Published at 25th of August 2019 11:12 pm

Book 2 Chapter 1 - What Happened To Him?

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

The next day was a boiling-hot midsummer day.

Anyone who received the reflected heat of the unbearable, overhead sun from the asphalt beneath their feet would want to dive into a pool on such a day, especially as they stood beneath the scorching sun. Though, no one would go so far as to say that they wanted to dive from the summit of the diving tower.

A height of ten meters.

A speed of sixty kilometers per hour.

A flight time of one-point-four seconds.

At nine in the morning, the MDC members who were ready to take on this reckless battle gathered together at the Sakuragi High School pool. They trained their bodies until two, then they all got on the wagon bus (1) that Ooshima was driving. The MDC didn’t have its own bus, so usually they used a vehicle from the Mizuki Sports Club to pick and drop members up.

“If we send someone from our club to next year’s Olympics, will Mizuki buy us our own bus as well?” Ryou asked sarcastically amidst the tense pre-competition atmosphere in the bus.

“Well, if we don’t send someone to the Olympics, this time next year we won’t even have a place to practice everyday, much less our own bus.” Kayoko reciprocated Ryou’s snark.

“Stop it,” Ooshima said from the driver’s seat, trying to hold Kayoko back. “You’re putting strange pressure on everyone before an important competition.”

“An important competition, huh. It’s good that someone is aware of that.”

Even more snark bled into Kayoko’s tone. Everyone in the bus knew that she was implicitly criticizing Shibuki. He had the back-row seats all to himself, and was even stretched out across them as he dozed.

Shibuki had been like this since this morning. Although he showed up on time with Ooshima, during practice the only thing he did was to sprawl out on the poolside, and wouldn’t move no matter what Kayoko said to him. When the time finally came to set off, he never even once got onto the diving tower, and he became all the more daring for continuing to sleep on the wagon bus.

And now, one seat ahead of Shibuki, there was a boy who attracted a different kind of attention today.

Sakai Tomoki.

When Tomoki, who had disappeared just two days before the competition, finally returned to practice this morning, his clubmates gave sighs of relief. However, when they watched how he practiced, their feelings of relief turned into feelings of intimidation.

What on earth happened to this boy?

Asaki Kayoko saw potential in Tomoki, and everyone saw how quickly he grew in the past recent months. But today, he had something beyond that.

Even Shibuki, dozing on the poolside, widened his eyes at Tomoki’s sudden change. As he lay on his stomach on the hot concrete like a sea lion, he felt as though something like a mass of burning resolve fell down on him.

“I was so nervous while waiting for this day to come.”

He heard Youichi said when he passed by him with his wet feet.

“The day that he becomes serious—is the day when a sleeping lion awakens.”

Sleeping lion—

Shibuki followed that lion after practice, and caught him in the locker room.

“Are you doing the 3½ today?

Ever since he met Tomoki, who had been going nowhere with the 3½, in that park a month ago, Shibuki had been casually concerned about him. No, he might have already been on his mind ever since he heard Kayoko utter the words “diamond eyes”.

“Yeah, I’m doing the 3½.” Tomoki said immediately.

Hearing him speak with no trace of hesitation, Shibuki unintentionally hit him with a mean-spirited question. “What’s the success rate?”

“There is none.”

“What?”

“There is no rate. I’m just fired up.”

When Tomoki laughed while saying that, for the first time since he came to Tokyo, Shibuki was jealous of someone.

He was jealous that Tomoki didn’t have a burdensome past or circumstances, just a pure white future spreading out before him.

Tomoki could run up those towering steps as many times as possible, not because of a contract with someone, but only for his own feelings, and because he simply loved diving. To be honest, that made Shibuki jealous.

_______________________________________________________________

The Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center towered on reclaimed land surrounded by a canal. It was around two when everyone arrived at the stage of their decisive battle, where they were all used to going to it for practice during the winter months.

Today, the girls’ high diving competition was scheduled at eleven in the morning, and the boys’ competition would be at four. The next day will be reversed, with the boys’ springboard diving in the morning, and the girls’ competition in the afternoon. The selection of the training camp members will be based on the results from all of the competitions, but for Shibuki and Tomoki who were only focusing on high diving, it was in no way an exaggeration to say that today’s results were everything.

