Hazuki Nagisa (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cutelilshit) wrote2014-02-02 11:22 pm
cutelilshit) wrote2014-02-02 11:22 pm
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Name: Frudence
Personal Journal:frudence
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frudence / frudence (AIM)
Other Characters Played: n/a
Are you 18 or over? Yes
Canon: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club (anime + Drama CD supplementary canon)
Character: Hazuki Nagisa
Timeline: Just after Episode 12 ends
Personality:
Nagisa is outwardly cheerful and rambunctious, being very demonstrative with his emotions. When he's wheedling people into things he wants to do, he headbutts them or hangs on their arms; when he's not satisfied that someone will follow him, he grabs their arm and drags them; when he's getting a little hysterically frustrated, he'll lean into someone's face. Basically, personal space doesn't exist for him. The most superficial glance of him reveals a fun-loving Token Mini Moe, but he's hardly an airhead.
The reason is actually just how confident Nagisa is and how comfortable he is with himself, building on the change he experienced in the grade school swim club with Haruka, Makoto, and Rin. He's described as having nerves of steel by the others and Haruka is genuinely surprised the one time Nagisa admits to being nervous the night before a competition. He doesn't get bothered by what strangers may think of him - his friends are another story - and will jump to straightforward solutions to problems even if they might otherwise seem embarrassing or uncouth. For example, Makoto protested that Nagisa couldn't swim without a bathing suit, so Nagisa just went skinny dipping. The driving force behind his exuberance is not for lack of self-awareness, but rather a conviction behind everything he does and says. This may give the impression he lacks a filter, but it's more that he's just frank by nature. He will actually lie and misdirect - although his friends can see through right it - if he's in the middle of a scheme.
That's because Nagisa does enjoy plotting devious adventures. Part of it is his love of the suspense / horror genre and he gets to imagine himself going on similar romps, but he's also just a thrill-seeker who enjoys roller-coasters and the like. Again, all a stark contrast from his childhood which he is cognizant of, even proud of. He sneaks into abandon buildings for fun and explores a creepy house with zeal; if he's ever shocked or scared by such things, it's with a smile on his face. He's the type to play Frogger with cars (i.e. jaywalk) and panic his more cautious friends rather than wait for a stoplight, because something just so happened to catch his attention.
His imagination is a thing to behold, as he pretended that hot water was consommé soup and vividly sees his friends' swimming styles as animals - Haruka being the dolphin, Rin the shark, and Makoto an orca. He's also the one with odd rationalizations for associations. For example, the sound "ray" is in Rainbow, so he guesses that's why the character Rei should wear a rainbow-colored swimsuit. Nagisa also thinks that Haruka probably likes fish because he swims like a dolphin. His creative mind even manifests as inventiveness in coming up with out of the box solutions to problems when the straightforward ones don't work. He's tenacious like that, as he is with most things.
Nagisa doesn't run from hard work - he jumps right into it. Whether it's physical labor like cleaning a dilapidated pool or repeated effort like asking his classmates to join the swim team, he'll do it. Dirt, sweat, bugs - none of that phases him. He might grumble along the way if he's frustrated, like when Rei couldn't learn how to swim, but he still won't give up entirely. He just keeps throwing ideas out until one of them sticks. Pretty much the only time he ever gets truly bummed out or sad is when it affects his friends and his first attempts to cheer them up don't work. It would take something like personal physical harm to make Nagisa cry for himself these days.
Having a zest for life is taxing, so Nagisa invariably ends up falling asleep anywhere he can when he's tired, whether it's against someone's shoulder with his mouth hanging open or just conking out as soon as he hits his bed. He's a deep sleeper and even talks in his sleep. If available, he'll sleep with a body pillow.
He does have a sweet tooth and likes strawberry anything, really, but really enjoys strawberry shortcake and strawberry milk. He doesn't like peppers or onions, but does enjoy outdoor cooking like barbeques. Invariably, if he has something to say, he'll talk with his mouth full of food anyway.
Nagisa is pretty much the only one who gets away with callomg the boys by their -chan nicknames: Haru-chan, Mako-chan, Rin-chan, then eventually Rei-chan, Ama-chan-sensei, and Goro-chan. Once he's set on a name to call a person, he refuses to change it; Gou repeatedly requests that she be called "Kou" (the more traditional reading of her name), but Nagisa just keeps using "Gou" anyway. Even though -chan is a cutesy way of addressing people, the fact that Nagisa gets away with it is indicative of his powerful charisma.
Background:
Nagisa is the youngest of 4 with three older sisters, with a father who is definitely alive but no mention made of his mother's status. When he was in 5th grade, he was enrolled in an intra-school swimming club in the town of Iwatobi, Japan - a city based on Iwami, Tottori, Japan. There he met kids from the other elementary schools, including 3 of the other protagonists of the series - Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, and Rin Matsuoka - although they didn't become friends until one fateful day. Nagisa's sisters loved dressing him up like a girl, which was all well and good until the other kids started teasing Nagisa for that and for having a girly name. By his own admission, he was a weak and shy little kid who was easily bullied over these things, so his dad told him to get stronger. Nagisa may or may not have had a say in *how* he was supposed to get stronger, but he ended up in the same intra-school Swimming Club as Haruka. On his first day, however, his sisters packed one of their bathing suits in his bag, leaving his swimming briefs behind. He found it in the locker room and wailed about how he hated swimming, but Haruka heard that and traded him swimming suits for the day. Haruka said he didn't care what kind of bathing suit he wore, so long as he got to swim.
That was the first time Nagisa became friends with another boy with a girly name, and the odd coincidence stuck with him as he hung out with Haruka - well, more like tagged after. In doing so he met Makoto, Haruka's neighborhood friend and another boy with a girly name. When Rin transferred into their swim club to be on the relay team with Haruka, Nagisa begged Rin to join the relay when he found out Haruka was going to be in it. Rin initially rejected the younger kid, saying the other three of them were serious. When Nagisa insisted he was serious as well as fast, Rin said he could join their team if he placed first in the next breastroke time trial. Being particularly in awe of Haruka, Nagisa would even run home together with Haruka instead of biking there. He swam breastroke on that team, as he does now, and they won their competition... then it was all over. The last thing they did together was bury the relay trophy they won together in the ground near their practice building. Then, Haruka and Makoto went on to their new middle school, Rin moved to Australia, and Nagisa went to his last year of grade school. They wouldn't see each other for 4 years, from the end of Nagisa's 5th year until the start of his 10th. Nagisa didn't keep up with swimming competitively, but he clearly never forgot the fun and friends he made in the club.
In the interim 4 years, Rin returned from Australia each year at New Year's. That first year back, he met up with Haruka by chance. They decided to compete in a quick there-and-back sprint in their old practice building's pool. Even though Rin had been in an Olympic training regimen in Australia, Haruka beat him. Rin quit swimming competitively because he couldn't deal with failing to live up to his Olympic dreams on behalf of his late father, and Haruka quit competing as well out of guilt for hurting Rin so deeply. This encounter would prove to be the major source of conflict for the 12 episode series.
