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kashiwritesChapter 13
Chapter 14
Kenji moved more quickly than he thought possible, grabbing without much hope at Miaki's flailing hand as he went by. Miraculously, the two hands met. Miaki dangled in the voracious wind, hanging above the ravenous, whirling blackness below the window. He swung his own free arm once, twice, and then managed to throw it upwards and grab Kenji's arm with a second hand. But that was as much as he could manage. The furious pull of the sucking wind was almost irresistible.
"Pull him in, hurry!" Toshi screamed. He was helpless to do anything, only held back from swirling into the blackness, himself, by the corner of the ledge and frame, and Kenji's outstretched arm. Neither he nor Chika could move, without probably sending all three of them hurtling into the whirlwind – and probably to their deaths.
"I'm trying!" Kenji gasped. "Hold on – Miaki, hold on – "
Chapter 15
Chapter 14
Kenji moved more quickly than he thought possible, grabbing without much hope at Miaki's flailing hand as he went by. Miraculously, the two hands met. Miaki dangled in the voracious wind, hanging above the ravenous, whirling blackness below the window. He swung his own free arm once, twice, and then managed to throw it upwards and grab Kenji's arm with a second hand. But that was as much as he could manage. The furious pull of the sucking wind was almost irresistible.
"Pull him in, hurry!" Toshi screamed. He was helpless to do anything, only held back from swirling into the blackness, himself, by the corner of the ledge and frame, and Kenji's outstretched arm. Neither he nor Chika could move, without probably sending all three of them hurtling into the whirlwind – and probably to their deaths.
"I'm trying!" Kenji gasped. "Hold on – Miaki, hold on – "
"I'm holding – I can't pull up – it's so strong – the wind – "
Kenji tried to pull, but he couldn't manage to bend his arm. He he tried to lean his body back, and pull the whole arm further in, but the force working against him was just so strong! Miaki hung there like a dead weight, feeling heavier and heavier by the second. If he could only get close enough to try to grab the window sill himself – but the wind was pulling and pulling at him –
Chika barked, "Julie, hold his legs. We'll try to hold him so he's not fighting against his own fall!"
Kenji's feet were spread wide enough that she couldn't grab both his legs, but Julie wrapped her arms around his right knee, cursing that she didn't weigh more. She could feel his thigh muscle straining to keep his hip pressed against the window ledge. How could she possibly feel that? she suddenly wondered. This sim was too, too real. It was more apparent than ever that if they fell into this horrible wind, it would kill them.
She could feel Jin leaning against her, an arm around her waist. More weight! Good. Every little bit would help Kenji stand securely. If only he could manage to drag Miaki back in!
On the other side, Chika tried to lower herself enough to wrap her own arms around either Kenji's leg or his waist, but there was just enough space between him and the left window frame that she was almost sucked out. Again, only his outstretched arm prevented her. Toshi, holding for dear life to the frame, managed to free a hand enough to grab her upper arm and help her inch back closer to the frame so she could get a hand on it too. But as before, if not for Kenji's arm, they would both have been swept in.
Still Kenji strained to pull himself backward. Miaki was literally trying to "climb" his arm, trying to move his gripping hand farther up to grab higher up on Kenji's sleeve. But for some reason, his hand slipped, as though the sleeve was slippery. He tried again, seemed to get a better hold, and then he slipped again, sliding back down.
"I – I don't know what's wrong!" he gasped. "Why can't I get a grip?"
"Keep trying!" Kenji cried. "I can hardly move! I'm trying, but – Toshi and Chika will fall in – if I move too much!"
"Then don't!" Miaki said. "I'll keep trying."
Again and again he seemed to make some headway, pulling himself up Kenji's sleeve, then somehow losing his grip and shifting back again.
"What are you doing?" Kenji cried suddenly. "You're letting go!"
"No I'm not!" Miaki gasped. "You're pushing me away!"
"What are you talking about? I'm not pushing anything – " Kenji stopped with a sudden gasp. "No. Oh no. Oh no."
"What is it?" Toshi cried frantically. "Why can't he hold on?" He could now see it himself: Miaki was really struggling to keep his grip. "Kenji – hang onto him! Hang on!"
