Tenma looks into my eyes sadly. Tears slide down her beautiful face, and it's all I can do not to cry.
"Karasuma didn't come see me." She states it as a fact.
I reply, "I'm sorry. He's in America."
"What's going to happen to me?" I grip her delicate hand tighter.
"I don't know." I'm lying, and so is she. We both know what's going to happen.
My voice gets gentler, and Tenma's large blue eyes drift shut. "I do know that whatever happens to you and me, you will always be my friend."
"Goodbye…" Her voice fades away.
"No, wait!"I say. Tenma's eyes snap open with effort. "I'm not done! I need to tell you about… how much I love you! About how when I first saw you, you became my world. How when I close my eyes, your smiling face is there, and I wish I could stay with you forever. How you have kept me in this world, and made me a better person."
She mumbles, "Thank you."
"No, please! How you helped me up! Walked me through the world that I could now appreciate! Tenma, you saved me! I love you! I love you…." I broke down and sobbed, lying on her still body. The monitor beeps out a flat note, one of death.
I only remember doctors lifting me up and moving me out of the room. Covering her frail body and her angelic face with a sheet.
I sob in the waiting room with Yakumo and Tenma's friends. Rich girl drives me home, and we don't say goodbye to each other.
Itoko opens the door, about to make some dumb crack about me, but pauses when she sees my tearstained face. "Kenji?"
I shove past her into my room, and feel the tears come through again. I let them flow, but resolve to be strong. I decide to erase any memories of Tenma. Throwing the picture in my wallet away. Hurling my sunglasses at the wall again and again until they break. Shaving my whiskers off, the ones that I grew for Tenma. Cutting my hair so that it was like before I met Tenma.
Tenma had been hit by a truck. Her tiny body couldn't withstand the force, and it broke several bones. An ambulance was called by Yakumo, who was on the phone with her when it happened. The truck swerved off the road and all the way onto the sidewalk. She passed out in a pool of blood.
Tenma told her friends and even her sister that she wanted to see me last.
I wish I could have told her who I am.