Kagami (Mirror)
By Yui Miyamoto

What's with the crowd? It's so chaotic. They all [kept] on screaming, "The girl! The girl!"

They had made a circle around a twenty-year-old woman. She was face down on the mud. I push through them and take her into my arms. Then, I plead to the crowd, "Why didn't you help her?"

When I look into her face, I realize...it's mine!

"No!!!" I abruptly sit up in my bed. "It's that strange dream again."

"It's nothing." I hug my knees and curl myself in a ball. "Who am I kidding?"

I'm so glad it's Saturday! My best friend Eriza runs into the classroom. In one second, she shoves a manga (comic book) into my face. "Wah!"

"Hi, Yui! (Huff.) I've got it! (Huff, huff.) I really do!"

"What? Hey, you can take the manga out of my face now." I laugh.

"I got the last copy of 'Kagami' from the manga shop yesterday!" She sits down in the desk next to mine.

"What's that?" I love Japanimation, but I'm never up-to-date on it. I study too much, I guess.

"You haven't heard of it?! It's on [T.V.] starting today!"

"Well, what is it?" Now I REALLY want to know! If it isn't all that, then she wouldn't get so excited about it.

"It's this short series about a Japanese girl who's reincarnated from a Chinese woman during World War II," our classmate Kenji interrupts, "but the weird thing is that the author hasn't made an ending yet. Everyone's waiting for it. 'You'll have to see the [T.V.] series to see the ending' was what the director said."

"It's a [shoujo] comic, right? Who made it?"

"No one but the manga's publisher's editor knows who it is."

I stare off into the window. Why are they so secretive about it? It's just so weird...

Eriza smiles widely. "Well, anyway, wanna see it at my house?"

"Sure. Why not?"

After school, we run to her house and straight into her room. We sit down and [anticipated] it.

It starts with a young woman in bed sleeping. A voice out of nowhere whispers in her ear, "I will find you for sure."

My heart beats fast. My mind is in deja vu mode. I begin to shake my head slowly and point it towards the floor. "She'll fall back to sleep. The girl will dream about a Japanese man who is her husband."

"Wow," Eriza gasps in astonishment, "and you said you never read it!"

She averts her eyes to my teary ones. I [suddenly] turn to grab her shoulders. "Please...don't tell me her name is Mei-Ling."

Her fortune chime rings outside in the balcony.

"What's wrong, Yui?" Eriza hugs me.

"You're book," I frantically reply, "I need to call the publisher."

I end up spending the night at Eriza's. Actually, we were up all night looking for the publisher's address, the author's name, and any leads about the author.

Eriza gave me all five manga to read. I finally tell her that my weird [dream] is the story arc of 'Kagami'. But, the story continues beyond my dreams.

"It could be a coincidence," she comments.

I walk out into the balcony and stare at the stars. I feel the wind and turn around to lean on the post. "All my life, I've told you that I've never felt complete...If I don't find out who wrote my story, I'll never be complete."

"I've never doubted you, Yui."

"Arigato." ("Thanks.")

Early Sunday morning, we walk into "Mes Yeux Publishing" in downtown Tokyo. The secretary wouldn't let us see the editor.

I cry and fall to my knees in [desperation.] "Please," I beg, "this is my life. All I want to know is who wrote it."

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Yoshida-"

The editor comes out of his glass office. "[What's] the problem here?"

He allows us to go into his office. I explain my situation. As I do so, his face grows paler and paler. I sit silent before him now.

"So you're-" Knock. Knock. "Come in."

A young man walks in and stands in front of Mr. Yoshida. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but-"

"Just the person I wanted to talk to."

"Really, Sir?"

Mr. Yoshida asks him to sit down and for me to [tell] my story. All the while, I was perplexed as to why he was letting this guy hear it.

The young man sighed and sat dumbfounded for a moment. "Mei-Ling..."

Without even thinking, I respond, "Yes?"

He gets up and bows. "My name is Yoshiyuki Koe. I am the author of 'Kagami'."

A man wrote it?

Eriza and I immediately stand up. "Nice to meet you."

Mr. Koe's eyes become filled with tears.

"What did I do? I'm sorry." A look of concern descends upon my face.

"It's been so long...I..." He couldn't finish his sentence.

"Why don't you go out to eat and talk," Mr. Yoshida suggests.

We are now entering a cafe near Tokyo Tower.

"Eriza, can I ask you to-"

"Don't worry, I'll leave," she whispers. "I'll be at the Tower watching you two."

"Thanks." Eriza knows I need to talk to him alone. She always understands.

After ordering, Mr. Koe sighs once more, but now he's staring at me. "I didn't mean to cry earlier, Miss Himitsu."

