Chapter Fifteen: Symphony of Starlight (I1B0C15)

 Chapter Fifteen: Symphony of Starlight

 

“Hatasuko, can you hear me? Are you there?” asked a soft voice.

“Adishina, is that you? I haven’t heard from you in so long! It’s funny, I actually feel a little compelled to ask how you’ve been, but I suppose probably nothing’s changed. You know, since you’re dead and all,” Hatasuko answered with a quiet laugh.

“Ha, yeah… not much has changed. Well at least, nothing has changed for me. The tempest had been loud for so long that I guess you couldn’t hear my little voice in here! It’s a shame. I saw you hurting after Lazaro died. I wish I could have helped you, but everyone else was upset too. All the lost souls were screaming louder than I’ve ever heard. It seems that hope truly has a poisonous effect,” said Adishina.

“It seems that it does. My first victory gave everyone hope, but that turned out to be a mistake. Everyone thought that I would end the Interfecti, but that was just a daydream—one that was devoured by the nightmare. I still have hope, and I still intend to save this world, but no one else needs to know that. No one else needs to have hope; that’s the way it has to be. There’s a very real chance I could fail. Even after my latest victory, I still might fail.”

“That isn’t going to happen! Didn’t you say that you won’t give reality the choice to disagree with you? You know this is your destiny.”

As he listened to the soft voice of the lost soul at the edge of the tempest, Hatasuko realized that Adishina served as a messenger for the miserable souls. Though his recent victory had failed to alleviate their pain, they still supported him. They still shared his dream.

Hatasuko answered, “You’re right. I wish I was a more consistent person, but it feels like I dance between optimism and realism. It’s a pretty sharp boundary. Every time I realize my own powerlessness, I remember my destiny. But when I stepped too far into hope, you saw what happened. It’s… a weird place to be. At any rate, can I ask you why the tempest is so quiet right now? It’s strange. Not even my last victory seemed to stop their screams.”
            “You really don’t know? Open your eyes, just for a moment.”

            Hatasuko opened his sleepy golden eyes and glanced at the front of the sail-rana. The sail was fully expanded, the boat charged along the smooth desert floor, and the starlight pulsed down upon him. He then noticed a very warm presence on his chest. Though he sat in the backseat of the large sail-rana, Vaida sat beside him with her arms wrapped around his stomach. Her sleeping head rested on his chest. Even in this semiconscious state, his right hand was tangled in her hair. He combed his fingers through her hair, gently enough that she did not wake, but noticeably enough that she smiled in her sleep. He closed his eyes again and returned to the edge of the tempest.

“It looks like you’ve found the one who takes your pain away,” Adishina said.

Hatasuko detected an undertone of envy in Adishina’s voice. Since she had died young, she never experienced closeness with another person.

She asked, “Are you going back home? It looks like you’re headed to the Collobos Mountains. Is this your first time going back since you left?”

“Yes. I am finally heading home. I don’t have any specific business there, though we definitely need to stock up on food. Poor Vaida is on her last sack of fruit; she would go crazy if we ran out! I heard that Collobos specializes in agilus meat and fruit since the attack, though most of the region is the same. The Interfectus only destroyed a small portion,” Hatasuko explained to his somber friend.

Adishina said, “I want you to meet someone when you go back, but I don’t actually know if they’re still there. I died early in the attack, so I have no idea who survived and who never made it home. When I was there, I had one friend. She never cared that I couldn’t walk. She was wonderfully sweet. Her name is Osheida. She lived with her sister and father near the southwest part of town. I think their names were Aridara and Konaji. The children aren’t a big deal, since we were friends but never close. Just companions. But I want you and Vaida to meet Konaji, her father. He is an inventor as well. It’s just an option, though. You certainly don’t have to.”

             “I’m certain she would love that! Thank you, Adishina. You’re always such a delight to talk to. Try to make your little voice louder; I want to hear you from the tempest more often,” Hatasuko said with a warmness in his voice.

She responded with a quiet giggle. The darkness of the tempest began to fade as he prepared to wake up. Before the tempest transformed into starlight, Hatasuko heard her say, “You’re welcome, Hatasuko.”

With a quiet sigh, Hatasuko awakened in the sail-rana. Vaida’s arms were wrapped around his big body. Despite the bumpiness of the desert floor, she slept peacefully with a smile. Even in this state, her slender fingers gently gripped his arm. Since the starlit desert appeared empty in all directions, he looked down at her and smiled. For minutes of silence, he watched her faint smile and slowly combed his fingers through her hair. Every time his fingertips slid across the back of her neck, she gripped him slightly tighter than before.

