2 Days to Go!
The next day, Makoto put down the kitten the moment he had spotted Haru coming down the stone steps, but his smiles and laughs reeked of anxiety, and he hardly spoke unless he was prompted. The way he kept his eyes carefully on the path and struggled to maintain idle conversation irked Haruka, but it was now the irritation of a worried heart that didn't want to see time revert again, not when yesterday's venture turned out far better than any of them had hoped. Not even Rin could spoil his silent contentment when he realized they had all bought matching swimsuits and Makoto was now equipped with every necessity for success. Nevertheless, the other looked as though he had hardly slept, and his self-confidence seemed wavering again. Haruka told him it would be fine, he must have said it a dozen times in the course of the morning, but Makoto's smiles remained fake, just as ephemeral as yesterday's fleeting pleasures. The happy effects of those pleasures at least proved more permanent. Makoto finally owned good quality swimwear, and everyone was disposed to be gentle with him from now on. With these factors combined, Haruka now had greater hopes of producing the fourth swimmer they had been wanting for so long.
Makoto's duffel bag had been filled to the brim once more, but when they reached the changing area, some of its cargo changed owners as Makoto proceeded to return the swimsuits the others had given him, freshly washed and carefully folded. He thanked each of them, no matter how he felt about the articles in question, was cordially or even cheerfully thanked for taking good care of his hand-me-downs, and the moment he was done changing into his own swimsuit, Nagisa asked him to stand on the starting block so they could get a good look at him. Makoto now had his own swim cap, a pair of green-tinted goggles, and a flattering black and green legskin. At Nagisa's request, he climbed up, then made a turn with flushed cheeks to the sound of a modest but heart-felt round of applause, which might as well had been silence for all Makoto heard of it.
"You look like a world-class swimmer, Makoto-san," said Rei with an earnest smile.
"Yup! This just might do the trick!" said Kou, her eyes running laps up and down the winding patterns of Makoto's legskin.
"Are you ready, Mako-chan?" asked Nagisa with an eager look, finally startling Makoto out of his trance.
"Ready for what..?" he replied, his voice and act faltering at once.
"To swim backstroke, of course!"
"Eh?!" balked Makoto, his large frame steadily shrinking. "But I haven't learnt it yet..!"
"We are aware of that, Makoto-san, so we thought we would teach you the basics you would need for backstroke today," explained Rei in a patient tone as he walked over to Makoto's starting block. "Once you finish warming up, I will be teaching you the dolphin kick."
Makoto's face slowly thawed out, until he managed a nod and a weak smile. The dolphin kick didn't sound nearly as dangerous as diving, after all.
"Alright," he said quietly. Rei smirked.
"Wonderful! Please come with me, Makoto-san, Nagisa-kun, Haruka-sen—"
Before he could finish, Haruka flew past them in a perfect dive, leaving them behind with a series of rapid kicks.
"—pai…" sighed the vice-captain, but he soon flashed the others a smile and shrugged his shoulders. "The three of us, then. Let us begin! Please sit still with your legs apart and lean your upper body forward. Hold twenty seconds…"
Unsure if he would be allowed in the pool once Makoto's instruction began, Haruka took the opportunity to swim a few laps while they conducted their exercises. He needn't have bothered to be so swift, though. All the dolphin kick required was for Makoto to hold onto the railing by the edge as Rei instructed him to roll his body like a whip, until the power of his kick shifted from his legs to his core. Makoto was determined to please him, or at the very least avoid giving any cause for displeasure, so within half an hour of constantly searching for the right rhythm, his motions began to look and feel the part of a powerful dolphin kick.
"You are doing very well, Makoto-san," Rei commended him when Makoto finally managed to maintain his wave for a solid minute. "Your kick seems quite strong, which will help you greatly in adjusting yourself after your dive and during the turn. I'm very pleased..!"
Rei meant his words to be encouraging, but Makoto's fluid kicks twitched to a stop by the time he finished.
"Once I dive…?" Makoto echoed the vice-captain, his eyes widening in horror. "But Nagisa said there was no diving for backstroke!"
"Ah, ha ha, I did say that, didn't I…?" spoke Nagisa with a sheepish laugh that had Makoto paling till he turned white as chalk. Rei adjusted his goggles.
