Sunshine, Beach, Handsome... Boys

The midsummer heat was sweltering, and July's weather was especially scorching. With summer vacation finally here, Eiji and the other two came to the beach with Satoru Gojo.

Eiji spread his arms and lay relaxed in the shallows, feeling the waves push his body again and again.

A cool sensation brushed against his arm. Turning his head, Eiji saw a translucent thing washed onto his arm by the waves.

He reached out and picked up the strange object, only to discover it was a dead jellyfish.

Its translucent body and springy texture made Eiji squeeze it hard despite himself.

"It's kind of like uncrushable jelly. So bouncy."

After sitting up and playing with it for a while, Eiji suddenly thought of several questions.

"I remember jellyfish being poisonous. I've been holding this thing for ages—am I okay?"

Although Eiji was physically strong now and could use Reverse Cursed Technique, it was relatively weak against attacks with the "poison" attribute.

Like Uraume. Her Reverse Cursed Technique was not weak even among Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerers, yet Choso's poison still took her a long time to deal with.

That was because using Reverse Cursed Technique to detoxify someone required more complicated operations.

Unless your Reverse Cursed Technique was fully automatic.

"I think jellyfish can only poison people with their tentacles, right?"

After checking himself and finding no signs of poisoning, Eiji began studying the jellyfish in his hand again.

Having lived in the mountains in his past life and only seen the ocean a few times, Eiji was curious about everything related to the sea.

"Stop sitting here by yourself like an old man. Come play with us."

Smack.

A jellyfish far larger than the one in Eiji's hand was plopped onto his head. From afar, it looked like Eiji was wearing a jellyfish hat.

"SA!TO!RU!"

He slapped the jellyfish off his head. Feeling as though his face had been stung, a vein popped on Eiji's forehead.

"Don't you know jellyfish are poisonous?"

Eiji roared, swinging his fist.

"It's fine, it's fine. I got stung by that kind of jellyfish when I was six, and I was totally okay."

As he spoke, Satoru Gojo gave a thumbs-up with his right hand. A mischievous grin spread across his sunglass-covered face, and his exposed white teeth gleamed faintly.

His fist hardened again.

"Good. Let's settle this with a match."

With a wave of his hand, the pull of Azure drew two surfboards printed with palm trees and waves into Satoru Gojo's hands.

"Sure. Prepare yourself, Satoru Gojo."

"You're the one who should prepare yourself. Don't cry when you lose."

"Hah. You're the one who's going to lose."

When Suguru Geto returned from the seabed, he found his two Best Friends already playing themselves crazy.

He walked over to the temporary little campsite on the beach.

Suguru Geto opened the cooler, took out a slice of watermelon, sprinkled some salt over it, and ate while watching the two of them frolic.

Watermelon was an aristocratic fruit in the Island Nation. It cost even more than meat, so ordinary people rarely ate it.

Why, you ask?

The Island Nation was so small—where could they grow watermelons? With imports being almost the sole source, how could it not be expensive?

If people from the Island Nation saw the way Eiji had eaten watermelon in his past life every summer—holding one and digging into it with huge mouthfuls—they would definitely call it extravagant.

In truth, they liked eating it that way too. It was simply too expensive for them to afford it.

So they chose to cut it into small slices and eat it bite by bite, sprinkling salt on it beforehand to enhance its sweetness.

However, Suguru Geto's leisurely time was quickly interrupted.

A water ball, deep blue with a hint of black at its center, flew toward Suguru Geto's head before bursting with a smack.

The exploding water ball drenched Suguru Geto from head to toe.

"Geto, come play."

He looked up. Sure enough, a punchable Satoru Gojo was waving and shouting in his direction.

"Satoru, we're still working."

Suguru Geto forcefully suppressed the urge to rush over and have a serious talk with Satoru Gojo.

Because of Eiji, Suguru Geto had met Satoru Gojo earlier than before. But also because of Eiji, it took Suguru Geto a little longer to get used to Satoru Gojo.

Having grown accustomed to Eiji, who was at least fairly serious most of the time, Suguru Geto had initially held a slight prejudice against Satoru Gojo, who could never seem to be serious.

But after interacting with him a few times, that prejudice quickly faded.

Suguru Geto also discovered that whenever he was with Satoru Gojo, he always felt free and carefree.

It eased much of the stress Suguru Geto usually felt from swallowing Cursed Spirits.

The world is so wonderful, yet I am so irritable. This is bad, very bad.

Repeating those words in his heart, Suguru Geto's urge to get up lessened considerably.

But the very next moment, Satoru Gojo's specially supplied, highly compressed Azure-blue water ball bomb struck Suguru Geto again.

Eiji turned to look. Azure in Satoru Gojo's hand had activated once more, sucking seawater in like a miniature Black Hole.

This time, the water ball burst lower down. The upward impact blew Suguru Geto's bangs into the air, merging them with the hair on top of his head.

Silently restoring his hairstyle, Suguru Geto stood up and took a volleyball from the box beside him.

"Take this!"

The volleyball was sent flying by immense force, carrying Suguru Geto's fury straight at Satoru Gojo's face.

"Beach volleyball? That sounds great."

Dispelling the water ball in his hand, Satoru Gojo unceremoniously smacked the ball toward Eiji.

Eiji, who had been planning to watch the show: ...

But Eiji's hands were quick. He aimed at Satoru Gojo's face and hit the volleyball right back.

Just as Satoru Gojo prepared to receive it, the Six Eyes behind his sunglasses noticed something flying in from the direction of the beach.

Satoru Gojo hurriedly lowered his head. The volleyballs coming from Suguru Geto and Eiji simultaneously appeared where Satoru Gojo's White Hair had just been, then slammed violently into each other.

"Hey, hey, two against one isn't fair."

Satoru Gojo grabbed the two volleyballs that were about to bounce away after colliding and protested loudly.

"What, are you surrendering?"

Eiji activated his taunt, and Satoru Gojo immediately took the bait.

"Hah? You're the ones who should be surrendering."

The next instant, Satoru Gojo smacked both volleyballs back.

Happy times always passed quickly, and before long, the group gathered at the little campsite again.

After quickly rinsing off the seawater on their bodies, they began setting up camp again.

Suguru Geto and Eiji set up the beach umbrella and spread out the mat.

Satoru Gojo opened the cooler and laid out the food and cold drinks one by one.

However, quite a few of those snacks disappeared after being placed on the beach mat.

"Geto, have you found the target yet?"

After setting up the umbrella, Eiji sat down on the beach mat.

"Not yet. The ocean is too vast."

Suguru Geto opened a bottle and poured out chilled fruit juice.

"Are you sure Rainbow Dragon is active in this area?"

Eiji turned to look at Satoru Gojo, who was still openly sneaking food.

"I'm sure. As expected, Edamame Cream Kikufuku is still the best."

After eating more than a dozen desserts, Satoru Gojo gave his verdict.

"Looks like this will be a prolonged battle."

"Yeah."

Eiji and Suguru Geto sighed.

"That kind of thing doesn't matter. If Rainbow Dragon shows up, we'll catch it. If it doesn't, we'll just enjoy our vacation properly."

Satoru Gojo looked completely unconcerned.

Thinking about it, Eiji agreed. Since they had come all the way to the beach, it would be unreasonable not to have as much fun as possible.