"I can fly, y'know!" she always told me, ever since we were in kindergarten together.
I didn't believe her. Only people with super powers could fly, not normal little Japanese-Americans whose only notable feature was blue eyes. But, Akemi was convinced, and for a time, some people believed her. We were little kids, after all, and she was pretty good at gymnastics.
I was always skeptical, but as her friend, I humored her. Other than the flight thing, she was an incredibly kind person, always willing to help out her friends, always there to provide a hug and a few kind words when people were feeling down.
She always had her head in the clouds, though. Only figuratively, despite her claims otherwise. Incredibly optimistic, to the point she alienated our other friends because she never stopped being a good person no matter how people treated her, no matter who it was.
How could someone get into trouble for being nice? It was unfortunately very easy, especially after we entered middle school. Word of mouth and rumors can be more deadly than bullets, and the rumors came like a machine gun when Akemi made friends with a lot of other girls' boyfriends. She was, or is rather, attractive, with a good personality to match. It was only natural she attracted a lot of male attention.
But as they say, boys only want 'one thing'. And she was too naive to even consider this.
"C'mon, I'm on the football team! We should go out!" she was asked once.
"Aren't you seeing Nicki? We could go as friends of course but..." she would respond.
"To hell with Nicki, I want you, you're better than she is," he would tell her. No one ever said Middle School kids were smart.
"Um...I don't...I...can't," she would reply, and walk off. The dumb jock would then tell his friends how he got a date with her, even if he didn't. Even the implication is enough to convince Nicki to try to trash Akemi's reputation, and Akemi's claims of flight just added fuel to the fire.
She was labeled crazy, and an 'boyfriend stealer', and ignored by everyone. Except me.
Every day I would see the pain in her otherwise optimistic eyes. Their glow was diminishing, and by the end of eighth grade...
She broke down and cried on the way home.
"Why? Why does everyone hate me, Jack?! What did I do?!" she wailed that day, "I just wanted to make friends, I didn't...didn't want...to make people mad."
I told her I didn't know. How could I know? I was just as young as she was, but I knew one thing: my oldest and dearest friend deserved much more than she was being given. She deserved to be happy, to smile again, and let her clear blue eyes shine like they did when she was a kid.
I realized something then, as I watched her take the goofy little diploma we receive for 'graduating' from eighth grade, that I had -have- feelings for her, more than friendship. It was this feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to be with her, to hold her close. I...I...
I was in love. I still am, to this day. Moreover, I wanted to help her fly.
The next day, after mulling it over all night, I told Akemi how I felt. Those clear blue eyes of hers clashed with the bright tomato-red color her face turned when I told her.
"Jack...I...um...I...do...to, I...think," she said, still flushed, "Together...let's...um..."
After that, we began dating. During our freshman year, I received 'warnings' from people I never met that she was a ****, that would hump anything that moved. Sometimes, they were a lot more colorful with their language, so I made their faces a bit more colorful, most blue and purple, with some red for flavor. Sometimes they did it to me, too. I still have a tiny scar on my knuckle from a particularly nasty encounter.
"Jack...please don't fight. We should make friends," she would tell me, her eyes still filled with warmth, with just a hint of sadness.
I preferred the happy look to the sad look, so the next time I just ignored the detractors. They didn't know her, after all. They whispered that she was crazy, convinced she could fly.
Soon after my last fight, I saw an ad for hang gliding lessons on the school bulletin board. By this time, we were both sixteen, so I decided it might be worth a shot, to give her the opportunity to fly on her own. Well, glide actually, but...
She was happy to be soaring through the air, and I was terrified. For her, however, it was worth it. Our first 'flight' went incredibly well for a first flight, we even got to see a Cape, who flew alongside our glider, clearly showing off. But her words afterwards surprised me.
"That was almost as good as my first flight!" she exclaimed.
I finally decided to confront her. Did she really believe she could fly? Why? When? She gave me her sad, hurt look again.
"I thought you believed me..." she almost sobbed.
I apologized profusely, but told her that we were older now, and that...I had never seen her fly before, so I was sketpical. Finally, after all these years, she told me the whole story.
When she was four years old, before we had ever met, she was playing in her room. It was a hot summer day, so her mother had left the window open. I knew from visiting her house, that this window wasn't very big, but large enough for a precocious four year old to crawl through. Which Akemi did. Onto the roof.
She slipped, as toddlers are wont to do, and fell down along the roof. She pulled up her pantleg as she told me this to show me the scar on her knee from this event, to prove it happened.
When she finally slid off the roof, in her panic...she flew, hovered really, and slowly looped down to the ground. For years afterward, she kept trying to fly by jumping off things, even taking gymnastics so she wouldn't end up with the broken limbs she had from falling. She couldn't replicate the incident though, no matter how hard she concentrated.
I still didn't completely believe her story, but it was enough to lend some credence to her claims for me. We continued hang gliding, allowing it to become the 'thing' we did together. Akemi won awards, and enough cash prizes to pay for college.
And slowly but surely, the sparkle of happiness began returning to her eyes. She couldn't fly, but she could do the next best thing available to her, and she seemed content, maybe even happy. Then it happened.
During a tandem flight, a bird divebombed us, tearing our glider and causing us to plummet. I was certain I was going to die. And what a way to die, killed by a freakin' BIRD!
Then we stopped falling suddenly, and someone familiar grabbed my hand.
"Hold on tight, Jack! Don't let go!" It was Akemi. She was flying, or hovering at least. It was enough to finally convince me.
"I told you I could fly!" she laughed, the look of absolute happiness, along with relief, filled her face. Her eyes were sparkling...and I mean REALLY sparkling! They weren't alone either. Her entire body was covered by a glowing blue energy, a warm, kind energy.
"Her name...is Kan'u," she told me. I had no idea what she meant. What was a Kan'u? Or who? We were the only two here. I told her as such, and she showed me a loving grin, and pointed to her chest with her free hand.
"The Kheldian...her name is Kan'u. I'm a Peacebringer, Jack."
That day, everything changed...
We graduated not long after, but instead of college, the newly awakened Peacebringer Akemi decided to head for the Mecca of all heroes: Paragon City.
I followed, renting an apartment for the both of us, and landing a job while attendng college. For my future, for her future.
And Akemi? She set out to be the best hero possible. Sometimes, I sit at home alone, worrying about her, wondering if tonight she'd come home, or if I'd get the dreaded Call.
She always comes home, always. Even torn, beaten, and bruised, she comes home every night before ten. She fights evil, injustice, not just for her own satisfaction of flying through the skies like she always dreamed, but for the future little fliers out there, who might some day take to the heavens.
For the future, for our future, for our childrens' future.
