Chapter 19:

Five Playful Idiots Cause Trouble At The Beach

Why Does Nobody Find Us Attractive?


"Get back here!"

A drenched Juzo chased after Nikko and Reina after they dumped a bucket of water on him as he observed some crabs walking across the sand. Both Nikko and Reina retreated back to the blanket to hide behind Shinobu and Toshiharu.

"You cowards."

Juzo stumbled over towards the water, then flopped face first into an incoming wave. Shinobu pointed him out.

"Is he alright?"

Nikko shrugged.

"Is he ever alright?"

Toshiharu got up from his chair to stretch.

"So, what are we going to do? Volleyball, swimming, or are we just lounging out here all day?"

Shinobu pulled out her phone to check the time.

"It's about lunch time. We should eat first, then play afterwards."

Nikko sat down on the blanket and leaned back.

"I guess that'll work… what the hell!?"

A crab had suddenly fallen onto Nikko's lap. Reactively, he flung the crab off of himself, and at Toshiharu.

"Jesus! What are you doing!?"

Nikko spun himself around and saw Juzo standing behind, posed menacingly and looking down at Nikko to assert dominance.

"Pathetic."

Nikko sprung to his feet and charged at Juzo. Juzo calmly anticipated the attack, and swiftly grappled him to the ground. As the two wrestled, Toshiharu turned to the girls.

"They seem busy, so I'll go get lunch. What do you guys want?"

Reina got up to look at the stands in the distance.

"Hmm… just grab some grilled fish from that big stand in the middle. Shinobu, go with him and grab some drinks."

"Huh? Why me? Can't you go?"

"Sorry, but I need to watch these two. They'll accidentally kill each other if they are left unattended."

"But… how can that even happen?"

Toshiharu grasped Shinobu's arm.

"Please? I'm going to need help."

Shinobu looked up at his face, but quickly looked away to escape from his eye contact.

"O-okay."

The two walked off, which caught Nikko and Juzo's attention.

"Where are they going?"

Reina looked at the two with a cocky smile.

"I sent them off to get food together."

Nikko wasn't very impressed.

"Come on, Reina. They don't need you to play matchmaker for them. Just let them figure it out themselves."

"Oh, you must have misunderstood. I just wanted two of them to go so they could carry more stuff back here."

"Whatever you say…"

Juzo looked over at Toshiharu and Shinobu, and they were stuck in a long line at the food stand.

"The line is pretty long, they'll be there for a while. How about we pass the time?"

Reina's expression became intrigued.

"With what?"

Juzo spread out his arms.

"Look! We're at the beach! There's no better place to hit on people. What do you say?"

Nikko quickly responded.

"Hell yeah!"

Reina was also onboard.

"Why not."

Juzo slapped his hands together in excitement.

"Then what are we waiting for!?"

Juzo led the two over to the food stalls to look for anyone just chilling out. The first target was a group of three girls. Nikko nudged Juzo to show him.

"Look, under that tree. Those three. What do you think?"

Juzo looked at them and thought for a bit.

"I doubt it'll work, but sure. Wait here, Reina."

"Fine. But I will laugh at you when you fail."

Led by Nikko, the two walked towards the girls.

"Hello, how are you ladies doing?"

The three girls, college-aged, looked at the two boys in disgust.

"What do you want?"

Juzo, seeing how they had already failed, tried to salvage their pride.

"Well, we're just looking for people to play volleyball with us. Would you like to?"

It didn't help.

"Um, no. How about you perverts go and bother someone else, okay?"

Nikko made sure to get the last word.

"Pffh, whatever. You're just scared that you'll be made fun of because of how much you suck. Come on, Juzo, let's find someone worth our time."

The boys dramatically stormed off, complimented by attempted hair flips. They walked back to Reina, high fiving on the way back. Nikko was proud of his comeback, and immediately bragged about it to Reina.

"You see how I insulted those bitches back there?"

"No, you made yourself look like stupid children. How about you stay away from me, I don't want people to associate you guys with me."

"Too bad. You can never escape from us and our stupidity."

Reina shook her head.

"I've never seen someone so confidently insult themself like this."

"Yes, you have. Right now."

