Work Text:
Tei Atsushi stands with 15 of his friends in front of a minibus. A few weeks ago, on a whim, Yokoi Ruka had suggested a beach trip, as a bonding activity or something like that. Obviously, he wasn’t the biggest fan of the idea, but some other students - Tsukigata and Denden, mostly- reacted to it with such joy that he’d feel like an asshole for bursting their bubble. However, glancing at the empty driver’s seat, he feels like he should have made a much bigger fuss.
“Ruka! Did you seriously forget to book us a driver?!”
Ninomiya tries his best to seem angry at Ruka for her mistake, but devolves into a fit of giggles.
“Well, how was I supposed to know that you had to book them separately? Oh, I don’t know, maybe if one of you would’ve helped me book the trip-”
Yaitabashi sighs and tugs on her arm to stop her from killing Ninomiya, or something like that, judging by how the conversation was going. He shoots a warning glare at Ninomiya.
“Ruka, thank you for booking the trip. I can promise you that we’re all grateful.”
Other murmurs of agreement come from the group. Tsukigata, Denden, and Akiba are among the few students who make the loudest proclamations.
Tei takes the moment to look at everybody properly. Everybody’s already dressed in their beach outfits, so nobody has to hide behind towels while they’re actually on the beach. The outfits consist of cute dresses and shorts, and two men, in particular, are seen wearing open jackets without shirts. His eyes are drawn to Akiba in particular, for no reason. He feels a bit out of place with his large shirt on, paired with shorts, some sandals, and sunglasses on top of his head. It certainly differs from his normal attire and his work uniform. Regardless, the group still has no way to drive their bus. Then, he remembers the small bunny that he has in his hands.
He adopted his pet bunny, Monomoko, a few months ago - at the start of the school year. Apparently, it used to belong to one of the students from the year above him, Ojima Takeshi, but he couldn’t look after it anymore. Tei, who had a lot more spare time on his hands a few months ago, offered to take care of it for him.
He hasn’t regretted anything more. He’s convinced that the bunny is pure evil. Not only has she previously left him with injuries that have left his vision permanently damaged, but she’s also weirdly nosy. He thinks that she can understand Japanese sometimes, from the way she seems to reply to his one-sided conversations.
Nevertheless, his bunny can drive.
Monomoko jumps out of his arms, sits in the driver's seat, and stares at them. She’s kind of intimidating when she gets like this. The others stop their conversations immediately and stare back at the rabbit. Akiba turns to him, deadpan, and asks him what everyone else is thinking.
“...Tei. Why is your bunny in the driver’s seat?”
Erina chimes in. “Better question, why is she wearing that massive hat?”
“I dunno, man. She just kinda, like, does that, I guess?”
Akiba blinks at him.
“Your rabbit just kinda drives.”
“Yeah? So?”
He sighs and shakes his head.
“You know what, man, you do you. At least we have a bus driver now. Let's head off.”
Ninomiya looks even more baffled at Akiba’s reaction.
“Dude, you’re like, way too calm about this. His rabbit. Can drive.”
“And? Considering some of the shit that’s happened in your life, you should be expecting this.”
Ninomiya grumbles under his breath, takes Tsukigata by the hand, and pulls the aforementioned yelping Tsukigata into the bus.
Akiba, now over the bus driving rabbit, grins at Tei.
“Wanna sit with me?”
“Why?”
“I like you, man! I think you’re funny. And that weird ass rabbit adds a weird charm to you.”
Tei feels a blush creep onto his face and decides to protest instead of saying anything embarrassing.
“Shut up, dude! You know what, fine, I guess.”
Akiba laughs and pulls him into the bus as well, sitting opposite Ninomiya and Tsukigata.
One by one, the other students get on the bus as well. Shishikura and Maekawa sit next to each other, Ruka and Ouno sit together, Isoda and Hirose pair up, and Yaitabashi, Kumada and Nishiguchi all sit together on the back row. Eventually, Denden sits next to Ogura, which just leaves…
“NO FUCKING WAY! I’M NOT SITTING NEXT TO HIM!”
Ikeda Daiki, who has spotted the only free seat next to Kumada Erina.
“Listen, you think I want to be sitting here? This is literally the only free seat!
