The next day, they went to the beach. They choose a nice spot were a table under a parasol was reserved for them. With Kaoko's and Aoko's help, Ryoma helped the children change into their swimming suit. Touga wore a blue short with a dolphin. Sora had an orange two-piece. Ryoma wore a white one-piece with fuchsia flowers pattern.
Ryoma wasn't an eye-catch big boobs girl in a bikini. Her proportions weren't anything special, but the boys turned their head when she passed. Why? Because she was the only girl who wasn't in a bikini. In the eyes of the boys, she was like an alien, so she caught their attention. But after looking carefully at her, they thought that she wasn't that bad, even if she wasn't wearing a bikini. Those boys kind of got sick of seeing big boobs in bikini that covered almost nothing every day. A normal shaped girl in a one-piece was refreshing to look at in their eyes. Two guys - a long blond and a short spiky black hair - came to her, in hopes of getting acquainted with her.
"Hey miss, are you alone? Do you want to come with us?" the blond asked her.
"No, I don't want to!" And Ryoma continued her way.
"Wait!" the spiky black hair guy stopped from walking away. "It will be more fu-…!" He immediately shut up.
He and his companion's face's changed color. Despite their perfect tan, they became completely white because of something behind Ryoma. Curious, Ryoma turned around to see what could make them look so frightened. There were only Kirihara, Marui, Niou and Ootori standing behind her, smiling their every day, happy-go-lucky grins.
"Yo, Echizen!" Kirihara said, his arms behind his head.
"Oh, it's you guys," Ryoma said. Kirihara, Marui, Niou and Ootori grinned. Ryoma returned back to the two boys.
"What where you going to say again?" Ryoma asked the spiky black hair boy.
"N-nothing…!" the guy stuttered.
Because she wasn't watching, the four regulars behind her transformed back into evil blood-thirsty monsters with long, sharp fangs and blood red eyes.
"S-SORRY! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The two play-boys ran away. Ryoma look at the two black dots that disappeared to the end of the beach.
"Weird people!" Ryoma said. Sora and Touga giggled.
And those two guys weren't the only victims of Ryoma's four (unknown) watch-dogs.
The weather was nice and sunny. The water was warm and it was a pleasure to swim in. Sora played in the water with her dolphin shape fish toy with Ryoma. Touga, Kirihara and Ootori were running around with a water gun. Yuuta, Shishido, Hiyoshi, Kikumaru and Gakuto were surfing. Marui, Niou, Yagyuu and Sanada were having a volley ball match, attracting spectators around. Yanagi was the referee while Inui took notes. Atobe watched the game from his seat under an parasol, sipping orange juice. Kabaji stood behind him. Yukimura, Fuji, Tezuka and Oshitari were at a table next to him. Behind them were gathered many girls and women, who kept looking at them with dreamy eyes. Yukimura was enjoying the scene of the beach. Fuji, sat across Yukimura, put down his classical poetry book and petted Karupin, who was sleeping, curled on his lap. Tezuka continued to read his psychological book while Oshitari listened to some Liszt music.
After swimming, Sora wanted to collect sea shells and Ryoma helped her. After that, they started building a sand castle. However, Kirihara, who was chasing Touga, tripped in a bucket containing the shells and spilled it. By doing so, he accidentally shoot cold water into Ryoma's face and crushed the sand castle.
"Arrrrrrrrgh!" Sora and Ryoma growled.
The girls put so much effort into building up something that (supposedly) looks like a castle (though not really, considering Ryoma's amazing (cough cough) artistic skills and Sora's still unskillful hands), but their effort were soon destroyed.
"Sora, have you ever played the game to-bury-a-person-alive before?" Ryoma asked, her eyes on fire, fixed on Kirihara.
"No, but I want to play it now," Sora said.
"Oh oh…" Kirihara's face became blue.
"How about that we start with him?" Ryoma asked again. Kirihara broke out in a cold sweat.
"Excellent idea, nee-chan!"
"Aaah…" Kirihara trailed. Then scampered away. Ryoma and Sora snatched the water gun from Touga and Ootori and hunted Kirihara.
"Come back here!" Ryoma and Sora roared.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Kirihara ran away from the two she-devils behind him and who were after his head. He hoped he could keep his life for a couple more hours.
