Too Many Losing Heroines! - Volume 1 - Chapter 3.1

Loss 3:

Komari Chika Wins the Battle, Loses the War

A VIRTUALLY CLOUDLESS SKY GREETED THE FIRST day of the trip. We’d had a dry rainy season this year, to the point that I kind of forgot we were even in the rainy season.

One train and a bus later, the literature club had arrived at Shiroya Beach, just a short way from where we’d be staying the night. Shuffling and hopping around on burning hot sand, I laid out our tarp. I was the very picture of a fish out of water.

“Not bad, Nukumizu. Not bad at all.” President Tamaki stabbed an umbrella into the sand. Hadn’t seen much of him, but I was grateful for his rare attendance. Otherwise it would have been just me and four girls.

“I don’t follow,” I said.

“Yanami and Yakishio. You snagged us some real cuties.” He looked longingly toward the changing rooms. “And just in time for the beach.”

“Right, sorry about Yanami-san just kind of—”

The prez snatched my hand and shook it up and down. “I seriously owe you one, man!”

“You, er, really like swimming, huh?”

“No, man, it’s the swimsuits! Think about it. How many men in this world can brag about having seen four clubmates stripped down at the same time?”

“I’m classmates with two of them,” I said. “I’ve seen them ­during swim class at school plenty of times.”

“That’s entirely different. School-issue swimsuits and personal ones are completely separate beasts.”

As far as designs and amount of skin went, I was with him. He seemed to notice he wasn’t quite getting through to me.

“Look, girls wear school swimsuits because they have to,” he began. The logic tracked so far. “They wear their own swimsuits because they want to. Get it? Do you see the difference?”

“Go on.” He’d earned my interest.

“Shoulders and thighs are big no-nos normally, yeah? It’s embarrassing to show them off. One exposed midriff and suddenly you’re a slut. But the beach? It’s no holds barred. You can flaunt yourself in what’s basically underwear and it’s totally socially ­acceptable.” President Tamaki clenched his fist and turned his gaze skyward. “We are free to look, and they are free to be watched. It would be a disservice to avert our gazes! Maybe. Probably not, actually.”

The man made sense. I was starting to believe in the magic of summer.

“You’re right,” I admitted. “I was blind to the truth.”

“Oh?”

“Just one thought I had.”

“Lay it on me,” he said.

“You said they wear school swimsuits because ‘they have to,’ right?”

“That I did.”

“In other words, they’re being forced, in a sense, to expose themselves,” I said. “I think there’s something to be said for that.”

“I see. Your perspective certainly adds a bit of spice to what would otherwise be a boring old PE class.” The prez nodded. “One might even be able to put oneself in the shoes of an isekai protagonist, browsing the selection of beastwomen at a slave ­auction. I like the way you think.”

“Okay, I wouldn’t go that far.” I was no longer part of this conversation.

“Interesting chat. Mind if I join in?” Tsukinoki-senpai ­appeared and yanked the president’s ear.

“Owowow!” he yiped. “Wait a minute. Koto, where’s your bikini?”

Tsukinoki-senpai tugged harder. The president howled. She had on a black one-piece with sheer fabric covering the chest area.

“Less horndogging, more swimming.” She marched off, dragging Prez with her by his ear.

“Oooh, a parasol! Thanks, Nukumizu-kun.”

I turned. “Yanami-san—”

I wanted to comment on the shaved ice she’d somehow gotten from god knows where, but her perfect skin flash-banged me before I could. There was so much of it. Her bikini was plain—plainly defective. I could have sworn those things were meant to cover more than what it did. She had a figure that defied her appetite, and…other things that didn’t. “Last year’s” swimsuit was maybe getting a little small.

Did it look good on her? Irrelevant. A foolish question. The only way I could describe my feelings at that moment was “gratitude.”

“What’s up? My bod got you buggin’ out or something?” Yanami teased.

“I-I dunno,” I stammered. “W-wasn’t really looking.” A pathetic attempt at maintaining composure.

Yanami planted herself in the shade of the parasol, satisfied. “You go ahead. I’m gonna eat first.”

“Aww, you gotta come with, Yana-chan!” Yakishio came running next, carrying a beach ball under her arm. She stared out across the ocean. “Look how pretty the water is!”

