Part II
Chapter 43
"You serious?"
"I'm pretty sure, coach. No one's seen her today. I asked one of the other teachers earlier, too, and she didn't know where she was either."
Kagura gave her first year assistant a dubious look, the same young girl who had been so helpful to her during her inaugural period as a swim coach last week. They were both standing about in the school's pool area, getting ready to begin another practice session for their club, but, just had occurred last Monday, the head adviser was once again absent for it. "...geez. I didn't get a message or anything from her either. What the hell, coach...?"
"Maybe Kurosawa-sensei is sick at home?"
"Could be. I dunno' though, she's usually pretty damn healthy. Oh, you know what I'll do...I'll get my phone from the locker and text her quick."
The girl's eyes opened widely in shock. "W-wow! You...you have her number, coach...?"
"Oh...ha, uhh...no I don't..." Kagura bit her lip, a goofy smile coming onto her face at the same time. "Um, yeah...don't tell anyone else that I do, ok? I don't think Kurosawa-sensei wanted other people finding out about that, in case they start asking her for it too."
Her helper's posture became quite stiff then, coming to attention. "I...I promise, coach! You can count on me!"
Kagura held in a chuckle, this particular student's raw enthusiasm always so priceless, a naivety to it. "Cool...thanks. Anyways, I'll be right back. Can you get the roll call goin'?"
"S-sure, coach! I'm on it!"
She nodded happily, and then, left the pool area as she made her way over to the locker room, breathing in relief once she was inside. Although Kagura loved being outdoors as much as possible, the summer sun was once again turning the whole land into an oven, the milder temperature inside the building feeling so good on her tanned skin.
After retrieving her bag from her locker, she took her phone out from it, punching in a message upon the screen.
'hey coach...just seeing where youre at...catch you soon'
She let the message fly and then waited a handful of minutes, checking to see whether any immediate response would come. When nothing came, she decided to simply let the matter sit for now, placing her phone and bag back into the locker.
...watch her be out there at the bench right now. Ha!
With a hearty smile, Kagura strode out and back towards the pool, her mind refocusing itself on today's practice.
Her assistant looked up at her, an expectant look in her eyes. "Anything yet, coach?"
Kagura frowned at her phone as she held it. "Nah, still nothin'."
The young girl peek over at the device as well. Both she and Kagura were donned in their casual clothes now as they stood in the locker room, ready to go home after another finished swim session. "Maybe she didn't get your message...?"
"Uhh...it must have gone through, right? It didn't give me an error or anything..."
"Hmm, you have service out here, right?"
She looked at the icons on the screen. "...yep. Never had a problem before, either."
"Well...maybe she really is sick then, coach? And, you know, she doesn't want to bother reaching for her phone, or doesn't want to get out of bed..."
Kagura shrugged. "Maybe, but she's usually pretty good about returning calls or texts or whatever pretty quickly."
The girl thought to herself for a moment. "Hmm...doesn't...Kurosawa-sensei usually give Tanizaki-sensei a ride to work?"
"Yeah, I think they carpoo-...oh." She looked to her helper, giving her an appreciative smile. "I should go ask Tanizaki-sensei if she knows anything, huh?"
"Y-yeah! Maybe she knows what's up..."
"Good thinkin'!" Kagura gave the short first year a playful pat on the head. "You're pretty useful, ya' know?"
"A-ah...just...helping out, coach..."
Kagura snickered as her assistant blushed with glee. "Ok, well, I'm gonna' go see if I can find her. I'll talk to you tomorrow, alright?"
"Sure, coach! Have a great day!"
After handing out some additional farewells to other club members that were around still, Kagura took her own leave, venturing outside towards the main campus building, her destination the faculty office.
Hope she's in a good mood to talk to...if I can find her, anyway.
She shook her head sadly, wondering how in the world her old high school English teacher could still be employed here. Kagura had made it a point to visit Yukari Tanizaki last week upon her return, as, despite her mountain of personality flaws, she still did generally like the jokester and fellow gamer. However, the woman had been impossible to find. From what Kurosawa-sensei had then explained to her, Yukari had been there, but, as always, she was either out goofing around or sleeping somewhere else on campus, and that was only if she hadn't ditched work entirely.
Nothing ever changes with her. Ah, well, hope she's here today...
In a few minutes, Kagura had reached the double doors of the large building that housed most of the classrooms, entering inside. On the way to the floor that held the faculty office, she passed by a handful of other students that were there for their own summer clubs, greeting any one of them that she knew. While the place wasn't nearly as full as when school was regularly in session, there were still enough kids and teachers around that certainly didn't make it feel empty at all either.
She was in front of the office now, peeking her head inside, cursing under her breath.
...man...
