Chapter 3: Free

Haruka turned up at the swimming club four days later. When Makoto was changing in the changing rooms, he went in with his usual expression, out of breath.

“Haru……”

“Hi.”

“Don’t just say ‘hi’. What happened? Are you feeling better already?”

“I’m okay now.”

Mumbling in a small voice, he looks at Makoto’s worried expression unsympathetically.

“You’re not okay. You’re breathing so hard, don’t you still have a fever?”

While waving his hand like he’s being a pain, Haruka opened the locker’s door. Irritated, Makoto raises his voice a little.

“Haru.”

“I ran here.”

“From where?”

“From home, obviously.”

Saying that, he threw his bag in the locker.

“Hey, Haru. You didn’t even come to school today.”

“I got better after noon.”

While taking off his clothes, he replies like it’s too much effort. As much as to say that he doesn’t even want to see Makoto’s worried expression, Haruka silently continued to change clothes.

“Haru, what are you going to do if you get a fever again?”

“Makoto!”

Haruka’s strong tone and the sound of the locker door closing overlapping, it pushed aside Makoto’s words.

“… wh-what?”

Starting to walk away, Haruka places his left hand on Makoto’s shoulder and pa.s.ses him by like that.

“Thank you.”

Leaving behind those words, he left the changing room.

All the strength left Makoto’s body at once. His cheeks softening from the words he didn’t even expect to hear, he unconsciously raised his eight-shaped eyebrows. And then, the worried feelings he had for Haruka disappeared to somewhere.

He tries swimming 1000m in forward crawl as usual. His breathing that was so heavy after running wasn’t irregular at all in the water. On the contrary, he feels his body being healed. For Haruka, it was the same water as always.

It’s a lie when he said that he felt better after noon. To be exact, it’s now that he’s starting to feel better. School won’t heal his body or heart for him. That’s why he took the day off. While feeling his physical strength recovering in the water, he gradually kept raising his speed.

Finishing his swim with a smooth form, when he lifted his face from the water, a hand extended towards Haruka. It’s a hand more slender and delicate than Makoto’s. He hesitates for a moment, wondering if he would break it by holding on to it. Removing his goggles, he looked up, narrowing his eyes.

“Welcome back. I’m glad you got better so soon.”

With a smile that looked like a bloomed sunflower, Aki looked down at him. It’s the hand that he brushed away that time on the poplar-lined road. Grasping that held-out hand, Haruka got up on the poolside.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah.”

While shaking his head to the right once to get the water out of his ear, Haruka spoke in a small voice.

“The scarf.”

Only the short noun escapes from Haruka’s mouth. The sunflower-like smile became a little dim.

“Yeah.”

“Since it ended up like that, I was wondering if you still needed it.”

Though the scarf that had turned light brown in the river couldn’t regain its whiteness even after it was washed, he entrusted it to Makoto and asked him to give it back to Aki.

“Yeah, I got it from Tachibana-kun.”

Aki casts her eyes down. She probably thinks that it’s her fault that Haruka fell in the river.

“Don’t drop it again.”

“Sorry.”

—— Don’t apologize. I should be the one apologizing.

“Sorry for everything.”

Aki’s expression brightens from Haruka’s words. Her sunflower-like smile came back again.

“Don’t be.”

Aki tilted her head to the side a little.

From that conversation alone, he understood well enough just how much he had worried her.

Someone calls for her from a distance.

“ Zaki, we’re starting the practice for the relay!”

“Alright!”

After replying to them, she shows her palm to Haruka.

“See you later.”

“Yeah.”

Aki ran off, leaving behind a smile. Rin approaches, stepping aside to pa.s.s by Aki.

“Nanase, we’re practicing for the relay, too.”

—— Relay? Why do I need to practice for that?

As he thought that, Makoto came running, catching up behind Rin.

“No way. You shouldn’t force yourself any more for today, Haru.”

Going beyond worry, he sounded just like a guardian. He thought that if they’re being so concerned about him, who cares about the relay, it would be better if he were in the water.

“What kind of relay? I only swim free, though.”

