[Crash Log] GAME OVER pt1

[empereor]

Characters: Yukimura Seiichi, Yanagi Renji, Sanada Genichirou
Location: Atobe's stupid ship
Time: Crash date!
Rating: PG13 for swearing, NC17 for giraffes
Summary: Basically, to quote Seiichi: 'This is stupid. ... Suddenly, everything was just stupid. ... Stupid.' E.g. Impossible rooms, escaped zoo animals, and three idiots whose escape and survival was honestly quite an astonishment. Stupid :x

This is what happens when you make me post logs, by the way. Summaries like that ):

Part 2

~*~

Sometime in the middle of the night, Seiichi did not bother to check the time, he woke up feeling thirsty. At least, that’s what he told himself. In reality, he was restless-sleep was not coming quite as easily with three to the room as it had with two. He spared his friends a glance, both were soundly sleeping, before making his way to the bathroom.

The bathroom lights were unkind to him-they made the skin of his face and chest appear paler than it really was, his hair darker, his eyes bright. The dark green of his pajama pants was in stark contrast to his bare stomach. His mind wandered as he leaned against the counter. Oh, right. He was going to get a drink.

Seiichi reached for the faucet, but that was when the movement started. A horrible, low-pitched metallic scrape that was quickly followed by the boat suddenly shaking beneath his feet, causing his hipbone to knock against the counter. Oh god... they hit something, didn’t they? The drink forgotten, Seiichi scrambled back out to the bedroom. “Genichirou, Renji, get up!”

No sooner had he spoken the words than the alarms sounded, filling the room with the red glow of the warning lights and a horrible wailing sound that neither Genichirou nor Renji could possibly sleep through.

Sanada sat upright immediately. If the lights or the noise hadn’t immediately told him something was terribly wrong, the look on Seiichi’s face when it appeared in the doorway definitely would have. “Did something happen!?” he shouted over the alarm, though it was already obvious something did, or else there wouldn’t be all this commotion in the first place.

“What happened!?” he corrected, meeting Seiichi halfway in the middle of the room to see if he knew, giving a glance back at Renji, who, despite having been asleep, probably already had a very good grasp on the situation and what they should do.

“We hit something,” Renji answered out of inertia; his eyes wide open and his voice showing emotion for once. He had been awaken by the sound and the movement but thought it had been a dream; his dreams tended to be lively most of the time. The sirens and his friends proved him wrong though. Many possible scenarios played in head. They must have lost course; staying on the planned route, they would have gone nowhere near anything they could crash into. He needed to evaluate the situation but no matter the result, they needed to move up since the cabins where in the lowest level. “We hit something,” he repeated and stood up. “We mustn’t panic. The safest thing to do is to go to the top deck now; see what’s exactly going on.”

Don’t panic, the boat might be sinking. Only Renji.

Seiichi nodded in agreement nonetheless, and touched his hand to Genichirou’s elbow briefly, reassuringly. He passed by Genichirou to slip his feet into his sneakers, not bothering with his socks, and pulled a hoodie over his head. “Let’s get moving then... if the boat is sinking, we don’t want to be caught on one of the lower decks.” It briefly passed through his mind that the cabins really were startlingly low on the ship... didn’t anyone learn anything from the Titanic at all?

Sanada pulled on his shoes but didn’t bother with a coat. The cold he could deal with but he didn’t know what state the ship was in, and didn’t trust waterlogged clothing weighing him down if he were required to swim it out, which would make the task more difficult for him that it would already be. The ship being tilted, it wasn’t very difficult to tell which way to head first. Upwards was the only way to go. The alarms were enough to give all the other passengers notice, so Sanada did not need to go around the other doors to check up on them; his two friends were his first priority. Making sure they were behind him and ready to go, Sanada took off out the door.

Renji had used the little time he had to put his laptop-his whole life was in it-in a backpack and to put some tennis shoes on. “We shouldn’t assume the boat is sinking.” Yet.”...and if it is, it’ll take over a few hours.” He stopped and went for Genichirou’s katana that was lying in a corner of the room. “We should be more careful about the people that get hyste-- nervous in these kind of situations.”

“I think most people get ‘nervous’ in these situations,” Seiichi replied dryly, checking the pocket of his hoodie for his phone - it would make a decent flashlight if they lost the emergency lighting at any point. LED lights were a great invention. He turned to his other friend, the one that probably honestly had the most expertise in the field of emergency response, and said, “Genichirou, you take the lead.” There was also the matter that Genichirou was the heaviest of the three of them by sheer muscle mass alone - it was possible some routes would be open to Seiichi, lighter than the other two, than him... best to find out quickly.

The length of the hallway was more or less devoid of rubble, the walls had held and kept the furniture inside their respective rooms, but a chandelier had fallen from the ceiling from the impact and Sanada gestured to the other two to be careful of the broken crystals as they tread across. They were still lower down on the ship than he would like, and progress was slow trying to remember the quickest way out without panic screwing with his memory and decision making. The elevators were not supposed to be used in emergencies, in case the electricity went out in the middle of the ride and they became stranded, and there would be no one to come rescue them when all the others were busy trying to rescue themselves.

The stairs, then, was where he led the group. Water was already filling the lower deck , each step creating a consecutively louder splash as the ship took on more water the longer they stayed. It was counter-intuitive to go towards the source of water, but he knew that water flowed down the path of least resistance, from uphill to downhill, and uphill was their destination.

The rate in which the boat was taking in water was alarming; it was doomed to sink. He didn’t voice it out loud, though. “Watch for catapulting or floating objects. Things might get unstable in our way…” What worried Renji the most while he was following Genichirou was that it seemed like they had lost course in the middle of the night, so they might be in the middle of nowhere. He stopped suddenly when they were climbing the first set of stairs. “Genichirou, Seiichi… have you seen any crew members?” He unconsciously gripped the katana tighter.

Seiichi glanced back at Renji, briefly eyeing the blade. “If we do, don’t cut them in half.” That did not mean that by all means there should not be crew members guiding them off of the boat right now... like was supposed to happen in emergencies. And even if there were not crew members guiding them, they should have at least been trying to escape themselves. Seiichi leaned heavily on the rail, taking each stair carefully so as to not be swept away by the water coming down. He looked past Genichirou up ahead of them. “I don’t know how far we’ll be able to continue this way - it looks like there might be some furniture blocking our path.” He motioned to the right. “We might be able to head through the petting zoo to get around it.”