When Nagisa finally entered High School (10th grade) at the start of Haruka and Makoto's 2nd year, the first thing he did was try to find them and ask about swimming with them again. Makoto and Haruka almost didn't recognize him until he called them by their -chan nicknames, Mako-chan and Haru-chan. As they were catching up, Nagisa remarked that the building where they'd practiced swimming as children would be torn down, and convinced the other two boys to go with him to dig up their old relay trophy - notably without Rin. When they arrived, they found Rin stalking the halls too, and Nagisa had no idea why Rin was being so antagonistic. In fact, Rin challenged Haruka to another race before they realized the pool was empty. Rin left their trophy behind, having already dug it up, then parted without explaining his new attitude or Haruka volunteering the information. Thus, even though Nagisa and Makoto got in trouble for trespassing in the abandoned building, they still wanted to meet Rin again and ask him what had happened. Thinking he may go to their school, they looked for his name on all of the lockers - and found his sister's name instead. They met up with Gou to ask her what had changed, but she confessed she didn't know either. He was attending the boarding school Samezuka now and hadn't come home since. Nagisa went with Makoto to convince Haruka to visit Samezuka and look for Rin, only to end up breaking into their pool after dark when they didn't see him in swimming practice. Haruka ended up diving into the pool and Nagisa decided to join him. Since he didn't have a swimsuit, he just jumped in naked.
They did get their wish, though; Rin showed up at the pool and Haruka challenged Rin to another race. Even though Rin won that time, he didn't feel like it counted as a victory because Haruka wasn't upset about losing the way Rin had been 3 years ago. They were found by a teacher before they could talk any more, so the boys got in trouble for trespassing a 2nd time too. Nagisa and Makoto told Gou how they'd met Rin but didn't get to really talk to him. Unfortunately, Gou hadn't heard from him either. So, out of the blue, Nagisa suggested they just start a swimming club again and that way they can meet Rin at tournaments. Technically Nagisa would have been right, if Rin were still swimming competitively, but Haruka continued to keep silent on the subject of Rin's participation in Nagisa's plot. Nagisa was even the one to pick up a new club registration form the next day, he was so intent to get the ball rolling, then went with Makoto to ask Miss Amakata to be their faculty advisor. Her qualification in Nagisa's mind? Well she'd worked for a swimsuit designer, so that obviously meant she knew something about swimming, right? (The connections Nagisa's mind makes are a mystery.) Now there were just two other things stopping them from being a proper club: the pool was in severe disrepair and they needed a 4th member to form the club properly. Cleaning the pool was hard work, but simple enough; the 4th member was going to be more of a challenge. Just like cleaning the pool, Nagisa jumped right into the hard work of advertising their new club to his schoolmates. As fate would have it, the first person who rejected his offer - classmate Rei Ryugazaki - would later join the main cast. Despite Nagisa's best efforts, no one else wanted to join. In order to help her brother return to his old self, Gou decided to join their club as Manager. At the same time, Makoto encouraged Rin to join Samezuka's swimming club. That left a new problem: even though Gou made their club official in the eyes of the school, they still only had 3 swimmers since Gou couldn't join a boy's club as an athlete. So if they wanted to compete in relays, they'd need yet *another* member.
While on the train to school a few days later, Nagisa realized that since he'd already asked everyone, it was going to be hard asking all over again. The first person he got to ask was, yet again, his classmate Rei Ryugazaki since he was standing right there on the train. Unfortunately Rei wouldn't even do it as a favor, accurately predicting what Nagisa was going to ask him about before the words were even out of Nagisa's mouth. Still, that's when Nagisa learned that Rei got off the train one stop early every day to run the rest of the way to school. Meanwhile, Gou had found a place where they could pay to swim indoors for practicing in the winter. She expected that they could use their club budget for that, but Miss Amakata said there's no way the school would approve such an expense for a brand new club. Citing accomplishments as the way to earn a bigger budget, they realized they'd definitely need to compete in relays and, you guessed it, definitely need that 4th swimmer. Haruka tried to talk to a few people but was unpersuasive. So Nagisa went back to hanging flyers at the end of their school day, and happened to see Rei walking by. Nagisa seized the opportunity to try befriending Rei instead of outright asking him to join again, but Rei gave him the cold shoulder. Since that conversation led Nagisa to Rei's locker, he did get to see Rei's given name for the first time - and Rei is another "girly" name. That was all Nagisa needed to know to decide that Rei was *destined* to join their swim team. Since Rei had mentioned he was going to Track practice, Nagisa fetched Makoto, Haruka, and Gou to go out to the track field to introduce them to Rei from a distance. They all agreed that Rei's form was excellent, so that sealed the deal for Nagisa. He waited on the train after practice to try befriending Rei again, starting by calling him Rei-chan, but Rei rejected Nagisa's offer to call him by his first name as well. It did lead to the interesting revelation of *why* Rei didn't want to join Swim Club regardless of his Track membership: he didn't think swimming was a beautiful sport.
When Gou announced that they'd be able to do a joint practice with Samezuka at their indoor pool, Nagisa's became more resolved since they'd need 4 people for that practice too. Everything was riding on Rei joining, he believed. The next day he decided to jog to school with Rei like he had with Haruka when they were kids, and explained the main reason was because of how beautiful he thought Rei looked when pole vaulting. That praise and meeting Haruka, whom Nagisa assured Rei swam beautifully, was enough to convince Rei to participate in their joint practice with Samezuka - so long as he didn't have to swim. Nagisa tried to keep that promise too by telling a little white lie, but Samezuka's captain wouldn't have it. None of them expected the real problem to be that Rei didn't even know how to swim in the first place. Nagisa felt a little bad at that point that Rei didn't say anything about it, but they got through practice anyway. Rei surprised everyone when he decided to join their swimming club after all that, even asking Nagisa to take responsibility for his training. Nagisa was so excited he pulled Rei into a hug.
Gou got them started on a training regimen right away, using Rin's old Olympic practice schedule, even though Nagisa would have rather they look at matching uniforms. Rei was given just one week to learn the styles in the first place. Like the others, Nagisa tried to teach Rei his style - breastroke - but Rei sunk like a hammer as soon as he let go of Nagisa's hands. The same happened to the others when they tried to teach him, so they held a meeting to discuss possible other reasons. In the end, Rei himself suggested that the problem was his swimsuit didn't fit right, so they went shopping for a new suit and prescription goggles. Nagisa, Makoto, and Haruka even got into it, trying on new suits as well. Turned out Rin was there as well, and he ended up having a little chat with Haruka. Haruka agreed to practice seriously from there on out, so that they could have a real competition at the tournament. That changed Haruka's mind about teaching Rei how to swim, but it ended up not working either; Rei couldn't master any of the styles they tried to teach him. That turned out to be the problem - there was one style he hadn't tried yet: Butterfly. When he tried that, he miraculously succeeded.
