Cruising Together

Chapter Five

Wednesday, Poseidon’s Grace, Second Upper Deck, Outdoor Pool, 12:26 p.m.

“Alright everybody. That’s it for our morning exercises. We will regroup for lunch in half an hour in front of the restaurants,” Inui announced.

The group sighed in relief as each member went to get their items on the beach chairs. Kikumaru and Kawamura pulled themselves out of the pool for they were the last ones to do their threading exercises. Tezuka and Echizen finished their weight training and Kaidoh finished his laps with Momoshiro. Fuji and Oishi were also getting out of the pool because they were doing laps.

“Man! My legs are so sore right now!” Momoshiro exclaimed and stretched his arms. Kaidoh ignored Momo’s loud remarks as he wiped his face with a towel that he received from one of the attendants.

“Taka-san! I have so much water in my ear because of you! Did you really have to go into burning mode even when you’re in the water??” Kikumaru whined while trying to get the water out of his ears by jumping up and down.

“Sorry Eiji. I guess I got a little carried away,” Kawamura chuckled. He had his face buried in a towel to dry himself.

“Ah! It’s Rikkai Dai,” Oishi pointed out at the other end of the pool. The rest of his teammates turned to see that a group of recognizable students were standing near the edge of the pool.

“Let’s go say hello,” Fuji smiled and started to walk towards the other side. The others followed him. When they got closer to them, they heard the elevator doors open and out came a familiar figure.

“Eh? Kuroban-san?” Oishi said.

had just stepped out of the elevator and was heading towards the new group of students. She was wearing a green bikini with small yellow flowers around it. She had a white sarong on that covered her bottom half.

Thinking that it was Niou, turned around with a snarl. Oishi took a step back fearing that she would take his head off. sighed and gave him an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, Oishi-san,” she said, “I thought you were somebody else.”

“It’s alright,” Oishi laughed nervously.

“Are you spending the day with them?” Fuji asked when he looked at and then at the Rikkai Dai students. Niou had seen the girl and waved his hand madly. rolled her eyes and nodded to Oishi.

“They invited me so I could not resist,” she said.

Fuji smiled.

“Yo -chan!”

An arm slithered itself around the girl’s shoulder and a smirk appeared beside her. narrowed her eyes and immediately slapped the hand away.

“Awww -chan hates me!” Niou playfully whined while his eyes turned to the Seigaku group. He smirked and crossed his arms across his chest.  “Seigaku,” he sneered.

Kaidoh and Momoshiro glared at the older boy.

“What’s with that tone of voice?” Kaidoh said.

Niou shrugged his shoulders and continued to smirk causing Kaidoh’s blood to boil.

“Oy, do you really want to start something, Rikkai-san?” Momoshiro questioned.

“That’s enough Masaharu.”

“Renji,” Inui greeted his old friend with a nod. Yanagi nodded back as he stood on the other side of . She looked at him and shifted her weight from one foot to another.  

“We will start our training. Masaharu, get in line,” Yanagi directed. Niou winked at the other players, grabbed 's hand, and ran while dragging the poor girl behind him.

“Niou-san! Don’t run so fast!!!”

“We will see you all later,” Yanagi said and bowed as he headed back to his teammates.

“Shall we all go and get ready for lunch?” Kawamura suggested. Kikumaru nodded in agreement.

“Interesting…,” Inui mumbled while raising an eyebrow and scribbled quickly on his notebook. He took another glance at the Rikkai Dai students when was placed in the middle of the group by Niou.

Fuji smiled and turned his head to Tezuka who still had his eyes on the girl.

“Too bad she can’t come with us, neh?”

Tezuka remained silent. Fuji knew that he was not getting an answer today so he went ahead and pressed the elevator button. The elevator door opened letting the boys enter.

“I am ready to kill that guy!” Momoshiro yelled when the elevator doors closed.

“Momo, calm down,” Oishi said.

“Che. Those guys are really annoying,” Kaidoh growled under his breath.

“Let’s forget about it and just go get something to eat!” Kikumaru said and put his arm around Kaidoh. He made a victory sign with his fingers and smiled at the younger student.

Tezuka placed his hands in his pocket and leaned against the elevator walls while Fuji was smiling to himself as he watched the numbers on the elevator go down. Inui was standing beside him with Momoshiro looking over his shoulder. Momoshiro furrowed his eyebrows.

