Chapter 3: The Start of a Wonderful yet Strange Friendship

Disclaimer: I do not own Free! Iwatobi Swim Club

'What do I do!? Someone help me!' Gou screams in the back of her mind. Everywhere the man touched became hot and itchy. Fighting back became harder for her. Gou shut her eyes tightly. Then, she felt her hands become icy cold.

"Gou stop!" shouted a familiar voice. Gou opens her eyes to see Bo with a wooden plank. Bo hits the man in the leg, making a crunchy noise. Next she hit him in the head. The red-eyed man fell to the ground unconscious.

"Gou, calm down. Put the icicles down." Bo said calmly to her. 'What?' Gou looks above her to see many small icicles, aiming straight towards the man. Gou gasps and sinks down against the wall. The icicles formed into water again and dropped out of the air.

"It's going to be okay. It's going to be alright." Bo says to Gou in a reassuring voice. She tells Gou this over and over as she pulls out her phone calling someone.

"Hello, police! There's been attack! I think it's the rapist! He's unconscious right now! Please hurry!" Bo says on the phone then, she hangs up.

"Woo, I should be an actress. Come on let's go." Bo puts Gou's arm around her. They quickly walked away from the scene.

"Where… where are we going?" Gou said with her voice shaking.

"Your place. Where do you live?" Gou was hesitant of what to say.

"Come on Gou. Say something." Bo says impatiently. Finally, Gou tells her where she lived and hurried to her home. Bo throws the plank into the garbage can in front of her house. Next she kicks the door open and quickly puts Gou on the couch.

"Hold on. I'll get a bucket." said Bo as she leaves. Bo shuts the door and leaves the room. Finally, Bo comes back with a bucket of soapy water.

"Sorry it took so long. I was hard to find a bucket. Don't worry I didn't make a mess. Now, take off your clothes." She said bluntly. Gou was surprised at this remark.

"It's either this or the bath." said Bo as she puts her hands on her hips. Gou slowly removed her clothes. The smell of the alley reached her nose. She starts to shiver of the memory of the red-eyed man. Gou slowly looks at Bo wondering what's going to happen. Bo closes her eyes and starts to wave her arms in a circular motion. Gou watches this, amazed how she was moving. 'She moves just like the waves.' She thought. Then, water from the bucket starts to rise.

"Get up." commanded Bo. Gou gets up the couch while covering herself with her hands. Then, Bo starts to hum and moves the water over her. The water starts to swish and morph then, Bo puts her hands down and the water falls on Gou. The water was cold, making Gou freak out.

"What the hell!?" she shouted. Suddenly, she felt the water moving along her body quickly. Then, she felt dry but slimy from the soap. She looked at Bo removing the soap substance from the water into the bucket. Bo does the same thing again. Finally, Bo finishes and puts the water back into the bucket.

"See? No tail, gills, no nothing! Now, go put some clothes on." Bo smiles at her. She disappears with the bucket into the kitchen. Gou quickly goes upstairs into her room. 'How did she do that?' She though while she changed into her pajamas. She goes down stairs to find Bo sitting on the couch looking like she's about to fall asleep.

"Bo." Gou calls out. Bo quickly looks up at Gou when she heard her name.

"Thank you…"Gou trails off.

"No worries." Bo says as she shrugs like it was no big deal.

"Really, I wouldn't know what will happen if you didn't come." Gou said honestly. She rushes to the couch and sits right next to Bo. "How can I repay?"

"Just…stay out of trouble okay?" Bo said to her. She gets up and heads to the door.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Home...look, Gou, you're right…I don't know how to help you." Bo looks at Gou with a serious look on her face. "I've been curse since I can remember. My family has been like this for generations. I'm sorry, I really can't help you."

"…No, you were right." Gou speaks up. Bo's eyes go wide. "We need to work together to break this. Like you said two is better than one."

"Do you really want to do this?"

"Yes! Let's break this curse!" Gou said as she grabs Bo's hands. Bo stands there for a moment then, she shakes her hands with determination.

"Alright then." Bo agrees. Gou squeals happily. "So…do you want to stay over?"

"Huh?"

"It's okay. It's late anyway just call your parents that you are staying over a friend's house." Bo was speechless.

"What, you never stayed over a friend's house before? Come on, let's sleep in my room." Gou insists.

"…Alright." Bo says as she turns pink. Gou giggles at her reaction and quickly goes up stairs to prepare a futon for Bo. Then, Bo calls her aunt to tell her that she will be staying at a friend's house.

