Instead of the beach, they meet at the hotel, to avoid losing their kouhais in the ocean or sand. It wouldn't hurt to have lunch, anyway.
"A four-inch-tall Olympic swimmer gorging herself on a quarter of a donut," Teruteru marvels. He's at a table with Akane, Sonia, and Mahiru– and of course, all of the miniature Ultimates they're caring for.
Akane lowers her head to hear her kouhai's chittering voice, then lifts it again to say, "She wants you to stop starin'. Where's yours, anyway? You lose him?"
"Oh, he hid under my hat while I was cooking; he didn't like the smoke. I think he fell asleep up there."
"Aren'tcha worried he'll run out of air or somethin'?"
Teruteru lifts his hat to take a slumbering Yasuhiro and place him on the tabletop. The movement appears to startle him awake. (And who can blame him.)
"Hifumi," Mahiru chides, picking up her kouhai and turning him around. "She said to stop staring!"
At another table, Hajime sits with Nagito, Kazuichi, and Nekomaru.
"Aww. Are you making friends?" Nagito says.
His little brown-haired kouhai, Makoto, has been especially social with the others. Based on the tentatively positive reaction of Kazuichi's sheepish kouhai, Makoto seems to be a nice guy. He even pries a bit of conversation out of Kyoko, who Hajime has observed to be pretty unforthcoming.
"This is weird, right?" Hajime says, pulling Nagito's gaze away from fondly watching the tiny Ultimates interact. "I feel like we've moved past how weird this is pretty quickly."
"Check this out," Kazuichi says, taking out a little gadget he's been working on. "This motor is going to power the door to Chihiro's terrarium."
"Her terrarium is going to have an electric door?"
"Amazing!" Nagito says. "It's going to be so cool to see what everyone comes up with."
"This is weird," Hajime murmurs again.
Chiaki sits with Peko, Hiyoko, and Ibuki.
"What do you mean you don't want candy?" Hiyoko protests.
Tiny Sakura points to the chicken on Peko's plate.
"Hey, I'm in charge! I set the menu around here."
Sakura walks closer and says something that Hiyoko bends down to hear.
"Ugh! Fine." Hiyoko gets up to grab Sakura some real food.
"We have a runaway!" Ibuki warns, pointing at Celeste, who is strolling away while Chiaki is focused on a game she's playing.
"Hey hey," Chiaki says mildly, picking Celeste up and holding her close to her ear. "Where are you going?" A short pause, listening. "Oh. You don't like watching me game? That might be a problem for our co-op compatibility..."
"There. Happy?" Hiyoko demands, sitting back down with a new plate.
Sakura says something back.
"You're welcome." Hiyoko is trying to pout, but she's blushing a lot.
"Byakuya" sits with Gundham and Mikan, and Fuyuhiko stands off to the side.
Gundham has been having a harder time managing his kouhai than most, since there aren't a lot of spots on his person that he can safely keep a small person that aren't already inhabited by hamsters. He's been settling for letting her stand on the palm of his hand at all times, though a brief moment where he had to set her on his shoulder so he could bring his food to the table with both hands resulted in her sneezing from the hamster hair, and that was a weird couple of minutes before she sneezed again and seemed to calm down.
(They're all given information on their kouhais, so Gundham actually knows what happened there, but he doesn't explain it to anyone else.)
Now, Toko is chittering at Imposter's kouhai, and it does not seem to be a nice conversation. Mikan's kouhai intervenes, and he speaks loudly enough that most of his chitters are decipherable without bending down; he says something about "inappropriate language".
"He's standing up for his friend," Mikan says, smiling delightedly. "I'm so proud. Is this what it's like...?"
"What what's like?" Fuyuhiko asks, from his corner.
Before she can answer, their pleasant lunch is interrupted by a sudden appearance from Usami. She tells them again that their job is to have fun and make friends on this school trip and help their kouhais do the same, and-
Ding dong, bing bong.
Usami looks immediately panicked, as an unfamiliar sound fills the room.
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