Chapter 7: Big Brother
Disclaimer: I do not own Free! Iwatobi Swim Club
"Onii-chan!" screams Gou, excited to see her brother, Rin. She jumps and hugs him tightly. Rin hugs her back, tighter.
"Sup Gou?" he said as he pats her on her head.
"What are you doing here?"
"Mom called me to check on you. She was worried because you haven't picked up your phone. Is everything okay?" He asked worriedly. Gou opens her mouth but quickly shuts it. 'I can't tell him about me being cursed to be a fish. He'll get worried and get everyone's attention. But he's family. Can I really tell him?' Gou hangs her head, stumped. She slowly lifts her hand with a serious look.
"What?" Rin looked at her, puzzled by her action. She leans over and looks at him directly in the eye.
"Noothing!" Gou says happily. She gives a wide, goofy smile. 'Nah, not yet.' Rin quickly wraps an arm around her neck and rubs his knuckles on her head quickly.
"Ow! Stop Rin!" Gou cries out.
"You got me worried for nothing!" said the irritated Rin. Finally, he let's go and relieves a sigh.
"Mom got worried because you haven't called. That girl also worried me too!" He said as he runs his fingers in his hair.
"What girl?"
"Some crazy blonde girl kicked the door, looking for you apparently. Do you know her?" Rin asked.
"Oh, that was probably Bo looking for me." Gou says awkwardly as she rubs her head.
"Bo? What kind of name is that?" Rin raises an eyebrow.
"Bo is short for Boboa."
"Wait, Boboa? You mean Watanabe Boboa?" he said surprised.
"Does everyone know her except me?!" Gou shouts surprised that even her brother knows her. "How do you know her?"
"From some friends of mine. She seems quiet but she sounds crazy! A friend told me that one time she gave a guy a year older a wedgie because he made fun of her hair. Plus, her aunt's a witch! One time my friend told that he walked by her house and she sprayed him with some weird liquid in some bottle. He ended up with the flu for a week!" Rin shouts. Gou listened to her brother's over exaggerated rants. Gou wasn't surprised about any of those rumors about Bo. Knowing Bo, she would probably give you a wedgie if you piss her off. But, she was more surprised about was Ms. Watanabe. 'Why do people call her a witch?' she wondered.
"Then one time her aunt-"
"Hey Rin, stop talking for a minute will you? I got a question." Gou says interrupting Rin. Rin quickly stops talking and turns to her.
"What?"
"Why do people think that Ms. Watanabe is a witch?" There was a long silence. Finally, Rin slowly opens his mouth and start
"She used to be a nurse long time ago. I heard she was really good at her job and helped out with some cures. But, one day, she stopped and quit her job. Then she pops out of nowhere as a detective," Rin shrugs his shoulders, "No one never knew why."
"A detective?" Gou tilts her head. Rin nods his head. 'A nurse to a detective…?' Gou thought.
"Anyway, stay away from them. Who knows what they will do to you? It's better not to have anything to do with them." Rin says seriously.
"Rin!" Gou shouts at her brother. "They are not like that at all! Well maybe Bo but they are nice people!"
"No they are not! They are trouble makers and they will drag you down!"
"You don't know anything!" Gou shouts at him and runs up stairs.
"Gou!" Rin calls but she does not answer. She locks her door and flops onto her bed. 'Stupid Rin.' She thought as she closes her eyes and falls asleep.
Next Day at Lunch
"Huh? Practice?" Gou says confused.
"Well you have the power to control and freeze water now. It's better to get it under control." Answers Bo calmly as she eats her sashimi. Gou picks up an octopus hotdog but then Bo slaps it out of her chopsticks.
"Oh no, no, no, you can't eat any meat anymore. It's harder to digest now." Bo informs her.
"What!?" Gou cries and slouches on the bench. "No more meat?"
"No more meat. Fish is probably that only meat you can eat." Bo says as she puts some sashimi onto Gou's bento.
"Are you sure?" Gou asks her.
"Its fine, I'm full anyway." Bo smiles.
"Oh, my brother told me that you guys met yesterday!"
"Oh…y-yeah. I met him." Bo turns her head away.
"What's wrong? Did he say something mean to?"
"No, no, he didn't. He was…nice." Bo says as she turns a little pink. Gou looks at her curiously, she was about to say something but then the bell rang.
"Ugh, back to jail we go. Oh yeah, after your club after school, text me so we can practice." said Bo.
"Okay!" Gou smiles as she gets up and heads to the classroom with Bo.
At the Pool
"Gou-chan, are you okay?" Nagisa asks Gou as enters the pool.
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You miss a few days and you were acting strange too." said Rei.
"Like I said I'm fine." She said irritated by the same questions.
"Even Watanabe-san came by looking for you…" Rei starts to shake a little.
"It's okay Rei-chan!" Nagisa says to cheer Rei up.
"Gou!" Makoto called her. Gou turns red at his voice. She remembered what happened between them yesterday. Even though it wasn't really her doing at THAT stuff but it was still her body, still in a way she did those things.
"Gou!" Makoto runs up to her. "Gou I'm glad you're better!" He gives her a big smile. Gou blushes and smiles back. 'Thank God he doesn't remember but… it hurts though. He finally told me but…I guess I'll tell him my answer later.'
