A/N: This is my first Free! story. Hope you like it. And English is not my first language. So please ignore any kind of mistakes.

Disclaimer: I don't own Free! and its characters. I only own this story, the OC and her picture attached which I created by an avatar creator app.

N/B: I never heard of a female swimmer beating male in reality. In my story, it will happen for few times, not every time. The picture here represents my OC. Except for a few scenes, the whole story will go by OC's P.O.V.

Back To The Town

My name is Ayumu Takagaki. Yes, Ayumu...a male name. Because my parents always wanted a boy for themselves. But that doesn't mean they didn't love me, in fact it was the opposite. My parents loved me more than anything and always wanted me to be strong and self-dependent like a boy. For some reason, they wanted me to become a swimmer. I really didn't have my own choice in my childhood, so I learnt swimming for them.

But my happiness with my parents didn't last long. When I was 6 or 7, we went on a trip to Indonesia by ship, but before it crossed Japan's borderline, a destructive typhoon occurred by which our ship was demolished into the sea. I didn't know how I made it alive but that was the last time I saw my parents.

Fortunately I was not escorted to any orphanage. My mother's twin sister was alive and I started to live with her family. I was lucky because I used to be well treated like my cousin, we were like sibling. I decided myself that I would never ever swim or would never go near water unless necessary...until I met Matsuoka siblings.

Matsuoka family lived at my aunt's next house. I used to talk with the redhead girl Gou Matsuoka, whose father was a fisherman and also was gone by the same storm. We became friends soon. She had an older brother named Rin who also liked to swim. I never talked to Rin directly. But, what I knew from Gou, was that even though their father was gone into the sea like mine, yet Rin never stopped swimming. In fact, after a few months, he won a swimming contest along with three other kids in relay, but then I had a bad experience when I went to join the same contest. Life was really painful to me at Iwatobi because it always reminded of my family and bad memories regarding water and swimming.

Meanwhile, I got admission into a boarding school in another city, which lead me leaving Iwatobi. I felt bad for missing my aunt, uncle, cousin and Gou, but by then, Iwatobi had turned into a haunted place for me. And yes, my life started to get better after leaving that town. Specially, when I learnt to live by myself. This time I was determined that I would swim for my parents...to become the best of all. In order to fulfill the target, I practiced and worked harder and harder. My ultimate target is to defeat the water wave, in which my parents were gone, so I specially worked on my speed in water. I couldn't make many friends since I always used to work out and swim in my free time. At first, it was only for beating the others, but then swimming gradually became an addiction for me.

Now I'm 15, I stand 5'5" and weigh 50 kg (110 lbs). I have fair complexion, waist-length strawberry blonde hair and violet eyes. I consider myself average though I heard people say that I have a pretty face. I also often catch guys looking at my bust because they are pretty bigger for my age. But under that, I got a muscular stomach and toned legs which no one usually expects. My workout really paid off to build an athletic body. I'm short tempered in nature and got a bad reputation for it. I wear a necklace with a sailfish pendant. I consider the sailfish symbol as my lucky charm.

My middle school was Sakura Girls' School, one of the most prestigious schools in the city I was living. Fortunately, they had a swim team in which I joined. I learnt all four types of swimming: Free style, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly because I had this tendency to become an all-rounder. I liked to swim my own so I didn't use to partake in relays. To be honest, my competitors were nowhere near me whatever the race type was. I knew that I was supposed to be slower when I grew up, so when I started swimming again, this time I never let my speed go down. Every time I used to swim, my primary focus was to increase my swimming speed than previous day. Thus, I was able to swim abnormally faster than other girls. The difference was so huge that the average time gap between me and the runners-up was around 7-8 secs. Then I quit swim team because it was useless to race anymore. Instead I joined athletics team to stretch my hands and legs more freely to swim. As for swimming, I practiced and trained myself by watching pro matches, sometimes by sneaking into boys' school's pools. And then something happened.

I made some friends in swim team. Among them, the closest one called me one night to come at school swimming pool for some reason. When I reached, there was a tall, well-built guy with my friend. He had bright red hair, golden eyes and had tan skin.

"This is my older brother, Seijuro Mikoshiba. He's the captain of Samezuka Academy's swimming team."

