Oh.

I guess slowly but surely, aye.

I can't even remember how long I was out after destroying the food—not the stalls—in almost every shop in this beach. Apples, the food here is inexpensive!

But that is not to say that I actually went in and out of the shops I came to unscathed. There is one that forced me to take upon their challenge of eating a 1ft. long shawarma for free if I manage to eat it in 30 minutes. Honestly, it was sly, considering that they were wary of the logo printed on my shirt.

I however have mentioned that my stomach is entirely a different dimension, even if not in reality, so I can't really blame them for having a stomach equal to that of Shonen J*mp protagonists. Needless to say, I devoured the giant shawarma within the time limit but removing the zero and came back to pay for takeout after finishing up my excursion.

Hey, weren't I a generous man. But I wouldn't be doing that if I didn't enjoy it. Rather, I am so confused as to why my blood only rushes due to heat when I probably gained 2 or 3 kilos in one morning, with half of it perhaps consist of very rich meat.

I guess I wouldn't be needing lunch.

But in hindsight… I would have been in critical condition at this point if I didn't have this constitution.

And so, I came back with our popup Giotto's finally getting some customers. But that's not the point.

Five meters away from our shop, and I have already sensed and smelled a scheme coming from the inside. It was an absolutely pleasant aroma that can probably pull people in like magnets if they get caught inside the radius.

Surprise, surprise. I was seeing Rin and Jean hard at work.

"Buuuuuurrrrrrpppp…"

Can someone please check how many decibels my burp broke into?

"Ahhh, sorry. I had some carbonated drink earlier…

Anyway, I got the gist of what those two are doing so…

Aaaaalrighty, you two can rest for the time being since I've had more than lunch earlier. Let me take over~"

Just to be sure, I tapped my stomach with my palm several times to see if they are not suddenly going to make me throw up, and thankfully no signs.

I then let out a very deep breath from the kitchen after preparing all the things I need to do and asked all of the crew and the customers to cover their ears.

"GIOTTO'S WILL BE SERVING SURF 'N' TURF FOR A LIMITED TIME OF TWO HOURS…!!! YOU BETTER NOT MISS THIS~!!!

…

Phew… I wonder how many calories did that shout burn."

On that note, however, I have finally realized how much of a noob we are right now. This a beach, for crying out loud. I may be mostly an indoor person, but this place has no need for indolent people like me unless I am under the shade of a huge umbrella. Honestly, I have walked so long under the heat for at least two hours and the loud noises everywhere really made me want to swing my hand, calling the wind, and flying the stalls off and away.

That would cause a surge to the coast, so thankfully the tasty foods saved my patience from depleting.

Apples, another tangent!

What I am saying is that this beach becomes somewhat like a festival. The reason why we can't attract customers is because here we are unpopular- well, that's one reason, but it's because we don't stick out like a sore thumb here. We city or suburban people are too reserved in this place—we are out of place. Most of the shops here are rather pushy… unless they see the logo on my shirt. I swear that I heard them click their tongues. But they are good at persuasion and quickly at that.

In this place, we are not mere cooks. This is the beach, and people come here to have some good fun and relax away from the hustle and bustle, and the ever piling stress of the society. We shall not act as just some people who cook good food. We ought to be entertainers here.

This is going to be rare coming from me, but it may be best to disregard my Minimal Exposure for these two days we have of service. And that is why I gave my throat a stretch and let out what seems to be a rather outstanding shout, just like how the other stalls are.

When in Rome, do what the Romans do.

I really shouldn't have doubted this, but it indeed caught the attention of a lot of people. And so I shrugged, began to hop on tiptoes, and strike two pans at each other.

I made sure that I had a lot of ice and cold water beside me, because this won't be anything normal. But then Hiro smacked my back and started stretching beside me on the counter. It seems that he had caught on in what's about to come. I repeat, this wouldn't be anything normal, because we are immediately going at full throttle as if this is prime time in Giotto's South.

I said prime, pun intended this time, but we're actually just going to use select grade of beef for our steak, surprisingly. But we're trying to make pyrite here! Fool's gold! The only difference is that we are actually going to make wonders out of this lowest grade of meat as if it just went even further beyond and screamed for like one anime episode.

