Clouded Distance | Free! Fan Fiction

24. Helpless

Clouded Distance

Chapter Twenty-Four

Helpless

It was only a day before Regionals.

Most of the morning was spent packing. Hana wouldn't need much; they would only be staying overnight, so all she needed was her swimsuit, a change of clothes, her Iwatobi jacket, pyjamas and other small things. It should only have taken half an hour to pack, but somehow she'd managed to misplace everything.

Well, it was either that, or she was so overcome with the nerves at the realisation that the Regional tournament was tomorrow that she looked over things.

At twelve o'clock, Hana met the others to catch the bus. After she said goodbye to her parents, she boarded the bus along with her friends and Miss Amakata. She and Haru sat beside each other; the last thing Hana remembered was resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes.

The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her awake. "Hana," a low voice said. "We're here."

"Huh?" Hana rubbed at her eyes and slowly opened them. She flushed, realising she'd fallen asleep with her head on Haru's shoulder. "Oh. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

Hana smiled, stood up, swung her bag over her shoulder and headed off the bus. She looked up at the hotel as she jumped off, and her mouth fell open.

It looked huge.

"Did you stay here last year?" she squeaked.

Haru shook his head. "No. This is an entirely different place."

Well, if it looked impressive on the outside, it was nothing compared to how it looked on the inside. Hana worked hard to keep her mouth closed as they wandered inside. The lobby was huge and beautifully done, with warm wooden floors and red carpet and furniture.

"This hotel is huge!" she exclaimed.

Nagisa nodded. "It's quite a step up from our hotel last year."

"You don't think Miss Ama-chan and Gou are staying here, and we're getting stuck in a tent?" Makoto panicked suddenly.

"Like our training camp last year?" Hana laughed. She recalled that training camp fondly. Sure, the storm had been a rough patch of the journey, but the rest of it had been fun, just spending time with everyone. She had enjoyed camping out in the tent, and hadn't minded too much that Gou and Miss Amakata got to stay in a small resort.

But that didn't look like Gou or Miss Amakata's line of thinking this year. "What are you talking about?" Gou exclaimed.

"That's right," Miss Amakata said. "You're the stars of this show, after all. However, there's a famous saying that goes: there is nothing more expensive than that which comes free, for it is priceless! So make sure you all put up good results, okay?"

Hana exchanged a look with the others as they wandered further in to the hotel, the same questionable look on their faces. "Right..."

"Ah! Gou-san!"

The new voice was loud and enough to capture Hana's attention instantly. She chuckle, having recognised it. She hadn't heard it too many times before, but she had heard that voice yell out that name many times.

Sure enough, Samezuka was just entering, Mikoshiba Momotarou at the front and waving at Gou.

"What, you guys are staying here, too?" Rin said.