“Good morning, Yamauchi!"

“Good morning, Ike!”

Arriving to class, Ike wore a broad grin as he called out to Yamauchi. It was rather unusual for them to get here so early. It’d been one week since the entrance ceremony, and Ike and Yamauchi would always make it to class right before the bell rang.

“Whew, man! I was looking forward to today so much that I barely slept last night!”

“Ah ha ha! This school is just the best! I can’t believe that it’s almost time for swimming! And when I say swimming, I mean girls. And when I say girls, I mean girls in school swimsuits!”

It was true that the swimming classes were co-ed. In other words, that meant that Horikita, Kushida, and all of the other girls would be…showing off a lot of skin. The girls backed away from Ike and Yamauchi’s rabid excitement.

Perverts... I narrowed my eyes at them a little. If this went on, I would have to step in myself. Perverts would mean that the girls would dislike them, which could lead to disputes happening in class, which in turn could result in a huge rift, making it harder to reach Class A.

“Hey, Professor! Come here for a sec!”

“Uh, you called?”

A chubby boy, apparently nicknamed “The Professor,” approached them slowly. If I remembered correctly, his name was Sotomura or something like that.

“Professor, can you record the girls wearing their swimsuits for us?” Ike asked.

“Leave it to me. I’ll pretend to be sick so that I can skip class and observe.”

“Record? What are you planning?” I asked, walking towards them.

“The Professor is going to rank the girls’ breast sizes for us. If we’re lucky, he’ll get some pictures with his phone.”

“Hey, hey.” Sudou visibly drew back in response to Ike’s plan. If the girls found out about it, the consequences would be severe. I was glad that Sudo had at least some sense.

Time to put a stop to this.

I glared at them, showing a little of my darkness. The boys visibly drew away.

"Don't you dare do that. If you do... I will make the rest of your school life as miserable as possible," I told them coldly.

Ike, Yamauchi and the Proffeser nodded fervently. I relaxed my glare and nodded, satisfied.

The girls sent me grateful glances and smiles.

~~~

“All right! The pool!”

After lunch had ended, it was finally time for swim class. Ike and the others were visibly excited, but they tried to suppress it, probably thinking back to my scary glare.

I followed them to the locker room.

Sudou promptly removed his uniform and started to change, showing off his physique. He’d built up his body through his years of basketball playing. Even in comparison with the other students, he was clearly in incredible shape. While the others wrapped themselves in bath towels, Sudou unabashedly wore only his underwear. He stood there, semi-nude, and took his swimsuit out of his bag.

I couldn’t keep myself from blurting something out. “Sudou, you’re pretty bold. Aren’t you nervous being around other people?”

“In sports, you can’t get flustered every time you have to change. If you act all shifty, it’ll have the opposite effect. You become the center of attention.”

He could say that again. In these sorts of places, sneaky guys got mocked.

For some reason, he was waiting for me to finish getting changed. I hurriedly stripped down to my underwear and wore my shorts.

Sudo looked me up and down. "You're pretty fit huh, Ayanokouji-kun," he commented somewhat jealously.

"I just used to do some light workout," I said.

"Light workout? I'm sure it's more than that. You probably do like, I don't know, 300 push ups, pull ups and sit ups every morning?"

He was slightly off, but I just shrugged.

I could see that Hirata and Miyake were also pretty fit. But I should stop checking them out, or I might seem like a bisexual creep.

Sudo and I left the locker room together.

~~~

Upon seeing the fifty-meter pool, Ike cried out, “Whoa, this school is something else! It’s even better than the city pool, don’t you think?” The water was clear and beautiful, and because it was indoors, we didn’t have to worry about the weather. The perfect environment.

“What about the girls? Aren’t they here yet?” Ike looked around, sniffing the air like a dog.

“They take a while to change, so they’re probably not ready,” I said.

“Hey, I wonder would what happen if I just suddenly jumped into the girls’ locker room?” Ike said.

“They’d gang up on you, beat the crap out of you, and then file charges, probably.”

“Don’t give me such a realistic, deadpan answer and ruin my fun!” Ike began to tremble with fright as he played that scenario in his head.

“If the girls sense you staring at them in their swimsuits, they’ll probably hate you. And I won't forgive you either.” I let a bit of my darkness seep out into the last sentence.