"I'm trying – but it's pushing – it's pushing – "
"OH NO!" Julie suddenly screamed. She got onto her knees and peered over the window ledge. "Oh no, Kenji, no! What have I done??"
"What do you mean?" Toshi yelled. "What's happening?"
"My repelling program!" she shrieked. "It's pushing him away! It won't let Kenji hold him! It won't let them touch! I made it so it would push Miaki away if they touched too long!"
Toshi gaped at her in horror. At last he managed to ask, weakly, "Why? Oh Julie – why have you done this?"
"I forgot!" She was crying now. "It was after Miaki attacked him – I was just trying to give him some extra protection – I didn't think it – I didn't think it would hurt him! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Kenji could feel the push growing stronger and stronger. His hand ached from the force with which he was trying to keep it closed around Miaki's hand. "Julie!" he yelled desperately. "You have to alter the program! Stop it! Do something!"
"I can't!" she wailed. "It's in the wand – in my room! I don't have the data!"
Miaki had stopped trying to climb Kenji's arm. He had stopped everything, except just hanging on as hard as he could with both hands. He had become so still that Kenji was afraid he was already – already –
Their eyes met, and held.
"Kenji."
"No," Kenji whispered.
"Let me go," said Miaki.
"NO!" Kenji cried, echoed by Toshi.
"Miaki, are you crazy?" Toshi yelled. "Here – let me try – " He attempted to wriggle past Chika, hoping to get to Kenji's other side, but the wind caught him and would have pulled him through if he hadn't caught Kenji's arm.
"Let me go," Miaki repeated. The force pushing him away was making it harder and harder to hold on. He felt like his hands were covered in butter, while weights of several tons hung from his feet.
"I'm – not – letting – you – go!" Kenji clenched his teeth and tried heroically to pull his arm in – but Miaki didn't seem to be coming with it. He just couldn't seem to lift him back toward the window. "Hang on – just a bit longer!" he said. "We'll think of something!"
"No." Miaki closed his eyes for a moment, and a holoscreen sprang up beside him. He curled his fingers into the material of Kenji's sleeve to hold himself just a little more steady while he concentrated on the holoscreen. His lips moved a little, and the screen disappeared. "There!" he said. "Jin's got everything. She can log you out now!"
"Then you log out too!" Kenji said.
"I – I can't. I just tried. You – " Miaki gasped as he almost slipped again. "You have to – step through the wall into the gazebo! You can't – get me through it – "
"We will! We'll manage – "
"No! If you let go enough to try to walk through – and still have me dragging on you – you'll all fall in! Kenji – you have to save them. You have to let me go!"
They stared at each other for what seemed like an hour, Kenji's face twisted in anguish, and Miaki's calm and quiet. Jin had already called up a holoscreen with Miaki's data on it. She blocked out every thought, every grief, every consideration except the one task he had given her: opening the door that would let them escape.
"I – I can't!" Kenji cried. "Miaki, I can't do it! I DON'T LET MY FRIENDS DIE! Please, oh please, don't ask me to do this! There has to be another way!"
Then Miaki smiled the sweetest smile any of them, including Toshi, had ever seen on his face. "It's alright, Kenji," he said. "Don't be afraid. This isn't your fault. It's not Julie's fault. No one will ever think that."
"Please..."
"This is our choice, together, my friend, Kenji. My friend. We have to save them. You're losing strength – your other arm won't hold much longer – "
"I can hold it! I can!" Kenji wept. Yet he knew Miaki was right: his left arm, that held Chika and Toshi back from the maelstrom, was weakening and shaking.
A gap opened behind them. Jin could see the gazebo and its garden, through her own tears, just two feet away.
"She's done it," said Miaki, and smiled that sweet smile again. "My very tall friend, Jin. Time to let go, Kenji, and get them out. Let go." He released the hand that had been hanging onto Kenji's sleeve.
Toshi was screaming, flailing at Chika, who could barely hold him back. Kenji's arm was going to give at any moment, if they didn't get out of here.
He looked down into Miaki's gently smiling face, and closed his eyes. And loosened his aching fingers. "Miakiiiiiiiiii!" he heard Toshi scream in agony as he felt Miaki's hand slip from his grasp. And then he felt Julie tugging on his leg, pulling him just close enough to the opening behind them that the shrieking wind lost its hold on him. He fell through into the gazebo, almost on top of Jin and Julie, with Chika landing on him, still holding his left arm.