"Eh?!" I couldn't help but was surprised. I heard about him and his school which had a topper swimming team in Iwatobi, but never thought she would bring him to our school...to meet me particularly.

"Hello, I'm Ayumu Takagaki."

"Michiro always talks about you, but didn't mention that her school's top swimmer would be this beautiful."

That kind of speech always made my eyebrows narrow. "Ain't you a flirty one for a swimming team captain?"

"Sorry but can't help after looking at you."

Then my friend tried to distract, "You know ni-chan, Ayumu has never been beaten in any race."

"It's only because no 'girl' could beat her." Seijuro smirked, his words made my ear twitch. He was right, until now I only raced with girls.

"This is why, I left this swimming team." I snapped, "I can't learn anything if I always keep winning easily."

"You're a straightforward girl. I like that." The guy said, "In that case, care to learn something?"

"Why not?"

"I never intended to race against a girl, but since you're my sister's friend...so I'll be generous."

I was appalled now. I didn't expect this. Then my friend whined, "This will be bad, ni-chan. How can a girl compete a guy?"

"It will be okay." I cut her off, "In fact, I think I would be happier to lose to a guy than to win easy races against girls. Because, only that's how I could find the lacking in me."

"Very impressive." Seijuro commented, "But, don't embarrass yourself."

I went to my locker before quickly changing into my swimsuit. When I was back at the pool, i found the red-haired guy also in his trunk-suit. We both put on our caps and goggles, before getting into diving position. Michiro told me that Seijuro's expertise was backstroke, so I expected a backstroke race and was about to jump in water, before he stopped me.

"I'll play you 100m free-style."

"Are you underestimating me?"

"Honestly, I am. But it's up to you whether you would make me regret for that or not."

"Very well then."

My friend gave the signal to start and we jumped. It was past midnight and the water was pretty chilled. But I knew he was habituated in racing in this condition. So was I. So, cold water did not effect much on any of us. At first lap, I could finally understand the difference between a male and a female swimmer, as he got way ahead of me within seconds. But I was not the type to give up. So, I anyhow, tried to speed up. As expected, he won. I was panting, but not that tired. In fact, I somehow got confidence in myself to race against guys.

"Hmm, 3 secs gap...not bad." Seijuro seemed impressed.

"In that case, let's race backstroke this time." I blurted.

"Fine, but it will be 200m."

I was pleased with myself when he lengthened the distance, because he purposely pressurized me. During backstroke, I usually try to avoid feeling the water pressure, which helps me to swim backwards. I did not see how much distance Seijuro was ahead this time, but when we finished, both the redhead and his sister's eyes widened in shock to see the statistics. He won again but the time difference was...only 0.5 secs!

General P.O.V

A month later:

At Iwatobi Swiming Club, people of different ages were practicing swimming. As usual, the swimming club members of both Iwatobi High School, Samezuka Academy and some other schools were getting ready for practice race. The first individual race was free-style swimming. So, Haruka Nanase from Iwatobi and Rin Matsuoka from Samezuka with some other candidates got ready to jump in water. And eventually the race started. Both of their teammates started to cheer them up. But...

Some frantic footsteps were heard within few seconds after the race started. Then suddenly a figure appeared out of nowhere. Whoever it was, wore a loose dark blue hoodie so no one could see his face. Then everyone's eyes widened in shock...when the hoodie guy ran towards one of the empty lines, before diving in the pool.

"What the...?!"

"Is he going to race...?!"

"He didn't even took off that hoodie!"

People around there started to buzz, but eventually they focused on the race. Haruka and Rin were far ahead of others and already reached the other side. When the two started the second lap, others were yet to touch the first end.

"Rin-senpai has gone ahead of Haruka-senpai." Aiichiro Nitori said to see his redhead teammate taking lead. But then the blackette boy passed the other.

"Yes! Haru-chan is ahead now!" Nagisa Hazuki exclaimed.

"That's really beautiful to see when two of them swim together." Rei Ryugazaki said.

While the two teams were cheering the two leads of the race, Sosuke Yamazaki from Samezuka was totally silent...as he was observing something which no one else noticed.

"What's wrong, senpai?" Aiichiro asked concernedly.

