No Mountain High Enough
Chapter Ten: Proof

As the waster cascaded from the hose nozzle, Noe swing it around so that the steam hit Nakatsu dead in the face. The bleach-blonde sputtered angrily, abandoning the full bucket of water he held and tackling Noe bodily. The early-summer day was rent with battle cries and shrieks. Dorm 2 was outside after school, enjoying their time off and the use of a nearby hose and spigot.

Sekime, on crutches two weeks after his fall, cheered them on in turn from his seat on the grass nearby.

"Get the hose from him, Nakatsu! Throw him off, Noe!"

Mizuki laughed as Noe threatened to shove the hose up Nakatsu's nostril, turning to Sano. "What weirdos. Why do we hang out with them again?"

"Beats me." Sano yawned lazily, leaning back in the grass. "Ugh, I'm still wiped from the race."

Mizuki nodded, running her hand through Yujiro's fur. "That was way too much excitement than what I signed up for."

Sano shifted to look at her. "Is the world ending, or were you joking?"

"What?"

"Too much excitement for you? Ashiya, the world's most fearless thrill-seeker, has had too much excitement from a small romp in the mountains?" Sano teased, poking at his friend's side. "Wasn't it your idea in the first place?"

"Mine and Nakatsu's." Mizuki corrected. "That wasn't just my fault."

"It wasn't either of your faults, what happened." Sano said grimly. He reached over Mizuki to pat Yujiro's head, and earned a sloppy lick on the hand.

"I know…" Mizuki sighed. "Say, did the race officials ever release what happened to the press? I haven't been watching the news."

Sano allowed himself a smile. "No, but no news is good news. If they turned themselves in quietly, then the officials would have kept it quiet."

Two Weeks Prior

Mizuki had never been so glad to see Hokuto Umeda. The doctor was standing by the helicopter pad, body language speaking his displeasure in volumes. Next to him was a man with the Tokyo Academy colors on his jacket; Mizuki assumed he was there for Kagurazaka.

The large helicopter she, Sano and Kagurazaka sat in slowly lowered itself onto the pad like an overgrown, mechanical bird of prey, and without waiting for the blades to slow, Doctor Umeda and the Tokyo Academy man rushed foreword.

Umeda looked Sano and Mizuki over quickly, looking for any large physical damage. When he didn't find any, he put his hands on their opposite cheeks and banged their heads together.

"Ouch! Doctor, what was that for?-!"

"That's for leaving your group." Umeda snapped. "What part of 'stick together' do you not understand? Obviously, something must be confusing because the moment something goes wrong you decided to play hero and run off without a walkie-talkie and-"

"We had good reasons-" Mizuki started furiously, but Umeda clapped a long-fingered hand over her mouth.

"Enough! I know you had good intentions, however…"

As the doctor began to lecture them, Mizuki smiled to herself as it suddenly dawned on her; Umeda was behaving so strangely because he had been worried about them. She resisted the urge to hug him.

"-And next time, if I even catch you stepping out of line, there will be hell to pay." Umeda finished. Mizuki grinned at him.

"Thanks for caring."

"You're welcome." Umeda snapped.

Kagurazaka had finished his reunion with the Tokyo Academy coach, and led him over to the small Osaka group. "Sano, Ashiya, we need to report how the bridge was cut."

Umeda looked at Kagurazaka coolly. "That is also what I heard from the other competitors in the Osaka team, and race officials checked it out when they picked up the remainder of the Osaka and Tokyo teams. They agree with you; but there's no evidence as to who were the perps. Three other teams used the same bridge that you and Kagurazaka's team did; Nagasaki Central, the Kanazawa team, and the team from Kóbe."

Sano spoke up quietly for the first time since getting off of the helicopter. "Is the race over with yet?"

The Tokyo coach looked over at him. "No, but the first teams, Yokohama and Nagasaki, radioed in at the last checkpoint about twelve hours ago. It won't be long before the winners come in."

Sano nodded, silently digesting the information. As Umeda and the Tokyo coach moved away to speak with an approaching official, Sano spoke to Mizuki and Kagurazaka in an undertone. "Remember when I said I had a suspicion of who cut the bridge?"

"Yeah?" Kagurazaka crossed his arms.

"Well, now I'm sure of it. When you made the radio check point call the day Sekime fell, there was some interference, and I thought I recognized Tsubasa's voice radioing in for the second checkpoint. That would have put them about two hours ahead of us, because the second checkpoint was about that far from the bridge in decent weather. That means Tsubasa's team would have crossed the bridge at dawn, or slightly before, and by the time we got to it, they were already leaving the second checkpoint."

