Editing HanTsuki:Volume 1 Chapter 3 (section)

=== 2 ===

The wind was chilly. The safety helmet I was wearing was not the ones that would cover my whole head but only the ones that crowned my head. Two green lines ran over the helmet, with the imprinted words, “Shimada”. Anyway, the blowing, chilly wind soon froze my face. Still, I didn’t care a bit. Rika’s hands were still clasped around my bellybutton, and the touch of he arms felt certain. I could feel Rika behind me as well as her warmth. Therefore, I didn’t care a bit.

In the night, the village was deadly silent. The only sound was the engine of our scooter. The various objects in the scene fleeted one after another in seconds. Under the dim background of the night, the red signal lamp ticked and flashed, standing in an eerie posture beside the electric pole on the road as well as the numerous electric wires piercing the air. Steel gates closed, the shops in the shopping street gave no hint of a living soul. The supermarket closed down for several years had windows with countless broken glasses scattered in the supermarket’s parking lot, reflecting the blue and white moonlight. 

That place was once a photo studio before it became a supermarket. It had already been ten years since then. When I was still in primary school, my father often asked me to buy photographic plates. My father’s hobby was photography back then. Only when he was playing with his camera did my stupid old father look like a serious person. When in a good mood, he would even allow me to touch his camera.

“Listen carefully: don’t break it.”

He would remind me softly, placing the camera in my small hands. In my nervous hands, the Nikon  felt heavy. Even till now I could still remember that touch. 

Once we had passed the station, I called, “We’ll be at the foot of the mountain in around ten minutes!”

...but the words coming out of my mouth sounded like...

“Wheels be at the footage duh fountain in a round stem knees!” <!-- feel free to change this -->

My lips were frozen, unable to speak properly.

“What are you saying?” Rika asked loudly. 

Wearing the safety helmet that covered her whole head, Rika seemed to have maintained her lips unfrozen.

“We’re almond dare!”

‘We’re almost there’ was what I wanted to say. I had no idea whether she could understand what I had said, though, but she seemed she could, as she nodded.

I gave the throttle a stronger kick. Speeding wasn’t an issue now since I didn’t have a driving license to begin with. Besides, the two of us were sitting in this scooter.<ref>In Japan, scooters are prohibited to carry passengers.</ref> Right, we were done for should we be caught, for we were violating any rule outlined. So I decided to travel at full speed to the Turret Mountain, as it seemed the best strategy.

I drove into the curved road gingerly as I paid attention not to swing Rika out of the scooter. I had to decelerate, but my hands, ungloved, were frozen and numb, and my reaction at the moment was slower by half a second. The speed felt a bit too fast, and a cold streak of nervousness streamed from the depths of my heart. Rats. I couldn’t turn back. Rika sensed it as well. She clasped her hands tightly around my waist. Nevertheless, we managed to pass the curved road. The back tyre slipped and made an annoying wheezing sound.

The fear that crept onto my heart after the episode pushed a breath of relief into me. 

Rika cried loudly, “You have to be careful!”

“I know!”

But, truth be told, I didn’t.

When we finally reached the foot of the Turret Mountain, the facts proved that I really didn’t. The Turret Mountain, formally called the Dragon Head Mountain, was a small mountain of around a hundred metres high. There was a path leading to the peak, which was quite an easy, soothing path. Yet the path wasn’t paved. Our scooter could go up, but we had to keep our speed minimal. As a local, I was certain of this. Therefore, once a road with scattered pebbles appear in front of us, I would tell myself, “Okay. We’re there. It’s about time we decelerated.” The only problem, however, was that my numb hands couldn’t turn my thoughts into action immediately.

It’s bad. The scattered pebbles were getting closer. I managed to move my hands, but I couldn’t employ any force. Helpless, I gripped onto the handle and forcibly grounded the car to a halt in slowing speed. As a result, before the speed had dropped to the expected level, our scooter had rushed into the pebbled road. And at that moment, the front tyre knocked into a fist-sized rock.

We were bound to display a fascinating front-wheel-soaring stunt! <!-- stunt pros please edit-->

In the blink of an eye, everything was turned upside-down: the sky and the ground;  the darkness of the night and the light of the moon. When I had returned to my senses, my body was thrown into mid-air. That instant was unbelievably long. Well, how did this happen? I believe we had crashed. Rika would be fine, I guess. No, I had to catch her in the air as soon as possible. I had to protect her. There were about three other things I thought of before I landed. Of course, I failed to catch Rika in the air.

