April 2.

"Haaaaaahhh… It's already so humid this early in the morning… Let's buy some ice cream, Rin…"

"I don't want to spend a weekend sitting on a toilet, so no."

"Man… how come the temperature changes so much when the month changed… It sucks."

"Is it just me or do you say the same thing every year?"

"Oh, do I? I'm such a geezer."

"If you don't want to suddenly just die of the heat in the middle of the road then let's hurry up.

Actually, can you plant a tree over your grandfather?"

"Hmm… I'll ask the management later. But just imagine a having a cool shade, it would be nice."

"It sure is~♪

But seriously we should hurry up or we'll both end up melting to the soil."

"Aaaaalright, mom."

"I'm tired of commenting on that."

"I should try finding his haori somewhere in the house."

"Are you planning to wear it?"

"Hmmmm… I don't know… But it's a good reminder when I see it from time to time."

"Well, good luck with that."

▪ ▪ ▪

Present.

‹Nagi›

Seriously, when will this bruise heal?

I'm just fine enough that I can swim around the saltwater since I thankfully didn't get any wound from that huge jab on my face- If it was a right hook I totally would have not got up on the count of ten.

But you know what fathers right now say—their worst enemy in their youth was the fathers of their lovers. I however am glad that Uncle Junpei is one of the rare ones. While it's not really needed to have a vitality that can take a punch or two, it just naturally happened.

The only thing that I don't like is waking up from that dream when it was his fist was midway from colliding to my face. Anyhow, I wouldn't want to see it for the second time again since my cheek is throbbing in pain again.

…

I looked to my left only to see that the lady is still sleeping soundly on the other bed. I really tried to get up but it's not everyday that I get to use a blanket on a summer morning. Most of the time my mornings in this season will be very salty, but not today.

There is a difference between procrastination and laziness, but I'm on the latter this time. I wrapped my blanket back and reached out to my phone while trying not to make a sound.

"…"

"Gin really doesn't stop sending Yololive memes…"

Anyway, I think Shiro and I can agree that we are the type of people who screws away a plan on a trip and just do whatever we want. This is a vacation, and what you do in a vacation is rest, sleep, and demolish food.

I don't think everyone will agree to that but shrug emoji.

While it's given enough that Migis is a totally great place, we opted to make this trip a getaway and try to avoid any focus peaking or exposure control. But at least 10bit (the name of the YouCube channel) has pulled me ever so slightly away from filming, ironic as it may sound.

But you get the point. Me monkey, no film.

"…

What are you giggling about, Nagi…" in a surprisingly deep voice of the one that just woke up, Shiro asked.

"Memes."

"Is that how you always start a day…?"

"Not really. You?"

"I'm a normal and civilized human that washes my face first thing in the morning…

Yawn… Good morning."

"Yeah, morning."

When I said having no concrete plans for a trip and reluctantly coming out to the outside world, I should have said that with the preface of hypocrisy, because after an hour of drawing with an addition of sensible and senseless talks and a bit of an argument, we decided to go outside for a walk even in this heat.

It might have taken me a hundred chapters to realize but I may actually have greatly hyperbolized my beef with the summer heat, but I'm not totally incapacitated in this kind of circumstance, really. I'm not an ice cream.

I don't really know if people tend to do this, but we mutually decided to find whatever weird place we can find in this town, and I think that it was a good idea that we opted to walk. While you get to your destination or a famous spot through faster transportation, I realized that that can't give you the scope of what you can actually see midway. And as we were on the way on a certain museum, we indeed found some rather interesting things, and also stuff that made us ask ourselves "why has the police never taken care of this" and ran at full speed.

But we nonetheless arrived on a museum that most likely holds a lot of Migis's history. Most of the things really are relics of the past. This province is known to be one that does not have any volcanic systems and with no fault lines down under, but somehow there is a volcanic rock that is displayed in this exhibit. And then there's also the new fact that we just discovered wherein the first Land Artist of Orio actually came from Migis with a piece entitled "Pseudo-laziness" done in 1976.

