Swimming Class

"Can you swim, Shiraishi?" As soon as they stepped out of the boys' changing room, Shibata Sō, his short dark-blue hair catching the eye, hurried over and asked.

"A little." Shiraishi Makoto turned his head to answer. "You're the athletic type, right, Shibata? If I remember correctly, you joined the soccer club?"

"You really do remember everything, Shiraishi!" Shibata's eyes lit up. He laughed and scratched his head. "But I'm only decent at sports. Since coming to this school, I've realized there are so many talented people my age. People like you, Ichinose, Hamaguchi, and Kanzaki are all incredibly smart. Whenever everyone discusses something, I can never get a word in."

"Don't say that. This was only the first exam." Shiraishi smiled faintly and kept walking toward the pool. "Everyone has something they're good at. There'll be a chance for you to shine."

April still had a chill in the air, but fortunately, the school's indoor pool was equipped with excellent facilities. Its temperature-control system kept running, and the water was crystal clear and comfortably warm.

When it came to swimming, swimsuits were naturally part of the conversation.

Class B's boys weren't like the boys in Class D in the original story, loudly speculating about the girls' figures and even making a bust-size ranking. Still, what boy that age wouldn't look forward to seeing the girls in their bright, youthful swimsuits?

Come to think of it, the world of anime really was absurd. With looks like Shiraishi Makoto's, he could have become a celebrity in his old world. But in Class B, he could barely make the top five.

The girls in class were even more impressive, one after another. If someone asked Shiraishi to pick the ugliest, he'd assume they were deliberately looking for a fight.

Boys always changed much faster than girls. By the time all the boys had changed into their swim trunks and gathered beside the pool to warm up, the girls were only just filing out of the changing room in groups.

Not a single boy said a word, and the atmosphere was unusually quiet. But there was no doubt that most of their gazes had instinctively drifted over.

Just then, a burly middle-aged man covered in well-defined muscles approached from nearby. Raising his voice, he said, "Have you started warming up? Hold on a moment. Let me take attendance."

"Everyone's here—all forty of you. Good, good." After taking attendance, the swimming instructor nodded with satisfaction.

"Then let's get started. I'll lead you through a warm-up first, and afterward you'll get into groups and go in the water. I want to see how well each of you can swim."

"Teacher, I'm not very good at swimming..." A boy raised his hand, looking a little embarrassed.

"That's fine. If you can't swim, just watch from the side for now. I promise I'll teach every one of you before summer arrives, so don't worry." The instructor thumped his chest confidently.

The sharp-eyed students immediately caught the implication. As the others began getting into the pool, someone had already sidled up to Shiraishi.

"So there might be a swimming-related exam this summer?" Shibata whispered.

"There'll probably be an exam, but it'll most likely involve some kind of water-based activity. I doubt swimming itself will be tested on its own." Shiraishi shook his head slightly. Swimming didn't count for much in the overall assessment. Even without knowing about the Uninhabited Island Exam during summer break, a little thought was enough to rule that out.

Once everyone had completed a lap as instructed, the teacher spoke again. "Next, we'll have a competition. Fifty meters for both the boys and the girls. First place gets five thousand Private Points, while last place gets to stay behind for my special 'training.'"

At the mention of a points reward, quite a few athletic students' eyes lit up. The swimmers weren't worried about coming last, either, since there were people among both the boys and girls who couldn't swim at all.

"Te-teacher, what about those of us who can't swim?" It was the same boy who had spoken earlier.

"Then just walk along the bottom of the pool. It's not deep. Whoever's slowest has to stay for extra lessons, anyway." The teacher laughed heartily.

The class had already reminded one another how important swimming was, but the word "training" still made everyone uneasy. To avoid falling into the teacher's hands, the few students who couldn't swim at all started striding frantically through the pool, racing each other in a sort of "underwater sprint."

The other students who could swim had a much more normal race.

"Go! Go! You can do it, Shiraishi!"

"Go, Kanzaki! You're amazing!"

The girls gathered around the pool, cheering on the classmates they were rooting for.

When Shiraishi touched the wall and looked up, he saw that Shibata and Kanzaki, who had been in the same group, had already climbed out. They were indeed quite a bit faster than him. Still, he hadn't come last; he was about average.

"You guys really are impressive." Shiraishi took a few deep breaths. He'd given it everything he had, and it seemed he needed to do more athletic training.

"Everyone has their strengths, remember? You were the one who told me that." Shibata held out his hand and pulled Shiraishi out of the pool.

"Thanks for your effort, Shiraishi. Would you like a towel?" Ichinose Honami stood by the pool and offered him one.

It wasn't special treatment. Ichinose Honami had organized the students who weren't competing yet to help out and support everyone.

"Thanks, Ichinose." Shiraishi took the towel and wiped the water from his hair and body. "The girls' race is next, right? Good luck."

"I'm only an average swimmer, too. I could tell during the test just now—everyone in our class is so good." Ichinose smiled and waved her hand.

The girls' results came in soon after. Ichinose Honami hadn't been exaggerating: she placed fifth out of the ten girls in her group, right in the middle.

Minamikozue took first place among the girls. She seemed to have joined some kind of sports club and was a strong athlete. Shibata Sō took first place among the boys. They each received a reward of five thousand points.

In hindsight, though, it seemed like it didn't matter who won.

"Shiraishi, Shibata and Minamikozue want to use their prize points to treat everyone to karaoke. Tomorrow's a day off, so we'll probably go after dinner and stay until around nine." Ichinose Honami had come to pass on the message. As the class leader, she was always the one who let everyone know about gatherings.

"I'm fine with that." Shiraishi nodded in agreement.

The students in Class B seemed to enjoy doing things together as a group. It was only the first week of school, and this would make three outings already. Shiraishi had politely turned down the first two, but everyone had assumed he was gathering information for the class on his own and had understood.

It would be nice to relax once in a while.