Act 4: Dying Fire
It was Saturday and Tucker was allowed to return to Yamaku Academy. He had missed out two days of tests and knew he had to spend the next week or so trying to recover the tests. He looked at his left arm which the sleeve was tied up at the elbow where the amputation had taken place. He felt bad about himself as he knew his disability wouldn't allow him to pursue his dreams. His dad told him that they were looking for a replacement arm so he could continue to pursue his dreams, he didn't know how well that reassurance was going to sound in his head. He had felt shattered by the news he had received from Shinichi and Eleanor still was refusing to apologize for her behavior. Tucker continued to patrol Yamaku Academy in the hope of finding someone that he could talk to. He bumped into Misha and Ernest who were pretty down about what exactly was happening. Misha decided to go out of her way to greet Tucker.
Katawa Shoujo- Wiosna
"Hey Tucchan." Misha greeted him. She tried her best to put on a smile while welcoming Tucker back.
"Hey Misha, looks like we're all down. Everyone has lost something or is going to lose the entire club." Tucker stated. Misha's smile quickly faded away as Ernest began speaking next. He stared at Tucker's left arm which was tied up into a knot at the elbow.
"What are we all going to lose?" Ernest asked. Misha knew she needed to remind Ernest about it. "Oh, the club. Final meeting before disbandment occurs tomorrow."
"It was pretty short lived but at least we had fun." Misha added. They turned back to Tucker as he began to speak.
"I've got the most to lose out of everyone. Not only the club but also possibly Rin Tezuka and I've just lost the lower half of my left arm." Tucker added. Misha looked at Tucker who looked like his condition was debilitating.
"What happened to it, Tucchan?" Misha asked curiously. Tucker knew he needed to tell Misha the news.
"It had to be amputated, there was no way they were going to save it after I crashed into Natsume and then Molly crashed into me which I felt my arm getting crushed underneath. I don't know what happened next as everything faded to black." Tucker explained to Misha what happened. Misha walked over before rubbing the stub of what used to be his arm.
"I feel sorry for you. Just as much as we learned that Hisao had to go back to the hospital." Misha added. Tucker's mood turned to worry. Hisao was a friend of his and why did he have to be under medical treatment, much like him going there days before when he learned about what happened to him.
"Why is Hisao in the hospital?" Tucker asked. Misha knew she needed to explain this.
"Hisao… Hisao had a heart attack. He ran after Lilly and Akira as he didn't want them to leave for Scotland… forever." Misha added on. Her mood lightened up for a moment before she continued to speak: "The heart attack was relatively minor though he needed a pacemaker. Lilly and Akira are paying him a visit."
"When do you think I should see Hisao again?" Tucker asked curiously.
"Few days, possibly, he needs another surgery to remove the pacemaker he has." Misha told Tucker.
"Does Hisao… know about my arm?" Tucker asked Misha if Hisao got the news of Tucker's amputation.
"Lilly told him and he said he felt pretty bad for you. He wished he could have come and visited to see how you were doing." Misha told Tucker. Tucker nodded as he was able to figure out everything.
"So… where's Rin?" Tucker asked Misha. Ernest knew he needed to answer that question for Misha.
"Rin's locked away in her room. She said she needed some time alone. She's probably upset about the club being disbanded tomorrow and everything she's worked for is going to be lost. We're most likely removing the game from everyone, but Rin as Rin has all of the original files, and we don't want to be mean to her." Ernest explained to Tucker.
"I'm praying she shows up for the last meeting." Tucker told Ernest.
"Yeah, she said she will, but she doesn't know what to do with herself." Ernest and Misha began to walk away, Tucker realized they didn't say goodbye to him, and they were gone within a blink of an eye. Tucker knew this last meeting needed to be worth it. Tucker decided to make his way to his dorm.
The next day, the final session of the club was in full swing, everyone was heading up and down the map as their short-lived club was at its twilight with nighttime closing in fast. Rin was controlling the locomotive she had got from the snow globe when they went to Hokkaido, the last 2-6-6-4 steam engine in existence: 1218. She began to speak to herself.
