Chapter 7 - Swimming
Coming up with chapter titles sucks
"Good morning, Yamauchi!"
"Good morning, Ike!"
Everyone knows exactly what it is from those two lines right? They're iconic.
Ike and Yamauchi greeted each other as the former arrived at class. For two students who never seemed excited for school, even sleeping through most days, or not showing up at all, for them to be excited this morning made me immensely suspicious.
"Whew, man! I was looking forward to today so much that I barely slept last night!"
"Ah ha ha! This school is just the best! I can't believe that it's almost time for swimming! And when I say swimming, I mean girls. And when I say girls, I mean girls in school swimsuits!"
Oh. It's the day we go to the pool, so of course they would act like degenerates. I can see out of the corner of my eye, every single girl in the class glaring daggers at them. Understandable, there was a reason their nickname was the three perverts, along with Miyamoto. Surprisingly enough, Sudou had stayed away from them enough to avoid receiving the same label.
I can't blame them. Although for completely different reasons, I too was excited to go to the pool and swim. Finally, I would have a break from the mundane class life, and be able to compete properly with Koueni. Normally I wouldn't care for competition, since I would inevitably come out on top, but so far, in the small games we had played, only in chess was I able to defeat him, and narrowly at that too. After a game every few days over the last month, the score stood at 1 win and 12 draws.
But in swimming, with proper timers and racing, it was almost impossible to tie. One of us had to come out on top today and gain a lead over claiming the title of ultimate existence.
Hmm. The boys were huddled up in a circle, with even the professor joining them, all whispering about something. If they were that desperate to keep it a secret, I suppose I had an obligation to find out.
"What are you talking about?" Walking over, I inserted myself right into the conversation. A majority of the boys in the class had joined, making it a very conspicuous huddle.
"The Professor is going to rank the girls' breast sizes for us. If we're lucky, he'll get some pictures with his phone." Please die, Ike
"Hey, hey." Sudou visibly drew back in response to Ike's plan. If the girls found out about it, the consequences would be severe. Good Sudou, consider your options and realise that this is terrible.
While I could allow them to go through with it, and later expose them for punishment, I would rather know how the school punishes incidents first. Experimenting and manipulating students in other classes would be a necessary step to determine the demerit system, and I had no intention to expel these students before I could figure out their worth, if they had any.
"What? We're gonna peep on the girls!? Great idea Ike and Yamauchi!" I made sure to raise my voice just loud enough for the rest of the class to hear. And like small children finally realising how much shit they're in for drawing on the walls, Ike and Yamauchi turned and gazed into the eyes of death. Every single girl in the room, except Kushida, who was pointedly ignoring the situation, was prepared for murder.
"Ahaha... funny jokes Ayanokouji..."
"Yeah... like we'd ever do that..."
While no one bought their bullshit excuses, at least the intensity of the room dropped back to normal, and Ike and Yamauchi were spared a classic medieval lynching.
Satisfied with the result, I moved back to my seat, ignoring the glares I too was receiving. While some of the girls had realised I was shutting the incident down, the rest had assumed I was planning to participate, and had also marked me for death along with the perverts. That was fine, I didn't really care. The end goal of this little foreplay was to make Ike and Yamauchi recognise their lower than the lowest status in the class. The look of despair on their faces, the horrific realisation that to the girls they lusted for they were nothing more than dogs, was worth every bit of social respect I had thrown away.
After lunch had ended, it was finally time for swim class. Ike and Yamauchi had unfortunately regained their confidence and were pronouncing their good fortune at being able to 'admire the tits and ass of the best girls in school', even after being shut down completely this morning. Honestly, their resilience was impressive. Most men would have curled up and died on the spot from the shame, but these two were so shameless they were even more confident than before.
While most of the boys were ogling Sudou's well-built body, I took the opportunity to change quickly and leave, in order to avoid attention. From my observations, only Hirata and a boy called Akito noticed me, the latter staring inquisitively at me. He also had a fairly fit body, possibly from his time in the archery club, but it seems more than that. Perhaps he had been a fighter beforehand, many of the muscles he had built would mainly be used combatively. Perhaps I should ask him some time, although it was more likely that he would approach me himself. It wouldn't hurt to have a sparring partner.
