Swimming Class

Advanced Nurturing High School really lived up to its reputation for having deep pockets. It even had its own indoor swimming pool, right next to the gymnasium where the Club Orientation was held.

Today was swimming class.

The first two weeks of school had been spent getting everyone familiar with the school's various sports facilities and checking their basic fitness. In the first week, classes were held on the outdoor track; in the second, they were held in the indoor gym. After warm-ups and preparation, everyone was allowed to do as they pleased.

Starting in the third week, they would spend their classes in the pool, learning how to swim.

In the boys' locker room, none of the guys were especially shy about changing. They hurried to pull on their swim trunks.

Quite a few were chatting and teasing each other about their muscles—or lack thereof.

Shirogane Taiga, a classmate of theirs, suddenly asked, "Satonaka, why are you already wearing your swimsuit under your clothes? And why is it one of those tops-and-bottoms ones?"

Satoshi Satonaka, who had tied his long hair back and was in the middle of taking off his clothes, paused in surprise. "Well, I've never had a swimming class before, so I wasn't sure what to do. As for the swimsuit, I heard that wearing one on your upper body creates less resistance..."

Everyone else had brought swim trunks and changed into them in the locker room. Satonaka seemed to have put his swimsuit on under his uniform before he came, so all he had to do was take off his uniform.

"Wouldn't have guessed you were such an expert! Let's race in a bit and see if you can get your gear on faster than me!" His classmate Yoshida Kenta slung an arm around his neck. The two seemed to get along very well.

"Come on, don't joke around! I can't even swim yet! I just said this is my first swimming class. I was only an observer in middle school."

"Oh, so you're a landlubber? Then I'll train you to be a first-rate sailor!"

"Don't go overboard, Yoshida. You're pretty careless—what if Satonaka drowns?" Shirogane Taiga pulled him away.

Shirogane Taiga, Yoshida Kenta, and Satoshi Satonaka were all classic good-looking guys, and the three of them got along well.

But Shirogane Taiga was the cool, top-student type; Yoshida Kenta was the athletic, sunny type; and Satoshi Satonaka had an androgynous beauty.

If you had to compare them to other students, Yoshida was a bit like Shibata Sō from Class A, while Shirogane Taiga was like a male version of Masumi Kamuro.

They were all handsome, but the girls in Class A weren't as enthusiastic as the girls in Class D, so they weren't as popular as Hirata.

"I originally wanted to sit out, but Katsuragi said that even observing might lower the school's evaluation. I also wanted to learn how to swim, so I thought it over and decided to come. But since I have no experience, I've already made a fool of myself a few times." Satoshi Satonaka scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

"It's fine, it's fine. We're all buddies! You should've told me you couldn't swim. I would've brought you here to practice ages ago! The pool's open to students for free every evening from six to seven."

As he spoke, Yoshida suddenly pinched the arm hidden beneath Satonaka's sleeve. "You look pretty skinny, but you really aren't carrying any extra weight."

"Cut it out. You're embarrassing me." Satoshi Satonaka squirmed and instinctively tried to pull his arm away.

The boys made their way to the pool in a cheerful mood. It was a standard fifty-meter pool, with five lanes each in the 1.2-meter shallow end and the 2.2-meter deep end, divided by red-and-yellow floating lane markers.

Of course, the girls took longer to change than the boys, so the PE teacher had the boys wait by the pool.

Their swimming teacher looked like the sort of muscleman who could enter a bodybuilder competition. They said swimming regularly could improve your physique, and he seemed to be proof of that.

Before long, the girls came out too. The boys in Class A didn't act like the monkeys in Class D, getting all worked up over them. They just took a quick look in the usual teenage-boy way, then looked away.

Class D had swimming lessons before Class A, and Yuto had already heard Yuki complain about the boys in Class D. They'd loudly discussed the girls' breast sizes outside the locker room, to the point that it made you wonder if they were planning to barge into the girls' locker room.

The main culprits were, of course, Ike and Yamauchi.

In the end, though, nearly all the girls in Class D sat out, except for social butterfly Kushida Kikyo and swimming ace Onodera. Yuki was no exception.

The boys were sorely disappointed.

Meanwhile, over in Class A—

"Hm, only one person's absent? Well, that can't be helped. I've heard about your situation." The teacher looked toward the stands. Class A's only absent student, Sakayanagi Arisu, was sitting there with perfect composure, still wearing her regular uniform.

She raised a hand to greet everyone, looking apologetic, but no one would hold her physical condition against her.

"All right, let's see how many of you can't swim. Raise your hands!"

Including Satoshi Satonaka, only three people raised their hands.

Most middle schools had swimming classes, after all, so it was rare for someone to still be unable to swim by now.

"I'll teach you separately in a bit. Don't worry—I'll make sure you can all swim before summer vacation!

"For now, do some warm-ups, then get in and get used to the water. After that, we'll have a speed competition. I want to see how well those of you who can swim actually do!"

"Huh? We're having a competition in our very first swimming class?"

The students voiced their displeasure.

"Don't be so glum! How about this: I'll give five thousand points to the first-place finisher in each group—the boys and the girls!"

Once they heard there were points up for grabs, everyone suddenly got a lot more enthusiastic.

In the end, the five fastest swimmers from each group competed.

The winner among the girls was a surprise: Masumi Kamuro.

Momoe Rokkaku came in second. She was Satoshi Satonaka's childhood friend, and the two of them often hung out together. She was apparently in the Dance Club, and it looked like she was in great shape.

The two of them left the other three behind by three or four body lengths. It was a complete rout.

As for the boys, the five who made it through the first round and would compete for first place were, from slowest to fastest—

Shirogane Taiga, Hashimoto Masayoshi, Amasawa Yuto, Yoshida Kenta, and Kito Hayato.

After the first round had selected the five finalists, there was a short break before the final race. Masumi Kamuro came over and sat down beside Amasawa Yuto.

She wore a simple black two-piece swimsuit. She had a great figure and was fairly tall, and her first-place finish in the girls' group had just proved how athletic she was.

"Are you here to cheer me on, Kamuro?"

"Who'd cheer for someone like you? I hope you and Sakayanagi drown just like in Titanic!"

It would've been nice if she could've toned down that look of disgust, as if she were staring at a bug.

"Don't say things like that. It's bad luck." Thinking of the Cruise Ship and the Uninhabited Island that lay ahead, Amasawa Yuto felt a little helpless.

Kamuro had probably just said it offhandedly. She eyed Yuto's upper body. "I didn't expect you to be such a fast swimmer. You didn't look like you were giving it your all earlier. You can swim even faster, can't you?"

"What? That wasn't even his fastest?" Hashimoto came over too. His eyes were narrow, and his pupils darted about. To put it nicely, he looked sharp and calculating; to put it less nicely, he looked like a backstabber.

"I gave it everything I had, and I still couldn't catch up to Amasawa..." He sounded dejected.

"Your upper-arm muscles are really well developed, and you've even got abs. Do you play any sports?" Kamuro suddenly reached out and felt Amasawa's biceps. "Don't get the wrong idea. Sakayanagi said I could observe you more closely."

"I practice a little calligraphy and piano in my spare time."

Kamuro clearly didn't believe him. "...Are you messing with me? Do you practice calligraphy while carrying your piano around?"