Spring Awakenings

Next Chance to Move On

Saturday, 4/18/12, Junes Food Court, Late Afternoon...

Rise Kujikawa sighed, sliding a thumb across her darkened smartphone screen to check yet another incoming text message. The little preview that popped up as a notification had been enough to convey the meat of the message, but she still scrolled through the entire thing hoping that there would be a silver lining.

"Srry, can't make it. Muku seems really sick! Yukiko would kill me if I leave him now. Srry again, study haarrrdd! :P"

";^; send <3 2 Muku hope he iz btter!  xoxo\(*^3^)/~☆ c u mndy!

The upbeat tone of the response betrayed the sour pout on Rise's face. The text was from Chie Satonaka, a schoolmate of hers from nearby Yasogami high school. The two girls had planned to be a part of a study group, and Chie was now obviously going to miss out. Chie's was the fourth text she had received that afternoon cancelling on the planned get together. She let out a haughty huff of breath as she put her cell phone down.

Rise had recently started her second year, and the first big test of the semester was coming up. The group she was going to study with was her typical companions, an eclectic mix of second and third year students that she had made friends with during her time in Inaba. She now sat alone, bored, and a little sad in the food court of the local Junes supermarket.

It may have seemed like an odd spot for a group of high school teenagers to hang out, but Junes held a special place in the hearts of Rise and her friends. This was where they often sat together after school, hanging out, studying, or just catching up. The previous year, it had served as a neutral meeting ground as the gang of friends tried to crack a local murder mystery that threatened to overwhelm the entire town.

As Rise drummed her fingers lazily on the tan bench she sat at, her mind drifted back to better times. Specifically, to a person that had been a crucial component in not only solving the case, but for bringing all of these now dear friends together: Yu Narukami.

It had only been a few weeks, but Yu's absence was still utterly devastating. Narukami had arrived in the small town of Inaba during the beginning of the last school year, displaced due to his parents' year long business excursion. In just that year, he had uncovered a mysterious world that lay beyond the town of Inaba's televisions, rescued several of his classmates from that world, solved the murder mystery that was plaguing the town, and formed lifelong unbreakable bonds with those six classmates as well as that of his uncle, Ryotaro Dojima, and young niece, Nanako, with whom he stayed.

Yu had left back at the end of March, and while there had been many tears shed by all of his friends, Rise, in particular, felt as if a crater had opened across her heart. Even now, weeks later, it was hard for her to stop one eye from becoming irritated and wet as he consumed her thoughts once again.

Formerly the national singing and acting superstar Risette, Rise had also retreated to Inaba last year to get away from the fame and the life that came with it. Originally seeing the old-fashioned, sleepy town as her burden to bear for leaving showbiz, Rise soon found that this little slice of Japan was in fact the one place where she would discover who she really was. She would never have figured it out without Yu Narukami.

As soon as she had seen him, she had felt something. While she of course thought he was the cutest boy in the whole town, she also marveled at how easy he made it for her to confide her dreams, her fears, and her feelings. After all, it wasn't so hard when he had already seen her at her worst; when she was lost in the TV world opposite to Inaba, her shadow, her unbridled inner self, manifested itself. The shadow version of Rise was a twisted take on her Risette persona, a sultry exhibitionist that was willing to forego her modesty for the approval of the people around her. While she was ashamed to admit it, Rise eventually embraced this dark side of her personality, vowing to grow past it and nurture it.