[OLD] Densetsu Side-Stories

A Kiss Goodbye

I had only ever wanted to know the truth... A kiss goodbye was all I never got...

He looked down at the shallow waters below him, with the girl's innocent face in his mind. Her eyes had been so full of fear when she made that promise to him. The hero, Arashi, and his partner, the AI Kiri Yabureme, had been so close. She had promised him one day they would be married, once the fighting had ended. On the final day of the earth and the moon, Kiri disappeared, smiling for the first time as she left Arashi behind.

Is that what you wanted? Did you want to see who would find sorrow if you left?

He imagined her sweet, innocent face looking back at him through the lake, wanting to reach out to her, grab her hands and never let go. He only knew so much about her, that she would be in his heart forever.

On the other side of the lake, the girl stared down in a daze. Her long, light pink hair covered one of her eyes entirely, while her other pupil-less violet eye was visible clearly. She frowned at the surface, looking at the folds in the fabric of her red dress, as though she expected to find an image.

Our paths had crossed, yet we no longer needed to see each other once the war was over...

It brought her pain to say this, but deep in her mind she knew that it was the way things had to be. She had promised Arashi they would one day meet again, and when that day arrived, they would marry. It was a situation similar to that of The Merchant of Venice, where Bassanio and Portia had been separated by fate, but Bassanio would one day return from sea to marry sweet Portia. Kiri and Arashi had made the same promise.

Don't forget me until that day arrives, okay Arashi?

She said this as if she were trying to reach him through her mind. Although her eyes showed no signs of hopefulness, she knew in her heart she and Arashi would meet again one day. She too reached out to the sky, hoping Arashi would reach down to her. She knew that such a fantasy would be ideal but was also impossible. A tear slipped down her cheek to her lip, then down her chin to her neck. It dripped off her shoulder to the ground below her.

Arashi shed the same tear, which landed in the lake he looked down upon. He could imagine the tear falling from the sky of Kiri's world and meeting with her own eyes.

Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right... We bleed the same tears, walk the same grounds, and share the same skies...