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Nobody quite understood why Haru did what Haru did. Nobody quite understands the way Haru thought about things. Even Makoto, who often kept Haru in check – didn’t know what to expect of Haru.
Yet, despite not knowing what to expect regarding what Haru would do next, they knew to always expect the unexpected – to a point.
Of course, expecting the unexpected in regards to Haru didn’t prepare anyone on the Iwatobi High School swim team for anything unexpected outside of the realm of Haru’s quirkiness, but everything started when Gou arranged for a training camp at a secluded place so they could train for the next swimming competition., but when they arrived everything looked normal, at least until Nagisa muttered, “Did you have to pick such a spooky location Gou?”
“Excuse me?” Gou glared at the smallest member of the swim team, obviously far from pleased with the fact he’d referred to her choice in place as having a spooky aura.
Rei pushed up his glasses. “Now that I think about it, it does feel like it is out of a horror novel.”
“Come on now,” Amakata sensei held up her hands, the fingers curling down, obviously nervous regarding the tension. “Look at Haru. He’s completely fine with this place.”
Makoto let out a sigh, watching Haru strip down to his swim trunks. “I’m not sure that means anything, given the fact…”
“What?” Gou glared at him, her arms crossed and her mouth pouting, before raising her voice. “It’s not yet time to start swimming Haru! I have a set itinerary, you know!” Which of course resulted in Haru looking at her as if she were crazy, not to mention the fact he didn’t say anything about how he wanted to swim right then and now. Despite his thought process not being apparent in most regards, when it came to water there was no denying the fact Haru was attracted by it.”
“Well, Haru is honestly fine as long as he has water to swim in.”
“You mean Haru-chan would jump into the water even if there was a monster in there?”
Makoto wanted to facepalm at what Nagisa said, but Rei quickly followed. “Particularly if the monster was a mackerel monster. I’m quite sure he’d try to hug it.”
“Guys…” Makoto said. The look on Haru’s face told Makoto everything, but perhaps Makoto could read his best friend far better than anybody. More importantly, he felt quite sure Haru was now interested in the possibility of hugging a monster mackerel,
“That’s enough. I’d better not catch any of you guys trying to prank me with any spooky pranks.” After that, the day went off as per the routine and nothing seemed amiss even at night when Makoto heard Haru get up and go do something, but if he swam at night Gou would likely get on his case. He got up the next morning, completely prepared for breakfast, and another long day of training when he heard Gou scream.
Letting out a sigh, Makoto headed in the direction the scream came from. “What did Haru do…” Makoto looked at the kitchen, taking in the green slime. “Oh.”
“What…”
“You know exactly what happened Nagisa!” Gou turned with tears of anger welling in her eyes. “I told you guys not to play any spooky jokes, did I not!”
“I didn’t…”
“He’s cute.”
Haru’s comment about someone being cute made Nagisa turn and glare at him. “I am not cute!” He then further protested. “And I didn’t do it!”
Haru of course ignored Nagisa’s complaint and went about sitting at the table as if nothing happened. Gou glared at the two, tapping her foot while Rei let out a sigh. “This is a mess.”
“Well, all of you get to clean it up,” their teacher said, the look on her face making it quite clear she was far from pleased with the prank. “And I’d better not see another prank like this Nagisa.”
“But I…”
Of course, they also found the food gone, which made everyone but Haru send each other looks. The training schedule was put on hold while Gou, Rei, and their teacher went to get food while Haru and Makoto – mostly Makoto – watched Nagisa. Of course, because Makoto needed to keep track of Haru, he lost track of Nagisa until he heard Nagisa scream. He and Haru headed in the direction of the scream and found Nagisa curled up in a ball in front of a wall which was slimed.
“Haru, what did you do?” Makoto let out a sigh.
Haru gave him a look, obviously questioning why he would ask that of all things.
“Because if Nagisa is like this, that means you and I are the only ones who could have pulled it off.”
“I was with you.” Haru then pointed at the wall. “He’s cute.”
“No Haru. Nagisa in this state isn’t cute.”
“That’s not…” Haru’s mouth twisted, almost as if unsure of what to say. At the same moment, the door opened and they heard the others come in with the food. Grabbing onto Haru’s arm, Makoto headed towards the kitchen, letting out a sigh.
“Where’s Nagisa?” their teacher asked.
“He’s cowering in the other room, but he’s not the one playing the prank. Given the fact the food went missing…” Makoto watched the color drain from Gou’s face.
“Wait. You mean someone broke in?” Gou’s lip trembled, but their teacher also looked just as worried.
“They came through the walls,” Haru piped up unexpectedly.
