Minato no Hoshizora: Part 2

It came like a bolt in the blue.

Minato shivered at its touch, feeling the impulse as it passed through him. Flying a little ways above, Elnath called, “What's the matter?”

Minato realised suddenly that he too was flying in the air and gave a yelp of surprise. Yet even as he did his mind had cleared; he almost wanted to berate himself for panicking. It was just them going out to look for potential crystals again. How many times had he gone flying out with Elnath to hunt them down already? It was a bit late to be panicking now.

He’d lost all sense of direction with the darkness around him. He felt himself beginning to roll in space: but then the light of the stars caught his gaze, and he knew up from down again.

Now that he’d had an opportunity to settle down, another realisation occurred to him. It had happened again – that same sudden awakening. Like being smacked awake on the tip of the nose. What exactly was the was the cause of them all?

Pinpricks of light beneath him drew out the lines of the streets, each the door lamp of a household in some quiet neighbourhood. From the windows of many of these houses poured a golden, inviting glow, one evoking thoughts of love, and family, and warmth.

And at one such household was a little girl. She didn’t look much older than early primary school, and was standing outside the house with someone who was probably her father, looking at something.

The girl, with her eyes wide, was staring straght at Minato.

Her mouth lay slack and open and her eyes shone, as she stared up at him in absolute wonder. Minato had the feeling then that the impulse had shaken him awake had been this girl’s gaze – that it had been the very force of her sight, if that even made sense, that had pierced him through like an arrow.

“Minato?” Elnath came down to Minato's height, peering at his face concernedly.

And then the pieces finally fell into place for Minato. Of course. Now he remembered. They had been out looking for potential crystals together, hadn’t they?

Hadn’t they? He would have to confirm everything again, fill in the blanks of his memory. And now the scenes of his recollection were resurfacing, one by one, reverse order, from when his first friend took hold of his hand and pulled him out of the window, and into the night air.

His first flight that night could not be said to have gone well. Minato had read his Peter Pan, and in Peter Pan the characters had taken simply and intuitively to the skies; Minato's first experience was far to the contrary. Floundering and beating his arms and legs was no good – there was no simply resistance to be felt. He flopped about helplessly in the air.

“You'll get used to it soon,” said Elnath, grinning and doing a cheery somersault. “This is your world, Minato. Just relax your body, like normal. Let your body move, flow by itself. You'll find it obeying you soon.”

“T…that doesn't help,” panted Minato, tussling with the air. In all his bed-bound life he’d never even been able to dream about being able to fly as easily as in Peter Pan. All he knew were nightmares of rising briefly into the air only to fall immediately afterwards, or of a painful, arduous struggle to move. How was his body supposed to know what to do?

“Oh, all right,” said Elnath, and grabbed Minato's hand.

Then they were smoothly rising.

“Remember this feeling well,” Elnath told him, and once again Minato felt the fresh, mint wind that had been blowing in his heart when he had leapt out of the window.

So this, he thought, is how release feels.

“Now you just need to focus onto some place, and think firmly that you want to go there,” said Elnath. “Do that, and your body will naturally follow.”

And abruptly, like he’d stepped off a slide, Minato was falling.

“Aaaaahhh!”

He could see the slate roofs of the houses rapidly approaching. He tensed his body up against the impact, and then reflexively his legs were moving too, to kick hard at the air. He felt no impact whatsoever on the soles of his feet, but then there he was, being propelled back into the air again.

“Yep, that's it,” said Elnath. “See? You can do it. People really do really do learn best through danger.”

“Hey!” Minato cried, trying unsuccessfully to be angry. Elnath cackled and took off, leaving Minato behind shouting “Wait!” and trying to catch up. Scarf abillow, he zoomed on ahead before halting, zoomed on again before turning to look back, his inching, caterpillar-like progress a teasing remark on Minato’s slowness.

Such a simple thing, a chase, and yet how fun, how very much fun it could be.

In his quiet moments, Minato had sometimes tried to imagine what playing tag with a group of friends would be like. Maybe everyone would be calling the catcher names and teasing him in the way only friends can, while running away, and the catcher would give chase, incensed and yelling threats, but really quite unoffended. It was the quintessential game of healthy children, irremissible every day of the week. And here Minato was, having made a friend, playing tag with him.

How wonderful it was, how wonderful, to be able to play!

