"Yes, very," Mayu said, putting a towel on the line while giving Yuka a small smile.
"You know, we should go to the beach," Yuka suggested. "I bet we can talk Kouta into it if we all get into our swimsuits and beg him really hard. What do you think?"
"Sure," Mayu said shyly.
"Here you go! More clothes to hang up," said Nana as she came from the house with a wicker basket full of wet clothes. She set it on the ground and began hanging them on the line.
"Nana, you wanna go to the beach today?" Yuka asked.
Nana stopped and looked at Yuka. A bright smile appeared on her childish face. "Sure! When can we go! I wanna go so bad!"
"All right," Yuka said cheerfully. "Let's finish this up and go get ready. We'll coax Kouta into it when he gets home."
Kouta opened the front door and stepped in, kicking his shoes off and placing them aside. "Still no luck finding her," he said to himself. "Where could she have gone?"
"Kouta!" screamed Nana as she ran down the stairs with Mayu right behind her.
"What's going on?" he asked. His face suddenly felt hot when he noticed the two girls wearing bikinis, Nana in a pink polka dotted one and Mayu in a yellow one.
The girls wrapped around Kouta and said together in pleading voices, "Can we go to the beach, Kouta? Pretty please?"
"The beach?" Kouta didn't plan on going anywhere when he had gotten home. He just wanted to rest and relax.
"Why not?" Yuka said as she appeared in the foyer with her arms crossed. She wore a blue bikini. "It's a wonderful day out. And summer's almost over. We'd be crazy not to take this opportunity."
"I didn't exactly plan on going anywhere else today," Kouta said. "I'm really tired."
"Please, Kouta?" Nana said.
"Yeah, Kouta, please?" Mayu begged in her tiny voice.
"Can you honestly say no to those cute faces?" Yuka asked.
Kouta looked down at the girls. They frowned and puffed out their bottom lips, their eyes large and shimmering. Kouta sighed in defeat. "I suppose not."
"Yay! Let's go!" Nana exclaimed and she and Mayu dragged him from the house.
"Hang on a second!" Kouta cried. "I still needa get my swim shorts!"
"Gotcha covered, Kouta," Yuka said, waving a pair of Kouta's shorts in the air as she followed them from the house.
Lucy walked through the bustling streets. She kept the bangs of her pink hair low over her eyes. She felt sad, sadder than she ever had in her life. She had been through a lot in her life, from being an outcast as a child because of the horns protruding from her head, to killing her own family, to killing others who had tormented her for being different. None of it compared to now as she left the home and person she loved.
But it was a decision she had made on her own. No matter how much Kouta argued against it, she made up her mind to leave in order to protect him. She felt a change happening to her. She didn't know exactly what it could be, but something didn't seem right. She had loved Kouta since the very first time he asked to be her friend, her who had been called a freak by others and so easily accepted by this one boy who didn't even know her. And one day Lucy suddenly had the urge to kill him, for no reason at all.
Lucy put her hands to her head. Maybe she was going crazy. Maybe her want to kill others wasn't her insanity, but now to kill the only ones who cared about her was. Maybe the scientists who held her captive for years were right to do so, but she couldn't stand the experiments they had done to her, and regretted now thinking that her captivity was for the best.
"Nyah, nyah!" she heard a kid cry out.
Lucy stopped and turned her head. She was by a park with a bunch of playful kids. Her sights immediately turned onto a group of three kids. Two of them were boys, both picking on a little girl who had tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Stop it, please!" the little girl cried as she held her skirt in her clenched fists.
"What're you gonna do if we don't?" one of the boys said. He held out his hands and shoved the girl to the ground.
Lucy subconsciously started walking toward the children. She had her teeth clenched and her heart pounded hard in her chest.
"Look," the other boy said as she grabbed the bottom of the girl's skirt and lifted it, "she's wearing panda underwear."
"Please, stop it," the girl pleaded. "Why are you being so mean to me?"
Lucy felt the vectors rising around her. The invisible hands were ready to launch out. She wanted to kill those boys. They reminded her of her childhood when she made her first kill. The boys she killed never saw it coming, and these two wouldn't either.
"All right, that's enough," a woman said as she grabbed the two boys.
Lucy stopped. Her vectors were only inches from reaching the boys.
The mother dragged the boys away from the girl. "You two should be ashamed picking on a helpless girl like that. I'm very sorry for their behavior," she added to the girl. She tugged her on sons' arms. "We're going to have a long talk about this when we get home."
That woman protected the girl. If only Lucy had had a mother that would've protected her when she was a child. The returning memories of a family that never helped her made her blood boil. They deserved to die, she thought.
Lucy grasped her chest. Pain surged through her body with her heart being the most painful. She collapsed to her knees. What was happening to her? This pain was unbearable. She couldn't take it. Was she dying? Was this because of everything she had done in the past? Was this her punishment?
Lucy let out a cry of pain that shattered through the area. Her vectors hit the ground, sending debris into the air. She lifted her head. One eye was covered by her bangs, but her other eye could see perfectly what was happening. Her vectors were solidifying into gray hands and were growing longer. How could this be happening?
Another surge of pain shot through her body. The hands floated in the air and turned toward Lucy. Her bloodlust skyrocketed. She wanted to kill so bad. She could kill anyone anything even herself.
Lucy's eyes widened as she stared at the floating vectors. They shot straight for her and hit her hard in the chest.
Nana froze suddenly. The beach ball that she and Mayu were playing with hit her on top of the head and bounced off. Mayu, with a concerned expression, went to Nana's side. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Nana didn't reply. Mayu looked to Kouta and Yuka resting on the beach. "Um, something's wrong with Nana. She's not moving."
Kouta looked around at Nana. "What's wrong?"
"Nana just froze suddenly," Mayu explained.
Kouta got to his feet and walked to Nana. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Nana, are you okay?" The young girl didn't reply. "Nana, answer me." Still no answer. Kouta shook her and she didn't change from her blank expression.
"Is she all right?" Yuka asked as she came over.
"I don't know. She's not responding." Worry was in Kouta's voice as he spoke.
Yuka knelt in front of Nana and put her hands on either of the girl's shoulders. "Hey Nana, what's wrong?" Yuka asked. "Come on, sweetie, answer me."
Nana's eyes blinked rapidly as she came to her senses. "I thought I thought I sensed Lucy," she said uneasily.
"You mean Nyu?" Kouta said eagerly. "Is she around here?"
Nana shook her head. "She's really far. Her power blazed suddenly, and then nothing."
"What do you mean nothing?" Yuka asked.
Tears edged on Nana's cheeks. "Like she's dead."
"Dead?" Kouta exclaimed.
"No way, Nyu can't be dead," Yuka said assuringly to Kouta. "You know she's strong, Kouta. She couldn't possibly be dead."
Kouta clenched his fists tight. He stared at the ground and began to shake. "Nana, take me to her," he said.
"But I can't," Nana said. "I don't know where she is."
"Then take me to where you sensed her last."
Nana glanced to Yuka and Mayu, then back to Kouta. "Okay," she said.
"Yuka, Mayu, go home," Kouta ordered. "If Nyu is hurt then she may return to where she's comfortable, so wait for her there."
"Right," Yuka said as she stood. She stared long at Kouta before saying, "Be careful. You know she's changed. She's not exactly the Nyu that we've come to love."
"I know," Kouta said. He returned to where he and Yuka had been sitting before and grab the bag Yuka brought along. "Let's go, Nana. We'll change before we go look for her."