We stayed like that for a moment, both admiring the orb held in my hand, until a loud clang rang out from the iron gate at the pool’s entrance. I shoved the orb back into Nazuna’s hand and hurriedly made my way back to the other side of the pool.
On the way, I stole one more glance at Nazuna. She was looking intently at the orb in her hand.
Yusuke returned to the pool with a strangely satisfied expression. He announced happily, “Nothing came out!”
“Um… Okay?”
Then, what are you looking so smug about? I wanted to prod, but I hadn’t yet recovered from my encounter with Nazuna.
“Why, oh why, could I be here?” Her words crossed through my mind again.
I was obviously agitated, but Yusuke seemed to pay no mind. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
“More importantly, I just had a great idea.”
“What’s that?”
“Wanna race? Two laps of the pool. Let’s place a bet on it.”
“Sounds great!”
What was so “great” about the idea and what it was “more important” than, I had no idea. I was ready to jump on any suggestion, if it meant keeping the conversation away from Nazuna. I pulled my goggles down over my eyes and climbed up on one of the starting blocks.
“All right. If I win…you gotta buy me the newest issue of One Piece,” I said to Yusuke.
“Hah! Sounds good!”
“What about you?”
“If I win…I’m gonna ask out Nazuna.”
“Huh?!”
No sooner was the sound out of my mouth than Yusuke had taken a head start, diving into the pool.
I panicked and shouted out, “Hey! What gives, man?! No fair!”
Yusuke continued to swim for about fifteen feet, then stopped and lifted his head out of the water. “Can’t take a joke? I know you want Nazuna for yourself.”
I froze. My heart gave one big thump! Had Yusuke even gone to the bathroom at all? Maybe he’d been standing there the whole time, watching everything that happened between Nazuna and me.
“What? What are you talking about?” I protested.
“You and Nazuna. You were talking just now, weren’t you?”
Yusuke climbed back up onto his starting block. I could feel the intensity of his glare despite his goggles. His eyes dug into me.
“No. I didn’t say anything to her…”
“You like her, too, don’t you?”
“Huh? Where’d you get that from?”
“…”
“…”
We stood locked in a brief, icy silence until a strangely sunny voice broke through.
“You guys racing?”
The pitter-patter of Nazuna’s feet echoed out as she jogged toward us.
Unconcerned by our lack of response, she began climbing onto a starting block beside us and said, “I’m in.”
“What? Um, sorry, this is between Yusuke and me. Right?”
“Uh, yeah. Just us.”
She stood atop the block now, acting as if she hadn’t heard us. “What’s the bet?”
“Um, well…”
One Piece aside, we sure weren’t in any hurry to tell her about Yusuke’s bet. But what had shocked me the most was the sweeping change in Nazuna’s expression and voice. It was like she was a completely different person from the one I’d been talking to just moments before.
“Well, if I win, you have to do whatever I say.”
“What kind of bet is that?!”
“Come on! Whatever I say, okay?”
“…Okay… I guess.”
“…All right.”
Yusuke and I were still unconvinced. “Whatever I say?” There were way too many possibilities. But it was clear Nazuna wasn’t going to budge. We gave in to her frivolous terms.
“All right. Ready…!”
Nazuna leaned forward on her block. She was clearly an experienced swimmer.
What was going on? How had we put ourselves in this situation? Yusuke and I exchanged dumbfounded looks, but when Nazuna called out “Set…!” we each scrambled into position.
“Go!”
The three of us plunged into the water.
Based on the arc of our dives, Nazuna was already in the lead. Under the surface, I could see her practiced form. She was pulling farther and farther ahead. Yusuke and I, on the other hand, were neck and neck. I pulled myself through the water with all my might.
Nazuna had a good fifteen-foot lead on us when she spun in the water and kicked against the far wall. It was a flawless turn. She sailed back toward us through a wall of bubbles. Her braids swayed behind her.
As Nazuna and I passed each other, our eyes met.
It was the third time that day: first in the classroom, then poolside, and now here. Each time, the eyes—and the things they made me feel—had been completely different. This time, too, I felt her eyes trying to tell me something. I didn’t know what it was, and I couldn’t explain how I knew they were. I just did.
At that moment, it occurred to me why I could see her eyes so clearly.
Huh? She swims without goggles…?
Maybe it happened because I’d let my mind wander from the race, but when I went in for the turn, my body wasn’t ready. My foot was at a weird angle, and by the time I realized what was about to happen, it was too late.
Slam!
“Ow!”
Right at the turn, my foot had shot out of the water and come smashing down against the lip of the pool. I felt pain surge through my ankle. While I flailed about in the water, I saw the shape of Nazuna—and Yusuke, too—recede into the distance.
Amid the bubbles bursting before my eyes, I caught sight of something else. The orb that Nazuna had been staring at so intently was sinking through the water, headed to the bottom of the pool. Nazuna must have left it at the edge of the pool, and the shock from my ankle had caused it to roll in.
I instinctively reached out to it. The orb stopped its descent.
“?”
It hadn’t just stopped sinking. It was now slowly spinning in the water and wavering slightly. It began to emit a faint ray of light that stretched outward like the beam from a lighthouse and cast a spotlight along the walls of the pool.
The world seemed to be moving in slow motion. The orb resumed its descent ever so gradually, as if serenely allowing itself to sink.
“???”
What on earth was happening…? Was it some sort of illusion caused by the sunlight reflecting off the orb in the water?
My hand continued to reach out, and finally, I grasped the strange object. The light it had been emitting immediately vanished.
At the same moment, I realized just how long I’d been holding my breath. I struggled up to the surface for air. Nazuna and Yusuke had both finished swimming. I saw them at the other end of the pool talking about something.
He wasn’t really asking her out, was he?
With the orb still in hand, I resumed my crawl to the other end of the pool. I managed to make it back to the starting side and brought my head out of the water. Nazuna was standing at the side of the pool and staring at me with water still streaming down her face. I looked around, wondering where Yusuke was, and found him slowly sinking under the surface. Bunches of air bubbles burbled up from the empty expression on his face.
“Hey!”
I splashed over to try to bring Yusuke back to the surface. As I flailed my arms, I realized that the orb was still in my hand. Nazuna must have noticed it, too, and her hand shot out in my direction.
“Give it back.”
“Huh?”
For a second, I didn’t understand what she meant.
She repeated herself more forcefully. “That. It’s mine.”
Her insistence caught me off guard. Of course I knew the orb was hers. She’d been showing it to me just a few minutes ago. Was it that important to her?
The whole exchange struck me as unusual, but I plopped the orb down into her outstretched hand. The orb safely recovered, Nazuna began walking toward the pool’s exit, without so much as a glance back.
I watched her departing figure from the water.
First, there was the awkward comedy sketch, and after that came the perplexing fifty-meter race in the pool. What on earth was Nazuna trying to accomplish?