That meant as they prepared for their prefectural tournament, they were each swimming different styles and all 100m, Nagisa doing breastroke per usual but also the 200m. To amp up the training, Gou suggested they swim between several islands in the open ocean as a kind of Training Hell. Nagisa was *pumped* because of the deserted islands and nightmarish themes Gou invoked. Unfortunately, Miss Amakata was quick to remind them that their budget wouldn't cover it, so they started looking for alternatives. Eventually Makoto suggested they use his family's camping gear instead of staying at a hotel, then the only problem would be a boat to get there. They tapped their old coach Sasabe, or "Goro-chan" to Nagisa, and then just provided their own meals. Even though it was a fishing boat, Nagisa didn't let that stop him from running to the front of the boat to get the best view, with Rei doing his best just to make sure Nagisa didn't fall overboard. They found the sports facility near the main beach and discovered Samezuka practicing there, but it only made them a little jealous. So, Makoto focused them on their own regimen and made sure Rei had a kick board since he was a beginner. They only completed half of their goal, which upset Rei, but the other guys tried to assure Rei it was alright to pace himself. As Makoto explained, it was more important that they were practicing together. Too bad it fell on deaf ears.
Rei went out that night into the open ocean to practice swimming some more - all alone in the dark - and things only got worse when a storm kicked up suddenly. Makoto noticed he was gone and went to rescue him alone, which woke up Haruka, then Nagisa. Nagisa wouldn't let Haruka run out into the water alone, so they swam out together. Haruka ended up having to rescue Makoto because he froze up in shock from a traumatic experience as a child, leaving Nagisa to rescue Rei. Haruka and Nagisa tried to stick together, but the waves separated them on the island opposite the beach where they'd been camping. Nagisa comforted Rei, who now felt even worse that everyone else came out to save him and concerned that Makoto had obviously gotten upset about something. Nagisa didn't want Rei to dwell on it and tried to focus him on looking for Makoto and Haruka. When they found them, Haruka tried to confront Rei about his night-swimming escapade, but Nagisa vouched for Rei's desire to catch up to them. Together they found Suzushima Rest House, although it looked a lot like a haunted house to them at the time. After they scrounged for food, Nagisa made a box into a 6-sided die and insisted they play a story-swapping game. Rei told a story about his underwear getting shown to the class and it echoed Nagisa's first encounter with Haruka, so he was sympathetic. Haruka's story was about finding a waterfall in a forest. Then Nagisa decided for his turn to do a penguin imitation, which successfully lightened Makoto's mood enough to make him laugh. That's when Makoto opened up about why he froze up: an old man he knew as a child died in a typhoon, very very close to making it to safety. Nagisa decided to ask why on earth Makoto would have even agreed to the training camp if he was that scared of open water, to which Makoto responded that being with his three teammates alleviated that fear. Daylight was breaking, so they thought about just waiting for a boat to come by for Makoto's sake, but the four of them were able to swim across the way together. They fell asleep on the beach, having not slept the night before.
Training didn't stop once they got back with only 5 days to go until the competition, but it was fun to check out the pictures from their trip with Gou. To prepare their spirits for the competition, they visited the local shrine to pray for luck. While Rei revealed he did want to swim in a relay, they weren't entered in one... yet. On the day of the prefectural tournament, Gou actually signed the boys up for the relay without telling them. They instead focused entirely on their individual events, with Haruka up first and competing against Rin exactly as they'd planned. Despite all their hard work and Haruka's natural talent, he lost to Rin and by just enough to not qualify for regionals either. That shook the confidence of the normally unflappable Nagisa, plus Makoto and Rei's confidence took a severe hit too never mind how (surprisingly) devastated Haruka was. The three of them went to look for Haruka when he didn't come back from his race and ended up running into Rin in the hallway. Nagisa asked where Haruka was, but Rin just brushed it off as Haruka being upset at losing. Rei accurately assessed that winning didn't matter to Haruka, so it was probably some other reason, and Makoto affirmed that whatever it was, Rin had been the one to convince Haruka it was important. That was the first Rei had heard about the connection between them and Rin being related to swimming specifically, but Nagisa insisted it was something they should talk about later. They were getting ready to watch Makoto swim his event when Nagisa decided to look for Haruka again. Even though Haruka said he was fine not coming to watch, Nagisa didn't take that answer and drug him out to the stands midway through the heat. Even though Makoto lost his heat too, the sound of the whole Iwatobi team cheering Makoto on at Coach Sasabe's command touched Haruka and definitely brought back fond memories for Nagisa. Neither Nagisa nor Rei qualified in their heats either, but after Coach Sasabe and Miss Amakata left for the day, Gou revealed her secret relay signup for them. Ecstatic at a second chance to prove themselves, the three boys and Gou went to look for Haruka to make sure he'd actually participate.
While Haruka was off having a mild existential crisis, Nagisa had the idea to call his cellphone and leave a voicemail. Unfortunately Haruka didn't have it with him at the time, but Makoto kept the phone in hand while waiting for Haruka to come home. Nagisa, Rei, and Gou ended up leaving, but Haruka heard the message when he finally came home for the night. When Makoto got word that Haruka would participate, Nagisa and Rei decided early the next morning to practice their exchange in the relay at the school's pool - when Nagisa touched the wall and Rei would be expected to dive in for his Butterfly laps. After encouraging each other one final time, they entered the relay - Makoto first, Nagisa second, Rei third, and finally Haruka swimming the final laps. Nagisa, Makoto, and Rei all cheered Haruka on from the edge of the lane - and they won. Nagisa was so excited he jumped up and full-body hugged Haruka, clinging to him like a koala while the other two boys shouted out their glee. The response at school was icing on the cake, being recognized for their entry into regionals and potential to make nationals. Nagisa had to improve the front crawl stroke portion of his breastroke, according to Gou.
All that could wait, though, because there was a festival to attend. Nagisa and Makoto picked up Haruka at his place then met Rei there. There were squid dishes to eat, games to play, and events to watch. They even saw Gou and her friend walking around; when Makoto remarked on how cute their yukata were, Nagisa looked to Rei instead. They soon had something else to concern themselves with, because Rei spotted Rin walking around the same festival. Nagisa worried that if Haruka and Rin met, Haruka would get despondent again and quit the relay, so he assigned Rei the task of keeping Rin away while he occupied Haruka and Makoto. Whenever Nagisa received updates, he saw the cool side of Rei come out. Unfortunately during one of those updates, Haruka overheard Nagisa talking out loud to himself, but at least Haruka said it was fine for Rei to come back. Nagisa left Makoto and Haruka to find him, and they met up again just in time to hear Haruka say how happy it made him to have everyone waiting at the finish line for him during the relay, then agree officially to swim in the relay. Since their heart was in it now and they heard Rin was going to be on Samezuka's relay team, they'd train even harder.
