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