“Half-shark...?” I repeated, instinctively leaning back.

  Samejima burst out laughing.

  “Don't be scared! I'm not going to bite you. Well... unless you provoke me,” she joked, making a threatening face at me.

  I jumped a little in surprise, and she couldn't contain her laughter. She laughed so hard that she ended up wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

  I looked away, feeling the heat rise to my ears.

  “It's not funny,” I protested.

  “Hey, Daichi... can I ask you a favor?”

  “What favor?”

  “Now that you know the whole truth... could you keep it a secret?”

  I could tell from her expression that she really trusted me. It seemed important to her that I keep it a secret.

  “Don't worry. I won't tell anyone.”

  Samejima exhaled and shrugged her shoulders, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her.

  “Thank you, Daichi!” she said, giving me a big smile.

  ◇◇◇

  The next day, I arrived at school determined to stick to my plan of not drawing attention to myself. However, less than five minutes after I sat down at my desk, the classroom door burst open and a voice exploded into the air.

  “GOOD MORNING, Daichi!”

  It was Samejima, bursting in like a whirlwind. The entire classroom froze, dozens of heads turned, and all eyes were on me.

  For a second, I thought about hiding under my desk.

  ◇◇◇

  It was time for physical education. I was changing in the locker room, trying to ignore the curious glances of my classmates, but it wasn't long before they approached me.

  “Hey, Hamasaki, what's your relationship with the new girl?” one of my classmates asked.

  “Uh... I don't know,” I said, feeling uncomfortable. “We're just... friends.”

  Whispers began to rise among them.

  “You're so lucky!” said another. “She's really cute. A lot of people would love to have the chance to get along with her like that.”

  I started to feel a little overwhelmed by the comments. I had no idea how to respond.

  Luckily, before I could think too much about it, the teacher entered the locker room and ordered us to hurry up.

  We went out into the courtyard, and the fresh air gave me a breath of relief after the interrogation in the locker room. The teacher gathered us all together and announced that we would be doing a running activity to measure our endurance and speed.

  The idea of running didn't excite me much, but at least it would be a good way to clear my mind. As the teacher divided us into groups, I realized that Samejima and I had ended up in different groups.

  My group was up first, and I took my place at the starting line. I had a knot in my stomach that I couldn't quite explain. Suddenly, I heard Samejima's voice from a distance, cheering me on with too much energy.

  “Come on, Daichi! You can do it!”

  Her shouts made me so nervous that I didn't hear the teacher blow the whistle in time. When I realized it, I immediately started running so I wouldn't fall behind. Fortunately, I had a good time, so I think everything turned out fine.

  Now it was the turn of the group Samejima was in, and I couldn't help but notice how her expression became one of complete concentration. Does she know this is just a school race?

  The teacher blew the whistle, and in an instant, she lunged forward with impressive speed. I was surprised to see her leave her classmates behind so easily.

  The others were also watching with their mouths agape.

  When she crossed the finish line, the teacher stopped the stopwatch with a look of amazement, muttering something about an absolute record.

  Right after that, I noticed that Samejima wasn't stopping; on the contrary, she continued running in a straight line, straight towards a pile of mats and several hurdles.

  “Samejima-san! You can stop now!” the teacher told her.

  “I can't!” she replied.

  Did she just say she can't? What do you mean, she can't?

  Samejima crashed headlong into the tower of mats, and the hurdles flew in all directions. The teacher ran towards her at full speed, while the rest of the group watched with concern.

  I was also worried and quickly approached them. Samejima was lying on her back with her arms outstretched, and to my surprise, she burst out laughing.

  The teacher crouched down beside her and asked if she was okay. Instead of complaining, she jumped up, brushed the dirt off her knees, and bowed exaggeratedly.

  “I'm fine! It was just an accident. Sorry for the commotion!”

  The tension suddenly eased, and everyone began to murmur among themselves.

  The teacher sighed, relieved that it had all been just a scare, but still told her to go to the nurse's office to make sure she wasn't injured. Then he looked at me, standing next to him, and asked me to accompany her.

  “Hamasaki-kun, could you walk her there?”

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  I nodded.

  We walked together through the school hallways. Samejima hopped happily from one foot to the other, as if nothing had happened.

  When we were far enough away, I plucked up the courage to ask her:

  “Why didn't you stop when you were running?”

  “I wanted to stop! But it's very difficult to do that when I'm running. Sharks aren't made to stop suddenly when they're moving, you know?”

  I sighed.

  “Samejima-san, you should try not to draw so much attention to yourself, don't you think?”

  “Do you think they already know about me?!”

  “Hmm... I don't think so. But if you keep doing strange things, they might start to suspect something.”

  She thought about it for a second and then nodded.

  “Okay... I'll try not to draw too much attention to myself.”

  When we finally arrived at the infirmary, I knocked on the door and poked my head in, expecting to find the nurse there, but the place was empty.

  “Looks like no one's here. I guess we'll have to wait for the nurse to come back.”

  Samejima walked straight to the nearest stretcher and flopped down on it, as if it were her mattress at home.

  “Oh, how comfortable!” she said, stretching her legs.

  Suddenly, her expression became more serious and she began to look suspiciously at the other stretchers.

  “Is something wrong?”

  Samejima sniffed the air. Literally, as if she were looking for something.

