After narrowly escaping a beatdown from Psycho Chan Gamo, Nagatoro, and Yoshi all went down into the water. 

Senpai and Yuka stayed up on the shore. He didn't want to screw up his boxing trousers, and Senpai didn't like anything that required more than 15 calories worth of energy outside of drawing.

Sitting down with an idle mind his thoughts wandered to earlier in the day. 

'The power of love' He thought to himself looking out to the distance.

Yuka would be the first to admit he didn't understand it in the slightest. He was a top student in school, never saw a grade below a B, he could tell you all about where to hit someone and why it knocks them down, he could deadlift 3 times his own body weight, and yet he didn't know where to even start with love. 

All the time on the radio he heard songs of love, everywhere he read love would come up, but even for something that he had been drowned in since he was young he had never seen a more alien concept. Was love the burning fire that he put behind punches? No, that was anger and pain. Was love what his parents felt for him? The type of unconditionally selfless devotion that was illogical and confusing to him. He was grateful for her love, but he still thought his mother a fool, she shed blood, sweat, and tears for who he thought was, a massive failure. 

Perhaps love is foolish, a fools game, but as he looked out to the happy couples on the beach he couldn't help but feel that for some, it's one worth playing. To him though, it was just that, fools being fools playing a foolishly foolish game and foolishly enjoying their own foolery. A game that they played that nobody won, but also it seemed that, nobody lost, a concept that was so strange to him.

Nothing about it made sense, it was all just illogical, foolish, and confusing to him. But he didn't care too much some mysteries he wasn't meant to solve, and that was okay to him. As all of the guys around him grew up and got girlfriends, broke up, and found new ones he stayed alone, he didn't fancy love as a possibility for him, and he still didn't. Love could supposedly move mountains, but even the idea of it didn't even make a spark in his heart, but for him that was just fine.

'I don't have any 'love' to give, and there isn't a reason in the world someone would give me any' He thought to himself.

"Hey, Higurashi?" Senpai asks pulling him out of his philosophy session.

"Yeah?" Yuka responds.

"Please don't get offended by this, but, are you on steroids?" Senpai asks in the softest most inoffensive voice possible.

Yuka's face contorted, his face always looked angry, but now Senpai saw what his genuinely angry face looked like. Yuka started growling angrily and the fire in his eyes was clear to see.

"This, is, not the result of steroids!" He yells pointing to his muscles, "This is not the result of steroids, this is days and days of an insane training routine!" He states standing up.

"Okay, that's co-" Senpai says before being cut off.

"I get up, every day at 4am, go on a 5 mile run on this very beach, and then, just after catching your breath going to the gym for an hour and a half, lifting almost twice your weight, and then only after this you get to have a small breakfast." He says

He looks to him, but knows he wasn't going to be able to stop his little rant.

"And then, after school, I go back to the gym, spar for 12 rounds, work furiously on routine, and do 2000 sit-ups, 50 dips, 50 push ups, 50 shrugs, and then 30 minutes of cardio, and only after that I get to go home at 7, and I have a mountain of homework. Nope steroids don't get you here,  this is all natural my friend." He says pointing to his muscle.

"And they ain't just for show check this out!" Yuka says as he punches down a random palm tree nearby.

Coming back to Senpai he sits down in the shade of the parasol. 

"Are you okay?" Senpai asks genuinely concerned.

"Yeah." He replies picking splinters out of the tape.

"That must be rough." He says.

"Yeah it is, but it's damn rewarding." Yuka replies.

He looks out to the open ocean where 3 girls were out having fun in the water. He didn't have any plans of joining them, and he knew that Senpai certainly didn't. Settling into the sand he lays down, extremely bored, there wasn't anything strenuous about this activity yet he was having a harder time doing this than his workouts. 

'It's boring'

'It's a waste of my time!'

'It's insufferable!'

.

.

.

'but, it's kinda fun?' 

Lost in his own thoughts he breathes in through his nose, to smell a scent that he surprisingly hadn't smelled in a while. Burning Mary Jane, tightening his boxing tape he rolls his neck and prepares himself.

"I'll be back." He says to Senpai, his voice lined with drive.

He got up and followed the scent's trail, hyping himself up mentally for the fight ahead of him. Senpai on the other hand, looked terrified at Nagatoro getting out of the water walking towards him. His protector gone, off doing something else he was at the mercy of the sunburnt sadistic half loli herself.