"Why did this club have to end so quickly, it was only a month ago that I used it to get to know Tucker better but now Mr. Nomiya wants to take it all away from me." Rin began. She didn't know how she was going to go about it. She decided to take some time to think about it. Finally, she got an idea. "Well, if this is going to be the last day, I'm going to pull a really long train, why didn't I think about this on day one. This has to surely work." Rin told herself that if this was going to be their last day, might as well end it with a bang, on a high note. A high that no one would ever dare to question.
Mother Mother- Little Pistol
Rin pushed some keys with her keyboard as the locomotive began to reverse, she knew she needed to find a bunch of rolling stock to hook up to her engine as she thought that was going to be hard to find. Luckily, she knew where she was going to find such rolling stock. A small storage space where they weren't using any was where they were keeping it. Rin knew that this would have to do. Rin maneuvered the locomotive over the first set of switches, she coupled up to the small string of freight cars that had a few boxcars and a couple of hoppers, she moved forward. She counted them up, not enough in her opinion. Once she got over a particular set of switches, she switched herself to the left before backing the hopper cars into another string beginning with hoppers. She began to move forward again. The second cut she hooked up with was a mix of hoppers, boxcars, flatcar bulkheads and a tank car were in the mix. Rin knew she had a train going.
"I need those two cuts and I should be all set." Rin told herself, she moved forward enough to clear the switches. She stopped the train before setting them to where she needed to have them go. She began to reverse into the next set, which was a mixture of flatcar bulkheads, a couple of boxcars, a bunch of oil tankers and hoppers. Rin pulled forward with the load as she was almost finished. She set the switches before reversing down to get the last cut, hoppers, a flat car, a gondola, a few tank cars, a bunch of coil cars and the few remaining boxcars.
Satisfied with the load she had picked up, she began to pull forward, this was easy with a computer game like this, all she needed to make sure was the switches were clear for her to leave the scene and head down where she needed to go. Once she was out on the main tracks, she began to head down to perform the show she wanted to do but hadn't gotten the chance to. She hoped this was going to work.
Meanwhile with Tucker and Hanako, they were sitting around and talking to themselves. Tucker was taking control of a streamlined Northern 611 in Rin's honor of their relationship and Hanako in a generic locomotive.
"Hey Tucker, have you seen Rin?" Hanako asked, she was wondering where Rin was in the game. Tucker began to speak.
"I'm not sure Hanako, I tried to talk to her this morning, and she said she needed some time alone and she hasn't spoken to me ever since. I know she's in the session, but I think she's going to do her own thing." Tucker began telling Hanako about Rin's whereabouts. He paused as he felt something, shaking like an earthquake. He didn't know what it was. "Are you feeling that Hanako?" Tucker asked. Hanako looked forward to seeing what it was. It was Rin, barreling her way to them with a long train. Hanako was right in her way, and she didn't know how to react to the situation. All she knew was to panic and run, she began to reverse and get out of there.
"Come Tucker, let's get out of here." Hanako called out to Tucker.
Tiffany Giardina- Hurry Up And Save Me
1218 thundered past 611 as the two trains were going to chase each other. Tucker looked on to see how many freight cars Rin was pulling, it was more than he and Hanako could count, he should figure out what Rin was up to. Rin and Hanako were playing chase while Tucker was third wheeling to catch up to Rin, the station-like landscape had disappeared into the wilderness while Hanako desperately tried to count the freight car number Rin had behind her. Rin was trying her best to impress, Hanako was reversing out of fright and Tucker needed to speak to Rin what she had planned.
The three locomotives rounded the bend while Rin was steadily gaining on Hanako while Tucker was gaining on both of them. Rin looked behind her to see Tucker trying to catch up to her. Passing through some signals, she didn't know if it would be right to speak to Tucker? Tucker had finally caught up to Rin, he had to ask her what she had planned.
"Rin are you out of your mind? You have to stop this train!" Tucker asked Rin to stop this madness. Rin looked at him as she had a face of determination for today.
"I can't now Tucky, I have to keep the Trainz club alive!" Rin shouted to Tucker. The three trains continued to barrel their way along while Hanako was desperately trying her best to warn everyone that was traveling in the opposite direction to get out of dodge or risk derailment. Tucker was trying his best to match Rin's pace while Rin was concentrating on putting on the show about herself. They rounded another bend as Tucker didn't know how long Rin was going to be able to put up with this chaos before she realized her mistake. Rin blew the whistle with the touch of a key while Hanako was reversing away from her. Tucker was falling behind Rin, unable to catch up to her. Rin continued to pound her way through like an uncontrollable snake chasing a mouse or a cat. It wasn't going to be long as Tucker decided to play a trick, he decided to stop his locomotive on a switch to think he crashed into Rin. He decided to feign passing out.
