"Hey!" Tatsuki called out waving to the rest. The rest of the group turned to direction from where her voice came from. Ishida, Orihime, Sado, Keigo, Mizuiro, Keigo, and Yamasaki. Ichigo lagged behind, practically being dragged by Tatsuki waved as well as they finally came to a halt.
"Hey Tatsuki!" Orihime gleefully welcomed her best friend as they finally reached the group.
"Sorry we're late everyone. Ichigo was taking forever so I had to pick something out for him." She gave him that familiar smirk which did nothing to quell the uneasiness within him. He didn't have a chance to take a took at what Tatsuki picked out for him. The whole time they were running, trying not to be too late in meeting up with everyone, he did not get a chance to open the bag and look.
"Oh?" Keigo, who happened to be standing in the complete opposite side of the group, began, "I didn't take Ichigo to be a long shopper." He had a huge grin on his face. Tatsuki gave him a look of confusion until things started clicking in her head. She glanced menacingly over at Ishida, who quickly averted his eyes elsewhere in fear.
"I heard that there was a delay since someone was trying on so-" Suddenly a chill ran down his spine and his body began to tremble lightly. Everyone looked over at him wondering why he stopped, his face now pale white like he saw a ghost. Sweat began to profusely fall from his face.
What no one seemed to have notice was the person on the other side glaring a hole right through him. The fire coming from Tatsuki's eyes signaled the death and destruction she was about to administer to her friend should he finish his current sentence. Keigo began to stammer, trying to think of something else to say but fear took over his body.
"So," a voice called out, "ladies and gentleman as much fun as it is to watch Keigo get beat up by Tatsuki, I believe I hear the beach calling us!" Yamasaki said with a smile on his face, He pat Keigo on the back and nodded over to Ishida who, aside from responding with his own nod, let out a quiet sigh. He knew eventually Keigo's spirit would give in to the fierce pressure that Tatsuki's soul was surrounding Keigo's body like a trap.
"Ishida! Lead the way!" Yamasaki cheered. Ishida turned and lead the group to the entrance of a path into a wooded area. Silently, he thanked Yamasaki for defusing the situation. He, too, didn't want to feel the wrath of Tatsuki Arisawa. Some things in life are better left not having to experience. For those who know Tatsuki, that was one of them.
"Wait!" Ichigo said aloud. "Why did you say Tatsuki was going to beat up Keigo?" This caused Ishida and Keigo to both tremble again. Everyone looked around at each other, starting to realized that Yamasaki did mention this. Everyone looked back over at Keigo who was visibly shaking at the knees. He began to stammer, the fire reawakened in Tatsuki's eyes.
"Can we figure that out later?" Mizuiro asked. "My arm is getting tired carrying all this stuff." Somehow he was tasked with carrying the food they were going to eat while at the beach. In one hand, he was carrying the cooler that had hamburgers, hotdogs, and the condiments like ketchup and lettuce among others. In the other hand, he carried the food that did not need to be chilled like the buns and the graham crackers that they planned to use to make s'mores in the evening.
Sado agreed, who was stuck carrying a bag, in each hand, of two cords of logs. Keigo was carrying two coolers as well, one filled water and the other filled with pop and juice. Tatsuki and Orihime didn't have anything to carry except for sleeping bags, which everyone else were also carrying. It was one of the perks of being females in a group of friends that consisted of mostly guys. Ichigo only had to carry the two bags from the earlier morning shopping. Ishida, leading the way carried a few umbrellas for some who wanted to lay out and rest, something that both Keigo and Mizuiro complained heavily about. Yamasaki carried a backpack which had all the towels for drying and putting on the sand to lay out on, sunscreen, and other necessities like a first aid kit.
Still feeling a little tension coming from Tatsuki's direction, Keigo made his way up front with Ishida. The two of them, nervous wrecks, walked a little faster than normal not realized they were creating some distance between them and the group. The sooner they arrived at the beach, the sooner the two guys could breathe easier. The path was relatively straightforward and very well kept. Some of the people pointed this out to which Ishida responded that he had visited the path recently and did some work to clear up some of the shrubbery so that there did not exist any obstacles.
After a few more minutes of walking, they finally made their way out of the wooded area and into a small field that overlooked the cove. The path turned into an angled walkway that went through the high cliffs of the cove and ended at the tip of the white sands. Everyone spread around on the field to admire the beach area which surprisingly had a few stands set up on the white sands. Ishida raised an eyebrow looking around at
"Hey Ishida," Mizuiro spoke out. "Nice touch on those. When did you set those up?"