At least, my initiation of that rather barbaric act brought in cohesion. Not from the customers, but to our crew. Bit by bit, then briskly, we of Giotto's reached harmony inside the kitchen in the midst of this blistering heat.

And to our surprise, our unknown savior has come. We did not bother to ask for their names, but we really appreciate the Kyotoite couple that stopped by and spread word about our services in the beach. I forgot how apparent their accent is from the dialect. Okay, how come I wasn't influenced by their accent and are still speaking the standard dialect?

On a whim, Sis decided to open YouCube and the video we were featured on three years ago. We don't have any access to its analytics, but it seems that my face was the one that pulled the customers in, based on the recent comments we've seen.

Well, that's that, but there are also those.

It is already a given to us, and that we are fully aware that we won't be the same as when we are standing on concrete earth. Indeed, it wasn't all the same as our home base, and we understand it. Applying my stupid case, it's analogous to watching the local TV asking who the heck that celebrity is that all of Orion infants probably know and recognize. In a sense, it is very much the same.

That being said, we emptied our raw stock literally before the crowd died down.

Another thing is… I've realized that I have always been stuck in my own shell even without realizing it. My gut and Kuro really hate to say this, but sometimes I don't have a choice but to step out of my social comfort zone; no, not only me. We are so used to being a team inside closed walls, and just the same, we arrived at Hitoretsu with closed walls, and we were almost too late to kick a hole on them.

But I probably had it worse. Among us, I maybe the only one that needs a push the most. I am alone, yet I am not. I desired to change myself from the garbage human I was, but I think that won't ever get out of that. I might live this life being the garbage human I am. Being a Medical Child is the one thing that may be permanently engraved on me. I will most likely stay the same even when I grow older. Version 21 may have fixed a few bugs, but I don't think there will ever be a redesign on the structure of the program. I am, figuratively speaking, a program which entire code can't be rewritten from the ground up.

There are only incremental changes, but the body of it will stay the same. Just like how I was a kid and an adolescent, some things go then some comes in return. Obviously, there are things that I can't do anymore now that I am not at that age. When the time comes where we reach the age of adulthood, it's an entirely different world. But even so, I was thankful that I quickly adjusted, knowing how early I gave up the majority of my youth, but on the grand scheme of things, that's just barely scratching the surface.

I definitely wouldn't know if the future will give me more pain than I have ever experienced, which I fear the most, or will it give me a soft bed that I can lie down on after a day of dealing with the world. But if ever Rin hears this, she will definitely give me an hour of scolding. Honestly, she is not very optimistic, but she values the present more than I do.

Still, there is one future that I will absolutely do my utmost to happen.

I say all that encouraging and depressing stuff all at the same time, but even I surprised myself that I was able to fall asleep and sleep in at that.

▪ ▪ ▪

A brand new day, and brand new footprints on the sand.

But even if the sun is only being covered by adequate coverage of clouds on the saturating blue sky, the wind was chilly. Really, the breeze from the sea was cold. There are no signs of a storm or even a thunderstorm, but I guess this time the weather report on SNS is spot on today in Hitoretsu—cold and windy, yet still sunny, 26°C feels like 31°C.

At least, we are going to take a break from all the sweltering heat.

…

"Hello, heeeeello! What is up, mga kaibigan! It's me again, Kuya Monty, nagbabalik sa panibagong vlog!"

Oi, it's so early in the morning and I have already seen one guy making a noise holding an octopus tripod. I don't particularly understand what he is saying aside from his English, but this reminds me of NoFutsuu's chapter 25. That was the only passage that I understand.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Anyway, I am a little curious on what a vlogger does.

"So first of all, sorry dahil more than one week na 'kong 'di nakapag-upload. Medyo na-burnout ako these past few weeks at hindi ko lang talaga feel na mag-upload, so napa-out of town ako nung malaman ko tong Hitoretsu. Para siyang Boracay, pero nasa pinakataas siya ng bansa. Actually, nasa Orio ako ngayon!"

"So mixed English and Tagalog really is a thing, huh."

※ Only significant points will be translated.

A/N: I'm a little guilty of fillers.

