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“Okay, listen up, boys!” Mikoshiba’s voice boomed across the locker room as he clapped his hands, as though he wasn’t loud enough already to get everybody’s attention, “You guys have been doing a really good job with our summer training regimen, so as a reward, we’re hitting the Iwatobi beach!”
There was a small round of cheers. Nitori just waited for the captain to finish looking pleased with himself so that he would get to what he really wanted to say.
“… And if you recall, Iwatobi SC, which was recently formed, will be hosting us! Sort of as a ‘thank you’ for all our joint sessions together here at Samezuka. They weren’t sure how to go about doing it (since, well, okay they don’t have as many facilities as we do) but! I suggested a beach barbeque, so a beach barbeque it will be!”
Much less enthused cheering. Actually, no cheering at all. If anything, the team was eyeballing Mikoshiba warily.
“Cap,” one of the seniors said, “You are way too hung up on Matsuoka’s sister.”
“Hey,” Rin said sharply.
“Oh, you say that now,” Mikoshiba countered, “But you’re forgetting who else will be there. Possibly in a bikini. Probably playing beach volleyball with us.”
The locker room fell silent. And then the cheering was much more enthusiastic.
Mikoshiba crossed his arms, a thoroughly satisfied look on his face. He had this in the bag.
“Hey, watch it.”
“I’m watching it!”
“You nearly made me drop all the food!”
“Well, you didn’t, so it’s all good.”
“I swear to god, Touda,” Yamase grumbled, but immediately perked up and nudged Mikoshiba in the side, “Oi, oi, head’s up.”
“Good afternoon, everyone,” Makoto Tachibana said cheerily as she half-jogged to a stop right in front of them, Gou Matsuoka by her side. They both had beach dresses on, and a pair of goggles were hanging around Makoto’s neck, “I hope you didn’t have any problems coming here.”
“None at all,” Mikoshiba replied with equal enthusiasm, “Thank you very much for having us!” The other members chorused their thanks loudly.
“No, no, it’s our pleasure,” Makoto insisted with a smile, and bowed, and Mikoshiba ignored the collective cooing noises his team members were trying to stifle, “Thank you for your care these past few months.”
“Aw, don’t worry about it. More importantly, we brought food and drinks. Where are we set up?”
“Ah, just down there. We have quite a good stretch to ourselves, near the volleyball net. Why don’t you follow me? Oh, do you need any help?”
“Nope, we’re all good!”
“Peachy keen!”
“Totally okay!”
“All righty,” Makoto giggled, and began walking towards the beach. Mikoshiba turned around, regarding his members. They had blissed out expressions on their faces – he could practically see the hearts in their eyes – which made him snort and shake his head.
“Well?”
“This is the best idea you’ve ever had, Cap,” Touda sighed, voice faraway, “A++ would vote for you again.”
“Are those burger patties?” Nagisa popped up from nowhere, eyes shining.
“Um,” Nitori blinked at him, spatula in hand, “Yes?”
“Made from actual cows?” Nagisa’s face was getting awfully close.
“I… would definitely like to think so.”
“Aw right! Rei-chan! Gou-chan! Guess what they brought!”
“Pipe down, Nagisa.”
“Don’t call me Gou!”
Rei and Gou walked towards them all the same, Rei with a cooler and Gou with a bunch of plastic bags. “So? What did you wanna tell us?”
Nagisa looked at them very seriously, “They brought hamburger patties.”
Rei dropped the cooler.
“…Made from actual cows?”
“They even have sausages.”
“Yes!” Rei and Nagisa cheered and high-fived, “Real food!”
Gou giggled, “Don’t let Haruka-sempai hear you say that!”
Nitori blinked at them in confusion, exchanging a look with Sakano who was manning the other grill. Movement in the corner of their eye caught their attention, and one Haruka Nanase was giving them dirty looks as he stalked away towards the beach.
“…Too late, huh?”
“Oops,” Nagisa said, not sounding very sorry.
