an. hello! yay I actually updated, I actually updated! Im in my exam month so therefore hardly any action from me. and with the revision ive been doing, I couldn't write. and yeah my writers block got the best of me. well here it is people! what you've all been waiting for. and yay! Ive received more than 100 reviews. yay! only one more chapter to go before the big finale.

Falling In Failure

Chapter 10

By animeang3l7

Rai's POV

I couldn't feel any worse than I already felt. I really couldn't. I really don't know why I did that. I really don't know. I wanted to know what had got into me lately that kept making me do all of this?

I looked down at the ground occasionally glancing at Kimiko and her unreadable expression. Her face was an unusual white with sparkling blue eyes. I lifted my head and stared right at them. I saw her eyes become glassy. Tears threatened to escape but she held them back as much as she could. She turned away dismissing the story I told with my eyes since my mouth betrayed me and wouldn't let me speak. But then again, what was there to say? What could I say?

She raised her head again. Opened her eyes slowly and looked at me softly. Her eyes gave of a shocked and negative aura which she tried to cover up. Though it was of no use. I could read her like a book. That's how close we were, that's how much I knew her. And I just about destroyed all of that.

"Kimiko…"

Rewind it…

Flashback…Rai's POV

After a few minutes of thinking a plan had formulated in his deranged head. This was the ultimate prank he had ever come up with.

He walked up to the river and murmured, "Wind." The current of the river became faster and faster. The water hit onto the stones and washed the blocks of ice away.

"Hey Kim,"

"Yeah?"

"Kimiko Sakura Karie Tohomiko is your full name right?"

"Why you - FIRE" she sent a huge flame at me. I stepped backwards but tripped over a twig and fell into the rushing river. The river was deeper than I expected and the current made the water pounce and wash over me. I was drowning.

"Raimundo stop fooling around. You can swim, Raimundo? Omigawd, what have I done?" that was the last thing I heard. The freezing water rushed and pushed me away. I lost sight of Kimiko.

The sound of waves crashing upon rocks echoed in my ears. My eyes blurred so much that it looked like only water surrounded me in every direction. I panicked so much I splashed and splashed about, my arms flying all over the place as I tried to grab hold of something. Then my hand grazed a stone, but the current pushed me past. I turned around to give it another try, but I missed. I swung round trying to look for something to grab hold of but my vision was a big disadvantage.

I turned round once again and then twisted around back but then suddenly bashed my head into some sort of brown thing which possibly could have been a tree thing. My top half of my body reacting to the collision bent back causing me to flip and sink into the water. The shock and fear hit me; I clamped my mouth together and shut my eyes tightly making me have a sort of screw face expression. The water felt as if it were gripping me, pulling me down and my body reluctant went down.

I opened my eyes and twirled around to look at my surroundings, where I was. I never knew how deep this river was, I thought it was only couple of meters deep but I guess I was wrong. I looked towards the faint light above my head. Human attributes proved to be my downfall, I needed air. My mouth as if acting on its own will opened to receive air but instead let in a whole lot of water. I closed my mouth swiftly after. My eyes became heavy but I had to follow the light. I worked my legs and swam up to the top.

I reached the top and pushed through the water. I flipped my hair back, which was sagging onto my face. The water was not as raging and angry as it was down the other end but it still had a current fast enough to carry me away. I turned to the side, there I saw Kimiko running by trying to keep up with me. She tripped a couple of times, well nearly every step she took she tripped over a stone of a hole in the ground or something, cause she was too busy trying to see where I was and if I was still being swept away.

"Rai! Rai! Don't worry I'm coming." She skid along the steep back and onto the small land that bordered the edges of the river.

"Kim! Kimiko." I tried to shout but every time I opened my mouth the water would rush into it and flood my mouth, muffling the sound.

"Rai, grab that rock there!" she pointed her finger to rounded grey stone, but as I reached out I missed it.

I looked at the river which laid in front of me. It was the end, there was a waterfall. "A waterfall!" I heard her scream, "RAIMUNDO! There's another stone." I didn't shout back I simply prayed, I prayed that my wind element had come back to me, and that it would help me reach that stone.

"Wind." My hands were by my side in the water, and wind erupted and pushed me towards the stone. I caught hold of it. "I caught hold of it, I caught hold of it!" I scampered onto the top of the rock.

"Rai, jump! Jump!" As she shouted you could hear her voice being strained and how it cracked.

"I can't! If I do I might slip and fall into the water again!"

