Chapter 5 - Forward

On the first day after Golden Week was over, he was on duty as the library representative. Haruka and Satomi, who had their club activities taken into consideration, were put in charge during the lunch break, so they went to the library room after finishing their lunch in ten minutes.

“Your work is to put the returned books back onto the shelves, do you remember how to look at the cla.s.sification number?”

Nao, the library committee president asked with a soft smile. He thinks that the library room does suit his fair skin better than the pool.

“I remember.”

Haruka answers. Satomi was just looking at Haruka, looking like she has no self-confidence.

“Then, you may use the cart there.”

After saying only that much, Nao went back to the counter. In the acrylic box, there were about thirty books that have gone through the return procedures. Though the consecutive holidays did just end, it’s a considerable amount. When he looks at the cla.s.sification numbers, most of them were j.a.panese literature, so putting the whole box on the cart, Haruka decided to head towards the j.a.panese literature shelf first.

“Nanase-kun, what did you read?”

Satomi asked while putting a book back on the shelf. She’s talking about the book report. Once a month, the library a.s.sistants have to submit a book report to be published in the ‘News from the Library Room’.

“’The Old Man and the Sea’.”

“Uwah, Hemingway? That’s amazing.”

He doesn’t know if it’s amazing or not. He doesn’t know who Hemingway is, either. He just randomly read something that was on his father’s bookshelf.

“What did you write in the book report?”

“I wrote that it was wasted effort.”

“Wasted effort?”

“It took him days and he caught a huge fish, but it ended up getting eaten. Of course it’s wasted effort.”

“Aah…… Na-Nanase-kun, what else do you read?”

“Stuff like ‘Moby d.i.c.k’ and ‘The Crab Cannery Ship’.”

“Th-that’s amazing. What was it like to read them?”

“In ‘Moby d.i.c.k’, his foot got eaten, and the harpoon seemed painful, too. ‘The Crab Cannery Ship’ seemed smelly.”

“Aah… I-I, I like reading books, I read a lot like ‘Anne’ [of Green Gables] and ‘Pippi’ [Longstocking], but I’m in middle school now, so I tried challenging myself with ‘The Makioka Sisters’. By Tanizaki Junichirou. It was difficult at first, and I didn’t really understand it, but when I thought that it was somewhat like ‘Little Women’––”

“I’ve read Tanizaki, too.”

It seemed like she’d keep chattering on and on, so he’ll break her off for now. She doesn’t talk much in the cla.s.sroom, yet she talks a lot here. She must really like books. But you have to be quiet in the library room.

“Ohh, what did you read?”

“’A portrait of Shunkin’.”

“Uwah, that’s the ultimate pure love, huh. I thought of reading it.”

“But, it seems painful.”

“……”

After that, Haruka and Satomi kept working in silence. Thanks to Satomi having become quiet, they made good progress, by the time they finished putting away the j.a.panese literature, the acrylic box’s contents had decreased to half.

When Haruka began to push the cart a little as he was going to move to the next shelf, someone blocked the way. When he lifted his gaze to see who it could be, Haruka gulped.

––Kirishima Ikuya.

After glaring at Haruka once from beneath his long eyelashes, he transfers that gaze to Satomi.

“Ikuya-kun––”

Why are you here? Why are you glaring at me with those eyes? Satomi’s confusion emerged in her voice.

“Satomi––, why’d you join the swim club?”

“I-Ikuya-kun, in a place like this……”

“Why!”

Ikuya’s powerful voice resounded in the library room and Nao showed his face from the counter.

“Oi, be quiet. ––Hm? You, you’re Kirishima, huh. Natsuya’s little brother.”

 After looking at Nao, Ikuya returned his gaze to Satomi and when he began to say something, Makoto and Aki came into the library room.

“He’s here. Tachibana-kun, over there!”

Aki points her finger and the two of them come running.

“Hey! Don’t run in the library room!”

Scolded by Nao, Makoto notices them.

“Ah, Nao-senpai. And Haru, too––”

He doesn’t really understand the situation, but it looks like they were both chasing after Ikuya. Turning around his heels and leaving a dark gaze, Ikuya pushed Makoto aside and ran out of the library room.

