After Gender Swapping, I Became the Daughter of a Yandere Mother with Animal Ears—With the Help of My Yandere Mom and Powerful Sister, I'll Live as a Fox Girl

“You’re late!”

“Seriously, I’ve been waiting forever.”

Yorikoma pouted as she complained, and Chizuru looked on with exasperation and amusement… there was a hint of happiness in her expression, too.

“Sorry…”

“Hmph. Well, it’s fine. Now that everyone’s here, let’s begin our fun.”

“I agree! Let’s go swimming! I’m quite confident in my swimming skills!”

Unable to contain her excitement, Yorikoma began hopping around on the spot, kicking up clouds of sand that settled on her brand-new swimsuit.

It seemed she had chosen a modest black bikini. Though it wasn’t particularly revealing, her ample chest was emphasized, making it difficult to know where to look.

“Ah, I’ll pass. I don’t want to get sunburned.”

“I can’t swim, so go ahead without me.”

“My feathers would get wet.”

“I think… I’ll pass too…”

“What?!”

Yorikoma’s enthusiasm was met with a unanimous declaration of non-participation from the other four, much to her surprise.

“Why not?! We came to the beach! What was the point of buying swimsuits?”

“That’s true. But swimming isn’t the only thing to do at the beach.”

“That may be true, but… Mashiro-sama! You were so excited to go to the beach, right?”

“Ugh… I did want to go… but I also wanted to be with everyone…”

Feeling embarrassed by her words, Mashiro looked down at the sand. Suddenly, a gentle hand was placed on her shoulder, causing her body to flinch.

“Heh~ Onee-chan is such a loner, isn’t she~”

Kohaku teased with a mischievous grin, whispering into her ear.

“It’s not like that…!”

Mashiro’s denial was weak, lacking conviction even in her ears.

“Hehe. You’re not being honest.”

With a chuckle, Kohaku patted Mashiro’s head, which felt surprisingly comforting, causing her to close her eyes in contentment.

“Ugh… Kohaku, you’re so mean…”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m the mean one.”

“Are you not going to swim?”

“‘No’ from all of us.”

“I see…”

Disappointed by their coordinated response, Yorikoma sulked momentarily before turning towards the sea with a look of resignation.

“Alright. I’ll go to the sea by myself then. You all enjoy yourselves here.”

Yorikoma ran off towards the sea, leaving the others behind.

“Let’s do something too, then,” Chizuru suggested.

“What should we do?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t decided.”

“That’s so vague…”

“How about playing in the sand?”

The suggestion came unexpectedly from Hibari.

“Playing in the sand? We’re not children…”

“But, we have an endless amount of sand here. There’s no limit to what we can create. Together, we could even build a universe.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration… But why not? Let’s create a masterpiece together.”

“Good. I was looking for some shade anyway. I’m in.”

“Well, if it’s with Mashiro, I might consider it…”

Seeing the others not entirely opposed to the idea, I smiled.

“Alright! Let’s do it! Let’s create a historic masterpiece!”

And so, we began our grand endeavor in the sand, with the sea at our backs.

☆★☆

30 minutes later.

I was so astonished by what lay before me that I had stopped moving altogether…

“Wow, this is looking pretty good…”

Kohaku lay beneath a massive sandcastle. It was so large it looked like it could bury someone alive if it collapsed, but the sand was packed so tightly it seemed unlikely to crumble. How did it end up like this?

“Yours is quite big too.”

Chizuru had built a respectable sandcastle at her feet, but it was significantly smaller than Kohaku’s.

It was supposed to be a group project, but Kohaku somehow managed to secure her shade.

“Ugh, my head hurts. I’m going to cool off in the shallows…”

“Take care.”

Chizuru waved me off as I stood up, and I started walking with unsteady steps. But I tripped over something soft and ended up face-first in the sand.

“Oof… ugh…”

“Too bad. I was so close to being stepped on.”

Looking down at what I had tripped over, I saw a rainbow-colored bird poking its head out of the sand, looking disappointingly at me.

“Hibari… what are you doing?”

“I thought if I hid here, Mashiro would step on me. But, my plan failed.”

“Why would you want that…?”