Nishiguchi notices them fighting next to her and makes the awful decision of joining in. The fighting escalates quickly, and soon Erina is threatening to beat Ikeda’s ass to get him out of the chair. If she had access to her bat, Tei’s sure that she would have hit him in the stomach with it.
Weirdly enough, Tei’s getting the urge to protect Ikeda. He’s felt like this for a while now, with Ikeda being one of the smaller, sheltered kids of the group. Granted, he doesn’t make it any easier for himself, but Tei tends to feel bad for him. Maybe it’s his maternal instincts or whatever. No, that’s stupid, actually.
Either way, Ikeda doesn’t have enough charm to get out of this situation, and he’s too stubborn to give up his chair. With a sigh and putting on his best pathetic expression, he turns to Akiba to beg him to swap seats with Ikeda. To his surprise, Akiba is already moving.
“What? They were pissin’ me off.”
Tei honestly can’t blame him.
Akiba walks over, moves Ikeda backwards, and sits down next to Erina. She goes quiet for a second, thinking over this outcome, decides she doesn’t have a problem with it and goes back to talking to Yaitabashi and Nishiguchi. Akiba winks at Tei and gives him a thumbs-up.
Ikeda sits next to him, clearly irritated. He’s wearing that stupid smirk on his face, though, so maybe he’s not as bothered as Tei thought he was. Honestly, why does he bother protecting him?
“So, Tei-”
Tei puts his headphones on and stares out of the window.
“Look, just- don’t talk for a little bit, okay?”
Ikeda looks startled, but listens to him anyway.
“Tch, fine. Not like I care.”
The rest of the bus ride is fairly peaceful. Ikeda sits for the rest of the ride, sketching something in his notebook. Tsukigata falls asleep on Ninomiya’s shoulder partway through the journey, and Ninomiya lets him rest, leaning his head atop Tsukigata’s. Maekawa and Shishikura host another episode of their weird radio morning show, interviewing Ruka and Ouno, who seemed equally confused as to why they were doing a morning interview at 2 pm. Isoda is showing Hirose some of their music, sharing one wired headphone each. From the expression on his face, Hirose doesn’t seem to be keen on it, but he’s trying to enjoy it for Isoda’s sake. Tei can’t quite hear what Ogura and Denden are discussing, but from the sounds of it, they’re talking about girls. The group at the back is talking about plans for the beach, seemingly plotting something as Yaitabashi plays mediator. Akiba is staring out of the window again, occasionally chiming in on Ogura’s conversation.
A sound, suspiciously like an ‘Ah-hem’, comes from the driver’s seat, letting the students know that they have arrived. Immediately, the calm atmosphere is completely disrupted, as Ogura, Ikeda and Erina flatten everyone in an attempt to get off the bus. Tei stands up, makes an attempt to smooth his hair down, and moves off the bus in an orderly fashion with everybody else. Immediately, Ruka claps her hands together, trying to gain control.
“Okay, guys! We’re good to split off now, but please stay with at least one other person! At the end of the day, we can all meet there-”, she points to a spot on the beach, close to the shoreline, “and we can go back to the bus from there! Have fun!”
Having ignored the majority of her little speech, the class started moving towards the beach.
-
Tei pulls down his sunglasses to rest on his face as the sun appears from behind a cloud. Weirdly, he’s starting to think that the trip wasn’t such a horrific idea after all. He’s lounging on a towel near the seafront, ice lolly in one hand. He licks his strawberry ice cream, thanking his past self for managing to secure at least one day off. Work’s sucked lately. It sucks all the time, but it’s a busy season for them right now. But as he’s sitting near the ocean, eating an ice cream, his life doesn’t seem so bad.
His thoughts are interrupted by a muscular arm slinging over his shoulder. Akiba squats down next to him, grinning a similar smile to the one he got when he attempted to lift the crashed school elevator. Tei knew something was about to happen.
“Tei! Hi!”
“What is it, Akiba?”
“Play something with me. I have an idea.”
Tei feels an impending sense of doom.
“Do I want to ask what the game is?”
Akiba moves to sit next to him, arm still around his shoulder.
“Hear me out. I saw this in a video game once. This beach is full of people, right?”
He gestures around to some of the people sitting on beach towels near them. Couples, families, and friends are sitting on the beach with them. Tei can only imagine where this could be going.
“Right.”
“You’re single, right, Tei?”
