When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the ceiling of the little cottage. For a few seconds, I didn't remember where I was. My body felt heavy, my head hurt, and my eyes were swollen from crying. Then I turned my head and saw Kento sleeping in the chair beside the bed. His head had fallen slightly to one side, his arms were folded across his chest, and his injured hand was wrapped in a piece of cloth. He had stayed there all night. He hadn't left me alone. I stared at him for a moment, remembering everything that had happened. Akira was alive. I had found him. He had rejected me. Kento had found me in the forest. And now, somehow, morning had come. I slowly sat up. My heart immediately began beating faster. I looked toward the door. I didn't know why, but something inside me was telling me that I had to go back.
I quietly stood up so I wouldn't wake Kento and stepped outside. The forest was strangely quiet. The rain had stopped, but everything was still wet. Water dripped from the leaves, and a thin mist floated between the trees. I walked toward Akira's house with my heart pounding.
Every step made me more nervous.
When I reached the house, I stopped.
The door was open. I stared at it.
"Akira?" I called softly. No answer.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside. The room was empty. The broken pieces from the previous night were still scattered across the floor. The table was damaged, papers were lying everywhere, and the place looked as though someone had left in a hurry. My breathing became faster. "Akira?" I called again. Nothing. Panic suddenly took hold of me. I ran outside and looked around the forest. There were footprints in the wet ground leading deeper between the trees. I followed them without thinking. I don't know how far I ran. Branches scratched my arms, my breathing became painful, and my heart felt as though it was trying to escape my chest. Then I heard something. A distant explosion. I stopped. The sound came from somewhere beyond the trees. A second explosion followed. My blood ran cold.
"Akira..." I whispered.
I started running again. I didn't care where the path led. I only knew that something had happened to him. The forest became thicker until I finally saw a rocky area ahead. There was a cave hidden between the stones, and smoke was coming from its entrance. Gunfire echoed from inside.
I ran toward it. Then I saw him.
Akira was there.
He was surrounded by enemy soldiers, and his body was covered in blood and dirt. He was barely standing. The sight of him destroyed whatever fear had remained inside me.
"AKIRA!" I screamed.
He turned his head. His eyes widened when he saw me. For one second, neither of us moved. Then one of the soldiers raised his weapon toward him.
Something inside me snapped. I rushed forward, grabbed the weapon that had fallen near Akira, and fired at the soldiers in a desperate attempt to protect him. The sound of gunfire filled the cave. I wasn't thinking anymore.
I wasn't a soldier.
I was simply a woman trying to protect the man she loved.
One by one, the remaining soldiers disappeared from the cave. The noise finally stopped.
Silence returned, except for the sound of my own breathing and Akira's weak cough. I threw the weapon aside and ran to him. He tried to move, but his body couldn't support him.
I caught him before he fell completely.
"Akira!" I cried. "Look at me!" He looked at me, and I saw tears in his eyes. Not fear. Not anger. Tears. "Why did you come?" he whispered. I held him tighter.
"Because you left without me." His lips trembled. "Leave me, please." I shook my head violently.
"No." He looked away. "You shouldn't be here." I pulled him closer. "Then where am I supposed to be? Somewhere without you?" He closed his eyes. The cave suddenly shook. A violent crack echoed from above us. I looked toward the entrance. Rocks had fallen across it. We were trapped.
The outside world disappeared behind a wall of stone. I stared at Akira, and for a moment neither of us spoke. There was no way out. There was only him and me. I reached for my diary, which I had carried with me, and held it against my chest. I don't know why I did that. Maybe because I knew that if we couldn't leave this place, I needed somewhere to put the words I could no longer say aloud. Akira looked at me. His voice was barely a whisper.
"I'm sorry." I shook my head.
"Don't." He looked toward the blocked entrance.
"I'm becoming the cause of your death." Tears filled my eyes.
"You were never the cause of my life, Akira. You were the reason I wanted to live."
He stared at me. I leaned toward him and kissed him.
It wasn't a perfect kiss.
It wasn't the kind of kiss people imagine in stories. It was trembling, desperate and full of everything I had been carrying inside me for years.
When I pulled away, tears covered my face. I pressed my forehead against his and whispered, "I love you." His eyes closed.
"I love you more." I smiled through my tears.
For one moment, I didn't care about the cave. I didn't care about the war. I didn't care about the soldiers outside. I had him. The man I had thought I would never see again was finally in my arms.
I wrapped my arms around him carefully, afraid that even the smallest movement might hurt him. He rested his head against me.
I could feel his breathing. Every breath was precious. Then I heard something. A voice. Far away.
"AMANE!" My eyes widened. I looked toward the rocks.
"Kento?" "Amane! Is that you?" I couldn't believe it.
I screamed as loudly as I could. "KENTO! I'M HERE!" His voice came from the other side of the collapsed entrance.
"Amane! Where are you?"
"I'm inside! Akira is with me!"