Kirihara shot behind him, but Ryoma and Sora dodged. It was Ootori and Touga who got shot instead. It was unfair to shoot at unarmed people. Ootori and Touga wanted revenge and ran after him. Kirihara shoot again, this time turning his head behind to have a better aim. But he bumped into the surfers, who were returning back. Because of their large surfboards, they knocked into each other and a big painful red lump grew on the top of their head. Next, they joined Ryoma, Sora, Touga and Ootori to hunt down Kirihara. Kirihara skipped away in the direction of the beach ball court. Sadly, he crashed into Atobe, splashing the orange juice all over the obocchan. It was a disgracing sigh to see the royal Atobe Keigo sloshed with orange juice all over him. Atobe increased the numbers of Kirihara's pursuers. Kirihara knocked into the high chair in which Yanagi was sat. Yanagi felt, his face in the sand.
"Yabe…" Kirihara trailed.
Yanagi's leg had hit Niou on the head. Niou missed his ball and sent it into Marui's face. The ball dropped at Marui's feet.
"Game and match. Yagyuu-Sanada pair," Inui called.
"Grrrrrrrrr!" Marui-Niou team weren't happy about the final conclusion of the game. They decided to make the culprit of their defeat pay. They eyed menacingly Kirihara, who's face was bluer and was sweating cold sweat.
"Why you…" Yanagi transformed into a giant with an evil black aura around him. He looked down at Kirihara with his eyes OPEN.
Thus, Kirihara got hunted down by Ryoma, Sora, Touga, Ootori, Yuuta, Shishido, Gakuto, Hiyoshi, Kikumaru, Atobe, Marui, Niou and Yanagi. Sora aimed at Kirihara and shot, but she missed. Instead, she hit Tezuka in the face. Tezuka dripped with cold water.
Pop! Twitch!
The pursuers and the pursued froze on the spot.
"TEN LAPS AROUND THE BEACH!" Tezuka roared.
"Urgggggggggggggh!" They cringed. Inui appeared, a cup of green juice in one hand and a stopwatch in the other. He smiled.
"Ganbatte ne (1)!" Inui said. Ryoma's and the boys' faces turned blue.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" They instantly flew away.
Ryoma, Sora and Kirihara flung their water guns behind them and Kabaji caught them. Kaoko kept clicking repeatedly on her photo camera while Aoko constantly fixed the objective of her video camera on the group, giggling. Yagyuu examined Inui's cup of juice. He smelled it, then frowned.
"Inui, this is…" Oshitari said.
Inui don't say anything and calmly put back his watch. Yukimura and Fuji chuckled while Tezuka wiped himself with a towel, the vein still popping on his forehead.
"Hmhmhmhmhm!" Enzou and Shindou laughed as they prepared to set out a picnic.
After the tenth lap, they finally returned, breathing heavily. Kirihara was carrying Sora under his arm and Niou, Touga. The kids weren't used to run laps, especially in the sand. Their throats were dry because they ran too much. They wished to have something to quench down their thirst. In answer to their wish, Kaoko and Aoko appeared in front of them, smiling.
"Here, take this," Kaoko said.
"It will make you feel better," Aoko said.
The group saw each maid carrying a tray on which were displayed many glasses filled with ice cubes and… sparkling GREEN juice!
'Hiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!'
Kaoko and Aoko even took the pain to decorate the glasses with a straw and a slice of lemon or a hibiscus flower. The glass of juice looks… appealing, in the eyes of people who dodn't know about Inui's juice of course. For people who know about it, like Ryoma and the boys, they turned green and skipped a step away from Kaoko and Aoko.
"It's very delicious, I assure you," Fuji said, showing them his half consumed glass of green juice in his hand. "You wouldn't want to pass on such a wonderful and refreshing drink." Fuji smiled dazzlingly to them.
The former laps runners could see Sanada's, Yagyuu's and Oshitari's glasses placed in front of them. The glasses were still full, nothing consumed. Sanada, Yagyuu and Oshitari don't even LOOK at their glass. Only Yukimura had drank his juice, but all the regulars know that Yukimura's and Fuji's taste buds are of the same kind. Ryoma and the boys turned greener.
'I really don't want to drink it. I would rather die from thirst!' they screamed in their head.