I walked along the pool for a bit, until I reached around the halfway point. It was identical to the one I had trained in, although there had also been different kinds at that place, with deeper sections for more intense activities.
"Ah, demon-boy, the day is here. Our first chance for a proper competition." Kouenji walked up beside me, wearing nothing but a red speedo. I admire his courage, and somehow, he makes it work.
"I'm looking forward to our race. Don't disappoint me."
"Oh, fear not, I'm sure I can match your talents. Perhaps we shall go for a record today, sub 20 seconds perhaps? Ah, but only if we were capable of such a thing."
"I suppose we aren't yet. But I doubt there is anyone else who can even come close."
As we spoke the rest of the boys exited the changing room.
"Whoa, this school is something else! It's even better than the city pool, don't you think?" Was it really that impressive? I didn't have any form of reference, so I couldn't tell myself, but it was a pool to the proper standards, so what was the point in a pool smaller than it even existing? Another facet of normal life I still don't know.
"What about the girls? Aren't they here yet?" Ike looked around, sniffing the air like a dog. They never give up, do they.
"Well, if I'm going to be competing at full strength today, I must perform some warmup stretches. A perfect existence such as myself can't have a pulled muscle." And with that, the enigma that was Kouenji walked off to the nearby grassy area, where he began to do some very revealing stretches. I suspect he had no intention of seriously stretching, because he said this just as the girls emerged from the changing rooms. Obviously, he was intending to flex his body, as a display of superiority.
Honestly, it was disturbing to watch. I'm fairly sure that he had no interest with the girls in our class, due to the fact he was constantly out with one senior or another, but instead trying to garner hate from the rest of the boys. An interesting strategy to inspire competition, but I suspect pointless. Even if they try their all, no one could match him.
Meanwhile, Ike and the perverts were staring at the girls emerging from the changing room, specifically Kushida. I must admit she was attractive, and I could see the alure for their lust over her, but it was beyond perverted behaviour. How she keeps a smile up around them, I cannot fathom. Inside, she must be disgusted by their actions. It was obvious from her eyes, if you looked close enough: the boys were dead to her.
Unfortunately for the perverted dogs, a majority of the girls had refrained from swimming, and instead were watching from the observation tower. The pervert's fascination quickly turned to despair when they realised most of the girls wouldn't be participating, a couple even falling to their knees, spirits crushed.
"Hm. It seems you are at least correct to call yourself superior over the boys. Although being superior for simply not ogling every girl in sight is a rather low bar to set." Ah, Horikita had slipped past most of the class and made her way over to me. Over the last week our relationship had grown slightly, to the point where she would be willing to greet me in the morning, ask obvious questions just to annoy me and stab me with a compass.
"It's just common decency, after all. I value my self-control rather highly. Such a thing as the female body can't be allowed to distract me in an important situation." What a dull conversation. What did she expect me to respond with? How about some payback for the compass jabs? "Or perhaps you're upset I'm not staring at you? Granted you have a good body, but that personality kills all interest." A kick to the shins and a red face. Is it blush or anger, I still can't quite differentiate between the two.
"How rude. You've become almost as bad as that narcissist flaunting his body over there." Kouenji was now doing one-armed pushes, which were definitely not a warm-up, but a majority of the girls were staring at him, which the boys were beginning to notice. "Ayanokouji, do you exercise? You do have a good body, one that can even come close to matching Kouenji's. It must have taken considerable effort to reach that point."
"I'd rather not talk about it, the effort to reach here isn't a memory I'd like to revisit." She nodded once, and left the conversation there, respecting my wishes. Comparing her to the girl I first met on the bus, she really had come a long way, although her respect only transferred to me, someone she deemed worthy of recognition. It was progress, but the rest of the class was lower than dirt to her.
"Are you a good swimmer, Horikita? You definitely have the physique for it." She was fit, and despite her narrow frame, her arms and legs had definition to them, narrow but strong.
"I would consider myself to be better than average, but not particularly outstanding." And now a conscious answer. The mind of Horikita was truly a contradictory one.
"All right, everyone, line up!" A macho-looking middle-aged man, the kind of guy who apparently devoted himself to sports, gathered everyone together and started the class. He looked like a PE teacher, but also seemed kind of guy who was attractive to men and women alike.
