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Time passed.

Chihaya reopened her eyes. The pain in her lungs grew and she could no longer fake a sleep. As she focused to keep her mouth closed, her throat heaved as if she were breathing. She looked at her watch again. She read three minutes and twenty-two seconds.

(Toughing it out…)

Chihaya looked at Aya again. Aya was clinging to the crossbar with her back straight, but she was now puffing out her cheeks, seemingly to withstand pain.

(And it’s about…time...)

Chihaya let out a cloud of air. Bubbles, large and small, shone like pearls and rose to the surface over quite a bit of time.

Aya kept still. But as Chihaya watched, she slowly lifted her hips off the beam while her hands still held on firmly. Gradually, she pointed her feet and toes upward, with her belly tucked in, and briefly let go of her grip and swiveled her wrists to adjust pose.

(Oh?)

Like a gymnast, Aya now stretched her body with her head down and toes aiming directly overhead. She was doing an underwater headstand on the beam. Her eyes were closed, but Chihaya could tell she was still conscious by the sporadic puffing and sucking of her cheeks.

(Aya?)

“Glubglubgulp.”

As she watched in awe Aya’s beautiful maneuver, Chihaya accidentally released most of the remaining air in her lungs. Half panicking, she forced herself down and grappled her throat with one hand, fighting the impending urge to draw in seawater. (Ten seconds, only ten seconds to go)

Aya was still keeping her cool. Six, seven, eight, nine...

(Ten)

Chihaya untangled her legs from the cross beam and gave it a strong upward thrust. She shot past Aya, still perched upside down, and paddled her body up with arms and legs with all her strength. She looked up, her throat now in a spasmic longing for air, and felt her vision turn brighter and brighter. Dark blue. Cobalt blue. Emerald.

Four minutes and two seconds into her dive, Chihaya made a big splash and danced into a world of air and sunlight that she had almost forgotten.

"Squirt. Puff, puff, puff."

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Comments

umibuta

I am thinking to draw this scene if official release isn't going to do it, may I ?

savaster

That’s no problem Umibuta-San. Our thought was to comicalize this scene as well but we don’t know when that is going to be.

Titan1017

I don’t remember Aya doing a headstand in the original; what a description! We know the girls don’t get to six minutes until the events of (ironically enough) Five Minute Summer proper, so it’s good to get a handle on their improvement (I imagine Aya might already be capable of it, she would just really have to push herself). That said, even for an avid swimmer, Chihaya managing four minutes after only a handful of dives is extremely impressive, and really puts into perspective how much the girls improve early on into their adventures. It took more than an entire series for them to go from six minutes to equaling Saki’s starting time of seven and a half.