6 Chapter 1.5 - Kamikaze

"Good morning, Yamauchi!"

"Good morning, Ike!"

It didn't take too long for me to comprehend why they had a smug look on their face. It was THAT time of the arc, after all.

"Whew, man! I was looking forward to today so much that I barely slept last night!"

"Ah ha ha! This school is just the best! I can't believe that it's almost time for swimming! And when I say swimming, I mean girls. And when I say girls, I mean girls in school swimsuits!"

Swimming class, the ultimate fanservice. I did take my swimming lessons back in the high school era. That's why I knew for a fact that, 'co-ed swimming lessons' were something that could only exist inside a fiction.

And then again, even inside this so-called fiction, that specific event was only possible within the ANHS boundaries. It was no wonder why the perverse minded students were looking forward to that class, practically drooling over their perverted fantasies. All the girls looked at all of them as if they were garbage.

In order to not get caught up on their easily generalized stereotypes, I was about to leave the scene. However, just then...

"Hey, Professor! Come here for a sec!"

"Uh, you called?"

'Professor' Sotomura approached them slowly. They began calling him 'professor' because of his peculiar way of conversing. If I remember correctly, they were about to ask him to record all the swimsuit shots.

"Professor, can you record the girls wearing their swimsuits for us?"

Figures.

"Leave it to me. I'll pretend to be sick so that I can skip class and observe."

"Record? What are you planning?" poor Ayanokouji decided to ask them about their plan.

"The Professor is going to rank the girls' breast sizes for us. If we're lucky, he'll get some pictures with his phone."

"Hey, hey." Sudou stopped Ike from explaining any further. It was to stop him from unintentionally leaking that information.

But unfortunately for them, their thoughts were open as a book. The girls already knew what they were thinking about.

I had no intention of being part of their, in one word, 'unappealing' plan, whatsoever. That time, I was surely going to leave. But then again...

"Levent? So, you're here too, huh?" Ayanokouji suddenly turned towards me.

"Yeah, well, I was here the whole time actually."

"Ah, I'm sorry I didn't notice you then."

"That is not something you should apologize for, but it's fine."

"O-okay. In any case, do you know how to swim?"

"I do. But I'm not that good at it though."

"Oh, okay."

"What about you?"

"It's the same for me too."

Liar.

"You two seem to be getting along well." voice of Horikita resound from behind.

"If you think so.." Ayanokouji responded.

"I think it's so-so. In any case, what brings you here, Horikita-san?"

Horikita voluntarily came near us. I don't know what I did to strike her nerves, but she wasn't pleased with my question.

"I have the freedom to go anywhere inside the classroom, if I remember correctly. That's why I decided to stand here. Do you have any problem with that?" she asked.

"Eh? Uh, no? But I didn't mean it like that. I just asked about what business you had with us."

"Do I need to give you a reason to stand where I want?"

"No, not really."

"Then you should have no problem with me being here."

"Like I said. That was not the case."

'I swear, if you keep going down that path, you'd die alone.'

"You seem to have little to no communication skills, Aozaki-kun."

"You think so? I think I can communicate just fine. I just don't do it, that's all."

My attempt to hide my weakness failed horribly.

"Truth is always bitter isn't it, Aozaki-kun?"

"Just shut up already and leave me be."

She gave me the same sadistic smirk from yesterday. Creepy.

"What about you, Ayanokouji-kun?" then she decided to switch targets.

"There are a lot of reasons why I can't do it. So far, there are only two people I've been able to talk to."

"The pleasure is all mine, I guess?" I replied to his remark.

"Wait just a minute. I already warned the two of you not to, but you wouldn't be thinking of me as your friend, would you?" said Horikita.

She took a few steps away from us, as if in disgust. I wondered just how much she hated the idea of having friends?

"Rest assured. I don't think of you as a friend, not even an ally. Besides, after what you two did to me yesterday, I might as well have none rather than having you two."

"Ehhhh....?" Ayanokouji was seemingly surprised.

"In that case, I feel relieved." I didn't care if she died alone anymore.

"But I said I didn't have any water." Ayanokouji protested.

"Does that justify you staring at me while I was dying?"

"From the looks of it, it seems like both of you are going to be loners again." Horikita gave her twisted smile yet again.

I sighed.

Then suddenly...

"Hey, Ayanokouji!" Ike called out to Ayanokouji.

"Wh-what is it?" masterpiece of the white room stuttered.

"To tell you the truth, we're taking bets on the girls' chest sizes."

"We've come up with some probabilities."

Sotomura took out a tablet and opened a spreadsheet. The names of all the girls in our class were displayed. There were numbers listed as well.

Honestly if I were to bet, pretty sure I would've placed everything on Hasabe.

Regardless, I left the scene while Ayanokouji remained. Horikita also did the same.

"Why are you following me?" she glared at me.

"I have the freedom to go anywhere inside the classroom, if I remember correctly. That's why I decided to stand here. Do you have any problem with that?" I merely gave her the taste of her own medicine.

"Are you mocking me?"

"A boring question deserves a boring answer. I was not following you. We just happen to go the same way, that's all."