To Haruka and the others, who are following Ikuya’s back with their eyes, Satomi suddenly apologizes.

“I’m sorry.”

As he wonders why Satomi is lowering her head, this time Aki apologized.

“I’m sorry. I ended up saying it.”

He can’t follow the conversation at all. Nao is looking at the two of them with a puzzled expression, too. And so, sending a glance to Makoto, he requested an explanation.

“You know, Kirishima-kun seemed lonely at his seat, so I spoke to him. Asking if he’s doing club activities. Then, he told me he’s fine without it because he goes to a Swimming Club……”

Aki takes over after him.

“I was nearby so I overheard, and I said that if he goes to a Swimming Club, then what if he joined the swim club. That his friend Nii-san joined, too.

And then, Makoto takes over again.

“Then, Kirishima-kun stood up all of a sudden and asked ‘Really?’. So, when I nodded, he ran out and we hastily chased after him……”

He more or less understood. If he gets involved any further, nothing good will come out of it. In order to get back to work, Haruka pushed the cart. If he does something like this, he won’t be able to finish during lunch break. As he tried to slip past Makoto with hurried steps, he grabbed his arm.

“Nii-san, would you mind telling us?”

Keeping her gaze cast down, Satomi nods to Makoto’s words. She should’ve refused. It feels like his grabbed arm will end up getting numb. Makoto’s overdoing the weight training a little. Could he be planning on becoming a body builder or something?

Like she had resolved herself, Satomi lifted her face. Then, she started to talk after taking a deep breath.

“Ikuya-kun and I are childhood friends because our houses are close. The swim club’s captain, Natsuya-kun is Ikuya-kun’s older brother, and we call him Natsu-nii, the three of us played together a lot since we were little. We often ate at each other’s houses and had sleepovers, too. Right after we started going to elementary school, Natsu-nii suggested that we go to a Swimming Club, and from then on, the three of us started going to Bandou SC. Natsu-nii and Ikuya-kun’s dream was to swim in the relay together at the Olympics……”

Remembering the distant past, she smiled a little, but she came back right away and the smile disappeared.

“They attended, having a dream like that, but a year ago, Natsu-nii quit the Swimming Club. It wasn’t because of club activities, he said it was for Ikuya-kun’s sake….. Ikuya-kun doesn’t have any friends. He can’t get along well with people…..”

To cheer up Satomi who was casting her gaze down again, Nao directed a soft smile towards her.

“If Ikuya can’t make friends, why did Natsuya quit the SC?”

Satomi firmly grits her teeth and lifts her face again.

“Ikuya-kun gets angry easily over the smallest things. It seems that he can’t stand it when he’s teased or about to lose a contest…… But after he got angry, he always feels terribly down about it, and wondering why he got angry, it seems that he starts to really hate himself. That’s why he can’t really make friends, and doesn’t try to, either. He says that even if he becomes friends with someone, he’d be hated again anyways……”

The end of her sentence trembled. Maybe it’s a painful memory for Satomi, too, and not just Ikuya. Taking a breath, Satomi breathes it out along with the feelings she’s been bottling up/keeping sealed up.

“So that’s why, even though the three of us were always together, Natsu-nii said that because he’s there, he’ll forever be babying Ikuya-kun, so he quit the Swimming Club. By leaving Ikuya-kun, he tried to get him to stand on his own feet…… From Ikuya-kun’s point of view, it seems that he could only think of it as him betraying their dream, and ever since then, it looks like they haven’t talked to each other properly…… Even at Bandou SC, they won’t put him in matches because he gets angry when he loses, so he gets needlessly irritated…… And despite all that, because I joined the swim club where Natsu-nii is, I think he couldn’t forgive me for it. I’m really sorry for making you all worry so much.”

Satomi deeply lowers her head again. Both Makoto and Aki just steadily watched Satomi. All they could do was watch.

Nao lightly peers at Satomi, who was keeping her head lowered.

“It’s not Nii-san’s fault. It’s because Natsuya is running away. He’s scared of facing his little brother. He may not look like it, but he’s timid. I’ll tell Natsuya. That he ought to face him properly.”

Encouraged by Nao’s soft smile, when Satomi lifts her face, a single teardrop travelled down her cheek.