A few moments later, Rin looked back, Tucker was no longer following them. She slammed on the brakes to stop her train as hard as she could. She didn't know what would happen to Tucker, almost if he had vanished. She didn't know exactly but she had to stop.
"Oh no Tucky!" Rin called out with worry; she tried her best to stop the train she had but this was going to create a ripple effect she wasn't ready for. She didn't have enough strength to stop it completely. Suddenly, four of the grain hoppers snapped and rolled off the tracks, now there was little to nothing stopping Rin's train from becoming a wreck, the rest of the train began to break apart with another set of grain hoppers, slamming into the boxcars, the grain hoppers went off like a firework, scattering in many different directions. Another grain hopper came along as it crashed into the boxcars yet again. This sent many boxcars tumbling off of the track to the right, rolling down the embankment. Some more freight cars collided as this sent a tanker car and center beam flat tumbling straight into the derailed grain hopper, they collided and pushed the hopper deeper down, the coal hoppers and flat beds collided into the two remaining boxcars which then bumped into Rin's locomotive, Rin was feeling the strain from thus. "Ugh why does this have to happen, it's their fault this happens. Ah!" Rin whined as this derailment was hurting her in some form.
The second center beam flatcar followed by some bulk flatcars came barreling down and colliding with Rin's train, this pushed her train and blocked both tracks so now no one could get through the wreckage, a bunch of tanker cars came along before they collided with the other tankers that were there. This caused the cascade of grain hoppers, a bulkhead flatcar and a gondola to fly off the tracks, scattering in many different directions as the train broke apart. A coil car collided with another one as the tail end of the train was coming into play. Rin was looking around to see what exactly was happening. The tanker cars collided with her locomotive first before the coil cars crashed into the side. Rin looked around, wondering how much more could she take. Another coil car snaked around and crashed straight into her locomotive. Rin felt heavy eyed as this day went downhill fast for her, she closed her eyes and slumped down off of her chair. It was all over for her.
Rin opened her eyes a couple hours later, trying to figure out where she was. She didn't know what exactly happened. She found out she was in the School Nurse's office.
"Ugh… w… what happened? Where am I?" Rin asked while trying to look around and get her bearings. She didn't know where she ended up. She sat up and spotted Tucker and Hanako.
"Rin, are you okay?" Tucker asked Rin how she was holding up. Tucker was concerned about what happened to Rin and was making sure she was doing okay.
"What's going on?" Rin asked, she didn't know why she was brought to the School Nurse's office in the first place. Tucker knew he needed to explain it to Rin.
"You look like you took a big hit there. What were you thinking when you decided to pull that heavy train?" Tucker asked Rin what she was thinking when she tried to accomplish something like this. Rin knew she needed some explaining to do.
"I didn't want the Trainz club to be disbanded." Rin tried her best to explain what happened to Tucker. Tucker placed his right hand on Rin's forehead to make sure she wasn't running a fever.
"I hate to break it to you Rin but, Misha is really mad at you since you derailed and ended up deleting so many freight cars, I'm just glad you're okay though." Tucker told Rin that her crash ended up removing a good chunk of the game's rolling stock and they needed to spawn in more to fill in the gaps. He was just happy that Rin was doing well.
"Man. That's not good, I'm going to sit out the rest of the session as my head hurts. I'll apologize to Misha when I get the chance." Rin told Tucker that she was going to be sitting out for the rest of today and not participate.
It wasn't long before Tucker and Hanako were back in the game but to Tucker, everything seemed to be different, it felt a little emptier without Rin. Tucker couldn't stop thinking about her and he didn't know what exactly was going to go down. It must've been lonely, same time when she came down with a cold and took codeine medicine. Tucker was getting ready to pull the last train of the club as a farewell to what they had. Misha came along to give a few words to Tucker.
"Look Tucchan I know how you feel, but some things have to come to an end." Misha told Tucker about his slightly down mood. Tucker reassured Misha that it wasn't entirely his wrongdoing.
