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DIVE!! (Light Novel) - Book 1 Chapter 5 - Enter Shibuki
Book 1 Chapter 5 - Enter Shibuki
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
“It’s low. The water’s shallow, and it has a weird chemical taste.”
Those were the thoughts that Okitsu Shibuki expressed nonchalantly immediately after he got out of the water, after he dived from a diving platform for the very first time.
_______________________________________________________________
They met on a very ordinary day, like so many others.
It was at the Tatsumi Swimming Center at dusk. The locker room was crowded with all age groups from elementary schooler to senior citizen. In the midst of this familiar, faded scene, Tomoki saw Shibuki for the first time.
Shibuki gave off a conspicuousness from the start. It wasn’t an exaggeration; his body really did give off a special color. That was why Tomoki had been unable to keep his eyes off of him for a long time, even though he didn’t know that he was Okitsu Shibuki.
How could he put that strong first impression into words?
He seemed to be a huge, tough, and strong man. But, his large build was somehow different from the college students there. He had tanned skin the color of cocoa. But, his skin was somehow different from the skins of Tomoki and the others, which were baked in the pool. Beneath his tense, thick eyebrows, he had pronounced eyes that were slightly sunken. He had a wild expression that suited him very much, but it was obviously different from the wild expressions of the TV stars that were artificially created with makeup.
In a nutshell, Shibuki had the words “real deal” stamped all over him from the very beginning.
It seemed that Tomoki wasn’t the only one who gotten wind of him as a real deal, as everyone in the locker room was watching Shibuki’s every single move as he seemed to be frustratingly undoing the buttons of his clothes, exposing his black skin gradually. The water polo players and the competitive swimmers prayed in their hearts that he was not one of them.
Shibuki, who seemed unaccustomed with so much attention paid to him, left the locker room quickly after he finished changing clothes. Tomoki’s feet followed him of their own accord.
He passed through without taking a shower, and was momentarily dazzled by the pool that shone from the light through the ceiling as he stepped out onto the poolside.
His nose was stuffed up with chemical smell in the air.
Shibuki stood still with his eyebrows knitted together, seemingly suspicious as he looked over the facility.
It was like a wild bear visiting a zoo for the first time. Although he was curious, this was in no way a pleasant scene, and the idea that he was going to be an inhabitant of this place was not funny. When his hostile eyes landed on the diving tower, Tomoki, who was watching from the side, noticed with a start that Shibuki’s cheek was twitching abnormally.
“Okitsu-kun!”
It was then that Kayoko’s ridiculously light voice came from the windows that backed the evening calm of Akebono Bay.
Tomoki whipped his body into that direction faster than Shibuki, like he was flicked.
Okitsu-kun?
“Come here, quickly. I want to introduce you to everyone.”
While Kayoko’s figure was disorienting after two weeks away, she had a huge smile like she was the owner of Tatsumi, and her right hand was raised high.
I see. Tomoki looked up at Shibuki again and was convinced right away.
Indeed, there was no doubt that this man is Okitsu Shibuki.
And if the things Youichi told him six days ago were true, this was the very first time that Okitsu Shibuki, phantom high school diver, had ever seen a diving pool.
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“This is from a long time ago, but apparently at the beginning of the Showa period, there was a genius diver, a man named Okitsu Shiraha, who made quite the fuss.”
That was where Youichi began his story that day.
“Neither photos nor videos remained, but he was supposedly an incredibly strong diver. He had supposedly stepped into the limelight with by diving like no one’s ever seen before. His period of activity was short, so even to this day he is spoken of as a legendary diver. Tsugaru’s Okitsu Shibuki is the grandson of that genius. And, the person who had their eyes on that grandson was the president of Mizuki…Asaki Kayoko’s grandfather.”
He wanted to train Shibuki as a first-class diver. Youichi had said that that was why the former Mizuki president visited Aomori so many times while he was still alive. However, Shibuki kept turning him down stubbornly, and the former Mizuki president passed away unexpectedly.
“So, this time the granddaughter makes an appearance. She wanted to dispel her grandfather’s regrets, and wanted to drag Okitsu Shibuki into the MDC somehow, so she’s considerably engrossed in Okitsu.”