A flash of frantic worry went across Vaida’s face; her fingertips sharply clenched his flesh. Though her eyes were closed, her quivering lips were open, and her lips formed a powerful frown. With a voice slurred by her sleeping state, Vaida whispered, “Please run; I’m not worth it.”

Though he did not know the details of her nightmare, Hatasuko shook her and startled her awake. To some extent, he regretted that she could guard him from his nightmares but he could not do the same for her.

“Vaida, are you okay?” Hatasuko asked, inspecting her sweaty face with his big eyes.

“Hold that thought.”

Vaida climbed off his body, rubbed her eyes with her right hand, and then leaned over the front seat of the sail-rana. She leaned so far that her feet flew up in the air; Hatasuko had to move his head just to avoid being kicked. After a moment of fumbling around, Vaida came back and sat beside him with a viridipomus in her teeth. She used no hands on the fruit. She held an albapomus in her left hand, but she wordlessly nudged him with it until he accepted her gift. Once he did, she pulled the viridipomus out of her mouth and held what was left of it in her right hand.

“I, um, I’m sorry I fell asleep on you. I got cold,” she mumbled.

“Don’t apologize! Feel free to do it whenever you want,” he replied, figuring that she would prefer not to talk about her nightmare.

“I really appreciate it. You deserve every albapomus you could ever want!”

“Wow, that’s quite a compliment coming from you!” Hatasuko said with a little laugh.

Vaida gave a quiet giggle and then took another bite from her viridipomus. The juice splashed around her teeth and nearly fell, but she moved quickly and caught the juice with her lips. A small smile arose on her face; she practically made a game of stopping the juice from dripping onto the seat.

“I think I see it up ahead! I’m not good at seeing details from a distance, but it all looks so pretty. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way… but I’m a little surprised,” she shyly said.

            Hatasuko noticed that Vaida stared intently at the northwest horizon. The Collobos Mountains had transformed the shape of the desert. Instead of a flatland which faded into starlight, the horizon became jagged. Distant mountains towered over the land with a humbling size, though even the mountains varied in size. Some were small enough to show the faint outline of larger mountains behind them, but one mountain was so large that it commanded their attention. This was not the mountain where he had grown up, though many homes and buildings still stood upon it. Every mountain shone from the glow of the stars.

“You can’t actually see my hometown from here; I grew up in a place deeper into the range. But you’re still right! This region recovered well from the Interfectus attack. Maybe a little too well, even,” Hatasuko explained.

As Hatasuko spoke, Vaida detected a sadness in his voice at the end. She wanted to probe, but then he climbed into the front seat. When she felt the weight of her vehicle shifting, Vaida quickly pressed her back against the backseat to stabilize it. Hatasuko grabbed the steering wheel and turned it slightly, pulling the sail-rana toward a dirt road that ran between two mountains.

“What do you mean?” Vaida asked with a timid voice.

As he steadied the sail-rana, Hatasuko answered, “I think the townspeople wanted to erase the memory of the monster. They buried all the evidence and rebuilt the city as quickly as they could. I guess it helps them pretend it never happened. I can’t blame them. I just wish that I could see the ruins of my old life.”

“I think they’re just doing what they can to take the pain away,” Vaida said cheerfully.

Hatasuko smiled and thanked her. However, their conversation fell quiet as the sail-rana rolled on the winding road between two mountainsides. The color of the mountains gradually transformed from brown at the bottom to white at the top. The higher slopes of the mountains glistened in the starlight. As they continued to dine on fruit, they gazed at the beautiful mountains. The slope eventually afflicted the road itself, dramatically slowing their sail-rana.

            After a short period of eating and sailing, Hatasuko saw the familiar shape of his old town on a medium-sized mountain. The town looked exactly like it did in his memory; it showed no evidence that an Interfectus had attacked. He wanted to sail closer, but the slope quickly became too much for the sail-rana. Before they fell backward, he steered off-road and then jumped out of the boat.

