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Swim And Sink [Completed]
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Post by Yuko Himura on Aug 23, 2019 9:16:02 GMT
“There we are, Shibuya River… more like Shibuya Shithole!” Yuko exclaimed, as the group had all made it to their rendezvous point. What was once purportedly a beautiful river had been polluted by the greediness of humans, and reduced to a murky, garbage-filled trench. The water was colored a sickening green from all the sludge and gunk that festered at its bottom. “Littering the streets is illegal. Dumping your industrial waste in a river? Totally okay! Mankind sucks. In other news, the Earth is round.” The punk girl said with a frown, before spitting her gum out.
At the very least, this meant they would have some privacy, since no sane person wanted to hang out near a polluted river. Granted, Yuko had seen some policemen patrolling on their way there. Had someone dumped a dead body in the river or something? Whatever, she had put on her best smile and tried to act natural… Well, as natural as a teen with dyed hair and piercings all over could act, dressed in jean shorts and a belly-exposing top. And now they were here, with no-one else in sight.
“Don’t worry. I’ve heard that there’s a part of the river upstream that’s clean enough for us to take a dip. Let’s get moving.” Yuko said, slumping her bag over her shoulder and moving up ahead. It was a little known fact that rivers were really long. If they kept walking, surely they would eventually find a section of the river that was left untainted by man.
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Post by Mikazuki Nakamura on Aug 23, 2019 15:51:48 GMT
"Whoa! I've seen swimming pools before cleaning, but this is Ridiculous!" Mika commented upon arriving at the rendezvous point clad in a more casual, yet still high-end outfit. To his sheltered mind, such a thing as a polluted river was something out of textbooks and that he never ever saw in his life. And yet... it was also fascinating to see how the color of the water was even altered by the myriad of chemicals mixed up with it. In fact, upon finding a stick, he started poking the water while humming to himself.
That is, until yuko made an announcement on how they would progress through the river in search of a proper spot for bathing.
Not hesitating, Mika threw the stick into the river and stood up, ready to capture Yuu-chan in another hug, but refraining from doing so upon remembering her request earlier. As such, the Nakamura protegé was content in just saluting the group's "Leader" and uttering a "Yes, Ma'am!" with quite a bit of energy as he joined the delinquent in her quest to find the perfect spot.
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Post by Junpei Sudo on Aug 23, 2019 20:05:54 GMT
The smell coming off the river had made Junpei's nose practically retreat into his own face as he met up with the others. The wannabe delinquent had exchanged his wrinkled school uniform for a black t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off as well as a pair of red bike shorts. He didn't have an actual swimsuit of his own, so this was the best thing he could come up with. If anyone asked, he could just always say his swimsuit was in the wash, or his dog ate a hole through it, or something like that.
As apprehensive as he was about the idea to begin with, he only became moreso as he actually saw the state the river was in: garbage in all sorts of different containers floating around, the water discolored by chemicals he was vaguely certain he would get killed for even knowing the origins of them. Mika tossed a stick into the 'river', and Junpei watched as it sailed out to the center only to land perfectly vertical, not sinking so much as an inch into the polluted stream.
"Uh, Yuko? Are you sure this is safe?" Junpei brought a hand up to cover a sudden coughing fit as he followed a bit behind the group. "I-I mean, I'm all for danger and stuff, but this... This just looks... gross." His eyes fell on a rusted yellow barrel that floated past them, just barely being able to make out the faded biohazard symbol printed on it. "Like... 'come back with 3 eyes and fish gills' gross..."
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Post by Yuko Himura on Aug 23, 2019 21:31:53 GMT
Yep, those were pretty much the standard reactions to people seeing Shibuya River for the first time. When she had first moved to Shibuya, Yuko was stoked to see this place with her own eyes, since they didn’t have many rivers back in Kobe. They had a harbor, sure, but nothing quite as natural as this… And human waste had taken the ‘natural’ out of the equation. Even so, Mikazuki remained hopeful and followed Yuko’s lead, even treating her like the gang boss, which made her feel quite proud of herself.
