"So... there is but one reason I have gathered you all here today!" Kou announced.
"What 'one reason' do you mean?" Questioned Rei.
"No needless back talk!"
"Yes ma'am"
"Gou-chan, you're being scary!" Nagisa stated.
"As prefectuals will soon be upon us, I shall be conducting a surprise bento check!"
"What?"
"No complaining! As athletes, eating a balanced diet is part of your training! Right, Airi-senpai?"
"She's right. Now show us your lunches" I said.
"My diet is completely balanced." Haru spoke up.
"Then please let me see yours, Haruka-senpai." Kou extended her hand out.
Haru took out his lunch which contained white rice and mackerel.
"It's not balanced at all!" Me and Kou yelled.
"Haruka-senpai, this gets 43 points! Your lunch is too simple! Next, Makoto-senpai!" Kou said.
Makoto took out his lunch which had white rice, lots of meat, pasta, and a bit of vegetables.
"That looks so yummy!" Nagisa complimented.
"Do you really think so?"
"Makoto-senpai..."
"Huh?"
"68 points!"
"Huh?!"
"There's nothing but meat in here, and not enough vegetables!" She scolded.
"Next, Rei-kun!"
"Certainly! Go right ahead and examine my bento all you like!" He shows his bento with pride. "See how it's full of leafy green vegetables! Please also note the care in which the arrangement of the components was made, based on color theory! What do you think? Is this not beauty approaching perfection?!" Rei then proceeded to laugh.
"Rei-kun...63 points."
"That's ridiculous!"
"You were so focused on the beauty of the food that you failed to make it a balanced meal!" She yelled.
"Rei, there no meat in here. You need protein." I said softly.
"With a lunch like this, your muscles will never grow!" Kou added.
"No!"
"Honestly, I'm worried about all your muscles! Next, Airi-senpai, your not an exception to this! As a manager, you should set an example for them." Kou turned her attention towards me.
"That's a lot of pressure..." I sweatdropped. I opened my lunch and showed it to everyone.
"Woah"
"Hmm, not bad. 82 points! There's still room for improvement. There should be more vegetables! Next, Nagisa-kun."
"Lookie, lookie! Tada!" Nagisa shows his lunch proudly.
"The Iwatobi High specialty Iwatobi cream bread?!" Me and Kou shouted.
"It has strawberry jam, marmalade, and even chocolate! All for just 480 yen! So cheap!"
"That's expensive!" Me, Kou, and Rei shouted.
"Plus your juice has no actual fruit juice in it. It's all carbohydrates and sugar!" She said in disgust.
"But I like that juice."
"No buts! Nagisa-kun, 0 points! Don't you have any awareness of the fact that you're an athlete?! Actually, this problem goes beyond your nutrition as an athlete!" She scolded.
"Ehhh?! Airi-chan, Gou-chan is being mean!" Nagisa hugs me in an attempt for me to save him.
"You didn't have to say all that..." Makoto tried reasoning with Gou.
"Don't baby him!" She retorted.
"No nagisa, she's right. This isn't healthy for you. Even if you weren't an athlete that's something you shouldn't be eating, okay?" I said softly as I patted his head.
"Nagisa-kun...remember that you're just not one person anymore! Not just Nagisa-kun...you boys are members of the relay team now. You are four people united as one body!"
"Gou-chan..."
"Therefore, Nagisa-kun, you are hearby forbidden to buy cafeteria bread." Kou proceeds to write in her notepad.
"Huh?! That's so mean, Gou-chan!"
"No its not!"
"Then you should make a 100-point bento, Gou-chan!" Nagisa challenge her.
"Indeed. We strongly request you show us how it's done." Rei agreed.
"Well, since you all insist, I certainly can't refuse you. Very well! The swim club managers" Kou wraps her arm around my neck and pulls me in. "We shall do what we can to support your endeavors to develop perfect bodies!"
"Wait-what?!" I wasn't too fond of Kou just volunteering me like that. But if she needs my help then I guess it can't be helped.
_____________
Kou dragged me along to the sports store to pick up a special ingredient.
"C'mon Kou, you know the boys won't like the powder. Why don't we just make it without it." I tried to reason with her.
"No! This will help them develop perfect bodies and muscles." She shut down my idea.
"Fine but I'll make another set of bentos without the powder." I sighed.
"Gou-san! Airi-san!" A familiar voice yelled.
"Huh?" Me and Kou looked to our left and there was Mikoshiba's younger brother.
"Do you remember me?" He asked.
"Um, uh, aren't you Captain Mikoshiba's younger brother, Kintaru-"
I snickered.