“Um, so…there’s a genius diver, and that genius had a grandson, and the president of Mizuki wanted to train him in the MDC, but he kept refusing and the president died. So now his granddaughter is going to take on the challenge, right?”
This was a confusing tangle of grandfathers and grandchildren.
“Basically, MDC was charmed by Okitsu Shibuki from the time of the grandfather to the grandchild’s generation.” Youichi summarized, and Tomoki finally got the point.
“That Okitsu Shibuki sounds pretty cool, doesn’t he?”
“There isn’t a lot of people who actually saw him dive. But apparently the deceased Mizuki president saw him dive, and supposedly praised him, saying that he’d surpass Shiraha some day.”
“Wow, he really is amazing, isn’t he!”
“Should you really be admiring him right now? Didn’t Asaki Kayoko say that he will be your rival?”
“That’s…that’s just a common bluff. If that Okitsu Shibuki is so amazing, then he should’ve been your rival, not mine.”
Youichi completely ignored Tomoki’s retort as he sipped his cold coffee.
“Well, first of all I’d like to see Okitsu Shibuki dive with my own eyes. I can’t come up with a counterplan if I don’t know his true level, since there’s absolutely no data on him anyways.”
“Eh, there’s no competition data for him left?”
“He has never been in a competition.”
“What?”
“Also, he never dived in a pool ever since he was born.”
Tomoki was at a loss for words. The confused jumble in his head eventually formed into one single question.
“Then, where did he dive?”
His simple question floated lightly in the noisy restaurant. Youichi was silent, with eyes like he’s standing on a platform, waiting for the wind to stop. Then he murmured it quietly.
“Do you know what’s Tsugaru?”
“Huh?”
“You’re not very bright. Tsugaru’s near the Sea of Japan. It’s a sea, known for rough waves and storms, like the one in the old Toei movies.” (1)
“What does that mean?”
“Okitsu Shibuki only ever dived into the sea. That’s the biggest reason why he keeps turning down the president’s invitations.”
Okitsu Shibuki only ever dived into the sea—
If this story that had amazed Tomoki was true, Asaki Kayoko had succeeded in dragging Shibuki, who only dived into the sea, into the pool.
Furthermore, she had managed to accomplish something in two weeks what her grandfather couldn’t do until his death.
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“Today, Okitsu Shibuki-kun will be joining the MDC. He just came to Tokyo yesterday from Aomori, is arranged to attend Sakuragi High School from April. He will enroll at Sakuragi as a transfer student on a diving recommendation. In short, he’s that much of an outstanding talent.”
Before practice, when Kayoko had introduced Shibuki with an unprecedented cheerfulness, everyone gathered at the poolside, throwing the huge newcomer curious glances. This was rumored…and everyone was very interested about it.
Despite Coach Fujitani keeping it confidential, it was probably the easily-flattered Coach Ooshima who let it slip. The rumor that “An excellent diver is coming” had spread through the club before they knew it, circling around twice. And as expected, the second time it came around, various embellishments to the rumor were added. It was rife with a mixture of fact and fiction, and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, ending up with things like, “He only dives into the sea”, “He only plays with fish”, “He wraps seaweed around his waist”, “He beats sharks with his bare hands”, “He blows a conch shell on the back of a dolphin”. Their image of Okitsu Shibuki resembled a general of the sea, a delinquent, or a mischievous kid.
Normally, as soon as your expectations are reached, the real appearance of things often leads to disappointment instead. If it’s really bad, it stirs up antipathy. Nevertheless, when Shibuki’s tough appearance was shown in front of everyone, there was no complaints of any kind there.
“Nice to meet you.”
That was Shibuki’s curt greeting. It was brusque without so much as a smile. He had a bad attitude, doing warm-up exercises without waiting for the coach’s instructions. In fact, the real deal wasn’t a step back from his previous reputation at all. This was truly Okitsu Shibuki, and everyone understood that.
“I knew he’d be pretty quiet.”
“He really is a man of the sea.”
“That’s because he only opens his heart to the fishes.”
During warm-up, the whispering of the club members never stopped. Among them, Reiji and Ryou were especially fixated on Shibuki’s every single move.