Junpei, on the other hand, was a lot more reserved about this whole endeavor, voicing said reservations quite vocally. “We’re not gonna swim HERE, genius! If we find a cleaner place further up ahead, good. If we don’t, we’ll go back home.” The multicolor-haired girl explained, but in order to further compel Junpei, she walked up to him and helped his head turn back to Mika. “Look at his face. Look at it! We promised him we would all swim in the river together. Do you wanna break his hopes and dreams? Be my guest!” She told the male delinquent, before turning around again and continuing her stroll, accepting no further protests.
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Post by Mikazuki Nakamura on Aug 23, 2019 22:13:51 GMT
Try as he might, Mikazuki's sheer wonder at what was ahead of him kept him from paying attention to the attempt at blackmail coming from the couple. As it was, one could see every sort of thing in the muddy waters of the polluted rivers. Amidst the waste, all sorts of things could be found. Wraps of all sorts of products, entire garbage packs, and even pieces of what the Nakamura heir could only infer to be food scraps floated in the waters.
All of it made Mika a bit confused: Why would someone throw these things in the water and soil it? And almost as immediately as the question arised, it was curbed as he reasoned it was probably just a mistake. No person would just be that careless.
Right?
But then something caught his eye. In a plank floating there, one saw a bag with a teddy bear on it. And he didn't think twice before tugging Yuko's and Junpei's sleeves to look at it with a sad face. "Guys! Look at that!" he pointed towards the teddy bear. "I had that teddy bear when i was a kid!! What sort of person would throw that sort of thing away like that?! Why not just donate it to an orphanage or give it to another kid?!"
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Post by Junpei Sudo on Aug 23, 2019 22:26:11 GMT
"J-Jeez..." Junpei physically recoiled from the beratement, holding his hands up defensively as though he was afraid Yuko would actually start hitting him. But... she did have a point. Even if Junpei would never admit it in a million years, Mika was kind of the whole reason he was here in the first place. Even just the thought of the lovable oaf crying, especially crying because of Junpei's own actions, sent a bad tingle down the wannabe delinquent's spine.
Thankfully, the blonde in question didn't seem to have noticed the impromptu 'argument', having occupied his attention with watching the trash flowing in the river. At least, he was until he was suddenly pulling on Junpei's sleeve, dragging the redhead's attention to a teddy bear floating lazily across the water on a piece of wood. It was kind of dirty and Junpei could see that one of the bear's eyes had been replaced with a button, but nonetheless a smile crept across his face as he was instantly reminded of a scene out of a cartoon. He forced that smile down, though, as he saw how clearly distressed Mika was. "Well, big guy, we don't know what's happened to it. Maybe it's full of bugs or something." He reached up and put a hand on Mika's shoulder. "And it's not like we can fish it out to check on it..."
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Post by Yuko Himura on Aug 23, 2019 22:52:18 GMT
Looking over her shoulder, even Yuko couldn’t help but crack a smile at Mika’s excitement over finding a dirty old teddy bear. Was it a tad childish? Perhaps, but it wasn’t like the question he was asking wasn’t a valid one. Why not donate it to an orphanage instead of dumping it in a river? “Who knows. Why not give any of this stuff to people who actually need it? They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but I think that statement is bullcrap. I mean, if I were a homeless person, I’d rather eat clean food than having to dig into trash cans to find it. Some ‘treasure’ that is!” Damn, she was being awfully philosophical about such a simple question. Perhaps it was Mika’s ability to ask profound questions despite his innocence that brought the philosopher out of her.
Yuko’s train of thought was interrupted by her phone buzzing, taking it out of her back pocket, she looked at the screen and groaned. “Ugh! My Mom texted me. She says I forgot to take my coat with me.” She began to type up a response as fast as the average teenager could type on a phone, speaking it out loud and announciating each word for emphasis. “No. Mom. I. Didn’t. Forget. I. Left. It. Behind. On. Purpose. Because. It’s. The. Middle. Of. August… aaaaand sent!” After that, she stored her phone away and marched on with a sour expression, making sure Junpei and Mika weren’t lagging behind. “Hey boys, pick up the pace, will you?”
