Hazuki Nagisa (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cutelilshit) wrote2014-09-16 01:35 pm
cutelilshit) wrote2014-09-16 01:35 pm
Entry tags:
Saudade App
PLAYER
NAME: Frudence
EMAIL: iblamejen@gmail.com
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She.
BEST CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
frudence or frudence on AIM.
TIMEZONE: EST
AGE: 28
PLAYED CHARACTERS: Gojyo Sha (Saiyuki)
LINK TO RESERVE: here
CHARACTER
NAME(S): Nagisa Hazuki
AGE: 17
CANON: Free! Eternal Summer
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
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. Nagisa's parents had him attend a private prep middle school, where his intelligence was cultivated and his grades soared and his parents often talked about what a good future he was being set up for, but due to the intense regimen he grew despondent. He didn't get to do any club events or really hanging out with any new friends he might have made during those years. His parents saw how he'd regressed to his personality before meeting Haruka, and decided to let him return to a public high school with every expectation that his grades wouldn't dip, but that he might open back up as a young man.
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.
The start of the second season has Nagisa in a familiar place as last season - trying to get new members to join the club, without success. They get a chance to race against a newly-formed Samezuka team in a local festival, not a competition, consisting of Rin (as the new Samezuka Team Captain), Aiichiro Nitori (now "Ai-chan" to his dismay), his best friend Sousuke Yamasaki (whom Nagisa remembered from younger grade levels), and a new rascal named Momotarou Mikoshiba (Captain Mikoshiba's younger brother). After the Iwatobi boys tried to use an intra-club relay event at their school to get more publicity for their swim club, Rei started to seem more distant. He kept going places after school, which wouldn't have seemed weird to Nagisa except that he (Rei's best friend) was not allowed to go with him. Despite all of Nagisa's stress (even going so far as to think Rei had started dating in secret), it turned out that Rin was just getting lessons from Rin at Samezuka in order to become a better swimmer. All of them were trying to prepare for the regional competition, but in episode 5 it comes to a head for Nagisa.
Nagisa had become the kind of student who tried to retain every bit of knowledge in lecture without studying for homework or quizzes or tests. His grades had started to dip, and his parents finally put their feet down. They told him he would have to quit swim club in order to focus more on his studies, and Nagisa retaliated by running away from home with camping gear. He spent a night at Haruka's and then tried to stay with the others as well, refusing to tell them what was wrong. He started snapping at Rei, Haru, and Mako during school hours. He convinced himself that there was no reasoning with his parents, so he refused to seek help from his friends, only solace. Finally, Makoto and Haruka cornered him and he confessed that he ran away, but not the deeper reason. Haruka and Makoto asked Rei to come over the second night so they could all try various approaches to get the truth out of Nagisa. Instead, he told them lies to get them to leave his issue alone. After trying all night, Rei asked if he didn't trust them enough, and that finally broke Nagisa's wall down and he explained about how his grades had slipped, making his parents want to pull him from swim club. While Nagisa bemoaned the situation, his three friends tried to figure out ways to change his parents' mind, but Nagisa didn't believe it. They did convince him he couldn't keep running, and blew holes in his logic of running away. Then he got a text from a sister saying their mom was on her way to pick him up, but they took refuge at the reopened Swim Club from their youth. There, Nagisa explained the history behind the actual problem of his test grades, how he came to hate studying because of how hard he'd been pushed in middle school to focus on that and nothing else. He became so despondant about studying with a murky hope for the future that his parents chose to transfer him out of a private prep middle school and back to a public high school. The idea of returning to that lifestyle was unthinkable to him. As they scrambled to hide from Nagisa's mom, Rei confronted Nagisa, and reminded him of how fervently Nagisa had pursued Rei to get him to join the swim club in the first place. Rei convinced Nagisa that he didn't believe Nagisa was the type of person to ever give up, and he just had to show his parents how strongly he felt about... well, everything. About not focusing his whole life on studying for no reason, about wanting to swim with his friends, about the future he wanted for himself and not what his parents wanted for him. He hadn't even had that kind of talk with his parents during this whole fiasco, and that was all Rei thought it would take, but if he needed back up, then his friends would be there for him. They believed that Nagisa's mother was about to come and take him back home, and Nagisa watched them stand in front of him protectively.
