Sunset Canvas: Prologue
The October wind came as silently as autumn, and I saw the leaves of the sakura trees fall slowly down, proud in their pale reddish hue. There were other trees lined beside the pathway and they, too, were shedding their leaves, which have turned brown and wrinkled. I love the feel of walking on them, hearing the crisp crackling under my feet. Even so, I still loved the sakura trees the most. They looked so elegant even after struggling so much to hold on their leaves.
I am Kenji Toriyama. One year ago, I came here to Shizuya Art University to study industrial design. I do not know why I chose that field; I am not particularly artistic. My parents were not artists either; I doubt they can properly hold a brush, much less design a simple chair. My father owns a small convenience store in our town and my mother helps him run it. That convenience store was handed down to him by my grandfather, who started it after leaving Nagasaki. My grandfather was a seaweed farmer and so were my great-grandfathers. I guess the reason why I left Okawa was because I did not want to spend my life running a convenience store that came out of seaweeds. I guess I wanted to go out and carve my way into the world.
But now, I am in my second year in the university and I am at a loss. The confidence I felt when I left Okawa was gone and in its place is uncertainty and, maybe, fear. I do not know what I'm doing. I do not know why I am here. I am 19, and I still do not know what I want. I look at my classmates and I see the fire in them burning, sure of what they want to be when they leave. Some may have already planned out what steps they will take, already having a map to their life's destination. Even Yoshida-san, I'm sure, already knows what he wants to do, if he could only wake up from his self-imposed exile. It seems that I am the only one who is groping in the dark.
There are times when I lie awake at night thinking if maybe, I was wrong in leaving Okawa. Maybe my destiny is to grow old selling things in a convenience store. Maybe some people are not bound for grander things, and I am one of them. But when I think those things, some part in me kept telling me I will regret it if I don't try. That battle sometimes rages on until morning, so I end up being late for my first period class, and I end up feeling miserable the rest of the day.
And now, October has come, and I am in the middle of the second term of my second year. I feel as dreary as autumn, feeling very much like the leaves that fall down to the ground. Some end up being stepped on, while the rest get blown away by the wind, helpless and sad. I wonder which one I am?
I reach out my hand and I catch one of the leaves of the sakura tree. Even with the heaviness in my heart, I still manage a half-hearted smile. It is so beautiful. So simple, yet so elegant, beautiful in its pale color. I sigh and I let it continue its fall, down to its destiny on the ground. I clutch my knapsack tighter as a particularly nasty autumn wind passes by and I start my walk.
That's when I see her. She is standing a few dozen meters away, looking as uncertain and as lost as I am. Her waist-length hair flies freely in the wind. She looks strange in a faded gray sweatshirt and pleated skirt, and knee-high boots. She is clutching her bag as if it is an extension of her being. She catches me looking at her, and for the first time, even from the this distance, I feel the vast infinity in those eyes. She stands there framed against the long line of trees, with the sakura leaves floating in and out between us and around us.
The October wind came, and with it, the feel of autumn and the last remaining scent of summer. I felt as helpless as the leaves then. And then I saw her, and I knew; everything was about to change...
