Reincarnated Into Anime World - Chapter 64

“I’m not,” Chisa spoke, interrupting me, “I just heard that you are interested in diving, so I came to see if you’re having any problems reading that book that Maruno-san gave you.”

Huh? Is she not mad anymore? I mean, I am glad that she got over it, but this is unnatural. Maybe she wasn’t that stubborn or wouldn’t hold a grudge for long when she was young?

“By the way, I still haven’t forgiven you for peeping on me.”

Never mind, I take that back.

“I know I’m not in the position to say this, but I don’t think ‘peeping’ is the correct term used.”

“Hmph.”

“Sigh, I presume you’re Kotegawa-san’s daughter?”

“I’m also a Kotegawa, but yes. Kotegawa Chisa. Don’t call me Chisa.”

I wasn’t planning to, though…

“Uesugi Fuutarou. Now, I’ll be imposing on Kotega-Toshio-san for the next two weeks. And since you’re his daughter, I don’t feel like dragging this thing (your grudge) out for so long. Can you tell me what it takes to forgive me?”

It will be very awkward if I don’t settle this grudge soon, and I don’t need to make it so that the awkwardness remains during the entire two weeks that I’m living in their apartment.

Chisa just stared at me for a while before replying with another question, “So how is that book Maruno-san gave you?”

“Good. Although long, it has a vast amount of information with all the essential things to note clearly labeled to not have to worry about anything. And before you ask anything else about this book, I have already finished reading this book and memorized everything within it. So I’m definitely planning to go diving tomorrow.”

Chisa’s cold glare lit up in surprise before narrowing, “I hope you’re not lying to me. You can’t finish everything in one day, much less in a few hours.”

Sigh, women. You do things that impress them, and they would still doubt you no matter what.

“Why don’t you test me or something? Seeing you so interested in this book, it must mean that you also enjoy diving, right? And that means you also know a lot about this, right?”

“Just enough for me to go diving. I’m not going to test you.”

“Eh?”

“Are you slow in the brain? Why would I waste my sleeping time to test a random stranger in the middle of the night just to ensure that he isn’t lying to me?”

If she phrased it that way, then that makes a lot of sense.

“It doesn’t concern me whether or not you read the whole book since I am going to be diving tomorrow anyway. If there is nothing else, good night.”

Before I could even greet back, the door closed, and my room became silent once more. Hmm…what a feisty little girl. How cold~.

Since I’ll be diving tomorrow as well, I will sleep now to have total energy tomorrow. If there’s a test tomorrow, I’m not worried at all.

Because like I already said, I have it all memorized in my brain.

∞

Beep Beep Beep Beep

My alarm clock went off, and my hand smashed the clock to oblivion, silencing it.

Urgh, I don’t know why, but I feel that today will be another tiring day. And that isn’t because of diving.

It was currently 9 am. It’s earlier than usual when I usually wake up during the weekends, so I planned to go back to bed and lie back down for a bit more. I might be by the sea, but the breeze made it almost impossible for me to leave my bed.

The keyword, though, was “planned”.

For some reason, the club meeting for Peek a Boo is being held in my room.

No sooner had I rolled back into bed when the entire club just entered my room like they owned it and immediately started their meeting.

“Maruno and I will be in charge of Uesugi and Chisa for going on this dive since they are both still kids. The other senior members will be in charge of looking after the freshmen, while the second and third year will pair up with one another to go diving.” A tall, muscular man instructed, but another hand was raised up.

“I’ll be in charge of my sister, so senpai can go ahead and guide the other freshmen. We are not officially part of Peek a Boo, so we don’t want to intrude any more than we already do.”

To my surprise, the person who spoke was non-other than Nanaka, Chisa’s older sister. She is a very beautiful young woman with waist-length brown hair with bangs hanging over her face and has reddish-brown eyes. Although clearly much younger than she was shown in the anime, she sported a nice figure.

“Fine. But Maruno will be held responsible if anything goes wrong.”

“Hey! I never volunteered for this!”

“Just be responsible as the vice-president of this club.”

“Sigh, moving on, today’s diving group will be in groups of 6-12. No more than that, as it might attract dangerous animals since you will be heading out to the open ocean today.”

The meeting lasted for a while more, so I went to the bathroom and cleaned myself up before we were all dismissed to get ready, greeting me on their way out so naturally that for a moment, I thought my room became someplace for gatherings.

“Hahaha, don’t worry about it too much. Maruno might look like the lazy slob he is, but he’s a really nice and dedicated guy.” The president of the Peek a Boo club spoke on his way out.

I know. I saw Maruno’s dedication to the piano first hand, but I wished he would put more faith in other things as well…such as not stripping out of nowhere and leaving his d.i.c.k to hang in the open in public.

Sigh, I hope this isn’t some sort of tradition being passed down this club.

“Anyway, Uesugi. I know I just gave you the book yesterday, but have you finished it already?”

“Yep. Easier than the scores we played.”

“Well, to be sure, I’m just going to test you a bunch of stuff before we leave. Sorry, Chisa, Nanaka, wait for a while, will ya?”