Yukari's desk, easily recognizable by the mountain of junk on it, was vacant. Next to her was Kurosawa-sensei's, also equally absent of its usual occupant.
Kagura frowned, and then entered inside, spotting another teacher that she did know. She went up to him, and, after a brief chat that involved catching up with each other, she inquired as to the current whereabouts of the two women that she was searching for.
"I don't believe Kurosawa-sensei called in sick today. They usually let us know who's in or out in the morning."
She gave the man a bit of a jaded expression, one of her former history instructors. "Dang...that's not like her, right?"
"Right. For her to not be responsible is pretty uncanny, but she's probably got a good excuse. For example, maybe her phone isn't working for some reason, or her car broke down somewhere on the way to work. So, I'm sure she'll call us later today when she gets time."
"Ah, yeah, you're right!" Kagura smiled. "She's gotta' have a good reason for it."
Her sensei nodded. "It's not like we have a lot to do in the summer, anyway, so the administrators are usually more lenient about absences. However, as for Tanziaki-sensei, she's here, but...well, I haven't seen her since she arrived. And, personally, I wouldn't want to talk to her right now, anyway, because...well, you probably know how she can be sometimes. She's in one of those moods..."
"Oh...yeah, like she's pissed off?"
"Yes...well...I only saw her for a bit this morning, but you can always tell when she's in one of her funks. You know what I mean, Kagura? I was even scared to say simple say 'hello'..."
Kagura rolled her eyes, instantly understanding. "Yeah...thanks for the warning, sensei. Guess I'll pass on finding her today, then...don't want her to bite my head off."
"Good idea. To be honest, I think she only comes here in the summer because she's forced to..."
She laughed at the comment, some other casual conversation occurring between them afterward. When all was said and done, Kagura bid her sensei farewell and then departed out the door.
Well, guess that idea just went up in smoke...
She made her way down the hallway, taking her phone out from her bag and gave it another look, grimacing as she still saw no response from her earlier message to Kurosawa-sensei.
Man, what the hell are you doin', coach? Maybe she got drunk or som-
Kagura's eyes suddenly brightened up, pausing in front of one of the large windows that peppered the sides of the hallway, hot sunlight spilling over her.
Wait a minute...what'd coach say last Friday? Oh, yeah! She was trying to hook up with someone yesterday. I wonder...ha ha, no way...not her, not possible...
It was, she admitted to herself, an incredibly wild notion, but the idea of Kurosawa-sensei skipping out on her duties today, in order to elope with a brand new lover, was just too hilarious to not ponder over. Her coach was normally so scrupulous about her job and life in general, so Kagura couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of the woman just bailing out on it all, simply because she had finally run into some good romantic luck.
"...ah, but then again, it's her..."
No one was nearby to her hear mutter to herself, Kagura becoming a little glum as another possibility entered her head. If one was to calculate her coach's previous attempts at relationships into the equation, then...
...aw man. She mighta' struck out.
She grimaced, the more likely scenario beginning to unfold in her mind. It was just a musing of course, no real evidence to support it yet, but, given Kurosawa-sensei's reported history of dating, her coach might be staying home today because of a broken heart. If her confession yesterday hadn't gone down as planned, then for all Kagura knew, her sensei could be in bed right now, a bottle of liquor to her lips as she tried to get over the depression that she could be suffering with at the moment.
Kagura brought her phone back out in front of her, staring at the screen, beginning to feel genuinely sorry for the woman if she had indeed been rejected. Considering how amazingly happy Kurosawa-sensei had been acting last week, it would be a genuine tragedy to see her fall down from that wonderful high.
Maybe she's just too down to return my message. Aw, hell with it, I'll just call her. It probably has nothing to do with the guy she was tryna' get with, but, still...
She placed the phone to her ear after dialing her coach's number, resuming her walk out of the building. Although Kurosawa-sensei had been kind enough to give her phone number to her years ago, Kagura had always tried to avoid calling her whenever possible, not wanting to abuse the honor she had been given. For the most part, she had just simply texted her whenever she needed, feeling it was much less intrusive into her mentor's life than constant calls from a student.
But, in this particular case, she was becoming concerned as to how her coach's weekend had gone, Kagura now having to know whether the woman was in good spirits or not. Or, as most likely was the case, just sick at home.
The line rang once.
...or her car broke down, like sensei said, and she's been busy all day getting if fi-
"Yukari?"
Kagura came to a clumsy stop right in front of the school's exit, almost dropping her phone after hearing the violent shriek that had just erupted from it. "Whoa...! C-coach...?"
There was a moment's pause.
*click*
"...hello? Hello? Coach...?"
No response came, Kagura now just gawking at her phone blankly as she realized that the other side had terminated the call.
...the hell was that...? That was her, right?
She recovered herself, trying to put together as to what had just happened.