Tei almost stabs himself with the lolly. Genuinely, what reason could Akiba be asking him this for? Why would he ask that? What the fuck does he want from him?
“What the hell, dude?! Why would you ask me that?”
“Whoa, calm down, man! Pfft, What, do you want me to be hittin’ on you or something?”
Tei, for no specific reason, decides not to respond to that. Hey, if he were deadly serious with himself, he wouldn’t be complaining. Akiba was a good-looking guy! He never failed to make him laugh, he was attractive, he was nice to him… he needed to stop this train of thought.
“Continue.”
“So, see all those girls over there, yeah?”
There’s a small cluster of girls, about Tei’s age, standing next to a beach hut.
“...Yeah?”
“How about we have a small competition? We see how many girls we can pick up!”
For the second time in about a minute, Tei feels his heart stop. Being asked by an attractive man to pick up girls might actually be his worst nightmare. Now, Tei thinks that he’s fine in social situations. He kinda has to be, because he works so many jobs. You kind of learn how to talk to people eventually. However, there’s a small issue with Akiba’s game.
Tei doesn’t like women. And he’s not the kinda guy to play with a girl’s heart like that.
His face probably tells Akiba all that he needs to know.
“Oh, you into dudes or somethin’?”
Tei sighs.
“Not interested in girls.”
“That’s cool! We can like, hit on guys, or something. I go both ways, doesn’t bother me.”
Tei honestly thinks that sounds worse.
“How about we, like, don’t hit on anyone at all?”
“Okay, let’s try this then! I’ll point out a guy, and you tell me if you think he’s attractive or not. Deal?”
“I’m not playing this game, Taku.”
“How about that one, with the blue-haired boy?”
Akiba looks at a brunette, sitting on the sand with one knee up. His hands are moving as he’s talking, clearly engaged in a very long conversation with the blue-haired boy. His red glasses and coat immediately stood out to him.
Tei supposed he was attractive enough, but he looked too preoccupied with the other boy to even consider asking him out.
“He- Look, He’s fine, I guess. But isn’t he in a relationship with the other one?”
Akiba peers a bit closer before sighing.
“Ah, true. Whatever, I thought he was attractive enough. What about me, then?”
Tei chuckles slightly. Of course, that would be the next question he was asked.
“I mean, will you drop it if I say yes?”
“Pfft, Maybe.”
“Yes, Akiba Taku, you are the most beautiful, radiant, shining man on earth! I’m sure women fall to their knees whenever you walk into the room!”
“Wow! If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought you wanted me to shut you up!”
Tei mustered up every bit of courage he had. If this was his chance to kiss an attractive boy, he was not gonna mess that up.
“I- erm- Do it then! Go on!”
Akiba seems taken aback by his response. He seems genuinely surprised, but shrugs.
“Pfft, alright, man.”
Tei has no idea what’s just happened, but he feels Akiba’s lips on his own. Akiba is everywhere, His arm still around him, his hand on his waist, their chests pressed together. He’s filled with happiness. He also has no idea how to respond to this, because he kinda thought Akiba would back off, though he didn’t seem like the type to back down from a bet. He smiles against his lips and moves his own hand to play with Akiba’s hair.
The kiss continues, the waves gliding gently in front of them, the smell of the sea filling their noses. Really, it couldn’t be any better for Tei. He’s drowning in him.
A shutter clicks from in front of them. Tei jumps away, balling up his fists at his sides.
Ikeda Daiki is standing in front of them with his phone out.
“Reeeeeal classy. This’ll come in handy, I’m sure!”
“Delete that. Now. Ikeda.”
“Hmmm, sorry, no can do. But, for the low, low price of 20,000 yen-”
Unfortunately for Akiba, Tei leaves him sitting on the beach front as he runs after Ikeda, spouting threats and wondering why he ever bothered to defend him.
Akiba blinks, touches his mouth with the back of his hand, and smiles.
-
Ninomiya ties the side of his hair up into a ponytail. He’d tie the rest of it up as well, but he has too much hair on the other side of his head for that. Hair secured, he walks to the edge of the beach, scanning for someone he can bother.
He spots Tsukigata, sitting alone under a large tree, clearly struggling with his own hair.
For a minute, he’s kinda tempted to leave him alone and make out with Shishikura or someone, but he doesn’t want to let him struggle. So, Ninomiya walks over.
“Tsukigata, hey man! What’s up?”