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Post by Mikazuki Nakamura on Aug 24, 2019 1:10:34 GMT
Mika was about to probe the question further, but the way Yuko spoke, along with Junpei's uncompromised answer made him think, which actually was all but stamped in how he suddenly stopped, zoned out and kept staring up with a questioning frown. Come to think of it, he never actually pondered what happened to HIS toys from when he was a kid. He always assumed his mom probably donated them, but what about stuff he actually broke or tore off by accident? Did it also meet the same fate of the teddy bear?
Such musings, however were lost to the boy-giant when he noticed both delinquents were already gaining reasonable distance from him, prompting the Narisawa heir to sprint towards, yelling "HEY, WAIT UP YOU TWO!" as he quickly gained upon them.
Truly, sometimes it paid off being as athletically inclined as Mika was, even if it came at the cost of being nearly entirely shut off from his peers.
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Post by Junpei Sudo on Aug 24, 2019 2:24:20 GMT
A wicked chuckled escaped Junpei as he watched Mika suddenly book it to catch back up with him and Yuko. Not that they would actually leave him behind; if they ever got too far away, either Junpei would tell Yuko to stop, or Yuko would tell Junpei to stop, depending on who was the first to notice. Junpei opened his mouth, all set to start teasing Mika a bit, only to be silenced as he glanced at the river and saw that they had finally reached their destination.
Just like Yuko had thought, they had gone upstream enough to find a clear, clean section, and it was... Well, to be entirely honest, it was a little underwhelming, at least for Junpei. It looked exactly like the rest of the river, just minus all the trash and pollution and stuff. The water wasn't even especially clean, it wasn't clear enough you could see through to the bottom of the river (not that Junpei especially wanted to see what lied on the bottom of the river). It was just kind of... water.
Well, disappointment or not, they were finally there, and Junpei reached out to stop the other two before they wandered too far off. He forced a grin onto his face as he looked to them. "Looks like we're here. Let's get to swimmin'!" And with that, his expression shifted into a grimace as he turned away, stepping to the river bank and slowly, ever so slowly, beginning to lower himself into the water. His heart started to pound in his chest as he sank in up to his waist, and a sigh of relief escaped him when his feet finally touched the muddy bottom. Forcing another grin, he turned and looked back to Yuko and Mika. "C-Come on in! Th-The water's great!"
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Post by Yuko Himura on Aug 24, 2019 7:36:18 GMT
It looked like Junpei had gone ahead and actually found something, since he gestured for his two companions to stop and take a look. A cleaner section of the river was right in front of them, making a slight grin appear on Yuko’s pierced lips more in line with Junpei’s own. “Well, this is… something. It doesn’t look crystal clear enough to drink, but it DOES look clean enough to take a dip in!” She said to the others, setting her bag down on the grass.
As Junpei got into gear first and gradually stepped into the river’s water, Yuko soon followed suit; She removed each of her shoes, taking off her shirt and sliding out of her shorts, unveiling her modest, but still revealing enough bikini. There wasn’t much of note about her thin, dainty frame, other than how pale her skin was, which made some healing bruises she’d gotten from old fights more noticable. Still, she wasn’t gonna stay out there and let the boys ogle at her, so she went ahead and joined Junpei as soon as she was ready.
“Oh shit, it’s cold…” The girl complained as she dipped in her toes. It made sense. This water did come straight from the top of a mountain, after all, so of course it would be somewhat cold. She kept walking, feeling a chill in her entire body as she submerged herself deeper. By the time she had caught up with Junpei, the water level reached up to her midsection. “Can confirm. The water IS great! Oi, get in!” Yuko called out to Mika.
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Post by Mikazuki Nakamura on Aug 24, 2019 11:08:56 GMT
Though it may not have been crystal clear, the section of the river they arrived in was clean enough for the fabled dip... And yet, Mika paid it no mind, happily watching as his comrades took of their clothes and entered the stream.
And yet, the boy-giant didn't immediately enter, opting to first take off his clothes and reveal a set of professional swimming gear, as one would expect from the sort of background he had. While not being as dumb as to wear fins and what not, the fact Mika brought both his goggles and was wearing jammers which accentuated just how much fitter and larger he was in comparison to his teammates was a testament to the different backgrounds they shared.
Then, his next move was to flash them a smirk as he suddenly started walking back before putting his goggles, getting some distance ... before sprinting at his full speed towards the river, yelling out "CANNONBOMB!!!" As he Jumped right amidst his peers, creating a large splash on impact!
