March 27th. Saturday. Eight o’clock in the morning. Tsuwabuki athletics field. Twenty days since the initial throwing of the gauntlet, and here we were.
In front of me stood the three members of Team Yakishio. Yanami, standing in the middle for God knows what reason, flashed a cheeky grin. “All by yourself? What happened to the student council?”
“This is between me and her. Don’t need an audience. Yakishio, let’s make this a good—”
“Aww, did your girlfriend dump you?” Yanami interrupted. “Did she find out that your real name is Sneak-umizu, ya little sneak? This is our president, ladies and gentlemen. This is who’s leading the club into our second year of high school.”
She just kept going. The freak didn’t know how to shut up.
Sparing Yanami from the choice words I was about to give, Komari tugged her aside. “Y-Yanami. Shut up.”
“Wha— Komari-chan, but I’m still monologuing!”
“E-everyone take your positions. Yanami, y-you’re supposed to be the starter.”
“All right, all right already!”
Komari to the rescue. They grew up so fast.
I faced Yakishio again. She’d chosen her track uniform for today’s contest. The mist steaming off her body told me she was already warmed up and raring to go.
“I’m playing for keeps, Nukkun. Just so you know.”
“Just so you know, you’re gonna regret giving me that handicap.”
Yanami waved to us from the start line. We made our way over.
“Credit where it’s due,” Yakishio said. “Didn’t think you’d actually put that much effort into this.”
“A president looks after his club. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Oooh, someone’s confident.” She bumped her shoulder against me. “For what it’s worth, I did some thinkin’, and I realize all this is pretty stupid. But we’re here anyway, so I’m not going easy on you.” Her eyes darted away from me. A sudden change of disposition. “So, you spent the night somewhere else yesterday?”
“Huh?! Uh, why?”
She gave me a look. “The train you rode in on. You never come from that direction.”
She’d seen me on my way back from the president’s place. But what did I have to feel guilty over? Carrying Shikiya-san last night? Why? Just because I liked the way she felt against my back? Sue me.
“It’s not important,” I insisted. “Nothing happened.”
“Nothing happened, huh?” She bumped me again. Harder this time. Then she sped up. “I win this, you’re gonna spill all the beans. Every last one.”
More reasons not to lose. As if I didn’t have enough of those.
We came to the start line, where Yanami flashed her phone at us. “This app’s gonna tell you when you start. It’s gonna go ‘on your marks,’ and that’s when you get in position. Then it…wait, what’re you supposed to do on ‘get set’? When the heck do you actually start running?” Question marks abounded.
“Yana-chan,” Yakishio mercifully interjected, “‘on your mark’ means come up to the starting line. ‘Get set’ is when you get into position. Then the pistol goes off.”
“What she said.” Leave it to Yanami to act smug about knowledge that wasn’t hers. “Nukumizu-kun, you go at the first pistol. Then two and a half seconds later, the second one will go off, and that’s when Lemon-chan goes. Whoever crosses the finish line first is the winner.” Yanami pointed down the track where Komari waited with her phone camera at the ready. “Everyone got that? Then come on up.”
Yakishio had one of those starting blocks to kick off from. She was serious about this. “Good whenever.” She started shaking her hands and feet.
“You sure you don’t wanna cheat?” Yanami asked, staring at her phone screen. “Not like Nukumizu-kun’d notice if we fudge things a little.”
“He will if you talk about it right in front of him,” I quipped. But then it hit me. This was a trap. She was trying to get into my head. Say and do stupid things so I’d lose focus. Her specialty.
Take that dried fish she’d just pulled out of her pocket, for example. Part of the conspiracy to make me lose.
“What?” she mumbled. “You want some?”
Trap. It was all a trap. Focus. I shook my head and started lightly stretching. “I’m ready to—”
“On your marks,” a woman suddenly stated in perfect English.
“Oops,” Yanami said. “Pushed a button. Y’all get ready!”
Yakishio and I looked at each other before scrambling into position.
“Get set,” the distressingly fluent woman continued.
I lowered my hips and breathed in.
The pistol went off.
I didn’t think. I just bolted. A clean start. My tension was gone, and I could feel myself slipping through air quicker than normal. I felt good. Better than I’d ever felt doing this run before. I could do this.
But then the second pistol came.
There were ten meters at least between the two of us. I wouldn’t be able to feel her gaining on me for a while, but I could definitely feel something bearing down on me from behind. I ignored it and ran, just like I’d practiced for so long.
Fifty meters. I could feel it now. Not just “something.” Her. She was gaining—and gaining fast. That speed couldn’t be human. Her footsteps, quick and measured, grew closer with every strike against the ground. I broke into a sweat, and not just from fatigue. How far ahead was I? Could I even keep this pace?
Twenty meters left. The footfalls were upon me now. I could hear her breathing.
Only in the last five. Only in the last five, the president had told me.
We crossed the ten-meter mark. I held my breath, mustered every ounce of strength I had left, and sent it all to my legs. I gritted my teeth as every muscle screamed at my brain that I was definitely doing something wrong. I told them to keep going anyway.
Yakishio came into my periphery. It was neck and neck. The finish line was so close, but she was so fast.
I flew past it just as everything went white, Yakishio right there with me. The wind breaking around her engulfed me a second later.
✦ ✦ ✦
My legs gave out and I collapsed. Who had won? I looked around, searching for confirmation, my vision spotty. Yakishio, shoulders heaving as she caught her breath, peered down at Komari’s phone.
“Whew, now that’s a photo finish. Slow it down, Komari-chan. Replay it.” Yakishio ruffled her hair and took a gulp of air from a can of oxygen.
“Who… Who…wuh…?” I couldn’t even speak right. I tried to stand, and my legs said no.
Yakishio took one look at me and freaked. “Dude, you look sick! Here, oxygen!”
She tossed the can to me. It went right past my hand and into my face. I whited out.