“Inui-senpai, what did you find suspicious about Kuroban-san’s behaviour?” the power house questioned after reading what the data man had written on his notebook. Inui snapped his book shut and fixed his glasses.

“This requires more investigation,” he said and turned around to Momoshiro, “and I will require somebody to help me with this.”

Momoshiro raised his eyebrow. Echizen chuckled and pulled his cap down.

“That’s what you get for reading off Inui’s notebook!” Kikumaru teased and released Kaidoh from his grasp.

“Inui-senpai,” Kaidoh grunted and fixed his shirt, “if you require some sort of snooping around Rikkai, then I will be more than happy to oblige to the task.”

“Excellent,” Inui smirked. Even Momoshiro was now smiling since it had something to do with spying against their rival school.

“A plan will be designed tonight,” Inui announced. Tezuka remained silent. He didn’t want to get involved with any of Inui’s plans especially when it comes to probing around other people’s business. Fuji smiled.

“I would like to join your little detective club,” he said. Inui nodded.

“Me too!” Kikumaru cheered and started to jump up and down. Oishi shook his head. He knew that when it comes to one of Inui’s crazy plans, almost everybody was eager to join.

“I’ll just stay in the room and get some rest when you guys are doing that,” Kawamura said nervously.

“Me too,” Echizen agreed.

“But ochibi! It would be so much fun!” Kikumaru jumped on Echizen and started to choke the boy with one of his hugs.

“Eiji that’s enough,” Oishi said and pried his hands off the air-deprived boy.

The elevator doors finally opened to their floor and everybody stepped out. As Tezuka walked out of the elevator, he was immediately stopped by Inui and Fuji. Inui had opened his notebook again and was scanning through it. Tezuka stood in silence.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Tezuka,” Inui said, “there’s an 85% chance that you are infatuated by her and a 93% chance that most of the other players on this ship are interested in her as well.”

Tezuka waited patiently for Inui’s explanation. He already knew that there were a lot of guys who were interested in the girl without Inui’s statistics. It somewhat surprised him that even the great Atobe was not interested in the other two girls who were well known by name and instead chose the not-so-wealthy girl.

“We can see that you are contemplating whether or not to even bother trying to talk to her, let alone try to get her to go out with you. So we are going to help,” Fuji noted, “Or help ourselves.”

A reaction was definitely noticed from Tezuka’s face, even though it was a small one. Fuji almost burst out laughing but kept himself composed by smiling. Tezuka closed his eyes. He walked away from the two and went towards his room. Fuji tilted his head.

“I believe he is unhappy with our offer,” he commented.

“No matter,” Inui said. He snapped his notebook shut and fixed his glasses. He walked calmly to the direction of his room with Fuji right behind him.

“So, what’s the plan?” Fuji asked.

“We must gather more information on our target,” Inui said, “then, we can use the new information to manipulate a scenario to put Tezuka in a better position in terms of standing a chance against the major players.”

Inui opened his door as Kaidoh stepped into the washroom with a bath towel around his waist. Fuji followed Inui in as he was eager to hear the rest of the data man’s plan.

“Kaidoh. Don’t take too long. I need you and the others for this plan,” Inui instructed.

Kaidoh nodded as he closed the washroom door.

