Nao Serizawa

Nao Serizawa (芹沢 尚 Serizawa Nao) is a third year junior high student who debuted in the second volume of the light novel High☆Speed！ written by Kōji Ōji. He is a minor character in High☆Speed！－Free! Starting Days－, Free!-Take Your Marks- and Free!-Dive to the Future-. He was a manager of the Iwatobi Junior High swimming club. He's currently studying Sports Medicine in college.

Appearance
He has long grey hair with bangs, yellowish-green eyes and is relatively tall and is usually shown with a kind smile on his face. Since graduating Junior High he wears glasses and his hair is shorter.

Personality
Nao is somewhat like Makoto, inferring to their kind nature and such. They share a similar eye shape (more droopy and kind-looking). Nao is somewhat motherly, and he has a gentle and soothing personality. Nao is extremely empathetic, prior-known to understand what Asahi is going through when Asahi says to Nao that what Natsuya said about their relay. He also is a good listener, letting the person he's talking to spill out to him.

History
Nao Serizawa was a third year at Iwatobi Junior High School while Makoto and Haruka were freshmen. He was a manager of the swimming club and was responsible for giving guidance to the first years. Nao was also the library committee president in junior high as revealed in the light novel.

Story
Nao served as a mentor and coach to Haru, Makoto, Ikuya and Asahi when they were first-years at Iwatobi Middle School and members of the swimming club there. He was also co-captain of the team, along with his best friend, Natsuya Kirishima.

In High☆Speed！－Free! Starting Days－ he is shown to have gone through an eye surgery.

In Free!-Take Your Marks- Natsuya says he doesn't swim due to an eye injury. He also says that he wishes he could swim with Nao again someday, but must wait until Nao is permitted to do so once again.

Trivia

 * In Free!-Take Your Marks-, it was revealed that he is now studying Sports Medicine in university.
 * Before getting into swimming, he was into Aikido (one of the kinds of martial arts).
 * He is the coach of Misaki Kuramoto in Free!-Take Your Marks-.
 * His motif animal is a northern gannett.undefined