Iwanaga Kotoko froze for a mont upon hearing that, then a look of unwavering resolve, as if she were ready to face death itself, appeared on her fair and adorable face. Two bold words seed to shine in her deep purple eyes.
Resolve.
"The hymn of humanity is the hymn of courage! To do your utmost even when you know defeat is certain, to stake everything on the line... this is my resolve!"
Yuuki Asuna's delicate brows twitched slightly, and she could not help but retort,
"How do you always make everything sound so chuunibyou and so strangely exciting? I seriously do not understand."
Iwanaga Kotoko raised a hand to adjust her beret, then gave her a profound smile.
"Asuna, if you have not prepared your resolve, you will never defeat ."
"I was not praising you..."
Yuuki Asuna sighed helplessly, then asked curiously,
"Oh, right. When you said we should go out and have fun this weekend, do you an both days? Are we going to another city?"
"Mm, let's go to Hokkaido."
Iwanaga Kotoko first glanced at Asagiri, and a blush imdiately spread across her fair, tender face, as though she had just thought of sothing extrely improper. Based on Yuuki Asuna and Kato gumi's understanding of her, whenever she made that expression, she was definitely thinking about that sort of thing. The lewd loli persona simply never collapsed.
"June starts tomorrow. This is the season for the beach, after all."
"The beach, huh..."
Hearing Kotoko's suggestion, a hint of anticipation appeared in Yuuki Asuna's eyes as well. She nodded with a smile.
"I've never actually been to the seaside before. It really would be nice to relax properly. What about you, gumi?"
Kato gumi did not answer right away. Instead, she looked toward Asagiri and gently tucked a strand of her black dium-length hair behind her ear.
"Going to the beach is fine, but that ans wearing swimsuits, right? To be honest... I do not really like wearing swimsuits in crowded places. It feels a little awkward."
"Crowded places?"
Hearing that, Iwanaga Kotoko waved a hand with an elegant smile.
"What are you talking about? Other than my dear boyfriend, I refuse to let anyone else see my body. So of course we are going to the private beach outside my family's seaside villa. There will not be any strangers."
"Oh, right. I forgot your family is rich."
Kato gumi nodded calmly, then looked toward Asagiri.
"What do you think?"
"Swimsuits? Private beach? Seaside?"
Asagiri put on an expression of absolute resolve and bluntly declared,
"How could I possibly miss such a classic romance ani developnt? I must give it everything I've got at the seaside and fight until I leave no regrets!"
"Oh, knock it off. You've been infected by Kotoko too, haven't you?"
"Not infected. This is simply my nature."
Watching Asagiri and Yuuki Asuna chat so casually, Kato gumi said in her gentle voice,
"If that's the plan, then we should go buy swimsuits now."
Hearing that, Asagiri replied casually,
"We can just buy them after we eat. There's still plenty of ti."
"No. We should buy them now."
For once, Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Kato gumi were in complete agreent.
After eating? What a joke.
If they were going swimsuit shopping, there would definitely be fitting sessions. Maybe they would even need Asagiri to help judge how they looked. Naturally, they all wanted to be in their best state. Even Yuuki Asuna and Kato gumi were secretly thinking that maybe they should skip lunch and dinner and just have so fruit or sothing today, since they would be heading to the beach soon.
At tis like this, last-minute effort was still better than none at all.
...
Twenty minutes later, inside a high end won's swimwear boutique in Shibuya Mall.
"Oh my..."
Iwanaga Kotoko held up a piece of pure white lace lingerie by its two thin straps, dangling it in front of Asagiri with eager eyes.
"Look at this. It's incredible. Let's buy it!"
Asagiri nodded without the slightest sha, completely ignoring the curious gazes of the won around them.
"Indeed. Very lewd."
At those words, Yuuki Asuna and even the usually calm Kato gumi could not help blushing from embarrassnt. Hearing the two of them talk like that and feeling the stares of the other custors and sales assistants, they truly regretted coming shopping with those two.
What kind of people even were Utsunomiya Asagiri and Iwanaga Kotoko?
These two were pure social terrorists.
And...
Yuuki Asuna's and Kato gumi's gazes both landed on the lace lingerie in Kotoko's hands. Looking at the translucent material, the two exchanged glances, their faces growing even redder.
That was not a swimsuit.
That was obviously lingerie for intimacy, was it not?
Why would a high-end swimwear boutique sell sothing like that? Once it got wet, it would practically be the sa as wearing nothing...
Wait a second.
Yuuki Asuna and Kato gumi suddenly understood why that thing was being sold as swimwear.
So that was how it was.
"Um, gumi."