Rei adjusted his glasses guiltily, “I-I guess we should go apologise to him… It’s not that I don’t like mackerel, but…”
“How much mackerel have you guys been eating?” Nitori blurted out.
There were dark looks on their faces.
He decided not to ask again.
“Are we all set up?” Makoto asked, setting down a box by a large blanket that had been laid out over the sand. Rin glanced up at her and grunted.
She seemed to take it in stride and grabbed an ice cream from one of the coolers, setting herself down under one of the parasols. Wordlessly, Rin grabbed an ice pop and joined her. Makoto’s surprise was brief, but it was quickly replaced by a happiness that Rin could physically feel her broadcast.
“It’s pretty hot out today, isn’t?” She said conversationally, pulling at the front of her dress and fanning absently with the ice cream. Rin resisted the urge to roll his eyes and caught himself, unwittingly, eyeing the cleavage that she was revealing. He knew that logically she was wearing a swimming suit under that dress, but his brain was miles ahead of him and there was an illusion that what he was seeing was a bra instead, and he vaguely wondered why bras were supposed to be more risqué than swimming suits.
Either way, he cleared his throat and forced himself to look ahead, wiping away sweat from his own forehead.
“That’s the point of a swim.”
Makoto laughed easily, “I guess you’re right.”
Rin gave her a sidelong glance before he resumed staring out at the sea.
“Bring it, Iwatobi! We’re gonna take you down!”
“Big words from big fish,” Nagisa taunted, “But lemme remind you that the only move Magikarp knows in the water or on land is Splash!”
Mikoshiba choked back laughter and completely missed the spike that Rei delivered, ball spiraling away onto the sand. They’d attempted to keep score at the beginning but things had rapidly devolved and everyone was taking turns trying to out-trash talk each other and sneak in some scores here and there. As he braved some good natured jabbing from his team mates, he saw Makoto being flagged down in the background.
“… you punks realise that we’re Rockhopper Penguins!”
“Boy, you’re hopped on something, all right.”
“Again, Nagisa?” Makoto cut in warily, “Couldn’t you take it easy?”
“All Rei-chan could do was insult the angle of their noses,” Nagisa’s face was all innocence and pouting, “We have to step up our game! They outnumber us!”
“Captain Tachibana, I don’t know what you feed that kid, but maybe you should make him lay off it!”
“He called me a Magikarp!”
“That hurt his feelings!”
“Don’t fall for their lies, Mako-chan!” Nagisa insisted, grasping her hands, “Iwatobi SC has to stick together!”
“I could hear everything you were shouting, you know,” she arched a brow, but Nagisa’s reply was simply a big, unrepentant grin, “Do you need another player?”
“Yes!” Gou interjected, Rei pumping his fist into the air, “With you on the team, maybe you can finally convince Haruka-sempai to play too!”
“Maybe,” Makoto chuckled, “Except for the part where you slighted his beloved mackerel.”
“We-We didn’t mean to!” Rei looked at her with earnest worry, “I really want to apologise… It’s not like we don’t appreciate the mackerel he makes for us…”
“Don’t worry about it,” Makoto smiled guilelessly, “I’ll help you bribe him with a mackerel burger later, okay?”
“Makoto-sempai…!” Rei looked moved to the verge of tears.
Across the net, several boys were clutching their hearts.
“Why do I have to do this.”
“Please, Haru?” Makoto asked gently, pulling him towards the court, “You need to take a break from the water, anyway.”
“I refuse to play volleyball with people who look down on mackerel.”
Gou and Nagisa looked sheepish whereas Rei’s back stiffened up.
“They didn’t really mean that. Here, I’ll let you in on a secret, okay?” Makoto cupped a hand around his ear and began to whisper.
“Is that her boyfriend?” Yamase asked under his breath, “I’m so jealous!”
“That’s not her boyfriend, you goofball,” Rin sighed. Though he’s good as, he didn’t say.
“It’s not?” A sea of faces were looking at him like he was the messiah. They began to murmur quickly amongst themselves.
“I’m still so jealous though…”
“I wish she would whisper in my ear like that.”
“She was holding his hand too.”
