Chapter 66
Swimming pool
The whistle had an aftertaste of chlorine; Kazuki signalled for the next batch of students to get ready. The race was fifty metres. They passed in front of him at full speed, splashing his feet, forgetting that harsh strokes did not equal speed.
I’m going to have to show them again. Especially Hiroshi.
Across the pool, Elyna stood with her clipboard and chronometer, supervising the other lane.
She’d been in the water earlier to demonstrate that perfect stroke he’d wanted to show his students.
Forty-two seconds for fifty metres, flowing through the water like the sea fairy he’d dubbed her.
Cornwall’s currents had taught her well.
But there was no ignoring how the graceful arch of her hips was enhanced by the little flaring skirt. And that blasted white ribbon, purposefully calling his gaze to her chest. Ah! He suddenly understood his hormonal teenage boys. His eyes couldn’t help but linger.
It’s the first time I find a regulation swimsuit sexy.
Memories assaulted him; those curves pressed against him, his hand roaming her spine as he worshipped her mouth. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple despite the cool air. This is a new creative kind of torture.
Christmas was long gone now, but he couldn’t forget the weight of her beside him on the futon.
The soft sounds she made in sleep, the way morning light caught in her hair when she stirred awake.
To have tasted that impossible dream had ruined him.
And their single night on Valentine’s Day had not been nearly enough to replenish that visceral need.
He yearned for her presence like a man starved; it wasn’t only desire that threatened to eat him alive, but longing. An impossible dream that had briefly become real, and now tugged at his heart.
Elyna might be a legal adult, but as long as she worked under his supervision, she would sit on the wrong side of an invisible line. Unfortunately, Kazuki knew exactly what he was being denied.
He forced himself to look away, jaw clenched against the frustration. Even from this distance, he could see the goosebumps rising on Elyna’s skin. Yet, he couldn’t walk over there and wrap her in his arms. Couldn’t do anything that would draw attention to them.
"Sensei, what’s my time?” Kawasaki called from lane three.
“T-time?” Kazuki cleared his throat, glancing at his chronometer; it was still running. He considered computing an average of Kawasaki’s usual times in his mind, but it wouldn’t be fair, would it?
“I’m sorry, it seems I didn’t stop the watch properly. I’m afraid you’ll have to go again.”
When Kawasaki sighed in defeat, guilt churned in his gut. This was highly unprofessional.
Focus, Kazu!
His gaze drifted back across the pool. Elyna’s lips were turning blue.
Kazuki frowned; she usually handled the cold much better than he did.
His stomach clenched. Is she getting sick?
Then he recalled the way she’d almost melted at the festival, his heart growing fond. Understanding dawned in his mind.
Dry cold, check. Wet cold, nope.
His golden lady was trying to hide it, maintaining her professional demeanour as she timed another student, but her shoulders were hunched against the cold.
Enough. He raised his hand, signalling his students to pause. “Break. Two minutes.”
Kazuki circled the pool, telling himself it was supervisory duty, nothing more. But with each step, the need to be near her pulled like a gravitational force.
Elyna looked up as he approached, those storm-blue eyes catching his. For a heartbeat, the humid air between them felt charged. His gaze arrested on her blue-tinged lips; it would be so easy to capture them, to make her blood flow with passion instead of discipline.
“Elyna-san,” he said, keeping his voice neutral despite the way his pulse raced. “Go change.”
She hesitated, clearly about to protest. He gave her a pointed look, letting concern flicker through for just a moment before schooling his features. “That’s an order.”
In his peripheral vision, he caught Daichi staring at Elyna with obvious interest, the kind of lingering look that made Kazuki’s jaw clench. The boy wasn’t even trying to be subtle.
Kazuki sent a look sharp enough that Daichi scurried away. When he turned back, Elyna was biting her lip in amusement, eyes crinkling at the corner. She’d caught that. Of course she had. A flush crept up his neck; he breathed it away.
“Hai, Sano-sensei,” she finally bowed, the formality almost teasing. Then she handed him her clipboard and chronometer, her fingers brushing his for the briefest moment—cool skin against warm.
He wanted to wrap his hands around hers. Instead, he took the equipment and stepped back, watching her head towards the women’s changing area before disappearing through the door.
Kazuki exhaled slowly, trying to summon his professional mask. This is getting more and more difficult. At least she’d be warm soon.
“Sensei?”
“Next group, positions!” The whistle’s shrill sound felt too harsh to his ears, but he needed the mental slap.
The next group of swimmers was preparing for their laps, and he forced himself to focus on the familiar routine of checking times and stroke efficiency.
He’d just signalled the beginning of another race when he felt his knees wobble.
Then, a rumble he'd felt too often, sending adrenalin crashing in his veins.
“Earthquake!” someone shouted in the pool. Underneath his bare feet, the building gently swayed, dancing lazily. On the other end, the facility instructor caught his eye and pointed to the far wall, yelling. “Out of the water! Everyone out! NOW!”
Pulse quickening, Kazuki turned to his own class to relay the instructions.
“Out! Out! Against the far wall!”
The swaying intensified, shaking the building that started to protest with ominous groans.
Kuso! Not here, not now!
Water sloshed over his feet; fifty metres of liquid started to sway back and forth, building waves of terrible power that knocked students over as they rushed to scramble out. Ice crashed in his veins; this was millions of litres!