Coach Sasabe came to their school to see to that, using cameras at multiple angles to show the boys what they were doing wrong - for Nagisa it was that he was jumping too high on his initial dive-in for the exchange with Makoto. On the train ride home, though, Nagisa noticed Rei was a little upset; he still didn't fully understand why the trio of Nagisa, Makoto, and Haruka even care what was going on with Rin anymore, given his attitude, instead of just focusing on making Nationals. As a ritual to prepare for it, Coach Sasabe invited them over to his place for some Hot Pot - which was excruciating during summer, but it turned out that Goro-chan was such a good cook it didn't matter. Nagisa pulled his bangs back and dug in eagerly, then proceeded to chase Rei around with some fireworks before he got somber again when Gou found Coach Sasabe's scrapbook of the trio's kid years with Rin. He waited until the four of them were alone, walking away from Coach Sasabe's house to finally ask straight out what happened, and Haruka acquiesced. That's when he told Rei why Rin had been obsessed with the relay at first, then how they won, and that led to the natural question of what changed between the trio and Rin after he left for Australia. Haruka continued, explaining how he and Rin competed at their old swim club and Rin lost. That was Nagisa's first time hearing that part of the story too. That still left Rei with some questions, but Haruka could only agree he didn't fully understand it either. While waiting for the train, Nagisa tried to cheer Rei up by saying it was all in the past, but Rei just got angry because it definitely was not. That gave Nagisa a unique perspective on why Rei wasn't at practice the next day, though he tried to cover it up. Little did he know that Rei was actually going to confront Rin, just that Rei was still clearly upset from the other night.
Coach Sasabe told them to go check on Rei since Nagisa's cover up had been that he might have ate some spoiled ice cream, even giving the trio some money to take a gift, though it was only about $10. Nagisa knew exactly where Rei lived because he'd been there a few times, since they lived close by and were in the same grade. The four of them got to talk about why Rei missed practice and how worried they'd been, with Haruka reassuring Rei they were a team now. Coach Sasabe kept them training right up until the day they left for the hotel, giving them a day to get settled before the regional tournament itself started. The mundane activities were great for team-building and solidifying their friendship, and for making sure Nagisa didn't run out into traffic. They tried to check out the pool they'd be swimming in, but the area was closed, so they went up on a hilltop for a bird's eye view instead. That night, all the boys were restless; even Nagisa who normally sleeps so heavily heard Rei get up and leave, so he went to look for him and ran into Haruka instead. Nagisa confessed he was getting nervous when he normally didn't, but admitted it was because he was so excited to swim in the relay again, and with Rin being there too. He joked about Haruka needing to be more grateful since Nagisa had insisted on the new swim club, but was very surprised when Haruka actually thanked him, so he hugged Haruka in return.
The next day was regionals and Iwatobi watched as Rin struggled in his heat, not even doing average for him. Haruka left to find him, only to hear Rin throwing a tantrum when his teammate Ai Nitori tried to console him. That's how they heard that Rin was taken off the relay. After Rin stormed off, Rei told them about the conversation he'd had with Rin the other night - how it wasn't Haruka's fault that Rin decided to quit swimming in middle school, and how watching the four of them win their relay reminded him of what it was like to have great teammates swimming with him. For Rin's sake, as someone else who understood the desire to be on a great team, Rei concocted a plan - he'd let Rin take his place in the relay swimming butterfly, so that Rin could swim with Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa again. That meant they had to find Rin. With everyone searching, Haruka finally found him. Rin exploded in anger first, frustration second, and then Haruka told him the plan after the other three showed up. Rei watched from the sidelines as Rin rejoined his old teammates, swimming in Iwatobi's lane. They all posted personal best times, cheering each other on to place first in the competition. The thrill of the win was all they wanted. They knew they weren't going to get the trophy; they knew they were going to get disqualified with Rin swimming in Rei's place, but it didn't matter. Nagisa was crying with happiness when Rin suddenly hugged Haruka, so Makoto and Nagisa joined in. Before they left, they took a group picture down by the lane, and Nagisa pulled Rei into frame just in time to be part of it. They made a pact to return next year, that way Rei could participate.
The stunt did have another positive impact: Samezuka and Iwatobi had more joint practices together. So in the end, Nagisa and the others got to remain friends with Rin and swim with him, even though he stayed on Samezuka's more intense training program gunning for the Olympics.
Abilities/Additional Notes:
Aside from the ability to invade personal space, Nagisa is a pretty normal 16 year old boy. Due to his better physical condition, he has better endurance than most people his age and definitely better strength for lifting/dragging than you'd expect for someone of his size.
** Appearance:
*Note: Relevant to the 3rd person sample occurring first
[Video feed with Nagisa standing in a street of the NORTHEAST QUARTER.]
Hey, everyone, I have a question since I'm pretty new! If you don't remember, my name is Hazuki Nagisa and here's my question - when buildings are abandoned here, what happens to them? I mean, can anyone just move right in? That sounds nice and easy, but if someone else already submitted a form to claim this place I'd like to know about it. The place looked like it hadn't been used in awhile, I think, so I should be alright...
It just looked like it was so much fun to be there... like the people really loved it, but maybe they couldn't take care of it anymore? [He chuckles] I guess I like projects like that. Oh, right! The name of the place...
[He turns the feed so it faces the store's front signage]
Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!
[And I'm sorry Adstring, that is pronounced with a pretty bad accent. Nagisa loves English, he's just not that great at the pronunciation yet.]
Third-Person Sample:
Nagisa stood outside of the shop, mouth wide open in yearning. There was no other place he wanted to go inside more than this. He'd passed by twice in the last week, and his curiosity had finally gotten the better of him.
He needed some entertainment. He didn't think he was the type to window shop, but he'd also never had the problem of being on his own and accountable for his own funds, let alone in a place that didn't even have a bakery for buying snacks. Turning around, he slid on his back down the front window to sit on the street. "What I wouldn't give to get something in there... it all looks so amazing..."
Then he whipped back around, nose just barely edging up over the display as his hands pressed against the glass. "Maybe there's a little one that I can sneak out… it doesn't have to be a big thing... Maybe. Man, now I do want a few of them."
Looking to the left and to the right quickly, he returned his gaze to his prize. "The guys won't know I went in alone. If I end up getting trapped, I can just call them, right? Right. Okay!" He stood up and marched around to the backdoor entrance. The murky light shone in behind him as he stood up straight, a man on a mission to get what he wanted even in this strange place.
"Pardon the intrusion…" Nagisa whispered with a chuckle, not actually expecting anyone to be there. After he realized just how deserted place was, he found out it was actually more than the joke shop it looked like on the outside. There were supplies, ledgers for barter and credits, storage and sleeping arrangements... it was a pretty cool place, actually. Nagisa thought it was a shame for it to stay abandoned like his old swim club.
"Hey, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes - d'you mind if I stay here and have some fun?" He held up a hand, waving to the ceiling. "I promise to clean up and bring people back through here. I bet you miss seeing people, right? So if there are any spirits living here-" He clapped his hands together and bowed. "I hope they find peace-" Then he chuckled. "Or enjoy the company at least!"
Personal Journal:
frudenceContact:
Other Characters Played: n/a
Are you 18 or over? Yes
Canon: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club (anime + Drama CD supplementary canon)
Character: Hazuki Nagisa
Timeline: Just after Episode 12 ends
Personality:
Nagisa is outwardly cheerful and rambunctious, being very demonstrative with his emotions. When he's wheedling people into things he wants to do, he headbutts them or hangs on their arms; when he's not satisfied that someone will follow him, he grabs their arm and drags them; when he's getting a little hysterically frustrated, he'll lean into someone's face. Basically, personal space doesn't exist for him. The most superficial glance of him reveals a fun-loving Token Mini Moe, but he's hardly an airhead.
