After the team had showered, each of them were given a pair of knee-length wet suit bottom to put on for the weightlessness training.
They gathered now at the basement of the building, where an Olympic-sized swimming pool, which was about 5 meter deep, was sitauted.
Coach Taoka and Coach Takato were already there, standing side-by-side with an instructor that none of them knew.
The instructor was a man in his mid-40, and introduced himself as Sasaki-san.
When everyone had formed a half circle in front of their coaches and instructor, Sasaki asked if anyone of them could swim.
All of them raised their hands.
Kiyota did too. Though of all people, he could not swim; but he didn't want to appear weak especially in front of Sakuragi and Rukawa, so he made sure he raised his hand higher than anyone else.
"Very good," said Sasaki-san, "Well, what we will do today is a little different."
Everyone listened intently. Kiyota sighed of relieve.
"In order for you to travel to the Inter-Galactic, you will need to spend some time in the space ship travelling. Being in the space ship is very different, you see. There is no gravity in space, so you will need to learn how to do normal thing in zero gravity environment, like eating, drinking, brushing your teeth, move around, and going to the toilet etcetera."
Everyone nodded in agreement, though some of them started having doubt as to how going to toilet in zero gravity would feel like.
"Since it is very difficult to simulate zero gravity here on this planet, water is the next best thing. All of you will undergo some basic scuba diving training, then each of you will need to complete a series of task under the water, in this pool." Sasaki-san said sternly as he pointed towards the large pool.
Everyone now shifted their gaze to the pool. The depth of the water made Kiyota's head spin.
Sasaki continued, "Like catching your food, brushing your teeth, move an object, move around etcetera."
It was then that some of the boys noticed a black, rather heavy looking object sitting at the bottom of the pool. They made mental note that some, if not all of them, will have to move this object from one corner of the pool to the other.
"Had anyone done scuba diving before?"
Maki, Sendoh and Rukawa raised their hands.
"Anyone had had first aid and CPR training?"
Sendoh's and Rukawa's raised hand was replaced by Fujima's, Hanagata's and Akagi's.
"Very well then, at least we won't start from zero!" said Sasaki contently.
Then the All Star Team learnt the basic of scuba diving, how to put on the oxygen tank, how to check each other's' oxygen level, how to enter into the water (back first), how to communicate under water, and how to rescue a teammate who was low on air.
The boys were fast learners, and the lesson was over very quickly. Kiyota was already feeling nauseous, but he tried his best to hide it.
So, one by one they went into the water.
At the shallow end was a corner were food-resembling objects were floating about, their weight adjusted to make sure they simulate their real-life counterpart's weightless movement in space. Some of them were shaped like apple, some like pear, some small like grapes and some even smaller like peas.
They had to learn how to catch these objects so they could feed themselves during the journey, they were told.
They also had to move that large object, which felt like it weighted a ton, from one corner of the pool to the other.
This was to simulate if any of the space ship part needed exchange during the journey. None of them liked the thought of that.
It would take six men to move it, they learnt. They wondered why weightlessness training would involve something so heavy, but none of them uttered a word.
Kiyota, feeling utterly unsure of himself, entered the water, and panicked silently behind his mask.
The bubbles from his oxygen tank obscured his view. All the little waggling figures around him didn't help either.
Slowly, with hand and feet, Akagi managed to summon 5 of the guys to him as he stood underwater beside the huge object. Maki, Fujima, Hanagata, Sendoh and Rukawa gathred and waited for the vice-captain's instruction.
With a swift move of his hand, each of them began the search for a handle to grapple with.
Jin, Mitsui and Sakuragi were practicing catching the pretended food. Mitsui thought it was real food, and took one and shoved it into this mouth from the corner of his lips, and realized it tasted like kitchen sponge.
Kiyota thought he saw something from the corner of his eyes. He turned, but it was gone.
'What was that?' he thought.
Then he saw it!
It was a shark! A big, bad, evil-looking shark!
It's mouth wide open, and was gapping ferociously in successive movement. Curved, pointy teeth in tow.
He moved as quickly as his trembling body would allow, and grabbed Maki by the shoulder, who was now gesturing commands to the other boys.
Maki turned around, and saw his now very pale junior; the first year's arms were flapping frantically, pointing towards a corner of the pool.
His movement was so wild that he looked like a monkey jumping up and down on a tree branch in the Amazonian rainforest.
Maki looked at the direction where he was pointing, and saw nothing.
Maki frowned, and with his hands he made a "What?" gesture. The others almost had a slip-disc due to Maki's sudden release of the object.
Kiyota was aghast, in normal circumstances he would have yelled, but he was at this moment under water, with a silicon mouthpiece stuck between his lips. All he had was his hands and feet.
He tried again, pointing at the corner where he thought he saw the offending object, and tried to make a gaping mouth movement with his arms. His feet were twitching in successive movement.
Maki looked again at the corner, still there was nothing.
Everyone was looking at both of them now. If you could see their expression behind the scuba diving mask and mouthpiece, the look of bewilderment plastered all over their features.
Nobody seemed to be able to see what he saw, Kiyota thought, and sense of dread passed over him.
There was no more time to explain.
Thus, he did the unthinkable. He pulled off his mouth piece, and yelled, "Shark!"
