“Hey Mutou-kun?” Yugi blinked and wheeled
around to look at the speaker to find that Imori had followed her. She watched
him warily, taking note of Oneesan’s sudden intense focus. Her older sister
seemed to have taken a dislike to the boy for some reason and that was enough
to have her on edge, “Look I wanted to apologise for today.”
Yugi let out a sigh. She had been unnecessarily
harsh when she had turned him down but Ojiisan had been insistent that she
never play a game of Dragon Cards. “I should apologise too.” She replied,
smiling at his despite her unease. “I didn’t mean to snap earlier. It was
uncalled for.”
“No, no,” Imori shook his head, looking
embarrassed, “You were busy and your Ojiisan did say that no one should play
it. I just thought it might have been, you know, superstition or something.” He
pulled a small box out of his jacket pocket, “I meant to give you this
earlier.”
Yugi blinked at him, able to feel Oneesan’s
surprise also, and took the box. Inside was an anklet, a beautifully designed
one. It had vines and lotus blossoms engraved into the thick, brass, hinged
squares that made it up. Some kind of lacquer giving hints of colour to the
flora. Yugi was shocked as she looked to Imori, “Not that I’m not grateful, but
why?”
“For
returning my game yesterday.” Imori explained, looking sheepish, “I had
a little pocket money left over after I bought that Monster Fighter game so I
thought...”
“Thank you.” No one except her grandfather had
ever bought her jewellery before, so Yugi wasn’t quite sure how to react. She
hadn’t been doing anything special. It had just been the right thing to do. She
hadn’t expected someone to reward her for it. “You didn’t have to...”
“I wanted to.” Imori smiled at her. “May I?” He
asked, gesturing to the anklet.
Yugi nodded. It would be rude not to try it on
after all and she could take it straight back off again. It wasn’t like wearing
it for a few minutes would break the school dress code any more than wearing
the Puzzle did.
Imori removed the anklet from the box and Yugi
sat on a nearby desk. She felt her older sister bristle when he rolled up her
right trouser leg and was then too busy smoothing Anesan’s emotions to see how
he did up the clasp.
“Thank you.” Yugi smiled at him as he backed
off, examining it from a distance. She had to admit it looked good on her. She
couldn’t wear it for too long though, she had swimming later and she didn’t
want to ruin it. When she reached for the clasp however, she found that she
couldn’t get it undone.
“Umm, Imori, how do I undo it?” She asked,
confused when the little lever that should have unlocked the clasp refused to
move.
“Huh?” The boy looked just as baffled as he
tried to undo it. After about a minute he pulled back, a worried expression on
his face, “Uh oh.”
“Uh oh?” Yugi worried, ‘uh oh’ was never good.
“It’s stuck.” Imori’s expression moved towards
embarrassment as he gave her a sheepish smile, “I can’t get it loose.”
“It’s alright.” Yugi mentally winced against
the irritation that spiked over the link from Anesan even as she tried to
reassure the boy. “I’ll work out how to get it off when I get home. It’ll be
okay in the water right?”
“Should be.” Imori looked relieved that she
wasn’t too mad at him, “Sorry Mutou-kun.”
“It’s an accident.” Yugi shrugged, “Don’t worry
about it.” The bell rang for the end of the lunch break and Yugi hastily rolled
down her trouser leg and grabbed her bag, “See you later.”
“See you.” Imori nodded and darted off.
Yugi let out an amused huff and headed for her
own form room, intending to tell the others about the gift. Anzu looked a
little worried, while Honda had expected Jou to start teasing her about
potential boyfriend, only for the blonde to turn sulky.
None of them could undo the catch either,
boding badly for getting the anklet off without breaking it later on day.
Anzu badgered her for information the entire
way to the changing rooms. The other girl liked Imori about as much as the
spirit of the Puzzle did and she worried for her friend. Yugi didn’t get much
attention from guys and Anzu had heard rumours about Imori and his temper. She
just didn’t want Yugi to get hurt.
Anzu’s fussing both amused and frustrated Yugi.
She had no interest in dating in general right now. She couldn’t just date
anyone. Whoever she went out with would have to cope with the fact she was
possessed and it wouldn’t be fair to drag Anesan out on a date.
Even if she had been interested in dating, she
wouldn’t date Imori. She got a weird vibe from him. Like there was something
lurking below the surface. She wanted to think that it was just paranoia, she
had been through quite a lot recently after all. However considering Anesan had
taken an instant dislike to him too, she was going to listen to her instincts
on that front.
She half wondered if he was possessed too but
she didn’t really want to ask. There was no real easy way to bring it up after
all and she didn’t really want to regain her reputation as a weirdo when she
was finally making friends with her other classmates.
She got changed with Anzu, blushing slightly as
she changed into the swimming costume she had had to buy from the school. Not
having to buy her own was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because she would
have been really embarrassed to show up in her old swimming costume but a curse because it meant she could now
fit in the girl’s uniform.
She had been informed that she could finish the
term in the boy’s getup, but when the next term started, she would have to wear
the girl’s uniform. She was dreading it. The jacket was a horrible colour and
the skirt was so short she could wear it as a belt. She was tempted to take
after Anzu, who wore shorts underneath it to prevent boys getting a flash of
her underwear.
