Onihunter Yuna 2

46 Farewell Dream (Present)

"Just believe me, okay? Practice this passage a note lower. It sounds better." Annoyed snorted the black-haired girl in the blue and white school uniform.

"But I practiced it the way you told me to," Wataru replied irritated.

"Good boy. Now I changed my mind. Songwriting is a fluent process, Wata-kun. A song is not perfect from the start."

Eye rolling, he agreed. "Okay, I'll do it."

He folded the sheet of paper, rummaged for his pencil in the pocket of his dark blue jacket, and used it to correct the tabs. Then he looked at the girl who was walking beside him. Sakura Muso, his girlfriend. She had long, black hair that she wore in two side tails. Beneath her brow, two blue eyes gleamed, her eyes resting on her notes. Her own pencil was in her mouth. She had a habit of chewing on the back end as she pondered about this and that. Just as she was doing right now. He hadn't noticed this until they started kissing and wondered about the taste of pencils. By now he found this habit cute.

Smiling, he stroked his slightly disheveled hair. For her sake he let it grow, for she liked long hair in men. Or boys, in his case.

"Well, I'll practice it that way today," he assured her, storing the pencil in his pocket.

"Mm." Reflecting on her notes, she didn't seem to listen to him properly.

This was something else he really liked about her. When Sakura went for a goal, she forgot everything around her. She had that passionate zeal, especially when it came to music. Sometimes he could hardly believe that she had fallen in love with him. The deep love of music had brought and held them together. He hoped forever.

A gust of wind whirled the sheet from his hand over his shoulder. Hastily he turned and grabbed with his free hand for it, but it sailed away. "Crap!"

"You are so clumsy, you idiot," laughed the high-school student without looking up from her notes.

"Yeah yeah." He made a small jump and took two quick steps, then he could grab the paper. It rustled as it was surrounded by his fist. "Got it."

"Great," she replied dryly. A loud squeaking sounded, then a violent crack and rumble.

Startled, the boy whirled around, but where his girlfriend had just been, there was now a car on the side. The front had partially drilled into a wall that lined the sidewalk. "Sakura ...?" Her notes were still flying through the air. He searched for a trace of her, which he finally discovered in the form of a hand peeping out from beneath the car. He blinked incredulously a few times before taking an unconscious step forward. "Sakura-chan?" His gaze wandered over the vehicle as it dawned on him what had just happened. "SAKURA!" He ran to the front of the car and dropped to his knees beside it. A pained moan sounded from the girl. "Sakura?"

"W-Wata ..."

He squeezed his head between the wall and the plastic of the bumper, but it was impossible for him to see her. "Sweetie?" His hand felt for her arm. "Hang on!"

"It ... it hurts ..."

"What hurts?" He jerked his head out and yelled, "HELP!" He spotted a passerby who came running with a phone on his ear. He quickly put his head back to her. "What hurts?"

"E-Everything ..." she whimpered with choppy breaths.

"At least one seriously injured girl. The car has caught her completely. The driver was protected by the airbag. He seems to be unconscious," said the man, who alerted the emergency and peered into the vehicle.