Breath of Life, Breath of Love

by auxillary

Ami is kidnapped by a rival swimmer's mother, and Shingo must rescue her yet again!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is another installment in my Ami/Shingo series (A Senshi's Ransom, Slumber Party Showdown, A Senshi's Ransom 2) but not a threequel to A Senshi's Ransom (because the bad guys are dead, there's no ransom here).

O-O-O

Water is a strange and beautiful thing. It can give life, sustain life, or end life. It can be used to wash clothes, to prepare food, to cleanse one's body, to transport objects and people to and fro. It can also be a recreational medium or a field of competition.

To Mizuno Ami and the five other young swimmers who had qualified for the final heat of the Tokyo Regional Swimming Championships, the water was a battleground, a chance to prove one's superiority in the graceful navigation of its calm, chlorine-enriched depths.

The young blue-haired girl was in her final preparations now, stretching her limber arms and slender legs, bending toward the blue surface of the water and mentally preparing for what would be one of the most important swims of her life.

Across the pool, on one of the rows of metal bleachers that had been set up for the competition, Ami's supporters watched enthusiastically as the competition got set to begin. Among them were four girls, a college-aged young man, and a short teenage boy with light brown hair. This boy was Ami's greatest fan. His name was Shingo Tsukino.

"You can do it, Ami!" shouted Shingo, waving to his blue-haired angel from the stands. Though Ami was nearly fifty yards away, she could see Shingo briefly out of the corner of her eye, and stopped her stretches for a moment to smile at him. As soon as Ami smiled, his eyes lit up, and his heart began to flutter.

A second later, his head began to hurt.

"Don't disturb Ami, dweezoid!" shouted Shingo's older sister Usagi, who had just whanged Shingo squarely on the top of his head with a box of popcorn. Shingo's hands immediately flew to the spot where Usagi had hit him, and he grimaced in pain.

"Ow, Usagi, I wasn't disturbing Ami!" shouted Shingo, angrily looking back at his big sister. "That was mean!"

"Yeah, Usagi, don't hit him!" shouted Rei, angrily glaring at Usagi.

"He was just trying to cheer on his girlfriend," said Minako, slyly winking at Shingo. "Isn't that right, Shingo?"

Upon hearing the word 'girlfriend' slip from Minako's lips, Shingo's entire face began to glow a light shade of red. He tilted his head and trembled slightly, before quickly spinning around and staring Minako straight in the face.

"She's not my girlfriend!" replied Shingo, his blush becoming deeper by the second. But while his mouth said those words, inside, his heart felt much differently.

Of course, Ami and Shingo weren't a couple. Even Shingo knew that, though everyday his thoughts were dominated by the beautiful blue-haired angel who Shingo had come to acknowledge as his most special of friends. It seemed that over the past two months, Ami and Shingo had been through everything together. Shingo had twice saved Ami's life from a pair of vicious kidnappers, and during those rescues, Ami had saved Shingo by channeling her powers as Sailor Mercury, the magical warrior of water and Ami's alter ego. Shingo and Ami had even been on several dates... well, if you could really call them that. They'd gone out to dinner a few times, and had seen a couple of movies together... wasn't that what people did when they were a couple? Or was it just Ami's way of saying thanks to Shingo for saving her life?

Shingo Tsukino loved Ami. He would give his life for her, and twice he almost had. The question that mattered most, then, was something that to this very day Shingo had no idea of knowing.

Did Ami Mizuno love Shingo?

These thoughts of love, thoughts of deep desire, sacrifice and salvation, would have to wait. Shingo knew that in order to give Ami his complete support, he would have to pay full attention to the final heat of the swimming competition. Ami was an excellent swimmer, and Shingo was fairly sure that she would be victorious. But there was always that possibility that Ami could lose. That's why Shingo give the race his undivided attention.

There were other swimmers besides Ami, but one of them in particular was exceptionally good. Her name was Shai Senerain, and she occupied the block to Ami's right. Her long, raven-black hair was tucked up into the blue swimming cap stretched tightly over the top of her head, and she wore a one-piece swimsuit almost identical to Ami's, save for the fact that Ami's swimsuit was blue while Shai's was purple. The swimsuit matched Shai's eyes, violet orbs that were simultaneously piercing and haunting, reflective of an expression that was both competitively fierce and surprisingly friendly, while at the same time masking a deep sadness that Shai seemed to conceal completely from the world.

Fifteen seconds before the gun would sound to start the match, Shai looked over at Ami, her violet eyes staring directly into Ami's beautiful baby blues. Ami returned the glance and smiled.

"Good luck," Shai half-whispered, half-mouthed to the girl standing directly to her left. Ami nodded, then returned her attention to the water and waited for the bang from the starter's pistol.

Shai had but one supporter at the meet, but that one supporter was probably the staunchest of all the fans in the crowd. Seated at the top row on the far-left side of bleachers was a tanned woman with long black hair tied back in a ponytail. Her body was sleek, with long, lanky arms and thin, well-toned legs. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses, but one look at her would reveal exactly who all her attention was focused on.

Miss Mazda Senerain had been a former Olympic swimmer, winning a silver medal in three different events. Her gold-medal dreams had been denied her by three different gold medal swimmers, two of whom had beaten her by less than a thousandth of a second. From the day Shai was old enough to swim, Mazda had trained her nonstop, hoping to plant the seed of an Olympic champion in her young daughter. Shai was under constant pressure from her mother to succeed, and now, in the Tokyo Regional Championships, a loss would be out of the question.

"This is it," thought Shai, taking one last look at her mother before the beginning of the race. "I have to win... I can't let mom down..."

The gun sounded, and all six girls took off, their arms and legs a flurry of motion as they raced toward the other end of the pool. From early on it was clear that Ami and Shai were far ahead of the pack, and they were neck-and-neck as they reached the halfway mark of the pool.

"Go Ami!" cheered Usagi from the stands, her fists raised high in the air. "Kick their butts!"

Rei, Makoto, and Minako all cheered, their cries of support audible to every point of the room. Mamoru also cheered, clapping his hands and matching the girls shout for shout. But the loudest and most enthusiastic of the cheers belonged to Shingo, who bellowed and chanted his support all the way across the room, his shouts flying directly into Ami's ears. Ami, grateful for the encouragement from her friends, put even more effort into swimming the distance, pulling slightly ahead of Shai as the two girls neared the end of the pool.

At the other side of the bleachers, Mazda Senerain simply watched, occasionally tipping her sunglasses or clapping her hands. Her cheers were mostly internal, her gaze completely fixated on her young daughter Shai.

"Shai, what in the world is wrong with you? Can't you swim any faster? You've got to pull away from her, NOW!"

Ami touched the side of the pool three-tenths of a second before Shai, and turned quickly toward the other end, increasing her speed even more for the last half of the race. As Shai made her turn, she saw that Ami held a slight lead, a lead that was getting larger and larger by the second.

"She's incredible in the water..." thought Shai, kicking her feet faster and faster to try and keep up with Ami. "So fast... I have to try harder, I can't lose... what would mom say?"

Focusing her thoughts entirely on her mother, Shai continued to increase her speed. Finally, about fifty feet from the edge of the pool, she began to catch up. Slowly and slowly, she gained on Ami, until the two were once more neck-and-neck for the final stretch. The other four swimmers weren't even close, all of them more than a second behind. It was all down to Ami and Shai now.

