ETERNAL SUMMER
⸻   私たちが守る秘密

( 2006 )

     Sayuri knows that they were never meant to fall in love. From the moment her gaze met his and she drowned within those ocean eyes. A million flowers bloom from her heart and wither away within that singular moment. He is as dazzling as the everlasting sun, blessed with Amaterasu's radiance. His slightest touch can set her ablaze with smoke-filled lungs begging for salvation.

It's a rapturous sin, to give in to her own wanton desires. With tragedy in their veins and ruin smeared across their lips, it's a symphony for misfortune. No wonder the heavens spurn them, no wonder the stars seek to punish them. An unholy union between an angel and a demon is a transgression against the world's natural order.

( And oh, how her heart is filled with sin. )

She remembers the sun bathing them in a golden glow as it sinks beneath the horizon. Under the ephemeral light, his eyes glimmer like snow crystals. They sit side by side in the empty classroom, heads resting on their arms against the tabletops. His cheeks are kissed by the blushing hues of summer as he tenderly gazes back at her. ( It had been better days then; when her naive heart believed love could transcend beyond all obstacles. )

"What if I told you that I had a dark secret?" she asks him.

"Everyone has a dark secret," he says, smiling back in that self-assured way of his. "Maybe mine is darker than yours."

She chuckles and thinks that the gods must surely despise her. Every breath she takes, every flutter of her heart is irrevocably for him. Like a moth seeking solace in the flames, like Icarus soaring too close to the sun. She knows how this is going to end. Yet despite that, against all her better judgment, she will always choose him. For what is life without the other half of her soul, how can she live knowing that she is never whole?

"I might have fallen for you harder than I should," she tells him and it feels like she's setting herself on fire.

"Have you?" His smile grows into a grin and she silently begs for him to break her heart. "Well, I know for a fact that I'm utterly in love with you."

Her heart quivers in the base of her throat, the universe collapsing around her to birth asterisms. "Utterly?" she questions him softly.

"Utterly," he responds with such conviction as if it's divine decree from heaven itself.

Standing upon the precipice of her own destruction, she embraces the inevitability of fate. Leaning in close to seal her own demise with an ecstatic reprise of his lips, just as the last vestiges of the sun surrender to the twilight. Even as the world is swallowed in darkness, he is resplendent. Taking her breath away, burning her skin with such fervour that it eats every virtuous thought in her head, leaving only wicked desires and a carnal ache between her legs.

Her life begins and ends at sixteen, entangled in his arms with swollen lips and a bleeding organ painting the insides of her chest scarlet. Heaven and hell exist within the cracks between their bodies, teeth sinking into flesh and nails raking through hair. She wants to scream, curse every celestial being in existence and rewrite all the stars within the cosmos.

"So what do you think now?" he asks between frayed gasps, voice hoarse and low. Not even the shadows can touch him, he's exquisitely majestic and glorious.

"I'm utterly in love with you too," she whispers back, gently stroking away the silver hair from his beatific face. Colliding constellations reflect against his eyes, exploding within a single breath of luminescence. Every moment she spends with him is like dying a million times over; an exorcism of her soul.

( But oh, how she loves him anyway. )

     Satoru remembers that night in Okinawa before everything went wrong, the moment he renounces all claims to his body, heart and soul. Surrendering himself to the bittersweet destiny that binds them together. History repeating itself by the will of divine providence, the proffered hand of serendipitous intervention. Their paths have been foreordained to meet long before they have even been born. He has always known since the moment he laid eyes on her, feeling her within the forgotten memories lost to time and the footsteps of those who came before.

In another age, another place somewhere, he had met and loved her the same way he does so now. Her face and her smile, the warmth of her hands and the way she fits so perfectly in his arms are all known to him. As if he's revisiting an old home from his childhood days, as if reuniting with a long-lost friend. It's all too familiar, well recognised by the quintessence of his soul. Always her.

His grandfather used to tell him tales of their ancestors, the infamous Golden Age of Sorcerers and the fall of the most prestigious clan that walked the earth. It had been written in the annals of their lineage that a Gojo with both the Limitless and Six Eyes had defeated the King of Curses a thousand years ago. But it seems that only their clan knows of her, the one who stood beside Gojo Toshiro on the mythical battlefield of legends. Slipping through the cracks of everyone's recollections but theirs.

