Prevent The Swimsuit (Part 1)

“Wakuwaku”—an events-based student club at Joto University.

This club holds a signature grand event during every season of the year: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Right now, under the formal banner of their “Summer Training Camp,” the members had traveled out to Kujukuri Beach in Chiba Prefecture.

While the designated gathering time for the entire club was set for midday, a quartet of guys had congregated in the shadow of a beach shack over an hour early.

“Agent I. Did our intended asset capitulate?”

A tall guy wearing glasses addressed a sturdily built guy called “Agent I.” Despite his rugged physique, he was wearing a t-shirt featuring a cute magical girl character.

“Negative, Agent N. The approach failed. The asset refused to listen to a single word I said.”

The tall guy with glasses was “Agent N.” Hearing the report, his voice sank into a low, grim mutter. “That is problematic. What say you, Agent Y, Agent Monsieur?”

A narrow-eyed guy standing right beside them, “Agent Y,” let out a low groan of his own. “He is the absolute favorite of Primary Target. Executing the operation without his active cooperation will be exceptionally difficult.”

“Agent Y, Primary Target is our highest-priority objective. Failing to capture that data reduces the entire purpose of our strategic plan by half!”

A slightly chubby, shorter guy called “Agent Monsieur” growled out his assessment before snapping his head back toward the guy called Agent I.

“Furthermore, Ishida—no, Agent I. The asset could easily shift from a passive failure into an active operational hazard. If he leaks our strategic plan to the targets…”

“Sato—no, Agent Monsieur. You don’t need to fret about that. Yuu—I mean, the asset—isn’t the type of guy who would ever betray us. I’ve been tight with him since middle school.”

“Agent I. Just because he’s your best friend doesn’t mean we can afford to leave ourselves wide open, you know,” “Agent N,” whose real name was Nishihama, chimed in with a sharp warning.

“I comprehend that, Nishihama—no, Agent N. I am fully conscious of the supreme importance of this operation.” Ishida spoke firmly, trying to set Nishihama’s mind at ease.

“Very well… Yamauchi—no, Agent Y. What are your calculations on this?” Nishihama turned to query the narrow-eyed guy next.

“It is by no means an exaggeration to declare that this operation is the single most vital traditional event for our club. Even if Isshiki turns his blade against us as an enemy, we must ensure this mission concludes in absolute success!”

Faced with Yamauchi’s fierce resolve, Ishida, Nishihama, Yamauchi, and Sato all offered a solemn, unified nod.

…Good grief… scheming up such utterly pathetic nonsense…

Yuu Isshiki muttered to himself as he stepped out onto the sandy beach, which was baking under the midsummer sun.

Last night—the evening right before the training camp—he had received a sudden phone call from Ishida.

“Yuu, I beg of you!”

In stark contrast to his usual lazy, slow manner of speaking, Ishida’s tone carried an intense, breathless panic that caught Yuu entirely off guard.

“What’s wrong? Did a disaster happen?”

“An emergency threatening the absolute survival of our club has arisen!”

“Alright, spit it out.”

“Fulfilling this request might inflict a significant amount of psychological pain upon you, Yuu. Even so, you are the only one I can turn to!”

Inflict psychological pain? Yuu tilted his head in bewilderment. However, for his best friend Ishida to go this far, it had to be a remarkably serious matter.

“I can endure a minor hurdle. Regardless, just tell me the details.”

“Take a snapshot of Touko-senpai in her swimsuit!”

Click. Yuu promptly cut the call without uttering a single syllable.

His phone instantly began buzzing again. Yuu silently punched the “Decline” button. After a quiet battle of wills spanning three consecutive rejections, Yuu finally relented and accepted the call on the fourth attempt.

“Don’t just hang up on me instantly, you bastard!!!”

“Of course I’m going to hang up! You were using such an uncharacteristically serious tone that I thought a real disaster occurred, only for you to demand, ‘Take a snapshot of Touko-senpai in her swimsuit.’ How on earth does that threaten the ‘survival of the club’?” Yuu fired back, sounding thoroughly exasperated.