Tsukigata notices him properly, smiling and waving at him.
“Ninomiya! Hi! Come sit!”
Ninomiya sits down next to him and notices the truly awful job he’s done on his hair. It’s knotted from trying to tie it up so many times, and his recent attempt only has half of his hair in the actual ponytail. Tsukigata’s staring at him now, sheepish, but still happy to see him.
“I- ahem, I’m struggling to put it up properly.”
“No worries, dude, I’ll do it for you! Just pass me the comb, yeah?”
Tsukigata gives him a look that quite clearly states, ‘No, I do not have a comb, I want to make your life at least ten times harder.’ Okay, maybe it doesn’t say that last bit. Sue him.
“Alright, whatever, I’ll just use my fingers. Come sit.”
He pats the area in front of him, gesturing Tsukigata to sit. He stands up, holding his hair in one hand, and sits in front of him, leaning back against him.
“Pfft- Tsukigata! I can’t do your hair if you’re leaning on me like that! Sit up, dude!”
“Ah, sorry! My bad!”
Giggling, Tsukigata leans forward. He’s got sand on the ends of his hair. It’s kind of endearing.
Sometimes, Tsukigata reminds him of a puppy. Sometimes he looks like he’s just been kicked, sometimes he’s grinning at him while he’s playing a song, sometimes he’s looking at him with those big ass eyes. Nevertheless, he’s cute.
Wiping his hands on his shorts, Ninomiya starts to run his hands through Tsukigata’s hair, slowly getting the knots out. He hums his newest song while gliding his hands through the hair, working meticulously. When he’s gotten everything out, he wonders how his hair would look in other styles. It’s nice, Ninomiya likes the styling a lot. He pulls two bunches of hair up below his ears, giving him mock pigtails. Giggling to himself, he puts his hair into a ponytail. Honestly, Tsukigata could be asleep. It’s rare to see him quiet. The waves are relaxing, though, and Ninomiya supposes the feeling of hands in his hair is a new one.
Tapping Tsukigata on his shoulder, Ninomiya makes to move him out of the way. However, his plans are interrupted when a definitely asleep Tsukigata slumps against his front. Ninomiya sighs - he had suspected this. Shifting him to lie against his shoulder, he brushes his hair from his face. Tsukigata’s lips are open, his eyes are soft, and he’s breathing slowly. Even when they shared a room, he’d never seen him quite this peaceful. He always did have a thing for his hair being played with, though.
Ninomiya accepts his fate, leaning back against the tree and pulling Tsukigata with him. He moves his arm to rest across his body, holding him close. Hey, if he was going to have a nap, might as well be comfortable. Ninomiya lets his mind be occupied by the waves, the sand, and the feeling of the man in his arms.
Half an hour later, he’s awoken by a sudden breeze. His body, once occupied by a sleepy Tsukigata, was now empty, with said man sitting next to him instead. He was frantically sorting out his jacket, smoothing his hair down, and smiling once he saw the ponytail in place.
Man, Ninomiya might be head over heels for him.
“Hey, dude. Good morning.”
Tsukigata stammers a bit.
“Ah! Ninomiya - I’m so sorry! I promise I did not mean to fall asleep!”
“No worries, man. It was comfy at least! There are far worse people to be trapped under. Like, imagine falling asleep under Akiba or some shit.”
Tsukigata giggles at that. Ninomiya laughs back.
“Ah- Anyways, I’m going to go and find Miss Ogura. Apparently, she needs my help! Incredible, right?”
“Sure, dude. Go have fun. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Thank you again for doing my hair, Ninomiya. I’ll see you later!”
Ninomiya watches him run off to Ogura and stands up. He stalks around, trying to find someone to harass properly this time. He pulls a water gun from his pocket, smiling mischievously. He reckons he can get someone with that.
Luckily, having to deal with a weird ass ex-roommate has given him some lessons in stealth. He spots Denden nearby and hides behind a tree. It seems like she’s trying to dig a hole. Knowing her, she probably thinks she can use it to jump to the other side of the earth. Can’t blame a girl for trying, he guesses. However, it does make her a perfect target.
He inches closer behind her. He wonders how far he can refill the hole until she notices.
Nudging the sand with his foot, he watches it fall into the hole. Denden doesn’t notice at all, continuing to dig while humming a song. Listening closer, it appears to be one of Mion’s older songs, Perfect Me.
