Ten: Encounter

"The word is there." Ryugazaki stated pointing to the sentence in front of Hinata, his finger touching the short five letter word with a factual tone to his voice, "You've been getting better but you honestly are very bad at English." Hinata flinched at his matter of fact way of speaking before she shook her head and groaned. She couldn't help it, they had been at it for hours and her brain was fried. Flopping her head down on the desk, she let out a defeated grumble that Ryugazaki chuckled at amusedly. They were in the school library, tucked into a back corner so that their chatter wouldn't disturb others that were trying to read. Not that Hinata really cared whether they disturbed anyone, she was hoping that their talking would get them kicked out of the library so that she didn't have to study anymore.

"Why don't you try to translate this sentence while I go get us something to drink?" Ryugazaki said as he pushed back in his chair, "I'll be right back." Hinata watched him as he disappeared around the corner of the bookshelf from the corner of her eye as she lounged in her chair tiredly. She was thankful for Ryugazaki-san's help but she hadn't expected it to be this hard, she wondered if she had wronged the English Gods in another life and this was their way of punishing her. She couldn't complain though, the few weeks she had been studying with Ryugazaki were already starting to show in her marks. She hated every minute of learning the horrid language but was glad it was finally starting to come a bit easier all thanks to Ryugazaki's help. English wasn't the only thing that was getting better though, her life in general was starting to look up thanks to Ryugazaki and the other swim club members. She was still afraid of water and wouldn't go anywhere near the pool but she had to admit that somehow the thought of water wasn't as terrifying as it was before. Hauki-san had pointed out that she only remembered her bad experience in the water, that if she had better experiences then she wouldn't feel so afraid. Since then this had been pointed out to her she had been looking through her old photo albums from when she was younger. Hinata hadn't realize just how much time she had spent in the water as a child, practically all the photos of her and Noboru were taken when they were in the water up until the point of the beach trip. After that point there was not a single photo of Hinata in the water, and very few of Noboru.

Her brother had been the one to introduce Hinata to swimming. He had start lessons when he was four and had taken the time to teach Hinata when she was old enough to. He had also been the one to encourage her to join the swim team when it was clear she was a pretty good swimmer. There wasn't a swim event that Hinata didn't remember her brother not attending, he had always been there quietly in the background rooting for her. Even when she had started therapy after she was twelve he had been there for her, despite her reluctance to open up to him anymore. In many ways Ryugazaki-san remained Hinata of her brother, he was very patient with her like Noboru had been. Both of them gently pushed her in the right direction without really pressing too much on her at a time, waiting for her to realize things on her own.

Glancing down at the sentence Ryugazaki had given her to translate she sighed. She wasn't good at English but it had been proven time and time again that if she tried a bit harder than the results would show. Sitting up, Hinata squinted at the words for a few minutes as she tried to decipher the code scribbled out in the strange language. She recognized the mark at the end of the sentence as a questioned mark, so the statement was a question. Next she picked out the various smaller words; do, you, to, and go. The other words took a bit longer, though their meanings teased her at the tips of her memories. W-A-N-T, the word was want which meant a desire to do something.

"Do you want to go..." She read aloud to herself in the awkward language, "S... sw... Damn!" She groaned as she struggled with the last word, her eyes narrowing unhappily. S-W-I-M were the first four letters, which she knew was swim. The next four were M-I-N-G but she couldn't place the sounds in her head to be able to read it. "Swim...ming...swimm...ing... sw..imming... swimming... swimming?" She made a face as she thought. "Do you want to go swimming?" She read again, the sentence finally clicking in her head as she looked at the words.

"You got it!" Hinata jumped, her head flinging around to see Ryugazaki's tall frame standing at the corner of the bookshelf, "Seems like that's enough for today! Come on, I'll treat you to some food on the way home as a reward for your hard work." She didn't have to be asked twice as she jumped from her seat and quickly gathered her books in excitement, they had been there practically all day. As she flipped a few of her books closed Ryugazaki picked up the bag which she hadn't noticed he had, it was a plain black bag used to carried swim gear.

