“Nazuna!!”
There was someone at the fork in the road, half running toward us.
Is that…? It looks like Nazuna’s mom!
She was still too far away for me to see her expression, but the sound of her voice told me she was panicked.
Whump!
I was awoken from my daze by a dull impact. Nazuna had forced the suitcase into my arms and taken off running down the street.
“Nazuna! Get back here!!”
The loud click-click of the woman’s sandals rushed by, quickly closing the fifty-foot gap to the clacking of her daughter’s traditional footwear. She grabbed the girl by the collar.
“Nazuna! What were you thinking?!!”
Nazuna was struggling with all her might, desperate to break her mother’s hold.
“Stop it! Let me go!! Stop it!!”
Her mother’s grip held firm.
“Honestly, get ahold of yourself! Why are you always so difficult?!”
“Shut up! Let me go! Get your hands off me!!”
My body was frozen in place. The only time I’d ever seen two women fight before was on TV. Nazuna was hardly one to flail around like that in the first place, and though I’d only met her mother a few times before, she’d never struck me as the type prone to fits of hysteria.
Finally, Nazuna seemed to have either drained all her strength or accepted her fate. Her mother began pulling her along, hand still firmly clenched around the girl’s collar. When they passed in front of me, Nazuna pleaded to me.
“Norimichi! Help me!!”
“!!”
I jolted at Nazuna’s imploring use of my first name—and again at the subsequent glare I received from her mother. Every muscle in my body stiffened.
“Give me the suitcase,” Nazuna’s mother said, reaching for it.
The suitcase was still at my chest, bundled between my arms. My grip tightened.
“Give it to me!”
The woman’s hand jumped the remaining distance to the suitcase’s bandanna-wrapped handle. I twisted away from her, but I was no match for the grown woman’s strength. The bag was wrested out of my arms.
The scuffle had caused the bag’s clasps to pop open. As the suitcase passed from my hands to the woman’s, it burst open, sending its contents flying outward.
I’d lost my balance and was also tumbling to the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flurry of clothes, a purse, a small stuffed animal, and numerous other items disperse through the air in slow motion.
“No! I won’t go! I don’t want to go!!”
Nazuna’s sobs filled the air as her mother dragged her away.
I had yet to recover from everything that had happened. The most I could do was to prop myself up onto my knees and watch as Nazuna and her mother receded toward the fork in the road.
Just as they left my field of vision, a familiar voice came from behind.
“Whoa! What happened?!”
I turned. Junichi and the others were running toward me. They appeared to have witnessed the whole scene and were now chattering excitedly.
“That was Nazuna, right? Holy crap! I can’t believe she was screaming like that!”
“Her mom, too! What did she do?!”
“And what are you doing here, Norimichi?”
I still sat propped up on my knees, unable to speak. Rather than offering to help me up, Junichi grabbed at the collar of Minoru’s shirt and, between fits of laughter, began reenacting the scene that had just unfolded.
“‘Ugh, you’re so difficult!’”
“‘Stop it! Let me go!!’”
“Oh man. Too funny!”
Yusuke stood apart from Junichi and Minoru’s improvised performance. He stared intently in the direction of the fork in the road.
I suddenly felt myself boiling over with rage. I didn’t know why I was angry with Yusuke, but I lifted myself up and stormed toward him.
“Quit staring!”
I punched Yusuke in the face as hard as I could. As he staggered backward, I rammed into him, sending him to the ground. I threw myself on top and continued to pummel his face.
I didn’t know why, but for some reason, I couldn’t forgive Yusuke for seeing Nazuna like that.
When I raised my right fist for the fourth punch, Junichi grabbed hold of my arm.
“Stop it!!”
“What are you doing?!!”
Kazuhiro pried me off Yusuke. I pulled and tugged against them with every ounce of strength I could muster.
“Let me go!”
Yusuke still lay on the ground with his arms covering his face, unmoving.
The two of us had fought any number of times, but until now, the fights had always had some element of playfulness. I’d never outright punched anyone in the face before.
I was filled with the adrenaline of my assault, as well as a nagging anxiety about what would come next. I didn’t know what to do. I began walking away from the fork.
“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”
I heard Junichi call out after me but ignored him.
Nazuna’s belongings were strewn out before me: T-shirts, a dress, socks, camisoles, a sweater… It seemed she’d been serious about running away from home…
The stuffed animal lay streaked with dirt. Next to it, something glowed faintly.
What’s that…?
It was the strange orb Nazuna had shown me. I picked it up. It seemed to grow slightly warmer, and it began to emit faint traces of light in red, green, and yellow.
“Do you know why I thought you’d win?”
Nazuna’s words floated back to me.
If… Back there… If only I’d…
I lifted the orb higher and clenched my fingers around it more firmly. As if in response, the orb’s light grew brighter.
If only I’d swum faster… If only I’d won against Yusuke… How would things have turned out then…?
“Hey! You gonna explain yourself?!”
“Norimichi! Say something!!”
Junichi, Minoru, and Kazuhiro were moving in on me. I faced them, drew my arm back, and shouted, “If only I’d—!!!”