Title: To Swim
Warning: I do not own Free!
"Kyudo, or the The Way of the Bow, consists of three main aspects: truth, in which each shot is made with a pure mind and the intention of having hit the bulls eye even before the arrow has reached its intended target; goodness, in which the archer maintains his or her composure even through stressful situations and beauty, in which grace must be reflected in every movement as per etiquette. It is under these three concepts that you will all refine yourselves and grow as both excellent archers and a successful people.
Archery is not simply a sport for leisure or peace of mind, it is a method to which you can find inner peace and develop from the discoveries you make of yourselves. Archery gives you the opportunity to clear your mind from ripples of disturbances and peer into your soul. It is a sport that will refine you and – blah blah blah blah..."
Akihiro could feel her lids drooping as if they were being held down by paper weights while Ayame continued her passionate speech. The same speech had been made when Akihiro first joined the Archery club during her freshman year and it was no different the following year during her second year of archery. If the speech was only made annually Akihiro might have been more attentive, it was after all, a moving speech that had captivated her in the past; however the fact was, Ayame insisted on making that very same speech every single day before practice. Akihiro swore she could recite that very speech, word-for-word, and even letter-by-letter if necessary.
Fiddling with the hem of her hakama, Akihiro continued to block out her captain's voice until she heard the decisive word "Dismissed" and jumped to her feet.
It had not yet been a week since Freshmen Orientation, but already the Archery club and its new recruits were falling into a rhythmical system of organization. Surprisingly, despite the disaster incurred by a certain female during the orientation, many new additions had signed up for the club and Akihiro became a sort of idol amongst the first-years. It had also become routine for first-years, second-years and third-years alike to flock around the dojo after school during archery practice in hopes of gaining boasting rights for being there in person if Akihiro managed to flub up once more.
Honestly, the publicity wasn't so well-taken by the girl of interest, but with Ayame already breathing down her neck about ruining the Archery club's reputation, Akihiro decided it would be better just to leave her growing fanclub as it was in hopes that it would attract more recruits. Unfortunately, the fanclub, which she had since dubbed the Watch-Akihiro-Fail-in-Life-and-Archery club, did nothing more than crowd the perimeter of the dojo.
"Sakura!" Akihiro smiled in surprise as she spotted the brunette picking up her bow and arrow in the corner. "It's been a while! So you're finally coming to practice again?"
In a recent turn of events, Sakura was nominated the new Student Council Vice-president (the previous vice-president was discharged for reasons unknown) and accepted a confession from her long-time crush, so she had been quite busy balancing a hectic school life and a never-before-had love life.
Sakura shrugged as she waited for Akihiro to gather her equipment as well. "With Freshman Orientation over with and my training finally complete, the Student Council has decided to give me a break."
"And Daisuke?" Akihiro asked, ever the nosy meddler in her best friend's love life seeing as that she had none of her own.
"He has art club," answered Sakura as the two girls proceeded towards the target area, passing by a group of freshmen who were being split into two groups: one to organize supplies, the other to pick up arrows while observing their upperclassmen practicing. "He's been telling me that they have yet to recruit any serious new members."
Akihiro gestured towards the growing crowd outside of the dojo with her shoulder, needless to say it came out looking more like a bad, twitchy dance move. "Need me to drop by and do some promoting?"
"It's fine," Sakura said. "Daisuke will manage." The two stepped up behind a row of seniors who were preparing to shoot their second round of arrows.
As they were waiting, Akihiro let her gaze casually drag over the crowd of spectators until they landed on two heads. Her eyes widened as she felt her mouth garble at the sudden appearance of the two very familiar boys.
She did a double-take, then a triple take, and finally followed that with a fish-eyed, jaw-slacked stare.
Sakura's eyebrows crinkled at her friend's odd display and she opened her mouth to question her unnatural behavior, but Akihiro was gone before Sakura even uttered a single word, stumbling towards the object of her attention in a less than graceful manner and attracting the scrutiny of practically the entire club. Master of subtlety, thou art not Akihiro Suzuki.
"Akhiro-chan!" Nagisa waved brightly towards the flustered girl when she finally reached them. "We came to watch you practice!"
Akihiro turned towards Makoto for confirmation and was met with a sheepish smile. "I wanted to watch as well."
