Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume6 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 5===

Exactly as implied by the name, the Slides Area was an extravagant zone where many different water slides were offered. For example, there were steep and precipitous slides, those with extremely complicated turns as well as slides with transparent tubes... For Fear who could not swim normally, these highly varied slides seemed to be especially to her liking. Sliding down the water slides repeatedly, she even invented new ways of having fun.

"Secret technique: screw descent! Wahahahahahaha!"

Spinning sideways rapidly while sliding down, Fear caused a violent splash as she entered the shallows. Her silver hair dripping wet, she instantly jumped up from the water.

"How's that? Did you see it, Haruaki!? Thanks to Satsuko and Kuroe's help, I achieved this labor-intensive move. Ordinary people cannot copy it... Ohoh~ I feel so dizzy now...!"

"Of course you'll be dizzy after spinning so much. Jeez."

Apparently overjoyed with the success of the newly created move, Kuroe and Satsuko were furiously waving their hands over here from their position on the platform where the slide entrances were concentrated. The intense spiral vector was apparently produced by spinning Fear's body sideways just before she slid down. A cooperative technique requiring excessive effort. Although Kaidou was standing behind them to watch, even she seemed to be gazing surprise.

"Hmm&mdash;Looks like we really created a horrifying technique. But there's a regrettable flaw in the move just now, right, Sacchi?"

"Yeah... Fear-san! No good~ The move name must be changed to 'Drill Descent' okay~!"

"Oh, that's right. Let's yell that name next time!"

The girls were laughing as they conversed from above and below the slide. Then Kuroe and Satsuko disappeared from view. Perhaps they had moved over to the entrance because they were about to slide down as well. Thinking "how troublesome~", Haruaki shrugged as he walked over to the shallows in the pool to rescue Fear who was still submerged in the water.

"Didn't I say not to play with moves that are too dangerous...? Hey, can you stand?"

"Nuhaha, but it's very fun! That feeling makes it totally worth it... Ooooh, I'm still dizzy."

"Woah!"

Just as Fear grabbed Haruaki's hand and tried to stand up, she spun due to dizziness and ended up falling into the pool again. Although Fear simply giggled nonstop, this caused Haruaki, who was originally holding her hand, to be flung away by the reaction force from the falling motion of Fear's heavy weight.

"Cough cough cough... Hey, Fear!"

Just as Haruaki supported himself with his arms and legs in the shallows and tried to lift his head&mdash;

"Oh, Haruaki, watch out."

"Eh? Waaaaaaah!"

Due to getting flung away by Fear, Haruaki had somehow ended up at the bottom of another water slide. By the time he regained his senses, a certain person had already slid down and happened to crash violently into him. Unexpectedly, this person also happened to be wearing an extremely skimpy swimsuit.

"...Mmm. Sorry."

The situation was really bad. How did he end up getting pushed down by the teacher? If Haruaki kept his head down, he would be forced to drink water. But if he lifted his head too high, he would end up caught between those humongous things. Yet Kaidou did not seem concerned and simply gazed at him as though saying "...Are you okay?", gazing down at Haruaki from close range. Come on, could you please hurry and move away, okay!?

"Hoohyah...! Wow, that was really scary and fun... How is it, Kaidou-sensei? It's surprisingly fun once you try it~ Hmm, eh?"

Next to slide down was Satsuko. She turned out to be surprisingly athletic and landed in the water with quite a splendid posture. Kaidou muttered as she spoke to the winking Satsuko:

"...Perhaps there is truth in your words, but I do not condone the act of pushing others suddenly."

"Oh~ Sorry... Uh&mdash;Umm, Satsuko was thinking if she didn't do that, you probably won't be willing to play the water slides with Satsuko..."

"O-On the other hand, could you please hurry and move out of the way, Kaidou-sensei?"

Haruaki could understand Satsuko's efforts in encouraging the teacher to have fun, but he still wished she could check to see whether there was someone down below first. Thinking that to himself, Haruaki finally freed himself from under the teacher. Then he casually dodged Kuroe who was yelling "Just as you're about to forget, the white angel descends&mdash;" and had timed her head-first journey down the slide to collide into him. In the end, Haruaki reached the swimming pool shore safely but it was not necessarily safe in fact. Because he found Kirika there with her legs in the water.

"You're back? I'm sure you must be elated to have such intimate contact with the teacher in the highly revealing swimsuit? I can't stand you, how absolutely ridiculous... A little longer and I would have gone over and strangled you."

"Th-That was an accident, I couldn't help it!"

Kirika went "Hmph" with displeasure, so angry that her legs moved as though she were kicking someone face, splashing the water in the shallows repeatedly. The splashed water produced ripples on the pool surface. Kirika's gaze turned a bit blank as she silently bowed her head and stared at those ripples.

Seeing that kind of gaze from her, Haruaki felt a certain notion rise up in his mind.

"Class Rep... You probably... haven't visited... this kind of place for quite a long time, right?"

"Hmm? Well, yeah. But let me state for the record, I do bathe every day. The act of soaking in water itself means nothing special to me."

Haruaki thought "that's probably not the same" to himself. Bathing should feel completely different from swimming with everyone or getting all wet while playing noisily with everyone.

Haruaki felt the notion stirring in his mind again. An idea he could not suppress. Hence, he surveyed his surroundings. Unsure how to read his actions, Kirika said:

"See, Fear climbed up again. Why don't you try the water slide again?"

"...You're right. In fact, I'm thinking of trying the special technique that Fear and the others were playing around with. Class Rep, if you're free right now, could you assist me?"

