Sakura Kiss (Wizard School Romance)

The second year dorms are nicer than the first, a much larger complex in the same modernized-traditional style. They're closer to the actual school as well, situated roughly between the educational facilities and the first year dorms – so when Nakamura-sensei pulls you aside and asks you to run a package there after end of day, you don't mind so much, even though it's a hike and the box is heavy.

You wonder if you should feel more self-conscious about entering the girl's dorm, but truth be told there's nothing too unusual about it. During the day the dorm complexes are semi-public, with students of any gender gathering in the elaborate studies to chat or read or cram. Access to the living quarters is magically enforced, leaving the adult attendants free to monitor visitors and see to the needs of the dorms themselves.

The attendant on duty, a elderly woman with a pair of glasses bigger than your head, waves you through when she sees the box in your hand. "That'll go to the kitchen, Tak-kun, she says, fumbling around on her desk with one hand while she holds up a finger with the other. You wait patiently, taking the fact that she knows your name in stride. That happens a lot, and you've found it easier for everyone if you don't make a big deal about it.

What's harder to take in stride is when she throws a pinch of sand in your face. You flinch and accidentally inhale a bit of it, coughing up a storm, as the attendant pats you on the back. "To get you through the wards," she explains once you've recovered. "Kitchen is just through that door, third on your left.

The kitchen is spacious, much larger than its equivalent at your dorm, and far cleaner as well – though you think that might be more the result of being run by girls, who are less likely to let every meal prep dissolve into some degree of food fight. Long tables are laid evenly through the room, with small stoves, microwaves, and hot plates every few feet. With enough care, the room could probably handle all eighty or so second year girls cooking simultaneously. But today, now, there is only one.

Koshimoto Sachi smiles up at you as you enter, a variety of ingredients arrayed neatly in front of her. "Is that the milk?" She asks, gesturing to the package in your hand. "The refrigerator's over there."

"Thanks," you say, shuffling over to the industrial-size refrigerator and opening it to a blast of blessedly freezing air. The worst of the summer's heat seems to have broken after last week's storm, but it's still far from pleasant outside. "How did…"

"I didn't see it, if that's what you're about to ask," Koshimoto says, adjusting her hot plate. "Nakamura-sensei just promised she'd send it over today, is all." She glances over at you as you struggle to lift the case up to the available shelf. "If you need a hand, I'm free now."

"Don't worry about it." You grunt once and manage to finally get a corner under the shelf, then leverage the rest of it up. "You're busy over there."

"I just had to get the timing right," Koshimoto says. She turns and lifts herself up onto the table, sitting there as she watches you. She's dressed in an apron with her long hair pulled back, her face smudged with this and that. You wonder for a moment if her eyes are actually inhuman dark and deep, or if you're just imagining things, but then she smiles and all thought is driven from your mind. "How come every time I see you, it's about milk?" she asks.

You start, at a loss for words. "You're...talking about Furuta-san."

"Right, right. That sweet first year boy." She covers her mouth with her hand as she laughs, the gesture leaving a touch of flour on her cheek. "He looked so funny running off...oh, I hope he was okay."

"He got over it," you tell her. "He says it was worth it, considering he got to meet you."

Koshimoto blushes, still smiling. "I wish I could've done more."

She couldn't have, of course. Time is a fundamental law of the universe, and the future can't be changed, even by those with the power to see it. But Koshimoto had done her best to ease Furuta's suffering, even if she couldn't avoid it. "I'm surprised you remember."

"That one is hard to forget," Koshimoto says.

"Do you remember all of them?" A sudden fear spikes through you, that you've overstepped. "Unless you don't like to-"

But Koshimoto only waves your concerns off. "I don't," she says, "thankfully. I mean, I have three or four of them a week, if I remembered them all I don't think I'd have room for anything else."

You frown, thinking. "I thought I heard that you have a vision every night. That…" every day she finds some new unlucky person to rescue from their misfortune. Like an angel out of heaven. Coming down on feather-soft wings to rescue you poor unfortunate souls.