Nonetheless, it was a little unreliable to have to bet everything on today’s tournament. It was common for diving competitions to have the preliminaries and finals on the same day, but this time, the JASF had decided to cut out the preliminaries in order to reduce time and expenses.

If they were doing the preliminaries, then in order to go ahead with the program that had preliminaries in the morning and finals in the afternoon, even just one event would take up the whole day. Four days would be required to get through the high diving and springboard diving competitions for both boys and girls. Despite being an important competition that would pick out members to go to Beijing from among middle and high school students from across the country, there wasn’t a lot of participants who gathered this time, and in the background, there was also distrust towards the management side for trying to cut down the four days to two.

It’s an ominous story, but just a few months ago, the chairman of the JASF, who always said that “sports are fun”, hurriedly announced his resignation due to bad health. The new chairman who succeeded him was a person of very ill-repute. He was rumored by some to be a medal ghoul, by others someone who would do anything for a medal, and someone who didn’t do anything other than for medals. For this Asia Joint Training Camp, the new chairman had succeeded the former chairman’s idea for it, but in fact did not put any efforts into events like minor diving competitions. He made one wondered if he had any spirit for training an Olympic representative from these training camp members. Such a rumor had been flying between the people concerned.

As a result, there were sixteen middle and high school students participating in the boys’ diving section of today’s tournament. About thirty percent of the strong contenders put off their participation. Rather than participating in the joint training camp, they chose to secure their rankings at the Junior High Championships and Inter-High, which would without doubt remain in their career.

When she had learned of those numbers, Kayoko wondered if she had made a mistake in her judgement for betting on the qualifying trials…and for a moment, her self-confidence wavered. However, on the other hand, it didn’t seem that there was another choice.

Youichi. Shibuki. Tomoki. Reiji. Ryou. Though the MDC members that she led had potential, they were still quite young. They had no careers or records, and were all unknown except for Youichi. In order for them to get the position of Olympic representative, they had no choice but to launch themselves into high-stakes, do-or-die competitions, with full awareness of the risks.

The joint training camp where the top juniors from all over Asia will gather. Regardless of the recent trend of the JASF, if they joined the training camp that was being directed by Coach Sun, the representative of the Chinese diving world, and experienced the level of the world for themselves, they’d definitely get something to take home. In America, Kayoko herself had witnessed some divers who accomplished several months of growth by going to a training camp for just a few weeks.

But, what if they lost that gamble?

Even if they couldn’t participate in this camp, or even if they did participate in it, if they couldn’t seize the representative position for the next Olympics as promised…the Mizuki executives, who saw deficit-riddled MDC as a burden, will force the MDC to shut down. The dream of developing the Japanese diving world, which the former chairman had exhausted so much money and labour in, would scattered, and the club members would subsequently lose the place where they belonged.

In such a critical time, it was not unreasonable at all in Kayoko’s eyes to express her irritation that Shibuki was carefreely sleeping like a log just before the competition.

_______________________________________________________________

Shibuki was still yawning as he got off the wagon bus and entered the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center. Kayoko’s expectation that he would tense up a little if he stood on the stage was shattered by the too-calm atmosphere on the premises, which did not give any feeling of tension to him.

Though they were going to start the fight for their fates from here on out, Tatsumi’s main pool was crowded with people escaping from the overripe summer. JASF only borrowed the diving pool for the competition, so that the very ordinary public could enjoy their very ordinary summer vacations on the other side. Of course, there was no excitement or tension from waiting for the beginning of the competition. The bleachers, which could accommodate three thousand and five hundred people, were only scattered with mothers waiting for their children swimming in the main pool. There was no sign of a cheering party (2) for diving.

“It’s still almost empty now, but I don’t think the stands will get filled up quickly as the start time gets closer.”

When Shibuki sprawled out on the poolside and was looking up at the stands before the competition, he suddenly heard a voice in his ears.

He looked and saw Ooshima sitting cross-legged by his side.