“Now here’s the plan.”

~~~

Wednesday, Poseidon’s Grace, Second Upper Deck, Outdoor Pool, 12:43 p.m.

“Why am I in the middle again?”

furrowed her eyebrows after being thrown in the middle as she was encircled by the Rikkai Dai boys who were chatting among themselves while taking small glances at her. Nobody was really talking to her; even Niou seemed to be a little distracted. He was chatting with a black curly haired boy. It seemed that the two were deep in conversation about something. was feeling really lost since she didn’t really know any of them. Yanagi was flipping through his clipboard.

“I guess I should do something instead of standing here like an idiot,” she thought to herself in grimace. She walked towards Yanagi and stood beside him. She took a peek at the clipboard. Yanagi was fairly tall so she could only get a glimpse of what he has written on the bottom of the sheet. When she saw her name penciled in, her face paled.

“What do you think?”

remained silent. She looked at the taller boy and blinked.

“You’re kidding, right?” she said.

Yanagi smiled.

“This makes things more interesting,” he answered. glared at him.

“Renji.”

Yanagi and turned to see that Sanada had just arrived on the deck. He nodded at 's direction and she smiled back. He then turned his attention to the rest of the team.

“What is everybody standing around for? Get in line!” Sanada ordered.

Everybody immediately stood in front of Sanada, Yanagi and had their hands behind their backs while standing next to each other. Yanagi cleared his throat.

“Today, we are going to have a little contest,” he said.

This caused a few confused looks among the boys. Sanada looked suspiciously at Yanagi while placed her hand on her temple.

“Those who manage to do better in most of the exercise will have the privilege in having the night off and will be spending it with our special guest, Kuroban ,” Yanagi gently pushed to the front. The girl looked more embarrassed than honored.

Marui and Jackal’s eyes widened. Kirihara looked confused. Niou grinned. Yagyuu fixed his glasses and Sanada just looked plainly uncomfortable.

“Renji, did she agree with this?” Sanada calmly asked.

“Of course,” Yanagi answered and turned to Sanada, “did you think that I would force somebody to do something like this?”

twitched. Sanada knew that Yanagi had done something, but did not want to ask any further questions.

“Alright. Let’s get started. Please walk towards the deep end of the pool,” Yanagi said.

When they arrived to the deep end, they waited for the next set of instructions.

“The first exercise is to hold our breaths and see who can hold it the longest,” he announced.

Everybody paused and looked at him.

“Err… this sounds really… childish,” Jackal said. Yanagi chuckled.

“I forgot to add something,” he said.

Yanagi went to get the container of weights that Inui had left and pulled it to where the others were.

“Kuroban-san, can you please get my gym bag and take out its contents?” Yanagi asked. obediently went to get his bag and pulled out the first thing that she felt.

“Rope?” she said.

“Please tie the rope on each of the weights,” he said to the girl. nodded and she followed Yanagi’s instructions as he turned his attention back to his teammates.

“To make things a little more challenging, there is a lock on the end of each rope. Everybody is to slip on a pair of weights around their ankles. This will give a little resistance as well as a rush of panic that will make this exercise more difficult.”

Everybody remained silent, even had stopped tying the rope on the weights and looked at Yanagi.

“Does the lifeguard know what you are planning to do?” Kirihara asked. Yanagi nodded.

“And they allowed it??” Marui said. Again, Yanagi nodded.

“Apparently, this is the same exercise that they normally do,” he smiled.

smacked her head because this was true. The only difference is that the lifeguard staff that her father hired for his personal ship used to be trained by navy seals. These people were especially hired for special occasions to let the guests know that they are safe no matter what the conditions were.

“What kind of lifeguards are they?!” Marui hissed quietly to Jackal.

“Now, once you are under water, the weights will be dragging you down. When the weights reach to the bottom, that’s when your time starts,” Yanagi continued.

“It’s going to take a while for the weights to touch the bottom,” commented when she took another look at the rope that she was using. It was only three feet long and the pool was around thirty meters deep. It will take them some time to reach to the bottom.

Yanagi noticed Kirihara waving his hand.

“Yes?”

“What if we can’t hold our breath any longer?” he asked.

“Then you must unlock both the weights off your ankles and swim back up as quickly as possible while carrying the weights back up.”

Yanagi then snapped his fingers.

“O yea, and you are all going to be working in partners,” he said, “one of you will be tied up and be underwater while the other will have the freedom of diving up and down to check up on their partner. Once the person who is tied up needs air, they will signal their partner to get the key and unlock both locks.”

Everybody looked at each other. This is starting to sound a little dangerous.