"Rai stop being stupid and scared. Just jump!"

"Dude are you death? I could fall in and fall off the edge!"

"Fine, then stay there! See if I care."

"Of course you care! Hello, Raimundo your best friend here, is stuck on a rock half his size in a raging river near a waterfall! How could you not care." I heard her sigh.

"Raimundo, grab my hand if you won't jump!" She held onto a sort of tree branch and stretched her hand as far as she could to me. I took one hand off the rock and stretched towards her. My hand was so close, I could feel her fingers connect with mine. They briefly touched when all of a sudden the water started to rise and a wave washed over me. I went under again but managed to quickly pop my head from under the water. I looked round desperately for Kimiko. She reached out her hand to me once again, now not holding onto anything. I tried to get my hand to meet hers but I was in shock at the enormous drop from the edge of the waterfall. I gaped at the view but also at my forthcoming date with death.

"Rai!" Before I had a chance to respond I went over.

"RAIMUNDO!" I fell with the water but then the force drove me to fly off and I was now falling through the air. She shouted my name over and over. The screams slowly faded and there was nothing but my heartbeat. It had a calm pace. The rhythm worked through me and helped me make a plan.

This time without even screaming the word 'wind' it simply whispered in my mind and a force gently pushed me back up. I was flying.

"Kim, KIM, KIMIKO!" I flew right into a hug by her.

"Rai." She said softly.

"Yeah Kimiko."

"You're a complete idiot." The way in which she said that made me shiver. It was cold and angry.

She let go of me slowly and jumped up to the platform above up. I jumped up but in a sort of muddled way since my clothes were wet and heavy. I rushed to Kimiko who stood there with her arms folded and her eyebrows close together. She looked like a grumpy teacher in charge of a class of unruly ten year olds.

"Rai, what the hell were you doing?" she looked at me so hard that she could have burnt a whole right through me.

"I don't know what you mean?"

"I know you were up to something! I saw you making that current in the river. I thought you were just testing if you had your wind element back if you had recovered, though I had a suspicion that it was something else!"

"Okay, I sorta had this crazy idea slash plan that needs no further detail to go into. But yeah, I had this plan and like I know it was stupid. Im sorry lets go!" I said in one breath.

"Yeah it was stupid and no we cannot go. I want to know what freaking possessed you into doing, no thinking that. What is wrong with you? Life is not a toy to play with? Its precious, you could have died there Raimundo. If you're element wasn't back, what would you have done? You would have died, that's what you would have did. Died."

I tried to say something but I knew better than to interrupt her while she was scolding me. But as I listened on, I realised that she was right.

"I'd be alone if you'd died, I don't know how I'd survive!" -this made the blood rush to my face, but then I discovered she wasn't finished- "Don't flatter yourself Raimundo. How would I survive here in the wilderness alone? And what if Clay and Omi find me? How would I explain to them that you died? How would I ever look them in the eyes again, knowing I failed them?"

"Failed them? How?" Defiantly sounding I stepped forward.

"Failed them by not being there for you, for not watching your back more carefully, for not stopping you, for not saving you, for not helping you, for…"

"Kimiko, it sounds like you've failed me." I joked, but it looked like I had a point. "Kimiko, I didn't mean it."

"You're right Rai, I would have failed you as well." She drifted off…

That brings us to the present…

End of Flashback…

"Kimiko, I didn't mean it. You wouldn't have failed me. It would be the other way around. I failed you. I don't know how the hell I got that idea. Or why we've been acting so strange. But all I know is, that you wouldn't have failed Clay, Omi, Master Fung and Dojo. You wouldn't have failed me."

There was complete silence, except from the sound of the rushing water and flowing wind.

"Lets just forget about this. I'm still alive and kicking so don't worry Kim. Are you hungry? I am, having a swim works up an appetite." I joked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, Im hungry too. Lets go." Awkwardly we walked side by side. Walking back down the river by the path.

Conversation was very dry and so was my mouth, you'd think that nearly being drowned would quench your thirst. But trust me, it doesn't help. I looked straight to the view of the mountains. I wonder how far we were from the cabin we stayed overnight in. I wonder how far Clay and Omi were to giving up on finding us of how long ago did they give up. No, I should have more faith in them. They will come for us. I know it.

This made me smile and raise my head up higher. I sneaked a glance at Kimiko who remained quiet. I could tell she was looking at me. She looked to the ground and smiled. We both knew what the other was thinking and we couldn't help but smile to ourselves.