I can never bring you back, except in my memories. But I just can't live in it... ― Florence Joyce
xxxxxx
THE next day was their flight to New Zealand but until that moment, Seiichi still could not sleep. It was early in the morning but his eyes were still open as his mind was still wandering. But what else was new? Ever since he left Kyoto -- the home of the Shinomiya where he also stayed for five months, that was what has been happening to him. It got worse when he heard about the attack on the mansion and found out that none of his friends had survived.
Who else could sleep well because of those things that had happened?
"Looks like until the end, you siblings would still make me overthink..."
He had that as a joke to Hitoshi and Kourin for so many times before. But surprisingly, they just smiled at him, as if the siblings were planning something about him. But if one would ask him, he only knew Hitoshi was capable of doing that. Kourin was a little pampered young lady and even though trained in combat, she wasn't forced to put those trained skills to use.
Come to think of it..."What kind of ability does Kourin have for Hitoshi to watch over him like that?" Seiichi was pretty sure that the former Shinomiya prince didn't have a sister complex or something. But in his opinion, the security surrounding the princess of the Shinomiya clan was different. Was it because she was the youngest?
As he remembered the girl, Seiichi reached inside the pocket of his pajamas. He just smiled when he thought of how he wouldn't allow something that Kourin had once handed him to disappear from his hold or any part of his clothing. It was her return gift to him in exchange of the ribbon he gave her once. He couldn't help but smile despite the painful reality that came with it.
Taking it out from his pocket, his left hand soon revealed a blue stringed bracelet with a unique charm hanging on it. A crane taking flight with a tulip on its beak. He had never seen such a design before, which was why he found it unique...
xxxxxx
[Flashback]
"A crane?" Seiichi couldn't help smiling as soon as he saw the charm that was the only design hanging on the bracelet. It wasn't big, but the details of the charm were intricately detailed that he couldn't help feeling amazed at the sight of it.
"What? It's a bringer of good fortune, even in this country. And I want you to have a reminder of that wherever you go. The tulip is just a bonus so that you'll know that it came from me."
Seiichi's smile widened when he heard that from Kourin. No girl had ever given him such a meaningful gift before. So it was no wonder why he was so happy at the moment.
"Arigatou..." he said sincerely. Though still struggling to speak in a language that he should've already learned when he was young, he still knew a lot for him to use in a conversation that he'd like to hold with Hitoshi and Kourin. "I'll treasure this." He looked at the charm's design on the string bracelet once again and smiled. "Yup. I'll definitely remember only you whenever I'd come to look at this. I recalled watching you fold paper cranes when I first met you."
"Oh, yeah. There was that time, huh?" Kourin smiled as if excited at the recollection of the incident he had mentioned. "I'm really glad you like it..."
xxxxxx
"Why wouldn't I like anything that came from you?" Seiichi uttered after recalling that memory. But along with the smile he showed as he remembered that was the dripping of tears that he had been trying to stop falling for several days. He just always failed to do that.
Yes, that memory was a happy one. But with it came the fact that it would never happen again. Everything would just remain as a memory. There was nothing more to that.
"Will it be really hard for me to forget everything, Kourin?"
But if one would ask Seiichi, it would be a great folly to forget everything just so as not to cry and be hurt by the fact that the people who were important to him were gone. That he no longer had friends in Kyoto. A friend just like Hitoshi who he would no longer be able to talk to and take advice from. No more Kourin who, although four years younger than him, he fell in love with regardless of the age gap that he'd still consider big.
They were no longer in the world. He had to accept that. It would be hard, but that was all he could do. No matter how much it would strike his heart, he had to move forward.
Even so, he also needed to be careful. Hitoshi has a role assigned to him -- and it was to protect the Iris Sword. And even if it was considered madness, he could tell that there was something wrong with the circumstances in which the attack took place. Of course, it was also said that Kourin was possibly dead. But it all felt strange to him.
He only knew one thing at that point, though. He would do everything to find out the truth behind that attack on the Shinomiya mansion. He would go to the bottom of this. Perhaps by doing so, something about his past would resurface.
He wasn't sure what he was basing that feeling on. But he was willing to trust that -- even to death. Then again, that was all he could do at the moment. Hitoshi once mentioned it to him, as well. That friend of his had an idea about his past, for some reason. He might be dead already. And yet the Shinomiya clan prince's presence could still be felt. Not just in his heart.