RATING: G
NOTES: prompted by the livejournal's rewatch group (escafans) when I made a comment: 'I thought it would be a whole Amano/Hitomi relationship from the start, and somehow he would find a way back to her.' It's a "what if" idea.
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find a way back to me
"Hitomi! Hitomi!"
"My hand! Hurry!"
"Help me, Amano!"
"Hitomi!"
And then he would wake up in a sweat.
If only he had taken her hand. If only he had jumped. If only he had tried a little harder. But it just wasn?t enough. Amano stood in the hallway, staring at Yukari?s back while she introduced him to Mrs. Kanzaki, Hitomi?s mother. Three days had gone by and still no sign of her.
After Hitomi?s disappearance the school was in an uproar, and Amano knew that he couldn?t leave the country, not when he had been part of something as important as this. Someone?s life was in danger, and someone?s family was getting hurt. The knowledge that he could have done something ? anything ? to keep her here was starting to affect him drastically. He couldn?t eat, he couldn?t sleep. He visited her house every day after school with Yukari ? just so he could know this girl who had asked for her first kiss a little better.
They sat in the living room, laden with empty teacups and photo albums. Mrs. Kanzaki on one end and they on the other. "Is there anything that she left behind at school? Anything she took with her?"
While Yukari brought up the missing gym bag, Amano remembered the rose pendant Hitomi held in her hand.
It?s kind of neat actually. When you swing it back and forth it keeps perfect time, always completing one cycle a second, never slowing down -
A flash of an idea appeared in his mind and Amano slammed his palms down on the table, surprisingly the two women. Alarmed, he addressed Hitomi?s mother.
"Mrs. Kanzaki, where did Hitomi?s grandmother get that pendant?" The elder woman cocked her head to the side, slightly bewildered at his sudden interest, and answered.
"I ? I don?t know. My mother had always had that pendant." A dreamy look passed over her face, the corners of her worried mouth turned up in a smile, and Amano realized how much Hitomi looked like her mother. "I always held the belief that someone very special gave it to her, almost like a secret paramour from her childhood."
Yukari bowed her head a little and the faintest hint of a blush tinted her cheeks. Quirking an eyebrow, Amano remembered what Hitomi asked of him before she disappeared.
"Funny you should ask about that pendant," she continued, "to this day, we still don?t know what it?s made of. I?ve taken it to the jewelers and antique dealers, but they were never able to tell us just what kind of stone or mineral it came from.
Hearing those words, that idea quickly took form and blossomed. Someone very special gave it to her ? it was special to Hitomi ? and she allowed him to hold it in his hand.
When they leave the house that evening and parted ways, his heart ached in a way that hadn?t before. Despite Yukari?s protests, he felt utterly responsible for Hitomi?s disappearance. He wasn?t quite sure how, but that pendant was to blame. It defied the laws of physics ? it wasn?t normal. A crazy part of him wanted to believe that it wasn?t from this world.
I haven?t quite been able to break thirteen seconds yet...
She should have never tried to run against it, he should have never let her go. But if that pendant took her away from home, maybe another one could bring her back.
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