"GO AMI!" Shingo screamed from the stands, rising up and shouting himself nearly hoarse. "AMI! YOU CAN DO IT, AMI!"

"Geez, kid, save some of your voice for adulthood, will ya?" muttered Usagi, covering her ears to drown out Shingo's enthusiastic yells. "Ami could hear you just fine when you were about ten times quieter..."

"Oh, lighten up, Usagi... you know how Shingo feels about Ami," remarked Makoto in a friendly tone. "Besides, we all want Ami to do well, don't we?"

"I guess you're right, Makoto..." Usagi said, smiling at Shingo and then whistling at Ami as loud as she could muster. "GO AMI-CHAN!"

Meanwhile, Shai's mother was in a state of near-disbelief. She hadn't seen her daughter lose a race in nearly four years, but now, just seconds from the finish, Shai wasn't even close to pulling away from her blue-haired challenger. Of course, Mazda Senerain had never seen someone like Ami before. Her grace and style, the fluidity of her movements in the water... she was completely at home in the pool, a living mermaid. A paragon of swimming talent... Mazda could go on and on about the wonders of this blue-haired girl who was currently beating her daughter in the Tokyo Regional Swimming Championships. But suddenly, a loud buzzing noise emanated through the room, and the results of the race lit up on the scoreboard for everyone to see.

Mizuno Ami: 42.576 s

Senerain Shai: 42.582 s

Nakamura Elisa: 44.417 s

Pikari Noki: 44.890 s

Li Minoru: 45.163 s

Beri Siudani: 45.708 s

Of course, the last four didn't matter. All that mattered to Mazda were the first two names on the list... and the fact that for the first time in forty-seven months, Shai's name was second. Six-thousanths of a second, that was all that had seperated the two swimmers. Ami had beaten Shai, and while the crowd clapped and cheered, Mazda did not. She climbed down from the bleachers, a sedated frown on her solemn face.

Ami and Shai had climbed out of the pool, and the first thing Ami did upon exiting the water was to congratulate her opponent, the black-haired girl who had given Ami one of the most exciting races of her life. She'd stared into Shai's eyes for nearly the entire final fifty feet, neck-and-neck with an incredibly talented young swimmer who deserved a heartfelt congratulation for a well-fought race.

Shai, on the other hand, was devastated. Not just devastated about losing, but devastated about how her mother would take the loss. Winning was everything to Shai's mother, and was nearly everything to Shai.

"How is mom gonna react? I should have raced harder..." thought Shai, standing by her starting block with her eyes tilted toward the floor. Before she could look back up, she heard a calm, gentle voice quickly approaching her.

"Shai... that was a wonderful race," said Ami, extending her hand for Shai to shake. Shai looked up, directly into Ami's eyes, smiled, and nodded. She grasped Ami's hand tightly, and soon, the handshake turned into a friendly hug, both girls embracing in a gesture of good sportsmanship.

For while Shai had been taught by her mother to believe that winning was the most important thing, Shai herself knew differently. She had an enormous conscience, and despite her mother's constant pressure to be the best, was an excellent sport at heart. Though the sting of defeat had been nearly unknown to Shai, she was at peace with it, and knew that Ami had beaten her fairly. Ami was the better swimmer. In order for Shai to get better than Ami, she would just have to train harder from now on.

"You too, Ami," said Shai, her arms tightly wrapped around Ami's back. "You're a very talented swimmer..."

Before Shai could release Ami on her own, a hand seized the young black-haired girl's shoulder, and she was roughly yanked out of the hug by her mother.

"That's enough, Shai," rasped Ms. Senerain, briefly shooting Ami a hateful glare. "We're going home to train right away."

"Don't you want to collect your silver medal before you-" Ami began before Mazda rudely cut her off with...

"We don't take silver medals," replied Ms. Sererain, looking at her daughter. "Isn't that right, Shai?"

"That's... that's right, mother," replied Shai meekly. "It's victory or nothing."

"And don't you EVER forget it," Ms. Senerain said angrily, leading her daughter toward the other end of the pool.

Ami immediately noticed the roughness of Ms. Senerain's demeanor, and was horrified by the cruelness in her voice as she led her young daughter away from the pool. It seemed as if Shai's mother was almost... offended by the fact that her daughter lost a competition. It seemed to Ami like she had to say something to calm Ms. Senerain and spare her new friend Shai from what could be a very ugly situation.

"It was a very close race," Ami called out as Shai and Ms. Senerain approached the exit to the pool area. "Shai is an extremely gifted-"

Ms. Senerain looked back toward Ami with a look of absolute abhorrence, her eyes staring angrily into Ami's own with an almost demented gaze. Then, without a word, she turned back toward the exit and walked out, her fingers still tightly clenched around Shai's upper arm.

"Well, she's certainly friendly..." said Usagi sarcastically as she and the others approached Ami. Makoto handed Ami a blue towel, which she immediately used to begin drying herself off.

"Oh, don't pay any attention to her, Ami..." said Shingo. "I think you did really great today! Congratulations!"

"Thank you, Shingo," replied Ami, patting him on the shoulder. "Thank all of you for coming down here today to see me..."

"We wouldn't miss it for the world, would we, guys?" asked Mamoru, looking back toward the girls, who all shook their heads.

"Especially me... I'd pay a million dollars to see you swim! No, wait... a billion dollars!" said Shingo enthusiastically.

"Calm down, Shingo," replied Usagi. "The race is over, you-"

"No, wait... one hundred billion dollars!" said Shingo, putting his finger to his lips and imitating the laugh of a certain Austin Powers villain. Ami giggled, her cheeks turning a bright shade of red.

"I'm sure you'd come to see me no matter what, Shingo," Ami said. "Thank you again for coming today..."

"That Shingo," Ami sighed, putting her fingers up to her lips to stifle another giggle. Ami's feelings about Shingo were far different from what Shingo felt for her. Ami admired Shingo, but as a friend, not as... not as a love interest. She knew full well Shingo's feelings for her, and knew that his feelings were more than a simple boyhood crush. Shingo had proven that twice by risking his life to save Ami's own. Being willing to sacrifice one's own life for someone else... that was an act of love, not just an act of someone who had a simple crush. But Ami had to admit to herself that Shingo's maturity level wasn't nearly up to par with her own. Mentally, she had to be at least five years older than she was, and the three and a half year physical difference didn't help matters. Mamoru and Usagi made the difference work, but that was completely different than Ami and Shingo. Mamoru and Usagi were at the same level of emotional maturity, they were able to frankly discuss their differences and work out their problems.

Could Ami and Shingo do anything like that? Ami was doubtful... but still, in some deep corner of her heart, she wanted to believe... wanted to believe anything was possible. She'd even kissed Shingo before... but that was out of the heat of the moment. People, realized Ami, do crazy things right after they'd just saved each other's lives. Was Ami crazy for having these thoughts about Shingo? Was she crazy for wanting to believe that it was possible to... possible to love...

There Ami was, having those thoughts again. She had an IQ of 300, and she couldn't even control her thoughts.

How childish.

Just like Shingo.

O-O-O

If there was anything in the world Mazda Senerain wanted to know, it was this: How in the hell could some blue-haired girl she had never heard of come out of nowhere to give her daughter Shai her first loss in more than one hundred and fifty races?

