Chapter 21: Smoke and Fire

Disclaimer: I do not own Free! Iwatobi Swim Club

"I'm still so sore!" Gou complained the a few days after the fight with the kraken as she walked with Bo to school.

"Gou!" Makoto's voice calls out behind them. Makoto runs towards them with his friendly smile.

"Makoto, good morning." Gou greeted him, blushing. Then he grabs her hand and intertwines his fingers with hers.

"Shall we get going?" He smiled. The girls nodded their heads and started to walk. "Hurry up Haru, you're going to be late!" he shouted behind him. Haru was running but at a very slow pace.

"He's so slow on land." Gou mutters under her breathe as she watches the blue-haired boy trying to catch up to them. Then the bell starts to ring, telling students that school is starting.

"Crap, we are tardy!" Gou shouts and drags everyone to the school.

…..

"Can't believe that we have to clean the WHOLE classroom just from being late once. Hishikawa-sensei isn't someone you want to mess with." Bo complains as shebangs the eraser against the blackboard.

"Please don't be so hard on the poor blackboard…" Gou asked as she sweeps the floor. She kept flinching at the sound of Bo pounding the eraser.

"Oh, look it's the skanks of Iwatobi High!" a high pitched voice called out through the door. The girls turned around and see Chigusa, Hana, and Kairi leaning against the door.

"Having fun cleaning?" Hana giggled.

"You need the cleaning for all the dirty things that you have been doing with the swim team!" Kairi said laughing uncontrollably. The rest of the girls laughed with her. Chigusa gives the girls a smirk as they start to walk away.

"Do they have nothing better to do?" Bo became a bit angry. "What does Butterfly see in that bitch anyway? Are they even still together?" Bo asked.

"Honestly, I don't think anyone knows really." Gou says as she leans against the broom in thought of the couple.

"It's sad that someone really wants to date that total waste of humanity." Bo said harshly and slammed the eraser onto the board.

"Let's just finish so we can go home. I don't think we can get to the club after all." Gou suggested. Bo agrees and they both go back to cleaning.

….

"Ugh that took forever!" Bo stretches as the girls leave the school grounds. "Isn't that Whale over there?" Bo points out towards the left side of the gate to a brunette who was leaning against the wall. "Well look at that, I have to go get something for my aunt." She looks at her wrist, pretending there's a watch. "Later!" Bo dashes off in the other direction.

"Gou!" Makoto calls Gou out. She looks at him, blushing up to her ears.

"Makoto-senpai…what are you doing here so late?" Gou asked as she walks up to him.

"To pick you up." He said and took her hand casually. "Let's go." He tugs a bit and they both started to walk.

"So how was practice?" Gou asked shyly. "Sorry I wasn't there, I got in trouble for being late."

"It's fine and besides you didn't miss anything." He reassured her. "But, Nagisa wasn't himself today. He seemed a little down."

"Really?" Nagisa is never down!" Gou was surprised.

"Nobody knows what's wrong with him but don't worry, the guys and I will find out for sure." He kisses her cheek, making her blush. She nods and they continue to walk hand in hand.

…..

"God those lovebirds…" Bo mumbled under her breath. 'What should I do now? We need to practice our powers. All well I'll text her.' She thought as she texted her about practice tonight at the ocean. 'While she hangs out with Whale, I should get some food at the convenient store.' She skips to the store, straight towards the junk food isle.

"Bo-san…" Haru's voice called out beside her.

"Hey Dolphin, whatcha doing?" Bo said.

"Getting something to drink…how about you?" he said quietly.

"Getting food but it doesn't look like anything is good today." She pouted a little.

"How…how about coming over to my house for some food?" he asked softly.

….

Bo and Haru walked up the steps to go to Haru's.

"That's for the offer Dolphin, I am really hungry you're a lifesaver!" Bo praised him. The blue haired boy turns his head, trying to cover his embarrassment. Then when they came to the entrance of his house, there was a tent out on his lawn. Nagisa came out of the tent out of breath like he just got done putting it up.

"Oh guy you guys!" he greeted them with a bright smile on his face.

"What are you doing Nagisa?" Haru asked.

"Can I stay with you for the night Haru?" Nagisa asked with puppy eyes. Bo looked more closely to Nagisa and saw that he wasn't really smiling. He seemed saddened by something.

"I should go. Your friend needs you." She said and started walking away.

Later in the Ocean…

'Wow it's gorgeous…' Gou said in awe. The girls were at the sea floor exploring and practicing their powers.

'I know it's great!' Bo said and swam in a circle. "Oh watch this." Gou closes her eyes. Her gills flared up and started to glow along with her fins. 'I'm your personal lantern!'

Gou started in awe, watching her friend glow like a star. Gou swam a bit until she heard incoherent mumbling beside her. She looked over to see, finding a fish followed by little ones.

'You heard them huh.' Bo said, swimming next to her.

'Do you understand them because I don't?' Gou said watching the fish swim away.

'Yeah, they are saying that they need to go before the predators come out. You eventually understand fish talk sometime. Fishes have a very different language so it takes time to understand really.' Bo explains.

They crawled out of the water after their swim. As they lay on the shore, they started to smell something burning nearby.

"What's that smell?" Gou asked Bo trying to breath.

"Fire?" Bo answered unsure.

Suddenly fire burst around them, trapping in fumes and heat of the blazing flames. The heat dried the girls, making their fins to legs. The quickly got up and got closer together. The flames came closer and closer. The smoke began to become thick, making it harder to breath. Suddenly it goes away, leaving a scorched circle around them.

"Let's go home now." Bo said with her voice deeper than usual. Gou agrees and they run off in fear.

"That's it run, run, run as fast as you can little guppies. The big fish is coming~" sang Hex as he watched the girls from the roof of a nearby house. "The big fish will come and swallow you alive. You will have a very excruciating, agonizing death ahead of you~" He twirled his hair.

"Woof." A black dog barked next to him. A two headed, a six-legged, and a too large of dog, dogs howled next to Hex. He petted each of their heads.

"Don't worry my darlings; you will have your fish dinner soon." Hex smiles and gives an evil laugh as he engulfs himself with flames and disappears from sight.

At a TV Station….

"Wait stop there." Riki commanded Hiroku to pause the video. "Who are those two?"

They looked more closely to the computer screen, seeing the two hooded girls from the other video.

"See one has red hair and the other one yellow." Riki points at them.

"They come up fifteen minutes after the kraken disappeared." said Hiroku. "Do you think they had anything to do with its disappearance?"

"I'm not sure." Riki pondered. "Let's get a picture of these two and ask around Iwatobi to see if anyone recognizes them." She ordered. Hiroku nods his head and left to go pack up for the town.