"Where the heck is Nagisa? He should have been out 20 minutes ago! If he doesn't come out in the next minute, I'm leaving," said Rin with a huff.

"Rin-chan! Haru-chan! Mako-chan! Rei-chan! I'm back! Guess who I've got with me?"

"Nagisa-kun! Where on earth have you been? We've been waiting here for exactly…" Rei checks his watch "…21 minutes and 37 seconds!"

"Sorry, Rei-chan. Anyway, I have STARISH with me!"

"Seriously? Nagisa, what did you do this time?"

"I didn't do anything Rin-chan! They thought I was Syo-chan!"

"I'm very sorry about all this. Nagisa tends to get into trouble."

"Awww, Mako-chan…"

"It's true."

"Not you, too, Haru-chan."

"I take it you are Hazuki-kun's friends? He told us about you."

"Er, yes, we are. I'm Makoto Tachibana. It's very nice to meet you all." Makoto bowed his head in greeting, and smiled apologetically.

"I'm going now."

"But, Haru-chan! Oh yeah, that's Haru-chan. His full name's Haruka Nanase, but he doesn't like being called that. Wait, Haru-chan, where are you going?"

"Pool."

"Pool?" STARISH looked at each other, confused.

"Yeah, me too. I got special permission from the Chairman to use the pool after hours, and I promised Haru a race. Later."

"Not you too! That's Rin-chan. His real name's Rin Matsuoka. He and Haru-chan are amazing, and they're rivals and best friends. Mako-chan's Haru-chan's best friend too, but a different kind."

"Rivals?"

"Yeah! Ever since they were really little. They're rivals in everything, even stuff that they can't help, like height."

"Really? That's so cool! So, what do they do?" asked Ittoki, excitedly.

"They swim, obviously. Both Nanase-san and Matsuoka-san mentioned a pool," said Hijirikawa.

"Oh! I have an idea! Lets all go watch them! That would be super fun! Rin-chan even got us all passes to the pool after hours. And then, you could watch Rin-chan and Haru-chan race, and see how fast they are!"

"Nagisa-kun! I'm sure that the members of STARISH are very busy, and don't have time for things such as this. They are on tour. They probably have a packed day tomorrow, and that requires a good-night's sleep!"

"Nagisa, Rei's right. They have lives of their own, you know."

"You two sound like my mom. Well, not Mako-chan, because he always sounds like that, but Rei-chan, you definitely do."

"Well, actually, we have tomorrow off, so we could probably go and watch. We're moving on to Miyabi tomorrow, so all we'll be doing is packing up. We're leaving at 2 in the afternoon, so we'll have some time to sleep in. I could ask our manager if it's alright."

Haruka called Saotome, and he readily agreed. He said that it would be good to take a little break, but expected that they would be completely ready to travel tomorrow afternoon.

"Yay! Now everyone can watch Haru-chan and Rin-chan race! Oh yeah, we should probably bring the record chart. Y'know, just in case. You have it with you, right, Mako-chan?"

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. We needed it last time," agreed Makoto.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" asked Ren.

"Well, whenever Rin-san and Haruka-senpai race, there is a chance that they will set a new record. We used to get one of the coaches from the Samezuka swim team to officially document the new record, but as this happens so often, they made us a special chart to record the times of each race, so that there aren't any officials needed."

"Are Nanase and Matsuoka that fast?"

"They are. Rin came in third for the 100m free, and fifth for the 50m fly. During the relay, we were 6th for our heat and second-to-last overall by fly, but Haru pulled us up to second for our heat and 6th overall. Without him in the end, we would have been last. They're amazing."

"Wait, what was this for?" asked Ittoki.

"Nationals," Makoto replied, simply.

"Nationals?!" STARISH exclaimed with surprise.

"Yeah. But that was a couple years ago. Now, they're even more awesome, 'cause they're—well, I'll explain everything else later, but right now we have to go! I don't want to miss Haru-chan and Rin-chan race!"