"Is that so? Well, in any case, wasn't that your chance to actually make some friends, Aozaki-kun?

Horikita asked while pointing towards Ayanokouji alongside Ike and the others.

"I don't think I'd enjoy being called a pervert."

Horikita widened her eyes a little after listening to my reply.

"Oh? Well that was very blunt coming from you out of all people."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with me stating the obvious."

"That is true. But if I were to be completely honest with you, I didn't quite expect that from you."

"Is that so? I'm sorry, I guess?

"There's absolutely no reason for you to apologize to me."

"True."

We both parted and took our seats. The bell rang aloud in the hallway and the classes had began for the day.

••••••••

"All right! The pool!" Ike cried out.

After the lunch period had ended, it was finally the time, Ike and the others were eagerly waiting for. In fact, they were almost flying in excitement.

Don't get me wrong, but seeing them like that, also made me want to feel what they were feeling at that moment. The air was that contagious.

"This school is something else! It's even better than the city pool, don't you think?"

The fifty-meters pool was surprisingly large compared to the one's I've seen. The water was clear and beautiful, and because it was indoors, there was need to worry about the weather. The perfect environment.

"What about the girls? Aren't they here yet?"

Ike looked around, sniffing the air like a dog.

"They take a while to change, so they're probably not ready," Ayanokouji stated.

"Hey, I wonder would what happen if I just suddenly jumped into the girls' locker room?" Ike said.

"Let's see. They'd gang up on you, beat the crap out of you, and then file charges, probably." Ayanokouji deadpanned.

"Don't give me such a realistic, deadpan answer and ruin my fun!"

"If the girls sense you staring at them in their swimsuits, they'll hate you without a doubt."

"Come on, like there's a guy out there who wouldn't stare! Agh. What am I gonna do if I get a boner?"

"Get castrated. That should do the job, I guess?" I deadpanned.

"Fuwahaha!!!!"

"Good one, Levent!"

"Hey!" Ike cried out.

Almost everyone laughed at that statement. Well It wasn't like I intended to make fun of him. If anything, I had subconsciously spoke my mind out, that was all.

Fortunately, they didn't take the joke too far and we started walking around the pool. Suddenly...

"Wow! It's so spacious! It's so much bigger than the pool at my junior high school."

A few minutes after the boys had arrived, a girl's voice could be heard.

"A-are they here?!"

"Don't be too obvious about it, Ike."

Well it won't matter, because their dreams were crushed way ahead of time.

"Hasebe isn't here! Wh-what's going on, Professor?!" Ike cried.

The Professor, who had been watching the class, was now in a panic. Standing on the second-floor observation deck, he scanned the room. Ike and the others also looked around.

I had decided to be the one to crush their fantasies.

"Ike, look."

"Uwaa! B-behind you, Professor!"

"What?!"

Ike pointed and shouted. The situation had become clear. Hasebe stood behind the Professor on the observation deck. One by one, the rest of the girls appeared, until they'd all emerged onto the second floor. All of them behind Sotomura, with a disgusted face.

"Wh-what's going on? How did this happen?"

Ike slumped to the ground and buried his face in his hands, shaken by this unbelievable turn of events.

"Aw, but I thought I'd get to see big tits! Big tits! I thought this was my chance!" Ike cried audaciously.

"Gross." the girls mumbled to each other.

Congratulations Ike. You didn't fail to live up to my expectations.

"Ike, don't be sad! Come on, there are still tons of girls out there for us!" Yamauchi said.

"Y-yeah, that's right. You got a point. I can't get down in the dumps now!" Ike cried.

"Bro!" Yamauchi and Ike reaffirmed their manly bond of friendship, clasping their hands together.

"What are you two doing? That looks like fun."

"K-K-Kushida-chan?!"

Kushida showed up between the two of them. She was clad in her school-issued swimwear, which nicely showed off her voluptuous figure.

In about a second nearly all of the boy's eyes were glued to Kushida's body. She must have been a D or E cup. I didn't know for sure, but I estimated. She was a lot bigger than I'd thought. Her butt and thighs were also more voluptuous than I had seen.

After I realized what I was doing, I quickly averted my eyes from her.

Teruko! Right! Just think about Teruko. Just who is Kushida anyway?

"Why do you look like you're having a constipation?" Horikita explained with quite the unexpected word.

"I'm currently in the midst of an internal battle."

"...."

Horikita was checking me out all over.

A chance!

"Horikita-san, You pervert." I made a somewhat disgusted face while putting both my hands on my chest.

Immediately her expression changed into a shocked one, her face entirely red. Words cannot describe how cute she looked while flustered.

"D-don't get the wrong idea! I'm not interested at your body even the least." Horikita shouted. Somehow I believed her.

"Is that so? In that case, why were you staring at me so intently?"

She tried to calm down, still glaring at me. It was obvious that she wasn't happy about it.

"Say, Aozaki-kun, Do you exercise?" she asked.

"Not really, no. Why do you ask?"

"Well...judging from the development of your forearms and your back muscles, you seem above average."

Fair enough. However, let's think about it this way.

