It was an attic.
But not just any attic!
It was HUMONGOUS!
As far as Ranma could see, there were no walls. High above her head, barely visible, she could see an enormous roof that spread out above their heads like the sky. The colossal beams crossbars that supported that roof had the proportions of giant redwood trees. Here and there she could see piles of various items lying around.
Ranma spun around. The view certainly was breathtaking. "Where ARE we?" she gasped.
"This is the attic," Hotaru smiled. "We come here if we need something. We can almost find everything here. And it's VERY big!" She spread out her arms. "There are no walls. You can walk as long as you like."
Ranma looked up. "What's above that roof?"
Hotaru followed her gaze. "What do you mean?"
"There has to be something above that roof. Ever tried finding out?"
Hotaru shook her head. "No... not... really." Then she pointed to one of the giant beams. "Come on, I wanted to show you something."
When they got near the colossal wooden beam, it seemed to be even bigger than she thought. On its surface, there were countless cracks. But when she stood directly in front of it, she saw that she was wrong: Those weren't cracks, they were names and lines someone had carved into the wood.
Hotaru handed her a small knife. "Here, you have to carve you name under the others. Everyone does it. So we can kinda record who has ever been here before."
Ranma looked up the beam. The carved names reached up very high, so high that she couldn't read the names that were at the top. "Why are some of the names crossed?" she asked.
"Whenever someone disappears, we are crossing his or her name."
Then Ranma realized something. "What about that name up there? If I'm not wrong, only the names of you, Rei, Ami, Minako, Makoto and Michiru shouldn't be crossed. But that name also isn't. Why's that?"
Hotaru shrugged. "Don't know! Perhaps they forgot to do it." She pointed at the knife. "Come on, write your name!"
Ranma shook her head. "No. I won't do it!"
"No?" Hotaru asked surprised. "Why not?"
"Because I ain't staying here!"
For several moments, Hotaru didn't say anything. "But you should," she then said. "Everyone does that." She almost sounded whiny. "Rei won't be happy if she learns about this."
"Rei can shove... I mean, she can't tell me what to do. I thought she isn't your leader."
"No, she isn't," Hotaru quickly answered. "But..."
"But you are happy if she takes care of everything, right?" Ranma sighed. She headed back to where the spiral stairway was - that is, where it had APPEARED. She was pretty sure that they had entered the attic somewhere else and that a few seconds before, there was no stairway behind them.
Ranma left it to Hotaru for guiding her back to the others, because, to be honest, she wasn't sure if she would find the way by herself.
After they were back on the 13th floor and walked for a few seconds, something black suddenly shot out of the darkness and startled them. Hotaru squeaked and winced a little.
"Swoop!" Ranma shouted. "What's the big idea? You wanna scare us out of our wits?"
"So you met the others," Swoop said happily. "Did you carve your name in already?"
One of the doors opened. Rei stepped out. "What's the big noise?" she asked. Then she spotted Swoop. "Of course! The annoying bat!"
"I'm a batRAT," Swoop screeched angrily.
Rei didn't pay attention to her anymore. She looked at Ranma, then at Hotaru. "You showed her the attic?"
Hotaru nodded. "Yes, but she didn't want to carve her name in. She said she wouldn't do it because she would be going to leave this place anyway."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rei asked angrily. "Everyone puts his name on the beam. It's important!"
"Why?" Ranma asked. "Just because you can see when the next one is going to leave?"
Rei's face paled at this comment. Everyone else looked startled as well.
"That's... nonsense!" Rei muttered.
"You know that?" Ranma asked. "You're right! You really don't have to be afraid that you're next. I will leave this place and you won't have a reason anymore to be afraid."
"That's enough!" Makoto angrily stepped next to Rei. "Who do you think you..."
"It's all right," Rei said. Makoto stopped, surprised.
"Can I talk with you for a minute?" Rei asked Ranma. "Privately?"
Ranma - and everybody else, for that matter - certainly didn't expect that. But she said: "Uh... sure! No problem!"
The others went back into the room, followed by Swoop (who nearly got her wing chopped off when Makoto closed the door).
Rei and Ranma entered a room a little further down the corridor. Then they sat down on some chairs.
"Well, what's the matter?" Ranma wanted to know.
Rei sighed. "Please don't raise any false hope with what you're doing, okay?" she said. "I certainly know what your point is, but I don't want the others to be disappointed, you know?"
"Oh, really?" Ranma asked a little sceptically.
Rei smiled. "Of course! You know, I once used to think exactly like you. When I arrived here, I was mad. I searched for a way out like crazy, and I thought I was going insane when I wasn't successful. But I learned to adapt. As everyone else did."
"You mean you learned to RESIGN!"
"Call it what you want, but please... promise me one thing..." She closed her eyes. "Hope can be a wonderful thing. But it can be terrible, if it is destroyed. I don't want the others to undergo that like I did. Do you get my point?"
Ranma gulped. "Well, yeah... I think I can do that."
Rei smiled at her. "Great! That's all I want to hear."
"But, seriously, Rei... You must see that this is no life... Outside this House, your friends and family are waiting, as well as the ones of the others..."
"Not mine," Rei sadly answered. She looked down. "You and the others may still have some relatives or friends left, but not me! My parents are dead."
"I'm sorry, but you know, my mother died as well!" Well it was Amnar's mother, but in this case, it didn't matter.
"But you didn't see her die before her eyes..." Rei whispered.
Ranma leaned forward. "What happened?" she asked quietly.
"It was a bombing raid," Rei explained. It clearly wasn't easy for her to tell Ranma this. She could see tears in Rei's eyes. "The Germans bombed the town my family lived in. My family couldn't reach the bunker in time. And then... everything became hell! I saw flames and explosions everywhere, and my parents died before my eyes. Something heavy knocked me out, and... When I woke up, I was with people I didn't know."
"That's... terrible..." But then Ranma realized something. "Wait, bombing raid? What bombing raid? There is no war between Germany and Japan!"
"The Germans are our enemies," Rei said confidently. "We're at war!"
"War?" Ranma couldn't believe it. War? With the Germans? "What's the name of the German leader?" She asked. "The name of the FÜHRER?"
"Adolf Hitler, of course," Rei said. "But everyone knows that."
"I...see," Ranma whispered. "You're talking about World War II."
"Do they call it that?" Rei asked. "Yes, the name fits, I think. But..." She gasped. "Do you mean to tell me the war is OVER?"
Ranma shuddered. It couldn't be. "Yes, it's over, Rei," she said.
"It ended... more than 50 years ago!"
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(Posted Sat, 08 Jul 2006 16:51)
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