Nagisa felt the fire to fight instead of run away recharge inside him then, to carve his own path and speak his mind exactly how he'd been trying all last year. He stepped forward to explain the situation to his mother (except it was actually Ama-chan-sensei the whole time), and confessed everything he'd been bottling up. He admitted that he'd given up before even trying and wanted to change that now, deciding things for himself. It's this bright resolve that draws the attention of the Darkness.
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, especially with his new resolve. He may buckle and crack, but he won't break completely. The amount of time it takes to rebound from a seemingly impossible wall is definitely proportional to any help he has from his friends. Anything else, he'll work on long and hard to not give up on, and be very satisfied with the results.
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.
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:
STRENGTH OF HEART MOMENT SUMMARY: Episode 5 after his Big Speech at the end of the episode, when he thinks he's speaking to his mother. Nagisa spent the whole episode convinced that he had no way to stop his parents from taking him out of swim club, and running away from his problem. In that moment, his resolve returned to fight for what he wanted and to speak his mind with the firm belief that his own desires for his future mattered, not just what his parents wanted from him. In a society geared toward a salaryman lifestyle as the new ideal, Nagisa wants an adventure for a career - penguin keeper, dolphin trainer, world tour guide, anything like that - and in the meantime he wants to not spend 100% of his time on studying, but also interpersonal relationships (spending time with his friends) and physical activities (swim club). It's a pretty Renaissance Man approach, actually, but it flies in the face of expectation, and that's what makes Nagisa break down crying from the effort.
POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:
Nagisa blinked his eyes shut mid-shout and turned the handle on the door, but when he opened his eyes again the door was gone. The whole Swim Club was gone. His friends were gone. He turned in place and called out with cheeks still wet from the tears.
"Rei-chan? Mako-chan? Haru-chan!"
He started running forward, because it was the only thing he could think to do. He ran and ran until suddenly the whole floor burst from below his feet into a shining sun design. As a sound like windchimes signaled a completing of the circle at the edge, the metal hardening and shining with the illumination from the floor. The windchime noise continued as three boxes materialized seemingly out of thin air, as tall as he was.
Nagisa's eyes were wide with amazement. He'd had vivid dreams before, but this one took the cake. He jogged forward, thinking nothing of what was going on around him except how beautiful everything was. This was too unreal for him to consider otherwise, for the moment. He had daydreams like this, but nothing more. He touched the first box and the metal welding melted away, leaving the sections of glass to crash at his feet - but miraculously, they only became dust.
It was a torch, ablaze already and hovering midair. He took it, and he heard a voice echoing all around him. At first he couldn't make it out very well because he realized it was several voices in unison - then he realized it was seven people, specifically. He picked out Rin's voice, and Makoto's, and Haruka's, and Rei's among them. When he didn't answer, the words were repeated for him.
"Through storms at sea and caverns cold,
This path is meant just for the bold.
Though there can be great rewards,
The risks to take may not be yours."
Nagisa focused on the reward part, and being bold too, that sounded cool. Plus, a torch in the darkness seemed like a good idea, so he took it without a second thought.
The second box melted away and the glass turned to colorful dust, but it held... nothing? "Ah? What happened? Did I do it wrong?" Finally, he looked on the ground. "Oh! Look at that..." It was a racing block to start a competitive swimming run. Of course, there was no water here, so he didn't think it was weird to just leave it be. He loved swimmming, and being competitive, but there was no need to move the thing, even in the context of the dream.
