Battle Royale

Sakura looked down at the small bouquet, then finally said, "So we'll never be able to go home together. We won't be able spend time together walking around town, eating ice cream, and doing anything else anymore."

"Well..."

Sakura interrupted Kazuhiko. "It's futile to resist. I should know. I heard my father was against the government, and then one day..."

Kazuhiko could tell from her hand that she was trembling.

"The police came and killed my father. No warrant, nothing. They just came in without a word and shot him dead. I can still remember it clearly. We were in the kitchen. I was still small. I was sitting at the table. My mother held me tight. Then I grew up and ate my meals at the same table."

Sakura turned to Kazuhiko.

"It's no use resisting."

It was the first time she had ever told him about the incident, even though they'd been going out for two years. The first time they slept together, just a month ago at her house, she hadn't mentioned it.

Kazuhiko felt there must be something else to say, but all he could muster up struck him as incredibly trite. "Wow, that must have been hard."

But Sakura broke into a smile. "You're so kind, Kazuhiko. You're so kind. That's what I like about you."

"I like you too. I love you so much."

If he weren't so inarticulate, Kazuhiko could have said so much more. How much her expressions, her words, her gentle manner, and untainted pure soul meant to him.

How important, in short, her existence was to him. But he wasn't able to put it in words. He was only a third-year student in junior high, and worse yet, composition was one of his worst subjects.

"Well." Sakura closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, as if a little relieved. Then she breathed out. "I really wanted to make sure I saw you."

Then she went on. "Horrible things are going to happen. No—according to what you said, they've already begun. Just yesterday we were all friends—and now we're going to kill each other." Putting this thought into words, she trembled again. Again Kazuhiko could tell from her hand.

Sakura gave him a weary smile that betrayed fear along with the terrible irony of the fate awaiting them. "I couldn't take that."

Of course not. Sakura was kind. Kazuhiko didn't know anyone else kinder.

"Besides...," Sakura spoke again, "we can't go back together. Even if by some miracle one of us could go back, we still wouldn't be together. Even if...even if I were to survive...I couldn't bear being without you. So..."

Sakura stopped. Kazuhiko understood what she was getting at. So I'm going to kill myself here. Before anyone gets me. Right in front of you.

Instead of finishing what she had to say, she said, "But you have to live."

Kazuhiko smiled grimly, then squeezed her hand tightly and shook his head. "No way. I'm with you. Even if I were to survive, I couldn't stand being without you. Don't leave me alone."

Tears came streaming out of Sakura's eyes which were fixed on Kazuhiko's eyes.

Sakura turned away from Kazuhiko. Wiping her eyes with her left hand that was holding the bouquet of clovers, all of a sudden she blurted out, "Did you see the final episode of Tonight, at the Same Place, which airs every Thursday night at nine?"

Kazuhiko nodded. It was a TV drama broadcast by the national DBS network. It was a superfluous love story produced by the Republic of Greater East Asia Television Network, but it was quite good, topping TV ratings for the last several years.

"Yeah, I saw it. You wanted me to watch it."

"Yes, I did. So what I was thinking..."

As she spoke, Kazuhiko thought, this is exactly how we'd always talk. It was always about something really ordinary and meaningless, but there was something so blissful about these conversations they had. Sakura wants us to stay the way we've always been.

The thought suddenly made Kazuhiko want to cry.

"Well, I was all right about the two main characters ending up together. That's how it's supposed to be. But I don't know about Miki's friend Mizue, the one played by Anna Kitagawa. How could Mizue have given up on the guy she loved? I know I would have gone after him."

Kazuhiko grinned. "I knew you'd say that."

Sakura laughed bashfully. "I can't hide anything from you." Then she said happily, "I still remember when we became classmates in junior high. You were tall and good looking, sure, but the thing that really got me was how I thought, 'This guy would understand me, he would understand me down to the core of my heart.' "

"I don't know how to say this very well but," Kazuhiko twisted his tongue a little and thought for a moment, then continued, "I think I felt the same way." He said it well.

Then he leaned over a little, towards Sakura. With his left hand still clutching her right hand, he wrapped his other hand around her shoulder.

They hugged in this position and exchanged kisses. Was it just a few seconds? Was it a minute? Or was it eternity?