Swimming.

There was an announcement of a club fair in the gymnasium number 1 and I decided to go. There was more people than I thought, and the place was crowded.

"Thank you all for waiting, first-year students. We will now begin the club fair. A representative from each club will explain their function. My name is Tachibana, the student council secretary and the club fair's organizer. It's nice to meet you all."

After the secretary delivered the opening remarks, representative of each clubs quickly lined up on stage.

The club representatives included everything from burly athletes in judo uniforms to students dressed in beautiful kimonos.

A girl in an archery gear and clothes stepped up on stage.

"Hello, my name is Hashigaki, the captain of the archery club. Many students may be under the impression that archery is an old-fashioned, simple activity, but it is actually a fun and rewarding sport. We welcome beginners with open arms. If you're interested, please consider joining."

Hmm... Archery huh... not interested...

Several other sports club made an appeal to us first years. But I have no interest in them.

After the sports clubs, there were cultural clubs like tea ceremony club, calligraphy club, and such.

After all the clubs introduced themselves, a single person stood in there.

He appeared to be about 170 centimeters in height, 5 centimeters shorter than me. He was slender, with sleek black hair. He wore sharp glasses and had a piercing, calculating gaze. Standing in front of the microphone, he calmly looked around at the first-year students.

Based on his aura alone, I could tell he's the student council president.

"I'm the student council president. My name is Horikita Manabu."

Horikita? If I remember it right there's a Horikita in my classroom too. And their facial features had some resemblance. Are they siblings?

"The student council is looking to recruit potential candidates among the first-year students to replace the graduating third years. Although no special qualifications are required for candidacy, we humbly ask that those considering application not be involved in other club activities. We generally do not accept students involved elsewhere."

"Furthermore, we in the student council do not wish to appoint anyone who possesses a naive outlook. Not only would such a person not be elected, he or she would sully the sanctity of this school. It is the student council's right and duty to enforce and amend the rules, but the school expects more than that. We gladly welcome those of you who understand this."

"Thank you all for coming. The club fair has ended. We will now open the reception area to anyone interested in signing up. Also, registration will be open until the end of April, so if any student wishes to join at a later date, we ask that you please bring the application form directly to the club you wish to join."

Alright, I think I'll join the gaming club. I don't have any interest in Student Council.

And besides, I think joining clubs and making accomplishments would give me points. In other words it's an opportunity.

Just as I'm wandering off, I saw Ayanokouji. He's together with 3 other people like Sudou, Ike, and Yamauchi.

"Hey you four. What're you gathering here for?" I came across them.

"Takamura? You joining a club too?" The one who replied was Sudou.

"Yeah! I think I'll join the gaming club. What about you four?"

"Sudou is joining the basketball club. But we just came because we felt it might be fun, you know? Besides, we thought we might have a fateful encounter afterward." Ike said.

The only thing in this guy's head is always girls huh... I guess that's normal for our age.

"Also, I have to say, that student council president was something else. He was so imposing. I got the feeling he ruled the place, you know?" Yamauchi.

"I know, right? He got some presence." Ayanokouji.

"Yeah. Oh, by the way, I made a group chat for the guys yesterday." Ike took out his smartphone. "Do you want to join in, too? It's pretty handy."

"Okay I'll join. That sounds fun."

Group chats huh... I only chatted with people in the game.

"Huh? Me? Is that okay?" Ayanokouji asked, unexpectedly getting invited. He's just like me when it comes to making friends huh...

"Of course it's okay. We're all in Class D together, after all."

Actually I'm happy that I got invited.

/////

"Good morning Yamauchi!"

"Good morning Ike!"

Arriving at the class Ike wear a wide smile greeting Yamauchi. It's unusual for them to get in class this early. Its only been a week since the entrance ceremony.

"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 swimming classes would be co-ed. Meaning the girls would be showing off their skin. Even I'm excited to see them. I'm still a boy in puberty after all.

"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 Hideo.

"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.

"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 draw back by their plan.

"Isn't that a bad idea?" I told them.

"Now now, don't be too stiff man."

Honestly, I think I'll put distance with them. Befriending them would make the girls hate me.

They started talking about betting on girl's breast size and making a bet on who's the biggest.

I'm a little interested on the odds of their bet. I glanced on Sotomura's phone and saw Sakura got the highest.

Sakura... Sakura... There!

She's a plain and gloomy looking girl wearing a fake glasses. Now that I look into it, she's big alright...

Fumu...

"I'm only telling you guys about this. The truth is, I actually confessed to Sakura." Yamauchi lied.

All I ever heard from this guy, were always lies.

"What?! S-seriously?!" Ike was the most surprised and flustered by this. Had his goal to become the first guy in class to snag a girlfriend fallen through?"

And we had this gullible guy, believing whatever he says.

"Yeah, seriously. But keep this on the down low. It's just between us, okay? I mean, I thought she was really plain at first, but then I saw her wearing regular clothes. She was huge, man."

