73
For the first time in a long while he felt like a giant. Not because he had grown, but because everything else seemed so much smaller from that height. Everything else felt different. The busy concert of cars, trains and sirens of Tokyo was not as annoying as before. It was faded in, blended in with the sound of the wind that furiously swept the dust on the top of the skyscrapers. He was standing on the rooftop of a 72 floors building. The rooftop counted as the seventy-third one. “73”, he thought to himself for a second…”That is the number of the house I grew up in, that’s my house number. Maybe there was a meaning to me being here after all.”
It was a clear night. Most of the clouds had disappeared and the stars were clearly visible in the sky, which was quite unusual for Tokyo. He could not see the moon though. Or maybe he just did not pay enough attention to what was above him, distracted by what was laying below. The wind was gently blowing off the ash from his hair while cooling off his burnt skin. But it still was not enough for him. There was only one way to cool it off faster and he knew very well what that way was.
He took a deep breath in, two steps to the side and jumped…and then he changed his mind.