Private Beach

“I know that this is a ‘safe area’ and all… but should it really be like this?” Yayoi asked.

“Yep,” Taku said, his face stone hard. His limbs moved up and down to make a black angel out of a patch of crushed paper roses he created himself. “I am afraid this is necessary.”

Teri kept his mouth shut. He wasn’t part of the conversation. It would be unfair if he chimed in. This was the best. He was doing the very same thing as what Taku was doing. And yes, he also felt that it was necessary.

But who was he kidding? This shit was embarrassing.

The moment they entered their starting area, Taku gasped and told them that the roses were calling. He dropped his bag and ran toward the middle of the room. Teri failed to grab the quick bastard’s cloak. Yayoi didn’t want to touch Taku. He gave her a very judging look. She judged him too. And the next thing they knew, Taku was already rolling over a patch of paper roses. He was groaning and giggling, even more so when he started forming that ink angel.

Teri thought why not. He was too tired to think. So, he knelt down without much thought and crushed a paper rose with his bare hands. He smiled as an unnatural yet satisfying amount of thick frigid ink bled into his skin. He shivered at the first second, relaxed at the next, and serene at the third. He chuckled and let himself fall upon the bed of roses.

The rats had nothing notable with them. It was possible that they caught those rats about to end their patrol. Teri suggested butchering and eating them, since they smelled like stationery, but the two looked at him in disgust. They were so in tune with each other. Taku firmly said no. Yayoi let loose a strongly-worded litany—yes, she called it that—about why she wouldn’t eat rats and would rather eat Taku’s leg instead. Of course, that made his friend blush for some reason.

Teri drew a long relaxed breath. He had an initial worry about his clothes turning black. It was fine. But the ink. Oh, the ink. Teri widened his smile at the sensation of it combing through his skin sucking the dirt and tiredness away. Right now, he could focus on making his very own ink angel. Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In his own space. Focused. Flourishing.

“For what?”

Yayoi cast her shadow over them. She kicked Teri’s foot. Teri opened his eyes, glanced at her, and closed it. He was unbothered, after all. Yayoi kicked him again.

“Seriously?”

“For my mental health,” Taku started. “I need to feel stupid once in a while to offset the amount of brain energy I burn by thinking too much all the time. You should try it.”

“Taking care of my mental health?”

“Being stupid.”

“Thanks,” Yayoi scoffed, “but I’d rather die.”

“Than take care of your mental health?” Taku also let out a relaxing sigh. “That’s rough, buddy.”

“It’s fun,” Teri said, his body squelching the ink. “I think you should try it at least once.”

“Being stupid?” Taku chuckled.

“No… no… the ink,” Teri added, trying not to giggle.

“But won’t it stain my clothes?”

“I thought so too, but…”

Teri reluctantly peeled himself away from his patch, making Yayoi see the ink refuse to part from the ground and let him go. Now on his feet, Teri patted himself to show that he was dry and twirled and bowed like a princess to show that his clothes weren't stained.

Yayoi crossed her arms and smiled. “Nice bow game you got there, princess.”

“Thanks,” Teri replied, his eyes half-open but full of confidence. “I danced with all of my girl classmates during my first-year high school acquaintance party. I had a great time. I did it so my crush wouldn't avoid me the next day—”

Yayoi cleared her throat. “Well, isn’t that oddly useful? I can wash myself without taking my clothes off. Does it feel nice?”

“It’s cold. Relaxing… sort of? It also sucks the tiredness away from you. Also, I don’t feel itchy or anything. My skin feels like I washed it with those expensive soaps that my mom used to have when I was a kid—it feels clean, silky, and baby-butt smooth.”

“You know that stuff is just for the face, right?”

“Nope.” Teri grunted as he got back on his patch, giggling as the ink welcomed him. “But I did clean everything with it. I mean, it’s fine because it’s soap. It’s clean.”

“That’s not…”

Yayoi groaned. Unnerved by the silence, she walked around and found herself a nice spot near Teri. She looked at Teri once again, asking if it was really okay. Teri smiled and nodded. She scoffed, probably thinking it was dumb as hell, and carefully laid her back flat on the bed of flowers.