The reason is actually just how confident Nagisa is and how comfortable he is with himself, building on the change he experienced in the grade school swim club with Haruka, Makoto, and Rin. He's described as having nerves of steel by the others and Haruka is genuinely surprised the one time Nagisa admits to being nervous the night before a competition. He doesn't get bothered by what strangers may think of him - his friends are another story - and will jump to straightforward solutions to problems even if they might otherwise seem embarrassing or uncouth. For example, Makoto protested that Nagisa couldn't swim without a bathing suit, so Nagisa just went skinny dipping. The driving force behind his exuberance is not for lack of self-awareness, but rather a conviction behind everything he does and says. This may give the impression he lacks a filter, but it's more that he's just frank by nature. He will actually lie and misdirect - although his friends can see through right it - if he's in the middle of a scheme.
That's because Nagisa does enjoy plotting devious adventures. Part of it is his love of the suspense / horror genre and he gets to imagine himself going on similar romps, but he's also just a thrill-seeker who enjoys roller-coasters and the like. Again, all a stark contrast from his childhood which he is cognizant of, even proud of. He sneaks into abandon buildings for fun and explores a creepy house with zeal; if he's ever shocked or scared by such things, it's with a smile on his face. He's the type to play Frogger with cars (i.e. jaywalk) and panic his more cautious friends rather than wait for a stoplight, because something just so happened to catch his attention.
His imagination is a thing to behold, as he pretended that hot water was consommé soup and vividly sees his friends' swimming styles as animals - Haruka being the dolphin, Rin the shark, and Makoto an orca. He's also the one with odd rationalizations for associations. For example, the sound "ray" is in Rainbow, so he guesses that's why the character Rei should wear a rainbow-colored swimsuit. Nagisa also thinks that Haruka probably likes fish because he swims like a dolphin. His creative mind even manifests as inventiveness in coming up with out of the box solutions to problems when the straightforward ones don't work. He's tenacious like that, as he is with most things.
Nagisa doesn't run from hard work - he jumps right into it. Whether it's physical labor like cleaning a dilapidated pool or repeated effort like asking his classmates to join the swim team, he'll do it. Dirt, sweat, bugs - none of that phases him. He might grumble along the way if he's frustrated, like when Rei couldn't learn how to swim, but he still won't give up entirely. He just keeps throwing ideas out until one of them sticks. Pretty much the only time he ever gets truly bummed out or sad is when it affects his friends and his first attempts to cheer them up don't work. It would take something like personal physical harm to make Nagisa cry for himself these days.
Having a zest for life is taxing, so Nagisa invariably ends up falling asleep anywhere he can when he's tired, whether it's against someone's shoulder with his mouth hanging open or just conking out as soon as he hits his bed. He's a deep sleeper and even talks in his sleep. If available, he'll sleep with a body pillow.
He does have a sweet tooth and likes strawberry anything, really, but really enjoys strawberry shortcake and strawberry milk. He doesn't like peppers or onions, but does enjoy outdoor cooking like barbeques. Invariably, if he has something to say, he'll talk with his mouth full of food anyway.
Nagisa is pretty much the only one who gets away with callomg the boys by their -chan nicknames: Haru-chan, Mako-chan, Rin-chan, then eventually Rei-chan, Ama-chan-sensei, and Goro-chan. Once he's set on a name to call a person, he refuses to change it; Gou repeatedly requests that she be called "Kou" (the more traditional reading of her name), but Nagisa just keeps using "Gou" anyway. Even though -chan is a cutesy way of addressing people, the fact that Nagisa gets away with it is indicative of his powerful charisma.
Background:
Nagisa is the youngest of 4 with three older sisters, with a father who is definitely alive but no mention made of his mother's status. When he was in 5th grade, he was enrolled in an intra-school swimming club in the town of Iwatobi, Japan - a city based on Iwami, Tottori, Japan. There he met kids from the other elementary schools, including 3 of the other protagonists of the series - Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, and Rin Matsuoka - although they didn't become friends until one fateful day. Nagisa's sisters loved dressing him up like a girl, which was all well and good until the other kids started teasing Nagisa for that and for having a girly name. By his own admission, he was a weak and shy little kid who was easily bullied over these things, so his dad told him to get stronger. Nagisa may or may not have had a say in *how* he was supposed to get stronger, but he ended up in the same intra-school Swimming Club as Haruka. On his first day, however, his sisters packed one of their bathing suits in his bag, leaving his swimming briefs behind. He found it in the locker room and wailed about how he hated swimming, but Haruka heard that and traded him swimming suits for the day. Haruka said he didn't care what kind of bathing suit he wore, so long as he got to swim.
That was the first time Nagisa became friends with another boy with a girly name, and the odd coincidence stuck with him as he hung out with Haruka - well, more like tagged after. In doing so he met Makoto, Haruka's neighborhood friend and another boy with a girly name. When Rin transferred into their swim club to be on the relay team with Haruka, Nagisa begged Rin to join the relay when he found out Haruka was going to be in it. Rin initially rejected the younger kid, saying the other three of them were serious. When Nagisa insisted he was serious as well as fast, Rin said he could join their team if he placed first in the next breastroke time trial. Being particularly in awe of Haruka, Nagisa would even run home together with Haruka instead of biking there. He swam breastroke on that team, as he does now, and they won their competition... then it was all over. The last thing they did together was bury the relay trophy they won together in the ground near their practice building. Then, Haruka and Makoto went on to their new middle school, Rin moved to Australia, and Nagisa went to his last year of grade school. They wouldn't see each other for 4 years, from the end of Nagisa's 5th year until the start of his 10th. Nagisa didn't keep up with swimming competitively, but he clearly never forgot the fun and friends he made in the club.
In the interim 4 years, Rin returned from Australia each year at New Year's. That first year back, he met up with Haruka by chance. They decided to compete in a quick there-and-back sprint in their old practice building's pool. Even though Rin had been in an Olympic training regimen in Australia, Haruka beat him. Rin quit swimming competitively because he couldn't deal with failing to live up to his Olympic dreams on behalf of his late father, and Haruka quit competing as well out of guilt for hurting Rin so deeply. This encounter would prove to be the major source of conflict for the 12 episode series.
