*Playing in the Sand*

"Come on, you guys. We don't have the entire day. Pick up the pace!"

The somewhat tired, very confused and overall happy green snakes continued their thankless job of digging in the sand. It was much harder than digging in the usual dirt, so they were having a little trouble. At least the hole wasn't very wide this time around.

Though that did bother the one serpent that wasn't digging with the rest. "Hazama-chan, that's not the kind of hole a body is supposed to go in, ya know?"

"You and I both know very well the kind of hole a body goes in, Terumi-san."

"Well then, are you really gonna bury someone there, or are you actually digging a well?"

"You'll see what I have in mind." Hazama assured the other man, leaning on the beach chair and taking a sip of his fruit juice. "In due time."

"Due time, sure." The ghost bent over to watch the other green snakes, who were hard at work. There was enough sand around the hole to make a couple battle structures, and they seemed to be aiming for the very centre of the Earth.

Meanwhile, a bit closer to the sea, there was a family of four currently engaged in a very innocent and innocuous volleyball game. The teams were Father-Daughter, Son-Mother, and it was not difficult to see which one was faring better, since only a single team had a person immobilized by their knees.

As another ball thrown with visible murderous intent hit the Colonel in the face, Hazama heard a small pop. Taking out his sunglasses, the only beach garment to complement his usual attire, he greeted the tiny green snake who had just burrowed its way out of the sand with a wide smile.

"I guess your wait is over, Terumi-san! How lucky of you!"

"What the hell do you—WHOA?!"

Hazama's pull on the chain was the signal. The other Ouroboros stopped digging to latch themselves onto the ghost's legs, pulling Terumi inside the hole in a standing position.

"Hazama-chan!" The serpent screamed in anger, which was honestly not a very unusual sound. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"As I said…" Hazama slowly got up from his chair to bend over by Terumi's side. The other was not much more than a head and shoulders protruding from the sand at this point. "I wanted to try burying you."

"Oh, for fuck's sake…!"

And so, armed with a plastic toy shovel in hand, the Captain began throwing sand over the hooded ghost's head.

There was a long silence, filled only by the sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline and the sudden breezes that permeated the air with the salty smell of the ocean. The yellow sand sparkled with the sunlight as it was slowly poured over the trapped man, filling any possible pocket of air in the ground around him.

As always, it was Terumi who broke this special moment, the timeless feeling fading away with the mere sound of his raspy voice. "This feels weird."

"Oh, really?" Hazama was not at all bothered by the words as he continued his lonesome little game. It was almost done.

"For real though, there's something weird about this." The ghost insisted, twisting his neck to avoid the handful of sand Hazama got over his face. "Can you stop?"

His shoulders and neckline now covered in sand, Terumi-san was truly nothing more than a head at this point, albeit a very noisy one. Hazama sat down and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief. "I suppose so."

As Hazama stared at his masterpiece, the hooded head scowled. "You done?"

"Not entirely, no." He admitted with a deep, satisfied sigh. "But that will do for now, thank you very much."

"Well then, let me out of here!"

"After all the trouble I went to bury you in the first place?" Hazama replied as if he had done all the digging himself. "Oh, no, you are staying there for at least another hour. Or two. Or three."

"What!?"

"I hope you learn your lesson by the end of it."

"Hazama-chan, when I get out of here, you are so de—"

"WATERMELON MEOW!"

There was a sudden blur and a surprised scream. The strong motion made him draw back, and Hazama felt his nose constrict way before he actually understood what was going on.

"Watermelon! Watermelon! Tao found the watermeowlon!" The catgirl purred, hugging the little head protruding from the sand with all the strength of her big hood-paws. "It's mine meow!"

"GET OFF ME!"

"No way! Tao's gonna eat you whole, mister watermeowlon! Give up and become Tao's snack right meow!"

