Swimming lessons

It was time again for Hamari Tanaka’s least favorite class: swimming lessons.

Thankfully, during the four months since she had begun attending U.A. High School, she came to know a lot of her fellow classmates in 1-A; they were incredibly kind and helpful to her, despite her quiet nature. Often during swim lessons, Hamari would observe her classmates, watching them gracefully swimming and competing in the pool.

Due to her Frost Bite quirk, Hamari had never learned to swim; this caused her to feel even more distant from her peers during swim lessons, though she tried her best to hide it so as not to worry her friends. 

Little did she know, however, that the girls of 1-A were trying to think of a way to help Hamari finally learn to swim. After some discussion, they decided that asking the Support Class  would be the best course of action.

When suggesting the idea to Hamari, however...she kindly refused.

Thus, the girls of 1-A approaching Hatsume, a prominent member of the Support Class, for her assistance. The eccentric, genius engineer was more than up to the challenge.

“No problem! I actually have a Baby that I’m working on for underwater reconnaissance! I’d be happy to try it out, but it just needs some tweaks… Tell you what, next time you all have swim lessons, I’ll bring it out for Hamari! Hehehe, it’ll be amazing!”

The girls were a bit unsure how Hatsume’s creation would be, but hoped it would be just the thing to give Hamari a little more confidence. Things continued as normal, until the next swim lesson for the girl’s of 1-A came…

...as soon as they arrived, they found an awkwardly large, bullet-shaped submarine-like contraption sitting near the pool. It could easily fit someone as large as Iida, but…

“Ohhh! You’re all here! This is Baby Number 7648!” Hatsume waved to everyone.

“I call it the One-Size-Fits-All-Subma-Swimsuit! With this fantastic Baby, anyone can swim, since the machine does all the work! There’s a manual mode too, but I decided that implementing its own special AI would be a monumental breakthrough! Check it out!”

Hatsume pressed a button and all sorts of extra mechanical arms came out of the submarine. “I also installed these mechanical arms that have useful functions for when the diver in question comes to the surface for a break. Voila!”

The arms held many random objects: a toaster, a small television, an old-fashioned radio and even a coffee maker. “So, all you have to do is climb in the back over here,” Hatsume pressed another button and the back end of the bullet-shaped submarine fell clean off, spinning around before clanging to the ground. “Well, I can put it back on! No worries!”

“U-Um…” Hamari finally spoke up. “What...What is this for? Do you...want us to test it out for you, Hatsume-san…?” She felt uncomfortable, noticing that the girls of 1-A had their eyes on her. “Everyone…?”

“We want you to be able to have fun swimming with us!” Mina Ashido exclaimed. “We always see you sitting in the corner during swim lessons looking gloomy. We wanted you to be able to join us, too. But since your quirk makes it difficult, we asked the Support Class for help in coming up with something for you to use, so you can swim too!”

Hamari was petrified. Her eyes slowly moved to the positively bizarre creation Hatsume had brought for her use. Though she was touched, on the other hand…

...thinking about crawling into such a cramped space made her feel distraught. “W-Well…” she lowered her eyes, feeling embarrassed that her classmates would go out of their way to help her like this. “I… I don’t know...if I should…”

“Haha! Don’t worry! Let me just give it a test run, so you can see how amazing this Baby is! I promise you’ll LOVE it! Let me just…” Hatsume quickly reattached the back end of the submarine and tightened into place before pushing another button on the remote, causing the mechanical arms and all the appliances to detract into the machine.

Then, Hatsume raised an open palm dramatically towards the water. “Now, my Baby, my precious Subma-Swimsuit! Show everyone why you’re amazing and totally worth funding~” The device began to rumble, and two pairs of tiny wheels appeared on the bottom of the mini-sub, which then drove slowly into the water and ‘dived’ in with a splash. “See! Look how amazing it is!” She exclaimed, pointing to the water.

The girls of 1-A walked over to the edge of the pool, watching Hatsume’s creation glide through the water as it sprouted a propeller and little fins. “Wow…” Hamari breathed. I can’t believe everyone was that worried about me… I didn’t want to make them worry.

But I still don’t know… I’m really nervous. I don’t know if I should--

The demonstration had been going well for several minutes, but soon the machine began to malfunction when its attachments suddenly popped out. The electrical devices made contact with the water, causing a dangerous reaction.

Everything happened so quickly that there was little time to react. 

Hatsume’s creation was surely going to explode, but Hamari was able to act before anyone was injured. Oh no… if I don’t do something, the explosion might hurt everyone! 

If I can freeze the water and make some insulation for the explosion, I can dampen the effect of the explosion. Quick, Hamari…! You can’t let them get hurt! You have to stop it! 

She knelt down and touched her hands to the water, breathing a misty, cold air which activated her quirk. A frozen path spread out from her hands and covered the entire pool; in seconds the entirety of the water in the pool was solid ice.

Her friends pulled her away from the edge of the pool just as the submarine exploded, sending chunks of ice flying everywhere. Mina protected those closest to her with a shield of acid, while Momo Yaoyoruzu created a shield of her own to protect the others.

Hatsume cried out. “NOOO! My Baby!! This wasn’t supposed to happen…!”

Everyone else looked on, shocked. One of the teachers quickly ran into the area as Tsuyu Asui collapsed due to the cold, but she was caught by Momo. 

