Yuuki attempted to meditate. Before, her goal was to empty her mind completely, but now it was different. She wished to focus on her inner self, to try to know it better. It went better than expected, but her expectation was for it to fail miserably. Instead, it only failed moderately. Turns out, trying to observe your soul, which, for all intents and purposes is you, from a 3rd person view is not exactly easy. She got far enough to know that she was enjoying people hugging her tails. Which, she would’ve known even without meditating, because she was feeling it. Deeper emotions and thoughts still eluded her.

“Are we going to the beach, or should we wait until tomorrow?” Asked Rose, in a hushed voice, not to wake anyone. It was already past four o’clock, and the temperature was only going down from there.

Igraine stood up and walked over to Yuuki and everyone else who was sleeping around her. “Wakey wakey, time to go to the beach.” She said loudly.

The unanimous response was an annoyed growl. If the pillows they were using weren’t Yuuki’s tails, they would have thrown them at Igraine for waking them up.

“If you want to stay, I can stay here as well.” Yuuki offered to everyone currently resting around her.

“It’s fine, we can also sleep on the beach.” Alice said, slowly crawling out from under Yuuki’s many tails.

After a few more minutes of lazing around, everyone got up and headed to the beach in light clothing. Helen and Amanda had their own summer clothes, but they insisted that Rose make them a set as well. The shopkeeper herself was a bit worried about getting a sunburn, but Yuuki simply told her not to worry, so she didn’t. She knew enough to believe that the high priestess could easily prevent sunburns. Or just heal them.

The group went to the beach, but while they didn’t go far enough to be alone there, it was a less populated area. Yuuki brought out seven towels, which she distributed, from her storage.

The seven of them sunbathed peacefully for a few minutes before a large ball bounced in their direction. “Sorry about that!” The source of the voice was a wolf-kin man, about twenty years of age.

The group had been stared at quite a bit by everyone around them, so it was no surprise when someone eventually made a move, disguised as an accident.

Alice picked up the ball and tossed it to the man.

“Thanks. By the way, do any of you want to join the game? We would happily welcome you.” He did seem friendly, even if his goal was most likely to go a bit further than friendship with at least one of them.

“Sure. Wanna come?” Alice stood up and grabbed Yuuki’s forearm.

“I don’t see why not.” She also stood up and dusted herself off a bit. “No magic.”

“Ahh, where’s the fun in that?” Alice pouted slightly.

“If they all run away in fear, I’ll feel uncomfortable. Simple as that.” Yuuki replied, her tone flat.

“Uhh… my name’s Gus.” He awkwardly extended a hand.

“Alice. She’s Liz.” She shook his hand lightly.

The three of them went to the beach volleyball field, where the other guys were looking at them with carefree smiles. They were all about the same age, had muscular bodies with multiple scars across them, and had five humans, three beast-kin, including Gus, and two elves.

“Hey Gus, finally talked to a girl, huh?” One of them teased.

“Only took nineteen years.” Another continued.

“Ha. Ha. Might I remind you that I was the only one with the balls to actually ask them to join?”

“Hey, you’re the only one still hung up on the whole ‘girlfriend’ thing. The rest of us have accepted our fates already.” One said, with a confident smile and the others nodded.

Gus seemed very fed up with the others, so he changed the topic quickly. “Do you know the rules?”

“Yep!”
“Yes.”

“Alright, one of you should go on the other side for it to be even.”

Alice had a coy smile as she ducked under the net and got on the other side.

Gus passed the ball over to Yuuki. “You should serve.”

Yuuki had no objections and got to the serving position. “Are we counting, or just having fun?”

“Just fun.” Someone from the other side answered.

“Fun it is.” She lobbed the ball up high, jumped after it and smacked it lightly. Lightly for her standards, that is. The ball, like an artillery shell, slammed into the sand on the other side, uninterrupted. Everyone around them stared at her, as the cloud of sand slowly dissipated.

Alice chuckled. “Fun it is then.”

The other team passed the ball to Yuuki once more and she got ready to serve once more. Her next serve was even lighter, this time it was in the realm of ‘normal’ people. Olympic level athletes, but that’s still more or less normal. Yuuki and Alice became the MVP on each team as the match went on. By the end, everyone except the two maidens were out of breath.

“Holy shi-”

“Language.” Gus interrupted his teammate.

“Oh for the love of… as I was saying. You girls are damn strong. Ever thought about becoming monster hunters?”

“That’s a profession?” Yuuki asked with genuine interest.

“It is now. The ten of us have been wandering around for the past couple months, killing all sorts of beasts. It pays quite well. I bet you’d make a killing.”

“Interesting. I’ll think it over. If you don’t mind, we’d go back now.” Yuuki ended their conversation and walked back to Helen and company after saying goodbye and accepting an invitation to a drink.

“So, what do you think?” Alice asked curiously.

“They are strong. Perhaps they could become usable assets after some minimal train-” She was cut off by Alice bonking the top of her head.

“None of that. What do you feel?”

Yuuki tilted her head. “I feel no carnal desire toward them, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, that’s not it either. Also, that was too blunt, even from you.”

“They’re… friendly? I enjoyed talking with them. They were easy to relax around.” She looked up, thinking if she’d left anything out. “They talk a bit much.”

“Good start. You have enough close friends, but you need more people you can casually talk to.”

“Did you learn how to become a social butterfly from those books as well?” Yuuki asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“No, I asked dad. You know, the person who knows people?”

“Touche.”