Chapter 06: Seaside Saga, Part I
Rito raised a curious brow from his bed while Lala kept packing... 'stuff' into her bag. "...what are you doing in my room, Lala?"
"Hmm? I'm preparing for Seaside Summer School." Lala answered like he was asking the obvious. "Thanks to Haruna winning that lucky draw between her and Class 1-B's representative, our class can go visit a beach!"
"No, no, I get that. I wanna go to the beach, too." Rito nodded in agreement to her excitement. "What I mean is, why are you currently in my room?"
"Ah, I almost forgot." Lala got up and moved towards his closet. "I've gotta bring that with me."
"Bring 'what'?!" Rito sat up in alarm. "What'd you put in my closet?!"
"I'm remodeling it to my room." Lala giggled as she opened it. "I'll show it to you when it's complete, so don't peek, okay?"
"...just make sure it doesn't explode." Rito sighed, reluctantly smiling a little at Lala's cheer. After a while, Lala seemed to finally be satisfied. But... "No, that's too much. Reduce it."
"Eeeeeeeh!" Lala protested as she dropped herself over her bulging bag. "But I need all of it!"
"You're going to the beach!" Rito deadpanned as he looked over the bag's contents. "Where and when will you ever need to use a full tennis set? Or a ski mask? Or a pair of skates?"
"I must agree with Rito, much to my reluctance." Peke added. "The fact that the bag is even unable to be closed cannot be ignored."
"Oh!" Lala pulled out her D-Dial. "Then-"
"Nope!" Rito yanked the D-Dial out of Lala's hand. "Lala, allow me to teach you a necessary aspect of human lives... called 'essentials'."
"Unfortunately, that's a lesson that might have to be postponed." Mikan's voice spoke up from the door, causing the three to regard her. "Sorry to put a downer on you guys, but your Seaside Summer School might become cancelled."
"Next up about the typhoon. Typhoon Medusa is increasing in speed and heading to the north..."
"So that's why..." Rito spoke up as the three of them regarded the News.
"And they say it's gonna hit here tonight." Mikan added. "I thought you'd have noticed the weather getting worse."
"So that's why I've been feeling so lethargic today..." Rito's shoulders drooped. "I guess Seaside Summer School really might get cancelled."
"Eh?! I don't like that!" Lala protested. "I was preparing for it and all!"
"But this is a typhoon we're talking about." Rito pointed out. "Ignoring what it'll do to the seas, even planes can't fly through that."
"...I'll do something about it!" Lala said after donning a stubborn expression and marching off. "Let's go, Peke!"
"Hey, Lala? Wait up!" Rito called out as he followed her while Peke transformed into her alien outfit. "What are you going to doooo?!"
Rito's words devolved into a shout as Lala lifted off just as he'd gripped her shoulder, nearly being flung off if not for her swiftly grabbing his hand.
"Ah, you're coming with me, too, Rito? I'm happy!"
"Where are you going?!" Rito shouted back. "Also, get us down! My durability might be my best selling point, but I don't want to test it against terminal velocity!"
"We're going to the typhoon!" Lala declared as they left the city at high speed, their pace increasing while clearing the many hills separating it from the sea.
"WHHAAAAAT?!" Rito yelled in disbelief, which only worsened when Lala came to a stop at a cliff close enough that he could see the approaching typhoon. "As unbelievable as your inventions are, you can't deal with something of that scale!"
"Yes, I can!" Flinging out her D-Dial, Lala brought out that giant octopus from before. "There! Go for it, Go-Go Vacuum-kun II!"
"You made another one?!" Rito shrieked as the mecha octopus began sucking in rapidly, but swiftly reached its limit and became useless. "Didn't I tell you? You can't affect something of that scale!"
"...no!" Lala refused as she brought another machine, but Rito had little hopes for it's success due to it's even smaller size. Sure enough, the mere wind was enough to blow it away. "See?"
"Then, this one!" Another lost invention. "Or this!" This one malfunctioned before two minutes passed. "How about this?!"
In the end, Lala whined pitifully next to the stack of her inventions, none of them up to scale with the typhoon. "Why won't my machines work?"
"Lala-sama's inventions were originally made for pranks and utilities." Peke explained as the rain finally hit them. "You never made anything that was actually powerful enough to affect weathers... at least, deliberately. Why not return and begin to make one for the typhoon?"