Hatasuko grabbed the vehicle so that it would not roll backward, and Vaida quickly scrambled to gather their belongings. Once she jumped out, Hatasuko turned the sail-rana on its side and walked over to his friend. She met his gaze with a shy smile, but then she distracted herself by handing out their weapons. Hatasuko hooked his whip on his back, swung his sheathed sword over his shoulder, and clasped his shield onto his back. Vaida wore her X-shaped holster and her shield on her back, though they both agreed to not carry any rocks. They instead opted to carry a small sack of gold coins.

As they walked together toward the edge of his hometown, Hatasuko noticed that Vaida seemed to zone out and veer slightly off-track. Without a word, he set his hand on her shoulder, and then she pulled closer to him. For the rest of the trek, they walked so closely that she occasionally brushed against him.

“This settlement looks a little big to just be a town! The homes go all the way to the top of the mountain,” Vaida said with noticeable anxiety.

“Yeah, it really is pretty big. Honestly, I’m not sure what the difference is anyway. The mountainside is long, so it’s easy to build on it. But hey, Vaida, is there something wrong?” Hatasuko asked.

Vaida looked down and away for a moment. She kept the same closeness as before, but she clenched her scarred fist and held it at her side. She stared at her fist, averting her eyes from the town’s edge.

“I don’t really like cities. I, um, don’t like groups of people. They always seem to stare. A lot of people take one glance at me and then throw their eyes in another direction, like to pretend they didn’t notice. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m complaining. I just want to be more open,” she muttered nervously.

“Thank you for telling me. I don’t know if this helps at all, but we won’t actually go far. I want to try to find someone who used to live near the edge of town. And if anyone stares, I’ll scare them off,” Hatasuko teased, flexing his left arm to show off his impressive muscles.

            Vaida let out something in between a giggle and a laugh. She looked up at her friend and smiled, but then she realized how close they were to the town’s edge. She moved slightly so that his body concealed her right side, but their approach still captured the attention of many townspeople. Hatasuko quickly realized that the people seemed to stare at him, since he looked like a giant in a quiet mountain city. He shrugged it off.

“Hello! I’m Hatasuko; I grew up in this town! Can you help me find someone? I want to find the home of a man named Konaji,” Hatasuko announced.

The townspeople stared at him with an impressed gaze of disbelief. Hatasuko could not tell if they had heard the stories of the giant man who fought Interfecti, but they still seemed friendly enough. A young woman approached them both.

“Konaji lives with his daughter just a couple blocks away. I can bring you there if you promise he won’t antagonize me for it,” she said with a warm smile.

“I, uh, certainly don’t intend to upset him,” Hatasuko answered friendlily.

The woman nodded and then turned around. She walked quickly toward the next block, so Hatasuko followed with Vaida right behind him. Vaida stared at the ground as they walked. When they arrived at the door to the aforementioned house, the woman turned and trudged away. He thanked her, but she said nothing, so he shrugged and knocked on the wooden door. After a flurry of rapid footsteps inside, the door opened to reveal an attractive woman in the doorway. Just the movement of the opening door caused her reddish bangs to flutter. She had a smile on her soft face, and her blue eyes shimmered from the nearby candlelight.

“I don’t believe that we’ve met before. Good to meet you! I’m Aridara,” she said.

“Nice to meet you! This probably sounds odd, but I’m here looking for your father. I heard he’s an amazing inventor! Personally, I’ve got no mind for it, but I think Vaida here might love to meet him,” Hatasuko explained, spoiling the surprise.

Hatasuko and Aridara watched Vaida flinch slightly, but then a different emotion overtook her face. After the initial shock of fear, excitement devoured her eyes; a smile appeared on her face.

She asked, “Hatasuko, why didn’t you tell me-”

“Because I wanted it to be a surprise! I know how happy this stuff makes you. I guess I just wanted to see your reaction! Is that so wrong?” he asked with an entertained grin.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she raved, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Though she smiled widely, Aridara stepped out of the doorway and said, “I’ll let him know we have visitors. Go ahead and wait inside! Make yourselves at home.”

After Aridara let her guests in, she ran across the room and disappeared up the staircase. Hatasuko closed the door behind him and searched for somewhere to sit, but none of the furniture looked like it could hold his weight.

            “I haven’t seen or heard anything about Osheida. I wonder if she was lost when the Interfectus attacked,” Hatasuko thought to himself.

A scolding voice said from the top of the staircase, “Honestly, Aridara, you can’t go inviting everyone into our house! What if someone sent spies? I can’t let my inventions fall into the wrong hands!”

