Chapter 122: Swimsuit Contest

Chapter 122: Swimsuit Contest

We swam and played in the sea for an hour or two.

It felt like we crammed all of this year’s water fun into today.

There was an incident where the Class President blushed at the sight of my body, but that was entirely due to her lack of immunity to men’s physiques.

Others reacted with awe at my body, like “Wow! Ryuji! You’re in great shape!” making the Class President mutter,“... Am I the weird one?“

The tanned foreign ghost floating behind Ryuji commented embarrassingly, “It’s like a body sculpted by the gods.”

Back on shore, we sat around the parasol, enjoying the cool sea breeze.

“Ah~ This is nice~”

“The sea in Japan is definitely nice.”

Hearing Sasha’s words, Yaguchi tilted her head and asked,

“Is the sea in Russia different?”

Sasha nodded and replied,

“Vladivostok, where I was born, is a port city, a rare ice-free port in Russia. But unlike here, the water temperature is extremely low, so jumping into the sea like we do here is unthinkable back home.”

“Ah...”

Yaguchi looked enlightened after hearing her explanation.

Indeed, the image of the sea varied depending on where one was born.

Then Ryuji, who was drinking water, said,

“Isn’t it about time for Satoru to come back?”

“Now that you mention it, why isn’t he back yet?”

He had been gone for hours, despite not planning to hunt for girls all day.

Just as we started to worry about Satoru,

“Hey guys~!”

Satoru’s voice could be heard from afar.

I turned my head, annoyed at having worried for nothing, and blinked in disbelief at the sight.

Beside Satoru were three women who appeared to be adults.

Wondering how this happened, I looked at him, and he winked with a smile.

It seemed like he was sending a signal.

I asked Ryuji, who was beside me,

“Did you talk about something with him?”

“No?”

Ryuji seemed as clueless as I was.

Then, Satoru, who had arrived at the parasol where we were resting, spoke in an ingratiating voice.

“Ladies! These guys are my friends!”

“Oh my, they are all handsome.”

“They look even better in person.”

“Look at those bulging muscles.”

We thanked them for their unexpected compliments, all the while wondering what was going on as we looked at Satoru.

Then Satoru approached us with a smile and spoke in a low voice.

“Guys, help me out. It took me hours to charm these ladies, and they said they’d hang out with other people if the numbers didn’t match.”

“Now? At this time?”

The looks from the other kids resting under the parasol were ominous.

No matter how I thought about it, this was a poisoned chalice.

But Satoru was desperate in his own way.

We found a reasonably empty spot and sat down in a row.

Since the contest hadn’t started yet, people who looked like stage staff were busily running around the stage, carrying various items.

Eventually, as the empty seats in front of the stage began to fill up and the shouting of the stage staff subsided, a man in an Aloha shirt and black sunglasses stepped onto the stage and exclaimed.

“Yes~! Thank you for waiting! The famous Onjoku Beach event! The 17-year tradition! The Onjoku Swimsuit Contest starts right nooooow!!”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As soon as the MC finished speaking, fireworks shot up from the stage.

This spectacle made even those passing by stop and look.

“I’m the MC for this event, Genin Saruyama. As summer ripens, I hope you all enjoy and take pleasure in this contest.”

The skilled MC smoothly ran the show and then gave a basic explanation of the contest.

“Participants are basically all in swimsuits, and in the preliminaries, each person has about three minutes to appeal to their charm. We’ll narrow down the finalists based on the live audience’s response and the judges’ evaluations, then conduct interviews and ultimately select the winner through a popularity vote!”

Quite a unique rule set for a contest with a 17-year tradition.

It was interesting that the audience’s reaction was more important than the judges’ scores.

Well, at least with these rules, there wouldn’t be any accusations of rigging.

“Now, all participants, please come up on stage!”

Following the MC’s instructions, the swimsuit contest participants waiting behind the stage began to appear one by one.

Surprisingly, they didn’t separate the men’s and women’s categories but instead lumped everyone together.

Even Satoru, who had been gloomy all day due to his failed hunting, brightened up significantly at the sight of the beauties in swimsuits.

‘Won’t all the men’s votes go to the female participants?’

Well, the organizers must have their reasons for making it a mixed-gender contest.

As we were observing the participants who came up on stage...

“Now, at this moment! We’ll accept participants from the audience!”

At that, the audience began to stir.

No one had expected additional participants to be accepted at this time.

Karen crossed her arms and muttered in disbelief.

“Who would participate in something like that?”

The Class President next to her chimed in.

“Exactly.”

The MC, now down from the stage, walked around facing the audience.

“Does anyone want to participate? We’re also accepting recommendations!”

The audience watched this with interest.

But no one stepped forward directly.

Well, unless someone really craved attention, no one would participate when all eyes were on them.

That was what I thought when...

Suddenly, Sasha, next to me, raised her hand.

The MC didn’t miss that gesture.

“Yes! The foreign beauty over there!”

He immediately walked over and held out the microphone to Sasha.

“Are you planning to participate in the contest?”

Then Sasha shook her head and said,

“Not me; I’m nominating this man.”

And her finger was pointing at me.