The amount of eye-rolling he wanted to do would probably make him go blind, Rin thought, and the stupid gossip session was mercifully brought to a close when Makoto pulled away and Haruka regarded the other Iwatobites thoughtfully.
“We ready to go?” Mikoshiba asked.
“Sure!”
“Makoto-sempai, do you want to take your dress off first?” Rei asked her.
The entire group blinked collectively.
“Eh?!” Makoto nearly jumped back, “Right now?”
“Well, you’re wearing a bathing costume underneath, right? The dress will just create drag and could block your movements while you play.”
“T-That’s not a big deal, since we’re not really playing competitively, right?”
Gou, Nagisa, Rei and Haruka looked at her with satanic determination.
“… point taken.”
With a sigh and a slight blush, Makoto pulled her dress off in one movement, rolling it up and carefully tossing it towards the beach blanket with her bags.
“A sports bikini! She’s wearing a sports bikini!” Touda whispered to Rin furiously.
“I can see that, you idiot,” Rin tried shaking him off, to no avail, “So what?”
“So what?” Yamase chimed in and looked at Rin like he’d grown a second head, “Why isn’t she wearing a cute bikini! Like, the stringy halter-neck types! Or the ruffly cute ones that strategically show off cleavage!”
“What, you don’t think she looks cute the way she is now?” Rin shot back instinctively, “Some fans you are.”
The others spluttered collectively and a rain of protest descended upon him.
“That’s not true!”
“Captain Tachibana is cute all the time!”
“She looks really cute even in that sports bikini!”
“She looks super cute in her school uniform!”
“Anything she wears is cute!”
“Oh my god, let go of me,” Rin shoved them all away, wondering just how stupid they were that they’d think the opposing team couldn’t hear them when they were just across the net. He glared at Mikoshiba, “Can we please start the damned game now?”
“You guys better not lose,” Mikoshiba warned them, “They’re not going to take it easy on us.”
“Speak for yourself! I see Matsuoka’s sister over there too!”
“Hey!” Rin snapped.
“We ready to go some time this century, ladies?” Gou shouted, “Or you gonna keep gossiping like middle-aged aunties while your laundry dries?”
“That’s the spirit, Gou-chan! Destroy every last bit of joy in their hearts!”
“Oh my god,” Nitori said to Rin, “They play so dirty.”
It was a close match but in the end no one remembered to keep score. The ice burn combo Haruka and Makoto had delivered had thrown Samezuka completely off their game, and they hadn’t stopped talking about it even as they continued to dreamily discuss the muscles in her legs and arms and the super toned six-pack they could finally see now that she was out of a one-piece.
“Captain Tachibana!” Mikoshiba called out, “Could I borrow you for a while?”
She responded in kind and the rest of Samezuka SC could only watch resentfully as Makoto and Mikoshiba giggled and flirted and joked around while they discussed boring club things that they could easily talk about another time.
“You guys sound really pathetic,” Rin looked at them in disgust.
“You know her personally, you have no place to talk,” Yamase sulked.
“You keep putting her on a pedestal, s’why you can’t strike up a decent conversation with her. She’s a human being, you know.”
Sakano scoffed, pushing up his glasses, “That’s easier said than done. Girls don’t appreciate being creeped on by guys.”
“I said strike up a decent conversation, not mouth-breathe all over her,” Rin rolled his eyes.
“I’m so jealous of the Captain,” Nitori sighed.
Rin stared at him, crestfallen, “Not you too?”
“She seems like a really nice person to talk to,” Nitori replied with a blush, “But I just can’t think of anything to talk about, unlike the Captain. He always knows how to fill in the silence.”
“Yeah, that’s ‘cause he’s got no filter,” Touda snorted, “Also, dunno if you’ve noticed, but he’s pretty enthusiastic. Like, super pretty enthusiastic. When we were first years, he put on that maid costume and went all out, with the garter belts and moe hair style and everything. Miko’s the epitome of shameless.”
“… I am torn between the desire to learn more and to end this conversation.”
