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The sun shuddered out eager pangs of sunlight, dripping to the earth like cosmic flop sweat.
It splashed over the winding beach, sizzling at the soft, beige sands. A handful of people were scattered across the beach’s gentle mounds, kicking through the heaps and dunes, or sitting on blankets to protect from the heat. The rolling waves of the ocean caught the cool air above, throwing it towards the sands, bringing the sulfur-y scent of the waters with it.
Ken sat on his own blanket, feeling the breeze slap against his skin, as he stared very, very intently at the waves.
Right now, it was the only safe place to look. And so, he pretended to be enthralled by the fluttering of the water, picking at the small layout of snacks in front of him to excuse his silence. He bit into the gentle crunch of a seaweed chip, salt stinging at his tongue, listening and not listening while Jiji and Momo talked to each other on either side of him.
How had he not seen this coming? It should have been extremely obvious the second Jiji suggested a beach picnic, something Ken should have mentally prepared himself for beforehand instead of being blindsided. He crunched on another chip before he finished the previous one. He kept his eyes firmly forward. He saw hints of danger in his periphery.
Jiji sat to his left, body leaned back, propped up by his hands behind him. At the side of Ken’s vision, the only part of Jiji he could actually see, Jiji’s legs splayed forward, kicking up and down at the blanket. Carved in sharp, rigid lines, the muscles of his calves tensed each time he raised one up and squished when they plopped to the ground, toes flexing with each movement. At the very edge of visibility, Jiji’s thighs flexed along with his calves, thick and solid, and every time he raised one up the edge of his swim trunks revealed a sliver more skin before falling back down.
To Ken’s right, Momo, lounging all the way down and talking to Jiji around Ken’s back. A lot of similar problems in that direction. Her long, smooth legs extended out, crossed at the ankle, feet swaying to an unknown beat, painted toes glossy in the sun. The shining, silky skin of her legs sloped up in pleasant curves, her muscles not as thick but still defined, built up after running away from so many aliens and yōkai. Cut off by his head, he could just barely see where her skirted bikini bottoms followed the curve of her hip. Every so often the wind picked up the fabric of the skirt the slightest bit, ruffling it.
Momo slapped his arm, asking for some fruit chews. He handed them back blindly. Based on the various choking sounds he heard, she and Jiji took turns throwing them into each other’s mouths. He put another chip in his still full mouth.
Why was this so distracting? He was pretty sure he’d seen both of them in less clothing before. But, this was the first time, in this context. At a beach, while the three of them were… the thing they were. But still, he should be handling this better, not be so tempted to stare at them, memorize every detail. They deserved better than to have him leering at them. They certainly didn’t seem to have the same issue, with each other or with him.
Jiji’s face suddenly broke into his view.
“Hey Okarun, you alright? Been kinda quiet!”
Boyish features over a sharp jaw. Big, round eyes, brown flecked with gold, stared at Ken, expressive and thoughtful. His red hair sat across his forehead in that perfect planned messiness, scarlet in the sunlight. Ken’s gaze swooped over his handsome face, down the line of his jaw, scraping over the planes of his chest, his muscled pecs, his tight abs, rigid as he scrunched forward. Ken’s eyes immediately swooped back up, landing right between Jiji’s brows.
This was bad. He really needed to distract himself with something. He shoved a handful of chips into his mouth. “Jus’ eatin’…”
Momo sat up and poked in from his other side.
“You’ve been binging since we got here, gonna make yourself sick!”
Red-brown eyes, sparkling with hints of purple, over a laughing smile, lips glossy and pink. Her hair fell on either side of her face, framing it between pretty auburn curtains, a few bits here and there sticking out from the wind. His eyes followed another path, from eyes to her ears, down the earrings glinting green in the bright sun, down the slope of her neck, over the ridges of her collarbone, landing just above her frilled bikini top right on-
“THE BLOOP!”
Chips spewed from his mouth. Both of them flinched back to avoid the stream of spittle.
“Huh?” Jiji asked.
“The… bloop?” Momo questioned.
Ken wiped his mouth with his wrist. “In 1997 an ultra-low-frequency, high-amplitude underwater sound was detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration!” He adjusted his glasses, gaze back on the ocean. “In the Pacific Ocean, west of the southern tip of South America, a massive noise powerful enough to propagate thousands of miles came from an unknown source, with the sound profile resembling that of a living creature!”
