Chapter 56

Synopsis
One hot summer day, the children get to cool off in an inflatable pool. Takuma and the others love splashing around in the water, but Kazuma, on the other hand, is frightened.

Long Summary
It is summer vacation for students at Morinomiya Academy. While regular classes have been suspended, school staff remain busy with supplementary classes and other duties. Thus, the Babysitting Club continues to operate as usual. It is uncomfortably warm inside the daycare, especially for Ryuuichi, since the children are clinging tightly to him. When Usaida notices that even the air conditioner is blowing out warm air, he suggests that they all cool down in their inflatable pool. After getting permission from the school and the mothers to play in water, the children impatiently wait around in their underwear to splash around. The pool was left behind by an acquaintance, but it did not include any sort of pump. Ryuu resorts to using his own breath to fill the pool, but he is forced to start over when the children deflate it in an attempt to help. Kotaro offers emotional support as Ryuu works hard while Usaida pretends to be asleep. Eventually, the pool is completely inflated and full of water. Usaida recalls that there was a bicycle pump in the teacher's lounge. As devastated as Ryuu is to hear this, he is glad that all the children are finally having fun. However, Kazuma stands away from everyone. Ryuu recalls that Kazuma was scared of going into the ocean during their beach trip and wonders if that fear extends to all water. Takuma notices Kazuma does not join them and happily invites his twin brother to play with everyone. Kazuma approaches with trepidation, only for Taka to douse him with a bucket full of water in good fun. Kazuma tearfully runs to Ryuu, who asks Taka not to do that again. The guilty Taka promises no to splash him anymore. Ryuu gently lowers Kazuma into the pool with the others, but Kazuma clearly remains terrified. Kotaro encourages him to have fun with the rest of them. Moments later, Hayato stops by in the middle of an exercise run with the rest of the baseball team, having outpaced his teammates. He lifts Taka and Takuma out of the pool and dunks his head in the water to cool off. He remains there for some time, in front of a worried Kazuma. Finally, he swiftly rises from the water, with the terrified Kazuma likening him to a kaiju. Hayato apologizes for intruding before resuming his run at full speed. When the others look towards Kazuma, they find he is lying beneath the surface of the water, having fallen over backward in shock. Now more frightened than ever, Kazuma refuses to be anywhere near the pool. Usaida offers to bring him back to the daycare as soon as Ryuu takes over watching Midori. But Kazuma insists that Ryuu be the one to take him back, and pleads for the concerned Takuma to go with them. Looking first at Kazuma, then towards the pool, Takuma joyfully declares that he will staying. Ryuu tries to ease Kazuma's despair by promising to play anything he wants when they get back to the daycare. Kotaro woefully watches as his big brother heads back, though he cheers up a bit after his playmates invite him to play some more. When Ryuu arrives at the daycare, he helps Kazuma change into his spare clothes before taking off his shirt to dry. And who should walk by the daycare window but Ushimaru, who becomes flustered at the sight of a shirtless Ryuu. Face flushed, she flees. Ryuu assumes that shirtless boys makes her feel embarrassed (on the contrary, Ushimaru is just fine around the shirtless boys in her tennis club). In order to avoid further incidents, Ryuu puts on an apron as he waits for his shirt to dry. He tries to comfort Kazuma, who tearfully watches the others having fun splashing around. Despite feeling left out, the sight of Hayato rising made Kazuma too scared to return. Ryuu becomes more concerned, as even Kotaro is able to have fun without him around. Inui passes by the daycare center and catches the sight of a shirtless Ryuu in an apron makes an image of "Inomata-san" in a "naked apron" state pop into his head. Inui freaks out and stumbles backwards, accidentally stepping on a cat's tail. The cat yowls and bolts towards the pool before clawing at it. Air swiftly rushes out of the fresh hole in the pool's side, and the water spills onto the ground. With their fun unfairly cut short by the fleeing cat, the children begin to wail. Everyone goes back to the daycare feeling terribly upset. Inui, having insisted that Ryuu put on a shirt, feels bad since it was partly his fault. Kazuma looks at his sad brother and their friends and wishes to make them feel better. He goes over to Ryuu and mentions that he brought stickers with him today. He takes stickers with his father's face on them out of his bag and asks if they can be used to cover the hole on the pool. As touching as the kindness Kazuma demonstrated is, Usaida says that the stickers will not seal the hole in the pool, but they could some glue to get the job done. Takuma's mood is back to normal almost immediately, and he happily urges his brother to join them for fun. The other children insist as well, though Usaida points out that Taka was partly at fault for scaring Kazuma away in the first place. Kazuma beams and says he will have fun with everyone this time. Unfortunately, by the time the pool was fixed and refilled, Kazuma's fear gets the better of him again, and he cried while clinging tightly to Ryuu. Hayato stops by again in dire need of refreshment, so Kirin offers him a cup of water from the pool to cool off.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Umi Mamizuka
 * Yayoi Kumatsuka
 * Yukari Sawatari
 * Shizuka Kamitani
 * Usaida Yoshihito
 * Midori Sawatari
 * Takuma Mamizuka
 * Ryuuichi Kashima
 * Kazuma Mamizuka
 * Taka Kamitani
 * Kirin Kumatsuka
 * Kotaro Kashima
 * Hayato Kamitani
 * Ushimaru Yuki
 * Inui Hiroyuki
 * The Cat
 * Mamizuka Kousuke (mentioned)