As my back was hit heavily, there was some time I could hardly breath, only able to roll and moan loudly in pain.

When I had managed to stand up, immediately I began to search for Rika, only to see her kneeling down five metres away from me.

“Rika!”

I ran to Rika impatiently.

Seeing my face, Rika cried in a voice about to tear up, “You idiot! I thought we would be dead!”

“So-Sorry! Are you hurt? Are you fine?”

“I don’t know.”

Taking off her safety helmet, Rika stood up slowly. She twisted and moved her body parts to check her body condition. Although her face was twisted together in pain, her other body parts seem to still be able to function.

“It looks fine, but that place feels painful.”

“What a relief.”

I let out a sigh, but subsequently my heart jumped frantically—The left knee part of Rika’s pajamas was long dyed in bloody red.

“Rika. Your knees!”

“Eh?”

Rika only noticed her wound after being reminded. After curling up the lower part of her pajamas, Rika had her thin legs exposed. There was a large cut on her kneecap, though not to the extreme of cracking, still, it appeared like a serious cut on muscle layer made from a collision. Blood copiously flowed from the cut; its dazzling red colour fazed me. 

Drip. Red, fresh blood slid along her white skin and dripped.

“Y-Your blood is flowing out...”

What the heck had I done? Rats. Sucker. I really was a super, helpless idiot.

“It’s fine,” Rika, however, said.

She took out a handkerchief from the pocket in her jacket to wrap her kneecap. Certainly, despite this, blood kept on flowing affluently.

Still, Rika stood up.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

“But...”

“It isn’t that painful.”

Liar.

“Yuuichi. It’s you who told me that you would bring me there.”

“...”

“Are those words lies?”

Embedded in Rika eyes were radiance. Perhaps it was the same stuff as the miraculous, growing power in my body.

“All right. Let’s go.”

Nodding, I slowly walked to the scooter. It was lying there, its two wheels spinning and cracking in thin air. Maybe the scooter was broken. I placed my hands on the handle, praying deep down from my heart: Please. You have to move.

If it was broken, our journey would end here. In normal situations, it was already impossible to let Rika, who had a feeble body, to climb to the peak. Now that Rika’s leg was hurt, all we could do was to give up, stop short, and even ask Akiko for help, should the scooter fail to operate. When this thought sprung to my mind, something in my abdomen twitched to a ball.

Move! I prayed, while turning the throttle.

Kugugugugugu!

Followed by sharp sounds, the back wheel spun in the air vigorously. It was fine and didn’t break. We could continue our journey!

Bearing the pain from the bruise in my arm, I lifted the scooter. Then, Rika and I bestrode on it.

“Don’t crash this time.”

“I understand.”

Prudently pushing the throttle, I drove forward slowly. There were skid marks left by passing cars, and obstacles like pebbles were much less. I chose to follow the skid mark left, but a pebbled road was still a pebbled road. Once the scooter ran over a larger pebble, the scooter would sway in unstableness. And at these times, Rika’s arms around my waist would hold me harder. At first, I thought she did this from fear. But later when I heard her moaning sounds, I knew the reason was different.

She did this from the pain induced in the cut of her leg. Rika’s cut was perhaps more serious than I had imagined. Let’s just head back.  This thought just came to me naturally. Nevertheless, I immediately casted it away. I couldn’t just call things off at the middle here. I had to think of ways to get to the peak; otherwise, it felt as if our future would collapse in the same way.

The half moon hung in the sky, emitting a dazzling and glittering brilliance. Nearby was the Sirius. Every time we went through a curve in the path, the half moon would appear at the right and then at the left, or the front and then the back. Anyhow, the moon always kept our company.

The road was embraced in a body of dark green. It was complete darkness. It felt as if the road we were passing through was the only zone belonging to humans. In this long and endless time, we remained silent, concentrated in staring frontwards. Before our eyes wasn’t a typical mountain road but our future. It was the rightful future we put our utmost to approach, to pursue, and to finally grasp. 

A while later, I remembered Tada.