"To be fair, Nagisa-kun was partially correct.. Backstroke does not require a standard dive, which we only wanted to teach you so you could enter any body of water with greater ease, Makoto-san," he explained, his voice relatively calm. "However, backstroke does have an entry that you will have to learn in order to compete in tournaments."
"What is the entry?" asked Makoto, as he still hadn't looked into his intended stroke's mechanics for fear he would find them impossible to master. The apologetic smile on Rei's face confirmed his darkest suspicions.
"It's kind of a backwards dive," said Nagisa with a scratch of his head.
"What?!" cried Makoto.
"Allow me to explain, Makoto-san!" cut in Rei, shooting Nagisa a look of Say no more. "For the entry, you have to assume your position beneath the starting block by grasping onto the handle, elevating yourself up and out of the water with your feet planted on the wall, and on the signal, you must propel yourself outwards and upwards for your entry."
"But, diving backwards?" repeated Makoto, his voice rising by a whole octave. "I can't even dive forward! What if I can't do it?!"
"Now, now, Mako-chan.." said Nagisa in a soothing tone and a light wave of his hands. "I'm sure that once you get the hang of it, it'll be easy-peasy!"
"I don't even know what it looks like, can any of you do it?" asked Makoto, his voice verging on full panic. Rei froze.
"I… I'm afraid I have never done it myself, Makoto-san—"
"Rei-chan can't swim anything except butterfly, remember?" said Nagisa. "If he did the backstroke entry, he would just sink to the bottom and never come up again!"
"Nagisa-kun!"
"What about you then? Can you do it?" begged Makoto, but Nagisa shook his head with an awkward smile that grew sadder by the minute.
"I've never done it either, Mako-chan.. it was always Rin-chan who swam backstroke, you see. I wanted to learn backstroke too, but he said I wasn't the right build for it…"
"Haru…?" asked Makoto, his voice a broken whisper, but Haruka could only stare back wordlessly. He had never bothered to learn the backstroke entry. There was nothing he could do for Makoto.
"Please, Makoto-san," Rei pleaded him, just barely keeping his voice even. "Listen to my instructions, I'm sure that if you visualize it in your head, you will be able to do it!"
"But, Rei—"
"Makoto-san," Rei interrupted him, his voice warm and desperate, "If you do it even once, all of us will be very proud of you."
Makoto's jaws slackened, his shoulders crumbling downwards as though he could hardly believe his own ears. Rei tried for a smile. Even Haru swam closer and nodded in the affirmative. Some ways away, Kou and Ama-chan were on the edge of their seats.
"Do it just once, Mako-chan.." said Nagisa, his eyebrows quirked in hopeful arches. "I know you can do it if you try..!"
"Please, Makoto," Haru joined them and Makoto's eyes fell to the depths of the water, his resistance thoroughly broken. In asking for the impossible, they dropped the bar to a single attempt – who was he to argue when everyone expected so little of him at this stage? He shifted towards the nearest starting block, ushered by a light touch of his shoulder by Rei, who did his best to explain the position to Makoto as he attached himself to the handle bar and crouched upon the wall like a giant, nervous spider. Rei explained the entry step by step, his words as bland as the text book whose instructions he regurgitated for Makoto, repeating the process three times so the other could memorize it.
"Now, the moment you enter the water, you must use the dolphin kick I taught you," added Rei in the end, by which time Makoto had been clutching the handle for over ten minutes and his legs were beginning to cramp from bracing himself entirely too hard. "The dolphin kick will allow you to advance until you reach the surface, at which point you would have to begin your backstroke. All we want you to do now is dive in and use the dolphin kick. The moment you're on the surface, you may simply float. Do you follow, Makoto-san?"
Makoto forced out a hum. Rei nodded and backed away until he reached the side. He quickly hoisted himself up and out of the pool for a better view.
"On my mark…" he said and everyone else retreated too, their fists clenched in unison.
"Set…"
Makoto tensed.
"Go!"
