"Ohhh! The sea—!"
Upon arriving at their destination, Ryougi Yutsuki let out an excited cheer.
Although this was not the first ti she had seen the ocean, it was her first ti coming to the beach for the purpose of having fun, and it felt like her shoulders were trembling with delight.
Yatogami Tohka, who shared Yutsuki's excitent, nodded enthusiastically.
"Umu!, the sea really is great!"
Although she had co once during a school trip, Tohka still could not help but feel thrilled at the sight of the vast ocean.
"Hmph. Getting so excited over such a small thing. Yutsuki and Tohka really are like children!"
"Agreed. Getting excited over just this much."
"Hmph… even though the two of you are clearly full of anticipation yourselves."
Seeing the sparkling eyes of the Yamai sisters, Kaguya and Yuzuru, Yutsuki gave a soft huff and retorted.
"I'll have the staff carry the luggage to the inn," Murasa Reine said to Kotori.
"I know. Thanks for your work, Reine."
Kotori nodded lightly, then turned to the Spirits and said, "Anyone who wants to go to the beach can change into swimsuits in the changing room first."
After receiving Kotori's permission, everyone imdiately cheered.
"Then Kotori, I'll just… huh? Wh-what is this?"
Just as Shido was about to ask where the changing room was, Yutsuki suddenly grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and slowly lifted it upward, revealing her slender, white waist, and then… his vision was instantly plunged into darkness.
"Shido cannot look!" Kotori shouted in a fluster, covering Shido's eyes with her hand while blushing furiously.
"Yu-Yutsuki-san?!"
"Oh~ Yutsuki-chan. That was bold."
"Huh? What happened?"
Hearing Yoshino's stunned voice and Yoshinon's teasing admiration, Shido asked in panic.
"Honestly… where are your thoughts going?" Yutsuki looked at the highly reactive crowd with a speechless expression, then rubbed her forehead and shook her head. "I was already wearing my swimsuit underneath, so I just wanted to take off my clothes here and save myself the trouble of going to the changing room."
"Hoh~! So there was such a move!" Tohka nodded with sudden realization.
"Honestly, I did not expect you to be this eager about the beach."
"Surprise. Yutsuki is unexpectedly childlike in so ways."
"...None of your business," Yutsuki replied with a slight twitch of the mouth, looking as though she wanted to say sothing but ultimately only shrugged in rebuttal.
She could not exactly say that this was a asure taken to avoid the embarrassing situation of fainting from blood loss and being sent to the hospital after entering the changing room and being unable to withstand the sight in there.
"Seriously, in that case you should have said so earlier, Yutsuki-nee." Kotori let out a helpless sigh, then slowly removed her hand from Shido's eyes.
"Sorry, sorry…? What's wrong, Shido?"
Feeling Shido staring at her unblinkingly, Yutsuki asked in confusion.
"Huh? No! Uh…" Seeing the slightly panicked Itsuka Shido, Kotori angrily nudged his waist with her elbow and let out a long sigh.
"Seriously, didn't I already tell you many tis before? About swimsuit evaluations."
"Oh, right."
By now, Yutsuki had taken off her shorts and T-shirt, revealing a gray-green swimsuit. Since Yutsuki had chosen a more masculine female style, both the swim trunks and the upper swimsuit looked very plain. But paired with her slender, elegant figure and upright stance, it gave off a kind of heroic air.
After eting Yutsuki's amber-like eyes, Shido lowered his head a little, his face turning red.
"Mm… it suits you very well."
"Mm, thanks."
She had actually wanted to say that she only asked for a swimsuit that was as masculine and plain as possible, and left the rest to the store clerk. However, considering it might make Shido embarrassed, Yutsuki still nodded and thanked him.
"Ugh…" Tohka puffed up her cheeks in dissatisfaction and tugged at Shido's arm. "Shido, I also picked out a new swimsuit. Hurry up and go change!"
"Correction—Shido, do take a look at my elegant figure in swimwear."