"My aunt says its fine." Bo says as she enters Gou's room. Gou's room was pink with posters of very muscular men. "Wow, this is a….interesting room you have here." Bo says awkwardly.

"Here are some clothes. Your futon is right next to my bed." Bo changes into the clothes Gou gave her and then plops onto the futon.

"Wow, it's soft!" Gou smiles at Bo. "Um...what do we do now? I um…never really did this before." Bo says and turns pink again.

"Really why!?"

"Hello, people don't really like me remember."

"Oh yeah." Gou rubs her head awkwardly. Bo yawns.

"Sorry but, can we sleep? It's been a long day." Bo asks. Gou nods and turns off the light.

"Goodnight." said Gou.

"Goodnight." Bo replies.

Gou tossed and turned in her bed. Every time she shut eyes, she saw the red-eyed man. She felt her wrists burn and itch where he'd touched her. Thinking about it made Gou scared out of her mind. Even the icicles she made made her even more terrified. 'What if I'd hurt him with those icicles? I mean, he did attack me but…he could have been more injured.' She felt more terrified of herself than the man.

"Can't sleep?" Bo suddenly asked Gou.

"No."Gou lies.

"Dude, I can feel your vibes. They are sending distress signals…and I can you moving a lot."

"…Yes." Gou answers.

"So freaking stubborn. I'll sing you to sleep."

"You can sing?"

"The second best thing about being cursed is that you can sing like a bird." Bo says as gets up and lies next to Gou. Gou positions herself and closes her eyes. Bo clears her throat and started to sing.

"Somewhere…over the rainbow, way up high~" She sung. She voice was beautiful and harmonic. "There's a land that I dreamed of…once in a lullaby~"'What a lovely voice she has…' She thought. Finally, Gou falls asleep.

Gou wakes up to see that Bo was back in the futon. Gou looks over her bed to look at her clock. '8 o'clock already. Well, it was a long day yesterday. Thank goodness it's Saturday.' At the same time Bo gets up and stretches.

"Good morning!" Gou says to her.

"Good morning." Bo says as she yawns.

"What would you like for breakfast?"

"Hmm…anything is fine. "

"Okay!" They both leave the room and went to the dining room. As they made some cereal, Gou turned on the TV.

"Last night, the Harbor Rapist was finally caught, after getting an anonymous call. He was found unconscious at Iwatobi Harbor. He is Mamoru Kenta, age 28 from Tokyo." announced the reporter. The picture of the rapist was a man with a burned eye on his right and a brown eye on the left. 'What that's the guy? I swore he had a red eye.' Gou thought. Bo turns off the TV quickly.

"At least he's caught now." She said. Gou nods and continues to eat her cereal.

"So, how did you do that magical water thing last night?" Gou asks while she ate her cereal.

"Lots of practice. I'll teach you."

"Really?" Bo nods her head as an answer. "Cool!" Gou tried to sound excited.

"You don't seem excited."

"Of course I am."

"No, you're not. Your vibes are wavy, scared in a way." Gou became silent.

"Hey Gou, listen, you don't have to learn if you don't want to. No one is forcing anyone here."

"No, I want to learn! I have to coop with this till we find a way to break this curse. In the meantime, I have to get myself under control."

"Well, aren't you finally going up to the plate?"

"You're a bitch."

"Slut."

"Whore." Then, they start to laugh. They continued to talk about themselves more.

"Wait, you have a brother that goes to Samezuka Academy! Dude, that's awesome!" Bo shouts amazed about Gou's older brother Rin.

"Yeah, Rin is really good at swimming. He even went to Australia." said Gou.

"Australia! Dude, that's so much cooler! But, why did he come back here? It sounded like he had a great opportunity." Bo asks. Gou went silent for a moment.

"He was lost. He had forgotten why he was swimming." Gou said slowly. "It made it hard for him and his friends but, Haruka-senpai was able to get through to him!" Gou smiles at the memories.

"Sounds like your brother has a good friend."

"Yup! So…what about you? Have any siblings?"

"Nope, I'm a single child."

"That sounds lonely."

"Well, when you find out that your one and only child is a freak of nature, the fear of having your other children will be the same kind of gets to you." Bo says monotonously. Gou automatically shuts her mouth, guilty of what she just asked.

"I'm…sorry." Gou apologizes.

"What is there to be sorry for? All you did was ask a question. It's just…me being difficult. I'm sorry."