"I didn't." He responded in a stern voice. "It seems that someone else knows of this cov-"
"You're welcome!" Yamasaki excitedly spoke, interrupting Ishida. Everyone turned and gave him a quizzical look.
"You know about this place?" Ishida asked, surprised someone else knew of the place as but also disappointed that this was not his own secret place.
"Yeah, I've known about this place for awhile, I've never really been down to the beach area. But, I have been here over on those cliffs over there." He pointed over to the right where the tall flat-top cliffs were located.
"I come here every now and then at night when I want to get away from things. You've seen me here before, Ishida." He spoke as he looked over at him. Ishida again raised an eyebrow trying to think of a time he saw Yamasaki on the cliffs, but to no avail.
Then he remembered one night he was on the beach sitting there enjoying the peaceful atmosphere the evening brought and the gentle sounds of the waves crashing against the distant cliffs. He held, in his hand, a small bracelet that he was planning to give to Orihime for her birthday. He loved how the gems on the bracelet shined with the light from the moon. Feeling like he was being watched, Ishida looked around and then up at the top of the cliffs on his right. He could barely make out the outline of a person standing there on the cliffs, or so he thought. But, as soon as he blinked the outline disappeared. Thinking that the moonlight was playing a trick on his eyes, he thought nothing of it.
He asked him if that was Yamasaki he felt that night, to which Yamasaki nodded in agreement. Before they could continue, Tatsuki shouted out with his fist in the air to quit the talking and delaying their enjoyment in the sand. She began to run down the path to the beach. Everyone smiled and then the rest of the group began running as well.
When they finally made it to sand, they looked around and examined the things already on the beach. On the far left side, stood two blue buildings similar to that of a phone-booth. But unlike a photo-booth you could not see inside them. On their right hand side, stood a giant hexagon shaped gazebo. Next to it, stood a smaller arched roof gazebo with a small grill within it.
"You can put most of our stuff over in the gazebo," Yamasaki began. "They should be fine in the there. And, if you want, theres enough room within it for all of us to sleep comfortably in it."
Yamasaki then turned to point at the two shacks on the left. "Those are for the girls so they can change their clothes without having to worry about Keigo peeping in on them." Yamasaki said with a grin on his face.
"WHAT!?" Keigo protested. "I would never do such a thing like that!" He flailed his arms in protest against Yamasaki's accusations. Everyone laughed which disheartened him, but he knew it was all in good fun so he decided to play along. Tatsuki quickly grabbed the bag that had her bikini from Ichigo's hands.
"Thanks Yamasaki!" Tatsuki shouted as she ran towards one of the booths.
"Tatsuki! Wait for me!" Orihime shouted as she ran after her. "I need to change too!" Tatsuki opened the door to one of the booths and stepped inside. Orihime, not thinking, tried to get into the same booth as well.
"Hey! What are you doing!?" Tatsuki yelled. "You dummy you're supposed to go in your booth!" She raised her fist menacingly like she was about to strike Orihime upside her head. Orihime quickly apologized and ran out of the booth and into the other. The guys, ignoring this, headed over to the gazebo to put down all the stuff.
When they got to the gazebo all, but Yamasaki, checked out the set-up that Yamasaki had put together. The grill was basic, a simple circular metallic charcoal grill that had a bag of charcoal sitting next to it. The gazebo had a table on either side of the grill so that you could sit a plate down for when the food was done cooking.
The main gazebo was massive. As Yamasaki stated before, it was big enough for all of them to sleep in and still have enough room, even with the long table at the very end. The guys all walked in from the entrance, which was facing at an angle so that it overlooked most of the beach and the water. The entrance also had a small awning that was held up by two poles at the other end. That way, if it rained the water couldn't get it. Keigo and Mizuiro started stretching their arms, trying to let their muscle recover from having to carry the heavy things the whole way. Ichigo and Ishida, unlike Keigo and Mizuiro, were pretty strong having been involved in many battles and weren't too affected by it. Sado, who was naturally a strong individual, didn't show any signs of fatigue as well as he gently placed down the logs at the entrance of the gazebo.
The girls had finally finished changing and were making their way over to the guys. Keigo happened to look up and see the two walking over. His jaw dropped several feet underneath the sand. Tatsuki was wearing the bikini that Ichigo had picked out earlier, a dark blue two piece bikini with some lighter blue streaks in a wavy pattern on the top piece. Orihime wore a light pink, flowery bikini that was somehow able to mostly cover her massive breasts.
