𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 (𝐊𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫)

Reunited

Before we could get them they swam away and my stomach cried. We had missed our chance and now we had to deal with another night without food. As I laid down again I began to see things. My brother was there holding his hands out to me. I took them in my own hands and he looked down at me.

"Y/N, why do you look so sad?" 

"You're not real."

"I've been with you the whole time."

"I'm hallucinating aren't I."

As I said those words to my brother I woke up. The sun had been blaring down on our life boat and woke me up abruptly. The dream I had was a rude awakening. He wasn't coming back. None of my family was.  I noticed I wasn't the only one awake. Somehow the two Mutohs had captured three fish. I looked shocked at the discovery. 

"How'd you manage this?" I cheered out and they explained how they caught the fish. Food after so long was relieving. It almost felt like we weren't going to die out here. Like this was the beginning of a new start. We all began eating the raw fish and it was good. It may make me sick later but I could enjoy it in the moment. Suddenly water began seeping into the life boat. Good moments couldn't last anymore. Panicking we looked for the hole. It could be anywhere.

"I found it." After patching it up and emptying all of the water out I took a well received nap and held onto Go again. He said he wanted to cuddle but it's not because he's a kid or anything. As we all slept peacefully something tapped our boat. It woke me up and I moved out of Go's grip. Ayumu woke up a second later and looked out into the ocean.

"Ayumu!"

"Mom?"

"Ayumu!"

We all rushed out into their boat and I was met with a warm hug from Koga. He didn't seem to want to let go so I didn't either. I thought they were really gone. All of those thing I had been complaining about seemed to disappear from my mind. We were reunited. Mrs. Mutoh ran over to me and hugged me. It felt motherly, like she considered me one of her own.

"I'm so happy you took care of each other. I'm so proud of you." My eyes teared up and we all took a few minutes to recover. 

"Yea I helped keep their spirits up." I just nodded and hugged them a little closer. After looking around I noticed Kite and Mr. Onadera were missing. 

"Where is Kite and Mr. Onadera?"

"We'll find them, I'm sure of it." Koga looked reassuring and I knew Kite wouldn't go down so easily. Now what to do next. Koga showed me the numbers that Mr. Onadera had written down before we all got lost and asked, "Don't these look like coordinates?" I nodded and showed it to Go.

"Isn't that a little east of Hiroshima?" I ruffled his hair proudly.

"Well aren't you one smart kid."

"All I did was memorize them in a war game." He grumbled and looked down embarrassed. I couldn't help but be proud of the boy, he just helped out a bunch.

"So whatever is there is more important than escaping right? Mr. Onadera and Kite could be there right now." I doubted that they would be there. What luck that would be.

"Now which direction is east. If only we could figure that out then we might be able to get there."

"We can find out with a compass, I know how to make one." Once again Go was to the rescue with all of his little survival skills. He pulled the tab off of the pin and used a flare to heat up the needle. It had pointed us in the direction of north and we headed north-east. 

Paddling was the worst part. Your arms would get tired but you couldn't stop. My stomach wasn't making this trip any better either. We took a little break to recoup and started to talk about what life was like before the earthquake.

"Koga, Y/N, remember when you two would come over for dinner and spend the night. Those were fun times." We all giggled and reminisced about the prospect of dinner as a makeshift family. "And all the times we played Hyakunin Isshu."

"Ayumu you were good at playing," We all agreed and laughed amongst ourselves for several more minutes before carrying on. Off in the distance a motorboat lay in the water, bobbing up and down. We made our way over to it with a new determination. After reaching the boat we were met with a fully tanked up motor boat. The only problem was that the anchor had become caught on something below the dark sea. Koga and I continued to try to pull it up. Yea leave the injured to try to save the boat.

"I'll dive and untie the rope." Mrs. Mutoh said bravely and began undressing. I wasn't about to let her go, I knew she had a heart condition and that diving could make it significantly worse.

"I'll go instead."

"No, let me do it."

I looked towards Koga who had the same idea as me. We weren't going to let her do this in her condition. Not when she meant so much to us. She wouldn't take no for an answer and prepared to swim down.

"I'm a pro swimmer, you know. This will be a breeze." This didn't stop us from trying to convince her not to go. "Now be lucky you have a mom who's a good swimmer. I spent all my time swimming just for this moment." She hugged us all as if saying goodbye but I knew it wouldn't be goodbye. 

"If I could swim-"

"Go your name is 'Go' for a reason. Now keep moving forward. And your name is 'Ayumu'. No matter what happens, keep on walking, even if it's slow." She hugged both of them one more time before jumping over board with one last I'll be back.

Now it was a waiting game. We couldn't see what was below the surface so anything could happen. Time passed and it felt like hours of anxious waiting, all of it spent looking over the side of the boat. We saw her swimming towards us and then it stopped. She began descending again and it was time we went in after her. Koga was first to reach her and Ayumu helped to pull her overboard. She wasn't breathing and it sent all of us in a panic. Koga quickly began CPR but would it be enough to save her?