Forever There

Forever There

I was looking for Natsume outside, running around and around, yelling out his name.

‘Argh, where could Natsume be?’ Then I stopped in my tracks and actually thought about what kind of person he was. I never really thought that deeply about that.

Well, Natsume was really mean and always teased me all the time. ‘Why does he do that?’ Maybe it was fun for him to see her suffer. Or maybe there was a deeper reason.

Natsume was mean, but he was really kind, deep, deep, deep down inside. He had spilled tea all over the pie that Anna had made, to prevent me and Ruka from eating it, even though it made him look bad.

And that time when that stone pillar had almost fallen on me, he had protected me from it and had hurt his ankle.

And the time when we were captured by the Anti-Alice Organization, and he had tried to save me and Permy, when he couldn’t get away himself.

When Natsume had helped me when we went into the warp hole to get the antidote for Hotaru, and Iichou’s Alice back.

He always went on missions to protect the people in the academy that called him murderer, and he was called murderer to protect his little sister Aoi.

Each and every other time, all those times, and many more, he had helped others, and put himself at risk. ‘Why didn’t I see that before?’

At that moment I really wanted to see him, and continued my search for him. Then I saw him at the Sakura tree, just kind of staring at nothing, deep in thought.

“NATSUME!!”

…

He’ll always be there, to protect and care for them. Forever…