7:15 PM

I am falling. Falling, so fast. It seems there are only a few seconds before the wind begins to scream in my ears, begins to whip my hair against my face so sharply that it stings, only a few seconds where I lie as if suspended in time, suspended in midair, waiting to fall. But in those few seconds, a thousand given thoughts speed racing through my head, as if they heed not even time itself.

Among these thoughts are questions. Questions like, Why Mizuki? Why me? Why us? Simple things. And quieter ones, too, quieter questions that sit below the surface but tear at the openings of the heart, asking things too deep to put into words. Is this real? All of this air pulling at my body, the sweat drying on my skin, the feeling of terror that is just beginning to surge inside my stomach--how much of this, what part of this, is reality?

I wonder if I will see her again, in this fragment of a moment. I see her face when my eyes blink open for a split-second, up there among the twilit stars and a shrouded moon, her black hair tumbling over the evening clouds. And the questions spill out of my heart like blood from a razor wound.

Will I feel it when I hit the bottom?

Is it going to hurt?

And, Isn't somebody going to catch me?

I had a dream last night...

Ichiro was in it.

The world is such a big place. I blink my eyes up at the ceiling of my bedroom, watching the morning light creep across the wall. The thoughts come to me without much effort. It's strange--I'm usually not up this early--but the dream woke me up, and I can't go back to sleep.

That dream made me realize something. I...can't remember exactly what happened in it. It was nighttime, or maybe dawn--all I could see was the sky. And Ichi.

Ichi... I smile secretly to myself, pulling the warm bedcovers up to my chin. I close my eyes briefly and I can see his face, his soft smile, my Ichi. His blue eyes grow sweeter when he smiles, and the turn of his head to look down at me makes his sandy hair fall into his face. I open my eyes again.

I don't remember much about the dream, except those words. For whatever reason...

Oh, well. I might as well be up.

I stand up and stretch, feeling achy and cold, and reach behind my head to pull my long black hair into a messy ponytail. The light through the window is warm on my back. I can see it slowly stretching my shadow across the hardwood floor. For whatever reason...

Ichiro.

...I'm here to protect you.

I am waiting at the front entrance to the school for my best friend Mizuki to show up. The bell is going to ring any minute now, but for some reason I still feel the need to be out here. It's stupid, really--waiting until you're tardy just so you can walk to homeroom with your best friend. Or your only friend.

I smooth the folds of my plaited uniform skirt and lean back against the brick wall, listening to the birds chattering in the trees on the lawn. Sighing softly, I hug my books to my chest, then push a strand of short brown hair behind one ear. It's awfully quiet out here.

"Hey, Aya! What are you doing Saturday night?" A light-skinned boy with red hair shoves by my shoulder and stands in front of me, blocking the sunlight.

Crap. I should have been watching for something like this...

My face goes hot and I know I'm blushing furiously, but I can't do anything except stare down at my shoes.

"Aya-chan," the boy whines, dragging out the embarrassing suffix, "I asked you a question. Why don't you answer me?"

I hear more male voices laughing, and I know I'm surrounded. "Get lost," I manage to mumble, not daring to look up.

"But if I get lost, how am I supposed to tease you, then, Aya-chan?" I feel his clammy hand on my neck, and I wrench away.

"Stop it!" The tears are already starting in my throat. I won't let them come out. I won't cry in front of these stupid boys. Maybe a teacher will come by, I'm praying hopefully.

"Come on..." The red-haired boy puts both his arms against the wall so that I'm stuck in between them. "You know me. I'm Satori. I sit behind you in your Chem class."

Well, I'm definitely not going to Chemistry today... I straighten up, as rigid as I can, and try to look him in the eye. He's gawking back at me with a bawdy smile. Oh, geez…

"You're so cute, little Aya. Why won't you let me kiss you?" Satori lunges forward, grabbing me by the wrists, and the group of boys breaks into a fit of laughter.

"Stop it! Let go!" My heartbeat is struggling in my chest and I'm panicking, moving so fast that I don't know what I'm doing. Satori keeps bringing his face up to mine like he's going to kiss me. The sound of laughter is ringing in my ears.

"Come on, Aya! Do it!"

I twist my arms around, hitting the brick wall with my entire body a couple of times. Why is he so strong? Why can't I get away? I can't hear anything except for all the laughing...

