97 Connections

Yesterday night was the longest and slowest night of Rion and Kotomi Amami’s lives.

Everything they built was destroyed.

But a new ray of hope shone through their despair.

They sat in their grandparents’ yard, watching the night sky. In their hearts, they felt a peaceful calmness which they had never felt before.

Rion, we made so many mistakes.

Kotomi, we did so many foolish things.

Foolishly making so many mistakes, doing wrong by so many people, seriously hurting the most important person… it wouldn’t be enough no matter how much they apologized.

They… were finally able to see just how ugly and terrible their past selves had acted.

They felt awful, regretful, sad, pained, and yet... a burden had been taken off their shoulders.

It was as if they'd been released from an invisible dark cage and were able to see the endless sky again.

The sky wasn’t anything new to them.