“I brought you something!” a four-year-old Daiki yelled, running towards a pale little boy sitting and moping around on the sidewalk. His knees were heavily bruised. As he sobbed, tears rolled down his cheeks from under his glasses and fell onto them. The sky was cloudy and it was gloomy all around. Rain was just about to fall. 

“Look! I brought you something” Daiki held out a flower in his hand and beamed. The pale boy stopped sobbing and looked with eyes wide, first at the flower, then at Daiki, then at the flower again.    

“I don’t want it!”, he said, pouting and beginning to sob again. 

Daiki was taken aback, “Ehh? Why not? It’s pretty”

“Pretty things are for girls. I want that!” he pointed at the street. Daiki turned his head to see but nothing much caught his eye except for a sizable gneiss with unique patterns lying in the middle of the road. 

“That rock??” Daiki yelled, “you want that rock??”

The little boy nodded. Daiki began walking towards it. The wind blew strong and loud around them, making trees writhe and twist. 

“Daiki, come back!”, the little boy yelled, “Come back! It’s going to rain!”

But amidst the wind and the rustling of the trees nothing else was audible to Daiki from where he was standing. 

“Daiki, let's go home!”, the boy yelled again. As raindrops began falling onto the asphalt, he heard a new sound amidst the noise. This was louder and sharper. Rounding the bend of the street, a white truck came into view, honking loudly. And Daiki was still in the middle of the road, bending over the rock and trying to pick it up. 

The little boy looked from the truck to Daiki and to the truck again. It was speeding down the street and honking but Daiki didn’t seem to hear or care. A chill ran through the little boy’s whole body as he briefly imagined what would happen next. The truck would speed down, hit Daiki, roll over him, crush him to bits, and go away like nothing happened. The thought made his heart pound and he got up to his little feet. He must help his friend. 

“Daiki!!”, he yelled at the top of his lungs and ran, “Daiki, watch out!!”

As the truck kept speeding down the street amidst the falling rain and the howling wind, the boy ran with all the strength his little bruised legs could muster. He stretched out his arms and jumped, pushing Daiki out of the way. The truck hit the breaks just in front of the two kids. A man climbed down from the vehicle and came running, asking if they’re okay. They timidly nodded and hurried towards the sidewalk. The man then got back on his truck and sped away. The boys looked on, scared, confused, and cold from the rain. 

The little boy punched Daiki on the shoulder.

“Ouchh! What was that for??”, he yelled.

“You almost died, you idiot!”

Daiki looked with wide eyes, taken aback at first, and then broke into a smile. “But I didn’t”, he chuckled.

The little boy scoffed, “Yes because I saved your life!”

“Oh”, Daiki looked thoughtful, “is that why you pushed me?”

“I didn’t push you, I saved. your. life!!”

Daiki scratched his head, looking genuinely concerned and puzzled. The little boy stared at the bruises on his knees. “I wanna go home”, he said. 

The boys got up and brushed the dirt off their clothes. “Let’s see who’s the fastest”, the little boy suggested with a faint smile. “Okay!”, Daiki agreed, beaming with excitement. As they went back out into the road, ready to take off on their little race, Daiki yelled, “Takashi!”

“What?”, the little boy yelled back.

“Thank you for saving my life!”, Daiki replied with a smile. He had been too young to comprehend what avoiding death really meant, but he was happy that his friend had done something nice for him and that now they got to spend more time together for the rest of the evening. 

“Daiki? Daiki”, Junichiro’s voice echoed at the back of Daiki’s mind. He looked up to catch his father and Takashi’s father standing in the living room, staring at him. 

“Y-yeah?”, he said. 

“Daiki, are you okay?”

“U-uhh yeah”

In truth, Daiki wasn’t sure. He didn’t remember the last time he’d felt unsettled. “Everytime you dragged me along for one of your pranks or games, I was the one who ended up in trouble”, Takashi’s words kept coming back to him.

Did he get Takashi in trouble again? 

“Daiki, we’re going out for a bit”, Junichiro whispered.

“W-where?”

“To the police”

“You’re going to the city?”

“Yes”

Daiki swallowed involuntarily, “I’m coming with”

“No”, Junichiro declined, “no, you’re not. Lock up everything and go back to your room”

“B-but dad I-”

“Daiki”, Junichiro said firmly, “Lock up. And go to your room.”

After Junichiro and Genji had left, Daiki locked the door and sat on the couch for a long time. Sleep was nowhere near him. 

Where had Takashi gone? 

He tried to think of every possible explanation for what might have happened and every possible outcome of this scenario. At first he thought about the drone. Takashi loved gadgets. His parents would gift him with gadgets every birthday and Christmas for as long as Daiki remembered. So he could only imagine how important the drone must have been to Takashi. His first guess was that Takashi went out to locate his drone all by himself. But where would he even go? They had no clue what happened to the drone in the first place. 

Daiki got up from the couch and ran upstairs to his friends’ room.

“Dude!”, he hissed, violently shaking a snoring Botan, “Dude wake up!!”

Botan rolled over and continued to snore, but in the other corner of the room, Asa woke up.

“Jeez Daiki what the fuck??”, she hissed back.

“Why the fuck isn’t he waking up??”