"Well," thought Ms. Senerain, standing outside one of the women's locker rooms as her daughter changed out of her swimming clothes, "I know one thing. I'm going to train Shai like she's never been trained before. I'm going to train Shai harder and harder until she can beat Ami Mizuno."

But of course, as hard as Shai was training, Ami had to be training even harder. That was the only way that Ami was getting so good, good enough to beat Shai, wasn't it? All the training in the world was useless if Ami was simply better than Shai no matter what. And what would happen when the time for Olympic trials rolled around? Ami and Shai were both good enough to make the Japanese team. But when the actual competition began, who would be the star?

Mizuno Ami. Ami would win all the golds, while Shai would be forever relegated to silver. Just like Mazda was.

"I won't let that happen," whispered Ms. Senerain to herself. "I won't let my daughter be second-best, not like I was... never second-best! That's never good enough!"

It wasn't good enough for Mazda when she caught her husband cheating on her when Shai was only two. Mrs. Senerain immediately filed for divorce, took half of everything, and fled to Tokyo, far from the Senerains' hometown of Osaka. No one was going to make Mazda second-best, and the same went for Shai. And as long as Ami was around, Shai would never be the best swimmer.

"So maybe," thought Mazda for a brief second as she watched Ami go into another locker room, "it would be for the best if Ami Mizuno was no longer around..."

What began as a thought quickly cascaded into an obsession. In Mazda's mind, already warped by her daughter's first loss in several years, as well as newborn hatred for Shai's blue-haired rival, Ami Mizuno was the problem. Now, all Mazda had to think of was a solution.

O-O-O

Two days later, that solution would finally be put to use. The large building used to house the swimming competition was now empty, save for the young swimmer who'd come to use the pool. While Ami didn't practice nearly as intensely as Shai did, she still liked to come to the local pool every day or two to swim for an hour. Unlike Shai, Ami didn't swim just to practice for a competition. She swam for the mere enjoyment of it, the freedom she felt while in the water, the wonderful feeling of the cool liquid surrounding her body, the weightless sensation of swimming atop the water's surface. Ami loved to swim with every fiber of her being. It was truly the only time she ever had to relax, for when she wasn't swimming, she was most likely studying, intensely preparing herself for her rigorous school courses. But in the water, Ami felt truly free.

As she concluded her day of swimming, she slowly climbed out of the pool, allowing the water to drip from her body and from her blue swimsuit, soaking the floor beneath her feet. As soon as her body was entirely out of the pool, however, she noticed someone walking toward her, a smile on his face.

"Shingo!" remarked Ami, walking over to her young friend.

"I just came to visit... I thought you'd be here, and I just wanted to say hi... I haven't seen you since the competition," Shingo replied.

"Did you bring your swim trunks?" Ami asked. "If you go change, maybe I can swim with you for a little while..."

Shingo smiled, shaking his head at the gracious offer.

"I didn't bring them, but thanks for offering, Ami..."

Shingo had never swum with Ami before, and he instantly regretted overlooking his swim trunks before he'd gone out the door of his house. Of course, there was no way Shingo could've known to bring his swim trunks along... after all, Ami had never offered to swim with him before.

"It's alright, Shingo... another time, maybe?"

Shingo nodded, and the two began walking together toward the locker rooms.

"Shingo, you're not... disappointed that I was done swimming when you got here, are you?" Ami asked, noticing that Shingo was looking down toward the floor as he walked.

"No," said Shingo, shaking his head. "I just came to see you, that's all... besides, I got to see you swim a couple days ago, right? And I'll be able to see you swim lots more, right?"

Ami nodded, a smile on her face.

"The next competition is a couple months from now," replied Ami.

"The Olympic trials start pretty soon... aren't you going to compete in them?" Shingo asked as the two walked around a corner. "I mean, you're a really great swimmer, I know you'd make the team!"

"I'm actually pretty confident that I would, Shingo, but... I'm not sure if I actually want to be in the Olympics."

"What are you talking about, Ami? You'd win the gold medal for sure!"

Ami's expression grew warmer, and her smile curved slightly upward. Shingo's words were very meaningful to Ami, even though she knew that he would say anything to make her happy.

"Shingo, I... I've always been a scholar at heart. I love to swim, but... not in competition. I only swim in competition because it gives me a bit of a thrill... but something like the Olympics, which is purely competitive..."

"You wouldn't just be swimming for yourself, you'd be swimming for Japan!" said Shingo, his voice becoming more and more excited. "I mean, think of it! The gold medal being placed around your neck as the national anthem plays, the parades you'll get when you come home-"

"Japan's got plenty of talented swimmers," said Ami, stopping in front of the locker room in order to talk to Shingo. "I mean, look at the girl I competed against two days ago. She's got an excellent shot at the gold medal, even if I do compete. If I don't compete, she'll win for sure. Japan will win the gold medal whether I'm at the Olympics or not..."

"You never know, Ami," said Shingo, smiling. "You might be Japan's only hope..."

"I think you're thinking of me a lot more than you're thinking of Japan," Ami remarked, smiling and brushing her hand across Shingo's cheek. "But I appreciate the compliment, Shingo, I really do... I'll think about trying out for the Olympics, okay? Just for you."

"Really, Ami?" Shingo asked. Ami could sense the longing in his eye, and she knew that Shingo genuinely wanted this chance for Ami... the chance to compete in the Olympics, to prove that she was the best in the world. It didn't matter very much to Ami, but it certainly mattered to Shingo...

"Really," said Ami, starting to walk into the locker room. "Wait outside for me, okay? We can walk home together."

As the locker room door closed, Shingo began to blush as brightly as he'd done just a few days ago. What Ami had told him, about how she loved to swim but didn't really want to compete... it made Shingo think that maybe he shouldn't have pressed Ami so hard to be in the Olympics. If anything, thought Shingo, it sounded just like that mean lady who yelled at her daughter for losing to Ami. Shingo was glad that Ami didn't have anyone like that in her life, pressuring her to compete, and Shingo certainly didn't want to become that person.

Before he could mull over the subject any further, a hunger pain began to form in Shingo's stomach. He groaned, then remembered the vending machines he had seen by the entrance to the building.

"Ami said to wait for me, but... I'm just going to get a snack," thought Shingo as he began the long trek to the vending machines. "I'll be right back!"

O-O-O

Normally when Mazda went to the pool, she would bring her daughter Shai and the two would practice until nightfall. Not on this occasion. For this trip to the pool wasn't about making Shai better than the competition, it was about eliminating the competition entirely.

For this purpose, the tall, black-haired woman had brought everything she needed. She had watched Ami leave her apartment and had followed her here. Now, she was ready to put her plan into motion.

Ami, who was about to change out of her blue swimsuit, suddenly remembered that she'd left her Senshi communicator watch by the pool. As Ami left the locker room to retrieve it, she saw Ms. Senerain walking toward her. A smile was on the woman's face.

"Ami, I... I want to tell you something," said Ms. Senerain, her purse slung over her left arm.

Ami at first was puzzled by Ms. Senerain's presence at the pool, but quickly figured that she must have been there to train Shai.