“Sempai…” Rei looked right at Haru. “That really wasn’t appropriate.” Haru opened his mouth, before heading over to the bags to begin digging through the food, pulling out a can of mackerel from the bag. Rei shook his head. “And it’s really not the time for…”
The metal top of the mackerel can slid open with a resounding metallic swish and something green, slimy, and drooling came through the wall. As Haru held out the mackerel for the thing that floated in the air, someone let out a scream, their arms wrapping around Haru’s waist. “Makoto?”
Makoto felt the corner of his mouth twitch. “Haru, that wasn’t me grabbing onto. It’s Gou. She’s scared of that thing.”
“He’s cute.”
In other words, Haru was trying to tell them that he’d already run into their green intruder, possibly the night before, nor was he phased by it. “That thing isn’t cute Haru!”
Makoto’s eyes blinked, then he focused on Gou who buried her face into the middle of Haru’s back, almost as if she were hiding the look on her face, but she’d not called the person she latched onto Haruka sempai. Haru looked right at him, still unphased. “Can I keep it?”
“No, Haru, can you keep it.”
“I want to keep it. I’ll call him Midori. Can I please keep Midori?”
“That face is hard to resist,” Rei piped up.
“Oh, I can resist it quite well,” Makoto muttered. “No, Haru, you can not keep that thing.”
A knock came at the door and their teacher headed over and answered the door. Someone spoke in English and their teacher said something about not understanding what the person was saying before another person translated. “Sorry. What my companion here said is a friend of yours may have paid a visit. A raccoon, I think? You might call it a tanuki.”
“That thing doesn’t look like a tanuki at all.”
“Ah. So Slimer is here.”
“I. Can you get rid of it.”
Haru’s eyes widened in horror at his teacher’s words, but he held out his hand with a piece of mackerel so that the thing called Slimer could – well, slime his entire arm just to get the piece of food. Two men stepped into the room, one with brown hair and the other with glasses and a strange, blond haircut that stuck out like a sore thumb. Without batting an eye, Haru pointed at Slimer and then said in English – which surprised Makoto given the fact Haru hated English, but then he really wanted to…” Can I keep Midori-chan?”
“Yes,” a smile broke across the face of the man speaking English, but the man with blond hair and Makoto both said in unison and English. “No. Absolutely not.”
Haru’s mouth twisted into a frown, obviously not pleased with the situation, but his eyes blinked, suddenly realizing Gou was still latched to him. “Gou?”
“I am not letting go until that thing is gone Haru! It is either that thing goes, or I don’t ever let go of you.”
“Rin would be very angry at that.”
Makoto didn’t quite understand why that popped into Haru’s head. “Come on. You don’t like people touching you, so this should be a simple answer, right?”
“I like Midori. I like…” Haru frowned as if contemplating something. Gou’s arms tightened, making Haru’s eyes blink in a rapid manner, his breath sucking in.
“You’re obviously uncomfortable with Gou touching you, right?”
“It’s Gou.”
Which honestly didn’t make sense in Makoto’s head. “Yes, Gou is the one who is hugging you. You don’t like being hugged.”
Haru said nothing, but the stranger who spoke Japanese spoke up. “I’ll settle this. Slimer let's go home. I’ve got a really nice sandwich ready for you.”
This of course resulted in the guests leaving. Haru’s eyes blinked, seemingly disappointed. His eyes went down, looking at Gou’s arm, then he reached down one slimed hand to touch her arm. This resulted in her letting out a shriek which made Haru wince as she started pounding on his back. “Don’t do that Haru!” She then stormed off, but not before saying. “And we’re going home! I don’t want that thing coming back.”
“Gou’s mad at me.”
“You think?” Makoto rubbed the back of his neck.
“Sempai, why do you look so disappointed about Kou-san letting go?”
“I think Kou is right,” their teacher piped up. “We should be preparing to go. Let’s get packed, but let’s see to Nagisa as well.”
They left the room. Makoto crossed his arms, looking at Haru. “Okay. Rei’s right. Why do you look so disappointed?”
“I don’t know.” Haru frowned at him. “I wanted Midori to stay.”
“Even if Gou continued to latch onto you?”
“I didn’t mind.”
“Sure you didn’t.”
“Rin would have been mad.”
“That’s the second time you said that.”
“No. Rin will be mad.”
“I doubt Gou will tell him what happened. He wouldn’t believe any of anyways.”
“No. He’ll be mad that I like Gou.”
Makoto’s eyes blinked, his mind trying to process what Haru, wondering if Haru really understood what he was saying or if he really did think that way, or if this was another one of Haru’s misunderstandings regarding social interactions. “Haru, are you going to wash that slime off your arm or not? We’ve got to get going.”
“Gou’s mad at me.”
“Yeah, she is.” Makoto let out a sigh. “Let’s get ready to go.”