Chapter 13.1 - Neutral Standing

Neutral Standing
The six of them made their way to the bridge from the entrance on the right side of the ship. When Sora opened the door, they found three other people already inside. The person sat in the chair stood up and turned round.

"Sasaki?" recognised Solace, "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you, sort of," answered Naluri before Sasaki. She was using a blowtorch on the ripped hole in the bridge floor, sealing it. Lowering her goggles round her neck, she looked up at the group of six, though was only referring to the old crew of the Thunder Child, "This is a pretty sweet ship of yours. Maybe you should treat it just a little bit better." She pointed at the back wall. The six entered the bridge properly to look. The back wall had been severely bent backwards and was now essentially an extension of the floor. Beyond that was pretty much an open space with no corridors, all the metal bent and mangled to reveal the hyperdrive at the very back of the ship, the white noise generator and portal generator below, all three on the very bottom floor. KITT was parked on the tilted back wall, most likely having entered via the large deck entrance.

"Wow, the Thunder Child suffered so lot of damage," noted Solace, "She had Arsenal Gear, the Akagi, RAYs, Flandre and Gold assault her left side. In contrast, the right side only had a water jet cutter."

"The patching system only affects the hull shell," added Sora, "But first," she turned to Sasaki, "What are you doing? Can you control the Thunder Child?"

Sasaki shook her head, "It was KITT's doing. He insisted we rescue you."

"KITT? Where?" Sora looked around. KITT was essentially right next to her but Sora was acting as though she couldn't see him.

"KITT's so advanced he can trick androids' sensors and can apparently pose as one," commented Sasaki, she nodded at KITT, "I'm sure it's fine for her to know." Sora suddenly reacted to his presence, though there there no change to everyone else.

"Hmm," pondered Ilse, "Is that how you ended up at a simple garage rather than some heavy security place?"

"Yes," answered KITT, "On Doomsday, I made the mistake of disguising myself as a regular car. However, as you know, even normal cars were confiscated," he explained, referring to Postman Pat's van, "I could have unlocked the entrance door but even if I did I would not be able to fit through. The shutter was controlled by buttons, which I can not press."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," interjected Santiago, "I think we need to move onto more important topics."

"Can we at least exchange names?" requested Ilse. They did so, rather quickly. Noticeably, Cirno was the only one to be known by everyone else.

"Someone or something managed to kill Haruhi, the supreme goddess, at her full potential," declared Santiago strongly. Cirno gulped. "That thing is out there, capable of taking out anyone else that stands in its way. It's far too dangerous to be allowed to exist. It broke The Unwritten Law and is probably more than capable of doing it again."

"Like I said, I say you go find and destroy Haruhi's killer or isolate him, her, it, whatever," suggested Naluri, "I want nothing of it. Just drop me off in the US."

"Even with Haruhi gone, there are other alternatives," commented Lynette, "Yamaha uses Sonic technology to isolate dangers like that."

Santiago shook his head, "Do you not understand? Haruhi died while in the North High Colony. She would have known about it if it was in North High. So the killer was in Yamaha. And was able to get through the Sonic Barrier."

"What you proposing?" asked Sora.

"Now," continued Santiago, "The three of us," he waved at himself, Sasaki and Naluri, "Have an objective in mind. We want to bring Haruhi back to life."

"Hey!" defied Naluri, angrily, "I did not agree to that. I just want to go to the US." There was silence round the group.

"... I agree," concurred Solace. The bridge once again fell into an awkward silence.

"Wait," began Lynette, "Why do you want to bring Haruhi back? She just caused trouble for the entire world."

"High Gensokyo and apparently Yamaha are in trouble," debated Santiago. Alice and Ilse looked at each other at their first hearing of High Gensokyo. "The world is going to get very dangerous very soon. There's going to be power struggles and war. And maybe even worse. As much as we'd hate to admit it, the three kingdoms, especially Haruhi, protected us by locking up as much evil as they could."

"By taking away their free will?" argued Lynette, unimpressed, "You should never take away a person's free will. It makes them less of a person." Santiago looked at Naluri who unwillingly shook her head, admitting that wasn't quite right.

Solace added her own input, "Personally, I did not feel restricted. I was capable of doubting Haruhi without any consequence."

"I lost my free will when she broke through the Hakurei Barrier."

"Would you and Sora prefer getting into a fight with Remilia, Flandre, Nitori, RAY and Arsenal Gear?"

Lynette bit her lip, "It makes Haruhi as bad as the things she was imprisoning." It was Solace who shook her head this time.

"What do the police do to people who break the law?" asked Santiago.

Lynette paused, "Send them to prison."

"And you'd be fine without the police?"

"... No."

"Haruhi gave them far more freedom than what prison could possibly offer. But now with the loss of Haruhi, all these criminals are free. Just imagine what the killer could have released into the world by killing Haruhi."

Solace had sat down cross-legged while Santiago was talking, with her head down. She spoke up, "There's far too much that could happen. If there's no one to keep them in check, The Unwritten Law might as well not exist. Saw, Dracula, Alien, Necromorphs, Silent Hill, Jaws, Terminators, headcrabs, Galactus, Cloverfield, Soylent Green, Reapers... Zombie infections..."

