It was the dream that started it all. The young man was a boy again, trapped in that horrible classroom. Her life was lived happily, and her death was supposed to have been the same. Unfortunately, the boy would never know how glorious it was until he met her again, and he certainly wouldn't meet her actual self in this dream. Still, it was better than nothing that he could see her smile again, even if it was just a hallucination. Although, the dreams he had been given had been painful, most of them were happy memories, but this one would be hard to call happy, or pass of as a mere hallucination of the mind. For in anyone's perspective, this was beyond cruel.
It began with the basic scenario; the boy was alone in the classroom, surrounded by desks, facing the red curtains. Only this time, the curtains weren't drawn, and the desks were missing the vases of flowers that brought so much horrible memories. The boy could see out the window, it was dark out, as the sun had just set. The moon was just beginning to make its entrance, when the antagonist stepped in.
The crane.
It flashed by the window at a downward angle, all alone. His dear friend had made this for him all the time. Out of school papers, your basic tests and notices, things that were treated as important, became something important. Only this time, the crane was different. It seemed to rain down from the earth and land quickly on the ground, and just stopped. It froze, but something other than the gracefulness had been lost. That was when two more followed that the boy began to grow wide eyed with horror. It was crimson.
It wasn't made out of the color, no, it seemed to embody all of the girl's sadness and the boy's guilt within that one color. They seemed to scream at him as more rained out of the sky. The boy fell backwards with fear as he began to scream loudly. It was the only thing he could do; he felt his heart being ripped out of his chest, as though someone wanted to destroy him. And then, they all froze.
Every single crane froze right when they touched the ground and didn't move. It didn't matter whether or not they piled on top of each other or not, they all just stopped.
And then he saw it.
Everything he had gained, built up, to create a shell to protect him all crumbled in front of him as something else soared by the window. A girl.
She was being pushed to the ground by more cranes that followed. For a split second she looked at the boy, and her eyes seemed to flash to the color red for a moment as she opened her mouth to speak.
And then they collided.
It happened so fast that he couldn't be sure of what he saw but when the girl hit the ground; it seemed to engulf a part of her. Her spirit maybe? Perhaps her soul? Then it hit him. Her hope. The cranes had swallowed up her hope, leaving behind her body. The crimson cranes that layed beneath her and around began to flatten. They seemed to melt onto the ground and flow out into a puddle. Boy yelled in a fit of rage.
Then he was hit.
A wave of cranes flew into the room from the sky and knocked the boy over against the desks. He saw them sprawled out in front of them and watched as they had names written on the left wing.
Dear Kido-chan,
Dear Kano-kun,
Dear Seto-kun,
Dear Father,
To Shintarou, the boy I loved,
The man unfolded the last one to read a small hand written note to him. Tears fell as he read the note in silence.
To Shintarou, the boy I loved,
If you get this you probably know by now. I'm dead, right, Shintarou? I am truly sorry. See, I, I didn't want to die. Shintarou I didn't want to die really. I miss you. I miss sitting next to you and I miss talking with you. I wanted to stay with you! Why, why did I have to die Shintarou? I promised myself I wouldn't cry when I was doing this but I can't help it. Writing this I know that I won't be able to see you anymore. But Shintarou, I want you to know two things.
It isn't your fault.
I love you.
-Ayano Tateyama
The man watched as the paper turned red as his fingers traced over the last words. The material grew softer, and when it finished, a red scarf was left in his hands. The boy placed it around his neck and gently gathered up the other four cranes. He took a look at the ground below, outside the window. Then he jumped.