Sanada gritted his teeth; the other two might not have been able to see this, but there was no mistaking the strain in his voice when he replied, “We’ll break through the furniture.” He paused, and then added, “It’ll be faster that way.” Not because he didn’t want to go through the petting zoo or something. There were no penguins for him to save, and no giraffes for Renji to save, and all the others were not worth risking their lives for. “We’ll go as far as we can; don’t worry about regrouping until we actually do run into a probl--”

“Genichirou, watch out!” Renji grabbed the collar of his friend’s shirt and pulled him back to avoid him to be hit by an abstract art statue that had suddenly fallen because of the flow of water. “Furniture is dangerous, Atobe put a ridiculous amount of pretty useless heavy objects in this whole ship and we might end up losing time trying to get it out of the way. We need to focus on the quickest route, not the shortest.”

“Boys, boys, let’s not argue,” Seiichi joked, though his voice sounded strained to his ears. He slipped past Genichirou, taking the lead and changing their trajectory toward the petting zoo. If Genichirou thought that the animals were demonic, now was his opportunity to get over his fear. They were probably all going to drown, anyway, and PETA was going to have a hayday. It would have almost been sad if it were not for the possibility that the people on the boat ran the risk of drowning too. He turned his head slightly to the side, raising his voice to speak over the noise as they pressed forward. “The zoo will route us around the outside of the boat - we might be able to get an idea of how deep we actually are and avoid any more clutter in the halls.”

Sanada took the katana from Renji’s hands. If they were going to go through the petting zoo, and there seemed to be no way of arguing out of that one once Seiichi was leading, he wanted the blade so he could protect himself his friends from any wandering creatures still left on board. He took up the rear of the group so he could keep the other two in sight, as well as looking around for possible goats falling statues. “Going around the outskirts may be best, there will be less of a crowd trying to get through at one time,” though they haven’t seen any of the others yet, “But just make sure to stay clear of the windows and anything that looks like it can’t stand the water pressure once the ship takes on more water.” Katanas were nothing against shards of glass and torrents of icy cold water, no matter how much he did not want to admit it.

“If a window breaks because of water pressure, the broken glass will be the least of our problems”. Renji said before becoming silent once more. With Seiichi taking the lead, Genichirou protecting their backs and him checking the surroundings, the chances of survival were higher; Renji decided. They just needed to overcome whatever unpredictable factor of nature the sea throws at them. The thought of not seeing any crew members was unnerving, but surely there must be crew members trying to evacuate the animals. “The petting zoo is in the next turn to the right, Seiichi.”

Doing as instructed, Seiichi led them into the petting zoo. Maybe he should have expected it to be empty - the crew members, the other people on the cruise... everyone else was missing, why shouldn’t the animals be missing too? If it weren’t for the cold water soaking through his sneakers and the ends of his pajama pants, he might have thought he was dreaming all of this. “It’s empty,” he assured his friends (mostly Genichirou) before starting to make his way across the large, open field. Why it was empty, he wasn’t sure. All of this was weird. One glance out the windows told him that they were already pretty well submerged, water was creeping up the windows as they sank.

Walking through the entrance of the petting zoo brought back horrible memories of hungry goats and squealing guinea pigs. The eerie quietness of the place now was what sent chills down his back, stopping just short of his ankles where the water had soaked through and were in the process of numbing his feet. He gave a look up towards the windows, hoping that they would hold, and lifted his knees up a bit higher as he ran, though there wasn’t a high probability of freezing with the adrenaline and blood pumping through his body. The ship’s temperature settings were usually kept at a fair comfortable level, and it was the first time he felt cold while inside.

“Empty? That can’t be true...” Even if the animals were already evacuated, they started moving when they hit something, they didn’t lose any time. Everything was silent and completely deserted though. “How is this even possible? Things, animals, people can’t just dissapear.” He mumbled, feeling a shiver run down his spine. Then, he saw the water level by the window. He shook his head, trying to clear it. “We need to get moving; we need to stay as dry as possible.”

“Agreed.” Seiichi’s pace picked up - he moved as quickly as he could without risking slipping on the wet floor below him or potentially losing his friends who were following him. He quickly traversed the length of the petting zoo, nary an obstacle in his way as he had hoped... until he got to the exit. For a moment, he almost didn’t believe what he was seeing as he approached the figure in the doorway. It had to be his imagination - it must have been something else that just looked like...

He slowed to a stop, holding up a hand to prevent Genichirou from overtaking him - he would be the one who would be most bothered by the creature in front of them. “It’s a goat,” he stated, identifying the animal if his two friends could not. A familiar goat - a familiar goat chewing on the seams of a familiar jacket that Genichirou had abandoned in the petting zoo just a few days before.

The hand was unnecessary-- Sanada had stepped back at the first mention of the word ‘goat,’ though that did not stop him from peering around his friend just in time to watch the last remains of the left jacket sleeve disappear into the animal’s mouth. He frowned at it. It blinked at him in return. Chewed. And swallowed. “Are you guys hungry?” Sanada asked, only half serious, his fingers tapping on the katana sheath. Why hadn’t the goat left with all the others? It couldn’t be there just to taunt him specifically. Unless it wasn’t really... But Renji had denied the existence of goat ghosts...

Renji fought the urge to roll his eyes at the other two. How could it be possible that between a sinking boat/death and goat, they seemed to find the goat to be more terrifying? “Well, then let’s keep going. It would be best if we don’t drag it with us since it would probably slow us down, but we could always...” he said, coming near the goat until the animal growled menacingly at him. “Seiichi, Genichirou... what did you do to this goat??”

“We just fed it, Renji, it’s not like we came down here with a katana the first time,” Seiichi snapped back, edging forward a few steps. Maybe the goat would just let them pass without incident. If it came down to drowning in the freezing water or being attacked by a goat, he would take his chances with the goat. For a brief moment, he considered asking Genichirou to go after it with the katana after all before he thought back on Genichirou’s obsession with him touching every animal they crossed. “...I think I have to touch it,” he said, feeling nuts just for thinking it. He took a few more small steps forward, still holding up a hand to his friends.

The goat chewed, and stared. Seiichi took another step forward.

