Taimu's Story: 78
You must not run across a suspension bridge...!
Well then, here we go!!
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Karen runs as if bouncing on the suspension bridge, which is swaying violently as if waves were rising.
Her body feels light, as if it doesn't even belong to her.
When her feet land on the planks, they sink deep with a thud, and when she kicks off, she feels as if she is being pushed forward with a snap, with force transmitting all at once from her toes through her entire body.
Perhaps it is like the trampoline she used in gym class, or the feeling of jumping with momentum from a swing she was pumping at the park with her friends.
It felt as if her body was moving more boldly and grandly than she could ever imagine in her head, strongly supported by forces other than her own toward the direction she wanted to go.
(━━━━!)
With each step, her body bounces higher and higher, and Karen's spirits rise even further.
As her movements become more vigorous, there is certainly a part of Karen that feels the fear of "what if I fall..."
However, the feeling of floating in the air when her body bounces up, and the sensation of riding out a force that might be beyond her control at the very edge, gives her a "thrilling, mysterious feeling" that Karen has never experienced before.
(Perhaps...
Is it always like this━━)
As the suspension bridge, the sky, the river, and the shining wind fly behind Karen with tremendous force, she can see Taimu's small figure in the center—clinging to the wire rope for dear life with a limp body, looking back at her.
If she takes her eyes off him for even a moment, he repeats reckless things that Karen finds unbelievable, over and over again.
But perhaps there is a reason for that recklessness.
...Actually, Karen could have just ignored Taimu's "vulgar behavior" from earlier.
She could have just been a little exasperated, acted aloof as usual, and walked across the bridge to follow Taimu.
But she didn't.
For some reason, she found herself thinking that she wanted to run to Taimu with all her might.
Perhaps "something of Taimu" had "rubbed off" on Karen.
━━That wasn't so bad either.
A smile appears on Karen's face.
In complete contrast to Karen, Taimu's face is stiff with fear.
The wildly moving suspension bridge shakes Taimu's body up and down.
Of course, he had long since tucked the wire rope under his armpits and was gripping it tightly.
If it were just moving side to side, he might have managed.
But on a suspension bridge that sways up and down like waves, no matter how tightly you hold onto the wire rope, once your body is tossed up, that's the end of it.
The planks under his feet drop away as if slipping out, or conversely, they are thrust upward, and his feet cannot find any footing at all, making the lower half of his body look like it is doing a violent dance.
He couldn't do anything about it himself, so he just entrusted his body to the wire rope, thinking it was better than not holding on at all.
"K-Karen-chan..."
I'm seriously sorry, really━━forgive me!"
He calls out, but his body is shaking so much that he can't form the words properly.
"G-Ka-hen-han...
Ma-hi-he-go-hen, hon-ho━━yu-fu-shi-he!"
His mouth won't move properly, and it comes out all strange like that.
While he is doing that, Karen gets closer and closer to Taimu.
(━━━━!)
Near the middle of the suspension bridge, just a step or two away from reaching Taimu... Karen stomped on the plank with her foot, harder than ever before.
With that same momentum, she tried to overtake Taimu at the very edge of the suspension bridge, the opposite of what Taimu did at the stairs on the cliff earlier.
Taimu was surprised by this.
Because Karen stomped on the plank near him, the plank Taimu was standing on also sank down with a jolt.
Taimu felt as if his body were slipping and falling downward.
He really thought the board under his feet had disappeared.
(Eh...?)
A panicked Taimu curls his body up tightly and crouches down on the plank.
That, combined with Karen's foot stomp, causes the suspension bridge where they are standing to sink even further.
(No way...!)
Karen was also surprised.
The plank had sunk lower than she had expected.
That was caused by Taimu crouching down, but of course, Karen didn't know that.
If she kept this up, she would miss her footing on the plank... Her body moved naturally before she could even think about it in her head.
She curled her whole body to match the sinking, and put her weight on the plank her foot was on, stepping down firmly.
And then━━
Just like a rubber band pulled by a finger snapping back all at once, the suspension bridge, which had sunk deeply in the middle, now recoiled strongly in the opposite direction━━upward.
A groaning sound came from the entire suspension bridge, their bodies were tossed up into the air, and the large straw hat Karen was wearing fluttered off her head into the air.
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Once again... you must not run across a suspension bridge!
See you next time!
Rui Kobayashi