Before I knew anything, I woke up inside a psychological fiction novel. My consciousness was apparently moved inside a body which was different than the one I had. Which was exactly the reason why I didn't have the answer to her question.

"I honestly think I've inherited this from my father."

"That's strange."

"There is nothing strange here, Horikita-san. It's simply my natural growth."

"I suppose if you deny it that much, I have to believe you..."

"Are you a good swimmer, Horikita-san?" suddenly Kushida joined our conversation out of nowhere.

Although Horikita gave a slightly puzzled look in response to Kushida's question, she quietly answered.

"I wouldn't say I'm particularly good or bad at it."

"I was really bad at swimming when I was in junior high. But I gave it my all and practiced really hard, and now I think I've gotten better," Kushida said.

"I see." Horikita gave a disinterested response and backed away slightly, clearly signaling that she didn't want to continue the conversation further.

"All right, everyone, line up!"

A macho-looking middle-aged man, probably our PE teacher, gathered everyone together and started the class.

"There are sixteen of you, huh? I thought there would've been more, but this is all right. After you warm up, I want to see what you can really do. Swim for me," the coach said.

"Excuse me, sir. I can't really swim, though..." A lone boy sheepishly raised his hand and spoke up.

"Since you have me as your teacher, you'll be swimming by summertime. Don't worry about a thing."

"Well, we don't really need to force ourselves to swim, do we? It's not like we're going to the beach or anything."

"No way. I don't mind at all if you're bad at swimming now, but I'll make sure you guys are winners in the end. Besides, being able to swim will definitely come in handy later in life. Definitely."

That was a hint everybody subconsciously missed. There was a special exam in front of us that included the first year student body to participate in an island survival test. But that was a different story.

The teacher asked us to swim for about fifty meters. Students who could not swim were allowed to touch the bottom of the pool with their feet.

I didn't remember exactly when was the last time I swam in a pool, but one thing was for sure, I could swim just fine.

After fifty meters, I waited for everyone else to finish.

"He he he, that was an easy win for me. Did you all see my super swimming skills?" Ike crowed.

"Well, it looks like everyone can swim, for the most part."

"Of course, sir. Back in junior high, people called me 'the flying fish,' you know."

Somehow, I highly doubt that.

"I see. In that case, I'll have you start competing against each other.

We'll separate groups by gender. Fifty-meter freestyle."

"C-compete?! Are you serious?" Ike cried.

"I'll give out a special bonus to the first-place winner: 5000 points. The student who comes in last place, however, will have to take supplementary lessons. Get ready. Because we don't have very many girls, I'll split you into two groups of five people, and the student with the fastest overall time will be the winner.

As for the boys, I'll look at the top five finishing times and then move on to a final round."

I immediately understood the reason for that. The reward and demerit system was basically a hint towards the future events, where the same system would apply only on a grand scale.

In any case, it was the girl's turn to swim.

"Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan, Kushida-chan. Haaaaaaa..." It looked like Kushida had completely entranced Ike, rather everyone. Her support's screams blew through the roof.

"You're scaring everyone, Ike, settle down," I mumbled.

"B-but, Kushida-chan is so goddamn cute, isn't she? And her breasts are pretty big, too!"

"That's not something you should scream about Ike. Even Kushida will end up hating you if you keep doing this." except that statement was already true for him, though not visible on the outside.

"Everyone, burn these images into your mind! Remember the fap material you see here today!" Ike cried.

"Yeah!" everyone shouted.

Hirata was the only one avoiding the girls, other than me. Though he might be just modest about it, I on the on the other hand did that due to the own lack of appeal.

When you have the mental age of an adult, the thoughts of gawking at highschool girl sounds horribly unappealing, in other words, disgusting.

I walked out of the pool, avoiding contact with anyone. However, Ayanokouji also followed me out of the pool.

"Levent, are you not enjoying the girls contest?"

"Enjoying something like that sounds like bad taste to me."

"Is that so?"

"I guess?"

He simply nodded and sat beside me, looking at the contest from afar. We were both sitting there, silently watching the scenes playing in front of us, like a film being played on a screen. Having a silent partner like him was very pleasing indeed. The audacity gives you time to think quietly and quickly. In that case, I was thinking about the thing I was about to do.

It wasn't a coincidence why he did he came with me. I knew from the very beginning that he was keeping an eye on me. I pretended not to notice until the very end. It only took a few hand gestures to let him know about my thoughts. It was a risky move, I could potentially trigger his white room persona.

But to make progress on the story that I was trying to writing, I was already prepared to take that risk.

"Say Ayanokouji, may I ask you something?"

"What is it?" he asked.

It was time to finally end this game of cats and mice.

"Does the term 'White room' mean something to you?"

"....."

It is no exaggeration when I say this but, his usual empty eyes were instantly replaced with two golden circles full of darkness. Those eyes were the eyes of a predator who was looking towards it's prey.

"Where did you get that name?"

"Do you want to know?"

I stared right into those endless abyss of his eyes. There was no point in trying to read the unreadable. However, I wanted to see how dark the abyss was, how deep the pit went.

There was no going back. There was only one way, and that's forward.

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