The third box split apart differently - the four sides separated in mid-air, and the three sides not facing Nagisa slipped away into the Darkness. "I don't... think I get it," Nagisa mused. He walked around to the backside of the stained-glass wall and only then discovered the strap that would allow him to hold the wall up like a full-body shield, the kind riot officers sometimes had to use on TV. He kind of felt like the stained glass must be pretty fragile though, and it was hard to see through it.
"Unite the voices and stand in front,
Take the pressure, take the brunt.
The first defense for friends to call,
For their sake - would you stand or fall?"
The voices did unite by the last line, blending together until at last it was his voice speaking the final words. That hit Nagisa like a ton of bricks and the shield slumped down to the ground; it was a much heavier concept to think about, even in the context of a dream. He was usually the loudest voice in the crowd, and that sometimes put him out in front as a uniter for a cause, but he didn't think he did it on purpose... Then he started thinking out loud.
"I don't know how much pressure I can take. I thought a lot, but..." He spun the shield around, grunting with the effort not to break it while keeping hold of the torch. "This is hard to see around - I can't do much to help my friends if I'm in trouble, right? I don't need a shield to do that. Besides..." His self-esteem wavered as he stood alone, the Darkness starting to nibble at the edges of his consciousness. "I'm hardly the first person anyone calls. My friends had to help me. They want me looking out for myself right now. So I can be on the Swim Team with them and not get pulled out by my parents. They're good students though; they don't need me to fall for them."
The stained-glass shield melted and dissolved the way the other boxes had to reveal their contents. "Is this the path you choose?"
Nagisa moved to stand at the very center of the starburst, thinking it symbolic and holding up the flame high into the air. "Yes! Risk or reward, it's my path! I'm the only one who can decide for myself what I want! I love my friends, but I'm not going to hold them back anymore! I'm going to get strong, for their sake, for our team!"
So that was it, right? The Dream should end right about now, with his lesson learned and the moral told, like a movie wrapping up. The credits should roll any second...
But the floor slid out from under him suddenly and he grabbed for the edge with both hands, letting the torch fall into the Darkness. He'd screamed just then, undignified and panicked as something resembling a reality shock hit him. "Wait-" He grunted through grit teeth. "What did I do wrong?!" He tried to pull himself up with his powerful arms, but it didn't help. He could hang there, but he couldn't go any further. It sounded like the torch was falling down some stairs just then, so maybe he wasn't about to fall to his doom...
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "This isn't real... It's just a dream." And he let go, taking the risk and hoping for his reward.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
Nagisa has no canon abilities and thus will have no weapon upon arrival, especially as an Artificer who only has the Sword as his neutral-choice. Instead, he will have the power of Horror Fanatic by which I mean he will be granted immediate basic knowledge of a range of weaponry, not be great at using them. He'll understand why you would want to use a spear versus a dagger and sword/shield combo versus two swords in each hand. He'll have the capacity to be ambidextrous, but not be immediately good at any of it. In short, he'll be a Bard of sorts, a jack of all trades. He will have the capcity to select a weapon to master of his own choice, then set upon the hard path to actually master it.
Same thing with magic. Having chosen the Staff option in the first place, Nagisa will be granted immediate access to the basic suite of magic without being so bad at it that he blows himself up. He'll need prompting to try the spells, but feel comfortable using them with his very imaginative mind. He will need to harness that enthusiasm to get better though.
Being a normal human, Nagisa will be susceptible to the Darkness without a coat or armor, having discarded the Shield. While not the kind of person with a lot of heavy thoughts normally on his mind (such as, say, Riku), he does have a lot on his mind recently that could be tapped into and recently-scabbed wounds re-opened.
INVENTORY:
Nagisa will have all of his camping gear (sleeping bag & pillow, cooking utensils, materials to start a fire, and amateur stargazing equipment) with him in a rucksack, and his school briefcase with various pens and pencils and paper and study materials. He will be wearing his school uniform and have his usual competition swim jammers (that stop just above his knees) as well.