He tucked his head in, building up the tension.
“But if it was a living creature, it would’ve been one more massive than anything any human has ever seen in the ocean!”
Jiji grabbed his arm. “Okarun, that’s so spooky!!”
Momo grabbed his other arm, shaking him slightly. “You sayin’ there’s real life sea monsters in the ocean??”
Thick muscles to the left, pleasing softness to his right. This was not helping.
“Er, w-well, modern theories attribute the noise to cryoseisms – ice quakes and ice calving,” he admitted. “But it’s basically impossible to prove for sure after the fact. A-and, there’s still so much we don’t know about the ocean. Stuff that seemed like fiction before has turned out to be real. Krakens used to be legendary creatures, and now we know them to be giant squids…”
“Oh, or maybe it’s not an animal at all!” Jiji said. “Maybe it’s like mermaids or somethin’! And they got a big ol’ city down in the ocean, making bloopy noises to communicate with us…”
“Um, maybe…”
“Or,” Momo leaned in, face right by Ken’s cheek, tone conspiratorial. “It could be somethin’ totally different. There’s all kinds of ocean yōkai that are pretty creepy, maybe it was one of those. There’s been tons of weird sightings in the ocean, humanoid shapes, but still flowing with tentacles.” She waggled her fingers spookily. “Some are harmless, like Ningen, that don’t do anything other than float. But then there’s the Umi bōzu, some as big as a mountain, that rise out of the water near passing ships, whipping up waves and storms, intent on sinking them entirely…”
Ken gulped. “They… pull them down, like krakens?”
“Sometimes. Other times… they demand a barrel from the crew, and use it to flood the ship, drowning the crew directly…”
“Oh,” Ken said. “That’s less scary, actually.”
“Says you!” Jiji said. “What if you don’t have any barrels? Then what?!”
“…Wouldn’t that be good?” Ken said. “Then they can’t drown you!”
“That’d just piss ‘em off,” Momo said, “And they’ll just pull the ship right under!”
“Right, because that’s the scary part, not the barrel thing!”
“Yeah well, just don’t find yourself out in the ocean without a bottomless barrel!” Momo said with a grin. “Only way to escape ‘em, trick them with something like that!”
Fickle as the ocean itself, Momo broke away from the conversation entirely, grabbing at the volleyball they brought. “Hey, let’s go pass this around a bit! I’m itching to get my body movin’!”
“Let’s do it!” Jiji said, and they both clambered up. They looked down at him.
“U-um, I’ll, join you guys in a second,” he said.
They both shrugged then cut through the sand a bit away, starting an easy volley back and forth.
He sighed.
Not for the first time, he felt a little out of his depth. Like a puzzle piece trying to fit into the wrong set. It was especially obvious now as Jiji and Momo played together, catching the occasionally wandering eye from the other beach patrons. His two partners were, frankly, perfect human specimens, beautiful and confident and bright, and that was obvious to just about everyone. What they could possibly see in an awkward nerd like him, he still wasn’t sure. He may have a bit more confidence, a bit more muscle, but he was a far cry from the heights they reached.
He took in a long, emptying breath. He really needed something to reset himself.
He got up, heading towards the water.
“Okarun, you gonna join us?” Momo shouted.
“M…Maybe! Just, gonna cool off in the water a bit first,” he said.
“Cool!” Jiji said. “Then you ‘n me can team up against Momo!”
“No way, Okarun’s gonna be on my team!”
“Nuh uh, I called dibs!”
“Well I call dibs times two!”
“That’s so childish!” Jiji said. “Dibs times infinity!”
Okay he had to go before their literal fighting over him caused him to combust on the spot.
He dunked himself into the salt-water, chill seeping into every nook and cranny, before he let himself float on its surface for a minute or two, staring up at the crystal clear sky. The calm waves slapped lightly at his sides, tilting him this way and that in a comforting slalom. The infinity beneath him pressed up as the one above him spread wide.
