Chapter Eight: Beachside Summer Story!

MORNING TIME WAS SOMETHING THAT AKARI HATED with all her being. With the sun coming through her window, birds chirping their greetings, and annoying morning people starting their day with a scary amount of enthusiasm, it was the bane of her existence. All she wants to do is sleep in, especially since it was break time from school. The perfect time to let her sleep for however long she wants. Her family understood that fact. If they didn't, they risked facing her wrath.

From time to time, she enjoyed some mornings. It wasn't like she always had terrible starts to her days. However, the usual components that made up a morning mainly consisted of annoying, shiny things that usually gave her a migraine. Mornings that were a bit overcast or training were something that she appreciated. Or even when she didn't have school, though when that happens Akari sleeps in for as long as she can. Which is what was happening right now.

Though one thing that definitely had her up and awake was the sound of her little brother screaming at the top of his lungs. Akari was instantly out of her bed and sprinting down the stairs to find Rikuto and why he had suddenly screamed bloody murder. If there was one thing that would get her up, it was definitely the sound of her family members in distress.

Her yellow eyes were sharp as she jumped down the stairs and turned the corner to look for her brother. At the moment, it was only Rikuto and Akari in the house, if she remembered. Her mother had been forced to take a day off by her father because they all knew she had been working herself to the bone for such a long time. She needed some time to just rest, which their father was more than ready to provide for her with a nice day out. He'd most likely take her to a park or something to just spend a nice peaceful day with her. Though that didn't matter, what mattered was finding out why the hell Rikuto was screaming.

She found that the front door was wide open, which is certainly something to be concerned about. Though she wasn't that worried once she noticed the two people in the doorway. "Heya, gal pal!"

The biggest idiot known to man, Nendo Riki, was currently standing at her front door with a stupid smile. He was decked out in beachwear with quite a few beach items on his back. Next to him, quite obviously annoyed was Kusuo. He looked like he did not want to be there in the slightest bit.

'He sure looks upset.' Akari thought to herself and approached them.

Kusuo glared at her heatedly, 'Of course, I am.'

"Hey, Nendo," she greeted him softly and took a glance around trying to look for Rikuto. "I, uh, heard my brother."

"Oh, that kid who screamed?" The moron asked, "Yeah, he ran and hid over there." Nendo pointed to the couch in the living room where the trio of teens was able to catch a glimpse of black hair hiding behind it. Akari raised her eyebrow at her brother's behavior.

Rikuto was visibly shaking as he peeked out from his hiding place. His face was pale, paler than Akari, which was saying something. "M-M-Monster!" He called out shakily pointing at Nendo.

"Oh." Akari simply said, now understanding what had happened. Rikuto must have opened up the door and been greeted by Nendo on the doorstep. With his less than friendly appearance, Rikuto must have screamed at the sight of the moron. Nothing to worry about. She turned back to her friends, "Well, what are you guys doing here?"

"We're headed out to the beach!" The idiot shouted, causing Rikuto to squeak out in fear behind them and run out of the room to find refuge in his own bedroom. The older teens didn't acknowledge him as Nendo continued to smile down at the girl. "I saw my pal's house on the way there and he said you lived right across from him. So now we can all go together!"

Akari stared at him with wide eyes. The beach? She never goes to the beach, for good reason. "Oh, well I-"

'You're coming with.' Kusuo cut her off with a mental demand before she could decline. She stared over at the pink-haired boy to see that he was glaring at her rather harshly. He obviously didn't want to be the only one to have to go to the beach and socialize.

Akari pouted, 'But why?'

Kusuo's green glasses gleamed in the light as he stared down at her, 'Because I won't suffer through this alone.'

Akari huffed at him and crossed her arms over her chest, 'You just want to see me go through the same pain, huh?' Kusuo didn't say anything else, just continued to glare from under his tinted glasses, which gave her an answer. Akari nearly had half the mind to sneer at him, 'Truly a sadist.' She turned to Nendo, who was completely oblivious to their mental conversation and was just quietly waiting for her answer. She sighed loudly through her nose, "Let me grab some stuff, all right?"

"Awesome!" Nendo jumped up happily as Akari reluctantly walked off to grab some essentials for the beach.

She surely couldn't go to the beach without a plethora of sunscreen and also her favorite sweatshirt. Though it was really only her favorite because it was a tad bit oversized. She liked the feeling of being swallowed up by the extremely soft fabric(It isn't hers, but Kusuo never explicitly asked for it back, so she's kept it). It would be quite stupid of her to show up at the beach dressed in her pajamas. So she had to get the correct clothes, to make sure that she was covered up from head to toe. As if this girl would actually wear a bathing suit to the beach, come on. Akari hates the sun, what gave you the idea she would even think of wearing a bathing suit. Some nice leggings would go really well with her stolen sweatshirt, the perfect outfit for the beach!