"Pero heto, habang nasa hiatus ako ay naglibot-libot kami ng crew dito sa Orio. Di nga ko makapaniwala eh, yung pangalan ng capital city ng Orio ay Capital, akalain mo?

Pero ayun nga, last stop na namin tong Hitoretsu, tapos back to the grind na uli.

Though di ako makapaniwala. Itong Hitoretsu ay pinakataas o north ng Orio, pero ibang-iba siya sa Batanes. Yung Batanes medyo isolated pero siguro given naman yun since isang buong isla lang naman ang Orio.

Anyway! As always, food trip pa din hanap natin dito. Kahit naman nung nagpunta kami sa Capital puro kain lang din naman ginawa namin. Pero kung nagtatanong kayo kung nasaan si Boss Maven at si Ate Mimi, tulog pa sila, ang aga-aga pa dito.

(Anyway! As always, we're still in the hunt for food trip… Yadda yadda…)

Ayos nga, walang jetlag dito. Pareho sila ng time zone sa Pilipinas. Though di masyadong na-inherit yung culture ng kabilaan kahit magkapitbahay lang to. Pero dahil sobrang lapit nito sa Japan, parang nandoon ka na rin pag nagpunta ka dito eh. Kulang na lang kung yung mga tao magsalita ng Japanese eh.

(What's good is that we didn't experience jetlag as they have the same time zone as Philippines. Although, an exchange of culture isn't very apparent here and our country even though we are neighbors. But because this is so close to Japan, it already feels as if you went there. The only missing thing is if they suddenly speak Japanese.)"

Now that I think about it, just as we have similarities with Japan, we also have those with Philippines. I think one example of that are the western names, as the Spaniards also momentarily stayed in this country. And what's more surprising is that our currency, which are Lax and Peso are almost the same, thus being regarded as one currency.

But out of curiosity, I tried to search "Kuya Monty" as keywords in YouCube, and something showed up… with… three million subscribers…? But aside that astonishment, it seems that that person is quite a foodie one, and so I shall hook my bait if ever he stumbles upon us later.

Oh, I think I'm taking the words right out of his mouth.

"Sayang lang hindi kami nakapunta sa Cotona… cotton? Grabe, parang Bulacan lang ah! Anyway, meron kasing restaurant sa Cotona na gusto ko talagang mapuntahan, at iyon ay ang Giotto's.

(It sucks that we weren't able to go to Cotona… cotton? Woah, sounds like Bulacan! Anyway, there is actually a restaurant that we wanted to go to, which is called Giotto's.)"

I pulled a fist pump.

"Pero nabalitaan ko na bumibisita yata sila ngayon dito sa Hitoretsu, so worth it yung punta namin dito. Sana mahanap namin mamaya!

(But we caught wind of news that they are visiting Hitoretsu right now, so I guess our trip here is worth it. We just hope that we'll find them!)"

I really hope that I am not misunderstanding what that vlogger was saying as he sounds positive. It might even be that he is actually roasting us, but only Filipinos can probably tell. I really don't care a lot, as my stomach has started rumbling from the scarcity of breakfast.

…

"Say, do you know any vloggers here in Orio, Rin?"

"Huh… Not really? I watch the YouCuber that's in a sector near to us, though. Their camera gear is probably the same costs as your house."

"That's not too far off…

I guess it really is a thing in Philippines."

"I think that's because the whole country had to be quarantined last year which is why they went in number.

Wait, why are we talking about this?"

"I found one just earlier. If only I can see English subtitles from my eyes.

I think he's talking about Giotto's, though."

"Why are we always surrounded by YouCubers…"

"Well, because of Yuzuri-san's food designing we are now at Instanyan level too."

"Oh, right. Do you have any plans tomorrow?"

"I should be asking you that. You know that I'm basically free. Besides, I pretty much planned to tag along if you'll be with Sis and Hiro. So?"

"I'll get some souvenirs and take some pictures. Also, eat."

"Got it. I'll be on your hands."

~ ~ ~

Well, guess what. "Kuya Monty" actually came with his other pals. It doesn't seem like the others are holding a camera, so they're most likely personalities in one channel. But not like I really should care. It's seldom that this happens, but I don't really fuss on many contemporary things.

