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Duncan broke into a laugh as he watched his friends flail through the air and plummet into the lake one after another, splashing water at his face in the process. It couldn't have been easy for normies like them to make the jump, especially with that asshole Hiroshi spewing [i]math [/i]at them, but Daisuke and Maki were real ones, and he'd known they wouldn't let him down.

[color=0099aa]"Dude, you should've [i]seen [/i]yourself! Thought you were gonna chicken out for a sec. You owe Maki one for that,"[/color] he shouted as he swam closer to make sure neither of the two had broken any bones — and that they weren't [i]actively drowning[/i] as he spoke. They seemed more or less alive, so he kept going. [color=0099aa]"Tell you what Dai, I'll give ya this one. But next tim—"[/color]

Duncan's mouth closed and eyes opened wide as he saw everyone's gazes turn back towards the tower. He'd expected them to be joined by others eventually, could already see some of their fellow students sliding into the water at the shore, but to see [i]Sasuke [/i]of all people atop the tower was... new. He grinned nonetheless, encouraging the guy all the way down.

[color=0099aa]"Hey, Maki," [/color]Duncan leaned towards her.[color=0099aa] "The show off's trying to one up you. You gonna take that?"[/color] The two might never engage in that epic martial arts fight everyone was hoping for — and that Duncan [i]knew [/i]Maki would win — but maybe he could goad them into a dive-off. 

Whether he could or not, the day at the lake continued, along with the precarious dives. Many of the latter were courtesy of Duncan himself, every impact with water a new wave of relief crashing into him. He did other things too, of course; challenged people into swimming competitions, nearly drowned holding his breath for a time no human should've been able to, and avoided Asahi once he emerged from whatever distant spot of the lake Duncan had accidentally thrown him into. He laughed, he talked shit, and he pulled some of the more unsuspecting floaters under when they least expected it.

Haruko never came to watch. 

Duncan wasn't worried though, not at first. There were far more reasonable explanations to her absence than there were worrisome ones, the sun was shining, the water was cool, and for the first time in what felt like forever, Duncan was feeling great. There was no room for worry in a mind preoccupied by pleasure.

But as the novelty of it all wore off, each jump yielding diminishing returns as far as adrenaline went, Duncan found his gaze drifting back to the shore more and more often in search for a familiar, tiny figure amongst the students. And with every failed attempt, he felt a pang in the back of his mind. Everyone else was here, from what he could tell. Where was she? Was she not feeling well, or something? Resting at the camp?

[color=0099aa]"Be right back, gotta take a leak!" [/color] he shouted back at the others, then swam to shore. 

When Duncan first asked whether one of the students loafing about by the lake had seen Haruko, he wasn't terribly upset when he was met with a shrug. But as one shrug became two, three and then five, he could no longer deny feeling an eerie sense of dread. If she was just resting, [i]someone [/i]should've known about it. 

In the end it was the nerd Fujita that could provide an additional piece of information: Haruko had gone off somewhere — with Akito. At that, Duncan paused, more out of confusion than anything else. What was she doing with [i]Akito[/i], of all people? Dude was a nobody. Had something happened? He knew there'd been some drama between Kogen and Akito last night and that it'd gotten pretty bad, but he hadn't really paid attention to the details, his mind preoccupied by— 

Duncan shook away that thought before it could form, asked which way Fujita'd seen them go, and set out without even bothering to fetch his clothes. Maybe Akito'd been more hurt than he realized and Haruko wanted to care for him, Duncan reasoned. She did that, cared about people. But they wouldn't have needed to leave camp for that. 

If that little shit had any ulterior motives for being alone with his girl, he fucking [i]swore[/i]...

Duncan knew his senses were better now than they'd used to, and for once, it wasn't a nuisance. He focused on listening to the sounds around him, doing his best to filter out the slowly distancing merriment at the lake, the sounds of nature and the quickening of his own heartbeat.

At some point, his hand clenched into a fist.
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