---

Seeing as it was break time for school, it wasn't much of a surprise to see that there were quite a few people at the beach. Just another reason why Akari didn't want to be there. I mean, she could have just said 'no' to Kusuo's demand and shut the door in their faces to stay at home and sleep. However, one does not simply say 'no' to Saiki Kusuo. Her life most likely would have become a living hell for some time after this if she had not gone with them. He would make sure that she regretted not obeying him to go to the beach. So, to save herself from future misfortune, Akari had no choice.

That being said, both Kusuo and Akari were now sat underneath an umbrella on a beach towel. Unlike the other beachgoers, neither teen was lounging around in the sun or running around having fun. For one thing, they both didn't want to be there, at all. So they just sat underneath an umbrella, sharing a towel to sit on while watching Nendo and Kaido playing around in the water. Another thing, Akari did not want to be in the sun for an extended period of time. Her skin was extremely white, which makes her susceptible to getting sunburnt super easily. So to prevent it, she had put a generous amount of sunscreen on nearly her entire body and also wore a sweatshirt that was a tad bit too big for her. In doing so, she protected her body to the best of her ability. She definitely didn't wanna end up as a burnt chicken nugget at the end of the day.

Akari could understand why people like the beach. The calmness that came with watching the waves lapping at the shore and the gentle warm breeze that drifts over the sand is a nice scenery to see. There were just a few downsides to the beach though, that Akari found to be unavoidable. That's when there are a ton of people around screaming and splashing in the water, obnoxious guys flirting with any and all girls they can see, the scorching sun rays, and the annoying kids kicking up sand by her. If those things were to disappear, then Akari would enjoy the beach far more than she currently was.

"Don't you know how to swim?" Nando taunted Kaido while standing in the ocean water, "Wimp!"

Unlike the big idiot, Kaido hadn't gotten into the water at all. He hadn't even taken his shirt off yet even though they had been here for a while. Though both Akari and Kusuo were wondering where the blue-haired boy had come from, since they had only come here with Nendo. Guess they just wanted to add him to this episode, no need to question it that much. "What are you saying?" Kaido shouted out as he started to cry, "I can swim."

Akari deadpanned while getting herself comfy on her shared towel, 'That's a lie.'

'His eyes can, at least.' Kusuo commented on the fat tears that were streaming out of Kaido's eyes.

Kaido then fell down in the ankle-deep water, "Water!" He cried out and squirmed around in the few inches of water that he had fallen into.

The two teens under the umbrella stared at him boredly. Saiki raised an eyebrow, 'It would be impressive if he drowned like that.'

Akari eyed the poor boy as he pathetically flailed around in shallow water. As strange as the sight was, would he actually drown like that? Given his luck, it's pretty possible. 'Should we help him?'

Kusuo was about to deny helping the poor eight-grade minded boy when they heard the pounding of feet coming up behind them. Whoever it was, shouted as they got closer to the struggling boy, "Are you all right?"

'No need.' Saiki commented to Akari as they watched someone dive at Kaido to "save" him. The water crashed around them as Kaido's savior's pants fell down revealing a recognizable ass. 'Could that butt be...'

In all his amazing glory, Kaido's savior was the one and only Hairo Kineshi! The passionate and firey class representative! "Oh, Hairo!"

The red-haired teen flashed them all a smile. A smile that nearly blinded Akari just by looking at him. He was far too bright for her taste if she was to be honest. He could chase away every shadow with that smile, including Akari. "Nendo?" He asked while approaching his classmates, "And Saiki, too?"

Nendo pointed at the silent girl next to Saiki that the passionate boy hadn't seen, "Don't forget Watanabe!"

"Ah, Watanabe," Hairo chuckled while scratching the back of his neck, "I didn't notice you there."

Akari gave the boy a small wave from her spot slightly behind Saiki, "...Hi." As class representative, Akari thought that Hairo was her perfect pick for the job. He was so firey and supportive of all of his classmates and tries to push them to their best ability. That is what any class representative should be. Though he can easily become far too much for Akari's liking when he tried to involve people in things that they didn't want anything to do with. Thankfully, Hairo never really notices her, so she doesn't get dragged into any of his annoying team-building exercises or other shenanigans. Another blessing that comes with her powers.

"What are you doing?" Nendo asked while tilting his head.

Hairo walked over and placed his damsel in distress onto the sand. The blue-haired boy scuttled across the sand like a crab as he seemed grateful to be back on the shore. As a heroic aura radiated off of him, Hairo proudly placed his hands on his hips, "I'm volunteering as a lifeguard."

A man suddenly yelled out in distress before the teens could continue to talk with each other, "I'm drowning!"

Hairo was already sprinting away towards the man in need of help, "I'm on my way!"

'He's always so eager,' Akari thought as she brushed off the sand from her oversized, white sweatshirt.

