Open Waters | Free! Fan Fiction

27. Reminiscent

Open Waters

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Reminiscent 

Fortunately, by some amazing miracle, they were able to convince Sasabe to coach them. Or maybe it wasn't so much of a miracle, the way he had been enthusiastic to take it. Hana thought his change was due to the performance of the boys in the prefecturals, and wanted to help them to continue succeeding.

When he started coaching, Hana had decided that maybe, being in the water herself wasn't such a good idea. The boys needed to focus, and she felt that, by being in the pool as well, she was being little more than a distraction. So instead, she stood to the side with Gou, and watched the practice take place.

Sasabe turned out to be a rather demanding coach. Even on his first day coaching the boys, he was really grilling them and making them work hard.

"Hey! Put some more effort into it!" he was yelling at the boys, as they practiced their relay. Hana winced at his loud voice. While I'm glad they're getting some good coaching in the lead up to regionals, I'm sort of glad I'm not being coached as well.

Makoto touched the wall, and Nagisa was quick to dive in. "Nagisa, you're bending your knees too much, you don't need such a powerful jump for a relay dive!" Sasabe yelled after him. "Makoto, your form is terrible! You're not using your shoulders!"

"I'm glad that Goro-chan agreed to coach us, but his training regimen is tough," Hana overheard Nagisa moan as he clambered out of the pool, near where she and Gou were standing.

"That's why everyone used to call him Goro the demon," Makoto said, and Hana couldn't help but giggle. As a coach, that description fitted Sasabe perfectly.

Rei was now finishing his relay leg. "Rei, if you can't coast into the wall, add one more kick! Not like that!" As Rei touched the wall, Haru was soon to follow. "Haruka! Watch your timing as you fall in! No! You have to watch Rei more closely! Come on!"

"It feels like they can't do anything right," Hana muttered to Gou.

"It's all for the best," Gou muttered back as Sasabe ordered all of the boys out from the pool to address them. "But, it does look tough."

Sasabe folded his arms as he boys gathered around. "You guys don't know what you're doing." He sighed. "You leave me no other choice. Matsuoka, Etsumi, help me out."

Hana was surprised to be called up by Sasabe to help out. What could a swimming coach need her help for? She only swam freestyle, and didn't know that much about swimming in general.

Sasabe guided them to his car outside. When he opened the boot of the car, Hana gasped, completely caught off guard. There were underwater cameras, televisions, cords... she was a little overwhelmed.

Oh. Technology. Great. I'm not too crash hot with this stuff either.

Oh well, surely it'll be explained how to set this all up.

And it was. After she, Gou, with assistance from the boys got the equipment out of the car, they were given instructions from Sasabe, they set up the kit that he'd ordered; no doubt he'd decided to use this when he started coaching. Makoto and Rei also helped to set up, their height being of extra assistance.

Overall, despite it looking complicated, the camera set wasn't too difficult to set up. Sasabe handled the technical side of things, while the others helped out with placement of the cameras. It ended up taking half an hour, which was a shorter time than Hana had expected, given the size of the packaging.