“Diving competitions are like this. If there are no cheering parties or brass bands, then there are no loud cheers or applause. When the occasional sports reporter comes, they’d just take a few pictures and leave. Just the coaches and the families of the divers are watching until the end. If you aren’t happy with that, you can even think of the people in the main pool as the spectators.”

Shibuki laughed scornfully. “So, we’re risking everything to dive in front of these people who just came here to swim for fun, for their hobby, or for making up for their lack of exercise?”

“Nothing wrong with the people who are just having fun, since they’re quiet.” Ooshima replied without laughing. “It’s really miserable when it falls on the same day as a swimming competition. Though over there they have huge crowds of cheering parties yelling intensely, the stands over here are as silent as a grave. You’re desperately trying to concentrate on one thing, it’s going well, and in the moment that you’re about to take-off…a huge fanfare suddenly breaks out for the best record set for the two-hundred meters freestyle.”

Shibuki’s smile disappeared.

“You’re diving under those conditions?”

“We’re diving through all of that.”

“That’s…”

“Only those who can do it are left. Diving is that kind of sport. We’re not as weak as you think we are.”

“…”

“Well, it’s fine. You’ll understand soon enough.”

Ooshima ruffled Shibuki’s bangs, an announcement from the speakers of the venue told the divers to gather.

Right before his very first competition, Shibuki understood less and less about diving.

_______________________________________________________________

“The boys’ high diving competition will start from now.”

It was four p.m. The battle began with a brief address from a JASF executive.

The divers, who had entered the venue in a line, straggled halfway around the poolside, and stopped at a predetermined position. They marched without BGM or keeping time by clapping. The stands were still bare, and even when the divers’ introductions began, there wasn’t a single cheer that could be heard.

The sixteen people who were fighting on this lonely stage were lined up based on order of entry, which was predetermined by a lottery. Youichi was third, making him the first MDC member in line. After him was Ryou in fourth, Reiji in eighth, Tomoki in twelfth, and Shibuki in fifteenth. As the names of the divers were read aloud in this order, this plain opening ceremony was already coming to an end, and twenty minutes of practice time were given to the divers before they compete.

As the divers went up the stairs of the diving tower one by one, even at this last minute, Shibuki was as unmoving as a rock. He did not move his feet, even as he noticed Kayoko’s face in the front row of the stands turning stormier and stormier. His lower back was heavy. His head felt sluggish. The noise from the main pool was too annoying.

“You don’t look so good.” Youichi called out to Shibuki, who was standing by himself. He had already finished practicing several times, and his skin glistened with water droplets.

“Today, Sagittarius will be in bad shape due to the influences of Saturn and Jupiter.”

So leave me alone, Shibuki seemed to say as he turned his back, but Youichi called out to him, as though he was extremely dissatisfied. “You don’t want to admit it, but you have stage fright.”

“Stage fright?”

“Yep.”

“Me?”

“For sure.”

He wasn’t joking!

Shibuki was about to protest almost at same time that Youichi said “look” and lifted his right hand.

Even the nails of his fingertips were slender and beautiful. He pointed at the soaring diving tower before them.

“That’s the concrete dragon.”

Concrete dragon?

“Tomoki often said that when he was little, he thought that it looked like a dragon made of concrete when he saw it. Now that I say it, it really does look like one, doesn’t it? It’s a concrete dragon that always looks down on us as we’re spinning around doing somersaults, trying hard to dive without making splashes, and having the water strike us when we fail. That dragon is also looking awfully cold for today.”

While Youichi smiled, his eyes were welling up with fighting spirit.

“Because even a dragon is like that, it’s not unreasonable for us humans to get stage fright or tremble.”

Indeed, the diving tower that looked down on them from far overhead looked somewhat more formal than usual for today. Though the dragon was just a simple mass of concrete, it changed its expressions frequently depending on the day, looking calm on good days, and severe on bad days. It’s true that it probably sees beings like us as tiny pebbles, Shibuki thought. However…

“Hey, when was I having stage fright and trembling…”

“Okay, okay. Having stage fright is proof that you have potential as a diver. Those who don’t get nervous before a big game don’t have any sensitivity. Those who don’t have any sensitivity cannot do beautiful dives. You passed. Be happy.”

