I was drowning in a sea of water somehow neither warmer, nor colder than my own body. Adrift in a lazy current taking me nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The sense of weightlessness transfixed me, my limbs felt light as a feather but bound at the same time. Finally, I shook off the heaviness of my eyelids and opened my eyes.

Darkness, eternal and complete met my sight, making me feel uncertain at first if my eyes were even open. I felt rather than saw the obstruction several centimeters from my nose. I reached out with my arms and encountered nothing, even though I knew something was there. The unfamiliarity of my surroundings caused me to panic. With a heave of my body, I forced myself upright, surrounded now by something different. Dirt, earthy and silent.

My panic deepened and my body reacted on its own, pushing hard against the earth surrounding me. A moment later I floated rather than stood it seemed and quickly found myself free of the earth, drifting from the ground. I stared around wildly, fear overcoming me in waves, drowning me in a sea of terror... Where was I? What had happened?

In a panic I leapt to my feet and, contrary to the laws of physics as I knew them, popped up out of the ground, for ground it was I was standing in, and into the bright late afternoon of a cloudless day. Up I traveled, and up still more until I was half a dozen meters above ground, staring around me at the world that was both familiar and horribly alien in a panic.

Beyond the ring of stone, overgrown with tendrils of ivy outlining the top of the small hill I was on lay the gentle slopes leading down toward a town in the distance, it’s rooftops and tangled streets visible from the dizzying heights I was currently hovering at.

I glanced down and another, stronger wave of panic engulfed me. Gravestones and overgrown paths lay below me, interspersed with brambles and ancient trees. I should not be this high, I thought and immediately plunged toward the ground like a stone. Fear surged anew as the ground rose up around me and I braced for an impact that never occurred. I lay in a crumpled heap on the fresh dirt, feeling neither the freshly turned soil I lay on or the gentle breeze blowing through the tree branches which caused them to creak and groan slightly.

“Um…” a small voice said. I jumped in shock and pushed myself back away from the sound fearfully. A girl sat on a nearby tree branch, staring at me in alarm. “Are you all right, baa-chan?” She had an air of wariness mixed with genuine concern about her small body as she peered at me uneasily.

“Wh-Who are you?” I demanded, pushing further back from her.

“It’s ok! It’s ok!” The girl soothed, holding her hands out placatingly. “I just want to help if I can!”

“Where am I?” I demanded, staring about wildly.

“It’s ok!” The girl repeated, leaping off the branch with a small “hup” and standing easily beneath the spreading boughs of the tree. “I know it’s scary! I was scared for years. But I’d like to help if I- “Suddenly she paused, peering at me carefully. There was something intimately familiar about her I couldn’t quite place. Suddenly, faster than my eyes could even track, she was directly in front of me, peering intently at me.

“It’s you,” She breathed in awe. “It…it’s you!” I stared at her in confusion for another long moment before my eyes widened in recognition.

“Hikari…chan?” I gasped in a mixture of awe and delight that brought tears immediately to life. “It’s you!”

“It’s Keiko chan!” Hikari sobbed, folding me in her arms. “You’re here!” In shock and amazement, I closed my arms around Hikari’s slim shoulders and pulled her close as we both wept.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed into her shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry.”

It had been so long, but she had never been far from my thoughts. Even after her voice faded to dust in my mind. Even after her touch was forgotten and the smile in her eyes vanished her memory still burned brightly. I had a husband I was comfortable with but not affectionate toward. It had been a marriage of convenience only. We both knew it was a lie and the few times we were intimate had produced a daughter who also married for convenience and money. Then later a granddaughter who I doted on. I would miss Emi, but I know of all the people I’d met, she would understand. I had lived a fulfilling life, yet empty.

I had done more than I ever thought possible. I had lived adventurously. But never once had I forgotten her. Hikari was burned into my memory. She was never far from my thoughts and every moment I experienced was a moment I wanted to tell Hikari about. A moment I wanted to share with the one true love of my life.

“Don’t be sorry,” Hikari said, her voice the same as it was when I was a little girl. Small and high and joyful like the sun rising over my world. “Please don’t be sorry.”

“H-How could I not?” I cried brokenly. “I tried to come back to visit you, but it hurt so much. I should have come back. I should have visited you each day I- “

“No!” Hikari took my cheeks in her hand the way she always did when we were young, forcing me to stare into her deep brown eyes. “I left you. I thought I had all the time in the world. I thought we had all the time in the world. Then my time ran out. If anyone should be sorry, it should be me for leaving!”

“You had no choice,” I whispered, memories of how the area smelled of burnt wood and metal and plastic and wet charcoal flooding my mind. Memories of staring at the husk of Hikari’s house standing skeletal and empty in the afternoon sun trying to wrap my mind around my loss reared up, threatening to swallow me. “I should have been there.”

“No. You were where you were supposed to be. Besides, you’re here, now,” Hikari whispered. “Which is more than I ever dreamed hope for.”

“I’m sorry it took so long, Hikari chan. I’m sorry I’m old, now,” I shook my head.

“But you’re not!” Hikari smiled through her tears. “You were when I first saw you, but you are you. You are my Keiko chan again!” I glanced down at my body and stared in shock. It was true. The marks time had written on my body were gone.

“I’m…me,” I whispered in awe.

“Silly Keiko chan,” Hikari smiled at me. “You were never not you.”

“I was half of me, Hikari. You were always the other half. Always,” I smiled, the tears making my vision swim.

“I’ve waited for so long to do this. I’ve thought about it a million times but never thought I’d have the chance. C-Can I tell you something? Something I've been wanting to tell you since forever ago?”

“Of course,” I smiled as she reached her hand down to me. I took it in mine and let her lift me back onto my feet.

“I should have told you all the things I was thinking. I should have told you every day! I was scared. I was a coward, though. I was afraid you would reject me, and it would ruin our friendship forever,” Hikari said, her feet shuffling on the ground just like they always did when she was nervous.  

“I could never reject you!” I grabbed onto the collar of her…our school uniform and stared into her deep eyes. “I love you, Hikari. I have always loved you!” Those brown eyes, brimming with tears suddenly overflowed and she cried, holding me close once again.

“You said it first, meanie!" Hikari chuckled

"I'm sorry!" I giggled, not sorry in the least.

"Well, it's ok," she shot me a pouty look. "This time! But m-me, too,” Hikari whispered with a sigh. “I love you, too.”

We hugged deeply and shared our first kiss. A kiss I had always dreamt of. The world had turned so many times. I couldn’t feel the sun’s warmth, nor the wind’s breath, but I could feel her. At long last, I could feel her. I held her tight and closed my eyes as we hugged.

“What happens now?” I whispered.

“I don’t know. But whatever that is, we’ll find out together.”