Elnath whooped as he cut through the light spots of the lamps, brushed past TV antennas, somersaulted at times onto roofs and generally made a ruckus. Minato, casting a nervous glance down below, saw people on the streets making their way home and called nervously,“Someone's going to notice us if you make so much noise!”

“It'll be all right,” said Elnath. He flew down to a passing salaryman and brandished an end of his scarf in front of the man’s face, waving it. “See? No one can see us.”

“Well, that being the case—” Minato felt a wide grin breaking out on his face “—prepare yourself!” He caught an end of his coat and flipped it back with dramatic flair, and leapt full speed at his friend. But Elnath, however, shot up hurriedly, barely avoiding his touch. “Stop, stop!” he cried.

“Now what?” said Minato.

“Playtime’s on hold” said Elnath. “I've found one.”

“One what?”

“One potential crystal.”

Elnath's eyes, roving frenetically in search, had alighted on one particular household. Swift as a swallow he dived, landing nimbly in a narrow space between fence and kitchen window. Minato followed suit, narrowly avoiding crashing into a boiler unit, and together they peered into the house.

Through the window and across an old kitchen sink was an infant girl, at about the age to start talking. Beside her, busy taking the groceries out of some plastic bags, was her mother, whose attention the little girl was currently occupying. “I want – I want be—” the girl told her mother, in a squeakily determined voice.

“What do you want to be?” cooed the mother with half her attention, while the other half was given to methodically sorting through her groceries, and still with a suit from work on. “A giraffe? A panda?”

“Teacher—” the girl said, then, “—in kindergarten.”

“Oh, so you want to become a kindergarten teacher, Ritsu?”

“Yes, teacher—” the girl hopped up and down in delight. “I look after children and say bye-bye to them! Teacher pretty!”

“Were you playing in groups today?”

“Yes.”

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

“Yes.” The girl nodded so hard she seemed about to topple over. And at Minato's side, Elnath was rubbing his hands expectantly, saying, “It's coming.”

What's coming? But at that very moment, a glowing something shot out from the girl's chest.

“Now!” Elnath held his right arm high. The thing swung around the girl with dizzying speed, then shot out of the window. Elnath caught it deftly. “Got it! One fine potential crystal.” He opened his hand: a pink candy-crystal sat at its centre, giving off a faint, gentle glow.

“It's really beautiful,” said Minato, his face bathed pink as he peered in at it.

“It is, isn't it?” said Elnath. “The younger the child is, the purer the crystal gets. I guess it’s because young children are more innocent about the world.”

Minato thought for a moment, and then opened his mouth to ask,

“Potential crystals are released by a choice that isn't taken, right? But what choice did the girl not take? Didn't she decide to become a kindergarten teacher? And it’s not like she really will definitely become a teacher in the future just because she said she would as a kid.

Elnath gave a strange chuckle. “Honestly, that’s got nothing to do with me,” he said. “But if you really want an answer from me, well―” and as he spoke he handled the crystal lightly on his palm “―well, maybe you could say that what she had discarded was the state of not having considered things. Her mother asked her if she wanted to become a giraffe or a panda, didn't she? Up till then she might have still not realised, let alone considered, that it would be impossible for her to become an animal.”

“Ah,” said Minato. “So she’s, in a way, discarded her babyishness to grow up by a little?”

“That's one way to put it,” said Elnath. “But put another way—” But there he broke off. “Well, enough of the topic.”

“Another way what?” asked Minato, a little miffed. “You really shouldn’t keep breaking off from what you’re saying, you know.” He reached out to grab at Elnath’s scarf again, but found no purchase: his friend had eluded his grasp and leapt back into the air.

“That’ll be a story for another day!” Elnath called back at him. “Come on, let’s just go crystal hunting already!”

Minato gave a soft sigh, conceding defeat, and flew up to join him.

“It’s almost time.”

“I’ll get it this time! This time for sure!”

Against a backdrop of the dusky orange sunset, the two were waging a heated aerial battle. They had been swooping at each other high above the football field’s goal, but with these words they curled up, hugging their knees, and dived down at the school building, whooping. Minato came up short, however, against a second storey window, seeing neatly lined desks and a blackboard and colourful pinnings on the walls, and stared in with obvious absorption.

Elnath flew circles around the unmoving Minato, at last prodding him and pulling on his coat to get his attention. “What, you want to go to this school place as well?” he asked.

“Of course I do,” Minato answered. “I want to have fun studying and playing with friends too, you know.”