He nudges more sand in. The hole is now about half the size it was before. She doesn’t notice again. He pushes more in.
Denden doesn’t notice until the hole is full again.
When she turns around to see what happened, Ninomiya sprays her with water. It’s pretty funny.
She stands there looking slightly like a fish, her plaits sticking out to the sides. Ninomiya is almost pissing himself laughing by this point.
“Hey!”
When she goes to respond, he shoots her again with the little water he’s got left. She shrieks and runs away, seemingly to find Hirose.
“Doc! Help me! He’s shooting me! Help!”
Ninomiya chases her the entire way there.
-
Maekawa sits with Shishikura at a picnic table, just outside the beach bar. It’s a pretty secluded area, on the outer edges of the beach. She’s spent the past hour observing everything that’s happened, from spying on Tei and Akiba to watching Ikeda kick over Tsukigata’s sandcastle, and listening to Ruka and Ouno play in the sea. It’s calming, watching everyone do their own shit and gossiping about it to Shishikura. He’s surprisingly good at it, for someone normally so uptight. She’s wearing him down, though.
Spinning her head to look for more of her classmates, she notices two sunbeds a little further along the beach. While the other sunbeds were occupied, these were completely free. Smiling at Shishikura, she pulled him out of his chair, causing him to spill his hot chocolate. Seriously, she knows that he’s a snowball player or whatever, but is he seriously drinking hot chocolate in the middle of summer?
“M-Maekawa? What are you doing?”
Shishikura lets himself be pulled along, but slows down to balance his drink. Maekawa doesn’t explain herself much.
“Come here, Snowball. Look! Two sunbeds!”
She stands proudly in front of her discovery. Shishikura, however, does not seem so thrilled.
“I-I can’t lie there! I’ll burn up!”
Granted, Shishikura had spent the entire time at the beach sitting under an umbrella, but Maekawa didn’t think he was that sensitive!
“Come on, are you serious? Look, Snowball, we don’t even have to be here for that long?
Come sunbathe with me!”
Shishikura is now staring at her, panicked, like she’s just killed his mum or whatever. Seriously, she only asked him to lie on a bed.
“Seriously, Maekawa. I can’t lie there, not even for an hour. My skin’s sensitive. I’ll burn really badly.
Jeez, this guy is a literal snowman. Well, whatever. If Shishikura won’t lie with her, she’ll have to find a way to make him.
She considers her options. On one hand, she could steal an umbrella to put on top of his chair. However, her previous attempts at stealing have gone awry. She could also stand in front of the sun as a large sun blocker! But then she couldn’t lie down either. She truly was in a difficult situation. Maybe she should’ve built something for Shishikura before coming here. A weird robot umbrella or something. Nevertheless, she continues looking for options.
A patch of shade stands out to her, only a couple of steps from the beds. She walks over to check it out. It’s perfectly Shishikura-sized. Smiling, she takes one side of the bed and orders Shishikrua to lift the other. He obeys, confused but willing, and carries it over to the newly discovered shade. When he realises what she’s doing, his face lights up.
“Maekawa! This is perfect!”
She grins at him, kicking her own bed further along to sit next to Shishikura.
“Happy now, snowball?”
Shishikura finally lies on the bed, hair spilling off the pillow. He looks peaceful, dreamy, almost sweet. She would take a picture if she hadn’t forgotten her phone at home, after attempting to give it wheels last night. Shishikura pulls his sunglasses over his face and smiles at Maekawa.
“This is a great idea! It’s really comfy. I’m a little chilly, but that’s okay.”
Maekawa scoffs.
“Man, you have a whole hot chocolate! How are you still cold?”
Shishikura shrugs.
“I don’t know, to be honest. It comes with playing Yukigassen, I think. You get adjusted to the weather pretty quickly.”
They spend a large amount of time talking about meaningless things, Shishikura’s yukigassen, Maekawa’s engineering, and stories of school. The time Maekawa was accused of putting wheels on a microwave just to steal it, and finding it in Ouno’s room a week later because she was hungry. The time that Shishikura attempted to break into Akiba’s room to see if he was actually an archer, he was caught and had to run away. Simple memories echoed between the two of them as they shared laughs and drinks in front of the ocean.