Once Tsuyu was taken away to the nurse’s office, the other students were told to leave the pool area and were sent to an early lunch. As the girls met up at Lunch Rush Cafeteria, they apologized profusely to Hamari while congratulating her quick action.

“That. Was. AWESOME!” Mina explained. “I knew your quirk was great, but that was like FWOOOSH! And SSHHHNGGG!! Hamari, you’re super amazing!”

“O-Oh… I-It was nothing…” Hamari giggled, covering her masked face with a hand. “Really… Thank you, Ashido-san. And everyone… Thank you all for trying to help me.”

Kyoka Jiro sighed. “Yeah, but… it ended pretty badly. Everyone could have gotten hurt.”

Momo shook her head before nodding. “We all need to be more careful next time…”

As they ate happily together, Tsuyu returned from the nurse’s office to join them for lunch. “Asui--o-oh, I mean Tsu-chan… I’m so sorry about what happened! I know my quirk made you hibernate, please forgive me for that--” Hamari began to apologize.

Tsuyu tilted her head. “Don’t worry about it, ribbit. You kept everyone from getting hurt. You did a great job, ribbit ribbit. But...we shouldn’t have tried to get something like that without your permission. Ribbit...I’m sorry.”

Hamari almost wanted to cry; her classmates were so kind, far kinder than anyone she had ever met before. “Everyone…” she felt a little choked up, small tears forming in her eyes that quickly became slightly frozen. Maybe I… should go to the Support Class.

Everyone cares so much. They really want me to swim with them. They are all so kind… She felt a warmth blooming in her heart, happy that she was able to protect her friends and classmates, and so very moved that they wanted her so much to be a part of their fun.

I really would like to swim with everyone…

In the end, Hamari did visit the Support Class for help. Hatsume apologized for the Baby she had brought and promised to make Hamari some amazing swimwear gear to use for swimming. The two spoke for a short while about her preferences, and Hatsume said her next creation would amaze everyone. She is so confident… even if she fails, she just keeps going.

Hatsume-san is really amazing, too. I… I think swimming will help me build my confidence a little, too. If I can really do it… I want to. I don’t want to let something like this stop me. Plus…

...everyone will be happier if we can all swim together, right? I really want to be closer to everyone. 

=====

Some days later, Hamari received the support gear from Hatsume. It looked exactly like the swimsuits given to the girls of U.A., but was made with a special fabric that absorbed the chill from Hamari’s body, enabling her to touch water without freezing it.

However, the temperature of the water would still be lowered slightly due to her presence, so Tsuyu would not be able to swim at the same time as Hamari. Hatsume was also kind enough to present Hamari with a special, waterproof mask to wear over her own mask in order to protect it from any kind of damage from stray water droplets.

After testing the gear out in her own bathtub, Hamari was amazed that it worked. For the first time in her life, she felt excited about the prospect of learning how to swim.

The next day, she attended swimming lessons in her new gear, surprising everyone.

“Hello everyone…” she said shyly. “...I...I went to the Support Class for help, and Hatsume-san kindly made this swimsuit and mask for me. I don’t know much about swimming, so…” She rubbed her hands together as her classmates gathered around.

“We’ll help you out! We’ll teach you everything!” Mina exclaimed. “Right guys?”

“Yeah!” the other girls cheered.

“Might I suggest the backstroke, Tanaka-san?” Momo said warmly. “It is both graceful, and will make it less likely for the water to damage your mask--even though I see Hatsume-san provided you with a protective one to wear over it.”

“That...sounds amazing.” Hamari’s heart raced. “But… Hatsume-san told me the water will still get a little cold when I’m swimming. Not really, really cold, but she asked me to tell Asu--Tsu-chan to not swim at the same time, just to be safe!”

Tsuyu nodded in response, and the lessons began with everyone demonstrating the backstroke for Hamari, until she herself was ready to enter the water.

It was a wholly new, fascinating experience for her. Despite her support gear, she half-expected the water around her to freeze solid, but the temperature of the water merely lowered by several degrees. “Wow… It really works!”

Of course I didn’t doubt Hatsume-san, but… never in my life did I think it would be possible!

Then, with the girls of 1-A helping her, Hamari practiced the backstroke long into the evening; by the end of the day, she was able to swim all on her own--without flotation devices or help from her classmates. 

Once it was time to go home for the day, Hamari called the girls of 1-A together to thank everyone. She gave them a deep bow before beginning to speak.

“Everyone… Thank you so much for helping me. I never dreamed of swimming before. Because of my Quirk, I thought it would never be possible. I watched all of you swim in class, and I felt a little lonely… I really did want to join you all, but I didn’t want to make anyone worry about me. But...even though I didn’t say a word, you all cared so much.”

“Thank you… I just want you to know how much this means to me.”

The girls collectively ‘awww’ and when Mina suggests a group hug, everyone gathers close to Hamari and hugs her. “We’re not just classmates, we’re your friends, Hamari! We always will be. We all look out for each other, like family! Like sisters!”

“Sisters…” Hamari’s eyes became wet. “Ashido-san… Yes, you are all...like another family to me.” She closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth of her friends’ hugs.

Not only was she able to protect them from harm after the submarine’s explosion, but she was finally able to overcome one of the hurdles in her life: swimming. Being able to swim with the girls of 1-A was so much fun that Hamari couldn’t wait to do it again.