He asks Rin, pretending not to see Makoto.

“It’s free.”

“Haru.”

Thinking of Makoto’s worried expression as unpleasant, he pa.s.ses by in front of him.

“Haru!”

A whistle blowing somewhere drowned out Makoto’s voice as he shouted at Haru’s back again.

Relay practice puts the emphasis on the dive. Using a 25m short lane, each of them lining up on both sides of the pool, lining up at the back again after swimming, they repeat the practice until time runs out.

In the case of a relay, you can say that the time of the start and touch bring out the differences the most. By nature, the act of swimming is that at the same time as acquiring propulsive power, that itself ends up creating the water’s resistance. In other words, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that how you maximize the strength of the starting kick is of great importance. For that reason, this kind of practice becomes important since you have to become sufficiently aware of the landing’s angle and the underwater stance.

In a free relay, there are four kinds of dives. In freestyle swimming, although any kind of swimming is allowed, since they choose the forward crawl in most cases, ‘freestyle’ and ‘crawl’ are used in approximately the same meaning. Therefore, they carried out this practice with the forward crawl as well.

Jumping into the pool in a light manner, Haruka created a rift in the water. Slipping his body into it, finishing his swim with light strokes, he touches the surface of the wall. Rin jumps in overhead. Although he’s the same height as Haruka, the strength in his feet exceeds that of Makoto’s or Haruka’s.  It’s because his kick strength has become a great weapon for him that he’s excessively fast in the short lane.

Haruka was thinking about that as he was climbing onto the poolside. In swimming the same 100m distance, there are three turns on the short lane and one turn on the long lane. That’s why in Rin’s case, he’s overwhelmingly better in the short lane. During the tournament, that’s the reason why he’s ahead of Haruka until the 70m mark. And that was also the reason why Haruka runs.

He doesn’t deny that there’s someone who swims faster than him. But there’s no way he’ll simply acknowledge it. It’s not that he wants to win or doesn’t like losing. It’s just that he can’t accept it so easily that someone else feels the water better than him.  

If you were to ask him if running will make him dive farther, his honest reply would be that he doesn’t know. But since there’s someone who can dive farther than him who runs, that is enough of a reason for running.

While thinking about things like that, Haruka kept observing Rin’s swimming. Makoto stands on the other side. Wearing his cap and his goggles equipped, he doesn’t look like an elementary school student at all. Wide shoulders and thick chest. It’s not like he had that much muscle, but standing at the starting block, he made a fairly overpowering impression.

As Rin touches the surface of the wall, Makoto dived in with a huge splash. He forcibly plunges forward, his strokes filled with all his strength.  Even though they’re not measuring the time, he swims with all his power. That was usual for Makoto. The same Makoto as ever, he was in the same water as always.

When there were only a few meters left to the goal, Makoto suddenly stopped swimming. He thought that he might’ve swallowed some water, but it seemed different somehow. It doesn’t seem like his feet were cramping, either. He just stood in the water, breathing painfully hard.

Now, after just getting out of the water, Rin leapt back in again and swam toward Makoto.

“What happened, Tachibana?”

Raising his goggles, Makoto showed a smile with his eight-shaped eyebrows.

“Sorry, I’m all right. Looks like I’m just in bad condition a little.”

Seeming like his smiling face could turn into a tear-stained one at any-time, Haruka looked away from Makoto. Then just like that, he walked off towards the shower room.

As a result of the gathered candidates put forth by all the cla.s.ses for the graduation project, Aki’s idea was used in the end.  They had formally decided to plant a flowerbed around the cherry blossom. Once it was decided, the preparations steadily advanced, the project’s arrangements were put together in a blink. And then, before several days had pa.s.sed, having large quant.i.ties of clay carried into the cla.s.srooms, the cla.s.srooms ended up looking quite like a brick workshop after school. In the large s.p.a.ce created by pushing the desks to the back, spreading out a large blue sheet, the clay was piled there like a mountain. Although it wasn’t red yet, apparently it would turn red from the iron oxidizing in it after baking.