Surprisingly, though, he didn't complain about the cold at all, just exclaiming "Wow, you guys were right, the water IS great!" before swimming deeper into the river.
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Post by Junpei Sudo on Aug 24, 2019 20:37:06 GMT
"Gyaaaagghhh!" A strangled scream sounded from Junpei as Mika's impact sent a wave of water rushing over him, knocking the redhead off-balance a bit and forcing him to flail his arms wildly to avoid going under. For the briefest of moments, Junpei's heart skipped a beat as a chill (not from the water) ran down his spine. And then in the next, everything was back to normal, the water having quickly calmed back down from Mika's splash and Junpei once more was able to stand straight in the river.
The wannabe delinquent sighed in frustration as he forced himself to relax a bit. Shooting a brief glare at Mika, he quickly shook his head as he began moving over to the other two, his pace noticeably slow as he waded rather than actually swimming. Flashing the two a grin, he gave a low chuckle. "Well, ain't this nice? Just a couple bros-" He gently nudged Mika's side with an elbow. "-hanging out, with a girl in a bikini as the cherry on top!" He punctuated his sentence with a snicker as he preemptively moved to put Mika between himself and Yuko.
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Post by Yuko Himura on Aug 24, 2019 21:25:38 GMT
“Daaamn, look who’s ready for the Olympics! Nice!” Yuko wolf-whistled as Mikazuki revealed his professional swimming gear consisting of slick, hydrodynamic swimming trunks and even a pair of goggles. Of course, the Olympics comment wasn’t meant just in regards to his gear. With that towering, well toned physique he really did look like an Olympian!
She was a little worried when Mika drew a few steps back to gain momentum, and she was even more worried when he came barreling towards them. “MIKA, NO!” Were her last words, before the boy-giant crashed into the water cannonball-style, splashing water all over his two friends. While Yuko was able to recover relatively quickly and catch her breath, the same couldn’t be said about Junpei, who was briefly seen thrashing in the water and flailing his arms. “Woah, calm down dude! It’s just water.” The punk girl said, as she waded over to him and helped him back on his feet, showing her sympathetic side.
She soon showed her mean side again when the outlaw boy commented on her bikini. “What’s that supposed to mean?! I didn’t put this on for your entertainment, you know. Now get your ass over here so I can kick it!” Yuko verbally lashed at him, but he had preemptively moved behind Mika to shield himself from her wrath. Smart move. She instead addressed the boy who hadn’t made a remark about her getup yet. “Mika, if he talks about my bikini again, I want you to throw water at his face.”
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Post by Mikazuki Nakamura on Aug 25, 2019 15:34:20 GMT
Mika found the banter between both delinquents revolving around Yuko's state of wear a bit weird, if only because it insinuated there was anything wrong with Yuu-chan's getup. Which there wasn't! It was just a normal swimsuit, and to him, Yuko looked great on it! Sure, she was no athlete, but it still managed to make her look cute.
So the blonde just did what he always did: Obey his friend. "Okie dokie!" he exclaimed while pulling away from Junpei and proceeding to inhale and sink amongst the waters.
Amidst the depths of the river, the Narisawa scion proceeded to bring his goggles to his eyes as he explored the only part of the river that was not yet dead through men's interference. A while went by before he surfaced again in the middle of both outcasts and exclaimed "Whoa! Can you guys believe how the river looks from the deep? It's like there's an invisible wall separating the junk from this part!"
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Post by Junpei Sudo on Aug 25, 2019 21:08:03 GMT
The moment his meat shield dived under the water and swam away, Junpei's blood ran cold. With Mika gone and with his own complete lack of swimming ability, he was wide open for whatever punishments Yuko might have decided to inflict on him. A nervous chuckle escaped him as he held his hands up defensively, slowly backing away from the much smaller girl. "E-Easy, Yuko... You know I was just joking, right? Cuz that's what we do? W-We joke around with each other? B-Besides..." His hand flew behind him, sifting down into the water a bit before finally wrapping around something and pulling it up, revealing it to be an old, rusted pair of glasses that were missing the lenses. He promptly placed the glasses on his nose and flourished his hands. "You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would ya?"
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