Rei Ryugazaki/Story

Free!
Rei Ryugazaki is initially on the school's track team, but is pestered by Nagisa Hazuki to become the vital fourth member of the newly re-founded swim club after Nagisa learns that Rei has a feminine name and believes it to be fate (since the other swim club members have feminine names, too). After realizing that not all activities are based off calculations and seeing Haruka Nanase's elegant crawl, Rei joins the team.

While training for their first tournament, the Iwatobi Swim Club sees that Rei is able to float in water and that his form is perfect. However, he can't move while performing the needed actions for different strokes and constantly sinks to the bottom of the pool when trying. Gou Matsuoka gives him a week to learn how to swim, with each member teaching him their specific strokes, but always failing. It isn't until Rei sits with Haruka and hears how he only swims freestyle, but swims with passion, that he attempts the butterfly stroke and discovers he can swim.

On the first day of the group's summer training camp, Coach Goro Sasabe takes the Swim Club to an island where they coincidentally discover the Samezuka Swimming Club, along with Rin Matsuoka, training at a special swimming facility. After making camp on the beach, they begin their stamina training regiment which involves making three long-distance swimming circuits between the deserted islands of Sukishima, Oshima, and Mizushima. At the end of the first day, the club only manages swimming half of their goal, leaving Rei to feel a bit disappointed for lagging behind.

That night, unable to sleep due to his performance, Rei heads into the ocean to continue training when a sudden storm takes him by surprise. Makoto Tachibana awakens at that moment and goes looking for Rei, frantically diving to his aid upon hearing Rei's cries for help. in the midst of the rescue, Makoto's phobia sets in and he, too, flounders. They are saved by Haruka and Nagisa who drag them to opposite ends of Sukishima Island.

When they all finally regroup, they take shelter overnight at the abandoned Sukishima Rest House, a creepy looking building where Rei shares his most embarrassing moment during a field trip in fifth grade. In turn, each one shares a memory. When day breaks, they race each other back to camp where Gou and Miss Amakata are waiting, wondering why they are all so exhausted.

After visiting a local shrine, Rei expresses interest in participating in the tournament's relay competition after seeing a video of the Olympic event. On the day of the tournament itself, he gets very nervous surrounded by the atmosphere of the venue, but Nagisa Hazuki encourages Rei to relax and just to have have fun.

Rei, Makoto and Nagisa go to search for Haruka, but Rin is not much of a help for them. Makoto suggests that they leave Haruka alone and let him cool down since their individual events are coming up soon. Like the rest of the team, Rei didn't manage to get into the finals. As the tournament comes to an end, they realize that Haruka has gone without them. Gou then tells them that she had secretly signed them up for the relay segment and Rei agrees that they should try their best at it as it was their last and final chance if they want to get into the finals.

The team manages to win the relay segment and is able to proceed to the regional. During the morning assembly, the school Principal announces that the Swim Team had secured a place in the regional and wishes them all the best, in hopes that they might advance to the finals. That evening, the team attends the Summer Festival where they visit a shrine in order to pray before their regionals. Rei and Nagisa happen to see Rin at the festival too, thus Rei is tasked to follow Rin and Nagisa is tasked with having Haruka and Rin meet.

After the team finishes on one of their practices, they, together with Gou, Miss Amakata and Goro Sasabe, share a hot pot at Goro's house even though it's summer. On the way home, Rei asks his teammates about what happened to their friendship with Rin, knowing from several old photos how close they used to be. Haruka tells Rei about Rin's obsession with swimming relays and the event where Rin and Haruka raced which ended in Rin's loss when he came back from Australia. The next day, Rei skips practice and goes to Samezuka Academy to speak with Rin.

Rei asks Rin why he is participating in the relay, what changed him after he left for Australia and what he actually wants from Haruka, stating his desire to be a part of their team. Later, Haruka and the others go to Rei's place, where they assure Rei that he is an irreplaceable team member. Upon arriving at the location for the regional tournament and checking into their hotel, the group goes to see the pool in which they'll be competing. Later that night, as everyone is too excited to sleep, Rin asks Rei to meet up with him, explaining that the reason he quit swimming was because he struggled to swim the way he used to and felt he couldn't reach Olympic level. Before taking his leave, Rin tells Rei that he needs to make sure he doesn't embarrass Iwatobi's team when they compete against each other.

After Rin runs off in an outburst, telling Aiichiro Nitori that he will quit swimming, Haruka and the others overhear Rin say that he was taken out of the relay, which comes as a shock to Haruka. It is at this point that Rei tells everyone about what Rin told him the previous night, stating his belief that what Rin wanted wasn't to win, but to swim with everyone again. With the relay preliminaries approaching fast, the gang splits up in search of Rin, who is eventually found by Haruka. Making it just in time for the preliminaries, Rei lets Rin take his place in the relay, allowing him to finally swim with his friends. Although the Iwatobi team is inevitably disqualified for their unapproved roster change despite placing first, they feel proud in doing what they thought was the right thing.