132 – Horror Summer Vacation #2
Posedion's Great Ocean was incredibly deep. Some parts of the deep sea even bordered right up against the Soul Society. The Okeanos beach we were heading to was a frontier zone where the Great Ocean met the underworld.
According to Hedone, it was one of the top three vacation spots that trendy goddesses dreamed of visiting. The problem was that, being a border region, just anyone couldn't come and go freely.
Thanks to the private beach and villa owned by the Chairman, I was invited by Lady Melinoë and became the first living person to set foot on that beautiful shore.
Shwaaaaa─.
Under the blinding midsummer sun, waves rolled in. The salty tang hit me hard—it was unmistakably the real deal, the ocean. White and blue buildings, emerald waves, and that vast horizon stretching out. If you imagined the Santorini coast in the Mediterranean, a hotspot for honeymoons, it'd look just like this.
Who could possibly think of this as the underworld?
It reminded me of the time I piloted a yacht across the Pacific to help Professor Zeusoo with his sea fishing. A faint nostalgia for the surface world welled up.
The other Soul Society residents seemed to feel the same. Crowzer, with his artistic flair, trembled like a puppy desperate to pee.
"After staring at those dingy riverside banks in the low gods' realm, seeing this Okeanos beach brings back those glorious days on the surface! Ahh! Truly the halcyon─Guaak!"
Someone shoved Crowzer hard aside and tumbled toward the beach. It was the nymph Carnoy.
"This Carnoy doesn't know what it is, but seeing the ocean makes her feel so good...! She wants to smack the seawater like pounding a drum with her palms...! Nymphbi-gi: Wild Water Splashing...!"
Splash splash─.
The nymph Carnoy smacked the water like a drum. Soon, Siren Rilke joined her, leaping in.
"Real seawater! Ocean water! Nymphbi-gi: Wild Water Splashing...!"
Splash splash─.
She must have been thrilled enough to shed her usual mature nymph facade. Sirens were mermaids who lived in the sea, after all. They were called sea nymphs, right? In a way, Siren Rilke had returned to her homeland.
But not all nymphs loved the ocean, apparently.
"What's so great about a bunch of stagnant water? I'll just lie under this parasol, so call me when it's lunchtime."
Eurydol, wearing a long shirt down to her thighs as a makeshift swimsuit, flopped under the parasol shade with a bored expression.
Crowzer clicked his tongue at the sight.
"Some people are like that. On a rare trip, and it's 'too hot─too tiring to walk─I'll just sit and rest, you guys have fun without me─' acting all high and mighty! I know exactly one woman like that!"
"Got a problem with how I enjoy my summer vacation?"
Crackle crackle zap─.
Sparks flew from the glares between Crowzer and Eurydol. Echo waved her hands frantically at the scene.
"...!"
"You think we're on good terms? Echo! What a clueless thing to say! The women I hate most in the world are hipsters who live off their own smugness!"
"Says the clown who looks like he bombed on stocks."
Already annoying. Blushing and bickering at a vacation spot? Perfect. With this many people enjoying their break, trouble was bound to brew naturally. And that trouble would be the key to my plan: Operation Horror Summer Vacation.
So where was Lady Melinoë? I scanned around, but no sign. Maybe she'd gone to the villa to unpack.
Someone poked my side. It was Alecto, casting shade with her massive crow-like wings.
"Looking for Melinoë? She went inside the villa to change. Since she's not here, I'll say it: We'll back you up this vacation, so don't worry!"
"Back me up?"
"You wanna get closer to Melinoë, right? We're not so shameless that we don't feel bad for crashing your couple's time. So we'll help out big time!"
"No, really. You don't need to worry about that. Everyone has their own pace in relationships. And I've already received so much help from you all—I've just been paying it back."
Alecto wiped her reddening nose with her index finger at my words.
"Joey, you're a guy who knows how to return favors, huh. I don't even know what help I've given you, but there must be a few things if I look! Alright, then we won't meddle—handle it yourself."
Whatever it was, I'd fended off Alecto and the others pushing my romance hard. Like perfectly blocking a massive tsunami. Good start.
# # #
Shwaaaaa, splash─.
I sat under the parasol shade, spacing out at the crashing waves. Staring blankly at the sea. They call it sea-staring.
Vacations are the best.
No matter how you slice it, a break from routine where you could just relax was pure joy. Sitting still like this recharged my energy.
Then someone slapped my back hard.
"Cough!"
"Manager Joey! What do you think of my swimsuit!"
It felt like being a volleyball spiked by the star player. I shook off the dizziness and focused. Hedone stood there in a swimsuit under a yellow cardigan, straw hat on her head, beaming at me.
I was shocked. Hedone's swimsuit was more─.
"Why? Too pretty for words?"
"Super unexpected? I figured you'd go for a bikini or something. Isn't that a competition swimsuit? The kind swimmers wear. So tame for you."