Apparently, it was the place where we just sat yesterday. According to its background, the artist refused to use any kind of heavy equipment to put the rectangular prism in place, and alternatively united the people to push the slab towards the shore. In the picture, there is an evident trail of footsteps and from the footprints of the stone.

"Duuuhhh, it's just a piece of stone in the beach," that indeed is an opinion that can be heard from that. While it is true that in art sometimes the story is much brighter than the product itself, it is a difficult feat that this artist nailed. It's a geometrical piece of stone, nothing visually appealing about that, but it is still art for any speculated reasons. First, if this is caught by a drone footage, it would stick out like a sore thumb, and your attention is grabbed, and lastly, it is because of the story and documentation it took.

That would be something that will want me to go back to this place from time to time. In a sense, land art can be something ephemeral. You live the subsequent process to the nature hence possibly taking another form at some point. Perhaps it would weather or erode overtime, but it would still be Pseudo-laziness. I never really thought about it, but I suppose this is what can be called as progressive art.

You learn new things everyday.

"Uwaaaahhhh…!!! If only you didn't take your sweet time on the throne…! The match is about to start!"

Is what we heard from some teenagers running towards the beach.

I still somehow feel very weirded out on the fact that I'm already 20. So I'm not a teenager anymore, my word.

But anyway, a dead fish (without any plans) is still a dead fish that follows the river's flow. Thus we just followed back down to the sand and saw something heating up amidst this already hot day. Bleachers were set up, arms are high up, and the cheering crowd is in high spirits for an event that suddenly popped up.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Have you finished Haiky*u, Shiro?"

"Yeeeep. Set your bar a bit low, this isn't an anime that we're watching."

She said, which I obviously got the point. Anime tends to dramatize things especially in sports anime where anything can literally happen because it is fiction. And when watching it in real life, you only really has one perspective and you don't hear the inner thoughts of the players or audiences. That being said, I set the bar too low. I think these four on the sand court are pros.

I don't really know if this is an exhibition match or something but it seems like this is some kind of home and away game. By the looks of it, the two on our right are locals while the others are probably some towering Americans. No frills, they really are tall.

Sure, volleyball matches being watched on TV can be somewhat boring, but being ten meters or so from the court is another thing. You can see the game up close, and you're also aware that there is at least one time that you'll get hit in the face with a speeding ball.

But I'll probably burn my eyes first before even getting through the entirety of this game, so I went off and came back with two pairs of sports sunglasses. Well, they ran out of ordinary ones.

"You sure picked ones that wouldn't make us look like laughable thank goodness," she retorted.

"I was careful."

And one more thing is that you can observe so much things around when the ball isn't in play.

I was praising on the height of those foreigners, but dear me the local players' hands can probably grip my skull and break it with just little pressure. They're huge.

But certainly, I immediately saw key differences between this and an ordinary game on a proper court. I don't even need to be some guy who wears a tinfoil hat to tell that the sand is rather restrictive, which is probably why athletes or runners try running on sand as it is essentially really different from training on solid ground. It takes a lot more energy but it is an eventual stamina booster with commitment.

Which leads me to my curiosity… I wonder just what kind of mess would Gin make if he Stepped on the sand.

Anyway.

I can't stress enough just how good these players are, though. I was today years old when I learned just how much good balance and footing can get you. On the situations where I'm supposed to fall on myself like standing flat on your feet and leaning back the entire body, they are just digging the ball back up and returning to their footing.

How.

Another thing, it looks like the position would not really matter in this case, or at least that's what I can observe. There are only two people on the one side of the court, not six. The two of them has to serve, receive, set, and spike the ball because no other four is going to cover for them.

On that note, the Orion duo has some kind of quirk that makes you hold your breath on the moment of impact. Like I said, they have large hands. It feels like they are completely in control of the ball the moment they throw it, and then it makes an explosive sound when it makes full contact with the surface area of their hand. It is impressively loud, and something that would make the people silent until the ball hits the corner of the other side of the court.