The work began with kneading the clay. Taking the pieces of clay cut off one person at a time to wherever they pleased, while pushing out the air from inside it with placing their body weight on it, they diligently knead it up. Unless they do this process properly, it will end up breaking when it’s baked.

Haruka made sure to concentrate on it as nothing other than work, while trying not to think about the fact that it’ll be placed near the cherry blossom.

“Hey, Nanase.”

While kneading the clay, Rin came over to talk to him. He just looks at him without answering.

“It’s about the next tournament, wanna do the medley relay?”

The next tournament will be held after the graduation ceremony, at the end of March. Every year, the local clubs a.s.semble in one building and it’s carried out quite grandly. It was at that tournament that they had met Rin, too.

Since becoming 6th graders, Makoto and Haruka partic.i.p.ated in most of the tournaments. All the contests are held separately by age and gender, one person generally partic.i.p.ates in three to four events, but Haruka had only ever entered freestyle ones. And so, he’s a three-time champion in free. Makoto has partic.i.p.ated in both free and b.r.e.a.s.t.stroke before, he’s had the experience of holding the b.r.e.a.s.t.stroke champion t.i.tle twice.

“Not unless I swim free.”

Haruka says while dropping his gaze on the clay.

“You sure are obsessed, Nanase. It’s fine, free being your specialty. Hey, Tachibana.”

Suddenly brought into the discussion, Makoto’s hands stop.

“If it’s a medley relay, what’ll you do for the batta? Wouldn’t it be fine to just do thefree relay?”

For swimming the medley relay, team members for the four events of backstroke, b.r.e.a.s.t.stroke, b.u.t.terfly and free are necessary. However, there wasn’t anyone in the same age group at Iwatobi SC who was fast at the b.u.t.terfly.

To Makoto’s words, Rin replies in a somewhat shocked tone.

“The medley’s fine. I’ll swim the batta. Tachibana can do the bure, so all that’s left is bakku. There’s no one who stands out, but eh, as long as they can swim normally, we’ll handle the rest somehow. Let’s find someone suitable for bakku.”

Suppressed by Rin’s pushiness, Makoto went back to work on kneading the clay without saying anything back.

Instead of Makoto, Haruka’s hand stops.

“Even though I said that I only swim free, don’t just go ahead and continue the discussion about the relay.”

He tried saying it by placing his strong intent inside the peaceful tone. Rin blows a sigh into the clay. In the impression that disobedient children will get their hands burnt. But the tone of his voiced hailed to Haruka’s strong intent.

“So that’s why I said that it’s fine for Nanase to swim free!”

The inflection at the end of the word is too strong. Even if he tries to keep down his mouth after saying it, it’s already too late. The glances of their cla.s.smates scattered about on the blue sheet have completely focused on them now. Makoto’s looking at Rin, too, his hands stopping. Rin suddenly stood up, having thought of something. In any case, since he ended up attracting their attention already, it’s probably why he took up a defiant att.i.tude.

“S-so that’s why, let’s write a message on the bricks. Like our favorite word. Something that’ll stay in your memory, freely write it. Freely, yeah?”

Just when he thought that’s it too late to act like a naive graduate, Aki stood up.

“That sounds good, right?”

Aki’s single phrase changed the mood of the cla.s.s. With everyone getting excited, talking about what sort of message to write, the cla.s.sroom went back to being busy.

Dropping his shoulders, Rin lets out a tiny breath. Haruka and Makoto kept kneading the clay like nothing had happened. Sitting down as well, Rin went back to work on kneading the clay in silence.

In the end, they didn’t return to the discussion about the relay and left it at that for the day.  

Several wispy clouds flowed at the top of Myoujinyama. The wind is probably blowing on Mutsukibashi today, too. While thinking about that, Haruka looked at his wrist.w.a.tch. Compared to the beginning, how much faster has he gotten? It isn’t really his objective and neither is he competing against anyone. And yet, he still cared about his time for some reason. Suffice it to say, it was probably himself from yesterday. It could be something like, exceeding his limit to tread upon the new world on the other side.