“Don’t look down on it. This is a sacred club tradition, a sublime mission entrusted strictly to the second-year guys. Surely you comprehend the concept of ‘Swimsuit Hyakunin Isshu’?”

“Yeah, that’s the game where you guys take underwater photos of the girls in their swimsuits and try to guess who is who, right?”

…Yes. This was the male-only traditional event passed down through generations of club members: the “Swimsuit Hyakunin Isshu.”

Normally, one would think taking snapshots of the girls on the beach would be perfectly sufficient, but someone in the past had explicitly decreed: “A woman’s body viewed from underwater is extraordinarily erotic!” Driven by that logic, the guys began surreptitiously carrying underwater cameras into the ocean to snap photos of the girls’ swimwear. Because the photos were captured entirely beneath the surface, the frame cut off strictly below the neck. Then, late at night, the guys would gather in their room to study the underwater photographs and guess the identities of the girls. Hence the name: Swimsuit Hyakunin Isshu!

Yuu had witnessed the upperclassmen indulging in the game as a side dish for their drinks last year, and to be perfectly honest, he found it entirely pathetic. Furthermore, he absolutely loathed the idea of exposing an underwater swimsuit photograph of his adored Touko-san—featuring strictly her body—to the eyes of other guys…

“Exactly! And that’s precisely why we need you to secure an underwater snapshot of Touko-senpai, Yuu!”

“There is absolutely no way I am cooperating with that stunt. In the first place, how on earth is surreptitiously snapping swimsuit photos considered ‘sublime’?”

“Yuu, can your mind truly not grasp the sublime nature of this art?!” Ishida bellowed through the phone.

“A girl clad in a bikini, floating ethereally and bewitchingly within the pale blue twilight of the water! And the sheer excitement when a magnificent silhouette, completely hidden beneath her daily clothes, turns out to belong to a girl you never would have predicted! This has transcended mere photography; it is pure art! It operates on the exact same plane as the Venus de Milo or the painting The Birth of Venus!”

“Even if a female nude qualifies as art, I can sense nothing but raw, base desires radiating from you right now. In the first place, why are you demanding this from me?”

“Touko-senpai’s defenses are an absolute iron fortress! Up until now, no one has ever successfully managed to capture an underwater snapshot of her. For starters, she constantly wears a massive rash guard over her swimsuit anyway.”

Yuu was well aware of that detail. Last year, she had worn a loose, hoodie-style rash guard that draped all the way down to her thighs, completely obscuring the contours of her body.

“But we figured that if you were the one to ask, Yuu, Touko-senpai might actually unzip her rash guard before entering the ocean. That’s why, representing the desires of every guy in the club, I resolved to beg you…”

Yuu didn’t bother listening to the rest of Ishida’s monologue. “Right, goodnight.” With that, he cut the call, brooking absolutely no further argument.

…But knowing those bastards, they definitely haven’t thrown in the towel yet.

Muttering the thought to himself, Yuu scanned his surroundings. Ishida certainly wasn’t the only one plotting this stunt. Multiple guys—and quite possibly the entire contingent of second- and third-year boys—were likely in on the conspiracy.

…There is absolutely no way I am letting them capture an underwater swimsuit photo of Touko-senpai!…

With that fierce resolve anchored in his chest, Yuu kept a sharp, vigilant eye on his surroundings.

“What is the matter, Isshiki-kun? You look remarkably intense.”

Hearing his name, he spun around to find Touko Sakura-jima standing right behind him. She was accompanied by her best friend, Kazumi, as well as the core group of second-year girls: Mina, Manami, Ayaka, and Yuri.

“Ah, no… I was just thinking that Kujukuri Beach truly is incredibly vast. The waves look a bit high too, so I was wondering if everyone would be safe,” Yuu stammered, frantically trying to scramble for a convenient cover story.

