Chapter 7
“Look, we’re here,” Keita shouts. I look down at the airport. Everything’s so tiny.
“Let’s land over there,” Io says, pointing to a group of trees. Our group descends into the trees. As I’m landing, my jacket gets caught on a branch and I end up falling the rest of the way.
I land with a thump, “Ack! Ow,” I say, spitting out leaves and pulling twigs out of my hair. Keita lands next to me.
“Karma,” he says, smirking.
“Shut up you idiot,” I retort, “Next time, get me a lighter hoody.” I pull my hood over my head and start walking.
“C’mon, we need to get to our flight,” I instruct. Keita takes the lead and we head on into the airport. There is a woman in a blue uniform standing by a bunch of people with luggage.
“Last call for people who are boarding flight 46 to America,” she says.
“That’s us, c’mon,” we follow Keita towards the woman with the uniform.
“We’re here for flight 46,” I explain to the woman.
“Ok, let me see your tickets and we’ll be boarding shortly,” she says. I hand the woman our tickets and we go to the back of the line. The woman calls for passengers again and when nobody comes up to the line, she leads the line of people toward the plane entrance.
“Y’know, I’ve never ridden in a plane before,” I say to Daichi.
“It’s alright, sit next to me and tell you what to do when we lift off, the altitude will make your ears pop,” he says.
“Why didn’t that happen when we were flying?” I ask
“Because we ascended too fast for the altitude to affect us,” Daichi explains, “Planes ascend slower.” The room suddenly darkens and realize we’ve entered a box shaped tunnel. We turn a corner and all I see are seats.
“We’re on the plane,” Daichi says. I take a seat in the middle by a window. Daichi sits next to me. Keita and Io pick seats two rows behind us. I can hear everyone’s hushed muttering. I suddenly hear feedback from a microphone and I jump when I hear a loud voice of a man. Everyone goes silent.
“This Captain Itami speaking, we are now taking off please stay seated, our flight attendants will come to if you need anything, thank you and have a nice flight,” I hear a click and the plane is, again, humming with the sounds of everyone muttering to each other.
The plane starts moving and I tense up. I feel a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s ok , just do what I do,” Daichi reassures me. He then puts his fingers in his ears and starts to wiggle them vigorously. I do the same and I look out the window. The ground is way below us.
“Ok, you can stop now,” Daichi says. I take my fingers out of my ears. It felt weird since they’re bigger now. I decide to take my hood off and I pull my tail out of jacket.
“Warn me if anyone is about to pass by,” I demand.
“Gotcha,” Daichi says.
“Hey, watch this,” Daichi turns to me. I swivel one ear to the left and the other to the right. Then I flatten my ears and finally, I tip one ear to the side.
“Ha-ha, that’s really cute, especially that last one,” Daichi says, smiling.
“You really think so?” I question. Daichi obviously didn’t realize I was going to answer back.
“U-uh yeah, I mean they are cat ears, of course it’s going to be cute,” Daichi explains. I smile at him. What an idiot, I think. Then take out my iPod.
“Do you like Hatsune Miku?” I ask Daichi.
“Uh, yeah, I do actually,” He takes the left earphone and I put “World is Mine” on.
After a while, I’m starting to feel drowsy.
“Kagami?” I hear Daichi call my name,” Here, lie on my lap.” Daichi brings my head to the edge of his knee and I rest it there. I close my eyes and I fall into a deep sleep.