Sanada immediately caught Seiichi’s hand, pulling him back and shielding him from the goat. “What are you doing!?” he hissed at the other, as if Seiichi had lost completely lost his mind. “Don’t be ridiculous, trying to touch the goat,” he said seriously, looking over at Renji to make sure he wasn’t about to touch it either. It was a goat. Not a sheep. The Touch worked on sheep, those didn’t try to attack. But who knows what goes on through the mind of a creature who charges when it is offered food; this one may be out of their league.

“Renji,” he called for his friend’s attention, keeping his eyes trained on the goat and Seiichi behind his back. “What is the most effective way of getting rid of a goat?”

“Offering it a human sacrifice?” Renji hissed, “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “What? Excuse me if I didn’t include ‘How to take care of your psychopath goat’ while doing my Japanese Literature Major. This is utterly ridiculous.” He passed one hand through his hair. “The boat is sinking and I would rather not die in here by drowning.” He sighed, either find a way to make the goat away or there will be a blodshe- “Wait, they shy away from overly-scented flowers.” He looked at the bluenette.

Seiichi frowned at Renji. “Why the hell are you looking at me? It’s not like I smell like flowers all the time.” He didn’t need to see the look on Renji and Genichirou’s faces to know that they would not agree with him. He pretty much always carried a nice floral scent, except when he had an earthy scent from hours spent with his hands in the dirt. Like a plant. “Oh for the love of... just let me touch it, Genichirou, so we can move on.”

It was with reluctance that Sanada let go of Seiichi, though he stayed close behind him just in case something happened and he would be able to pull his friend out of the way. It was like a trial, he told himself, take the risk and get over this obstacle, and they would be able to continue forth. “Renji,” he hissed out of the corner of his mouth, “When Seiichi touches it, the moment right after he touches it, run.” He wasn’t sure what the effect of Seiichi’s Touch would be on this sort of creature, but he wasn’t going to stay and find out; he trusted that Seiichi would prevail against his opponent, he always had.

“It’s a goat, Genichirou,” Renji hissed back. “You’ve faced more difficult opponents than a freaking goat. In the worst case scenario that it bites him, you’ll have no regrets for slashing it in half. It’s that or drowning to death. Did you know that suffocating while your lungs are filled with salt water feels like being stabbed by thousands of needles until you pass out and then die?” Nonetheless with the sharp edge on his words, Renji looked warily at the bluenette. He was Seiichi, everything would be alright.

“Renji,” Seiichi whispered waspishly, taking another cautious step. They didn’t need to slice the goat in half. Seiichi wasn’t even entirely sure the goat was real, anymore, let alone deserving of being diced up. Once he was in front of the goat, staring it down, it seemed pretty real. Dead, black eyes stared up at him as it chewed on what had once been Genichirou’s sleeve. If it had a soul, it did not show in the black abyss of its eyes. “It’s just a goat,” Seiichi murmured to himself, but still his hand shook a little as he reached out to place it atop the goat’s head. He hoped the other two were ready for action, just in case his “touch” Genichirou swore he had did not work as well as it did on other animals.

Sanada stared intently at the goat, watching the hand lower slowly, his gaze fixating on the very tips of the goat’s fur for the exact moment it depresses a fraction from the Touch. He caught the goat in the eye, and instinctively brought the katana closer to his body, unsheathing it just the slightest so that the glint of the metal caught in the black eyes and swallowed the light. Scarcely breathing, he settled one hand on the scabbard, the other on the hilt. Just a goat. You haven’t *seen* what these goats can do, Renji. They’re Atobe’s goats.

Renji saw it before it happened: the mix of Seiichi gentle touch, the glint of Genichirou’s blade and the millimetric cringe from the goat before it tensed up. Yet, he couldn’t do anything to help it. The goat charged at what thought it was the most dangerous threat, and that was not the blunette. He half reached to try to stop Seiichi from being knocked over by the goat in its charge at them, but that left the goat a clear way to its main target: Genichirou.

Before Seiichi knew what was happening, he was on his ass on the ground, watching the goat charge by him. Well, that torpedoed Genichirou’s “magical touch” theory, anyway (though he was sure that later Genichirou would insist that it just didn’t work on goats like other “normal” animals). He had just enough time to say, “Look out!” before the goat was upon Genichirou.

A hundred kilograms of mass, multiplied by the acceleration of the charging goat, equaled enough force to knock Sanada off his feet, katana clattering to the ground in his surprise as his back hit the floor. He had time only to raise his left arm in front of him to block the pair of hooves coming crashing down over his face, feeling the jarring pain in his shoulder as the weight came down.

Biting back his anger, Sanada grappled with the creature, its horns lowered dangerously close to his neck and its hot breath coming down upon his face, pushing it off long enough to grab the hilt of his katana and throw off the sheath. He rolled over, throwing it off, his eyes closed in pain of the awkward position his arm was in. Swung. There was a loud thawk... but not of sword on goat. He opened his eyes to see that he had struck wood. The goat had gone.

Renji must have blinked while trying to help Seiichi up and get to his other friend, because the goat wasn’t there anymore. He could try to believe that. Because he just didn’t see a goat disappear in thin air. That was not possible. He stumbled his way to his stoic friend, narrowing his eyes, like if by trying to focus he would make the goat appear again. “What....”

Of course Renji’s body had blocked part of the exchange - Seiichi had simply missed the goat being flung off somewhere, it couldn’t just disappear into thin air... right? Seiichi pushed himself away from Renji going to Genichirou to help him remove the sword from the wood of the wall. It didn’t take any sort of magical powers of observation to see that Genichirou was in a lot of pain. “Let one of us carry that - we need to get moving,” he suggested, bending to retrieve the hilt once they had freed the sword itself.

“It must have run,” Sanada decided once he got onto his feet again, panting slightly, “The coward. I can take the katana,” he said, a bit stiffly, not wanting to be the cause of slowing the group down or otherwise inconveniencing them, stubbornness alight in both his tone and his expression as he looked at the other two.

Renji stared at the vacant space where the goat and Genichirou had been just seconds ago; it took him 3.45 seconds to snap out of his trance. He had heard the last phrase, though. “No, you’re not.” He said and forcefully took the katana out of his friend’s grasp and passed it to Seiichi; his glare deathly and leaving no room for objection. He hung his backpack on one of the post to avoid getting it wet so he could take his shirt off, and immobilized his friend’s arm as best as he could with it. “We lost too much time, we need to hurry.” The water was just below knee level now.

