The Final Stretch

The air smells of smoke as the trio make their way up the road to the end. After escaping from the cultists lodge, they’d quickly gathered their belongings and returned to the path they had already been headed. They avoided taking any food from there, fearing it might have poison in it, and instead settled to leave with what they had already taken with them in their bags.

The three of them are still shaken by the surreal experience they’d just lived through. They try to play it off, but paranoia plagues their every step. Every boom they hear in the distance makes them flinch, and they constantly look over their shoulders to make sure no stray cultist has been following them.

They’ve already been walking for 45 minutes, taking breaks so Haru doesn’t overexert himself. During one of their breathers, they are horribly startled by a rustling they hear from within the tall grass. Hotaru is wired and ready to fight, taking a stance while Haru hides behind Asuka. He tightly grips her shirt while he she holds her hand out to protect him from whatever may be coming at them.

Out from the greenery pops a plump black cat. They are surprised alright. They can’t help but laugh at the subversion of expectations.

The cat continues to follow them up the road after they have taken the time to let Haru play with it. It was the first time they’ve heard him speak since they first met him when he called out “a kitty!” after it had appeared. Hotaru had never been too fond of cats, but she can feel herself warming up to it as it weaves itself between her legs while purring.

“Here it is!” Asuka can’t help but exclaim from excitement. After a few more paces, they had finally reached the end. The inclined road opens out into a large grassy space that for some reason, grows shorter than the tall grass they had been walking through. It overlooks a beautiful, glistening lake. The sun in the sky warms their face in the cold air. Asuka runs out into the field, the fatigue from the walk forgotten as her heart fills with triumph. They had finally made it to the Kurikomakokutei National Park!

They can still hear the city that they had gone through the forest to avoid. Unfortunately, it has not quieted down in the slightest. They hear screams and crashes bang in the far-off distance. But they refuse to let that ruin their victory.

Hotaru and Asuka immediately set up camp at the top of the hill. The tent is propped up so they can avoid the cold air, but they spend most of the time outside, playing games catch with a shirt balled up with a rubber band, and doing cartwheels. Though the lake looks beautiful, they refused to step foot off the hill, worried in the back of their mind that something else would go wrong.

Asuka and Hotaru watch as Haru runs around with the cat. Using a stick and some string from their supply, they’d fashioned a makeshift cat toy for them to play with. The girls sit side-by-side with their legs crossed as Asuka talks about the butterfly that had enabled her to make the switch with the cups at the cultist compound to trick Komiyama.

“That’s funny, I remember following a butterfly that looked like that when I was getting medicine for you that one time.”

“I’ve been seeing butterflies a lot lately,” Asuka muses, “you know a butterfly actually helped me find the four-leaf clover in my brother’s notebook?”

Hotaru raises her eyebrows at her, “Asuka. That has to mean the butterfly is some kind of spirit guide or something. What are the chances of the same one you’d described following you all the way out here from Shikoku?”

Asuka hadn’t thought about it. She thinks back to the first time she met Misaki. He had told her something about chasing a butterfly when he had come across her getting beat up by Hanako. Could it be…?

She looks in her bag and takes the notebook back out, flipping to the page with the clover. It hasn’t lost any of its luster, still a shiny green after all these months. Wondering if the clover has been giving them luck this whole time, she takes the time to look through the whole notebook with Hotaru. Admiring her hard work, the memories scroll through her mind with each entry. She never would’ve thought playing a video game would lead her all the way across the country.

Unfortunately, they’d left Hotaru’s journal that had her bucket list in it behind when they had to escape from the gang who kidnapped them. Asuka apologizes for being the reason it got lost after trusting that woman, but Hotaru waves it away. “We’d already gotten through quite a few things by that time. It’s just a list, not everyone takes them as seriously as you do,” she elbows Asuka who rolls her eyes with a self-aware smile. “Besides, we ended up going to that awesome onsen resort right after that, didn’t we? Totally worth it.”

They wait for the sun to set as they talk. Eventually, Haru tires himself out playing with the cat he’d named “Kohaku” after a movie character he liked. He settles into the tent to sleep; the cat lies pressed against him.

Asuka and Hotaru listen to the radio, they each share an earpiece of the headphones she brought with her. She turns the dial until she finds someone reporting on news of the meteor. Most of the stations are quiet with static, but she can pick up on that one newscaster she had heard last time talking about the state of the cities around the country.

They are not sure which source he is pulling from, but he says, “according to MESA, today marks doomsday as the asteroid is being observed in their observatory facility. MESA has estimated the meteor’s arrival to hit within 7 hours of this broadcast. If anyone out there has been tuning in with me all this time, I wish you a happy new year.” He finishes solemnly.

With all the craziness, they had forgotten today was January 1st.

“Happy New Year,” they speak at the same time and laugh.

