The second day of an amazing vacation to the beach started with a shout.
"TI TO WAKE UP!"
The shout echoed down the hall of the hotel.
So of the other hotel guests jumped.
One person dropped their toothbrush.
Soone else almost spilled coffee on themselves.
Kuro opened his eyes in his room and knew instantly who the instigator was.
Akari.
Of course.
The clock read 7:03 a.m.
Far too early for that kind of excitent.
Then there was another loud knock on his door.
Then another knock on his door.
Then there was a third loud knock on his door.
"Kuro!"
"Leave alone."
"It’s beach day again!"
"It was beach day yesterday."
"It’s beach day again today."
"That does not help your case."
At that mont, the door to Kuro’s room was flung open.
Akari had gotten a hold of a spare room key from the front desk.
Kuro wasn’t going to ask how she got the key.
So things should remain a mystery.
"Get out of bed."
"No."
"Get out of bed!"
"No."
Akari grabbed the covers off of Kuro’s bed.
At that mont Kuro knew he lost.
One hour later, every mber of the group was waiting for each other near the ocean.
The weather was beautiful.
The sky was blue.
The sun was warm.
A light breeze was coming from the ocean.
The kind of day you would see in an advertisent.
Until you realized how weird this group is, you might have thought that everyone would have enjoyed it.
Akari stood on a small rock with her arms out-stretched pointing at the ocean.
"The Sumr Challenge begins now!"
Silence fell upon the crowd.
"What challenge Kuro asked?"
"The Ultimate Beach Challenge."
"That’s a made-up term."
"It is now a thing."
"That’s not real."
"That is in fact, a real thing."
"No way."
"Oh yes."
"Nope."
"Uh-huh."
"Nope."
Akari was ignoring him.
There were a few rules.
Each different activity that occurred at the beach earns points.
Volleyball.
Swimming.
Building Sandcastles.
Searching For Treasure.
Random Acts of Stupidity.
In the end, the winner gets...
Akari dramatically delayed.
"The Title of Beach Monarch."
Silence.
"That’s dumb." Kuro said.
"I have to agree." Aoi replied.
"Completely ludicrous." Minami chid in.
Mina looked puzzled.
Rika started to take notes.
Akari grinned.
"So everybody will compete."
No one rembered voting to compete.
But sohow the competition began.
The first event was beach volleyball.
Unfortunately for everyone.
Aoi played.
The final score from the match was seven minutes.
Aoi won.
Easily.
No one celebrated Aoi win.
No dramatics.
No effort.
She just played.
And destroyed.
Akari stared at the scoreboard.
"What is your deal?"
Aoi paused.
"I’m a person."
"That’s horrifying."
In the next round, they all swam.
And again, Aoi finished in first place.
In the third round, the group collected seashells.
And miraculously a fourth consecutive first place finish for Aoi.
No one was clear on how Aoi kept winning.
Kuro was also impressed.
However, Mina, had created a new complication.
Popularity.
Again.
It all began when she mistakenly assisted a little kid in building a sandcastle.
Then another child helped build a sandcastle.
Then more children began working on their own sandcastle.
And in thirty minutes, Mina had assembled an entire army of sandcastle builders.
Children surrounded her.
Parents had taken many photos of their children at the beach with their caras or cell phones.
The tourists were inquiring about many things.
Mina had reached a sense of complete confusion.
"Kuro!"
"How do we pass your final exam?"
"I have no clue."
That response had been given a lot in regard to Mina too!
No one really knew the reason why.
Including Mina.
On the opposite side of the beach, Rika was getting into trouble for different reasons.
Naly for research.
Dangerous research.
She wandered all over the beach with a sketchpad.
Observing other people’s conversations.
Taking notes on what people had said to one another.
Recording how people reacted.
Sketching what she had envisioned.
Kuro found her hiding behind a beach umbrella.
"What are you doing?"
"I’m doing research."
That was an instant response.
"Research for what?"
"My next manga."
Kuro sighed.
Of course.
The answer was always manga.
In the anti, Minami was trying to get everyone to behave at the beach in the morning.
An impossible task at best.
As soon as she solved one problem, three more would surface.
Akari was constantly challenging other people to competitions.
Mina was unintentionally gathering people to follow her around.
Rika was continually disappearing.
Kuro was continually being dragged into everything.
By lunchti, Minami was sitting under a beach umbrella.
Exhausted.
Kuro was there too.
Neither of them spoke for a while after sitting down.
The only sound they heard was that of the waves.
After a while, Minami sighed.