Trying to hide her embarrassnt, Yuuki Asuna pointed toward a one-piece swimsuit hanging nearby and said with a smile,
"Wouldn't it be better to pick sothing less revealing?"
"A one-piece?"
To her surprise, Kato gumi just tucked her hair behind her ear and shook her head.
"If we're going to the seaside and there will be no outsiders, then a two-piece is obviously better, right?"
Yuuki Asuna looked at her in surprise.
"I didn't expect that... So you're actually the bold type, gumi?"
Kato gumi rubbed the fabric of the swimsuits hanging nearby as she calmly replied,
"Just wearing a two-piece swimsuit does not count as bold, does it? And... I'm actually quite confident in my figure."
Although Kato gumi's presence was weak and her personality was not as vivid as Yuuki Asuna's or Iwanaga Kotoko's, she had excellent taste in clothing and was very good at dressing herself.
Yuuki Asuna knew that very well.
After first sneaking a glance at Asagiri and Iwanaga Kotoko, who were still being outrageous not far away, Yuuki Asuna tugged lightly on gumi's sleeve and leaned close to her ear, speaking in a shy voice.
"gumi, could you help pick a swimsuit? I'm really not very good at choosing clothes for myself..."
Compared to Kato gumi, Yuuki Asuna's way of dressing could be sumd up in a single sentence.
Simple and unadorned.
She mostly wore whatever her mother bought for her, and all the matching styles were chosen by her mother too.
Now, faced with the first real beach trip of her life, Yuuki Asuna felt lost and helpless. So she decisively chose to seek the help of the mysterious assassin, Kato gumi.
"You want to pick one for you...? Alright."
Kato gumi nodded, then let her gaze move across the selection before finally stopping on a white two-piece swimsuit. Strictly speaking, it was not a standard two-piece. The upper half was normal, but the lower half ca with a semi-transparent white sh skirt, giving it a mature and elegant look.
"What do you think of this one?"
Yuuki Asuna looked where Kato gumi was pointing. The mont she saw the white gauze skirt swimsuit hanging there, delight appeared in her eyes. She could not help imagining herself wearing it.
She nodded eagerly.
"This one is really nice. I like it a lot."
"Mm. I like it a lot too."
Hearing Asagiri's voice from behind her, Yuuki Asuna jumped slightly. She turned around, face red, and lightly smacked his shoulder.
"Can you stop sneaking around without making a sound? You scared ."
"I know a thing or two about the stealth arts of a re assassin."
Asagiri said it with a smile, then looked at the white gauze skirt swimsuit gumi had picked for Asuna. He nodded and slowly evaluated it.
"Very nice. It gives off a sacred and elegant feeling. Because of the material and the color, the overall style feels very soft. The pure white also matches Asuna's hair very well. It's a very good choice."
Yuuki Asuna looked surprised.
"You're a guy, yet you know about won's clothing?"
"What are you saying? Have you forgotten my previous line of work?"
Asagiri shook his head, looking deep and mysterious.
"Never underestimate an independent Butter Shooter producer."
"How do you have so many weird and useless talents..."
Yuuki Asuna sighed helplessly, then raised a hand and took the swimsuit down from the rack. Her face red, she softly said,
"Then... since you like it too... I'll go try it on..."
This won's swimwear store was a high-end brand located inside one of Shibuya's upscale malls, so naturally it provided fitting samples in many styles for custors to try. After each fitting, the sample was imdiately disinfected and cleaned. If a custor decided to purchase one, the item they bought would be a completely new, unopened piece.
After all, in a high-end store where even the cheapest swimsuit cost over twenty thousand yen, this level of service was the minimum. They even prepared disposable innerwear in the fitting rooms for custors like Yuuki Asuna, who were slightly germ-conscious and unwilling to try on garnts directly against their skin.
It could be said that everything had been thoughtfully arranged.
After Yuuki Asuna took the swimsuit and headed toward the fitting room, Asagiri turned to Kato gumi. She was staring intently at a price tag, seemingly weighing sothing in her mind. Lowering his voice, he said,
"This ti, the clothes count as part of the team activity too. They'll be reimbursed."
Kato gumi was slightly taken aback, then shook her head.
"How can I do that? I still have my allowance. If it's just a cheaper swimsuit, my allowance should be enough..."
"That won't do."
Seeing that Kato gumi wanted to argue, Asagiri cut her off directly.
"If you're going to buy clothes, then buy the one you actually like the most. Thinking too much about the price is just making things hard on yourself."
"But..."
Seeing that Kato gumi still wanted to object, Asagiri interrupted her again.
"Did you forget? Back in the Ajin Dungeon, you lost to in that drawing lots ga, so you still owe one command. So right now, I'm using it. Pick the swimsuit you like. Don't worry about the price. I'll pay."
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
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