Amanchu! 14

Futaba undergoes a test of her diving skills in an indoor pool.

Here's the real Demon Instructor.

Summary:
Futaba and Katori-sensei are at an indoor pool to exam so Katori-sensei can give Futaba some training/evaluation on her diving skills before letting her off into to sea. Officially only Futaba and Katori-sensei are present as the other club members are experienced at ocean diving, but unbeknownst to Futaba, Hikari, Ai, and Makoto are all hiding around the pool to spy on Futaba's progress. Things start off well with Futaba passing the equipment check and even the mask clearing technique (that she had trouble with in chapter 8). After Futaba passes these tests, Katori-sensei orders Futaba to take off her diving gear, swim for 100m, and try to stay afloat for 10 minutes without touching the bottom of the pool. To Katori's surprise, Futaba reveals that she actually don't know how to swim. Katori-sensei adjusts her plans and allows Futaba to swim with the fins and snorkel mask, but floating exercise is unchanged. After Futaba completes the swim, Makoto (in disguise) suggests to Katori -sensei that Futaba lie on top of the water (a la backstroke) to stay afloat. Katori agrees with the suggestion, and and Futaba manages to stay afloat for the required 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes is up, Hikari, Ai, and Katori jump into the water to celebrate Futaba passing the test, and Katori-sensei states that Futaba is now ready to make her first ocean dive.

Uh... embarrassing remarks are not allowed?

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I'm surprised that Futaba didn't know how to swim. That kind of explained what happened in chapter 8, but I find it surprising that someone who can't swim would join the diving club. I suppose Hikari is just that charming. The good thing is that at least Futaba isn't afraid of getting in the water, so it shouldn't take her too long to become a adept swimmer. For someone who has no prior knowledge of diving, Futaba picked up the skills reasonably quickly, so she should be fine especially the other members and Katori-sensei are there to watch out for her.

Anyways, I'm glad that the story is moving closer to Futaba's first ocean dive. It's about time that the diving club went out to the sea (it's been more than a year since Amanchu! started), and I've always been wondering to see how Amano-sensei will render an underwater ocean environment. Hopefully Futaba's first ocean dive will be the next chapter.