"So mga kaibigan, akalain niyo nandito talaga ang Giotto's sa Hitoretsu! Para sa mga hindi nakakaalam, itong restaurant na to ay-

(Would you look at that, Giotto's is actually here! So to those of you who do not know-)"

"Ito magandang comparison, Monts. (This one's a good analogy, Monts.)"

"Sige po, Ate Mimi. Anong say natin?

(Let's hear it.)"

"Yung Giotto's para siyang kape, 3-in-1.

(Giotto's is like a 3-in-1 instant coffee.)"

"Medyo corny ah, hahahaha. Anyway, tama naman si Ate Mimi. Para siyang combination ng cuisine nila, ng Italian, at Japanese. Ay, eto pala, ili-link ko sa description yung feature video nila.

So yung in-order namin di na kami nag-iba-iba pero madami-dami rin ang kinuha namin sa menu. Pero grabe mga kaibigan, ang mura nang mag pagkain nila! Saming tatlo kasya na yung 500 pesos. Sulit, mga kaibigan.

(So we didn't really order different things for each of us but we kind of ordered a lot. But their food is darn inexpensive! For us three, 500 pesos were already enough!)"

…

So as to not tire ourselves quickly, we did some rotation in our post, as I have said, we are working in an unusually fast pace. It just so happened that I am at waiter duties and served to the rather popular customers. I tried to get away quickly but…

"Teka, ikaw ba si Gin Sakato dun sa We Visit?!"

Certainly, I heard my name, but I was able to thankfully hide my distraught face from the currently rolling camera.

"H-Hi…

*C-Can you say that again…?" in English.

"Ay… *Sorry, I forgot that we're in a different country."

One more fact, both our countries have English as our second language.

A few handshakes later, and they gave their praises to our food and left after having a picture with some of our crew, including me.

But I am so embarrassed that I will probably be seen by a few million gesturing a V sign…

(!)

But then, a few minutes after that interaction, we heard, or at least, I clearly heard screams coming from the sea. And to no surprise, we saw a stampede going on with people desperately coming off the water while being regulated by the lifeguards on their megaphones.

Out of the blue, the sirens all around the shore began bellowing. But the sea security definitely deserves a commendation on this. Quickly, a drone ascended from the sand and a bird's eye view of what is happening began to appear in the monitors installed in every stall.

A shark has been found lurking near the shore.

…

Pretty much, the thing I do whenever we go to places I haven't gone to is study the surroundings even before coming to that place. The weather today was not as hot as the usual days and sooner, partial coverage of clouds kept the sun from slowly beaming over us. I have learned that sharks sometimes go on warmer and shallow waters, and that there is also the probability of them looking for food.

I will probably be struck by Akaji's death forever—knowing that it was a loss of an innocent life. I will never consider myself as a hero, but I just can't help but remember him at times like this. I may have promised that I will protect the ones I care about with all of my ability, but they are human, and the people here are human too.

I called out to Rin at the very back of our shop and I then silently sat on my knees, in seiza.

"Hahh… Please be safe okay? You know that you can't swim."

"I'm aware of that… But I always have my warm-up so I won't have cramps."

Oh, cheek.

"Say… shark fins are mostly imitation, right?"

"Please don't joke like that…!" I got kneed on my jaw.

"Ahahaha…"

I am too paranoid and cautious. At this point, you would have already expected that I have some kind of AMM with me, and you are not wrong. I may be unable to swim, but at least I float, and so is the AMM when its density is tinkered. And so I equipped a rash guard and a spandex for my lower extremities.

I may not say this much, or I don't really realize it, but I tend to make things fast.

"At this point, I should mostly be safe. I guess I'll be off."

For the last time, I checked on the monitor, and the current state of things is still on the emergency and not all of the people have been cleared.

"You better get back alive, sous chef! You have work to do and I still have your wedding to attend to!" Hiro shouted.

"Oh, come on…!!"

Without any more time to waste, I ran back on concrete to shoot myself to the water, as I would definitely create an explosion of sand if I didn't opt to.

Also, shoutout to Ken for teaching me a lot of breathing techniques. No, not with the breathing forms.

