Chapter Text
Social Skills
Skill 111: Ever Summer and the Secret Beach – VIII
“Phew, done.” Salaya looked at the finished product. A 1 meter high tower of babel. At the bottom, a ring one meter across. And atop that, a ring 90 centimeters across. And so on, until the final ring of 10 centimeters at the top. Yue and Ren had even poked little holes into the rings everywhere to make it look better.
It was the third type of sand sculpture. The second, finished by Iz and Kasumi, had been three leaning towers, 20 cm across and 60cm high, each. The lack of a time limite made it a rather relaxing, if very, very inefficient minigame for collecting tags. Only 100 were given for a finished sculpture of standard size.
Pointing at each of the genji, she twirled her fingers, pointed down and then used her fingers like a photo frame. In an instant, Yue and Ren squatted next to the sculpture, the miniature towel of babel, and did a peace sign each.
Taking an actual viewcap, then another, Salaya enjoyed that they changed up their poses. Blowing kisses at her, doing humongous grins with closed eyes, Yue doing a backhand slap on Ren’s shoulder, and so on.
Pointing at the sculpture, then the sign, Salaya twirled her fingers, then pointed up with her right. One more?
Pretending to roll up sleeves that weren’t there, the two were more than ready.
The next one was a little harder to do, and outright impossible to explain without words. Or was it? Salaya opened her mouth and both Yue and Ren put their hands over it. Then they shushed her with a big smile, pointing down at the sand.
Oh. Right! Drawing the next sculpture in the sand as miniature, Salaya’s job experience came in handy. It was the Yin-Yang symbol. Drawing an arrow that pointed up, she wrote 30cm next to it. And then a double-sided arrow going across below the small symbol, that said 2m. Then she pointed at the small inner circles, threw a second circle next to the main symbol, put two up arrows there and also included the number. 10cm.
Pretending to hold party crackers, both Yue and Ren fired them, doing a big triangle above their heads for Salaya.
While the trio was enjoying themselves building a giant yin-yang symbol, the other twins were more about breaking than making. Instead of taking turns, the two of them had switched to where their true strength laid; co-op. The Melon smashing minigame allowed both local and global co-op, which made smashing the larger melons easier. The time remained the same and the reward was not split but given to both players, an all-around net positive. The only drawback was that it would not record their score to the leaderboards, but they had stopped caring about that already.
“Huge!” Yui looked at the absolutely massive melon that had to weigh like a hundred kilos. Even Chrome would have been helpless to lift something so big and heavy on his own, especially with the shape it had. And worse still, the melon was placed on the much rounder side, not the relatively flat bottom or top. It would roll away at the slightest touch.
“That makes even Salaya’s melons look reasonable.”
“Mai…”
“Come on, they are gigantic! What did she even eat to get them that big? Wooly Mammoths, weekly?!”
“Mai.”
“I’m not using my slander voice!”
“You ever think the fact that her breasts are not that big because she wanted them to be that big?”
“If she really hated it, there’s ways.”
“That’s different.”
“Anyway, how we doing this?”
“Crush from both sides. Cross your arms and hammer down, apply as much pressure as you can diagonally. After that, stomp stuff that’s small, and use your butt for anything bigger.”
“My butt?!”
“I thought of it yesterday when I saw you sit down on that empty carton of eggs.”
“That wasn’t even to flatten it! I just thought it’d be funny.”
“Yeah, but it worked? Big butt.”
“You realize you have the same butt, right?” Mai looked at her twin with a huge smug grin.
“Not even close. I sit around all day, you walk a lot. Your butt is way bigger.”
“Shouldn’t that be the other way around?!”
“I get fatter more easily than you, that’s why you can eat more snacks.”
“I hate it when you use logic.”
“And yet we both love Kanade.”
“Her using logic is hot though.”
“And I’m not?” Yui stopped and facepalmed. “Forget I said that.”
“You’re hot when you’re angry, actually.”
“I said forget-!” She clawed at her own face when Mai pointed as if to say, exactly like that. “On three, okay?”
“Got it.”
“One.” “Two!” “Three!!” Both of them crossed their arms, raised them above their head and slammed down. Smashing the humongous melon from both sides, they caused a massive rupture on the top, spewing liquefied melon everywhere. Several rather massive pieces resulted, with only about a third of the melon being crushed entirely.
The 50 second timer started to tick and they immediately got to work, stomping, smashing and butt plunging onto the remaining pieces. One especially big one remained. “Yui, I got an idea!” Mai had just landed on a big piece with her butt. “Grab me and smash me onto my back, into the melon, like a hammer.”
“That’ll kill you!”
“I have 9999 HP in here, I’ll live one hit!”
“If you die, don’t whine!” Quickly walking over, Yui grabbed her sister’s swimsuit just above her butt by the relatively loose skirt and the other hand went under the fabric from above, down her back. Smashing Mai down more like a big rock than a hammer, Yui had overestimated how much damage it would do to her. She only took about 1600 damage total, which meant they could easily do it several times.
Reaching 97% destruction, they both cleared the challenge with bravo. And once they were teleported out, they were also no longer covered in melon-goo.
“That was actually a really good idea.” Yui looked massively surprised.
“Don’t look that shocked… I might be the rude twin, but there’s no stupid twin between the two of us.”
“I didn’t mean that! I just… I would have never thought of that. It felt kind of rude to do that.”
“Well, I liked it.”
“Getting melon-goo all over you.”
“No, having your hand go down my back.”
“Mai…”
“I’m not going to pretend I didn’t like it.”
Looking away for a second, Yui tried to accept it, and promptly failed. “Just… don’t do any stupid things like moaning or-”
“I wouldn’t. ‘Cause I want this-” Mai pointed back and forth between Yui and herself. “To work. With Kanade.”
Covering her face and rubbing it, Yui just buried any objections she felt. I’ll adapt. It’s not like I hate the idea in any way. I just have a harder time dealing with this than Mai. She’s always been better with this stuff. “Wanna go for Melon 5?”
“Let’s just go all the way.”
“Frustration from work?”
“Not particularly, I just like smashing stuff. That’s why we’re hammer-class, right?”
“I like smashing stuff too.”
“Like Kanade?”
“Mai… yes, like Kanade.” Yui smirked as she admitted it.
“How many tags did we get?”
“Wow… that must have been almost 400.”
“400?!”
“Yeah, I guess this minigame really spits them out.”
“The farming methods are totally not balanced.”
“Yeah. But it’s NWO. When is stuff ever balanced?”
“Right?”
They both grinned as they loaded into Melon 5.
“Okay, this is already getting ridiculous.” Mai walked a few steps to the side. “Four of them? And each is as big as that monster melon we had before?”
“Worse, three of them and then another stacked on top in the middle.”
“How are we gonna do this one?”
