I'm alone again.
No one's going to save me.
If that's how it is, I...
Toono Hiyori
Morning, Ikuya. Were you awake?
The phone woke me up. What is it?
Nothing, really. Just a wake-up call.
I wanted to make sure you won't be late for practice.
I won't be late.
I hope not.
You know, after all that happened yesterday...
That teammate of yours from middle school...
Nanase-kun, was it?
Just forget about that.
I'm fine.
I need to get ready, all right?
See you later.
Episode 3: First Swim in Another Country!
Good morning, Rin.
Hey, David.
How's Mikhail working out for you?
He's a great coach, but...
But?
By the way, Rin-kun, do you prefer char siu or naruto on your ramen?
I can't read him.
He's known for being smart, but a little different.
You should be happy, though.
Mikhail's respected and rarely coaches someone one-on-one.
Take your marks.
Yeah, I'm surprised, too.
Well, he clearly saw something in you.
I'm not sure what, though.
Regardless, I'm grateful.
Chris, what's wrong?
Oh, Rin!
Some random Japanese guy came out of nowhere
and asked Mikhail to coach him!
What?
Mikhail said no,
but the guy told him he'd have to be his coach if he beat everyone else.
A Japanese guy... Do you know him?
No. I don't know anyone like that.
He's fast!
I'm not that fast. You guys are just too slow.
Who's this? Wanna be next?
Sounds fun.
I'll take you on.
Oh, you're Japanese?
Don't bother, Rin-kun.
Mikhail...
No matter how many people you beat, I'm not going to coach you.
Why not?
I'm faster than these guys, at least.
I have no interest in guys who are just fast.
What else do I need?
You want to know? It's...
Muscles.
Huh?
Your muscles aren't my type.
What does that mean?!
Dude, are you just like Gou?
Rin-kun's muscles are cho-very good!
"Cho-very good"?
That's Japanese for truly wonderful and amazing.
No one even says that anymore!
They don't?
Is that true, Rin-kun?
Yeah.
God damn! I can't believe it!
So is "MK5" out of style now too, Rin-kun?!
He's definitely skilled as a coach...
100m breast, sixth place: Inada Tadashi.
200m free, third place: Kiyruu Isana.
100m free, second place: Nanase Haruka.
Nanase-kun.
Looking ahead to this summer's tournament,
we'll hold consultations to decide which events you'll each enter,
What's wrong? You okay?
and you'll practice with a focus on those events.
I'm fine.
Nothing's wrong.
Your results in the tournament will...
Kirishima.
Was everything okay yesterday?
Yeah.
Your IM was unbelievable.
It's a shame that's your only event even though you swim so well.
Why don't you enter the freestyle relay?
No, relays aren't...
Hoshikawa-senpai, Ikuya doesn't swim relays.
Why not?
He focuses on individual events.
Right, Ikuya?
Yeah. I can't perform my best in team events.
What? Come on, man!
Sorry. Excuse me.
What a waste of talent.
Hey, Tachibana, wanna go to that meet-up with Oudoukan University later?
Thanks, but I have plans today.
Again? You're no fun, Tachibana.
Yeah... Sorry.
Kirishima Ikuya?
Oh, Nagisa told you?
Yeah.
I think I saw him in the IM, but that's it.
I don't know anything else.
Is something going on with Kirishima Ikuya?
Well, I guess Haru talked to him a little,
but I mean... I don't know...
It sounds like he's changed a lot.
You know, since Haru and I both quit swimming for a while in middle school...
An old teammate, huh?
Yo.
I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?
I'm Kirishima Natsuya.
I'm Matsuoka Rin.
Rin? Sounds like a girl's name.
Hey, don't look so pissed off.
Wanna go grab dinner?
It's my first time in Sydney.
Show me around.
Don't you think you're drinking too much?
This isn't that much at all.
Should a competitive swimmer be doing this?
I'm not a competitive swimmer.
I don't have a team.
Then what are you doing now?
Just collecting prize money.
What does that mean?
I wander all over the world,
entering races that offer prize money when I feel like it.
And... I win.
Then I use the prize money to set off for someplace new.
Even among swimmers, there are some guys who live like me.
What's wrong?
Uh, nothing.
It's too bad. You're a good swimmer.
Anyway, I heard you went to Sano?
Huh?
I went to Iwatobi.
Really?! Do you know Har—
Nanase Haruka, by any chance?
Nanase Haruka? I remember him.
He was a new student when I was in my third year.
At Iwatobi Middle School?
Yeah. You went to Sano Middle School?
Ah, no...
I was in Sydney as an exchange student to train in swimming.
Damn, in middle school?
Cocky one, aren't you?
Yeah... I guess I was pretty cocky.
Haruka was cocky, too.
He always said, "I only swim free."
I heard he quit swimming, though.
What's he up to these days?
Did he quit swimming for good?
No, he started up again in high school.
He's doing his best in Japan.
He's aiming for the global stage, like me.
It's my dream to swim on a global level with him someday.
I see...
You might end up being my little brother's rival, then.
You have a little brother?
Natsuya-san?
Come on, keep it together.
Sorry...
This is my hotel. Thanks.
Hey, what's up?
Nothing.
Just that I've stayed here before, too.
Jeez, talk about a high-maintenance senpai...
Nanase Haruka
I'll save it for next time I see him.
Sorry I'm so late.
Hey, where's Kisumi?
He said his club was meeting up.
He sure is loving the college life.
That's a good thing, isn't it? It suits him.
Anyway, do we have a plan to go see Ikuya?
Actually, about that...
I'm not sure if it's right for all of us to just barge in.
So maybe we should have Kisumi go over and talk to him a bit first...
You're not usually this timid.
Well, you know...
