Chapter 16: Rainbow
Several days have passed…several days of void…there came no sign of Takashi's presence in the campus. He didn't show up in school for the past few days after the hostage crisis that almost took the life out of his love. He didn't answer any calls made by either relative or friend. He would glance at the screen of his phone and hang up momentarily. He wouldn't eat a single bite of his meal and would usually say in front of mother and daughter his sensation of grief had satisfied his hunger. Modern science says that a man can live for a week without food and three days without water. For breakfast, he had water; for lunch, he had water; and for dinner, he escaped dehydration by water—not a single piece of solid food passed through his mouth and saliva. Grief had completely taken over his body along with regret and sorrow. During these past several days, he had grown weak and weary because of his foolishness to refuse to eat. He spent a whole day in his room, hoping that rest was the cure for his illness. It only got worse today; he was brought to the hospital where the doctor examined his body by running some tests. Afterwards, Takashi was laid to rest in a mobile bed and taken upstairs to his ward on the 3rd floor. Considering a long thin tube full of dextrose running down towards his wrist, he was in terrible shape. Doctors may have a cure for his terrible illness but even medical science cannot mend a broken heart. The only one capable of doing such an impossible task for medical science is the one responsible for breaking his resolve.
"The doctor said you need to eat to regain your strength." Miyuki said to him inside room 3177.
"I feel too terrible to eat right now." Takashi stubbornly refused her advice.
"That's why you need to eat something."
"I told you, I'm not hungry. I get pounds of grief filling up my belly all the time."
"I know you want to change the past, but it can't be done. Don't think that this is the end of everything."
"You don't know how much I've spent planning the perfect day for her to come up with an answer; only to be ruined by my jealous brother."
Then, Miyuki realized enough is enough.
"Well, you also have no idea how much I've spent suffering!" She quickly burst into tears and scurried outside crying.
"Miyuki, wait—!"
His terrible condition led the both of them to terrible states of mind. As long as one can never get over the past, things from this point forward will be even worse than before. He has his brother to blame for ruining such a good day because of his jealousy and anger towards him; however he can only blame himself for failure of preventing the inevitable from happening. Why it happened despite his eagerness didn't matter to him; more on the aftermath of the gale. He felt even more terrible when he made Miyuki cry. Upon closer analysis, he realized that she was right: what's done is done. He could only move forward to a better tomorrow. The stinging pain from Kagami's slap was gone; but the scar has been embedded in his memory. Not only did he fail to uphold his promise to his beloved cousin and put shame in the family name, but he also destroyed Kagami's fragile heart. He had so many sins to atone for; but the memory of those sins cannot be erased but only forgotten. If he was given one chance to change the stream of time, that incident would be his answer…that is if it was really possible.
After what had occurred, he didn't have the guts to face Kagami ever again. In fact, he was a disgrace in front of her; fighting his jealous sibling for the right over her heart. Takashi's heart wasn't at the right place during that time. He mistook her for a prize to be won in a competition; something that was absurd and downright bizarre. There was never a clear winner because their father had arrived and put an end to a meaningless bout. They risked themselves embarrassed over the media from the sky and not to mention the cops who were present at the scene of the crime. He could still remember the exact dialogue during that day.
"Kagami-san, I—"
"Stay away from me from now on." She said subtly but with anger building inside her.
"I know I've been such a jerk. I'm sorry."
"You two used me as a prize. You took me for a trophy."
"Kagami-san, it's not like that."
"We're done talking. Don't look for me anymore."
The last line of the short dialogue echoed inside his head. He started thinking of ways to make it up for his foolish actions. He turned his attention in turning on the TV to get some inspiration. It was tuned to a documentary on white light and prisms. As white light passed through the prism block, the colors of the spectrum appeared on the other side. Then the scene turned from a black room to the environment drenched in rain. The sun shone and a rainbow formed across the wet rainforest.
The raindrops act like the prism block. They split white light into seven different colors. This is why a rainbow is formed after the precipitation stage and when the sun shines in the sky.
"Man, what a beautiful rainbow." He muttered to himself. "I should've said that to her in the first place."
He continued drawing inspiration from the rainbow. After a few minutes, the right idea hit him.
"That's it!" He then scanned channel after channel for a weather update for the next five days.
For the past 24 hours, there haven't been signs of a formation of a tropical storm over in the Pacific. Nevertheless, winds from the south will continue to bring partly cloudy to cloudy skies with rain showers and thunderstorms across the Honshu mainland. Yesterday, we've seen a break in the bad weather; and according to this five-day weather chart, the possibility of sunshine can be seen on Wednesday which is only a week before the official end of the semester for students around the country.
He was amazed by a sudden turn of events. He had already formulated the perfect idea to clear his name and regain the trust of his beloved once again.
"Miyuki, come here for a minute!" He cried in excitement but there was no answer considering the long silence. That excitement quickly turned to disappointment. "Hmm…she must've gone home already."