"Volunteering on a hot day like this? He sure is enthusiastic." Nendo commented. Really, it's probably around 35*C out here! How he could continue to have so much energy to run around in this heat is both impressive and terrifying. Also, 35*C is about 95*F, in case you needed the conversion. Nendo then turned to the teens under the umbrella, "Hey, pal, gal pal, aren't you two going to swim?"

Kusuo shook his head and buried his head into the book that he had brought, "Don't mind us."

Akari shook her head at the idiot, "Sorry, Nendo." She flashed him a small smile in apology, "We don't feel like swimming."

The giant of a teen huffed, "What is this? Nobody is swimming. It's no fun to swim alone." He popped on some sunglasses that I'm sure he thought improved his appearance. I didn't. "I guess I'll hit on some girls."

Kusuo raised an eyebrow, "What are you saying?"

"With that face of yours?" Kaido asked snarkily. Yeah, there was no way that Nendo would get a girl looking like he did. Sorry, Nendo, but I don't think any girl would go for a guy looking like him.

"Why not try walking on water?" Kusuo suggested, "You would have a better chance of success." Oh, look, foreshadowing!

Akari shook her head and cringed slightly, "It's a good thing to be optimistic, but don't give your hopes up." Even if she wanted to try and cheer the poor guy on, she had to be realistic. It was better to just tell him not to get his hopes too high since she was certain no girl would agree to talk with him.

Nendo brushed off their words and shook his head, "For a man, looks don't matter." He flashed them a thumbs up, "What matters is the spirit."

Soon enough, Nendo went off in search of some ladies to flirt with. Though just as suspected, they all turned him down within the first few seconds. Even though he tried, they all waved him off. It also didn't help that he chased after them afterward. He really needed to work on his communication skills.

While Nendo went off looking for any woman who was willing to have a conversation with him for more than a minute, Akari and Kusuo stayed bundled up on the towel. They made sure to stay as protected by the umbrella as they could, considering neither of them, especially Akari, wanted to get a sunburn or something. The long-haired girl leaned against Kusuo's shoulder while reading the book over his shoulder. While Kusuo wasn't exactly a fan of physical contact, there were times where Akari was allowed to be closer to him than most. Of course, she never went out of her way to be close to Kusuo. The last thing she would want to do is make him uncomfortable. Though if he was, he would make it clear to her and straight-up tell her to stop. He had yet to do so as they read the book together. However, Akari can usually tell when he was uncomfortable, so she would back off if she saw the irritated twitch in his brow when he wanted to be left alone.

'This is actually kind of nice,' Akari thought to herself as they finished a page. She glanced at Kusuo from the corner of her eyes. 'I guess it was okay that you forced me to come with you guys, Ku-kun.'

He didn't spare her a glance as they continued to read together. 'Maybe you won't question me next time.'

Akari huffed while rolling her eyes. She will admit, there are plenty of times where she was forced to do something or go somewhere with Kusuo because he gave her no other choice that she ended up enjoying. Just like now. Though every time she said that she didn't necessarily regret leaving her shadowy domain, Kusuo always teased her about it.

'I still think you're a sadist though,' she commented. Which is true, Saiki is one of the more sadistic anime characters I've seen, don't you agree? He's kind of like Kyoya and plenty of others... Uh, excuse me while I go rewatch Ouran High School for the 100th time.

The barest hint of a smirk graced his lips, 'And you're a masochist for agreeing to come with.' Akari sputtered for a moment, slowly becoming red for having been coined a pain-loving person. They then heard Kaido's and Nendo's shouts as the smaller teen was now buried in some sand. The result of having gained the attention of the women that Nendo had tried to woo. Kusuo sighed heavily, 'He sure is embarrassing.' Then he disappeared, leaving poor Akari by herself as he floated in a tube in the ocean. He wanted to be left alone, that much Akari could tell. He would probably just swim down to the bottom of the ocean where he likes to be alone whenever they were at the beach. Akari would join him, but she can't hold her breath like him. So she'd rather not drown, thanks.

"Where did our pal go? To the toilet?" Nendo asked as he lumbered back over to their spot, "Gal pal," he spun around to face Akari. The black-haired girl was now trying to catch a few minutes of shut-eye since she had nothing better to do. "Where'd pal go?"

Akari shrugged her shoulders and tried to get comfortable on the towel, "I'm not sure… somewhere to be alone probably."

"And he left you alone!" Nendo gasped dramatically at even the thought. He had rarely seen his two pals apart from each other. So he could barely imagine seeing Akari by herself. "Pal, where are you?" He called out before he eyed something from the shoreline that caused him to jump right into the water, "Look at that girl. She's drowning!"