And then the bell rings, and suddenly I'm free, falling down towards the sidewalk. My elbow hits the cement with a sickening thud, and it jars my whole right arm. I cry out in shock, the tears bursting from my eyes and flowing down my red cheeks. My books are spread out on the lawn beside the sidewalk, from when I dropped them. The boys are walking off to class, still laughing wildly.

"Saturday night, Aya-chan! Don't forget!" Satori's voice echoes off the wall and my hands curl into fists.

I hate this. Scrubbing the tears from my face, I start to pick up my things, wincing at the pain in my arm. This is stupid. It was a dumb thing to do, anyway, waiting out here. Now I'm going to be late for class.

I sniff a couple of times, swallowing down the soreness in my throat, and get up to hurry to homeroom.

I am dragging my feet down the hallway because I'm so tired from last night, when Aya Sakurai smashes into me from behind and I nearly go flying through the air.

"Watch it, Aya! What's the matter with you?" I blurt out.

"S-s-sorry," Aya stutters, blushing red. "I--I have to go to class."

She runs off down the hall, and as she turns the corner I swear I can see tears on her face.

What a weirdo. I mean, seriously. Who runs to get to homeroom?

It's not that I make fun of Aya, or anything. But I know why lots of kids do. She's just so quiet, it's abnormal. And the really frustrating thing is, she has plenty of potential, she just doesn't know what to do with it. The boys are always flirting with her because she looks so cute, but Aya's either too innocent or too naive to realize what they're doing. She turns as red as a beet and stares at the floor while they jump all over her. Doesn't she know how many girls at this school would kill to be liked that much? I don't get her at all.

But she's friends with Mizuki, so I don't say anything about her. Mizuki is so easy to get along with, I wouldn't be surprised if she were friends with everybody. Maybe that's why she's nice to Aya. I get the feeling Mizuki just pities Aya. Why else would they be friends? They're so different from each other...

Geez, my mind is wandering way too much. I'm not a gossip or anything, I'm really not. I just find people--other people--really interesting.

And I need a distraction from my own miserable life, once in a while. I mean, I'm not an interesting person at all. Here's all you need to know about me: Chieko Katsumi, sixteen years old, rich girl stuck at a crappy public school. My parents want to throw me out of the house, and I just want to make it through high school with something like a good reputation.

Oh--whoa--hold on. Did I just see that?

Around the corner, down the hall a little ways toward the office--there's Aya again. Except she's not running anymore; she's stopped. And Ichiro is with her.

Like, Mizuki's boyfriend Ichiro.

Now, this could get interesting.

The air is clean and fresh when I step outside my house, but I can't stop and enjoy the sweet spring breeze. I need to catch the seven o' clock train to school, and I'm already late.

I've been thinking about that dream all morning, trying to remember the details. I don't know why it seems so important. The thing is, I can't recall what sort of a dream it was--whether it was a fantasy or a nightmare. Maybe it was both. I remember feeling scared, feeling excited, like something was wrong--but then there was that calm, rushing feeling of relief, that feeling that something was right--which was it? Why can't I remember?

My feet make thumping sounds on the pavement as I quicken my pace, running to get to the train station on time. It's such a nice day that I don't need to wear my uniform jacket, but I'm carrying it with me anyway, just in case.

I can't wait to see Ichi today! Thinking about him makes me smile and takes my mind off running for a bit. Maybe I can talk to him about my dream.

Ichiro and I have kind of a funny past together. I met him in junior high--we were lab partners in a science class. Ichiro was great at science, whereas I did very poorly. So he would help me with my lab work, while I rambled on and on about my nonexistent love-life. And when I finally got up the courage to ask a guy if he liked me back, the situation went something like this:

"He rejected me!" And I burst into tears as poor Ichiro hugged me and consoled me all through science class.

This actually happened three more times before I realized that I loved Ichiro.

"He rejected me!" Ichiro shook his head sympathetically, saying that the jerk didn't deserve me anyway.

"He rejected me!" Ichiro shushed me and patted my head as I sobbed into his shoulder.

"He rejected me!" And on the third time, Ichiro wiped my tears and I looked up at him, and suddenly I knew that I had been looking for love in all the wrong places, because there it was right in front of me.

"I love you, Ichi," I cried, and that's how it happened. We just came together after that.

There are puddles on the street, left over from last night's rain, and as more and more cars begin to roll past me I can feel the cold spray coming up from the pavement. This district of the city is less busy than the others, but it can still get hectic. I hope there isn't a large crowd on the train.