"Ms. Senerain?" Ami said quietly, wiping off her hair with a blue towel. "Did you-"

"I'm sorry about the way I treated you at the competition," said Ms. Senerain, walking up to Ami and extending her hand. "It's just that sometimes I get so worked up about my daughter's competitions that I just... I just... I just want to apologize, Ami."

"Apology accepted," said Ami, unaware that Ms. Senerain's other hand was slowly reaching into her purse. "You really do have a wonderful daughter."

"Thank you," replied Ms. Senerain. "You're pretty amazing yourself."

At the instant that Ami and Ms. Senerain's hands pulled away from one another, Ms. Senerain lunged forward with her other hand, thrusting what appeared to be a tazer into Ami's side. Ami let out a gasping cry, then collapsed to her knees, trembling and unable to stand.

"What did you... what did you just do to me?" Ami stammered. "It feels like... it feels like you just shocked me..."

Ms. Senerain's lips curved into a smile. She put the tazer back into her purse, then walked behind Ami and roughly seized her wrists, pulling them behind Ami's back and clasping a pair of metallic handcuffs tightly over them.

"So, you think you're pretty special, do you?" asked the black-haired woman, roughly seizing Ami by the jaw and then shoving the poor swimmer flat on the ground on her back. "My daughter's trained her entire life to be the best, and then you show up out of nowhere and best her like it was nothing! Where do you get off?"

"So that's what this is about," thought Ami, her body still paralyzed and tingling from the tazer shock. "I didn't mean any harm by-"

"I bet you haven't trained even half as much as my daughter has," shouted Ms. Senerain, picking Ami up from the ground and dragging her toward the stairs. "Well, we're going to really work now... just you and me..."

Ami tried to struggle against the woman's grasp, but the tazer blast she'd recieved, as well as the fact that her hands were cuffed behind her back, allowed her little freedom of movement, and she was easily dragged toward the stairwell that led up to the smaller pools. As she tugged at the cuffs, they quickly stung her wrists, and instead of risking injury by struggling, Ami chose to wait until the tazer fully wore off to struggle any further.

O-O-O

In the chaos, Ami forgot that Shingo was still in the building, retrieving an afternoon snack from the vending machines. He returned to the hall where the locker rooms were located, holding a bag of chips and a can of fruit juice in his hands. He also brought along a wrapped turkey sandwich that he'd bought for Ami as a surprise when she emerged from the locker room.

"Ami?" called Shingo, looking back and forth down the hall. "Funny... I thought she'd be out by now..."

The trip had taken Shingo all of ten minutes, and he figured that it would only take seven or eight for Ami to change clothes. Perhaps she'd thought he left? Shingo immediately felt badly about not being right outside when Ami emerged from the locker room. As worry began to set in, Shingo did what any hormone-driven thirteen-year-old would do when confronted by these kind of circumstances.

He peeked into the locker room.

"Ami?" shouted Shingo, peering his head through the locker room door. "Ami, are you in here? Ami?"

When Shingo didn't recieve a reply, he called out again.

"Ami? Ami, are you in here? Ami?"

Not willing to venture any further into the locker room, he sighed and closed the door.

"She left... I bet she thinks I'm a real jerk... I promised I'd be out here, but I wasn't, and now she thinks I stood her up... we were gonna walk home together and everything..."

Sighing, Shingo began to walk toward the hall that led toward the building exit.

"I wonder if... maybe she... maybe she decided to swim some more?" thought Shingo to himself. Ami HAD noticed his disappointment that he didn't get to see her swim... maybe, just maybe...

But when Shingo walked out to the big pool, it was completely empty. Shingo sighed again, realizing that his fears were confirmed. Ami, it seems, had left him, and Shingo didn't blame her.

"I broke my promise..." thought Shingo sadly, beginning to turn toward the exit again. "Ami, I-"

Suddenly, Shingo noticed an object out of the corner of his eye. It was sitting by the pool, light refracting from its surface. Shingo walked over and picked it up.

"Ami's Senshi communicator..." Shingo whispered, tenderly grasping the watch-like object. "Ami would never forget this... she must still be here! But where is she?"

O-O-O

Above the pool, on the small enclosed balcony jutting out from the far wall, Mazda Senerain led Ami all the way up to the large, plexiglass window that overlooked the pool. As soon as Ami reached the window, her eyes immediately glanced down to Shingo, standing by the pool and still looking at Ami's wrist communicator.

"Of course!" thought Ami, her eyes directly on the brown-haired boy standing poolside. Shingo was still there, and now, it seemed, was Ami's only hope for salvation. "Shin-"

Ami's cry for help was immediately intercepted by Ms. Senerain's large hand clamping tightly over the blue-haired girl's mouth and yanking her out of the view of the window, slamming the poor girl down on the ground.

"Shut up!" shouted Ms. Senerain, reaching into her purse and pulling out a roll of flesh-colored medical tape. She ripped off a long strip and pressed it tightly down over Ami's mouth just as Ami tried to call out to Shingo again.

"Shmmmmph!" Ami screamed, her cry muffled by the sticky tape. She furiously strained at the cuffs, trying to free her hands so that she could rip off the piece of tape and try to call Shingo again. But immediately, Ms. Senerain was on top of Ami, a lipstick pen in her right hand.

"You can see your little friend all you want as soon as I get you ready," said Ms. Senerain, using the pen to draw a realistic-looking pair of red lips over the tape that sealed Ami's mouth. "You want to look presentable for him, don't you?"

"Mmmmph!" Ami screamed again, trying to squirm out from under her captor. However, Ms. Senerain was physically stronger that Ami, and the effects of the tazer srtill hadn't entirely worn off. Ami's struggles were futile, and she was quickly yanked to her feet.

Shingo, who hadn't seen Ami but had heard the start of a scream, was now fixated on the plexiglass window, wondering if someone had tried to call out to him. His eyes widened when he suddenly saw Ami in front of the window.

"Ami!" shouted Shingo, unaware of the predicament his beloved was in. Ms. Senerain had carefully positioned herself beside the plexiglass opening, just out of Shingo's view. All Shingo saw was Ami, her mouth disguised cleverly by the painted piece of flesh-colored tape. Her arm appeared to be waving at him, though what Shingo didn't know is that it was the arm of Ms. Senerain, positioned to Ami's right just enough to allow her to look like she was waving. He didn't see the sweat dripping down Ami's face, or hear the muffled whimpers she was trying to make.

"Shingo doesn't know I'm bound and gagged," thought Ami, seeing the bright smile on Shingo's face. "Oh, Shingo... please, please realize the danger I'm in..."

The tazer positioned just behind Ami's back kept her from screaming. A tazer was certainly a non-lethal weapon if used the way it was intended, but Ami knew of cases where if a person was shocked enough times, a tazer could be a lethal weapon, and the blue-haired girl didn't want to risk incurring a fatal amount of electrical wrath from her middle-aged captor. Not only that, but Ami had no idea whether or not Ms. Senerain concealed a more lethal weapon in that purse of hers. Ami had left her Mercury transformation pen in her backpack... without it, her transformation was useless. All Ami could do was hope that she could find a way to escape... or that Shingo could rescue her.

"I'll come up to you, okay, Ami?" shouted Shingo, leaving the pool area and running toward the stairs. But Ms. Senerain would assure that she and Ami would be long gone by the time Shingo reached the balcony. She pushed Ami along until the two reached a side room containing a small, round, three-foot deep pool. Then, she closed the door and locked it behind her.

