Since this is the final chapter, I would like to speak a bit about the previous one. In the original manuscript I had thought to end the quake scene differently. You see, orginally I had thought to...
(Walks into a room surrounded by armed guards and barricades himself inside a metal safe within a cage of bulletproof glass)
Originally, I had thought to kill off Chiyo-chan.
That is correct, I had thought to do the unthinkable. Afterwards I decided that poor Chiyo was far too young and innocent for me to kill. So, luckily for Chiyo-chan she just happens to (arguably) be the most adorable little anime girl that has ever existed.
Anyhow, just thought I'd spill the beans about that.
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The other girls agreed to the plan immediately.
"Sure, I'll help.", Sakaki nodded.
With Sakaki going, Kaorin was more than able to assist in any way she could.
"Count me in!", Kagura answered excitedly.
"Awesome! With everyone coming I'm sure we can find something!", Tomo exclaimed.
"Why didn't Chiyo let the police search the pit?", Sakaki asked, mentioning the event that occured shortly after the quake in where Chiyo-chan did not want the police to search for any items they could retrieve from the hole. She stated that the items would be 'too difficult.' and 'Not worth the effort'. Her parents consented due to the fuss Chiyo had put up about it.
"I dunno.", Tomo said, thinking hard (you could almost hear the gears grind).
Everyone sat silently in contemplation for a few moments.
"The books.", Osaka piped in.
"Oh, yea! That's right!", Kagura said.
"It's not like very many people would understand them except for her. But I can see why she would be concerned.", Yomi said, visualizing the complex formulae that she could not even begin to comprehend.
"So, we're just gonna try our best to get all her crap back, right guys!?", Tomo said, standing up from her chair.
"Yeah!", came the unanimous shout.
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The former Mihama compound had been cordoned off by police tape since the event three months ago. Yet it did not take much effort for the girls to bypass the blockade and enter the ruined courtyard.
Peering into the hole, Yomi began to have second thoughts.
"It looks...deeper than I remember.", she gulped.
"Aw, c'mon Yomi! Don't be a party pooper!", Tomo slapped her friend on the back, nearly knocking her off balance.
Yomi teetered on the edge before regaining her footing. Needless to say, Tomo felt the consiquence of her actions.
"Wow...it looks spooky.", Kaorin commented, noting that the bottom of the pit was not visable whatsoever, even with the sun plenty high in the sky the bottom was still a mystery.
"I wonder what it's like down there...", Osaka said, on her hands and knees looking directly into the center of the hole. It seemed to everyone else that she probably could see the bottom, with the look she got sometimes it's a wonder she can't see through solid rock.
"Do you wanna go first, Osaka?", Kagura asked, holding up a coiled length of rope around her arm.
"Oh, no. I'm 'fraid of the dark. Yep yep. Sometimes...", she got that look in her eyes. Her famous 'Thinking Look' as Tomo had christened it. "...Sometimes I don't even close my eyes when I sleep."
"O...kay. Who does want to be the first one down there?", Kagura held the rope again with an expectant grin.
"I'll do it.", Sakaki spoke up.
"All right, Sakaki!", Kagura congratulated the taller girl prematurely.
"I'llgotoo!", Kaorin quickly interjected, putting herself between Sakaki and Kagura.
"Sorry Kaorin.", Kagura expounded. "Only enough rope for one person."
"Dammit!", Kaorin growled and stalked back to her original position.
As preparation, Kagura handed Sakaki a large flashlight, which she stowed in the waistband of her pants. She then tied the rope around her waist and Kagura did the same, acting as ballast. In her hands Kagura held the massive coil of rope.
"Ready?", Kagura asked.
Sakaki nodded.
"Pull the rope once if you want more slack. And pull twice to let me know to pull you up ok?
"Be careful, Sakaki-san!", Kaorin warned.
Sakaki held onto the rope as Kagura kept it taut but allowed enough to pass through her fingers so that Sakaki repelled down the side of the pit and was soon lost from sight.
Kaorin gulped down a lump in her throat.
It seemed as if the air became far colder the further Sakaki descended into the pit. It was over five minutes of constant descent before her feet touched horizontal ground once more.
Taking the flashlight from her waistband she shined the wide beam around before her. What she saw made her heart jump. It was Chiyo-chan's home, yet it had fallen into a sort of rubbled arch. Not much of it was redily distinguishable, but the concrete and wood had formed a sort of unsteady arch that seemed to lead further into the wrecked home.
Sakaki shivered at the cold and began to walk towards the structure. The rope quickly grew too taut so she pulled it once, letting Kagura give her extra slack.
She followed the bobbing beam of her light under the arch. She began to hear things. Whispers that she recognized.
'Our Saviour! You've returned!', whispered one.
'What happened!? Tell us what happened!', cried one.
'My baby! My...', sobbed another.
She stopped in her tracks to shake off the feeling of dread that had caused her to grit her teeth in agony for the strange souls she had met in the other world.
The debris formed a wall to her left as she walked. Along the path she noticed that up ahead there seemed to be a light source. She moved silently, fearing any encounter in such a lothsome place. Passing over a stack of broken chairs and concrete blocks she entered an eerie scene. The columns from the house's front porch had formed a cross shape at the far end of an open clearing that contained little debris, but it did contain the flickering remains of the open portal.
The white passageway seemed to have absorbed anything it had touched. Even large rocks were dragged slowly towards the center of the opening only to disappear forever. Sakaki was on the verge of tears. Nothing of any moral value remained. It seemed as if all of Chiyo-chan's material posessions had been absorbed into the ether.
She flashed her light around, just to make sure. She was glad she did. For lying mere inches from the warp was a photo. A photo of Chiyo and all her friends that they had taken one day after school. Sakaki remembered it fondly, the first picture of all of them together.