Without question, Seiichi held the sword by the sheath, leading the other two through the door to the darkness beyond. There was minimal lighting to guide him until he made it to the stairwell. Water was coming faster, now, and he had to fight his way through it up the first few stairs. One arm was holding the rail for dear life, the other the sword, but with Genichirou’s bad arm... “Renji, help Genichirou,” he instructed, not looking back to see if his words were heeded as he pushed his way up the stairs. They would have to make up lost time on the next deck.

He tried to recall the map of the boat in his mind - the entertainment deck where he met Echizen? That would explain the low lights... and the floating barstools creating a dam off to his right. At least the water was starting to taper off at the top of the stairs. If they were quick, they might be back to partially dry ground on the next floor.

Sanada climbed up the stairs in between the other two, his free hand on the railing, walking fast enough so that he wouldn’t feel the ghost of the touch on his back that he was sure was Renji with his hand up in support in case it was needed. For once the deck was silent and empty, the ground wet but with low waters. Running across the floor, Sanada nearly slipped as something on the ground gave way-- playing cards scattered around, an entire deck having fallen and lay floating in the water all face down save for one card. The Joker. He kicked at the ground bitterly, the splash flipping several other cards over. Jokers. A deck full of Jokers.

Renji looked around when they finally reached the entertainment deck. It was empty as well. Where were the crew, the rest of the passengers? He frowned at the emotional display of his friend. “Genichirou, be careful. We need to go to the upper deck, if water goes higher in this one...” There were just too many loose, heavy objects and they would be trapped hopelessly on that deck. “There should be an emergency stairs about 100 meters to the right.”

Taking the suggestion, Seiichi veered to the right in search of the stairs Renji mentioned. Though he searched, there was just unbroken wall. “There should be,” he echoed. He reached a hand over to the wall, running his fingers over the smooth surface to find a break. “Are you sure it was here?” It was possible, after everything that had happened, after the goat, that the ship was actually changing shape... trapping them. For a moment, panic brought Seiichi’s heart to his throat before he was able to logic through the situation. The boat was not changing, that wasn’t possible.

Sanada knew better than to question Renji; if he says there are supposed to be stairs here, then there are definitely stairs. Stepping up to the wall, he watched Seiichi inspect the surface as if a new wall had just sprung out of thin air and was concealing the stairs-- in that case, then the stairs still exist, and they might still be able to reach them. Bringing up his good arm, Sanada clenched his hands into a fist and struck at the wall, listening for a resonance that might indicate that the wall is hollow and perhaps able to be broken through, but heard only a dull thud and felt more frustration than he did pain in his hand. He turned to the other two, not wanting to be the one to say, but “There are no st--” He broke off, staring past them into the distance. “The door we had just come through, where is it?” Looking around, he could only see four walls, windows showing the water level creeping higher each second, no entrances, no exits.

Renji turned around to take a look around the room they were in. It was impossible. He shook his head trying to clear his head. “The stairs must be here, they can not disappear.” There must be something wrong and since inanimate objects can’t disappear or change by themselves if not by human intervention, there must be something wrong with them, a collective hallucination maybe? “Hallucinations are false or distorted sensory experiences that appear to be real perceptions. These sensory impressions are generated by the mind rather than by any external stimuli, and may be seen, heard, felt, and even smelled or tasted by the victim... The stairs are here or there wouldn’t be water. We need to find them.”

“...That’s the key,” Seiichi realized after Renji spoke. “The water has to be coming into the room from somewhere - if we can find the source, we can find our way out.” Easier said than done in the near-darkness, but it was not as though the water could just materialize. Then again, it was also not as though entryways just disappeared on their own without warning. Seiichi crouched down to try to feel the general direction the water was moving - it was definitely coming from somewhere near the wall they were facing... maybe up to his left a few paces? He tapped the butt of the sword against the wall, checking for the same hollow noise that Sanada was seeking.

Frowning, Sanada went back to pick up a handful of the cards floating on the surface of the water, the Joker’s face caught the whatever light was left and reflected off the face of the card. He threw one where Seiichi stood, watching the direction the card moved past, and repeated the process until the cards swept perpendicular to the wall; this would be where the water was coming from. He motioned for Seiichi to hold the katana still, “You’re going to need a lot more force than that,” he told the other, plus he didn’t want to damage it either. The sword was good for slashing things in half, not sledgehammering against a wall.

There was a cracking noise. “Let’s try with this.” Renji said holding up a leg from one of the Black Jack tables; judging by the weight, color and texture it should be made of cedar and would be able to withstand the hit. “Stand aside.” He said to his other friends and positioned himself where the cards indicated should be the stairs, he placed a hand over the wall. “You do not exist,” he whispered, took a step back, and swung the leg at the wall. As he expected, the wall disappeared; or more like, their senses were stopped being played around with (a wall cannot disappear or appear out of thin air, after all). That didn’t stop him from falling forward and stumble against the new found stairs. He gasped. “The water’s freezing.”

Seiichi caught Renji’s arm, dragging him up to a stand. “Careful,” he chided, though their way up the stairs was now clear. They had lost time in the room with no doors - the water was verging on knee-level, again, and as Renji already pointed out, it was very cold. “Tread lightly - the stairs will be treacherous,” he warned. As he made his way up the stairs, he slowly became aware of music. At first it was very quiet, barely audible above the rush of the water, but as they climbed, he was able to make out the general tune. The haunting flute solo.

Every night in my dreams...

Panic rose up in Seiichi once more - the emergency stairs had dropped them off on the next deck in the back of the movie theatre... where a familiar movie was playing on the screen. Sometime in the future, when all of this was long over, he was almost certain that hearing the first few notes of this song was going to trigger a PTSD relapse. He found his hand gripping more tightly at the katana.

“It’s that song again,” Sanada said matter-of-factly, as if the other two would never have noticed, but said nothing more, as he then turned his concentration on climbing the stairs. The pant legs up to his knees were soaked with the rushing water, and with the torrent rushing down the stairs, the force of the water was greater than usual and posed more of a danger. He kept his right hand on the handrail to avoid getting swept off his feet, but even the rail was slick and wet, making it hard to pull himself along with it.