"I told you we were going to practice," said Ms. Senerain, pushing Ami back until she was standing right up against the edge of the water. "So... get in the damn pool!"

With a malicious final shove, she pushed Ami into the water, her hands still tightly cuffed behind her back. The blue-haired girl nearly hit her head against the bottom of the pool before finally starting to float back up. When her head bobbed above the surface, she could see Ms. Senerain sitting against the edge of the pool, her feet dipping just below the surface of the water, staring at Ami and smiling a vicious smile.

With her hands cuffed, Ami had trouble staying above the surface, and before she could get a good look at her tormentor, she dipped back below the water. She tried to hold her breath as well as she could, and for once, she was grateful to have a piece of tape over her lips, because it kept the water out. But her nose was still open, and even though she didn't take a breath, water still somehow found a way in. She reached the surface again, coughing through the tape and spewing water from her nose.

"If I don't stabilize myself, I'll drown," thought Ami, pushing with her feet against the bottom of the pool in order to try and reach a standing position. Her hands were useless cuffed behind her back, and the cuffs were so tight that the water didn't even help to loosen them a tiny bit, so Ami could quickly rule out struggling to free herself under the water. "I wonder if I could possibly..."

Now stabilized into a standing position, Ami used the buoyancy of the water to try and lift her legs over the cuffs. If she could get her hands in front of her, she could peel off the tape over her mouth and cry out for help.

But as soon as Ami began to try, she was roughly yanked out of the water by Ms. Senerain, who had tired of seeing Ami simply standing in the shallow pool.

"I think the first lesson went pretty well, don't you?" asked Ms. Senerain, her eyes staring directly into Ami's own and demanding an answer from the silenced girl. "Well, DON'T YOU?"

Ami didn't even offer a muffled response, instead, choosing to stare angrily into the eyes of her tormentor.

"No matter what you do, I WILL get out of this," thought Ami, her determination mounting as her strength returned. The show of defiance angered Ms. Senerain, who seized Ami's hair and began dunking the girl's head underwater, holding her under for nearly fifteen seconds before finally yanking her back up, delighting in Ami's frantic struggles for air. Because of the tape pressed over her lips, Ami had to get all of her air through her nose, a VERY difficult feat.

"Mm... mm... mmph..." Ami huffed, her nose whistling loudly with every breath. Again, her head was dunked under the water, this time, for thirty seconds, and again, her head was yanked violently back up.

"You're pretty good at this, but I think we need to go a little bit longer..." said Ms. Senerain, her bitterness and anger now in full bloom. "Let's see just how long you last before you pass out!"

Ami's head was again dunked and held underwater, and again the seconds began to tick by. Ten seconds, then twenty, then thirty. Every second seemed like an eternity for Ami, who hadn't been able to fully catch her breath after the last two dunks, and was now in agony during the third. Forty seconds... fifty seconds... Ami could hold her breath for several minutes under normal conditions. But these were HARDLY normal conditions, and Ami didn't think she could stand even another five seconds.

Ami's legs weren't bound. The effects of the tazer had finally worn off, and as her time underwater reached a full minute, Ami seized upon her last, desperate opportunity to save herself. Her long legs wrapped around Ms. Senerain's back.

"What the-"

Using all the strength she could muster, Ami used her legs to toss the woman into the pool, throwing up a large splash. Then, slowly, Ami wriggled away from the pool. Her nose whistled loudly as Ami took breath after breath, slowly but surely regaining precious oxygen. But Ms. Senerain wasn't beaten yet. With a loud scream, she lunged at Ami... and recieved a kick square to the face. Ami's feet slammed right into Ms. Senerain's nose, tossing her back into the pool and enabling Ami to wriggle to her feet. She ran toward the door and frantically struggled with her bound hands to undo the lock, not even bothering to try and get her hands in front of her. Her fingers finally manipulated the lock enough to open the door.

"Yes!" thought Ami, her cuffed hands gripping the door handle. Sweet freedom was only seconds away.

If only it were that easy.

A shock from Ms. Senerain's tazer, its effects amplified by Ami's wet skin, quickly brought the desperate girl down to earth.

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMPH!" screamed Ami, her body crumpling to the floor, her limbs completely immobilized. Enraged, Ms. Senerain leapt upon Ami, grabbing her legs in one arm and holding a roll of silver duct tape in the other.

"You will NEVER, EVER do that to me again, you hear me?" shouted the enraged woman, wrapping Ami's knees, thighs, and ankles in countless loops of duct tape, sealing Ami's legs tightly together, transforming the blue-haired girl into a literal mermaid. Not satisfied with just this, she ripped off a small piece of tape from the roll and taped Ami's big toes together, adding a final insult to the afflicted girl. All Ami could do was scream, squirm, and watch as her final chance to escape was ripped away.

"Mmm mhmm mmm!" Ami cried helplessly as Ms. Senerain picked her up and threw open the door of the small pool room.

"It's time to end your career once and for all," said the woman, marching down the hall with the helpless Ami flung over her shoulder. Ami's eyes widened, realizing the depths at which Shai's mother was willing to sink to put her daughter's rival out of commission for good.

"Oh God, she's actually going to... she's actually going to kill me," thought Ami, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Shingo... please hurry..."

O-O-O

Of course, Shingo didn't even know that Ami was in danger, though he was slightly annoyed that he didn't see her on the balcony after he'd gone up to look. He'd gone back downstairs and was now searching the locker rooms again, wondering if Ami was trying to play some strange game of hide and seek.

"This is really starting to get annoying," muttered Shingo, walking back and forth among the halls, while thinking back to the time he'd spotted Ami on the balcony above the pool. "I mean, she waved at me and everyth-"

Suddenly, in the middle of one of the halls, Shingo stopped cold.

"Wait a minute," thought Shingo, his mind racing back. "When I saw Ami, and she waved at me... the hand that waved... it seemed a bit... darker."

Darker? No, the hand wasn't darker. Shingo must've been seeing things.

"And Ami's lips... they looked redder than usual... when she went into her locker before, her lips were pink, but on the balcony, they were red... like she'd put on lipstick while she was changing..."

While Shingo was thinking about these things, he'd been walking toward the corner leading back to the upper level of the building.

"That shriek I heard... it sounded like someone was trying to call out for me, but only for a second..."

Ami had been kidnapped twice in the past two months. Was Shingo just being paranoid in his doubtful thoughts? Ami had waved to him, and that was all.

"I'm looking way too much into this things," Shingo said to himself. "I'll have one last look upstairs, and then-"

And then a hand went over Shingo's mouth, pulling him around a corner and pressing him to the wall. Over the hand, Shingo could see a pair of piercing violet eyes, staring into his own.

"Shh..." whispered a gentle voice belonging to the girl that was currenly handgagging Shingo. She slowly removed her hand from his lips, allowing him to speak.

"What's the idea behind-" Shingo began to say before the girl handgagged him again. "Now this is beginning to get annoying..."

Shingo, having had enough of handgags for one day, ripped the girl's hand away from his mouth.

"Stop that!" shouted Shingo, causing the raven-haired girl to turn slightly away. "I know you, you're the girl that Ami beat two days ago!"

Shingo gasped. Now everything was starting to come together. The shriek, Ami's disappearance... something was definitely up.