"Reminder. Yuzuru is very confident in her swimsuit today."
"Shido-san, rember to praise Yoshino's swimsuit too, okay~?"
"Y-Yoshinon!"
Seeing Tohka, Kaguya, Yuzuru, and Yoshino suddenly beco unusually proactive for so reason, Shido forced a smile in response.
"Uh… then I'm really looking forward to it."
"What are you standing there getting all emotional for?! Hurry up and go change! You pest from the rice fields!"
"Why are you suddenly getting angry, Kotori?"
"Sh-Shut up!"
Watching Shido, who had first been surrounded by everyone and was now frantically sweating bullets before being kicked flying by Kotori, Yutsuki showed a very subtle bitter smile.
"Even though it's kind of enviable, I still have to say Shido is pretty miserable. My condolences~"
After silently mourning for Shido for three seconds, Yutsuki could not resist running toward the sea.
"Mmm~ So cold and refreshing!"
Standing on the soft sand, with shallow waves carrying cool seawater up to her ankles and a gentle breeze blowing from the front, Yutsuki comfortably narrowed her eyes.
"This feels amazing. Today, I finally got to experience sothing I've always wanted to try. And next… huh? What was I going to do next?"
Before coming here, Yutsuki felt she had a whole list of things she wanted to do. But once she actually arrived, for so reason, she just could not think of what she had intended to do.
It was as if her body instinctively prevented her from rembering.
"Yutsuki, what are you doing?"
Standing there in a daze for quite a while, a familiar voice suddenly ca from behind her. Yutsuki turned around to see Shido, already changed into his swimsuit, setting up a beach mat and parasol in a slightly farther spot.
Because she was too embarrassed to say that she had co to the beach full of excitent only to end up not knowing what to do, Yutsuki coughed awkwardly and made up an excuse.
"Shido, well… cough cough, right! I was moved by this beautiful scenery and was just about to compose a haiku or two."
"Oh, that's impressive! Did you co up with anything?"
Faced with Shido's question, Yutsuki broke out in a cold sweat. She had completely spaced out just now. Forget haiku—she had not even thought of a single willow leaf, let alone a poem.
"H-how dare you suddenly call out to and make forget everything I was thinking of! Apologize!"
"Huh?!! My fault?" Shido pointed at himself in disbelief, scratching his head in confusion. Although he did not quite understand what was going on, considering Yutsuki's mood, he still apologized sincerely. "I'm really sorry for interrupting your inspiration."
But after hearing that, Yutsuki instead covered her face in pain, emitting what sounded like a guilty cry.
"Why did you actually apologize…"
Wasn't that what you told to do?
Shido was even more confused by the situation, but at least he had already undergone Kotori's training and had gained so experience in dealing with won.
Vaguely sensing that Yutsuki wanted to avoid the matter of 'composing haiku' ,Shido changed the subject.
"Oh, right! Yutsuki, did you put on sunscreen?"
Understanding his intention, Yutsuki took a deep breath, cald herself down, and cooperated by changing the subject as well.
"Uh? Sothing like that for won's skincare… honestly, I'm not really fond of using it."
During their conversation that night, Shido had also learned that Yutsuki possessed mories of having been male in her previous life. He could sowhat understand her subtle rejection of female products.
"Sunscreen is not sothing only won use. It's just more commonly used by won," Shido said with a bitter smile, correcting her misunderstanding. "I recomnd putting so on. If you stay under this harsh sun too long, your skin will get really painful. Tohka and the others seem to have applied so in the changing room too. I've put so on myself as well."
Hearing that even Shido had applied so lowered Yutsuki's resistance to it quite a bit.
Well, it was true that if she exposed her skin to the sun too long, it would hurt later. And this was technically a necessary part of going to the beach.
"Then I'll put so on too. Give your sunscreen, Shido."
After taking the sunscreen from Shido, Yutsuki put so onto her hands and began to apply it evenly over her skin.
Cold and cool. This actually feels pretty good.