While lamenting over it in his heart that lunch break will be over shortly, Haruka vaguely felt his left arm that got its circulation cut off had gone numb.

After school––. As Haruka and Makoto were walking down the hallway on their way to club activities, they heard Satomi’s voice.

“I already quit Bandou SC!”

It was an unusually loud voice, so Haruka decided to turn back without hesitation. But as he was about to turn around, he ended up getting grabbed by Makoto again. He’s flabbergasted: why is this guy so meddlesome? As Haruka gives up and is taken along, it was Ikuya’s voice that they heard next.

“Why!”

“I decided to try my best at the swim club. I want to swim with Aki-chan and the others!”

This is that rumored ‘lover’s quarrel’ thing. One shouldn’t interfere. Aki was there, too, beside Satomi. Turning down his long eyelashes, Ikuya looks like he’s going to cry at any moment.

“……Why. Why is it coming to this. We were always together until now, weren’t we? …… Why are you leaving me all of a sudden!”

“Sorry, Ikuya-kun. It’s not that I came to hate you, really. But, it’s because I have things that I want to do, too…… I want you to understand.”

“I don’t get it. Why does Satomi––”

“By being babied, there’s no moving forward.”

It wasn’t the kind of line to say while Makoto is grabbing onto his arm, but he couldn’t help saying it.

Ikuya and Satomi look at Haruka. None of his business–– you could say. He thinks so himself. Makoto and Aki look at Haruka like they weren’t expecting it. The one who most thinks that it’s unexpected is Haruka himself.

“…… Someone like Nanase, what do you know about it!”

It’s a reasonable opinion. He doesn’t know anything.

“Ikuya-kun.”

Satomi reprimands him. But Ikuya’s eyes didn’t leave Haruka. His gaze that releases a dark and piercing light shoots through Haruka.

––This is it. It’s those eyes!

There’s no doubt about it. It’s just as he had expected it. He has the same eyes as he did at that time. Haruka received that gaze head-on. Then, he returns it head-on. He can see it. He can see all the way into the depths of his eyes. While a gloomy ‘darkness’ coiled around him, Ikuya was struggling. Screaming like he’s going to cry at any moment, he was painfully grimacing.

–– It’s the same. As me at that time…… Ikuya is me from that time.

“What does Nanase know! Like you could ever know!”

Ikuya began to run to try to get away from Haruka’s eyes.

“Ikuya-kun!”

He shakes off Satomi’s voice who’s hot on his heels. When Satomi runs to chase after Ikuya, Makoto and Aki followed after her, too. If Ikuya ran away with all his strength, they probably can’t catch up.

Haruka was remembering the day when Rin announced that he’s going to Australia beneath that cherry blossom. He thought it was distasteful. He thought that he can go off to wherever he wants to. Then, he got overly irritated.

He wanted to hurry up and sink his body in the water, he thought.  He wanted to hurry up and be released from this irritation, he thought. He wanted to be healed by the water, he thought. He wanted to escape into the water, he thought––.

The moment he realized that he was escaping into the water, he felt like he was going to collapse. He tried to deny that weak self. –– Then, he rejected the water.

Continuing to deny it, beyond that rejection was a gloomy ‘darkness’. There he was, staggeringly walking in that abyss. He was wandering while being tormented by hopeless self-hatred. Hesitating, shaking, he was struggling.

His eyes from that time overlapped with Ikuya’s eyes. That’s why he couldn’t help saying it. Having said it doesn’t mean that something would change, but he wasn’t capable of leaving his self from that time alone.

Ikuya is unmistakably the Haruka from that time.

Ikuya ran. He was running frantically. Satomi’s voice doesn’t reach him anymore. Nevertheless, he kept running. His emotions had no outlet unless he was running. It doesn’t mean that something becomes unbound just because he ran. But it seemed like his chest would end up bursting unless he ran.

Why doesn’t Satomi understand? Why’s she trying to leave him? The resentment that had nowhere to crash into swirls in the depths of his chest again.

–– By being babied, there’s no moving forward.