“We each break one on the outside, that’ll leave the upper melon attached to just one of the lower ones. Then we crush both of those at the same time. We have 80 seconds for this one, so we don’t need to panic.”
“What about swinging me again? My HP is already back to full. Summer OP.”
“If we were bigger-” Yui frowned. “You know what I mean.”
“Hey, I didn’t say anything.” Mai looked mighty smug about it though. “Grab me by my ankles and hulk smash me onto the biggest melon pieces.”
“That’ll deal a lot of damage.”
“I’ll yell stop?”
“Maybe… you’re not going to be weird about this, right?”
“I won’t. I’m good with doing this normally to. I mean, if you don’t wanna, then you don’t wanna, easy as that.”
“Okay. Let’s just do a trial run. I bet the highest challenge will turn out the most tags anyway.”
“Probably. Ready? On three again?”
“Yes. One!” Yui took a low stance, swinging from below to transfer as much power as possible upwards – that would prevent the melon from exploding violently and spraying everywhere.
“Two!” Made used both fists, raised above her head, ready to just hit the melon as hard as possible from above. Even if pieces were ejected down below, they wouldn’t get very far.
“Three!”
Two of the massive melons exploded in different ways, leaving the third and fourth in one piece. Doing some quick stomping and taking position again, they used the same two-side pressure technique from before.
There were a lot of pieces that were practically the size of whole watermelons, some of them two-to-three times the size that even. “Mai-Hammer, ready!” Mai laid down next to Yui and then stiffened up best she could.
“This feels so wrong…” Grabbing her sister by her ankles, Yui lifted her up like a toy hammer and smashed her into the ground.
“Guowah!” Mai let out a noise that freaked Yui out and almost dropped her. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.”
“You idiot! I thought I actually hurt you!” Yui swung Mai extra hard.
“Hot while angry!”
“Shut it, Maisochist!”
“Pfffttt! I love it!”
“I’m gonna trade you for Maple! Or Mii!”
“So hot!” She’s not even really mad, she’s just acting like it to hide how embarrassing this whole swinging me around is. I bet- oh sh*t. “Stopstopstopstopstop!” Mai barely got the words out in time. Yui was already swinging and switched to a sideways swing at the last movement, slipped, the both of them landing on their backs in melon goo, alive. “I totally didn’t account for angry Yui damage.”
Slapping her sister’s arm, Yui growled at her. “You idiot!”
“Sorry, sorry, that’s my actual bad.” And the time limit hit. They had destroyed most of the four melons, but the turnout was worse than the nearly fully cleared Melon 4 challenge. Returned the way they were – on their backs – they just stayed like that.
“Now I really want to see how big these will get.” Yui had her curiosity piqued.
“Like a building? Cosmic melon?”
“Probably not.”
“Probably?” Mai snorted. “Can you imagine, a melon so big we only see a green wall in every direction?”
“We’ll just find some Maple-y way to destroy it.”
“If anyone can, it’s us.”
“If all else fails-”
“Then?”
“I’ll launch you like a rocket at it.”
“That’s actually an awesome idea.”
“You’d just get stuck and if you tried to break it from the inside, it would suffocate you in juice.”
“Why do you have to bring realism into a rocket punch gag?”
“Ah. That’s my bad.” Yui sat up and then helped Mai sit up as well. “But I’m surprised how big those are getting. How are people without hundreds of points in strength supposed to do this?”
“Clearing it is just breaking it into a couple pieces, right?”
“Well… yeah, I guess, you’re right.” Yui stood up. “How long are you gonna hold my hand?”
“Until you-” Mai held on more tightly so Yui couldn’t easily pull away. And then the game sniffed out Mai’s intentions and made Yui’s hand just slip out of hers instantly. “Aw crap.”
Yui didn’t say anything. “At least get a pledge with me first before you try anything…”
“Is that like our version of buy me dinner first?”
“I already make dinner! Every time! Every day!”
“And I love your food~”
“I’ll start Melon 6 before you get any ideas. Ready?”
“Oh yeah. And for the melon, too.”
“Mai…” Yui hit the button, they were transported, and also… were both just kind of over it almost immediately. “I don’t even really feel like reacting with shock anymore.” She started to walk around the monstrosity that was supposed to be a melon.
“This is reaching Maple levels of silly.” Mai was kind of deadpan sounding as well. “That’s gotta be over 2 meters of Melon, high and across.”
“Probably like 2 and a half across.” Yui stopped on the other side of the enormous thing. “This could feed the entire guild.”
“Really? We have Maple.”
“Even with Maple. Look at this thing. It’s like several Chromes worth.”
“Honestly, I wouldn’t even know how to make a strategy for this. Let’s just hit it really, really hard and then stomp the pieces.”
“No hulk overhead?”
“It’s too big.”
“Okay. But don’t hesitate to put your hands on me.”
“Sure…”
“I’ll go with a punch.” Mai was taking position.
“I’ll use a kick.”
“A kick?”
“Yeah. With the heels on these sandals and my strength, that would be like a huge bullet. It’ll definitely tear a big hole into it and then we can break the pieces.”
“And my punch is the opposing side energy that keeps the melon from rolling off?”
“Probably too big for that anyway, but can’t hurt.”
“One three again?”
“Full power!”
“I love those two words.”
“One!”
“Two!”
“Three!!”
Hitting the melon with their full power, several huge chunks flew off from the sides, with the bottom half looking rather devastated, as if a shotgun of gigantic proportions had hit the poor fruit. The top was mostly intact, resulting in Yui and Mai doing a second round of full power, full wind-up hit. Despite being a higher challenge, the time limit was less; only 60 seconds. They made the most of it, crushing and smashing as much as they could, to the point that they were both covered in melon goo, top to bottom by the time the challenge ended and they returned to the beach.
“Okay, I need a break.” Yui somehow felt slimy even after the goo removal.
“Same.” Looking around, Mai found that Kanade was nowhere to be seen. “I knew she only had a little bit of time but still sucks that she’s already gone.”
“We agreed to not be clingy.”
“Wanting to go see her before she leaves for the day isn’t being clingy.”
“Okay, fair.”
“Wanna go eat something?”
“Sure. I wonder if anything is left or Maple has eaten the entire stock.”
“The infinite stock?”
“It’s Maple.”
“True.”
They were not the only ones with that idea. In fact, the bar was packed with people. Mii, Maple, and the recently arrived Rion, were at the counter, devouring one piece of yakitori after another. Misery, Fria and Sally were outside and sitting down at the edge of the pier, eating non-spicy yakisoba, stuffed into bread puns.
Salaya, Yue and Ren were just a few meters over by the Keijo sign, the two genji going absolutely crazy over all the food on offer. And Salaya was all too happy to just watch them eat and react to food stuffs they’ve never had before. Kasumi and Iz on the other hand only had drinks between the two of them, being at the singular table outside.
