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Prologue

After graduating from University of Tokyo I moved to the eastern side of Japan at Fukushima Prefecture to teach the kids and parents English. The kids have picked it up quicker than the adults, but it's good to see them trying to communicate with me.

On the island they speak Japanese, and to communicate with them I normally type words into the google translation app, so I can speak to them since growing up I've only been speaking English and so are my friends from Downtown Tokyo.

Right now I am sitting on the beach with the six to eight year olds.

"Ball," Kazumi says.

Hachiya throws the ball to her and the ball goes around the kids like a hot potato.

All of a sudden the water from the beach begins to recide and I hear an unusual roar that sounds like a train coming from the ocean.

"Run!" I yelled. "We need to get to a higher ground."

Five of the kids start to run and I see Hana staring at the sea.

"Leave her." Makiko yells, as she runs with her group of kids.

I'm not going to leave an innocent child to die.

I pulled her back and then I saw the tsunami wave coming towards us.

Birds are flying away and making a lot of noise.

Hana and I didn't make it too far when we're swept away by the sea.

I saw Hana get dunked under the water. I dive into the water and my hands grab onto her shirt. I pulled Hana up and she wraps her arms around me.

"Hana, I need you to grab onto the tree when we go pass it."

"Alright, Miss Inoue."

A fallen tree is in front of us and I swim over to it.

Hana climbs onto the tree, while I stay in the water holding onto the trunk.

The water keeps pushing against us and I start to wonder when we'll be free of the water.

I feel something scrap against my leg and it hurts really bad. I started to curse.

I'm just glad that the kid didn't understand what I'm saying.

The water starts to calm down, but I don't believe that that's all we're getting. I look around the water and see another wave heading our way, from the opposite direction.

"Hana, you need to dive under the water. It's going to feel like you are in a washing machine. When the water settles you'll know when to come up."

"I'm scared, Miss Inoue."

"Don't be. I'm just here beside you, I won't let anything happen to you. Hold on tight."

"Okay."

I count to three and we dived under the water.

She holds my hand and I tried not to let it go.

The water throws me all over the place and my hand slips from Hana's.

Please, let us survive this.

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