Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 8 - Chapter 1.9

 Four years ago, Reloaded

I was waiting for the wind.

It was summer, and I was standing on the athletic field. Holding a long pole in my hands, I stood at the starting line and took long, steady breaths.

There were no wind measurements in pole-vaulting. However, it was normal to be given one minute to prepare, and I could use that to wait for a wind that was in my favor.

Fortunately, there weren’t many athletes remaining now, so they’d given me three minutes instead.

I wasn’t feeling particularly tense. I didn’t worry about messing up. In some interview a long time ago, I’d been asked if leaping over a bar that high scared me, but I’d never felt that way.

That was what made me suited to this sport. It was the only one for me.

“—There it is.”

The direction of the wind changed.

It was a soft tailwind, the sort that was easiest to ride. A yellow flag went up, signaling the last fifteen seconds of my wait time. I drew one last deep breath, then started my run-up.

Leveling my carbon-fiber pole, I launched into a sprint.

One stride, two, three. The wind gradually wound around me, and soon, I was moving at top speed. I didn’t have that much distance to make my approach run. Before long, a bar that was more than twice as high as I was tall loomed in front of me.

The next moment would decide everything. I jammed my pole into the box, bending it; I used my biceps, my pectorals, and every other muscle I had to flip my body over, pushing myself higher and higher. And then—blue sky was all I could see. Pole-vaulting is a leap into the sky.

I let go of the pole, and a floating sensation swept over me.

At that point, the competition was already over.

The bar wasn’t shaking. The white flag that signaled success had gone up.

Then the crowd began to buzz. The height of that jump had been a new competition record.

On my back on the mat, I let myself savor a modest sense of achievement. Not for the cheers, but for this beautiful blue sky.

“Now, then…”

I got up, clearing the way for the next athlete.

Ordinarily, I would already have won this tournament.

But the girl who stood at the starting line was attempting to jump the same height.

“She’s…”

The girl’s reddish hair was pulled back in a bun.

She was gazing at me from a distance, her expression filled with confidence.

Before long, I heard scattered applause. The girl was stirring the audience up. Lots of track athletes put on performances like this. I’d never done it, but…

Soon, the starting signal sounded, and she set off running.

She hadn’t waited for the wind. I promptly realized she didn’t need to.

She was the wind.

She sprinted her whole approach with beautiful form and sent her inverted body straight over the bar. It was a vault that stabbed right into the heavens.

“—Wow.”

Even before the white flag went up, cheers broke out.

It was the first time I’d ever thought someone’s practice jump was beautiful.

“Hey, you!”

I’d showered and changed in the locker room, and I was walking down the hall that led outside when someone called to me. Everyone else from my school had headed for the bus already. I turned, wondering who it could be. Then with a start, I recognized her.

Her hairstyle was different now, but I remembered that reddish color. I’d seen it so many times, I couldn’t have forgotten it if I’d tried. It was the girl with the beautiful jump, the one who’d vied with me for the championship all the way to the end.

“Phew! I actually found you.”

She had freckles on her cheeks and a friendly smile.

The girl walked right up to me. She had a key chain of some sort of anime girl on her sports bag.

“What’s your name?!”

“…Huh? Me?” I was pretty sure my name had been up on the electric scoreboard, but whatever. “Lilia Lindgren.”

“Okay! I’ll call you Lill!” Even as she said it, she was shaking my hand energetically.

…She was unusual, the way she got so close to people so fast. Did she have communication issues that were the exact opposite of mine?

“And you were, um…”

“Call me Freya!”

I wasn’t really accustomed to calling people by their first names. Still, that smile wouldn’t let me refuse.

“So, uh…Freya. What did you need me for?”

“Oh, nothing in particular. I just wanted to try talking to you.” Freya pointed to a nearby bench. “Want to sit down?”

There was still a little time left before my school group was supposed to meet at our bus, so I sat down beside her. “You wanted to try talking to me? Does that mean you knew about me before?”

“Well, yeah. There’s no one in this sport who doesn’t know you.”

“Then why did you ask my name?”

“Ah-ha-ha! I mean, when you meet somebody for the first time, you’re supposed to introduce yourself, you know?”

Was that how it went? She’d been taking the lead in this conversation the whole time.

“I finally caught up to you a little bit, though.” Freya smiled at me. “Competing with you at a tournament has been my goal for ages.”

This was the first time the two of us had been the last remaining contestants at a meet.

The truth was, though, I’d known about her for a while. I’d heard rumors that there was a girl at a nearby school who’d taken up the sport just six months ago but was renewing her records at a ferocious pace. Today, in front of a crowd, Freya had demonstrated that her ability was the real thing.

“I didn’t quite make it, though. Just a little more, and I would’ve won.” Freya kicked her legs lightly, reviewing the day’s match.

In the end, Freya and I had jumped the bar set one notch higher, and we’d both set tournament records. However, I’d succeeded on my second try, while she’d succeeded on her third. In accordance with the rules, since I’d needed fewer practice jumps to succeed, I was declared the winner.

“Well, neither of us made the notch after that, so we technically tied.”

“You can say that ’cause you’re the queen…” Freya growled comically in frustration. “Well, I’ll make it next time,” she declared. She sounded both indomitable and completely sincere.

I couldn’t figure out what she was trying to say.

“You know what happens if I do, right?” she said. “If I make it, you’ll definitely jump that same height. And if you make it, then so will I. We’ll just keep renewing our records to infinity.”

That thought hadn’t even occurred to me.

We were competing against each other? Track and especially pole-vaulting were individual sports. I’d assumed all I’d ever compete against were my own records.

“That way, we’ll both set lots of new records, and we’ll get into bigger tournaments, and someday, we’ll go international. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?”

Freya grinned, flashing white teeth. She’d smiled so much in just a few minutes. I was pretty sure she’d already smiled more in this conversation than I had in the past year. What an odd girl.

“You sounded as if you respected me earlier. Now you think we’re on the same level?”

“Ah-ha-ha! Well, we already competed against each other today. Starting now, we’re rivals!”

Rivals. That word made my heart jump, although I didn’t know why.

For some reason, though…my body felt slightly warmer. A very tiny bit.

“Huh? …You don’t want to be?”

Freya peeked at my face. She seemed a little worried by my silence.

I shook my head. “I was just thinking how you’re the kind of person I couldn’t be friends with, so ‘rivals’ is perfect.”

Freya thought about what I meant for a minute, then bristled. “Excuse me?!”

For the first time that day, I smiled just a little.