The girl stood there for a full second staring at the boys blankly as she tried to think of an excuse to shoo them away, but when she noticed the mischievous gleam in Nagisa's dark pink eyes she knew that there was no reasoning with them. 'Oh dear,' Akihiro thought as she raked a hand through her black curls in resignation, wincing slightly as her fingers got caught in the tangles. 'I better put on a good performance then.' The last thing she wanted to do was embarrass herself in front of her new friends, or at least, she didn't want to embarrass herself more than she had already. She glanced towards the rest of the spectators, now staring intently at the three of them and hurriedly snapped her eyes back to Nagisa and Makoto.
"Where's Haruka?" asked Akihiro when she noticed a missing person to the regular trio.
"He went home early," explained Makoto, who decided it would be in their best interest to exclude the reason why said boy had rushed home the moment the school bell rung. He didn't want to weird out their new friend just yet. Luckily, Akihiro accepted his explanation without questions.
"SUZUKI!"
"Gargh!" The girl jumped up in surprise at the suddenness of the shout and she twisted her head back to see who had called out to her only to have her eyes meet with Ayame's brown orbs.
"Are you done flirting yet?" The senior tapped her foot against the wooden floor impatiently as an irritated smile twitched on her lips. "Everyone is waiting on you."
Akihiro sighed, it seemed she couldn't go a day without pissing off the club president, and dragged her feet towards the target course while sending a smile of reassurance to Nagisa and Makoto. By the time she got into place and into position, she was sure that every pair of eyes at the dojo was drilling into the back of her neck. Akihiro regretted not going to the bathroom before practice.
'Well, can't screw up now...' she thought as her eyes zoomed in on the target. This time, she decided to change tactics, instead of imagining herself in a 'happy place' like she did last time in order to concentrate, this time she would project an image on the target. Akihiro took in a deep breath and visualized her arrow barreling towards the bulls eyes, straight and firm, ripping through the air and landing with a resounding 'thunk'.
Akihiro fluidly pulled the bowstring back, by now the distractions all around her long forgotten. It was one of the rare moments where Akihiro was intently focused on something rather than ridiculously embarrassing herself, an image that captured everyone's attention and making them anticipate her next movement.
Nagisa leaned forward towards the scene, his eyes widening and mouth hanging open. It was this very scene that he witnessed during Freshmen Orientation that had prompted him to drag Makoto and Haruka around school during lunch to hunt her down. The curve of her arm, her rooted stance, the sharpness of her eyes... it was intense.
"Nagisa?" Makoto glanced down at the blonde in curiosity upon noticing the look of fascination on his face. "What's wrong?"
The blonde glanced up at his senpai with a smile. "Doesn't Akihiro look cool?"
Makoto turned his gaze back on the girl, carefully scrutinizing her. It seemed odd to him to see such a silly girl looking so serious; a smile suited her more than the furrow between her brows.
He wondered what Nagisa saw in her.
Meanwhile, Akihiro could feel her concentration slipping slightly, she had never been good at staying focused for long. 'I wonder if the magazine I ordered has come yet,' Akihiro mused as she felt her arms slacken. 'Pretty boys: Arabian edition, I've been waiting for that issue for weeks now!' Luckily, the expectant eyes digging into her back quickly reminded her to regain focus and she shifted her attention back on the target.
It took a few more seconds for Akihiro to recompose herself as her heart slowly settled down once more, all the while she felt her arms starting to strain under the pressure of pulling back the bowstring.
'It's now or never,' she grimaced and prepared to release the arrow. Her arm wavered slightly, but she forced it to steady. 'Focus, focus...focu-'
"Go, Akihiro!"
Akihiro flinched at the sudden sound and released the arrow, her shift in movement sent the arrow barreling the wrong direction and it swerved in its path.
"Wha-." Akihiro's arms fell limp at her side, her mind still reeling to register what just happened, all the while barely registering the thump of the impact of her arrow.
"P-principal!"
"Are you okay?" Makoto asked as he crouched down next to Akihiro's spiritless body which was leaning against the base of the dojo wall.
Archery practice had been cut early after the unfortunate incident where Akihiro accidentally shot the wig off of the principal's head. The scarring image of the large protruding wart on his shiny pale bald spot would remain etched in everyone's mind forever. Of course, that was not where things ended and Akihiro lay in the nearly-empty dojo dreading her inevitable punishment.
"Nope," Akihiro groaned as she banged her head against the dojo wall, discarding any and all pride. "I'm going to die. Ayame is going to kill me." Makoto gave her a sympathetic smile as he tried to muster up something encouraging to say.