When Nagisa finally entered High School (10th grade) at the start of Haruka and Makoto's 2nd year, the first thing he did was try to find them and ask about swimming with them again. Makoto and Haruka almost didn't recognize him until he called them by their -chan nicknames, Mako-chan and Haru-chan. As they were catching up, Nagisa remarked that the building where they'd practiced swimming as children would be torn down, and convinced the other two boys to go with him to dig up their old relay trophy - notably without Rin. When they arrived, they found Rin stalking the halls too, and Nagisa had no idea why Rin was being so antagonistic. In fact, Rin challenged Haruka to another race before they realized the pool was empty. Rin left their trophy behind, having already dug it up, then parted without explaining his new attitude or Haruka volunteering the information. Thus, even though Nagisa and Makoto got in trouble for trespassing in the abandoned building, they still wanted to meet Rin again and ask him what had happened. Thinking he may go to their school, they looked for his name on all of the lockers - and found his sister's name instead. They met up with Gou to ask her what had changed, but she confessed she didn't know either. He was attending the boarding school Samezuka now and hadn't come home since. Nagisa went with Makoto to convince Haruka to visit Samezuka and look for Rin, only to end up breaking into their pool after dark when they didn't see him in swimming practice. Haruka ended up diving into the pool and Nagisa decided to join him. Since he didn't have a swimsuit, he just jumped in naked.
They did get their wish, though; Rin showed up at the pool and Haruka challenged Rin to another race. Even though Rin won that time, he didn't feel like it counted as a victory because Haruka wasn't upset about losing the way Rin had been 3 years ago. They were found by a teacher before they could talk any more, so the boys got in trouble for trespassing a 2nd time too. Nagisa and Makoto told Gou how they'd met Rin but didn't get to really talk to him. Unfortunately, Gou hadn't heard from him either. So, out of the blue, Nagisa suggested they just start a swimming club again and that way they can meet Rin at tournaments. Technically Nagisa would have been right, if Rin were still swimming competitively, but Haruka continued to keep silent on the subject of Rin's participation in Nagisa's plot. Nagisa was even the one to pick up a new club registration form the next day, he was so intent to get the ball rolling, then went with Makoto to ask Miss Amakata to be their faculty advisor. Her qualification in Nagisa's mind? Well she'd worked for a swimsuit designer, so that obviously meant she knew something about swimming, right? (The connections Nagisa's mind makes are a mystery.) Now there were just two other things stopping them from being a proper club: the pool was in severe disrepair and they needed a 4th member to form the club properly. Cleaning the pool was hard work, but simple enough; the 4th member was going to be more of a challenge. Just like cleaning the pool, Nagisa jumped right into the hard work of advertising their new club to his schoolmates. As fate would have it, the first person who rejected his offer - classmate Rei Ryugazaki - would later join the main cast. Despite Nagisa's best efforts, no one else wanted to join. In order to help her brother return to his old self, Gou decided to join their club as Manager. At the same time, Makoto encouraged Rin to join Samezuka's swimming club. That left a new problem: even though Gou made their club official in the eyes of the school, they still only had 3 swimmers since Gou couldn't join a boy's club as an athlete. So if they wanted to compete in relays, they'd need yet *another* member.
While on the train to school a few days later, Nagisa realized that since he'd already asked everyone, it was going to be hard asking all over again. The first person he got to ask was, yet again, his classmate Rei Ryugazaki since he was standing right there on the train. Unfortunately Rei wouldn't even do it as a favor, accurately predicting what Nagisa was going to ask him about before the words were even out of Nagisa's mouth. Still, that's when Nagisa learned that Rei got off the train one stop early every day to run the rest of the way to school. Meanwhile, Gou had found a place where they could pay to swim indoors for practicing in the winter. She expected that they could use their club budget for that, but Miss Amakata said there's no way the school would approve such an expense for a brand new club. Citing accomplishments as the way to earn a bigger budget, they realized they'd definitely need to compete in relays and, you guessed it, definitely need that 4th swimmer. Haruka tried to talk to a few people but was unpersuasive. So Nagisa went back to hanging flyers at the end of their school day, and happened to see Rei walking by. Nagisa seized the opportunity to try befriending Rei instead of outright asking him to join again, but Rei gave him the cold shoulder. Since that conversation led Nagisa to Rei's locker, he did get to see Rei's given name for the first time - and Rei is another "girly" name. That was all Nagisa needed to know to decide that Rei was *destined* to join their swim team. Since Rei had mentioned he was going to Track practice, Nagisa fetched Makoto, Haruka, and Gou to go out to the track field to introduce them to Rei from a distance. They all agreed that Rei's form was excellent, so that sealed the deal for Nagisa. He waited on the train after practice to try befriending Rei again, starting by calling him Rei-chan, but Rei rejected Nagisa's offer to call him by his first name as well. It did lead to the interesting revelation of *why* Rei didn't want to join Swim Club regardless of his Track membership: he didn't think swimming was a beautiful sport.
When Gou announced that they'd be able to do a joint practice with Samezuka at their indoor pool, Nagisa's became more resolved since they'd need 4 people for that practice too. Everything was riding on Rei joining, he believed. The next day he decided to jog to school with Rei like he had with Haruka when they were kids, and explained the main reason was because of how beautiful he thought Rei looked when pole vaulting. That praise and meeting Haruka, whom Nagisa assured Rei swam beautifully, was enough to convince Rei to participate in their joint practice with Samezuka - so long as he didn't have to swim. Nagisa tried to keep that promise too by telling a little white lie, but Samezuka's captain wouldn't have it. None of them expected the real problem to be that Rei didn't even know how to swim in the first place. Nagisa felt a little bad at that point that Rei didn't say anything about it, but they got through practice anyway. Rei surprised everyone when he decided to join their swimming club after all that, even asking Nagisa to take responsibility for his training. Nagisa was so excited he pulled Rei into a hug.
Gou got them started on a training regimen right away, using Rin's old Olympic practice schedule, even though Nagisa would have rather they look at matching uniforms. Rei was given just one week to learn the styles in the first place. Like the others, Nagisa tried to teach Rei his style - breastroke - but Rei sunk like a hammer as soon as he let go of Nagisa's hands. The same happened to the others when they tried to teach him, so they held a meeting to discuss possible other reasons. In the end, Rei himself suggested that the problem was his swimsuit didn't fit right, so they went shopping for a new suit and prescription goggles. Nagisa, Makoto, and Haruka even got into it, trying on new suits as well. Turned out Rin was there as well, and he ended up having a little chat with Haruka. Haruka agreed to practice seriously from there on out, so that they could have a real competition at the tournament. That changed Haruka's mind about teaching Rei how to swim, but it ended up not working either; Rei couldn't master any of the styles they tried to teach him. That turned out to be the problem - there was one style he hadn't tried yet: Butterfly. When he tried that, he miraculously succeeded.
That meant as they prepared for their prefectural tournament, they were each swimming different styles and all 100m, Nagisa doing breastroke per usual but also the 200m. To amp up the training, Gou suggested they swim between several islands in the open ocean as a kind of Training Hell. Nagisa was *pumped* because of the deserted islands and nightmarish themes Gou invoked. Unfortunately, Miss Amakata was quick to remind them that their budget wouldn't cover it, so they started looking for alternatives. Eventually Makoto suggested they use his family's camping gear instead of staying at a hotel, then the only problem would be a boat to get there. They tapped their old coach Sasabe, or "Goro-chan" to Nagisa, and then just provided their own meals. Even though it was a fishing boat, Nagisa didn't let that stop him from running to the front of the boat to get the best view, with Rei doing his best just to make sure Nagisa didn't fall overboard. They found the sports facility near the main beach and discovered Samezuka practicing there, but it only made them a little jealous. So, Makoto focused them on their own regimen and made sure Rei had a kick board since he was a beginner. They only completed half of their goal, which upset Rei, but the other guys tried to assure Rei it was alright to pace himself. As Makoto explained, it was more important that they were practicing together. Too bad it fell on deaf ears.
