Bright sunlight shone on the azure surface of the sea. The sound of metal clashing continuously rang out on the beach. Fortunately this was a private beach, so no one would stupidly barge in without thinking.
Otherwise, they would have seen a battle taking place on the beach that modern people could not perform. Battles this intense could normally only be seen in movies.
Unabi and Nishi were playing in the shallow water. Little Black ran back and forth on the soft sand that was slightly hot on the butt. When she saw a hole in the sand she stopped, probed inside with her slender spider legs, and sensed something moving inside. Her wine-red eyes lit up. She used both hands and spider legs together to dig up the sand.
Cyan continuously dodged Asuka's attacks, occasionally using the large sword in her hand to knock aside the thrusting lance. Seizing the opening created when the lance was knocked upward, she pushed off with both feet, slid across the sand to appear in front of Asuka, struck her abdomen with the hilt of the sword, and swept her legs out from under her, knocking her to the ground.
"Master won again~!"
Seeing Asuka knocked down by Cyan once more, Nishi let out a cheer.
"Master is so amazing~!"
Unabi raised her hand in a convincing imitation and let out a cheer. Wearing a swimsuit, her front-heavy, rear-curvy hot figure was fully displayed. Her full breasts swayed with her movements and were so dazzling under the sunlight that Nishi wanted to cover her eyes.
Is there water injected in there? Why do they sway so much?!
Nishi felt an impulse to stab them with a knife to see whether what was inside was fat or water. In front of Unabi, everything about her identity as a woman was a complete defeat with no possibility of a comeback. At her age, she could not even comfort herself by saying she would grow bigger later.
She was very clear that this was how she would be for the rest of her life. It was impossible for them to get any bigger.
Unabi seemed to sense that Nishi was thinking dangerous thoughts and felt danger. She quietly moved away from her.
"Want to continue?"
Cyan looked at Asuka, who was painfully clutching her stomach, and stretched out a hand toward her.
"You never hold back!"
Asuka looked at the hand Cyan stretched out and a plan formed in her mind.
The moment she gripped Cyan's hand, Asuka performed a kip-up from the ground, clamped both legs around Cyan's head, flipped once in the air, and slammed Cyan onto the ground.
"Hahaha! I won!"
Asuka looked at Cyan lying on the ground, planted both hands on her hips, and laughed happily. She raised a hand and wiped the sweat from her face.
Even if it was through a sneak attack, she had still knocked Cyan down head-on!
"Mm. You won."
Seeing Asuka smile so happily, and since she did not care much about winning or losing to begin with, Cyan simply let her be.
Mainly, she had already won too many times. Losing once or twice did not matter.
"You're being way too perfunctory!"
Having finally won once, Asuka did not want Cyan to brush her off like this.
"You clearly only won through a sneak attack."
Erni, who was carrying an ice bucket over, had clearly seen what kind of methods Asuka used in order to win against Cyan. It was simply shameless. If she had known it worked, she would have used it too! Then she would not have been completely dominated so many times.
"Hehe~! I think you're just jealous that I beat Cyan."
Asuka did not care about Erni's words. Being able to beat Cyan once already made her very happy. After losing so many times, losing a little dignity once for the sake of a win was nothing. She took a bottle of juice from the ice bucket, opened it, and began drinking.
"Master, Master! Look what I caught!"
Little Black ran over to Cyan holding a frantically struggling crab and showed off her spoils of war.
"Hm?"
Cyan looked down at the crab Little Black was holding up. She thought Little Black wanted to give the crab to her to eat, so she bent down, swallowed the crab in one bite, and began chewing with crunching sounds.
Hm?!
Asuka and Erni noticed Cyan's action and froze for a moment.
Little Black's eyes widened. She watched Cyan's mouth making chewing sounds, sniffed, her little mouth turned down, and she began crying with a loud "waaah."
"That wasn't for Master to eat! That was… that was something I worked so hard to catch… waaah!"
Looking at Little Black crying so pitifully, Asuka covered her mouth with a hand and gave Cyan a disdainful glance, muttering quietly, "So terrible. She even ate the crab her pet caught."
Unabi and Nishi walked over. Looking at Little Black who would not stop crying, Nishi picked her up with heartache and wiped her tears with a finger.
"Ah! There there, don't cry anymore…"
Unabi looked at Cyan and asked, "Master, how did you make Little Black cry?"
"So it wasn't for me to eat…"
Facing everyone's accusatory gazes, Cyan felt a bit of embarrassment and deeply realized her mistake. She ran toward the sea, dove in with a splash, and at extreme speed turned into a black shadow and disappeared from everyone's sight.
"What is Cyan going to do?"
Erni looked at Cyan who had suddenly charged into the sea and felt a bit puzzled.
"She couldn't be going to catch crabs, right?"
"N-no way, right?"
Asuka looked at the calm surface of the sea. Although she did not quite dare to believe it, she had a feeling that Cyan really had gone to catch crabs.