Makoto twitched and launched himself away from the wall with as much strength as his cramped muscles could muster, contorting himself into a grotesque rainbow and spreading his arms instinctively in panic as he cut across the air and crashed below the surface. He had nearly sunk to the bottom by the time he recalled the dolphin kick, and began thrusting his chest and hips, but the motion he had practiced on his stomach seemed completely alien to him when he was upside down and sinking steadily below. The more he kicked and thrashed, the more he sank, until his head knocked against the bottom of the pool. At the sudden contact, Makoto surged upward in raw terror, clawing himself to the surface and coughing water the moment he reached it. Around him, everyone stood frozen. Even Kou and Ama-chan were staring breathlessly.
"Makoto-san…?" whispered Rei as Makoto's chest kept jumping wildly, looking at no one except his own melted reflection. "You forgot to pull your arms together.. and the dolphin kick…"
"What happened, Mako-chan..?" asked Nagisa, his eyebrows creasing. Makoto's shoulders hunched in shame. "Why did you panic?"
Makoto's lips parted as though he wanted to scream, but nothing came out, not even air.
"Say something, Makoto-san…" pleaded Rei. Makoto clenched his jaws, unable to look up lest he see their disappointment and hate himself completely for having shattered their hopes.
"I'm sorry.." he managed to force out with pained hiss, looking up no more as he turned away from them and waded to the edge of the pool near Rei. He climbed out and took a few winding steps, until he collapsed by the corner of the chain link fence with his head buried in his arms. His back seemed to quake a little. The silence was deafening, and what broke it in the end was a soft splash as Rei slid into the water, drifting towards Nagisa and Haruka with his head hung in defeat.
"I'm sorry, Haruka-senpai, Nagisa-kun," he whispered, just barely able to speak. "I don't know how to help Makoto-san."
"Rei-chan…" breathed Nagisa. Haruka drew a little closer, his face tense and pale.
"Perhaps it would be better if… if we did not depend on Makoto-san for the upcoming tournament," added Rei in a thick voice. "It's too much pressure for someone who cannot swim at all."
"He can swim," said Haruka through his teeth. "You saw that he could swim. He's just…"
"He's what, Haruka-senpai?" begged Rei. Even Nagisa stared at him wide-eyed, but Haru could tell them nothing beyond what they already knew, that the joint practice with Samezuka seemed to have irreversibly damaged Makoto.
"Poor Mako-chan.." moaned Nagisa, glancing to the corner where Makoto remained motionless except for the slight shake of his shoulders.
"It's such a shame, though.." sighed Rei, unable to look at anyone except Makoto in the distance. "I've been longing to see Makoto-san swim backstroke ever since we decided it would suit him, but I'm afraid we never will. When he has such a beautiful body, too.. he was practically built for a long-axis stroke…"
Nagisa hung his head. Even Kou and Ama-chan shook theirs with sad looks as if they had heard the others and agreed. Haruka's eyes widened and his fists clenched beside him, turning his head roughly in Makoto's direction. His heart was thumping inside, its beat so savage Haru struggled to find his voice again.
"Rei. Nagisa," he forced out at last, his eyes hard. "Tell everyone to go home. I'll talk to him." He then ducked under water before anyone could protest, slithering off towards the edge on his way to Makoto.
"But, Haruka-senpai—" began Rei far too late to stop him, then pulled back by Nagisa as he took a step to follow.
"Now, now, Rei-chan," he said gently, giving Rei's arm a squeeze. "Let the captain do some work every once in a while, eh?"
Rei blinked at him and turned his head towards Haruka again, who had since climbed out to approach Makoto with silent steps, stopping a few feet away from him as if waiting for the others to leave.
"Alright. Let's go, Nagisa-kun," said Rei quietly and they left the pool too, soon slipping out the back to escort Ama-chan-sensei to her car.
"It'll be fine, you'll see," said Ama-chan as the four of them walked down the narrow pathway towards the car park. "Remember the wise words of Edison. Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
"So what you're saying is that hard work will always triumph over natural talent," said Kou with her chin cupped in thought, unable to help but think that his brother used to say something similar himself, usually in relation to Haruka.
"I guess he'll have to keep practicing," sighed Rei, spurring himself to say it no matter how little he believed it. To give into despair would have been to fail Makoto completely, the way almost everyone had given up on Rei himself back when he first started out, everyone except Nagisa and Coach Sasabe. He now swam a capable butterfly, even if that was the extent of his prowess, and if there was hope for him, Rei had to believe there was hope for Makoto too.