...let's...try again, I guess...?
Her thumb hit the redial button, but the call went no where, her coach not picking up as her voice mail eventually answered for her.
"Hi! This is Minamo. I'm sorry that I missed your call, but please leave me a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks, and have a great day!"
*beep*
"Uhh..." Kagura thought to herself for a moment. "...hey coach, it's Kagura. Um...sorry to bother you. I was...just checkin' up on you. Hope you aren't sick or anything, and, um, yeah, was just wonderin' where you were today. Yeah, hope things are ok...talk to you later, bye."
She finished the call, took another hard, scrutinizing look at her phone, and then dialed the number again.
"Hi! This is Minamo. I'm sorr-"
"Damn..."
Kagura walked out of the building then, heading down the courtyard path in the direction of the bike racks. Along the way, she kept dialing her sensei over and over again, not one of the attempts bearing any fruit.
...ok, now I'm spooked. What the hell was that?
She wasn't at all sure of what to make of things now, the last few minutes quite surreal. All Kagura had done was simply phone her coach, only to be greeted with the most desperate, horrible cry from her when she had picked up. In all of her time knowing the woman, she had never heard Kurosawa-sensei's voiced sound so absolutely anguished as it just had been, let alone experience her act in such an awkward way, such as ignoring calls and texts.
And then, factoring in that she had been crying out for Yukari out of all people, had made the entire situation just that much more confusing to her.
Kagura eventually reached her bike. She looked down hard at it, then up at the sun, feeling its stinging heat on her face, and then back towards the school building as she considered things.
...I don't think I'd find her in there if she's hiding. Better to just forget Yukari for now and go right to coach, but...
She put the phone in her bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she secured it to herself, and then unlocked her bike, pulling it out of the rack.
...she might not be at her apartment. She could be anywhere for all I know. But...where, then?
Her brow was heavily furrowed with thought as she got on her ride, her concern for her coach multiplying by the second.
No, I'll go check there anyway. Mom should be home by now...I can get her car. Yeah. That'll work.
Without another moment's hesitation, she launched herself on the bike, pedaling furiously as she zipped away from the campus, the present condition of her mentor being the only thing that mattered to her right now.
Kagura looked from side-to-side out the car windows, attempting to get her bearings straight as she drove along an unfamiliar street.
Where is it? Come on, I know it's here, dammit'...
She pushed down on the gas, accelerating her search for Kurosawa-sensei's apartment complex. On a few occasions in the past, when her coach had served as chaperon and driver for some of their vacation excursions, Kagura had been able to visit the woman's home when she took them there to pick up drinks and other supplies for the trips. Unfortunately through, she had never really paid that much attention to the actual route there, and had been going off the best of her memory's ability in order to find it. The only real detail she could exactly recall was the woman's apartment number, but besides that, everything else was a bit of a blur.
Another handful of minutes went by, Kagura essentially driving around blindly now. Kurosawa-sensei lived a good distance away from the school, in a part of town that Kagura really didn't know that well, so she was currently out of her element as she struggled to navigate around.
"Whoa!"
Her foot smashed the break, bringing the car to a screeching halt, before it could go over a crosswalk that she had just barely seen. An elderly coupled passed in front of her then, staring at the vehicle that had so rapidly stopped itself, Kagura smiling sheepishly at them as she bowed her head in apology.
...gotta' be careful, gotta' be careful, gotta' be careful...
After the street was clear of pedestrians, she got the car on its way again as she gave herself some verbal reminders about watching her speed more carefully. While Kagura was a very skilled driver, quite easily obtaining her licence at the beginning of the summer, she had quickly realized that she often drove faster than she really should be. Cars were somewhat of her thing, and while the vehicle she was driving was just her mother's everyday sedan, she usually had this subconscious urge to pretend it was some sort of ridiculously fast sports car instead.
Right, right, slow and steady now. Don't want to pull a Yukari...
Out of reflex, her hands suddenly gripped the steering wheel tightly.
'Yukari?'
The hopeless wail that Kurosawa-sensei had blasted over the phone filled her head again, Kagura forgetting her oath to drive carefully as she blazed down the road once more. She had no real idea as to what was going on with her coach, or what it all had to do with Yukari, but the horrible way in which she had screamed out the woman's name had just made it seem like she badly needed help, and Kagura was determined to provide it for.
There!
A triumphant grin spread across her face. After driving around for almost half an hour now, the white and gray apartment building that her coach lived had now finally come within Kagura's sights. Soon, she was pulling up into the lot of the complex, her spirits rising as she spotted another familiar sight.
"She's here!"
With finesse, she quickly parked into one of the available guest spots, leaping out of the car as she made her way to where Kurosawa-sensei's blue Toyota was. Through the windows, Kagura recognized the usual paraphernalia that her sensei kept inside the vehicle, verifying that it was indeed hers, and then raced her way to the actual apartment building itself.
