CH.32 A Day in the Sun
The group finds a small island under the sun, and Shiori even packed swimsuits for everyone as she had packed some of her father's old swimsuits for the boys, and some of her spare swimsuits for the ladies. Hiro is now awake and is walking around with his bandages still apparent as his jacket is open revealing his bandaged chest. He walks past Aki, who is preparing to leave with others as Hiro is staying aboard on the ship alone. Mana offered to stay with him, but he declined upon telling her that she deserves to have fun. Once everyone leaves the ship, Hiro goes into the bathroom on the ship on undoes the bandage on his face revealing a red eye, the one given to him by Kurumi. He is disappointed in her rather rash decision, but goes with it as he says.
"Might as well make use of her generosity."
Hiro then puts his bandage back on and proceeds to do what he plans to do, research. The others are on the beach of this island. Shido is wearing pretty much the same swim trunks in his normal time as this is a pair of his old ones. Aki is wearing a similar pair only purple. Ellen is wearing a tan one-piece with yellow parero, Tohka is wearing a purple two-piece with a pair of sandals, Kotori is wearing a red and white two-piece, Akane is wearing a similar pair, but with a white jacket, Mana is wearing a blue surfing suit as Shiori didn't have a spare in her size, and Shiori is wearing a yellow one-piece with a sun hat. Miyuki is wearing a pink one-piece with a green skirt. With a picnic, sun block, and an energetic vibe, the group prepares for their beach day.
Unknown area, Unknown time
Saori sits in a fetal position in a dark room where the only sound she can hear is her own heart beating. She is wearing her astral dress as she sits in the dark with her thoughts.
"No one understands how hopeless I was, I…I lost all my friends…."
Suddenly, Saori starts chuckling as a clone seemingly splits off from her with a sadistic grin and tells her other self.
"That's not true, Saori. I mean, what about me? I'm your best friend, and a part of you."
Saori looks at this duplicate with an odd sad look as she retorts.
"You kill people! You're not me!"
The duplicate shakes her head with her finger in held up as she replies.
"Saori, why do you fight me? Master Shinra brought us together so that I could make the pain stop. Misato and that bastard Hito deserved to die. So did that asshole teacher of ours. They all died, they all screamed, and they knew who the helpless were."
Saori then wakes up in the middle of warehouse on a futon she placed there. She is wearing her undergarments as she doesn't have other clothes. She simply says to herself.
"Another dream…I wonder if she'll begin to fight back at all?"
Saori then puts on her astral dress and warps out of this warehouse to go with whatever she plans to do next.
Back at the beach
The group is enjoying their beach trip as they have Aki practice his sword swings by hitting a watermelon with a wooden sword. He manages to split it with one hit thanks to his training. Everyone then eats some juicy melon. Aki and Tohka immediately go swimming in the ocean, Mana and Kotori are drinking cold drinks under an umbrella, Ellen bathes in the sun, and Kurumi is up to something as she digs through the basket they brought. Shdio watches with a smile, but is a little surprised that Miyuki is simply sitting next to him. He looks at her and gently asks.
"Don't you want to go swimming, Miyuki?"
Yoshinon gets in Shido's face and says, in a controlled tone.
"Miyuki can't swim, Mr. Shido. She didn't bring her float either."
Miyuki continues in Yoshinon's place.
"…My daddy tried to teach me, but I threw a fit when I dropped Yoshinon in the pool. He gave me a time out for that, but he didn't yell at me either."
Shido thinks that if her powers had awakened at that time it would have been a disaster. Shido then offers.
"Well, how about I help you both swim."
Miyuki looks at the teenager, who she doesn't realize is her father, in a manner of speaking, and gleefully accepts his offer. Shido and Miyuki stand up so they can go swimming in the ocean. Shido then looks around and notices that Akane and Shiori aren't anywhere to be seen.
The two are actually on a different end of the island. Shiori is confused as she politely asks.
"Akane, why are we here?"
Akane sits on a nearby rock as she explains to the pop star.
"Look, you're a spirit child like me and certain others we know. I explained this to you."
Shiori nods and Akane continues.