---

(THE FOLLOWING IS NOT CANON)

Nose to the floor he stayed on his path following the scent he was brought to a remote corner of the beach, nobody was there, it was rocky and rough, not the type of place to set up and relax, didn't matter to him, he had a mission and he was going to finish it. Stepping onto one rock a massive beam of pure energy shot upwards, Yuka narrowly dodges it just in time the heat drying off the sweat on his face

"Come out, I know you're here Smoker-Chan." He shouts out.

Stepping out from behind the shadows he stands up proudly, in at 6'0 and 210 lbs and with a record of 22-3 (17 KO).

"So we meet again, I thought I smelled a wet dog." Smoker-Chan says throwing his joint to the side.

"Smoking and littering?! I'm gonna lay down the smackdown on ya pal!" Yuka replies catching the joint and stomping it out himself.

"Nobodies watching, I'm going full power, you should too, I'd like to have fun today." Smoker says cracking his knuckles.

Smoker chan begins to glow and scream until he reached super Smoker god Super Smoker 1. Yuka rips off a spell talisman and 2 white dog ears appear on his head complimented by two viciously sharp claws on his hands.

The two take up fighting stances, and they start at it.

"Sankon Tessō!" Yuka yells as he swipes at him with his claws

He is hit, and he slips back on the rocks, after being thrown for a while he finally regains his footing on a flat rock and looks up to see him there in front of him.

"Inu Rush!" Yuka screams as he unleashes his attack.

Keeping his head on, Smoker prepares himself and masterfully blocks all the punches thrown at his way.

"Enough of this," Smoker says gripping onto Yuka's fist.

Yuka looks to him wide eyed and slightly panicked nobody had ever been able to counter the Inu rush.

"Smoker flip!" He yells out while twisting Yuka's fists and throwing him up in the air.

Yuka temporarily thinks he lost the fight, but he twists himself in the air and manages to land on his feet.

"What!?! that's not possible!" Smoker-Chan said.

"Perhaps it is impossible but that doesn't matter." Yuka said

His entire body flashed a bright white for 2 frames before he delivered a lightning fast uppercut to his chin. He was sent down to the floor, and the ref came onto the scene and started counting.

1...2...3...4...5, 

Smoker looks as if he's getting up but to no avail. 

6...7...8...9...10! 

"Knockout!" Yuka screams as the ref walks and he gives his victory pose.

"You're experience doesn't match mine kid, go home and practice." He says to the unconscious bloodied heap on the floor.

"Well, that was fun, let's go see how the others are doing." He says walking away as he goes back to his normal self.

---

After bashing yet another pothead's head in he walked back to the place where Senpai had set up. The lewd aura in the air had become fully encompassing, and Yuka in his infinitely keen sense of smell sniffed out a great amount of lotion. Breaking into a sprint instead of his leisurely walk he dashed ahead prepared to save everyone's favorite bean sprout.

Running towards the altercation he realized the situation was much more strange than he thought. All three of the girls were stepping on Senpai?

"Alright, that's enough, cut it out!" Yuka screamed at them. "Really, in public, what the hell is wrong with you people." He said walking closer.

The three all looked up in perfect unison to see a disgusted and angry puppy standing in at 144cm and 67kg with a record of 31-0 (30 KO) ready to give all of them a whooping. 

All three of them step off, and he helps Senpai up to his feet. They had put a copious amount of lotion on him, and his entire body looked plasticky and oily as if he had just been cocooned in wax. Yuka opened his mouth intent on giving a rant, but was promptly stopped when he tripped on a rock. All three of them started laughing uncontrollably, much to his dismay.

"Would you quit it!" He yells red in the face.

"I'm sorry, it's just, the timing, it was too perfect!" Gamo says in between laughs.

They all look to Yuka's face a little closer and notice something peculiar. The dry sand was sticking to his face, but not his entire face no just his nose. Standing back up and dusting himself off Gamo reached for his face.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

She wipes the sand off with her thumb, and just as she expected his nose was cold and wet.

"Are you actually a dog?!" Gamo asks shocked and confused.

"What!?" He asks starting to growl.

"Look, he's even growling!" Gamo adds laughing, the two other join in.