“So…”

“Well, isn’t that good? If you’re nervous, you should undergo that nervousness thoroughly. It’s better to not practice if you’re not feeling well. Coach Asaki looks angry, but if you fail while practicing your diving unwillingly, your crucial performance will be messed up. Plus, it’s still better to learn about the backgrounds of your rivals.”

“Rivals?”

“Come. I will teach you about your rivals today, in order to make you more nervous.”

Of the two second-year high schoolers, even though Shibuki was much bigger in terms of body size, once Youichi opened his mouth, Shibuki was way too easily drawn in by that compelling pace. That skill for reading other people’s minds, and for tempting and pulling them towards himself, was a sort of psychological warfare that was perhaps linked to diving somehow.

Youichi placed his hand on Shibuki’s shoulder, took him to the side of the pool where they were able to take in the practice all at once, and began the introduction of his rivals that he did not ask for.

_______________________________________________________________

“The first is Matsuno Kiyotaka of Tokushima.”

The twenty-five square meters diving pool.

The platform that overlooked that blue noise.

Youichi pointed out Matsuno Kiyotaka, who was standing on ten-meter platform, where he could see everything from the stands that were full of empty seats, to the main pool that was filled with the ordinary patrons, to the sub-pool that could be seen behind the glass.

He had stiff, chivalrous features. His body line was firm and solid. As he kicked off from the platform with well-muscled feet, Matsuno traced two circles in the air with his precise form.

“Not bad, right? At last year’s Inter-High, Teramoto Kenichirou swept first place, and I of course was in second place, but Matsuno took third place after me. He has a long career, he’s used to competitions, and his performances are stable and solid. Because’s he’s devoted to the basics, he’s popular with the judges.”

“But,” he added gleefully, “unfortunately Matsuno’s performances aren’t as brilliant as Teramoto’s or mine. It’s precise, but it lacks height and speed. Well, in a word, it’s plain. And the one who was competing for third place with Matsuno at last year’s Inter-High was…”

Next, Youichi pointed at a fair-skinned, delicate-looking boy wearing a shocking pink speedo.

“Pinky Yamada from Ibaraki. His real name is Yamada Atsuhiko. His nickname came from his elementary school days, when he started to wear a pink speedo as his trademark.”

The slender Pinky Yamada leaned forward from the stairs of the diving tower, constantly posing like a bodybuilder. Following his line of sight to see what he was trying to do, they saw three high school girls in a corner of the bleak stands, which was the only place that smelled like a flower garden from all of the perfume. Every time Pinky posed, they squealed and went crazy with lighting up their cameras.

“He’s an idiot, but his talent at diving is okay. Since he took classical ballet lessons, his nerves run from his performance to his fingertips. His sense of rhythm is exceptional. He has excellent muscle strength, flexibility, and proportions. He might have better qualities than me…no, maybe even better than Teramoto Kenichirou. But,” Youichi added happily, “not all gifted people could become gifted divers. Pinky is a perfect example of that. He has lots of potential, but he doesn’t have the power to master it. He hates practicing since he doesn’t know patience. He must be pretty weak mentally as well, since whenever he’s in the middle of a competition he always has to go and dig his own grave.”

“Grave?”

“He always breaks down in the middle of a competition. He can’t concentrate until the end, and he makes big mistakes for no reason at all and out of nothing. He’s at the top after the first half finishes, but by the end of the second half he’s at the bottom, always. In the end, he couldn’t leave any notable records behind, so that flashy speedo is the only thing that remained.”

Next, Youichi’s eyes fell on the seven-meter platform.

“That’s Tsuji Toshihiko from Fukushima. He used to be an artistic gymnast, but when he was in fifth grade he got scouted and moved into the world of diving.”

He had a small and balanced build. He had a pretty face, like an idol’s. Tsuji Toshihiko, who looked like a girl at first glance, made the best of his body to speedily dive from the seven-meter platform.

“Matsuno and Pinky are third-years in high school, but Tsuji is a second-year like us. He can be called a veteran compared to us, and he dives in a calculated, cheap way.”

“Cheap?”