"There are sixteen of you, huh? I thought there would've been more, but this is all right."
Clearly, some of the students in that count had ditched class, but it didn't appear to frustrate him.
"After you warm up, I want to see what you can really do. Swim for me," the coach said.
"Excuse me, sir. I can't really swim, though..."
A lone boy sheepishly raised his hand and spoke up.
"Since you have me as your teacher, you'll be swimming by summertime. Don't worry about a thing."
"Well, we don't really need to force ourselves to swim, do we? It's not like we're going to the beach or anything."
"No way. I don't mind at all if you're bad at swimming now, but I'll make sure you guys are winners in the end. Besides, being able to swim will definitely come in handy later in life. Definitely."
Swimming would definitely come in handy? Well, I suppose knowing how to swim would be convenient. However, hearing a teacher say something like that made me feel uncomfortable. Perhaps the school would have a test where swimming was an important skill. It was the only reason for both the mandatory lessons, and the coach's enthusiasm.
The teacher asked us to swim for about fifty meters. Students who could not swim were allowed to touch the bottom of the pool with their feet. I hadn't been in a pool since last summer. The water must have been temperature-controlled because I didn't feel chilled when I entered and adjusted right away. After getting in, I started to swim lightly.
After fifty meters, I waited for everyone else to finish.
"He he he, that was an easy win for me. Did you all see my super swimming skills?" Ike crowed. He'd swum expertly, and now got out of the pool with a smug, self-satisfied grin. No, Ike, your performance wasn't really that different from anyone else's, in fact it was rather pathetic.
"Well, it looks like everyone can swim, for the most part."
"Of course, sir. Back in junior high, people called me 'the flying fish,' you know."
"I see. In that case, I'll have you start competing against each other. We'll separate groups by gender. Fifty-meter freestyle."
"C-compete?! Are you serious?" Ike cried.
"I'll give out a special bonus to the first-place winner: 5000 points. The student who comes in last place, however, will have to take supplementary lessons. Get ready." So private points are on offer, even in class. It wouldn't hurt to win some more, and I had already agreed to compete with Kouenji, so it seemed I'd be going all out.
"Because we don't have very many girls, I'll split you into two groups of five people, and the student with the fastest overall time will be the winner. As for the boys, I'll look at the top five finishing times and then move on to a final round." So, I couldn't just cruise through the races. If I wanted to guarantee the finals, and I did, I would have to put at least a little effort in to get in the top five.
My only real competition would be from Hirata, Sudou and Akito, as the rest of the boys were extremely unfit, or at least had no swimming talent from the drowning actions I had watched earlier.
The girls went first, with Horikita being in the first group of five. The whistle blew, and five of the girls dove into the water. Horikita was in the second lane. She took the lead at the beginning of the race and kept her distance from the others, maintaining her position at the front of the pack. She swam confidently, effortlessly covering the fifty meters. Her time was approximately twenty-eight seconds, a quick time for a high school girl. Horikita slowly got out of the pool and went to the side, not even appearing out of breath.
"Not bad. You do have some talent when it comes to swimming."
"When considering who I was facing, there wasn't much of a challenge." She wasn't wrong there, the person who took second was Kushida with 31 seconds, a huge lead in a swimming race. However, I suspected that it would be Odonera, not Horikita that won the girls group. From what I had heard she was in the swimming club, and clearly had a body made for swimming.
And not much later I was proven right, with Onodera taking first place in the girls group with 26 seconds.
"I assume you are going to win your group?"
"I don't have much choice. If I want any competition, I need to face Kouenji in the finals, and taking first place is the best method to ensure this."
"Hmph. You are very confident in your abilities, it seems. I'll be here to watch you fail, don't worry." There we go, the ego returned. Just what I wanted.
"So, you think I won't get the fastest time in the class? Are you willing to put points on it!?" Just like this morning I raised my voice, catching the attention of most of the class. "I bet 10,000 points that I win the finals. I'll give even odds to anyone who thinks I won't." Apparently, even though it was clear I was fit, had overwhelming confidence and seemed to not be concerned about going into debt with points, lots of the class fell for my trap.
