Learning To Fly: A Saki Enomoto Pseudo-Route

Ignition :: Koko Soko Asoko

AN: Chapter song below!

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My bag hits the ground with enough force to cause a slight reverb through the room, followed quickly by Saki's – although I set that one down a little more gently as a courtesy. The frequencies seem to amplify each other, leaving a deafening silence in their wake.

"What do you have in that thing?" I ask, sitting down on one of the chairs and shrugging my shoulders to restore some bloodflow down my arms.

Saki strolls over and hands me the second keycard to the room, now that my hands are free.

"Well what do you expect? Everything I'm taking home with me for the summer is in there."

"You did leave the fishtank on your dresser right? I'm not going to find it if I open this bag?"

"That's nothing," Saki says with a laugh. "Just a few of my outfits I like to wear this time of year that I take to Yamaku with me."

My own bag is heavier than usual but not by much. My parents had only packed a few non-uniform pieces of clothing when I went to Yamaku, and I wasn't in much shape to help them from a practical or emotional standpoint. I have the few pieces of clothing I've purchased in the last few months and the essentials, but I left the majority of my clothes hanging in my dorm closet. I should have plenty to wear when I get home in a few days, assuming my parents didn't clean out my room.

Honestly, when I spoke to them last night, they seemed happy to have me coming home, even if there was a bit of apprehension regarding this detour first. Every time I've spoken to them about it, there's been a slight tension there. They've raised objections in several ways; do I really know these people well enough for a trip like this, can I handle it physically, will I have enough medication with me, and so on. Even if they have the best intentions, the delicate worrying over any issues that might come up made me annoyed for reasons it took me a while to wrap my head around.

I didn't even realize how used to Yamaku's environment I had become. Every day I've been improving and it has taken a lot of effort on my part and understanding on the parts of others to get to where I'm at now. Nurse and others show concern, but they've never tried to use it as an excuse – or let me do so, for that matter.

Now when I'm in social situations that leave me treated like a piece of glass again, I find myself running out of tolerance very quickly. I know my parents' hearts are in the right place, which makes me feel a bit guilty for having that reaction to their concerns.

Exasperated though? Absolutely. At least they relented and gave me their best wishes for this trip. I just wonder how this is going to affect the time spent back home. I'm already apprehensive enough about that as is.

Saki rests her cane against the wall and flops down onto the bed, sighing contentedly. "It feels good to stretch out after that bus ride."

"No kidding. Why did that ride feel longer than the one to get to the beach?"

"You were awake for it, that's probably why."

"True. How long did you say we had until the next bus?"

"About twenty minutes. Then there's one more to the entrance of the park."

"We should probably hurry up and get changed then."

Saki sighs again, as if the burden of doing so is absolutely soul crushing. "Fiiiiine~"

Both of us start looking through our bags trying to find the swimwear we're both going to be wearing for the day. I finally find my trunks, along with a lightweight dark colored shirt. I might be able to swim without it with no issues at Yamaku or on the beach when it's somewhat deserted, but I'm not ready to do that just yet at a waterpark. Saki retreats to the bathroom to change into her swimsuit, which gives me some privacy of my own.

In about two minutes she reemerges, and she's accessorized her white suit with a long colorful towel wrapped around her waist like a flowing skirt. Like with all the other times before it and yet somehow an entirely new experience each time, I immediately think about how it's a great look for her.

A few short minutes later and we've joined Chisato and Noriko down in the lobby, the two of them similarly prepared for the day's activities. Chisato is wearing a much shorter piece of fabric around her waist than Saki is, her towel instead draped around her neck. Noriko has jean shorts on accompanied by a white shirt, the slightly darker outline of her swimsuit visible underneath it.

"Everyone got everything?" I ask, hefting my backpack up on my shoulder. I've consolidated everything Saki and I were taking to the waterpark together into that one bag, and Chisato must have done the same for herself and Noriko. An affirmative nod from the two of them confirms this.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Noriko says, excited. "I haven't been to a waterpark in years!"

"Me neither," I say, sharing her enthusiasm. In spite of the summer heat becoming a bit oppressive over the last few weeks, it's something I've been looking forward to.

As soon as I finish that sentence, a blue bus pulls up to the curb to take us away.

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"You're not getting me on that thing," I say, my voice full of conviction.

"Oh come on, it won't be that bad," Chisato chides.

"After what happened on the last ride?"

"You're supposed to stay in the tube, you know."

I sigh, feeling more tired than I should.

After taking a few minutes to jam our bags into a locker and change out of the last pieces of clothing we needed to, we decided to slowly wander around the park while taking in the sights and thinking out loud about what we wanted to go on.

The park itself is a bit larger than I though it would be. There's an area designed for little kids to splash around in, surrounded by a lazy river that is definitely on my to-do list later. Just next to that is a large wavepool filled with an equal number of tubes and guests, happily jumping into and getting moved around by the waves that start at the back wall and eventually crash on the white concrete shoreline. A modest hill raises near the back corner of the park, and this is where all the slides seem to be. The four of us made our way up the hill, with Saki leaning on me for balance in the areas she didn't have a railing to steady herself.

We've only been here for about half an hour and already something's gone wrong.

As it so happened, the first ride we went on was a large slide that sent riders down one at a time in tubes. I had lost my balance at the last minute while trying to sit in mine, and I couldn't readjust in time before the water swept me down. I had made it three turns before the inflatable steed managed to buck me and go flying over my head, leaving me to enjoy the last half of the slide on my back until I was unceremoniously dumped into the pool. Noriko and Saki had already gone down before I did, so they were able to watch the entire thing. When I finally regained enough composure to get out of the way, part of me was hoping that Chisato would meet the same fate that I had when she came roaring down the slide a few moments later.

No such luck.

And now, looking up at the thing that Chisato has suggested we try next...I'm beginning to wonder if this was such a great idea after all.

A large, reverberating bang echoes, followed by the sounds of a rush of water and a pair of screams. While the logical part of my brain realizes that those screams turned into laughter after only two seconds, the caveman part that survives by decidedly running away from things that cause screaming is less convinced.

"This is new, they didn't have this last year!"

"I'm going," Noriko says, looking towards us with a smile and then breaking into a swift trot for the base of the stairs.

"I swear Hisao, it's not as bad as it looks," Saki says. "You'll have fun."

"The floor drops out and dumps you into the slide! I didn't even know they made a ride like that."

"That's so cool, right?"

"Hell no!"

Bang. Whoosh. More screams.

...and laughter.

"Uuuuugh," I groan. "I really do not want to do this."

"I'd really like to try it, if that's okay?"

Saki knows exactly what she's doing with that sentence. She knows I wouldn't leave her to climb a few flights of stairs on her own, so I'd inevitably end up at the top of the slide anyway with only one quick option to get down.

I relent, my body language causing her eyes to light up before I can even say anything. "All right. But once I'm up there I reserve the right to back out."

"Deal."

A few people have gotten in line between us and the other two girls, but it doesn't take long for us to make our way near the top. Along the way I get a much closer look at the slide in question. It's a straight shot from near vertical at the top to the splash pool at the bottom, but the twist is that you stand on a platform that drops out from under you along with a deluge of water to start the descent.

Bang. Whoosh. Scream. Laughter. The last two sounds actually have a doppler effect as the person making them rockets past us.

Alright. I'll admit there's a little part of me that wants to try it. But it's a small part.