"Do you have practice today?" Hinata questioned looking over the bag. She had had one similar to it when she was still swimming back in Tokyo. Ryugazaki looked it then shrugged his shoulders and nodded. "But it's Saturday..." His brows furrowed slightly before he shrugged again.

"We are going to look at indoor gyms today, since we need to start training for competitions again soon." Ryugazaki said, "Since Makoto got sick from swimming in the pool when it's too cold we decided to save up and get memberships so that we can practice inside." Hinata had known they were looking for an indoor pool but she had never imagined they'd find one so quickly, they had been struggling with funds after all.

"Did the teachers decide to sponsor you then?"

"Ah... no... they didn't," Ryugazaki said sheepishly as they exited the school building and headed for the gates, "the owner agreed to let us use the pool whenever we needed it as long as we helped out at the gym whenever possible. In a way it's sort of a part time job... except we aren't getting paid for it." Hinata's eyebrows raised at the thought, it didn't seem like to fair of a deal to her but she figured the team would have agreed to anything as long as they were allowed to swim inside. She understood it to some degree, she had hated the time when she couldn't swim when she was younger. She had gone around looking for other places to swim that wouldn't cause her to get sick from the cold. The thought of her enthusiasm and the team's matching up so well made her laugh and shake her head. She felt as though she would have fit in very well with them when she was younger, of course she was a different person now. She hated the water.

"Would you like to come and watch?" Ryugazaki's voice drew her from her thoughts, "We can set up a chair for you in the corner so you don't have to go near the water. I'm sure Nagisa would be happy is you went." She thought about it, her mind telling her to turn down the offer at once while also reasoning that if she wanted to keep her friends she should make an effort as well. As long as she didn't have to go in the water it would be fine after all.

"Yeah, sure..." She mumbled with a nod of her head, "I'll go but only if you buy me some Pocky at the store!" Ryugazaki-san's face lit up as he nodded and tugged her toward the closest store. It wasn't long before she was munching happily on Pocky as they stood outside the tall building she guessed was the gym. It seemed that the others would already be inside, since practice started ten minutes. Ryugazaki let Hinata to find the pool as he hurried off to change, her heart skipping along nervously as she asked one of the employees to direct her in the right direction. As she pulled the correct door open a warmth washed over her accompanied by the thick smell of chlorine. It was frightening yet somehow it made Hinata happy, the memories of practicing indoors overflowing her as she entered the poolroom. It seemed that there were classes going on, children of all ages splashing about in the water as various teachers shouted commands. Looking around the warm setting she spotted Hazuki and Matsouka already bickering on the other side of the room with Nanase and Tachibana standing closeby. When they spotted her a flustered look crossed each other their faces, except for Nanase-san's, as they hurried over to her.

"Hina-chan!" Hazuki-san called hurried over, "W-what are you doing here?"

"Erm... well Ryugazaki invited me." Hinata felt her face flush slightly as she looked at their worried yet excited faces, "I want to watch a bit of your practice, I hope it's not a problem." Tachinbana patted her shoulder as the group erupted in smiles, their eyes sharing various looks as they all cooed their approval. Suddenly she was being dragged through the room to be seated on a chair in the corner by their stuff, a light feelings drifting around her as the others talked happily. It seemed that their practice would start just after the younger children finished their lessons, which should have been any minute.

"You see that boy there," Matsouka-san suddenly said squatting down beside her, "I taught help the teacher a few days ago with his class. He nearly drown earlier this year. He said that the person who saved him was a very good swimming so he wants to be exactly like her." Hinata's eyes followed the direction that Matsouka-san was pointing, her eyes catching hold of the boy that was being helped from the water by some friends. Seeing his face Hinata's heart skipped a beat, her gaze darting to Matsouka-san as soon as she recognized the face.

"Matsouka-san...?"