It was good though. It meant she’d grown some
over the course of the term. Though she was still the smallest in her year, she
at least had filled out a bit and, as Anzu had insisted, she did look much more
feminine with longer hair now it no longer looked like a starfish.
She practically leapt from the changing room to
the pool, not wanting to stand around with this little on and amusing Anzu no
end as she splashed into the pool.
“Mutou!” The teacher scolded, “No cannonballs!”
The lesson progressed smoothly after that. As
they assessed the swimming skills of the class as a whole, Yugi was pleased to
find that for once she was placed in the upper most group. She’d always enjoyed
swimming, it was the only sport she was even vaguely good at, mostly because
her grandfather had insisted on swimming lessons from a young age. To find she
was actually better than some of her more athletic classmates made her grin.
As the lesson came to a close, Yugi stayed in
the pool to do a few more lengths. She had no intention of getting out until
most of her classmates had left the area. She was normally one of the last back
to the changing rooms anyway. Sometimes she even took so long that there was no
one around to see her. In hindsight it probably hadn’t helped the gender
misconception.
A loud ruckus from the girls’ changing rooms
caused the female teacher to dart in to see what was going on and caught the
attention of the group of teenagers hanging around the edge of the pool. Yugi
headed for the side herself, concerned that something serious had happened.
Halfway there, Yugi felt something ‘shift,’
like the world had suddenly moved sideways, and she didn’t have time to do more
than let out a startled yelp before it felt like her right ankle had a concrete
block attached to it and she sank like a stone.
She hit the bottom of the pool, the water
closing up over her head. With the surface more than a meter above her, Yugi
didn’t waste time trying to reach for it. Instead she reached her for ankle, trying
to work out what had happened and how to free herself from the weight still
pinning her to the floor.
The anklet she had been given pressed into her
foot painfully as she tried to lift it, only to find that it was the present
itself that was weighing her down.
Surprise and fear seeped in as she fiddled with
the clasp, trying to undo the anklet and free herself. Had Imori known what his
gift would do? He had to have done, surely, or whoever he had gotten it from
but she didn’t know what she’d done to him to deserve this.
The catch remained as jammed as it had earlier.
Yugi had to cover her nose and mouth with one
hand as her body started screaming for air, resorting to tugging on the anklet
with her other hand, trying to pull it off. It didn’t help, she wasn’t strong
enough to break the suddenly far too heavy hinges between brass squares.
Desperation sank in as she realised she was
stuck, trapped far below the surface and it was likely that no one had seen her
go under. She tugged and tugged, panic making her heart race and only aiding in
making the need for air that much more pronounced.
Then there was a pair of splashes from above
her and suddenly there were two others in the pool with her. Yugi’s eyes
widened as she recognised the blonde mop and the brunette spike as her friends,
relief causing her to settle down slightly.
The pair tried to pull her to the surface, only
for the weight at her ankle to keep her down. When the pulling didn’t work,
Yugi gestured to her ankle. Honda swam down to it. When she managed to get
across that it was the anklet causing the problem, she felt him fiddling with
the clasp for a moment before he winced and shot for the surface.
Yugi’s mind was swimming, her lungs
constricting painfully as Jou swam down to see what he could do. It was only
the hand covering her lower face that prevented the reflexive breath that her
body was trying to take.
Suddenly the pressure at her ankle was gone as
Jou managed to break the catch by yanking on it. A dull thud sounded as the
jewellery hit the pool’s floor, but Jou was already dragging her up. Yugi
didn’t have the strength to swim herself, but it didn’t matter as Honda
rejoined them and within seconds the trio had broken the surface.
Yugi gasped for breath the moment she was clear
of the water, coughing and spluttering as she took in the air she’d so
desperately desired. Jou shifted her in his arms so she was on her back and he
was supporting her with his body. One arm wrapped around her chest tightly
enough that she wouldn’t slip loose and sink again, but not tight enough to
prevent her regaining her breath while the other helped him strike out for the
side.
The two boys got her to the side, where the
teacher, who looked pale, helped them pull her out. “What happened?” The
teacher demanded, confusion and concern obvious as she took control of the
situation.
“C...Cramp.” Yugi gasped out, the world around
her still spinning. She felt sick and trying to think wasn’t helping.
The teacher looked at the two boys who nodded
in agreement, glad Yugi had managed to come out with an excuse as neither of
them had managed to think of a sane version of ‘Yugi’s jewellery was cursed.’
Once the teacher was satisfied that Yugi could
walk on her own, she entrusted her to her friends’ safety and insisted that
they take her down to the nurse’s office to get checked over before they went
home. She wasn’t convinced about Yugi’s story that she had caught her foot on
something while swimming along the bottom to shore. However she had reports to
file and a pool to get checked, just in case, so she left them too it.
The moment the teacher was gone, Jou let out a
savage snarl. “I’m going to kill Imori.”
“What else did he do?” Anzu asked, hovering in
the door to the pool as Yugi got herself changed in the girls’ changing room.
“What do you mean ‘else’?” Jou demanded only to
shove past Anzu when Yugi let out a despairing moan. “Yuge?”
“My Puzzle!” Panic was etched on her features
as she pulled apart the contents of her backpack and tossed her clothes
everywhere. “It’s gone!”
