Lee looks at his mum, then after thinking for a bit, he speaks with a shake of his head. “I don’t think so; if I do, I don’t remember yet.”

  Sue nods, understanding what Lee is trying to say. “Just be careful,” she says, tapping Lee’s nose and leaving a bit of sunscreen on it.

  Lee starts to paddle in the shallow pool; the deepest he goes is to the point where he has water to his chin while standing on his tiptoes. Then something comes over him and he jumps back to a more shallow area, moving his arms to propel himself back faster; then as he stands straight, water just below his neck, he smiles at Sue, who is keeping an eye on him, and removes the arm floats, jumps up taking a deep breath, and goes under water. Once there, he sinks down cross-legged; at first, he starts to panic, but then he relaxes as flashes of memories surface to his mind with every heartbeat. Finally, when he can’t withstand it any longer, he moves his legs beneath himself and kicks down, making his body shoot out of the water.

  As he gasps for air, Sue approaches him. “Not bad; it seems you can hold your breath for a bit,” she says, thinking Lee was only testing his capability to hold his breath.

  When in fact, Lee noticed that a key moment needs to happen for the memories to come to him. First, it was finding the stick—he knew it was good for a bow; the beast gems gave him the memories on how to make jewellery; when running from the wolf the very first time, by instinct he found himself climbing the tree like a monkey; the Sabretooth Boar gave him the memories on evasion; and Sakura asking about the siblings' language gave him the memory of secret coding and espionage memories.

  So testing his theory, he first went to the deeper end; he knew immediately how to get back to the shallow part of the pool, so when he went under, he had the memories on how to control his heart rate to preserve oxygen and how to swim.

  Noticing the odd look in Lee’s eyes, Sue asks, “Lee, what is the matter?”

  Lee looks up at his mum and says, “I still need to test, but I think Saki can have the arm floats.” Sue gives him a look that screams ‘Do you mean?’ so Lee just nods.

  Then Lee lets his body lean back and he starts floating like a bit of wood in the water; rotating his arms back, he goes to the two-metre-deep end, then his legs drop back under water and his head remains above it. He even waves at Sue before doing breast strokes towards her; they are a bit off, but he manages to get to Sue.

  “Can I go on the slides?” Lee asks, pointing to the slides that land in the pool.

  Sue struggles for a bit with her words, so she just turns around and says, “Kenji, your son wants to go on the pool slides; can you just go with him to be sure nothing happens?”

  Kenji nods as Sakura says, “Me too! Can I go on the slides too?”

  Kenji smiles. “Sure kid, go with Lee. Dad will wait for you at the exit.”

  Lee takes Sakura to the top of the stairs and sends her first; the lifeguard looks at Sakura’s small frame, but then Lee looks down and waves at Kenji. “Is that your dad?” the lifeguard asks Lee.

  “Yes, he is our dad; he is there to catch my sister,” says Lee; then as Sakura sits on the slide, Lee says, “Saki, when you go, put your arms like this.” Lee shows Sakura how to place her arms crossed in front of her chest. Then she leans back down, arms crossed in front of her chest, and excited screams drift up the slide.

  As she exits the slide, Kenji grabs her and lets her body go under the water before pulling her out of it. Lee waves to his dad to move, then he too goes down the slide; as he exits, he takes a deep breath. Under water, he spins and continues swimming, coming out of the water behind Kenji. “That was fun,” Lee says as Kenji turns around to look at him.

  “You know how to swim?” Kenji asks as they are standing in an area with more depth than Lee’s height.

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  Lee shrugs, lifting both arms, his legs kicking the water fast to keep him afloat. “I just know.” Kenji nods with a chuckle.

  Lee and Sakura keep going on the slide; then as they are going up, Lee notices a particular odd movement under the water. “Saki, go on the slide; big brother will go in the other one,” Lee says as he goes to the side. Then, from a ten-metre height, he takes a dive; the pool is immediately filled with screams.

  Then there is the splash of Lee’s body landing in the water. He continues swimming down; he reaches his hand in front of himself and turns around, his feet landing at the bottom of the depth of five metres in the pool. Pushing down, he forces his body to shoot up. As he breaks the water, there are already three lifeguards; noticing what he is holding, one holds onto Lee as the others take the girl.