NOTES/ASPIRATIONS
Nagisa actually has a very active imagination and believes half-heartedly in a lot of mystical things that don't always make sense, including fate and luck and his friends being represented by marine life. I'd like to test just how much his work ethic can be combined with his lively whimsy as an Artificer. Additionally, I've only played him in games with large casts he'd be apping into, and I'd like to see how he'll fare on his own, making new friends as neccessary and living his dream of having an adventure... but without his Iwatobi friends.
Activity Check.
NAME: Frudence
EMAIL: iblamejen@gmail.com
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She.
BEST CONTACT:
TIMEZONE: EST
AGE: 28
PLAYED CHARACTERS: Gojyo Sha (Saiyuki)
LINK TO RESERVE: here
CHARACTER
NAME(S): Nagisa Hazuki
AGE: 17
CANON: Free! Eternal Summer
BACKGROUND HISTORY:
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. Nagisa's parents had him attend a private prep middle school, where his intelligence was cultivated and his grades soared and his parents often talked about what a good future he was being set up for, but due to the intense regimen he grew despondent. He didn't get to do any club events or really hanging out with any new friends he might have made during those years. His parents saw how he'd regressed to his personality before meeting Haruka, and decided to let him return to a public high school with every expectation that his grades wouldn't dip, but that he might open back up as a young man.
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.
The start of the second season has Nagisa in a familiar place as last season - trying to get new members to join the club, without success. They get a chance to race against a newly-formed Samezuka team in a local festival, not a competition, consisting of Rin (as the new Samezuka Team Captain), Aiichiro Nitori (now "Ai-chan" to his dismay), his best friend Sousuke Yamasaki (whom Nagisa remembered from younger grade levels), and a new rascal named Momotarou Mikoshiba (Captain Mikoshiba's younger brother). After the Iwatobi boys tried to use an intra-club relay event at their school to get more publicity for their swim club, Rei started to seem more distant. He kept going places after school, which wouldn't have seemed weird to Nagisa except that he (Rei's best friend) was not allowed to go with him. Despite all of Nagisa's stress (even going so far as to think Rei had started dating in secret), it turned out that Rin was just getting lessons from Rin at Samezuka in order to become a better swimmer. All of them were trying to prepare for the regional competition, but in episode 5 it comes to a head for Nagisa.
Nagisa had become the kind of student who tried to retain every bit of knowledge in lecture without studying for homework or quizzes or tests. His grades had started to dip, and his parents finally put their feet down. They told him he would have to quit swim club in order to focus more on his studies, and Nagisa retaliated by running away from home with camping gear. He spent a night at Haruka's and then tried to stay with the others as well, refusing to tell them what was wrong. He started snapping at Rei, Haru, and Mako during school hours. He convinced himself that there was no reasoning with his parents, so he refused to seek help from his friends, only solace. Finally, Makoto and Haruka cornered him and he confessed that he ran away, but not the deeper reason. Haruka and Makoto asked Rei to come over the second night so they could all try various approaches to get the truth out of Nagisa. Instead, he told them lies to get them to leave his issue alone. After trying all night, Rei asked if he didn't trust them enough, and that finally broke Nagisa's wall down and he explained about how his grades had slipped, making his parents want to pull him from swim club. While Nagisa bemoaned the situation, his three friends tried to figure out ways to change his parents' mind, but Nagisa didn't believe it. They did convince him he couldn't keep running, and blew holes in his logic of running away. Then he got a text from a sister saying their mom was on her way to pick him up, but they took refuge at the reopened Swim Club from their youth. There, Nagisa explained the history behind the actual problem of his test grades, how he came to hate studying because of how hard he'd been pushed in middle school to focus on that and nothing else. He became so despondant about studying with a murky hope for the future that his parents chose to transfer him out of a private prep middle school and back to a public high school. The idea of returning to that lifestyle was unthinkable to him. As they scrambled to hide from Nagisa's mom, Rei confronted Nagisa, and reminded him of how fervently Nagisa had pursued Rei to get him to join the swim club in the first place. Rei convinced Nagisa that he didn't believe Nagisa was the type of person to ever give up, and he just had to show his parents how strongly he felt about... well, everything. About not focusing his whole life on studying for no reason, about wanting to swim with his friends, about the future he wanted for himself and not what his parents wanted for him. He hadn't even had that kind of talk with his parents during this whole fiasco, and that was all Rei thought it would take, but if he needed back up, then his friends would be there for him. They believed that Nagisa's mother was about to come and take him back home, and Nagisa watched them stand in front of him protectively.