He can still remember his grandfather's voice, filled with generational remorse and sorrow as he recounts the stories. Of how one woman gave birth to a myriad of curses and blessings in a single breath of omnipotence, goddess incarnate who opened both gates of heaven and hell upon the world. Unlike the Zenin clan whom they hold with utter contempt, the enmity with the Kurosawas is one born out of everlasting grief.

( "Remember, Satoru... If a Kurosawa comes asking for your life, you are obliged to give it to them. I pray that it will be swift and easy, for the alternative will be much worse." )

Satoru has never understood such a ludicrous proclamation, never believed the warnings that have been imparted to him. He who holds the universe in the palm of his hand, who can look upon the ground from the heavens above. The thought of conceding his life without any rhyme or reason is pure madness. But after beholding the sacred vows scarred onto her body with his very own eyes, within every inch of her divine flesh and breath of benevolence from her chest. Flowing through their veins and the interwoven atoms between them. Suddenly, everything starts to make sense.

He closes his eyes to the sound of the ocean waves breaking against the shore outside, the static silence of the stars as they bear witness to their tragic mortality. Sayuri stirs in his lap, eyes of autumn reds opening to gaze up at him endearingly. She is beauty and radiance, and everything good within his heart. "Sorry, I said I wouldn't doze off," she whispers.

His fingers brush the stray strands of hair from her face. "Go back to sleep," he tells her but she pulls herself up and stretches her shoulders instead. "It's no good for the both of us to be tired in the morning."

"It's fine, we have Suguru and I can take a nap on the plane," she says, turning to him with a captivating smile. "After all, we're still in Okinawa."

She gets up to brew coffee for the both of them and they stand on the balcony to admire the glistening sea under the silver luminescence. He can smell the fragrance of the new perfume that Riko had picked for her; vanilla, honeysuckle and ambergris. Sweet and summery notes that suit the gentle vibrancy of her disposition. It's the small things, like the wistful look in her eyes as she gazes out at the glassy waters that make him fall in love with her over and over again.

"I'm glad we stayed one more day," she says quietly. "I wanted to be her friend for just a little while longer."

His expression softens, remembering the bliss on Riko's face as she leaps into the ocean and dances under the shining sun. Behind the girl's resolve, there is loneliness and woe tucked into every crease of her assured grin. Deep inside, he truly feels sorry for her even though that is the last thing she wants. He knows that Sayuri and Suguru feel the same. Throughout the entirety of their mission, it has always been a weight on their shoulders.

"Why don't we... all run away together?" he muses deliberately. "We can say that we decided to elope. Suguru will be my best man and Riko can be your bridesmaid. Shoko can get on the next plane to meet us. Do you want to invite the others too?"

Her laughter rings clear like chiming bells beneath the twilight sky, eyes glimmering with stolen pearls from the sea. She turns to him with a smile as bright as the beaming moon that hangs above. "That sounds nice, but where will we go?"

He hums loudly in thought. "Maybe Indonesia... Bali?"

"A beach wedding? I'd love that," she croons.

"I know." He looks at her with all the tenderness of his besotted heart, taking her hand and interlacing their fingers together. Across their skin, he traces every intimate detail inscribed from their previous lives and commits them to his memory. She is the one and only for him, that much is indisputable. "One day, maybe a few years from now... Kurosawa Sayuri, will you marry me then?"

There's a flicker of surprise on her face, lips parting slightly as she gapes at him with eyes filled with wonder. A million thoughts run through their minds in an infinitesimal second, visions of a future that they dare not dream of. Maybe, just maybe, he can unwrite all the sins of his past self. Then finally, they can live the life that was always meant for them. With a breathless chuckle, she asks, "In which reality, would I say no?"

He gives a gratified grin as he says, "Then it's a promise." Leaning in close, he notices the glowing blush across her cheeks and slight shiver in her shoulders. To him, she is perfection. His lips meet hers in an unbreakable oath, sealing their destinies in the summer paradise of the night.

Satoru knows of the pain and suffering between their clans, the true reason for her being there. If she had asked it of him, he would have gladly given his life to her the day they met. He gives a silent thanks to whichever divinity there is out there that has blessed them with this second chance, even if the alternative is fraught with trials and tribulations. Be it vengeful spirits or endless curses, he would face them all.

This time, he would make it right for them.