"OUCH! STOP BITING ME, YOU STUPID CAT!" Terumi squirmed, trying to free himself from the shark-like teeth that were currently burying into his thick cranium. "HAZAMA-CHAN, DO SOMETHING!"

"Achoo!"

"SOMETHING BESIDES THAT!"

The red eyes of the Kaka girl met with the Captain's, and a shiver visibly went up her spine. She stopped biting the ghost, and instead hugged his head tightly. "You, green guy. You wanna take Tao's snack away, don't you!"

"can't… breathe…" Terumi-san, currently squished against a clearly soft bosom, was quick to complain. Truly, nothing could ever satisfy that bothersome man.

"Tao won't let you! Tao will fight you and all your achoos!"

As if timed to her words, Hazama felt another sneeze come through. "I don't particularly mind. You may keep him, just *Achoo* stay away from me."

Her eyes were quick to change from suspicious to annoyingly joyful. "Really? Meow, green guy sure is nice!" The Kaka girl let go of the ghost, who took a deep breath, and jumped over Hazama instead, arms open wide for a tight Kaka hug. "Thank you very much, meow!"

"No, let go of—Achoo!" Hazama tried to free himself, but the cat-girl's grasp was strong and his allergies were taking the better of him.

"Meow! Green guy is a friend, meow!"

"Like I sa—Achoo!—I'm n—Achoo!—Please let g—Achoo!"

As his sneezes grew stronger and his head began pounding, the Captain could not believe his luck. Hugged to death by a disgusting cat-smelling Kaka… yes, that surely had to be the lamest way to go. Before Hazama could lose consciousness, a mountain blocked the blue sky and he heard a particular metallic noise.

The lively weight was taken away from him, and Hazama managed to take a breath. "Meow?"

"Kokonoe, I've retrieved Taokaka." His saviour was the Red Devil, as Hazama soon recognize. It was a tad difficult to mistake that particular silhouette with any other, after all. "I'll send the coordinates now."

Even more difficult was not to notice the man's particular choice of garments today. They were, for lack of a better word, revealing. "You sure look busy." Hazama commented as he cleaned his nose.

"Hm? Oh, it's you." Showing no shame about the particularly tight swimming trunks with the floral-pattern, the Red Devil merely adjusted his tiny glasses as he faced the Captain. "What business do you have here?"

"What business *sniff* do people usually have in the beach?" Hazama retorted, still not fully recovered from his allergies.

"You don't seem to be wearing the appropriate attire for such activities."

"I left my sunglasses at the chair." Hazama's gaze soon met with the Red Devil's enormous foot, and the particular hint of a yellow cloak underneath it. "Excuse me, but you are currently stepping on my boss."

"Huh? Oh." The small giant moved a step aside to reveal Terumi-san's head almost completely squished under the sand. "My bad. Though I think Kokonoe will be happy to hear this…"

"Meow! Tao's watermeowlon!" The Kaka girl cried, jumping from the Red Devil's hand back to the buried ghost. "Oh, no! How could this happen, meow!" She proceeded to dig Terumi-san out, being innocently rough and mercilessly clawing him in the process. "Please don't lose your deliciousness, meow! You are still Tao's snack!"

"mmm…m noT…UR SNACK!" The ghost managed to blurt out when his mouth was finally freed from its sandy prison. "STOP SCRATCHING ME! AND STOP BITING ME!"

"Meow, mister watermeowlon isn't tasty anymore…" Taokaka complained as if there ever was a chance Terumi-san could somehow not be unsafe for consumption. "That's sad, meow…"

"I'm so gonna kill you all for this…"

"Well, young lady, you could always try burying it to see if a new tree will pop out."

"Hazama-chan, you absolute fuck!"

Hazama was well aware that watermelons did not, in fact, grow on trees, but he also knew that the Kaka girl was not the brightest creature in the playable rooster. "Meow! That's a great idea! Green guy is so smart, meow!"

And so, once again leaving the heavy work for someone else, Hazama sat down and watched as the ghost was properly buried back into the sand.