“Also,” Yanagi continued, “the locks are different from each ankle so you need two seperate keys. The person who will unlock their partner and must do this quickly before the other person runs out of air.”

now completely dropped the rope and the weights. She did not want anything to do with this crazy training. She stared at the other boys who looked scared out of their wits as they nervously looked at each other. Yanagi has obviously noticed everybody’s expression.

“Since everybody seems a little uncomfortable with this exercise, they will be given a choice,” he proposed. Everybody looked at him eagerly. Anything seemed better than risking in one of Yanagi’s ridiculous training plans.

“What is it Renji?” Sanada asked. He too was not too eager with going under water and being placed in such a tight spot.

“You either do the exercise or…”

Yanagi walked towards and went into his gym bag. He shuffled around a little bit until he found what he was looking for. He dropped a large container on a table in front of the group.

“Err… what’s in that… Renji…?” Marui gulped.

Yanagi smiled.

“As you all know that Sadaharu and I were very close friends during our early years,” he started.

Everybody nodded.

“And we used to play together as doubles, correct?”

Again everybody shook their heads.

“Well, what you did not know is that we started concocting something for the losers to drink after each game to test out some of our creations.”

And with that, Yanagi popped the container open. As soon as the lid came off, a mushroom shaped cloud of steam popped out of the container in a purplish greenish color. The Rikkai Dai boys, including a few of the guests who were sitting somewhat close to where they were standing, almost turned the same color as the steam when they started to smell the stench that was released from the container.

“Good god! What the hell is that?!?!” screamed in fear as she plugged her nose with her fingers. She scurried behind Sanada and Yagyuu. The other Rikkai Dai boys also backed away as quickly as they could from where Yanagi and the powerful odor were.

Yanagi scratched his head.

“I am actually not too sure myself,” he said, “it’s been sitting behind my closet after I moved away to Rikkai.”

“Yanagi-senpai! That’s disgusting! How can you stand the smell?!” Kirihara said from behind .

“The seal on this container is very well made so none of the gases escaped, leaving my room smelling clean,” Yanagi concluded. He wiggled his nose and took a peek inside the container. He frowned.

“Renji. What are you doing?” Sanada said with his hand covering his nose and mouth.

“I don’t remember putting that in…” he muttered to himself. He took his pen and started to poke inside the container which somehow caused the smell to grow even stronger. He pulled his pen back up, with a little string of goop hanging from the end of it.

“AWWW RENJI! That’s just nasty!” Niou yelled and ducked behind . The girl couldn’t believe that anybody could create something so vile, let alone have the heart to let somebody drink it.

“Hmmm… I will ask Sadaharu about this later,” Yanagi said and scrapped the goop off his pen onto the side of the container. He looked at the rest of the group and smiled.

“So, what will be your choice?”

It was clear as to what they have chosen.

“That’s what I thought,” Yanagi said smugly, “the first ones to go in are, Niou and his partner will be Yagyuu. Sanada and his partner Kuroban-san.”

“Eh? Seriously?” gulped when she heard her name.

“The ones that are going to be locked are Niou and Sanada. Yagyuu and Kuroban will be watching them and will be giving them the keys when they need it.”

and Yagyuu looked at each other nervously. They were given such a huge responsibility in just a few minutes. Sanada had already started to lock the weights around one ankle while Niou looked anxiously at his.

“Hiroshi, if I die, I am going to come back and haunt you,” Niou mumbled as he started to lock his weights on his ankle. Yagyuu let out a sigh and took off his glasses. giggled and took her sarong off. She then turned her attention to her partner.

“I am going to make sure you survive Sanada-san!” said cheerfully and gave the boy a thumbs up. Sanada nodded and smiled.

“Here you two,” Yanagi said to and Yagyuu, “take these stop watches. You will press start once they hit the bottom of the pool. Then swim back up and give me the watches so I can stop it when they surface.” The two nodded and took the watches from Yanagi. They looped it around their wrists so it wouldn’t float away when they go into the water. Sanada and Niou slowly dropped their weights into the pool and both slipped in. They held onto the side of the pool to wait for Yanagi’s signal. and Yagyuu also slipped in to wait for Yanagi’s command.

“Alright gents. Dive in,” Yanagi said. Sanada took a deep breath, let go of the side, and quickly sank down. followed Sanada and dove down right beside him. Niou winked, took a deep breath and went under. Yagyuu also followed his partner as the two went deeper and deeper into the water. Marui gulped as he watched all four of them sink to the bottom. Jackal patted his partner on the back.

A few seconds later, and Yagyuu surfaced and gave Yanagi their watches.

