"Men!""Match Point! Higuchi Akari wins!"
A big smile formed on Akari"s face, this was the deciding match before going to the nationals. Akari gave a bow to her opponent before turning and walking over to her team. She took off her helmet and looked at all the happy faces in front of her.
"Akari, that was amazing!" Ito Miya, Akari"s childhood friend and manager of her kendo team. They have known each other since they were both two years old and since then they had been inseparable.
"I am just glad I was able to win. If I was even a second slower I could have had my neck cut off." Akari said as she took the towel in Miya"s hand and wiped the sweat from her brow.
"There you go again talking like this is all real. I think only you would think in a sense of actually dying during a compet.i.tion." Miya rolled her eyes and took out a water ball for Akari to drink.
"If I do not think in that sense, I would most likely end up losing. That is why when I am attacking I coax myself into thinking that if I do not strike first I will die by their sword." Akari had always dreamed of one day becoming a knight. But unfortunately, the closest thing she can get to being a knight in j.a.pan was kendo.
She was fifteen years old now and she had started kendo when she was five. Her pa.s.sion for the sword did not come from a samurai movie but a movie about a kingdom and their knights. The knight"s code and the chivalry that came with it. Now she would do whatever she could to help people in trouble. She was even well known down at the police station due to some of the thugs she had beaten up with her wooden sword reporting her. But this did not stop her from helping those in need.
"Akari go rest, they will hold the ending ceremony soon and then we can head home!" Miya quickly pushed Akari to go sit down.
Feeling a bit tired from her match Akari did not complain. She went and sat down and waited for things to wrap up so that she could head home. After everything was done Akari and her team all piled on to the bus to go home.
"Get some sleep Akari I will wake you when we reach a rest stop." Miya said with a smile. She could tell Akari would fall asleep at any time.
"Mmm... Thanks, Miya. I did not get much sleep last night due to my nerves. So this is a much needed rest." The bus trip home would take a good three hours so Akari closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
*Cras.h.!.+*
Akari was rocked awake as her body was tossed from one side of the bus to the other. Her head hit the window cracking the window into thin lines that looked like a spider web. Blood dripped down from the side of her head down over her cheek. With her head and shoulder killing her she looked around her in somewhat of a daze. She saw a lot of her teammates crying out in pain. Behind her was Miya who was looking out the window.
"Akari! That car is about to fall over but there is a baby inside!" Miya yelled out.
Akari looked out the window to see a small car half sitting on the cliff edge and half in the air. The cliff it was on was a straight drop down onto the rocky ground below. Seeing that the person behind the wheel was knocked out cold and that the car would slip and fall at any time. Akari made her way to the back of the bus as fast as she could and hopped out the emergency exit.
Seeing Akari running around the bus to the car, Miya suddenly wished she had not said anything! Knowing that her friend was about to do something dangerous she quickly made her way out of the bus as well!
Akari looked at the car that was teetering on the edge of the cliff. Just the slightest change and the whole car would slip and plummet down. Not wasting even a second Akari looked inside the car without touching it. The baby was in its baby seat in the correct position crying away. The driver who seemed to be the baby"s father was pa.s.sed out or dead. Akari could not tell from where she was. She could see a large amount of blood flowing down the steering wheel.
Seeing that there was no time to waste Akari slowly opened the rear door. The car slid a few centimeters before resting again. This scared Akari because she was so close to saving the baby. Her only thought was that she needed to save the baby!
"Akari!" Miya came up from behind her and yelled out.
"Miya, I am going to carefully reach in and try to undo the baby. Once I get the baby free I will pa.s.s it to you. The man in the front does not seem to be responsive. I have already called out to him a few times." Akari said as she carefully reached into the back seat.
Unfortunately, the easy plan was not as easy as she thought. The seatbelt that was holding the baby into its car seat was stuck under the car seat itself. She had no choice but to carefully climb into the back seat. After a bit of careful work, she was finally able to undo the seat belt. But now she was fully in the back seat of the car.
Lifting the baby out of the car seat Akari said: "Miya, carefully carry the baby to a safe distance."
"I will but Akari please be careful! Any wrong move and the whole car will fall!" Miya was scared, she could see the car was slowly sliding over the edge.
"I will! I am going to see if I can wake the father up first. I can"t just leave him." Hearing Akari"s words she frowned because she knew the car would not last much longer but she also knew that her childhood friend would never leave someone alone if they were in danger! With no other choice, Miya carefully took the baby and backed away to a safe distance.
Akari slowly leaned forward and reached out to shake the man. "Sir! Sir! If you are alive please wake up!" She was afraid to lean too far forward or she might cause the whole car to fall to the ground so she could not reach far enough to check the man"s pulse.
Little did Akari know that her little bit of shaking was enough to cause the man to open his eyes. He saw the cliff floor below and got frightened. He was in a dazed state as he freaked out and took off his seat belt.
"Ahh! I Don"t want to die!"
After he screamed he saw that the back door was open and rushed for the opening to save his own life. He hadn"t even noticed that Akari was in the back seat. He even pushed her aside and kicked her on his way out of the car sending her flying to the front. Everything happened so suddenly that Akari had no time to react. She had been trying to keep still and not move around too much so she had dropped her guard. After being pushed aside and kicked. Her head which was already hurting her smacked the front winds.h.i.+eld of the car. The sudden movement within the car caused it to slide until the ground underneath gave way sending Akari and the car plummeting below!
"Akari!!!!" Miya"s shrill scream sounded out.
Akari only saw a glimpse of the ground before everything went black….