"If I were to make a machine like that, the materials I need wouldn't be easy to find here on Earth..." Lala moaned.
"...listen, Lala." Rito went down on a knee to console her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's sucks, but this is your limit. I'm sorry that we won't be able to go to the beach, but I'm sure we can still find a way to have some fun here."
Lala sniffled, actual tears starting to fall down her cheeks. "But... I was looking forward to it... Sleeping over with classmates... with Rito, Haruna and everyone else..."
"...well, it's not like I'm not disappointed myself, but there's nothing we can do." Sighing as he looked away from Lala's depressed visage, Rito pointed at the typhoon. "That right there is a typhoon. When a human sees a typhoon coming, you have to get out of the way. That's just how out-of-scale it is for either of us. No matter how strong we both are as aliens, that's out of our league."
"...no, it's not. It is not!" Lala sniffled as she wiped her tears off. Getting off her knees and into a crouch, Lala kicked off with enough force to break the cliff, leaving Rito to helplessly scramble away while Lala shot towards the typhoon.
"Lala-sama, why are you getting closer to the typhoon?!" Peke shrieked. "That's too dangerous! Rito is right in how much it's out of your league!"
"No!" Lala refused, her tail beginning to spark with power. "I! AM GOING! TO THE BEACH! WITH RITO AND HARUNAAAAA!"
Flinging her tail forward, Lala roared as it unleashed a gigantic beam of her bio-electric energy towards the typhoon.
Down below, Rito gaped as the typhoon was blown apart from the blast, the sheer force of it nearly popping his ears-
Rito blinked and raised a hand up to his ear. When he moved his palm away, it was bloody. "Yeah, she blew them out..."
"Th-This is a completely unforeseen occurrence! Typhoon Medusa suddenly dispersed at the edge of Japan! I've reported weather for quite a while now, but this is a first..."
Mikan stared in shock at the News before turning to regard her similarly stunned brother. "What did Lala-san do?"
"Umm..." Rito pulled off the towel on his head. "She did a Kamehameha with her tail..."
"...what?"
"I know. You just had to have been there." Rito sighed before frowning a little. "Speaking of which, did Lala look... a little shorter to you when we came back?"
Now that Rito and Lala would be able to enjoy their trip with the improved weather, they and their classmates(accompanied by the principal and a few teachers) soon reached an inn that had been rented for them.
"Hello, everyone from Sainan High." The inn's hostess greeted with a bow, along with a few workers with her. "Thank you for traveling the long way to come here~"
"Woah!" Kenichi grinned appreciatively. "What a hot landlady!"
"Takami-chaaaan~!" The principal shouted as he ran towards the hostess, his arms raised in clear intent. "I wanted to see you-"
*CRUNCH!*
The principal was brought to his knees by Takami's unhesitant punch to the face, his nose now dripping blood. "Y-You're still cold-hearted, Takami-chan..."
"Now then, please follow me." Takami led on without missing a beat, all of the students(and even the teachers) regarding her in clear admiration as they gladly abandoned the principal.
After being granted a tour of the facilities and being allowed to arrange their luggage, the principal called them together into the hall for the announcement of their schedules.
"Seaside Summer School for the next three days will involve lots of fun and strong connections with each other and nature, which are especially poignant during the summer season!" The principal cheerfully announced from the stage. "Anyway, we will have a 'Dare' tonight! Please look forward to it~! Right, Takami-cha- GURK?!"
*POW*
A few students chuckled as Takami mercilessly uppercut the principal hard enough to make him spit blood.
"Do you think... the principal came along because he wants to meet the landlady?" Rito deadpanned.
"Most likely." Kenichi agreed with a sweatdrop.
When they got released, Rito joined the others in changing into the inn's yukata. He found them a little breezy, but pretty soft to wear.
"Hey, Rito." Kenichi called out as he approached him, their room being shared with two other boys. "Why don't we go take a bath?"
"Good idea." Rito stood up as he agreed. "Is it our turn yet, though?"
"Nah, the girls are probably still having their turns now." Kenichi leaned over conspirationally. "We should do it as men, don't you think?"
"Wh-What are you planning?" Rito asked in trepidation. 'No way. He's not gonna-'
"Peeking, of course." Kenichi smirked perversely, much to Rito's exasperation. "Willful ignorance is a bad thing, Rito Yuuki."