Keigo suddenly fainted, which caused the rest of the guys to stop unpacking at look at him. He had a giant smile on his face with a light stream of drool coming out the side of his mouth. The guys were all staring at him oblivious to the fact that the reason he had fainted with a smile was just outside the gazebo.
"What's wrong with him?" Orihime asked, observing the scene.
"Who knows." Ichigo began. "Maybe he exhausted himself carrying all tha-" Ichigo stopped mid-sentence finally realizing what made Keigo that way. He looked up and unconsciously his eyes began to scan up and down the two girls standing at the entrance way. It wasn't long until the rest of the guys looked up too and reacting in the same way. All of them, faces turning red, were left standing there babbling like idiots.
Tatsuki, realizing what was going on lifted her fist in the air. In what sounded like one giant slap, all the guys inside the gazebo were on the ground nursing the giant bump on their heads they received courtesy of Tatsuki's fist. Yamasaki was the only one who was spared. He was oblivious of the whole situation since he was firing up the grill. When he turned around he caught his first glimpse at the two bombshells. Tatsuki, caught his eyes and glared waiting for a response. Yamasaki lightly nodded and then went right back to setting up the grill.
"What's wrong Yamasaki? Got something to say?" Tatsuki asked menacingly. She made her way over to him, fist clenched, ready to add him to her list of victims. Yamasaki calmly turned around to face the angered young lady.
"I like the bikini. It's pretty cute." He answered in a calm and cool voice. "Did you buy that this morning?" Tatsuki hesitated glaring for a second before answering.
"Yeah, I bought it this morning. Ichigo picked it out for me." A loud clunk from in front of her startled Tatsuki. Yamasaki had dropped the metallic part of the spatchula into the grill, trying to suppress his laughter. Suddenly she could hear the quiet sound of laughter surround her. She looked in the gazebo and everyone, aside from an irritated Ichigo, were trying hard not to laugh. Yamasaki, did his best to keep his composure. Luckily, the focus was drawn away from him so no one could see the giant grin on his face. For the next few moments, everyone was filled with laughter as Ichigo stood there defenseless and blushing.
When the laughter finally settled down, they all decided to go and have fun and enjoy the day. The girls ran into the water first, swimming and splashing water on each other. When the guys grabbed their trunks they looked around, trying to find the changing room for the guys. Unable to find one, they asked approach Yamasaki who had finished warming up the grill. He turned around to grab the food right as they approached, asking about the mens changing room.
"Gentlemen. We're all mature young adults here." He boastfully spoke. "We don't need a changing room!" In one quick traumatizing moment, he stripped bare naked in front of their eyes and put on his swimming trunks much to the disdain of the rest of the guys. He turned back and flashed a giant smile which was met with Ichigo's fist.
"Idiot! What kind of an idea is that!" Ichigo muttered before walking off into the wooded areas to go change. Yamasaki picked himself off the ground, still grinning, while the rest of the guys headed off into different parts of the wooded area to change. Yamasaki grabbed the cooler with the food and carried it over to the grill. He took out the pack of ground beef and placed it on the table next to the grill. He ripped open the plastic and started shaping some of the ground beef into burger patties, throwing them on the grill after he was done making all of them.
After the guys all finished changing, they decided to join the girls in the water. Everyone was splishing and splashing like little kids. Yamasaki was the only one who didn't join in the fun, as he had designated himself the grill master for them. Every so often he would turn around and watch the group having their fun with a small smile on his face. He watched Tatsuki and Ichigo, the latter carrying Tatsuki on his shoulders for a moment only to fall backwards and send her splashing into the water, much to the enjoyment of the rest.
"She reminds me so much of her..." Yamasaki thought to himself. He shook his head, letting out a small chuckle as he turned back to the grill to tend to the food. Once everything was done cooking, he took a couple plates from the gazebo and placed all the food, carrying it back inside. There were burgers, hot dogs, chicken breasts, and even some grilled vegetables sitting on the table waiting to be consumed.
"YO!" Yamasaki yelled to the others. "The foods ready!" He waved at them as he took a bite of a hamburger he had just put together.
The plan is: I have two more chapters to go before I transition into the main story itself. The 2nd upcoming chapter will transition into the actual story itself. I just need to figure out how I'm going to do this since I've had to work around the original layout I drew up.
For those interested:
- The next chapter (ch.5) will continue at the beach scene, but will occur more during the evening as they settle down for the day.
- Ch.6 will be the transition where the first half will focus on the two couples in this story going to a carnival, and then later in the chapter will dive a little into the main story.
- For those wondering, this is set to be a 16 chapter story with the possibility of a sequel.