He may not understand what they saw in him, but he promised himself a long time ago he wouldn’t let that hold him back. To not let his insecurities keep him so closed off he didn’t go after the things he wanted. They were here together, and he should be enjoying himself with them, not sitting back on his heels, literally or figuratively.
He nodded to himself, and flipped upright, swimming back to shore.
They spotted him heading towards them just as he felt land under his feet beneath the waters. They waved to him, wide smiles on their faces, and he waved back; a signal that he was about to join in. Their already big smiles brightened that much further, making his heart sore. His feet moved that much faster through the sands.
And yet, he didn’t get any closer.
Like being on a treadmill, his footsteps didn’t move him forward, instead sliding the sand backwards. He kicked a few more times, a jog through the water, but he stayed in exactly the same spot in the water. Momo’s brow furrowed along with his.
He looked down at his waist to find a thick, pulsing tendril wrapped around his midsection, holding him tight.
He gave an exasperated sigh.
“Aw, man.”
With inconceivable force, the tentacle yanked him back, dragging him into the ocean waters.
*
And here Momo thought they were gonna have a nice, enjoyable day for once.
“OKARUN!”
Momo and Jiji screamed it simultaneously, both of them rushing to the edge of the waters. Just before Okarun disappeared, she caught sight of it, a wriggling appendage wrapped around his body, strong enough to pull him down. Lifeguards weren’t gonna help with that.
“Jiji, I’ll go after him!” she shouted. “You stay up here!”
He whined, clearly unhappy, but the minute he went into that much cold water he’d turn into Evil Eye, and it was a dice roll whether he made things better or worse, with five of the six sides being worse.
“Just, get ready to blast a chi wave at anything that comes out of the water with us!” she offered.
“Got it!”
She took in as big a breath as she could, wrapped a bubble of air around her head with her powers, then dove into the waters.
She shoulda known something like this would happen. She and her friends were the shiniest lightbulbs in a world full of moths, except that each of these moths was like the one that tried to kill Godzilla. They couldn’t go anywhere without something trying to hurt or kidnap at least one of them; they shoulda packed some harpoons along with their snacks. But she was really hopin’ to get a bit more leisure time with her two boys before anything big got in the way.
And she had been so close. This whole thing was so new, all of them still feelin’ things out, running face first into all the awkwardness involved. But she and Jiji could fall back on their chattier, more outgoing natures to push through it; Okarun tended to turtled up, hide in his shell, needing a bit of prompting to poke out.
But he was on his way towards them, on his own! Ready to join their game of volleyball, probably on her team, so the two of them could absolutely destroy Jiji together with their amazing teamwork. Or, maybe he’d join Jiji’s team, and she’d single handedly kick both their asses; that’d be pretty sexy too. It didn’t matter, just as long as they did it as a trio instead of a duo, something she was minutes away from experiencing.
Whatever the hell just got in the way of that was gonna friggin’ pay.
She couldn’t really do her slippery fish method of swimming on herself, but using her psychic hands like massive oars she was able to carve through the water quick enough; she could only hope whatever was pulling him down was either not too fast itself or not aiming to go super deep.
The bubble of air gave her just enough visibility to see Okarun as he was being pulled; now in his yōkai form, feet kicking uselessly against the water. A thick, deep-blue tentacle, nearly invisible in the water, wrapped securely around his waist, steadily pulling him backwards, slow enough that she seemed to be catching up. But all she could see was the tentacle, extending back behind him, disappearing into the darkness to whatever it was connected to.
She swam faster, pushing hard against the ocean with her powers, whipping teal energy behind her like a mermaid tail. Okarun finally noticed her, eyes twitching open and closed from the salt water, hands clutching at his chest as he quickly ran out of breath. She reached out for him, not because she was close enough to grab him but so that he knew she was coming for him. He reached out too, arm slowly going limp, choking out bubbles as the last of the air in his lungs was used up. He sunk deeper into the darkness below.
And then the darkness itself began to move.
A massive body shifted, as camouflaged as the tentacle. It was blurry in the water, hazy at the edges, but with the glow of her psychic powers she could just make out the shape. Human from the waist up, thick torso leading up to broad shoulders and long, spindly arms. On top, a smooth, featureless head, curved down towards them at the neck as if looking over them.
