HS2C10: Feel

Synopsis: Each member of the swim team deals with their individual and varied feelings.

At swim practice, Ikuya Kirishima asks his teammates to meet him at the back of the pool. There, he conducts a ritual farewell to photographs from his past symbolizing his leaving the past behind. The photos are of himself, Satomi Nii and his brother, Natsuya Kirishima. He tells his newfound friends that he used to think he only needed those two people in his life. He then buries the box, saying he will dig it up when he is a man old enough to laugh at the way he fixated on the past. Asahi Shiina and Makoto Tachibana are touched. Haruka Nanase is indifferent.

Asahi relates his feelings about racing and losing against Haruka. Feeling ashamed, he lost his ability to swim freestyle. He proclaims he is not returning to his community swim club and wonders aloud how he ever swam freestyle. He drops his eyes to the buried photos. Haruka feels he is being silently blamed. Makoto reveals his own fear of the water and losing the ability to swim. He shares the incident of being unable to help his siblings in the rubber boat and admits his dependency on Haruka. They all then turn towards Haruka, who refuses to be caught up in the confessionals, walking away in silence with Makoto right behind him.

After practice, Ikuya walks home with Satomi, who notices his changed demeanor. Ikuya says that he's decided to become strong and shares the ritual he performed with his teammates. Satomi is cheerful, at first, because Ikuya is just as he used to be. She changes her mind when he reveals that he showed the group a photo of himself as a young child bathing with Satomi. She slaps him and calls him an idiot, then digs up the buried box behind his back.

Asahi joins Natsuya on the way home, telling him about Ikuya's breakthrough. Natsuya tears up, but denies it, telling Asahi not to say anything to Ikuya about it.

As Makoto and Haruka head to the gymnasium, Makoto waxes philosophical about being like water while Haruka watches the swallows flying above them. Makoto says he didn't think they could ever be in another team as good as their elementary school team, but now considers his current team equally good. Haruka listens but secretly thinks that they are more like the birds circling above their heads.

Makoto wrangles Haruka and Asahi into watching Kisumi Shigino's basketball game saying that Kisumi came to cheer for them, so it's only fair. Asahi is annoyed, tired from their strenuous practice where they learned about timing during relay exchanges. Still, he becomes engrossed in watching the way Kisumi plays with daunting determination. After the ball makes it into the hoop, Asahi actually cheers for him. Makoto points out the way Kisumi and his squad have become a real team. Haruka thinks he finally understands the feeling.