Of course, no sound came out. Through the yelling he involuntary sucked in a large amount of water, and some of it went into his airway. The water tasted terrible and made him coughed. The combination of both reflexes caused him to gasp, and took in even more water, and he coughed some more.
It was at this time that he wanted to scream, but again nothing came out except more water rushed in.
In the short few seconds Maki watched his junior with transcending horror; without the mouthpiece Kiyota had no access to air, combined with the panic he choked himself to unconsciousness. His eyes rolled upward while at the same time his body was going limp.
Kiyota passed out.
As an experience surfer, Maki quickly got hold of Kiyota before he could sink further deeper into the pool.
For what felt like forever, Maki dragged Kiyota's now lifeless body towards the edge of the pool. All of the rest followed him.
Once outside of the pool Maki laid Kiyota's body on the floor, and checked for breathing.
There was none.
"CPR!" he yelled, losing his normal composure, "He's not breathing! He needs CPR!"
The rest widened their eyes in shock. No one moved.
"Hey, haven't you guys done first aid training?" he snarled at Akagi, Fujima and Hanagata, who were standing around near them, "You know CPR?"
"Yeah… but…"
"But what?"
"… but this is Kiyota we're talking about…" Hanagata blurted out.
"So?"
"Erh… I, him… he seems like…."
"Seems like what?" Akagi frowned.
"Hey, this is not that time to think stuff like this!" Maki yelped.
"Then why don't you do it?" retorted Fujima.
"Yeah Maki, you know CPR right?" concurred Hanagata. Damn, this guy would follow his captain down the drain if he had to.
"Yean, but…"
"But?" Fujima raised an eyebrow.
"But this is Kiyota…. He… he has bad…"
Before Maki could utter the remaining of his sentence, a huge form stood forward.
"You bunch of wussies!" he roared.
It was Akagi.
With that he kneeled down, bent forward, tilted Kiyota's head to force his mouth opened, squeezed his nose shut, and covered the now open mouth with his own, and started blowing.
Maki, Fujima, Hanagata and Sendoh made a funny face.
If Rukawa could have an expression, he would make the same face as the others. But he couldn't.
Akagi blew again, and again, and again. After what felt like an eternity, or about 10 blows or so, Kiyota started coughing, and spurted out mouth full of pool water.
He took a deep breath, and stared blankly at everyone around him.
"Kiyota!" Fujima exclaimed.
"He's alive!" chimed in Hanagata.
Maki was so glad, that he actually leaned forward and wrapped the younger boy in his arms, "Oh buddy! I thought we have lost you!"
"Yeah," Fujima, who wasn't the most tactful of all people, "but he refused to give you CPR himself when you passed out. It was Akagi who saved you…"
Maki gave Fujima a death glare, so the Shoyo's captain shut up.
"Akagi?" Kiyota now eyed the large boy who kneeled beside him, "Akagi-sempai? You, you save me?"
Akagi nodded, a slight blush appeared on his cheeks.
"Thank you Akagi-sampai!" Kiyota was suddenly filled with emotion and threw the giant a grateful bear hug, "Thank you sempai for saving my life!"
Akagi was stunned, he could feel that Kiyota was still trembling with his arms, and suddenly the annoying freshman seems somehow vulnerable, so deserving of protection. The Vice Captain returned the hug reluctantly, to Rukawa's amazement. He raised an eye brow, but was concealed by his fringe for all to see.
"But, what were you trying to say Kiyota?" demanded Maki, a tight frowned formed on his forehead. He wanted to add 'before you passed out' but thought better of it, "in the water."
Kiyota turned and looked Maki in the eyes, like the thought itself was scary enough.
"Shark! There was a shark! Big, huge, angry shark!" Kiyota shouted, a look of horror descended on his face.
Everyone looked at each other, confused. Shark?
"But," it was Sendoh who talked first, "Shark is a salt water fish. OK, sometimes they swim upstream to the river in the mangroves of South America, so they can survive in fresh water, but they are still technically salt water…"
A sense of dread filled everyone; none of them wanted to know anymore about shark than it was a big, bad, man-eating evil thing.
Lucky to all, Fujima interjected, "Shut-up Sendoh!" as raised his hands to massage his now throbbing temples, "We are in the freaking swimming pool! So, no frigging shark! Salt water or not!"
Sendoh thought Fujima had a point.
Rukawa raised another eye brow, and wondered why his arch rival, the so-called genius, could be so idiotic at the same time.
"So…" Kiyota was looking around and saw the look of pity in everyone's face, "It was… it was just my imagination?"
"It appeared so." said Hanagata, patting the young guy on the shoulder, trying to comfort him.
Kiyota looked on the floor in disbelief.
"OK, Kiyota." Maki's voice softened, "Go sit there and rest for a while. Once you feel better again, come join us, OK?"
Kiyota only nodded weakly. Another thought of going to the water made him sick to the stomach.
"Anyway," Fujima said as cheerfully as he could muster, "The water is just a simulation; it is not like you will be in water tank in the space ship anyway."
They could see the muscle of Kiyota's face relaxed a little.
"OK!" Maki clapped his hands together as he stood up, "Everyone, back to the water!"
All six of them headed back to the pool, they had to man-handle Sakuragi from picking spongey fruits to help them carry the damn object.
With that the second day ended.