Chapter 13 — The Nightmare Pool Opening

 

Our girls' volleyball team had our very first official match on Saturday. Now it's Sunday—the next day. And it's already night.

As I prepared for tomorrow, an unbearable sense of dread hung over me. The reason for it lay right in front of me:

Two hand towels.
One long wrap towel.
One pair of goggles.
One swim cap.
And then...

One school swimsuit, still unopened in its plastic bag.

Nope. No way. This—this school swimsuit is a hard no. I mean, come on, a school swimsuit? Absolutely not. No matter how you look at it, it's impossible. I've been a girl for just under a year now, and I've worn all sorts of women's clothes up to this point—but a school swimsuit? That's on another level. It's way too advanced. I can't do it.

The pool actually opened last week. But, whether by miracle or the gods answering my desperate prayers, it rained or a freak cold front came in and PE got canceled.

But tomorrow… there's no escape. Not a single rain cloud on the whole Japanese archipelago. The forecast says 35°C—a summer scorcher in the middle of the season. Please, I beg you, don’t cut off my last escape route!

What should I do? Should I just pull the classic girl move and claim, "Sorry, it’s that time of the month ♪"?

...No, that won’t work. That’ll buy me, what, a week at most? Swimming class goes on for the entire months of June and July. Besides, the PE teacher already told me, “You won’t get credit unless you get in the pool at least once.”

So that means... at some point, I have to wear it. But this—this navy blue girls' school swimsuit? No way. Just let me off the hook already!

Knock knock.

Huh? Who’s that? Wait, did someone just knock?

That’s weird. Knocking has completely died out as a tradition in this house.

Dad’s overseas on business. Mom’s away. My second sister is living in the university dorms. That means the only people currently living here are the eldest sister, the third daughter—Hina—and me, the fourth daughter.

Maybe it would be different if I were still a guy, but since we’re all girls now, nobody bothers knocking. Even if someone’s changing clothes, no one in the Tachibana household cares anymore. We've all seen each other naked in the bath a million times.

Knock knock.

There it is again while I was zoning out. It’s not a ghost, right?

“Who is it? It’s open.”

Click.

The one who came in was Hina, with a deadly serious look on her face. She walked straight over and grabbed me by both shoulders.

"Yuu-chan, how about a deal with your onee-chan? If we suffer a bit of embarrassment together today, we can avoid a major disaster tomorrow. Come on, sound good?"

...What the hell is she talking about?

 

A few minutes later.

Standing before me is Hina, dressed in her school swimsuit.

And she’s ordering me to focus on… a certain area of her body.
In response, I—

I grab her shoulders and shout the words that must be said!

“Hina! Snap out of it! Stop this nonsense right now!”

“Wha—Yuu-chan? What’s gotten into you?”

“What’s gotten into me?! Have you forgotten what you told me yesterday?! You are 100% a real girl! You need to take better care of your body! A girl shouldn’t go showing that kind of place to anyone!”

“Ah… I see. So you’re speaking to me as my onii-chan now, not as Yuu-chan?”

“That’s right. As your older brother, I have to stop this. So I’ll say it again—stop doing stupid things.”

“…Yeah. Thanks. Yuu-nii. I’m really glad you said that. Even though I’m pretending to be onee-chan right now, I’m still struggling with it.
I still rely on you for a lot of things.”

“It's fine. Even if the registry or how I look says otherwise, I’ve lived longer—I'm still your big brother.”

“Yeah. Thanks. By the way… Yuu-nii, you were a science guy, right?”

…...

Why do I have a really bad feeling about this?

“Yeah, I was.”

“In science class, when you do experiments, you make a prediction first, right?”

“Right. You form a hypothesis and test whether it's true or false.”

"Okay then, let’s do a little future prediction. First, we don’t do that 'stupid thing' you mentioned—neither me nor you. Then tomorrow, we go to P.E. class as usual. Now tell me: what’s the worst possible outcome that could’ve been avoided if you had done that ‘stupid thing’?"

・

・

・

...Hmm.

Let’s think.