He looked past Seiichi at the movie theater screen, his attention caught caught on the scene that was playing: it was a lower deck, already filled knee high with water, the level already rising rapidly, a gate was up blocking the way and people were screaming, trying to break the lock as something shattered in the background and a fresh wave of water came pouring through the corridor, shouts, cries, begs to open the gates and let the people be saved. And in the midst of the crowd of people shoving past one another, right in the middle of the crowd, was a group of three people, three extremely familiar people. “Isn’t that...?” Sanada stopped in front of the screen, the figure in the middle of the group mirroring his motions and slowly looking forward until hard eyes met his own, his reflection looking at him from behind the bars.

Renji looked at the screen, not taking his eyes off of it. “That’s...” Not possible. A sick joke from Atobe’s tennis themed cruise. Him being asleep and dreaming or drugged. He stood there watching the people that weren’t behind him struggling to get past the closed gates. A hologram perhaps? It should be some kind of staged ship wreck then; he didn’t pin Atobe as one capable of suck tacky tactics, though. His other self stared at him.

“Guys...” Seiichi motioned ahead of them to the exit of the theatre... blocked by tall bars. It was now too late to retreat back down the stairs and try to find a second exit from the room with no doors, but Seiichi wasn’t sure how they were going to get past this one unless Genichirou could take it out with the sword (though with his shoulder...) or maybe Renji could will them out of existence as had happened with the wall that hid the exit in the previous floor. Or maybe there was a release for the bars that would be within reach. He sloshed through the water, ignoring the sound of panic on the screen behind him and the song that was now blaring so loudly through the room that he couldn’t hear himself think.

The water rushed between the bars and Seiichi clung to one with his free hand to hold himself still as he looked along the walls on the other side. There, just out of his reach, was the release. If they could pull that, it should lower the bars. Maybe with the sword... and longer arms. “Can either of you reach that?” He yelled, turning back to his companions. He caught a glimpse of himself on the screen, eyes wild and hair matted against his head with his pajama pants soaked up to the knees. He didn’t look like an action hero, he looked like a nameless extra doomed to die.

Sanada tore his eyes away from the screen, half sloshing over to the bars half being pushed there by the water, getting to Seiichi’s side to reach past the bars. He could see that his fingertips barely fell short a meter from the release; his katana he knew measured a 72 centimeter blade, it wouldn’t be long enough unless they tried throwing and hoping it catches, though he didn’t want to risk losing it that way.

Turning again to his friends, Sanada’s eyes caught the screen. His counterpart had disappeared from the crowd; there was a black cap floating ominously by the gate, caught between the bars, half flattened as if it-- perhaps its owner as well-- had been trampled underfoot by the increasingly hysterical crowd. Or perhaps...

Thinking it was the stupidest thing in the world, but not knowing what else to do, he dropped to his knees and plunged his head under the surface of the water, the cold front hitting him in the face and the music immediately muted. There, where the gate was supposed to meet the floor, was a gap just large enough for a body to slip past; it had not closed all the way, and they couldn’t have seen from above the water, where the level was rising quickly to waist level. He pushed himself up from the ground, opening his mouth to shout the news to the other two, when he was interrupted by a deafening crack. A window had broken, and it didn’t take a movie screen to know what would be coming their way.

Renji should have winced at the sound of the window breaking, and above all, what it meant, but he was too absorbed in watching his friend’s facial expression before that happened. It was the same one he wore when he perfected each part of his ultimate technique back in middle school, the one that said ‘I overcame weakness.’ So even if he didn’t finish his sentence, Renji knew what it meant. “You found a gap,” he said quietly. “You found a gap.”

Immediately, he took off his bag once more and shoved it to Seiichi’s arms. Genichirou was resenting his shoulder’s injury and would find it more difficult to swim against the flow; Seiichi was strong and healthy but even after all these years, he was the thinnest of all three of them and he was already soaked to the bone. The drier they could stay, the better. He braced himself for the cold water before taking a deep breath and going under. Renji immediately felt the cold water tensing his muscles and numbing his nerves. The flickering light of the screen playing the movie was dim but enough for him to see the gap and make his way through it. The water flow was strong and made it difficult, though. Once he had passed through the gap, he stood up gasping for air. It took more time than expected to free the lock because he was shaking badly because of the cold but once he did; the bars fell....

Or at least half of them.

I hate this movie, Seiichi thought, now holding Renji’s backpack on one shoulder and still gripping the katana in his other. They could both make it through, one at a time, and Genichirou was injured. He had to go first. “Genichirou - now,” he ordered, his voice strained to be heard over the blaring music and rushing water as he motioned with the katana. The fear he had felt of the water, of drowning... it seemed to... well, wash away. It was replaced by the urgent need to get Genichirou out of the situation. He stood to the side, passing the backpack and the katana through the bars to Renji on the other side and fought to not look back at the screen for any predictions of his own death.

Sanada looked over at Seiichi with a nod of agreement-- to the ‘now,’ at least, not the ‘Genichirou.’ He knew that with his shoulder he couldn’t give a proper boost-up with both hands, but Seiichi was lighter than him and had a higher priority than him. Moving quickly so that the other wouldn’t have time to respond-- he knew Seiichi would hate this, as he had hated being subject to being carried bridal style the last time the ship alarms had started blaring-- he knelt down to grab Seiichi by the legs, hauling him up to that he could reach the top of the bars and pull himself over. ‘Go!’ he shouted, unable to hear his own voice through the roar of rushing water coming quickly their way, though the message shone clearly through his eyes.

At the sight of what Genichirou was going to do, Renji stuck the katana between the bars so he could help the blunette to pass to the other side. The water pressure was increasing and the water was rising. He used the water flow to project his own weight against the gap in order to make it bigger; the way the bars were still holding made a very unfavorable angle to try to help his other friend up as well. “Seiichi! Give me that axe over there!” He yelled signaling one placed in the far wall just next to a fire extinguisher. He felt the gap giving in slightly with the pure force of the water and the well aimed kicks he was giving to it; he just needed a bit more of force.

Seiichi considered the safest way to break the glass that contained the axe (he could never figure out why these things were behind glass in the event of an emergency), and settled for a sharp, well aimed shoulder into the glass; thankfully, it was tempered and rather than shatter, it crumbled under the force. He didn’t pause to worry about the glass, handing the axe over the Renji - he was the one that knew where to find the weak points in the gate. Once the axe was out of his hands, he covered his opposite hand with his sleeve and gently brushed away any glass fragments that remained on his shoulder and a few in his hair.

