They did not, in fact, have a choice about taking the stairs. Amu could possibly have fixed the elevator, but as Ikuto pointed out, doing so would be both risky both to them - if the earthquakes had damaged some other section of the shaft - as well as, potentially, to Fumi's power supply.
That left them with the question of what to do about Amu's "spare body".
The three of them crowded around it, with the addition of Utau's two charas making it a nearly globular encirclement. Yoru had begged off, apparently more interested in taking care of Miki than worrying about larger issues; at some point she'd have to talk to Miki about that, because she was increasingly suspicious that her own confusion about Ikuto was mixed up with Miki's far more blatant crush on the rather childish Yoru. Things might get weird if it was mutual. For now, though, she was happy to leave Miki and Ran in Yoru's hands.
Carrying her up was the obvious choice, but only until you looked into the stairwell. Even Ikuto had balked at the thought after that. Although built as a relatively standard metal-frame stair winding its way around a central cage of girders carrying bundles of cables downwards, and well-lit by occasional floodlights, it had one serious issue.
It was high.
Extremely high. Ridiculously high. High enough to almost make them reconsider the elevator; high enough that when Amu had looked inside, she'd failed to see the other end. True, there was dust hanging in the air from the earthquakes to explain some of that, but what she'd seen was at least several hundred meters. This, from stairs supposedly going up only ten floors.
Carrying her up had been Ikuto's only noteworthy idea, though. Amu was still thinking. As for Utau…
"That would take too long!" Eru was caught up in a discussion with her counterpart, which largely consisted of Iru inventing solutions and Eru shooting them down. Utau was just watching, wearing a long-suffering look. If Amu hadn't known for a fact that Utau didn't usually listen to Eru, she'd be wondering if perhaps Utau was letting her charas make all the decisions.
"Then, leave it behind?" Iru suggested with her trademark chuckle. "It's not like she's using it. We don't
have to take it with us."
Utau scowled. "It's not that I'd enjoy carrying her up all those stairs, but don't be ridiculous. Amu, can't you… I don't know, try to re-merge or something?"
When they didn't immediately respond, she gave them an annoyed glare.
"Well? I don't see either of you offering any suggestions."
She hadn't, no. That option simply hadn't occurred to Amu. It wasn't actually a bad idea, in principle; there certainly wasn't
supposed to be two of her. As a goal to work towards, it seemed reasonable enough. The problem, or rather the question was -
"How's that supposed to work?" Ikuto asked, taking the words from her mouth.
Utau looked questioningly at them. "You didn't notice? Well, I wouldn't have expected Ikuto to notice, but geez, Amu. We were only -" She cut off, suddenly finding a nearby speck of dust on the wall to be extremely fascinating. There was a light blush on her cheeks.
Amu blinked. "Only - what?"
"Only hugging each other for the better part of a quarter hour," Utau muttered. "You really didn't notice?" Utau was refusing to look Amu in the eyes, apparently finding the whole affair highly embarrassing. "Eru, this is why I don't like chara changing with you! You always go to far!"
"Both of you needed it," Eru stated primly, leading to a short but heated argument between the two.
Eru was right, though. She was sure of it. At the time she'd been so tired, and the earthquakes had been so scary, if she'd been on her own she didn't know what she'd have done; having someone to hold onto, even if their relationship was as complicated as for her and Utau, had made a real difference. She was absolutely positive she wasn't alone in that, so - Eru was right, and Utau had to know she was right.
She could hardly be wrong. The idea of keeping something secret from her Charas, or vice versa, was so implausible as to be utterly laughable. They were closer than siblings, closer than twins; even without character transformations, the idea that Eru would be
mistaken about Utau was absurd, something that could never happen if they were at all synchronised. Since Eru was still alive, that was a given. They might fight, but Eru was also one of Utau's hopes for the future, and would fade away if that changed… even if Utau's usual behaviour made it hard to see the resemblance, Eru was also born from Utau's dreams.
Amu smiled slightly. Utau had her cute side, too. Really though, notice what?
She shook her head, more than a little perplexed.
Utau caught her look, glared at her for a moment, then sighed. "Fine, no assumptions. What does it feel like when I do this?" She roughly grabbed Amu's hand. Amu flinched, startled, and tried to pull it away, eliciting a flash of irritation from Utau but no other effect. Her grip was really strong, but Amu was still jittery; it took her a few moments to calm down.
What to say, though. "Feel?" Well, she felt Utau's hand holding hers. Not like holding hands, more the way you'd grab someone to stop them moving. It was a little unnerving. Her skin was smooth and dry, and not abnormally cold or warm, but that probably wasn't what she'd meant… she didn't feel much else, though. "Um. I'm honestly not sure?"
"Nothing like when you touch one of your charas?"
Confusion. "Um, I don't feel anything special if I'm holding one of them. Or vice versa. It's just like touching anyone else, I guess… what are you thinking of?"
"Vice versa?" Utau raised an eyebrow. "Never mind. You don't feel a tingling sensation? Fizzing, almost?"
"Noo~" She exchanged glances with Ikuto, who looked just as uncertain.
"Huh." Utau appeared to consider that for a while, while Amu's curiosity grew. "- Interesting. Never mind, then."
If people could facefault in real life, she would have. "Utaau~! Don't be like that, tell me!"
"No."
A flat no. Not even a hint that she'd consider it. Since when did Utau have this kind of character?
Amu didn't have many ideas for convincing her. Utau always listened to Ikuto, she guessed because Ikuto was her brother, but Ikuto didn't look like he wanted anything to do with this discussion at all. Even her best pleading look failed to move him. In that case…
"Please, sis?" She turned the look on Utau. She'd pointed it out herself; all three of them were siblings now, even if it was really sudden. Utau would listen to her cute little sister, right?