“For example, if you’re doing 2½ somersaults, your flight time will be shortened if you dived from seven meters instead of ten meters. It’ll be even shorter if you dive from five meters. The shorter the flight time, the more difficult it is to finish the rotations. The harder it is, the higher the degree of difficulty will be. The higher the degree of difficulty, the higher the score.”

“Is it better to dive from a lower platform?”

“It depends on the dive, but it’s mostly for 2½ somersaults and above. But, even though everyone knows this, they still go up to the ten-meter. Because the ten-meter is still the tallest, the most exciting, and the coolest. Usually, there’s opposition to the idea of diving more compactly from a lower platform just for earning cheap points, right? But Tsuji can do it without backlash, which is also a kind of talent. But,” Youichi proudly added, “For Tsuji, who keeps on diving so cheaply, there’s a fearsome man who has pulled away from him by a wide margin in any competition. It’s me.”

“…”

Shibuki looked seriously embarrassed at the extremely confident thoroughbred who had former Olympic divers for parents. But, as he was casually trying to get away, Youichi gripped his wrist, and forcibly continued on to introduce the last person.

“That’s Hirayama Jirou of Osaka. Also known as Flaming Jirou.” (3)

Following Youichi’s line of sight, there was a single diver standing still on the poolside, fixated on the shammy (4) beneath his feet. It was image training where you pretend that the blue shammy. with which you wiped off water drops, was the pool.

“Flaming Jirou’s a high school first-year. I’ve met him many times at competitions, but he stood out the most at every one of them. When it comes to standing out, he’s the only one I’ll admit defeat to.”

He was a little on the fat side for a diver. His round face looked more suited for a bread eating contest than diving. He also had suspicious-looking sideburns. Where did Youichi lose to him?

Youichi explained it to the puzzled Shibuki. “Did you see the entry table for the competition? All of the events that Flaming Jirou chose for free-choice diving are all super dives with ridiculously high degrees of difficulty. Forward 3½ somersaults pike. Reverse 3½ somersaults tuck. Forward 2½ somersaults 2 twists free (5)…if he succeeds at all of them, he could aim for the top of the world, much less Japan. But,” Youichi added contentedly, “Jirou had never succeeded.”

“Huh?”

“He had never been successful in any tournament, ever. Even so, he still continues to challenge the super dives with a failure rate of a hundred percent at every competition, and as expected, he fails and gets beaten up by the water hard. Many, many times. And as he continues on with the competition, his body swells up and turns red, like flames.”

“‘Flaming Jirou…’”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking.”

“Really.”

“There’s a bunch of different guys here.”

Indeed, there did seem to be various divers here.

Matsuno Kiyotaka.

Pinky Yamada.

Tsuji Toshihiko.

Flaming Jirou.

They were unusual rivals that were awaiting Shibuki in his first competition. However, he didn’t forget that he wasn’t just competing against those four, but those who were more familiar to him.

MDC’s Tomoki. Ryou. Reiji. And now, including Youichi who was right in front of him, everyone was his rival.

The Asia Joint Training Camp. Only three of them will gain the right to participate at the camp that will connect them to their dream of the Olympics.

“How’s your head feeling right now? Confused?”

He suddenly looked into his eyes, and Shibuki reflexively nodded.

“Great, I succeeded. I’ve already crushed one of my rivals.”

Laughing loudly like Mito Koumon (6), Youichi left.

As Shibuki stared after his retreating back in shock, an announcement came, signalling the end of the practice time.

“Divers, please line up in numerical order.”

Shibuki’s very first competition was about to begin, right now.

_______________________________________________________________

Translation Notes

1. Pictures of wagon buses

2. Wasn’t going to put a note here, but since cheering parties (Ouendan) have a Wikipedia page, I thought I’d put it here

3. Jirou’s nickname in Japanese is 炎のジロー (En no Jirou). I spent some time trying to come up with a nickname that sounded nicknamey. I know the subs say “Fire Jiro” but I came up with a nickname way before they did so ha

4. A shammy is a towel used by divers to dry off before dives.

5. Free position is a combination of straight, tuck and pike positions when the dive involves a twist(s).

6. Mito Koumon is a long-running period drama about title character Tokugawa Mitsukuni and co. Thisis how he laughs so yeah Youichi is being pretty obnoxious here lol

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