For someone who'd talked about renaming herself Hedopamine, it was pretty plain. Still, it was a powerful weapon in its own right.
Glance glance─.
Sure enough, tons of employees were stealing looks at Hedone.
"Who's that blonde?"
"Some Happy World employee, I think."
"You know, the one who went toe-to-toe with the monster legion commander─."
Whatever they said, Hedone was gorgeous and popular. Though her true nature was a destructive beast rivaling that commander─.
Hedone narrowed her slender eyes slyly.
"Manager Joey, you know I’ve got a quarter goddess of beauty blood in me, right? My dad's Eros, and my mom’s the famed beauty Psyche."
"Yeah, old news. So?"
"If someone like me wore something flashy, every guy on this beach would stare, right? Their frontal lobes would fry, and they'd all be my prisoners!"
In other words, she wore a standard competition suit to prevent a dopamine overload epidemic. What confidence.
But the scary part is it might not be just ego or a joke.
I was trembling when her straw hat cast a shadow over her face.
"It's a headache for me too. Being too popular is a problem. I wonder if people like me for me, or just my looks."
So she's unhappy no one sees past her exterior to love her inner self? This girl!
"Ow! Why pinch my nose! It's already high enough!"
"Quit whining when you're spoiled. Normal folks can't even get anyone to like their looks, let alone their insides. Rich kids always want more."
"Just you wait, Manager Joey. I'll use the 'killer swimsuit' I snuck in to make you drool over me!"
That sounded terrifying. But at least, after spending time with all these goddesses lately, my resistance to female beauty had toughened up.
If surface-world me got tempted by a woman like Hedone, I'd have stuttered like an idiot and become her marionette.
In that sense, my ordeals with the self-proclaimed beautiful and perfect goddess Lady Melinoë had been my vaccine.
Lunchtime rolled around.
"Nymphbi-gi: Serve!"
"Nymphbi-gi: Toss!"
"Nymphbi-gi: Spike!"
Watching the nymphs play volleyball on the beach, I got curious. What even was Nymphbi-gi?
"Does slapping 'Nymphbi-gi' on any action make it one?"
I muttered to myself, and Paranoy, who'd come for a cool soda, scowled.
"Explaining that is not 'Nymphnoy' at all...!"
What the hell was Nymphnoy? No clue.
Anyway, my eyes swept the beachgoers enjoying their vacations. No sign of Lady Melinoë—wonder where she was.
If she's not in sight, I get anxious.
What if she stirred up some incident? What if I got dragged in and accidentally edged further from getting fired!
I'm like a baseball game in the ninth inning, bases loaded, three balls, two strikes.
One slip, and I'd be the first mortal promoted to executive. A real headache.
Of course, I have a contingency for that...
Like nukes from a superpower—best if never used.
Why this ominous feeling, though? I couldn't just sit.
I shot up, and Narcissus, building a sandcastle with Echo, asked.
"Manager Joey, going somewhere?"
"Looking for Lady Melinoë. Lunchtime's here, and she's MIA—worried she got caught in something. If Tartarus goons ambushed her on house arrest, it'd be bad."
"Heard she got jumped by rebel ninjas while grounded. With this crowd, a spy wouldn't be weird."
Narcissus nodded sagely, his gaze full of respect.
"Only you'd worry about your boss and company safety on vacation. This isn't just a break, huh? You've got a plan."
Echo nodded vigorously too. Now even breathing earned me high praise. Bad vibe—time to bail.
I hurried off to find Lady Melinoë. Where? The villa? No, more likely somewhere solitary, like those wave-crashing cliffs. She preferred quiet over crowds.
Astoundingly, I nailed it. Except─.
"Melinoi...!?"
Not Melinoë, but Melinoi. Standing at the cliff's edge, gazing at the horizon.
"......"
Melinoi turned to me. But this Melinoi was off from the one I knew?
Her hair was pure white. If the usual was Black Melinoi, this was White Melinoi.
"Eat something bad? Why so white?"
"......"
Melinoi stayed silent, just tilting her head. Weird. My Melinoi would bounce like dandelion seeds in the wind, chattering nonstop. Why so meek?
"...You aren't Melinoi?"
No way. She looked identical. Puzzled, White Melinoi suddenly leaped off the cliff.
"Wait! Stop!"
Whatever she was, letting White Melinoi roam free? She'd cause chaos and pin merits on me again. No choice—I scrambled down the steep cliff after her.
# # #
Goddess Melinoë gazed from the villa at the bustling beach crowd. She hated noise, waiting for sunset and thinning crowds.
Inviting so many to a summer spot? But no complaints. Supporting Joey was a lover's duty.
"Hm?"
Then she spotted Joey heading to the deserted cliffs.
"Joey...?"
Atop the cliff, he faced a strange white-haired woman. A chilling premonition hit Melinoë.
Can't leave Joey alone with that girl─.
Goddess's instinct. Melinoë rushed to the cliffs.