"Hirata will win, it's obvious." Onodera, why. I had such high hopes for you, but it seems your crush is impacting your reasoning.
"Nah, Kouenji will. He's clearly the strongest in the class, there's no way you can match him." At least that was a respectable argument. Even I wasn't 100% confident I could beat him, so claiming he could beat me wasn't foolish.
"So, Horikita, you in or not?"
"Fine. I bet 10,000 points that Kouenji beats you in the finals. Deal?" At least she didn't make a stupid claim, that I wouldn't reach it, or that Sudou was faster. Speaking of Sudou...
"Oi, Ayanokouji, I want in. 10,000 points, I beat you in the finals. You may be strong, but I know my limits, and I'm pretty quick."
In the end, I made a bet with 9 people overall. And as I predicted, after the heats were over, the five finalists were Hirata, Akito, Sudou, Kouenji and myself.
"Get ready to pay my points Ayanokouji. My time was two seconds faster than you, theres no hope now." Ignoring Sudou, who was about to take massive mental damage, I looked at Kouenji. Both of us had come around 26 seconds, enough to guarantee a spot, but not faster than Hirata's 25.5 and Sudou's 24.
"Hey Kouenji. You ready to actually try now? It's time to see who's faster."
"I agree demon-boy. No more holding back from either of us." Sudou's eyes widen at his response, suddenly worried about how fast I could be.
"Wait wait wait, hold on. You weren't trying? How fast are you!" I looked him right in the eye, before stepping onto the starting block.
"Prepare your 10,000 Sudou. You don't have a chance."
With that final statement, the coach blew his whistle, and the race was on. In the corner of my eye, I could see Kouenji flying through the water, keeping pace with me the entire time. The other three had fallen far behind, and the race was between just the two of us. The water was rushing past my head, speeding through the cool liquid, faster than I had ever swum before.
I reached the end, tapping the wall at practically the same time as Kouenji. We both clambered out of the pool and looked at the coach. The other three had just finished, multiple seconds behind us, but all eyes were on Kouenji and I.
"Kouenji's time was 21.6 seconds." A smirk grew on his face, it was a time to be proud of. It was possible he'd never had someone to compete with before and being able to do so made the effort all the more rewarding.
"Ayanokouji, with 21.2 seconds." Everyone froze hearing those words, even Kouenji, before he broke his position, and started laughing.
"It's your victory demon-boy. I may have barely lost when it comes to swimming, but remember I still am the perfect existence." And with his self-assured swagger, he sauntered off to the changing rooms.
Perhaps doing something because you want to can bring out more in a person. I'd never swum this fast at the White Room, perhaps because I had no interest in doing so. An interesting thought to contemplate.
"They were so fast!" "How is that possible!" "They're incredible!" "Are they even human!" "Noooo my points!"
That last exclamation was shared by a few of the people who had wagered against me, realising that they owed me 10,000 points. For someone who had managed to swindle over three million at this point, it was worthless, but the blow to their psyche when the received barely any next month would make this 10,000 even more painful.
After collecting my points for wining from the coach, and eight of the people who had bet against me, I made my way over to where Horikita was standing.
"So, you really can back up your claims of superiority. I must admit, you are as good as you said." She admitted it. This was the final stage to break her flawed mental. Now all that was left was to convince her of the worth of using others instead of discarding them, and she could become a formidable opponent, someone who could make life interesting.
"Don't worry about your points. The fact that you were hesitant first, and at least only bet Kouenji could beat me is enough for me. Anyway, you'll need all the points you can get next month"
"I suppose so, if your theories are correct."
She didn't seem to have more to say, so I left her standing there and made my way back to the changing room. Now my classmates knew mine and Kouenji's full strength, they would be more willing to accept our attitude. Although they wouldn't thank me for taking their points, it would teach a valuable lesson to not doubt me, a lesson I could turn on them when the opportunity arose, to bring the grade crashing down.
Only two more days until the next month and I assumed the class system would be revealed on that day. Finally, then, the fun could begin.
Authors Notes
Back to regularly scheduled updates. I will probably write more short chapters and add them in the future like 6.5, because that was fun. Anyways, reaching the pointy end of arc 1, things getting intense. I've finished writing it now, so shouldn't be any delays at least for this. Hope you enjoy!