"That guy..." Sosuke pointed, "He started late, didn't he?"

The shorter then looked at the swimmer the taller indicated, "Yes, but-...EHH?! When did that hoodie come this far?!"

While the others focused on two top swimmers, Aiichiro and Sosuke were the only ones to notice that the hoodie wearing swimmer already passed the others and slowly decreasing his distance from Haruka and Rin.

Eventually, both Haruka and Rin touched the endpoint. It was not sure who was first until the scoreboard showed the result. Both of their time showed 56.44 secs in first position.

"Whoa! A tie!" Makoto Tachibana went appalled.

"I'm glad it's a tie!" Rin happily hugged Haruka who just smiled.

"It means we both won!" Nagisa hugged two of them.

Iwatobi and Samezuka team congratulated each other for the rare tie. Then Sosuke spoke up out of the blue.

"I guess there's something we overlooked." Which caught others' attention. He pointed to the scoreboard. "The second place."

All looked to see the timing of the runner-up was 58.26 secs. But the noticeable thing was, there was '? ? ? ? ? ? ?' instead of name.

"Ehh? A nameless swimmer?" Rei adjusted his glasses.

Then a splash sound caught everyone's attention, since the swimmer with hoodie now got himself up from the water. There was a violet colored sailfish symbol behind his hoodie.

"It's him...the latecomer." Aiichiro declared.

"I wonder how he managed to swim wearing that hoodie..." Nagisa scratched his head.

"He jumped in at least 5 seconds later," Sosuke commented, "But finished in just 1.82 secs behind from Rin and Haruka."

"That means..." Makoto mumbled, "He was the fastest among them even though he didn't win."

"Oi...you there!" Rin was the one who decided to be direct, "Hoodie guy."

The boy slowly turned around, but since his hoodie still covered his head, no one was able to see his face. He was shorter than others, almost same height as Nagisa. He stood there without any words, waiting.

"You did pretty good, you know." The redhead approached him, "Which swimming club you're from?"

The guy was still silent. But after few seconds, voice of an early teenage male was heard from his throat, "I'm new in this town."

"You shouldn't have been late, you know." Another voice drew attention of everyone, who was the Samezuka swimming team captain, Seijuro Mikoshiba. "The result could have been different..."

Haruka was totally silent till now, his blue eyes just intently stared the guy with hoodie. Finally, he stood in front of the other.

Flashback:

"Are you mocking me or feeling pity on me?!" I yelled at the senior swimmer, who just made an offer to me.

"Takagaki, do you think I would do something like that to another swimmer, who lost by just half of a second a while ago? Do you know that you're an asset?"

"If I were an asset then I would not leave the swimming team here. I have my own reasons to swim."

"So, you do have a target in your life, don't you?." Seijuro said, "A difficult target I assume...didn't you just say that you wanted to improve yourself? That's why, I'm offering you to come with me. Swimming is more competitive among guys."

"But why're you taking this risk? Since you're the captain of a swimming team, you will have to answer your teammates for this."

"You're a cute swimmer girl who is capable to compete guys. Of course, I'll be more than happy to recruit you in my team. And I can tell your performance will shut all the mouths. So, what I'm suggesting, is for both of our benefits."

"Ni-chan is right, Ayumu." Michiro said grabbing my hands, "Your swimming level is far far above us or any other girl. Here you'll be just wasting your time and talent."

I couldn't argue with them. I must race against tougher competitors for my own sake, no matter what they are. But the destination was Iwatobi...the place of my all distressful life events. Besides, from my childhood till now, I was not used to deal with people from opposite sex. So for me, swimming with boys at their club would be like walking on a minefield. I just managed to reply,

"I need a month to think over it, Mikoshiba-san."

General P.O.V

The hoodie-wearing swimmer felt the intense gaze of blue eyes of the black-haired boy, who was one of the winners of the friendly race, Haruka Nanase. He didn't say a word till now, not even after winning.

"What's your name?" Finally Haruka opened his mouth to the unknown swimmer, who replied hesitantly,

"Ayumu...Takagaki."

That's all for the first chapter. I guess you already know where this will go. If you like this, please leave your review and add the story to your library.