"Thank you!" she says to him. "Alright let's swim!" She shouts and everyone dives into the pool.
Days Later
It's been four days since Bo and Gou have started to practice. Gou and Bo used the pool after all the teachers and staff left the school. They practice their moving water between them by standing on the opposite end of the pool in their bikinis. Gou wore a red and Bo wore a yellow.
"See your getting it now!" Bo shouts happily. "You're a fast learner! Practice really does pay off!"
"Wow, this is so cool!" Gou cries in amazement as she passes a big ball of water to Bo. Bo catches it and passes it back to Gou. Gou catches it and does a little spin; making the ball go around her then passes it back faster. They did turns, and waved their arms to move the ball of water faster and faster. They continued this for a while till Gou was doing flips.
"Someone's becoming an expert!" Bo says surprised. Gou laughs as she tries out more things. Bo smirks and does a back flip, causing more water to form with the ball, making it bigger. Then Bo passes it to Gou quickly. Gou catches it and kicks the ball to Bo. The ball went so fast that Bo failed to stop it and gets her wet. Her legs start to wobble and fall into the pool.
"Bo!" Gou calls out as she runs to Bo's side of the pool. She looks down into the pool and sees Bo transforming into a mermaid. Bo rises up to the surface, coughing.
"Sorry Bo." Gou says as she starches her head. Bo glares at her with her golden sun eyes. Bo slaps her tail on the surface. Her tail was light yellow with white some white scales. She had gills with little frills on the tips and fins on her arms.
"I hate you." Bo says to her. Gou laughs at her as she reaches her hand out to her.
"Come on, get out of the pool." said Gou. Bo rolls her eyes and grabs Gou's hand. Then she pulls her into the pool.
"Kyah!" Gou cries as she falls into the pool. She rises up to the surface. Her legs became one and formed into a tail. Her gills formed and so did the fins on her arms.
"I hate you." She says as she glares at her. Bo points and laughs at her. They splashed water around, laughing and having fun with each other.
"Let's get out." Gou says as she pulls herself out the pool. "Ugh, was I always this heavy?" Gou says as she struggles to get out. Bo helps her by pushing her up, out of the pool. Then Bo pulls herself out without having any trouble.
"You get use to it. Soon you will have some muscles." Bo said to her as she flexes her arms.
"So what's next Watanabe-sensei?"
"Let's see…how about forming into walking form." She said.
"Walking Form?"
"It's when we can walk on land but we are still are kind of fish-like." Bo explains. Gou tilts her head, not understanding what Bo was saying.
"We have legs but our feet are flippers. So if danger ever comes in the water, we can escape to land."
"Like that time when I met you in the changing room?" Gou thinks back to that time again. Bo's feet were like flippers and she saw them form back into feet. "Were you in danger?"
"Yes. Those girls dumped water on me as payback. I was close to being discovered."
"Why? What did you do?"
"I told one of them off during the summer. She finally grew the balls get back at me and dragged her friends into it. They got a big bucket of water and dumped it on me. Since I'm…you know… I ran to the closes place I could hide. I felt my legs changing so I took off my shoes but instead of my legs my feet changed because I was scared of being discovered."
"That sucks."
"Tell me about it." Suddenly Bo water splashed a big wave on Gou.
"Ah! Seriously!?" Gou screamed. Then her legs were coming apart slowly. Her feet slowly became big and flipper like. "Ugh, it looks gross."
"I think they are cute! It's like a duck!" Bo laughs.
"Don't compare them to a duck!" Gou shouts at her and punches her arm. Bo starts to laugh harder and rubs where Gou hit her. Finally her feet were slowly going back to feet. Gou watches her feet moving in a way that shouldn't be possible. She grimaces at the sight.
"You'll…get used to it." Bo says as she rubs Gou's shoulder. "Now let's work on your ice powers okay? So…I really don't know what to do with this but… we need to keep that under control. I guess you have to relax and do something."
"Wow, thanks for the advice." Gou says sarcastically.
"What? I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to do. I don't have powers like you."
"I sense jealousy~" Gou says singly.
"Shut up and do something ice princess." Gou laughs at her and gets up. Gou takes a few breathes to calm herself. She slowly closes her eyes and raises her hands towards the water. She moves her arms back and suddenly pushes them forward but nothing happens.
"Wow you suck." says Bo as she gets up.
"Shut up!" Gou yells.
"I think that's enough for tonight. We can't practice this weekend. I got some errands to do."
"That's fine. A break is always nice."
"See you later." Bo says to her as she leaves.
"Bye!" Gou calls to her. Gou closes the gate and locks it.
"Gou." A familiar voice calls out to her from behind. Gou quickly stops and turns around, finding her brother standing there, wide eyed.
"R-Rin…what a-are you doing here? It's the middle of the n-night. D-D-Don't you have training t-tomorrow?" Gou asks, stuttering. Rin slowly walks up to her.
"Gou." He calls out again. "How…", he says slowly, "The hell did you do that?"
'Fuck, he found out.' Gou looks down at the ground, sighs, and looks back up to her brother.
"We need to talk." Gou says to her brother in a serious tone as they stood in front of the pool entrance.