Cirno couldn't take it anymore and fell to her knees, crying her eyes out. Any attempt to wipe her face with her arms was futile as the tears flowed uncontrollably down her cheeks. Alice knelt next to Cirno and embraced her, stroking the back of her head, all without a word. Sighing, Ilse took off her bag, unzipped it and from it threw a black covered notebook onto the floor, face up. As the other six stared at the Death Note, it all began to sink in. Solace slowly opened to the first page and present, in all its glory, was 'Suzumiya Haruhi' written on the very first line.

"... Wha... Do..." began Solace, her expression turned to one of anger, "Cirno!" she shouted, "Do you realised what you've done?!"

"Solace!" shouted back Alice, turning to face her, "Stop it!"

Solace picked up the Death Note and jabbed violently at the instructions inside the front cover, "This page tells you exactly what this thing does! Can't you read?!"

"How many languages do you know?" challenged Alice, with irritated determination.

Her expression turning blank, Solace dropped the Death Note, the book closing face up. Cirno could only read Japanese. Naluri and Sora wasted little time, lighting her blowtorch and igniting her right rocket boot, respectively, to burn up the cursed book. However, Santiago got there first, stamping on it and dragging it towards himself, preventing its destruction. The two looked at him as though he was out of his mind.

"Solace," asked Santiago, "How many of these are there?"

"... I don't know," admitted Solace, still in disbelief, "I read that only six can exist in the human world but who knows how many of their rules were screwed up by Doomsday."

"Can we track them down? Say with this one?"

Solace shook her head, "Don't know."

Santiago addressed the group, "Do you feel safe with these things in this world?" He kicked the Death Note back to the middle of the floor again. "Is there any other way to rid the world of these as well as all other incoming horrors it has released?"

"This might be a stupid question but is there some way to get back to our own worlds?" queried Alice, sitting on the floor. Cirno was sitting in her lap, having cried herself to sleep.

"We have what's called The Inconvenience Theory," shrugged Naluri, "Take a guess what it says."

"I think we should wait to see how things work out for now before acting," suggested Ilse.

"Fine by me, agreed Naluri. Lynette nodded in agreement. Sora hummed her own approval. Alice did not take a side. Naluri sat down, "Great, waiting has most votes," she yawned, "Can we head to the US now?"

"Umm, I have a question about The Thunder Child," asked Alice, "How did it go through The Hakurei Barrier?"

Solace answered, a little peeved at Naluri's decision, "You know The Convenience Theory? The Thunder Child can smash through anything. Or so we think."

"But I thought the Thunder Child only destroyed a few Martian tripods. It shouldn't be able to smash through everything."

"... I had thought about that... But I can't really explain it."

Sasaki who had been quiet throughout the whole conversation tried to leave the bridge when Sora tightly grabbed her arm. "We agreed to wait," pointed out Sora, firmly, "Don't break your Barrier just yet." Sasaki was annoyed but went back to her spot.

As everyone took a seat on the floor, some attempting to sleep, Sora looked at the intact Death Note on the floor. She stepped on it and ignited her rocket boot, the book instantly turning into black ash. She continued to Naluri who was leaning on the wall, with her eyes closed. "Naluri, can I talk to you outside?" Naluri unwillingly opened her eyes in irritation, waiting for an explanation. Sora nodded her head at Sasaki. Naluri caught on and nodded in approval, getting up and making her way out the bridge. Following, Sora stopped at Ilse, the only other person who did not require sleep. She whispered something in Ilse's ear before leaving after Naluri. Ilse repositioned herself to stand in the bridge's doorway. Sasaki had one eye open, realising that the three of them were planning not to let her leave the Thunder Child. She sighed and closed her eye.

Naluri was sat on the nose of the first SOS Thunder Child, using the blowtorch on the very tip, "Heh, Yamaha fooled everyone. Everyone thinks it's the Thunder Child itself that smashed through the Hakurei Barrier." She put out the blowtorch, summoned a pair of pliers and pulled something out the glooey metal before it could reform.

Sora, stood behind her, leaned over to look at the object. It was the tiny tip of a two edged blade, a brilliant golden colour. "I don't recognise it. Do you?"

"No, I don't," admitted Naluri. Holding the pliers securely, she dragged the tip along the outer metal of the ship. Despite using no effort to cut, the tip engraved into the surface as far as the pliers could allow it. "This is it. This is what allows the Thunder Child to get through the Hakurei Barrier. A blade that can cut through anything. Then let The Convenience Theory take care of the rest." The tip and pliers faded back into her Hammerspace. Naluri stood up and took Sora's hand, who flew her to the next ship.

"We're lucky I guess," noted Sora, "Had Sasaki known that the Thunder Child didn't have to move then she would have cut her Barrier by now."

"No doubt," acknowledged Naluri, using the blowtorch on the nose of the second ship, "We were just on a SOS Thunder Child earlier. Do you think we should remove the one on the HMS?"

"We probably should. There's no main Hakurei Barrier now and any others probably ought to stay closed. If we do come across one we can use one from your Hammerspace. Are you the only one who can access it?"

"Only me," confirmed Naluri, "Since I'm immune to Sasaki's... and Haruhi's powers, they can't access it. If I die, my Hammerspace goes with me."

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