Cutscene: To Walk Upon Clouds
It felt very much as if she were floating, Masumi finally decided, reflecting upon the glowing warmth which had never left her. Even as they had bid farewell and gone their seperate ways, and she had begun to walk back through town to the KNOWS dorms, it had remained.
And the feeling was truly so...amazing. Wonderful. Like nothing she had ever experienced before. That feeling of letting go, of relinquishing that constant control over herself and her surroundings to people she trusted completely. Of for once being entirely free of that burning, almost overwhelming drive and need at all times to know, to understand, to manipulate, to control. She didn't even quite realize until now how...emotionally taxing that was. And now that she had been freed from it, even for a little while, it was as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
She felt so free, so completely unburdened from the cares and the ties of the world. Like she was floating in a realm of possibilities unbound. She still did not understand fully the dynamics of what had happened at the river gazebo, but she found that she did not want to. That lack of understanding, that sense of being swept along by something she could not control, but could trust without question -- it was so wonderful. So liberating. To be loved. To be accepted. To finally be able to trust.
The silver-haired teen barely noticed any others passing by as she made her way through the too-familiar streets. She registered their presence just enough to smoothly navigate around them without really breaking her soft and almost leisurely pace, mind and heart and soul far too full to give them anymore notice than that. Some of them probably recognized her -- certainly, Inaba was a terribly small town, and not only had she lived here all her life, but her long silver hair was extremely distinctive. Memorable. Yes. Some of them probably recognized her.
This thought played only briefly into the realm of her conscious thought, before she promptly made the decision that she did not care any longer. Let them talk. Let them gossip. She could feel everything falling so perfectly into place before her, several choices which she had been struggling with for weeks -- or in some cases much, much longer, even if she hadn't quite realized it at the time -- finally gaining a distinct, crystalline clarity. The fog was lifted, and a brilliant, guiding star that could be hidden by neither darkness nor clouds led her way forward.
Masumi could feel a sense of subtle energy building with the renewal of that vision, her agile mind already beginning to construct comprehensive plans for how she would approach each of the issues that were set before her. She had found the answers to her questions, and now it was merely a relatively simplistic matter of systematically overcoming each of the obstacles set before her in turn. All that was required was to...
No. No. There would be time to lay plans and begin to act upon them tomorrow. Right now, she truly had no desire to lose the wonderful feelings of the day, which she could already feel slipping through her fingers in reaction to that shift of mindset. She inhaled slowly as she continued to walk, immune to a fresh set of stares from a couple of passing people that recognized her from school, and as she exhaled, slowly released the sudden flood of thoughts and plans and ideas. Tomorrow. Right now...
Right now, she was floating.
And it was wonderful.