“I’ll show you the pics later, Nitori,” Touda told him with a grin, “Before Miko beefed up, he looked prrrreeeeeetty cute, I have to say.”
“Okay, if Nitori’s not going to end the conversation, I am,” Rin made a face, “Ew.”
“Don’t hate, dude!” Yamase laughed, “Oh man, I bet he’d flip if we ever showed those photos.”
“Naw, you kidding? He’d probably be puffing his chest out. You’re the one who doesn’t want anyone to see those photos.”
The argument was cut off by a declaration of Makoto Tachibana in the water. At that, even Rin kept his eyes glued on her, despite feigning nonchalance.
“Good swim?” Rei asked Makoto with a smile as he passed her a towel to dry off with. Haruka trailed behind her wordlessly and took his own towel with a nod.
“Yes, thank you. The water’s nice and warm,” she said, taking her dress from him and pulling it on, “Nice weather, too. Did you see all the corals and seaweed?”
Rei pulled a face at her, “Nagisa grabbed some and pretended to have a Fu-Manchu.”
Makoto laughed at him as Haruka grabbed a plate with some food on it and offered some to her. She took a hotdog and munched on it. The sun was starting to set in the distance, which meant everyone had to get out of the water. Rei remembered his own incident glumly, but Makoto seemed to have sensed his dejection because she gently patted him on the back and smiled at him.
“I brought something special, though I’m not sure if there’s enough to go around.”
“Did you?” He smiled at her.
“Fireworks. Kou and I went shopping for them yesterday.”
“That’s convenient timing,” Rei said, “The others are setting up a campfire now.”
“Oh!” Makoto looked happily surprised, “I hope there are marshmallows! I love campfires!”
“I hate campfires,” Makoto muttered, face absolutely pale.
The others looked at her with gleeful smiles (Nagisa), similar discomfort (Rin and Rei) and sheepish concern (everyone else) as she hugged her knees to her body tightly. Haruka had disappeared on an errand with Gou and she had no one to cling to in fright.
“I never expected you to be afraid of ghost stories,” Sakano said gently.
“Don’t worry about a thing, Captain Tachibana,” Nitori smiled at her brightly, “You’re with all of us, so nothing will be able to hurt you!” She gave him a watery smile in thanks.
The combination of a bright-eyed freshman and the soothing aura of a goddess was enough to bliss out Samezuka SC for a few minutes, Mikoshiba noted, withholding a snort.
“Okay! I got one!” Nagisa grabbed the flashlight and shone up from under his chin. He lowered his voice into a gravelly tone, “This one’s about… the whispering witch.”
Makoto tensed up.
“Deep in the woods that was bracketed by the ocean (because, as we know, woods are really creepy, but we also have to work our own local environment into the story to make it hit really close to home)… lived an old woman. She was so old that the people there thought she’d been alive for hundreds of years because she. Never. Died.”
Mikoshiba looked at her with a smile, raising their joined hands together; she had clutched onto him blindly in fear.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she whispered in a rush, face red, but he didn’t allow her to let go.
“I don’t mind,” he said reassuringly, apparently blind to the glares that were being shot his way, “You can hold my hand if it makes you feel better.”
“Oh,” Makoto replied, embarrassed but smiling, “That’s very kind of you.”
“Flirting,” someone who suspiciously sounded like Sakano coughed into his hand. So smooth! thought Nitori.
“Hello, can I please continue my story?” Nagisa said with a pout. Makoto apologized and he cleared his throat.
“There was a rumour that she devoured the souls of all living things that came into her woods, which is why there were no animals, no birds, no insects… in the dead of the night, it was unnaturally still in her woods. No light. No sound. NOTHING!”
Makoto (and a handful of boys) shrieked and she latched herself onto the closest person – Rin – who nearly fell over. While Nagisa was busy giggling at the reactions (despite being smacked upside the head by Rei), Rin attempted to help her right herself, but she was frozen solid and white as a sheet. He shot Nagisa a glare, which seemed to just fly over his head, and with a long-suffering sigh, he grabbed Makoto by the shoulders, pulled her in close, and tucked her against him, silently cursing how long her limbs were. Instinctively, Makoto wrapped her arms around Rin and attempted to bury her face in his collarbone.
