What was ‘that’ that they were referring to you ask? Well in their group as well as the Soaring club it is sort of an initiation. And if you played the game, you will know that initiation is why I am standing with them on top of this tall cliff like rock An-chan pointed to. The this made the view of the lake all the more beautiful, it would be a calming sight to behold… if it weren’t for the chuckling and grinning of the people around me.

“So… what now? And why are all smiling so mischievously?” I asked them still feigning ignorance of what's to come.

“Oh? What do you mean? Kazuya-kun?”, “its nothing” Aoi and Ma bou says, clearly suspicious.

Then I look at Hotaru who only looked away at from me

“Don’t worry Kazuya. I got you so don’t worry about it” An-chan says with a raised thumb as if to make me feel better

“Kazuya-kun can you close your eyes for a moment?” Ageha says and I look at her with suspicion.

‘What is this? Are you afraid Kyousuke-kun?’ Angelica asks with a grin looking as if she had found some ammunition to use against me.

‘Nah, I am actually excited’ I steel my self inside and lock away all anxieties In the midst of the angel’s challenge . ‘Might as well enjoy this its not everyday you get thrown off a rock right? Those that do, I recommend moving.’

‘Well tough guy. Go on then’ she crosses her arms

“Sure.” I smirk, clearly shocked by my nonchalant answer they all blink for a second.

Smiling at their reactions I closed my eyes. And as I do I feel the intent of those around me, as hands grab onto my arms and legs and pull me off the ground. While I am not afraid of heights it still makes me nervous inside as I think of everything that could go wrong. And having knowledge of the future doesn’t always necessary help, it’s handy sure, but you loose all the suspense about what was about to happened because you already know what’s going to happened. But the excitement of being thrown off a rock into a lake is still the same. 

“Ichi, Ni, San, Yosh!” they chanted as they tossed me. I open my eyes trying my best to enjoy the moment as I feel myself fly. I see the breathtaking view of the body water in the middle of town, for a moment then…

“Whoaah!” I scream out as I fell down

As I fall, I felt myself cutting through wind as momentum and gravity causes me to plummet into the water.

Splash*

The sudden rush of cold water was refreshing in a hot summer day as I swim back up. And wipe the water off my eyes as I look up to see the guys smiling down at me. And Angelica flies down in her tiny angel form to sits on my shoulder as I bobbed up and down the water

'Had fun?' She asks as she pokes me on the cheek with her tiny finger. 

'Yup' I gave her a smile and looked up

“And with that. You are officially one of us! Kazuya-kun” Ageha says  while giving me a thumbs up and a bright smile. And they all cheer and  one after another they start getting throwing off. First with Mabou, who screamed like a mad man. Ageha who cheered and even tried flipping in the air. And Hotaru with a cute squeal then…

“Ahhhhhh!” *Splosh* 

Aoi emerged from the water with a bright smile. And we all look up at An-chan who just smiled and climbed down. 

Then Ageha went back to shore and took out what looked to be a volley ball.

“Hey! Lets play!” Ageha shouts and beckons us to her…

…

After setting up a net courtesy of Himegi Sports Needs. We split our selves into teams of three, through pairings and rock paper scissors with winners and losers being teamed up. Resulting in An-chan, Aoi and Hotaru on one side. Then me, Mabou, and Ageha on the other respectively. While I did not worry about Hotaru being a threat the real challenge came from the jumping power of the thighs of the cyclist Aoi and the tallest of the group which is An-chan. On our side I am pretty confident about Ageha though seeing the fight with Mabou, I didn’t expect much… No offense bro.

We stand on the sandy beach as our clothes dripped droplets of lake water after rock diving. Seeing as almost everyone was wet it offered no distinct advantage except to the eldest one in the group. An-chan was completely dry…

“Well lets start! First to five points wins and the winner decides the losers punishment! Are you guys fine with that?” An-chan declares as we all agree and ready ourselves for the game. The atmosphere was like what you would see in the grand finals of a championship game. With everyone tense, at the high stakes. Sure a punishment may not be too bad normally. But looking at Aoi and An-chan  on the other side grinning as they looked at me then at Hotaru once again plotting something, I would rather not find out.

“Here I come!” An-chan says as he serves with a jumping serve and hits the ball mid air. Pretty good considering that we were standing in sandy terrain.

“Mine!” Mabou call out as bring he brings his hands together and receives the serve, surprisingly making the ball fly directly upwards.

“Ageha!” I exclaim as I position myself under the ball and toss a glance at the center. Then I do an overhead pass towards the left side where…

“Taken! Super! SMASH!!!” Ageha shouts out as she leaped up and spikes the ball into the enemy zone. Aoi and An-chan dive bit to find  it was in vain. Taking point one. 

“Yosh! Good play!” we cheered as we went back to position. Passing Mabou the ball he serves using an under arm serve.

“Hyah!” he shouts as he serves which goes wide and outside. Ageha glares a Mabou.

“Hey. Its fine were even now.”I say to Ageha. I they begin to serve.

Up next was Aoi who used a spike serve, tossing the ball up and hitting it. Going over the net heading towards Ageha.

“Yosh!” Ageha receives it tossing it directly upwards. Seeing the opportunity I jumped and spiked. “Mine!”

But An-chan was faster as he jumps making a Wall with Aoi and blocks the shot earning them a point.

“Nice!” I hear him exclaim excitedly as he walks back to position. 

