The air rushed around their bodies like a beast that had lost control.
The sky was no longer the sky, but a raging void swallowing everything mercilessly.
The fall was faster than fear, faster than screaming, faster than realization itself.
At that moment, Ahmed did not think.
He didn't remember his name, nor the school, nor the world around him.
All he saw… was Honoka's back as she plummeted.
He extended his arm violently, as if his soul had been launched before his body.
His fingers sliced through the air, trembled, strength breaking within them, then—
They caught.
One arm. One grip. But it was all of life.
Their bodies collided in mid-air, and pain surged through his shoulder like a searing lightning bolt.
His joint almost dislocated, his hand almost gave up, but Ahmed pulled her toward him with a mad strength—a strength that doesn't come from the body… but from determination.
"You will not fall."
His heart was screaming these words, while his chest was about to explode.
The air tore through his lungs, and the void pulled them downward mercilessly.
Then he saw it.
A distant blue shimmer…
The pool.
It wasn't a plan; it wasn't an idea.
It was the final survival instinct.
He wrapped his body around her with difficulty, his muscles screaming, and his back twisting.
He positioned himself underneath, making his body a shield, as if the whole world no longer meant anything except that she must land first.
And in a flash—
Impact.
The water exploded around them like a shattered wall.
A violent blow paralyzed the body, and a muffled sound echoed in the depths.
Deadly cold, thick darkness, and a suffocating silence swallowed everything.
Ahmed sank into the deep, his chest burning, his consciousness cracking, but his hand…
His hand did not let her go.
Even when the air began to run out.
Even when his limbs grew heavy.
Even when pain became the only language of his existence.
He pushed his body upward—one last, desperate, sincere push—his eyes searching for the light…
For breath…
For life.
And at the moment he broke through the surface of the water—
The world returned.