Sanada stared horror struck at Seiichi as he retrieved the axe, as if he had smashed the glass in with his face or something similarly dangerous, instead of a fabric covered shoulder against thin tempered glass. He didn’t have time to reprimand the other though, instead stepping forward half a pace to help Renji pry the gate open. Time seemed to crawl along, the bars giving way too little too slowly, the first glimpse of water from his periphery appearing as white foam claws sneaking around the corner, smashing against the opposite wall before crashing to the floor and surging their way. And how time slows down when one concentrates on something, the moment Sanada ripped his eyes away and took the bars of the gate into his hands to slip past, time conveniently sped up in compensation-- he had barely gotten through when he felt the wall of water against his back, his breath catching in his throat.

Renji watched the water path while working to get the bars open enough. Just after Genichirou passed through them and the water hit them, he had freed the katana and gripped the front of Genichirou’s shirt in a death grip to pull him toward himself to avoid the full force of the water wall from hitting him straight on; instead, it hit the bars smashing them. The sound of metal collapsing was loud in their ears. He composed himself as quickly as he could and dragged his friend to his feet as well. “Let’s go!” Renji yelled to both his friends, the water already past waist level. They were running out of time.

Pausing only long enough to see Renji and Genichirou get back to their feet, Seiichi sloshed through the water as quickly as he could, leading them toward the next staircase up. They only needed to pass through one more floor until they would be on deck - the floor with the library and gaming rooms. Renji probably knew it better than any of them, as he had spent a good portion of the cruise pent up there. The water seemed to move in every direction, almost like it was sloshing back and forth between the walls, hindering forward movement, but now the stairs were in sight. “Stairs,” Seiichi yelled to his friends behind him, pushing forward through the water.

Each stair was a fight to stay on his feet all the way up to a door that stood between him and the next floor. No water seemed to be passing under the doorway, so it had to be free of water. He grabbed for the handle, slipping the first time he tried to turn it, before finally opening a passage into the dark game room and throwing himself inside... where there was no water at all. And no sound. No light. Even the sound of the water rushing below him suddenly seemed distant. He looked behind himself to where Genichirou and Renji should have been, but there was just darkness.

“Well, fuck,” he muttered, reaching into the pocket of his sweatshirt and pulling out his phone. It had been in water too long though - it would need to dry if it would be salvaged. There was no chance the light would work. “Genichirou? Renji?” He stayed perfectly still, afraid to move lest he bump into something. The fear of drowning was forgotten once more - now he was left with the fear of the unknown.

Seiichi had been right in front of him up until Sanada reached the door and saw his friend swallowed up by the darkness. With Renji right behind him and there being no time to waste lest the water catches up with them, Sanada quickly went through the doorway as well. ...Darkness. He couldn’t even see his own feet on the floor in front of him, it was so dark. “Renji, do you have a--” he started, but upon turning around, he saw that there again was no door, no light behind him like there should have been. He stepped forward-- he hadn’t gone more than a pace inside the room, perhaps the door had just shut-- but several paces passed and he felt no wall. ’Renji!’ He called again. ’Seiichi!!’ But he wasn’t even sure if that was his voice he was hearing, or if it was all just inside his head.

Sanada turned around again, or at least, he made to turn around, but it was impossible to know for sure when one’s entire field of vision is nothing but a black expanse, the further he wandered the further he would become disoriented and lost. He could feel that tight grip of fear again at not being able to find his friends, of not knowing where they are or what happened to them, but he could not feel the cold of the water, or the pain of his shoulder, or even his feet against the ground... It was as if he did not even exist, just a soul with no body to experience the world. It was like being subject to the yips all over again.

Renji had followed Genichirou after Seiichi disappeared in the darkness of the gaming room; it was the safest route since that room was connected to one of the libraries and then to a emergency staircase to the upper deck. He didn’t even feel the door closing behind him. Everything was pure and undefined darkness. He could still feel the cold of being soaked in freezing water; if he was still walking through water he couldn’t tell but there was no sound of splashing water. He stopped and stood still, trying to sharpen his senses to draw a mental image of what he was facing. He couldn’t hear his friends, nor his own breathing. There was nothing but darkness. Renji felt a gut gripping fear. Did he fall unconscious? He felt too conscious to be knocked out and he didn’t recollect being hit by something. “Genichirou... Seiichi?” He called tentatively, somehow he knew it wouldn’t do any good to shout.

Yips, Seiichi recognized after a few moments of sitting in silence. He hardly recognized them himself when he was on the receiving end. Nothing, no one, had been able to turn his weapon against him until now... and there was no reason why this should be any different. Let time pass, he reminded himself softly. Don’t do anything to make it worse. Fighting the yips, for anyone but Genichirou, in his experience, was what worsened them to the point of failure. Slowly, he felt the cold creeping into his feet, covered only in sneakers that were so saturated they were almost a liability. Then the tips of his fingers. Then his eyes began to adjust to the room. It was dark, yes, but there were little blips of light around the room from machines that were somehow still receiving power even with the boat running on emergency generators.

His knees locked up when he tried to walk, but he managed to stumble a couple paces back in the direction of the door that led them in - a figure before him. An outline of a familiar strong jaw. “Genichirou,” he breathed in relief - Renji would not be far behind. When there was no response, he reached out to touch Genichirou’s shoulder, repeating, “Genichirou?” He had pulled out of the yips, right? This was real and not just a new illusion of his mind? As he had the thought, the darkness began to creep in at the edges of his vision, again... as though despair itself had summoned it. No, not again. He slid his hand down Genichirou’s arm half-blindly, grasping his hand instead, and the darkness once more began to recede. ’Renji...’ he wondered, trying to squint into the darkness. Another faint outline... but Seiichi still fought with his own mind whether he was being hopeful or if it truly was his friend another few steps from them.

Sanada could feel pressure against his arm, could feel it moving down and take hold of his hand-- there was no warmth attached to it, no defining texture, no physical object he could see causing the sensation. Blackness was still all around, and he let his arm hang there motionlessly, eyes staring blankly ahead of him with nothing to focus his gaze on. There was nothing besides himself (or at least, the perception of “self”), and the loose grip upon his hand... Needing something, anything, to root himself, he gave it a squeeze. And felt it squeeze back.