"However," continued Ama-chan, "you could also interpret Edison's quote to mean that hard work means nothing without that spark of inspiration, don't you think?"
"Eh?!" cried her students in unison and Amakata Miho blinked, wondering why everyone was looking at her like she had said something horrible.
The voices of the others soon ebbed away completely, but even with the silence screaming in his ears, Makoto wouldn't move from his seat. Once the initial shock had died down, a fog descended upon his world and enveloped him in entropy, leaving him with nothing except that all-consuming feeling of fatigue that seeped into his bones and turned his insides into sludge. Haruka stepped closer, but Makoto seemed not to notice him, not until the other entered the corner of his vision. Makoto turned his head just barely. Haru steeled himself.
"Makoto."
The other wouldn't look at him, not even when Haru lowered himself and sat down beside Makoto, careful not to stare.
"Talk to me."
"I can't, Haru," said Makoto, his eyes boring into the ground. "I don't know what to say."
"Just tell me what's wrong," replied Haruka, hazarding a glance at him. "I'm listening."
Makoto's heart started jumping. His throat filled at once, as if the poisoned well inside him might spill and drain at last if Haruka himself was knocking on the gates. If he could just find the courage to tell Haru the unspeakable, that all of this had been a terrible mistake, Makoto could finally cave in on his own empty husk and it would be over. No more practice. No more swim club… and no more Haru…
His throat clamped shut in an instant and the terrible truth sank to the bottom of his stomach. All that remained were a few scraps of the surface, yet Makoto's mouth opened in relief so profound it nearly broke his heart.
"It's me," he said quietly and lowered his eyes, unable to look his friend in the eye. "I'm so sorry, Haru.. I should have never joined the swim club. Can you forgive me?"
Haruka's eyes widened, his chest growing tight. "Forgive you..?"
Makoto hung his head.
"On the day I joined, I thought all that talk about backstroke and relays was just to convince me that you needed four members to be an official swim club, that it was a requirement so you and your friends could attend practice and swim together again. I never intended to swim with you, Haru. I only joined to fill your quota, so you would be happy."
Haruka stared at him wordlessly, his heart sinking as Makoto broke into a small, tired smile.
"At first, everything was great. Everyone was happy and I felt really wanted, even though I was just filler," explained Makoto, his voice thinner and thinner as he went on. "But then.. everybody expected me to learn how to swim, I was told I had to or you wouldn't be able to enter tournaments, but Haru, I just can't do it. The more I try, the worse it gets – it's like joint practice over and over and over again. This isn't what I wanted! I joined the swim club so your friends could swim with you. But now, now I'm just a burden who's holding everybody back, and everyone seems to think I did it on purpose, that I wasted your time and hurt Nagisa because I'm a stupid, selfish, aggressive jerk! It's terrible and I don't know how to fix it. I've never felt so hopeless and worthless in my life."
By the time he finished, Makoto's voice cracked and Haruka's eyes were gleaming, his heart jolting with every word. Makoto lowered his head and pressed his chin to the fold of his arms, hugging his legs tightly to himself just as he had done so in the Samezuka restroom ages and ages ago.
"I don't even understand why I have to swim," he said, his voice completely worn. "I thought all Nagisa and Rei wanted was to swim with you. Why do you even need me..?"
Haruka's face hardened in confusion.
"Same reason we formed the swim club. We wanted to swim with our friends," he replied, and when Makoto gave no sign of having understood, Haru shot him a glare.
"Idiot… You're a friend too."
It was almost comical to watch Makoto whip up his head and stare at Haru in utter disbelief, but more than anything, Haruka felt the pain and shame of it as they lay shattered at the bottom of their downward spiral, forced to pick themselves up from a million broken pieces.
"And you're not hopeless or worthless," he continued, his tone strained. "If you had been with us from the beginning, you might have been the captain."
"Don't tease me, Haru…"
"I'm not teasing you," snapped Haruka. "You know how to take care of others. You look out for everyone and give them support. That's what real captains do. That's what a team needs and you're better at it than anyone. So.. from now on, you can do that whenever you want."
"Haru.." sighed Makoto, though that sad little smile had returned to his face. "You and I both know I could never be the captain, not even for pretend. I'm not even fit to be a swim club member. I'm sorry."
