Beyond the 26th (Part 2)

“…”

“…”

“Can’t believe we’ve been traveling for half a year…” Alice murmured.

“Yeah…”

“Who would’ve thought that we’d get this far…” Alice replied.

“Yeah…”

“Let alone becoming lovers!” Alice chuckles.

“Yeah…”

“…I don’t want to think that it’s meaningless…” Alice mutters.

“…”

“I want to believe that we’re just unlucky…”

“…”

“T-That’s why we won’t…” Alice’s voice breaks, taking a deep breath before she continues, “…We won’t… we’re just… unlucky that we couldn’t—”

“Yeah…” I extend my right hand over to Alice’s left, clasping onto it as tightly as possible. “Luck or not, what we’ve achieved isn’t meaningless… I don’t believe for even a second…”

“…Yuiko…”

“All I want is to stay next to you until our time comes…” I relocate my gaze towards Alice, prompting her to tilt her head towards me as well. “And hey, I’d rather pray that the meteorite wouldn’t hit us!”

“B-But… everyone has said—”

“And how does that connect to me?” I cut Alice off, staring deep into her retinas.

“…”

“They can say whatever crap they want, but that’s not gonna stop me from thinking what I want to think.” I place my left hand on Alice’s cheeks.

“…”

Without any warning,

Alice’s eyes fill up with water.

And after a few seconds, the dam broke down…

Causing a small flood of tears to soak her cheeks.

“Yuiko…” Alice closes her eyes, clinging to my left hand.

“…Yeah…”

My chest tightens.

My eyes sting.

It’s hot…

I blink my eyes to refresh them.

But all I ended up doing was making it overflow…

Soaking up my cheeks as I try to prevent my snot from leaking out of my nose…

“Alice…” I press my forehead to hers.

“…Yuiko…” Alice sniffs, letting out a giant wail.

Ahhh…

This world is incredibly cruel, unforgiving, torturous…

Yet within it, there’s so much beauty that we can’t help but pursue…

It’s one that’s a struggle to live in, but one that also feels fulfilling when you attain that beauty…

So much so that you won’t let go…

That’s why…

“I will believe, Alice…” I close in on Alice’s lips, feeling her tiny gasp of breath from it.

“…”

“We will see a world beyond May 26th…” I press my lips onto hers.

“…Yeah…” Alice replies, wiping off my cheeks with a smile.

…

….

…..

---

A few hours later…

Once we’ve calmed ourselves down, we continue on our journey towards Tokyo, taking as much time as possible to soak in the scenery of Himeji’s city landscape. Granted, there’s not that much to see outside of ruined buildings, but it still feels comforting to walk through it.

After a while, the sun is slowly starting to set, marking the end of today’s journey. Usually, we would quickly find a nearby place to sleep, which usually isn’t that difficult a task, but as we’re about to cross a bridge,

“Woaah…”

“A beach…” Alice mutters.

To our right, the sound of waves smashing towards the sandy ground reverberates throughout, and a large wind accompanies the waves, as if the ocean itself is whistling in harmony. The body of water is painted in a dark blue, its surface is painted with the orange hue of the evening sun standing in the distance, slowly sinking towards the ocean.

“Let’s head there for a bit!” Alice quickly runs off.

“A-Alice?!” I yelled out, following suit.

After a few meters of jogging, we arrived at the beach.

Prompting Alice to take her shoes, shocks, and her backpack off, and then she breaks off into a sprint towards the body of water in childlike glee.

“Hahahahaahahahaahha!” She raised her leggings up and leaped towards the water, a gleeful expression dawned on her face. “It’s cold!”

“Alice!” I screamed out from a distance, keeping my feet away from the sand.

Considering how hard it is to find functioning water around these areas, I really don’t want my shoes to be filled with sand!

Those grainy sands might feel good on my feet, but it’s a massive pain to clean them off, with how hard it is to get them off!

Beaches have been my number one enemy when it comes to mild discomforts, and I’m not gonna let this one instance be the breaking point!

“Yuiikooooo!” Alice jumps around on the spot, waving her hand around with a giant grin.

“Kghh…!”

Hold it in, Yuiko!

Your girlfriend looks so cute, but think about how annoying it would be to clean up all the sands from your feet!

Do you want to experience that hell again?!

“Yuikoooo! Come over hereeeee!” Alice screams out, motioning with her hand over.

“…Goddammit…” I drop my shoulders.

I’m sorry, future me…

I’m not strong enough…

I dropped my backpack on the spot, and then I took off my shoes and socks.

Feeling my shoulders lightening, I sprint towards where Alice is standing, with each step of mine getting closer to her making my cheeks looser.

“Come here, you!” I jump towards Alice, hugging her as tightly as I possibly can.

“Woahwoahwoah!” Alice lost her footing, making us stumble around.

“Waiwaiwaiitwaiwait!”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

Until we completely lost our balance, dropping us on top of the cold water, soaking our hair and shirts.

“…”

“…”

“Pfft… hahahahaha!” I burst into a laugh as I got myself off of Alice.

“Hehehe… hahahahaha…!” Alice sat herself up, water slowly dripping down from the tip of her hair.

“…”

“…”

Both of us look towards the sinking sun in the distance.

Half of its body has sunken below the ocean, bathing us in its rays of orange, letting its comforting warmth touch our skin.

“It’s really pretty…” I murmured.

“…Yeah…” Alice nods.

There are approximately six more months to this journey…

And who knows how long it’ll take for us to eventually arrive in Tokyo…

While it’s unfortunate that there’s a deadline now, it’s not necessarily an impossible one to meet…

Within six months, we need to arrive in Shibuya…

Within six months, we need to have our first sexual relation…

Within six months, we need to have achieved everything that we’ve desired…

All before this world comes to an end…

…

….

…..