The pool turned into an ocean storm contained in concrete; water surged upwards in huge waves before crashing back, sending spray across the entire deck.
Kazuki abandoned his whistle to help his students out of the chaos. “Yabai! Yabai!” some of them screamed, desperately clinging to the edges to avoid being flung against the tiles.
On the far side of the pool, Elyna was running towards them, half dressed. Then a student crashed into him, nearly knocking them both into the churning water. Kazuki grabbed the boy’s shoulders and pushed him towards the far wall. “Go! Move!”
When he looked up, Elyna was gone.
His heart skipped a beat; he scanned the pool, only to spot her in the water, swimming towards a terrified girl struggling at the centre of the pool. The kid was too small to be his, probably one of the younger students from the other instructor’s group.
“Out of the water!” he yelled, almost desperate. His clipboard abandoned, Kazuki spared a worried look at the ceiling when the building groaned; the rack of overhead lights was swaying violently. Water sloshed over the pool’s deck in angry waves, almost mowing him down in the process.
Ignoring his own panic, Kazuki grabbed the nearest student by the shoulder and hauled him towards safety. Haruki soon joined him, crouched to pull swimmers up while his feet braced against the slick tiles.
“Far wall! Crouch down beside the far wall!” Kazuki bellowed as he pulled Sako up. The ground kept shaking beneath his feet, making the wet tiles dangerously slippery. He caught another boy by the elbow, steadying him as he stumbled away from the unleashed waters.
The fucking earth wouldn’t stop shaking; every step was a stumble as he hoisted his students to safety. As he returned for the umpteenth time, Kazuki spotted Shūji on the far end. The boy was herding out some of his comrades.
“Shūji!” he pointed to a couple of students being sloshed around like planks in a storm. “Help them!” he shouted over the chaos.
Fortunately, Shūji’s kendō training showed as he burst through a wall of water to shield his comrades before pushing them towards Haruki’s waiting hands.
As he rounded the pool, struggling against the insistent roll of the tiles beneath his feet, Kazuki spotted Kawasaki grabbing onto Tanaka’s arm as they made it to the shallow end together.
Everywhere, his students helped each other, holding up, supporting, swaying with the land. But even as a boy’s fingernails dug into his forearms in desperation, his gaze looked for Elyna.
There she was; she’d caught the terrified child now. On the far side, the other swimming instructor was completely overwhelmed; his classes were younger students, and the fright had scattered them to the high winds.
Kazuki’s eyes snapped back to Elyna. Should he jump in? Above the pool, a light fixture sizzled, the entire rack shaking. Kuso! If that fell into the water, if the electricity hit… His chest seized.
“Shūji!” he yelled, but the boy was already running to the meeting point.
One out, one more to go. Two, actually.
A violent surge rose between Elyna and her destination, crashing over both girls. She used the backlash swell, tearing through the water to push the kid in the next wave; the momentum deposited the girl on the tiles like a penguin onto ice.
Haruki hauled the girl up before the water could claim her, ignoring her sobbing as he pulled her away from the treacherous pool side.
“Haruki, go!” Kazuki barked, pointing towards the far wall.
The boy probably responded, but Kazuki’s hands were extended to receive Elyna.
Unfortunately, the backlash wave dragged her away, swallowing her back into the churning chaos.
Destabilised by the sheer strength of the current that washed over his feet, Kazuki dropped to his knees.
A sharp edge bit into the left one; he ignored the pain, high on adrenalin.
Another wave slammed into the concrete, splashing him mercilessly; his eyes closed against the onslaught, chlorine assaulting his nose.
When he managed to open them again, the ground was slowly stabilising, but not the churning waters.
Kazuki scanned the surface with growing panic.
Where is she, damn it?
Bracing against another violent surge, Kazuki felt his heart wilt with every passing moment, seconds stretching like the ultimate scene of a horror movie. She was right there, right fucking there…
When the next swell rose, he didn’t expect it to be loaded with a sea fairy.
Yet, Elyna emerged from the depths with ease, taking advantage of the current to land at his feet with enough grace to cause him a heart attack.
He didn’t hesitate a second; he lurched forward as she reached up, fingers gripping her wrist with desperate strength.
The swell tried to claim her one last time, a furious pull that would have dragged her away if not for his unshakeable resolve; Kazuki held on, propriety be damned, until he could haul her against his stuttering heart.
“Move!” He dragged her across the slippery deck towards the far wall where his class huddled. Another aftershock shook the building, weaker but still enough to make the lights rattle overhead and the water slosh again, spraying them in the process. The tremor’s last stand.
Kazuki’s hand reluctantly left Elyna’s shoulder as soon as she crouched beside him. “Is anyone hurt?” he asked, already spotting traces of blood running down shins and elbows. Nothing looked serious enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. “We’re mostly fine, sensei,” Haruki-kun responded.
Kami-sama bless my class representative.
“Don’t move yet,” he ordered. “Cover your heads and stay down until it stops completely.”
The girl that Elyna had dragged out of the water was crying quietly against Haruki’s shoulder while Shūji kept one protective arm around a shivering student. Kazuki started a headcount; all there, all breathing, and nothing broken.
Relief hit him like a freight train; his knees buckled, and he caught himself with one palm against the wet tiles.
They’re safe. She’s safe.