Haruka's fists clenched helplessly, his chest growing tight again, yet some defiant spark still burned within him, his last hope on the brink of losing his best friend.
"Makoto," he said, forcing himself to look at the other. "If you could swim backstroke, would you swim with—" He bit his lip before he could say something selfish. "…with the team?"
Makoto tensed and wrapped his arms just a little tighter around himself, but when he saw Haru's face, eyes large and lips ajar, he forced a nod and averted his eyes. It was no more than a hypothetical question at this point, nothing but foolish fancy. It couldn't hurt anymore to let Haru know the answer would have been yes… except Haruka's eyes widened in a flurry of erratic heartbeats. Hope seized him, and the next moment, he clenched his fists and rose from his seat.
"Come with me," he said, his face aglow in determination.
"Haru.." began Makoto, but when he looked up, Haru's hand was already held out to him. Makoto reached out instinctively to take it, his hold tentative and lax even as Haruka squeezed his hand and pulled him over to the pool.
"We'll dive in," he said, only to feel Makoto's hand twitch out of his grasp.
"Haru, I can't..!"
"You can't because you dive like you're trying to attack the water," said Haruka. "Don't charge at it. Jump in like you just want to slip through it." Makoto's shoulders tensed, his hands clasped together. Haru suppressed a sigh. "Watch me, okay?"
He stepped onto the nearest starting block and Makoto followed him to the one next to it, his face pale as Haruka bent down to perform a long, arched dive, which seamlessly turned into a series of dolphin kicks until Haru rose to the surface a few meters away.
"Try slipping through the water," he said from below as he straightened himself. "It'll be alright. I'm here."
Makoto sighed and reluctantly lowered himself into position, bracing himself for an eternity before he finally launched into the air and screwed his eyes shut. His arms shot forward rigidly, remaining together as he carved an opening, and when he finally opened his eyes, he was gliding towards the bottom past Haruka's legs. He scrambled to his feet. His friend was by his side a moment later, Haru's hand just barely touching his back.
"That was good," he said as Makoto gasped for air. "You did it. What did you do differently?"
"I… I closed my eyes," admitted Makoto. Haruka quirked his brow, but when he spoke again, his tone was calm and gentle.
"That's fine. If that helps, you can close your eyes. Just remember to do the dolphin kick once you're in the water."
Makoto nodded, his chest still fluttering. Haru waded to his side.
"Lie on your back now."
"No..!" blurted Makoto at once, hanging his head the moment he said it. Haru's shoulders dropped.
"Makoto..."
The other tensed, one hand wringing his wrist.
"I know why you're afraid of diving, but why are you afraid of this?"
Makoto lifted his head just barely, and a few more scraps tore from him like flowers in a storm.
"Nagisa told me backstroke was 'swimming blindly,' not knowing where the water takes you or what lurks underneath… but Haru, it's hard enough for me to swim as it is. All of you get to see where you're going and diving is enough for you, while I'm expected to do everything backwards and nobody can show me how. It's so frustrating, not being able to relate to anyone.. it makes me feel all alone."
Haruka stared at him, his chest swelling in a slow, warm beat.
"Makoto.. did you know that backstroke is also called the back crawl?"
"The back crawl…?" echoed Makoto. Haru nodded.
"Upside-down freestyle," he added. Makoto's shoulders slackened, his eyes lighting up in realization.
"So.. you and I—"
"…are two sides of the same coin," finished Haruka and Makoto stared at him wordlessly, until his lips twitched into a hopeful smile that painted Haru's cheeks bright pink. He lowered his eyes and extended his arm, his hand hanging limply in the air.
"You can hold onto me if you need to," he said, his ears feeling hot. "Lie on your back, okay? There's nothing lurking underneath the water. It's just you and me."
After a moment's hesitation, Makoto reached out and carefully took Haru's wrist, lowering himself by degrees until he managed to drape himself across the surface. His touch felt hot, but still sent shivers up Haru's skin as he joined Makoto and let himself float beside him. The other gave a small, startled noise. Haru turned his head.
"You're fine," he said to Makoto. "Breathe evenly and start paddling with your feet."
