Chapter One: Their Meeting

Two people are stranded in a 
cave-in, and become separated. One of 
the two finds a hole covered by some of 
the rocks, and he hears the second 
person's voice from within the pit. The 
buried person laments that his fate is to die 
to the wretched sounds of the others 
vociferating in pain as they submit to death.

The first person sympathizes with the 
voice, who appears to be trapped 
underneath the wreckage. The person begins to 
walk away, but stumbles in the dark 
cavern and hits one of the walls. Tripping 
over, the vibrations he has made cause the 
overhanging stalactites (stalagmites?) to 
crush his legs, pinning him so that his back 
is able to lightly rest on the pile of rocks 
covering the buried man. The now-pinned 
man cries out as he feels his legs recover 
from shock and the pain rushes back in.

Diffidently, but sincerely, the buried man 
asks the pinned man if he plans to die to 
the sounds of the Grim Reaper's works, to 
which the other replies that he actually has 
a music player in his pocket. Hesitantly, the 
buried man asks him if he is able to slip an 
earbud down through the holes in the 
rocks that have trapped him in that state. 

The other takes his music player out of his 
pocket, and plugs one earbud into his right 
ear. He considers that the earbud may not 
reach, but he feels about the rocks until he 
finds a good-sized opening small enough 
for the other earbud to fit through.

While he began to drop the earbud down, 
the pinned man expressed his concern 
about how the cord may not reach the 
buried man. To the pinned man's surprise, 
there he felt a slight tug on the music 
player's cord--the buried man appeared to 
have inserted the other earbud into his ear 
already. The pinned man realized that the 
tug meant that the buried man was actually 
not more than a few feet below him in the 
hole--and in that cave's encompassing 
darkness it may have been possible that 
there was no pit at all (however, this 
thought never occurred to either of the men).

Anxious as to how the other would 
respond to his music, the pinned man 
requested that the buried man pick a type 
of music he would prefer to hear: a song 
with a bright, happy melody, a song with a 
fast tempo and beat, or (among others) a 
instrumental piece that had a moderate 
pace to it. The buried man, intrigued by the 
special description, requested the 
instrumental piece. Thus the first piece 
began to play through the earbuds shared 
by the two men:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ ♬ "Akogi Guitar Medley 1" by Akogi ~
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Chapter Two: His Dilemma, Part One

They began to converse with one another, 
commenting on the soft plucking of the 
guitar. The buried man asked the other if 
he was into all those "wild Japanese trends" 
that had been making their way around the 
world lately, gradually forgetting the mortal 
peril they were both in. A little shaken by 
the question, the pinned man laughed and 
confirmed the question by adding the he 
had been on his way to an anime 
convention in a nearby city when he took 
what he believed would be a small detour 
to join the twenty or so who were 
exploring this cavern.

The buried man smiled, as the other did 
not appear to be a man but a boy, of 
maybe nineteen at the most. To the silent 
melody, the pinned boy asked how the 
other had ended up joining the spelunking 
expedition. With a heavy sigh, the buried 
man replied that he had come here with his 
daughter and son. The boy laughed, as he 
claimed to have thought the situation they 
were in to be something out of a manga, 
but he explained that either he would have 
to have been born an orphan or the buried 
man would have to have been divorced for 
the scene to fit in with the tragic and 
dramatic plots of such Japanese persuasion.

The buried man chuckled to himself at the 
boy's wild ramblings, and told his new 
companion in peril that his son and the 
boy seemed much alike. The boy became sullenly
silent, and asked the man if he really cared 
about his children. 

It was the man's turn to be startled, and he 
asked the boy reproachfully what he meant 
by speaking so harshly. The boy answered 
him with a long sigh--that of a teenager, 
thought the man--and in a voice that 
seemed to be soft, strict, and serious all at 
once decried the man below him for only 
caring for himself; selfishly complaining 
about what he would hear before dying 
without ever mentioning his daughter nor 
his son who allegedly was much like the 
now boy that now criticized the man.

It is unsure whether the boy was truly 
serious, or expected the man to break 
down in tears over this quite blunt 
statement. Adding injury to the already 
existent insult, the boy spitefully twisted his 
head and jerked the earbud out of the 
man's ear as a result. The boy paused the 
strum of the tune, and he listened for the 
shrieking whines of the buried man 
to commence once more.

However, there came no such sound from the
throat of the man, hushing the spiteful boy. 
The boy suddenly felt the pile of rocks that he 
rested upon and that buried the man below 
quake with such an unexpected intensity 
that the boy, his wild anime-influenced 
mind overtaking his common sense, 
imagined that the father he had insulted 
was going to break free of the rocks in a 
torrent of rage.

This did not occur either, the tremor that 
had moved the rocks slowly lessened in 
force until a tiny quiver was all that could 
be felt moving against the boy's back. The 
father began to stutter, and through his 
suppressed tears and agony he asked the 
boy what right he had to assume the father 
was such a coldhearted tramp who did not 
care for the very people he had help to 
bring into the world. His reason for 
requesting the boy's music, the dolorous 
father recounted, was so that he would not 
have to face the inevitable screams of his 
children that he would doubtless encounter 
in this wretched incarceration they were all
going to expire in.

The boy stayed silent for a long time, and 
the other kept the rocks aquiver until the 
father felt a small object hit against his ear. 
He realized this was the earbud, and 
regrettably apologized to the boy above 
him for his indeed selfish behavior. The 
boy began to feel the cord tug again; he
sympathetically told the father that there 
was no need to push away the music. The 
boy dejectedly added that he was just as 
selfish as the man, and the music player (as 
if in response to the mutual compromise) 
skipped onto the next song in its library:
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~ ♬ "Butterfly" by Strike Four ~
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Next, Chapter Three: His Dilemma, Part Two