"Momotarou! Mikoshiba Momotarou! I'm a first year in the Samezuka swim team! My specialty is backstroke! My hobby is hunting for stag beetles! The biggest one I've caught so far is 8 centimeters! My favorite kind of spaghetti is Vongole-" He was interrupted was Rin put him in a chokehold, making him unable to speak.
"Jeez..." Rin sighed.
"Rin!" I smiled at him.
Rin eventually let Momotarou go.
"So you all came to buy swimsuits?" Kou asked.
"Yeah. Are you shopping too? I could help pick out your swimsuit Airi." He smirked.
I blushed. "No, we're not looking for swimsuits, you idiot."
"Gou-san, what do you think of this one?" He showed her a hideous orange and red swimsuit. "Don't you think this one is perfect for me, as well?" He pulled out a full-blue body swimsuit with colorful shooting stars.
I sweatdropped. "So, Mikoshiba-kun, you've decided to join the swim team I see."
He then turned his attention towards me "Please, call me Momo! You don't have to hold back! That goes for you too Gou-san!"
He got too close to my face, I had to step back. "T-then..." I looked at Rin to save me.
"Momo!" Rin yelled, giving him an aggravated look.
"Yessir!" He pulled away in fear.
"How about this one, Momo-kun?" Nitori pulled out a green swimsuit with white paws.
"Momo-kun?" Momo said with a disgusted look.
Rin then dragged Momo along to the section of swimsuits behind us. Me, Kou, and Yamazaki-kun stepped aside, watching the scene unfold.
Kou laughed.
"What's funny?" Yamazaki-kun asked.
"Oh, nothing. Well, you guys have fun. Let's go, Airi-senpai."
"R-right." I followed behind her.
The next day, me and Kou brought the food we prepared for the boys.
"Wow! That's a lot of food!" Nagisa stated.
"It looks delicious!" Makoto complimented.
"Really? I'm so glad! It was worth the trouble of going all the way to the city to buy the ingredients. We even saw my brother and Sousuke-kun while I was shopping!" Kou said.
"Rin and Yamazaki?" Haru questioned.
"Yes. The Samezuka swim team happened to be there buying swimsuits." She explained.
"I see." Makoto said.
Nagisa tried to get the food I made but I stopped him. "Get Kou's first. Mine is just in case you're still hungry."
Nagisa nodded and grabbed onigiris. "Here! You guys eat too!" He handed them to Haru and Makoto.
"Thank you for the food!" Nagisa thanked before eating the onigiri. "Mmm, delicious!"
I stared at Haru's and Makoto's face to see their reaction to Kou's food.
"Wait just a moment. There's something odd about what you just said. Why were you two shopping for ingredients in a store that swimsuits?" Rei asked.
'Clever as always Rei' I thought to myself.
"Well, it wasn't a food ingredient. More like protein powder? I used lots in the food, so it's nutritional value should be perfect!" She answered.
"These are cocoa-flavored rice balls!" Nagisa pointed out.
On queue, I saw how Haru and Makoto's faces turned blue. It was quite funny actually.
"You see, I told you they wouldn't like it Kou! Good thing I made extra food without the protein powder."
"You knew about it and didn't say anything! How could you!" Makoto began shaking me back in forth.
"Gomen, I wanted to see if you actually liked it. Looks like Nagisa was the only one who enjoyed it. Eat up guys, I promise it doesn't have protein powder." I told them.
The three boys began to eat my food instead.
"It's delicious! Hopefully with this, it'll get the taste of the protein powder out of my mouth." Makoto said.
"Thank you, Airi-senpai. For making more food for us." Rei thanked.
"It's no problem at all. Once I tasted what Kou made, I realized you all wouldn't like it and it'll be cruel if I didn't make anything." I looked at Haru who was silently eating his food.
"Is the mackerel to your liking Haru?" I asked.
He looked at me and nodded. "Yeah. You grilled it well."
I smiled. "I'm glad."
When it was time for practice, Makoto was still complaining about the food.
"I should've realized it when you said you saw Rin and Yamazaki-kun buying swimsuits where you were shopping." Makoto complained.
"Are you still talking about that? Did you dislike the food that much?"
"I thought it was delicious! What other flavors are there?" Nagisa asked.
"Um, strawberry and banana." Kou answered.
"Sounds good!"
"Please, no!" Makoto pleaded.
I chuckled to myself as continued stretching.
"Speaking of Yamazaki-san, he was Rin-san's best friend from before he transferred to Iwatobi, correct?" Rei asked.
"Yeah" Haru said.
"Then I wonder why he didn't just swim the relay with Yamazaki-san."
Before I could answer, Kou beat me to it.
"They actually did swim one relay race together at the swimming club. But for some reason, that relay didn't go well for them, and they never tried another."