"Yes, my name is Shai, and-"

"What have you done with Ami?"

"It's not what I did, it's what my mother might be planning to do!" Shai replied. "Where's Ami?"

"That's exactly what I wanna know!" Shingo shouted back.

"Shhh!" Shai whispered, putting her finger to her lips. "If mom hears us, she-"

"Your mom is here?" asked Shingo, looking back and forth. "Shai, what's going on?"

"Come with me, I'll explain everything... but if what I think I overheard my mom say is correct, Ami could be in serious danger..."

O-O-O

Serious danger seemed to be an understatement for the predicament Ami currenly faced. Mazda Senerain had led the girl into a tiled shower room on the upper floor, a room with a single shower head positioned about eight feet above the floor of the ten-foot high, eight-by-eight foot room.

"This is a fairly high-pressure shower head, so it shouldn't take long for this room to fill completely to the top," said the woman, a statement that immediately elicited a loud, muffled cry of surprise from Ami. "Yes, that's right, my dear, you're going to have a very watery grave, or as I like to call this place, Davy Jones' locker. You won't be able to swim your way out of this one."

Suddenly, Ami could feel the cuffs being released, but the effects of the tazer kept Ami's arms paralyzed as Ms. Senerain yanked them up to the shower head. A bar kept the metallic shower head embedded into the wall, while the shower head itself was positioned on the bar just above it, the two bars forming a long, oval-shaped loop from the way the showerhead was positioned inbetween. The cuffs were looped through the two bars and locked once more around Ami's wrists. Now, Ami was hanging from the shower head, her wrists cuffed helplessly above her head, her legs bound helplessly below. Ms. Senerain smiled and turned on the water as cold as it could get, immediately causing a furious spray that began splattering on the floor. Taking out the roll of duct tape, Ms. Senerain pressed several pieces over the floor drain, rendering it useless and allowing the water level in the room to begin to rise. Ami now struggled furiously against the cuffs, trying desperately to escape what was quickly becoming her tomb. As Ami struggled, she could feel the tape beginning to peel itself away from her wet lips.

"Enjoy yourself," said Ms. Senerain, patting Ami gently on the cheek. As she did, the tape over Ami's lips gave way. "Isn't it ironic? You're such a good swimmer, but you're going to die by drowning. It's almost funny when you think about it... isn't it funny?"

The rage that had been building in Ami ever since Ms. Senerain had kidnapped and tormented in her was now bubbling to the surface, struggling as furiously to escape from Ami's psyche as Ami was to escape from her watery fate. And so as the flesh-colored tape fell from Ami's mouth, she didn't cry out for help. Instead, she took the chance to let out all of the anger and frustration from the humiliation she had recieved from being kidnapped and made helpless not once, not twice, but three times in two months.

"BITCH!" Ami shouted, her mouth acting seconds before her brain could counteract. Instantly, Mazda responded, reaching into her purse, ripping off an eight-inch long strip of duct tape from the roll, and pressing it tightly down over Ami's mouth, silencing any further vitriol the girl could possibly hope to spew.

"What am I now?" Ms. Senerain shouted back, taunting the gagged girl. Instantly, Ami's fear returned, and a single tear fell down the side of her face. "Enjoy your last word, Ami Mizuno..."

The black-haired woman turned and exited the room, leaving Ami hanging helpless from the shower head, cold water slowly rising beneath her.

"Mmmph... mmmmmmmmmph!" Ami screamed, tugging at the metal bar she was cuffed to with all of her might. "What was I thinking... I should have screamed for help again... I just made her angrier, she could have killed me... I can't think about that now, I have to escape! Somehow I have to escape..."

The water was rising at the rate of about an inch every twenty seconds, and as it began to touch the tips of Ami's toes, she could feel the piercing cold of the water rising beneath her. The coldness of the water only served to invigorate Ami's struggles, and by now the tazer's effects had completely worn off, overwhelmed by surging adrenaline coursing through Ami as she tried desperately to escape.

"MMMMMMMMPH!"

O-O-O

In a first-floor janitor's closet, Shingo sat captivated as Shai told him of the deep jealousy and hatred that her mother felt for Ami.

"I can't believe... that your mother would actually want to hurt Ami for beating you in a swimming race!"

"I know, but you don't know my mother... ever since she lost in the Olympics she's been completely obsessed with winning, no matter what the cost... it's what she's pounded into me my entire life..."

"Shai, thank you," said Shingo, walking over to Shai and hugging her tightly. "Thank you for telling me that Ami's in trouble..."

"Shingo, I want to do everything I can to help her, I really do," replied Shai, her eyes starting to well up with tears. "If my mother's hurt Ami, I-"

"It's alright, Shai, it's not your fault..." Shingo replied warmly, tightening his embrace.

"I'm going to help you find Ami," said Shai, slowly releasing her arms from Shingo's back. "Please, let me help..."

Shingo nodded, opening the door of the closet and stepping outside.

"Shai, you look downstairs for Ami... I'll look upstairs," said Shingo.

"What if you find my mom?" asked Shai, a worried look on her face. "If she's hurt Ami, she might hurt you too..."

Shingo smiled and shook his head.

"Trust me, I've dealt with plenty of people who've wanted to hurt Ami," said Shingo. "I think I know how to handle-"

"And please, if you do find my mother... please don't hurt her... she doesn't know what she's doing, really..."

"I promise that I won't hurt your mom, Shai," said Shingo. "You do understand, though... if Ami's life is in immediate danger I'll do whatever's necessary to-"

Shai nodded meekly, understanding exactly what Shingo meant.

"But I promise... I won't hurt your mom unless it's absolutely necessary... you have my word," said Shingo. "Thank you, Shai..."

Shai nodded, hugging Shingo a second time.

"If you find Ami, please... please tell her that I'm sorry... I'm sorry for everything..."

Shingo released Shai, giving her a wink. Then, he ran toward the stairs, desperate to find Ami before anyone harmed her.

"Ami, I promised you that I'd protect you no matter what... and if anyone's hurt you, they'll be the ones that are sorry..."

O-O-O

Shingo ran through the upstairs hallways, checking every room but finding little sign of Ami, though he did notice a bunch of water out of place in one of the small pool rooms. When he exited the room, he saw a trail of water leading down the hall to a room with a large, grey, metallic door. When he tried the door, he found it locked. He'd come to several other locked rooms on his search, and realizing that Ami could still be in one of them, he called out her name.

"Ami?"

Unlike the other locked rooms he'd tried, Shingo thought he could hear a faint, muffled reply. Again, he called out.

"Ami?"

This time, the reply was louder. Even though the thick metallic door, the sound was unmistakable. The cry was coming from someone who needed help. And that someone... was Ami.

O-O-O

"Shingo?" thought Ami, hearing her friend's familiar voice through the large, metallic door. The cold water was now all the way up to Ami's knees, and still rising. "MMMMMMMMMMMPH! MMMPH MMMPH! MMMMBGH MMM MMM MMMMMMMMMPH! Shingo, I'm in here! I'm trapped! Please, help me!"

"Ami!" called Shingo's voice from outside. "If you're in there, yell three times!"

"MMMPH! MMMPH! MMMPH!"

O-O-O

"AMI!"