Nagisa felt the fire to fight instead of run away recharge inside him then, to carve his own path and speak his mind exactly how he'd been trying all last year. He stepped forward to explain the situation to his mother (except it was actually Ama-chan-sensei the whole time), and confessed everything he'd been bottling up. He admitted that he'd given up before even trying and wanted to change that now, deciding things for himself. It's this bright resolve that draws the attention of the Darkness.
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, especially with his new resolve. He may buckle and crack, but he won't break completely. The amount of time it takes to rebound from a seemingly impossible wall is definitely proportional to any help he has from his friends. Anything else, he'll work on long and hard to not give up on, and be very satisfied with the results.
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.
CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS:
- Rei - Nagisa has only known Rei since last school year, but he is Nagisa's best friend. Unlike his other friends, Nagisa and Rei are in the same grade and classroom at school, which means they have every subject together and spend a lot more time together. Nagisa was the one to recognize Rei's physical talents and ask him to join the Swim Club last year, and promised to take responsibility for Rei. That so far has included not just his training as a new swimmer, but also saving his life in the open sea. It's meant nights at Rei's house studying and hanging out, as well as reassuring Rei that he wasn't a replacement for Rin. Likewise, sometimes Rei is the best person to rein in Nagisa's wild ideas, or match his enthusiasm, depending on the topic at hand. In general, their energies are a good match. As much as Nagisa values his long-standing friendship with Haruka, Makoto, and Rin, he also recognizes they are going through very different things compared to him and Rei, and it's started to bring them closer together this season, cementing Rei's status as best friend.
- Haruka and Makoto - Nagisa has very fond memories with Haruka and Makoto about their time in the Swim Club. Sometimes they'll reminisce together, but most of the time these days it's focused on the present and much more inclusive of Rei in their midst. As different as Haruka and Makoto are from one another, they generally get the same treatment from Nagisa - wild enthusiasm and the occasional prank. Makoto is easier to prank and Haruka gets more idolization; Makoto is easier to talk to frankly and Haruka gets more nonchalant treatment of his whims. Still, they get his friendship and his respect as the older boys on the team, and the ones with more skill in Nagisa's mind.
- Rin - They did not start off well from Rin's point of view in the first season. However, Nagisa's tenacity won out along with Haruka's resolving things with Rin at the end of Season 1. He got to hug Rin and call him "Rin-rin" again, and into Season 2 it's clear that Nagisa and Rin are as much friends as they were at the end of Season 1 too. Now, with Rin being a lot closer (or trying to be) like his younger self, Nagisa can even joke and play around with him a bit more, rough-housing in ways that aren't quite as fun with the others. Nagisa also is a bit of an Anglophile, and with Rin opening up, could spend literally hours talking to him about English.
- Aiichiro - Another age-mate of Nagisa's like Rei, "Ai-chan" gets the honor of being Nagisa's rival (used loosely), the one swimming breast-stroke on the Samezuka relay team. Nagisa only met him briefly at the tail end of Season 1 and it's clear they saw each other on and off at the joint practices between the schools, but they are not actually as close as Nagisa makes them out to be. Ai-chan is just getting the new Rei treatment of "if I act like your friend, eventually will be friends." He razzes Ai when possible but is actually proud later in the season when he gets some playful pushback.
- Gou - As their Club Manager, Nagisa respects Gou a lot now. He knows she can put together a mean training regimen for them and has their best interests at heart. They'll still bicker occasionally because Nagisa isn't a perfect athlete; he doesn't eat well and sometime she makes them train very hard, but his complaints are never full-hearted. At the same time, they don't hang out much outside of school, and so he doesn't know her as well as he could. He recognized her in the first season as Rin's little sister from when they were young, but they didn't hang out back then either.
