TV Animation Free! Novelize/Episode 00: Senjitsu

Senjitsu (前日 lit. The Day Before)
'Synopsis: Haruka Nanase and Makoto Tachibana are entering their second year at Iwatobi High School, having given up competitive swimming after their first year of Iwatobi Junior High School. Nagisa Hazuki enters as a first year as a transfer student, also having given up swimming. Meanwhile, Rin Matsuoka has returned from studying swimming abroad in order to enter his second year of high school at Samezuka Academy, a powerhouse for high school swimmers, yet he too has decided to give up on swimming without telling anyone.'

Makoto awakens from an odd dream in which he sees Haruka and Rin swimming off together, with himself unable to keep up. It leaves him feeling anxious. He waits for Haruka at the bottom of the stairs while playing with a stray kitten that reminds him of Haruka's similar ambivalent nature. He remembers Haruka's grandmother once saying, "at 10 you're a prodigy, at 15 you're a genius, and once you pass 20 you're a normal person," taking it to mean that his ability to know what Haruka is thinking without Haru saying a word is beginning to disappear, further increasing his worries. When Haruka fails to show, Makoto goes to his home and enters, heading to the bath where he expects to find his friend soaking in a lukewarm tub while wearing his swimsuit. Haruka, however, is nowhere to be found.

Haruka awakens feeling perturbed without knowing why. He awakens very early and after drinking a glass of water, dons his swimsuit and soaks in a warm tub - a ritual he undertakes to calm his feelings. Except today, it doesn't, so he leaves the tub, dresses and goes for a run until he finds himself standing by the fence outside Iwatobi Elementary School near the pool and the sakura tree that his class planted long ago. The ground is covered in sakura petals and he makes out the outline of the letter "F" buried within the petals. He thinks of the words, "Free" and "For the Team," and is reminded of Rin and the way he looked the last time he saw him during winter of their first year in junior high school. Haruka wonders if Rin is back. When he uncovers the rest of the word, he knows it was definitely Rin who wrote the profanity in the petals. Haruka skips school, unwilling to face anyone because he doesn't understand the outrage he is feeling.

Nagisa awakens excited to be starting his first year at Iwatobi High School after spending junior high school away from his former swim teammates, Haruka and Makoto. He recalls the wonderful time they had in elementary school, swimming in a relay together with Rin and wonders what it might cost to take a vacation in Australia, where he believes Rin is studying. His older sister Aki is curious about his thoughts, but Nagisa is scattered and in a hurry. He rushes to the train station, too busy to notice the boy he passes wearing red glasses and the same Iwatobi High School uniform. He thinks that maybe Rin has transferred to Iwatobi High School, just like himself.

Rin, however, is unpacking in silence at Samezuka Academy. He hasn't told anyone that he's back except his mother and younger sister Gou Matsuoka, neither or whom realize that he's given up on swimming despite attending a school abroad known as a swimming powerhouse. And yet, the day before, he'd gone to visit Iwatobi Elementary School to look at the pool and sakura tree. There, he thought about the way Haruka had made fun of his sentimentality at graduation and scuffed an angry obscenity into the petals.

That evening, Makoto notices that the window of Haruka's bedroom is dark, with the curtain drawn, yet he knows Haruka is at home. In retrospect, he will realize that this is the day Haruka's life begins to move forward again but, right now, he can only dwell on his disturbing dream and the feelings that won't go away.