Chapter 7: divide and conquer.
"I still don't get why we're doing this." Flash grumbled, hugging himself. Normally, he'd be thrilled to go swimming, but for SOME reason, he felt like the fact he was only wearing a bathing suit would be taken advantage of. He was wearing brown swim trunks. G, Nan, and he were walking down a flight of stairs to a dock.
"What's not to get? We aren't actively seeking out users or anything, and we don't have school, so why not vacation?" G grinned. He was wearing a yellow swim shirt and a yellow swim suit. Flash sensed that yellow was his favorite color.
"That's easy for you to say... Your bathing suit has a shirt... And you don't have a stalker." Flash grumbled.
"Ah, Alicia. Stalker and girlfriend are different things, Flashypoo. Besides, I only wear this swim shirt thing so I don't get sunburned... No skin cancer for me..." G replied.
"We're not a couple." Flash grumbled.
"Alicia thinks otherwise." Nan grinned. He was wearing flaming swim trunks.
"What's with the flames obsession?" Flash asked dryly.
"Natsu!" Nan said.
"...what about Summer?" Flash asked.
"It's an anime character." G said.
"Ah." Flash could already tell it was gonna be a long day. He looked ahead, only to catch sight of the girls. Flash nearly choked. The girls all were wearing bikinis. Flash pulled out his phone.
12:13 P.M.: 1st, 5th, and I meet up with 4th, 6th, and 7th. Very nice looking today!
"Hey guys, you ready for vacation?" Flash asked cheerfully, pressing a button on his phone. Darky's eyes narrowed and she suddenly snatched his phone from him. She saw that he had taken a picture focused on their chests.
"Flash..." Darky's eyes narrowed further.
"E... Hehehe..." Flash sweatdropped.
"What did you do, man?" Nan looked over Darky's shoulder and whistled. "You're screwed, Flash."
"I'm going to KILL you." Darky pulled her katana out of nowhere, veins bulging out of her forehead.
"The fuck did you just say?! I won't let you-" Alicia was cut off by Darky shoving the phone in her face. "...Bae... Is there something you wanted to say?" Alicia smiled, a distinct evil aura surrounding her.
"Um... Please give me my phone back...?" Flash started backing away.
"You're dead, man." Nan sighed.
"I feel like you gave us these bikinis knowing something like this would happen, G..." Toxic sighed and covered her chest. "I asked for something modest..."
"Hehe, it might've been my intention." G grinned vaguely and pushed his sunglasses to the top of his nose.
"You're satan." Flash deadpanned to G.
"Bae... Start running." Alicia had gotten her knife out.
"Shiiiiiiiiiit!" Flash ran.
"He's dead." Nan sighed.
"I love beach OVAs." G grinned. "Now let's get in the boat!"
A while later...
A badly beaten Flash was sitting in the back of a medium sized motor boat. He was sandwiched between Alicia and Darky, the former of which was lecturing him and the latter of which threatened him every so often. Alexis and Nan sat on the sides of the motorboat. G was driving it, and Toxic sat on the seat next to him.
"And that's why you can only be a pervert to ME, Bae. And you always ask my permission first!" Alicia was saying.
"You can never do that again, Flash. I'll kill you dead. Deader than dead. My boobs are NOT a running gag." Darky was grumbling.
"They kinda are. Anyway, time to get going!" G cheered as he stopped the boat. He had a float shaped kinda like a guitar pick that he pushed out of the boat. He tied a piece of rope to the float and tied the other end to the back of the boat.
"What are we doing?" Flash wondered.
"Inner tubing!" G said cheerfully.
"What's that?" Flash asked.
He was soon VERY sorry he asked.
Inner tubing was a very strange sport. Three people got on the float, grabbed onto the handles, and held on for dear life as G pulled them along by driving the boat. You lose when you're thrown off the inner tube and into the water. This could be either scary, painful... Or both. There were hand signals to ask G to speed up, slow down, and stop, but G tended to only speed up. After only two goes, Flash couldn't feel his arms. Alicia and Nan, on the other hand, were quite excited and insisted on going fast every time.
"Can't you think about me...?" Flash murmured dizzily as they were once again dragged through the water. Flash lost his grip and was flung off the tube. He landed in the water with a loud SMACK! Flash was glad they were all wearing life vests, because he seemed to be getting thrown off every five seconds.
"G, could you go a LITTLE slower?" Flash finally yelled.
"A little faster? Sure!" G grinned.
"You know that's not what I said." Flash grumbled as he climbed back on the tube.
"This is boring, why do we have to stop for Flash every five minutes?!" Nan complained.
"Nan. Don't complain about my Bae." Alicia kicked him.
"Fine..." Nan grumbled. G started up the boat again. Flash immediately felt like he was gonna fly off the tube.
"I wish this was over..." Flash groaned. At that moment, a big blue jet ski appeared. Riding it was an older man with little hair left. He was wearing an orange life vest and a black swim suit. He pulled out a knife and chopped the rope connecting the boat to the inner tube.
"...eh?" All of the group stared blankly at the scene. Then G pulled on the steering wheel, trying to pull the boat over to the tube. A boat came out of nowhere and went right at G's boat. G barely pulled the boat away in time, but had to move away from the tube in the process. The other boat chased G's boat away, leaving Flash, Nan, and Alicia behind on the tube. Darky, Toxic, and Alexis pulled out their phones quickly.
"She's got a gun. Lower your head, G." Darky ordered. G ducked, a bullet narrowly going over his head. The future changed on Darky's phone and she looked at it. She then jumped to G and started directing him on how to drive in order to avoid the other boat.
