Prologue 1

“A planet of eternal summer?”

“That’s right. It’s called Berano, and the sea there is really pretty.”

It was the week after the school pool opened when Iris suggested we go swimming.

“But why swimming? We just went swimming in the school pool today.”

“That pool’s so small, though.”

“Is it?”

The school pool was 25 meters long and had seven swimming lanes. It didn’t seem small to me at all.

“I can swim from end to end in three seconds.”

“Oh, so that’s it.”

Iris was from Finerita, a planet where everyone was super strong. A normal Earth pool wasn’t good enough for her, it seemed.

“So let’s go swimming in the sea this weekend!” she said.

“The sea, huh?”

It was only halfway through June, but the weather had definitely been muggy over the past few days. I couldn’t deny swimming would feel great. Iris said it was always summer on this planet she was talking about, and I certainly didn’t hate the idea of getting an early taste of the season for myself.

“Hm, okay. Yeah. Take me with you to the sea.”

“Yay!”

Iris began to hop up and down happily. She then whipped around towards the seat next to mine.

“So, Satsuki, are you coming?”

“You’re inviting me? Really?” Satsuki looked up at Iris, a little surprised.

“You’d come whether I asked you to or not, right? You’ve been slowly leaning in towards us ever since I brought it up.”

Satsuki suddenly turned red, adjusted her posture (she had indeed been leaning towards us), and coughed.

Iris shrugged. “Well, if you want to come, you can. Of course, that’s only if you think you can beat me at the beach.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Heh heh,” Iris chuckled a bit as she smiled provokingly. “Speaking of, Satsuki, how confident are you about your beach body?”

Satsuki gasped. Her eyes instantly widened and fixated on a certain part of Iris’s uniform... I won’t say where. And I definitely won’t say that I did the same thing. I mean it. Really.

“Tch! So that’s it... Fine. I accept your challenge!” Satsuki yelled.

“Just what I wanted to hear. I’ll show you once and for all which of us is number one,” Iris replied.

“So it’s finally time for the swimsuit episode, huh? I need to go defrag and free up some memory in my brain,” R added.

All of the girls, including R, were getting really worked up about this for some reason.

“Um, so... you’re inviting everybody?”

And that was how we all ended up making plans to go to the sea for the weekend. The sea on a different planet, that is.

“Huh...”

Wait, doesn’t “weekend” imply...

“Hold on, are we staying there overnight?”

“Yup, that’s right. Berano’s a resort, so there’s all kinds of places to stay.”

“That’s not what I mean...”

Wasn’t it a problem for a bunch of high school girls to be out somewhere with a guy overnight?

“Oooh, Rekka! You know they say summer vacation is the season when high schoolers become adults.”

“It’s not even summer vacation, R.”

▽

Saturday morning.

My classmates Satsuki, Iris, Tsumiki, Hibiki, and Rosalind had gathered in front of my house, where they then met up with Harissa, Tetra, and Suzuran. Including me, there were nine of us in total. I’d tried to invite everybody who knew that Iris was an alien, but Chelsea was out of the country, and I couldn’t get a hold of Lea.

“What does Lea spend her days doing now, anyway?” I asked.

“She said that she’s usually traveling when she’s not at Nozomiya, didn’t she?” said Tsumiki.

“Yeah. She even brought me a wooden sword as a souvenir once,” answered Tetra.

So Lea liked to travel, huh?

“If she had a phone, I would’ve invited her, too. It’s too bad.”

“Yeah.”

I acknowledged what Tsumiki said with a nod. R then leaned in and put her lips up to my ear.

“It really is too bad, huh, Rekka? It’s a crying shame you won’t get to see that hot body in a swimsuit.”

That’s not what I meant!

I tried to shoo R away, then turned to Rosalind.

“What’s up with Ulaula, by the way? I was sure all three of you would be here.”

“She’s staying home,” Rosalind said coldly.

Unlike the other girls, Rosalind wasn’t carrying any luggage. All her stuff was in the bag Suzuran was carrying.

You know, I was really starting to get used to seeing Suzuran in a maid outfit, but...

“Suzuran,” I said.

“Yes? What is it, Sir Namidare?”

“Do you really need to wear your maid outfit on vacation?”

“I’m afraid it’s my mistress’s preference.”

“Rosalind?”

“The very essence of a maid is in the uniform, I’ll have you know.”

I never did figure out where that vampire got some of her ideas. But I didn’t need to ask to know that Suzuran always wore her maid outfit. The whole class was talking about the silver-haired maid who would appear at the shopping street sometimes.

“Everybody’s here, right?” Iris asked.

When she saw that everyone was ready, she pressed the button to summon her spaceship. Just a moment later, it appeared above us.

“All right! Off we go on our two-day, one-night space voyage!”

▽

About five hours later, we came out of warp and found ourselves staring at a bright blue planet.

“So that’s Berano?”

“Yup! Ninety percent of its surface is ocean, and it’s always summer there. It’s registered as part of the Galactic Federation, too.”

“Planet Finerita is part of the Galactic Federation, as well, right?” I vaguely remembered hearing something about that before.

“Yup, yup. Well, it doesn’t hold a council seat like Finerita or Satamonia. It’s registered as a sub-planet of planet Estashion, I think.”

“A sub-planet?”

“Hmm, what would you call it on Earth? A colony? No, that’s not quite right... Anyway, Estashion is one of the 72 members of the council, and Berano is under their protection.”

“I see.”

As I was talking to Iris, another spaceship went flying past us.

“Are they going to Berano, too?”

“It is one of the most famous resorts in the Galactic Federation, after all. Tourism is their biggest industry. The water is really pretty, but they put a lot of effort into customer service, too.”

