“Our what?”
“Oh, c’moooon! You know!”
“Eh!?”
She suddenly lifted her own skirt.
Mutsuki and Ange were sitting down, so they were in the perfect position to see her healthy thighs. The two of them were speechless and they could even see the black material covering her crotch.
“Wait! K-Kurikara-san! What are you-…ohh.”
Mutsuki briefly panicked, but he soon caught on.
“Heh heh heh~ I can’t wait until swimming class during third period~ The pool is finally opening~”
The black material was her swimsuit, not her panties. Their classmate spun around in a little dance with her skirt still lifted and the nearby boys stared, but Mutsuki looked to the side.
“So did you bring yours? Your. Swim. Suitsd”
This was the source of her good mood. Even at her age, Saya was so excited she had worn her swimsuit below her clothes and she smiled.
“Mutsuki nodded and patted the bag he had brought with him.
“So what about you, Ange-chan?”
“I…don’t have one of those.”
Mutsuki realized Ange was acting weird.
Her irritated expression had stiffened and she looked out the window as if to avoid the issue.
“Oh, did you forget yours?”
Their eternal optimist classmate immediately latched onto the reason for this change.
“Noooot to worry! Leave it all to Kurikara Saya, lead helper for Class 2-A!”
“Huh? …Fwah!”
“We just have to borrow one from another classd”
She grabbed Ange’s hand.
“Kagura-chan in Class C is on the swim team, so she’ll have a few school swimsuits here. One of them should fit you, so let’s borrow one.”
“Wait, you don’t have to do that! I’m fine sitting out!”
“We can’t have that! Not swimming when the pool’s first opened is blasphemy against summer! So let’s go! Adolescence isn’t going to wait around. Our summer has only just begun!!”
“I said noooooo!”
Ange was reluctantly forced from the classroom by Saya’s energy and Mutsuki was left all alone.
He checked the time and found it was past 8:30, when the school’s gate was closed, and homeroom would begin in five minutes.
“…”
“…Oh, Ibekusa-san.”
Machina arrived at the usual time and entered the classroom with a puzzled look toward the two classmates running out.
“Good morning.”
“…Good morning.”
Exchanging a greeting had almost become a daily ritual. She sat in the second window-side seat from the back, which put her right next to Mutsuki.
Even without Ange, his bodyguard, she showed no sign of laying a hand on him and the Serpent’s Eye.
What he had discussed with Micha the night before seemed accurate.
She was not an enemy.
“…”
He must have stared at her too much because she suddenly turned his way. She looked him in the eye with her usual half-lidded gaze.
His heart skipped a beat at the eye contact. Those eyes were more intellectual than any scholar’s yet as transparent as an infant’s. Mutsuki felt his cheeks growing warm.
For the past ten days, he had worked to restrain his feelings because she was part of an enemy organization.
But he had spent the sweet time of a lover with her ten days before and he had been interested in her ever since spring.
He did not know how to feel and he wished he could at least hide the pounding of his heart.
“…Fujita-kun.”
She called his name with a voice so thin it seemed about to vanish yet that carried like the ringing of a small bell.
He doubted his ears. They regularly greeted each other now, but this was the first time the generally silent girl had called his name in the classroom.
“I have something to discuss with you. In private, if possible.”
That was all she said before returning to her normal self and staring out the window with her mouth closed.
That was when their homeroom teacher arrived and morning homeroom began.
“Ibekusa Machina, Class 2-A Girl, Student #2. Personality: silent. Special trait: expressionless.”
“Right.”
“Number of friends: 0. Likes and dislikes: unknown. Favorite food: probably apples.”
“Right.”
“Starting today, she’s my #1.”
Sakae was visibly delighted.
They had swimming for their third period PE class. This was the first time, so after a test of each individual’s skills, they were given half an hour to swim as they liked.
The seven-lane pool had been split in half so lanes 1-3 were for the girls and 5-7 for the boys. However, Mutsuki’s friend Sakae had dragged him over to join the other boys hanging out at the very edge of lane 5.
“Oh, nooo! The boys are leering at us!”
“Hey~! Get that dirty look out of your eyes~”
Just as the girls suggested – while looking somehow happy – the boys were carefully observing the girls in their swimsuits.
“Ibekusa’s been hiding those amazing things this whole time?”
Their focus had turned to Ibekusa Machina who sat on the edge of lane 1 with her feet soaking in the water.
She was silent, expressionless, hard to get along with, and inconspicuous, but she was secretly well-known for having a good shot at the top spot in the class when it came to looks.
Her figure did not normally stand out, but she really drew the eye when she removed her clothes.
“Huh? How big are those? At least an E. Maybe an F? Or even a G?”
Her pure white skin gained a milk-like sheen when it was wet. Her arms extended smoothly down from her slender shoulders. Her thighs were surprisingly well developed and her calves were tight.
But what grabbed the attention of Sakae and the other boys most of all was her ample bust that stretched the chest of her swimsuit tight enough that the nametag saying “Ibekusa Machina” was difficult to read.
“…”
She was about two sizes bigger than Micha’s F cup.
While muttering that fact in his heart, Mutsuki felt a little discouraged.
It did not feel particularly good to have so many curious eyes focused on the exposed skin of the girl he had been watching since the spring. That was just how the selfish male heart worked.
“Hmm, I’d thought everyone would be talking about Jiyuuni this year, but we had a surprise hiding in plain sight the entire time.”
Sakae grinned and finally turned to look at the others.
“Bwah! Ah, ah… Wait! Too fast…too fast!”
“Nya ha had Sorry, sorry. Okay, now go. One, two! One, two!”
“Uph…nn…ph…abhbhh!”
Saya was helping Ange as the girl drowned (swam?) with a kickboard in one hand.
“You’re so athletic, Ange-chan, so I never thought you couldn’t swim.”
“Shut up! Land animals don’t need to know how to-…bhhbh! Don’t let go…bhbhbh…”
It seemed drowning was the correct verb.
Angels were supposedly created from fire, so they seemed to have trouble with water.
Ange had several times the athletic ability of a normal person on land, but she became incredibly cute when she was thrown into the water. No one seeing her kicking her small little legs while holding onto the kickboard would have ever imagined how dignified she had looked training with that large sword in a single hand the night before.
“I’ll give her a 97. She has some decent tits and she gets high marks for that kickboard with her height.”
Sakae had some odd tastes.
“And the winner of the ass category is Kurikara Saya! She beats out all the rest! The guys who came equipped for underwater combat will be able to battle that plump ass for another decade at leas- gah!”
A kickboard thrown by Saya (the softball team’s ace pitcher) hit him square on the head.
Sakai somersaulted over in the water and Ange began to sink with nothing to support her.
And then…
“Wah!?”
Something suddenly rubbed against Mutsuki’s thigh…no, against his crotch over his swimsuit.
“Gasp~~ Hey, hey, Mutsuki-kun. Come play over here.”
Lucia had stealthily approached underwater and began clinging to Mutsuki’s bare skin.