They logged out immediately, flinging off their equipment to surround Miaki's chair. Chika leaned over his slumped figure, feeling for a pulse in his neck. Julie was almost hysterical. "I didn't mean this to happen, I didn't, I didn't!" Jin wanted to shake her or slap her or something, but stood almost paralyzed as she watched Chika trying to find out if Miaki was dead.
Kenji had fallen to his knees on the floor, sobbing, his fingers dug like claws into his flaming hair. Somebody should comfort him. Miaki had been right – this wasn't Kenji's fault. Even though he kept shrieking, "I killed him, I killed him!"
There seemed to be a commotion at the door. Dazedly, Jin looked over and saw most of the students who had remained at ISCE for the holiday. They were shouting, and banging on what almost looked like glass across the door. What on earth -- ? Ah, a force field of some kind. Julie's and Kenji's work, to keep anyone from stopping them at their important task. And these students had obviously seen the broadcast they had sent out, or they wouldn't be here.
Which meant that it had worked. The whole world knew about the plot, and something could be done. They had succeeded.
"I can't find a pulse!" Chika cried. "Miaki, wake up! You can't be – you can't be – "
Jin saw everything through a daze of inertia. She should move – should get Julie to remove the barrier at the door, give her something constructive to do – should help Kenji stop crying somehow – but she couldn't seem to move. Until she realized what was missing.
"Toshi," she said suddenly. "Where is Toshi?"
He was at the terminal beside Miaki's. His head had fallen forward onto the terminal desk. One hand hung limply down the side of his chair.
Chika's face was ashen underneath the orange streaks. "I...thought he had ahold of me," she breathed. She looked like she was going to faint. "He...he was right behind me. I was sure he was." She reached her hand toward his neck, to test for a pulse, but she couldn't bring herself to touch him. "He was right behind me," she whispered.
Julie had managed to stop her hysterical wailing, and moved closer to Toshi's chair, now crying softly. Kenji staggered to his feet, his face blotched and wet with streaming tears. "Then I failed!" he said. "I killed them both – Miaki and Toshi – they're dead – just like Miaki's father – "
Julie hiccupped, and pressed a hand against her mouth. "Wait," she said. "Wait. I'm not sure – "
Chika whirled on her. "Not sure about what??"
"Toshi got me to make him some small programs last week – I'm not sure – he – he might be trying to bring him back!"
"Then we have to log in again!" Kenji cried, leaping to his terminal and fumbling with the goggles. "We have to help – "
"There's nothing we can do now," Chika said. "They're way beyond where we could find them. You could feel that black whirlwind; it was more than we could ever handle. If we try to get back in, we'll just get ourselves killed."
"I don't care!" said Kenji, trying to tug the goggles away from her. "I have to do something to help!"
"All we can do is wait," Julie said. "Toshi's almost as good as Miaki with these things. If anyone can do this, he can."
"Who are you to tell me to do anything?" Kenji shouted. "If it weren't for you and your little programs, we wouldn't have lost them in the first place!"
Julie's face twisted and she sank into a nearby chair, burying her face in her hands. Kenji stepped to her side, stricken.
"I'm sorry, Julie. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it. It's not your fault." He pulled a chair up beside her and leaned forward. They threw their arms around each other and wept on each other's shoulders.
They had no idea how long to wait. They sat in a semi-circle behind the two people – two bodies? – at the terminals, for several minutes. When Chika finally got up the nerve to feel Toshi's neck, she could feel a pulse, very slow and faint. When she tried again with Miaki, she really wasn't sure. She didn't think there was anything there, but then again, there might be, so slow and faint that it was virtually undetectable. She wished she knew what to do. She sat back down and they waited several minutes longer.
There were still people in the doorway, trying to get through. One of the professors, in fact, had come to the door and was working at disabling the devices that Julie had set on the floor to either side of the door. He didn't seem to be having any luck.
"Shouldn't you open the door now?" Jin said.
"No," Julie said, having almost cried herself out, wiping her eyes with the back of a hand. "I don't want them in here – I don't want to talk to anyone – till we know one way or another."
"You're already talking, to me," Jin said reasonably.
