Hope In The Ocean Of Despair

‘Tsk, they must still be nearby.’

Akihiro grabbed his belongings and dashed out of the room. He stood at the doorway, putting on his shoes as fast as possible when suddenly his dad switched on the lights of the living room.

“Aki? Where are you going?” Mr Kimura asked.

Akihiro looked back. His father was half asleep but was still instinctively showing concern. His father began rubbing his eyes, noticing the bags on Akihiro’s back. “Are you running away from home?”

“It’s not what you think…” Akihiro muttered. “My friend just had an emergency and requires constant attendance. I’ll be staying over at his place for the next few days.”

“Natsume?” His father asked, now finally waking up from his half drowsy state.

“Yeah.”

“Take care of him, okay? If you need any help, call me. After all, he’s someone precious to you, right?” His father asked as he waved his hands with a big smile. He was feeling proud of his son.

Hearing those words, Akihiro controlled the urge to break down. “Yea…”

“Aki! Remember this. To see the rainbow, you need to have a little bit of rain. Hard times will come, but they will pass, only making the good times more special. Now go!” Mr Kimura instructed.

Akihiro nodded and dashed out of the house with his bag. His father walked up to the door to close it. He stood at the door, watching his son run down the staircase in the dark night. The world was asleep; the silence was broken by the sounds of his son’s footsteps, diminishing as time passed.

‘You are such a bad liar, Aki…’

----

Akihiro reached the car which was parked in front of the building. He threw the bag in and sat behind with Ayane. Natsume sat in the front while Mr Kawasaki was behind the wheel.

“Took your sweet time, huh?” Mr Kawasaki asked as he slammed the accelerator. The sudden jerk pushed everyone back to their seats.

It was late at night and most lanes were empty. The main roads and highways had only a few cars driving through them. Mr Kawasaki entered the highway and was zipping through the empty road.

Suddenly Natsume looked into his rearview mirror. Two black cars were speeding down the highway, tailing them.

“Shit, they’ve caught up. The CIA is right behind us.” Natsume said.

“So fast? Shit, now it’s gonna be hard to escape the city too.” Mr Kawasaki said. “Hold on tight!”

Mr Kawasaki pushed the accelerator to the max. The car began to slightly shake as they bolted past the other cars at a very high speed. Ayane grabbed Akihiro’s hand and held onto him tightly as she watched her father increase the throttle.

Natsume didn’t say anything. He knew that this high speed was definitely dangerous. But they knew that they were all eventually going to die. If they were going to die, taking such a high risk was worth it. Rather, they had no other choice.

Knowing that they were eventually going to die gave them complete freedom. They could do anything they wanted if they were going to die anyway. They could take the risks they wanted, they could commit crimes, they could break people’s expectations, they could go against society, they could just live however they wanted in their last few moments of life.

Natsume couldn’t see the black cars tailing them anymore. “We went ahead of them but they are probably still following us. We can’t relax.”

“But this is bad. We can’t just keep driving at this speed forever. We will eventually have to get out of the highway and slow down. The car will run out of fuel too.” Mr Kawasaki said as he carefully focused on driving the high speeding vehicle.

The four of them were lost in thought. While Natsume and Akihiro were searching for a solution, Ayane and her dad had already resigned themselves to their impending fate. The CIA was still in the pursuit; their lives could come to an end any time soon.

Natsume was just trying to recall what Ayane’s father had explained to them at Ayane’s house. That’s when it clicked.

“Old man, did you get the ‘System’ with you?” Natsume asked.

“Yes, it’s in the back. It’s switched off at the moment.” Mr Kawasaki replied.

Akihiro took the metal box and placed it on Natsume’s palm.

“To someone like Akihiro or Richard, if the ‘System’ is close by, they could mistake it for a person, right?” Natsume asked.

“Yes, both have the same sound response.”

Natsume smiled. A ray of hope glimmered amidst the sadness and despair. “Old man, we are going to die anyway, right?”

“If it continues like this...Yes, even if we escape this, we are going to die anyway. They’ll eventually track us all down and kill us. There was no other option I could choose. Every choice would lead to us being eliminated by the CIA. It really makes you feel like a cornered rat, desperately trying to survive, even though you know it’s futile.”

It all made sense. Since Mr Kawasaki knew there was no way out, and that their deaths were confirmed, he was able to drive at such dangerously high speeds without worrying about accidents.

“Old man, if we are going to die anyway, then I have an idea. More like this is the only choice we have.” Natsume smiled. He was clinging onto the glimmer of hope. “We split in two...”

“What nonsense...they’ll just follow Akihiro and finish him off first.” Mr Kawasaki snapped.

“Old man, we are going to deceive them.” Natsume said as he grinned. The more he thought about it, the higher the success rate felt.

“What do you mean?”

“We let Akihiro and Ayane escape without being noticed, while we slow down with the ‘System’ in the back seat. By the time Akihiro and Ayane escape, the CIA will be close enough for the ‘System’ to be able to sync. Richard will mistake it for Akihiro and follow us, without batting an eye.”

“Suicide mission huh…” Mr Kawasaki muttered. “Yea, that’s the best plan we can think of right now.”

“We were going to die anyway. This way, at least Ayane and Akihiro will have a much higher chance of survival. Akihiro will be able to protect Ayane much more easily since it’s only one person.” Natsume said.

“NO! We can’t do that. I can’t let you both die for us like that.” Ayane yelled.

“Life is meaningless either way. So dying here would be freedom from this cruel world.” Natsume said. “Aki-kun, you understand that, right?

“Yes, life is meaningless.” Akihiro muttered.

“See? Ayane, now don’t fee-”

“But if life is meaningless, then death is meaningless too! Suicide is meaningless too…” Akihiro interrupted.