  Lee stops moving and lets his body go limp, standing afloat as he coughs out some water; the lifeguard pulls him to shore. The other two try to make the girl breathe, but they are unable and start to shake their heads. Lee manages to get to his feet and, clasping both hands into a single fist, slams them on the girl’s belly, aiming right below her ribs. Her body arches off the ground and the girl coughs up something rubbery along with some water from the pool.

  On closer inspection, the lifeguard that had Lee notices that it is the mouthpiece of a breathing tube.

  Lee’s body starts to shake, his vision going blurry just before the world starts to turn sideways and he collapses to the ground. He feels his head hit the ground before everything turns dark.

  When Lee opens his eyes again, he finds someone dressed in blue standing over him, followed by a light being shined into his eyes. “And the hero is awake,” the man says.

  Lee gets to a seated position, his head pounding; then remembering what happened, he starts to look around. “Where is the girl?”

  “She is fine, son,” says Sue stroking his head. “You saved her; now we will need to go to the hospital to check if you are okay.”

  “I’m fine, mum,” says Lee with a smile.

  “Lee, you lost consciousness for a full minute,” says the man in blue.

  Lee shakes his head. “That is totally normal,” he says, then looking around he adds, “It was due to the adrenaline rush from the jump, the swimming down to the bottom of the pool, grabbing and pulling her back to the top, then having to punch her in the right spot to force the water and air out of her lungs.” Lee shakes his head with a sigh. “So when I relaxed as there was no more danger, my body just needed a reboot.”

  The medic leans back and sits on his heels. “How old are you?”

  “I’m five,” says Lee, then with a sheepish smile says, “I just like to learn odd things, and the chance of something happening is never zero, so wisdom is always handy.”

  The medic nods in agreement; then Lee sees the girl that drowned looking at him.

  “Thank you for rescuing me,” she says with a smile and a wave.

  Lee stumbles to his feet. “Wait,” Lee says reaching for the girl. “You can’t go yet. You need to jump back in the water!”

  “What do you mean, young one?” asks the woman with the girl.

  “Sorry, but I don’t have time to explain,” Lee says and grabs the girl by the arm; then giving a tug, pulls her closer to him. Then turning his body, uses the girl’s momentum to throw her over his shoulder and make her land in the water; then he too jumps in. At first, the girl struggles, but then finds her footing and just stands stunned looking at Lee that is smiling at her.

  “Lee, why did you do that?” asks Sue, anger seeping into her tone.

  Lee looks at the girl and splashes some water onto her face; then he looks at his mum and says, “Because if she didn’t jump in now, she might have never done it again. The fear that the same thing could happen again would stop her.”

  “He is smart,” says the medic rubbing at his chin. “It really was the best thing to do, just throw her back into the water, so one shock would overtake the other.”

  Lee looks at the girl with a smile, only to have water land on his face. Then the girl gives him a smile. “My name is Emily, thank you for helping me again,” she says and extends her hand, and Lee notices that she has a British accent.

  By instinct, Lee starts to speak in English to Emily. “The pleasure is all mine, Emily; my name is Lee,” he says as he shakes her hand.

  Then they exit the pool together; Emily goes with her mother to the hospital to have a check-up done; the medic checks Lee’s vitals and shakes his head. “Lee is fine; like he said, most likely his fainting was only due to the adrenaline rush.” He says standing up and looking at Sue, then adds, “I don’t think there is any need for him to go to the hospital; just keep an eye on him.”

  After resting for ten minutes, Lee is about to go back into the pool when a lifeguard approaches him. “Sorry, but did you really get to the bottom of the five metres of the pool?” the guard asks.

  Before Lee answers, he notices a shadow loom behind him and sees Kenji; then looking at the guard, Lee says, “Yes I did; as I grabbed Emily, I turned my body and pushed on the pool’s floor to help get back up faster.”

  The guard shakes his head. “I don’t doubt you, but it is hard to believe.”

  “Easy to solve it,” Lee says as he grabs a toy from the side of the pool; then throws it and watches it sink to the bottom of the pool. “Now I will jump again and catch the toy.”

  The guard shakes his head with closed eyes. “But this is a seven-metre-deep end.”

  Lee shrugs. “What can I say? I like to challenge myself.” He then just dives into the pool and crosses to the other side.