"Yes, but you're different," Julie said unreasonably.
"Then how long should we wait?" Chika asked. "How long till we do know, 'one way or another'?"
"I don't know."
Chika stood up again, and leaned over to feel Toshi's neck one more time. As though triggered by her touch, his head suddenly jerked up with a deep gasp, as though he had surfaced from the bottom of a lake. Indeed, he was still gasping as he wrenched off his goggles, pushed Chika aside, and leapt to Miaki's chair, trailing wires from gloves and boots.
"Come on," he gasped, not daring to remove any of Miaki's equipment. "Come on! I know you're there – wake up, dammit!" He knelt by his cousin's chair and pled softly, "Miaki. Wake up. I – we need you. Come back."
Miaki's fingers moved, slightly. Then he, too, lifted his head with a gasp. Toshi pulled off his goggles and he looked around vaguely, having a hard time getting his bearings. He blinked, trying to clear his head, as his cousin pulled off gloves and boots.
"Tosh...?" he whispered.
"Welcome home," Toshi said. He was crying.
"What did you do?"
"Did you think I'd just let you go without putting up a fight? You know I'll never do that. Never."
"Toshi." Miaki pulled him close and held him. "I could feel you – right away – through everything else."
"Through the pain. Those bastards like to make it hurt – and boy, did that hurt. Any longer in the middle of that, and...but it's over. We got them, and we got out, no matter what they did. They're never going to hurt us again."
"But how...?"
"Julie made me a little something. I left a special marker at the gazebo, and managed to tack one onto you just as you were falling. That's how I found you in the middle of that – that – " Toshi's eyes darkened and he bowed his head.
Miaki shuddered. "Don't think about it. It's over; you said so."
They looked up simultaneously, to where Julie stood, both fists pressed against her mouth. As they stood up, Toshi reached for her and pulled her into a three-way embrace.
"It's alright," Miaki said, as she started to cry again. "Your little program saved me, too. That's the most important part."
He gave her a big squeeze and then stepped over to Kenji. Who was crying again too. Miaki pulled him close and hugged him.
"My brave, brave friend," he said. Which made Kenji cry even harder.
Then, it seemed, they were all hugging in one big group. Jin saw that sweet smile again, directed at her, before being engulfed by it all. She thought, suddenly, that she was so happy that she didn't care if they stood here like this for days. Crying.
Miaki said, finally, "We're such a bunch of blubbering idiots. They're going to stick us all in an asylum after this."
And then they were laughing, and laughing, till Julie had the hiccups, till Kenji was laughing and crying at the same time, till Chika had thrown herself on a chair, so weak from laughing that she couldn't stand up. Julie finally went over to the little box placed inside the force field, the box that controlled it. She poised her hand above one of the buttons on its top panel.
"Ready?" she said. "We're going to have a lot to answer for once we open that door."
The six of them looked around at each other, savoring the comradeship. But finally, Miaki crossed his arms and leaned casually against a terminal screen, smiling. "Ready," he said.
Kenji tried to pull, but he couldn't manage to bend his arm. He he tried to lean his body back, and pull the whole arm further in, but the force working against him was just so strong! Miaki hung there like a dead weight, feeling heavier and heavier by the second. If he could only get close enough to try to grab the window sill himself – but the wind was pulling and pulling at him –
Chika barked, "Julie, hold his legs. We'll try to hold him so he's not fighting against his own fall!"
Kenji's feet were spread wide enough that she couldn't grab both his legs, but Julie wrapped her arms around his right knee, cursing that she didn't weigh more. She could feel his thigh muscle straining to keep his hip pressed against the window ledge. How could she possibly feel that? she suddenly wondered. This sim was too, too real. It was more apparent than ever that if they fell into this horrible wind, it would kill them.
She could feel Jin leaning against her, an arm around her waist. More weight! Good. Every little bit would help Kenji stand securely. If only he could manage to drag Miaki back in!
On the other side, Chika tried to lower herself enough to wrap her own arms around either Kenji's leg or his waist, but there was just enough space between him and the left window frame that she was almost sucked out. Again, only his outstretched arm prevented her. Toshi, holding for dear life to the frame, managed to free a hand enough to grab her upper arm and help her inch back closer to the frame so she could get a hand on it too. But as before, if not for Kenji's arm, they would both have been swept in.