No matter how aggressively opposed he was to the Swimsuit Hyakunin Isshu, etiquette dictated that he couldn’t just openly sell out his peers either.

And yet… Yuu’s gaze was unconsciously drawn straight toward Touko-senpai’s chest. Although she was wearing a hoodie-style rash guard, the ample swelling of her rich breasts was far too magnificent to be hidden by a mere layer of fabric. While he was well aware that Touko-senpai possessed a large bust under her daily clothes, seeing her in swimwear made the contour lines starkly, beautifully clear through the thin material.

“Where on earth did the rest of the guys run off to?” Kazumi asked. She was currently serving as the club president.

“W-Who knows? I wonder where they wandered off to,” Yuu replied, desperately trying to mask his internal shaking.

In the shadow of the beach shack, the four guys leaned their heads close together.

“Do you think Isshiki is going to play the nice guy to the girls and openly snitch on our plan?”

“I don’t think Yuu would go so far as to snitch on us… but he will undoubtedly actively block any attempt to snap a photo of Touko-senpai.”

“The upperclassmen and alumni explicitly commanded us to secure a swimsuit snapshot of Touko-senpai this year, no matter the cost.”

“If we fail to capture those rocket breasts, what on earth are we even doing here? Snapping photos of the local crabs on the beach?”

Ishida looked across the faces of Nishihama, Yamauchi, and Sato.

“We have two waterproof cameras available. If the four of us close the distance simultaneously, they won’t be able to decipher who is physically holding the device. Two of us will act as decoys to tie down the female vanguard and Yuu’s field of vision, while the remaining two dive beneath the surface to secure the photographs. Clear?”

The three offered a sharp nod.

“Isshiki-kun, look out!”

Hearing the sudden shout, Yuu frantically scrambled to chase down the incoming beach volleyball. However, the ball splashed cleanly into the water ahead of him.

Currently, Yuu was splitting his time playing ball games in the water alongside the six girls. However, his eyes were locked in a vigilant scan, watching for any sign of the photography contingent.

“Spacey again, honestly.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’ve been acting remarkably bizarre for a while now, Isshiki-kun. It looks precisely like you’re constantly staring away from where we’re hanging out.”

“E-Eh… that’s not true at all. Ah—I was just making sure we don’t drift too far away from the shoreline, you see.”

While he was spouting his excuse, he caught sight of a black tube poking out between the crests of the waves. Someone was using a snorkel to surreptitiously approach their position from beneath the surface.

“I’m going to go check on something over there for a second.”

“Eh? Why?”

Leaving the questioning girls behind him, Yuu swam straight toward the approaching snorkel. Reaching out with both hands, he scooped up a heavy splash of seawater and poured it directly down the open tube.

“Pfft-cough!!!”

Having swallowed a horrific lungful of saltwater, Ishida broke the surface, coughing and hacking violently as he shot a resentful glare at Yuu.

“That was incredibly brutal, you bastard! Water went straight down my windpipe!”

“That’s exactly what you get for trying to sneak an underwater swimsuit photo of Touko-senpai!”

“We have no choice! The four of us are carrying the dreams, expectations, and late-night drinking fuel of every single guy in this club on our shoulders! To block our path like this, Yuu—today, you are the absolute villain!”

“Stop spouting such ridiculous nonsense. In the first place, if Kazumi-san catches wind of this stunt, you guys are looking at a total disaster.”

“Even if we have to risk that absolute danger, securing a swimsuit photo of Touko-senpai is entirely worth the gamble!”

“I refuse to let that happen!”

“Hmph. To think my own best friend would turn his blade against us as an enemy… how deeply tragic. Is this our destiny?”

“What on earth are you acting so high and mighty for over a pathetic attempt at surreptitious swimsuit photography?!”

Treading water in the ocean, Yuu and Ishida continued their thoroughly idiotic, petty squabble.