Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-14894688-20130808144956/@comment-1454424-20130811030716

I don't know why people keep saying he witnessed a boat sink because he DIDN'T! That's actually part of the bloody trauma! What he and Haru (Haru was there too) witnessed was the funeral procession for the dead fisherman. They didn't even know what they were witnessing but knew it was something bad. They actually saw Rin and Gou in the procession as well but didn't know them at the time and didn't make the connection that it was Rin they saw until much later.

A long time after the funeral, Makoto found out about the boat going down 3km off the coast and figured out what exactly it was he and Haru had witnessed. It was PRECIOUSLY because Makoto didn't see the boat go down that he could.not.comprehend how the fisherman drowned only 3km off the coast when the boys swam that length easily everyday at their swim club.

Just so people don't think I making this up, below is the actual quote from Makoto from Chapter 3 of High Speed.

'''“When we were kids, the two of us saw all those people wearing the white kimonos and walking in a line, right? Do you remember?”''' '''Haruka nods a little. The face of the child(<--Rin but even during this conversation the two don't realise it was Rin) who turned around that time crossing Makoto’s mind, at the same time, he thought that Haruka remembers it, too.'''

'''“Apparently, a large fishing boat sunk. A big boat with dozens of people on it. Three kilometers away from the fishing harbor, it was on its way to open sea.”'''

'''He heard about such a thing happening years after he had seen that line. As Haruka turns his gaze towards the sea, so does Makoto. The wind blew like it was carrying away the setting sun.''' '''“Three kilometers, that’s a distance we easily swim every day. So why did the fishermen drown there?”'''

'''Something is lurking in the sea that can’t swim such a distance. Even if they search for it, they surely can’t find it. From the start, it’s something that can’t be seen with your eyes. He couldn’t think of anything else. '''

If Makoto had actually seen the boat go down, it would be less traumatic because he would have known "why" the fishermen could not simply swim to swore. I.e. bad weather, wreckage etc. It's because all he saw was the aftermath, i.e. the funeral, that's he's developed a complex because he didn't know exactly why happened out there that stopped the fishermen from swimming to shore.

PS. Just to be clear, only people who lost someone to the Sea are Rin and Gou who lost their dad in the above mentioned fishing incident.