A Vow at the Shore ~ Making Love Out of Nothing At All, Part 2
1757 Words
With no hesitation, I left Murakami Shore, hoping to find Noemi in the most obvious place: Her own home.
That bright yellow bungalow located in the northern side of Sango-minato.
However, what greeted me instead were her parents, whose faces both manifested concerns abut their daughter's safety.
“What happened to her? Is she still in her room?”
The father answered, “No. Last time we checked up on her, she disappeared. We assumed she was wearing her dress, as we saw her normal clothes scattered in the bed.”
“Where was she headed to?”
The mother answered, “I took a quick glance at the streets after we discovered her clothes on her bed. I think... she was heading towards the east.”
The east? Wait a sec... isn't that the road leading to Sango-minato Watatsumi Shrine?
“Thanks a bunch!”
I then quickly headed towards where she would be heading.
I didn't mind the people I would inadvertently bump into.
I didn't mind my stamina slowly degrading as I ran so fast.
I didn't mind the sweat that accumulated inside my tuxedo.
What mattered most to me at that time... was that I should find Noemi and have her experience the magic of the prom for the first time.
If she had her own reservations about that despite wanting this whole event in the first place, I would take care of them.
Eventually, my feet touched a cobblestone pathway.
I should be on the right track towards the shrine.
The cobblestone pathway then led me to a bright red gate, as well as a garden containing plants and sculptures of the protector dragon deity of the sea, Watatsumi.
This should be the place.
I formally entered the shrine as calmly as I could, bowing to the resident deity, ascending the stairs, purifying my own hands and mouth, and trudging the path towards the hall of worship.
What was on my mind was me trying to let the deity bestow his guidance and strength for what I would be doing next: Finding and consoling Noemi.
And there she was.
Weeping in front of the hall of worship.
Normally, it is verboten for one to visit the shrine, or any other shrine in Japan for that matter, when they are sick, wounded, or mourning.
But then, I didn't recall Noemi mourning the death of a loved one at that time.
Why was she still weeping, then?
Despite her looking at her best in that midnight blue dress, she looked like she was the most unfortunate woman in the world.
They way she looked at that time could be best compared to that of a stray puppy seeking shelter underneath a piece of cardboard in the midst of rain.
I asked her the most pressing question.
“Noemi... why didn't you show up at the shore as soon as possible? The three girls are worried right now.”
I expected her to not respond immediately, so I gave her some time to end her weeping.
And she did, in just a minute and a half.
“It's... it's... because...”
She could not piece together her answer and instead hugged me, all while resuming her weeping.
With her tight hug, I could feel her heart pounding at an abnormal rate.
Yes, I could feel it.
The feeling that she was being haunted by something unnatural.
And if I don't resolve that soon enough...
I might as well l...
No!
Why am I thinking of such negative, depressive outcomes?!
That's not the typical you, Gunpei!
You're always solution-oriented, not problem-oriented!
OK. I had to find a solution real quick.
And the solution was, fortuitously, coming from an unconventional source.
Yup, the opening scene of A Thousand-year Love.
The girl worrying about what the boy was doing, and the boy reassuring her that everything will be fine.
The girl getting all too clingy towards the boy, and the boy reminding her that over-attachment to someone is not a virtue.
The girl convincing the boy not to go to the shrine, and the boy insisting that he'll spend only a few minutes of prayer there and then return to her fold in no time.
That very scene compelled me to do a leap of faith.
That is, holding her by her very waist while she was still hugging me.
“Look, Noemi, I acknowledge that you're haunted by something. Your body doesn't even deny this fact. But what is the exact thing that's haunting you, it doesn't matter to me. What matters most is that...
“I will make you find a power, a vigor that you've never seen before.
“I will help you defeat the demons of fear and anxiety inside you.
“I will make your body do some wonderful, miraculous things – since after all, courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.
“And I dunno if all those inhibitions will all disappear with my intervention, but trying is miles better than doing nothing.”
Noemi could whisper in response...
“Yes, please.”
I continued my words of assurance to her.
“These promises, these guarantees... they can be a little absurd, but it's all in the name of making you feel better.
“I can double your money earnings.
“I can heal those old wounds of yours, physical or not.
“I can help you be better at that rhythm game, not getting too all stuck up with just that one song.
“I can help you regain your fighting game supremacy.
“I can help you be better in the field of arts and letters.
“I can help you uphold the reputation of 'the mellow goddess' of this town.”