Ike gulped, probably remembering what I had said in the classroom before this. He stopped talking about them.

“Wow! It’s so spacious! It’s so much bigger than the pool at my junior high school.”

A few minutes after the boys had arrived, a girl’s voice could be heard.

“A-are they here?!” Ike said. Even after my warning, he and Yamauchi had to try hard to cover their lust.

The two of them, along with some boys, looked around trying to find the girls. But they were no where to be seen.

Then, Ike pointed to the empty observation deck. A few girls gathered on it, discomfort obvious on their faces. Even thought I had stopped the boys from doing something as serious as taking pictures of their breasts, a few girls still could not gather the courage to wear their swimsuits in front of 20 boys, with more than half of them being perverts.

Ike slumped to the ground, looking like he was about to burst in tears. He might have, if I had not been there.

“Gross,” the girls muttered among themselves. Ike was being far too obvious, so it wasn’t surprising that the girls hated him…

“Ike, don’t be sad! Come on, there are still tons of girls out there for us!” Yamauchi said.

“Y-yeah, that’s right. You got a point. I can’t get down in the dumps now!” Ike cried.

“Bro!” Yamauchi and Ike reaffirmed their manly bond of friendship, clasping their hands together.

I glared at them once more. Seriously, get some self-control! Do you want us to lose points for this? I was about to go forward to scold them when Kushida came.

“What are you two doing? That looks like fun.”

“K-K-Kushida-chan?!”

Kushida showed up between the two of them. She was clad in her school-issued swimwear, which nicely showed off her voluptuous figure. In an instant, nearly all of the boys’ eyes were glued to Kushida’s body. She must have been a D or E cup. I averted my eyes almost immediately.

Ah, the weather was so nice today… World peace truly was wonderful.

Then, Horikita came over.

For some reason, Horikita was checking me out all over.

“Ayanokouji-kun, do you exercise?” she asked.

"Huh? Well, yes, a little. Why?"

"Judging from the development of your forearms and your back muscles, you seem above average. Way above average.” she told me.

Does she have muscle fetish or something?

I just ignored her, which she did not seem too pleased about.

“Are you a good swimmer, Horikita-san?” Kushida came over.

Although Horikita gave a slightly puzzled look in response to Kushida’s question, she quietly answered. “I wouldn’t say I’m particularly good or bad at it.”

“I was really bad at swimming when I was in junior high. But I gave it my all and practiced really hard, and now I think I’ve gotten better,” Kushida said.

“I see.” Horikita gave a disinterested response and backed away slightly, clearly signaling that she didn’t want to continue the conversation further.

"What about you, ayanoukoji-kun?" She asked.

I shrugged a little. "I'm slightly above average, I guess."

"Ooh, are you hitting on Ayanokoji-kun now, Kushida-chan?" Onodera came over with a slight grin on her face. She was one of the more athletic girls in the class, and in the swimming club too.

"Na-nani? Onodera-san, stop talking nonsense!" Kushida said, slightly waving her hands and looking a little flustered.

"I mean, I wouldn't blame you. Ayanokouji-kun is smart, handsome, and pretty ripped too!" Onodera said.

Hey, hey. I'm right in front of you, you know? I felt slightly uncomfortable. Luckily, the instructor saved me.

“All right, everyone, line up!”

A macho-looking middle-aged man, the kind of guy who apparently devoted himself to sports, gathered everyone together and started the class. He looked like a PE teacher, but also seemed like the kind of guy who was attractive to men and women alike.

“There are 30 of you, huh? That's more than I expected.” he seemed rather surprised that hardly anyone ditched the class.

“After you warm up, I want to see what you can really do. Swim for me,” the coach said.

“Excuse me, sir. I can’t really swim, though…” A lone boy sheepishly raised his hand and spoke up.

“Since you have me as your teacher, you’ll be swimming by summertime. Don’t worry about a thing.”

“Well, we don’t really need to force ourselves to swim, do we? It’s not like we’re going to the beach or anything.”

“No way. I don’t mind at all if you’re bad at swimming now, but I’ll make sure you guys are winners in the end. Besides, being able to swim will definitely come in handy later in life. Definitely.”

Swimming would definitely come in handy? Well, I suppose knowing how to swim would be convenient. However, hearing a teacher say something like that made me feel uncomfortable. Did it have something to do with special exams?