In the sea more than ten meters deep, Cyan searched for traces of crabs. Although the structure of her body was no different from a human's, in terms of DNA her essence was not human. Not only did she feel no discomfort in the sea, she could even absorb oxygen from the seawater through her pores to breathe.
Too slow. No one will see me here, so…
[Ripple Dash!]
Golden lightning wrapped around her entire body. Cyan's swimming speed suddenly surged. She turned into a golden streak of light and disappeared into the sea, charging toward the depths of the ocean.
More than an hour later…
The group waiting under the beach umbrella for Cyan to return had grown a bit impatient. Catching a crab shouldn't take this long, right?
Little Black lowered her head and poked at her fingers, feeling a bit of regret for throwing such a willful tantrum. Right now she only wanted Cyan to come back quickly.
Unabi looked at the dejected Little Black and gently stroked her head.
"Look! Something's coming from the sea!"
Nishi, who had been staring at the surface of the sea, saw a shadow rapidly approaching from the distance.
Hearing Nishi's words, everyone looked over. They saw a blue, spiky creature that looked like a crab float up from the surface of the water. Cyan was carrying this large blue-shelled crab covered in spikes on top of her head. Looking just like an Abyssal Princess, she walked out of the seawater with a long octopus tentacle clenched in her mouth, eating as she walked as if she were eating pasta.
The crab on her head struggled with all its might, but the hand pressing down on it felt as heavy as a thousand jin and it was completely unable to break free.
"Whoa! An Abyssal Princess has appeared!"
Seeing Cyan walking out of the sea, Erni immediately thought of a game she had played before called Kantai Collection. The enemies of the ship girls in that game were Abyssal Princesses, and the scene of Cyan walking out while carrying a king crab with a strangely colored shell on her head looked extremely similar to an Abyssal Princess.
"Master, you're back!"
Little Black ran over excitedly when she saw Cyan return. When she saw the exaggeratedly large king crab on Cyan's head, she stopped in her tracks and took a step back. With her small build, in front of the giant king crab she was about the size of a snack.
Cyan placed the king crab on her head down onto the ground, stepped on it with one foot—the spikes on the king crab's shell were completely unable to injure her skin—and looked at Little Black. "This is an apology gift."
"King crabs live in seas 850 meters deep. In America, king crabs are only found in the southeastern waters of Alaska. Cyan, did you go all the way to Alaska?"
Asuka circled around the king crab once, touched its blue shell, and said, "But normal king crabs aren't this color, right? Could this one be a mutant?"
"Alaska? I don't know. I hadn't swam so happily in the sea for a long time, so I swam a bit longer. This guy tried to attack me, so I caught it and brought it back."
As Cyan spoke, she took off her wet outer clothes and pointed at the octopus missing one tentacle that was stuck to her back. "This guy is a trophy. It'll taste better after it's cooked."
Nishi grabbed the octopus by the head and yanked hard. With a popping sound, the octopus was pulled off. Cyan's snow-white back had been left slightly reddened by the suckers on the octopus tentacles.
King crabs live at 850 meters. How did Cyan breathe?
Asuka looked at Cyan with an investigative gaze. In a sea that deep, without an oxygen tank it was completely unimaginable.
Forget it. This might be her secret. Better not ask.
Asuka thought for a moment and dismissed the idea of asking this question. Everyone had their own secrets. Even as teammates, it was better not to pry too deeply into each other's secrets.
"Cyan, how did you breathe in the sea?!"
Erni walked over to Cyan and touched the slightly cool skin of her back.
"I can breathe in the sea."
Cyan said briefly. There was nothing worth hiding about this point. Breathing in the sea was like an instinct to her—an ability she had mastered without needing to deliberately learn it.
"This… even as a survivor, being able to breathe in the sea shouldn't be possible, right…"
Asuka muttered quietly and became even more suspicious that Cyan had come from the Yu-Gi-Oh world—that world famous for seafood hairstyles. Having one more character who could breathe in the sea was nothing strange.
"Cyan is really amazing after all…"
Hearing Cyan's words, Erni decided not to dig deeper into this question.
"What should we do with this big crab?"
Nishi looked at the crab under Cyan's foot that was scraping at the sand and trying to escape.
"This is the first time I've seen a king crab with a blue shell. Why don't we keep it? My treat—later we'll go get seafood. How about it?"
Erni looked at everyone and finally rested her gaze on Cyan. She felt that a king crab with a blue shell was very rare. Eating it would be a waste; better to raise it.
"Little Black, do you agree?"
Since the wealthy walking ATM Erni was the one paying, Cyan did not care. However, this king crab was something she had caught as an apology gift for Little Black, so naturally it needed her agreement. If she wanted to eat it, no matter how much money Erni spent she would not be able to save this king crab.
"Mm. Okay."
Little Black agreed to Erni's proposal. She carefully went around the king crab, climbed up Cyan's leg onto her body, hugged her cheeks, and rubbed against them.