"Yeah, I know. I tried to enjoy today as much as I could. It feels a little emptier without Rin. I hope she's doing okay. This is 611 departing." Tucker told Misha. Tucker then departed the station and headed down the tracks. He knew he was going to be missing this game and the few sessions they had together but, that was what brought him closer to all of the students at Yamaku to his surprise. Rin on the first day when she introduced herself, Hanako, Lilly, Emi and Hisao to name a few to him. Tucker learned what Rin's favorite hobbies were, setting up a club and getting Hanako some new friends. Heading out to Hokkaido for the break and wandering around the hobby shop was what made his day. He still kept Eleanor at the back of his head. He didn't know if she was going to come back and apologize for her behavior. Tucker hoped that was going to be the case and she'd be better. He looked at the rails ahead, then his left arm which was now nothing more than a stump at the elbow. He knew this was all coming to an end. Summer vacation was just days away now and Tucker looked at the sunset coming down his window. He had to make up a few tests if he was going to be able to go off freely and find out what was happening. Hanako better come up with a plan with the newspaper club.
Tucker had arrived at the last station on his schedule, Hanako was waiting beside him with Natsume and Naomi.
"It's going to suck to see this game go. It was kind of my way of making friends." Hanako told Tucker that she didn't want to see the game disappear on her. Tucker sighs too before he begins speaking.
"Me too. It's what got me into Yamaku in the first place and its special people. I don't know what the next semester will bring us but maybe I can get Rin into something special?" Tucker asked as if he was open for the future. Maybe Rin could find a game similar to this one and they could simply play around again.
"The world is an open door. Hopefully everything can get better this week. I want to make sure about it." Hanako told Tucker. Tucker nodded as Misha decided to interrupt them.
"Get your last things done as I'm booting you out of the game completely. I hope you guys had fun." Misha explained to the occupants about what was happening. It was the last moments of what seemed to be a world ending event. Or that's what he hoped. The event would end with the computers going out and the power getting shut down. Misha had booted everyone off as it was the time to head off to bed. Tucker knew exactly what Misha wanted. He decided to open his book and decided to study for the make-up tests he was going to be doing to catch up with the other students. After a couple hours testing himself out, he felt confident and decided to head off to bed.
The train in the dream began to come up again, Tucker was resting beside Rin while enjoying the view of what was happening. Rin looked ahead to see their final destination getting closer and closer. Was this going to be their last stop? Tucker tried his best to think about what was going to happen. The train would then stop as the doors opened. The people began to disembark as Rin got up and headed out. Where was Rin going? Tucker got ip and decided to follow her.
Rin was standing out on the platform of the station as everyone was there waiting. Tucker looked around as Rin was nearby. Rin looked on while staring at the station.
"Four weeks in and four weeks out. It all came down to this and this was the final stop, a beautiful and bountiful city where our future lies ahead.
"I think you're staring at the pictures on the station walls?" Tucker began. He wanted to see what Rin's reaction was going to be. Rin turned her head before she began to speak.
"Yes, it is." Rin explained to Tucker. She offered her arm stub before pulling him into an embrace. Tucker looked on to see what Rin had to offer.
"You know who made these?" Tucker asked. Rin said nothing while Tucker continued to stare at the painting, there were hundreds of them, and it looked like it was made by the same girl. Tucker didn't know what his reaction was going to be, but he didn't know if Lilly, Hisao and Hanako were by his side. The future was wide open, and Tucker knew that he needed to not mess this up. Tucker woke up by his bedside as it was once again dark out, the clock read three thirty AM. Tucker got up and walked over to the window to see another clear night out with the stars hanging over him in a sea of indigo. He began to think of Rin again and tried to figure out where she was. Rin better answer his calls in the next few days.
This last week was going to be the last test of the relationship Tucker had with Rin.
[A/N}: Act 4 is beginning, and Tucker's decline began in the last chapter of Act 3. Rin's dream took a nosedive due to what happened with the club. Rin wanted to do a farewell surprise that ended in disaster and now the rest of the week is open to see who else is going to be dragged to the bottom, the hint is in the last passage regarding the paintings with what Tucker and Rin were staring at. The next chapter will see some of Tucker's ire and regret come from him as some things aren't going to be immediately resolved. It's the sibling issue again.
Anyway, I'll see you later and maybe get the next chapter published for you all within the next day or two. See you later.