Ok, so she's here. Unless she got a ride somewhere...well, let's just hope that didn't happen!
Ascending the stairs while sprinting was a simple task for her, Kagura soon on the floor that her coach's room was on. She took a breath to relax herself, becoming a little nervous for a reason that she couldn't quite identify, and then went down the catwalk, eventually coming to stand in front of the woman's home.
"Alright..."
She rang the door bell and then waited, frowning as no one answered, hearing no sound at all from inside.
Kagura grunted, ringing it again, bringing her head near the door. "...hey coach, it's me, Kagura. Sorry to come over like this, but, I just wanted to see how you were doing."
Again, she waited, and again, she was left frustrated, no response still.
She brought out her phone on a whim then, dialing it, and then pressed her ear to the door, her eyes opening wide in surprise.
...I hear it...! Holy crap, I can't believe that worked...
From the other side of the door, she could faintly hear a phone jingle go off, immediately recognizing it as Kurosawa-sensei's ringtone.
She's gotta' be here then...but, then, why isn't she letting me in? She's inside, right...?
Kagura began to bang on the door instead now, shouting through it, but still, no one came to open it, her anxiety and concern for her sensei reaching new heights now.
What the hell, coach...? What's going on? Maybe...she's in the shower or something. But, that doesn't explain why she's been ignoring me on the phone all day...
Out of sheer frustration, her hands went to the door handle, and she was prepared to push upon it widely when the least of her expectations happened.
"Whoa."
The door opened for her.
...it's not locked.
Kagura took a moment to get herself together, completely confused as to what was going on here now, and then cautiously pushed the door open.
Inside, she could see that all the lights were on, the balcony blinds pulled shut.
"...c-coach...?"
She stepped inside the entrance way, slowly closing the door behind her.
"Coach...it's Kagura. Are...are you here?"
Although it was well illuminated inside, it took her eyes a moment to get used to the apartment atmosphere, the day outside much brighter. That, however, didn't stop her from venturing forth into the living room, stepping about softly as she did, some trepidation beginning to take her.
She gasped in bewilderment suddenly, her eyes finally adjusting.
"Coach!"
To the right of the room, sitting down in front of the couch, arms tightly hugging her knees to her chest, sat Kurosawa-sensei. She was in a t-shirt and jeans, her hair in a mess, and her stare was set to the floor, glued to her cell phone as it sat under her legs.
"Coach...what are you doing...?"
Minamo didn't notice her at all.
"Coach, hey."
Still, Kagura was ignored.
Movingly slowly, she stepped closer to her then, something telling her, for the strangest of reasons, to not make any sudden or alarming moves, Kagura feeling as if she were approaching some sort of scared, wounded animal.
She stood over her mentor now, whispering. "Coach...hey, look at me..."
Her sensei didn't move a muscle, didn't utter a word, staying in her posture as well as any statue, her only concern in the world being that of her phone.
Kagura knelt down then, gently placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Coach...can you hear me? What the hell are you doing here?"
The acknowledgement was a sluggish one, but finally, Minamo turned her head towards her, just staring at her without speaking.
Kagura's jaw dropped just slightly.
...ok, something is seriously wrong here.
She hadn't thought so while standing over her, but now, as she looked straight into her face, she had just gotten the impression that she was now looking at a corpse, not a person. Kurosawa-sensei's skin was tepid and pale, her breaths shallow and almost non-existent. Her eyes, however, were the most disturbing feature to Kagura: they were encircled in red, her coach's pupils looking so hollow, as if no real actual vision was being taken into them.
"...Kagura?"
Her voice was weak and frail, but finally, Kurosawa-sensei had spoken.
"Y-eah...!" Kagura kept her tone as composed as possible, taking her hand off the woman. "Coach...what...what happened to you...? Are you sick?"
Minamo gazed emptily at her former student, not responding for what seemed like a full minute. "...it's going to...get all over you, if you sit here. Wait..." She looked her up and down. "...never mind, it's too late..."
"...what?"
"You should go...wash it all off now."
Kagura looked underneath herself, wondering if she had just knelt in something that she hadn't noticed, but the carpet was bare and clean. "Coach...I have no idea what you're talkin' about, but you need to tell me what's going on here. You look...you look really bad, coach..."
The woman put her stare back down to the phone. "I'm sorry that I didn't clean it up. I didn't know you were coming. I'm sorry...I'm really sorry."
"Coach...clean what up?"
"I'd help you out with it, but...I don't think...I can soon..."
She looked at the woman stupidly, thoroughly confused now. "Er...w-what...? Are you...going somewhere?"
"...no." Minamo spoke with a stone face. "I'll just be dead."