Chapter Twenty Six

Fuji

We had to keep on running.

The sunlight we had seen down below the platform hadn't been coming from a trapdoor or something similar. True, it came from the next best thing, which was a window, but this particular opening wasn't large enough for me or Ishizaki to fit through, even if we had broke the glass. And so we had to keep running.
Jogging was normally a very relaxing exercise for me, except when Inui threatened the team with his Inui Juice. Then it became even more fun and exciting, as all games with a reward at the end, only for this game the reward was given to the losers. I've always wondered why. But anyway, as I was saying. Jogging was normally something I really like to do. It gave me time to think, since you don't really have to concentrate on anything in particular. Of course, running to escape a sinking ship was slightly different, but my brain took the pounding of my feet as its cue to wander around anyway.
Should I be mad at her, or love her all the more?

Question one. Obviously, Tezumi was risking her own life for Ishizaki. She'd told me to take care of him, hadn't she? And why that should make me mad is kind of plain. She'd sent me up onto the platform first, knowing that Ishizaki would need help getting up. It was one of those times that I actually envied the little creep.

On the other hand...well, I'll still say that she risked her life to save my rival, but then had she saved me too, in the process. That is, if we ever got out of this ship and into a lifeboat. But she'd done what she could. She'd given up every chance she could of survival to someone that, I was certain now, she loved.

Why didn't I do the same? I want no one to misunderstand that I didn't want to. Because I did. But it had been pretty obvious, from the way she had screamed at me to go, that it wasn't what she had wanted. And so I was now trying my best to protect this guy which I had hated and hated all the more every minute. It wasn't a nice feeling, knowing that it was the only think I could do to please Tezumi.

Question two was a more immediate problem.

How are we going to get out?

Go up, Tezumi had said. It made sense. If we could reach the deck, great. If we went higher than that, we could just jump.

I led Ishizaki through the various winding corridors and doors which I hoped led to stairways. In most cases we just ended up in people's cabins. The smoke had fused along the path we were taking already. We were both sweating profusely from the heat and anxiety.
We might've done better to go Tezumi's way. At least she's bound to get there eventually.

"Oh!" Ishizaki gasped.

I spun around. "What?"

"A drop of water fell onto the top of my head!"

This seemed a very trivial thing to be yelling about, but was I ever glad that he had sensitive skin. Backtracking to the place Ishizaki was standing, I looked up and sure enough, drops of water were dripping down from a round iron plate. An iron plate which glowed at the edges.

"Ishizaki! Help me with this table." I had got a hold of an iron desk in one of the rooms and with his help, dragged it under our passageway out. Clambering onto it, I shoved hard at the cold iron. It gave way easily, and I shifted it aside, allowing the sunlight to stream through.

Yes!

"Pull yourself up! I'll try to help..." Again there was a confused scramble as I pushed Ishizaki up onto the deck, and then swung myself after him.

People were running anywhere and everywhere they could, it seemed. No one noticed that two boys had just appeared by their feet. Thick black smoke was billowing from one end of the ship, which was the side we were sliding over to, as the vessel tipped over slightly more.

"Lifeboat!" Ishizaki choked out, his voice cracking in relief. Over to the side a couple of men were trying to cut through a rope which bound one of the little lifeboats. Their blunt knives weren't making much progress. Taking out a particularly sharp piece of glass that I'd saved from earlier, I rushed over and severed the cord with a few sharp swipes.

"Thanks!" one of them shouted, rapidly lowering the boat into the ocean below. I recognized one of our kidnappers. The one in the baseball cap. He, however, didn't seem at all worried to see us out of our room and on the deck, and simply yelled at us to help with the boat.
No one objected either, when we hopped into the lifeboat after the men. Soon, we were ready to cast off.

"Hey!" our kidnapper suddenly said. "There should be three of you. Where's the girl?"

I explained about the platform and how Tezumi had chosen to go another way.

"Then that's one stupid girl you're talking about there," one of the other sailors remarked. "I know that platform. The room next to it is a broom cupboard."

"WHAT?!" Oh no...TEZUMI! I reached to scramble back up the rope we had just come down. Strong arms wrapped around my chest, holding me back.

"It's no good, kid! The place your girlfriend's in is already underwater, see?" The guy with the cap pointed to some point near the smoldering end of the ship.

"THAT DOESNT MEAN SHE'S—SHE'S—" I struggled against his grasp with all the energy in my body. Had to go back, had to find her, had to get her out before the water...

"Cast off!"

"NO!" I freed myself with one huge wrench of my arms, but we had already drifted away from the ship. "LET ME GO BACK!" I was about to jump back into the water when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't," a sobbing Ishizaki pleaded. "Tezumi...Tezumi wouldn't have wanted..."

"Don't you dare talk to me about Tezumi!" I snarled at him, snatching him up by the front of his shirt. "If you actually cared about her, you'd be swimming back there with me!" I made one last attempt to dive off the lifeboat, but was thrown back by two of the men. I watched, helpless, as we moved farther and farther away from the sinking ship.

And from Tezumi.

"The boy's right," one of them said. "Your friend died to save you. She wouldn't want you to gamble your life for her dead body."

And now, thanks to you...thanks to you all...I will never know what she wanted...

I sat at the back of the boat, side by side with Ishizaki, the only person who could understand a fraction of what I was feeling. My hair shielded my eyes like a curtain, to hide the tears that never came.

I wish it were me, Tezumi...I wish it had been me...

You said you'd meet us on the shore...

Why did you lie to me, Tezumi? Why did you lie?