"Oh, you shouldn't believe everything you hear," Koshimoto says. "Especially at Hiyari. People here love to exaggerate." She shrugs. "Honestly, a lot of it just down to me being generally prepared. Or coincidences. Someone gets hurt, and I know first aid. Or they forget their book, and I have mine. And with every little thing, the legend grows. The angel of Hiyari's halls." She's still smiling as she says it, but it's nothing like the smile you saw that first week.


–

You have made a promise to attend soccer tryouts for Shimada Natsume!

"It must be hard...for them to see that, instead of you," you offer. You don't mean it as much more than a casual comment, words of acknowledgment from one person who has lived their life in the shadow of something larger to another.

But you can tell from the look on Koshimoto's face that to her, it's no passing remark. She frowns, and you can practically see her turning the words over in her head. "I...never thought of it that way."

"Well, don't let me ruin anything," you say, holding up your hands in mock surrender. "I'm just saying, you ever want to talk about it, I live…" you point in the vague direction of the first year dorms, "right over there."

[] [Arashi] [1] You ask Arashi (Hatsu) about Arashi (Tatsuko)'s whole deal.
[] [Hinata] [1]
-[] * You tail Hinata around campus.
-[] * You confront Hinata directly.

Y1E8

Is there anything better than organized sports?

You've never been much of an athlete yourself, but over the years you've become something of a connoisseur of ways to spend extended amounts of time with large crowds of strangers. And of those many, many ways, you have to admit that sports might just be your favorite. Outside, with the fresh air all around you. An event that isn't so relentless that you can't have a conversation, but is exciting enough that you can always retreat back to it when that conversation gets stale, or slow, or real.

Of course, in your opinion sports are at their best when you're watching actual freaks of nature, prodigies in their chosen fields. And when they're catered. But you suppose Hiyari's girl's soccer tryouts will do in a pinch.

You, Ban, Arashi, and Furuta have gathered at the edges of the practice field alongside a number of other male students who either have a vested interest in the girl's soccer teams or just nothing better to do. The wind is fierce, whipping hair and shirts and green summer leaves back and forth, and you are basking in the sunlight and the chatter of your peers.

Natsume is twenty yards away, a red armband marking her as team one – or maybe it's team two – as she sprints up and down the field. She's keeping pace with girls from year two and three, and as the tryouts drag on you notice that she's demanding more and more attention from the older girls, who seem eager to either test themselves against her, or put her in her place.

"I mean, it's the only team at Hiyari worth a damn," Arashi says. "At least until they figure out how to break the curse on the baseball team."

"Oh, I hope they do that soon," Furuta says. "I hate watching those guys turn to stone."

"Natsume's doing pretty well, isn't she?" Ban asks. He's spent most of the tryout napping in the grass, but now he sits up and stretches his arms out to their full, freakish length. "Guess she's gonna make the team."

You nod. "Was there ever any doubt?" Natsume had been the best player at your middle school, and you don't think she ever lost a pickup game at the Ban estates.

"I guess not. Still, it's good," Ban says. "I think she's been kinda down recently."

"What do you mean kinda down?" you ask, giving Ban a side-eye. "That's like describing the ocean as kinda red. Or ice as kinda hot."

"I dunno," Ban says, scratching his cheek. "She was just always so on before. I think she's missing home. You haven't noticed?" When you shake your head, he shrugs. "You've been pretty busy, I guess."

You have been, haven't you? Time at Hiyari sees to flow more quickly than it does outside, whole weeks slipping through your fingers even though nothing ever seems to actually happpen. "Well I'm here now, yeah?" you ask. "And now that you mention it, she is looking a bit sluggish out there."

Ban glances up at you, puzzled. "I didn't...say that?"

"I know, but...could you just…" you shake your head. "I'm doing a bit."

"Ah. Carry on then."

"No, it's ruined." You sigh. "I'll just do it straightforward and normal. You remember all those cheers we used to have for her in middle school?"

"Every word and step," Ban says immediately.

"Which one do you think she hated most?"

"Anything that made liberal use of her name."


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