Shingo tugged at the door handle with all of his might, kicked at the door, rammed the door with his shoulder until he thought he'd break his arm... nothing worked.

"AMI, HOLD ON!"

Shingo reached down in his pocket and pulled out his penknife. He jammed it into the keyhole, trying to jimmy the lock. Whatever the keyhole mechanism was made of, however, it was unworkable. Shingo threw down his knife in frustration, letting out a cry of agony that echoed through the halls.

O-O-O

"Mmmmmmph!"

"Shingo," thought Ami, her eyes completely focused on the door, her ears tuned to Shingo's desperate fight to break it down, "don't beat yourself up... it's not your fault, none of this is your fault..."

Another tear fell down Ami's cheek, not a tear of fear, or of pain, but a tear of sadness... sadness for Shingo, who Ami knew would blame himself if anything happened to her. He was completely devoted to her, and should the unthinkable happen, if Ami were to somehow meet her death, Shingo would forever bear the burden of her demise like a cross on his back. She thought back a month ago, to when Shingo leapt off the precipice of the factory loft after the frame Ami was bound to begin sinking toward a vat of boiling magnesium. Shingo claimed it was a desperate gambit to try and reach the switch to save Ami's life, but the blue-haired girl, at least for a brief while, had thought something else.

It was attempted suicide, she'd thought, similar to a samurai comitting harakiri after having failed to uphold his honor.

"If something ever happened to me, and Shingo blamed himself... he'd commit suicide," thought Ami. The thought was too much for Ami to bear, and she shed another tear. "No, he wouldn't... there's no way... would he?"

Another loud bang on the door, and another agonized cry from Shingo. The water level had now risen to Ami's stomach.

"Please... please let both of us be safe..."

O-O-O

"I'm getting nowhere," Shingo said to himself, slumping against the door. "What's happening to Ami in there?"

Shingo wiped a tear from his eye, slowly shaking his head.

"There's no way I'm going to bust this door down," thought Shingo. Suddenly, the gears in his head began to turn. An idea formed. "But maybe... maybe there's another way in!"

Shingo ran over to the neighboring room and opened the door. This time, he could get in, and when he did, he saw that he was in another shower room. Looking around, he noticed a metal air vent on the ceiling.

"Hmmm..." Shingo thought, scratching his head. "What if I..."

Remembering a table he'd seen in another room upstairs, Shingo quickly dashed to that room and pulled out a table. He pushed it into the open shower room and positioned it just underneath the vent. Then, he grabbed a chair from the room where he'd gotten the table. He put the chair on the table, climbed up onto the table, and then climbed up onto the chair. Then, he began tugging at the vent cover.

"C'mon..." said Shingo, pulling at the vent as hard as he could. "You stupid piece of junk, c'mon and-"

Shingo ripped the cover away, sending a cloud of dust downward that coated Shingo and caused him to sputter and cough.

"Blegh, somebody should really get up there and clean the vents once in a while," groaned Shingo, climbing up into the vent and beginning to crawl in the direction of Ami's watery prison. Almost immediately he could hear Ami's struggles and cries getting louder and louder. "Don't worry, Ami, I'm coming..."

At the very next vent, Shingo reached down and pushed it inwards, using his feet to kick it down into the room. The metallic vent made a loud splash as it hit the water, now just beginning to creep up to Ami's neck.

"MMMMM!" screamed Ami, a loud cry of surprise as the vent splashed into the water beneath her. "What the..."

"Did someone call for a hero?" said Shingo, poking his head down into the room and smiling. Upon seeing Shingo's face, Ami's eyes lit up in delight, while Shingo's eyes widened in horror at the sight of Ami's drastic, dangerous predicament. "Oh my God, Ami!"

Not wasting a second, Shingo reached down and gently peeled the tape from Ami's lips.

"Shingo, you crawled through the vent..." Ami said, a mixture of surprise and relief evident in her voice.

"Ami, what happened to you?" Shingo asked. "Did Shai's mom put you in here?"

"Yes... but how did you know she-"

"Shai's here, she told me all about it... don't worry, I don't think Shai's involved in this, in fact, she's the one who told me you might be in danger!"

"Shingo, you have to undo the cuffs," said Ami, her eyes darting back and forth between Shingo and the handcuffs around her wrists.

"Nonsense!" said Shingo, looking down toward the door. "I'll simply open the door, and all the water will rush out and-"

"Shai's mom locked it from the inside AND the outside," replied Ami. "The only way anyone is getting in or out of here is with the key..."

The water had now reached Ami's chin, and she had to angle her head upward to keep from swallowing the cold liquid. As Ami spoke, her teeth chattered, indicating her extreme discomfort from the cold. Her entire body trembled, and she knew that she was in danger from both drowning AND hypothermia.

"Your skin feels ice-cold, Ami," said Shingo, stroking her face as he removed the penknife from his pocket.

"I'll be alright, Shingo... just get these cuffs off of me, okay?"

Shingo nodded, knowing that he had to work quickly to save Ami's life. He shoved the penknife into the keyhole of the cuffs, desperately trying to loosen a gear or a screw in their locking mechanism.

"I can't... I can't get it!" shouted Shingo, beginning to tremble as he continued working on the cuffs.

"It's alright, Shingo," replied Ami, trying to remain as calm as possible. "Just keep working... don't worry about-"

Suddenly, Ami snapped her mouth shut. The water level had risen to Ami's lips, and she could no longer speak without risking water going down her throat. The sudden silence from Ami startled Shingo, and he began fumbling with the penknife, his composure rapidly failing. As the water rose higher and higher, Shingo saw that Ami's nostrils would soon be overtaken by the rising liquid, and she wouldn't even be able to take a breath. Once that happened, she had only a few minutes. Desperately, Shingo jammed the knife into the keyhole of the cuffs, trying to work something loose, but quickly realizing that he would need the key to unlock them. By now, Shai's mother was long gone, and even if she wasn't, by the time he'd gotten the key from her, Ami would be... she would be...

Shingo buried his head in his hands, and a sob escaped from his lips.

"Ami..." Shingo sobbed, the familiar feeling of hopelessness once more surfacing within.

Ami desperately wished she could speak, longed to tell Shingo something that would make him feel better. But even if she could speak, mere words, even from Ami, could not soothe Shingo, who felt as if his soul was being torn from his body. He'd saved Ami once, twice, so why couldn't he do it again? This time, there weren't any criminals around to stop him, it was him versus a set of handcuffs, and he couldn't even pick those apart. He'd lost, he'd failed, and now he would have to watch Ami drown before his eyes. By now, she'd been without air for a full minute, and though she was struggling to hold her breath, Shingo could tell that she wouldn't be able to hold out forever.

"I have to keep Ami alive!" Shingo thought. "She can't breathe, and if she doesn't breathe soon, she'll die... what can I do... what can I..."

If there was something Shingo was good at besides rescuing Ami, it was coming up with ideas. And there, sitting in the vent above Ami's head, he got a great one. Taking the largest breath he could, he jumped down into the water, closed his mouth, and pinched Ami's nose shut with his hand.

"Shingo, what are you..."

