Page 31 of Water Moon

Chapter Thirty-one

The Message

Hana leaned against Keishin’s shoulder, hoping that if her eyes were closed, her last fifteen minutes inside a convenience store that wasn’t real would feel longer. She refused to spend any of it imagining what was going to happen when it was over. She needed every second of it to rewrite a memory of her own. Here, in the instant-noodle aisle of a store with too many colors and bright lights, was where she should have met Keishin for the first time, not in a pawnshop littered with broken glass. Here, they might have had the chance to be more than just two strangers clinging to each other for safety and warmth. It made her think of her father’s story about how the pawned birds could reset time if they escaped. This, she thought, would be the moment she would fly straight back to if, like the birds, she could break free.

Paper rustled by her ear. Hana jolted up, nearly knocking Keishin’s coffee cup from his hand.

“Whoa,” Keishin said. “Careful. This is hot. Even if it isn’t real.”

“Did you hear that?” Hana said.

“Hear what?”

The sound of rustling paper grew louder. Hana grabbed her bag and stuck her hand inside. She pulled out the piece of paper Haruto had given her. It wriggled in her hand. “It’s Haruto.” She set the paper on the floor. “He is sending us a message.”

Hana and Keishin watched the paper move in a flurry and crease on its own, folded by an expert invisible hand. When it reached its final, angular shape, it grew still.

Hana stared at the origami creation. “You were right about the Shiikuin finding out about Haruto helping us. We cannot go back to his home.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because Haruto just told us where to go instead.”

Keishin picked up the folded paper. “A star?”