Her hands moved over her body, spreading the sunscreen over her arms and front. Then Yutsuki suddenly frowned in trouble.
"Shido, help with my back. I can't reach it."
"Huh? Is that okay for to do?"
"Who else is there besides you?"
Seeing Yutsuki sweep her long hair forward over her chest and turn her back toward him, even though her swimsuit was not the kind of bikini that needed unfastening, Shido still nervously swallowed.
Seeing Shido hesitate, Yutsuki frowned in dissatisfaction.
"What are you dawdling for? Hurry up!"
"O-okay!"
Overwheld by Yutsuki's pressure, Shido adjusted his sitting position slightly, took an appropriate amount of sunscreen in his hands, and touched Yutsuki's back. In that instant—
"—Ah!"
A sweet voice different from her usual tone rang out, and Yutsuki seed to spasm all over as if electrocuted.
"Sorry, was it too cold?"
"N-no… I'm just not used to it. Keep going!"
"A-ah, ahh…"
This ti she seed prepared, so there was no trembling. But what Shido could not notice was that Yutsuki's face had beco intensely stiff, her teeth tightly clenched, and the red tint on her cheeks deepened with every movent of Shido's hands.
"Alright…" Fortunately, only her back needed to be covered, and before long Shido finished applying the sunscreen.
As soon as he was done, Yutsuki wordlessly stood up and, with lightning like speed, put ten steps between herself and Shido, pressing both hands to her back while glaring at him vigilantly.
"Umm… Yutsuki-san?"
Shido was completely at a loss as to the cause, process, and result of everything, so he could only stare at her with a puzzled expression.
Taking a deep breath and barely suppressing the blush on her face, Yutsuki spoke to Shido in a very serious tone.
"Itsuka Shido, were your hands cursed or sothing?"
"...Huh?"
Sorry, sis, which language are you speaking? Could you translate that for ?
"Kukuku, so even Yutsuki has finally realized. Shido's hands are the accursed arms that received the blessing of the fallen angel Lucifer!"
"Since when did my hands beco sothing so weird?"
Shido complained at Kaguya, who had appeared at so unknown point.
"Nani?! Shido, you possess sothing like that and still touched ?!"
"Why are you making a face like you believe it, Yutsuki?"
"Agreed. Kaguya is right. Shido is unexpectedly a wolf."
"Why do you also look like you agree, Yuzuru?"
After complaining to Yuzuru on the other side, Shido finally noticed that everyone had gathered behind him at so point.
"Shido, could you help apply so sunscreen too?"
Seeing Tohka's pleading expression, Shido could only give a bitter smile. "Didn't you already apply so with everyone else in the changing room just now?"
"Ugh!"
Tohka let out an unwilling groan.
Just then, the rabbit puppet Yoshinon seed to co to so realization and praised Yutsuki.
"Not bad at all~ Yutsuki-chan, you were aiming for this and put on your swimsuit in advance to avoid going into the changing room, right? Better than Yoshino's plan—mmph!"
"Yoshinon!" Yoshino hurriedly stopped Yoshinon from continuing.
"No, that's not it!"
For so reason, even though she had not done anything strange, Yutsuki felt a strange kind of embarrassnt and guilt, as if she had sneaked into the kitchen before dinner to steal a bite and then been caught red-handed.
Her sowhat cald face heated up again, the blush even spreading to the roots of her ears. After opening her mouth and making sounds she herself could not understand, Yutsuki, in complete disarray, ran toward the ocean.
"Wait! Yutsuki-nee, the water there is deep!"
Kotori's voice rang out behind her, but Yutsuki was too emotionally overwheld to hear it.
If deep breathing doesn't work, then I'll just go into the water and calm my mind down!
With that thought, Yutsuki kicked off the ground, and thanks to the powerful physical abilities Spirits possessed, she traced a beautiful arc through the air and descended toward the sea with dolphin-like grace.
However, just before she hit the water, Yutsuki suddenly widened her eyes in terror.
Only now did she rember sothing very important.
She… could not swim.
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