The Dream Shifter

Chapter 160

"Don't nitpick me! It's real, but not real!" Seiji stumbled around his words still unbalanced by the ship and further confused by what he was trying to say. He tried to figure it before when Yuki explained it and none of it really made a lot of sense to him. When he got a second explanation prior to the disembarking from Ayumi it made things only further convoluted for him. "None of it makes any sense. Just sounds like a dream to me!"

"You're part right and part wrong," echoed Ayumi's voice from within the hall. Her undeclared arrival set Seiji on edge hugging the railing and the others looking more attentive than before. She stared at Seiji for a moment regretting the fact of what she was going to do. "As I explained before it is a type of illusionary power. We create what we want with our mind to make it real within the boundaries of our field." The longer she went on the more it became clear to her that he was not getting it either distraction by irrational fear or too dumb to comprehend an explanation. Ayumi could only sigh.

"It's like playing pretend when you were younger," Fumiko translated, "Except what was pretend is now reality."

Ayumi bit her lip a little holding back her frustration with her explanation being dumb downed so much feeling it as an insult. It became even worse though when she saw that Seiji actually seemed to understand what Fumiko reworded for him. She lost a moment of her composure in slack-jawed disbelief. It immediately followed up by the sting at her pride waking her voice. "I can't believe you actually understand such a simplistic explanation as to insult our great tradition!"

Seiji shrugged to her a bit feeling a brief respite from his fear. "I can't help it if your explanations are too complicated."

"…too…complicated!? Complicated?!"

Yumi stepped in between seeing that she was needed to calm them down. "No one intended to insult your tradition Ayumi. You should be glad that Seiji understands now." She focused on Ayumi seeing her at the one that was more in danger of completely losing her temper, even though she nearly had already. The different side of Ayumi had not been something that she completely adjusted to, since she had been used to seeing shy and happy Ayumi until a week ago.

The reluctance surpassed any expression she might have tried. They walked on her very core, much like Yuki repeatedly did as she recalled. She backed down though settling on Seiji not being worth it. "…fine…"

"I've got a question," Seiji said, directed towards Ayumi in bold fashion acting like everything that happened a second before meant nothing.

"…What?" Ayumi responded curtly grinding the word through her teeth. She bore him a viciously narrow glare that had no room for wasting her time with pointless questions.

"If you're so powerful why not just make a plane or some instant teleportation device to get us there faster than a boat?"

Yori sat up from his chair and leaned over his knees. He made a slight nod before re-enforcing Seiji's question with one that had been spinning through his mind for a while. "I was actually wondering the same thing as well. It doesn't seem like the most efficient method given what I've seen you do."

The question turned Ayumi away from them slightly looking a little cornered and reluctant. Her hesitation only made everyone lean and press in becoming even more curious considering her reaction. When she looked back, prepared to talk, to find them all much closer than before her doubt increased. "It's because…I'm trying to limit how much fighting we have to do while reaching Atlantis. Going in from the air is going to get us spotted."

Fumiko checked around with the others to see if it was just her. "That wasn't a very convincing answer the way she said it," she whispered.

"For someone so confident that was pretty weak."

"…my boat…" mumbled Ayumi barely even audible to even herself. The sound of their whispers made her twitch. They already knew and were passing judgment. She was not going to let them. It embarrassed her, but she had to have it with her. She could not take their stares and looks of suspicion. "Fine! It's my boat!"

"Huh? Isn't it just a fake?" Seiji questioned leaning in around the others.

Ayumi shook her head. They did not understand. She was forced to explain it to them. "No!" she snapped looking almost insulted by insinuating that the cruise boat was her's. "My boat is inside the boat."

"Huh?"

The blank stare from Seiji made it impossible for Ayumi. She dug further down not wanting to tell them, but there was no other way for them to understand. It was important to her. "I make them, as a hobby. Well it was the only one I finished…" Ayumi turned away bringing herself up to the railing to rest her arms against. "It was the first time that I had been able to leave the palace. I never was able to do anything with it locked up in a secret room." A look of nostalgia began to surface on Ayumi.

Yori and Fumiko shared confused looks with each other no longer certain where it was going. Seiji was even worse off than them and Yumi did the only polite thing she could think of by approaching the railing. Even if she said nothing Yumi could provide the sense that someone was listening to her.

A rare honest smile came over Ayumi taking in the ocean smell. She glanced over at Yumi noticing her and brought her into her world. "I always thought of the ocean when I worked on it. The feel of the breeze at your skin and salty taste through your nose and tongue. Open seas and boundless possibilities. I'd create little pools with my power dreaming of it, but no matter how real it seemed I always knew…"

By that point in the reminiscing the others had joined in around hoping for a straight answer about the boat. No answer seemed in sight and Seiji planned the innocent victim. "Huh? What's that got to do with not making a plane?"

Ayumi's bubble broke and she turned back around to face Seiji. She tried to hold back her aspirated expression staring at him. "Fine, I'll do the only that will get through to that thick skull of yours!" She marched off the decked leaving the others behind.

After she did not return they quickly voted on following her. In route a broadcast requesting all of them in the ballroom gave them their directions. They found her speaking to Yuki still confused about what was supposed to happen.

She spun around to confirm that everyone arrived in the room. "I wasn't planning on doing this for several more hours, but we'll be doing it a few times on the trip. So follow my instructions if you don't want to drift out to sea." Ayumi motioned Yuki back a little and placed herself at the point that seemed to be the center. A white oval appeared suddenly around covering almost four meters in length and a meter wide. "Stand anywhere within this white line I marked." All she received was questioning and uncertain stares back. "Just do it. You'll understand once we're done."

It took a minute for them to shuffle around in reluctance and feeling a little awkward. Once they finished though Ayumi looked over at Yuki. The white line disappeared and a strange weightlessness feeling over came all of them. "Do it. Remain as still as you can and don't panic." Suddenly, the cruise boat disappeared exposing all of them to the ocean below them with about ten meters to go before getting wet. Beneath them a small boat about the size and shape of a lifeboat fell into the water in anticipation like it was going to catch them.

As expected, no one held still starting to flail about helplessly suspended in the air. Yumi and Yori latched on to each other while Seiji and Fumiko wrestled for control of Ayumi as their life preserver. Ayumi coughed and choked on their struggling trying to hold her concentration. "I said…don't panic!" Nothing was going to calm them down. "Fine! Just stop trying to use me as an anchor!"

Their landing in the boat was less than what Ayumi hoped for with most of them nearly being strung up by the edge of the boat. In the moments that they tried to recover themselves Ayumi closed her eyes and they were all suddenly rising again. The boat disappeared and wood planks appeared under their feet molding into a large room distinctly different from the one before, simple and unassuming.

Ayumi checked on everyone around her to see that they were all right, though quite shaken by the experience. She waited a bit before ending her explanation. "We're traveling this way because when we have to switch would you want to be only ten meters over the ocean or ten thousand if a mistake is made? And we can use the real boat as a temporary platform between field changes. You understand now?"

Yori finally caught his breathe to look up at Ayumi. "You know you could have just said that without having to explain about your boat hobby."

"Uh?! I-I…" Ayumi eyes widened when she realized everything that happened. Her mind played through all of the events quickly through her mind as it sank in. A depressed look shadowed over her as she collapsed to the floor. "I-I said all of that…why!? Have I become infected by his idiocy now!? What's wrong with me…"

No one else said anything more feeling at a lack of words. They watched her quickly break herself down falling into a deep hole to try to run away from her embarrassment. They decided to do the polite thing and leave to let her be alone until she recovered from the shock.