Rei went out that night into the open ocean to practice swimming some more - all alone in the dark - and things only got worse when a storm kicked up suddenly. Makoto noticed he was gone and went to rescue him alone, which woke up Haruka, then Nagisa. Nagisa wouldn't let Haruka run out into the water alone, so they swam out together. Haruka ended up having to rescue Makoto because he froze up in shock from a traumatic experience as a child, leaving Nagisa to rescue Rei. Haruka and Nagisa tried to stick together, but the waves separated them on the island opposite the beach where they'd been camping. Nagisa comforted Rei, who now felt even worse that everyone else came out to save him and concerned that Makoto had obviously gotten upset about something. Nagisa didn't want Rei to dwell on it and tried to focus him on looking for Makoto and Haruka. When they found them, Haruka tried to confront Rei about his night-swimming escapade, but Nagisa vouched for Rei's desire to catch up to them. Together they found Suzushima Rest House, although it looked a lot like a haunted house to them at the time. After they scrounged for food, Nagisa made a box into a 6-sided die and insisted they play a story-swapping game. Rei told a story about his underwear getting shown to the class and it echoed Nagisa's first encounter with Haruka, so he was sympathetic. Haruka's story was about finding a waterfall in a forest. Then Nagisa decided for his turn to do a penguin imitation, which successfully lightened Makoto's mood enough to make him laugh. That's when Makoto opened up about why he froze up: an old man he knew as a child died in a typhoon, very very close to making it to safety. Nagisa decided to ask why on earth Makoto would have even agreed to the training camp if he was that scared of open water, to which Makoto responded that being with his three teammates alleviated that fear. Daylight was breaking, so they thought about just waiting for a boat to come by for Makoto's sake, but the four of them were able to swim across the way together. They fell asleep on the beach, having not slept the night before.
Training didn't stop once they got back with only 5 days to go until the competition, but it was fun to check out the pictures from their trip with Gou. To prepare their spirits for the competition, they visited the local shrine to pray for luck. While Rei revealed he did want to swim in a relay, they weren't entered in one... yet. On the day of the prefectural tournament, Gou actually signed the boys up for the relay without telling them. They instead focused entirely on their individual events, with Haruka up first and competing against Rin exactly as they'd planned. Despite all their hard work and Haruka's natural talent, he lost to Rin and by just enough to not qualify for regionals either. That shook the confidence of the normally unflappable Nagisa, plus Makoto and Rei's confidence took a severe hit too never mind how (surprisingly) devastated Haruka was. The three of them went to look for Haruka when he didn't come back from his race and ended up running into Rin in the hallway. Nagisa asked where Haruka was, but Rin just brushed it off as Haruka being upset at losing. Rei accurately assessed that winning didn't matter to Haruka, so it was probably some other reason, and Makoto affirmed that whatever it was, Rin had been the one to convince Haruka it was important. That was the first Rei had heard about the connection between them and Rin being related to swimming specifically, but Nagisa insisted it was something they should talk about later. They were getting ready to watch Makoto swim his event when Nagisa decided to look for Haruka again. Even though Haruka said he was fine not coming to watch, Nagisa didn't take that answer and drug him out to the stands midway through the heat. Even though Makoto lost his heat too, the sound of the whole Iwatobi team cheering Makoto on at Coach Sasabe's command touched Haruka and definitely brought back fond memories for Nagisa. Neither Nagisa nor Rei qualified in their heats either, but after Coach Sasabe and Miss Amakata left for the day, Gou revealed her secret relay signup for them. Ecstatic at a second chance to prove themselves, the three boys and Gou went to look for Haruka to make sure he'd actually participate.
While Haruka was off having a mild existential crisis, Nagisa had the idea to call his cellphone and leave a voicemail. Unfortunately Haruka didn't have it with him at the time, but Makoto kept the phone in hand while waiting for Haruka to come home. Nagisa, Rei, and Gou ended up leaving, but Haruka heard the message when he finally came home for the night. When Makoto got word that Haruka would participate, Nagisa and Rei decided early the next morning to practice their exchange in the relay at the school's pool - when Nagisa touched the wall and Rei would be expected to dive in for his Butterfly laps. After encouraging each other one final time, they entered the relay - Makoto first, Nagisa second, Rei third, and finally Haruka swimming the final laps. Nagisa, Makoto, and Rei all cheered Haruka on from the edge of the lane - and they won. Nagisa was so excited he jumped up and full-body hugged Haruka, clinging to him like a koala while the other two boys shouted out their glee. The response at school was icing on the cake, being recognized for their entry into regionals and potential to make nationals. Nagisa had to improve the front crawl stroke portion of his breastroke, according to Gou.
All that could wait, though, because there was a festival to attend. Nagisa and Makoto picked up Haruka at his place then met Rei there. There were squid dishes to eat, games to play, and events to watch. They even saw Gou and her friend walking around; when Makoto remarked on how cute their yukata were, Nagisa looked to Rei instead. They soon had something else to concern themselves with, because Rei spotted Rin walking around the same festival. Nagisa worried that if Haruka and Rin met, Haruka would get despondent again and quit the relay, so he assigned Rei the task of keeping Rin away while he occupied Haruka and Makoto. Whenever Nagisa received updates, he saw the cool side of Rei come out. Unfortunately during one of those updates, Haruka overheard Nagisa talking out loud to himself, but at least Haruka said it was fine for Rei to come back. Nagisa left Makoto and Haruka to find him, and they met up again just in time to hear Haruka say how happy it made him to have everyone waiting at the finish line for him during the relay, then agree officially to swim in the relay. Since their heart was in it now and they heard Rin was going to be on Samezuka's relay team, they'd train even harder.
Coach Sasabe came to their school to see to that, using cameras at multiple angles to show the boys what they were doing wrong - for Nagisa it was that he was jumping too high on his initial dive-in for the exchange with Makoto. On the train ride home, though, Nagisa noticed Rei was a little upset; he still didn't fully understand why the trio of Nagisa, Makoto, and Haruka even care what was going on with Rin anymore, given his attitude, instead of just focusing on making Nationals. As a ritual to prepare for it, Coach Sasabe invited them over to his place for some Hot Pot - which was excruciating during summer, but it turned out that Goro-chan was such a good cook it didn't matter. Nagisa pulled his bangs back and dug in eagerly, then proceeded to chase Rei around with some fireworks before he got somber again when Gou found Coach Sasabe's scrapbook of the trio's kid years with Rin. He waited until the four of them were alone, walking away from Coach Sasabe's house to finally ask straight out what happened, and Haruka acquiesced. That's when he told Rei why Rin had been obsessed with the relay at first, then how they won, and that led to the natural question of what changed between the trio and Rin after he left for Australia. Haruka continued, explaining how he and Rin competed at their old swim club and Rin lost. That was Nagisa's first time hearing that part of the story too. That still left Rei with some questions, but Haruka could only agree he didn't fully understand it either. While waiting for the train, Nagisa tried to cheer Rei up by saying it was all in the past, but Rei just got angry because it definitely was not. That gave Nagisa a unique perspective on why Rei wasn't at practice the next day, though he tried to cover it up. Little did he know that Rei was actually going to confront Rin, just that Rei was still clearly upset from the other night.
