Editing City Series:Volume4b Chapter 12 (section)

===Part 2===

'''7:30 PM

Below the snow, Ikemaru Takahiro and Aoi Hijiri were reunited at the edge of Osaka Castle’s inner moat.

Hijiri sat below a cherry tree to keep out of the snow and she healed Takahiro.

She removed his jacket that was soaked after falling into the moat and she opened the chest of his shirt.

He sometimes grimaced, but he let Hijiri do as she wished.

“How did you know I was here?”

“That much noise was hard to miss.”

She attached a healing charm and briskly wrapped bandages around him, but she too was covered in wounds.

“Sorry. I lost the scarf.”

“We’re both still alive, so I’m not about to complain.”

“Did you lose?”

He sounded surprisingly carefree and she silently tightened the bandages around him.

He grimaced.

“Was it a draw then?”

“I suppose. I feel like…nothing changed. Not the Shinkage Style, not the Modified Purple Electricity Style, and not me…” She looked to her quickly moving hands. “But I feel so refreshed after saying everything I wanted to say and hitting him as much as I wanted.”

“What happened to the Osaka Chancellor after he had to listen to everything you wanted to say and was hit as much as you wanted?”

“When I came to, he was rescued by a friend and left. He didn’t even look my way.”

She lightly tapped Takahiro’s chest and he frowned.

“Does that hurt?”

“Not enough for me to cry out in pain.”

“Then you’ll be fine. Let’s get back to the hotel before I heal you for real.” Hijiri sat on a root that was not yet covered in snow. “But I really am tired.”

“Hijiri-san, what about your injuries?”

“It’s only a cracked rib and my wrist. I have a lot of bruises, though.” She smiled a little and looked to Takahiro. “Once we’re back at the hotel, will you heal me?”

“Hijiri-san.”

“What?”

“You keep mentioning a hotel…”

“Oh, we have a room. One we’ll be sharing.”

Hearing that, Takahiro’s expression stiffened somewhat.

And Hijiri spoke to him.

“Don’t worry. I made sure to change my family name to Ikemaru.”

“…”

“Is that a problem?”

“Hijiri-san.”

“What?”

He looked at her puzzled face.

“…You are quite the delinquent.”

“So are you for playing around here at night.”

Then they both sighed.

And Takahiro’s sigh led to a voice.

“Sorry.”

He apologized.

Hijiri looked up.

“For what? I can think of far too many things you need to apologize for.”

“…For Seigi.”

“It’s too late to say that now that it’s over. And I promise you she didn’t think badly of you.”

She tapped Takahiro’s shoulder on the final “you”.

Her relieved white breath vanished within the falling snow.

She held one knee in her arms.

“Aren’t you cold? You are soaking wet.”

“Yes, I am cold.”

He buttoned his shirt back up and she got up.

She sat next to him and held one knee in her arms again.

He nodded.

“…I wonder what happened to Nakamura.”

“Who knows. But I doubt it was anything bad.”

“True…”

He looked up slightly.

And…

“!?”

He gasped and Hijiri responded.

“What?”

She saw his eyes were looking into the sky.

The snow was falling from the heavens.

And several cherry tree branches extended toward heaven.

“Is this…?”

The snow fell with the dark heavens in the background.

It gathered on the branches.

And it scattered.

In the reddish-brown light of the streetlights, the snow looked somewhat reddish as it fell.

And with the white covering all of the cherry trees in this courtyard, the snow’s new color and its shape looked like…

“Cherry blossoms!?” shouted Hijiri.

She looked around.

The snow was falling.

The withered cherry trees looked like they were in full bloom.

“Cherry blossoms in winter…”

It was the snow and the lights.

The way they came together at night created the winter cherry blossoms.

White flower petals scattered through the darkness.

It was a snowstorm of cherry blossoms.

The cold flowers continued to fall, scatter, and dye the surrounding space.

Hijiri stared blankly at the scene before her eyes.

“Dad and mom must have-…”

She tried to stand up, but Takahiro grabbed her hand.

He pulled her back and hugged her.

She panicked when a slight creaking sound came from his ribs.

“Takahiro!? Is your chest okay!?”

“I do not mind.”

With that, he looked up at the heavens.

This was what the two of them had wanted.

It was the same scene the Osaka Chancellor and Tokyo Chancellor had once seen.

They had found what Hijiri’s mother had told her to find.

Takahiro held Hijiri even tighter.

“How is this supposed to bring misfortune…?”

Just as Hijiri nodded a little, she heard singing voices from the lights of the city.

Takahiro glanced in that direction.

“Oh.” Hijiri nodded. “It’s the outdoor concert. They were having one in the Otemon Gate plaza.”

They could hear the orchestra even as the snow fell.

It was playing…

“Beethoven’s 9th. Perfect for the end of the year.”

Hijiri closed her eyes.

Then she opened them again and began singing.

She sang the lyrics of Beethoven’s 9th that Takahiro had once taught her.

“Joy.

“Beautiful spark of divinity, daughter from Elysium.

“Your magic brings together what custom has sternly divided.

“All men shall become brothers, wherever your gentle wings hover.”

Takahiro responded by throwing his words into the sky.

He sang the end of Beethoven’s 9th, which was a line from a certain poet.

“Our father must dwell beyond the stars.”

Hijiri nodded at that line.

“Mom, dad…”

She nodded again and again and suddenly lowered her head.

Takahiro held her in his arms and stared up into the sky.

Into the sky of falling snow that became cherry blossoms.