Surprised, he turned to look at his side-- darkness, but now there was a vague feeling of a presence, someone safe and familiar, with the faintest of floral scents that couldn’t be masked by the salty air. He could not see, but he could feel, and he could sense. He loosened his grip and linked arms instead, his hand reaching out in front of him-- the two people in the room with him now, they were people he has had in his life long enough to really know them, a deep enough connection to realize they would never truly be separated, no matter what-- and drop down on the shoulder he knew to be Renji’s.

Senses were subjective and trickable. It was just like before: the fact that he couldn’t see something it didn’t meant it wasn’t there, but the fact that he could be already be drowning, standing motionless while the water was rising until the water was high enough to suffocate him and not be able to tell was beyond terrifying. Renji tried to calm down enough to overpass the anguish of not knowing what was happening in the reality he couldn’t see nor feel; that’s why he had such a hard time fighting against Seiichi’s yips... and he usually gave up once he had analyzed all options and realized he couldn’t fight them instead of wasting energy in fruitless attempts. This was not a tennis match though, and he realized he wasn’t feeling cold anymore.

Holding tight to Genichirou’s arm, and following his reach to Renji, Seiichi also held out his hand to place it on Renji’s other shoulder. “Renji,” he called out, his voice hoarse. “Snap out of it; the boat’s not going to stop sinking.” He gave the shoulder below his hand a light squeeze. The soft whir of the electronics in the room was the only sound, and it was starting to sound almost like ringing in Seiichi’s ears. He was ready to leave this place.

Sanada could hear the voice next to his ear now, could feel the warmth of the hand around his arm, knew that when he spoke, it would be the sound of his own voice in the room and not just inside his head. “Renji!” he called, firmly, loudly, “We’ve got to go!” He knew that his friend just might care more about figuring things out than getting away and losing his only chance to analyze and make sense of the situation and that was what kept him in the darkness even as it started fading for the other two, but now wasn’t the time for that.

His grip on Renji’s shoulder tightened. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, the wet fabric of his shirt clinging to his torso, and Renji’s shirt, waterlogged and weighing down his shoulder where it bound as a makeshift splint. Everything from the navel down was numb; he knew that was where the water lay, no longer rushing in with any indication of how quickly it intended to chase after them, but instead, slowly creeping up, quietly, deadly, if they did not get out of here, and fast.

With his hair wet and dripping against his forehead, goosebumps across his arms that betrayed both cold and fear, eyes staring unseeingly out into nothing, Renji looked more like a lost child than Sanada had ever seen him. Eyebrows furrowed, Sanada slid his hand down from the other’s shoulder down to his arm. He stepped close, pulling Renji into an one-armed hug, his voice strained. “Renji, we need you here.”

If this was happening to the three of them, Seiichi would be the first to come back to himself. Genichirou would follow after. He needed to calm down but trying to blank a non-stop thinking mind took a while. It was manageable, though, but it took all Renji’s concentration to stop playing scenarios of what might happen to concentrate on seeing beyond the void-like darkness. He heard something, making his concentration to break for a second and when the silence threatened to swallow everything again he heard his name once more. That meant they were fine and had overcame this sort of illusion. Renji held onto that, trying to force his brain to react accordingly. He felt a ghost touch in his shoulders first, then something half around him. He expected the cold to come next and so it did, making him gasp.

Knowing he could free his mind, the darkness started to fade as he started to get his sight back again. Renji blinked a few times to get his eyes used to the dim light of the gaming room; every sense coming slowly back. Seeing his friends fine, or as well this situation allowed them to be, ended up clearing his mind; the water level told him he had spent too much time under the illusion and they needed to move now and fast. “I’m fine,” he said and placed one hand over each of his friends’ reassuringly. Yes, they were real. He pointed at the door. “Let’s get out here.”

Seiichi didn’t need to hear that command twice. This time, he did not release Genichirou’s hand as he made his way to the door of the dark room, sloshing through knee-deep water. If he remembered correctly, they would have to pass through the library to exit to the open deck above them - and most likely the safety of the lifeboats. With the end in sight, any final traces of the yips were well and truly gone by the time they entered the library.

Books were everywhere, many floating along in the water like tiny boats, spine up, pages saturated beyond repair. The tall bookshelves had hardly budged under the force of the water, but they may have been bolted down, and even if they were not they were no doubt made of a thick, heavy wood and it would take more than the water to push them over. Ahead of them was a staircase up to the top deck, a bit of early morning light peering through the doorway to light their path. Before excitement could overcome him, he heard it. A faint noise, at first... almost like a wet grinding sound. No, chewing. His eyes drifted around the room, looking for the source of the sound... slowly raising to the bookshelf nearest their exit where the impossible awaited them. “I don’t fucking believe it,” he muttered under his breath.

Casually chewing its way through the pages of a ruined book as though plucking leaves from the tallest tree, and obscured primarily by the bookshelf, there stood a giraffe. Now how the hell am I supposed to get Genichirou out of here?

Sanada stared. And turned. “Renji!” he said loudly, distractedly, taking his friend by the wrist, “Can you believe the state of these books? I can hardly bear to see them like this. Let’s get out of here.” He tugged the other towards the direction back to the room they had just left-- at least in the nothingness he would neither see nor have to deal with such a creature. Battling wallpaper!giraffes were one thing, seeing another standing in the middle of the room, chewing something that could very well be their own flesh if there weren’t careful, was another thing entirely. He didn’t like turning his back, he didn’t like retreating, but the fact of the matter was, he wasn’t ready. Not for ‘Flooding.’ He would take the ship flooding over this bloody sick joke turned behavioral therapy any day.

“No,” Renji said firmly and freed his wrist so he could forcefully grasp Genichirou’s left arm. With the shoulder already restrained by the goat’s attack and the makeshift bind, any attempt to free himself would be extremely painfully. He stared at the giraffe. If it weren’t for the fact that nothing made sense and they were facing death by the most ridiculous of chances of a shipwreck, he would have laughed. “We cannot lose any more time.” He turned to his friend and gave him a deadly glare. “If we go or if we take too long before exiting this boat, we’ll die.” He pointed with his head at Seiichi, with a serious face that said ‘Don’t you dare to let us die because of a damn giraffe.’

“No one is going to die,” Seiichi assured them both patiently, though the sound of the water moving beyond them spoke differently. How did the boat sink this fast? Then again, how did a giraffe get in the boat in the first place? Maybe they would finally find an answer to life’s greatest question - can giraffes swim? We need to go, he thought, glancing back at the other two. It’s just a giraffe, it doesn’t even know we’re here.

