Prevent The Swimsuit (Part 2)

The shadow of an abandoned fishing boat at the far edge of the beach.

Once again, the quartet of men had assembled.

“Damn it! Does Isshiki seriously intend to get in our way until the bitter end?!” Nishihama spat in frustration.

“And to think the only data left to capture is Touko-senpai’s swimsuit photo…” Ishida added, looking utterly dejected.

“Touko-san puts her rash guard back on the absolute second she steps onto dry land. The windows of opportunity to secure an underwater swimsuit photo are incredibly narrow,” Nishihama reasoned.

“But that is precisely why she is our primary objective, our highest-priority target. If we fail to capture it, this entire operational plan collapses into absolute nothingness…” Sato muttered, his voice brimming with raw obsession.

“He’s a piece-of-garbage sellout who traded his soul just to curry favor with the girls!” Yamauchi snarled, practically vomiting the words out.

Hearing that, Ishida clenched his fists tightly.

“No, Yuu isn’t that kind of guy! He simply doesn’t want to expose Touko-senpai in her swimwear to the eyes of other men!”

“That is the absolute monopoly of wealth by the bourgeoisie! We, the exploited proletariat, must smash the concentration of wealth and ensure its proper redistribution! Therefore, the right to appreciate a beautiful woman’s stunning body must be distributed to every single one of us! This is an absolute revolution for the citizens of the world—a righteous battle!” Sato bellowed in a fury. Nishihama and Yamauchi nodded along with fierce intensity.

Staring at the three of them, Ishida tilted his head back toward the sky with an expression of pure agony.

“Yuu… I desperately don’t want to wage war against you… but I suppose this is our destiny…”

After a long, heavy silence, Sato looked across the faces of the three men, ready to make a final decision.

“If it has come to this, it is time for our absolute final operation. All four of us shall launch a simultaneous assault from all quadrants. Two of us will utilize the underwater cameras, and the remaining two will capture images using smartphones sealed in waterproof casings. We must be prepared to accept a minor degree of operational risk and lower image quality.”

After spending some time playing with the beach volleyball, the girls were now resting, holding onto floating mats and swim rings. The sight of the beautiful young women chatting happily together was the absolute picture of a delightful summer beach, but Yuu completely lacked the luxury to lose himself in the scenery. There was no telling when or from where those “underwater voyeurs” would make their sudden descent. Yuu kept his back turned toward the girls, keeping a sharp, hyper-vigilant eye on their surroundings.

“Isshiki-kun, what exactly have you been so preoccupied with for a while now?” Kazumi called out to him.

“Eh? Nothing. It’s not like I’m preoccupied with anything in particular…” Yuu stammered out his response, desperately trying to look natural.

Seeing him like that, Mina—who was also a year senior—voiced her invitation. “Come over here. Treading water all by yourself the entire time is going to wear you out, isn’t it?”

“N-No, I’m perfectly fine over here.”

Then, Manami chimed in. “But staying separated from everyone like that looks so incredibly lonely. Come over here and join the conversation.”

“She’s right. Besides, Isshiki-kun, your behavior has been remarkably bizarre for a while now. Instead of looking toward us, your eyes have been darting all over the surroundings.”

“Exactly. You’ve been keeping your distance this entire time. It looks precisely like you’re standing guard as a lookout.” Ayaka and Yuri, who were in the same academic year as Yuu, began speaking up as well.

“Ooh, wait, don’t tell me… are you trying to protect us from getting hit on by random guys?” Mina teased with a smirk.

“…”

While Yuu was agonizing over how on earth to respond, Mina laughed and pressed further. “Or could it be that the sight of us in our swimsuits is simply too dazzling for your eyes?”

“E-Eh, yeah, I suppose… Well, regardless, I’m perfectly fine. Please don’t worry about me.” Yuu replied, keeping a sharp scan on the water even as his face flushed a tiny bit red.

“Ah, look, he blushed! He definitely blushed!” Mina cheered, poking fun at him.

“Please stop teasing me… In the first place, there isn’t even a vacant spot for me to grab onto. The four of you are completely occupying the floating mat, and Touko-senpai and Kazumi-san are each holding onto a swim ring of their own.”

Hearing that, Touko lightly patted the surface of her swim ring a couple of times. “There’s plenty of buoyancy for two people to hold onto this one, you know. Why don’t you grab onto this side?”

