Where Is Yuichi?
"Where is Yuichi?" Kusanagi Mizuki asked. "Why didn't he come with the other planes?"
She glanced at her mother, who wouldn't look at her. Kusanagi Suito was looking at the sky.
"He'll come back." Mizuki's mother promised, looking at the sky the last time. She turned away and started walking back.
"When will he come back?" Mizuki asked. She was answered with a sad smile.
"I don't know."
Soon Mizuki was the last one standing and looking at the sky. Then, looking at the sky, she said, "I hope you'll come back soon, Yuichi."
Then she disappeared inside.
Yuichi didn't reappear. Not in one month or two months. Mizuki found herself becoming more miserable with each passing moment. Where was Yuichi? The Kildren said that Yuichi was gone, but what did that mean? When Mizuki asked, she was rewarded with a snappish response. The worst one was from Mitsuya.
"He left us! And he left you!" Mizuki didn't understand. Yuichi would never leave her. They were friends. The only friend she ever had, especially around here.
That's what friends did, right?
Yuichi would find a way to come back to her.
They all had a way of mourning him, whether he was going to come back or not. Mitsuya stayed in her room most of the time and sobbed. Tokino, normally rambunctious and obnoxious, was quiet and sullen. Mama was more moody than usual. Mizuki's mother spent all of her time in her office, smoking – no, wait. She didn't smoke a single cigarette anymore.
Since Yuichi…
The others had not known Yuichi that well, so they hadn't mourned him at all.
Mizuki was having a partically boring day when Tokino sat down next to her. His eyes seemed sad and clouded.
"Tokino?" she asked shyly.
"Mm?" Tokino didn't even look at her.
"When is Yuichi coming back?"
Now Tokino looked at her. He gave her a sad smile. "He'll come soon, Mizuki." Then his smile faded. "You should know something, though, Mizuki."
"What?" she asked.
"Yuichi may be coming back, but he'll be a different person."
"What do you mean?" Mizuki asked. She was confused.
Some of the old Tokino returned. "You'll see kiddo."
The next day, there was a rumor that there was going to be a new pilot arriving today. As the pilot walked in from meeting Mizuki's mother, Mizuki shrieked with joy.
She recognized the dull brown hair that created two bangs between his forehead.
She recognized his walk, which was slow and cautious as ever.
As she shouted his name, she put her arms around him, not wanting to let go.
Mizuki understood what Tokino meant now. Yuichi, in body and spirit, wasn't back.
Yuichi had died the day he had chased after the Teacher, determined to make a difference.
But there was someone here, someone who had the same face as Yuichi.
The same voice.
The same comfort.
Kannami Yuichi was in this pilot, Niigari Isamu.