Coach Sasabe told them to go check on Rei since Nagisa's cover up had been that he might have ate some spoiled ice cream, even giving the trio some money to take a gift, though it was only about $10. Nagisa knew exactly where Rei lived because he'd been there a few times, since they lived close by and were in the same grade. The four of them got to talk about why Rei missed practice and how worried they'd been, with Haruka reassuring Rei they were a team now. Coach Sasabe kept them training right up until the day they left for the hotel, giving them a day to get settled before the regional tournament itself started. The mundane activities were great for team-building and solidifying their friendship, and for making sure Nagisa didn't run out into traffic. They tried to check out the pool they'd be swimming in, but the area was closed, so they went up on a hilltop for a bird's eye view instead. That night, all the boys were restless; even Nagisa who normally sleeps so heavily heard Rei get up and leave, so he went to look for him and ran into Haruka instead. Nagisa confessed he was getting nervous when he normally didn't, but admitted it was because he was so excited to swim in the relay again, and with Rin being there too. He joked about Haruka needing to be more grateful since Nagisa had insisted on the new swim club, but was very surprised when Haruka actually thanked him, so he hugged Haruka in return.
The next day was regionals and Iwatobi watched as Rin struggled in his heat, not even doing average for him. Haruka left to find him, only to hear Rin throwing a tantrum when his teammate Ai Nitori tried to console him. That's how they heard that Rin was taken off the relay. After Rin stormed off, Rei told them about the conversation he'd had with Rin the other night - how it wasn't Haruka's fault that Rin decided to quit swimming in middle school, and how watching the four of them win their relay reminded him of what it was like to have great teammates swimming with him. For Rin's sake, as someone else who understood the desire to be on a great team, Rei concocted a plan - he'd let Rin take his place in the relay swimming butterfly, so that Rin could swim with Haruka, Makoto, and Nagisa again. That meant they had to find Rin. With everyone searching, Haruka finally found him. Rin exploded in anger first, frustration second, and then Haruka told him the plan after the other three showed up. Rei watched from the sidelines as Rin rejoined his old teammates, swimming in Iwatobi's lane. They all posted personal best times, cheering each other on to place first in the competition. The thrill of the win was all they wanted. They knew they weren't going to get the trophy; they knew they were going to get disqualified with Rin swimming in Rei's place, but it didn't matter. Nagisa was crying with happiness when Rin suddenly hugged Haruka, so Makoto and Nagisa joined in. Before they left, they took a group picture down by the lane, and Nagisa pulled Rei into frame just in time to be part of it. They made a pact to return next year, that way Rei could participate.
The stunt did have another positive impact: Samezuka and Iwatobi had more joint practices together. So in the end, Nagisa and the others got to remain friends with Rin and swim with him, even though he stayed on Samezuka's more intense training program gunning for the Olympics.
Abilities/Additional Notes:
Aside from the ability to invade personal space, Nagisa is a pretty normal 16 year old boy. Due to his better physical condition, he has better endurance than most people his age and definitely better strength for lifting/dragging than you'd expect for someone of his size.
** Appearance:
Nagisa has magenta-red eyes, kind of a pinker purple color, and short blond hair that is long enough to tie his bangs up in a top-knot. He is on the short side for a high schooler, clocking in at only 5'5" and 121lbs, which is on the low side of solidly healthy according to BMI charts for men. Given that he's a swimmer, that shouldn't be surprising, as Nagisa has a decent appetite but does regularly exercise too. Compared to other swimmers, his most developed muscles are actually his legs and lower trunk region, due to swimming breastroke and occasionally jogging. He's not a beefcake though, since he stayed active but wasn't swimming competitively until a year ago. So he'll have a tan line hardcore from his swimming briefs, but little else in the way of dramatic marks and scars on his body - and we've seen pretty much his whole body in canon. From what I can tell, his legs are only barely shorter than the other boys his age who are taller; it's mainly his trunk that's noticeably shorter by a few inches, and Haruka's the next closest in height at 5'9".First-Person Sample:
*Note: Relevant to the 3rd person sample occurring first
[Video feed with Nagisa standing in a street of the NORTHEAST QUARTER.]
Hey, everyone, I have a question since I'm pretty new! If you don't remember, my name is Hazuki Nagisa and here's my question - when buildings are abandoned here, what happens to them? I mean, can anyone just move right in? That sounds nice and easy, but if someone else already submitted a form to claim this place I'd like to know about it. The place looked like it hadn't been used in awhile, I think, so I should be alright...
It just looked like it was so much fun to be there... like the people really loved it, but maybe they couldn't take care of it anymore? [He chuckles] I guess I like projects like that. Oh, right! The name of the place...
[He turns the feed so it faces the store's front signage]
Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!
[And I'm sorry Adstring, that is pronounced with a pretty bad accent. Nagisa loves English, he's just not that great at the pronunciation yet.]
Third-Person Sample:
Nagisa stood outside of the shop, mouth wide open in yearning. There was no other place he wanted to go inside more than this. He'd passed by twice in the last week, and his curiosity had finally gotten the better of him.
He needed some entertainment. He didn't think he was the type to window shop, but he'd also never had the problem of being on his own and accountable for his own funds, let alone in a place that didn't even have a bakery for buying snacks. Turning around, he slid on his back down the front window to sit on the street. "What I wouldn't give to get something in there... it all looks so amazing..."
Then he whipped back around, nose just barely edging up over the display as his hands pressed against the glass. "Maybe there's a little one that I can sneak out… it doesn't have to be a big thing... Maybe. Man, now I do want a few of them."
Looking to the left and to the right quickly, he returned his gaze to his prize. "The guys won't know I went in alone. If I end up getting trapped, I can just call them, right? Right. Okay!" He stood up and marched around to the backdoor entrance. The murky light shone in behind him as he stood up straight, a man on a mission to get what he wanted even in this strange place.
"Pardon the intrusion…" Nagisa whispered with a chuckle, not actually expecting anyone to be there. After he realized just how deserted place was, he found out it was actually more than the joke shop it looked like on the outside. There were supplies, ledgers for barter and credits, storage and sleeping arrangements... it was a pretty cool place, actually. Nagisa thought it was a shame for it to stay abandoned like his old swim club.
"Hey, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes - d'you mind if I stay here and have some fun?" He held up a hand, waving to the ceiling. "I promise to clean up and bring people back through here. I bet you miss seeing people, right? So if there are any spirits living here-" He clapped his hands together and bowed. "I hope they find peace-" Then he chuckled. "Or enjoy the company at least!"