Luckily, I get there on time, and the crowd isn't too big. I hurry down the steps that lead into the station, swipe my metro card in the machine, and push my way through the crowd to the glass door that has just slid open. Thank you, I breathe, just barely fitting inside the car filled with people.

Then the door slides shut, and the train takes off down the railway.

Darn it. I'm late again! Grabbing my books up from the table and stuffing them into my bag, I rush past the silent, towering shelves and slam against the door that leads out of the building.

"Ichiro-kun! Mind your manners! This is a library!" The old librarian's sibilant voice catches my ear, and I halt guiltily in the doorway, turning around.

"Sorry, Mrs. Tanako," I say sheepishly, bowing.

"Oh, get up. I won't waste my time with your flattery." The gray-haired woman shakes her head in a reprimanding way. "But if you keep up such a boisterous racket, I'm going to stop letting you in here on early mornings! Do you know, I get up extra-early on Mondays, just to open the library for you to study? Children ought to be more appreciative of their elders!"

"Yes, Ma'am," I mumble, shifting my weight restlessly. I need to get to class!

"Well, go on, get out of here," Mrs. Tanako says with a flip of her hand. I grin and rush out the door, bolting across the lawn.

I'm really getting bad about this. I shake the sweat from my hair as I slow to a stop at the door to the west wing. But I can't help it if magnetic fields are so interesting! I just get carried away reading, sometimes, and I forget where I am...

Or what time it is. I glance down at my watch: 7:47. Darn it! The halls are already empty--

Almost empty. I bump into someone so hard that they drop all of their books.

"I'm sorry!" I freeze up in embarrassment, shocked at my own stupidity. Then I realize who it is that I bumped into.

"Aya! Are you okay?"

The small, brown-haired girl ducks down to pick up her books, her bangs falling over her eyes. "Y-yeah," she says quietly. "I'm fine."

"Man...I'm so sorry, Aya." I feel like such a jerk. Kneeling down on the floor, I try to pick up as many things as I can. There's a pink mechanical pencil with Hello Kitty on the end, and I hold it out to her. "Here."

Aya glances up at me with her big brown eyes, then looks back down as she reaches out to take it. "Thanks," she whispers.

That's when I see her right elbow. "Oh, no," I blurt out. "You're bleeding! I didn't hurt you, did I? What happened?"

Suddenly Aya gets a weird look on her face, and she stands up shakily, backing away. "I'm fine," she says, shaking her head back and forth. Is she crying?

"Aya?" I reach out and touch her shoulder, softly. She tenses up, stiff as a board.

"What's wrong?" I ask. "What happened?"

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I can't believe what I just saw out there. I mean, I never saw it coming. Ichiro and Aya? What the heck? But there they were, right before my eyes, at least until the teacher caught me spying and dragged me off to homeroom. I've been replaying the scene over and over again in my head, trying to make some sense of it. Ichiro had his hand on her shoulder, talking to her. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it must have been something deep and awkward because Aya looked like she was sobbing. And then...

"Aiko, Mizuki. Aiko, Mizuki?"

The teacher's voice calling roll brings me back to reality, if only for a second. Where is Mizuki, anyway? I didn't see her this morning, and she wasn't with Aya...

Well, anyway. Let's get back to Ichiro and Aya. He reaches out and takes her hand in his, and then--

"Katsumi, Chieko. Will you be answering roll call today?"

"Yes, Ma'am. I mean, here. Sorry." I sink down in my seat, embarrassed.

"Thank you. So Mizuki is the only one absent today?"

The class responds with a unanimous silence. Or maybe they're all just bored. I wonder where Mizuki is. She's usually at school; I've never known her to miss a day, in fact.

Then I see it. Up on the TV screen, in the corner of the classroom, a news channel flips on, and there's a shot of something from above coming into focus. Headlines are scrolling across the bottom of the screen, and the voice of a reporter comes through the speakers.

"…possibly fatal collision that resulted in the train's derailing. Route E51 to Tokyo has been closed off. Police and firefighters have arrived at the scene and are currently searching for survivors. Some forty-five civilians are unaccounted for, thirty-two have been reported dead…Repeat, Route E51 to Tokyo has been closed off…"

It's a train, up there on the screen, a train lying on its side where it looks like it fell from a railroad bridge after running into another train. There's smoke coming up from the passenger cars lying on their sides, power lines bent underneath them, trees smashed and broken, and the flashing lights of fire engines and police cars all around.

And suddenly my heart goes cold and all I can think is, Where is Mizuki?