Tide Between Two Worlds

Hook, Line, and Sinker...and You're The Stupid Fish

       Round number three. Today is the day of regionals and everyone who was aware of it was excited for the swim team. Meiou Academy has never made it this far so the pressure to win was high. Everyone was giddy but one student. The name: Kaito Yuu. A third-year student much like a few of his athletic counterparts but that's where the comparison stops. Yuu had a thing for the unusual and it ranged from conspiracy theories to ghost stories and legends to aliens to corrupt political secrets and the like. This last, little tidbit brought him in like a fish hooked on bait. Speaking of fish, Yuu's latest interest: one Minamino Shuichi, the captain of Meiou Academy's swimming team.

Throughout the last couple of weeks, Yuu had kept his ears to the ground about this star athlete. It all started when he unintentionally caught Karasu and a couple of other teammates making fun of Shuichi's plight. Curious, Yuu attended the qualifying round as a spectator, witnessing Shuichi in his element. Once home, Yuu conducted some research on swimming as a sport. He studied swimming competitions, both extracurricular and professional, paying attention to the swim times for all of the races Shuichi was in. He learned about the average time a professional swimmer takes to complete a race as well as the fastest swim time ever recorded. He secretly watched the swim team during practice to see if Karasu would say something about Shuichi again. At the last practice before the prefecture round, Yuu noticed Shuichi's developments. At least, he thought he did. He could've sworn he saw an unusual, greenish strip or something like it appear on Shuichi's arm as he was swimming. And then when Shuichi was called out on it, Yuu believed him. Just to be sure, Yuu attended the prefecture competition, ready to see anything. He noticed Shuichi's friends speaking with his parents and how concerned the former were during the final race. It was then Yuu took action, pulling out his phone to record the final moments. He hit paydirt when Shuichi was caught celebrating with his fins out in full display. The second Yuu stopped recording was the same moment he caught Shuichi's supporters running from the stands. What did they know that no one else didn't?

Then came the day after. Watching the stats increase of the video Yuu created and posted on social media actually placed a smile on his face for the first time in a long time. Initial comments were just as curious as he was. What were those things on Shuichi's arms? Were they a prop meant to cheat his way to victory? Couldn't be. Yuu saw what Shuichi looked like before he got in the water. He was as normal as they come. Were those fins hidden in the pool somewhere? Not at all. The pool was completely empty except for the markers that designated each lane. So if Shuichi didn't have those fins before but had them in the end, where did they come from?

And then there was the aftermath. Yes, by the time school started the next day, Yuu's video had amassed over a thousand views. A thousand. A number virtually unheard of compared to the rest of his content. More comments came in requesting Yuu to explain the video and he planned to do so by the time he returned home but two students named Misaki Kuronue and Ikeda Kiyoni threw a wrench in those plans. The wrench: A.I. Now that A.I. is gaining popularity around the world, just about anything can be generated using the software. TikTok filters included. Now, there are some TikTok videos that use A.I. filters but never specify the filter used. Yuu's video was one of them or better yet, it was assumed to be one of them. By day's end, more comments came flooding in, asking Yuu which filter or filters he used to make his video. There were also comments requesting Yuu to apologize to Shuichi for embarrassing him the way Yuu did. Yuu even caught a video made by Kiyoni talking about it.

       "So...I wanted to talk about that video that's going around of a friend of mine who basically...is getting thrown through the mud," she said in the recording, "Apparently, there's a video of my friend at a swim meet who was seen with, I guess, fins on his arms? And there have been people asking me, 'What's going on with so-and-so?' (I'm not going to mention his name in this video) and 'Is it real, is it real?' I'm here to tell you...it's not [😂]. That is not real. My friend isn't a fish, he didn't cheat, he's not a cheater. He legitimately won that race and now my school has made it to regionals. Yaaaaaaaay! Eh, whoever was responsible for making that video, eh, I hope that you have since deleted it by now because you're making my friend look bad and considering what's going on, it's best that we remain supportive because...my school has never made it this far in the tournament and the team needs all the support they can get so...yeah, that's it. Oh! And for those who are asking, it's highly likely that whoever made that video used a filter so, yeah."