"I call it self-preservation." Rito countered. "You can go alone if you want to risk getting beat up like the principal."
"A worthy risk!" Kenichi declared before placing a hand upon Rito's shoulder. "Listen to me, Rito Yuuki!"
"Sadly, I'm listening."
"A mere thirty meters away lies paradise! Steamy, medicinal, aqueous paradise filled with luscious bounty!"
"Why don't you ever put this fervor into our Literature classes?"
"We must tread upon where mere mortals dare not!"
"Last I checked, we're both mortals."
"That's why whenever one goes to a hot spring with those of the opposite sex in attendance, Peeking is a must! It is an unavoidable event that transcends across the meta of Japanese culture!"
"You seem to be ignoring the consequences of what would happen if you get caught."
"Hey! What's with that clear exclusion of yourself?!"
"Because I'm clearly 0% on board with this nonsense-"
"Do you or do you not want to see Haruna Sairenji naked in the hot springs?!"
"-as I said, I'm clearly 100% on board with this nonsense." Rito clasped hands tightly with his best friend. "Let's go, comrade."
After properly washing herself, Haruna sighed as she accompanied Risa towards the hot spring.
"Eeeeeh?!" Mio exclaimed. "You don't know what 'Dare' is, Lala-chi? Oh yeah, you were born in a foreign country... Wait, does that actually count as an excuse?"
"Yup!" Lala replied from the rock she was sitting on, completely exposed and nude with one leg still in the water. Not for the first time, Haruna found herself wistful at the sight of her supermodel-worthy figure. "What is 'Dare' anyway?"
"'Dare' is... Well, in a nutshell, tonight's version is a game where a girl and a boy pair up and walk to a goal on a dark road at night." Mio explained.
"Eh?" Lala blinked in disbelief. "Walking at night is so easy, though."
"But it doesn't work that way." Mio clarified excitedly. "There will be ghosts that block your way and put-"
"Curses on you~" Risa moaned hauntingly from behind Haruna, causing the bluenette to startle a little. "Of course, that will be done by people who play the ghosts."
"Alright, just a little further to the girls' bath, Brother Rito." Kenichi whispered.
"Shut up with the 'brother' stuff." Rito whispered back.
Being currently dressed in nothing but their towels, the two snuck across the heated rocks from the far side, while following the headwinds that caused the steam to hide their approach.
"We're here." Rito declared after they made it to a cliff which overlooked the spring from a little afar, his cheeks reddening a lot as he and Kenichi looked down from above. "It's a little hard to see because of the steam."
"Bear with it, Brother Rito!" Kenichi whispered harshly, his own eyes nearly popping out from how hard he was staring. "In light of our success tonight, it's our sacred duty to silently take in every sight, no matter how miniscule!"
'...this guy's too charismatic for his own good.' Rito frowned as Lala's pink hair easily made her identifiable. 'Or maybe I'm more of a pervert than I realized, coming up here to sneak a peek of my crush's naked body...'
It was quaint, various ornate lights along the bamboo wall illuminating the grey rocks that surrounded the steaming pool itself. It wasn't long until he found Haruna. He couldn't help but take notice of the little details, the beads of water running down her shoulders and chest, his mind vividly memorizing how each drop travelled down the gently heaving slope of her breasts before dripping off-
"Woah, looks like Momioka went up a cup...! And Sawada looks surprisingly cute without her glasses, huh? Hold up, is that Arai I spy?"
Still, even with Kenichi's quiet ramblings(and the annoying shifting of his hips), Rito focused more on the conversation he could hear Lala having with the others.
"But we can't really make fun of the 'Dare'." Sawada said. "Do you know about the 'Dare' jinx?"
'Jinx? That's news to me.' Rito frowned, straining to hear more when Lala inquired about it.
"Whichever courageous pair makes it to the goal in this Seaside Summer School's 'Dare', will surely become a couple!" Sawada declared, causing Rito to freeze.
"Eh? No way~" Momioka didn't seem to believe in that.
"For real!" Sawada ascertained. "Because of this, many people became a couple in the previous years!"
'Our seniors became couples from such a thing?' Rito hummed in thought, his gaze shifting towards whom he was sure to be Haruna.
"You know... you're taking this a lot better than I thought you would." Kenichi suddenly spoke up, causing Rito to regard him. "A while ago, you couldn't even look at the girls in their school swimsuits. But now, you're somewhat calm at naked flesh. Looks like you've finally stepped up from being such a girl wimp."