"Here!" the two maids insisted with a sparkling and inviting smile. They stepped again one step in their direction. Ryoma and the boys skipped back three more steps.
Alas, in their youth and innocence, and because of their thirst, Touga and Sora were completely hypnotized by the appealing glasses of juice. They watched the green liquid with enchanted eyes. Each of them took a glass.
"Touga! Sora! No!" Ryoma and Yuuta yelled. But it was too late, the kids already sipped in their drink.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Ryoma and the boys screamed for the two poor young souls. They prayed kami-sama to take very good care of them once they will be up there.
But Sora and Touga broke into a blissful expression, feeling cool.
"Hummmn!" Touga licked his lips. "Can I have another one, please?"
"Me too, please!" Sora said.
"Of course! Here!" Aoko gave to each a new glass.
"What!" Ryoma and the boys were dumbfounded. How come the kids like Inui's juice?
"Come to think about it," Shishido said. "They are Fuji's relatives. Could it be that they also have Fuji's taste buds?"
"It's a good explanation," Gakuto said.
"No," Yuuta said. "Sora's and Touga's taste buds are absolutely normal. Nothing like aniki's. I can guarantee it." Fuji chuckled.
"Then, how come…?" Kirihara asked. He watched Sora and Touga enjoying another glass of green juice with horrifying eyes. Kirihara turned more and more purple at each gulp that went down the kids' throat.
"There is only one way to know the answer…" Marui slowly said. He and Niou nodded in agreement. Crossing their arms behind their head, Niou and Marui pretended to look at the sky and whistleling at the same and secretly step by step got closer to Ryoma. Suddenly, Ryoma got immobilized by her arms by Niou so she cannot run away.
"Ah! Hey! What are you doing?" Ryoma squirmed. Marui grabbed a glass on Kaoko's tray and forced in down Ryoma's throat. "Yaddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp!
Yuuta, Shishido, Hiyoshi, Gakuto, Ootori and Kirihara sweat dropped.
'That's it! I can't believe that today is my last day on earth. And I couldn't hug you a last time, Karupin!'
"Meow?" Karupin woke up from Fuji's lap to look at his mistress, who has an incredibly original face color by now. She was green… Err… No. White…? Err… No. She was changing into blue now. Ah! That's not it! She is purple now. Karupin wondered what happen to his mistress. Not that he doesn't like purple, but he preferred his mistress in her normal colors.
Marui made Ryoma drink all the content of the glass. Ryoma fought to be freed from Niou's hold. She wanted to kill the red and the porcupine head boys. She wanted to fill them with Inui's juice through a gasoline pump and at a flow of 100 liters per second. She wanted them to taste the bitterness of Inui's selected vegetables and the crappy taste of Inui's special concoction. She wanted too…
'Huh?' Ryoma stopped her murderous ideas. 'Wait…' She slowly flicked her tongue in her mouth. 'Hmm…' She decided to allow her taste buds to thoroughly taste the green liquid. 'This is…' The taste was not of Inui's usual juice. It was a little bit sour, but it was sweet. And because the juice were bathed in ice cubes, it was refreshing. Very tasty. It wasn't Inui's veggie juice after all. It was the taste of…
"Kiwi…" Ryoma trailed out.
"That's right, Echizen-hime-sama," Shindou said, smiling. "It's kiwi juice."
"We also added a little bit of lemon juice and salt so you don't get dehydrated under this strong sun," Enzou explained.
"Ah! It's kiwi juice? Then I want one too!" Kirihara said. He ran to Kaoko and Aoko.
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
"Me too!"
"Hey! Me too!"
Kikumaru, Gakuto and the others joined with Kirihara. Since it was kiwi juice, they didn't mind drinking the green juice. Marui and Niou let go of Ryoma and went to the maids with the other boys. They emptied the trays and everyone sipped in their straw.
"It's true. It's kiwi juice," Shishido said.
"It's very good!" Gakuto said.
"But then, why Yagyuu, Sanada and Oshitari didn't…?" Hiyoshi pondered. They boys turned to look at the table. Yagyuu, Sanada and Oshitari were calmly sipping in their glass.
"Hum? We what?" Yagyuu innocently asked.
They looked at him with slitted eyes.