Haruka’s words are brought back to his ears. It’s not that he was angry or scorning him. He just inexpressively stared at Ikuya. With a gaze that seemed to be looking somewhere far off into the distance……

When those eyes stared at him, he felt his heated emotions rapidly cooling down. While understanding that he’s peeking into the very depths of his eyes, he couldn’t avert his eyes. He thought that he didn’t even mind being looked at. Is it possible that maybe, he wanted someone to look at him? Perhaps he wanted someone to understand. There was something in Haruka’s eyes that made him think that.

As his feelings cooled down, he suddenly came to hate himself. It’s always like that. Denying his self that had gotten heated up, he’s embarra.s.sed that it ended up happening. While knowing that he’ll feel down about it like that, but he still can’t hold back the heated feelings.

Ikuya, who had suddenly regained his calm from Haruka’s gaze, couldn’t stand to be there anymore and started running.

–– By being babied, there’s no moving forward.

Was he being babied? Using his irrepressible emotions as an excuse, were Satomi and Natsuya just babying him? Or was he babying himself? He had never thought about it.

It’s due to his own weakness that he can’t hold back his emotions. He was able to acknowledge that. He had no choice but to acknowledge it. Using that weakness as an excuse and becoming defiant, was he babying himself? If that’s the case, if he were to become stronger and overcome that babying, where in the world would he be advancing to?

–– There’s no moving forward.

That’s what Haruka said. Was Haruka being babied by something, too? Could he be overcoming that and trying to move forward? For Ikuya, what would moving forward be? Is it swimming? Is it living on his own? …… He doesn’t know. There’s no way he could know.

–– d.a.m.n!

He’s irritated at himself for not knowing anything. Where in the world is Haruka trying to advance towards. It’s possible that maybe, the path that Ikuya has to choose is there, too. He wanted to know. He thought that it was worth to at least know. Even if he has to join the swim club where his older brother who had betrayed him is––.

While struggling in the darkness, Ikuya was trying to reach out his hand towards a faint light.

“Natsu-nii……”

While eating dinner, Ikuya called his older brother’s name. He hasn’t once called that name for a few months, or at the very least, not since entering middle school. With the curry rice scooped up, forgetting to carry it to his mouth, Natsuya opened his eyes wide. Even while he loudly swallows what’s in his mouth, his eyes don’t leave Ikuya. His eyes couldn’t leave him.

“Natsu-nii. I decided to join the swim club.”

Natsuya, who had his eyes wide open, opens his mouth, too. But no words come out of it.

“It doesn’t mean that I’ve forgiven Natsu-nii. Or Satomi for doing as she pleases and quitting the SC…… But for the sake of moving forward, I have to join the swim club no matter what.”

“Fo-forward……”

That’s all Natsuya said at last.

“I’m moving forward. For the sake of proving that I’m not the me anymore who was babied until now––”

“Ikuya……”

After he put down his spoon, Natsuya suddenly stood up and turned his back to Ikuya.

“Didn’t you say that the swim club is halfhearted playing?”

“It’s not, is it?”

“No. Not at all. Practice is tough. Brace yourself.”

“I got it. Natsu-nii.”

“Also, call me captain at school.”

“Got it.”

“Also, Nao’s the trainer, ask him for advice with anything.”

“Got it.”

“Also, be the first one there tomorrow.”

“Got it.”

“Also……, also……, do your best!”

“…… Yeah.”

From beneath his long eyelashes, Ikuya was staring up at him Natsuya, whose shoulders were shaking and still had his back turned to him, with the same gaze as before. With the same gaze as when the three of them were aiming to go to the Olympics.

When Haruka and Makoto went out onto the poolside after making a bow, Ikuya was unexpectedly there. He was doing warm-up exercises in the corner. Haruka looks at Makoto’s face. Makoto shook his head. It seems that he wasn’t informed of anything. So he looks for Satomi. She was in Aki’s group. Though she’s in a circle of friendly conversation, it seems that she’s worried about Ikuya and she anxiously glances towards him. He tries to meet Satomi’s eyes, but as expected, she just shook her head.

“Why’s he here?”

Asahi, who came later, asks Haruka. Speaking of which, Asahi is a member of Bandou SC, too, same as Ikuya. It’s impossible for them to not know each other, but he hasn’t once seen them talking. It seems like they’re not new acquaintances, either.