"I see now."
"See what?"
"Why teachers need to take a sumr vacation."
Kuro chuckled.
He laughed for real.
The teacher had wide eyes.
"You are really laughing now."
"Perhaps just a little bit."
"Mark this mont down."
"I don’t want to."
For a reason.
It wasn’t long before I felt comfortable talking to Akari.
The whole afternoon continued to be hectic.
The competition for Akari was nearing its end.
The scoreboard was crazy.
Aoi was winning.
Mina had accidentally gotten points for doing nothing.
Rika was sohow being rewarded with points for creative observations.
Nobody knew what that actually ant.
Not even Akari.
At one point in ti.
Akari was going to put together the best sandcastle in beach history.
But instead, it turned into a fallen-down castle instead.
A tiny little one.
Beats Akari.
Again.
The little one celebrated.
Akari asked for a rematch.
Kuro walked away.
He had learned through experience this was the right thing to do.
The afternoon in general was getting really weird.
Minami began having fun.
She didn’t realize it at once.
But it started little by little.
One conversation.
One laugh.
And one really funny thing.
And finally.
Just like that.
Since arriving in here , she stopped worrying about having to babysit everyone.
And started having fun just being there.
Watching Akari’s never-ending energy.
Listening to Mina’s confused and funny answers.
Watching Rika being Rika.
And even watching Kuro be Kuro.
It was nice.
Weird.
But good.
As the day wore on.
The group of friends all ca to play together as they were on the sandy shoreline.
Everyone was tired.
Everyone was happy.
Everyone had gotten sunburned.
Especially Akari.
She had gotten a major sunburn.
"I have no regrets."
She stated.
"You comprise tomorrow."
Aoi replied.
Very plausible.
The sun was beginning to set.
The sky’s hue changed to orange and gold.
People were steadily departing from the beach.
The atmosphere began to grow quiet.
A voice echoed from speakers close by.
"Attention visiting guests."
All eyes were on the cause of the noise.
The ssage announced.
"A Sumr Festival is happening this evening in the Festival area of the city."
Akari’s eyes brightened up at once.
"No way."
Kuro replied.
"Yes, you heard correctly."
"No chance."
"Festival."
Suddenly, Minami ca to a realization.
Beach trip was not over yet.
Not by a long shot!
In fact:
By the looks on Akari’s face,
The look on Rika’s face was full of anticipation
And, last but definitely not least, the look on Mina’s face showed curiosity about the next adventure.
The chaos had only just begun.
And, inside of Minami,
For the very first ti, She was actually excited.
Last night was just the beginning of what was sure to be an amazing adventure to co.
And with that group, there was no possible way this Sumr Festival would be a mundane evening.
Ice cream Break :
The sun was getting hotter by the minute, and all of a sudden Akari stopped walking and dramatically pressed her hand on her forehead.
"I can’t do it anymore."
Kuro didn’t even glance in her direction.
"You were fine a second ago."
"The heat has won."
"No, it hasn’t."
"Yes, it has. The only thing that will help is ice cream."
This imdiately caught Mina’s attention.
"I love ice cream!"
A few minutes later the girls had rounded everyone up and were pulling them to a bright beach ice cream shop.
Once at the window, Akari looked at the nu and froze; there were over thirty flavors.
"Why would they do this to people?"
"Do what?" Aoi asked.
"Give choices."
Aoi sighed.
While the others were ordering, Mina ordered vanilla without even thinking, and the worker passed it to her with a smile like she had just found happiness itself.
But Rika stood with an unusual serious face as she looked at the nu.
"This is a huge deal."
"It’s ice cream," Kuro said.
"Exactly."
Nobody had any idea what that ant.
After so without purpose suffering, Akari ended up getting chocolate, Aoi got matcha, Mina got vanilla and Rika got cookies and cream because she said it was "artistically inspiring."
The group found a shady spot to sit and look out at the ocean.
No one argued at all for quite a long ti.
No one got lost.
No one created a catastrophe.
Even Minami was content while she savored her ice cream and listened to the sea.
This lasted until Akari accidentally dropped her ice cream cone.
The air filled with silence.
Her fallen cup remained in place and stared at her.
The fallen ice cream cone stared back at her.
"No..."
Aoi made a quick retreat.
Mina had a look of apprehensive concern.
Rika was making a note of that incident in her notebook.
Kuro quietly purchased a second cone for Akari before she could begin to cry uncontrollably for the next ten minutes about the injustice of life.
The crisis was averted.
At least for now.
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