Character

Ayuko Hayami

速水 鮎子

Appearing in Episode 4, Ayuko Hayami (often mistranslated as Ayuko Hayamizu) is a former Olympic swimming medalist that now works as a swimming coach. Upon first seeing her, Kintaro is immediately enamored and describes her as "The Beast": an untamed wilderness that was able to awaken the "beast" in his heart. He applies to be a swimming coach at her school, but after failing to meet even adequate swimming standards, Kintaro challenges her to a swimming competition in a month's time of training. Instead of spending most of his time practicing swimming himself, Kintaro instructs the first three beginner classes, where he constant had to deal with scared children, vomiting, bathroom issues, and more. Opposite of Ayuko, who runs her swimming school with an iron fist, Kintaro doesn't give up on his students and makes slow progress at the pace they are comfortable with. The children in the beginner classes had learned so much that many more students were advancing into higher levels than before. This was the result of the staff slightly adjusting their curriculum by using Kintaro's example of instruction to help their students learn