Makoto took a deep breath and began kicking his feet, his hand tightening on Haru's wrist.
"Don't kick the water," said Haruka, keeping his voice low and even. "Relax your feet and paddle gently. Move from your hips."
Makoto stared at him guiltily, but he took a series of quick breaths and began to move his legs more slowly. Up and down, up and down his feet went, still tense, but no longer thrashing.
"It's called the flutter kick. It helps steady your body while you swim," explained Haru as his own feet picked up Makoto's rhythm. With both in motion, the two of them now drifted away from the starting blocks. The moment he could feel himself move in earnest, Makoto's eyes darted from Haruka to the water around him, no longer breathing evenly and soon kicking his feet more forcefully, as though he were afraid of sinking. Haru took a deep breath and let out a sigh, bracing himself to tell Makoto something he never thought he would ever say to anyone.
"Makoto.." he began, nudging his arm just barely in the other's hold. Makoto's hand fluttered for a moment and then settled a little lower, his fingers closing over Haru's palm. Haru's heart skipped a beat. "When you look up, what do you see?"
Makoto's eyes had been roaming frantically, but now stopped with a surprised blink. He slowly fixed his gaze on the soft swirls of pastel clouds.
"I see the sky," he replied, his voice calmer than his grasping hand.
"You once told me you preferred land and air to water," said Haruka. "Do you like the sky?"
"I do," said Makoto. Haru sighed in relief.
"When you swim backstroke, you don't have to face the water head on. You don't even need to think of the water," he said, his face scrunching up a bit. "So just.. ignore the water, and think of the sky. Okay?"
"But, Haru.." spoke Makoto, turning his head to look at the other with his brow creasing. "If I look at the sky, I won't see where I'm going. What if I break into the next lane? What if I hit the wall..?"
"There's a trick to that," mused Haru as he dove into the archives of his mind for the explanation Rin had given Nagisa several years ago. "You have to learn how many strokes it takes from the five-meter line to the wall and count down when you reach it. Then you'll know when to make the turn. We'll count them once your backstroke gets better."
"But I don't even know how to do the stroke.." said Makoto. Haruka closed his fingers on his friend's hand with a soft squeeze before he let go, turning onto his stomach beside him.
"Remember the front crawl?" he replied. "Just do the front crawl backwards."
"Haru.." breathed Makoto, his hand twitching instinctively for the hand that released it. Haruka shook his head.
"Just try it. I'm right here," he said, and to refresh Makoto's memory, he carefully shifted into a slow front crawl. The steady mill of his arms soon pulled Haruka forward, away from Makoto, and too scared of being left behind, Makoto took a deep breath and drew his arm backwards, dipping below for the first time. His feet gave a few hurried kicks, then stopped abruptly to soften into the semblance of a flutter kick. With a few forceful sweeps of his arms, he caught up to Haruka, who gave him a small, heartfelt smile.
"That's it," he said quietly, the two of them now advancing side by side at a slow, even pace. "Just keep doing that. You are now swimming backstroke."
"But I still don't know how to do the turn, or the entry…" said Makoto, his eyes clouding again.
"We'll teach you the turn when you get more confident," replied Haruka, not taking his eyes off the other. "And you already know how to do the entry. You just have to stay calm and practice your dolphin kick. I know you can do the kick, I saw how good you were. If you start doing that the moment you're in the water, you'll reach the surface in no time."
Makoto squinted at him, his eyes gleaming in the light.
"You sound so confident, Haru.. How can you have so much faith in me when I'm terrible at everything?"
"Because you're not terrible. You just think you are, so stop that."
Makoto let out a weak chuckle that pulled Haruka's heart into his throat.
"Trust yourself, dummy," he said, his voice thick. "You're doing fine."
Makoto closed his eyes, his face hot and wet under that soft pastel sky.
Today is the last day. The calendar said so.
Come morning, Haru and Makoto walked to school together. Makoto now seemed better rested, the change from the past few days so noticeable Haru could not help but keep glancing at him, marveling at the soft arches of Makoto's smiles as they talked. They spent most of their morning peacefully, then ate lunch together in the schoolyard, unaware that not far away on the roof, an emergency strategy meeting had begun between Kou, Rei, and Nagisa.
