Geh... After reading 150 chapters of Air Gear in two days...

haha

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After all these years, Kazu still felt like nothing had changed.

At the top of the tower, or at the highest section of the treehouse- it didn't matter.

It was still Ikki's face, beaming down at him. It was still Ikki's voice calling out to him, daring him to try to reach him, daunting him.

It was still Ikki's smile, the one that said 'I'd love it if you made it, but it would still be hilarious if you failed.'

It wasn't really Ikki's stance that said 'I think you'll fail' anymore, but rather his own mind.

He still tried as hard as he could to reach the top and still stared at the sky with cracked eyes when he fell.

He wasn't really in too much rush to reach the top- he got the feeling (the dark, depressive, drowning feeling) that, a moment before he reached the top, Ikki will have really and truly learned how to fly away.