I told him back then that I wouldn't move again...
It'll be fine. Ikuya's not mad about that.
You told Ikuya what was going on, right?
Yeah.
A little, after you quit the club and Asahi moved away.
The team broke up,
but Ikuya was optimistic about continuing with swimming.
And he went to America with Natsuya-senpai after that?
Yeah.
Who was that guy we saw with Ikuya?
A friend from high school?
No idea...
And when did Ikuya come back from America, anyway?
Where'd he go to high school?
It seems like...
we don't know anything about Ikuya at all.
Even though we were all his teammates...
Nice swimming, Ikuya.
Your rhythm seemed a little different from usual, though.
Something happen?
No, not really.
You're breathing kinda hard, though...
You worry too much, Hiyori.
He's here again.
It's been four days.
He's stubborn.
Rin, you've gotta stop having dinner with him every night.
It's fine. He's not a bad guy.
Mikhail?
Natsuya-kun.
You can keep coming back, but I won't change my mind.
You don't know that.
That's some confidence.
You said you like muscles, right?
Winning Muscles
How about this?
I already have that.
I see.
Then how about this?!
Beautiful Muscles
A rare find, even in Japan.
A priceless photo book coveted by all muscle maniacs!
I think my sister has that.
Really, Rin-kun?!
You've gotta introduce me to your sister!
Is something wrong?
I just had a really bad feeling...
Ayumu-chan!
If anything happens to me, you have to protect this photo book!
I can't promise anything.
Coffee Shop Marron
I'm here.
Don't give us that!
You didn't call or anything.
What have you been doing?
Gathering information.
I just recently became friends with a senpai whose boyfriend
is in Shimo U's swim club.
For real?!
Yep.
And according to the info I got from that senpai...
This is X Day!
Evening Running Lecture 12
Fri.
X Day?
It's the day he doesn't have swimming practice.
That's the day you should go see him.
We should? What about you?
Oh, I'm meeting up with another club that day...
Damn it, Kisumi! Which is more important, your friends or your clubs?!
They're both important!
Friendship, right?!
Sorry to drag you out every night.
If that's how you feel, why don't you cover my dinner?
I have a policy against spoiling younger guys.
You pay for your own food.
Toono Hiyori
To Natsuya-kun Ikuya's Condition
Toono Hiyori
Sorry for replying late. Ikuya's time hasn't improved since then. His form has been losing its balance during practice, especially in freestyle, and he doesn't have the power he had at the last tournament. So he's been training in the basics these days.
Is something wrong?
Message from Japan. Sounds like Ikuya's struggling.
Ikuya?
That's my brother.
Kirishima Ikuya...
Kirishima?
Is the message from your brother?
No, it's from a friend of his.
They met in America while he was studying abroad.
Your brother went abroad for swim training?
You and Haruka are friends, right?
Yeah.
In the summer of Ikuya's first year of middle school, he swam in a relay with Haruka.
But Haruka quit the club after that.
His other teammates moved or quit, one by one.
so the team broke up.
Ikuya ended up alone.
That's why, in his second year,
he came to America, where I was studying.
It's not that I'm mad at Haruka and his friends, though.
Ikuya devoted himself to practicing with me in America,
but he has a bad habit of losing sight of everything when he gets absorbed.
He pushed himself too hard and nearly drowned from lack of oxygen.
No serious damage was done,
but I guess the mental shock was pretty huge.
He had to stay in the hospital for a while.
But that experience made him stronger.
Not just in breast, but in free, butterfly, and back, too.
He mastered each one
and stopped swimming in relays on his team.
He's been posting better and better IM times,
but I'm worried he's going to hit a wall at the pace he's going.
I want him to reach the global level.
What about you?
Huh?
You don't want to reach the global level?
I don't need to.
I swim when I want, how I want.
Then why do you want Mikhail to coach you?
Because I want to get better, of course.
But it's not to win medals.
Natsuya-san, is your own dream—
Hey, wanna race me?
Huh?
Race me!
How about the 200m freestyle?
Don't you only swim when you want?
I want to now!
There won't be prize money.
We'll just bet something.
How about dinner tomorrow?
That's not an equal bet. You drink alcohol.
Okay... How about new swimsuits?
I don't need one right now.
No, huh? Then...
You're like Sousuke.
Huh?
Oh, I had a friend in elementary school
who wanted to compete over everything.
He's not your friend now?
He's still a close friend and rival.
Is he still swimming?
No, he injured his shoulder.
But...
I want to swim with him again.
You're the adulterous type, huh?
There's Haruka, too. Just how many guys do you want to swim with?
Okay, how about this?
If I win, you let me stay in your apartment!
I only have the hotel until next week.
Take your marks.
Trying to use your prized leg strength to break away?
Interesting!
He's beside me?!
The fun is yet to come!
Damn, he's powerful!
Huh?
Oh, come on!
It wasn't supposed to rain until morning!
I guess we'll have to save our race for later.
You have a place you can stay?
I think I'll go back to Japan.
Huh?
It's been fun.
Thanks.
You made me remember that there's someone I want to swim with, too.
Looks like Natsuya-kun isn't coming back.
Was it really because his muscles weren't to your liking?
Rin-kun, there are only two kinds of muscles.
The kind I like and the kind I don't like.
His were the latter.
You were serious about that?
I'm serious about everything.
Still, I don't think there would've been any point in me coaching him.
It was written all over his face that what mattered most to him wasn't here.
You could tell?
I knew someone a long time ago who was the same way.
Shimogami University
Haruka-senpai and his friends infiltrate Shimo U at last!
What's gonna happen?
Next time: "Interference of Loss!"
Episode 4: Interference of Loss!
Their burning emotions are about to clash!