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"Alright, so next on the agenda is my school..."
I was swimming behind Judy. Becca was swimming behind me; she hadn't swum into the house, so for her, Judy had just unexpectedly sped up, trying to swim away from the house in a different direction. I guess I'll have to explain a few things when we get to the surface.
"Judy-Judy, a beggar on a plate!"
"Alvarez is so poor she couldn't even afford parents!"
We froze next to a gas station.
"Is this where the kids would meet up?"
"Well... yeah. There weren't any other places, really. We weren't going to meet up at the school, and there was an old car here..."
Judy nodded toward the car that was rusting next to the gas station.
"...it was awesome to play Max-Tac and cyberpsycho in it... and it was just more fun here, in general..."
"Wow..."
I noticed an umbrella on the bottom and grinned.
"...an umbrella... what could be more useless at the bottom of a lake?"
"Uh... water in a bottle?"
We laughed quietly.
"Maybe in a regular lake, yeah, but everything here is toxic, so water in a bottle... it could be useful if you had a way to drink it."
"Well... then I don't know..."
Judy grinned, and we spent a little time next to the gas station.
"Hmm... why am I getting a strong sense of déjà vu from you?"
Judy asked the question.
"Well... there's a reason, but if you don't mind, I'm not ready to bring that up right now... maybe later, and with everyone at once?"
"Does it concern all of us?"
"Well... not that it concerns you..."
I shrugged.
"It's more just something to think about, something that concerns me. My past..."
"Hmm? Is there something we don't know?"
"Actually, there's a lot. And since this system allows our minds to be connected so tightly, you'll all find out anyway..."
"Is it... something bad?"
"No... more like unusual. Very unusual..."
"Alright, then..."
Judy shrugged, too.
"Oh, a doll... how long has it been lying here? Poor thing..."
"Judy, how about we hang out just the two of us after school tomorrow?"
"Alvarez, where are you? We're losing without you!"
"Sorry, I can't tomorrow..."
"Someone was trying to ask you out here?"
"Yeah..."
A nostalgic smile washed over me from Judy. It was a... strange mood that lasted for about five minutes, during which I didn't try to distract her. I just enjoyed her emotions.
"I didn't realize back then that I didn't like boys at that point in my life... Although..."
Judging by the turn of her helmet and the embarrassment she was directing at me, she was looking at me now.
"...I probably just hadn't met my guy yet..."
"I guess so."
I nodded and once again bathed Judy in the love I felt for her. And this time, I even swam up to her and put my arms around her waist. Judy, meanwhile, put her hands on my shoulders, and her mask lightly bumped against mine.
"Why are you like this..."
"Because I love you..."
"Idiot..."
We hovered like that for a couple of minutes, after which Judy finally pulled away from me and, after quickly looking around, she swam in a direction I didn't know. A little while later, we were in front of an average-looking school.
"Your school?"
"Yeah... but it was boring here. Even in my time, a lot of the learning relied on holograms and shards. I'm guessing you had an even more advanced system at the corporate Academy..."
"Yeah..."
"Well... same here. But my grandparents were pretty educated, and by the time I started school, I already knew more than my classmates... And the gap just kept getting wider over time..."
"Alvarez, you got a five..."
The pride and sadness that Judy was feeling at that moment were pretty vivid.
"Alvarez is showing off again. We need to teach her a lesson..."
"But she's the best player on the team! If she leaves, we're definitely going to lose!"
Feelings of sadness, hurt, and confusion appeared in Judy's emotions, and I knew that she had been listening in on this conversation.
"Alright, but if she keeps showing off, we'll have to teach her a lesson!"
"And?"
"And what?"
"Did they teach you a lesson?"
"Well... they tried, but they didn't have the guts to just jump me at once. So I beat the crap out of two guys from my class..."
Pride and embarrassment from Judy...
"That bitch! You took out Dick's and Max's balls! That's not fair! Get her!"
A feeling of old pain and a hint of pride washed over me.
"And why did you come home looking like this, young lady?"
A bit of fear and resentment toward her grandmother, who had said this, broke through the memories and reached me.
"Dear, don't..."
Her grandfather stood up for his granddaughter, and Judy felt a sense of relief from it.
"...did you win?"
"No..."
And now, shame and guilt.
"But until they jumped me, I managed to take out a couple of guys' balls, and even after that, I didn't hold back... I did everything you taught me..."
Hope for understanding? Yeah, I guess that's how you could interpret the emotions that surfaced with the memories.
"So they're going to call us in to school soon..."
"Uh-huh..."
"Good. Don't worry. Your grandmother and I will show them who's boss..."