Both of them nodded, though I could see Nanaka’s curious eyes directed at me.

“Well, first are some basic things.”

Maruno then proceeded to test me some of the more common knowledge of divers first. Things like what equipment we usually use in deep or shallow waters, which are necessary and optional items, and what safety precautions we always have to check for before diving.

I’m proud to say that I got the entire test correct.

“Good job. Even though I had already expected that, it still feels like you’re a freak.”

Let’s just calmly ignore the insult there, shall we?

“You know of hand signals, right?”

“Yes. Hand gestures are basically important signs that we use to communicate underwater, right?”

“Yes. I’m going to show you a few now, so tell me what my gestures mean.”

“But you don’t have to strip, right?!”

“Oh, you will get used to it, as these two did.”

“I did not get used to it,” Chisa added.

“Haha, Uesugi-san, you will find all of us to be of fun company,” Nanaka said with a bright smile.

“Anyway, I’ll start now. Watch me, and tell me what I’m trying to convey to you.”

Maruno placed both hands in front of his c.h.e.s.t, with his palms faced outwards.

After that, he used his right hand’s index finger to point to himself.

“So, Uesugi, what should you do?”

“I should stop, look your way, and go downwards with you, assuming you’re my buddy.”

“Oh! Very nice. Another set!”

“Ooh! I want to do it this time. Watch me!” Nanaka joined in from the side.

She stretched out her right arm and swung it up and down before placing a flat hand just in front of her neck, with her palm facing downwards. Finally, she ended off with a thumbs-up sign.

“A problem has occurred, and since you don’t have air, you’re going to surface, and I need to follow you if I am your buddy?”

“Wow, what a smart boy~.”

I get the feeling like she’s treating me like an elementary student. I mean, she’s only like 2 years older than us, so what gives?

“Alright! You did well, so let’s go get some actual diving experience now.”

“Yay!”

“Only at shallow water only, though.”

“Aww…”

“Well, it’s only your first time, after all. If you get used to it, we’ll be able to dive somewhere deeper later on.” Maruno comforted me as we walked out of my room.

“Since we have three non-licensed divers here, we’ll do this in fours. I’ll be in charge of all of you, but for Chisa, if you stay close to Nanaka, you can swim slightly further away from me. As for Uesugi, never stay more than 2 meters away from me, got it? Diving is no joke here, and a single mistake and I’ll not be able to save you in time.” Maruno spoke the last two sentences in complete seriousness, so I reciprocated the same way.

“Hai!”

“Alright, let’s start by changing into our swimsuits.”

“Eh? Here?”

We were currently on some wooden platform facing the open sea, and I don’t feel comfortable exposing my genitals in front of everyone. I might be thick-skinned with my girls, but I don’t have an exhibition fetish.

“If not, where?”

Sigh, it isn’t even 11 am, and I’m already tired. I figured that there was no way to convince them to have a bit more modesty, so I just let them be. Good thing that Chisa didn’t inherit their way of stripping. Perhaps because she didn’t wear her swimsuit underneath her clothes this time.

Going behind a corner of the building, I quickly changed into my swimming trunks in record time before coming out.

Reading is definitely different from experiencing it first-hand.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge.” And while there were some exceptions where you cannot experience anything written in a book, I mostly agree with him.

I first experienced how to put on a swimsuit. And I’ve gotta say, it’s a lot less comfortable than what I was used to. It was skin-tight, and apart from my head and wrist onwards, everything was covered by black. Toshio’s store was adjusted for customers of all ages, so he had sizes for his daughters and me.

After that, I learned how to put on a mask properly. Since I had bangs covering my forehead, Maruno told me to lift my bangs up, and then the mask goes right above my eyes.

This step is quite important as diving is all about the experience. If my mask is too tight or too loose, the area around my eyes might be sore, or seawater might flow into my eyes, both of which are definitely not anything I would like to experience on my dive.

The last one was fins. Apparently, there were different fins, but to make things simpler, almost everyone just uses the same type of fins. It helps us increase the surface area that our feet can “paddle”, thus increasing our speed and mobility in the water.

By this time, while Maruno was teaching me, Chisa and Nanaka had already helped carry the oxygen tanks to the seaside, where we would enter the water from.

“Alright, Uesugi. Make sure not to stray from me.” After adjusting our oxygen tanks behind us, Maruno spoke with a stern smile, “If for whatever reason you got scared, don’t panic and push yourself. If something happens, tell me immediately. Even if it’s nothing major, I want to know everything that is happening to you.”

“Hai!”

Maruno adjusted his mask for the last time before descending into the water.

Phew. I’m excited to go on my first diving trip! It might be the shallow water, but I’m always looking forward to trying out new things.

I adjusted my mask and followed in Maruno’s footsteps.

Almost instinctively, I closed my eyes and held my breath as I sunk underwater.

*****************

A/N: I adjusted the rewards for the last quest. I realized it was too much, so I lowered the amount a little. The auxiliary chapter is based on whatever chapter I am writing, not what I published. So don’t be surprised if some quest disappeared from the auxiliary chapter. It’s probably because I already wrote finish the quest.