Its eyes opened, wide as her body, two yellow spotlights floating in the water. Another source of eerie brightness in the otherwise dark ocean.
It pulled Okarun in, towards the mass of tentacles that made up its lower body. He looked totally unconscious now, limbs limp in the water like a doll, the sight stabbing at her heart. She looked up furiously at the creature, who eyed her back suspiciously.
She used a bit of the air inside the bubble to shout.
“GIVE OKARUN BACK, YOU SHIT!”
The creature made a sound back.
Low and groaning, it shook through the waters, hit her like an earthquake. A sound she felt with her body more than her ears, buzzing at her insides, rattling her bones, making her dizzy. And from the vibrations going through her skull she picked up what it said, the word it chose to communicate.
“Barrel.”
Stupid. They weren’t even on a ship, what was the Umi bōzu gonna do with a barrel?!
She thought hard for her next step. It was too big to fight directly, especially in its home turf, and Okarun was already out of breath. She just needed a way to pacify it somehow, and it wasn’t exactly like she had access to a barrel of any kind.
Unless…
She took one last deep breath of the air protecting her, then let the bubble go.
She closed her eyes as the ocean water slapped against her face, then opened them back up, fury pointed at the Umi bōzu. She raised both her arms, gathering her psychic energy into two huge hands, then threw them towards the yōkai.
They stopped just in front, cupping them in a circle, making the best barrel shape she could.
The thing smiled with its eyes, slightly squished in delight. On its hands, large as her psychic ones, its fingers twiddled excitedly. She kicked herself closer to Okarun while it grabbed at her psychic barrel, tugging at it a few times. She hooked her physical arms around Okarun’s neck, tentacle pinched between their bodies.
Her psychic hands turned into fists, and she punched the stupid Umi bōzu in the face.
It reared back in shock, tentacle slipping away from Okarun in the process so forcefully that it tore his shirt right off. Immediately she retreated her telekinetic arms and went right into her slippery fish method, mounting herself on Okarun’s back and squeezing him upwards. Behind her, the Umi bōzu screamed, a noise even more resonant than the first one, shaking her insides so much it made her nauseous.
She couldn’t pick up the actual word it said. Kind of sounded like a really loud bloop, though.
They flew through the water on Okarun’s unfortunately limp body. She heard the thing behind them start to swim after them, but this time its size was a detriment, slow to get momentum going. Best it could do was whip at them with some of its tentacles, long enough to threaten their heels, but she dodged them all with a few careful manipulations of her hands, squeezing Okarun this way or that.
And then, they finally breached the surface, shooting out like a dolphin.
“JIJI!” she cried, as they sailed through the air.
The Umi bōzu crashed up from the waters behind them, sending out a tidal wave of water. Its blooping noise was even louder in the air, not hitting her body as hard but tearing at her eardrums. People screamed and ran away from whatever they thought was causing such violent waters, and in the midst of it all she saw Jiji charging up his hands.
She surrounded herself and Okarun with a bubble as they landed in the sands, cushioning the blow. The creature slapped down at them with two hands and a dozen tentacles. Jiji stepped forward.
“EVIL GUN!”
A massive blast of chi fired from his palms, hitting the Umi bōzu right in the eye.
It let out another bloop, loud and awful, but the force of the blast shoved it back into the waters and tore a piece of its face away, left its eye dripping, bleeding. It splashed into the ocean, sending out a few more frothing waves. With its remaining eye, it found hers, pinprick pupil beaming pure hatred at her.
She flipped it off.
And sensing a losing battle, it sank back into the ocean.
She took a moment to breath, be thankful for one problem solved, before moving onto the next one.
“Okarun!”
She flipped him over, his skin now gritty with sand, and immediately shoved a psychic hand through his chest to squish the water out of his lungs. Jiji collapsed next to them on his knees, tilting Okarun’s head, just in time for him to cough out water onto the ground next to him.
He took a few rasping breaths, an awful sound at its surface but a relieving one just the same, because it meant he was okay.
A full relieved sigh followed, one that Jiji shared with her. One of his hands found its way to her shoulder, fingers squeezing with affection and gratitude.
Okarun hacked a few more times, groaning. His bleary eyes found Jiji’s, then hers. He frowned.
