A/N: I initially wrote this collection immediately after watching 5 Centimeters Per Second a few years ago. It has gone through major revision since, and I would like to think that it's now better for the wait. I hope you enjoy it.

5 Centimeters Per Second is the copyrighted work of Makoto Shinkai and CoMix Wave Inc. This story uses that property without permission for free entertainment purposes only.

(5 Centimeters) cubed
By Kaj-Nrig

Chapter 1: Falling Silence

Oh, him? Yes, I remember him. Why do you ask?

I don't know much about him, but judging by her, I can make a pretty good guess.

...I'm sorry, you'll have to forgive me; it's been a very long time, and I'm afraid I can't... well, there were more important things going on then, as I'm sure you know.

No, no, it's okay. Really. It just never gets any easier is all. I can tell this is something very important to you.

It was late, I remember that. Very late. The train from Oyama had been backed up for hours. Everyone else had left, and I thought, "How long is she going to just stay there?"

She'd been sitting there for quite some time. You know how she was; she was one of those quiet but stubborn types, and she was going to stay glued to her seat for as long as necessary.

...what? 'What did she feel when she finally saw him'? Well... I'm no psychic, of course, but what I could see from them made me a little bit happier. For her, you know. And for him, too. It... It was as if he had fought the entire snowstorm just to see her. He just sort of stood in the doorway for a bit, gasping for breath, and I... well, I just sort of waited there, feeling a bit out of place. Hah! Imagine that. A train station attendant feeling out of place at a train station.

But really, it all felt a little... childish. Cute and stuff that they were so happy to see each other, but I remember wanting to sort of snap at them to get out and get home or something. I mean, they were just kids, and it was snowing really badly outside. Where were their parents?

But they just sat down next to each other, ate some onigiri rice balls, and left when it was time to close the station.

After I'd finished closing down, I went and prepared my car for what was definitely going to be an eventful ride home. The kids' tracks led off into the country... well, Iwafune is a rural community, so all directions lead to the country, I suppose... and in the distance I saw the giant cherry blossom tree.

On my way home, I remember thinking a lot about my wife. You did your research, right? No? Well, she had cancer, and seeing those two kids reminded me of the first time she and I met, and the kind of person I had been then.

I wondered... I wondered if I would've been able to sit on a cold, lonely, desolate track for hours on end like that. I wondered if she would've been able to wait for me in a cold, lonely, desolate little shack of a station.

While I was driving, I glanced out at the countryside, and off in the distance, I could faintly make out the kids and that cherry blossom tree. I think that was the first time I'd ever really stopped to think about anything. But I stopped in the snow, in my little car, and... all I did was look at the snow.

It sounds strange, doesn't it?

...well, alright, I suppose not, but don't say I didn't warn you. Where did we leave off... oh, right.

As the snow fell, I saw... people. All people, all the people of the world. Each person fell from the sky, falling from some... some nebulous and all-encompassing emptiness, and they all fell at five centimeters per second, as if they'd been sprinkled gently into the sky. All those people, all of them, they were all falling to the ground and becoming a big, giant blanket that erased everything in the world.

And then I glanced back over there and I saw those two kids, and I couldn't help but wonder if they already knew this, if this was them trying to keep from falling and drifting.

...a few days later, it snowed again. I brought flowers for... for my wife... Sorry. Please excuse me.

...I brought flowers for my wife, and we both sat there, in her hospital bed, looking out at the snow.

"They're falling," I told her. "The snow. It always falls at the same speed."

I don't know... No, I think I know why I said that. It felt like the right thing to say at the time, and... maybe I'm just adding things in hindsight, but... it felt like the proper thing to say, given what I'd seen a few nights before.

And she... She just nodded, squeezing my hand. "Yes." That was all she said. That one word.

Neither of us said anything else that day. We just sat there, with the drip of the IV fluid and the beep of the machinery keeping us company, watching the eventuality of our lives.

My wife died the same day spring arrived. That day, I went and sat in the shade of the cherry blossom tree. The petals fell just like the snow did, and I had the same feeling of emptiness. Of all these dainty petals just... falling by themselves. Alone. They bumped into other petals every now and then, but... there was never anything to unify them. Once they left that tree, they were on their own.

It really made me sad.

Then several blossoms landed on me, and I brushed them to the ground. I looked at them, forming another blanket, one on top of the other, and I smiled and went back home.

...yeah, that's it.

Sure thing. Bye, now.

...hey.

I hope this story helps you find what you're looking for.

Chapter 1: Falling Silence END

Notes:

Onigiri – Rice balls filled with various ingredients and wrapped in seaweed.