It really was just about dinner time in the real world, which meant soon they would all have to temporarily leave. But before that, there was time for a big family-like guild dinner get-together. Only Kanade was not there, which was a bit of a bummer for Yui and Mai. But as soon as they arrived at the counter, seeing Maple devour entire plates of yakitori with kirby speed, they were waved over by Yue and Ren. Before even ordering, they went over to them.
Even Salaya had to look up when someone came up to her and she was sitting on the floor. This was true even for the exceptionally short Yui and Mai combo. Made just a little bit less so by wearing their heeled sandals.
“Done playing?” She still made an effort to actually talk to people.
“You’re gonna get brain freeze.” Mai was watching Ren just about dunk her own face into the pile of shaved ice.
“For the moment.” Yui actually answered Salaya instead. “Those two look like they’re having fun.”
Pausing just for a moment, Yue and Ren looked up at them and beamed, before resuming their annihilation of the cold goodness.
Salaya was holding onto a bowl herself, but not eating. I’m getting chilly just watching them. I like shaved ice okay, but they’re just wild for it. I guess this is the first time they got a sweet treat… maybe? I should ask them later.
“Maple is gonna unlock everything at this rate, so have fun you two.” Yui leaned down just a bit to smile at Yue, who smiled back, with a huge shine of happiness in her eyes.
“But Kasumi doesn’t have that much vitality, right? Pace yourself, so you can actually eat more that shaved ice.” Mai did the same and while Ren didn’t look up, she briefly balanced the bowl on one hand and showed Mai a big thumbs up.
“Chairs?” Yui pointed and Mai nodded.
“I’ll go get chicken. Maple has gotta be done with it by now.” The two of them split up. Yui sat down first and was immediately annoyed by her dress just being kind of in the way of relaxing. And so she rolled up the loose part.
Mai took a few minutes to come back, carrying a huge dish with her, huge chunks of fried chicken on it. It was promising to be a greasy, tasty delight. The two chairs were connected by a tiny table, and she put down the plate before copying Yui, rolling up her swimsuit dress and sitting down. “Good idea.”
“Right? Doesn’t get in the way.” Yui leaned back further and was inconvenienced by her wings, which she promptly turned off. And again, Mai copied her.
Eating one of the chicken pieces, Mai made a pretty satisfied noise. “Wow, that is good.”
“Gimme.” Yui got a piece herself and she too couldn’t believe the taste. “Mmmmhhhh!”
“Right?!” Maple was shouting from over at the bar. “Chicken heaven!”
“I can’t believe you can still eat.” Rion had eaten her fill, and Mii looked like she was ready to explode. Or burp. But since it was Mii, explosion was the only choice.
“Heh heh heh! I can always eat~”
“Four feasts done, and the fifth is watermelon?” Rion leaned back. “Yui! Mai! Want some watermelon?!”
“I hate you!” Mai’s reply was instant.
“Friaaaaa! Your girlfriend is bullying us!” Yui did a mean thing.
“Eh, sometimes you deserve it!” Fria just shrugged.
“That’s the meme karma!” Sally, next to Fria, added her own oil to the fire.
“Really feels like a summer vacation, with everyone ea- being together like this.” Kasumi sipped on her calpis.
“You almost said eating, my love. Even though we just have drinks.”
“Certainly not. You must be losing your hearing, witch.”
“Well, as long as I can hear your lovely voice, I will be fine.”
Kasumi hid her embarrassment by drinking more calpis. My voice? I never had someone compliment me on that before. Iz does pay attention to the more… well, things beside just the common appearance parts like my chest or my butt… come to think of it, she looks at my face a lot and even though she plays up the ‘fu fu fu’ closed eyes gag character a lot, she makes a lot of eye contact with me. Not to mention she really likes touching my hands- Kasumi gagged as kept drinking and drinking without swallowing properly.
“There is no need to think that deeply about it.” Iz demonstrated her mind reading again. “I love more than just the way you look. Your voice, your mannerisms, the way you act and think.” She rested her head, hand on cheek, onto her arm and let Kasumi see the real love struck expression that she didn’t show much.
“How can there ever be a moment when I am to not think deeply about what you do? Everything has layers to it with you.” Kasumi realized late how that sounded. “Not that I mind-” She face palmed briefly. “Iz… you know what I mean, do you not?”
“Oh, perfectly. But I love to see the struggle on your face as you try to meld role, feeling and logic all together. Much like in making a katana, one must find the right volume of each component for it to become a successful endeavor.”
“Perhaps it was a bad idea to teach you so much about those days then.” Kasumi tried to frown, but the smile on her face made pretty clear that she was happy. She’s been using these more and more and I love it, but it’s also raising the bar for me. I need to become even more knowledgeable about then!
“Then, shall I teach you of witchcraft? I cannot have you mistake mere Onmyoudou for a witch’s whisking of worldly workings to their whim.”
“Witches do rhyme now?”
“Only this witch. And only for the far eastern warrior she so cherishes.”
“Hoh? Then what else would this witch do?” Kasumi instantly regretted that. She lured me to say that! That crafty witch!
“Why, I would love to show you in my chambers.”
“There it is-”
“Is what, o’ samurai?” Iz smirked.
Aaaaah, it was a double trap! “You witches! Every time, you play with words-”
“But I have said nothing that would be misinterpreted by anyone listening in with genuine interest and no ulterior motive?”
Grabbing her glass really tightly, Kasumi looked furious on the outside but was really enjoying herself. I only get to spar like this with Iz. Everyone else, no matter when or who, or what we were doing, got bored of it, or annoyed even. “How could anyone look upon a witch with hair like the sky itself and words like honeyed roses and not fall prey to such thoughts? A samurai lives under the great sky, travels the lands from the rising sun to the edge of horizon, and by their side is blade and honor. Not mind of steel, not will of unbending stone from the times before the land could withstand the piercing might of the great allure from above.”
Iz looked positively smitten, listening to her. It was a bit bland at first, when she would just go on and on about the warring states, but once I started to add in, the two of us found something we both enjoy. The Witch from the Sky and the Samurai below the Rising Sun. It should be a novel. “Do you know what the sky is?”
“The sky is the sky.”
“There is no sky. It is simply the nothingness that lies above the earth. The sky is the same for all the lands, all seasons and days. Whether there be clouds, the heat of summer, the cold of winter, the snow at night, the sky is merely a grand stage for those that have succeeded in transcending the spell of the land and become free.”
“So witches are more free than anyone then, is that what you are saying?”
“What does it say then, for when a warrior, lone and transient in time like the bloom of spring, captures the very heart and soul of a witch, the freest of all, with nothing more than steel and honor by their side?”
“That even freedom is not absolute.”
Iz didn’t reply back, indicating that that was wrong.
“That… the sword… No.” She thought about it. Iz is obviously waiting for something that reflects the two of us… I didn’t think she would be this good at this. And I have never been stumped before while roleplaying. Putting one hand to her cheek, Kasumi smiled in a lascivious way, something that Iz had never seen before. It’s so hot how much effort she puts into this. Even if she likes it, she clearly started this for my sake. Ah. My sake.