Tomoki, coming back to practice after three days of skipping it, was greeted with a “I was waiting for you” from Reiji, but the lingering discomfort had not disappeared yet, since Ryou was still not talking to him even now.
Thinking that he had no choice but to be patient, Tomoki poked Sachiya’s elbow.
“Hey Sacchin, you think it’s true that that guy only dived into the ocean until now?”
Sachiya nodded like anything sounded good, as he kept watching the synchro class in the sub-pool.
“That’s probably true. But I think the rumor that he was eaten by a whale is definitely fake.”
“Really?”
“After all, if he tickles the inside of its stomach, he could jump out when it sneezes…”
“So anyways, why does he want to go diving in the pool now?”
Why did Shibuki, who kept turning down late Mizuki president’s invitations, accept Kayoko’s?
Why did he want to leave the sea of Tsugaru?
Kayoko passed by Tomoki, who was doing the warm-up exercises apathetically while in deep thought, and stopped in front of Shibuki, who was beginning to do calisthenics by himself in a corner.
He looked up at her slim body with an irritated expression.
The sound of “one, two, one, two…” ceased as everyone noticed and fixed their attentions on them.
“Hey, everyone is watching you.” Kayoko said in a low voice. Clearly, she was aware of the surrounding eyes and ears. “This isn’t the sea. Everyone is watching you. They’re anticipating your diving. Hey, what are you feeling? Is the inside of your skin noisy?”
“Noisy?”
“Yes. It’s when the blood in your vessels begins to grow restless, as if it’s at high tide. Your body gets hot, you become filled with power, and now you feel like you can do anything. I know that’s happening to you. You shouldn’t hate it, since it attracts attention and makes you stand out, and it’ll shows how cool you are in front of everyone, and they’ll all love you…”
Shibuki stood up without waiting for her to finish her sentence.
“It’s more angry than noisy, when I’m near you.”
“So, what do you feel like doing?”
“Going back.”
“Where? To Tsugaru? What about our promise?”
Shibuki, who was about to head to the locker room, stopped.
“It’s not a promise. It’s a contract.”
He looked back at Kayoko with eyes filled with hate.
Kayoko lifted up her light brown arm, as if to scoop in that hatred. She extended her slender fingertip towards the towering diving platforms behind her.
“Please go up on the platform. If you want me to keep the contract, first, you should go dive from there.”
Behind Shibuki, who was standing still, another voice piped up at the moment.
“Go dive.”
As Shibuki turned around, Youichi was there, standing at the center of the Sakuragi High School Diving Club members, who were all present.
“We have come to welcome you, since you’re a transfer student on a diving recommendation starting at Sakuragi High. Though, whether or not we’ll actually welcome you depends on your diving.”
With a red towel over his shoulder and his body slightly turned away, Youichi looked like a matador facing off against a rampaging bull, as he stared intensely at Shibuki.
“Who the hell are you?” Shibuki aimed that simple question at him, a complacent and fearless smile spreading across his stern face.
“Fujitani Youichi. Though I look like I’m jinxing myself when I say this, but if there’s someone who doesn’t know me in the diving world, then they’re unqualified as a diver. (2) Oh, but it’s good because I don’t dive with jinxes.”
Towards those provocative words, Shibuki was silent for a moment, as if he was taken aback. But, he quickly gave a little laugh back at him and spoke.
“Sorry, guess I’m a fraud.”
“Oh, that’s right, you dived into the sea of Tsugaru.”
Seeing Shibuki’s expression come apart, Youichi repeated himself. “Get on the platform. I want to see your diving.”
He said what everyone was thinking. Everyone, including Tomoki, Reiji, Ryou, the Sakuragi Diving Club, and MDC’s elementary schoolers who haven’t dived a lot yet, was waiting impatiently to see Shibuki’s performance.
Shibuki slowly looked at everyone’s faces, as if to confirm their feelings, and then suddenly turned his heel.
He was heading for the diving tower.
_______________________________________________________________
Ten meters. When an inexperienced diver stood on the highest platform, they would feel terror at seeing the tiny pool beneath them. Even though they know it’s impossible, they’ll become obsessed with the wild thought that their body would crash outside of the twenty-five-square meter frame.