"But a different team could have come in behind them, and in front of us." Mizuki protested.

"That's what I thought, until the Tokyo coach told us who was in the lead." Sano murmured. "Only two teams were coming in first, and one of them, the Yokohama team, wasn't one of the teams who used that bridge. I'd be willing to bet that Tsubasa kept his team going hard to beat everyone, while doing dirty tricks along the way. I know of the team captains from those other two teams from track. They're too honorable to do anything as dangerous as cutting the bridge."

"I believe it." Mizuki's eyes were wide. "But that's not good enough proof to get Tsubasa in trouble."

"You're right." Sano whispered. "But that's not stopping us from getting the proof." His eyes were hard. "No one puts my friends in danger and gets away with it."

Kagurazaka's expression was similarly cold. "Tell us your plan."

As the Tokyo coach had predicted, the first team crossed the finish line in a relatively short time after the helicopter brought Mizuki and her friends in. They had joined their other teammates at the finish line, Sekime looking well except for a cast on his leg and a pair of crutches. However, all of the Junk Boys, and Tsubasa's team, looked furious on missing out on the race.

"From what the helicopter people said, we were towards the front of the pack." Nakatsu said bitterly. "We coulda pushed hard after the second check-point and won the thing."

A boy from the Tokyo team had similar feelings. "Yeah, us too. If I ever figure out the fucken' punk who cut that damn bridge, I'm gonna…" He thwacked his palm with a fist. His teammates murmured their agreement, scowling.

Sekime felt horrible for the whole thing, and had apologized profusely. However no one, not even the Tokyo team, held him responsible, but he still felt guilty. He kept apologizing until Kagurazaka threatened to hit him with a crutch if he didn't stop. Then, Sekime had assumed an angelic expression and had said, "You wouldn't hurt a cripple, would you?"

A roar went up from the small crowd of locals and families of the competitors who had gathered around the finish line. The Junk Boys and the Tokyo team quickly stopped talking and strained to see the first team in.

Six boys slowly came into view, running full-out up the steep path. Each one looked exhausted but exhilarated, putting their last reserve of energy into the final stretch. Urged on by the onlookers, they came pounding up the hill, and the first runner broke through the paper ribbon tied across the finish line. The team from Yokohama had won.

Sano looked satisfied. "Even with cheating, Tsubasa couldn't win!"

Indeed, the Nagasaki team came in about ten minutes later, running full-out as the Yokohama team had been. They faltered as they saw the broken ribbon, but ran across the finish line all the same. Sano, Mizuki, and Kagurazaka watched closely as Tsubasa shook hands with his coach, and then as he followed his team towards a large tent set up for the finished teams. Walking quickly, they followed him.

"Tsubasa." Sano spoke loud enough for only the high-jumper to hear him. Tsubasa turned, and when he saw who was speaking, his face broke into a wide smirk. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the losers. How was your helicopter ride?"

"What I want to know is how you beat us, Tsubasa." Kagurazaka spat. "We saw your team not three miles in front of us on the second day."

Tsubasa smirked all the wider. "We're just faster, that's all. Well, smarter, too."

"Oh?" Sano said quietly, his hands inside the pockets of his sweatshirt, as if to restrain himself from hitting the other teen. "Please, enlighten us. We were in front of you, too."

"How am I supposed to know why your teams both suck?" Tsubasa taunted. Sano's hands jerked inside the pockets, but the teen didn't seem to notice. "I know that our paths crossed, but the bridge was fine when my team crossed it."

There was short silence. Then Sano spoke again. "I don't remember telling you anything about a bridge. Did you, Kagurazaka?"

"Not that I can recall, Sano." Kagurazaka growled.

"So, how did you know there was something wrong with it?" Sano asked Tsubasa, a triumphant note in his calm voice. "That is, if we didn't mention it…"

Tsubasa's face was momentarily panicked, but he regained his composure quickly. "So clever." He sneered. "But who's going to believe you guys? You all lost; and people know that we've butted heads in the high-jump arena still. You have no proof!"

"We didn't," Mizuki said gleefully, speaking up for the first time since the confrontation. "But we do now!"

Tsubasa glared at her. "Shut up, shitface! All you got is your word against mine!"

"And a recording." Sano took his hands out of his pockets; in one hand he held a cell phone. "Voice recording feature. Sorry, Tsubasa. You cheated so hard and still didn't win."