Tomorrow’s PE class is swimming. That means I’ll have to wear the school swimsuit.

Say I swallow my pride and somehow manage to put it on. The one we’re issued at Matsujou (Matsubara Girls') is your standard-issue school swimsuit. It’s not especially revealing, but as a girls’ swimsuit, it’s cut high enough to expose the upper thighs.
Totally normal.

Now, my body.
Skin paler than the average East Asian. Light-colored body hair. 
That’s going to really stand out against the navy blue of the swimsuit.

I do take care of grooming, but say—just say—something down there decides to peek out.

…

Let me repeat: the swimsuit is navy blue.
My hair is light-colored.
It’s going to be really noticeable.

And sure, most of my classmates wouldn’t say anything. But there’s one—Asuka, the girl whose seat number comes right after mine.
She would definitely say something.

“Yuu-chan… something’s sticking out.”

・

・

・

“NU-WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

I collapse, writhing on the floor from the mental trauma of this predicted future. That’s a no-go. A total no-go.
My life as a high school girl would be over!!

“Yuu-nii, do you get it now? Why we have to do this stupid thing?”

Hina says it plainly—this is something that simply must be done.

“And besides, we’ve already bathed together, like, dozens of times—yesterday, the day before, the day before that. We’ve seen each other naked. We know what kinds of underwear we both own. We even know each other’s measurements. There’s nothing left to be shy about.”

Hina continues her devilish temptation.

“Now then, here's a suggestion from Hina-oneechan, who has over 16 years of experience as a girl, to Yuu-chan, who's been a girl for less than a year. Maybe it’s actually a good idea to go ahead and do that 'stupid thing' we were just talking about?”

“……”

Such a horrifying future…

And yet, by choosing to walk a path that defies common decency… I can avoid it.

“……”

But seriously, do we even need to go this far? I mean, we both take care of grooming, right? Plus, you’re the one who turned beet red and taught me how to do that in the first place, Hina.

“……”

I get it, I do.
It’s more reliable to have someone else check than to do it yourself. But still, shouldn't we weigh the pros and cons?

“……”

I mean, how likely is it, really, that something’s sticking out? Is it really worth going through this kind of embarrassment just for a one-in-a-million chance?

“……”

“…I’m sorry. Hina-onee-chan. I was wrong.”

That night, I thoroughly checked between Hina’s legs—well, you know—and in return, she inspected mine in the school swimsuit. 

Needless to say, I ended up sniffling and on the verge of tears more than a few times.

 

The day after the devil whispered.

The sky was perfectly clear, not a cloud in sight. And it was really hot.
We were at the changing room next to the pool.

As expected, no one was wearing their swimsuits under their uniform at this age. Also, everyone was surprisingly bold when changing. Was I the weird one, carefully changing with my back to the wall and using a towel to hide myself?

With how long my hair was, stuffing it all into the swim cap was a real struggle. While I was battling with it, Hina gave up on me with an exasperated look and went ahead.

H-Hey, wait! Hina-nee!

“You traitorrrrrr!!”

“Wahhhhhh!!”

Just as I was using both hands trying to stuff my hair into the cap, someone suddenly grabbed me from behind. Wait, that part of mine isn’t even that big, okay!?

“You do have some! You do! You've got curves and even a waist! Who the hell called you a board with no shape!?”

Judging from the voice, the one who grabbed my chest from behind was Kayo, the class rep. For some reason, she was all fired up.

“Kayo. Is it fun touching a flat chest like mine?”

“What flat chest?! You’ve clearly got something!”

I turned around to face her.
Hmm… without her glasses, and with her semi-long hair tucked under her cap, she gave off quite a different impression…

Oh? She's looking a bit flatter than usual today? Ah. So Kayo pads herself during P.E. too, even with the swimsuit. That’s impressive in its own way.

“Kayo, listen carefully. In the world of mathematics, small values are sometimes treated as zero when compared to overwhelmingly large ones. So that means you and I are both the same—zero.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about?”

“Don’t worry. You’ll get it soon enough.”