"I'm waiting here for Konoha and the others to return from the washroom... How troubling, I never thought you'd be even more childish than imagined. That said, I can understand why you're having so much fun playing."

Kirika reluctantly stood up. Haruaki went with her up the stairs to the entrance to the slides. Although he felt nervous about his greatest mission of the day, now that they were there, he could only go ahead with the operation.

"Then what should I do? Should I spin you like Fear-kun just now&mdash;"

"Class Rep, I'm sorry!"

"What!?"

Haruaki grabbed Kirika's shoulders from behind and crashed into her directly, pushing Kirika into one of the water slides. Due to her intense struggling reflexively, Haruaki ended up rushing into the slide together with her.

"H-Hey, Yachi! What are you... doing here... Wah!"

"It's dangerous if you move recklessly, Class Rep! Woah, this is so fast!"

At this moment, Haruaki recalled what Satsuko had said. Indeed, all it took was a single try and one would find it surprisingly fun. Accelerating from their combined weight, the two of them were also drenched by the flowing water in the slide. While trying his best not to think about Kirika's body that was sandwiched between his legs, Haruaki entrusted his entire body to gravity. A few seconds later&mdash;

Splash!

"Huff, ah... I hate you... Yachi! You, you, why...!?"

Kirika was blushing bright red, a sense of world-ending despair flashing in and out of her eyes while she crouched down in the pool, covering her body with her arms. Her soaking wet t-shirt clung tightly to her body while the pareo was out of position, causing the black object beneath to become vaguely visible.

"Relax, I should say that you're nowhere as conspicuous as you think. Besides, you're also wearing a t-shirt. People can't see it unless they stare long and hard at you. And even if they saw it, people would just think it's a black swimsuit."

"H-How could that be..."

"Also, there are few guests right now. I've also been observing from just now. There are absolutely no other students from our school. Also, given how luxurious these facilities are, even if the lifeguards saw it, they'll definitely keep it a secret."

Kirika stared intently at Haruaki but he smiled as though bouncing her gaze back and said:

"Besides, if anyone dares to stare long and hard at you, Class Rep, I'll head over to give him a good piece of my mind and ask if he's got a problem with that. I'll definitely do that."
[[image:C3 06-189.jpg|thumb]]

"Oh..."

Kirika's eyes wavered. Then her shoulders began to shake&mdash;

"Haha... Ahaha..."

Slowly, slowly, she loosened her arms that were wrapped around her body.

Then with a splash, she laid herself backwards onto the shallows of the swimming pool, floating with her arms and legs outstretched on the water surface.

Very likely, many years had passed since she last did this.

After a while&mdash;

"You're right, perhaps I'm worrying too much. Maybe I'm too self-conscious..."

"That's right, for some things, the more you try to hide, the more attention you end up attracting, right? If this were a crowded place, I wouldn't force you. But there's no one here and you're wearing a t-shirt with a pareo, so there's absolutely no problem."

"To be able to make me feel that it's alright&mdash;That's truly unbelievable. Only now can I feel that it's no big deal. If it's someone special, someone whose focused attention would be enough, tells me there's no need to be concerned anymore... Indeed, perhaps there isn't... anything that needs to be concerned about..."

Haruaki did not quite understand what Kirika was talking about as she floated in the shallows of the pool.

"Ahhh... I haven't done this for so long. It feels so comfortable, extremely comfortable..."

Her expression looked very liberated.

Also, she looked extremely happy.

Despite taking forceful measures, Haruaki concluded that it was fortunate that he had decided to do this. After all, this was a rare occasion with everyone visiting the pool to have fun. It would be quite a shame if she could not enjoy herself together with everyone, would it not?

"Ohoh, Kirika has entered the fray as well!? Hmm~ It's completely fine. However, I never expected you to use a two-person combination technique... Nothing less expected of you! I won't lose! Haruaki, I wanna use that move too. Let's combine! Come on over!"

"Hey, hold on a second! I just returned from the washroom and suddenly saw something I could not watch any further! Haruaki-kun, please play the water slide together with me next! Uh&mdash;Umm, it's my first time on a water slide today, so I'm scared and I'd like to have someone accompanying me. So please, you must combine with me!"

Fear was looking down from the entrance area to the slides while Konoha had just returned to the pool side. They both proposed at the same time and started glaring at each other.

"U-Umm... How about this? Why don't you two play the water slide with each other..."

For some reason Haruaki could not understand, this resulted in Fear and Konoha returning ice-cold glares at him.

Neither could he understand why Kirika was laughing to herself on the side, causing tiny ripples as her shoulders shook.



"Wel... come..."

"E-Excuse me..?"

She jumped over the counter and reached for the necks of the two female receptionists. This was followed by two bright flashes.

Then the only one remaining was her who was definitely not a customer.

Her cape fluttering, she went over the counter and invaded the staff room, doing the same thing to the handful of people inside. In preparation for what was coming up next, she must get rid of all irrelevant humans on this floor at least. Exiting the staff room, she next visited the male changing room, followed by the female changing room. Apart from a bit of commotion in the female changing room, she finished the job smoothly without issue.

With that, only the inside remained. Her first priority was the same as before: discreetly, thoroughly, but completely silently&mdash;Eliminate everyone in the way. Speaking of how this action should be named, obviously&mdash;

"...Spring cleaning. Okay, time to clean up. Then comes settling things..."

Looking a little pleased, she murmured to herself&mdash;

Fourteen Coonsberry headed off to the pool area for the sake of spring cleaning.

Then thinking "once this is done, I'll be heading to the imminent battlefield" to herself, she entered.