“Now it begins,” Yanagi smiled and looked at the watches in his hand. He then went into his backpack and pulled out two smaller ropes. On each end of the rope was a keychain. He placed two keys on each keychain and tied the rope around two smaller weights then started to walk towards the shallow end.

“What is he doing?” Marui whispered to Jackal. He shrugged.

Yanagi then placed the weights into the water and started to walk back to where everybody was waiting.

“I forgot to mention to you guys,” he smiled, “your partners have to swim towards the other end of the pool to get the keys.”

“WHAT?!” and Yagyuu yelled in unison. darted her eyes towards Yagyuu. He looked at her with clear signs of frustration in his eyes. The two quickly dove to the bottom to see how their partners were doing and to try to tell them what Yanagi has just announced.

Sanada was still and had his eyes closed as he held his breath. He felt a soft tap on his shoulders and opened his eyes. was in front of him. She started to make signs with her hands to try to translate to him about their situation with the keys. Sanada furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“What the hell is she doing?” he thought to himself. made a sign that looked like she was opening a door. She made it look as if she was unlocking something.

“A key?”

He made the same gesture as if he was unlocking something. nodded and started to make a gesture that looked like she was throwing something and then pointed to the people on the surface.

“Throw one of them?” he thought as he stared at her blankly.

The girl scratched her head.

“How exactly am I supposed to say that Yanagi threw it?” she questioned herself. Then she thought of something and swiftly swam down to her partner.

“Why is her eyes closed?” Sanada stared at the girl. had closed her eyes and pretended that she was writing on an imaginary piece of paper. Sanada’s eyes widened.

“Renji!” he thought. He tapped the girl and nodded her head as soon as she opened her eyes. She then put her whole act together. First she closed her eyes and pretended to write something. She then made the throwing gesture and then pretended to unlock something. She then pointed towards the other end of the pool.

“So Renji threw the key to the other side of the pool,” he concluded, “this is going to make things more difficult.”

He gave the girl another thumbs up to let her know that he understood what she was trying to say. smiled and swam to where Yagyuu and Niou were.

“I predict that in order for me to survive, I must give her at least a minute head start before I lose my breath,” Sanada proposed. He decided to keep his eyes open to keep a look out for when she comes down to check up on him.

Meanwhile on Niou’s side, Yagyuu had just finished translating what Yanagi had done to the keys, causing Niou to panic. He felt a pair of hands on his shoulders hold him to calm him down. Niou turned around to see giving him an okay sign and then pointed at Yagyuu. Niou looked at his partner who remained calm and collected. This helped him relax a little. He nodded at and Yagyuu and gave them a thumbs up. The two started to swim back up into the surface leaving Sanada and Niou behind. Niou looked at Sanada. The vice captain gave him his usual stern look. Niou sighed inside.

“I really don’t know how long I can stay under,” he thought anxiously.

Yagyuu and surfaced. Yagyuu rubbed his eyes. turned her head and glared at Yanagi.

“2 minutes and 35 seconds have elapsed,” he said, ignoring the girl’s angry stare.

was ready to get out of the pool, push the boy in, and drown him herself. Yagyuu could tell that she was fuming and knew that he needed to calm her down. He touched her shoulder and gave her a smile.

“Don’t worry, we can do this,” he reassured her.

“I can’t believe you’re so calm after your own teammate put you in this kind of situation,” mumbled.

Yagyuu let out a breath.

“Surprisingly, this is not the first time Renji has done this before,” Jackal said as he took a seat on the edge of the pool. Marui sat beside him and nodded.

“We have faced worst conditions before, but this is up there with the others,” Kirihara added. He was lying on his belly while looking down into the water.

“Like the time where Renji took Akaya into that forest and left him there in the middle of the night,” Marui said.

“O yeah, that was bad. There were no paths and any signs of civilization, plus Akaya did not have any gear on him,” Jackal remembered.

furrowed her eyebrows.

“Okay, first of all that’s strange. There are not a lot of forests that are uninhibited around this area. There is usually at least one path in any kind of woodland areas even in an animal preserve,” pointed, “Second, how the hell did Yanagi manage to get Kirihara to follow him into a secluded place in the middle of the night without Kirihara opposing?”

“I had researched online and found a place where the army had previously used as a training ground,” Yanagi said. Kirihara snarled.

“It was used to train the soldiers to spot their enemies while both sides were in camouflage gear. They used ships to unload the soldiers so they did not disturb any of the natural surroundings,” he added.

“It was more of an island than just a piece of land,” Jackal pointed out.

“As for your second question, apparently Renji ‘found’ Akaya slacking off and sleeping in the changing room,” Yagyuu explained.