"Mako-chan! We have to go or else we'll be late!" Nagisa shouted from the entrance, waving his arms wildly to catch the older boy's attention.
Akihiro turned her head towards Makoto with her head still leaning against the wall. "Are you going somewhere?"
Makoto's smile softened as he stood up, a look of reminiscence washing over his face. "Haru, Nagisa and I are going to visit our old swimming school before it closes down."
For a second, Akihiro forgot how to breathe as she admired the sight before her. The scene seemed so picturesque, a handsome teenager haloed by the orange sunset while standing alone in a traditional wooden dojo, his broad shoulders gave him an image of reliability, as if he could hold the weight of you and the entire world on it, and his eyes seemed so serene, like it could soothe even the most resilient of hearts. Akihiro had never felt as lucky to be alive as she did then.
"Well, you better leave now, then," Akihiro said as she slowly rose to her feet, trying to placate his look of concern. "I'll be fine. I've been through this before, I'll manage." She sent him off with a smile, making sure the Nagisa and Makoto were fully out of sight before dropping the act and collapsing on her knees. "Who am I kidding, I'm dead. Dead."
"Wow," Sakura clicked her tongue, appearing out of nowhere behind Akihiro with a hand to her hip and peering out into the distance where the two boys disappeared into. "So much for saving face in front of our underclassmen."
Akihiro didn't even bother turning towards her friend as she tearfully spoke. "Who cares about pride in the face of life-threatening danger?"
"Wimp," Sakura sneered.
"Jerk!" Akihiro screeched.
"Cry baby."
"I'll have you know I've never cried since-," Akihiro finally turned over to face her friend in indignation, but when she saw her friend clad in her regular school uniform instead of the typical archery uniform her retort died short. "Why did you change?"
Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Did you really think I was going to stay after school and hang out to watch you clean up this whole dojo yourself?"
"Well, no," Akihiro said, crossing her arms across her chest. "I was expecting you to stay after school to help me clean up this whole dojo."
Sakura snorted. "In your dreams. Daisuke is going to walk me home."
Akhiro sighed and collapsed onto the floor once more, lying down with her arms and legs spread out like a giant starfish. "Must be nice to have a boyfriend." The girl understood how elated her friend had been after Daisuke's confession although Sakura's cool facade did not indicate as much. Akihiro would not deny her friend the joys of first love and Sakura knew that, so the topic of her leaving early was dropped.
"You should get a boyfriend," Sakura said.
It was Akihiro's turn to snort. "You make it sound so easy."
"Why wouldn't it be? You're a nice girl, although a bit weird," Sakura reasoned, oddly adamant about the subject. "You're considerate and hardworking. I'd say you're quite a catch."
Akihiro raised a brow at her friend and laughed. "You exaggerate. I'm really not that great of a person. You don't need to make up excuses for me."
Her words seemed to trigger something in Sakura and her expression scrunched up into a sour grimace as she suddenly turned on her heel to leave, roughly throwing a "See you tomorrow." over her shoulder. Akihiro's eyes watched her friend storm out of the dojo, her expression conflicted; however the sound of someone clearing their throat quickly shook her out of her reverie and Akihiro jumped to her feet to see a fierce-looking Ayame. Akihiro wondered how much of her conversation Ayame had overheard.
"What's up, Captain?" Akihiro smiled brightly. "So I was just wondering if I could leave now. You know, busy night, I've got a bunch of video games to catch up on and-"
Ayame interrupted Akihiro with a snap, "Tough nubs, Suzuki. You reap what you sow. Now why don't you show me how hardworking you can be. Clean this entire dojo before you leave tonight. If I see even a single speck of dust anywhere tomorrow morning, I'll castrate you."
Akihiro shivered as she watched her captain leave the dojo, wisely deciding against telling Ayame she didn't have the correct organs to be castrated. The girl waited a beat after Ayame was out of eyesight before she walked towards the closet which held all the cleaning supplies and quickly got to work.
The work was as grueling as it was cumbersome and consisted of: wiping down the floor, storing away the targets, organizing the equipment and accounting for missing or damaged items, picking up the garbage around the dojo (that was so nicely dropped by spectators who had witnessed her spectacular example of how not to shoot an arrow)..the list could go on forever. As a result, it wasn't until 7 o'clock that Akihiro finally finished and she collapsed onto a nearby bench in what she would like to think was a fabulous mess, but considering it was Akihiro, she presumed she probably looked like road kill that had been left to rot before someone mowed her over with a steam roller and left in her a state not too dissimilar to a mud pancake.