The peace was interrupted in the form of Isoda Mion. They walked up, dungaree strap sliding off one shoulder and a volleyball in the other. Trailing behind them closely was Hirose Shingo, standing awkwardly with hands stuffed in his matching dungaree pockets. Maekawa thought they made a weird duo, but they matched each other weirdly well.
“Hey, Maekawa. Shishikura. I wanted to play beach volleyball, but everyone else is busy. Care to join us?”
Maekawa glanced at Shishikura, trying to gauge if he was up to it or not. After receiving a nod back, she grinned at Isoda.
“Of course! It’s on!”
They moved over to the other side of the beach, where Isoda had set up a small net and drawn lines in the sand to mark out the court. She had apparently also grabbed Denden at some point to get a referee.
“Wooo! Go Doc!”
“Denden, you’re supposed to be impartial! That’s what a referee does, remember?”
“Whoops! Sorry!”
Maekawa shrugged her off, moving to discuss with Shishikura instead. They decided to let Shishikura take a front position, while positioning Maekawa to play at the back. Besides, they didn’t have to try too hard. It’s not like Isoda and Hirose were going to be good at beach volleyball.
They move into their new positions, and Denden blows her whistle, pointing dramatically.
The game starts with Isoda serving. Apparently, Hirose is playing closer to the net. They throw the ball in the air, and it promptly falls straight to the ground.
Maekawa and Shishikura are in tears from laughing.
“Mion! Don’t tell me you have no idea how to play volleyball!”
Isoda, despite themselves, chuckles too.
“Oh, come on! Let me have another go!”
The rest of the game continues similarly. It’s a trainwreck. Neither team really knows how to play volleyball at all, but they manage to get to a tie somehow. Both teams only need one more point to win.
It’s Maekawa’s turn to serve. She bats the ball over the net easily, having gotten the gist of it completely by now. Denden’s head swivels as she watches the ball ricochet over both sides of the net. It’s a long streak. Maekawa dives to save the recent hit by Hirose and manages to set up Shishikura perfectly.
He hits it perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that it collides with Hirose’s face and sends his glasses flying.
“Ouch.”
“Oh my god, Hirose! I’m so sorry, are you alright?”
Shishikura rushes over to him, fussing around him. Mion also drops to his side, checking his face over. Hirose sits up with a groan.
“Oh, god. You have weirdly good aim.”
Luckily, he isn’t really hurt. What Shishikura has in aim, he lacks in strength. They make sure he’s okay, pulling him to his feet, before Isoda smiles at them again.
“So, what do you say? Round two?”
Maekawa and Shishikura smile at each other and nod at Isoda
-
Nishiguchi storms along the back of the beach, following a very angry Kumada and being followed by a less angry Yaitabashi. Honestly, she doesn’t even know what Kumada is angry about anymore.
“I cannot BELIEVE that IKEDA DAIKI had the AUDACITY to sit NEXT TO ME!”
Ah, right. Those two had weird drama, and Nishiguchi still didn’t even know why. Something about a punishment from their teacher? She honestly didn’t care enough. All she knew was that she didn’t like Ikeda either. It’s not like Erina was the most reasonable person ever, but Ikeda sucked.
Yaitabashi never really agreed with her choice of friends. He thought Erina was harsh, mean-spirited. But they got on well enough anyway, so everything was okay between them.
“I know! Seriously!”
“Don’t be mean. He had nowhere else to sit.”
“Well then, he should’ve sat on the floor!”
Nishiguchi laughed, and then realised she had no idea where she was being dragged to.
“Erina, where are we actually going?”
“To get ice cream. Why, is that an issue for you?”
Jesus, she was so touchy sometimes.
“No, just wanted to know.”
They rounded a corner to the bar, where Maekawa and Shishikura had been sitting until a few minutes prior. They sat down on a nearby table, Erina practically laying over one end of the bench.
“So, what flavours do you want?”
“Mint for me, please.”
“Hmph, figures. How about you, Nishiguchi?”
“Um, I’ll take a matcha one.”
“Also figures. I think I’ll get a bubblegum one.”
Nishiguchi thought that fit her well.
Sending Erina up to the bar to order, Nishiguchi turned to look at Sou. He was already holding four ice creams, so she really had no idea why he wanted a fifth one.
“Nishiguchi?”
Sou sat next to her, two ice creams in each hand.
“Yeah? What’s up, Yaita?”