The next few moments were silent.

After ten good seconds, Yayoi moved her limbs to make her very own ink angel. Her lips, from confused, cautious, probably afraid, turned into a faint smile. She giggled. It was beautiful.

It felt right for Teri to pull his eyes away from her. She deserved to have some fun without being called a shrimp or a corporate slave with back problems.

Taku, on the other hand, seemed to have seen better days. He moved his head slightly to look at Teri. Both his hands were at his belly. Tears streamed down his face. His body glowing golden.

“So… the healing spells can’t heal a broken heart.”

Teri furrowed his brows, his legs and arms still moving. “What happened?”

“It feels weird…” Taku bravely faced the stone ceiling. “Something precious was taken away from me. I like this ink. It's cool and soothing. It recovers our stamina. But I guess it’s only natural that these blessings have their curses too, in one way or another. It’s painful… Teri…”

“What are you on about?”

Taku gazed at him. “Being able to take a shower without having to remove your clothes is just… plain wrong, Teri.” Taku’s lips trembled. He gritted his teeth. “It’s wrong. And I feel robbed. There’s a lot of things that can happen. Maybe we’ll stumble upon a hotspring. Maybe a river. A lake. Or the sea. Anything can happen. We could’ve made a fanservice episode based on that, Teri. Think about it. I didn’t even get the chance to peep at someone…”

“Yeah, you’ll fuckin’ die,” Teri said. Yayoi came to mind and he smiled wider at the thought. He realized that his hands were resting on his belly too, like his friend. “This idea may be wild… but don’t peep. Just don’t. It’s weird if you do that.”

“Have you tried peeping, Teri?”

Teri grimaced. “Yeah…”

Taku sniffled. “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck…” he whispered, his voice almost breaking into a cry. “What happened?”

“I was young. Like, eight… maybe nine years old. Our house… in the slums… Our houses were so close to each other that we sort of knew what our neighbors were doing. That includes fighting… taking a shower, and even you know…”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Teri chuckled. “We even had a code word for it—bembang.”

“Bembang…” Taku said dramatically, his voice full of admiration. Then, he shivered. “Sounds icky, though.”

“You’re not supposed to like it,” Teri continued. “But yeah… there was this one time that our neighbor, my friend’s mom, was taking a bath. Me being curious, I decided to check out. Let’s say that I liked what I saw, but I was later caught. She beat the shit out of me. Her husband did too. My mom came to the rescue, but upon hearing the story, she joined them. It sucked. But it gets worse. Everyone heard about it.”

Taku’s eyes glimmered. “But was she hot?”

“The lesson of the story is you should not peep,” Teri replied. What followed was a moment of silence, which gave Teri a lot of room to entertain the thought. It was a big mistake. Teri snickered. “Yeah,” he replied to Taku, and both of them laughed.

“Hey, Teri…” Taku yawned and turned his back to him.

“Yeah?”

“Can you take the first watch?”

“Uhhh…. Sure…”

Taku mumbled something about what the first watch was, but it seemed that sleep kidnapped him even before he could finish his thought. It was probably something about watching over them, except that he didn’t know if he had to wake them up or if he had to wait for them to wake up.

Teri kept his grin as he peeled himself away from his patch. There was something he needed to do. He wanted to appreciate the awkward yet comfortable talk with his friend, but by then he realized that he had forgotten about someone important. Yayoi. Fearing her disgusted reaction, Teri snapped his head toward her.

She’s afloat a puddle of ink with a larger, more impressive black angel. Unbothered. Moisturized. On her own. Flourishing. Sleeping.

Teri laughed at the thought of her proclaiming that she’ll kill them in their sleep. A part of him wanted to slap her awake and say to her that he caught her lacking.

But nah.

Just like earlier, it looked like she deserved this kind of peace once in a while. Her strained eyes looked a bit more relaxed, with strings of her hair falling softly on her skin. She was beautiful, even with the sound of Taku snoring.

Teri sighed and scanned their surroundings. He was going to watch over and protect two people now. It didn’t feel bad at all.