"Well, isn't someone nice?" Gou says, trying to brighten up the atmosphere.

"Watch it Matsuoka." Bo points at her.

"Hey now don't be like that. So tell me about your 'vibes'. What is that exactly?"

"I don't know really. I just feel these wavelengths from other people. I can kind of tell what they are feeling. Some of them are the same so I barely get them right. Do you feel them?"

"No."

"Guess that's only me then. Hey, where are your parents?"

"My mom is in Okinawa right now on a business trip."

"What about your dad?"

"He's…not around anymore."

"Did he leave you?"

"Well in a way but um…he died when I was little. He died at sea." Gou says sadly.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Bo starts to panic.

"It's okay! It was a long time ago." Gou smiles at her to let her know it was alright. It went silent then, as if Bo had an epiphany, she stands up straight.

"I have to show you something! Get dress." Bo says as she runs out of the dining room and up the stairs. Gou tilts her head but she just goes along with it and goes up stairs to get ready.

They left Gou's house and went to the harbor. The boats were already out at sea and the seagulls flew all around.

"Why are we here?" Gou asks.

"Hold on, first, you need to relax a little." Bo starts to tell Gou. Gou listens and does what Bo is asking her to do. "Then, take deep breathes." Gou took deep breathes as she was told. "Now, I am going to put some water on your eyes okay?"

"What!" Gou shouts.

"Trust me." Gou hesitates but finally agrees and closes her eyes again. She felt her eyelids getting wet.

"Okay, open your eyes." Bo says kindly. Gou slowly opens her eyes to see that the ocean had strange blue ghostly-like monsters.

"What…the hell?" Gou says surprised at the sight. It seemed like a movie scene.

"Those are Plesiosaurs. They are dinosaurs from the Triassic Period, isn't that cool!"

"Cool? That's awesome!" Gou shouts amazed at the sight of the magnificent creatures. But, then her eyes start to focus on a man sitting on the water.

"Who's that?" Gou asks sadden by the sight of the man. The man looked very old, wearing a traditional Japanese hakama.

"My family calls that a 'lost soul'. But, don't worry, they don't bother the living all that much."

"Is… there a way to help them?"

"No there isn't. They're stuck here to wander the seas for eternity." Then, they sit on the edge of the dock and stare out to the sea.

"Since I'm cursed, is that mean I can sing as good as you?" Gou asks trying to brighten the mood.

"I don't know, try." Bo answers. Gou takes deep breathes and begins to sea.

"Somewhere…over the rainbow…way up high~" Gou sung. Her voice was more gospel and lighter than Bo's. "There's a land that I dreamed of once in a lullaby~" Then, Bo joins in.

"Somewhere…over the rainbow…skies are blue. And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true~" They sang together in perfect harmony. They sung and laughed together, enjoying themselves.

"Gou." Bo said to her.

"Yes."

"Does this mean…we're friends?" Bo asks turning pink with embarrassment.

"Of course!" Gou answer as she puts her arms around her.

"Is it okay to tell you that you are my first friend?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, because of the curse, I stayed away from others. I was afraid of becoming a monster in their eyes. I pushed everyone away. But, as a result people, being the bitches that they are, start to talk shit and avoid me. But, you were the first person to step forward. That made me happy."Bo confesses to her.

"Then, I'm glad to be the first." Gou smiles at her. Bo smiles back at her. "This is the start of a wonderful yet strange friendship."

"Tell me about it." Bo said as she raises her fist. Gou stares at her fist confused. "Do you not know what a fist bump is?"

"Of course I do but we should have a special handshake instead."

"What are you, a kid?"

"Come on!" Gou protests. Bo gives in and unfolds her hand. They slap their hands and fist bumped each other. For a final touch, they did the jellyfish at the end. Then, they exchanged numbers and talked more. They hung out till it was sunset.

"See you on Monday!"Go says to her friend.

"Ditto." Bo says back. They did their special handshake and left. When Gou got back to her house, her wrists were itchy and burning again. But, the burning was more painful. She rubs her wrists to calm the pain. She looks at her wrists and sees that they were crimson red. She gasps and rushes to the kitchen sink. 'What the hell? It won't go away!' She gives up and turns off the sink. Finally, it went away. Gou was relieved. But, suddenly, Gou felt feverish and dizzy. Her eyes went heavy and she fell to the floor. 'What's…wrong…with me? Why is the room spinning?' Then she passed out.