He shifted a little, but spoke calmly.
“Can you tell me what everyone’s doing? I want to know what everyone’s up to.”
She shifted her eyes to look around the beach.
“Well, Ruka and Ouno are still playing in the water. Ouno’s making waves with her crowbar. It’s a miracle that Ruka hasn’t been hit yet, to be honest. Tsukigata is making a sandcastle with Ogura, who’s probably talking about needing a castle for her ‘2d anime girls!’ or whatever. Ninomiya is talking to Maekawa, probably asking her to make out or some shit. Shishikura is still sitting with Isoda and Hirose. It looks like they’re all sitting in the shade, talking. Denden is also close to them, collecting shells with Akiba. Tei is talking with Ikeda, trying to make a deal with him of some sort? I wouldn’t trust it. And then Erina is still getting our ice cream. Is that good?”
“Yeah, thanks, Nishi. I wonder what Shishikura and Isoda are talking about?”
“Probably nothing interesting. Something like ‘Oh, wasn’t it crazy when you hit Ouno with a crowbar when she stole the microwave?”
“Probably. That situation was insane.”
“I agree.”
Erina walked back with three ice creams in her hands. She gave one to each of them and sat down to talk with them, a suspicious expression forming over her face.
“Erina. I don’t like that expression. What are you planning?”
A grin formed over Erina’s face.
“Well. I was thinking. Ikeda’s been a dick to everyone all day, right? I mean, you saw him kick over Tsukigata’s castle and blackmail Tei. I think, personally, that we should do something about it.”
Nishiguchi has no idea how she’s gotten into another one of Erina’s schemes, but this honestly sounds fun. Anything against Ikeda, she’s on board with.
“So, what I’m thinking is as follows. We bury him alive.”
“Jesus, Erina. A bit far.”
Erina scoffs.
“Not like, alive alive. Or bury. I mean, we wait until he crashes, which he will, and we bury him. Leave his head out.”
“Oh, so cover him in sand.”
“It sounds better when you say it like that.”
Erina grins, and jumps up from her chair.
“So, are we going, or not?”
“Yeah, come on then. Let’s go.”
The trio walks down the beach, moving to stand next to Ikeda. His body is limp, lying on a towel, sleeping in the middle of the beach. He’s calm like this. Even then, you can feel the mischief radiating off of him. Like a warning.
Erina puts a finger to her lips to shush them and starts digging a hole next to him with a shovel. Nishiguchi, who now finds this incredibly funny, starts digging with her. Yaitabashi decides not to dig, sitting next to them, and listening to the ocean instead.
As they dig, the hole gets deeper and deeper, until it gets large enough to put a smaller boy in it. The sand piles up next to them. Eventually, Erina puts down her shovel and wipes her forehead with the back of her hand. Sighing, she smiles at Nishiguchi.
“This should be good! Are you ready?”
“All good! Yaita, do you want to help us?”
Yaitabashi considers for a second before sighing and standing next to Nishiguchi.
“I guess. This is pretty harmless.”
Together, they push him into the hole, gently enough not to wake him. They try not to touch him too much. When he’s settled, they start piling the sand back on top of him, until he looks more like a Mummy than a man.
Pleased with their work, they celebrate silently and walk off, giggling to themselves.
Ikeda wakes up an hour later and loses his mind.
-
Monomoko sits in the bus, thinking about the students. She watches them for the rest of the day. Some of her main notes include Ikeda knocking down yet another sandcastle, Ogura claiming to have water powers, and almost knocking Akiba out with the power of her spraying, and Denden finding (and leaving) a very rare shell on the beach. She loves her students, but god, they’re stupid.
-
The students sit on the beach at the end of the day. They sit in little groups, Tsukigata with his head on Ninomiya’s shoulder, Ruka sitting with Ouno, Denden, Isoda and Hirose chatting, Ogura talking with Akiba, Maekawa sitting next to Shishikura, and Nishiguchi gossiping with Erina and Sou. Tei is sitting with Ikeda, watching him closely. He still has sand on him. He’s covered in it.
The sun sets. Ikeda silently gets up and sits closer to the ocean. He’s fascinated by the gradient of the sky.
Seeing Tei sitting alone, Akiba walks over to him.
They don’t talk. Tei rests his head on Akiba’s shoulder, and they watch the sun go down together, surrounded by their friends.