Akari eyed what was happening. She had no doubt that Nendo would be able to help him. He's an idiot, but he's a strong idiot with a big heart. Nendo could easily save that girl. Though, she glanced around the beach, where was Hairo? He's the lifeguard so where was he while this poor girl was drowning?! All of a sudden, Kaido followed after Nendo and started to swim out alongside him. Akari would have called out to him, but he was already so far away before she could even stand up. He couldn't swim, right? She may or may not be slightly worried about her idiotic friend now.

She finally caught sight of the passionate teen and ran over to him. Abandoning her shady paradise, she thought that it would be better to get the lifesaver than her own preference to stay out of the sun. "Hairo!" Akari called out to the fiery boy. Of course, she had gained his attention straight away since he had never heard her speak that loudly before. "There's a girl out there drowning and Nendo went out there to get her!"

The red-haired teen nodded and gave her a thumbs-up, "I got it! Thanks, Watanabe!" He then sprinted off into the water to start his swim out there.

Akari watched from the edge of the shore as Hairo jumped after them and swam to the distressed teens. At this point, Kaido and the unconscious girl had now needed to be held up by Nendo. The large teen had seemed to have a handle on it. Eventually, Hairo got close enough to help out Nendo. Though he only ended up in the same predicament as Kaido and the girl as his leg cramped up. So now, Nendo had three people to lug back to the shore. At the sight of the teen struggling, Akari was nervous about them. There wasn't much that she could do herself since she was, physically, not that strong. And there weren't any shadows for her to use to possibly save them. However, she certainly wouldn't want to expose herself for having strange powers to anyone.

'Stop worrying so much.'

She was dragged out of her thoughts at the smooth voice that invaded her mind. Akari jumped slightly but calmed herself down with a deep breath. 'I can't help it, they're our friends.'

'Not friends.' Out in the ocean, Kusuo scoffed as he swam up to the struggling teens, 'Did you forget that I can help them.'

The shadow-manipulator bristled slightly at the reminder that her best friend was an over-powered psychic who could save them with a snap of his fingers. Still, she was just relieved, 'So you're going to help them?'

'It'll be annoying if I didn't.'

Akari giggled, 'So heroic!' He may not be admitting it now, but he cared about their friends. Yes, they were his and Akari's friends. Kusuo could easily just make them leave him alone, but he tolerated them enough to spend time with them. Sure they were annoying and idiotic most of the time, but Akari knew that he found them to at least be aquiqntences.

So(as foreshadowed beforehand), Nendo found himself "walking on water". Though it was really just Kusuo holding up Nendo by his feet. How Nendo didn't notice that someone was holding his feet, is beyond Akari. Despite that, Kusuo easily carried the four to safety.

As the sun started to disappear behind the horizon, the now safe group all stood on the sand. Akari gladly placed herself next to Kusuo and used a towel to dry off his wet hair. While the others were happy to accept the fact that Nendo had miraculously walked on water, Akari knew who really saved them. So she was definitely going to show her gratitude to him when no one else would. "Thank you very much." The now conscious girl said reluctantly and coughed as she addressed Nendo, "I'm sorry I was rude to you earlier."

Nendo was more than happy to get that from her. Since she had been one of the girls to turn him down rudely before, he was more than happy to accept her apology and gratitude. Kaido commented on it as they watched the woman walk away, "Knowing you, I thought you might demand compensation for saving her."

"I would never do something so lame." Nendo shrugged his shoulders as if it was nothing, "If she falls in love with me, though, that's that."

Kaido laughed, "Fat chance."

"What did you say?" Nendo raged, just about ready to jump his friend for making fun of him.

Kusuo smirked, 'Well, one person has fallen for him.'

"I'm in love, Riki Nendo." Hairo thought to himself. Obviously, the one to have been enraptured by Nendo. Tears of admiration ran down his cheeks while he stared after the giant buffoon. "I'm in love with your way of life."

'Though, it's a guy.'

Akari glanced over her shoulder to spy at the weeping boy. She laughed lightly at the love-stricken expression on Hairo's face. 'Coming to the beach today was quite fun,' she smiled slightly. She glanced up at Kusuo with a sly look in her eyes, 'So, Mr. Hero, I think you deserve a reward for your heroics.'

Kusuo let out a small huff in amusement, 'I'll accept the usual.' It felt nice, to have someone recognize what he does. Sure, he hated having attention on him so he kept his powers quiet. However, when he does something like save lives, he's more than happy to have someone thank him for what he did. It also helped that it was Akari doing it. If there was one person he glad knew about his abilities, it's Akari. While she can understand what it's like to have powers, she knew what it felt like to not be thanked every time she did something good with those powers. They related to each other in that way.

'Mhm, I thought so.' Akari hummed, breaking Kusuo out of his thoughts about her, 'Pretty sure there's leftover coffee jelly in the fridge. If not, I'll make you some!' The little skip in her step was quite obvious now that she was more than happy to reward her friend for what he had done.