“You throw a bucket of water at him or set his bed on fire, he won’t wake up. Dude sleeps like a corpse.”

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t. I just guessed because he didn’t wake up even after being shaken violently like that. Daiki, why are you here?? It’s 10. Why are you out of bed?”

“Asa I gotta tell you something”, Daiki said seriously. Asa picked up on his tone and sat up straight on her bed, tying her long and messy hair back in a ponytail.

“What’s wrong?”, she asked.

Daiki took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Asa…Takashi is missing.”

“Missing?”

“Missing”, Daiki nodded, “He’d disappeared from his house”

Asa’s thin eyes grew wide in a matter of seconds as she fully grasped the graveness of the situation.

“You mean, he’s gone??”

“Yes! He’s gone. He’s nowhere to be found. He’s missing!”

Asa thought for a minute.

“Maybe he went to look for the drone?”, she suggested.

“I thought so too, at first, but..”, Daiki hesitated, “Takashi is not the type to just leave without telling anyone or at least leaving a note.”

Asa nodded in agreement. For the few days she and Botan had known Takashi, they’d deduced that much about him. 

“Takashi is scared of getting in trouble. I can’t imagine he would leave without making sure someone can find him if something happens to him.”

“Then again, don’t you think he just went away without a trace for that exact reason? He probably didn’t wanna get in trouble for leaving home after 7 and he probably expected to be back before anyone found out?”, Asa argued.

The thought had crossed Daiki’s mind but he had one persistent question that hindered the confirmation of any theory regarding Takashi’s whereabouts. 

“But where would Takashi go??”, Daiki contended, “We already checked with the Fujisakis. And that’s where we lost it. Where else could it be??”

“Dude”, Asa said in a low focused tone, “you guys ran into someone or.. something that night.. and Takashi lost the drone while running away from it.” 

Daiki listened intensely. 

“...the Fujisakis don’t have it, which means that that thing probably does. And that thing most likely came from the mountains –”

“– which means Takashi went off into the mountains”, a voice said behind them and Daiki and Asa turned to see Botan, fully awake, sitting in his bed and staring in horror. 

“When did you wake up??” Daiki asked.

“Yeah the snoring did stop a few minutes ago”, Asa said cheekily.

Botan got up from his bed and walked towards the other two. He still looked horrified and his voice was shaky.

“Guys”, he said sheepishly, “we should look for him. W-we should go into the mountains”

“Botan’s right”, Asa agreed, “We got him into this. We have to get him out”

Daiki frowned and focused. 

What did he wanna do?, he tried to think. He’d always done whatever he wanted to do. Most times without thinking of consequences. And right now he wanted to agree with his friends. He wanted to go into the mountains and find Takashi. But was he jumping the gun again? Was he doing something without thinking of its consequences? He sighed a heavy sigh. No matter how much he thought about it, the answer was always the same. He wanted to go find Takashi. Even at the expense of his own safety. The guilt of putting his best friend in danger was beginning to eat away at him. But there was something else. Can he afford to endanger two other friends just to get what he wants? No. So what should he do? The answer came almost too easily. More like it was right there in front of him, staring him in the face – his reflection on the mirror in Asa and Botan’s room. 

He should go alone. That was the only way.

“Tomorrow”, he heard Botan say, “we should gather up some tools. Let’s sneak into Daiki’s backyard and get some old tools. Also maybe some tarpaulin? And some poles and stuff to set up a small tent.”

“Okay and at night let’s sneak out. Stick to our original plan. What do you think?”, Asa asked Daiki, who was still drowned in thought. He looked up at her confused but managed to smile faintly and agree.

They agreed to set their plan in motion the next morning and went to bed. Asa and Botan tossed and turned in their beds for a couple hours before falling back asleep. Daiki went back to his room and sat on the bed. His hands and feet were cold. He’d never felt this cold in the middle of summer but here he was now; his heart beating out of his chest and a chill constantly running through his body. 

It had to happen that night. Not the next. The next day the police will get involved. And then there will be nothing that Daiki could do. It could also be too late tomorrow. What if it was already too late? What if Takashi was already in danger? He had to do something now.

Daiki’s body moved on its own. He got up and took out Asa and Botan’s plan and the map of the mountains, from under his mattress where he’d hid them in fear that Kaede would find out. He then grabbed his backpack and gathered a few supplies like water bottles, a flashlight, and some rations. Daiki rolled up the map and the plan into a bundle, tied them together and put them into the bag as well. He changed into something other than his pajamas and slung the backpack over his shoulder. Closing the door behind him quietly, Daiki stepped out with the items he’d packed and stepped lightly down the stairs so as not to wake anyone. 

He unlocked the door and went outside. The cicadas were louder than ever. They got so loud that at one point Daiki didn’t know if they were real or if he imagined them. He took in a deep breath from the fresh summer breeze and looked up at the stars. If they were aligned right, he’d find Takashi in a matter of hours and they’d both return home safe and sound. But deep down something told him that that was not going to happen. He thought of Asa and Botan; of his mom and dad; of Kaito and the twins. How would they react if he couldn’t be back by morning? 

Daiki shook his head. It wasn’t the time for such thoughts. He took his bike from where they'd parked it the day they came home for the vacation and got on it. With one final look at the house, he rode off towards the mountains.