"Oh my God, I can't deal with you right now. I'm going to talk to that guy over there."

Reina pointed at a well-built guy with styled-up hair sitting at a bench. Juzo laughed.

"Hah! You think that guy's worth your time? Look at him, he's a sleazy asshole."

"It's not nice to judge people by their appearances."

"Fine. But when you come back, I'm gonna make fun of you."

Reina rolled her eyes at Juzo before walking towards the guy. She tried to get his attention as she got closer.

"Hey, are you…"

Suddenly, a group of four girls walked up to the guy and sat down beside him. Two of them even sat on his lap. Immediately, Reina turned around and walked back to the boys. Initially, the two were silent, but eventually succumbed into laughter. Juzo was first to catch his breath and speak.

"Who was that idiot who said "don't judge people by their appearance". Whoever they are, I'm sure they feel stupid now."

"Yeah, yeah. You were right. Let's go back to the blanket, I don't want to do this anymore."

Nikko whined.

"What? Already? But we just started."

"Don't talk back to me. I'm already pissed."

The three walked back to their blanket, but a couple had taken it over. The two were laying together on the blanket as if it was theirs. Disgusted with the squatters, Reina's frustration boiled over.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

The couple both spun around, terrified.

"Oh, we're sorry! We didn't know…"

"Didn't know!? Take your bullshit and go away!"

The couple scrambled to their feet and ran off. Reina walked over to the blanket, then flopped down on her stomach, burying her face in a towel.

"Why am I so pathetic?"

Nikko squatted down next to her.

"Reina, you're not pathetic. Just sad and lonely."

"That's just as bad."

"We're back!"

Everyone turned around to see Toshiharu and Shinobu walking back with their arms full of food and drinks. Reina rolled over and sat up.

"Look, my reason to live has arrived."

Toshiharu handed Juzo some grilled fish and a couple bottles of juice. He took a seat next to Reina and handed her the treats.

"Cheer up a bit. You can't let one bad event ruin your whole day."

Reina took one of the grilled fish and took a big bite.

"Yeah, you're right. We still have a lot of the day left, and I wanna build a sandcastle."

"That sounds fun. Too bad for you that my sandcastle will be better."

"Oh, really now? You'll be begging for mercy when my castle destroys yours."

The two trash talked for a bit, while Nikko asked Toshiharu some questions.

"How'd it go with Shinobu?"

Toshiharu gave a confused look.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb with me. Have you asked her out yet?"

"Wha… of course not! Why would you think that?"

"Look, I can tell that she's not really looking at Juzo anymore. You just need to grab her attention with something and get her to start looking at you."

Toshiharu was feeling uncomfortable with the conversation.

"How about you mind your own business?"

Nikko backed off.

"Okay, sorry. But just let me say, you've got a good chance with her, and I think you look good together."

Nikko left Toshiharu and went to talk to Shinobu. Toshiharu was left to himself to reflect on Nikko's words.

"Dammit…"

With their lunch finished, Reina and Juzo grabbed the buckets and shovels and ran towards the shore. Reina yelled at the spectating Shinobu.

"Hey, Shinobu, set a timer for half an hour."

"Gotcha!"

Reina looked towards Juzo.

"You ready?"

"To win? Of course."

Shinobu started counting down.

"Ready? Okay! 3...2...1… GO!"

The two started frantically sculpting bases to their structures as a small crowd formed to spectate. While Shinobu watched intently, Toshiharu and Nikko were bored.

"You wanna play volleyball?"

"Yeah."

The two walked over to the nearby court and called the next game. They had to wait a while for the game to finish, but eventually they were up. As they played their game, Reina and Juzo's competition reached the final straight. Only a few minutes remained, and their structures were nearing completion. But there was a considerable difference between the two structures: one was elaborate with multiple parts and delicate curves, while the other could only be described as a large block.

"One minute left!"

Shinobu yelled from her chair and started prepping her final judgments on the structures. Reina, feeling confident, just stepped back and admired her sandcastle.

"Hey, Juzo, how're you feeling?"

Juzo focused on polishing up his castle.

"Easy win."

"Okay, you just keep telling yourself that."