“I’m honestly so glad I did this,” Hotaru says, suddenly. I used to spend all my time indoors studying or screwing around on the computer. I never would’ve done this if you hadn’t done it first.” Asuka is surprised. Her eyes widen softly as she looks into Hotaru’s while they lay beside each other. “So…thanks for letting your friends bully me back then!” Hotaru pulls a wicked sarcastic smile.

“Ugh, Hotaru, don’t even joke about that.” Asuka throws a hand over her face in mortification but can’t keep herself from returning the smile.

The sun winds down, fully enshrouding the sky in darkness. This view is what they’d been waiting for. The last item on Kyo’s bucket list was as written:

“see the stars in a place where i can take in the entire cosmos”

Asuka sighs as a tear involuntarily rolls its way onto the blanket. She had done it. She wonders if Kyo will forgive her and hug her like he did in her dream when they reunite in the afterlife.

Drinking it all in, she observes the inky black sky, smeared with deep blue and streaks of turquoise.

“Oh yeah!” Hotaru lifts herself up as she watches Asuka move to pull out the cassette tape bag. Now feels like the perfect time to finally listen to the last audio tape.

“What’s the deal with you and that thing?” Hotaru watches Asuka slides the box into the cassette player. She pauses before answering and holds up an earpiece in offering.

“Wanna listen?”

They reposition themselves so that each earpiece will fit inside the correct ear, right for Asuka and left for Hotaru. Laying side by side, Asuka presses play. Instead of a musical piece, the cassette tape plays another conversation Kyo had recorded of himself.

“—come on, it’s been a while since we had a good talk,” Kyo’s voice crackles into her ear piece.

He’s not alone this time, though. Someone else’s voice is heard a bit further away from him.

“What are you up to?” Asuka hears her own voice questioning him suspiciously. She raises her eyebrows. The television is playing in the background.

“Can’t a guy be curious about his little sister?” Kyo’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Fine then, you ask me something,”

Kyo hums into the speaker picking up on their conversation.

“How about your goals and dreams? Do you still want to be an astronaut?”

“Please, that was when I was like 3,” she scoffs.

“See? We need to reconnect more often!” Kyo justifies.

Asuka remembers this moment. It was when she was around 15. She had been trying to play a game on her GSi in the living room and he’d come up to her randomly asking her questions. Their conversation continues like that for the rest of the tape.

“I guess it would be cool to go on a vacation someday,” mumbles almost too quiet to be heard.

“All right then!” Kyo says triumphantly. “We’ll definitely go on a trip when I save up, and maybe you can bring someone you’ve been crushing on too,” she can hear him wiggling his eyebrows from the other side of time. The tape ends with her throwing a pillow at him

Her eyes overflow with tears the whole time she listens. Hotaru hugs her head with one hand as they gaze up into the stars.

They listen to the other tapes Asuka had already gone through once more with Hotaru. They can see the sky become shrouded in a reddish glow as the hours pass, the lake looks as though it’s bathed in blood. Now that it was actually happening, it was too hard to believe.

“Any last words?” Hotaru prompts after a while. They now sit with their heads raised; eyes glued to the horizon. Asuka thinks about it. And just shakes her head. It’s all too overwhelming. She’s reminded of the time she’d tried to take her own life. That all-encompassing fear wove its way back into her heart. Hotaru grabs Asuka’s hand, squeezing tight enough to leave a mark. “Yeah, me neither.”

Haru wakes up a few moments later, the sound of the falling meteor rousing him from his slumber. She and Hotaru had been wondering if they should let him sleep. He is visibly frightened when he looks at the sky, now as red as wildfire. He leaps from the tent to sit between them, trembling. Kohaku joins them, too curling up in the boy’s lap.

Asuka’s final thoughts are filled with love. Love for the people she’s met along the way. Love for good food, love for change. And love for her companions. She imagines a future where they could all reunite again. A future where they’re all still together. 

She could travel back to Shikoku and see Misaki again. His hair might be different, maybe he gave himself bangs. 

And She would definitely find the courage to come back to the Nishimura family and get on the floor to apologize for stealing their daughter from under their noses.

She would meet up with Miyuki every so often and they would have lunch and she could finally find joy in drinking coffee.

Youta would graduate early from university. The top of his class as a certified astrophysicist.

Maybe even Hanako, Mio, Aya, and Junko would make something of themselves. Maybe.

And Kasuga-san would be seeing her children off to college.

She imagines introducing Hotaru to Misaki, with their hands clasped together. They’re older and taller, maybe around 23? Haru is still with them. She tries to imagine how he would look if he grew up, but it’s too difficult. Kohaku can be there too, continuing to travel with them as he rides on Haru’s shoulders. 

An inseparable bond had been created these past few months. And Asuka appreciates them more than anything. She feels herself bold enough to thank Kyo for presenting her with the opportunity. Otherwise she would be facing the end of the world alone.

They all embrace, eyes closed tight as the meteor breaks apart and scatters into pieces like shooting stars decorating the sky, way out in the distance.