"We should meet up with the other group..." Toxic nervously said, glancing at her phone.
"Not a good strategy. Toxic, put your diary away for now. We don't need it." G ordered. Toxic reluctantly obliged. "Alexis, you keep tabs on Alicia's group using your diary. Darky and I will use our diaries to defeat this boat girl."
"Is it Tenth and Eleventh?" Toxic wondered.
"Darky, check my phone." G ordered. Darky did so.
"They're both apprentice diary holders. It's Eighth again." Darky replied.
"Thought so." G started maneuvering the boat again. "We gotta lose this one to buy us time. Darky, let's do it."
"On it." Darky replied.
Meanwhile, Flash, Nan, and Alicia were just floating on their inner tube in the middle of the lake.
"...what just happened?" Nan sweatdropped.
"Future diary users, I'm guessing." Flash reached into his pocket. There was a ripping sound followed by him pulling out his phone covered in a ton of tape.
"You taped your phone to your pocket?" Nan sweatdropped.
"I've gotten paranoid since we got into this mess. Thank god for waterproof technology." Flash opened the phone up.
"...yeah, same." Nan ripped his phone out of his pocket and pulled the tape off.
"Looks like Alicia's the only one without a diary..." Flash glanced over to see Alicia with her phone out. "Wh- what?! You're wearing a bikini, how did you even..."
"Bae. Sh." Alicia put a finger to his lips. "That's a woman's secret."
"I still don't-" Flash cut off his sentence and blushed heavily.
"I taped it to the top of the tube and laid down on it!" Alicia grinned.
"...OH." Flash shook himself. He felt slightly disappointed, though.
"Why did you say it was a secret if you were just gonna tell us?" Nan blinked.
"Nan. Nobody asked for your opinion." Alicia started going through her diary.
"Whatever..." Nan grumbled and looked at his own diary.
1:56 P.M.: I jump on Akua's jet ski and knock him off.
"...who's Akua?" Nan blinked. He checked the time, finding it to be 1:42. He tried to scroll down, but that was the only entry. "Gah, this thing is useless!" Flash checked his diary and immediately pulled himself and Nan off of the inner tube. Alicia jumped off her side of the inner tube. The jet ski from before slammed through the inner tube, destroying it.
"So you ARE future diary holders! How interesting. I've been looking for a challenge." The man on top of the jet ski grinned, holding up his diary. "Akua, apprentice diary holder. You're my prey!" He grabbed a fishing rod that Flash hadn't noticed was next to him and sent the line at Flash. Luckily, Flash had read that event would happen and pulled his phone away before it could get hooked. Flash and Alicia's future diaries updated. Flash looked at his.
1:45 P.M.: Akua tries to run me over with his jet ski.
Before Flash could even react, Alicia pulled him out of the way. The jet ski narrowly missed them and sprayed up a ton of water. When Akua turned around, Flash, Nan, and Alicia were gone.
"How did they...?! Whatever. My fisherman diary makes all the fish in the body of water I'm in my eyes and ears... I'll find them soon enough." Akua smirked and opened his phone. Meanwhile, Flash, Alicia, and Nan had surfaced their heads beneath deflated remains of the inner tube.
"It's not good to tell us your powers in the open, you know..." Alicia whispered, a smirk spreading across her face as she looked at her diary.
Back with the boat, Darky's instructions had saved the group from harm, but the other boat was still tailing them.
"This is getting us nowhere." G growled. "How are the others doing?"
"Bruh. My diary predicts Alicia winning." Alexis replied.
"Good. Now, it's time for a counterattack. Darky, you ready?" G grinned.
"Aye." Darky gave her phone to Toxic and grabbed her katana.
"What are you guys doing?" Toxic asked nervously.
"Winning." G suddenly stopped the boat. The other boat swerved to avoid it, but Darky was able to jump onto it. She found only a girl in a coast guard outfit steering the boat. Darky promptly killed her with a slash from her katana and checked the girl's phone.
"It looks like this diary tracks the futures of all boats on the lake. Pretty useless." Darky snapped the phone in half and jumped back onto G's boat.
"NOW can we get the others?" Toxic sighed, looking at her phone. She had flinched when Darky killed the girl.
"Yeah. Direct me." G started driving away.
Meanwhile, Akua was checking his diary.
1:53 P.M.:
the bottom of the lake is clear.
There's a delicious piece of seaweed in sector 3E. Catch me!
There's someone in a life vest floating in sector 31D.
"...! I'm in sector 31D! Those kids were wearing life vests..." Akua smirked. "I got you!" He sped to the location specified in his diary. To his bemusement, there was just a life vest floating there.
"Gotcha." Nan smirked as he hopped on the back of the jet ski. "The most basic weakness of a future diary is that it's based on the owner's perspective... Fool the owner, fool the diary!" Nan shoved Akua off the jet ski. Alicia was waiting in the water. She punched him hard in the stomach before joining Nan on the jet ski. Flash jumped on as well.
"We win!" Alicia smirked. G suddenly pulled his boat over.
"Good job, guys!" G grinned. "Get in!"
"We beat him good!" Nan grinned as the trio jumped into the boat. Toxic noticed Akua.
"G, let him in." Toxic said.
"Sorry, Toxic. Unlike you, I play to win." G grabbed his gun, took aim, and shot Akua through the head. Toxic flinched and looked away. "He would've given Eighth too much information about us." G started driving away.
"This was no coincidence... Eighth has some way to track us. Unless we take her down, we won't be able to sleep at night." G said. The group stared at him.
"You don't mean..." Nan began.
"We're gonna kill Eighth." G said darkly. Flash felt sick.
