Hello all. First off, I watched the movie Summer Wars for the first time a few months ago and fell in love with it. It's a great story about the importance of family and the ties that bind. One of the things that struck me hard from both reading the manga and watching the movie was when Kenji decided to fulfill Granny's last request. For this, I used Patrick Swayze's "She's Like The Wind" as a backdrop for the scene.
Hope you all enjoy this small bit. Summer Wars is the property of the genius director Mamoru Hosoda.
She's like the wind
Through my tree
She rides the night
Next to me
Kenji didn't know what to do.
As the only non-family member present, he wasn't sure whether it was his place to do or say anything. With the wound of Granny Sakai's death still raw to the Jinnouchi clan, the boisterous clan he had come to know was now quiet with sorrow and disbelief. Some were in tears, others were going through the denial stage of grief, and the rest just sat quietly.
A couple days ago, when he first came to the house acting as Natsuki's fiancé, Kenji never anticipated he would be caught in something like this. All the troubles from the day before paled in comparison to what happened now. It made him feel bad that he was the last one to see Granny Sakai alive; it should have been her family, he thought. Even so, he felt honored to have gotten to know her in the brief period he was here.
"Promise you'll take good care of Natsuki for me," Her last words to him echoed through Kenji's mind.
As he set his eyes on Natsuki, a wave of uncertainty washed over him. How could he, a math nerd with nothing much to offer in terms of a future, take are of a perfect beauty like Natsuki?
She leads me through moonlight
Only to burn me with the sun
She's taken my heart
But she doesn't know what she's done.
Despite her being a year older than him, he had been crushing on the older girl ever since he first saw her when they were in middle school. He would have given anything to have her look his way. Now he had her attention, but didn't know what to do with it.
'She's completely out of my league. How can a guy like me have anything she needs?'
Seeing how sad Natsuki looked, he felt compelled to do something. He couldn't let her continue to suffer in silence any longer. But what could he do?
"Make them stop," she whispered, so low that he could hardly hear it. "My tears."
I feel her breath in my face
Her body close to me
She slowly rested her hand just inches away from her legs, signaling for him to grab it. "Hold me. Right here," she begged, on the verge of a crying fit but trying to hold it together. "Please, Kenji"
Can't look in her eyes
She's out of my league
Kenji stared at her hand timidly. A few months ago, he would have done anything for her to ask him to hold her hand but not under these circumstances. Seeing she was about to burst into tears, he finally worked up his courage and reached out.
He hesitated for a brief second.
I'm just a fool to believe I have anything she needs
Kenji took a deep breath and finally his fingers touched the cold floor. They crawled over to Natsuki's hand at the speed of an inchworm until finally wrapping around her pinky.
That one little action was the straw that broke the camel's back as Natsuki finally burst into uncontrollable sobs.
The sound of her agonized cries was like a knife piercing Kenji's heart as he finally joined hands with her. He didn't know what else to do, but felt that this would be enough.
"Promise you'll take good care of Natsuki for me." Granny's words returned.
"I promise I will," he whispered to himself, barely heard over Natsuki's sobs.
She's like the wind
And that is that. Tell me what you think.