- Sousuke & Momotarou - Nagisa knows next to nothing about these guys on the Samezuka team, only that they're formidable opponents as athletes. He can barely remember Momotarou's name, but he'd recognize him on sight. Sousuke he knows a bit more about, that he was Rin's childhood friend at Sano Elementary before he switched to Iwatobi and that Sousuke went on to be a really stellar athlete out in Tokyo.
STRENGTH OF HEART MOMENT SUMMARY: Episode 5 after his Big Speech at the end of the episode, when he thinks he's speaking to his mother. Nagisa spent the whole episode convinced that he had no way to stop his parents from taking him out of swim club, and running away from his problem. In that moment, his resolve returned to fight for what he wanted and to speak his mind with the firm belief that his own desires for his future mattered, not just what his parents wanted from him. In a society geared toward a salaryman lifestyle as the new ideal, Nagisa wants an adventure for a career - penguin keeper, dolphin trainer, world tour guide, anything like that - and in the meantime he wants to not spend 100% of his time on studying, but also interpersonal relationships (spending time with his friends) and physical activities (swim club). It's a pretty Renaissance Man approach, actually, but it flies in the face of expectation, and that's what makes Nagisa break down crying from the effort.
POWERS
SAMPLE - THE AWAKENING:
Nagisa blinked his eyes shut mid-shout and turned the handle on the door, but when he opened his eyes again the door was gone. The whole Swim Club was gone. His friends were gone. He turned in place and called out with cheeks still wet from the tears.
"Rei-chan? Mako-chan? Haru-chan!"
He started running forward, because it was the only thing he could think to do. He ran and ran until suddenly the whole floor burst from below his feet into a shining sun design. As a sound like windchimes signaled a completing of the circle at the edge, the metal hardening and shining with the illumination from the floor. The windchime noise continued as three boxes materialized seemingly out of thin air, as tall as he was.
Nagisa's eyes were wide with amazement. He'd had vivid dreams before, but this one took the cake. He jogged forward, thinking nothing of what was going on around him except how beautiful everything was. This was too unreal for him to consider otherwise, for the moment. He had daydreams like this, but nothing more. He touched the first box and the metal welding melted away, leaving the sections of glass to crash at his feet - but miraculously, they only became dust.
It was a torch, ablaze already and hovering midair. He took it, and he heard a voice echoing all around him. At first he couldn't make it out very well because he realized it was several voices in unison - then he realized it was seven people, specifically. He picked out Rin's voice, and Makoto's, and Haruka's, and Rei's among them. When he didn't answer, the words were repeated for him.
"Through storms at sea and caverns cold,
This path is meant just for the bold.
Though there can be great rewards,
The risks to take may not be yours."
Nagisa focused on the reward part, and being bold too, that sounded cool. Plus, a torch in the darkness seemed like a good idea, so he took it without a second thought.
The second box melted away and the glass turned to colorful dust, but it held... nothing? "Ah? What happened? Did I do it wrong?" Finally, he looked on the ground. "Oh! Look at that..." It was a racing block to start a competitive swimming run. Of course, there was no water here, so he didn't think it was weird to just leave it be. He loved swimmming, and being competitive, but there was no need to move the thing, even in the context of the dream.
The third box split apart differently - the four sides separated in mid-air, and the three sides not facing Nagisa slipped away into the Darkness. "I don't... think I get it," Nagisa mused. He walked around to the backside of the stained-glass wall and only then discovered the strap that would allow him to hold the wall up like a full-body shield, the kind riot officers sometimes had to use on TV. He kind of felt like the stained glass must be pretty fragile though, and it was hard to see through it.
"Unite the voices and stand in front,
Take the pressure, take the brunt.
The first defense for friends to call,
For their sake - would you stand or fall?"
