Water Wars

“Let’s have a water fight!” Kasa suggested to the group, a certain fiery gleam in her eyes. 

“Sounds fun.” Tsubaki agreed instantly, a similar gleam in her eyes. Both sisters were highly competitive, so Kasa’s reason for suggesting it was suddenly made clear. 

“Two teams.” Kasa declared, her eyes scanning their little group. “Me, Bellerose, and Eris versus Tsubaki, Angel, and Amelia.” 

Given that Angel was blind and Amelia was the laziest bun any of them knew, these teams essentially meant that Tsubaki would be fighting a one vs three battle. 

The thought excited Tsubaki. And it wasn’t completely unfair, given that she had lots of physical training thanks to her swordsmanship. “You’re on.” 

“This’ll be easy,” Eris boasted as she began filling some water balloons. Kasa and Bellerose similarly began filling some water guns. 

Tsubaki, though, picked an unusual weapon. Picking up a pool noodle, she swung it around a bit to test it before frowning. It was too flexible to do her any good as is. Walking around a bit, Tsubaki kept her eyes on the ground until she found a long but sturdy branch. Breaking off the twigs, she slid the branch into the center of the pool noodle to stabilize it. 

“That’s not going to hurt us, even with a branch in the middle, you know.” Kasa chuckled as she watched her sister.

“I don’t need it to hurt you,” Tsubaki smirked back at her, “I just needed it to be a bit more sturdy.” 

Bellerose and Eris shared a look, thinking Tsubaki was a bit strange for her weapon choice, but shrugged. They knew she was used to a sword, but it didn’t seem very helpful in a water fight. 

“Are you ready?” Bellerose asked. 

Tsubaki glanced back towards Angel and Amelia, who were both sitting on a towel nearby, just to double check if they were going to join or not. Amelia was sound asleep, while Angel cheered her on. “You can do it!”

“Yeah, I’m ready.” Tsubaki turned back to her three opponents. 

“Attack!” Kasa shouted as she began spraying her water gun. Bellerose joined her, while Eris pelted Tsubaki with water balloons from a distance a bit further from her two teammates.

Tsubaki jumped back to try and avoid the initial onslaught, using her pool noodle as a shield in some cases. She quickly discovered that it was easier to dodge the balloons than it was to block them, since the balloons would still break upon contact and she couldn’t block all the water from spraying back at her. 

While she was able to dodge or block most of the water gun shots, there were still a few that hit her. For now, Tsubaki knew she needed to wait. Finally, the moment she was waiting for happened.

Kasa and Bellerose ran out of water and needed to reload.

Not wasting a moment, Tsubaki charged forward towards the pair, pool noodle at her side. Ducking below a well aimed water balloon from Eris, Tsubaki swung with all her might at both Kasa and Bellerose, managing to catch both of them on the long pool noodle. Thanks to the strength of her swing and the extra leverage and stability that the branch provided, Tsubaki was able to successfully push both women back far enough that they fell into the water pool behind them where they had intended to reload their guns. They fell with a loud splash, after which Tsubaki immediately turned her attention to the remaining threat: Eris.

Eris, who just watched her two teammates get knocked into a pool and were just now coming up for air, completely soaked, raised both her hands in surrender. “Yeah, no. You win.” 

“We won?” Angel asked, a bright smile lighting up her face, Amelia still snoring at her side.

Tsubaki returned her smile and went to sit next to her on the beach towel. “Yes, we won.” 

“You did great!” Angel praised, patting Tsubaki on the head and rubbing one of her ears. Tsubaki basked in the praise and happily leaned in closer for more head pats and ear strokes. 

“She just got lucky,” Kasa claimed as she grabbed a fresh towel to dry herself with. Then, with a mischievous grin, she said, “Why don’t we have an eating contest next?”

Tsubaki groaned. With Kasa’s appetite, that was one competition she knew she could never win.