“That the bond of a warrior and her witch can transcend even the divide between heaven and earth.”
Iz clapped and leaned forward. “A witch cannot be chained down by a warrior. And a warrior cannot be uplifted by a witch. But together, they can bring heaven and earth together.”
“And-”
“But of course-” Iz leaned back after interrupting Kasumi. “A warrior’s might would only best a witch in but one way.”
“Hoh? And what does this witch think that would be?”
“Why, that very thing you so vividly pictured earlier.” Iz loved the sudden surge of color on Kasumi’s face. “Witches are the welders of imagination.”
“Do you not mean you wield imagination, witch? Your magic-”
“Imagination is but one part of magic. Our will, our desires, our love and hatred, all becomes as we weave our spells into the fabric of the sky. We are the Yang to the world’s Yin, and together, power bursts forth. Just like you are my Yin, and when we are together-”
“Do you have no shame, witch?!” Kasumi tried to kick Iz, but they were too far apart. “Curses! If only I had Salaya’s height to call my own!”
“Me?!” Salaya heard her name but had no idea what was going on. Turning around, she was stopped by Yue and Ren, shaking their heads and then making overly cliché like kissing faces at each other. Ren then made a very serious face, while Yue grabbed the rims of a big hat she wasn’t actually wearing. And then they made kissing faces again. Ah. They’re flirting. Wow.
“Oh my, if you believe witches have no shame, then how come it is you warriors of the earth that are dressed so much more provocatively?”
“Not all witches, just you! You shameless-!”
“But I was merely innocently suggesting that I would entertain your customs and participate in a tea-”
“As if I would believe that!”
“Oh, is that so? It appears I underestimated you, warrior.”
“And so have I, witch.”
Watching the whole thing play out were Yui and Mai, unable to go for a refill on the fried chicken.
“It’s like a movie.” Mai wanted popcorn now.
“I don’t get most of what they’re saying to each other, but-”
“You can tell it’s really classy?”
“Yep.” Yui was restlessly playing with her own fingers when Kasumi got up, leaned down next to Iz and slammed the table.
“The alter takudon!”
“The what?”
“Table slam!”
“You think we could pull this off with Kanade?” Yui felt just a little bit bashful when Iz grabbed Kasumi’s face and kissed her. That’s… wow. She must know that everyone is looking.
“Noooo way.” Mai blew raspberries. “Kasumi must have spent, what, years and years working up to this? And Iz-”
“Is Iz.”
“Iz Iz Izetta. If you’re smart enough that the illuminati follow-”
“Pfffttt!!”
“What? They’re basically that!” Mai insisted.
“Yeah, but saying it out loud!”
“We’re more of a Watson and Watson and Holmes combi, with Kanade.”
“This reminds me of that Sherlock anime from a while back.” Yui loved anime taking place overseas, especially during the 20th century.
“The one with the lady Watson? The martial artist one?”
“Yeah!”
“What was it called… something London.”
“Black London!”
“That’s it!”
“We’re the muscle, but not stupid. And-” Mai knew Yui would finish the sentence.
“Kanade is super smart, but not a show off.”
“Do you think…” Mai broke off her sentence. “How long are they gonna kiss for? Do they not need to breathe?”
“I think what?”
“Oh, yeah, uh, you think Kanade is fine with being like- you know, kissing and what not in public?”
“I think so, but we can just ask her.”
“How about you?”
Yui frowned and lowered her voice. “Even if… when I’m used to-” She pointed at Mai, then herself. “To this. I’m not gonna kiss you in public. Way too many questions getting raised as a result.”
“Fair. Understandable even. But huh, you will kiss me in private then, heh?”
“Well, yeah. I never said I’m against this in general.”
“Nice.”
“It would be easier if you weren’t so in-my-face about it.”
“Oh, that’d help?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you say that earlier.” Mai glanced over, at Yui’s chest.
“I didn’t mean my actual face.” She rolled her eyes.
“I know. One for the road.”
“How do you even… there’s nothing in your head that says this is weird when you look at me as a girlfriend?”
“Oh, I just choked that to death a long time ago.”
“Phrasing…”
“Suffocated it under a mountain of siscest manga?”
“You did read a lot of them.”
“I’ll lend you some of my highlights.”
“Like… what?”
“The Gotoubun Hanayome sequel.”
“Wasn’t that by a different author?”
“Yeah, but still, sequel. The same publisher ran it in their Yuriko print.”
“Huh…”
“What, no adamant rejection?”
“I told you I’m not exactly against it. We did make out before, remember?”
“Yeah, but that was more of a test phase. Like, a draft.”
“The manga analogy doesn’t work for this, Mai.”
“Worth a try. So wanna give it a read? It’s actually pretty sweet and not horny, deals a lot with the more down to earth aspects of being sisters in love.”
“And you just have that handy.”
“I have lots of siscest manga handy. Two dozen easily.”
“That’s… a lot. How long have you been-”
“Not until you actually became hot.”
“That was the key point?!” Yui hissed.
“Yeah. Sorry, without some level of physical attraction, the whole love thing doesn’t work for me.”
“So if Kanade was not your type at all?”
“That would suck, but I don’t think I could put in the effort. But I’m not that picky. Big boobs and long hair is already a killer combo. And both you and Kanade have a cute face and nice voices, to boot.”
Yui just kind of medium-frowned at Mai. “I can’t even be annoyed at that because I know I’m more or less the same. Everyone always says the inside is what matters, but it’s not like the outside doesn’t matter.”
“Right?” Mai looked down and pushed down on the fabric, where the gap between her breasts was. “Looks are important, or the whole concept of fashion and individuality would fall apart on its face.” She looked back at Yui. “And now we have the looks to actually feel good about ourselves. That you’re in hot girl territory now is just a side effect of it.”
“So you think Maple or Sally are also hot?”
“Obviously.”
“Sis…”
“There’s a difference between finding them hot and actually thinking about lewd stuff with them in mind, you know?”
“That’s oddly convincing, coming from you.”
“Hey… The only people I think about like that are Kanade and you.”
“Still weird to hear that. I was caught up in our new looks and the development with Kanade and everything, so I didn’t feel so… hesitant when we first tried things out.”
“We’re not manga characters after all, there’s no fast forward or sleazy author that’s making us forget about decades of social expectations.”
“Not that we were very good at that to begin with.” Yui grinned.
“Yeah. But I’m really glad we could shelve the 12 year old act sooner rather than later.”
“It was kind of dragging on.”
“I bet Maple would totally roll with you and I kissing.”
“Mai…”
“Just saying. If we’re ever found out somehow, this guild is probably not gonna care.”
“You’re probably right… still. Don’t even do stuff like grabbing my butt as a joke or something in public.”
