The Shark and the Stingray

Chapter 11

"Despite the fact that this was their first time competing in district these talented young athletes standing in front of you placed in the top eight, which means they've officially qualified for regionals and we'll be rooting for the Iwatobi Swim Club as they fight they way to nationals, let's give them a big hand." We had a morning assembly, everyone was lined up and the six of us were standing at the front, everyone clapped. "Wow, how cool is that," Nagisa shades his eyes as he looks up, the school made a banner for congratulating us on our win, "Not very they simply reused an old one, but I still can't believe this is happening you guys! We actually did it!" Rei says as the wind blows the 'Swim Club' fabric to the side and underneath showed 'Judo Club', "Just wait and see Rei, they're gonna greet us like heroes in homeroom," Nagisa smiles as he and Rei walked into school, Kou running up to her friends and giggling, "We won, good," Haru says quietly, "Come on, say it with more enthusiasm," I grinned and jumped up, hooking my arms around both Haru's and Mako's neck, they looked at me and we all laughed and headed into homeroom.

"Any idea where Haru wandered off to?" Kou asks, Nagisa, Rei, Mako, Kou and I were on the way to the swimming pool, "I dunno know, he disappeared," Mako touches his chin, "Do you think he went back home or something?" Rei asks, "Who knows, your guess is as good as mine," Mako says, "Hey I just realised something, we had our goal of placing at district that means we get to increase the size of our budget right? I say we use the extra funds to swim indoors all the time!" Nagisa knocks his hand, "Yeah!" Rei nods, "I certainly hope your kidding," I turned around, "You heard what the principal said at assembly, this is no time for luxuries. Our goal is to make it to nationals!" I point my finger at them, Kou nods vigorously, "Once we've made it there the sky's the limit!" Kou finished off and pointer her finger up, I hum in agreement, "Yeah! Come on team, let's give it our all!" Nagisa punches the air, "Yes, fly..." Rei says, "HIGH!" Kou, Nagisa, Rei and I put our fists in the air, "Fly high?" Mako looks at us, "Race you to the pool!" I took off, "Of you're going down!" Kou giggles and runs after me, "Don't leave me behind!" Nagisa laughs, "Do you really think you can beat a former track and field star?" Rei runs after us, leaving Mako behind, he chuckled and raced after us. "For now we're gonna focus on our skills, Rei, you'll need to work extra hard on your kick. If you want to compete your leg work needs to be faster and stronger." I look at him, "Of course," Rei touches his glasses, "Nagisa you'll need to work on your crawl stroke okay?" I list things off, "Okay!" He nods, "Mako I want you to spend your time on accelerating more evenly," I tap my clipboard, "Got it," He bunches up his fist, "Let's start with a group warm up then, how does that sound?" Kou smiles, we saw someone get out of the pool, "Haru? We didn't know you were here. Here." I walk over to him and pass him a towel, "Thanks," He shakes the water out of his hair, "Why were you here anyway?" I ask him, "I didn't know what else to do. When I feel lost I look for advice from the water." He looks at the pool, "What's that supposed to mean?" Kou walks over, "Well looks like everyone's here, I think it's time to get going," Mako says, "I completely agree, well everybody, let's warm up!" Kou claps.

"A festival?" I opened my door, "Who's that Stinger?" I hear Dad shout, "Some mates," I shout back, "Wow that's amazing, I forgot you speak english fluently, after all, you lived in Australia and was born there," Nagisa throws his hands in the air, "But come on, it's the national festival of Hachiman!" Nagisa says, the entire team was in yukatas and kimonos, "Well I don't have any traditional Japanese clothes, it would be weird if I just came dressed like this," I pointed at my clothes, I felt the air change behind me, "I've waited seventeen years for this day to come," I saw Mum's eye gleam, she pulled me back into a room and dressed me in a traditional Japanese kimono, "And all these years I thought I'd only see you in hoodies and the occasional swimmer tracksuit, I'm so proud of you," Mum rubs her cheek against mine, "Okay Mum..." I sweatdrop, "I don't really have a choice anymore do I?" I chuckled lightly and followed the boys, "See ya later!" I waved my arm at Mum and Dad, they smiled, "Get back home safe!" I heard Dad boom, I nervously laughed and nodded. "Squid, squid, squid, candy apples, and more squid! Wow I forgot how much squid they have here! It's like a squid smorgasbord." Nagisa looks at all the booths, we arrived at the festival, "So this is what a Japanese festival looks like, I can't lie, it's really beautiful, I remember coming back to Japan to see Ojīchan and O bāchan, it wasn't during any festivals though," I looked at all the glittering lights, my eyes sparkled, "Exsquidsit," Rei looks around, "Hey what should we do first?" Nagisa walks off, "Hey! I was making a joke!" Rei huffs, the two of them run off, "I think it's best if we follow them, otherwise we'll lose them," I chuckled, Mako, Haru nodded, "No way, you guys are all here!" Kou was with her friend, they were also wearing traditional kimonos, "Hey Kou," I grinned, "You look great," I take a walk around them, "The both of you look very cute," Mako nods, Kou's friend lights up and looks at her, "Is it us or the outfit?" She giggles, "A little bit of both I think," Mako quickly says, "Perhaps we should grab a bite to eat?" Rei says, "I recommend the squid paella it's delicious!" Kou smiles, "Count me in," I smiled, "If you guys want to meet up later, we'll be watching the squid ink calligraphy contest later," Kou starts to walk off with her friend, "Cool, we'll see you later!" Nagisa waves her off, "Well guys, what are you in the mood for?" I spun around, "That's an easy one Yuki, grilled squid balls!" Nagisa lights up, "Mm, I prefer squid tempura," Rei touches his chin, Mako chuckles, "Maybe we can have both," He says, "Oh! That paella sounds really good," Nagisa jumps up, "Yeah, let's see what options we have," I grinned. 