She wore a tube top bikini, the kind without any shoulder straps. As if the tan lines weren’t enough, the front of her top piece was held together by mere string at the cleavage. And yes, a lot was visible. More gratitude for the fashion designers of the world. I wondered if they had an Amazon wishlist or something.

“C’mon, Nukkun, you too!” she urged.

“I’m gonna watch our stuff,” I said. “You go ahead. Yanami-san’s gonna be at it a while.”

Yanami shot me a narrow look. “Is that a challenge?” Before I could tell her that it was not, in fact, a challenge, she had scarfed the entire cup of shaved ice. “Done!”

“Already?”

“Naive Nukumizu-kun. Shaved ice is technically a beverage, don’t you knwaaagh!” Yanami held her head in her hands and squealed.

“That’s why we don’t wolf down cold food, kids,” I said.

Yakishio came over. “You okay, Yana-chan?”

“Feels like my head’s about to pop…” Yanami sniffled.

I was starting to think that girl might not be the brightest bulb of the bunch.

“You run off once you feel better,” I said. “I’ll just chill here.”

“Thanks,” said Yanami. “I’m better, so I’mma go now.”

“Don’t take too long!” Yakishio shouted back at me.

The two hurried off, kicking up sand behind them. Yakishio hurled the beach ball at the president the moment he was within range. Had they even met before?

Meanwhile, I watched from afar. Something was nagging at me in the back of my mind. It felt like we were forgetting something.

That something kicked me in the back. “Wh-what’re you gawking at, Nukumizu?”

Komari the Forgotten scowled through her hoodie. She took a seat a good distance away from me.

“Not gonna join the others?” I asked.

“D-don’t feel like it.”

The president looked over the moon with the girls all to himself. He was truly living his best life. Where had they gotten that orca floaty from?

Komari looked on with that same disgruntled scowl.

“I imagine the president’d like having you over there too.”

“I’m f-fine.” She started fiddling with her phone in a protective Ziploc bag and didn’t look back up. “Wh-what about you? Don’t you have a thing for Y-Yanami?”

“What? Why would I?”

The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. She was still hung up on that Hakamada guy for one thing, and it had barely been a week since she got rejected.

“Y-you’re always together,” Komari said.

“It just looks that way because you only see her when she’s with me.” Assumptions were the fate of every guy and girl who hung out together, apparently. We didn’t even talk in class, like, at all, and Yakishio was our sole mutual acquaintance. “We’ve only just met, and there are circumstances. If that’s enough to catch feelings, then I’m no better than those guys who imagine their whole future with a girl just because she said ‘hi’ to him.”

Komari pulled her hoodie tight around herself and scooched away.

“I’m saying I’m not that.” Mid-eyeroll, I caught a glimpse of what she had on beneath the jacket. “Is that your school swimsuit?”

“I-I didn’t have time to buy one.” She eyed me up and down. “You were p-probably in a rush too.”

I laughed. “Please. This is last year’s. Bit lame, but it works.”

“I-it still has the tag on.”

I panicked and started frisking myself. Komari smirked at me.

“Yeah, yeah, you got me,” I confessed, clenching my fists. “So sue me. I was a little excited about going to the beach with some girls.”

Komari, being one of said girls, spared no sympathy in her expression. “W-we swim at school.”

“It’s not the same. Do you get excited about gym class? No. It’s not for fun.”

“Okay, th-then humor me. S-say you were having ‘f-fun’ with some friends.” Komari took one look at me and knew she’d already lost me. “S-say you were paying some f-friends to have fun with you.” Cold, harsh reality, my old friend. “They a-ask you what you want to do. Do…do you play volleyball?”

“Nope,” I answered without hesitation.

“Do you play in the w-water?”

She was right. I wouldn’t normally be itching to do those things. She had missed one crucial detail, however.

“You’re omitting something, Komari.”

Yanami and the others were clambering over the orca floaty. Yakishio made a bold attempt to stand and drank seawater. There were shouts, and laughs, and chaos.

“I-I am?” she said.

“The ‘friends’ are girls, and they’re in swimsuits.” For a second, reality stopped feeling quite so cold and harsh. “Yeah, I think I would do those things.” I shot up to my feet.

Komari gave me a blank, incredulous look for a second. “Th-then go on and get outta here!”