Herself, Chiyo-chan, Kagura, Tomo, Yomi, Kaorin, Osaka...
She simply could not let that go.
She inched closer to the unstable displacement and reached her hand towards the photo.She could feel the warp overtaking her. It was calling. Calling like an almost indescribable tone. Yet, she wrapped her fingers around that photo and ran. She bolted from the temptation pouring out of the dimensions. The hate, love, pain, pleasure...all of it.
'Not forgotten...not forgotten.', it called.
She tugged the rope twice.
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"Ok, here we go! Brace yourselves and pull!", Kagura instructed.
It took the might of all the girls to hoist Sakaki from that dismal pit. Kaorin couldn't help but squeal with delight when Sakaki returned to the surface safely.
"So, how was it?", Tomo asked.
Sakaki held up the picture she had retrieved and smiled.
"That's it!?", Tomo exclaimed. "Weak..."
Yomi promptly railed her over the head with a wicked knucklepunch.
"You idiot! That was Chiyo-chan's favourite photo! She treated that like a treasure."
"Oh, yea...but I'd rather have gold.", Tomo shrugged.
"You're so cool, Sakaki-san! Exploring the unknown like that.", Kaorin wobbled on her feet, blushing and looking a bit faint.
"I guess we should bring it to her.", Kagura suggested.
All agreed, setting off towards Chiyo-chan's new home.
Many metres below them, the curse of the passage still lived.
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It had taken nearly twenty minutes to reach Chiyo's new apartment. The sun was just dipping below the horizon when they entered the well-decorated lobby of the complex.
"Hmm...Mihama...floor 10 room 206.", Yomi said after regarding the apartment map.
"RACE YOU UP!", Tomo challenged.
"YOU GOT IT!", Kagura agreed as both bolted up opposite stairwells.
Yomi and the others simply touched floor ten on the elevator and rode up without undue muscle strain.
"Why do they always do that?", Kaorin whispered to Yomi.
"If I knew, I probably wouldn't be as sane as I am."
The door 'pinged' and slid open, revealing a green carpeted hallway lined with doors.
All was quiet, but not for long.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, Tomo came barelling down the hallway. From the opposite direction came Kagura, both striving to be the first to reach door 206. Needless to say, both made it together. Yet, the collision resulted in bloody noses for both. Of course, that wouldn't slow Tomo down in the least.
"Oh, freakin' score! I totally won!"
"You did not!", Kagura retorted.
"Yes I did!"
"Enough!", Yomi commanded before knocking politely on the door.
Moments later the door swung open to reveal Chiyo-chan, her hair down from her pigtails and looking up at them with rather tired eyes.
"Hello everyone.", she smiled.
"Hi, Chiyo-chan.", chorused the group.
"Would you like to come inside?", she asked.
She escorted them into the new apartment that was strangely small. Since much of their posessions had been destroyed, the rooms were fairly bare. A small television and beds took up most of the bedrooms. Otherwise, the only other posessions seemed to be the food in the small kitchen. Chiyo led them into the bedroom she had to share with her father, who was not home at the moment.
"Man, this place is empty as hell.", Tomo noted.
"It's like another world...", Osaka commented.
Yomi simply glared.
Chiyo chuckled slightly at the comments.
"It's very nice of you guys to pay me a visit."
"Our pleasure, Chiyo-chan. You have seemed very depressed lately and we can't leave you like that!", Yomi said.
"Yea! So we raided your house and brought you this!", Tomo said, holding out the picture.
The others could simply infer how she had obtained it. For all they knew, Sakaki had it the entire time.
Chiyo-chan didn't say a word. She just stared.
"Yo, Chiyo-chan? Did you die or something?", Tomo prodded.
Chiyo's eyes filled with tears and she began to cry.
"Ah, damn! She doesn't like it!", Tomo exclaimed.
Chiyo shook her head.
"No.", she sniffled. "I love it. You are all so...", she rushed to each girl in turn, wrapping her arms around them and squeezing.
"I love you all.", she said, holding the photo far enough away so her tears would not smudge it.
Yomi pat the girl on the back.
"Everyone makes mistakes, Chiyo-chan. Don't blame yourself for what you didn't know."
"Yea, it's not like you knew you were gonna break the universe.", Tomo chimed in.
"Even with all that happened.", Sakaki said. "You are such a loving, caring individual that fate would not even think of blaming you for what you did. You have learned from the experience, and as long as you have learned all the harm done has made you a better person."
"Thank you all!", Chiyo said, her bright smile returning once more.
Yet, Osaka did not join in the festivities just yet. Her mind had felt a pulse, a reaction.
"It's over.", she whispered.
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Beneath the earth, the portal flashed once, flashed twice and was gone. All the souls gone with it, returned from whence they came. All was at peace, all had been calmed by an act of altruism. Just as dimensions are seperated simply by levels of conciousness, thus the gateway can be dissolved by ascending to those levels. Acts of compassion and friendship open one's mind to these reactions. Simply stop for a moment next time you perform an act of compassion and register the feeling. It is far different from any other, a feeling of ecstacy.
Chiyo-chan, your soul has been reborn. Let the fire within burn.
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I hope this story was enjoyable. Next up, I hope to write my 'super-fic' that involves Ms. Yukari's class winning a class trip around the world and all the funny, odd (supernatural), and all the events that eventually connect to an ancient mystery long forgotten.
Either that or my sequel to "The Battle of Thermopylae" in which the aliens have won and captured the students as 'great warriors' to be exploited to do the alien's bidding in battle.
So, if either sounds good to you say so. It's a lot easier to decide when one stands out as being more worthwhile for everyone to enjoy! See you then!
-Jay