Still Kenji strained to pull himself backward. Miaki was literally trying to "climb" his arm, trying to move his gripping hand farther up to grab higher up on Kenji's sleeve. But for some reason, his hand slipped, as though the sleeve was slippery. He tried again, seemed to get a better hold, and then he slipped again, sliding back down.
"I – I don't know what's wrong!" he gasped. "Why can't I get a grip?"
"Keep trying!" Kenji cried. "I can hardly move! I'm trying, but – Toshi and Chika will fall in – if I move too much!"
"Then don't!" Miaki said. "I'll keep trying."
Again and again he seemed to make some headway, pulling himself up Kenji's sleeve, then somehow losing his grip and shifting back again.
"What are you doing?" Kenji cried suddenly. "You're letting go!"
"No I'm not!" Miaki gasped. "You're pushing me away!"
"What are you talking about? I'm not pushing anything – " Kenji stopped with a sudden gasp. "No. Oh no. Oh no."
"What is it?" Toshi cried frantically. "Why can't he hold on?" He could now see it himself: Miaki was really struggling to keep his grip. "Kenji – hang onto him! Hang on!"
"I'm trying – but it's pushing – it's pushing – "
"OH NO!" Julie suddenly screamed. She got onto her knees and peered over the window ledge. "Oh no, Kenji, no! What have I done??"
"What do you mean?" Toshi yelled. "What's happening?"
"My repelling program!" she shrieked. "It's pushing him away! It won't let Kenji hold him! It won't let them touch! I made it so it would push Miaki away if they touched too long!"
Toshi gaped at her in horror. At last he managed to ask, weakly, "Why? Oh Julie – why have you done this?"
"I forgot!" She was crying now. "It was after Miaki attacked him – I was just trying to give him some extra protection – I didn't think it – I didn't think it would hurt him! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Kenji could feel the push growing stronger and stronger. His hand ached from the force with which he was trying to keep it closed around Miaki's hand. "Julie!" he yelled desperately. "You have to alter the program! Stop it! Do something!"
"I can't!" she wailed. "It's in the wand – in my room! I don't have the data!"
Miaki had stopped trying to climb Kenji's arm. He had stopped everything, except just hanging on as hard as he could with both hands. He had become so still that Kenji was afraid he was already – already –
Their eyes met, and held.
"Kenji."
"No," Kenji whispered.
"Let me go," said Miaki.
"NO!" Kenji cried, echoed by Toshi.
"Miaki, are you crazy?" Toshi yelled. "Here – let me try – " He attempted to wriggle past Chika, hoping to get to Kenji's other side, but the wind caught him and would have pulled him through if he hadn't caught Kenji's arm.
"Let me go," Miaki repeated. The force pushing him away was making it harder and harder to hold on. He felt like his hands were covered in butter, while weights of several tons hung from his feet.
"I'm – not – letting – you – go!" Kenji clenched his teeth and tried heroically to pull his arm in – but Miaki didn't seem to be coming with it. He just couldn't seem to lift him back toward the window. "Hang on – just a bit longer!" he said. "We'll think of something!"
"No." Miaki closed his eyes for a moment, and a holoscreen sprang up beside him. He curled his fingers into the material of Kenji's sleeve to hold himself just a little more steady while he concentrated on the holoscreen. His lips moved a little, and the screen disappeared. "There!" he said. "Jin's got everything. She can log you out now!"
"Then you log out too!" Kenji said.
"I – I can't. I just tried. You – " Miaki gasped as he almost slipped again. "You have to – step through the wall into the gazebo! You can't – get me through it – "
"We will! We'll manage – "
"No! If you let go enough to try to walk through – and still have me dragging on you – you'll all fall in! Kenji – you have to save them. You have to let me go!"
They stared at each other for what seemed like an hour, Kenji's face twisted in anguish, and Miaki's calm and quiet. Jin had already called up a holoscreen with Miaki's data on it. She blocked out every thought, every grief, every consideration except the one task he had given her: opening the door that would let them escape.
"I – I can't!" Kenji cried. "Miaki, I can't do it! I DON'T LET MY FRIENDS DIE! Please, oh please, don't ask me to do this! There has to be another way!"