"What I want to see is what you can do. When we saw your spirit form, it was more different than your mother's than I expected."
With this, Shiori assumes her spirit form and equips her guitar. This is what Akane is confused by as she thinks about it.
"Miku used her voice to create powerful vibrations, and influence people's thoughts, but she never used a guitar. Her angel is even an unrelated instrument."
Shiori then begins playing a riff with her guitar as she masterfully plays it. This is even catches Akane's ear as she actually assumes her own spirit form and holds up her hand and lights up her fingers with fire to simulate lighters. She (Akane) then comments.
"Jeez, what can't you do with an instrument?"
Shiori looks at her guitar with a warm smile and replies.
"I can only play guitar and piano. Guitar was the first instrument I actually performed a show with."
Akane rubs her chin a little.
"So, you started your career as a guitar playing idol?"
Shiori answers.
"Not exactly."
Shiori then explains to her friend about her first concert ever, and it wasn't what she planned.
"About a couple years ago, I was helping out at the school festival as a planner. I was in charge of helping with the school concert so that we could beat Rindouji that year since they opened a maid café before we could, so we opened a butler café in response for the ladies. In the end, we tied until the concert. Our performers got sick because one of the other school's was selling tainted apples. Me and Hibiki then had a dilemma, and I was very shy about performing. It was then I saw a mask nearby, and hibiki covered her face with a fencers helmet, and we got up and performed a song we secretly practiced together for fun. I remember the crowd cheering and whistling for me. Then, Hibiki took my mask off and revealed my face to the entire audience. To my surprise, my parents were clapping and cheering before my mask came off, and when it did, they clapped even harder."
Akane, knowing about Miku's past, asks.
"Why didn't you attend Rindouji? I mean, it was your mom's school."
Shiori smiles and shakes her head.
"I love my mother, but I also love expanding my horizons. I don't believe in gender exclusive schools. I've actually tried to petition to have Rindouji go co-ed, but I failed. I like having male friends, and I have so many."
Akane gives a hearty laugh as she adds.
"Guess you won't have any problems finding a boyfriend with that attitude."
Shiori blushes a little and replies.
"Actually…I'd prefer a girl as romantic partner. Hibiki wasn't just my manager you know..."
Akane isn't shocked in the slightest at Shiori's sexuality as she is Miku's daughter. However, Shiori then starts becoming sadder as she reminisces.
"Hibiki was my first friend when I started Middle School, we began dating in our third year, and I was hoping we'd get married after high school…"
Shiori starts crying a little and her body begins to emit a purple aura, and the ground begins to shake indicating she is starting a special quake. Akane is panicking and doesn't know what to do, but then Hiro tells her via communicator as she still has hers.
"The quake will simply be aimed into the ocean, just let her get it out of her system, the others do notice it, but I've informed Ellen and Kotori about it."
Instead, Akane goes with it, walks up, and hugs Shiori while telling her.
"Just let it all out, Shiori."
On the other side of the island, Shido is now playing with Miyuki in the water so she won't notice the ground shaking is it noticeable in the water. Miyuki is laughing as she is having a great time playing in the water. Tohka and Aki are having a friendly swimming contest as they between two points marked by large rocks and see who can go the longest. Ellen is still bathing in the sun and is asleep. Due to their activities, and Ellen's apparent heavy sleeping, they don't even notice the ground shaking. Kurumi, who is just plain ignoring the shaking, then calls for Shido as he is just getting Miyuki to swim even with Yoshinon on her hand. He looks at Miyuki and asks.
"Can you wait here a minute, Miyuki? Just stay at the shallow end until I get back."
Miyuki happily complies as she manages to swim to a shallow area where she can stand. On the other side where Akane and Shiori are, Shiori is calming down a bit as the shaking stops, and there is now a hole in the ocean some yards where they are. Akane sits back down on her rock and asks.
"Are you feeling up to trying your powers?"
Shiori looks at her guitar and nods. Akane then points to another rock and tells her.
"Okay, shred that rock."
Shiori looks confused as she asks.
"You want me to destroy that rock?"
Akane just shrugs as she replies.