When Shibuki appeared on the ten-meter platform, Tomoki felt the pool was small in another sense. A two-meter wide platform was sturdy, but when Shibuki got on it, it looked like a flimsy springboard. Though the image of the sea might be haunting him, above the water he looked breathtakingly huge, brave, and at home. Shibuki was so suited to the water that he seemed unnatural on land.
But, no matter how splendidly he dived into the ocean, how much he could pass that onto an indoor stage was still unknown. As a diver, he had an abnormally big body, and though it helped serve the purpose of attracting audience’s attention to him, in actual performances its movements tended to be seen as dull, and even for rotational techniques, the rotations would be too small and cause them to not function well.
After he placed both feet at the tip of the platform, it took Shibuki a considerable amount of time to dive out. The coaches and members of the MDC, and the Sakuragi Diving Club, all looked up at him without moving the slightest muscle.
“He’s not used to it yet.” Kayoko murmured, as if defending him for not stepping forward readily. “That kid isn’t used to a flat platform, the feeling of concrete, a height of only ten meters, a roof that blocks the sky, and an audience.”
Now that she had said it, it was indeed the first time Shibuki has ever encountered all of those things.
“So far, he’s only ever dived from rough rocks. Steep cliffs and rocky precipices…none of them had heights measured by someone with a ruler. There, a wind is always blowing, the cries of birds echoed, and the sky is a true, lush blue…”
Just then, Kayoko’s voice broke off.
Suddenly, the shadow on the platform disappeared, and everyone who imagined the wind and birds and sky of Tsugaru in their heads looked up to see Shibuki already revolving in midair.
His body, kneaded by the raging waves of the distant north, was basked in the artificial light, drawing the silhouette of a gallant black bird.
That explosive power.
A strong takeoff.
A high jump.
What is that, Tomoki thought, amazed. He first jumped out facing the water, then rotated his body backwards; a reverse somersault. For this dive, there was the fear that even just one mistake could cause you to hit the back of your head against the platform. Had there ever been a diver who took off so boldly?
Even in the two and a half somersaults in pike position that started as soon as his form, which stretched to the top, sank, Shibuki’s performance stunned the people watching. It completely destroyed the accepted opinion that a large build was disadvantageous, as Shibuki’s large body doing stirring rotations were showed off. When a diver with a tall build made use their body type to the fullest extent, an ordinary two and a half somersaults could become breathtakingly powerful, on a huge scale. Shibuki’s performance was the very proof of that.
He finished with his entry.
It was as if a whale was raising its tail.
In diving competitions, a rip entry (no splash) was usually the ideal. The quieter the water surface is after a performance, the better. But, when Shibuki did his entry, everyone was startled from how loud it was. The crackling sound was like glaciers being kicked, and after that a splash, just like from a water fountain, came up. The silence was broken, and the water surface was disturbed, scattering white spray to the poolside.
An amazing aerial performance, and an unprecedented entry.
Everyone was at a loss for words about all that had happened.
It was like a storm ran through the indoor pool.
“Hey, if this was a real competition, how many points do you think the judge will give that performance?”
Kayoko spoke first to Shibuki from a distance, who was wiping his wet skin with a towel, (3) as if nothing went up from the pool.
“If it was me, I would have thrown the score card out and gone directly to the locker room, since many of the poolside judges were sprayed by water.”
Right after she finished speaking, she applauded loudly and let out a loud burst of laughter. The shrill sound broke the silence and relieved the tense atmosphere. It was not desperate laughter at all.
In other words, Kayoko was pleased with Shibuki’s diving.
_______________________________________________________________
“It’s too low. The water’s shallow, and it has a weird chemical taste.”
When hearing Shibuki slip that out after his thrilling performance, it wasn’t just Tomoki who felt defeated. Neither Youichi nor Reiji nor Ryou tried to hide their shock at the fact that their new rival was stronger than they had expected. As a result, everyone was terrible at practice that day, many basic mistakes were made, and there were many weird attempts at bluffing one’s strength, which became tiring as it continued on. It was the first time in a while that Tomoki saw Youichi mess up his form like that.
Speaking of something happening for the first time in a while, during the car ride home, which was as quiet as ever, Tomoki heard Ryou speak.
“So, there’s someone even better for the best, huh.”