Seiichi turned on Genichirou and put his hand to Genichirou’s cheek, feeling sufficiently awkward doing so in front of Renji. “It’s an herbivore on spindly little legs that probably can’t swim - we are in no danger. We just need to get around it.”

‘We just need to get around it.’ That was like saying ‘Hey, we’re slathering you with chunks of raw meat and throwing you into a starving lions’ den and locking the gate-- just try to survive.’ Heck, that was worse than ‘Oh, you’ve never played tennis before? Here’s a racket, try to win Seiichi.’ This whole thing was like walking into a deathtrap knowing the only thing awaiting you in the trap is death. Needless to say, not even Seiichi’s presence helped Sanada’s peace of mind at the moment. He didn’t feel the other’s hand on his cheek, didn’t see whatever disapproving look Renji was likely giving him, he blocked out everything but the giraffe. On a battlefield, only the enemy exists. His right hand clenched in a tight fist; when had he ever stood in fear in the face of adversity? This was where he thrived. And then his arm rose, palm facing up, straight out to his side without the slightest of tremors. “I have to be the one to defeat this here. Give me my sword.”

Renji would was torn between feeling touched by the display of affection between his two friends, proud of Genichirou defeating his fear of giraffes and guilty for the fate that might await the poor ugly animal- The cold water around his legs sent everything to hell and made him place the sword in Genichirous awaiting hand. He put his hand on the other’s shoulder and whispered, “It holds no power over you, Genichirou.”

Seiichi, for his part, would have felt a bit embarrassed to be with these two yahoos if they weren’t in a dire life-or-death situation. He sighed, stepping out of Genichirou’s path, and silently bade farewell to the poor, clueless giraffe that munched away on a discarded book.

It was as if all of his training up to this day was geared towards this ultimate battle. Stepping up towards the giraffe, Sanada stood still, calm, his hand on the katana grip by his left hip where the sheath should have been. Following custom, he lowered his head in a deep bow, watching the giraffe’s reflection on the water as to make sure it would not suddenly go for his neck while it was exposed. The animal merely cocked its head in either confusion or amusement, perhaps a mixture of both, and continued chewing. Sanada took in a deep breath as he straightened up, eyes hard and fixed upon the enemy, fingers wrapped around the hilt of his katana.

Soft brown eyes gazed out from behind the giraffe’s long lashes, settling on the hilt of the sword even as the man in front of it drew the blade. In an instant, by animal reflex it reared, front legs drawn up from the ground to get out of the way, its offender looking up at it with unmistakable fear and determination in his eyes, tensed and ready to run, but nevertheless holding his ground. Which is never a good thing, when one is seconds away from being pummeled by a thousand kilograms of giraffe coming down hooves first.

Renji groaned in frustration as he launched himself at him friend to stop him from getting hurt by the giraffe’s hooves. This was definitely not what he had in mind when he told Genichirou to fight his phobia; he wasn’t supposed to be scaring the giraffe half to death. Splashing water everywhere, Renji manage to grabbed the other and pulled him to the side before he was crushed by the animal. They crashed against a bookshelf, knocking it over and startling the poor giraffe even more, causing it to run away from them and stand right in front the exit door.

“This is stupid,” Seiichi muttered - it was as though it had become his mantra in the past few hours since the boat had started to sink. Suddenly, everything was just stupid, like the giraffe that was supposed to be in Africa, and instead was on a sinking cruise ship in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Stupid.

Seiichi glanced around himself to determine what his tools were - without the sword, he didn’t really have anything to use as a pike or rod... oh well, the giraffe could come to him. He picked up one of the books floating pages-down in the water and waved it over his head. “Hey~” he called sweetly, trying to tempt the giraffe. “This looks tasty, right?” The giraffe, wary of the other two men (the one with the sword, and the one that made the big, mean bookshelf move), now didn’t seem too sure of the one with the tasty book. Seiichi glanced at the spine of the book - Gulliver’s Travels. Sure. “Yummy book for you...” Tentatively, the giraffe took a step away from the door and toward Seiichi and the book in hand.

“Seiichi...” Sanada hissed from across the room, unable to get up for Renji still holding him back. He wasn’t sure he wanted to approach the giraffe anymore either, after that recent demonstration of the animal’s murderous intent. But he didn’t want Seiichi to get hurt by it either. This wasn’t the petting zoo, and he didn’t have any power over that goat several rooms back either; the magic had run off and Seiichi had nothing against the giraffe besides a book in his hand and the bravest soul Sanada had ever seen, being able to face such a creature head-on.

He hoped that book was poisoned. Well, Atobe had owned it, that was probably bad enough, but Sanada preferred for the giraffe to keel over right away so they wouldn’t have to deal with it. He got up slowly, keeping his back pressed up against the overturned shelf to show Renji he wasn’t about to run. Instead, he took Renji’s hand clasped in his and squeezed hard, needing all the moral support he could get, watching the horror unfold in front of his eyes, of one of the most important people in the world to him standing up against one of his greatest fears, and not being able to help.

Renji would never eat anything that came from Seiichi’s hand - too willingly at least, he would force it down to not hurt the other’s feelings- but of course (and thankfully) the giraffe didn’t know. And Seiichi didn’t cook the book, so there would be no damage done to the animal. He felt Genichirou squeezing his hand and thought of the giraffe being slashed in half. He held back a sigh. Honestly, his friends were a danger to his sanity. He saw the giraffe coming closer to Seiichi. “Genichirou, sheathe the sword. Slowly.” Renji whispered. Feeding a giraffe should be easy and not dangerous; it was usually an attraction in zoos. If only things were normal around them.

Unaware of the others, Seiichi kept his eyes locked with the giraffe’s - soft brown eyes like his own. Were the circumstances different, it would have been a beautiful animal. As it was, fear began to gnaw away at Seiichi’s stomach as he took a cautious step back, still holding the book out temptingly. The giraffe, thankfully, took the bait, advancing on the man a bit more readily and craning its neck down for the book. Just a normal giraffe, Seiichi reasoned. A normal giraffe on a sinking cruise ship eating books. He kept his eyes trained on the giraffe, watching as the animal tore one page out of the book - he would have to drop it and run in a moment. “Genichirou, Renji,” he spoke softly, not wanting to startle the animal. “Get up on deck. I’ll follow in a moment.”