Meanwhile in the Hiiragi household, Kagami just arrived home from school with Tsukasa. Everything seemed normal, looked normal, smelled normal, and it even tasted normal—the house was too normal. Their mother was preparing dinner in the kitchen as the smell of tonight's dinner emanated across the house. Inori and Matsuri were on the television, watching a detective show where justice and corruption confronted one another on the edge of the cliff by the sea. They hurried to their rooms to finish their homework for tomorrow and hopefully they could watch the game show the entire family liked. In the aftermath of the crisis, everybody returned to their normal lives—as if nothing terrible happened.
"Kagami, come here for a minute." Her mother called from downstairs; in which Kagami complied.
A stairway and few steps to the kitchen later, she and her mother had a personal talk. The subject was fairly obvious.
"I want to talk to you something…if I'm not interrupting your study period." The mother said.
"It's okay, mother. Today's homework is very short anyway." Kagami replied.
"I want you to hear a tale of mine back in my college days before I met your father."
Before I met your father, I too was in love with another person—a foreigner. He was very nice and on top of that very intelligent. Everyday we would meet under the shade of the cherry blossom tree and enjoy the scenery of the flowing stream by the banks. We had so much in common; I almost ended up marrying him rather than your father. Then, one fateful rainy day…
"Please, stop it!" I yelled in front of two men fighting with wooden swords; one of them the man I first loved. "Don't do this!"
"Stop this foolishness before it's too late!" He said to his opponent.
"I'll stop when you surrender Miki to me!" The latter replied. "Aren't you satisfied with what you have: money, fame, glory? What good would greed do to you anyway?"
"I'm not being greedy. How should I know that you're also in love with her?"
"The fact that dad chose you over me…is unacceptable! I'm the rightful heir to the company—I should be the one sitting in his seat! But now that everything's lost to me, I only have her to keep my spirits up…only to see that she already belongs to you."
"You're making a fool out of yourself! Cease this nonsense!"
"Never, I'll even fight with my blood if I have to!"
The rain wouldn't stop, so did the fighting. Both of them were severely bruised and weary. Still, their desire to keep on fighting burned up. I was in no position to stop them; I watched them helplessly from a distance until one side was completely down for the count. The water that flowed from the sides of my face was more than rain; they were teardrops from my eyes. The feeling was like being stabbed in the back by some stranger. Before you know it, all was lost. Eventually, my first love emerged victoriously and as agreed upon, he has the right to my love. But it didn't feel like victory at all. Both of them took me for a mere trophy—playing with my life like a game of tug-of-war.
"I won…" He said to me confidently. "It's all over."
Then, I did the unthinkable: I slapped him hard with every bit of resentment that built up over time. On top of that, I was crying like I've never cried before in my entire lifetime.
"You're right, it's all over." Those were my final words to him and left him in the rain. Eventually, I met your father; we graduatedfrom college, got married, and gave birth to the four of you. During the commencement exercises, I noticed that my ex-first love was absent from the occasion. During that time, it had been several months since the fighting. That's when I found out that he stabbed himself with a katana in his room, holding a wallet-size picture of me. I felt like, no, I WAS responsible for his death. I shattered his hopes and deprived him of his life.
He was a good man with a reasonable sense of character. In the end, he died all because of me.
When the narration ended, nobody cried but the both of them felt a heavy sensation bearing weight on them like gravity. In a practical view, anyone would cry a river especially if the listeners were mostly or all girls. Kagami had realized that her mother had done the same…and the outcome could be the same as well.
"Kagami-san, I—"
"Stay away from me from now on." She said subtly but with anger building inside her.
"I know I've been such a jerk. I'm sorry."
"You two used me as a prize. You took me for a trophy."
"Kagami-san, it's not like that."
"We're done talking. Don't look for me anymore."
"You slapped him, am I right?" Her mother asked.
Kagami had no choice but to fess up since her mother saw through her. "Yes."
"It's never too late to apologize. Say sorry sincerely and it will be all over."
"I cannot be sincere anymore to that man. I was dragged into trouble and was almost molested by his brother's lackeys."
"I know it's hard to offer an apology. It's going to be harder if you let it stay for too long. In fact, by the time you say sorry, you might be too late."
"Do you think he'll forgive me?"
"Absolutely, Kagami…go to the phone and call Miyuki-chan."
She had her set of doubts clouding her judgment at first. She wasn't ready to forgive someone who took her for an inanimate prized possession. The rain poured heavier than before as if the nearby river was going to overflow. At the exact moment the thunder roared, she stood up and hurried to the telephone. From that point onward, she spun the circle corresponding to the correct numbers of Miyuki's telephone at home. Her call was immediately answered by Miyuki herself…only this time, her voice wasn't what she expected of a mere phone call.
"Hello?"
"Miyuki…? Why are you crying?"
"It's my cousin…he…he's been sent to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit; a special room in the hospital for patients at critical state)."
"ICU?!"
TO BE CONTINUED
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A new girl is coming to town…and she's challenging Kagami to one of the greatest games destiny has ever made…rivalry.
Meet Yamamoto Yakumo on…
"Kagami in the Rain 2: Desolation"
01/2008