“Ah, there you are! Yuu-chan! Over here, over here!”

“Yuu-chan’s from an inland country, right? Can she even swim?”

“Na-Na-Na—!” ('Nani!', but stuttered)

Hina and Asuka were calling me over. Next to me, Kayo gasped in shock.

“No way. Those two shouldn’t be wearing school swimsuits. They absolutely shouldn’t. People will definitely get the wrong idea.”

Yeah. I agree.

One after another, the students gathered around the poolside. Everyone’s arms and legs were ridiculously smooth. Even their underarms were perfectly taken care of. That’s not just natural. That’s the result of effort.

That day, I made two vows:

First: I will never casually invite a girl—myself included—to the pool or the beach. The amount of preparation women go through is brutal.

Second: If by some miracle I ever get another shot at entering high school, I will prioritize choosing one that doesn't have a pool.

Especially that second one—absolutely non-negotiable!

 

Bonus Humiliation

Believe it or not, I can’t swim. Not that it’s something to proudly declare when you have no chest, but it’s a fact. Even back when I was a guy, I never learned how to swim.

“Whoa, that’s unexpected! I thought Yuuri could do any sport!”

“Seriously? You can’t swim, Yuuri? Even though you’re so athletic?”

Laughter came from my classmates. But that couldn’t be helped. Up until now, P.E. had been my solo stage.

Take soccer, for example. I went through elementary and middle school as a normal male student. So I had way more experience just playing soccer than your average high school girl.

Add to that my current body’s abnormal physical abilities. In soccer class, I was basically unstoppable. I dominated so hard the P.E. teacher eventually said, “Hey, Tachibana’s little sister. You’re the ref today.”
—basically banning me from playing.

Same with volleyball. I’m seriously into it in club activities. So when it comes to casual play in P.E., of course I stand out.

Even during the sports tests on day three of school, I was the only one who posted weirdly high scores.

So from my classmates’ perspective, Tachibana Yuuri = Sports Monster was an accepted fact. They never imagined someone like that couldn’t swim.

And it’s true I can’t swim. I don’t care what they say, but…

There was one person who misunderstood this in a very annoying way. That would be our P.E. teacher overseeing the pool: Saeki-sensei.

(Small note: For pool classes, due to strong student demand, the supervising teacher is always female. So while male teacher Tajima-sensei normally handles P.E., Saeki-sensei is in charge during pool season.)

“Hey now, you lot. Yuuri didn’t go to elementary or middle school in Japan like you did. Don’t tease her like that.”

…Sorry. I actually did attend both right here in Japan.

“Yuuri, don’t worry about what your classmates said. You know, in Japan we start teaching swimming from age seven. You probably just haven’t had a chance to learn yet, right? It’s totally fine. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I’ll teach you myself, so let’s do our best together.”

Please stop. You’re being so kind, it’s killing my conscience.

From that point on, Saeki-sensei began holding a special swim class just for me in a corner of the pool.

She started with underwater breathing practice, then had me hang onto the pool edge and practice kicking. She really taught me everything with the patience of someone teaching first graders.

From Saeki-sensei’s point of view, it made total sense: "Tachibana Yuuri hasn’t really attended school properly until now, and she’s from an inland country, so it’s only natural she can’t swim."

Given my fabricated backstory, I couldn’t exactly deny it…

So now, here’s a question:

Try to imagine how I feel, being taught the absolute basics of swimming by a 24-year-old female teacher, while surrounded by cheering 15–16-year-old girls, even though I’m actually older than all of them.

Answer: I want to die.

From then on, every time pool day approached, I found myself desperately praying for rain.

 

===

Secret Bonus
(Bust size chart)

• Tachibana Yuuri – Close to an A-B cup

• Tachibana Hina – D cup, close to E

• Tohira Asuka – D cup

• Murai Reiko – Close to B-C

• Arimura Yukiko – F cup

• Seta Kayo – Far from A… closer to AA

• Itagaki Eriko – B cup

• Okazaki Yui – Close to A-B

• Ogino Miho – C cup

• Saeki Kanako – D cup

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