  “There's someone else here.”

  “I don't see anyone.”

  She shook her head slowly and sniffed the air again.

  She began to walk slowly toward the last stretcher. Her steps were so stealthy that, for a moment, I thought I was watching a predator on the prowl.

  “Are you sure you're feeling okay?”

  “Shhh,” she motioned for me to be quiet.

  Without warning, she pulled back the curtain on the stretcher.

  The stretcher was empty, there was definitely no one there... but Samejima lunged forward and seemed to have caught something invisible.

  “I found you!”

  At that moment, a silhouette began to appear. Out of nowhere, a girl with purple hair appeared in front of us, trembling with fear.

  She was wearing her school uniform.

  Her eyes filled with tears and she immediately began to struggle, trying to break free from Samejima's relentless embrace.

  “D-don't hurt me!” she cried, her voice breaking.

  I couldn't quite process what I had just seen.

  She was an invisible girl. Truly invisible.

  “Calm down, calm down, we're not going to hurt you,” said Samejima. “What's your name?”

  The girl hesitated, looked to the side, and then whispered,

  “I'm... Umino Takoko... a first-year student.”

  Samejima, who was still holding her, looked at her with a mixture of fascination and tenderness.

  “How adorable you are! I want to eat you up!”

  Umino immediately let out a panicked scream. She managed to break free from Samejima's grip and scurried away to hide behind me.

  “Samejima-san, that's enough,” I said, stepping in between them. “You're scaring her.”

  “I'm sorry! It was just a joke.”

  I turned my gaze to Umino, who was still trembling behind me.

  “You have nothing to fear. Samejima... sometimes gets overly excited, but she's a good person.”

  Samejima approached.

  “You said you're a first-year, right?” she asked, tilting her head curiously.

  Umino nodded.

  "That makes us your senpais! I never thought I'd have such an adorable kōhai!“

  I looked closely at Umino, trying to remember if I had seen her before in the hallways, but I couldn't recognize her.

  ”I've never seen you before, Umino-san. Are you a new student?“

  Umino peeked out from behind me and shook her head.

  ”I'm not new... It's just that no one usually notices me. I'm... very good at blending in.“

  Samejima looked at me, as if expecting me to notice something.

  ”Did you notice, Daichi?“

  ”Notice what?“

  ”She's a demi-human too!"

  I looked at Umino, and immediately everything made sense. It wasn't exactly normal to meet an invisible girl.

  Umino blinked and panicked.

  “W-what?! Why are you revealing it so easily?” she reproached Samejima, not daring to hold her gaze. “It's supposed to be a secret...”

  Samejima laughed and waved her hand in the air.

  “Don't worry! Daichi is trustworthy.”

  I saw Umino silently assessing me, as if deciding whether or not I posed a threat.

  I sighed.

  “Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone.”

  Samejima nodded beside me, reaffirming that she could trust me.

  Finally, Umino seemed to relax and stopped hiding behind me.

  I sat down in one of the chairs in the infirmary and took a breath.

  “Umino-san, if you don't mind... can I ask you something?”

  She nodded.

  “Samejima-san told me that she's half-shark... I was wondering... What animal are you?”

  Umino seemed embarrassed, as if the question had taken her by surprise.

  “I'm an octopus...” she replied shyly, as if expecting us to make fun of her.

  Samejima jumped a little.

  “You're an octopus?! That's amazing!”

  Umino looked down.

  “It's nothing special...” she muttered. “I can just, you know, turn invisible and... stuff like that.”

  “Nothing special?!” Aoi interrupted indignantly. “That's incredible! Imagine all the things you could do with that: it's perfect for spying, for escaping, or for... well, for almost anything. It's a phenomenal ability!”

  I became thoughtful, imagining how cool it would be to have that ability.

  “Honestly, I think it would be incredible to be invisible.”

  Umino didn't know how to respond. She stared at the floor, her cheeks red and her hands clasped together.

  Suddenly, the infirmary door opened, and the nurse entered carrying a tray with bandages and bottles of disinfectant.

  “Good morning!” she greeted us with a distracted smile. “Sorry for the delay.”

  The nurse went to Umino first.

  “Umino-chan, is your headache gone?”

  Umino nodded without speaking, and the nurse ruffled her hair affectionately before turning to Samejima.

  “You must be... Samejima-san, right? What happened to you?”

  Samejima puffed out her chest, as if she were proud of what had happened to her.

  “I bumped into something while running in a race, but I'm really fine. It was just a scratch.”

  The nurse laughed and bent down, checking Samejima's scrapes.

  "Even if you say you're fine, you have to stay so I can check you out and clean those wounds properly. We don't want them to get infected,“ she said kindly as she looked for gauze.

  Samejima snorted, resigned.

  ”Do I really have to stay here?“

  ”At least until I finish cleaning your wounds and confirm that you're okay.“

  The nurse turned to me.

  ”Oh! Hamasaki-kun! Thank you so much for accompanying her."

  I stood up and bowed slightly.

  “It was nothing.”

  “I'll take care of her, you can go back to class now.”

  “Understood, thank you, sensei.”

  I said goodbye with a small bow.

  Samejima waved goodbye to me.

  “See you, Daichi!”

  I left the infirmary with my heart racing and headed back to the court.