Too frustrated to even formulate words he remains growling until he finally just slugged her arm and huffed in frustration. Thankfully they all shifted their attention to a particular pale bean sprout now covered in lotion. The three push him forcefully into the ocean to swim with them, Yuka joins them growling all the way, it was better than being bored, no matter how angry it makes him.

The day passes by, we can see Yoshi, Nagatoro, and Gamo racing while Yuka poses shows his muscles off to Senpai. We see Nagatoro chasing Senpai with a starfish while the other three laugh in the background. The group taking a break and eating a bowl of noodles.

And finally the highlight of the century, everything in the history of humanity had to go just right for this to happen. The parrot in disguise of a human known as 'Yoshi' was burying our favorite pale bean sprout into the ground and giving him fat mommy milkers, Gamo took pictures of the altercation, Nagatoro looking shocked, and Yuka in the background digging and burying a cool bone he found. This was it folks, we hit our peak, it's all downhill from here.

---

"Haah, I'm beat." Senpai says taking a seat.

"You know, you're a pretty okay guy." He says in a tone verging on sarcastic while punching his shoulder.

He meant for that one to be soft, but soft didn't quite exist in his mind and the punch actually hurt quite a bit.

"Um... Thanks?" Senpai replies rubbing his shoulder.

"Higurashi," He says introducing himself.

"Oh, um, Naoto," Senpai says introducing himself as well.

"They're still energetic as ever." Senpai says.

"You got that right," Yuka replies.

He looked to the group and focused in on the orange haired devil smiling. Not the sadistic smile he had become so used to seeing on her, but a genuine smile. It was a refreshing change, and he was happy to embrace it. Laying down on the towel he looked up to see that Senpai had pulled out a notebook and began to sketch something. 

*Timeskip brought to you by chibi Yuka and chibi Gamo on the beach*

It was starting to get dark, and everyone was on their way home. Much to his dismay, Yuka realized the route Gamo took home was nearly identical to the one he did.

"You don't live too far away Shortstack." Gamo says looking to his house.

"Would you cut it out with the nicknames." He replies flicking her on the head.

"Well, either way, did you have fun?" She asks.

He paused and thought about it, he had so many words to describe what happened there, a waste

a drag...

a colossal waste of time...

But still in the back of his mind one rested, and that was fun.

"Um, well, I guess, that was... Kinda fun." He says bashfully, "It would certainly be better if you weren't there!" He says red in the face.

"Heh, you're adorable when you do that." She says petting his head. "Say could I get your line number?" She asks.

"Oh really, why do you want it?" He asks once again swatting away her hand.

"So I can send you stuff like this." She says showing him the picture of Senpai in the sand.

"You know what, what's the worst that could come form it." He says giving her his number.

"Great! Now I can text you when I get bored." She says joyfully.

'I have made a horrible mistake' He thinks after hearing her.

Walking onto the porch he unlocks the door and opens it. 

"Mom, I'm home." He says into the nothingness.

A woman with long black hair and reddish eyes stumbles out of the room on the left in her pajamas. 

"Yuka?" She asks groggily while rubbing here eyes.

He felt kind of bad, she looked to be just about to be going to sleep probably after a long work day.

"Yeah," He replies scratching the back of his neck.

"Where have you been all day?" She asks.

"Well, I went to the beach." He replies.

She looks to him suspicion in her eyes, she knew her son well enough to know he'd never do this.

"Yeah, I went with friends, um, I guess." He says unsure of himself.

"Really?!" She says looking shocked.

"Well, I wouldn't really call them friends, more like, well, leeches." He says looking down to the floor.

"Well, leeches or not, you seem like you had fun." She said before yawning. "Well, we both best be getting off to bed now." 

She walked back into her room, and Yuka walked up to his room. Not bothering to change out of his current clothes he just puts on a shirt and jumps into his bed and promptly falls asleep. 

---

Yuka's mom looked to the picture she had on her nightstand. Just a simple picture of her and his father. He had died only months before Yuka was born his final wish being the name 'Yuka', and despite knowing it would be a boy he was adamant until his final breath. She could have described the man with a million adjectives, but almost 2/3s of them would have had to be permutations of 'snarky'. 

"If only you could see our son, he's just like you, he looks like you, and he even acts like you." She says before turning off the lamp and going to sleep.

---

Did you know the distinct smell after it rains actually has a name, it's called petrichor. Be sure to use this word next time it's relevant, or use it in an entirely different context to confuse people, and remember, don't be that loser who forgets to tune in next time!