"That confuses me even more. They'd already swum one relay together, so why would he leave his best friend and transfer schools?"
"You're just like Nagisa." Makoto stated.
"Huh?"
"I wondered the same thing you did, so I asked Rin-chan about it once." He said.
~
"What do you mean you two are better off on separate teams?" Nagisa asked.
"Because we know each other too well. Sousuke is way more theory-based than me, so we got into a lot of arguments. In the end, he'd calm down when I'd say the fastest would win the race, but it always took something out of my competitive spirit." Rin answered.
"So you don't like him?"
"It's not like that. In fact, even now, I think he understands me better than anyone else. But, I do think we're better off not being on the same relay team." Rin said softly.
~
Rei slams his hand on a stack of papers. "This is a list of foods that contain the ideal amounts of protein and vitamins for swimmers! With deep regret, I left out aesthetic value from my consideration and allowed myself to be guided purely by the principles of sports nutritional science alone!"
"Impressive!" Makoto praised.
"But Rei-chan, wouldn't it be tough to cook all of this ourselves?" Nagisa asked.
"I guess we'll just have to rely on this." Kou referred to the protein powder.
"Enough of that!"
"Oh, you boys can be so picky sometimes!" She whined.
"I think we have every right to be." He reasoned.
"I'll come up with a recipe." Haru suddenly spoke up.
"Huh?"
"Haru-chan's up for the challenge!"
"You can't make it nothing but mackerel, okay?" Kou mentioned.
"I know. Will you help me, Airi?" He asked me.
"Me? Oh uh sure." I agreed.
The doorbell rang. It turned out to be Coach Sasabe.
"Hey, sorry I'm late! Here's a little reward for your hard work. Jump right in and eat up!" He motioned to the pizza he brought.
We all stared at the pizza.
"Huh? What's wrong?" He asked.
"There's no mistaking how high-calorie that is. My calculations!" Rei yelled.
"Well, it is a special treat. So let's put nutritional science aside for now and eat." Makoto said.
"No need to hold back! Dig in!"
"Thank you for the meal!"
"But I do want to apologize for not being able to coach you guys lately. Huh? This training regimen..." He was looking at the regimen Kou made the other day.
"It's the strength-building regimen. I made it to prepare us for prefecturals."
"This is impressive! You've really done your homework, Gou!" He praised her.
"Yeah!"
"But this training regimen looks really hard!" Nagisa whined.
"Yeah, swimming eight kilometers in a single day..." Makoto agreed.
"Will we really be able to complete all that? Rei added.
"What are you kids wussing out for? You can do it! You're way beyond where you were last year already! You're gonna make it all the way to nationals this year!" Sasabe encouraged us.
After the meeting, I decided to go home.
"I'm home!"
"Welcome home honey! You hungry? I made some food." I hear my mother yell from the kitchen.
"No thanks, I ate already."
"Oh that's a shame. Say, when is Rin coming over for dinner? I'll love to have him over sometime, especially since he's your boyfriend now. It's been a while since he last came." My mother said.
"I don't know mom. He's very busy as Samezuka's captain. I know he's training his team hard for prefecturals, as well as himself. I'll ask him to come by when he gets the chance." I informed her.
"How's the swim team going with practice? Oh, we should have Haruka join us for dinner as well. He's welcomed anytime. It must be lonely being in that house by himself. Ahh I miss talking to Mrs. Nanase." She sighed.
"Yeah, you're right about that. But the swim team is doing well. We're practicing really hard to make it to nationals this year. It's mine, Haru's, and Makoto's last year. We want to leave the club in good hands." I answered.
My mother's face then turned serious. "Airi, have you thought about what you'll do after high school?"
I lowered my head. "Of course I have. I think about it all the time. I'm just not sure what to do. Continue swimming competitively...or pursue art like I wanted originally."
"I thought you didn't care about winning or times? Winning and times, that's what competitive swimmers need to survive in the competition world." She placed her hand on my head. "Airi-hun, just because you stop swimming competitively, doesn't mean you stop swimming for good. You just won't swim as much and you can dedicate your time to art."
I looked back up at her and she smiled sweetly at me. "Thanks, mom. I'm going to go up my room, okay."
"Alright dear."
I headed up to my room and plopped on my bed. 'But I want to be able to swim a lot.'
My eyes drifted to the picture frame on top of my drawer cabinets. I got up and grabbed the frame. It was a picture of my relay team in elementary school.
'I hope you guys are still swimming and doing well wherever you are. I want to be able to swim in a relay with you all again. I know Iris-san is still swimming. I wonder what she'll do after high school. Well, I'll ask her in prefecturals.'