“Got it.” Mai’s smirk promised that she would definitely do exactly that.
“Haah…” I know she’s gonna, and I don’t really have the resistance to chew her out for it anymore. Whatever. At least she’s hot, too. And the devil I know.
Rewinding the clock just a little bit, to before Kasumi invoked Salaya’s name, Maple, Mii and Rion were doing some extremely important guild leader things.
“Yggdrassil?” Maple had a suggestion.
“That makes me the fire that burns you down! Rejected, rejected!” Mii hit the counter with her fists twice to put emphasis to that. And of course, the order menu came up. “Grrr!!” She tried to close it and accidentally hit the entry for a plate of yakisoba. “Curse you, interface!”
“Pfftwahahah! So Mii is the slapstick character among the three of us, huh?” Rion had the most evil grin showing, ear to ear.
“Who’re you calling slapstick?! Maple is right there!”
“Eh? I don’t really slap people or use a stick-”
“See what I mean?! That fool!” Mii pouted super hard.
“Who’s fooling around?!” Maple pouted back.
Rion was repeatedly hammering the counter with a fist, laughing her heart out.
And on cue, both Maple and Mii bowed. Maple even added a little something. “Thanks, we’re Miiple and that was Let’s Laugh!”
Almost crying from laughing, Rion nearly fell from her stool, holding onto the counter with both hands.
Extremely important guild leader activities.
“But seriously! We gotta find a name!” Mii tried to get them back on topic.
“Hm… the Superfriends?” Maple suggested.
“That’s definitely some reference I don’t get.” Mii shook her head. “No!”
“Shouldn’t we include Payne in this convo?” Rion was swiping thick and round tears from her eyes. Oh god, if they do another one of those gags I am gonna die.
“The Maple-Mii-Orion-Payne Guilds Alliance.” Mii was completely deadpan.
“Pffffthahaha, it sounds like him!” Maple couldn’t help herself.
“Point taken.” Rion ordered herself some cola. “Honestly, we don’t have much overlap other than three of our four guilds being run by women.”
“Valkyrie?” Mii had a suggestion. “We go to Valorheim and everything.”
“That leaves out Payne though. What about just Valor?”
“Hmmm… kind of broad?” Maple was trying earnestly to come up with something. “Eiyuu Densetsu?”
“That’s gonna get us in trouble with Falcom with our high profile.” Mii denied it. “Maple is totally Estelle though.”
“Heh heh heh!”
“Not a chance. Sally is Estelle, and Maple is Anelace.”
“I’m good with that, too!” Maple would take either.
“Kiseki? We did center around Maple, so I was thinking about something with a tree, but the only big tree I can think of is Yggdrasil.”
“Maple Quest?” Mii just said whatever came to mind. “Our initials are MMOP… wonder if we can do anything with that?”
“Are we becoming a genre?” Rion shot it down. “Maple Quest isn’t bad-”
“Rejected! I’m only one of four!”
Rion turned to the side and looked at Mii with a Can you believe this girl expression.
Mii shook her head, then shrugged, putting on a Yeah, seriously, what is she saying face.
“Stop communicating telepathically!” Maple looked over her shoulder. “Iz might sue for trademark infringement!”
“Pffft!” “Nyhiigghh!!” They both covered their mouths to avoid laughing extremely loudly.
“Ooh, what about ‘The Witch Knights’?” Maple had the next, glorious idea.
“That makes it sound like we work for the Golden Circle.” Mii didn’t like it.
“Hmmm…” Maple didn’t have a follow up yet.
“What about something more abstract, like Jupiter?” Rion threw an idea into the ring.
“Why Jupiter?” Mii couldn’t quite see it.
“Sailor Jupiter was the fourth member, and-”
“You know, when you think about it, shouldn’t Jupiter have been an Outer Senshi?” Mii just randomly derailed the conversation.
“Ooh, because Jupiter is part of the outer system, right? But then we’d have 4 inner and 4 outer. Mercury and Jupiter wouldn’t be in the same team anymore!” Maple immediately saw some problems.
“You remember all that flirting between Usagi and Haruka? Now make that with an older Makoto and teen Ami and actually have it work.”
“Ooooh.” Maple and Rion were in awe of Mii’s genius.
“Sorry, what were you saying about Jupiter?” Mii asked.
“Fourth team member and the largest planet in the system and also has all those satellites, like how Maple has all those fans.”
“I don’t have that many fans!”
“The really scary part is that she believes it.” Mii leaned to the side. “Dense tanuki.”
“Spicy empress!”
“I’m saving that one.” Rion grinned. “Other abstract stuff… Finish Line?”
“Eh…” Maple was not feeling it.
“Superstars, Systems-4, Four Crystals-”
“That’s just final fantasy! We got Payne here after all!” Mii immediately recognized that last one.
“It’s a big franchise!” Rion defended it.
“Hmmmm, Garland?” Maple went off the four crystals suggestion.
“I don’t hate it, but also… that’s just kind of whatever goes?” Rion shrugged.
“This is much harder than I thought it would be.” Mii loudly exhaled. “I still think Valkyrie could be nice.”
“What if we put Payne in a dress?” Rion suggested and within an instant, both Mii and Maple crossed their arms. “No good?” They empathically shook their heads. “Okay.”
“What if we put our initials together?”
“We get MMOP. We said that already.” Mii handwaved it.
“Phonetically!”
“Uh…” Rion had to think about it. “MaMiOrPa? MaOrMiPa? MaPa-”
“Forget I said that!” Maple facepalmed a little.
“What… what about Golden Bund?” She used a foreign word for Bund and English for Golden.
“Bund?” Rion couldn’t place it. “Like, in baseball, a bunt?”
“Pffft.” Maple couldn’t help it. “Bund is a german word! But I don’t know what it means, either.”
“It’s like a group or organization. Their army uses it, too.”
“Hm… I feel like we shouldn’t mix and match languages like that.” Rion horizontally waved her hand in front of her face. “Kinda iffy.”
“Phoeee…” Mii was not happy about that. “They have some really cool words!”
“Like what.”
“Explosion!”
“That’s English.”
“It’s pronounced different in german!”
“Do you actually speak the language, or-”
“I don’t. That doesn’t mean-!”
“Relax. I was just curious if you did since you seem to know your stuff.”
“O-Oh. Sorry.” Mii looked down. “People sometimes argue I shouldn’t use-”
“Then most Japanese shouldn’t use words like Table or Appo or TeleVi either. Tell them that the next time.”
“I will!” Mii looked ready for a fight. Maybe. Definitely ready!
“My color is black… Mii is red, Payne is kinda white and blue, Rion is green…” Maple tried to find a new approach.
“I think we need to ignore our actual appearances because those might change.” Rion shot it down. “Names and looks are out, what about our gameplay?”
“We all do very different things.” Mii couldn’t see the overlap.