This went on until it was time for Hotaru to serve. At 3-4 score with us one point behind, last rallies we had accrued a score through one more of Ageha’s super serve, really just a jumping serve, but she likes to call it that. Then it was countered by Aoi’s insane jumping spike at the next one in the midst of a rally. 

Hotaru breath in deeply as to concentrate and no doubt calm her nerves. She put the ball on her left hand as she readies an Under arm serve. Encouragement from her two teammates definitely helped. But I had a trick up my sleeve. Well, arms seeing that I was only wearing trunks. 

As she was about to hit the ball, we locked eyes together from a distance but still visible I winked and smiled warmly at her as I tilt my head a bit to maximize the effect.

“Hya… *doki doki*

 This caused Hotaru to suddenly blushes then hides her face and drops the ball giving us the point. This was rewarded by hostile glares from Aoi and An-chan as they figured out what I did. I merely looked up and faked innocence.

‘Pretty smart there as expected of the future harem king Kyousuke’ Angelica wearing a cheerleaders outfit, grins and winks as she stood at the sidelines

‘Future harem king? Huh… I still stand against that, you know?’

‘You’ll grow out of it’ she teases 

‘Whats with the get up?’

‘Gotta dress for the occasion, I am supporting you see? G-O! K-Y-O-U-S-U-K-E fighto! Fighto! Kyousuke-sama!' She proceeds to spell my name with her body? I rub my temple as the sight, But that did amuse me somewhat.

‘Hehehe…’ she giggled at my reaction.

 “Pretty good play there albeit a little bit cheeky.” Ageha smiles as she whispers into my ear.

“Yeah! Kazuya smart play.”

“All is fair in love and war my friends.” I say to Ageha and Ma bou as we chuckles maniacally at our score.

 “Deuce!” I called out as we entered back to position. 4-4

“That was dirty…” Aoi says as he was parallel to me on the net as he passes me the ball.

“I don’t know what you mean. Aoi-kun” I smiled as to hide the known fact that I cheated a bit, as I walk to the service spot. I had played some volleyball although it was only casually with friends from Tokyo, so I am a bit familiar with it. So I decided to be ambitious going for a jumping service to catch them off guard as I readied myself. I tossed, jumped and proceed to hit the ball. Aiming towards the just a bit to the left in Aoi's postion. I am not that much of a monster to Aim at Hotaru. 

Bam*

The ball races towards the enemy court. Only to be intercepted by An-chan then passed to Aoi who smashed the ball into Ma bou side. Giving them a score, this intense battle goes on as no side backs down. And through well timed spikes, funny slips, misplays, lucky hits and a bit of teasing Hotaru, the score was now 9-9, one last point. With An-chan’s service, we all braced for the incoming jump serve. But only to receive a under arm serve. Mabou receives, I toss the ball upwards and Ageha smashes it but is received by An-chan, her spikes were getting weaker, was she getting tired? Aoi tosses the ball then An-chan leaps and hit the ball but his aim was…

Bam* 

Head shot, Mabou got fragged. “Hey! That was cheating!” exclaims Ma bou as he holds his nose. “Eh? I don’t know… maybe my hands slipped” An-chan says with a grin as he looked at him. “Focus!” I yell as I receive the ball thankfully Ma Bou’s face ricocheted upwards into the air giving me time to dive into the sand to get it. Ageha smashes it while An-chan and Aoi were out of postion…

Bam* 

We had won thankfully. I didn’t know what the two had in store, but it couldn’t be good.

“We did it!”

“High five!”

Then we celebrated our victory as An-chan and the other team were dejected. Hotaru doesn’t seem to mind, but is nonetheless, consoling the two over there. After some back pats and a few high fives. We discussed what their punishment will be…

We were quite tame with our punishment giving Aoi the task of buying drinks from a far away store. And Hotaru was given the task of being tossed off the rock once more.

“Eeekkkkkk!” she cutely squeals as she falls to the water. 

splash* 

 Then she swims to shore with the help of Ageha. Then after Aoi arrived I beckoned them all… 

“An-chan come with me for a second. I wanna talk to you about something. You punishment is to stand up here and look to the lake” I say as I beckon him up the rock. He followed looking suspicious of me, seeing that he wasn’t planning to jump the previously we all had looked at each other with the same thought. After he climbed the rock, as An-chan was waiting no doubt thinking we were here to toss him off. But as he go closer…

“Hey An-chan? Is that a glider?” I say as I glance and point behind him

“What! Rea-“ as he turns around we did not miss the opportunity and lifted him up.

“Hey! What are you doing!” An chan shouts

“Hehehe… only us getting thrown off is a bit unfair. An chan.” Ageha says with a cheeky grin as she holds onto his foot

“Yeah that’s just not fair An-chan” I smile at him and nodded to Mabou and Aoi just went with the flow.

“Ichi!”

“Wait!” An chan shouts

“Ni!” we continued counting not giving him time to brace himself “San… yosh!” and with that we hurled An-chan off the rock.

“Ahhhh!” An chan screams as he splahes down into the lake. At the bottom we could see him cough after emerging from water.

“An-chan! Did you enjoy that? That was your punishment” I shout down into the water

“Feel refreshed yet?”

“HAHAHA! Got yah!” the others add at the swimming An-chan

 Then he shout at us “You guys…” but then it looked like he just sighed, rubbed his temple and laughed as he waded to shore.

Proud by our accomplishment of tossing An chan off we shared a laughed. 

“Why did you not just order him to jump off?” Aoi asked

“It’s more fun this way no. Well… that’s done now what?” I continue

“We can-“ *crack* the sound of breaking stone was heard as Ageha gets cut off as we saw her...