The voices did unite by the last line, blending together until at last it was his voice speaking the final words. That hit Nagisa like a ton of bricks and the shield slumped down to the ground; it was a much heavier concept to think about, even in the context of a dream. He was usually the loudest voice in the crowd, and that sometimes put him out in front as a uniter for a cause, but he didn't think he did it on purpose... Then he started thinking out loud.
"I don't know how much pressure I can take. I thought a lot, but..." He spun the shield around, grunting with the effort not to break it while keeping hold of the torch. "This is hard to see around - I can't do much to help my friends if I'm in trouble, right? I don't need a shield to do that. Besides..." His self-esteem wavered as he stood alone, the Darkness starting to nibble at the edges of his consciousness. "I'm hardly the first person anyone calls. My friends had to help me. They want me looking out for myself right now. So I can be on the Swim Team with them and not get pulled out by my parents. They're good students though; they don't need me to fall for them."
The stained-glass shield melted and dissolved the way the other boxes had to reveal their contents. "Is this the path you choose?"
Nagisa moved to stand at the very center of the starburst, thinking it symbolic and holding up the flame high into the air. "Yes! Risk or reward, it's my path! I'm the only one who can decide for myself what I want! I love my friends, but I'm not going to hold them back anymore! I'm going to get strong, for their sake, for our team!"
So that was it, right? The Dream should end right about now, with his lesson learned and the moral told, like a movie wrapping up. The credits should roll any second...
But the floor slid out from under him suddenly and he grabbed for the edge with both hands, letting the torch fall into the Darkness. He'd screamed just then, undignified and panicked as something resembling a reality shock hit him. "Wait-" He grunted through grit teeth. "What did I do wrong?!" He tried to pull himself up with his powerful arms, but it didn't help. He could hang there, but he couldn't go any further. It sounded like the torch was falling down some stairs just then, so maybe he wasn't about to fall to his doom...
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "This isn't real... It's just a dream." And he let go, taking the risk and hoping for his reward.
SPECIAL ABILITIES:
Nagisa has no canon abilities and thus will have no weapon upon arrival, especially as an Artificer who only has the Sword as his neutral-choice. Instead, he will have the power of Horror Fanatic by which I mean he will be granted immediate basic knowledge of a range of weaponry, not be great at using them. He'll understand why you would want to use a spear versus a dagger and sword/shield combo versus two swords in each hand. He'll have the capacity to be ambidextrous, but not be immediately good at any of it. In short, he'll be a Bard of sorts, a jack of all trades. He will have the capcity to select a weapon to master of his own choice, then set upon the hard path to actually master it.
Same thing with magic. Having chosen the Staff option in the first place, Nagisa will be granted immediate access to the basic suite of magic without being so bad at it that he blows himself up. He'll need prompting to try the spells, but feel comfortable using them with his very imaginative mind. He will need to harness that enthusiasm to get better though.
Being a normal human, Nagisa will be susceptible to the Darkness without a coat or armor, having discarded the Shield. While not the kind of person with a lot of heavy thoughts normally on his mind (such as, say, Riku), he does have a lot on his mind recently that could be tapped into and recently-scabbed wounds re-opened.
INVENTORY:
Nagisa will have all of his camping gear (sleeping bag & pillow, cooking utensils, materials to start a fire, and amateur stargazing equipment) with him in a rucksack, and his school briefcase with various pens and pencils and paper and study materials. He will be wearing his school uniform and have his usual competition swim jammers (that stop just above his knees) as well.
NOTES/ASPIRATIONS
Nagisa actually has a very active imagination and believes half-heartedly in a lot of mystical things that don't always make sense, including fate and luck and his friends being represented by marine life. I'd like to test just how much his work ethic can be combined with his lively whimsy as an Artificer. Additionally, I've only played him in games with large casts he'd be apping into, and I'd like to see how he'll fare on his own, making new friends as neccessary and living his dream of having an adventure... but without his Iwatobi friends.
Activity Check.