“Being strong doesn’t really give us much to work with.” Rion rubbed her temples. “I seriously don’t wanna ask Iz.”
“Iz would know right away.” Mii looked over, seeing Kasumi and Iz ostensibly flirting.
“Iz will be our last resort~” Maple looked over as well, waving, but they didn’t notice her.
“What about ‘Last Resort’? Or ‘First Resort’?” Mii didn’t have high hopes but tried anyway.
“Eh…” Rion was not a fan and Maple just kind of grimaced and shrugged. “Shooting Stars? Although that’s more my thing.”
“Maple is more of an asteroid.” Mii made a snrk sound when Maple slowly raised her arms over her head and then smashed them down onto the counter. “Maple Impact.”
“What about just Impact?”
“Hmm… let’s keep that on the definitive maybe list!” Mii didn’t dislike it.
“Fourth Impact!”
“Maple, we’re not piloting mechs.” Rion was familiar.
“Get in the robot, Rion!” Maple slapped her shoulder.
“If you become one.”
“Maple-Robo!” Maple looked hyped. “Maybe I can! Eventually!”
“Look what you did.” Mii groaned. “Now Maple will somehow become a Gundam!”
“Gundams are cool as hell, so no problem there.”
“I know we said Iz is the last resort, but I don’t see us getting anywhere.” Mii sighed. “I’m good with pure cool stuff, but when it comes to naming things…”
“Flame Empress in the Flame Emperor Kingdom.”
“I didn’t think it’d become so big! And I kinda… I couldn’t remember the kanji for empress, so I just used emperor, thinking I could change it later!”
“Your skill is called Flame Emperor though, right?” Maple couldn’t remember.
“It uses the kanji for Mikado, the 9 stroke one.” Face’s forehead had an up and close meeting with the counter top. “I only realized later that the furigana specify the player’s gender and when I used the kanji for the guild, it defaulted to the male reading… I didn’t think and boom. Guild name done.”
“That should be the tagline for you two. I didn’t think and boom.”
“Hey!” Maple pouted. “Mii always thinks!”
“The not thinking is for you!” Rion snorted hard.
“Oh.”
“Why would you assume you go boom?”
“Detonation!” Maple said it with a smile and Mii almost instinctively bolted. “Ahahaha, sowwy~”
“Oh right. That absurd thing you kept using with Chaos.”
“That sums up Maple as a whole. That absurd thing you keep using.” Mii shrugged at her friend.
“Let’s go ask Iz for a name for our group!”
A little while ago
“So over there we have the trio of doom-” Fria pointed with her thumb over her shoulder without even looking. “No, wait. The Terrible Three.”
“My Mii is not terrible.” Misery blew a bit of haughty air.
“Giant, city razing blasts of demonic fire.” Sally started counting with her fingers. “Superdimensional reality erasing summonings of the primordial goddess of all creation. A massive cult of loyal followers. Corrupting a pure-”
“I’m not corrupted!” Misery, in a fit of rare show of emotion, pouted, both arms stretched down and emphasizing her pout.
“But you’re okay with the other things.” Fria sneered.
“Well, Mii does do those. But Maple does worse!”
“Fria, you realize that looking smug about this, thinking Only my girlfriend doesn’t do weird stuff just means that Maple and Mii are more powerful and awesome, right?”
“What the- I wasn’t- and it doesn’t!”
“Sure does. So what awesome thing can Rion do that’s on par with Maple’s Detonation or Mii’s Dragon Slayer?”
“Crash The Star obviously!”
“Eh, that doesn’t feel quite the same.”
“It pretty much one-shot Garm!”
“Yui and Mai-”
“Stop, stop~” Misery raised her hands and glanced over to the bar. “They’re going to get mad at us.”
All three of them glanced over together, seeing the happily goofing around trio and they knew, if those three caught wind of an actual argument, they’d be annoyed at them or chew them out. And that was a terrible prospect for Sally, Fria and Misery alike.
“If they are the terrible trio, what does that make us? Each of us is dating one of them.” Sally paused. “Kind of odd how that played out, those three becoming so close and then the three of us, too.”
“Odd how? Would be weirder if their girlfriends didn’t get along with the girlfriends of their friends.” Fria stopped. “You know what I mean.”
“Sally and I grew close because Maple and Mii did… but I suppose the two of you were close from before.”
Exchanging a look, Fria and Sally both very subtly shrugged. “I wouldn’t say clo-” They overlapped.
“I’m not doing the copy routine again.” Sally leaned back. “So Misery?”
“Yes?”
“You think you can get along with Fria?” Sally saw her bickering partner tense up. It’s Misery. What are you all nervous for?
“I am certainly not the type to join in on your arguing, but I think outside of that, there won’t be anything preventing us from being friends. As fellow staff users, we do have some things to talk about.”
“Like?” Sally was curious.
“Fria-”
“Yes?”
Misery stopped and smirked. “You went the other direction from Kanade and specialized in debuffs, correct?”
“Well, for new skills, yes. I still have my Multi and various elemental attacks, but after seeing the crazy things Kanade could do, I narrowed my focus a lot.”
“We will have a lot to talk about regarding what debuffs you can use and how they will interact with my holy arts.”
“Is that what they’re called? I’ve just been calling them light magic.” Sally didn’t know much about the terminology from other classes.
“Light magic is stuff using actual light attributes.” Fria jumped at explaining. “Stuff like a laser beam for example.”
“Hueh… so healing stuff is different?”
“Holy Arts is not an official classification.” Misery got that misunderstanding out of the way. “Technically healing is classified as just that, healing, with different grades. But many buffs and heals, including resurrection skills, have a distinct holy feel to it, so the cleric-aligned staff users have started calling it Holy Arts.”
“Come to think of it, NWO is one of the few games I know that doesn’t split magic users up by their specialization. There is nothing stopping Misery, theoretically, from learning Dragon Slayer, right?”
“In theory, yeah.” Fria shrugged. “But practically, there’s no way.”
“Why not?”
“Magic Soul, duh.” Another shrug.
“Misery, what’s Magic Soul?” Sally looked past Fria.
“Hey!”
“I will let Fria explain this. I’m sure she’ll do a good job.”
Great, now I can’t be all uppity about it. “It’s a skill.” She scratched the back of her head. “Basically, when you pick a staff class, you are given a passive skill called Magic Soul. That’s why you generally see element or type specialized staff users, and those who don’t specialize will often have nothing high-level.”
“Hm… okay, imagine this. You can split skills into basically a number of categories. Attack, Defense, Support, Heal, Utility, Movement, and so on. Magic Soul keeps track of what magic skills you have and basically gives you a suitability ranking in each category.”
“That sounds needlessly complicated.”
“It sounds worse than it is.” Misery lessened the impact. “In practice, you pay attention to it very rarely once you are past level 40 or 50.”
“So what does the suitability ranking do?”