Everyone started their warm-up exercises. Ike kept peeking at the girls. The teacher asked us to swim for about fifty meters. Students who could not swim were allowed to touch the bottom of the pool with their feet. I hadn’t been in a pool since last summer. The water must have been temperature-controlled, because I didn’t feel chilled when I entered and adjusted right away. After getting in, I started to swim lightly.

After fifty meters, I waited for everyone else to finish.

“He he he, that was an easy win for me. Did you all see my super swimming skills?” Ike crowed.

He’d swum expertly, and now got out of the pool with a smug, self-satisfied grin.

No, Ike, your performance wasn’t really that different from anyone else’s.

“Well, it looks like everyone can swim, for the most part.”

“Of course, sir. Back in junior high, people called me ‘the flying fish,’ you know.” Ike said smugly.

“I see. In that case, I’ll have you start competing against each other. We’ll separate groups by gender. Fifty-meter freestyle.”

“C-compete?! Are you serious?” Ike cried.

“I’ll give out a special bonus to the first-place winner: 5000 points. The student who comes in last place, however, will have to take supplementary lessons. Get ready.”

The skilled swimmers cheered with joy, while the less confident students groaned. I, for one, perked up at the sound of more private points. Looks like I'll just win this.

“Because we don’t have very many girls, I’ll split you into two groups of five people, and the student with the fastest overall time will be the winner. As for the boys, I’ll look at the top five finishing times and then move on to a final round.”

Excluding the observers and the one student who couldn’t swim, there were 19 boys and 10 girls competing. The girls started first, while the boys sat on the sidelines, filled with excitement as they cheered… no, as they assessed the girls.

I just let them be. I supposed an occasional peek would be okay... And this is not because I want to peek at them too! Jeez, where did you get such an idea from, dear reader?

“Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan. Haaaaaaa…”It looked like Kushida had completely entranced Ike.

Kushida immediately dominated the boys’ attention. Would any of the other girls catch up to her? If you focused on her face alone, Horikita could definitely have been in the top tier, but because she loathed social interaction so much, her popularity had dipped. Despite that, many of the boys thought she looked great, so she got plenty of cheers at the starting line.

“Everyone, burn these images into your mind! Remember the fap material you see here today!” Ike cried.

“Yeah!” everyone shouted.

Somehow, swimming had strengthened the boys’ bond. The only exception was Hirata (and me, of course), who seemed to avoid looking at the girls. The whistle blew, and five of the girls dove into the water. Horikita was in the second lane. She took the lead at the beginning of the race and kept her distance from the others, maintaining her position at the front of the pack. She swam confidently, effortlessly covering the fifty meters.

Her time was approximately twenty-eight seconds. She was pretty fast. Horikita slowly got out of the pool and went to the side, not even appearing out of breath. To the boys, results were of secondary importance. Their eyes were glued to the girls’ jiggling butts. I sighed. At least try to be more descreet, will you?

After that came the second race. Kushida, the most popular girl, was in the fourth lane. The boys cheered for her, smiling and waving.

“Whoo!”

Wow, those guys were really riled up. Some even tried to sneakily cover their crotches. During our introductions, Kushida had announced that she wanted to make friends with everyone in class. It looked like her wish had already pretty much come true. It wasn’t just the boys, either; girls were around her constantly, too, chatting away happily. Kushida had an air that attracted other people.

The second race began. The contest ended up being rather one-sided. Onodera won by a mile. She finished with a time of about twenty-six seconds, netting her the win. Kushida finished at about thirty-one seconds, which was a fairly good time, but only resulted in her getting fourth place.

I went over to the side of the pool to talk with Horikita.

“You were so close. Second place, I mean. I guess that those guys on the swim team were really tough, huh?”

“I don’t mind whether I win or lose. Enough about me. Are you feeling confident in yourself?” she asked.

“Oh, definitely. I'll get first place.” I announced to her disinterestedly.

She glanced at me, her eyes narrowed. "Hmph. You're pretty confident, aren't you?"

"Of course. Isn't it good to be confident in yourself? As long as it isn't as much as Koenji." I replied.

Speaking of Koenji, he was at a corner, looking at himself in the mirror and combing his hair. In other words, he was as eccentric as ever.

