"Floating" High School Girl Ibuki Shimizu, Taking Off. #06

Chapter 6: Free Floating Altitude: 2.5m Buoyancy: 137N

Ceiling Proximity Warning

"…I bumped my forehead."

Ibuki Shimizu held her brow while gently reaching out to a pipe on the ceiling.
It was as if the "sky" was gradually closing in on her.

She had tied her rope to the "Floater Hook" installed by the classroom window, just like every other morning.
But today, something was different.
It wasn't the floor that was close, but the ceiling. No, it was far too close.

What entered her field of vision were the fluorescent light frames, panels with tangled wiring, and accumulated dust—.
All of these were at a distance she would normally only see while peering from a stepladder during cleaning.
Now, they were right at eye level.

"…Teacher, you should probably get the fluorescent lights cleaned."
"You do it while you're at it."

The classroom laughed warmly at the homeroom teacher's retort.
But outside that circle of laughter, Ibuki's body creaked as if being pressed against the ceiling.
Her uniform blouse rubbed against the ceiling, and her body brushed against the air softly like a mop.

The safety belt around her waist dug into her as it tried to hold her back by force.
Her buoyancy had long since far exceeded gravity.

She was reaching the limit of what she could endure while living within the confines of the indoors. Ibuki herself understood that best.

During lunch break, she was pulled out to the schoolyard by Kazusa and the others.
The ground felt strangely far away. As everyone sat in a circle munching on bread, their figures looked like miniatures to Ibuki, who was looking down from the sky.

"…Somehow, everyone looks so tiny."

"That's just because your eyesight is getting worse, Ibuki."

Kazusa said with a laugh, tying a plastic bottle to a rope with a pulley. With a light signal from her palm, it was pulled up into the sky with a spin.
Such makeshift elevators had become indispensable to Ibuki's life.

"But you know… when I'm up here, I can't smell the ground.
The soil, the grass… that scent of everyday life mixed together."

While holding down the hem of her skirt fluttering in the wind, Ibuki stared blankly at the sky—no, she looked down at the ground.
By now, her sense of which way was "up" had become ambiguous.

After school, the two of them were at the edge of the schoolyard.
As the spring breeze blew through, Kazusa said quietly.

"Hey, Ibuki. You've been laughing less lately, haven't you?"

"Do you think so? I'm laughing, properly. Even now."

"…Yeah. But still."

Kazusa's words did not continue any further.
Ibuki swayed softly, smiling quietly in the sky.

"After all, the school trip is coming up soon, right? I'll be cheering for you from the sky. Make sure to buy me some Yatsuhashi."

"...Yeah. I'll definitely bring them to you."

Kazusa looked down and nodded.

Ibuki's smile was like a balloon.
Light, bright, and yet, somehow lonely.

—As if at any moment, she might ride the wind and drift off to the other side of the sky.

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