Meanwhile, a lopsided game was nearing its end at the volleyball court. Nikko and Toshiharu took advantage of the fact that they had two years on their opponents and were in much better shape. Game point was in their grasp, and a healthy lead gave them space to fool around. Nikko pulled Toshiharu to the side for a quick briefing.

"Set me up. I wanna see if my spike can break the sound barrier."

"Okay, just don't kill anyone."

Nikko served the ball, gently sending it into the hands of the opponents. A routine bump-set-spike was executed, but the spike lacked velocity and calmly floated towards Nikko. He bumped it nicely to Toshiharu, then prepared for his spike.

"Come on, Toshiharu!"

Toshiharu set it just shy of crossing over the net, allowing Nikko to take a running start and strike the ball with full force.

"Speed and power!!"

The ball flew off of his fist, but he hit it at much too high of an angle, launching it far out of bounds. The projectile collided with a mass of sand, which unfortunately was Reina's sandcastle.

"...And time!"

Shinobu looked up from her timer and walked over to the structures to judge. Without looking at Reina's, she approached Juzo's.

"This is just… boring. It's nothing more than a giant block of sand, and it's a waste of my time to judge this."

Juzo's expression remained blank throughout the brief comment period, as if he wasn't paying attention. Shinobu directed her attention to Reina's.

"Reina… What the hell is this!? You had a castle, but now it's been reduced to rubble. I can't even judge this."

Reina raised her protests.

"That's not fair! Someone hit it with a volleyball! Come on, can't you just give me the win? Mine was so much better than Juzo's."

Sorry, Reina, but I can only judge what is presented to me right now. Juzo, by some absurd miracle, you've won. Congrats."

Juzo looked at Reina and smiled arrogantly.

"Well, you tried your best, Reina, but you couldn't defeat me. Tough luck."

Reina was furious.

"Shut up. You just got lucky."

Suddenly, Nikko came jogging over and grabbed the ball from the crater that was formerly Reina's castle.

"Ah, I got the ball, Toshiharu! Let's finish the game!"

As he tried to run back, Reina grabbed his arm.

"You bastard! You destroyed my sandcastle."

"Oops. Okay, bye."

Nikko tried to take off again, but Reina refused to let go.

"Oh, you don't get to leave like that. I need to punish you."

Thinking it was a joke, Nikko laughed and looked over at her. But the merciless look in her eyes made him realize the situation.

"Wait, no! I got a game to finish."

Reina gestured to Juzo and Toshiharu, who'd run over to see what was happening, to come closer.

"You two, hold him down."

Nikko fell to his knees and begged.

"It was an accident! Don't hurt me!"

Toshiharu and Juzo followed Reina's directions and held Nikko down.

"Guys, please! Let me go!"

Juzo shook his head.

"I wanna see what she does."

Reina grabbed a shovel and began to dig a hole. She dug it deeper. And deeper. And deeper. Satisfied with the depth, she turned to Nikko.

"Okay, get in."

"What?"

"Get in the hole."

"No, please, I beg of you!"

Toshiharu didn't want to waste time listening to an argument.

"Just do it."

"Shut up! This is your fault! If you'd set the ball better, I could've hit it in bounds!"

Reina also lost her patience.

"Nikko! Hole! Now!"

Nikko saw a chance to wisely say his last words.

"That's what she said."

"Boys, throw him in."

Toshiharu and Juzo picked up Nikko by his arms and legs, carrying him over the hole. Reina gave them the sign, and they dropped him in. Nikko closed his eyes and braced, but fell into the hole with his head above the sand level.

"Huh?"

The others began to fill the hole with sand, but Nikko was confused about something.

"Why is my head above the surface?"

Reina gave him a dumbfounded look.

"So you can breathe. You know, that thing that you need to do to live."

"But I thought you were trying to kill me."

"Why would I kill you? I just wanted to mess with you for wrecking my sandcastle."

"Oh."

With the hole filled, Nikko was trapped, reduced to a lonely head. Shinobu, who was standing nearby and taking pictures, handed her phone to a passerby. She jogged over to the others.

"Guys! We're going to take a picture, so get ready!"

Everyone posed around Nikko for the picture. The cameraman counted down from five on his fingers for the picture.

"Okay, smile!"

"Cheese!"