“Well, if it’s just playing then I’d understand.” Elnath lowered himself into a cross-legged position and sat, an effect slightly ruined by his floating upside-down in the air. “But what’s so fun about being jammed into a room and then forced to study? That’s practically like being farm animals.”

“That's only because there’re too many students,” Minato shot back, offended. He had dreamed of going to school since forever. “This just happens to be the most efficient way. And anyway, once technology advances enough we’ll be able to create ways for us to learn when and wherever we want.”

Elnath, upside-down and scarf-ends dangling, only looked away. “Well, I’m not going get into a debate with you about how you earthlings learn best,” he said. “But I personally wouldn’t stand for such a homogeneous mode of learning. You should just learn whatever interests you. What doesn't interest you, you leave to someone else who is interested in it; and then you just go to each other for help when you need it. That’s the far more efficient way of doing things, considering that you’re a social species.”

“That’s what universities are for, for people to branch out into their own specialised fields,” said Minato. “This is just high school after all, so the focus goes onto foundational knowledge.”

Elnath only scratched at the area around his goggles, his body turning slowly in the air. Then he began to drift away from the school building, his body still canted at its odd angle.

“I guess there certainly is still some good to doing things together in a group,” he said. “Like them.” He jerked his chin downwards at a group of boys from the school’s football club. They must have been finished with the day’s practice, for they were now seated in a half-circle around their advising teacher, in the middle of a meeting. Presently there was the sound of clapping, as one tall student stood up and bowed deeply to the teacher and the team.

“Now!” said Elnath suddenly. As he was speaking, a sky-blue crystal came shooting out from the group below. Elnath stretched out an upside-down arm to catch it.

“Got it!” he said with satisfaction.

“No fair, you were distracting me,” said Minato

“It’s called tactics,” smirked Elnath. He held the crystal against the sunset and inspected it critically, squinting an eye. “You know, it's actually bigger than I thought it would be,” he said. “My guess is, that boy was selected for an event, and the rest had to give up on becoming professional players because of that. Minato, you want this?”

The sky-blue crystal gave a flash as the sunset caught on its on its uneven surfaces.

Minato looked away. “No, no thanks.”

“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted this,” Elnath said. “No need to hold back just because you weren’t the one to get it.”

“I’m not holding back,” said Minato. “You could give me the biggest and most beautiful crystal there is, and I still wouldn’t want it.

Elnath turned his head to look at Minato. “Oh, why’s that?”

“I just can’t accept it, how they can let go of their potential crystals after just not being chosen,” said Minato. “I mean, of course they'd be disappointed about it, maybe even get depressed over it, but if they really want to become a footballer there're still plenty of opportunities ahead. They just need to keep putting the effort into it. I'm no football expert, but I'm sure there're high schools they can join with strong football teams, or professional football team auditions that they can try out for, and plenty of other things besides. This isn't the only chance that they'll ever have. If they give up now then it's all over. There's more that they can do, more that they can try, just – more, since they’re still strong and healthy…”

As Minato’s words petered out, Elnath gave a solemn nod. “I see,” he said.

“… I just… that’s just what I would do,” Minato said softly, all the strength leaving his body after his outburst. “If I were healthy, I… wouldn’t give up.”

Elnath eyed Minato's bowled figure for a few moments. Eventually he said in a light voice, “Well, these things happen. Everyone's different,” and dropped the potential crystal into his pouch with a clink. “Minato,” he said. “Have you ever heard about an electron’s energy levels?”

Minato raised his eyes briefly, but lowered them again, shaking his head.

“Electrons,” began Elnath, “occupy the space around the atomic nucleus in layers of shells. Each of these shells, according to quantum theory, can hold no more than a certain, fixed number of electrons.” At this point Minato lifted his head, his expression awash with incomprehension.

“Now,” Elnath continued, “normally, electrons exist in their ground state – their lowest energy state. If, however, they gain energy from absorbing a photon, they jump up from their shell to a higher energy shell—”

“They jump?” interrupted Minato. He was caught up in the explanation now.

“Yup. They get excited by the photon's energy. The thing is, this change is fundamentally a temporary one, so after a while a photon will be released and the electrons will return to their normal energy levels. They get a moment of glory under the spotlight, but after that it’s back to the darkness for them.