“It basically determines if you can learn a skill or not. If you have a lot of healing spells, your healing suitability is probably S. What’s yours, Misery?”
“SS+.”
“Uwah… as expected of Mii’s partner. Anyway, instead of one thing being opposed to others, the more you specialize, the worse your suitability for other things becomes. Utility and Movement are relatively similar to Healing so Misery probably still has B or A in those.”
“C for both.”
“Harsher than I thought.”
“I get it. This whole thing is to ensure nobody can just go and learn SS rank healing spells and then also SS attack spells.”
“Bingo. Some people thought they could game this by ranking up, learning a skill and then changing their suitability, but if you drop too much, skills become unusable.”
“How do you even change that?”
“Learn relevant skills, and it also looks at skill usage. Spamming skills at nothing doesn’t work by the way.”
“I had no idea any of that even existed.”
“It is not something that is particularly relevant to anyone but staff-class users. And I imagine it would not matter to Kanade at all because of how she receives her skills.” Misery made a good point. “In the end, Magic Soul ensures that staff users are either mediocre and have a large variety of skills, or are highly specialized and extremely powerful in their specialization.”
“I guess with staff-class having access to all those spells in theory, they had to limit it somehow without making a white staff, black staff, red staff, green staff and so on sub-categories.” Sally looked at Fria. “Wait-”
“I worked pretty hard after CCC to change my suitability for debuffs. I haven’t lost access to my attack spells yet because they only need E rank and I can power them up with Multi, but I had to learn a ton of basic debuffs to get access to the stronger ones.”
“Glad they didn’t pull this suitability thing with weapon classes. Maple would be a totally different player.”
“It sounds like a huge bother, but it’s really not that bad.” Fria looked back at the bar again. “But that is why other classes can’t really learn bigger spells. You have some basic magic in wind, water and fire, but you can’t go to intermediary level, right?”
“That did give me some trouble a while back because I was falling behind Maple. But Hatred Return, World of Darkness and my new passive skills have basically made me stop caring so much about magic.”
“Even though we are here at a luxurious summer resort, we are still talking about this.” Misery felt a bit guilty. “While Mii, Maple and Rion are definitely enjoying themselves.”
“I’m enjoying myself.” Fria didn’t make that a secret. “I don’t get to talk shop with many people and just because our partners are the type to goof off, we don’t have to do that too.”
“She’s right.” Sally did take a look at her girlfriend. “I love Maple, but I’m enjoying having friends that are not like her at all.”
“Mii is wonderful when we talk about how to become even stronger, but it is refreshing to have other people to talk to that same way.”
“Because Mii is totally become Maple Two.” Sally smirked. “I can already hear the waterworks when Maple or Mii are going to get sick and they can’t see each other.”
“If Mii gets sick, I shall nurse her back to health quickly~” Misery smiled for a little bit and then sighed. “At least I would like to, but alas, we are not living together yet.”
“Listening to you two makes me more confident in being serious about Rion.”
“You two look very right together.” Misery had a huge smile.
“Thanks?”
“Think about it like this… Mii and Misery, you can barely imagine one without the other, right?” Sally pointed at the blonde.
“Yeah.”
“Or Maple and Sally.” Misery added.
“Hmm, you and Mii are actually a level above that. Maple is more of a force of nature on her own.” Fria saw things a little different, having a more outside perspective.
“I prefer it that way. There’s already a ton of rumors about Mii and Misery as-is, I don’t need that kind of attention.” Sally shrugged. “Not that that’s bad-”
“Too late. There’s so much speculation on the forums about you two. Mii and Misery too.” Fria knew, of course.
“Urgh.”
“Take it as a compliment, Sally!” Misery was very enthusiastic about it. “To think that so many people want to see me and Mii together~” She swooned a bit.
I won’t tell her that Maple gets shipped with Mii almost as much as she does. And Mii is the top for both of you. I’m kinda glad I’m not popular at all for that sort of thing. I barely see any gossip about me on the forums, but there’s tons about Rion… not the good kind, either. “Misery is right, you know?”
“I just don’t like gossip about me like that. Maple wants to go public about us, but I also don’t want to deal with… whatever gossip chasers it would attract if it got out that Maple has a girlfriend.”
“Mii and I have not talked about that yet… but I am fine with it only being known to our friends.”
“Are we like, the shadow trio?” Fria saw the confused look on their faces. “Hiding in the shadows of our much more popular girlfriends.”
“Shadows are nice and comfortable.” Sally chuckled.
“Mii’s shadow belongs to just me, so I am fine there~”
“Come to think of it, all three of us are also taller than our girlfriends.”
“And yet I’m the only top~” Sally looked so smug about it, and then even more so when Fria grit her teeth in obvious annoyance.
“Oh, Mii and I switch who leads~”
“So we got a top, a switch and a bottom.”
“Excuse me for being the bottom!”
“I think you should embrace it.” Sally couldn’t stop smirking. “Orion is the type that probably makes your heart go bump the most when she leads. Maple leading sounds like a nice fantasy to me, but if I try to actually imagine it… it’s not all that great.”
“Grrr…” I hate that she’s right. Like I’d ever admit that though!
“I wonder who would be the top between the two of you~” Misery did not realize just what a monumental land mine that sentence was.
“Don’t even say that!” “Like I’d ever date her!” Sally and Fria almost growled at each other. “This smug fairy!” “That over-spec youkai fox!”
“From a relatively outside perspective-”
“Don’t say it!” They were on the same wavelength. I know what we look like!
“Oh my.” She covered her mouth with one hand.
While every other group was talking about wildly different things, Salaya, Yue and Ren had mostly tuned it all out, barring one namedrop for the tall beauty.
“Was it scary, being gone?” I can’t just… act like they’re the same as everyone else. In most ways, they are, but… I don’t want them to think I’m oblivious or pretending. I know what I’m getting into. And everyone has been so supportive about it, too… so I need to face them head on.
Yue tilted her head, then looked like she didn’t understand. Raising her arms, shrugging, she held out her palms next to her shoulders. Ren picked up where she stopped, tapping her wrist twice, then moving one finger over it clockwise before suddenly stopping. Yue then closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep before covering her eyes with both hands in a cross. And finally, Ren tapped her wrist again, resuming the little rotation with her finger, and Yue woke up.
So it was like being asleep for them. “Do you… do you feel any different?”
They both nodded and Salaya felt a knot in her stomach. One that did not last long. Yue overly dramatically gestured kissing her own fingers, then blowing that kiss at Salaya. And Ren crossed her arms, puckering her lips and shaking her head. Yue slumped over, as if she’d been shot. And together, they pointed at Salaya, crossed their arms and then covered their own faces.
“G-Geez!” You’re down because we can’t kiss right now?? Don’t scare me like that! “Other… other than that?”