'That's because I wake up everyday to Lala!' Rito blushed harder at the memory, before deciding that some payback was in order. "Well that's just a natural occurrence of regularly seeing Lala naked."
Kenichi choked. "Wh-What did you just say?"
"I said that I. Regularly. See. Lala. Naked." Rito idly knocked on Kenichi's forehead. "Is the steam causing your brain to lag, Kenichi?"
"...look here, you unrighteously lucky piece of-"
"KYAAAAAA! PEEEEKING!"
The two boys froze and flattened themselves against the ground as a shrill voice pierced through the steamy air.
Had they been caught?!
"The principal is here!"
""Eh?"" Rito and Kenichi risked a look to see the principal's rotund form slightly hidden behind a pile of wooden buckets, a snorkel on his head.
"Oh, no... I'm just watching out for you guys-" The principal barely got that out before somebody flung a bucket at his face. Then many more followed upon him.
"Well, the mood's spoiled." Kenichi sighed before pulling away with Rito, the boys uncaring of the principal's fate. "For every victor, there are the vanquished."
"Seriously, where was this during our Literature project last month?"
Much later, the students were now gathered up for the 'Dare', the excitement palpable to everyone. Rito had to make sure he paired up with Haruna and increased his good points with each other. If Sawada had been right about what she said, he could end the 'Dare' with him asking her to a date.
Speaking of which, he could even see them now with their numbers picked.
"Haruna, what number are you?"
Haruna showed her paper to Momioka and Sawada. "I'm #5."
'Haruna-chan is #5, huh? If I draw the same number, we'll be a pair!' Rito noted as it soon became his turn to blindly pick his own out from the box. 'Universe, help me- Actually, nevermind. Universe, go fuck off. I'll rely on my own luck!'
Rito snatched up his own paper, stilling at the sight of the #13 written on it. 'Not only do I not match with Haruna-chan, I got the Unlucky Number?!'
"Ah, Rito, you're #13?" Lala spoke up from beside him, causing Rito to regard her in her yukata, along with Peke's robot body nestled in her cleavage. "Yay, we're a pair now!"
"...maybe all of the luck just prefers you." Rito wondered, while Haruna found herself inadvertently paired with Kenichi.
Waiting for the first six pairs to go ahead, Rito and Lala finally had their turn come up. "It's finally our turn, Rito!"
"Yeah." Rito agreed as he held up their lantern. As great as his eyesight was, he couldn't quite see through the dark.
"Whoa, it's pretty dark." Lala commented as they began their trek upon the path. "The principal said that the goal is located at a shrine 500 meters ahead, right?"
"Yeah. We'll make it... Hmm?" Rito frowned as the faint screams he'd been hearing seemed to get louder, as if approaching... Looking ahead, Rito gawked at the sight of some of the earlier pairs running back in terror. "The guys that went ahead of us... What's going on?"
None of them answered him, focusing more on running away. "Is it that scary ahead?! Wait, Kenichi?!"
Kenichi said nothing as he ran past Rito without hesitation, screaming all the way.
'I thought he was paired with Haruna-chan... Where'd she go?' Rito frowned as he looked at his best friend's retreating form before turning to notice Lala's absence. "Wait! Lala's not here either?!"
'Did she follow along with the others?' Rito looked around frantically before staring ahead. 'No... If anything, she'd head towards what they were running from, out of nothing but sheer self-interest!'
Holding up his lantern, Rito hurried ahead in search of his partner and crush. "Lala! Sairenji! Where are you guys?!"
"Y-Yuuki-kun?"
Hearing his name from inside the woods, Rito turned aside and regarded Haruna's state. She didn't look hurt while sitting against a tree, but she must've been scared a lot with how relieved she looked to see him.
"Are you alright?" Rito approached her carefully. "Don't worry, I'll smack Kenichi later-"
His words died as Haruna flung herself into his arms, trembling heavily. 'EEEEH?!'
"I-I'm scared..." Haruna sobbed into his shoulders. "I'm really bad at dealing with all those... ghosts and stuff...!"
"Th-Th-There, there..." Rito awkwardly stammered as he patted her back, her genuine fear pushing down his own nervousness at her holding him so close. "Okay, j-just stick with me while I look for Lala. We got separated, and I need to find her before she gets frightened... or accidentally frightens others with her inventions."