“…Wanted to play volleyball with you guys…”
She smiled, bittersweet, and swept his hair away from his face, letting her fingers swing down and linger on his cheeks. “Gonna have to do it another time Okarun, sorry.”
By now a small crowd had gathered around them, confused at the weirdness they couldn’t see the source of, worried on behalf of Okarun. She had to awkwardly assure them he was okay, that they didn’t need to call a lifeguard or an ambulance, and she threw a look at Jiji to gather Okarun up. While he did that, she carefully packed up all their stuff, not even bothering to throw on her shirt or shorts.
She finished quickly enough, and Jiji came over with Okarun princess-carry style, one arm under his knees and the other supporting his back. Okarun himself could just barely weakly hold Jiji around his neck, head tucked over his shoulder, but was pretty out of it besides that, on the cusp of straight up passing out.
Together, they started the trek back to the inn they were staying at.
They walked in silence for a bit, nerves still a bit raw from the experience, but soon enough Jiji was back to his usual chatter, never one to be down for long. The water on Okarun’s body, a small enough amount Jiji was able to hold off on his transformation, slowly dried as they went, his dark-brown hair slowly turning curly. Their sandals flapped against the heels of their feet with each step. Okarun let out another far-off groan.
Still out of it, it seemed. His small body flopped against Jiji’s, slightly bouncing with every step. Jiji carried him easily, but it was evident in the flex of his muscles that they were working hard – biceps stiff, forearms tensed. Okarun’s arms still hung over Jiji’s shoulders, dangling behind him, fingers occasionally sliding against the hard ridges of Jiji’s back, making his skin twitch with gooseflesh.
…
Hang on.
She kept a close eye right on those fingers, staring intently. Watching them as they swayed and bobbed.
She spotted them clench, the slightest bit, rubbing across the skin in a way that couldn’t be attributed to Jiji’s walking.
That… that little shit! He was pulling an Aira, pretending to be out of it so he could sneakily feel Jiji up!
And Momo couldn’t just let that stand now, could she?
She smirked.
“Hey, Jiji?” she said, stepping up just behind him. “Okarun looks really out of it. We might have to go to a clinic or somethin’.”
“You think so?” Jiji said, worried. He turned his head to examine the back of Okarun’s.
She noticed a wrinkle form between Okarun’s brows.
“Possibly!” she said. “Maybe we can just drop him off, go back to the beach ourselves, keep havin’ fun.”
The wrinkle deepened, nose turning up in offense.
“I dunno about that…” Jiji said.
“Well, lemme check on him to make sure,” she said. “You can keep walking!”
She pressed her hand up to Okarun’s forehead, pushing away the hair. She tugged up one of his eyelids with her thumb, forcing him to look at her. She gave him a knowing look.
He dropped the act; at least with his face. He opened both eyes, glaring at her.
“Hmmm,” she said, making a production of the sound, like she was deeply examining him. She waggled her eyebrows, hoping to silently communicate one specific thought to Okarun; gimme something, or I’m tellin Jiji you’re fakin’.
He continued to glower at her, but knew he’d been busted. He pursed his lips, nodded with his eyes. What do you want?, the gesture said.
She puckered her lips and pointed at them with two index fingers.
A roll of his eyes, ending with a look off to the side. It said a number of things. Of course you would ask that, and maybe, why do you even NEED to ask that.
He closed his eyes again, lips pressing slightly forward.
With a bubble of psychic energy under her feet, she pushed herself up high enough to reach Okarun’s head over Jiji’s shoulder, lips grazing against his in a small, fleeting kiss.
“No worries, he’s fine!” she said as she landed back down.
“Whoa watch it!” Jiji responded, readjusting his grip. “You’re gonna make me drop him!”
“Just keep a better hold on him!” Momo said. “Looks like he’s gonna fall any second!”
“Okay, geez!” Jiji readjusted once again, arm curling harder around Okarun’s back, pressing Okarun’s bare chest tighter into his, bodies squishing. She watched the redness form in Okarun’s cheeks, then drip down his neck onto his shoulders. Mission successful.
She gave Okarun two thumbs up. Okarun returned the gesture.
“Why’s it feel like Okarun just gave two thumbs up against my back?”
“Must be imagining things!”
*