"You old fool, what are you teaching our girl?!"
Judy was already feeling a rush of energy from her grandpa's words, and even her grandma's little outburst at him didn't ruin her mood, which was now starting to rise.
"I'm teaching her that family is sacred... and yeah..."
Her grandpa's voice became stern.
"Just because we won't let those idiots' parents get to you doesn't mean you're not going to get a talking to at home. But first, we have to find out the official story, and also talk to you in more detail..."
"Your grandparents are amazing people!"
"You bet they are!"
The pride Judy felt for having such amazing grandparents was just incredible, as was her love for them.
"So what happened in the end? With the fight, I mean?"
"Oh, nothing much, really..."
Judy shrugged.
"...they really did call my grandparents into school, and they told them how bad I was and how I attacked the poor kids..."
Judy scoffed.
"But it turns out they didn't have time, or they just didn't think of it, to get their stories straight. So it was quickly revealed that they were lying, and they believed me. And I didn't lie; I told them what happened..."
"I see... I looked at the sensor on my arm.
"Hmm... time's flying by..."
Judy repeated my gesture and nodded.
"Yeah..."
The sadness that washed over me from her could have been felt even without the synchronization.
"You think we have time to visit one more place?"
In response to my question, Judy looked at the sensor on her arm again, then at me with doubt, and she nodded.
"I think so..."
She quickly swam toward Becca and, grabbing her hand, she checked her sensor. After that, she nodded, and I noticed that through her mask, you could see two barely-visible lights. That means her eyes were glowing, and Becca wasn't bored talking to the girls who were still on the surface...
"Alright, she has even more air than we do... so we can definitely visit one more place, and I suggest the town's church..."
I nodded, and we swam toward the largest building in the town.
When we got to the church, I heard what sounded like bells ringing in my ears... a long, drawn-out... cracked, and slightly creepy sound.
"You know... as a kid, I always thought the church bells sounded creepy. And now, thanks to this tech, it's like I'm hearing them again. Just as creepy as they were before..."
"Yeah... I hear it, too... it's so... cracked."
"Uh-huh..."
We were silent for a bit.
"You think we can get inside?"
That question from Judy made me smile a little, and I shrugged.
"Let's see. After so many years, a hole has probably formed somewhere... at least, that's a pretty likely turn of events."
"Well... let's check it out..."
Judy and I swam around the church.
"You know, when I was a kid, I was always amazed by our priest. I always felt like he knew everything about everyone. He had such a piercing gaze, so understanding and so forgiving. It made me want to tell him everything I had done right away... and whenever I was at mass..."
Judy shook her head, and it was as if I heard what she was talking about...
"...it made me uncomfortable. How could he speak in front of such a crowd? Why didn't he get lost and jumble his words... I gave a few speeches in class and messed up, even though I thought I had memorized everything. But here..."
A wave of conflicting emotions that I couldn't make sense of washed over me.
"Oh, there's a hole..."
I pointed to the church's roof, a part of which had collapsed into the building. In the end, it was through that hole that we got inside.
"It's just the same in here..."
I felt a sense of nostalgia and shame coming from my girl.
"What are you ashamed of?"
"Well... I broke in here once at night. I wanted to feel what the priest felt standing here..."
She pointed to the spot where he usually stood.
"...and talking to people... reading prayers... but it was so creepy at night, and I couldn't take it, and I just screamed!"
"Aaaah-aaaah-aaaaah!"
The old panic and fear were washed away by the shame that Judy was feeling now.
"And what happened after that?"
"Nothing... I just ran away. But every time I went to church after that, I felt like the priest was looking at me, and with a look of judgment..."
I nodded.
"Alright... we have to go..."
Judy looked at the sensor on her arm and swam toward the hole in the roof, through which we left just as we had come in. Becca was waiting for us outside, and together with her, we swam through the town toward the cable I had used to descend.
Well, not just me, but Becca, too. Of all of us, only Judy had descended without using a cable.
"Well..."
When we reached the cable, Judy turned back to the town and looked at it with longing.
"...goodbye, my hometown."
"Why 'goodbye'?"
I put my hand on Judy's shoulder.
"If you want to, we can come back here again..."
"Is there any point to it? I've wanted to come here for a long time, but I just never got around to it... Or rather, there was never anyone I really wanted to be here with, and now..."
She spread her hands, as if to say that we were here with her... as a pair... no, a trio... I almost forgot about Becca.
"What are you so happy about..."
"Oh, nothing... I'm just laughing in my head about how I almost forgot about Becca, who's been following us like a little shadow."
"Heh... you're right about that..."
And we started our ascent to the surface...
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