An Icy Addventure! Kyousuke, Madoka, and Ojii-chan At The Bottom Of The World
"Are you sure we're heading in the right direction?" Kyousuke asked as they surveyed the oppressive darkness around the rumbling Snow-Cat. The tracked vehicle was moving along slowly, feeling its way through the ice, heading away from McMurdo Station, into the polar night.
"Well, if we were headed the wrong way, we'd probably be in the water now," said his grandfather, also looking out at the months-long twilight. "It looks so cold outside."
"Quiet, you two," snapped the bespectacled lady driving the Snow-Cat. She, like everyone else, was bundled up in thick, insulated clothing, and the thrown-back hood of her coat revealed a mass of fiery red hair done up in an austere bun at the top of her head. "I need to listen to the outside world."
Kyousuke and his grandfather shut up, but after a few minutes of enduring the silence, they just had to start talking again.
"Hausmann-sensei," said Kyousuke, "it must be really difficult to stand this darkness. I don't think I could, and I've only been here a couple of hours."
Katherine Hausmann, marine biologist, looked back and smiled a little. "You get used to it, Kyousuke. My work doesn't take it into account."
"What is it that you do exactly, Ms. Hausmann?" asked Madoka in his halting English. He was seated, along with Kyousuke, in the rear of the vehicle, while Ojii-chan rode up front, the strange little necklace in his hand.
"I study the glycoproteins of the fish that live in the waters here," the scientist answered. "I'm thinking they might have applications in human medicine."
Kyousuke leaned forward and made a confused "Huh?" noise.
Switching back to Japanese, the scientist explained. "Some of the fish here produce what is essentially a natural antifreeze. It helps them live in these cold temperatures without turning into popsicles. I study that and the other ways they've adapted to living here."
"How can that help people?" asked Kyousuke.
"I'm thinking along the lines of cryogenic medicine, and how to prevent cell injury caused by water crystallization. If we could solve that, we could put people in suspended animation by freezing them, and conceivably wake them up tens, even hundreds of years later. It's very advanced work," she added, a trace of pride in her voice.
"Ah, Hausmann-sensei, it's just as my cousin said," said Ojii-chan, smiling. "You're so wrapped up in your studies, you haven't had the time to look for a boyfriend."
The redhead looked at the old man seated beside her and laughed. "A boyfriend? At my age? You've got to be kidding me." She was in her late forties. "You tell that cousin of yours that I haven't changed my opinion of him, or of men in general. You lot are all posturing fuddy-duddies. Especially you Japanese men."
"I knew there was something I liked about her," Kyousuke heard Madoka say, a quiet mirth in the altered voice.
For a moment the teenaged esper thought his grandfather was going to take offense at the gaikoku-jin's statement. Ojii-chan gave Katherine Hausmann an amused look. "You're right. Most of the time we are, but I believe women are no better."
"Huh. I'm sure you think that's true." Katherine turned her attention back to the trackless wasteland outside the Snow-Cat's windows. "You remind me a lot of your cousin."
"How did you two meet?" asked Madoka, again in English. He was pouncing on every chance to exercise a skill which lately had been rusting away, unused.
"We met a couple of years ago, when I was hiking and got lost in the valley and wandered into his cave," the scientist replied in Japanese. She too, like Madoka, was glad of the chance to practice speaking a foreign language. "He gave me shelter for a couple of days, then brought me back to the city by teleporting me there. That's how I know your family are espers, Kyousuke."
Kyousuke looked at his grandfather. "And I thought Ojii-chan was terrible in keeping the family secret."
The balding man chuckled. "Kyousuke, when you get as old as he is, you are afforded certain privileges, like revealing the clan secret to anyone you wish to. Anyhow, I believe Hausmann-sensei here will keep her mouth shut."
"Oi," Katherine said, "who'd believe me anyway?"
Madoka, who had been quietly listening to the exchange, looked back out the Snow-Cat's rear window. "Excuse me, but shouldn't this be far enough?"
The scientist looked briefly at the large, curved rearview mirror mounted outside her door. "Oh, I don't see the lights of the base anymore. This should be safe enough, I think."
Kyousuke's grandfather looked back and nodded. "Right," he concurred. "Kyousuke, sit back in your seat. Brace yourselves, everybody. Here we go."
There was a brief buzz in the frigid air, and the boxy red-and-white vehicle disappeared into the darkness of the eternal Antarctic winter.
oOo
"Yes, this is it," Ojii-chan called, his voice muffled by the wind and his balaclava.
He was standing in the beam of the Snow-Cat's headlights, gloved right hand stretched out in front of him, and the little silver necklace with the bronzed feather in his hand was pointing stiffly downwards, quivering like a living thing.
"Where's the spring?" Kyousuke asked in worry. "There's nothing but snow and ice here, Ojii-chan."