“Oho~ Touko has spoken! Isshiki-kun, here is your golden opportunity to get a close-up view of Touko’s F-cups!” Mina teased relentlessly, causing Touko’s face to flush a brilliant crimson as well.

“W-What on earth are you spouting, Mina?! Good grief, if you say such bizarre things, it’s only going to make Isshiki-kun feel more…”

But at that exact fraction of a second, Yuu’s consciousness was completely captured by a starkly different sight. Four black tubes had just broken the surface of the water. Snorkels. They were closing in simultaneously, tracing a tight perimeter around Touko-senpai… precisely like an ambush of crocodiles closing in on their underwater prey.

(Those bastards… they’ve finally consolidated their forces to launch a concentrated assault on Touko-senpai alone!)

But if the four of them pressed the attack at the exact same time, blocking them all would be completely impossible.

(In that case, I’ll intercept them before they even reach her!)

Ignoring the bewildered stares of Touko and the others, Yuu kicked off, swimming furiously toward one of the snorkels. Closing the distance instantly, he reached out and poured a heavy splash of seawater straight down the open tube.

“Cough-pfft!”

Yamauchi, who was in the same second-year class, broke the surface, coughing violently as he gasped for air.

Without wasting a single split second, Yuu charged toward his next target. The moment he dumped water down the second snorkel, the culprit managed to clear the tube by exhaling a powerful burst of air. Anticipating this, Yuu immediately flooded the snorkel with water a second time while simultaneously clamping his hand tight over the open tip. The target thrashed around frantically beneath the surface for a short while before his breath completely ran out, and Sato broke the surface with a loud, desperate gasp.

(That leaves two. If I don’t hurry, they’ll reach Touko-senpai’s immediate vicinity.)

Yuu swam hard toward the snorkel that appeared closest to Touko. However, the moment the target noticed Yuu’s approach, he began swimming in a wide circle around Touko. His underwater speed was remarkably fast.

(This incredible swimming speed… it has to be Ishida.) Yuu was well aware that Ishida was an exceptionally proficient swimmer.

However, because Ishida chose to swim in a looping arc, he accidentally drifted straight into the path of the final intruder, Nishihama. The two were right on the verge of a full-blown underwater collision, forcing them to decelerate rapidly. Seizing the opening, Yuu lunged to seize Ishida’s snorkel. The exact instant he did, a hand suddenly clamped onto his ankle from below.

“!!!”

Yuu’s body was forcefully dragged beneath the surface. Nishihama had lunged to tie down his leg. Seizing the opening, Ishida attempted to pivot back toward Touko. But Yuu refused to let him escape. Reaching out with a burst of strength, he snagged Ishida’s snorkel, while simultaneously capturing Nishihama’s snorkel with his other hand. With a powerful wrench, he yanked both tubes backward, ripping the diving masks completely away from their faces. Deprived of their vision and access to air in an instant, Ishida and Nishihama dissolved into absolute panic beneath the water.

The next moment, Yuu, Ishida, and Nishihama broke the surface simultaneously.

“““Gasp-cough!”””

The second their faces cleared the water, all three broke into violent coughing fits from having swallowed a dangerous amount of seawater.

“Oh look, so Ishida-kun and the others were hanging out over there too. What sort of games are you boys splashing around for?” Mina’s carefree voice drifted over to their ears.

By the time evening arrived, Yuu was completely worn out, both physically and mentally. He had spent the latter half of the day in a desperate, hyper-intense battle, exhausting every ounce of his energy to shield Touko from the photography squadron, who kept circling and launching wave after wave of coordinated attacks like an ambush of sharks or crocodiles.

The girls, witnessing Yuu transition from playing games with them to standing rigid like a hyper-alert sentry scanning the water, looked rather nonplussed and eventually stopped calling out to him altogether. Realizing that protecting all six girls from surreptitious photography was an absolute logistical impossibility, Yuu had chosen to consolidate his defenses, focusing strictly on neutralizing any photographer who dared approach Touko.

The moment Ishida, Nishihama, Yamauchi, and Sato finally dragged themselves out of the ocean, Kazumi stood waiting directly in their path, her arms crossed in a stern posture.

“Hand them over!”