Despite her horrific appearance, Akihiro chose to look on the bright side as she admired the fruits of her effort. The floor sparkled with a waxy sheen that hadn't been seen since the first day of school and everything was tucked properly into their appropriate place. 'A better job than the freshmen were ever able to do.' Akihiro boasted to herself as her chest puffed out with pride. The only thing that remained constant was the musky smell of sweat that had permeated through the dojo walls. The dojo had just been meticulously waxed over the summer and initially exuded the faint, zesty smell of lemons, unfortunately, not even a week after practice started, the dojo began to stink up and Akihiro knew that the smell would only get worse. She shivered at the thought of the sweaty sock odor that emanated off the walls during the last few weeks before school ended last year.
As Akihiro lay sprawled across the bench to rest her sore body for a while, her mind began to wander back to the conversation she just had with Sakura.
"You're a nice girl, although a bit weird.
Despite being icy and stoic in appearance, Sakura was a kind person through and through and Akihiro was happy that her friend found a nice boy who could see and appreciate that. But as her mind wandered, she couldn't help but wonder what had spurred her friend to mention her single status, and with such fervor too.
"You're considerate...
Akihiro scoffed at that. If only Sakura knew. Flashes of memories from the past resurfaced, but Akihiro was quick to brush it away.
"...and hardworking
The girl frowned. She could be hardworking to a certain extent, but the same could be said about almost anyone. This time it was harder to ignore the memories that pushed its way to her conscience.
"I'd say you're quite a catch."
Akihiro closed her eyes and she could see images as if they were burned onto the inside of her eyelids: red hair that burned like a crackling fire, hands that were warm and large and gripped her tightly, eyes that shone brightly and a smile as dazzling as the sun.
"Akihiro.' The voice called out to her and she felt herself unconsciously shaping her mouth to respond...
"Rin!"
"Rin-chan!"
Nagisa jumped with joy as he grabbed Rin's hands. "You're back from Australia!"
"What are you doing here though?" Makoto asked as he took a step forward.
While Nagisa was explaining to Makoto the circumstances of fate that had brought them together, Rin and Haruka were more occupied with staring each other down.
"Haru, you're still hanging out with these guys?" Rin frowned. "You never learn."
"And what about you?" Haruka asked. "Have you learned anything?"
Rin smirked. "I'm glad you asked. Why don't I show you? Let's race, Haru."
Akihiro yawned as she stretched her arms up in the air, loosening some muscles that had tensed after her strenuous punishment. This wasn't the first time she was subject to such inhumane demands and she was sure it probably won't be the last, but a girl could hope.
The sun had already set a while ago and the streets were only lit by the dim light of the street lamps. Luckily Akihiro knew that the district she was walking was safe and she casually strolled down the block, her skirt softly swishing around her legs and her school bag swinging at her side. She wasn't expecting to encounter anyone so late at night, so when she spotted a shadowed figure coming out of an old building she stopped cold in her tracks.
A half-naked, toned body was the first thing Akihro noticed and it took quite the effort for her to drag her eyes up to see the face that the body belonged to. The face was one Akihiro was not familiar with which was surprising considering the city's small population and that Akihiro definitely wouldn't have forgotten such an attractive face. The boy had purplish-red hair and unique sharp teeth that resembled that of a shark's, but Akihiro didn't waste any more time on his face as her vision quickly lowered back down on his chest. She was so disappointed to see the boy slipping into his jacket that she didn't notice his red eyes glaring at her.
"What are you looking at?" He growled at her.
Akihiro stiffened as her body immediately straightened up. "N-nothing!" Internally groaning, Akihiro could only hope that the boy would quickly leave before she did anything else embarrassing. "I was only staring at your chest." The boy stared at her, his eyebrows shooting up in incredulity. "I-I-I mean, you look better without your jacket on!" Akihiro prayed to get hit by a random flying projectile and wake up thinking it was all a dream.
Fortunately for her, the boy chose to ignore her and walked past without further fuss while pulling a cap over his head. Akihiro stiffly turned her head, her eyes trailing after the boy down the street, all the while trying her best to brainwash herself into forgetting the sequence of events that had happened in the past five minutes.
'But,' Akihiro mused contemplatively as she recalled the boy's face. 'That face...' The girl turned away after the boy's silhouette finally faded away into the darkness before continuing down the road to her house.
"He was really hot."
A/N: Sweet peas! Another chapter down!