"Give it a whirl."
Shiori looks unsure of how to approach this and Akane gives a suggestion.
"Miku would like shout or something. I do know her powers revolved around her voice a lot."
Shiori doesn't get it, but she then begins inhaling air and then she lets out an ear-piercing scream that really isn't anything special, but it could shatter a window. Akane covers her ears and falls backwards from the scream. After a moment, Shiori just blushes with embarrassment. Akane gets back up and casually utters.
"Well that worked for crap."
Shiori turns around and is actually frustrated at Akane as she forcefully asks.
"Why did you make me do that!?"
Shiori fails to notice her fingers strumming the strings of her guitar as it hits a riff that sends a sonic shockwave that tears down some trees and sends Akane flying among them. She lands in the middle of some rubble, in a panic, Shiori runs to it and starts moving the trees she blew over to find Akane while in a panic while screaming.
"I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry!"
She finally finds the red haired girl after a few moments and she seems to have gone into a daze. Shiori then frantically starts shaking her while continuing to go.
"I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry I'msosorry!"
On the other side again, Kurumi is handing Shido a bottle of sunscreen as she undoes her top and Shido can already see where this is going. He then looks at Ellen as a distraction as he takes the bottle, but Kurumi interjects by informing him.
"I already took care of her."
Shido is starting to get flustered and he looks around to see if Tohka or Kotori is watching, the latter is but the former isn't as she is still busy swimming with Aki. He is flustered, and Hiro tells him via communicator.
"Shido, just do it. We all know you want to, and Kurumi is one of the beautiful girls I, and you, know. Don't be a prude."
Kotori, who watches through the water, simply thinks.
"Come on, Shido, just get it over with."
Shido takes a breath and just does it without anyone so much as batting an eye. He then feels a bit good that he got to rub Kurumi with sunscreen. He then hears Miyuki calling to him as she leaves the shallow water because she realizes something herself, she also needs sunscreen. Tohka and Aki finish their swimming as they exit the water wanting to get something from the picnic basket for lunch. Tohka sees Shido applying sunscreen to Miyuki and she starts to get a little jealous, Aki sees this and calms her by explaining.
"Tohka, it's just putting sunscreen on. Miyuki would get sunburned if she doesn't have any on. Any parent would do that."
Tohka especially hears that last part as she softly repeats it.
"Any…parent…"
She then runs over to the basket and looks through it, and luckily she finds what she's looking for, and runs back to Aki. She shows him a bottle of sunscreen and says.
"I need to make sure you don't get sunburned, Young Man."
Aki gets a little unsettled as he declines gently.
"I'm good, Tohka, I put some on before we went swimming."
Tohka starts walking towards him with an unnaturally enthusiastic smile as she retorts.
"Nonsense, you need max protection from that violently burning sun."
Aki is more unsettled as he points to Shido and shouts.
"Shido's holding bread!"
Tohka looks with a bit of drool from her mouth and Aki takes this opportunity to run away, and Tohka notices then begins to chase after him as she declares.
"Listen to your mother, Akihiko!"
The two run until they are out of sight. Shiori and Akane return to the area where the others are ready to call it a day with learning about Shiori's powers. Kotori checks on Akane as she is still a bit dizzy from Shiori's shockwave. They simply talk about what Akane has learned from this little incident. They then wake Ellen up, and light a fire to have a barbeque. Shido cooks some hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken. Tohka catches up Aki while chasing him and tackles him then opens the sunscreen bottle then puts a big gob of it in her hand as Aki prepares himself for a coating of sunscreen.
Later in the day, during the sunset, the others are preparing to leave for the ship, and Aki looks like a ghost because of the excessive amount of sunscreen, but he is completely safe from the sun. Miyuki learned how to swim and even swim to some of the deeper water. The others learned about Shiori's powers, but only a little.
The only two that stay on the beach are Shido and Ellen because he wants to say something to her. When the others are gone, he walks up to her and holds out his hand and tells her.
"How about I give the husbandly attention you need, for just a little while."
Ellen blushes a bit and gladly accepts his offer. They walk on the beach and look over the ocean during the sunset.