'They purposely made us think that it was Inui's juice!'
"I told you it was delicious and refreshing," Fuji said.
"Aniki, a judgement of taste from you can never be considered trustworthy," Yuuta said. Fuji chuckled.
"And here I really thought it was another poisonous concoction from Inui," Kikumaru said.
"I never said it was my juice," Inui said. "I only encouraged you to do your best while running your laps."
They looked at him with slitted eyes too.
'He purposely scared us!'
They preferred not to say anything. Fuji and Yukimura chuckled again.
"Oh well! I'm happy to drink this thing. I feel much better now!" Marui said.
"Hmn!" Niou agreely nodded, taking another sip from his straw.
Suddenly, Marui and Niou felt cold in their back…
Hmm…
No! Frozen.
Yes. Frozen!
Gulping, they slowly turned around… to see a giant, furious Ryoma with flames from hell dancing around her. She looked down at them with red eyes, showing them her fangs.
"Grrrrrrrrr…" Ryoma growled.
"Huph!" Marui and Niou gulped again. Ryoma charged. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The next second, Marui and Niou were buried in the sand, with only their head spared.
"Ara ara ara…" Marui and Niou whimpered. Ootori and Kirihara crouched down to look at the two head with swirling eyes.
"Didn't you learn anything when she hit me with a table?" Ootori asked.
"But she's not PMS'ing today," Niou said.
"Ah! That's true…" Kirihara said. "Anyway, I'm happy I'm not at your place. Hahahahaha!"
"By the way, Kirihara…" Ryoma said from behind Kirihara. Kirihara turned around to see a furious Ryoma. And a furious Sora next to her too. "You crushed our sand castle, didn't you?" Ryoma slowly finished.
'Oop! They didn't forget…'
Ryoma and Sora charged.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The next second, Kirihara was buried next to Marui.
"Come on, Sora!"
"Hmph!"
Ryoma and Sora walked away, leaving the three buried bodies to cook in their grave. Yagyuu, Oshitari, Yanagi and Inui closely examined Ryoma's work.
"Impressive," Yanagi said.
"I agree," Oshitari said.
"Echizen's is unskillful with her hands. But when it comes to digging graves, she is very good," Yagyuu said. "A remarkable craft work."
"Hmm," Inui nodded while scribbling in his notebooks.
Fuji and Yukimura chuckled again while Sanada and Tezuka sighed heavily.
It was long past noon. It was about time to restore themselves. Enzou and Shindou had finished setting out a picnic, which they were all grateful for. They happily guzzled down the sandwiches: salmon, tuna, jam, strawberry and various fruits. There were also paté de foie, duck and other delicacies. After that, Kaoko served an ice cream cake for everyone while Aoko cut a watermelon for those who wanted to eat more. Kirihara and Touga were at it again, spitting melon seeds to each other. Sanada smacked them on the head, remaining them of their manners of a gentleman eating in front of ladies - Ryoma and Sora.
After the lunch, Ryoma felt sleepy and decided to nap. She laid on the blanket and closed her eyes. Sora and Touga joined her, curled against her. Kabaji added more parasols over them so they wouldn't get sunburned. Soon, Kirihara, Marui, Niou and Ootori too fell into a slumber. Little by little, the others also thought that a nap wasn't such a bad idea. They closed their eyes and let themselves be immerged in a light sleep. The only ones who remained awake were Yukimura, Fuji, Kabaji, the two maids and the two butlers. Giggling, but not too loudly, Kaoko and Aoko fixed their sleeping faces in their cameras. Smiling at their actions, Fuji looked Touga, then at Sora. His nephew and niece seemed to be having a very good day, like the past days, considering the smile on their peaceful sleeping face. And that's thanks to slipped a soft glance to…
'Ryoma-chan…'
After many minutes, Fuji's eyes were still fixed on Ryoma.
'Hmm…?' Yukimura, who saw him, thought. 'That's unsual for you to look at someone for so long, Fuji. Especially a girl…'
He observed Fuji again, who was still looking at Ryoma.
'It seems like someone finally succeed to open the doors of your heart…'
Yukimura secreetly smiled.
'This is getting interesting! Huhuhuhuhu!' he silently chuckled.
(1) ganbatte ne: do your best.