“Daddy, nobody’s trying to steal your work! Besides, it’s so cute! The big one’s surprising his friend with meeting an inventor. Please, dad?” spoke Aridara’s sweet voice, loudly enough for Hatasuko and Vaida to hear.

Konaji let out an exasperated groan as he crept down the stairs. His footsteps slowly grew louder until the bottom of his feet were visible. He then entered the room at the bottom of the wooden stairs with his arms folded.

“Aridara, they’re clearly spies. Look at them! One of them is obviously some human giant, and they’re both covered in weapons. They even have weird shields! Life’s so cruel. They finally sent their goons to take my research and lock me up. I knew it! I knew it was coming,” whispered Konaji to his daughter, again loudly enough for everyone to hear.

            “No, no, it’s nothing like that, I promise! We don’t work for anyone. Vaida and I fight Interfecti, so we’re just used to walking everywhere with our swords! But she’s an amazing inventor, and I know she’d love to meet you. Please trust me!” Hatasuko pleaded.

Hatasuko noticed that Konaji and Aridara both flinched when he mentioned the Interfectus. They both exchanged an uneasy glance, and after a brief silence, Konaji sighed and closed his eyes.

“The girl may enter my laboratory, but the giant must stay behind and wait. And don’t you dare try anything with my daughter, giant! She is constantly armed with the most powerful home-defense weapon that this world has ever seen. And Vaida! Before you step foot up here, I must have your promise that you will never speak a word of anything you see here to anyone but your companion. I can’t let the spies get ahold of my research!” he instructed.

Hatasuko and Vaida shared an amused glance. Vaida nodded, agreed, and then stepped toward the wooden staircase. As she and Konaji climbed the staircase, she heard Aridara speaking in the room below. Aridara asked, “So what do you mean about fighting Interfecti?”

At the top of the staircase, Konaji opened the door and held it open for her, but he glared at her the whole time she walked in. In a way, Vaida liked that someone was glaring for a reason other than her scars; she was comforted by his lunacy. When she entered his lab, she saw countless scraps and strange objects resting on the counters. She noticed a half-assembled sail-rana mast on the floor, though it seemed that Konaji had not built a way to fold it. She walked over to the mast and smiled as she inspected it.

             “I assure you that I am worlds away from the ordinary inventors in this land, but even I have been captivated by the sail-rana! I do fiddle with the designs from time to time. It’s hardly worth discussing! Every inventor is trying to make one,” Konaji explained, quickly turning his back on the mast.

“Can I ask what this is? It looks fascinating,” Vaida asked in her quiet voice.

“Ah, yes, the blend-shredder! Or the shred-blender. I hate naming things. As you will see, most of my inventions are meant for household convenience! This one has applications for making fruit drinks. Would you like to see it?” Konaji asked.

As soon as she heard mention of fruit, Vaida’s eyes lit up with excitement. She nodded enthusiastically, so Konaji ran toward a metal tank in the corner of the room. He fumbled with it for many seconds until it released a small cloud of gas. A faint white fog lifted from it, some condensation settled on the metal, and then Konaji dipped a glass cup inside the machine. When he pulled the cup out, it was filled with very cold water, and then he quickly resealed the machine. He excitedly ran across the room, poured the frigid water in the blend-shredder, and then opened a cabinet over the counter. He kept many fruits inside the cabinet.

“Which fruits do you think might mix well?” Konaji asked.

“Umm… ruberpomus… and albapomus?”

“Ha-ha! Tireless hours of research agree. Only another inventor could reach that conclusion so easily,” Konaji replied.

With a swift pair of knife slashes, the cores of an albapomus and ruberpomus both fell to the counter. Konaji tossed the fruit into the blend-shredder with the water, and then he sealed the top. He pushed the top down so far that it compressed the fruit and the water at the bottom. Eventually the top clicked, locking it in place.

“Now observe, my dear! We are moments now from a spectacular new taste.”

Vaida watched with tangible excitement as Konaji grabbed the handles on the outside of the blend-shredder. He quickly spun the handles in a circle; Vaida heard the turning of gears somewhere inside the machine. As Konaji spun the handles, a series of thin blades slashed back and forth inside the blend-shredder. The blades quickly and continuously shredded the fruit, bleeding its pulpy nectar into the water. After several more seconds of rapid slashing, Konaji took his hands off the handles and opened the top.

