"Excuse me, are you Akiko?" The young woman turned towards an elderly woman who looked quite out of place in this studio. It was the question that caught her attention though. Only one person ever called her that.
"How do you know that name?" The older woman smiled sadly.
"Five years ago, a young man came to the beach, plugged his guitar in to the beach front stage, and played in front of the storm at the edge of the ocean." Akiko got to her feet. The man she loved since he was a boy was alive?
"Please, I haven't seen him in years! Do you know where he is?" The old lady handed her a bag. Her eyes looked a bit haunted, and sad.
"I recorded this five years ago, not long after he started to play. Its quite long." She also handed her an envelope. "Last week, before he walked into the ocean with his guitar over his shoulder, he wrote this. He said you would know when to sing the words." Akiko closed her eyes, and took the envelope.
She had hoped he was still alive these last five years, but now that hope was dashed. He had been alive, but had decided to end it.
"He hadn't expected to survive the storm, child. Don't blame yourself. Listen to the music. You'll understand." After Akiko watched the old lady walk out of the studio, she rushed into her personal sound booth. That drew attention as she hadn't been in the mood to sing for the last few years, but she still maintained a good relationship with the studio.
Akiko put the tape in the drive. The old lady had used a reel to reel recorder, and though that technology was outdated, it provided a clear sound to amplify.
As soon as the first notes of his guitar came out of the speakers, she began to cry. She knew it was him as soon as she heard the music.
"Record this on video." The manager said under his breath.
"But sir..."
"Do it! Can't you feel it in the air? That music....like god's fingers made those sounds!"
Akiko cried and cried. The music was a fight against the storm in his heart, and against the inevitable. He fought with notes and defiance. He rose and fell, rose again, only to be knocked down, all with the waves and lightning adding their own notes to his song.
Then it happened. Over an hour into the piece, the silence fell, and slow quiet notes began to be played in front of the storm, with the storm already dealing its damage. She knew this was his place, so she picked up the sheets he had written, and having already read them, she could feel the notes in her heart.
He described a love so young, it was bound to fail, but had never grown cold. If she hadn't moved away, things would have been different. She knew this was her part of the story, and it was like an anchor that tore at her soul.
Then it changed. Another woman entered the scene, selfish and self centered, concerned only with her whims, and her music.
She broke her way into his life, pulled and yanked him from place to place, pushed him to experience things he didn't want, but came to love. She also opened him up to the guitar. The guitar Akiko had desperately wanted him to learn, just so he could join her on the stage. That was when he realized he loved her, but this woman was selfish.
She left the group she founded, and pursued her own career. His focus now gone, the reason to play was also gone, but he didn't want to lose his love, for her, or for the guitar.
And so he fought the storm inside himself, but knew the storm would win. He would die with his beloved guitar in his hands, and play how he felt as the waves swallowed him alive. He would die, but he would die on his feet, and fully alive.
As the last notes died away, and she fell silent, a gentle hand laid on her shoulder. She turned and looked up. It was her best friend, tears also falling from her cheeks.
"Who was he?" She asked quietly. Akiko smiled sadly. She had no real answer other then the one that formed in her mind as she remembered those powerful, defiant, and eventually melancholy empty notes.
"A god of the storm."
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