Cherry Blossom Palette: Summer by the Sea

Chapter 44: Sunblock Shenanigans (Catastrophe)

Sunshine Arc

Written by EmtenDew

Edited by P. serrulata

Author's note:

ED: After a Neko/Hana ambush—

Shenanigans retreat!

This is the shortest chapter I've ever done, even shorter than the ones from the last story where Hana told Naoto about playing with Sakura in the sand in their bare feet and Naoto's subsequent confrontation with the gal.

I just wanted this to stand on its own, a funny and cute chapter. I think it's funny and cute.

I stumbled across a really funny/cute animal video this week, but now I can't find it, so it won't be one that Gamo-chan shares with Naoto. In the video, a man feeds a small male tortoise a lobe of prickly pear cactus, and the second he's done eating, the tortoise makes a b-line (moving almost as fast as those softshell turtles that scamper away in videos) for a female across the yard and mounts her. It's his daily routine, apparently.

…

The BBC released Pokémon Horizons dubbed up to Episode 32! Hurray! Thanks, BBC! You're not as bad as my editor says you are, sitting alone in the dark, cleaning his guns, listening to Judge Napolitano or rewatching the Tucker Carlson interview with Vladmir Putin, and waiting for the USD to tank. (Tee-hee!)

One of the episodes had a pretty funny scene. It turns out most of the airship's Pokémon have "Fight Club" style get-togethers in the cargo hold at night and brawl with each other, when the unwitting humans are asleep. A wild Pokémon made its way onto the airship, and it ended up having a battle with one of the ship's Pokémon, a Shuckle (their juice dispenser), while the rest of the ship's Pokémon watched, and they drank and ate afterwards.

Unfortunately, the series at the point that I'm watching is in its third quarter, and the animation is suffering some. It's that phenomenon that PS told me about, where the animators get lazy halfway through an anime's season, leading to the quality sucking until they go for the home stretch.

…

I hope that canon Naoto rips into Nagatoro about how mean and selfish and insecure she is, and why he has trouble being open with her, when he gets ahold of her, but I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.

And if she runs on him again or doesn't want to listen, I REALLY hope Naoto refuses to play her c*nty games. She's worthless if she tries. And pretty much, he's worthless too if he falls for it or entertains it again. If he's a man—or has any love or respect for himself—he'll stand up for himself.

…

Ask us anything, and we'll add a Q&A section in the next chapter.

It's good to know that you keep reading, so I would be happy if you drop comments and ask questions.

Please enjoy what I wrote.

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Having come across… whatever it was Naoto and Sakura were up to, thrashing about on their ratty blanket, Hana and Nekoba chewed their PB&J sandwiches, squatting down and taking in the show.

And on the tail of Hana's outlandish question to Sakura, inquisitive of what dirty words Naoto was allegedly tracing on the gal's back—

"Eww, Hanacchi!" Nekoba scolded, appalled. "'Yummy pecker'?! Where in the world did you come up with something like that? That's disgusting!"

Hana thought, "I don't remember precisely, but there was something about a dog and some peanut butter."

"Pfft~!" Nekoba sputtered, spraying bread-crumbs, forgetting her upset via laughter.

'Aw, shit!' Naoto, who'd fallen across Sakura's swell buttocks in surprise, was already off of her, caught in a stunned crouch. "…!"

What were Hana and Nekoba doing there?!

Sakura squalled, huddling up and doing her damnedest to shield her boze with one hand and pointing with the other, "How long were you two there?!"

"You two" meaning the new visitors, naturally~…

'I don't think I even wanna know!' Naoto silently answered a question not meant for him, betting they'd seen plenty.

"Between 15 and 20 seconds," Hana gave Sakura reply, a gob of jelly at the corner of her not-empty mouth. *Ha-noms*

Nekoba, her composure back, hastily swallowed her latest bite of sandwich, before saying, "Hanacchi, we just got here."

"But we could see them from a distance," Hana specified.

"Hmm, granted…" Nekoba said. "But I didn't think we'd find anything like this…"

Sakura had gathered her bikini-top to herself, staying in contact with ground-level.

She whined, "What are you doing here?!"

"We heard someone scream, so we walked this way," Hana said. "It sounded like my senpai."

Nekoba added, "Not that we weren't already looking for you."

*Ha-noms* "The two of you have been gone for some time, so we thought we'd come find you."

*Neko-noms* "Everyone else has already been swimming… us too. We just wanted a snack."

Their stringy hair and sammiches were a testament to that…

Naoto, well aware he and Sakura had been away for quite a while, didn't fail to realize his and Sakura's neighbors had taken note of the peculiar girls hovering over them.

