Blades of Despair

-Chapter Fifty One-

Separation

Pain. That was the first thing I felt when I woke up. There was an unrelenting throbbing in my head, and my face felt hot as I slowly regained consciousness. I willed my eyes to open, but they would not budge. Nor did any part of my body for that matter. It was like cold, invisible hands were holding me down and pinning me to the floor. It was then that I noticed that the floor that I had awoken on was different to that of the garden. The texture of the garden floor was earthy, dusty and littered with small stones and pebbles. However, as my senses returned to be one by one, it soon became apparent that I was somewhere else entirely. Beneath me, I sensed that my body was lying on a much smoother surface, with evenly spaced marks appearing every so often. Once I could move my hands, I traced the markings with my fingertips and realised that I was on a tiled floor of some kind; the markings were grooves between the tiles. That doesn't answer where I am, though.

"Grrngh," I groaned in pain. I tried once more to slowly blink my eyes open, but a harsh, bright light was shining down on me. I cried out in surprise and moved my hands to shield my face from the oppressive glare. "Where... am I?" My mouth was horribly dry, as though my tongue had been scratched against multiple sheets of sandpaper, and the throbbing in my head was pulsing loudly like a drum. As my eyes adjusted, my nose twitched and the pungent scent of chlorine stung my nostrils and my rapidly blinking eyes.

I was in a locker room, and there must be a swimming pool nearby. I'm... on the ground floor? But how? I pressed my hands to the floor and tried to push myself up, but the sudden movements sent a dizzying jolt of pain throughout my body. I cried out again and slumped to the ground. After a few more attempts, I managed to sit up in the same spot in which I had awoken. I looked around and confirmed my suspicion. I had been moved to the boys' locker room by the ground floor swimming pool. The place where we had had that pool party, when all sixteen of us were alive. How long has it been since that day? Days? Weeks? A month? More than a month?

"Grh, what a nuisance..." I began to say, but then my breath caught in my throat. "Ori!" I reached for my Seiko-pad in my pocket, but when I thrust my hand into the fold of fabrics of my trousers, I found nothing. Puzzled, I checked the other pockets of my clothes, but could not find my Seiko-pad. What's going on? How am I going to reach out to Ori and the others to make sure they're okay? An unsettling mixture of panic and adrenaline began to course through my body, and I steadily stood on my feet. I swayed a bit, and spent a few seconds leaning on a locker for support. My breaths were heavy, but eventually my balance was restored. Perhaps my Seiko-pad fell out of my pocket when I was brought here. I should investigate the area. I slowly began walking around the locker room, inspecting the lockers one by one, the shower area, the cubicles. However, aside from clean towels, I found nothing, so I undertook an investigation of the pool itself, and was surprised by whom I saw.

"Miyagawa!" shouted none other than Mina, who cheerfully bounded over to me when she saw me enter the area. She jumped at me and wrapped her arms around my waist (which was about as high as she could reach) and let out a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"And I you, Mina!" I told her. I saw the cuts on her head had been cleaned, and a large purple bruise had formed on the side of her forehead. I decided not to mention anything in case it evoked a strong emotional reaction, and settled for asking her a question. "Is it just you here?" Mina pulled away and nodded her head sadly.

"When I woke up, I was in the girls' locker room, but it was just me. It took me a few minutes to get my bearings, but I looked around the area and found nothing and no-one. We must have woken up at roughly the same time, as I had just started searching the pool area."