Ikuto snorted.
Utau twitched.
"Pretty please? Big sister?"
"Don't call me that," she almost growled. "Fine, you want to know? I'll tell you when we get upstairs. I'm not telling you now, it wouldn't be safe."
Ikuto broke into a laugh, which only got stronger when Utau turned her glare on him. "Ha… thank you, Amu. You never fail to amuse. Good to see you're being a responsible older sister, Utau."
Utau's mouth worked a few times, then she turned on her heel and walked towards the stairwell. That attempt at appearing decisive failed when, after Amu and Ikuto failed to immediately follow, she was left to stew on her own for a few minutes. Amu wondered if calling her "sister" had been the right choice; she loved it when Ami called her "big sis", but Utau had been either embarrassed or annoyed, and it wasn't as if they were
really siblings. Ikuto had enjoyed her reaction, though. She'd have to think it over.
In the end they couldn't think of a better way to do it than carrying her body up, one step at a time and taking advantage of character changes as much as possible. Amu used her diagnosis ability on herself and her extra body, but the only thing she learned was that it was unconscious for no apparent reason whatsoever; as far as the technique was concerned, it might wake up at any time. As for herself…
As far as the diagnosis technique was concerned, she was in perfect health but
not human. She confirmed that result by scanning Ran and Miki; they appeared to be deeply asleep, exhausted to the point where even jostling them wouldn't wake them, but more importantly they had almost exactly the same tells she did.
Although she thought that was probably the same suspicion Utau had refused to voice, she suppressed it as best as possible and refused to think about it. If she'd somehow turned herself into a Chara, she didn't want to know. Not while she could pretend it wasn't a problem.
Her thoughts grated against each other for a second, then relented. She felt fine.
Ikuto called Utau over, and they spent a few minutes practicing handholds. The better to not drop her. The staircase wasn't precisely steep, but there
was a dangerously high drop if they made any serious mistakes.
———————
Five minutes in
"Ninety-three, ninety-four, ninety-five…"
"Careful, there's some rubble up ahead. Looks like a lamp?"
"Thanks, Yoru. Oh, whoops! Utau, lend me a hand here?"
"Just a - moment, catching my breath."
———————
Ten minutes
"One forty-seven, one forty-eight… no, one fifty-one. I think."
"This staircase - is quite frankly - ridiculous. How many floors - is that now?"
"Almost two. Honestly, sis."
"Going to - hurt you - if you don't - stop calling me - that, Amu."
"Really tall floors, though. Oh, wow. Iru, come look at the view!"
"Kill - you all."
———————
Almost fifteen…
"One seventy-one, one seventy-two, one seventy-three…"
"Iru - give it - a rest."
"Amu - careful, there's a wire right around - the corner."
"Thanks, wouldn't want to drop me. Looks like there's a platform right behind it, let's take a break there."
"Finally…"
———————
"One eighty-two," Iru finished cheerfully.
Utau dropped like a sack of potatoes, shortly followed by Ikuto. Amu followed them more sedately; she was hardly tired at all, even after carrying most of her own weight for the past quarter hour. In a more literal sense than usual. Trying to carry herself was too awkward, though, so Ikuto and Utau had switched off on helping her. Mostly Ikuto, in the end.
"Please tell me we'll be up soon," Utau begged. It wasn't like she was in bad shape, but climbing this far would tire anyone, let alone doing it while carrying someone along.
Amu stared upwards into the dusty shaft. "Sorry, still can't see the ceiling," she admitted. "We were in basement level ten, and we've already passed two doors, so maybe we're about a quarter of the way there…"
Utau moaned piteously. Amu watched her for a few seconds, then set about making refreshments; juice and steamed rice, or at least something that had the nutritional value and taste of steamed rice without ever actually having been steamed. Her powers might not be as useful during apocalypses as Ran's or Miki's, but they definitely had a lot of utility in situations like this. She didn't actually feel thirsty herself, which was -
———————
"Thanks." Ikuto nodded gratefully at her, having drunk two glasses before even starting on the food, and Utau was too tired to do anything but accept what she'd offered. It felt like a picnic, all six of them sitting around an only slightly fake tablecloth. (It'd go away when they were done with it, but it was real enough until then; Eru had offered it as her contribution to the meal. Amu wasn't quite sure what that meant her theme was, but she appreciated it nonetheless.)
Yoru, Eru and Iru didn't need to eat, of course, but that didn't mean they didn't enjoy it. Especially
her food, she thought with some pride; yes, she'd made it on the spot using magic, but no, that didn't mean she didn't need to understand how to make it the old-fashioned way, quite the contrary. She also had to understand exactly what went into it to make it nutritious. True, she hadn't ever spent time learning it, but that didn't mean the knowledge was any less hers - Su's, that was, not Amu's. As far as she was concerned it was payback for all those years she hadn't existed, and the months she'd existed as barely more than an extension of Amu.
They were enjoying themselves right now, but…
"This stairwell is a bit too tall," she said, frowning. Utau paused in her chewing to nod. "Even if we take more frequent breaks, we're going to be exhausted by the time we get up…"
And where would they take breaks? This platform was the first flat space they'd come across since they started. The floor exits were flush with the stairs, and locked, so unless… hmm. No, she shouldn't try to pick one of the locks, that would be larceny, and even if she understood how they worked she didn't really know how to pick one.
[ ] ...
A/N: No votes required, but feel free to make suggestions anyway if you like. I'm mainly posting this because… well, don't want to stall entirely, and finishing the entire scene would have taken at least another day. If you'd prefer larger chunks, do tell me; I'd have no problem doing that, but this is already pretty far to the right on the sliding scale of "Quest" vs. "Story".
+1 Limit; limit track now at 4.