“Um, are we landing soon?” Harissa asked timidly from behind Iris.

“We can go down whenever we want. Did you get warpsick?”

“No, that’s not it... I’m just not used to this ‘spaceship’ thing yet.”

“I imagine. There weren’t even planes on your home world,” I said.

“All right, we’ll get going then,” Iris said as she pushed the control stick forward.

We circled around to the other side of Berano and made a quick descent, instantly breaking through the atmosphere. There didn’t seem to be any large land masses on the planet, just lots of little islands that looked like cookie crumbs from a distance. There were well-maintained forests and beaches on each island, along with an inland pier for spaceships to dock. One of those islands was where we landed.

“Haaahh... I’m a little tired after that,” I said as I unloaded my luggage. I yawned and took in a deep breath of fresh air from a strange, new planet.

“You can smell the salt from here, huh?” Hibiki said, walking over to me and stretching some.

“It really does feel like an ocean planet, although there are fewer people here than I expected.”

We hadn’t left the pier yet, but it still seemed surprisingly empty.

“There are plenty of spaceships docked here, though.”

“Hm, you’re right...”

Hibiki and I scratched our heads.

“What’s wrong? We’re going to the beach, guys.” Iris beckoned to us, luggage in hand.

“Well, sounds like it’s time to go.”

“Yeah.”

We put the matter out of our minds and headed towards the others.

“How do we get to the beach, anyway? We landed in the middle of the island, and it seems like a pretty long walk there.”

“Don’t worry, we can use a short warp.”

Iris pointed to a round, mechanical dais. I watched as another group of people got on it and disappeared. I figured it must take you straight to the beach. We got in a short line to use it.

“Which beach will you set as your destination?” a mechanical-sounding voice asked when it was our turn.

“Can you go to beaches besides the one on this island?”

“You sure can,” Iris said.

“Huh... That’s pretty convenient.”

“Anybody have any preferences?”

“Somewhere where the waves are quiet,” Rosalind said.

Iris relayed the request to the machine, and it suggested a spot called “D-4 Beach.” We decided to go for it and each got up onto the dais in turn. We found ourselves transported to a beach with calm, lapping waves. There were a few people here, too, but it still wasn’t as busy as I’d expected a resort to be.

“Looks like we practically have the place to ourselves, huh? I bet we can do a lot of swimming,” Satsuki said. She was holding her straw hat to her head to keep the wind from blowing it away.

“Well, that’s true,” I said.

Japanese beaches in the summer were like trying to swim through a crowd of people, so this was a welcome experience. There were even changing rooms and other amenities you’d hope to find at the beach.

“All right, let’s all get changed and meet up again, okay?”

▽

I finished changing before the others and waited for them under a beach umbrella.

“They’re sure taking a while,” I said.

“Girls take a long time when they change,” R replied.

She was in a weird position. She had her head buried in the sand, but the rest of her was sticking out. Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around? And could I still hear her with her head in the sand because she was only partially corporeal to begin with?

“More importantly, why are you wearing a school swimsuit, anyway?”

“I’m trying to meet customer demand,” she said.

“Customer demand? I didn’t even know you could change clothes.”

“That’s a rude thing to say to a girl. You probably never noticed, but I change my army uniform every day. They just happen to all have the same design.”

How the hell was I supposed to notice then?

R popped her head out of the sand and took to reclining on it instead. Since she was wearing a school swimsuit, she’d taken off her military cap. When she looked up at me, I could see a small ponytail poking off the side of her head.

“I’m definitely looking forward to this, though.”

“To what?”

“Don’t play dumb. You want to see all the girls in their swimsuits, too, you pervert.”

“You’d better take that back,” I replied.

Then I heard the crunching sound of footsteps in the sand. I looked up and saw Satsuki. She was wearing a cardigan over her swimsuit.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Rekka.”

“Hey. Where are the others?”

“Still changing. I’m first, huh?”

She smiled and sat down next to me on the mat, but she seemed oddly fidgety.

“...Is something wrong?”

“Huh?! N-No... It’s nothing.”

“But you seem really antsy. Do you want to go swimming that badly?”

“That’s not it!”

For some reason, Satsuki was yelling instead answering normally. What had gotten into her?

“Isn’t there something else you should be saying to her, Rekka?” R let out an exasperated sigh.

What?

“...No, don’t give up here,” Satsuki whispered to herself.

She suddenly stood up in front of me and began to unbutton her cardigan. And then...

“H-Howwh dohh youhh wwike mwy shwimshoot?!” she spat out, tripping over her own tongue.

“W-Well...”

I was a little caught off guard, but I stood up and took a good look at her swimsuit from top to bottom. It was a white bikini, a rare choice for a quiet girl like her. The ribbons on her chest and the sides of her hips were cute, though. Actually, it looked like they might come undone if she moved the wrong way. It was weirdly exciting.

“I think it’s cute. It’s kind of a nice change of pace.”

“...Really?”

“Yeah. You usually just wear dresses.”

We both blushed at each other, but it didn’t last long. I was suddenly very distracted by the sensation of two soft somethings leaning up against my back.

“Guess who!”

“Iris, what are you doing?!” Satsuki yelled her name before I could even get a word out.

I should’ve known it was Iris! Wait, that meant the two small mountains I felt pressing against my back were... her breasts?!

“Uwah-wah!”

I panicked and tried to squirm out of her grasp, but ended up getting my foot caught on the beach mat and tripping.

“Aww, you don’t have to run away!”

No, I had to get out of there. And fast. I felt like my heart was going to burst. The feeling was more... direct... than usual. I turned around to say something to her.