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Chapter Seven - The One The Cosmos Had Forgotten

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Once a friend, forever a friend?

Is that to be applied,

when you are a friend betrayed?

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         Meiling...

                                              Meiling...

          

                 Meiling...

Meiling...                                      Meiling...                                Meiling...

 

             Meiling...           Meiling...                                                        Meiling...

     Meiling...            

                               Meiling...

     How could she possibly be here...?

 

     ...she died...

     .......shouldn't she be in the 'castle in the sky'...?

    ...I sent my prayers for a safe voyage...

    .....and she comes back.....like this....

            ...what am I to say?

    Nothing...

    Nothing at all...

    Sitting alone, again, by the docks of Maidel, I looked out over the vast sea once again. How cruel the sea was...to wash away even the most pathetic item from the beach. Even Meiling...

    For even as the waves were beautiful, it caused in its own way its own beautiful destruction. Was was I to decide how the waves would run, how they would go.

     ...I am the water that makes up the wave, slave to its every wishing. The wave ... fate...controlling our lives, governing them. Deciding when to hit the shore...and wash away...

     Once again, I heard footsteps behind me, and saw Yumiko standing there. She was wearing her nightgown once again, and radiated a smile that I used to smile in my innocent childhood, even if she were my age.

    Of course, she sat near me and stared into my eyes, as if knowing just what to expect of me...what I would say...what I was doing..

                ...what I was looking for...

     She smiled, as she looked out with me, again, giving me the sense that...Yumiko seemed to care about me as a friend somehow...even if I only met her a few hours ago. There was something special about this girl...

    'You always sit by this pier and act all depressed. Is there something I'm missing out on?' she asked me, her greenish eyes glowing in the moonlight. I wrapped my arms around my legs, and smiled to her.

    'I'm just fine, Yumiko. Still...why would you care? I mean...we really don't know eachother...' I replied, shivering, for the sea breeze was blowing in. She smiled at me as well, but it wasn't fake at all..nor hidden. It was...natural.

    'You're lying, aren't you?' she asked me, giving off a short laugh before trying to become serious again. I nodded and gave off a seemingly nervous smile. 'Its ok, Sakura, I can sense how you feel and all. I have a feeling about you somehow...stramge...kinda feels like we're both the same person...'

    'Yumiko, have you ever lost a friend? I mean, a good friend.' I asked her, as she nodded back to me. 'Yes I have...but I don't know...its as if...I have, but I don't remember.'

    'Oh?' I asked her, as she looked down.

    'Its just a feeling Kyoko....I'm sure you've felt that way before.' She replied to me, and smiled. 'We're one in the same, just that you've identified your losses. As far as I know, I can't understand...or find mine.

   For some reason, she hugged me, like a good friend would. Strange, how our feeling of friendship spawned in only a few hours.

   'If you'd like, you may sleep at my house tonight. I'm sure my father wouldn't mind.' she offered. In my head, I felt the responsibility of my journey enter me. Then, after thinking, my stomach growled. I was hungry...very hungry...

   'I'd be more than happy to come over.....I haven't eaten most anything for a while.' I said, as we both walked up the steps to the residential platform of Maidel.

  'I would have to guess that a bag of cookies wasn't enough for you?' she asked me, as she opened the door. Somehow though, when she opened the door, a bright light shone into my eyes...

    ~to be continued