"I did some calculations yesterday," Kou told the boys as she placed her calendar in the middle for everyone to see. "At this rate, Makoto-senpai won't be able to complete his training regimen before the prefectural tournament. I could reduce the numbers again, but if I do that, it won't be enough to prepare him for competition…"
"What if we make him use a kickboard?" suggested Nagisa.
"Do the rules allow that?" asked Kou with her brow quirked.
"It might be an option. I don't think the rules explicitly prohibit it," said Rei with his chin cupped in thought. "And with a kickboard, Makoto-san wouldn't need to dive, either… I will definitely look into this when I get home!"
"If Mako-chan enters, we can still swim individual events!" said Nagisa. "At least that's something!"
"It's a shame we have to give up on the medley relay, though," sighed Rei. "If we could show Makoto-san how beautiful it is, especially the butterfly stroke as it touches the wall for the last exchange, maybe he would feel more inspired…"
Nagisa nodded with a moan, but Kou shot them a hard look as she grabbed her training calendar and clamped it shut.
"Why don't you just show him then?" she said, giving them a miffed glare. They stared at her in confusion. Kou huffed. "Oh, seriously..! The three of you can swim breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle, can't you? Just start with breaststroke and show Makoto-senpai how it's all done!"
Rei and Nagisa exchanged surprised looks, then broke into hopeful smiles.
"That's an excellent idea, Kou-san..!" said Rei, adjusting his glasses. "Hopefully it will be that spark of inspiration Makoto-san needs, and I've been longing to swim a relay again, even if it's unofficial or somewhat incomplete."
"Sounds fun!" cheered Nagisa. Kou flashed them a smile.
"Then it's settled. Prepare your minds and muscles and let's give Makoto-senpai a stunning three-style relay!" she cried as she raised her fist. A moment later, two more arms shot into the air in unison with a loud Yaaaay!
After school was over, they hurried down to the pool as fast as they could, but they had barely run down the length of it towards the changing area when its door swung open and out stepped Haruka, already clad in his jammers. A moment later, he was followed to their surprise by Makoto in his legskin. Rei, Nagisa, and Kou skidded to a halt and froze into a group of statues, the sound of their feet startling Makoto into jumping behind Haru like a frightened child. Haruka blinked, but let the other cling to his shoulders, mouthing something that Makoto acknowledged with a small, nervous nod.
The first-years remained where they were, watching Haru slowly break away from Makoto and step onto one of the starting blocks, diving into the water with the poise of a mermaid and slithering some ways away before he surfaced. He then seemed to beckon Makoto to do the same. The way he hesitated, they almost expected Makoto to shrink away or shake his head, but instead he took a deep breath and walked up to the starting block in the next lane, where he bent into position and tucked his chin to his chest. Everyone's eyes fixed on him, breaths held and fists clenched. Makoto tensed. Kou's hands clenched on Rei's sleeve.
The three of them stood mesmerized as Makoto screwed his eyes shut and leaped forward with his arms held in front of him, bursting through the surface with enough force to glide straight onto the bottom. As soon as he slowed down below, his body started wriggling, hands clasped in prayer and legs kicking from his hips, and just seconds away from running out of air, his head broke through the surface with a loud gasp. He planted his feet and straightened, slapping his hands to his cheeks in what appeared to be relieved laughter, and when Haruka drifted over to him, Makoto took Haru's extended hand and lay onto his back on the surface, pulling an arm backwards.. then the other… and again…
"Oh my god, is that—" blurted Kou. Nagisa started laughing.
"He's swimming backstroke!" he cried, tugging on Rei's arm in ecstasy. "Go, Mako-chaaan!"
Kou started clapping and Nagisa turned to her with a glowing grin, the two of them giggling in joy until they saw Rei's hand rise up to fix his glasses with shaking shoulders.
"Rei-chan..?" spoke Nagisa, his brow creased in worry.
"Rei-kun, are you alright?" asked Kou, their hands quickly settling on Rei's back. Rei nodded and pressed his hand to his mouth, his neck jumping and eyes brimming with tears.
"He remembered the dolphin kick.. I'm so proud..!" croaked Rei and the others squeezed him in a bear hug, remaining together by the pool side to watch Makoto swim.
TO BE CONTINUED…