He said, “I have had every combination more times than you can dream, so you may have all of this!”

Vaida poured the smoothie from the blend-shredder into the cool glass cup. She stared over it for a moment in awed silence, steadying her excitement until she took a sip. Konaji watched her eyes transform from anticipative to alarmed, and then she greedily drank every last drop in the cup. Konaji tried to ask if she liked the taste, but she grabbed the blend-shredder and jumped away from him. She poured the rest of it into the glass and quickly gulped it down without a word. When she finished, she set both items on the counter and dropped to her knees with her hands on her face.

“So cold, so cold, so cold, so cold,” she whimpered, moving her face back and forth.

“Ah yes, that is an inevitable consequence. You certainly can’t drink that too quickly! Is it safe to say you liked it?” Konaji asked.

“This is the greatest invention I have ever seen. You have the power to make new fruit,” she whispered with a stunned sense of awe.

“It’s quite likely my second favorite invention! I have a few investors lined up; they believe that every household will one day have a blend-shredder! Though I hope they can come up with a better name. I just have to make sure that these investors aren’t working for my enemies,” he said with a bitter glare.

“What is your favorite invention?” Vaida asked.

Konaji smiled and walked over to the opposite corner of his lab. A large item was hidden beneath a white blanket beside the window. Vaida followed him, though she took a moment to look out through the window. The pulsing stars illuminated the mountain town, and the view was remarkably beautiful. As she looked over the left side of the window, she saw homes and buildings which dotted the mountain’s slope.

After clearing his throat, Konaji pulled off the blanket and revealed a machine that looked like an elevated chair with a footrest. But instead of an ordinary footrest, it had two pedals with straps. The mad scientist sat down in the seat, fit his feet onto the pedals, and began pushing back and forth. Just like the blend-shredder, the pedals moved repeatedly in a circle, driven only by his muscles. Due to some hidden gear system, the spinning of these pedals turned a much larger wheel under the footrest. In just a short while, this wheel came to spin with impressive speed.

“This invention in its current form is an indoor exercise machine, but in fact it can fulfill many uses inside the home! I have a contact in Lumipyla who has a pressure-driven heat chamber, used for cooking meat. With a clever gear system, I am certain that the spinning wheel can pressurize it! I believe that my pedal-and-gear arrangement can have many applications. I just can’t let the spies discover it first,” Konaji said with his arms crossed.

“Transportation. It can be used for movement,” Vaida whispered.

“What’s that now?” Konaji asked.

“Do you have any extra sketches of your system? I… I have an idea. I want to try something! Um, I don’t have a lot to offer you, but if it works, I’ll give you credit. You’ll be rich for sure,” Vaida said as he climbed off his exercise machine.

“I suppose you may have a copy of my sketches. I shall confess that I do not know the face of my enemy, but I am certain it’s not you. My enemies aren’t clever enough to disguise themselves with scars,” said the inventor.

Vaida winced at the mere mention of her scars, but she focused on the idea of accessing his invention. Konaji walked over to an open cabinet and sifted around until he located the extra sketches. Once he found them, he grinned, closed the cabinet, and handed them to Vaida. She mumbled her thanks, and then they walked back together toward the staircase.

“It’s not a big deal. He didn’t mean for it sound like that,” Vaida whispered to herself, though she kept her voice quiet so no one would hear.

When Vaida stepped out onto the wooden staircase and walked back down, she heard Hatasuko and Aridara speaking friendlily to each other in the room below. Aridara raved, “And the rocks really work? That’s so cool! I can’t even imagine fighting an Interfectus!”

“He’s probably uncomfortable. He doesn’t like people making a big deal over him,” Vaida whispered to herself.

But when Vaida reached the bottom of the staircase and looked around the room, she saw that she was wrong. Hatasuko stood in the middle of the room with his sword drawn and a big grin on his face. He swung his sword over his shoulder and shifted his feet as if he were fighting. He reenacted his last fight for Aridara, and she watched with an excited gaze on her beautiful face. Vaida stared at her in silence. Her skin was smooth, soft, and untouched by fire.

“I’ll be at the sail-rana,” Vaida muttered as she quickly exited the house; Hatasuko froze in his stance as she walked by.

