Author's Note: I don't know what to say. Yeah. Enjoy!
I dreamed of Natsumi. She was beautiful, and she was one of my best friends until last year. I dreamed of the night that she vanished, and that I couldn't get her back. It was a warm, sunny day in June. We were playing together near the Kaori River, named after the legendary guardian of our District, one who supposedly promoted peace and watched over the land. There was a large statue of Kaori where the river intersected with the center of the South Side. It was nice in the town square there. It was what I imagined the North Side to be like – no pain, no sadness. No tears to be found flowing down my cheeks.
We were sitting at a couple small picnic tables around the river, when Natsumi ran into the waves. She called, and I came after her. We played together for a while, until it happened. While we were in the middle of the river, a violent water spout emerged just several dozen yards from us. I grabbed Natsumi and tried to get to shore, but we were too slow. The water spout managed to suck up Natsumi, and off she went. The last thing I heard from her was my name. She was screaming for help.
I swam after her towards the water spout, but the waves the spout had generated were too powerful. They pushed me under, and the water slowly took over my senses, until everything went black.
When I awoke I found myself lying on the shore, my clothes torn and ragged. I was disoriented, confused and scared. I quickly ran along the side of the river until I came to the town square. My house wasn't too far from the square anyways. My parents had died a while ago, so Mr. Chuichi normally let me stay with him. After he died, I had to find a place of my own. It took me a couple years of living on the streets, but I eventually made enough money to get my own place. I was 9 when I first moved in. I let Natsumi stay with me as well. Her parents were dead too. A lot of us kids in Kasaihu were orphans.
Mitsuwa technically still had his mom, but she disowned him when she divorced Mr. Chuichi. I heard she lived on the North Side now. No matter how bad of a person Mitsuwa said she was, I couldn't help but feel envious of her. She had made it to the North Side. She had succeeded in what we had failed to do so many times. I couldn't help but feel jealous.
When I made it to town square, I dashed up the stairs to my apartment. I found it deserted. I called for Natsumi, but there was no response. At last, it seemed to hit me hard. Natsumi was gone. I desperately searched Mitsuwa's apartment, just a couple floors from mine, but it was just as empty as mine. Mitsuwa had inherited it from his father after he died. He always wanted to move in with me, but he felt that it was his last gift to his father to keep his apartment in good shape. He kept his promise to his dad all these years, and the apartment still looks nearly exactly the same as it did back then. It was like a room free of the damaging effects of time.
It was a shame that Natsumi was still gone. I could feel tears running down the side of my cheek as I collapsed onto one of Mitsuwa's chairs. In the matter of a day, I had lost a whole part of my life. I had lost Natsumi. She was gone, gone far beyond my reach wherever the water spout had taken her. Perhaps she was already dead, long pushed under the waves and killed. I never thought about it. I liked to think that she was alright, still alive at the least, so that one day I could right my wrongs and save her.