A younger Kiriko tugs at her grandmother's pant leg. She points at the boy who floats in the center of the zen garden. His spiky black hair and swirling golden eyes capture her attention.
"Kusaragi's son?"
"Yes. That is the Kusaragi family's son."
"What's his name?"
Kiriko's grandmother hums. "Go and ask him yourself."
Kiriko bumbles across the tatami mat, slips on a pair of sandals, and makes her way to him. She stands just at the edge of the hallway. "Hello?"
Gold eyes snap to meet deep brown.
The boy stops floating. He lands on the smooth stone in the garden's center. He waves. Then, he speaks. "Hi."
Kiriko smiles. "What's your name?"
"Hirota." He walks over to her, sitting beside her. "Yours?"
"Kamori Kiriko."
"It is good to meet you, Kiriko-san."
Kiriko bows her head. "How do you fly?"
"I don't know," Hirota says. "I just do it."
Kiriko pouts. "How?" She asks again.
Hirota hums. He stands up and takes Kiriko's hand in his. He walks with her into the zen garden, placing her on top of the same stone that he last stood on. Then, he steps up along with her.
"Hold tight," he says.
Kiriko holds tight.
Hirota closes his eyes and takes Kiriko's other hand.
Slowly— lightly, lightly— they lift off the ground.
Kiriko looks up at Hirota, as he gazes upward at the open sky above them. His golden eyes swirl, they glimmer and shine like small suns.
They lift higher and higher, above her home. Above the Kanezaka skyline. Above Tetsuzan Shrine. Above Hanamura castle. Above Tokyo. Below them, Kiriko sees everything. Her whole entire world, reduced to the size of her tiny and outstretched hand.
Amused, Kiriko forms a circle with her hand, fitting all of Kanezaka inside of it.
The air drifts all around them. It mutes every other sound. The clouds tickle the soles of their bare feet, their sandals lost to the swiftness of their ascension.
Kiriko stares at Hirota.
He smiles at her.
In life, there are precious few moments that can compare to the first time you fall in love. Even more so when this moment is your favorite memory. It is everything but mundane. It becomes unforgettable, a permanent fixture in your memory that every thought can be traced to.
Kiriko realizes— she realizes, so quickly— that she is in love. Perhaps not with Hirota himself; perhaps simply with the image of him as he is now, flying a thousand feet in the air, his hands in hers, warmth pooling in her stomach, a smile as brilliant and golden as the sun dancing across his lips, the wind at their backs, the sweet and cool taste of cloud dust on their tongues.
In this moment, between the tips of their fingers, lingering at the edges of their lips, their eyes locked as they float in the cerulean sky, it is the most beautiful thing that Kiriko has ever seen in her life.
He is everything.