Disclaimer: Hayao Miyazaki owns "My Neighbor Totoro", Satsuki, Kanta, Mei, the Kusakabes and Kantas relatives.
A/N: I'm not quite sure when high school starts in Japan, but I know a fifteen-year-old is still in middle school. This places it years beyond American middle school. I'm placing this story when Kanta and Satsuki are sixteen.
Please R&R! Any suggestions will be helpful.
It is the summer before high school, the summer of Kanta and Satsuki first date, several summers after Kanta saw the totoros for the first time. Now they stand at the bus stop, waiting for the Cat Bus. They know this is their last ride on Cat Bus. Already, it is starting to look like Mei is playing by herself when she yells to the totoros, and they know they won't be able to see the creatures for that much longer. So they stand at the bus stop, waiting for the Cat Bus.
Mei is not along. She only half-understands what is happening to her sister and Kanta. Satsuki is clinging to Kanta's arm as they wait. Both have grown so much. No longer the short little boy he once was, Kanta is now tall and strong. He has gotten good at wrestling. Satsuki goes to watch him wins his matches. She has grown too. Her hair looks a lot like her mother's, and she has finally let it grow out.
Cat Bus is almost upon them before either of them know it. It lets out its joyful, loud meow, and the side of it opens up. It is almost enough to let them believe they will keep seeing it forever. But it sounds out of place, too. Still, the two almost-adults climb aboard and sit, and Cat Bus's meow seems to fill the air. Satsuki giggles, and Kanta can't help but smile.
Then, Cat Bus is off, and the two of them feel as exhilarated as when they were little. Cat Bus runs along the power-lines, they don't know where to, but Kanta shouts that he can see his grandmother and Satsuki hears Mei giggling "Cat Bus!". And together they grin almost as big as the bus from the excitement of being up here, racing so quickly along the power-lines. Satsuki shrieks as the trees part, and Kanta grins. For both of them, Cat Bus always provided worlds of fun.
But they have grown up, and they have found that fun in other places. As Cat Bus runs to the bus stop, they look into each other's eyes, hands lightly clasps between them. Their hands remain clasped as Cat Bus meows again and runs off. But the two don't hear it anymore: they aretoo busy staring into the other's eyes. The wind blows, rustling Satsuki's long hair. Kanta smiles and puts his arm around her, and together,they walk off in direction of home.