"You doofus. If she's not cute, you shouldn't ask her out, even if she's got huge tits. I wouldn't date anyone unless they were in the same league as Kushida or Hasebe. I'm not interested in such a Plain Jane."

Hey hey hey... If you look into her face... This facial features and three size body measurements.... Isn't she the gravure idol Shizuku?

Wh-what should I do!!??? A celebrity is my classmate!! It's like a manga plot event!!

Should I introduce myself? Nah... She looked shy. If I talk to her right now, it would only backfire.

I should just not talk to her. If there's anything she's in trouble with, I'll lend a hand.

Anyway it's not long before the start of classes and the bell rang.

//////

"All right! The pool!"

After lunch had ended, it was finally time for swim class. Finally, the moment Ike and the others had so desperately been waiting for.

Without even trying to hide his excitement, Ike leapt up and headed with the others toward the indoor pool. I followed behind them in what I thought was a stealthy manner.

We entered the locker rooms and we changed ourselves.

I removed my clothes without shame. I don't have any insecurities. My body is well built, slender but muscularly built after years of constant training.

"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." Ayanokouji said.

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

"They're gonna make sure your family jewels get crushed, and make sure you never get to use them again." I said to them.

"Don't give me such a scary, realistic 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."

"Come on, like there's a guy out there who wouldn't stare! Agh. What am I gonna do if I get a boner?"

"If that happened, they'd probably hate you from that moment all the way until the day of our graduation." I said.

"What?!!"

Anyway I'll stay away from them and sat on the corner. I'm gonna look at the girl's swimsuit, and enjoy this heavenly sanctuary place called swimming pool.

As you see I'm a closet pervert. I'm gonna keep these perverted thoughts to myself.

Anyway the girls that took my attention would be Onodera. She got the nice body and slender build swimmers had. Now that I recall, she's a member of the swimming club. As for the beauty aspect, there would be the Horikita and Kushida.

"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 sixteen of you, huh? I thought there would've been more, but this is all right."

Clearly, some of the students in that count had ditched class, but it didn't appear to frustrate him. There are a total of 26 students absent.

"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."

I agree. It's better to prepare in case of a calamity like Tsunami and flood or something. Learning how to swim would increase your survival rate.

We started our warm-up exercises. 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.

After getting in, I started to swim lightly. After fifty meters, I waited for everyone else to finish.

"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."

Looks like it'll gonna be fun after all. I can't help and put a smile on my face.

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

"Yeah!" everyone shouted.

I joined them too, in my mind that is.

The first race started composed of only girls. The first race is won by Horikita. Her time 28 seconds. The second race is won by Onodera with a time of 26 seconds.

And so Onodera won in the girl's category, with Horikita as the runner-up.

Next would be the boy's category.

I'm in the second race, so I'll have to prepare myself.

The first race ended and Sudou won by a mile. The boys and girls cheered in admiration.

"Wow, you're amazing, Sudou. You finished the race in twenty-five seconds!" they cried.

They asked if he wanted to join the swimming club but he refused.

"Basketball is my only sport. Swimming's just for fun." Sudou, who hadn't even broken a sweat, calmly got out of the pool.

"Oh, wow, he has absolutely outstanding motor skills." Ike, feeling envious, elbowed Sudou.

Anyways I lined up in the starting position.

Hirata the popular handsome guy was beside me.

"Let's do our best Takamura-kun." Hirata gave me encouraging words.

"Yeah! I'm gonna win this for sure." I was born ready.

"Kya!!" A girl screamed cheering.

I'd guess it's for this guy beside me.

After the teacher blew the whistle, I dove straight through the water. Everytime my hands cut through the water, my body propelled fast.

I got into my top speed pretty quickly and got a ahead for several meters. And then I reached the end of the pool, I finished the race in first place.

"Sensei, what was his time?" I could hear Ike asking.

Looking at my classmates, I guess my performance is excellent.

"Takamura's time was... 22.45 seconds." The coach looked at me in shock.

Huh? Now that I thought about it. Isn't that pretty fast? I'm just a couple of seconds late from breaking the world record.

"Amazing! Takamura, I didn't know you're a fast swimmer! You did a good job beating Hirata! Hahaha serves him right!" Ike came to me along with Sudou, Hondou, and the others.

"Man, you're fast. But I wouldn't lose!" Sudou said to me.

"Well I think there's no one who could win against me. So good luck." I said confidently.

If you have to beat me, you should be a world class swimmer or something.

"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.

It seems they're having a spat. It doesn't matter to them if he came second to me huh. His popularity doesn't seem to go down with that.

"That was a good race Takamura-kun, you beat me." Hirata offered a handshake to me.

"Yeah. Better luck next time." I accepted the handshake.

In the end in the final race I won the boy's category, winning 5,000 points.

Sudou looked frustrated. But he didn't punch me or anything, he admitted defeat.

And because of that, it seems my popularity in the Class had risen.

So it's like this huh...

[Achievement Quest: Win the swimming competition.

Rewards: 5,000 Private Points. +30 popularity.]

Well, that's sweet.