“Keep a close eye on Satsuki,” Yukari warned her. “She can be vicious.”
Matsuri nodded emphatically.
“I did a lot of training for track, and Matsuri grew up here in the jungle, so we both made it through, but it wasn’t easy.”
“How so?” Akane asked.
“Oh, I must have lost consciousness five or six times total.”
Akane was confused. “Wait, but it’s a medical examination, right?”
“In theory.”
“What is it really then?”
“Human experimentation. She wants to see just how much we can take.”
Akane sighed.
“As soon as Satsuki sees you can take whatever she’s dishing out, she escalates.”
“What exactly are we talking about here?”
Yukari went through the various trials in explicit, grueling detail.
Akane felt the blood drain from her face. “Is there like a minimum required performance on each test? A score you have to get or you fail?”
“That’s what she won’t tell you. Not even if you ask.”
“Then how am I supposed to prepare?” Akane was starting to panic. She had a great deal of confidence when it came to written tests, but she had never taken a test where she didn’t even know how she was being scored. Let alone a test you had to pass with your body, not your mind.
“There is a psychological aspect to it too, right, Matsuri?”
“That’s right. When Satsuki puts you through the rounds, it’s like she’s wearing a mask.”
“A mask…?”
“Nothing to worry about,” Matsuri said, unconvincingly. “Just tell the truth. She’ll know if you’re lying.”
Akane sighed again.
“Right,” Yukari agreed. “Better to just focus on how you’re doing and not pay attention to Satsuki at all.”
“All right…”
“Not much else we can do, really,” Yukari admitted.
“Nope, there isn’t,” Matsuri said.
“Well, I’ll try my best.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Akane heard a thrumming sound, like a vacuum pump whirring to life.
Her ears had begun to hurt.
She swallowed and felt her ears pop.
Calm down. Calm down.
“How do you feel?”
“All right.”
So far this isn’t half as bad as I thought it was going to be from the way they were talking last night, Akane thought.
Satsuki’s face wasn’t a mask. In fact, she seemed genuinely happy for Akane’s progress. She wondered what it meant.
“Air pressure, as you know, is inversely proportional to altitude. Just now, you went up to two thousand meters above sea level. I’m going to bring you back down to the surface, and next we’re going to go up to five thousand.”
“All right.”
Air pressure returned, and then the decompression started again.
Akane kept up, though she had to pop her ears several times.
“Some people forget to pop and their ears bleed. Just remember to keep popping them and you’ll be all right,” Yukari had warned her.
“Question: what is the altitude of Mt. Ararat?”
“Um…5,165 meters?”
“You are a grade-A student. Well, you’re standing on the peak now. How do you feel?”
Akane had developed a headache a short while earlier. She could feel the pain increasing with each passing moment.
“Um…I’m okay.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’m doing fine.”
“You’re not pushing it? You’re really absolutely fine?”
“I’m absolutely positively doing great.”
“Then let’s take you up to Annapurna. Or do you want to pass?”
Yukari would have taken that as a direct challenge, no doubt. But Akane saw it differently. She didn’t want to let Satsuki down.
“I’m ready.”
The sound of the pump grew louder.
How high was Annapurna again? Eight-thousand-something meters?
Her head throbbed with pain, and she could feel her thoughts begin to drift. Her breathing was ragged. It seemed to take forever until she heard Satsuki over the intercom announce in a singsong voice, “You made it! Welcome to Annapurna! One more question: which integer has a square root closest in value to the base of the natural logarithm?”
Huh…what? A math question? The base of the natural logarithm?
Uh, what was base e again? 2.71828…
If the root of 8 is 2.82…and 7 is…uh…7 is…
Akane tried to focus her thoughts through her splitting headache, but she still couldn’t come up with the root of seven.
Wait, if I square e, then take the root of the right side of the equation…
Seven…7…7…49!
“S…seven. It’s seven.”
“Impressive. Ready to come down again?”
The sound of the pump quieted and the air pressure began to return.
“The terminal velocity of an orbiter during reentry is two hundred kilometers per second. If you ever wanted to know what would happen if you lost pressure on reentry, you’re experiencing it now. High mountain climbers don’t have it nearly this rough.”
She popped her ears again. By now she couldn’t tell whether the pain was coming from her ears or her headache, so she kept popping them as quickly as she could, just in case. When the air pressure returned to surface levels, the hatch opened.
Akane’s head still throbbed. Shaky on her feet, she stepped out, when a wave of nausea came over her and she had to drop to a crouch.
Two red-enamel high heels came into her tear-blurred field of vision. “Oh? What’s wrong? Giving up?”
She looked up to see that now-familiar look of despair in Satsuki’s eyes. Had she failed the test already? Had she not lived up to expectations?
“N-no, I’m fine.”
“Really now? Are you sure? You look pale.”
“No, really. I’m okay.”
“Are you really, really okay?”
“Yes. Perfectly. Great.” Akane summoned the last of her strength and managed a half smile.
“That a girl!” Satsuki grinned. “Next up, how about a little centrifuge?”
Satsuki giggled.