Ace. So Oikawa actually exist in real life. Whistle sounded, scores flipped. Before I even know it the locals are already on their match point. Strangely enough, I was observing more than watching that I lost track of the game itself. Is it the heat getting to my head, I don't know.

Well, sometimes height does not matter. The match ended with a graceful back row kill. From my perspective, it felt like he was well separated from the horizon, enveloped entirely by the background of the clear sky with such a great form in the air.

Haiky*u's visual imagery really was insane.

~ ~ ~

The exhibition game may have ended, but somehow the players themselves are putting more tapes and nets around the sand, making it five areas to play. That said, I just up and jogged towards the sea and slid in to the water.

Also, both of us can actually swim, and I love floating around.

"Ah, yeah. Didn't we have plans of coming to the beach in high school?"

"Waves aren't picking up today, huh."

"Just so you know, my Physical Ed. in Imahe is volleyball until third year."

"Ahhhh, I just got it done on the first semester and scrammed."

"Aren't you listless."

"How come you're doing that for three years though?"

"Friends are pretty athletic. They said cameras will get lighter if you're at least fit.

You use heavier cameras, you know."

"I should've ran this spring…

But carrying cameras are like weightlifting also. You guys use tripods more. Our teacher always makes us film scenes with running, and it's a pain!

And then there's one time where they made us do storyboards on a furniture simulator."

"Whaaaat…

'Duhuhuhuh, I don't have pens and paper so I'll make my scenes on my home simulator and spend needless power on my GPU,'" I didn't know she can do a pretend voice.

"Ahahahahahahahaaaa… ungry."

"Let's have lunch?"

"Yeah."

~ ~ ~

I demand an explanation to myself as to why I am standing on a court right now, but I already know the answer to that, so quit being stupid, Nagi Kajima.

"Heeeeey, Nacchi! Wanna play a match?"

I almost forgot that Jean and Ai-san are also here.

"Well, this is just fun and games," I though too soon.

"Uhh, sure."

"Nice. How about we switch up the teams?"

"Huh. Do you know how to play though? Because I don't really."

"I just know how to play, but I'm no way at least a fine player."

"Haaaaai, I'm teaming up with Shiro."

I've never seen Shiro play the sport after graduating high school, so as much as possible I want to avoid getting decimated with a spike square to my face. You can't force a coward to suddenly be brave, thus here I am.

"Uhh, Nacchi, Shiro, I don't really mean to brag but," he started as he whispered, "Ai actually was a bit of an experienced player when she was in middle school. She was an ace player that brought her school until the quarterfinals of their interhigh regionals on her second and third year.

"Oh, I'm die, thank you forever," I unconsciously uttered.

"You call that not bragging, Jean?"

"W-Well… I was a bit proud of her…"

"Let's just get this done with…" I sighed. "Please carry this weak sauce, Shiro…"

"I got your back, weakling. Can you kill the ball?"

"Yeah, but it'll probably be received easily. I've never done this but I'll try doing feints."

"Let's try not to embarrass ourselves in front of an ace. I'm also not used to the sand."

"Alright…"

…

Okay, shoot. Ai-san can do a jump serve. One point for them already because the ball just bounced off my arms. So we'll be in agony unless we get a point, and I'll probably be targeted the most by her.

3-nil after and it felt like we're finally in control of the ball once it hit Shiro's arms. While I suck at most of the fundamentals, I have some things I learned that is my own quirk. I can see the ball well, but my body doesn't really translate to that. In this case, I opted to a safer choice of digging the ball to Shiro, not as a chance ball but for an attack. Coincidentally, it went on a free-fall without going to the other side of the court which goes to my favor. Basically, I can bring the ball back to speed and gather momentum on a trajectory that would make it look like a set, which was thankfully brought to the other side. 3-1.