“I-...” Natsume couldn’t say anything. He hadn’t expected Akihiro to say something like this.

‘Aki-kun, you’ve really changed so much. Why does it all have to end like this?’

“Then there must be some other optio-” Ayane’s glimmer of hope was immediately shot down by her father’s words.

“Ayane, there is no other option. You will listen to your father. If there are any chances of increasing your survival, I’ll take it.” Mr Kawasaki said. His voice broke towards the end, as his eyes started to get moist.

He could feel a lump in his throat, but he continued to speak. “I’ve known Richard for a while. Hopefully, he won’t kill me. After all, he owes me his life. If I hadn’t proposed that idea, Richard would have died there and Akihiro wouldn’t have been born.”

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he drove the vehicle under the night sky. “Maybe I should’ve done that...”

“Papa…” Ayane muttered. Seeing her dad break down like this, made her emotional too.

Natsume continued to look forward, watching the empty road. “Ah ah, so we are going to die, sacrificing our lives for someone else. Makes the two of us sound like heroes, right? Although I’d prefer dying with a pretty woman instead of an old man.”

Natsume smiled at his own joke. But Ayane could see the pain behind the smile from the mirror. Natsume’s smile broke apart as his tears flowed down. “Agh, why is this happening again? Even though I made the plan…why?”

His shoulders shook convulsively as he dug his face in his palms. “I’m scared of dying...what about mom? Is she fine? I wonder what she is doing right now?” Natsume tried wiping his tears desperately with his arms but the tears would just keep flowing.

Ayane couldn’t bear to watch her best friend break apart like this, during their final moments together.

“Natsume…” she muttered under her breath as she began to weep.

The four of them held onto the glimmer of hope in the ocean of pain. They had no other choice but to do what Natsume had planned. This was cruel; this world was unfair. They did nothing to deserve such a punishment. God must have been a sadist if he was watching over them.

“Here take the keys to Rumi’s beach villa,” Natsume said as he wiped off his tears. He passed on the keys to Akihiro.

“Ayane, take that passbook from my bag. It has all my savings. Use it wisely.” Mr Kawasaski said. Akihiro already had his own but Ayane grabbed the passbook and placed it in her pocket.

The car was approaching the bridge. They had planned to let Akihiro and Ayane jump off the bridge into the water below. It would instantly create a distance between the CIA and Akihiro, allowing Richard to sync with the ‘System’ instead.

“Aki-kun...you’ve always been an annoying brat. Out of nowhere, you get into an accident, you start changing, and now here we are, at the end of our lives. You’ve really been a nuisance, Aki-kun.” Natsume muttered.

Akihiro knew it. He had heard many stories from Natsume and his mother. Whenever Natsume reached the parting stage of a relationship, he would end up trying to hurt the other person, in order to completely disconnect. Maybe it was just a way for him to deal with his fragile heart. After all, parting with an enemy was easier than parting with someone you were attached to.

“Natsume, I’ll miss you…” Akihiro said. Ayane had gotten ready to jump. Akihiro sat next to the door, waiting to open it and jump.

As the car slowed down on the edge of the bridge, Natsume smiled. “I’ll miss you too, Aki-kun…”

The car had come to a stop. Akihiro opened the door as Ayane grabbed his back and clung to it tightly. As they got out of the car, Mr Kawasaki muttered,

“Ayane...Papa will always love you. ”

Akihiro got out of the car and stood at the edge of the bridge. Ayane was standing next to him. The two of them smiled as the car began to speed up again.

“I will always love you too, Papa…” Ayane muttered as they jumped down the bridge, falling hundreds of metres before splashing into the water. Their hands were still connected as they fell underwater and slowly made it to the banks of the river. Akihiro could see the black cars cross the bridge, following Natsume and Mr Kawasaki.

Their clothes were completely drenched, but that was not of concern anymore. Akihiro grabbed her hand and the two of them began running towards the station, which was in the opposite direction.

As they ran towards the station, Ayane remained silent. She just continued to weep as the two of them ran alone in the night. Although Ayane wasn’t very athletic, she was able to keep up and continued running along with Akihiro until they reached the station. Akihiro bought a ticket as they stood at the platform, waiting for the first train to arrive. The cold breeze blew, lifting Ayane’s hair in the air.

Ayane was sitting on the bench, completely out of breath. Her eyes were red and puffy and her tear-stained cheeks were still wet. Akihiro grabbed two hot cans of coffee from the vending machine on the station.

“Are you cold?” Akihiro asked. But before she could reply, he tossed one of the coffee cans to Ayane as he sat next to her, waiting for the train. The both of them didn’t say anything, they just focused on sipping on the warm coffee, in the cold night.

In a few hours, the sun would rise and the world would awaken. Natsume and Mr Kawasaki had successfully diverted the CIA, buying Ayane and Akihiro enough time to run away.

Akihiro wrapped his arms around Ayane, covering her from the cold and keeping her warm. She snuggled in but continued to remain vigilant.

Akihiro gazed at the platform on the other side of the tracks. He could see the image of his past version who was standing on the opposite platform, looking at him.

‘Don’t tell me...you plan on doing that?’ the image said as it jumped onto the tracks. The first train of the day was now arriving at the platform.

‘Akihiro, don’t! There, you have the woman. Now just take off and run away. At least that way, you could live for some more time. You still don’t have to do that!’ The image vanished into thin air as the train passed through the tracks, leaving the scene behind. The train stopped at the platform and the doors opened. The first train had arrived.

Ayane and Akihiro got up. They had to take this train to the beach summer villa. As they walked towards the train, Akihiro answered the image’s question,

“That is the only choice I have...”