Then Miaki smiled the sweetest smile any of them, including Toshi, had ever seen on his face. "It's alright, Kenji," he said. "Don't be afraid. This isn't your fault. It's not Julie's fault. No one will ever think that."
"Please..."
"This is our choice, together, my friend, Kenji. My friend. We have to save them. You're losing strength – your other arm won't hold much longer – "
"I can hold it! I can!" Kenji wept. Yet he knew Miaki was right: his left arm, that held Chika and Toshi back from the maelstrom, was weakening and shaking.
A gap opened behind them. Jin could see the gazebo and its garden, through her own tears, just two feet away.
"She's done it," said Miaki, and smiled that sweet smile again. "My very tall friend, Jin. Time to let go, Kenji, and get them out. Let go." He released the hand that had been hanging onto Kenji's sleeve.
Toshi was screaming, flailing at Chika, who could barely hold him back. Kenji's arm was going to give at any moment, if they didn't get out of here.
He looked down into Miaki's gently smiling face, and closed his eyes. And loosened his aching fingers. "Miakiiiiiiiiii!" he heard Toshi scream in agony as he felt Miaki's hand slip from his grasp. And then he felt Julie tugging on his leg, pulling him just close enough to the opening behind them that the shrieking wind lost its hold on him. He fell through into the gazebo, almost on top of Jin and Julie, with Chika landing on him, still holding his left arm.
They logged out immediately, flinging off their equipment to surround Miaki's chair. Chika leaned over his slumped figure, feeling for a pulse in his neck. Julie was almost hysterical. "I didn't mean this to happen, I didn't, I didn't!" Jin wanted to shake her or slap her or something, but stood almost paralyzed as she watched Chika trying to find out if Miaki was dead.
Kenji had fallen to his knees on the floor, sobbing, his fingers dug like claws into his flaming hair. Somebody should comfort him. Miaki had been right – this wasn't Kenji's fault. Even though he kept shrieking, "I killed him, I killed him!"
There seemed to be a commotion at the door. Dazedly, Jin looked over and saw most of the students who had remained at ISCE for the holiday. They were shouting, and banging on what almost looked like glass across the door. What on earth -- ? Ah, a force field of some kind. Julie's and Kenji's work, to keep anyone from stopping them at their important task. And these students had obviously seen the broadcast they had sent out, or they wouldn't be here.
Which meant that it had worked. The whole world knew about the plot, and something could be done. They had succeeded.
"I can't find a pulse!" Chika cried. "Miaki, wake up! You can't be – you can't be – "
Jin saw everything through a daze of inertia. She should move – should get Julie to remove the barrier at the door, give her something constructive to do – should help Kenji stop crying somehow – but she couldn't seem to move. Until she realized what was missing.
"Toshi," she said suddenly. "Where is Toshi?"
He was at the terminal beside Miaki's. His head had fallen forward onto the terminal desk. One hand hung limply down the side of his chair.
Chika's face was ashen underneath the orange streaks. "I...thought he had ahold of me," she breathed. She looked like she was going to faint. "He...he was right behind me. I was sure he was." She reached her hand toward his neck, to test for a pulse, but she couldn't bring herself to touch him. "He was right behind me," she whispered.
Julie had managed to stop her hysterical wailing, and moved closer to Toshi's chair, now crying softly. Kenji staggered to his feet, his face blotched and wet with streaming tears. "Then I failed!" he said. "I killed them both – Miaki and Toshi – they're dead – just like Miaki's father – "
Julie hiccupped, and pressed a hand against her mouth. "Wait," she said. "Wait. I'm not sure – "
Chika whirled on her. "Not sure about what??"
"Toshi got me to make him some small programs last week – I'm not sure – he – he might be trying to bring him back!"
"Then we have to log in again!" Kenji cried, leaping to his terminal and fumbling with the goggles. "We have to help – "
"There's nothing we can do now," Chika said. "They're way beyond where we could find them. You could feel that black whirlwind; it was more than we could ever handle. If we try to get back in, we'll just get ourselves killed."
"I don't care!" said Kenji, trying to tug the goggles away from her. "I have to do something to help!"
"All we can do is wait," Julie said. "Toshi's almost as good as Miaki with these things. If anyone can do this, he can."