Rin was aware that the force of righteous anger that was directed at him by way of offended looks and angry glowering would have cowed a lesser man, but Rin was not a lesser man, and Haruka wasn’t there for her to climb all over. He sighed, Makoto whimpering an apology into his chest, and he told her flatly to cover her ears as Nagisa laughed diabolically and began recounting exactly how the whispering witch dismembered small children and ate them limb by limb.
“Okay, your first year is seriously disturbed,” Mikoshiba told Makoto as he lit her firework.
“He does that on purpose,” she replied weakly, watching it twirl and rise up along the thin paper wick, “I think it’s because he used to get picked on for being so cute and girly by his sisters.”
“Wow, so no issues there.”
Makoto chuckled at him, and he grinned in response. In the background, Nagisa was chasing Rei and Nitori around with one of the bigger fireworks that looked like a torch, while Gou and Rin were arranging the ones that shot balls out in the sand so they could fire up skywards.
“This was really fun,” Makoto said with a content sigh, “We should do this again.”
“Too bad I probably won’t be around next summer, huh?”
“You’re not?” Makoto asked, and then covered her mouth, “Oh! You’re a third year.”
“That’s right. Last year to make my mark.”
“Going to uni?”
“I think I’ve got a sports scholarship lined up, so looks like.”
“That’s wonderful!” Makoto said with genuine cheer, “I’m so happy for you!”
“Aw, thanks,” Mikoshiba scratched the back of his head bashfully.
“Well, if we do do this next year, you’re more than welcome to come along.”
“I think that depends on my team rather than yours, eh?”
“Don’t be silly, of course they’d love to have you along. If not, then you’ll come as my guest.”
“Oh,” Mikoshiba felt… oddly touched, “Thank you.”
She smiled and watched Rin yell at the others to take cover as the fireworks started to shoot up into the night sky.
“Petition to drown Matsuoka.”
“Denied,” Mikoshiba stated loudly, climbing into the car, “What’s your beef?”
“Not only does that heathen have such a cute sister as the Iwatobi manager, he’s got the gall to drape himself all over Captain Tachibana right in front of us.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Rin replied, slightly irritated.
“Oh, it’s no secret.”
“She grabbed onto the Captain first.”
“Don’t think we’ve forgotten that!”
“What? Come on!”
“Making eyes at her when you’ve already declared your intention for Matsuoka’s sister!”
“Hey!” Rin hissed.
“Matsuoka was stuck to her like glue! The only thing I could say to her was ‘Hello’ and ‘Nice dress’!”
“Sempai,” Nitori really wanted to break up the conversation, but like the team itself, he’d learnt to identify lost causes. They bickered all the way to the dorm and he only tuned half of it in, wondering briefly what Makoto Tachibana thought of Samezuka SC as there was no way she couldn’t have heard them making all those dumb comments, and exactly how cute Captain Mikoshiba had looked in a maid’s costume.
Addendum:
“Oh, it’s going to be so awkward at the next joint swimming session,” Makoto covered her face with her hands.
“Are you kidding? If those beefcakes have the audacity to be distracted by you at a swim meet, they lack professionalism and only have themselves to blame.”
“I meant for me.”
“Pretend they’re all children,” Haruka deadpanned, “Like Ren and Ran.”
“Yeah, they’re overgrown dorks anyway. No offence, Rei-chan.”
“None take—What?”
“It was so hard to pretend not to hear them,” Makoto moaned into her hands, “I don’t think I can keep it up anymore!”
“You don’t actually have to pretend not to hear them, you know.”
“Shh! Don’t put ideas into her head, Gou-chan! This is so much more exciting!”
"Don't call me Gou!"
“I hate you all,” Makoto bit out, “You’re all terrible and I hate you.”
“Hey, next time we’ll pitch in for a string bikini so—!”
Makoto kicked Nagisa’s foot out from where he was squatting and he toppled over with a laugh.
