told anyone had happened. ‘I can understand Seiji, but everyone else? Why? When it’ll be so dangerous? Do they even know how dangerous it is?’

Yuki swallowed slowly, still taking it all in. He checked back with Saki seeking some support. Unfortunately, Saki seemed to be fine with them coming and silently disagreed with Yuki’s giving into his fears. It felt like they were all backing him into a corner; however he could not let it stand. “You want to come with me? Do you even know what I’m going to be doing?”

Yori’s sister made an acknowledging nod along with a couple of the others. “We may not know everything, but we do know enough to make a decision. You’re going to confront the people trying to kill you.” She held back on her fear that he would be planning on remaining. It was too early to try to start changing his mind.

“And those people are very dangerous. Look what one of them did to the school! There’ll be plenty more like that where I’m going. These aren’t the sort of people that you can handle with conventional thinking.”

“If a weakling like you managed to survive the assassins, then there shouldn’t be any problems.”

The attitude that Chiharu had didn’t surprise Yuki much, but he knew that she did not have any clue to what was actually happening. She was never around when he used his powers or any of the assassins. “Don’t underestimate them with a cocky attitude. They are nothing like the ninjas you’ve faced.

Chiharu attempted to bark back a quick retort, but Yori’s sister cut her off. “We understand the dangers. Some of us have seen firsthand what they can do. We knew before we decided and we still came.”

Yuki took a step forward digging into his emotions for his counter argument. “Besides Ayumi, Saki and Seiji are the only ones to have fought them and Haruo is the only one with special powers. This isn’t something that you can do on determination alone!”

“I wouldn’t make quick decisions about us without understanding us,” began Fumiko, speaking from the back and still being seen easily. She raised her hand up to the sky, suddenly being covered in thin threads. Highly detailed and intricate writing glowed like ribbons in the area wrapping around her arm building to a red light. Small flames cracked through the developing orb until it was completely consumed. Once it reached critical mass the ball of fire exploded away from her palm sent into the sky. “We can look after ourselves and we are not without abilities of our own.”

Saki stepped in before he made any further attempts. “I think you’ve lost, Yuki. I think the only one on your side is Ayumi at this point. We’re all coming! Remember we can look after ourselves!”

Yuki sighed as he gave into their will. “…fine… Hope there’s enough room, Ayumi.” He checked on Ayumi, who had held herself out of the debate. She looked mostly unfazed by the decision.

“Yeah, there’ll be enough room.”

Yori declared himself with a step out of the group and addressed Yuki. “Where will we be going?”

It took a minute for Yuki to think over it trying to remember before he declared cheerful, “I don’t know!” Everyone staggered at his enthusiastic declaration of ignorance. Yuki gave them all a confused look for why they were overreacting for him answering honestly.

“How can you not know where you’re going when you’re planning on going?! That’s the first thing you ask!” yelled Chiharu, recovering before the others. “You’re not just a weakling, but you’re dumb too!”

A nod came from Yuki agreeing with her. “I guess I didn’t really think about it too much. Knowing where they are isn’t really going to change my decision on if I’m going or not.”

“Somehow that makes perfect sense coming from him…” commented Yori, joining Chiharu and soon the others.

Yuki turned excitedly and expectantly to Ayumi. A bit of a glow surrounded his eyes in eagerness. “So what is your homeland called?”

She held a minute longer increasing the suspense for everyone waiting in anticipation. “Atlantis.”

There was a mixed reaction of confusion and awe (mostly from Fumiko and Yuki), while Yori seemed more calculating than anything else. Yuki took the stage fueled by his own excitement. “You mean like the legendary city of Atlantis? From Greek myth?”

“The city that sank into the ocean thousands of years ago?” added Fumiko.

“The same, though I assure you we are no myth.”

Ideas and theories ran rampant through Yuki’s mind. His reading selection provided him with enough material to come up with endless possibilities. The possibilities couldn’t hold him. “So is it like in some other dimension or something? Why are we at a dock? Do we need a submarine to reach the city because you’re still living underwater?”

Ayumi didn’t know if she wanted to slap him or provide a legitimate answer to all of his questions. It required her to take a couple of breaths to settle herself down enough to deal with him. “We’re here for a boat. We’ll be traveling by boat to the homeland.”

Yori pushed into the conversation physically by stepping almost in front of Yuki. He grew tired of the childish questions and wanted a straight answer. “If we’re traveling by boat. Where is Atlantis located?”

“Antarctica.”