"Why, under this, of course," replied the old man. "You didn't think we'd find it just waiting for us, did you?" Ojii-chan waved his grandson away. "Get back. I'm going to try and expose it."
The old man pocketed the necklace and turned around. He signaled for Katherine to move the Snow-Cat back. The driver nodded, and the ungainly vehicle rolled backwards, gray smoke pouring from its exhaust stacks, until Ojii-chan signaled for it to stop.
Kyousuke and Madoka had come to stand by one another, watching as the old man went and stood still some distance away from the spot where the necklace had indicated the spring was.
"Kasuga-kun... it's so cold. I haven't felt this cold since Hikaru-chan and I went climbing in Kanegawa three years ago."
"Don't worry, Ayukawa. I'm sure we won't be standing long in this miserable icebox for much longer." Kyousuke gave him a brave smile, one the bishounen returned,. Encouraged, he put an arm around his companion's shoulders. Madoka didn't rebuff him; instead he settled against Kyousuke's side.
There was a loud crack, and the ground in front of Kyousuke's grandfather suddenly gained a sunken, candied appearance. Kyousuke's mouth fell open as a gigantic white plug began to rise out of the Antarctic ice.
Madoka stared in wonder as the mass continued to rise into the air. "Awesome..." he breathed.
"Yeah..." Kyousuke whispered in agreement. "I've never seen Ojii-chan exert this much Power before. I hope he's okay."
When it was all done, a cylinder of ice around twenty feet in length and ten feet across was hovering in the night air, and a similarly-sized hole had been created in the ground beneath it. Kyousuke's grandfather made a pushing gesture with his arms, and the huge block sailed away into the darkness, to land with a rumbling crash a long distance away. Then he sank to his knees.
"Ojii-chan!" Kyousuke yelled. He ran to the old man, Madoka following close behind him.
Reaching his grandfather's side, Kyousuke bent down and spoke. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, yes," the old man panted. "I got winded for a while. Go see if I've exposed the spring, will you?"
The pair went to peer over the edge of the newly-formed crater. "I can't see anything, Ojii-chan," reported Kyousuke. "It's too dark."
"Well, then, it's a good thing I thought to bring these along," said a voice, and Kyousuke and Madoka turned around to see the redhead scientist assisting Ojii-chan up. She had a pair of long poles in her hands, with large lights attached at their tips.
"Thank you, Hausmann-san," wheezed Ojii-chan as he got to his feet. "I knew coming to you for help was the right thing to do."
"Don't mention it. Now, let me set up these lights, and we'll see what there is to see."
After a few minutes of positioning the devices at the edge of the hole and running a long electrical cable back to the idling Snow-Cat, Katherine threw a switch on the base of each of the poles. The crater was instantly bathed in a yellow sodium glow, and they all gasped.
At the bottom of the hole Kyousuke's grandfather had excavated was a pool of glass. At least, it looked like glass, so clear it was and so transparent, unlike the air-bubble-filled whiteness of the ice around it. Kyousuke gazed in awe at the slick sheen coming off its surface.
"A pool of angel's tears, huh?" he said to Madoka. Madoka-kun turned to him, a smiliar expression of amazed wonder on his face, and nodded slowly. "Spring of Angel's Drowned Lover." How appropriate for you, my kimagure na tenshi.
The scientist, who was standing behind them, peering over them at the insides of the depression, suddenly wailed. "Oh, no! The water's all frozen! How are you going to bathe in it?"
"I'll take care of that," Kyousuke's grandfather reassured her. "Kyousuke, Madoka-chan, I think it's time for you two to prepare."
"Yes, Ojii-san," Madoka said, and he turned away from the hole and began to walk to the Snow-Cat. "Come on, Kasuga-kun."
As the pair plodded off, Katherine knelt down by Ojii-chan. She watched as he peered intently into the hole at the frozen mass within it. "Just what are you planning to do, Kasuga-jiisan?"
"Melt the water, of course." The old man sighed gustily, vapor coming out of his mouth. He rubbed his moustache through his balaclava. "I haven't used so much Power in a long time. Hausmann-san, if anything happens to me, please take care of my grandson and his girlfriend."
"Ah, don't talk that way," the biologist pleaded. "You're their only hope now, Ojii-san."
At her words, Ojii-chan seemed to puff up and gather new strength. "You're right. I can't fail them now. Kyousuke isn't powerful enough to do this on his own."
"You should have brought your cousin along to help."
"Hah." Ojii-chan laughed. "You know that stuck-up cave-dweller would never agree to go out to a place like this, even if it was for his grandnephew. He hates cold places, remember? They make his bones ache." The old esper winced a little. "Like mine are doing, right now. Still... we of the old generation must take care of the new, until they're able to fend for themselves. After all, they're our only legacy in this world."
