YURA continued to have the same dream every night.
It was like someone was shuffling two cards, but no matter which she drew, both led to the dream.
Both the tumultuous battlefield and the all-consuming darkness felt like three-dimensional projections. Little by little, they became more vivid and less dreamlike.
She tried as hard as she could to focus, like she was using a high-powered lens inspecting every little detail.
Even when she was merely napping, the angry voice of her teacher still seemed so far away.
At the worst of times, even during those bursts of light sleep, Yura still felt like she stood on the edge of a dream.
“Seriously, are you okay?” Tomoko asked, concerned. All Yura could do in response was offer a wan smile while blinking her bleary eyes.
It was lunch time, yet Yura left her chopsticks in place, seemingly on the verge of dozing off again. Tomoko was past shock and more fearful at this point.
“You really aren’t sleeping at night, huh? Was the horror movie you watched really that bad?”
Yura had been to Tomoko’s shop numerous times since that day, but hadn’t seen anything else unusual.
The trio of girls got their kicks in teasing the increasingly sluggish Yura too.
Since they had gym on Friday afternoon, Yura and Tomoko hurried to the changing rooms before everyone else after lunch. They got changed first and hurried back to the classroom.
At their school, every class had a public morals representative who locked up the classroom, secured valuables, and keys to the clubrooms in the event a club officer was in the class. The public morals representative was always hated, so naturally, the duty was forced onto Yura.
“Hurry up, Yura,” Tomoko urged once they finished chasing out the stragglers.
There was a simple metal hook next to the blackboard for securing valuables when locking up the classroom.
As they rushed off to gym after securing the room, Yura became dizzy.
“Yura?”
After taking three deep breaths, the dizziness subsided. Her vision flashed green for a second, then things returned to normal.
Tomoko, who had turned back in a panic, was peering into Yura’s eyes, worried.
“Look, why don’t you just rest for today? You’ve been looking pale all day…”
Yura shook her head and forced a smile.
With her lack of athleticism, Yura was just barely passing gym class. She couldn’t afford to sit it out.
It was just lack of sleep, she was sure. Even the pain in the back of her eyes and her constant stomachache had to be because of that.
The bell tolling the end of lunch rang out. The pair exchanged glances and dashed off.
✦ ✦ ✦
THE longer gym class went on, the worse Yura felt. After they had to run five laps at the start, they then had to pair off for stretches.
Turning pale, Yura managed to keep going, but the second she stood up, she was seized with such intense nausea, she couldn’t move. She held her breath, but it was no use. Unable to hold it much longer, she leapt up and dashed outside. She charged past the teacher, who turned to watch her, and bound for the bathrooms in the back of the gym.
There were rectangular storeroom-like buildings with thin walls along the sides of the gym.
Underneath the galvanized iron that served as the single corrugated sheet-like roof, there was a long building that looked like a row house, split into several different clubrooms, one for each sports team.
Yura darted into the very first concrete room, then leaned over a bucket. Perhaps because she had barely eaten since morning, she was unable to throw anything up and alleviate her nausea. She grew dizzy and stumbled back outside.
Her back was slick with a cold sweat, making the wind outside feel lukewarm. She covered her mouth with her clammy hand and leaned against the wall to steady her chills.
She heard Tomoko calling for her in the distance and looked up.
I have to hurry. She’s looking for me.
Since classes had already started, this area facing the schoolyard was very quiet. Beyond the green fence at the edge of the grounds, a car in the jam-packed parking lot tried to pull out of its tight parking spot. It would move forward, then back. Forward, then back. It was changing directions trying to pull out without hitting another car.
As Yura watched its blinking brake lights disappear in between the cars, she straightened her back.
She heard Tomoko’s voice again. It was closer than before.
“Yura— Hey, where are you?”
I’m here. I’m sorry.
When Yura went to say those words, a metallic sound caught her ears, and she held her breath.
The first thing that she noticed was a red plate that’d fallen to the ground.
All of the sports teams had a red plastic plate attached to their clubroom keys. As she had to collect those keys at least once a day, she recognized them right away.
She looked up.
Nozomi Hashimoto and Miki Osakabe stood there in shock.
The pair were still in their uniforms and stood there with fabric bags swaying from their arms.
They also had three other keys with matching red plates in their hands.
Yura’s eyes grew wide. She had inadvertently memorized how many keys there were, having to collect them each day.
Regulation tennis. Basketball. Softball. And track, the club Nozomi Hashimoto was vice-captain of.
“There you are! What are you doing here?!”
Tomoko came over to confirm that it was, in fact, Yura. At that moment, the others exchanged startled glances, then turned away. They ran inside.
Yura turned back to Tomoko.
“T-Tomo-chan…”
“A-Are you okay? You’re pale as a sheet. I told you, you should’ve rested today!”
She rubbed Yura’s back as Yura looked down.
Looking back one last time, Yura saw the other two girls were gone.
“What? Was someone else here?”
As Tomoko looked around suspiciously, Yura grabbed her arm and shut her eyes.
For reasons she couldn’t understand, it seemed like she’d witnessed something awful, and her knees began to tremble.
The bell rang, signaling the end of class. She bit her lip, trying to quiet the beating of her heart.