Present

Mizuki was watching the others and the heated water-fight, a small smile on her face. Sano watched her discreetly, pretending to focus on Yujiro who was snoring beside her.

Sano was unsure of how to feel about their mutual knowledge of his discovery of her gender. Of course, their routine hadn't changed much, except Sano now called out a "You decent?" before stepping out of the bathroom in the morning. She still seemed perfectly comfortable living with him.

Not like she has much of a choice. She might be terribly uncomfortable, but there's no way to change anything. Sano reasoned. It's not as if she could request a room change. 'Sorry, my roommate and I aren't the same gender anymore, I need to be switched.'

He chuckled at the thought; he could almost hear Mizuki saying that.

"You still with us, Sano?"

Mizuki's playful voice brought Sano out of his thoughts. "Yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking…. Just thinking it was time for Yujiro's supper."

At the words Yujiro's supper the dog came awake, yipping excitedly. Mizuki laughed, standing. "Well, now that you've said so, it is! C'mon, boy." She patted her thigh for Yujiro to follow.

Sano stood as well, and fell in step beside her. "We're going back to the dorms," he called to the others, who, engaged in their water fight, barely heard him.
The walk back to the dorms was a short one from the nearby sports' field Dorm 2 had decided to invade. The air was getting brisk with the oncoming winter, and Mizuki hugged herself. "Even though I'm glad winter is coming, I wish it wouldn't get so cold around here."

"Yeah, you get used to it." Sano shrugged. "Didn't you have winter in California?"

"Not really. Just a season with more rain."

"Sounds boring."

"Kinda. I remember the first time I saw snow. I must have been like five…"

Mizuki started chattering happily, and Sano let her talk for a few moments. Then, as they passed between the narrow alley between the gym building and their dorms, he turned to her.

"-And my brother almost ran over me with his sled, and Dad got so mad-"

"Ashiya, I have to ask you something."

She turned to him, pausing in her step. Yujiro stopped too; he promptly sat down and started scratching his ear with a hind leg. "Yeah?"

"If you want to switch roommates, we'll come up with a story. If this is making you uncomfortable, me knowing, I can-"

Mizuki cut him off, her face gentle. "Sano, I don't want to switch rooms."

"You don't?" Sano looked at her, slightly surprised. "But-"

"You're my friend, and, obviously you're not bothered by me being…" She lowered her voice a little, although the alley was deserted. "A girl, since you've kept quiet about it. So, if you don't mind, I don't mind."

"If you're sure…" Sano said uncertainly.

"I am!" Mizuki said firmly. "I just want to be with you."

A short silence followed her words, and, upon realizing what she said, Mizuki turned bright red. "T-That's not w-what I meant to say-"

Sano silenced her with a wave of his hand. "I know what you meant." He had said it to placate her, even though he wasn't quite sure of what she had meant.

"Kay." She smiled, and then hesitated. "Listen, Sano, I never got to thank you properly for saving me on the cliff that night."

"It wasn't a cliff, though."

"But still," Mizuki persisted. "Without you I wouldn't have gotten over that gap in the trail, whether I would have fallen four feet or forty. So, thank you." Without thinking, she stood on her tip-toes and placed a kiss on Sano's cheek.

"Well," Sano said after another short silence. "You're welcome."

Mizuki was bright red again. "S-Sorry… Wasn't thinking…. In America, it's kind of a thank-you… um, I'll get Yujiro's food."

She hurried away with Yujiro on her heels. Sano watched her leave, a small smile playing on his lips. After a few more moments, he hurried after her.

The End

Authoress here.

Sorry about the long break between this chapter and the previous one, but I totally lost all inspiration and motivation to write this final chapter. Like I mentioned in the last chapter's notes, I originally planned to have that chapter be the last one.

And sorry there wasn't more kissing, like some of you requested. I felt, that, with them living together it would just become too incredibly awkward. So all I did was a peck on the cheek.

Thank you all for your patience and kind input over the course of this story. It kept me writing.

Also, I will be taking a temporary hiatus from fanfiction, for lack of good ideas. So, I'd like to propose a CHALLENGE.

If you, the reader, would like to see me write about a particular subject in a particular anime, manga, or movie (I don't do books, too hard competing with the original author's writing style) give me a challenge in a review or an email (my email's on my page) and a scenario/ plotline, and I'll pick my favorite and write about it. Thanks for your input!

Authoress out.