"Try not get separated from us you three!" Nagisa waves us over, him and Rei were already at a food booth, Rei looks off and he flinches, I follow his line of sight and I light up, "Ri-" I felt Rei cup his hand over my mouth tight, I had a few muffled screams, he nudges Nagisa and he looks over, "It's Rin," He says quietly, "Talk about bad timing huh?" Rei, Nagisa and I were in a huddle, "Tell me about it," I whisper back, "Is something wrong?" Mako asks, we all jump up, "No! We were just talking about how much we love squid!" Nagisa says quickly, "Hey why don't we go play a shooting game you guys!" I try to make a diversion, "A shooting game? There's one right there," Haru looks at where Rin is, I jump forwards and block his view, "Hey wait, I've got a better idea, how about I buy squid burgers for all of us!" Nagisa jumps in, I nod up and down quickly, "Sounds like a wonderful idea, thank you," Rei sweats, "No problem, go find a table and I'll bring it over to you!" Nagisa points off in the distance, "Meh, that's nice of you but I didn't want the burger," Mako shakes his head, "Well go wait for us okay?" Nagisa kept winking, Rei and I staring at Mako intently, hoping he'd get the sign, "Okay, let's go Haru, we're gonna need to find a spot for all five of us," Mako walks off, we sighed in relief, "Right," Haru says and follows Mako, "I was a little, no super scared that Haru would run into Rin," We huddled together again, "Yeah." Rei fans his face, "The reason I took Haru out to this festival was to take his mind off swimming for a while," Nagisa looks down, "Seems that your plan now might have an opposite effect," Rei says, "You're right if he gets too stressed he might ditch the relay at regionals," Nagisa looks up, "This is bad," I held my head, "I really want Haru to swim with us," Nagisa says, "I want him to swim with us just as badly," Rei nods, "We have to do whatever it takes to make sure they don't cross paths tonight," I touch my chin, "I'm in agreement," Rei looks at me, "Same here!" Nagisa bunches his fist, "Rei, Yuki. Make sure you follow Rin, once you have a location you find me or text me where he is, I'll lead Haru to a different place so they both won't know the other's here," Nagisa puts a hand on our shoulders, "This is a good plan but are you enjoying this?" Rei sweatdrops, "Never mind! Focus we've got work to do!" Nagisa shoots up and points his finger to the sky. 

"Target is 5 feet, 8 inches high, and has an estimated weight of 150 pounds. Red hair, pointy teeth, commence pursuit," Rei mutters to himself, I sweatdrop at the scene he was making, three kids started up at the two of us, I nervously laughed, he dashed out from behind a booth and hid behind another, I followed close behind but walked like a normal person, "Captain Mikoshiba bought cotton candy, chocolate bananas and candy apples! Ugh, he's gonna give himself a stomachache!" I saw Nitori ramble on, I saw Rin's head about to turn around, Rei freaked out and put a nearby mask on, I freaked and ran over to him, "Hey Rin, Nitori, funny seeing you here!" I turned his chin back towards me and laughed nervously, I sighed in relief as Rin's eyes looked at me, "Phew," I rested my head on his chest, "What are you doing here?" He rested his hand on my waist, "Well Mum found a kimono lying around at home, apparently she was waiting seventeen years to finally see me in this, dunno how long this has been in storage and I was like why not? I've never been to a Japanese festival before so here I am," I made up an entire story, Rin looks at the kimono, "It's beautiful," He kisses my head, I felt a buzz from my phone, it was from a groupchat of me, Rei and Nagisa.

Mission: Move Rin away
Rei: The target in question is currently by the stalls near the beach and appears to be heading to the main road, over. We've got Yuki as our first line of defence.
Nagisa: Right, copy that.

I read the texts and chuckled lightly, "What's up?" Nitori looks at me, I shook my head, "Nothing, just thought of something funny is all," I waved my hand, he smiles. "We have a problem Rin, there's no open stalls here," Nitori trails behind us, Rin still had his hand around my waist pulling me along with him, "Yeah I know," He says blankly, "Should we go back?" Nitori asks, "You can if you want to," Rin says glumly, Nitori stops following us, my eyes soften, 'I'll talk to him' I mouth to him, he smiles and nods, I heard the clacking of wooden sandals behind us, must be Rei.

Mission: Move Rin away
Rei: New intel, Rin's at the park just up the road, still with Yuki.

"Come on, what's wrong? You've been silent this entire time. The six plus years I've known you, I don't think I've ever heard you this silent, even when you sleep," I prod his cheek, this cracked a smile from him, "Shut up, I'm perfectly quiet when I sleep," He blows a raspberry on my cheek, "Here, I want to show you something," His mood lifted, "There's the Rin I love," I leaned closer to his chest.