COTE: Koenji What if

Vol. 1 Chapter 5.2 - The (Swimming) Race

After dealing with my internal struggles, I felt the water with my hands. Temperature controlled water?

"............"

For some reason Horikita was checking me out all over.

"Ayanokouji-kun, do you exercise?"

"O-Oh yeah, I guess I do from time to time."

"Are you a good swimmer, Horikita-san?" Kushida asked.

"I wouldn't say that I am particularly good or bad at it."

"I was really bad at swimming back in junior high, but now after giving it my all, I think I've gotten much better now!" Kushida responded with a smile.

"Alright everyone! Line up!"

A macho-looking man appeared.

"Only 16 of you, well I guess I can work with that." The man didn't appear to be frustrated.

"Warm up for me, so that I can see what you lot are capable of. For those who can't swim, you can join in as well for the warm up. Swimming is a useful life skill, especially at this school! Definitely!" Hmm? What did he mean by that?

I then joined up with Sudou, Ike and Yamauchi in the warm up. To the left of me, Hirata warming up with Karuizawa and some of the girls. Hirata has quite a good physique as well, but not as good as Sudou's. Although I can understand why Hirata's body would be more desirable. To the right of me, Koenji appeared to be doing some very dynamic stretches, and... is he wearing a speedo? That would explain why everyone is distancing themselves from him. His physical condition was even better than Sudou's. I wouldn't be surprised if he was faster than Sudou.

After the warm up, we had 10 minutes to play around in the pool. Hirata looked like he was having fun with the girls. The likes of Sudou appeared to be drowning both Ike and Yamauchi at the same time? And Koenji appeared to be... meditating underwater!? It seems he has already reached Zen. Oddly enough the instructor didn't look to worried.

After 10 minutes pass, the instructor said "Alright then, now we will have a competition against each other, split up between gender. 50-meter free style. The first place winner out of the boys and girls will each get 10,000 points as a reward. And whoever comes in last place in each group shall take supplementary classes. Get ready girls, because you will be competing first."

After the girl's performances, the boys were up next.

"Hey Sudou, wanna race together?" I asked

"Oh? Sure, why not! I don't think I'll have to use my full strength though. Although..." Sudou was distracted by Hirata. It looked like a lot of girls were cheering for Hirata.

"I'm going to blow you out of the water. I'll use all of my power," he growled.

After the teacher blew the whistle, I chose to keep up with the likes of Sudou's pace. It looked like he was in a state of flow. I then sped up just slightly.

"Ayanokouji's time was... 24.89 seconds. Sudou's time was... 25.09 seconds."

"Oi, what the hell was that, Ayanokouji?!" Sudou shouted. "I didn't expect you to be that fast!" Sudou said, while slapping the back of my head.

"You can always get revenge in the final, since you are in the top 2. You already beat Hirata anyways."

Before Sudou could respond, Hirata stepped up, along with the accompanying joyful screams. It looks like his attention is now fully onto whether or not Hirata was also faster than him.