            When Vaida stepped out into the street and closed the door behind her, she began jogging back to her vehicle. The sound of her running footsteps attracted the attention of townspeople and outdoor vendors, so Vaida kept her left hand over her face. After she crossed from the town to the rocky mountainside, she finally removed her hand and jogged with impressive speed. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she closed them and shook her head. Once she reached the sail-rana and slowed to a stop, she realized that she could still hear the patter of running footsteps. She looked over her shoulder and saw Hatasuko running after her.

            When Hatasuko caught up to her, Vaida covered her face with her hands and said, “I’m sorry. That was nice. I learned a lot! I just forgot who I was for a second. Until he said something. I’m sorry I ran and-”

            “Vaida, I want to show you something. Is that alright? It’s not a long walk.”

            “Are there going to be people there?” she asked with her quiet voice.

            “No, none at all. I want to show you a place that’s very special to me. It’s a relic of my life before all this; it’s a reflection of the time when the world seemed endlessly big. I want to show you everything I used to know! Mountain roads, starlit rivers, the cliff where I caught my first agilus—I want to show it all to you. Will you walk with me?” he asked.

            Hatasuko saw a flash of uncertainty in her blue eye, but then her face transformed to show a shy smile. Vaida nodded, so he reached out with his big right hand. She timidly dropped her left hand into his, and despite the size difference, they walked quietly together down the luminous mountainside.

             “I know it’s selfish for me to feel the way I do about you. I know that you’ve had a really rough past, so I don’t expect you to let anyone else in. It’s a lot to carry. But I also know that I won’t feel right until you understand how much you mean to me. Maybe you can’t give yourself the love you deserve, but you’re still important. Nothing in the world matters to me as much as you,” Hatasuko confessed as they walked together.

            “I… don’t know what to say,” Vaida whispered as they approached a small cliff.

            Despite her words, a gentleness infiltrated Vaida’s voice. Hatasuko could feel her steady heartbeat through her hand. He tried to hide it, but he glanced at her face and saw her smiling. She had a faint redness on her unscarred cheek.

            After several minutes of walking, Hatasuko and Vaida arrived at a large cliff on the mountainside. The cliff overlooked a beautiful valley which basked in the light of the pulsing stars. Several small rivers converged in the valley and shimmered with a bright white glow. Near the edge of the river, Vaida saw a beautiful grove of ruberpomus trees; this was the same grove that Hatasuko and his mother had discovered long ago. Together, they gazed out over the starlit valley with their hands intertwined. They stared in a state of silence. After several seconds, Hatasuko felt a pulse of nervousness in his timid friend. Her fingers began to warm up, and her lips began to quiver.

            “I fell for you, Hatasuko. I just, um, couldn’t find a way to tell you,” she said.

            “Why you were afraid?” Hatasuko asked.

            “Well… I accepted long ago that I, or that, um, someone like me, has no right. I have no right to love anyone. It was selfish. Saying something like that, almost like I want love back, when I’m just so, I guess, unlovable. Ugly and broken. Scarred. Burdensome. Unlovable,” she whispered with a shaky voice.

            “Why do you think that? You’re too hard on yourself! You just-”

            “I didn’t want to lose you just because I was feeling something I have no right to feel. Why would you or anyone else ever-”

            “Because you’re the most wonderful woman in the world! Please don’t feel that way about yourself,” Hatasuko said, setting his hand on her shoulder.

            Vaida turned and wrapped her arms around him. She quickly dried her tears on his shirt, though the starlight shimmered on the moisture that stained her eyes. As she held him close on the cliff beside the valley, she whispered, “I never dreamed this could actually happen. I never thought… I never imagined this could be real.”

            Since Hatasuko towered over her, he turned and crouched so that he held his head only slightly over hers. Without a word, they closed their eyes and gently pressed their lips together. As the starlight made the world glow white around them, he tasted her lips and felt the touch of her warm skin against his fingers. He held his breath as she pressed herself more firmly against him. She reached one hand around his back as the other held the back of his head; he felt like she was holding him in place. Even with his eyes closed, even with only the starlit shape of her face pressed on his eyelids, he knew she was smiling.

            When they separated their lips, Hatasuko looked at her and confirmed his suspicion. She was indeed smiling. She nervously glanced away, took a short breath, and then kissed him once again.

            “Have you ever felt something so powerful that you know it has to be true?” she asked.

“Even if you can’t see it, even if you can’t describe it, you just know that it’s real. You know it must be real,” Hatasuko answered.

“I am not giving reality the choice to disagree with me,” said Vaida as she pulled him closer once more.