Maybe it has something to do with yesterday’s trouble? It’s right after yesterday. There’s no doubt about it being related to yesterday, he thinks, but he didn’t have the faintest idea as to what affected him and how that it came to this. Thinking of it simply, he might’ve followed after Satomi, but he’s sure that he hated the swim club after his older brother had betrayed him. Based on those circ.u.mstances, how did he reach a compromise for him to be attempting to do the ‘halfhearted playing’? Haruka had no way of knowing. The only certainty was just the hunch that Ikuya joining the club will drag Haruka into bothersome things.

The fearless Makoto walks up to him. Nothing to be done about it, Haruka and Asahi followed after him.

“Kirishima-kun joined the swim club, too, huh. Let’s do our best together.”

Ikuya stares intently at Makoto’s held out hand. Without missing that his right hand moved slightly, Makoto half forcibly grasped it.

“Let’s do our best. Together.”

“……I swim for myself.”

While Makoto is grasping his hand, he looks away and turns down his long eyelashes.

“And Ikuya’s fine. It’d be confusing if we’re with Natsu……, the captain.”

“Yeah. Then, call me Makoto.”

 Showing a smile, Makoto raised his up-slanting eyebrows.

“Ikuya. What did you do about the SC?”

Using Haruka as a shield, Asahi says it. Letting go of Makoto’s hand, Ikuya directed a stern expression towards Asahi.

“Same goes for you. You haven’t been coming lately, have you?”

“Club activities just started, so I was takin’ a little break. You, it’s because of that, that Bandou SC won’t let you partic.i.p.ate in matches, so you joined the swim club, right?”

“What did you say? That’s rich, coming from the one who peed himself!”

“I-I didn’t pee myself!”

“You’re embarra.s.sed that you peed yourself in the medley relay, so you can’t show your face at the SC, can you!”

“Same goes for you, I bet you got violent and got kicked out, didn’t you!”

“What!”

“What!”

When Makoto tried to step in to stop them, a whistle blew, as if to announce the end of a futile match.

“You first years over there, don’t argue!”

Nao comes walking over while scolding them.

“Sheesh, what are you doing? Line up over there for a moment.”

Though he told them to get in line, there’s only four of them. For the time being, Haruka and Makoto stepped in line between Ikuya and Asahi.

“Though it looks like I don’t need to make introductions anymore, Ikuya joined the club today. This has a huge significance. It means that in the first official match of the season, in the time trial by grade, the first year boys’ section can freely swim in the relay. You’re glad, right?”

He directs a bright smile toward the four of them, but no one gives a reply. Why do they have to be happy just because they can swim the relay?

“Ah, yes. We’re glad.”

Makoto is sensible enough to give a reply.

“Even so, you mustn’t be hasty. Don’t think we’ll start practicing for the relay all of a sudden.”

In all likelihood, no one’s thinking that.

“One step at a time, we’ll do it from the basics. Now then, since we practiced by putting emphasis on your reaction time during the consecutive holidays, today is its continuation, the push off. After you finish the warm-up exercises, let’s try it one person at a time.”

After the warm-up exercises, once they finished some of the ch.o.r.es, they entered the pool and taking turns, they tried kicking off from the wall. It’s a drill they often do at the Swimming Club, but Haruka hasn’t done it much. Since he thought that it doesn’t matter as long as he can swim, he mostly didn’t partic.i.p.ate in the basic exercises.

Before they did too many, the whistle blew and Nao instructed them to get out of the pool. And now they’re in a line again.

“No good, no good. You’re all totally useless. You have to stretch 10m at the minimum. First of all, the wall kick is completely wrong. I told you that at the start, you concentrate your mind below your belly b.u.t.ton, did you forget already?”

While walking, Nao b.u.mps his fist below the belly b.u.t.tons of the four of them in line.

“Here, here, here, here. Your body’s center, your body’s center of gravity. First of all, you concentrate your mind there. Then, what was it that do you do next? Makoto.”

“Yes. Uhm, dropping your center of gravity, you feel your weight on the entirety of the sole of your foot.”

“Correct. And what does feeling your weight mean? Asahi.”

“Uissu. Ui……Ui……”

What, is he French?

“What does it mean? Ikuya.”

“I wasn’t taught this, but is it being able to kick off strongly?”