I then immediately found myself underwater as I appear and disappear while trying to bring the people off the water by pushing waves to the shore… along with a gust of wind to confuse the drone a little.

After checking the sea from any more stragglers, I then launched down to look for the big guy. I am pretty sure that it won't be able to gnaw through my suit, so I should be fine. No sikes.

But I was taken aback. Instead of me spotting the shark, I was the one that got spotted. And now he is circling towards me.

That may be the case, but I realized that I came down unplanned. It was really no time to be experimenting, but the only thing that came to mind was applying the concept of forcing the wind, or compressing it. If I am not able to do something at a distance, I would definitely be at a disadvantage.

Go big or go home. I at least know stuff in science. Molecules of water are more packed together than gases, so I thought that if I am able to compress water at one ridiculously fast movement, that would mean that I will also compress their molecules more. Actually, I do not know the concept of why it hurts when you suddenly hit the surface of the water, but it feels like solid for moment.

But in the end, I was still in a bit of a disadvantage. I am underwater, and it was rather difficult to make my brain process. But after mustering the concentration, the push of my palm to the water actually did something. Somehow, it stopped on its tracks, but it felt like it was not done yet… or is it…

"Ahh… was I glaring at it…?"

After that, its speed on its tracks decreased but is still coming near me.

"Oh, you're approaching me?

Sorry, I can only talk to cats."

Roughly fifteen meters in our distance, I put up my guard quickly, but it seemed like the shark… uhh, got scared…? I surveyed its behavior more as we circle around the water. When I tried to approach it, it backed off rather vigorously.

"Should this be fine…?"

I let it get near me and it circled around closer, but slower. I can't say that I'm not scared here…!

But it didn't do anything more. I then reached out my hand, and it accepted the feel on its skin. I am seriously touching a shark…

"I guess… I'm sorry for hitting you."

It then swam away while watching me wave at him.

"…"

"I'm running out of air, huh."

~ ~ ~

To think that I'd make it out alive.

So as to distract the people, I let out quite a huge explosion of water to facade my escape underwater and Stepped even before getting a breath.

"Imouto, does he need a CPR?"

"Can't you see that he is breathing?!"

▪ ▪ ▪

After that, I seriously forgot the remainder of the day apart from working until night. I probably landed on bed immediately and didn't really care much but feel the coldness of the hotel room.

Thus, our third morning, and I misunderstood our schedule. I thought that we were going to fly today but it turns out that we will have one last night here in Hitoretsu and we will board our plane tomorrow morning.

But the happenings from yesterday weren't really an excuse to cancel our plans for our excursion. But so early in the morning, and I've got spammed by messages from all sorts of friends even though I didn't appear on the news specifically.

"Uwaahh…!"

Not even five minutes of running, but Rin has already tripped on the sand. I really shouldn't be saying this but she fell down rather cutely.

"No wounds?"

"I'm surprisingly fine after that…"

"Then that's good. Can you still go?"

"Yeah… How do you even leave tracks that deep anyway?"

"I just try to catch the sand with my toes…? Anyway, it even put a strain on my legs, so be careful not to cramp your foot."

"'Kaaay."

"Did you have fun on this trip?"

"Mhm. But as always, there's never a time where you don't make me anxious."

"Sorry as always…"

"But I like this place. Even though it was so crowded, I had fun in Giotto's. As always, things are a challenge when I am with this team. But even if that's the case, I'm glad that I am applying what I have learned from CCI."

"Hahh… It's so fast. You'll be second year in college next month…"

"Oh, speaking of weddings…"

"W-What?!"

"Calm down, idiot! I'm talking about Ichika-san's wedding in July!"

"Oh… right. It's coming in closer, huh… That means we'll get to fly back to Ja-PAAAAAANNNNNNN…!!"

Splash.

Rin wasn't one to do pranks like these… but she seriously pushed me to the water.

"Oooowwwww… my eyes…"

"Hahaha, sorry, sorry~ You're going to take a shower anyway," and then she reached out her hand. "…! Ack…! Too late!!"

By the time she had realized it, I have already took her arm and pulled her to the water.

"Waaaahhhh…! My eyes also hurt…!"

Beach episodes are fun.

Umm… oshimai…?