How We Met Again

Chapter 21: Departure!

Then, I leapt, and swung forward. Using the initial drop, I straightened my back, and began to pump my legs. Building up angular momentum, eventually I was flying, swinging back and forth and using all of my effort just to keep the steel chains going. The g-forces on my head as I rocked back and forth, while certainly not extreme, cause some measure of vertigo whenever my head leaned back too far, blood rushing up my neck and into my brain. Sweat dripped down my forehead as I fought desperately against gravity and friction to keep myself going.

Then, finally, as I reached the peak of my swing and let go of the chains, the sun broke to the east.

I flew through the air, and landed on my feet in the soft dirt. The seat I was on, suddenly devoid of the mass that had been holding it at its maximum extension, fell back towards the earth, the chains forming small coils in the air. I turned back around to see it swing high up again, and then curl back in on itself once more and fall directly downwards -- before slamming into the potential barrier that was the maximum extent of the chains, and violently bounce around before coming to a standstill.

Another bead of sweat rolled down my face, and I wiped it off hastily. Leaving the swing behind, I turned back around, and walked over to the edge of the park, leaning over a railing and overlooking the town below. With the sun having risen, I could see the houses much more clearly, and the people slowly beginning to stir amongst them. The silence, once broken by the creaking of the chains and my pants of exertion, had returned in force.

Only then did it occur to me that the flavour had changed.

As I gazed out over the silent homes, the distinct taste of loneliness that had permeated the early morning silence, the one which I'd contrasted with my own isolation, was gone. Well... perhaps "gone" was too strong of a word. It was still present, but its profile had changed. The flavour had deepened, and loneliness alone was no longer the word to describe it. With its complex layers, maybe a single word just wasn't enough anymore.

Or maybe... maybe the silence isn't what changed. Maybe I did. Maybe I still am.

What I was changing into, however, I didn't yet know. All I knew was that change had occurred, and would almost certainly continue to occur. Feeling vaguely disturbed at this revelation, I pushed away from the railing, began to make my way out of the park, and slowly began the return home.

About five minutes later, as I was waiting to cross the road at an intersection, I saw a girl in a red tracksuit run up to the other side of the crosswalk. She was jogging in place, presumably to keep up her circulation -- and then when the light changed, she looked right and left, and crossed the street at a brisk pace. She charged right past me, as I hadn't moved a muscle since I'd spotted her.

"Yotsuba?"

She turned back around, taking an earbud out of her ear, a confused look on her face -- and then reeled back in surprise.

"Eh?! Uesugi-san? I didn't recognize you! You're... you're not in the school uniform!"

"Seriously? You don't recognize me by my face?" I asked, slightly wounded.

She shook her head. "It's not that, I just wasn't expecting to see you here, especially this early in the morning!"

"Ah, well, I wasn't expecting to run into you either," I said mildly.

Come to think of it, I have no room to talk about not recognizing people by their faces...

"Why are you over near my house, by the way?" she asked, still jogging in place. "We're pretty far from your place, aren't we?"

I frowned. "Are we that near to your apartment? I just got up to go for an early-morning walk, and I only walked for about half an hour, I think. I'm pretty sure your place is further than that, right?"