“Then he somehow got Akaya’s parents to sign a release form allowing Renji to ‘take care’ of him,” Marui smirked.

“And from that day on, I swore I would never accept any food from Yanagi-senpai,” Kirihara growled. looked even more confused. Yagyuu saw her face and smiled.

“We later found out that Renji had given Kirihara some free onigiris because he forgot to bring his lunch,” Yagyuu explained.

“Next thing we knew, Akaya was sleeping like a baby,” Jackal said.

“You should have known that accepting any sort of food from Renji was… well… you were just asking for it Akaya,” Marui laughed. Jackal stifled a giggle. Kirihara narrowed his eyes and kicked Marui’s back causing him to fall into the pool. Kirihara laughed out loud alongside Jackal, Yagyuu, and .

“Akaya!!!” Marui yelled and gasped for breath. Kirihara stuck his tongue out, turned around, and started to taunt Marui by shaking his behind. Marui glared at the younger boy, but then noticed that there were bubbles rising from the bottom of the pool. He looked down.

“Oy… Niou’s looking a little… panicked.”

and Yagyuu looked down to see that more bubbles were leaving from Niou’s mouth. Yagyuu immediately swam towards the shallow end to get the key. swam down to tell Niou that Yagyuu was on his way.

“Masaharu has been panicking for the last twenty seconds,” Yanagi wrote on his clipboard.

“And you did not bother to tell us of his situation??” Jackal asked.

Yanagi stopped writing and looked at the other members that were staring at him.

“It is the partners’ responsibility to watch out for their other half. This is how doubles teams fall when they ignore each other’s needs,” he replied firmly.

The boys stayed silent. The point that Yanagi had raised was relevant.

finally reached to where Niou was struggling to hold his breath. She took a hold of his shoulders to first get his attention. Niou’s eyes were filled with so much fear that she could not help but feel sorry for him. She pointed towards the other end where Yagyuu had already grabbed the keys. Even after seeing that Niou was still waving his hands madly.

“Crap! He lost too much air,” the girl finally thought.

She immediately grabbed a hold of Niou’s face and placed her lips against his. She slowly released some of her air into his mouth which caused Niou to stop moving wildly. She released her hold on the boy and quickly swam up to the surface. After taking a deep breath of fresh air, she plunged back into the water to see that Yagyuu had finally reached to his partner, releasing him from the deadly lock and weights. Niou swam ahead of Yagyuu, who gave a thumbs up. When the three surfaced out of the water, they were greeted by grateful cheers.

“Nice one Kuroban-san!” Jackal said.

“That was really close, but Niou was definitely lucky!” added Marui.

Niou pulled himself out of the pool with the help of Kirihara and Jackal. He gave a thankful smile and winked at her causing the girl to raise an eyebrow.

“Maybe I should have let him drown…”

“Since Masaharu had a little bit of help, he must be punished,” Yanagi stated, “50 laps right now.”

“EH?! I almost died there!” Niou defended. Yagyuu kicked Niou’s back and he fell back into the pool.

“You were only allowed to have one partner, but since Kuroban-san had to also assist means that you lack training,” Yanagi explained. He took a quick glance down the pool.

“You can talk to Genichirou if you want to whine.”

“SANADA!” screamed. She had just remembered that her own partner is still underwater, dying while she was loitering around with his teammates.

The water from below stirred and a huge splash came as Sanada appeared in front of the team and . He looked slightly out of breath.

“Oh my god! How did you…” looked in shock.

Sanada held in one hand his rope with the lock and weights, while in the other hand he had the keys.

“You have GOT to be kidding me,” Kirihara choked.

“H-he swam all the way to the other side…” Marui sputtered.

“And retrieved the key himself…” Yagyuu uttered.

“Then swam back with it all,” Jackal gulped.

“And that is the true strength of our vice-captain,” Yanagi concluded. He stopped writing and placed his clipboard to his side. He took a whistle out of his pocket and blew on it causing his teammates and to cover their ears.

“Next! Marui and Jackal. Kirihara, you will be the one retrieving the key to both of their locks,” Yanagi ordered.

Sanada let out a breath as he placed the contents in his hands on the side of the pool. He pulled himself out and turned around to see that his partner was still in the water.

“Let’s go get you dry,” he said.

stared at him with her eyes wide open. She nodded obediently and got out of the pool with Sanada helping her. She looked up with an upset face. Sanada furrowed his eyebrows.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in concern.

“I am SO sorry!” the girl quickly bowed. Sanada took a step back, feeling stumped. He smiled and placed a hand over the girl’s head.

“I can’t be easily defeated,” he said.

looked up. Feeling flustered, she laughed and placed a hand behind her head. She nodded and took her place beside Sanada in time to watch Marui and Jackal disappear from their sight with Kirihara taking a deep breath to follow them down.

~~~

BabyBel

Edited by Butterfly