About an hour after everyone had gotten up, they all left Haruka's house to go to Iwatobi High School. They didn't get further than down the first few steps before Yuri caught sight of someone standing there, waiting.
"Isn't that the big guy?" he asked, not recalling the name.
"I think his name was Tacky…Whana?" JJ said in a questioning way.
"No, it was Tjakkikana!" Phichit argued. Unlike the others, he did remember the real name, but he thought it was fun to just guess wrong because JJ had.
"What's his first name then?" JJ asked.
"I don't know… Hatoto?" Phichit asked.
"It's Hatoro," Yuri argued.
"Wasn't it Totoro?" JJ asked.
"Like the thing in that Gibli-movie?" Phichit asked.
"You should probably stop making fun of that now," Yuuri said, interrupting the discussion. "It's not very nice to make fun of someone's name like that."
"Fine," Phichit sighed. "Sorry."
"But seriously, what was his name?" JJ asked.
"I think it was Makoto Tachibana," Viktor said before looking to Yuuri, who confirmed this by nodding his head.
It was then they reached the place where Makoto was waiting for them. They all quickly greeted each other and walked on towards the school together. Makoto quickly spoke to Haruka about how everything had turned out, but when he couldn't get any details, he turned to Yuuri to ask about it.
"You worry a lot about Nanase-kun, don't you, Tachibana-kun?" Yuuri asked.
"Well," Makoto smiled. "Haru is my childhood friend. We've been through a lot together."
"I see," Yuuri smiled as they walked on.
When they reached the school, Rin, Rei and Nagisa had already arrived and were waiting by the poolside, all wearing their swimsuits. Today everyone had decided to wear their swimsuits underneath their clothes. Like that, they wouldn't need to spend time changing, but could get started on training right away.
"Alright, we start by getting back in the water," Viktor said to anyone other than Haruka, who had already left his clothes in a pile and jumped in the pool. Now everyone else followed him.
"Today, we'll begin with the basic skills. This means that it's something you will need to use during the rest of the training. It should also make the positions we practiced yesterday a bit easier." Viktor instructed. "The first I'd like you to do is the scull. Now, there are different types of sculls. The one we will put our primary focus on is the support scull." Viktor turned to face them. "Watch what I do," he said.
He pressed his upper arms against his sides and raised his forearms as they were at a 90 degree angle to the rest of his body, his palms facing upward. Then he started moving his forearms back and forth while maintaining the angle.
"I don't get it," Phichit said.
Yuuri shook his head. "Neither do I," he said.
Rei, Makoto and Nagisa all shook their heads, not comprehending it either. In fact most looked like they didn't understand.
Viktor sighed and got in the water as well. "You will need to do it upside down from how I did it." When it still looked like no one really got it, Viktor decided to show it. He just had to handpick one he thought could do it.
"Haruka," he said, waving at Haruka.
Haruka responded and made his way up to Viktor with a slightly irritated expression. He stood still, looking at Viktor, waiting for the instructions.
"Do you have a nose-clip?" Viktor asked.
"I have ten of them in my bag," Nagisa said, swimming to the poolside, getting up and to his bag. He found the nose-clips and unpacked one before he headed back to the pool. He threw it in Haruka's directions, and the dark-haired caught it easily and put it on.
"Alright," Viktor said. "Dive under and turn yourself upside down. I will lead you to the rest," he said.
Haruka looked at Viktor with a face that clearly showed how little he understood of what he was being told.
"Upside down Haru!" Rin yelled from almost across the pool.
Nagisa, who had sat on the edge of the pool with only his legs in the water, stood up and went to unwrap the remaining nine nose-clips, figuring it would take some time before any progress was being made.
"You're good with English, Rin," Viktor concluded. "You can translate for Haruka. It'll be a lot faster that way." He was smiling widely as he said this, ignoring the irritated frown that appeared on Rin's face.
"Translate yourself, or have Katsuki do it," Rin yelled. "Besides, I've just told him what to do!"
Vitor looked from Rin to Haruka in time to see the latter dive under the surface and turning himself upside down. Viktor dove under the surface as well and helped Haruka form the support scull.
Afterwards, Viktor resurfaced to explain what he had helped Haruka doing while Haruka held himself in the position. Then he dove back under the surface and signaled for Haruka to stop doing the position and come back up.
"I think we have to help everyone make the scull," Viktor said. "You understand how to do it?" he asked.
Haruka nodded his head once in response.
"Good," Viktor said before he swam to Yuuri to help him make the scull. Meanwhile, Nagisa had finished unwrapping all the nose-clips and was now throwing one to each of the people in the pool. Only Yuuri failed to catch his, luckily for him, Viktor got it instead.
While Viktor was taking his sweet time helping Yuuri learn the scull to perfection, Haruka swam around among the others, helping them out, and as he had taught one how to do it, they started helping out too. In the end, Haruka found himself standing in front of Rin, something he really hadn't hoped would happen.
The process was somewhat successful, aside from Rin being irritated all the while because Haruka was the one teaching him how to do something. The only one here whom he would rather not have teaching him anything, was JJ. But it didn't turn out badly at all. In fact, Rin had a pretty good idea once he had mastered the support scull.
"Hey, Haru," he said. "Let's see who can hold this up for longer, you or me."
And that was why, as Viktor finished instructing Yuuri and they turned to look at how far everyone else were, they were met with the sight of everyone staring at two pairs of legs.
"What's going on?" Yuuri wondered.
"Heck if I know," Yuri, who was standing next to Yuuri, muttered.
"If I had to take a guess, I'd say Rin and Haru are trying to see who can hold the position longest," Makoto replied in Japanese.
"Why?" Yuuri asked, also responding in Japanese.
"They're rivals," Makoto answered.
"Rivals?" Yuuri asked.
"Yuuri," Viktor said. "Did you find out what's going on?" he asked.
Yuuri got busy explaining everything to the other figure skaters, and while he did so, one pair of legs were pulled back under the surface and Rin's head broke through only a second later. As he stood upright, Haruka's legs disappeared under the surface too and he also stood upright.
"Haru-chan's the winner," Nagisa announced.
"I now!" Rin exclaimed, irritated with himself.
"Congratulations Haruka," Viktor said. "Now, since you're done, I think it's time we begin with the next basic skill you need to learn," he said.
I'm starting to remember how much I think this story suck, exactly how bad I think it is. and why I took so long finishing it. I wonder if I should keep publishing it. It's not meant to be taken seriously or anything, but I wish I would stop thinking that it's outright stupid. Now I kinda wish I hadn't decided to slow down the publishing process.