He wasn't sure if she'd heard him, but she did still move over to clutch his entire left arm. Mentally grumbling at how this wasn't a state that he could enjoy her clinging to him, Rito lead the way down the path.
This turned out to be a bad idea, especially when a whole group of costumed youkai halted their way forward.
"Cuurses on yoouu..."
Haruna, for lack of a better term, freaked out as the youkai surrounded them. "K-K-KAGURA!"
'Kagura?' Rito thought, only to be stunned when a lightning bolt struck down from the sky onto Haruna with enough force to blow his eardrums out and knock him unconscious a little while blowing him back. When he came to, it was to Haruna fretting as she paced back and forth while he'd been propped up against a tree. "S-Sairenji?"
"Yuuki-kun!" Haruna exclaimed, surprisingly unmarked for a lightning strike victim.
'Did I imagine that?' Even with his ears aching a little, Rito wondered how morbid his imagination was that he could imagine Haruna so scared that she would call upon lightning to smite herself. Looking around, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Even the workers with their youkai costumes had moved on. "What happened?"
"Oh, um..." Haruna looked aside shiftily. "A lightning bolt struck you out of nowhere... I knew you were very durable, but I never knew you could survive even that. I was so worried about how I'd carry down since I hadn't even brought along my phone..."
'Yeah, that makes more sense.' Rito sighed as he stood up. If the lightning had actually struck him instead of Haruna, that would be why he could still hear a faint ringing in his ears. On top of bearing no obvious marks of being lightning struck as well, Haruna was definitely nowhere as invulnerable as he was. "Sorry for worrying you, Sairenji..."
"I'm sorry, Yuuki-kun." Haruna adopted a guilty expression as they walked down the path again. "You've suffered so much trouble from me in just a short while."
"I'm okay." Rito replied, gingerly testing how his extremities responded while recovering from lightning. Surprisingly good, apparently. "Spending time with you's never a bad thing."
"Ah..." Haruna's cheeks reddened before she seemed to remember something. "Oh, where did you say Lala-san was?"
"We got separated..." Rito paused as he and Haruna stopped at the sight of many youkai workers running towards them.
"HIEEEEEEK!"
"Run!"
"That kid called up real ghosts!"
"Wha...?" Rito gawked at their retreating forms, before a series of haunting moans came from before him.
"Ah! There you are, Rito and Haruna~!" A familiar voice called out, albeit sounding hauntingly resonant. Floating out of the darkness with an entourage of translucent youkai, Lala seemed to be using Peke to dress as a ghost, the girl even floating off the ground while a few hitodama pulsed softly around her. "I've been having so much fun tonight!"
Rito gulped while Haruna started shaking again beside him. "...Lala, who are those people behind you?"
"Ah, this. I projected ghosts using a hologram." Lala gestured to a floating orb-like machine with a devilish grin, which seemed to be emanating light like a projector... "I read a book about ghosts in Mr. Yuuki's house- Huh? What's wrong, Haruna-chan? You look so pale-"
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!"
Rito choked as Haruna suddenly grabbed the front of his yukata and flung him straight at the holograms, Rito phasing through to instead hit Lala's machine hard enough to crack it.
"Ah!" Lala shouted in shock as her machine began to spark dangerously. "My Deru-Deru Vision-kun!"
'Shit!' Rito gasped as the machine's sparks worsened with each passing second. 'That's clearly a warning sign I'm too familiar with!'
Grabbing both girls by their waists, Rito darted off just as soon as Deru-Deru Vision-kun blew up with enough force to almost propel him off his feet. Paying little attention to that, Rito carried on like that until he could see the temple's staircase. "That was close."
While Lala seemed despondent at the loss of another machine of hers, Haruna seemed to have outright fainted.
It was to the sight that the principal and Takami welcomed them as the first (and only) students to make it through the 'Dare' that night.
"Whichever courageous pair makes it to the goal in this Seaside Summer School's 'Dare', will surely become a couple!"
'But if Sawada's right...' Rito thought as he looked down at Haruna and Lala still in his arms. 'What'll happen if it's the three of us?!'
"Oh!" Lala's hand shot up. "Do we get prizes?!"
KingVessel: A while ago, some reviewers compared Rito to a certain DC hero. I'm sure those with sharp eyes will recognize the other one shouted out to.