It seemed like he was talking to himself. And yet, it could also be a sarcastic statement aimed at Tomoki. However, Tomoki didn’t take it that way, and deeply felt that in the world, it really is true that there’s someone even better for the best.
Youichi and Shibuki. As for which one of them was the better diver at the moment, Tomoki couldn’t say. If it was in terms of aesthetics, accuracy of performance and level of technique, then Youichi was the overwhelming winner. But, he didn’t have the power and personality that Shibuki had. If Youichi had a long, established career, then Shibuki had unlimited potential. Either way, he still couldn’t compare with them. When he thought that, Tomoki felt helpless and a strange sense of relief.
There was a light rain outside. The neon lights of the skyscrapers, blurred from the wetness, were beautifully distorted. These days, it was okay to go outside with half-dried hair since it wasn’t very cold out, and it seemed like that spring had come quickly during the time Tomoki was in the water. While dozing off from the old popular songs flowing from the car radio, Tomoki absentmindedly remembered that he was already a second-year student in middle school.
Self-training every morning. School. Practice after school. Self-training. School. Practice after school…he’s been repeating that since the start of the new semester, and though he was constantly checking his watch, the days where he couldn’t bring himself to turn over the calendar continued. Now that diving occupied most of his brain, he always had to sacrifice studying and sleeping time, and he was drowsy all-day long. Come to think of it, the lack of contact with Miu might have also been one of the sacrifices.
“Do you know why you’ve pissed me off?”
When Tomoki was on the verge of falling asleep, Ryou spoke again, his voice close to his ear.
“What do you think I got angry at you for?”
This time it wasn’t just a single sentence. Tomoki considered the meaning of Ryou’s words, and tilted his head ambiguously.
“It’s those, those puppy-like eyes. That innocence of yours makes me sick. You like diving, you have fun jumping out, and your competition results come second…or something like that. I hate that kind of unsportsman-like attitude.”
He didn’t turn his face towards Tomoki, and said it while staring at the raindrops dripping down the window.
What’s so funny? Tomoki thought as his mom Megumi, who was driving this time, suppressed a laugh.
“Un…sportsman-like?”
“You really don’t think that being a sportsman is refreshing, right? That’s a lie, a huge lie. All sportsmen are greedy, selfish, and they must always be number one. That’s why everyone sees each other as rivals and are jealous of each other. Everyone has lots of pent-up feelings.”
Tomoki gave a small nod.
The cherry blossoms, and the distorted tree.
“Like, Youichi-kun.” Ryou was on a roll now. “When he was in elementary school, he was in a competition even though he had a fever, and he lost for the first time in his life, and he was so angry that he cried and threw his speedo into the diving pool and went home. He didn’t know what to hit, and just took off his swim trunks in the heat of the moment. The current Youichi-kun wouldn’t think of doing that, but that was the first time that I liked him.”
“Yeah, I remember that. The speedo incident.”
“I was relieved to know that even Youichi-kun would act like that if he lost. But, you never acted like that. You don’t think of me as a rival, and you don’t care if you win or lose. I don’t want to lose to someone who’s only like that.” Ryou said angrily.
But then he added bitterly, “But, in TV and manga, it’s always the unselfish, stupid-faced ones like you who win in the end.”
Tomoki looked down, not sure how to respond to that. This wasn’t the first time he’d been accused of having no fighting spirit. Kayoko had also scolded him about it harshly. You don’t have any drive. The enthusiasm for winning at all costs!
“Rivalry, jealousy, fighting spirit, and other stuff like that.” After they dropped Ryouoff at his house and it was just the two of them, Tomoki began complaining to Megumi. “Is it such a hard world out there that I can’t win without those things?”
“Well, I don’t know about that.” Megumi chuckled.
“If you win without those things, then you wanted to win without them, right?”
“That’s right. That’s the ideal.”
“But, is that sickening?” When Tomoki asked that, he saw in the rearview mirror that Megumi’s laughter wrinkles deepen.
“No, I think my son is the ideal.”
“Hmm.”
Tomoki suddenly let out an apathetic sigh. A boy being told by his mother that he’s the ideal son, among other things, is certainly seen as sickening from his perspective. He now understood Ryou’s feelings, at least a little.
