9.81N/kg
"Hey, move it!"
Men and women rubbed shoulders with him in a mad rush to ascend the stairs. Hikaru glared at the retreating back of the man who had scolded him for not joining the fray. But why should he? He had no reason to climb up these massive amounts of steps – a deep green in color, as if in contrast to the unnaturalness of their height – save for the tugging at his chest.
He frowned and took a step up. He wondered where Kaoru was and took another. He wondered what all these people could possibly be rushing for and took a third, then a fourth, then a fifth. He continued at a moderate pace until the others pushed him forward faster and faster than he would've liked to walk.
Someone stepped on his foot, stopping him in his tracks.
He glanced up the staircase, and saw nothing but blue and white beyond.
The invisible string around his chest pulled a little harder.
"Will you come with me?"
Hikaru blinked at the young girl as she held out her hand, standing as though the fast movement of the older civilians didn't bother her.
"Okay." Nodding, he placed his hand in her tiny clutches. It seemed as if she knew the way to wherever it was. She smiled, but didn't speak before leading him up the staircase with an impressive amount of force for a five-year-old. She weaved through the crowd with such expertise and confidence that he thought she must've come from up there.
The hand slipped, and Hikaru fell with a ker-plop.
He blinked, because stairs didn't go ker-plop when you fell on them.
He didn't think clouds did either, but then again he had never fallen on a cloud before. A sheet of them spread out before him, soft to the touch yet – as he later discovered – firm enough to walk on. A glance over his shoulder revealed that where there was once stairs now lay an extension of the white cover. The thousands of people were all at once nowhere to be seen. Another glance around indicated that the girl had disappeared as well.
Slowly, Hikaru rose to his feet. By this point, the course of events had thoroughly confused and annoyed him. He wished the girl – or someone else who knew what was going on – to come and actually take him somewhere useful, somewhere that he recognized.
Crossing his arms in a half-pout, Hikaru picked a direction and pursued it.
Five minutes passed, and as he had found nothing he sat down to rest.
Two seconds later, boredom and frustration pushed him to stand up and try again.
Eight minutes after that, he stumbled upon a wall that seemed to extend to such a length that he had to wonder why he had not seen it before, and how it could have appeared so suddenly in his path. He then wondered why the creators of this world bothered to build an entire wall if they were just going to put a door in it, but he was far too interested in passing the barrier to linger on the curious thought.
He turned the knob and frowned. It was locked. Throwing a glance over his shoulder, he debated turning back, but with the disappearing entranceway and the seemingly endless expanse of clouds that had resulted he feared becoming lost once more and never finding his way out. With this reluctant resolve – and a matching sigh – he turned back to the obstacle at hand. Once more he turned the knob and turned with a greater force than before, nearly falling ker-plop – expect that wood floors didn't go ker-plop when you fell on them – when the door gave way.
Hikaru blinked at his mirror image.
Literally.
His face was reflected in thousands of mirrors in varying shapes and sizes spread across the room.
He ran a finger along the glass and wished that Kaoru would come and get him out of this mess. But Kaoru wasn't here. No one was here. And so, Hikaru had to find him, had to find anyone. He walked further into the maze, and soon found that getting through it required quite a lot of dodging, kneeling, and other such demonstrations of feline dexterity. With each passing step, the desire to reach the finish line grew as a combination of annoyance and fear and – with each glance – Kaoru…
A hand reached out to him. He blinked at it a moment before gratefully accepting the gesture, smiling in relief that he had found someone.
With his free hand, he pushed off from the wall as he took a step forward.
His foot slipped, and he found himself falling.
…
A large thump sounded as he collided with the parquet, the sheets tumbling over him and tangling in and around themselves. Hikaru groaned in pain as he rubbed his sore neck. Moments later, the door was yanked open.
"Hikaru, are you okay?" a panicked voiced asked. Hikaru turned his head to blink up at his younger brother.
"Yeah, Kaoru, it just hurts a little," he replied. Slowly, he managed to smile in reassurance.