They were out-of-place, no doubt…

And the crowd was staring.

"Fuck…" Naoto cussed under his breath, heating up with embarrassment.

But he couldn't have been any redder than Sakura.

Girl had gone burgundy~!

"Y-you two… You two need to go back to the others," she stated with futility. "Go on!"

Ignoring her bestest, goodest gal-pal, Hana turned to Nekoba. "You said this is most unexpected. I would agree. Just what is it they're up to?"

They'd been watching for a LITTLE while, so it wasn't obvious~?

Nekoba gave reply, "I'd say they were 'playing doctor', but that's not quite it."

Asshole-kun, finding his voice, and Blondie both bellowed at once, "We're doing no such thing!"

"Then what?" Hana perplexed, still focusing on Nekoba, easily managing her straight face.

Nekoba was trying very hard to keep up the same even countenance Hana was, but—

Cross-eyes cracked up for a second time, and she didn't recover from it. "M-maybe 'playing lotion-lad and beach-bunny'~?"

'Nooooooo!' Naoto and Sakura split an internal bellow.

Hana plainly stated to her companion in sandwichdom, "I thought you said you wouldn't play along, Nekoba-senpai, if we found them."

"Yeah, but I didn't expect to find something so juicy~!" Nekoba trilled with glee, abandoning all attempts at seriousness. "This is nuts…"

It was HANA'S idea to make a scene and discomfit them, had they befallen a compromising position?!

Naoto could yet feel a couple dozen pairs of eyes on them, the attention not subsiding. "…!"

"You two, get back to homebase!" Sakura told their guests more firmly.

*Ha-noms* "Why?"

"Because you're bothering all these nice people!" Sakura hissed, referring to the neighbors.

Nekoba joked, struggling to get out words, "Th-they seem to be enjoying the show~."

Indeed they were, Naoto found, seeing many an amused, smirking expressions. "…!"

It was no fun, a bunch of adults GAWKING at you, judging and mocking!

Sakura was still very much hoping to end this disaster, to rid Naoto and herself of the invading party.

"If you leave now, I'll buy you both a cold drink later!" she spouted in semi-desperation.

Hana's attention was had. "You will?"

"You do mean each of us, right, Sakura?" Nekoba giggled. "We're not sharing~."

"Yes, you'll each individually get something!" she cried. "But you gotta go now!"

To the relief of the "comedy act" on the beach blanket, Nekoba stood up, licking a speck of jelly from her fingers, having finished her snack.

"Well, it's more than we came here with, Hanacchi~," she wheezed with bliss.

Hana got to her feet too. "Yes, and I think we've had our fun."

The matter-of-fact manner in which she said that~!

"Y-yeah, scram, you two!" Sakura tried to act tough, unconvincing when cherry-red in the face. "We'll be back soon enough. Just go already!"

To the surprise of both on the blanket, the girls didn't argue.

They didn't even give a proper response; they turned on their heels and left.

But it didn't mean that Nekoba didn't double over cackling (again), considering the gem of a bad situation she and Hana had found. "Ha-ha-ha-ha~!"

"…~" Hana was far more stoic, at least to the untrained eye.

The moment the two were lost in the ever-growing crowd, rising at the fringes of "couples-only" land, the flushed Sakura looked to the flushed Naoto.

"Here, tie me up! Tie me up!" she said quickly. "My top, Senpai-kun! Let's get it tied up."

"Huh…?" He was a bit lost, trying to process what had just befallen them. "What's the rush?"

"You wanna wait for them to come back with reinforcements?!" Sakura cross-examined.

"Reinforcements?"

"They'll probably blab, and I don't wanna be here in case they come back with the whole corps!"

"Would they?"

"Even if Nekoba doesn't, Hana-chan has been known to be a little blabbermouth."

"…!" Naoto knew this to be true.

And the thought of the rest of the group showing up—any of them… Yoshi, Rabi-chan, Shuu, Tohru… GAMO-CHAN…!

"Alright, alright…" Naoto submitted.

A head-start wouldn't hurt…

"Here, here." Sakura adjusted her top and strings to make it easier for her senpai.

He didn't argue, finding himself doing an overhand-knot. "R-right! That too tight?"

"Naw, you're good," she answered. "It's fine."

Just like tying a shoe~…

Rising to standing, Sakura donned her sarong. "Let's go."

Naoto picked up and shook out the blanket. "Uh… where?"

"Somewhere that's not here and not our main camp!" the gal declared.

That was good enough for Naoto. "…Right."

Regrouping would be wise…

And in view of the many captivated people around them, they escaped, bottles of sunscreen in their pockets.

Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading!

Questions and comments are welcome!