“Wait. So you're say...” Minato stopped to formulate his thoughts, furrowing his brow. He began again. “So you're saying that potential crystals are like those photons? That they are literally the released manifestation of the people's dreams? So basically that those people down there never actually had the potential to become professional players in the first place?”

“Oh, no, no, our crystals aren't quite as simple as that,” said Elnath, “though you are welcome to think of them that way. No, electrons at their ground state can become excited by photons again, meaning that it's not all over even when you lose the crystal. That’s all that I wanted to say.”

Minato understood now that Elnath had been trying to reassure him. To tell him that even if you did lose your dream, you could always become inspired by something new. But even so…

Minato raised his eyes to the sky, wondering suddenly if there was any of the crystal's blue in the colours of the sunset.

But even so, he thought, he wouldn't have given up at all. Not if he’d been healthy and fine.

He looked up at Elnath, drifting ahead lazily. At his backpack with the potential crystals within.

He took off. A kick at the air brought him to Elnath, and as he flew by him he reached out and grabbed onto a backpack strap. Elnath cried out, “Hey, what're you doing?”

“Now – got ’em!” said Minato, like Elnath always did. “Both the crystals and Elnath are back in my hands!” He laughed, his laughter loud enough to banish any cares.

“You—uncivilised earthling!” cried Elnath, waving his limbs frantically as he was pulled along by the harness of his backpack. Minato burst into laughter again at the sight.

Yes, why worry about the deep stuff? For once his body was fine, and he had a friend to play with. He couldn’t ask for a bigger miracle.

Just have fun hunting the pretty crystals, he told himself. No thinking about what the crystals really are, or how long this magical time could last. Just enjoy the moment you’re in. So Minato danced on in the air, his coat billowing, dragging poor protesting Elnath along with him.

And for a time, they were able to pass their days with delight. They laughed with each other, argued with each other, chased each other, tried to play with passing cats together (and payed the price for it). The day that Miss Fujiwara had said he could leave the hospital came and went, but Minato's spirits could no longer be dampened. How could he, when he had a friend to be with?

One dinnertime, Minato put aside the strawberry that came with the desert, and took it to Elnath later to share it. Minato had wanted to bring him tonkatsu, really, but then again, they wouldn’t have food like that in a hospital. Elnath had taken up the strawberry and held it before his eyes, entranced by its jewelly redness. That strawberry, eaten not by himself but with a friend, had been the best that Minato could ever remember tasting.

The girl was still staring wide-eyed at him in the air. Back in the present again, Minato blinked hard and squinted to make sure she really was looking at him. But yes: her hands were clasped at her front, and her mouth hung a little open, looking for all the world as if she might begin crying out in wonder at any moment. It was the first time Minato had ever been looked at with such awe. Flushed cheeks, shining eyes. Minato had seen faces like this before, on girls that had been given the chance to meet their favourite idol.

So he really was a prince at that moment then, he thought. A prince who was friends with a magician, a prince who could fly, a prince like the Little Prince.

There was a warm feeling spreading through his chest. All this time, he had been someone to be pitied, someone without anything to his name, but now here was a girl looking up to him. How embarrassing, and yet how wonderful! Someone was actually admiring him for his freedom!

Looking back, that flash of awakening he’d felt when the girl had seen him, and even the fact that he’d had to actively trawl back for his memories, could only have meant that his newborn existence as a prince – well, a prince-like being – had been itself a hazy, dreamy, indistinct thing. And it had been her act of observing him that had turned him from someone ancillary in the world’s eyes into a definite certainty.

The great tree of the forest, having now been seen by men, could finally claim its existence in the world.

He threw another glance back – she was still looking at him! He laughed giddily. “Elnath,” he cried, “we’re being watched!”

“Now that’s not possible.”

“No, look.” Minato pointed at the door with the girl – the girl, who now was being herded back into the house by her father. She was pointing up at the two boys in the air and evidently trying to convince her father of their presence, while the father only smiled indulgingly.

“What’s to see?” said Elnath. “You must have been seeing things. It’s impossible for anyone to see either of us.”

“But―” Minato broke off, watching, as the girl turned and gave one last, reluctant look of farewell. But there wasn’t any point in mentioning this to Elnath, he guessed.

On the heels of this came another thought. Didn’t Elnath often talk about fate? He’d even said that him meeting Minato had been because fate had brought them together.

Could it have been fate that had let the girl see him?

Let us meet again, he called out, making a silent prayer. Let us meet again, before the magic is gone.