"Who are you to tell me to do anything?" Kenji shouted. "If it weren't for you and your little programs, we wouldn't have lost them in the first place!"
Julie's face twisted and she sank into a nearby chair, burying her face in her hands. Kenji stepped to her side, stricken.
"I'm sorry, Julie. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it. It's not your fault." He pulled a chair up beside her and leaned forward. They threw their arms around each other and wept on each other's shoulders.
They had no idea how long to wait. They sat in a semi-circle behind the two people – two bodies? – at the terminals, for several minutes. When Chika finally got up the nerve to feel Toshi's neck, she could feel a pulse, very slow and faint. When she tried again with Miaki, she really wasn't sure. She didn't think there was anything there, but then again, there might be, so slow and faint that it was virtually undetectable. She wished she knew what to do. She sat back down and they waited several minutes longer.
There were still people in the doorway, trying to get through. One of the professors, in fact, had come to the door and was working at disabling the devices that Julie had set on the floor to either side of the door. He didn't seem to be having any luck.
"Shouldn't you open the door now?" Jin said.
"No," Julie said, having almost cried herself out, wiping her eyes with the back of a hand. "I don't want them in here – I don't want to talk to anyone – till we know one way or another."
"You're already talking, to me," Jin said reasonably.
"Yes, but you're different," Julie said unreasonably.
"Then how long should we wait?" Chika asked. "How long till we do know, 'one way or another'?"
"I don't know."
Chika stood up again, and leaned over to feel Toshi's neck one more time. As though triggered by her touch, his head suddenly jerked up with a deep gasp, as though he had surfaced from the bottom of a lake. Indeed, he was still gasping as he wrenched off his goggles, pushed Chika aside, and leapt to Miaki's chair, trailing wires from gloves and boots.
"Come on," he gasped, not daring to remove any of Miaki's equipment. "Come on! I know you're there – wake up, dammit!" He knelt by his cousin's chair and pled softly, "Miaki. Wake up. I – we need you. Come back."
Miaki's fingers moved, slightly. Then he, too, lifted his head with a gasp. Toshi pulled off his goggles and he looked around vaguely, having a hard time getting his bearings. He blinked, trying to clear his head, as his cousin pulled off gloves and boots.
"Tosh...?" he whispered.
"Welcome home," Toshi said. He was crying.
"What did you do?"
"Did you think I'd just let you go without putting up a fight? You know I'll never do that. Never."
"Toshi." Miaki pulled him close and held him. "I could feel you – right away – through everything else."
"Through the pain. Those bastards like to make it hurt – and boy, did that hurt. Any longer in the middle of that, and...but it's over. We got them, and we got out, no matter what they did. They're never going to hurt us again."
"But how...?"
"Julie made me a little something. I left a special marker at the gazebo, and managed to tack one onto you just as you were falling. That's how I found you in the middle of that – that – " Toshi's eyes darkened and he bowed his head.
Miaki shuddered. "Don't think about it. It's over; you said so."
They looked up simultaneously, to where Julie stood, both fists pressed against her mouth. As they stood up, Toshi reached for her and pulled her into a three-way embrace.
"It's alright," Miaki said, as she started to cry again. "Your little program saved me, too. That's the most important part."
He gave her a big squeeze and then stepped over to Kenji. Who was crying again too. Miaki pulled him close and hugged him.
"My brave, brave friend," he said. Which made Kenji cry even harder.
Then, it seemed, they were all hugging in one big group. Jin saw that sweet smile again, directed at her, before being engulfed by it all. She thought, suddenly, that she was so happy that she didn't care if they stood here like this for days. Crying.
Miaki said, finally, "We're such a bunch of blubbering idiots. They're going to stick us all in an asylum after this."
And then they were laughing, and laughing, till Julie had the hiccups, till Kenji was laughing and crying at the same time, till Chika had thrown herself on a chair, so weak from laughing that she couldn't stand up. Julie finally went over to the little box placed inside the force field, the box that controlled it. She poised her hand above one of the buttons on its top panel.
"Ready?" she said. "We're going to have a lot to answer for once we open that door."
The six of them looked around at each other, savoring the comradeship. But finally, Miaki crossed his arms and leaned casually against a terminal screen, smiling. "Ready," he said.
Chapter 15
