A few hours after the bubbling mud pool incident the quartet of men had barely budged from their naps. All this relaxing activity was of no interest for the other two members of the group. Young Rinku had been enjoying himself at the hotel's arcade…
After closing out the second ski ball machine Rinku had moved on to Zombie Shoot Out 4, Car Wreck Crash 6, Submarine Sink Ship 12, and Sparkle Pony Kiki 2...hey he wanted as many tickets as he could get.
After the last siren died down from the top of the pinball machine, Rinku collected his final tickets before gathering the paper load in his arms and waddling to the counter. The poor clerk at the prize station felt his eyes widen in shock as the youth dumped his tickets onto the glass cabinet. "Uhh, looks like you might have set a record little buddy…" He chuckled nervously sliding the tickets on to the weight machine.
"Oh this is nothing, you should see me play Pachinko. I even beat Chu!"
"Pachinko, huh? You must be from Japan? …I thought only people over 18 could play that…" He blinked, looking at the 'kid'.
The star-child blinked, "…So?"
The man blinked, passing the answer off as a cultural difference before looking at the total. "You have…715,853,872 tickets…I didn't even think their were that many in the machines." He stared in disbelief.
"That's all?" Rinku questioned, crinkling his nose…aw it must be the metric conversion Suzuka mentioned before. "Oh well what can I get…All this little stuff looks cool, whew and that candy…but I'm not sure it would all fit in my suitcase."
"Well," The clerk considered. "We do have a special section in the backroom for rare…high scorers such as yourself, if you'd like to look." He smiled lifting up the counter panel and letting the youth near the register. "Here you go." He smiled, opening the door. "See anything you like? With all your tickets you'll have quite a selection."
Aquamarine eyes widened at the selection of arsenal -er-toys to show his friends. "Oh!!!" He smiled eyeing something on the top shelf, his jaw going slack in wonderment. "I want that!!!"
The beer and wine festival had been both a cultural and sophisticated event. People, mostly of wealth, stood by sipping only a bit of wine to coat their pallet, before remaking on the taste and moving on to rub elbows with the others…
Unfortunately for these high society guest, the last formal event Chu had attended had been ladies night at The Pink Monkey bar and dance club. (That's located off route 785 past the adult video center, across from Bob's Bail Bonds and Liquor Store, clothing optional past midnight.)
"Hell of a party-ain't it Sheila!" The Aussie declared from the Norwegian booth, slapping the tall blonde on the rear, causing the poor Scandinavian server to give a shriek before running out of the garden.
"Not only a great set of stems on that one, but a nice voice." He admired. "I bet I could get her to hit them high notes!" He bellowed, elbowing a passer by. "You know what I mean don't ya bloke?"
"Uh, sir." A male server commented, "I'm sorry to announce the festival will be closing soon, due to a…lack of supply." He blanched, looking at the pile of empty wine bottles surrounding the Mow hawked man.
"Aww, ya got to be joking, mate! So soon!" Chu cried. "Well…I guess it is a bit hard for you all to put up this much dough for a free event!" He pondered.
The poor attendant, who strongly felt the urge to cry, decided not to mention that the festival was free to the hotel's residents if they obeyed the policy of wine TASTING, not binging. "Right…but their's always next year, but then again. You're from out of town right? Far away?"
"Indeed, I am sir. But don't you worry about that. I'll be sure to come back next year no matter what!" He cheered, as the poor waiter fell to his knees in hysterics. "I know it's great to think about ain't it! Now can ya tell me where the bowling center be?"
Shishiwakamaru could not remember the last time he felt so relaxed and pleasured…at least while not on a date. The warm, rhythmic, pulsating of the Jacuzzi had completely lulled him into a dazed state. Even though the indoor pool arena was crowded with children and family's all seemed to drift away as he surrendered to the warm water. "I've died and gone to heav-HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" The tengu screamed feeling a strong streak of ice cold water strike the back of his neck. "The fuck was that? RINKU!" The samurai screamed, glaring at the youth standing behind him.
"Huh?" Suzuka blinked coming out of his comatose state beside the samurai to look at the youth. "Rinku, what is that?"
"This!" The star-child grinned, motioning to the monstrosity strapped to his back. "Is the supper-soaker-ice-machine-hypo-thermic-bazooka-6000!" He praised pumping up the rifle that was attached to the two large barrels on his dorsal side. "Designed with a special cooling system to keep all water at a nice 45 degrees Celsius!"
"I think you mean Fahrenheit. If it were Celsius the water would be frozen." The inventor corrected, "Now, where did you get it?"
"I won it at the arcade." He smiled.
"Then that's where I'm going to take it back!" Shishi shirked, standing up in the Jacuzzi, causing the woman around the poolside to gasp at his speedo.