Unlike the water, he didn’t think the land would do anything like healing him. Even though that’s what he thought, when he’s running, sometimes he felt something being released from within him.  But he’s just trying to run fast on land. He thinks that there’s still a huge gap between swimming and getting obsessed over something like that. However, it’s possible that if he keeps running like this, before long, it’ll hold a similar significance.

While vaguely thinking about things like that, when he approached Mutsukibashi, the sound of another pair of feet overlapped Haruka’s.

“Good morning, Nanase-kun.”

When he turns around after being called out to, Hazuki Nagisa was about to catch up to him.

“Hi.”

He lightly mutters. His common points with Nagisa are that they go to the same swimming club and that they have girlish names. At school, he’s a fifth grader a year below him.

He doesn’t think about why Nagisa is running. It’s because he ends up thinking about why Nagisa is running with a happy expression instead.

“Nanase-kun, lately, you’ve been running every day, right?”

His saccharine voice coiled about in Haruka’s ears.

“Just a little, yeah.”

Making a blunt response, he thought it would close the conversation. It’s not that he wanted to avoid Nagisa. It’s just that he didn’t want to think about anything else while he’s running. He didn’t like his mind straying to anything else other than running. He feels like the door is obstinately locked again on whatever was close to being released.

“Me, too……”

Nagisa’s voice was interrupted because he was out of breath.

“I’m thinking that I’ll start running from today onwards, too, so is it okay if I ran with you?”

He didn’t have a reason to refuse.

“I don’t really mind.”

“Really? I’m glad.”

“But I won’t wait for you if you can’t keep up.”

“Okay.”

He didn’t intend to keep up with Nagisa’s conversation any longer. He speeds up before they finish crossing the bridge. Leaving behind Nagisa’s long breath, he returned to his own world again. Suddenly, a wind pa.s.ses by Haruka. Getting a feeling that it was Nagisa, for a moment, his breath was taken away. Only for a moment, though.

His bad feeling was right on the mark. Finishing the 1000m b.u.t.terfly, when he raised his head, the kid with the big round eyes was peering down at him. Every day since then.

“What?”

He knew what he wanted, but he still ventured to ask.

“You really can swim the batta, huh?”

“Ah, yeah. And?”

“You’re good at it,huh?”

—— Not as good as your gra.s.shopper, though.

“You’re gonna swim, right? I’ll look at it for ya.”

He quickly climbs up on the poolside. He already gave up on futile resistance.

“Actually, I’m taking a little break from the batta.”

Oh, did he get tired of it already? He can’t expect any improvement at all like that.

“Then, you don’t have any more business with me.”

“No, that’s not it, uhh, Matsuoka-kun, will you be in the next tournament?”

“Yeah. For now, I guess.”

Aki was there. She’s standing at the farthest lane. Is Haruka the one swimming?

“Which one are you swimming?”

“Medley relay.”

It’s Haruka. With the elegance of a water bird flying in the sky, he swims like he’s gliding. There was no one apart from Haruka who could swim like that.

“With Nanase-kun?”

“It’s not decided yet, but I asked Nanase and Tachibana.”

Is Aki going to wait until Haruka finishes swimming? Just as he thought that, she stepped away from the lane all of a sudden. Even as she’s leaving, she sometimes looks back at Haruka.

“One, two, three. And the last one?”

“No one yet.”

When Aki wasn’t visible from the crowd of people anymore, Haruka climbed up on the poolside.

“Then, let me join. I’m fast.”

His big round eyes are sparkling.

“No way.”

He thinks that he might’ve asked for something unreasonable from Aki. It’s fine as long as it doesn’t feel like too much of a burden.

“Why?”

“There’s no way that a guy who abandons practicing the batta halfway through is fast.”

“You’re wrong. I didn’t abandon it, I’m just taking a break.”

“Then, why are you taking a break?”

“I’m doing the bure in the medley relay, so I’m practicing that.”

“Oh? The order you’re going in is real jumbled up.”

“C’mon, let me be a member.”

“No good people are not allowed!”

Since there would be no end to it, he cut short the conversation by walking away. While hearing Nagisa say ‘meanie’ behind his back, he left the place with quick steps.