“Yes, as the conclusion. Then, why was it that can you kick off strongly? Haruka.”

“Counteraction.”

“Correct. It’s because you’re receiving enough of the surface’s counteraction, isn’t it. Now, in the wall kick, did you do that? Of course no one did it. For your information, the turn’s propulsive force comes 100% from the kicking power. Consider it as practice for that. After kicking off from the wall, what was it that do you do next? Makoto.”

“Uhm, you straighten out your body and make a streamline.”

“No one was doing that, were they.”

“Eh?”

“Or was that supposed to be it? Then, all of you, on the spot, straighten your bodies into a streamline!”

Staying in line, the four of them raise both their hands and make the streamline posture.

“Makoto, you’re sticking your chest out too much. You’re too conscious of trying to stretch out your spine. Asahi, don’t look up. Like that, you’ll end up receiving the resistance with your face. It’s like, you thrust the top of your head in the direction you’re going. Ikuya, pressing your arms against your ears, both your hands overlap. It’s like, you draw your shoulder blades close. Your feet, too, closing your knees, your toes overlap. Be conscious of becoming a single pole. Your hip tightens, too. Haruka, –– oh, overextension, is it. I see, it’s suitable for the free, right?”

Looking at Haruka’s feet, Nao approves of one person.

“Alright, keep maintaining that state and do a hundred jumps on the spot!”

When the four of them are at a loss, Nao began to shout orders.

“Let’s go, okay one, two, three. Line up your toes and stretch. Okay four, five, six. Feel your weight on the sole of your foot. Okay seven, eight, nine. Higher. Okay ten, eleven, twelve.  Jump up straight, Asahi. Okay thirteen, fourteen, fifteen……”

It sure was intense to do that a hundred times. If people outside the club were to see this practice, it must’ve looked very strange. But they only minded that at the beginning, from halfway through, they didn’t even have the leisure to feel shame and the like. Even so, it’s quite the feat because somehow, they all went through with it.

When the four of them conked out, Nao dealt the final blow.

“The swim club doesn’t conk out on ‘land’. All of you, in the water! A hundred push offs!”

“……Yes.”

The four of them give a reply with no strength.

As Haruka straightens up, taking off his hands that he had put on his knees, he was called by Nao.

“Ah, Haruka will train something else. Come this way.”

“Yes.”

While feeling Asahi’s envious gaze, Haruka followed after Nao and he was taken to the opposite side of the lane.

“Do you know what biaxial swimming is?”

Nao asked him. He knows that such a swimming style exists, but not because he had been taught. He’s just seen something like its theory in a magazine that was at the Swimming Club.

“Just the name.”

“Can you do it?”

If he remembers correctly––, he gets the feeling it wrote that creating an ‘axis’ from both his left and right shoulder to his waist, it feels like swimming stickily.

“Haven’t done it before, but maybe.”

“Alright, let’s try one of these then.”

No explanation, no instruction, nothing. Reluctantly, Haruka entered the water and tried to kick off from the wall. His body quickly stretches out. It stretched lightly and more easily than usual. He didn’t intend to be conscious of it, but he felt the wall’s counteraction on the sole of his feet more than ever. And, more than ever before, he didn’t feel the water’s resistance. Could it be because he’s correctly making the streamline? Perhaps it’s possible that the jumps earlier are effective. In that case, as Nao said, it means that he wasn’t doing it until now.  Then, it means that just now, he has suddenly become capable of doing it. It’s hard to suddenly believe, but as long as it’s not an illusion, the precision of his push off has certainly improved. That’s what it feels like.

He starts moving his feet, but he doesn’t do the rolling. Creating an axis from his left shoulder to his waist, he does the stroke with his right arm. Then, in the timing from the recovery until the entry into the water, he does the stroke with his left arm. While feeling it to be somewhat clumsy, he swims until the middle and returns again.

“Good. At least the feel of it shows. Looks like you can swim it.”

Haruka lifted his face from the water’s surface.

“Don’t really get it, though.”

“Haruka, will you try the biaxial front crawl for a while?”

“Doesn’t really matter.”

“I think that biaxial probably suits you better.”

“Maybe.”