The four men exchanged a panicked glance.

“H-Hand what over, exactly?” Ishida stammered, forcing a thoroughly unconvincing, nervous chuckle.

Ignoring his front, Kazumi reached out and forcefully shoved her hand straight into the waistband of Ishida’s loose swim trunks.

“Squish-eek!”

While Ishida let out a thoroughly bizarre shriek of terror, Kazumi fished around inside his trunks and pulled an object cleanly out into view. It was a waterproof underwater camera.

“The rest of you are harboring them too, aren’t you? Hand them over this instant! Do it, or I will drag your swim trunks down right here on the beach!”

The remaining three exchanged a terrified look, and Sato reluctantly reached into his swimwear to produce a second underwater camera.

“Is that absolutely all of them?”

Faced with Kazumi’s piercing interrogation, Nishihama and Yamauchi finally relented, handing over their smartphones sealed in waterproof casings. Meanwhile, the girls clustered nearby began reviewing the captured data on the camera screens.

“What on earth is this?!”

“Are these… underwater snapshots of us?!”

“Why on earth would you sneak photos of a thing like that?!”

“Are you guys literal perverts?!”

“I knew their movements looked incredibly suspicious for a while now!”

Maintaining her razor-sharp glare, Kazumi turned around squarely to face Yuu. “Isshiki-kun. You were fully aware of this conspiracy, weren’t you?”

Yuu cast his eyes down toward the sand, completely speechless.

“Well? What say you?”

“…Yes.” Caught dead under her interrogation, Yuu had absolutely no choice but to confess.

“And the fact that you chose to keep it a secret from me means you are officially an accomplice to the crime!”

“Wait, but didn’t Isshiki-kun spend the entire time actively defending us from their stunts?” Touko interjected, trying to shield him.

Ignoring Touko’s defense, Kazumi kept her iron gaze locked onto Ishida and his cronies. “Now then, how exactly do you bastards intend to make amends for this? Perhaps tonight on the beach, we should force you to clamp fireworks between your butt cheeks and perform the ‘Firefly Dance’ for our amusement? And then we can snap photos of your performances and distribute them across the entire university campus?”

“Gack!”

“T-To force us into such an archaic, horrific penalty show…”

“That crosses the line into absolute bullying, Kazumi-san!”

Ignoring the frantic protests of the four terrified guys, Kazumi delivered her formal decree.

“Fine, I shall let you off the hook regarding the Firefly Dance. However, as your official punishment, you bastards are strictly barred from touching a single piece of meat during tonight’s barbecue—nothing but vegetables for you. Furthermore, the five of you shall handle every single ounce of the cleanup duty afterward! Do I hear any objections?!”

Ishida and his three cronies, plus Yuu Isshiki. The five of us let out a synchronized, heavy sigh of pure misery.

“Tonight, you can content yourselves with eating nothing but rabbit food to purge your disgusting desires!” Leaving them with those final words, Kazumi turned and walked away.

Once the rest of the group had scattered, Touko offered a small, subtle gesture, beckoning Yuu to come closer.

…Is Touko-senpai furious with me too?… Anxious thoughts looping in his mind, Yuu stepped closer, and Touko whispered her query into his ear.

“Isshiki-kun… were you secretly hoping to capture a swimsuit photo of me too?”

“No, absolutely not! I was doing everything in my power to ensure no one else could snap a photo of you, Touko-senpai!”

“Why did you go so far to protect me, even to the point of turning your blade against your best friend Ishida-kun?”

Yuu hesitated for a brief split second, his words caught in his throat.

“That’s because… I simply couldn’t bear the thought of letting other guys see you look like that, Touko-senpai…”

Touko fell entirely silent for a long moment. Eventually, she murmured, “Come with me,” and pulled Yuu gently along by the hand.

She guided Yuu out to a secluded space hidden completely behind the curve of a sand dune. Then, unzipping and shedding her rash guard, she bared the magnificent, flawless proportions of her stunning body before his eyes.

“If it’s just the two of us together, I don’t mind letting you take a photograph,” she smiled, stepping right alongside Yuu to orient the camera lens directly toward themselves.

“Think of this as a special, exclusive service meant strictly for your eyes, Isshiki-kun.” Touko whispered, turning a radiant, beautiful smile squarely toward him.