“Yes, please.”
“But even with my boastful words of promise, they all wouldn't work without you.
“Specifically, your willful cooperation.
“Do you really want to see me suffer because my efforts to save you from whatever you're suffering from yielded diddly squat?
“Do you really want to see me crawl and slither into a hole just because you're rejecting my words of encouragement?
“Do you really want to see me go through the very same afflictions you're suffering from, and leave me beyond repair like you are?
“So please... I'm trying to save your soul. Just... cooperate, OK?”
“Yes, please.”
I could sense her weeping fading away, until she had the confidence to stand up and reassure herself.
It was already nighttime.
And in that nighttime sky, Noemi's bright smile quenched the gloom surrounding her.
And even inside her.
“Gunpei... you'd better deliver on that promise... no, that guarantee!”
“Yes! That's the Noemi I used to know!”
No sooner did I take her hand and politely guide her out of the shrine, still paying respects to the resident protector deity.
I bet the dragon has sensed distress inside this girl and decided to lend a piece of his strength to me to help resolve that.
We calmly and slowly made our way out of Sango-minato Watatsumi Shrine and into the roads that lead to Murakami Shore.
Making good on my promise to defeat her inner demons, I asked Noemi about them.
“I know you won't tell whatever is afflicting you right now, but... do you have any vivid experience of similar fears and nightmares you experienced as a kid?”
“Yes. And for some reason, those things haunt me up to this day. Maybe it's because of that 'thing'. Now then. I won't beat around the bush.”
She cleared her throat as she enumerated the worst of her childhood.
“First off, I have this fear of thunderstorms. Every time those bolts descended from the sky, I feared that my house would be targeted, as I unknowingly watched my parents watching footage of buildings getting zapped by thunder during the evening news program. This... this thought of the appearance of the 'wrath of the gods' was worse than the sounds of lightning that followed soon after.”
A good number of people have the fear of lightning and thunder, and for a good reason. These bolts drop down billions of volts and roast anything organic or inorganic that they touch.
Good thing an enterprising American named Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod so that those bolts would safely discharge themselves and not harm anyone or anything.
“Second, there's this weird superstition supposedly inherited from my mother's side. The superstition said that I shouldn't just go out of the house without Mommy's permission, or else a strange man with a sack would kidnap me and use my blood to harden bridges currently under construction.”
Honestly, the one question I should've asked her... or everyone on her mom's side...
“What madman came up with this thing?!”
Seriously, this is a hardcore scaremonger that will make child psychologists faint at the mere mention of it.
“And finally... You wouldn't believe this. If I ever spin around quickly – either my own body or in something like a carousel or a merry-go-round – I would unknowingly warp into another dimension that was eerily similar to ours. And I had to do this again to supposedly go back to our own, even at the risk of getting dizzy.”
This is something that, for some reason, I fully comprehend. When we were kids, we sometimes had this twisted understanding of physics and other natural phenomena. Hopefully, when we're enlightened at what actually happens in events like spinning your body, those fears should be assuaged.
As she was finished with the narration of her third childhood fear, we were already at the shore.
Anya, Saya, and Ruriko were all waving at us gaily; seeing the VIP, the star of the night, finally showing up after a considerable delay.
The electric guitarist and the soprano began playing a song about a vow in a place that can be considered as the border between a body of land and a body of water.
Appropriately, I held her hand like a gentleman should as I guided her down the stairs and into the candlelit path.
And once we both landed at the very spot where the informal prom would be held...
You, Saya, made this monumental opening statement.
“We can all make this night forever, or we can all make it disappear by the dawn.
“But no matter what, this unique experience, at the request of this girl named Noemi Kuroyanagi, will be something for the history books of us all.
“So then... while the night is still young... we will make the most of this auspicious night and dance like no one's watching!”
I didn't waver in clasping the waists of four girls, and they didn't waver in putting their hands on top of my shoulders.
It was easy-peasy, as I just had to hold two girls on each arm, and the girls would put two hands on each shoulder.
Perfectly balanced as it should be.
The magic of last night was lovingly recreated in this idyllic place, but I could also feel that it took a life of its own.
It was no longer an extension, a follow-up to the officially-sanctioned prom at Sango-minato Central High School.
This small circle of friends, held together by our willing hands, the musicians serenading us, and the sea, compelled both Noemi and I to make the decision...
The promise...
The vow.
- Writer