The look in Shingo's eyes quickly revealed his intent. In a show of silent confirmation, Ami nodded her head. Shingo's lungs were full, and he could get all the air he wanted from the vent. At the same time, Shingo and Ami opened their mouths and pressed their lips tightly against one another's, forming a watertight seal, Shingo transferring all of his air over to Ami. They pulled away, Ami clamping her lips tightly shut as Shingo climbed back into the vent and took another full breath. Again, Shingo went under, and again, the two pressed their lips together, Shingo once more transporting a full supply of air into Ami's lungs.

Ami and Shingo had kissed before, but always the kisses were brief, Ami and Shingo's lips closed, and both of them simply acknowledging it as a friendly, heat-of-the-moment gesture.

But now, as Shingo pressed his open lips to Ami's, breathing life-sustaining air into her mouth, it was simultaneously a kiss and something far greater... Shingo and Ami were now sharing a set of lungs, Shingo's breath keeping Ami alive... the entire time, neither thought of the process as a kiss, but as something that was required to keep Ami alive, nothing more, nothing less.

They repeated the process more than fifty times over the course of twenty minutes, before Shingo finally came to a horrifying realization.

The shower room had completely filled with water, and Shingo could no longer take a breath in the vent without his own lungs filling up. He now had a choice to make. He could crawl back up through the vent, escape the watery room, and leave Ami to die, or...

The first time Shingo returned without a breath to give Ami, she gave him a questioning look for several seconds, having become accustomed to recieving the breath of life from Shingo. But one look at the vent opening, and she quickly realized the dilemma the two of them faced. By now, Ami was completely submerged in the water, and she knew that even Shingo couldn't keep breathing for her forever.

"It's... alright, Shingo..." thought Ami, resigning herself to her fate. "You did everything you could..."

But instead of watching Shingo crawl up into the vent and escape, she couldn't believe the shock she felt when instead, Shingo swam down and wrapped his arms around her bound body in a tight embrace.

"What are you doing?" thought Ami, screaming out to Shingo despite the fact that her mouth was completely submerged. "You have to try and escape! Shingo, you have to-"

Shingo shook his head, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around Ami even tighter. He knew exactly what would happen if he stayed with Ami, and he didn't care. Whatever happened to her happened to him.

"I'll never leave you, Ami... not ever... I won't let you die alone..." thought Shingo, his tears disappearing into the water.

"Oh, God, Shingo..."

Ami was helpless to stop Shingo from holding onto her, and she herself began to cry, bearing the same burden that Shingo had taken upon himself in attempting to rescue her.

"Shingo, if you die it'll be all my fault... I don't want you to die with me, Shingo..."

But Ami knew exactly why Shingo had chosen to do what he did, and suddenly, she knew exactly how Shingo felt for her.

And her heart went out to him.

She looked directly into Shingo's eyes, her vision clouded by the water surrounding her. Shingo looked back, his own eyes saying a thousand times more than he could possibly say with words.

Neither one was sure who actually began the final kiss, but at the exact moment that Shingo and Ami's lips met, at the exact moment their mouths opened, at the exact moment that the two began sharing the last of each other's air, Ami reached an epiphany, something that her 300 IQ brain had been struggling to comprehend for the past two months.

"Shingo, I-"

The door flew open, and immediately, all the water that can be built up in a small room with the shower going full-blast for an hour and a half escaped, flooding the hallway and knocking poor Shai back nearly into the far wall. Now that the water was gone, gravity rushed to take its place, tugging Shingo free from Ami and planting him flat on his back on the ground. Simultaneously, Shingo and Ami took their first full breaths of air in what must have been at least two minutes. Shai rushed into the room, a set of keys in her hand.

"Oh my gosh, are you guys alright?" asked Shai, helping Shingo up from the ground.

"Yeah... Ami, are you-"

"Mm-hmm," said Ami, nodding her head and smiling. "Shai, how did you-"

"Snuck up to mom as she was walking out the door, grabbed her keys and rushed up here," Shai replied. "Mom kept muttering to herself about how she was going to drown you like a rat, so I figured that you must be upstairs in one of the pools or the closed showers."

"Hold on, I'll get a chair so we can free Ami from the cuffs," said Shingo, happily running out of the room to grab a chair, tears of relief staining his face. He ran back into the shower room, placed the chair, took the handcuff key from Shai, and unlocked the handcuffs around Ami's wrists. He caught her as she dropped down and gently set her on the ground, allowing Shai to undo Ami's leg and toe bonds.

"Shai, you saved both of our lives..." said Ami gratefully, hugging the raven-haired girl tightly. "If you hadn't found us when you did-"

"I'm just glad you're both safe... Shingo, how did you get in here without-"

"I crawled through the vent," said Shingo, pointing up at the hole in the ceiling where the metal vent cover used to be.

"And saved my life," replied Ami, hugging Shingo even tighter than she'd hugged Shai earlier. "Shingo, thank you for everything... you risked your life for me... and... and..."

Suddenly, the memories of a few moments earlier came flooding back to Ami. She collapsed to the floor and began to sob, realizing the horiffic fate that Shingo could've easily shared with her.

"Shingo, why did you... why did you..."

But Ami knew why. She knew exactly why. She stood up and embraced Shingo again, her tears falling onto his back as she cried on his shoulder.

She knew why even better than Shingo did.

O-O-O

An hour after the rescue, after Shingo and Ami had toweled off and warmed up, the long ordeal was finally over.

"Ami, I'm going to go back home to mom and talk to her... I love her, but I know what she did was wrong, and if you want to call the police, I-"

"Talk to her first," said Ami. Now dressed in a light yellow sweater and blue jeans, Ami stood outside the pool building with Shingo. Shai's mother had driven off long ago, unaware that Shingo and Shai had come to help Ami. Part of Ami wanted to see Shai's mother locked up for what she'd done, endangering both Ami and Shingo's lives. But the other part of Ami knew that Shai loved her mother, despite the fact that she was pressured every day to succeed at all costs. Shai's mother needed help, not punishment, and Ami hoped deep within her soul that Shai would help her mother get the treatment that she needed.

And besides, retribution was the furthest thing from Ami's mind. After one last hug to both Ami and Shingo, Shai rode off toward home on her bicycle, leaving the two alone in the parking lot to reflect on the eventful day.

"Ami... I..."

Shingo wanted to apologize to Ami. Not that he'd failed to save her, because she'd heard that before and saying that would only annoy or hurt Ami.

Instead, he wanted to apologize for putting his own life in danger. He'd realized that by sacrificing himself along with Ami, he was turning her last moments from sad and peaceful to painful and agonizing. In a word, Shingo was being selfish.

But at the same time, Ami knew why Shingo had been willing to sacrifice himself. She couldn't be angry at him for it, because she simply wasn't. It was perhaps the greatest gesture of love that anyone, save perhaps her mother, had ever extended to her.

"Shingo, what you did... I mean... you didn't have to do it, but..."

How could she tell him? How could she tell him what she'd learned as she breathed from Shingo's lungs what would have been both of their final breaths?

"Shingo, how would you like to go out tonight? Just you and me?"

They'd gone out after Shingo saved Ami's life the first time, and had gone out several times after that.

But this time, both of them knew it was something special.

It would be their first night out as a couple.

Ami knew now. She knew it for sure, and no one was ever going to tell her otherwise. In a way, she felt exactly the same that she'd felt before she knew, and yet she felt completely different at the same time.

It felt so good to know that she loved someone for sure. It was the greatest feeling in the world.

O-O-O

THE END