WAIT A MOMENT, HOW IN THE WORLD DID HE GET A FRICKING MIRROR AND COMB INTO THE POOL? Ah well, no use thinking about him, I thought.

I got into my lane. Sudo was right next to me.

"Ayanokouji, I'm not letting you win this. See me completely trash you in this race!" Sudo said confidently, but I could detect a certain uneasiness. In other words, all he was trying to do was to give himself confidence, not to provoke me.

I shrugged nonchalantly. "We'll see about that."

"Get into your positions and... Start!" Upon hearing the beep of the whistle, I dived into the water and swam.

I made sure not to exert too much energy. In the end, Sudo got an impressive timing of 25.88 seconds, while I got 25.69 seconds, winning against sudo by a small margin.

"Kyaa!" I heard several squeals as I got out of the pool.

"Wow, ayanokouji-kun and sudo-kun, you two are so impressive!" Hirata said. I nodded my thanks towards him, not used to people complimenting me.

Several girls came over to me, complimenting me and looking at me with stars in their eyes.

Sigh, being popular sure is hard.

“ayanokoji-kun, sudou-kun, won’t you consider joining the swim team? If you practice, you could probably win at competitions!” Onodera asked us.

"Well, I don't feel like joining it. I'd rather have a date with my bed." I tried joking. Some girls heard that and giggled cutely. I was glad that I managed to make a joke.

“Basketball is my only sport. Swimming’s just for fun.” Sudo said, while looking over to me, obviously a little displeased. "And Ayanokouji, I'm gonna win you the next time, so you better watch out!"

"I'll be glad to challenge your again, Sudo."

“Kya!”

A girl let out a joyful scream as Hirata took his starting position. Whereas Sudou’s body had attracted the boys’ admiration, Hirata’s body attracted the girls. He was slender, but also well built. You could say he was a macho pretty boy. After hearing the girls’ delighted squeals for Hirata, Ike spat in response. Sudou didn’t seem very amused either, and shot Hirata a glare.

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

Didn’t he say that he swam just for fun?

After the teacher blew the whistle, Hirata dove into the pool with beautiful form. Every time Hirata’s arms cut through the water, the girls cheered by the side of the pool. His form was effortlessly cool.

“He’s surprisingly fast,” Sudou commented.

It was certainly true that Hirata swam fast. There was no doubt that he’d shot ahead of the four other boys who were competing with him. This, of course, prompted more shrieks from the girls. Hirata didn’t fail to live up to our expectations: He came in first place. Deafening cheers reverberated throughout the room.

“Sensei, what was his time?” asked Ike impatiently.

“Hirata’s time was…26.13 seconds.”

“All right. You can do it, Sudou. You can definitely win against him! And Ayanokouji too! Bring down the hammer of justice!”

“Leave it to me. I’ll demolish them and their popularity…”

Why do people always talk about me when I'm right beside them? Can't you notice me?

Ike’s encouragement had Sudou all fired up, but even if Hirata lost, it wasn’t likely that his popularity would drop. As for me, I would never lose.

“Hirata-kun, you were so cool! You’re not just good at soccer, you’re really good at swimming!” one girl cried.

“You think so? Thank you!” he said.

“Hey, why are you ogling Hirata-kun like that?” another girl said.

“Huh? I’m ‘ogling’?!”

There was an indignant squeal.

“Come on, girls, knock it off. Please don’t fight over me. I belong to everyone. I want to be everyone’s friend. Besides, what if someone who’s better at swimming comes along?”

Kouenji mistakenly seemed to assume that the cheers were for him. He put on a refreshing smile and then planted his feet by the starting line.

“Hey. Uh, why is Kouenji wearing a speedo?”

“Wh-what?”

Although the school allowed such tight swimwear, Kouenji was the only one in our class wearing it. The briefs drew attention to his crotch, and the girls all looked away. However, in the third race, all eyes were on Kouenji. The stance he took at the starting line was just like an athlete’s. His posture wasn’t the only impressive thing, either. He looked to be in even better physical shape than Sudou.

And... That was still not the most impressive thing. The most impressive thing was that he somehow still had his mirror and comb, which he placed at the side lovingly before getting into position.

Sudou and all of the other boys in class held their breath as they attentively focused on Kouenji.

As the whistle blew,