There was a moment of silence. Then Kento's voice broke with emotion. "Akira?" I smiled through my tears. "Yes! He's here!" I looked down at Akira. "Akira, Kento found us." Akira gave me the faintest smile.
Outside, Kento shouted, "Don't move! I'm going to get military help! Stay there! I'll open this!" I heard rocks being moved. Kento was trying to clear the entrance himself. "Stay safe, Amane!" "I will!" Then another deep crack echoed through the cave.
I looked up. Dust began falling from the ceiling. My smile disappeared. "Akira..." Another rock fell nearby.
Then another.
The entire cave began shaking.
"KENTOOOO!" My scream echoed through the darkness.
"I'm here!" Kento shouted from outside.
His voice was filled with panic now.
"I'm not going anywhere! Do you hear me? I'm not letting you die!"
I could hear him desperately moving the rocks. "I'll save you!" Another section of the cave ceiling collapsed. I immediately grabbed Akira and tried to move him away from the dangerous area.
His body was too weak to help me. I pulled him as carefully as I could, using every bit of strength I had left. My arms were shaking, but I refused to stop.
"Come on, Akira!" He coughed. I held him tighter.
"Please!" His breathing became weaker. "Stay with me."
He looked at me. His eyes were so tired. "Amane..." 33JUST ONE MORE GLANCE "Don't talk." I pulled him closer.
"Save your strength." He shook his head slowly. "I don't think..." He coughed again.
"...I have much left."
"No."
I refused to hear it.
"No, don't say that."
Another rock crashed behind us. I pulled him farther away.
"You're going to survive."
He looked at me with a sadness I had never seen before. "I love you more than anything."
I shook my head, tears pouring down my face.
"Don't talk like you're saying goodbye."
He gave me a weak smile.
"Please run." "Run where?"
"Leave me."
"No!" My voice echoed through the cave.
"I've spent years without you. I'm not leaving you now!" He reached toward me. His hand trembled as it touched my face.
"Amane..." I caught his hand and pressed it against my cheek.
"Please." My voice broke.
"Don't leave me." He looked into my eyes.
"I never wanted to." CHAPTER 42 I pulled his head into my lap. My hands were trembling as I held his face.
"I'll save you." He closed his eyes.
"I love you, Akira." I kissed his forehead.
"I love you." His eyes opened again. There was peace in them now.
It is my honour..."
His voice was barely audible. "...that I'm dying in your hands." "No." I shook my head violently. "No, no, no..." I pressed his face against my chest. "Don't say that." His breathing became quieter.
"Akira?" Nothing. "Akira?" I touched his cheek.
"Look at me." Nothing. "Akira!"
I held his face between my hands. "Please." His body became still. My heart stopped. I stared at him, waiting for him to breathe again.
He didn't.
"Akira?" My voice was almost a whisper.
I waited.
Nothing. Then the truth reached me.
I let out a broken cry and pulled his head against my chest.
"No..." I held him tighter.
"No, please..." My tears fell onto his face.
"You can't do this." I shook him gently.
"Wake up." Nothing. "Akira, please wake up." I screamed his name until my throat burned.
"KENTOOOO!" There was no answer. I looked toward the blocked entrance.
"Kento!" His voice finally came from somewhere beyond the rocks, still desperate and full of fear.
"AMANE!" I couldn't answer him.
I couldn't speak anymore. I simply held Akira.
I don't know how long I stayed like that. Minutes. Hours. Maybe only a few seconds. Time no longer meant anything. I cried until my face hurt. I cried until my chest hurt. I cried until there were no tears left.
Then I remembered my diary. My hands trembled as I reached for it. I opened the final pages. The pages were slightly wet, but I could still write. And that is where these words began. I wrote about the night I discovered Akira was alive.
I wrote about the dress he had once given me. I wrote about walking through the forest. I wrote about seeing the light inside his little house. I wrote about him refusing to look at me. I wrote about the words that destroyed me.
I wrote about finding him again in the cave. I wrote about his blood, his tears, his final smile, and the way he whispered that he loved me more. I wrote everything. Because I was afraid that if I didn't write it down, one day I might forget the sound of his voice.
So, if you are reading these pages now, you are reading the final moments of my life with Akira exactly as I remembered them. I don't know what happened after that. 38JUST ONE MORE GLANCE Maybe Kento eventually broke through the rocks.
Maybe the soldiers found us.
Maybe the war continued as though nothing had happened. But none of that mattered to me anymore. Because the man I had spent years mourning had returned to me for only a few moments.
And then I lost him again. I closed the diary and looked down at Akira's face. My tears had finally stopped. I gently touched his hair.
"You came back to me..." My voice trembled. "Even if it was only for a little while." I placed my forehead against his
. "Thank you." I closed my eyes. "I love you, Akira."
And beneath the silent weight of the mountains, holding the man I loved in my arms, I whispered the final words I would ever write about him:
... You were never just a memory. You were my entire life...