“Ugh...”
I had basically collapsed over my desk after school.
“I-I don’t get it... Why is there so much dumb stuff...?”
The first problem was all the lingo. You had to have a dictionary in order to keep up, but there was no IS dictionary, so I hadn’t kept up all day. Speaking of which, the general situation with the girls didn’t change after school. They came over, even from other classes, and talked among themselves in hushed voices.
—Gimme a break already...
It’d been hell during lunch break already. The whole crowd of girls had followed me to the cafeteria, like the procession of some king, and in the cafeteria nobody had sat next to me, of course— I was like Gulliver. I was like some strange animal the Japanese had never seen. I once heard that axolotls were popular as exotic animals from overseas once, but I had no idea what they looked like, for example.
“Oh, Orimura. You’re still in the classroom. Good.”
“Huh?”
I looked up and saw my vice homeroom teacher, Ms. Yamada, with a textbook in hand. Not that it matters, but she really looked so small. In reality, she was probably of average height.
“Um... We have a room for you in the dorms now,” she said, while handing me a piece of paper with my room number on it and a key.
All students of the IS Academy lived in the dorms. It was more out of obligation than anything else. Supposedly, the reason for it was to be quick in response to protect the future IS pilots. I mean, the national defense was on the line. Other countries were probably trying to recruit students away from the academy, too. Actually, I knew that they were, all the time.
“I thought I didn’t have one yet? They told me I’d be commuting from home for a week.”
“Well, things have changed. We’ve made certain arrangements with the room allocations to make this possible.” Then she leaned close to my ear and said, “Orimura, did the government tell you that?”
The government was, of course, the Japanese government. After all, I was the only male IS pilot; they wanted to keep me safe and under surveillance or something. At one point, my name was all over the news. The media, ambassadors, and eventually even genetic research institutes, all showed up on my doorstep wanting to research me, or something. As if I would have agreed to this under normal circumstances.
“After all the chaos, they wanted to put you in to the dorm as fast as possible. In a month or so you will have your own room, but for the time being, you will have to share one.”
“Um, Ms. Yamada... You’re breathing into my ear.”
Why was she still whispering, anyway? Everyone in the classroom was giving us curious looks.
“Oh, I... Um... I didn’t do that on purpose!”
“I know that, but... Anyway, since I won’t be going home again, can I leave early and gather my belongings so I can move?”
“Oh, that won’t be—”
“I took care of it. Thank me later,” Chifuyu butted in.
“Darth Vader’s Theme” was thundering through my head when she appeared. Sometimes, “Terminator’s Theme” played instead.
“Th-Thank you so much...” I muttered.
“I only got you the bare necessities for life: a change of clothes and your phone charger.”
Wow, that was the barest of the bare. I mean, that was necessary for life, but man, people could use a bit of luxury, too.
“It says on the paper when you can go there. Dinner is from six to seven in the first year cafeteria. Every room has a shower, but we have a large bath as well. The different grades have different times for the bath... But, you can’t use it for the time being, Orimura.”
“Why not? Who doesn’t like a good bath?” I inquired.
“Are you stupid? Or do you want to bathe together with girls your age?”
“Oh...”
Right. Everyone else was a girl.
“Y-You want to go into the bath with girls?! N-No! You can’t!” cried Ms. Yamada.
“I-I’m not saying I want to...”
Who knows what they’d do to me? It wasn’t a good idea either way, ethically speaking.
“What? You’re not interested in girls? Th-That’s not good either...”
—Man, this woman never really listens to people, does she?
While Ms. Yamada and I were engaged in this game of telephone, the girls out in the corridor started whispering and spreading rumors.
“Maybe Orimura only likes men?”
“That... Might be nice too.”
“Find out which people he knew in middle school! I want all his friends by the day after tomorrow!”
—Why is this happening?
“Um, we have a meeting now, so... You have to go to the dorms afterwards, Orimura. Don’t loaf around on the way.”
It was, like, 50 meters to the dorms. There was no way to loaf around somewhere. I mean, there were club rooms, the IS arena, IS maintenance facilities, development facilities and other buildings on campus, but that had nothing to do with me yet. Eventually I’d have to check it all out, but I just wanted to get some rest, and to be free of the girls looking at me all the time.
“Hmm...”
Chifuyu looked after Ms. Yamada as she left the room and followed her.
What a day. There was still a lot of talking in the classroom, but I decided that enough was enough and went to find my dorm room. Anything was better than staying there.
“Hmm... Should be here. Room 1025.”
I checked the room number again and used the key. It was unlocked.
Ka-chick.
The first thing I saw was a large bed. Two of them, actually. They looked pretty comfortable, certainly much better than some hotels. I could feel the softness just from looking at it. It was way better than anything I was used to— bless the tax money. I put my belongings down and jumped onto the bed; it was really soft. A great bed, down-filled.
“Is someone there?”
I heard a voice from another room. I figured there was a door between us. The voice was kind of unclear. I remembered that they’d told me there was a shower.
“Oh, you must be living here now, too. Let’s get along together, shall we?”
A bad feeling suddenly crept up my spine.
“Sorry that I’m looking like this. I was in the shower. I’m Shinonono......... Houki......”
Out of the shower room came my childhood friend Houki, with whom I was just barely reunited. She had been using the shower, directly adjacent from the beds, and she was coming out of it. Houki apparently thought that her roommate would be a girl, so she was only wearing a single bath towel. Oh... And no ponytail.
The size of the white towel was quite small, and I could see most of her beautiful thighs. Drops of water were still running down her legs, which proved her usage of the shower. Her skin was clear and white. Even with the towel on I could tell that her slender upper body was well-trained, but not in a bad way; the training only emphasized her feminine lines. Her hand was pressing the towel into her respectable breasts. The last time I had seen her body was during swimming in fourth grade. Of course that had left no impression. Houki definitely had bigger breasts than she let on in her uniform. All that went through my mind in 0.3 seconds.
“.........”
She stared at me in puzzlement. I stared back in puzzlement. The great battle of the puzzled; only one of us was going to win.
“I-I-Ichika?”
“H-Hey...” I nodded, as Houki became very pink.
I couldn’t blame her; she’d come out of the shower to find a man in her room. I wasn’t sure what to do either.
“Wha...?! D-Don’t look at me!”
“I-I’m sorry!”
I looked away immediately. At a glance, I could see that Houki was pressing the towel into herself, desperately trying to hide or protect her body. This accentuated the size of her breasts, and my heart began to beat faster.
“Wh-Wh-Why are you here?” Houki stuttered, uncomfortably.
“They put me into this room, too.”
Then, everything happened in an instant. Lightning speed. She was as fast as you’d expect the national kendo champion to be. Houki grabbed a wooden sword from the wall and raised it above her head to strike. She quickly closed the distance between us.
—I’m gonna die!
“Whoa!”
I jumped down from the bed and ran for the door. Zoom. I made it outside the door by the skin of my teeth. I slammed the door shut with my back and felt the reassuring protection of it.
“I’m saf—”
Wham!
The tip of the wooden sword pierced the door and protruded out slightly. And it was a wooden door at that; piercing it with a wooden sword was just incredible.