"Sorry." Rinku shrugged. "No returns!" He giggled, pumping up the rifle and aiming it at Shishi.
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!" Shishi lunged, falling flat on his face as his blonde friend tugged his leg back towards the pooled area.
"Public place." He chimed. "Rinku why don't you go in the pool and play with that. Touya and Jin are their already…Touya might actually like it." He mused.
"Okay." He agreed, planning to attack all of the guys later that evening when they least expected it. "I'll let you go…for now. Oh and Suzuka." He grinned, pointing the gun at the blonde.
"Don't even THINK about it!" He demanded. "Do you have any idea what this chlorine does to naturally blonde hair?"
"It turns his 'naturally' blonde hair green." Shishi finished, shifting so his back was once again against a jet.
"Really?" Rinku blinked, lowering his gun, when he realized something. "Does that mean you wont play in the pool with us later?"
"Oh I will, later" Suzuka waved, "I have this." He grinned holding up a clear shower cap.
"Fag." Shishi huffed.
"Shishiwaka~ You shouldn't call yourself such mean names. It's damaging to the ego!"
"I wasn't."
"I'm hit'n the pool. See ya later!" The brunette grinned running over to the deep end and jumping in with his new weapon still in his grip.
"Marco." Touya called, arms outstretched as he wadded his way blindly through the shallow end.
"Polo!" The four apparitions chorused.
"Marco." He called back. About an hour after Rinku had jumped in the five apparitions had all migrated to the shallows of the pool, playing a few of the human games they had learned from Yusuke during their parties at Genkai's beaches. They had started out with Sharks and Minnows to the dunk game. The ladder had become favorite until Suzuka's turn when he began picking eccentric colors such as azure and fuchsia causing Jin to take in a lung full of water before giving up. For a while they played chicken, until Shishi had delivered a kidney punch to Touya sending him flying off Jin's shoulder and almost into the concrete siding. Now the group had decided on a more dossal game…that wouldn't earn them dirty looks from the lifeguard on duty.
"Marco." Touya called again. As easy as this game may seem for an apparition the others were purposely hiding their spirit energy to keep their opponent on his toes.
"Polo!" They chorused, a particular voice accented with Ireland going off closer to his right. The ice man grinned, paddling swiftly in that direction. "Marco!"
"Polo!" He heard with a swift curse from the direction he was heading, followed by a splash of water.
"Marco!" He smirked, diving under the waves into a breath stroke, just before Jin could answer.
"Pol-GAH!" The red head cried going under the water.
The others laughed, watching both ninja's coming up for air. "I believe," Touya smiled, removing the blindfold from his eyes. "That makes you 'it'"
"Aye!" The soaked redhead came up, quickly impersonating a fountain to drain the pool water from his mouth. "I guess it does…Unless someone else wants to go?" He offered.
Meeting a group of blank stares, Jin decided the answer was no. Taking the wet bandana from Touya, he was about to blind himself when his eyes caught something…from above. "Mary Mother of God!" He yelled, staring at the high dive.
The remaining pairs of eyes stared up at the 30 foot dive board to find no other than their missing companion.
"Their you are you bunch of bastards!" The Aussie grinned, "Been look'n everywhere for ya!" He waved.
The entire mass of people and families fell silent of the sight at the top of the pool. Who couldn't resist the chance to stare at a drunken Aussie, clad in a pair of kangaroo printed swim trunks and bowling shoes? In his waving arm, he held a can of Foster's beer, balanced with a 15lbs blue bowling ball in the other.
"How long have you blokes' been bowling! I didn't see you WAY over on this lane!"
"Uww, Chu?" Rinku called from the pool below. "We're not IN the bowling alley, we're at the pool…please tell me you didn't run off without returning those shoes." He muttered. "Now why don't you come down from there?"
"Oh don't you worry kid. I have every intention of coming down." He grinned. Then without warning Chu walked up to the tip of the diving board and uttered the two most horrifying words the hotel residents had ever heard. "CANON BALL!!!!"
You asked for an update…so I delivered. Sorry for the incredibly LONG dead zone, but things have been busy. I wont go into details. So here is your update! You want more REVIEW, please just remember I do not own a thing…just the plot that I came up with at the asylum.
*Note: The dunk game is something my friends and I use to play. You pick up your opponent in the bridal style position and pick a color (Of course you keep it to yourself) The person being held guesses a color out loud. If they get it wrong, you dunk them backwards head first in the water for a brief period before pulling them back up. This continues until they guess your right color, at which point you dunk them backwards in a flip, signaling they got it right…My friends would pick colors like blue, red, purple…I was an smart ass and would pick things like aquamarine, cypress, gravel…in hopes to almost drowned my opponent…yeah I can see Suzuka being the same way…not so much as an asshole but…eccentric.