Yue held up one arm, flexing with a fist, then grabbing her perfectly normal looking biceps with the other hand and showing a huge grin. Yue on the other hand stretched out both legs as far as she could, holding onto the wooden plank she sat on with both hands and kicking her legs while looking mighty proud.
They both leaned against Salaya, tilting their heads away so they could look up at her face better before typing with one hand.
Knowing you waited for us made us not afraid.
Blushing like she often did, full on tomato, Salaya looked straight down. Pointing at them with crossed arms, she used both hands to form a heart, then bounced her arms once without letting it disrupt the shape. Next she made a left fist, enclosed in her right palm. Then a right fist, enclosed in her left palm. And finally, both fists together, right above her chest.
Leaning forward, Yue and Ren exchanged a look and blushed, something Salaya had never seen before. Pulling on Salaya’s arms, they made her lean forward with them, and kissed her on the cheek.
Spending a moment working through that without melting, Salaya had still many more things to ask them. “How… how do you want to… when should we…” Aaaaaaah, I’m so bad at this! But I have no idea how… actually! Lifting her left arm, she used index and middle finger to gesture someone walking over to another place. Looking left and right, she repeated the same gesture with her other arm. And finally she tapped both wrists.
Yue and Ren responded quickly. Pointing at their eyes, they both held up both hands, closed them, then opened them again. And then, Yue held up four fingers while Ren held up seven.
They’ll see… 24 and 7… oh, they can see me anytime? Where did they even learn that expression? “Can you visit Artemis?”
Yue rolled dice that weren’t there, grimaced a bit as if she wasn’t sure, then did a reluctant okay sign with her hand. Ren pumped both arms, swung them back and forth as if she was marching, held one hand over her eyes as if she was looking in the distance and then spotted Salaya and repeated the marching arms movement.
They don’t know but think so and they’ll definitely come over looking for me. “We will definitely see each other when we go to Valorheim and… I’ll definitely come over before, for Kanade’s training!”
Yue showed a big smile and thumbs up. Then Ren did her finger twirling over the wrist again, faster and faster while continuously making kissing faces, much to Salaya’s embarrassment. And that was not all. Yue stuck her tongue out, half-closing her eyes. Ren one-upped her sister even, making a tremendously horny expression and grabby hands before gasping in awe and slowly raising her head as if she was looking at something huge.
“Geeeeez!” Salaya tried to shrink, and failed. “You two…”
Both of them did a hand picture frame – Yue started with her face and slowly going down, while Ren started with her legs, slowly going up. They both focused on just one side of her chest in the end. And as much as she tried, Salaya couldn’t hide them.
Pretending to hold something round in their hands the genji slowly pushed their hands against their own chests, alternating their shoulders lowering and heads tilting while making bedroom eyes at Salaya.
Blushing like there was truly no tomorrow, Salaya was taken out of her own personal hell when they completely stopped all of a sudden, putting their hands together in prayer before drawing in all of their fingers except the index – pointing at Salaya like that, then quickly turning their folded hands into a big heart. Yue dropped her left, Ren dropped her right, and together they formed a heart over Salaya’s legs. And their faces lit up like Akiba at night when Salaya used her hands to enclose the heart they formed.
“The two of you… look really nice.” She had seen their swimsuits before, but not actually seen them wear it. Makes sense, Kasumi probably had to slot the item for them… “And-” She stopped when they waved their hands. “What?”
Pointing at themselves with a big, who, we expression, then waving their hands again, they made finger guns and pointed at Salaya before showing a big grin and double okay signs with their hands.
And Salaya pouted. Pointing at both at the same time, she did a double thumbs up, then the same okay hand sign. And finally she put her hands together, then touched the combined fist between her collar bones.
Yue and Ren exchanged a look, scratched their cheeks. Repeating the last two motions, they then tilted their heads. They didn’t get it.
“I… I swear.” Salaya didn’t think of anything better at that moment.
Raising their hands to shoulder level, angled in V shape, both of them wiggled side to side, playing it up for Salaya and producing a bunch of nice little bounces for her. And then they stared intently at Salaya’s chest.
She just very slowly raised her arms and then abruptly crossed them. No!
Yue and Ren both pouted, then turned their heads away and looked slightly up. Hmphf! Their reaction did not last long. Glancing over at Salaya, they saw the miserable look on her face and immediately relented, leaning strongly against her from both sides, each of them grabbing one of her hands with both of theirs. Looking to the side, they kissed Salaya’s shoulders before closing their eyes and grinning ear to ear.
Although the three of them used very little words to communicate, there was a lot of meaning conveyed in everything else they did. Their faces, their movements, their gestures, it let them understand each other even without speaking.
Taking her hands back, Salaya’s expression turned more serious and she was a little shifty, uneasy. “I heard from Kasumi that-” She sputtered.
Without even letting Salaya finish, they both rapidly shook their heads, raised a hand above their head and drew a circle above their head. A halo. And then they touched their heart, followed by looking up with a perfectly serene expression, their eyes closed and their hands folded together.
“It wasn’t anything bad!” Salaya tried very hard not to laugh. Oh they’re so cute. “Maybe… maybe you will be able to talk in the future.” And she noticed the total lack of reaction. “You… don’t want to?”
Yue touched a finger to her lips, mouth closed, then looked up, smacked her lips a few times and then shrugged. Ren pointed at Salaya, then herself, then to her lips and Salaya’s lips, crossing her arms. Shrugging. Wiggling her arms next, she nodded at Yue. With a big grin, she touched both hands to her cheeks, smiled wide, before putting both of her hands on Salaya’s cheeks.
Ren interrupted, waving with one hand at Yue to stop. And she got Salaya to look. Making an erotic face, she opened her mouth a little bit and faked what would have certainly been a moaning sound. The mental imagine of that sound alone made Salaya blush.
Yue held out a palm, then slapped a loose fist in it, a classic. Tapping her throat three times, she put both hands together, diagonally next to her head, and made puppy eyes at Salaya.
It’s not my decision! And making erotic sounds at me is what convinced you?! You lewd… you lewd!! “I’ll… I’ll ask Kasumi. It’s up to her.”
Giving Salaya a thumbs up, they both approved with huge teeth showing smiles. And then they pointed at Salaya’s throat, then their own ears. Yue made a delightful expression, her eyes closed again, a soft smile, her head slightly raised to the sky; as if she was really enjoying a sound. Ren clawed softly at one of her cheeks, her eyes half-open, her mouth so as well, glancing up at Salaya.
Blushing furiously, it was almost becoming a habit for her, Salaya shut her eyes tightly – and then pushed both Yue and Ren on their backs, right into the water. It was just through a gap, an instinctive glance, that she saw their terrifyingly evil expressions. Her long, beautiful legs became her downfall – Yue and Ren grabbed them. A loud, two-stage splash later, everyone heard Salaya. “You twooooo!!”
But the day was not over just yet!
=== Social Skills 111 ===