"He said that he's still kind of afraid to swim, but he knows the importance of having the skill to swim now because of the incident before. He also wants to meet you, very badly. When he found out that I went to your school and knew you personally he kept asking if he could meet you. I said it would be up to you, though I hope you let him." Hinata moved her gaze back to the boy as he laughed with a friend then went hurrying off toward his mother. She looked much happier now but her face was still worn from tiredness, Hinata doubted that she would ever look at the water the same again. However it wasn't the mother that Hinata focused on, it was the boy as he smiled happily in his swim towel.

"I... don't know if I can face them..." Hinata mumbled making Matsouka sigh, "But I think... I should try." Matsouka's face lit up slightly as she straightened and headed over in the direction of the boy and his mother. Nervously fidgeting with her school uniform, Hinata stood and found her way to a quieter spot where she stood alone by the wall. She watched as Matsouka greeted them and started talking, pointing in the direction of Hinata as the mother's face masked with an unreadable emotion. The boy on the other hand lit up happily, tugging his mother to her feet and dragging her over in the direction of Hinata with a impatient chatter.

"This is Matsuchita Hinata," Matsouka-san said as Hinata bowed her head a bit, "Hinata-san, this is Fen Zhang and her son Shui Zhang." The two of them bowed slightly, saying hello in kind voices.

"We hoped that Matsouka-san would bring you here," The mother said with grateful eyes, "We'll never be able to thank you enough for what you did for Shui, but we hoped that we could try to thank you in some way."

"Thank you, for saving me. Onee-chan." Hinata's eyes watered a bit when Shui spoke, her body naturally squatting to be at eye level with him. He was tinier then she remembered, probably ten or maybe even younger. Somehow she felt a swell of pride that she had saved this life and patted his head slightly.

"If you want to thank me, then you should become a very good swimmer." Hinata said with a slight smile.

"I will." He said with a smile, "I want to be a wonderful swimmer just like Onee-chan! So I don't have to be worried about the ocean anymore." A patter of worry flickered across Hinata's chest.

"Even Onee-chan is worried about the ocean," Hinata said softly, "The ocean is dangerous, so you must be careful around it."

"Onee-chan is worried also? Why?" The look on Shui's face was so innocent and curious that Hinata couldn't really talk, her eyes began to burn again as unwanted memories rose to mind.

"You're Onee-chan once had a bad expirence in the ocean," Matsouka-san cut in, "Just like Shui."

"Like me?" Shui's eyes widened, "But Onee-chan is so good at swimming."

"Yes, but only because she worked very hard to learn to swim." Matsouka said gently placing a hand on Hinata's shoulder, "She was only able to save you because she worked very hard to become strong." Shui's head nodded, his hand finding it's way to his mothers as a smile flashed across his young features.

"I will be strong just like Onee-chan," He told his mother proudly, "So I must continue with me swimming." With more words of thanks from the mother and Shui, the two of them gathered their things and left. Shui gave Hinata a wave before disappearing out the door and within several minutes the rest of the children disappeared through the same doors. It was both frightening and inspiring to see the confidence of Shui. It made Hinata want to lock him away to keep him from harm but also encourage him to try his hardest. The thought of his willingness to move on made tears spring to her eyes. If anything Shui was already much stronger then her, Hinata realized this and looked toward Matsouka-san.

"Thank you, Matsouka-san." Hinata mumbled finally.

"Call me Gou." Hinata's eyebrows shot up slightly as she looked at the other girl with confused eyes.

"I thought you didn't like Gou..." Hinata mumbled.

"I don't." She stated, "But it's my name and seeing as we are friends I think it's alright for you to use it. Just don't tell Nagisa." Hinata giggled slightly and grinned.

"Alright, Gou-chan!" Gou's face flushed as the name was spoken and she turned to Hinata.

"Hinata! I said call me Gou! Not Gou-chan!" She complained, "Don't make me regret letting out call me by my first name!" Hinata laughed again and headed back to her chair, her ears filled with the sound of splashing and Gou-chan's complaints.

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