"Ayy," then we exchanged high fives.

This time, Shiro went for an overhand serve which easily crossed and made a play for the other two. That said, it actually feels nice to receive a ball confidently when it's going towards you. Still, it is really hard to maneuver on inches with the unevenness of the sand.

"Haaaaai, on you!" Shiro shouted as she set, while I was lucky enough to finish the ball.

But man, did Ai-san just dive on the sand to get the ball up? I want to try the pancake only if I didn't suck! Sasuga ace desu. Beautiful set coming from Jean however, while the two of us positioned to take another spike of an open spiker for a block. Was it a bad idea, I actually thought so. If we don't get a one-touch or send the ball back then we're screwed.

4-1.

"Are we going by sets, Jean?"

"Let's just go with 20 points!"

Overhand service from Jean, and the ball went through with Shiro's receive while she immediately ran towards the net.

But I can't help it.

A ball coming from a dig is quite easy to see more than a set. I'm probably just an idiot but I sent the ball back with a bump without even trying to fake it. Would you look at that, we got a point.

"You serve, Shiro."

"I'm taller than Ai-san, okay?"

I didn't know what she means by that and she nevertheless walked to the line. But immediately, I realized what the two years of playing got her.

Hey, wasn't that quite a high leap?

Bam

It was so audible. The moment her hand came in contact with the ball, it felt as if it made an exploding sound. It may not be heard on Jean's side as much, but it was loud, alright.

On that note, Ai-san analyzed the way the ball will land and suddenly moved away her arms, only for it to land within the line.

"Ahhhh! I miscalculated…! My bad, Jin!"

"Do it again, Shiro?"

"That was a fluke, but let's try anyway."

Another jump serve, but it was received well this time. Seriously, Ai-san is an ace player!

"Coming up!"

I also have to give props to Jean for actually getting the ball to where Ai-san wants it to be at, which makes their play better with how coordinated they are. It was a nice swipe, but the other thing that I can do is to bring the ball up to reorganize. With that, Shiro brought it back up to see where I'll jump, and so I marked the ball quite well, less the fact that Jean has jumped a split second ahead of me and blocked the ball for another point.

"Net…!" the two girls however shouted.

"Eh? Huh? Who?"

"Jean moved a bit more forward. Do you agree, Ai-san?"

"I saw it too, senpai."

"Hahh… That's a point for you then."

"Woah, we actually tied. Alright! One more!" it seems like someone is getting psyched up. At least she is enjoying herself.

"Okay!"

~ ~ ~

20-13, we still lost.

"Loser has to treat the winners food!"

"Right, right, I heard you! Are tacos good?"

"Sure, sure! I want something meaty."

"Is there something you don't like, Ai-san?"

"I've gotten over my dislike of tomatoes!"

"Oya~ Good for you," and Shiro patted her head.

"Don't treat her like a child, silly. Let's head out."

"Shiro and Ringo sure like her, huh…"

"I don't really know what's up with those two…"

▪ ▪ ▪

Come the third and last day of this trip, and I realized that we have nothing to do apart from lazing around upon waking up and doing my usual things. But then it seems that Shiro has woken up before me an has washed her face but hasn't yet tied her hair.

"You want somewhere to go today, Shiro…? Mmmhh…"

"Not really. Let's just eat lunch on the seaside later and buy souvenirs before our flight."

"So we have nothing to do for the whole morning then…"

"Oh, we do, monsieur."

Suddenly, she went over her bags after making that confident remark and brought out some kind of a rather big plastic ring. That said, my eyes opened wide seeing that.

"Did you seriously bring that with you…?"

"Well, we have a TV in this room, so why not? Are you sore from the game yesterday?"

"I'll manage…

…

Let's do level 20."

"No way! I don't want to go home with sore legs."

"Oh, c'mon… You'll get to see me suffer like an idiot, you know."

"While I think that's funny to watch, I still don't want to."

"Ehhhh…"

"Maybe we should go fishing next."