He has no realization of it. He doesn’t know what he’s basing it on to say that, but if Nao tells him to do it, then he thinks he’ll give it a try. He has a feeling that good will come out of it he goes in the direction Nao is guiding him. He has no solid evidence. It’s just that he vaguely feels that way.

“Also, it’s been bothering me for quite a while now, you’re forgetting to use honorific language.”

Being coldly told that with a bright smile, chills ran down Haruka’s spine in the water.

In the traditional crawl, there’s a single axis in the center of your body and you swim with the image of making that the center and revolving around it. Because you alternately move your shoulders up and down it’s a swimming style that seems to have become a little slanted, in which the upper half of your body rises from the surface of the water and the lower half sinks.

In contrast, in the biaxial crawl, since you swim while maintaining horizontality, it felt like your whole body was floating in the place where it skims the surface of the water. By having an axis on both the left and right side of your body, it becomes a flat swimming style, but it seems that by doing it that way, you can swim without breaking the streamline.

“Arms straight ahead. As far as you can. After your fingertips enter the water, you bend your wrists right away. Then, while being conscious of the high elbow, you paddle the water without pausing, with a feeling like you’re digging through the earth.”

 Just like a mole, he thinks. The catch after entering the water certainly was more like ‘earth’ than water. In the pull’s first half, he greatly feels the resistance. Not just on his palms. He feels a heavy resistance on his whole arm. Perhaps it means that he gains as much resisting power as there is resistance. Until now, in the latter half’s movement, he had the image of paddling out the water, but in the biaxial crawl’s latter half, conversely, he doesn’t really put strength into it. That’s why, during the latter half’s action, he is already entering one arm into the water, so it gives the image of endlessly revolving. Rather than cutting the water, it felt like digging through it after all.

“Good, Haruka. It’s like gattsu, gattsu. Don’t idle your arms. Swiftly transfer the axis.”

Somehow, it doesn’t feel like he’s swimming. It might be because he’s not used to it. He doesn’t feel the water. Before acknowledging and accepting, he’s swimming while thinking about every little thing, so he didn’t even have the leisure of feeling those things. At the very least, if he’s unable to swim naturally, forget feeling, he can’t even get carried away with the speed.

But, he thought it was easy. He can easily move forward. He was easily capable of strongly being conscious of moving forward. It’s a sensation he hasn’t had until now. Beyond this sensation, there might be something unknown. It was a vague something he couldn’t even grasp the premonition of, but he felt the possibility. It might be worth pursuing.

“Alright, that’s all for today. The push off group will focus on push offs tomorrow, too. Biaxial for the biaxial group tomorrow, too. Put away the equipment after the cooling down exercises and you should go home without delay. Dismissed.”

“Yes.”

Among the four boys’ matched replies, Asahi’s voice was especially exhausted. The ‘uissu’ reply is also indistinct.

“Aah, my foot’s feeling cramped.”

“Aren’t you mistaking it for feeling like you’re about to pee yourself?”

“Shut up……”

It seems he doesn’t even have the strength left to argue against Ikuya.

As Haruka is picking up the kickboards, Nao came to give him a helping hand.

“Haruka sure has a good sense of rhythm. You still have room to improve.”

Since he’s here, he decided that he might as well ask about what he said earlier.

“When we were making streamlines, what was that about my feet?”

“Hm? Aah, you mean the overextension?”

“What is that?”

“It’s bending your knees backward over 180 degrees. Look, Haruka’s knees.”

He points at him and he takes a look. He hadn’t minded it before until now, but it certainly was bending backward a little.

“If your overextension is big, you can bend your leg like a whip, so it’s suitable for swimming styles like the free. But it’s easy to injure so be careful.”

Ridiculous, he thinks. If you can be faster by something like that, no one would have a hard time. They would just have to earnestly do stretches that make their knees bend backward.

“That aside, Haruka, did something happen with Ikuya?”

“Not really.”

“He was always looking in Haruka’s direction.”

He knows. He was being looked at. He made sure not to meet his eyes. They weren’t the eyes that released that dark light, but they certainly were looking at Haruka. It’s Makoto’s fault. Makoto always does meddlesome things, so Haruka is dragged into bothersome things.

Lifting the kickboards he had picked up, Haruka gazed up at the sky praying that nothing else will happen anymore.