“Surfboard please.” Airi was quick in asking for one of the boards to rent. Her boldness and attitude to the idea of adventure always astounded him.

“So, have you ever surfed before?” He asked.

“Nope.” Her answer was plain and simple. He also couldn’t believe how brave she was either. To want to dive headfirst into something she had never even attempted once before. She certainly was nothing like her sister, but it seemed more like an extreme to one side instead of any actual improvement.

“Okay then.” He said as he grabbed his own board. “But you might want to be careful then. Surfing can be pretty rough if you don’t get what’s going on.” Kichi couldn’t say he was an experienced surfer either, in fact this would be the first time the boy had ever rode the waves, so to speak.

However, he had heard stories from his parents that they had done it before. Those stories sounded a bit worrisome to him when they mentioned his dad nearly drowning after a harsh wipe out. Something those two laughed off as no big deal, but it stuck around in his mind. So he didn’t want any of that while he was with everyone.

“You’ve been hanging around Aoi a little too much.” She responded. “You’re even starting to sound like her.” It was hard to tell coming from her if that was supposed to be a compliment or an insult. She obviously loved her sister a lot, but also felt like the other girl was a bit too reserved on most matters.

“Whatever, let’s just start small to warm up.” He gently placed his board onto the waters, barely a few inches up from the land to get a feel for balancing the board. She was similar in action except for throwing the board and jumping right on the moment it touched the water. Airi also went much deeper than him for their first attempt.

“You aren’t really surfing if the waves aren’t moving the board.” She laughed as she rode around. The girl would’ve gone in circles around him were it not for the fact a good portion of what surrounded him was land. For someone who apparently never surfed before, she certainly looked like a natural about it.

“You’re really good.” He kicked onto the sand to himself further into the depth of the water. There was no way the boy would ever plan on being upstaged by her so easily. Even if he was unsteady now with more water between him and land. “There’s no way you’re just a rookie.”

“This is my first time.” She responded. “But they say that surfboarding was made up by bored skaters, right?”

“I think it’s the other way around.” He replied.

“Well anyway, me and Aoi have skateboards.” When she explained this to him, it made a little more sense. Though he wouldn’t think that land would translate so easily onto the waves, it seemed to be working out well enough for her. “Haven’t had much of a chance to do it since we moved here. Maybe we should get on our boards again.”

“A part of me has a hard time envisioning Aoi riding a skateboard.” From a looks standpoint, it wasn’t outlandish. He could see these girls shredding it on some skateboards. The only odd thing to him was her personality. “I’d assume she wouldn’t want to get any scrapes and bruises.”

“Yeah, she definitely doesn’t like those.” She answered, not to his surprise in any manner. “You should see her when she skates, she’s always wearing a helmet and a bunch of pads. It’s really silly.” While he expected that from her, Kichi would also say it would be wise to wear a helmet to protect one’s head in case of a fall. That would be an area he would agree with. “She’s so good though. Way better than me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her mess up a trick before.”

“Sounds like she would be good at surfing then.” He said as the pair got more confidence in their skills. Now they were a fair distance away from the shore. Soon they would be hitting the waves and really surfing like they do on television.

“But she doesn’t know how to swim, so she wouldn’t even consider trying it once.” That much was true and he had heard this factoid multiple times. It was kind of weird though that Airi learned how to swim and her twin sister didn’t. Things like that sounded perfect for siblings, let alone twins, to learn together.

“Wee!” Airi took to taking on the waves head on as she effortlessly glided along a small one. She audibly had a fun time for her first attempt. Now it was Kichi’s turn as he took on another small one coming up onto them. He had the right idea in going along with the water as it pushed him through. However he didn’t have the same level of balance as she did. So the boy slipped off his board and dived into the water.

“Ah, I messed up there.” He said, spitting out the water which got into this mouth. “Oh well, can’t be an expert on the first try.” Despite wiping out, he still enjoyed himself. So they continued about in their innocent and pretty safe surfing. Since he could still see the shore, the boy wasn’t concerned about anything dangerous happening while they were here. The water wasn’t that deep here.

“Ooh, there’s a big wave.” Airi pointed at one coming directly for them. Immediately she rowed her board towards it to go for an even funner run in her mind. He simply watched along as she moved, but something caught his ear which prompted the boy to turn and look towards the shoreline.

It appeared someone was yelling at them. Actually, upon a closer look, it was Aoi who had left the safety of her umbrella to yell at him for something. Normally she was a mean girl, but even this seemed out of character for her.

“Whoa!” He heard Airi yelp, which got his attention to turn around yet again. The wave she spotted was a bit larger than expected. So it overtook his board and caused the girl to lose balance. She slipped off her board and fell right into the water, sinking into the depths below.

“Wow, that was real nasty.” He commented as the boy rowed over to her board to keep it from drifting away with the waves. “At least I’m not the only one with a wipe out.” She didn’t respond to his statement as she appeared to still be submerged under the water. He waited a moment for her to return, but it didn’t happened when he thought it would.

Then, as the yelling from Aoi sounded to get louder, his eyes widened as his brain hit the serious realization. Airi never said anything about her being able to swim…

Before his mind could think of anything else. His body acted first and dove right into the water. They weren’t even that deep into the ocean, so she didn’t sink far, but it was more than enough to end her life were there no one around to save her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back up onto the board. It seemed to do little to help her as her eyes stayed close while he rowed them back to land. Kichi dragged her unconscious body along as the sand as he got them to safety.

“You idiots.” Aoi went right into scolding them as she attempted to shake her sister awake. “She’s like me, she can’t swim. Why’d you let her go so deep?”

“I didn’t know she couldn’t swim.” He defended himself. Aoi didn’t seem worried when her sister mentioned surfing. So there was no reason to think there would be a problem. She apparently thought they were going to stay near the shore where it would be impossible to drown as the water wasn’t deep at all. Unfortunately, it was likely a bad idea to think that Airi would be responsible in keeping herself safe. “Anyway, get back and stop doing that.”

Kichi pushed her away from Airi’s unmoving body. At this point, there were a fair number of people coming up to see what the commotion was about. This included Kougi and Chuuya as well. “Everyone give me room, I know what I’m doing.”

“He’s right, please listen.” Kougi backed him up and aided in moving some of the crowd away. Kichi wasn’t trying to sound cool in being the one to give Airi some mouth-to-mouth. Last year he had taken a course in learning how to perform that and CPR on a person. It was the story his parents told him that got him into doing so and he was real glad that was the case as he began to press on Airi’s flat chest.

Everyone watched on as he performed his work. Quickly, Kichi moved to over to her face and put his mouth up to hers to blow. Thankfully he didn’t have to give much effort in reviving the girl as she quickly coughed out the water in her lungs.

“Oh…” She said, trying to regain her sense. “What happened?”

“You are the biggest idiot in the world!” Before anything else, Aoi got right in scolding her for being dumb enough to take a risk when she knew she couldn’t swim. “You really had us all worried.”

“Yeah, it’s a good thing Kichi here knows how to perform mouth-to-mouth.” Said Chuuya. “He really saved your life there.”

“He did… Mouth-to-mouth?”