"Mr. Koe, it's okay."

"Don't call me, Mr. Koe. Call me Yoshiyuki."

"Okay, Yoshiyuki, how do you know my dreams? Is this just a coincidence?"

"Of course I know your dreams...I gave you them."

My eyes grow wide. "What do you mean by that? Are you teasing me?"

He grabs my hands. "Think really hard, Mei-Ling," he calmly says, "you have to remember."

"I don't understand, Yoshiyuki. Those were all just dreams I had."

"Mei-Ling." He stares deeply into my face. "My grandfather is the twin of your husband. Your husband was reincarnated into his grandson because of my grandfather's sin. I AM THAT GRANDSON."

"Is that really you, Hikaru?" I cough and breathe heavily. "How do I know it's you?"

"I always told you to look at the moon whenever I was away."

I sigh in disbelief. "But-"

"If you really don't believe me, close your eyes," he instructs, "and feel my hands."

Hikaru's hands...MY HIKARU'S hands. I had studied everything there was to know about him from these hands. His warmth, his touch...The memories are flooding back to me as fast as my tears are rushing out.

"Hikaru!" I know it's not proper to show affection in public, but I go and hug him with tears in my eyes.

We forget about our orders and rush over to his grandfather's home.

In the taxi, we piece the puzzle together...

"We met in the city and eloped. The war came, but you and I hid so that you and I could live together. My parents found us and made us live with them. They were really upset with me for marrying 'The enemy,' they would call him."

Hikaru continues, "The armed forces did not need me yet, so I got to stay with you. At your sixth month of pregnancy, someone shot me while I was driving."

I grab my stomach and resume crying. "The baby stopped moving when the car crashed. Our baby had died. I wouldn't accept that both of you were dead. I wouldn't believe it. Not even when the major told me face to face why you died..."

(Flashback in Mei-Ling's mind)

"Someone reported that he had a twin in the yakuza. The Japanese mafia thought he was Hikaru; so they shot him," the major sadly informs me.

They shot the wrong man. I cry and sob so loudly. "My baby! They shot the wrong man! Hikaru!"

"I don't know how I died, Yoshiyuki. I know I wanted to kill myself that night, but that can't be. If I was reincarnated, then I couldn't have."

"You walked home in the rain. Out of depression mixed with grief and fatigue, you fell to the muddy ground."

We stop in front of a house on a mountain.

"But why bring me here?"

Yoshiyuki grabs my hand. "All our souls can't rest because of this."

I enter a dimly lit room. A candle shines next to an old man on his bed.

"Koyasu-san, I brought her." Yoshiyuki ushers me to sit in the chair next to the bed.

"You've done well, Hikaru." The old man looks at me and weakly takes my hand. "I can tell you are Mei-Ling."

"Are you his twin?" My eyes (which are mixed with much grief and salt) give the question, "Why? Why did you bring such misery to us?"

"I am so sorry, Mei-Ling," he apologizes. "I know it may not mean anything, but I really am. You and Hikaru...I am very sorry. They shot him to get back at me for not paying a bet I made while gambling.

"Now, I've been punished to have my brother as my only heir. Everyday, he grows and looks like his old self. He was awakened after I told him your story when he turned eighteen seven years ago. And seven years ago, I told him to find you. He told me he would get a manga published to awaken you. I thought it was hopeless, but he's never let me down has he?"

"You've been holding on to ask forgiveness from us at the same time?" I hug him. "I forgive you. I had forgiven you a long time ago."

Yoshiyuki now takes Koyasu-san's hand. He smiles at him and nods.

"I knew you were always kind, Mei-Ling." Koyasu-san smiles in return and closes his eyes. "That's why I envied you, Hikaru. You always got the best out of life."

"You can rest now, [older] brother."

At the end of Koyasu-san's funeral service, Yoshiyuki and I walk away hand in hand.

"You know? When I became a teenager, grandfather would tell me that he would get me and my wife back together again. I used to think he was crazy."

"I used to think that whenever I got these weird dreams, I was crazy. I told my mother once about one dream when I was thirteen, but she wouldn't believe me. So, I thought being a reincarnation was just a fantasy." I squeeze his hand. "Remember when I used to say I wish I was born Japanese?"

"I knew you would someday," Yoshiyuki answers while glancing into the sky. "We can continue from where we left off, right?"

Six weeks later...

Kenji comes up to me after class ends. "Today's the end of 'Kagami'. I wonder how it will end. What do you think?"

I fix my belongings. "I know how it [ends] already."

"What? How?"

I look up to his curious face and smile. "Because you see...I'm Mei-Ling."

[The End.]
Final 1/2/99

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