After passing through the school gate, the students naturally split into two streams of people and headed in different directions.
This academy was mainly divided into two areas—“the Humanoid Zone” and “the Non-Humanoid Zone.”
As the names suggested, students who could maintain a human form and looked roughly like ordinary humans attended classes in the Humanoid Zone, while those with more special appearances who lacked humanoid features were assigned to the Non-Humanoid Zone.
Yukina of course belonged to the Humanoid Zone. As long as she kept her tail stored away, she looked no different from an ordinary high school girl a little over 140 centimeters tall.
Click.
A small shoe locker was slowly opened. A pair of white indoor shoes was taken out from inside.
Yukina held the cabinet door and bent down, removing the black round-toed little leather shoes she usually wore from her feet.
The tips of her feet, wrapped in white tights, stepped onto the wooden footboard and left a shallow wet print.
The thin places at the tips of the socks were stretched until the soft pink underneath faintly showed through.
Her toes curled slightly as they slipped into the soft white cloth openings of the shoes.
Her fingertips lightly lifted at the heels, then she stepped lightly on the floor twice to confirm they were snug.
“Little Yukina, your feet are so small.”
Ningning had already finished changing into her indoor shoes.
She squatted beside her, tilting her head as she stared at Yukina’s feet.
“Just like an elementary school student’s.”
“…You’re the elementary school student. Why are you suddenly saying this?”
“Because they’re really small. Look, look.”
Ningning leaned over and placed her own foot, still stepping on the heel of her shoe, next to Yukina’s for comparison.
It was clearly longer by a whole section.
“See? A whole size smaller than mine. Feels like I could eat them in one bite.”
“Could you eat something healthier?”
Yukina sighed, put the shoes she had taken off into the locker, and closed the door.
Of course she knew she was small. Small in every way.
So small that buying clothes and shoes was difficult; suitable sizes for her were often nowhere to be found.
But she had already gotten used to it. Her previous life had been the same.
Growth wasn’t something that could be decided by willpower. Who wouldn’t want to be a 180-centimeter long-legged beauty?
“I heard that people with small feet never grow tall.”
Ningning’s round eyes narrowed into slits. Her raccoon dog ears turned forward, looking thoroughly mischievous.
“In other words, this is as far as little Yukina will ever go in this life!”
“If you curse me again, I won’t treat you to snacks.”
“I’m sorry—!”
After being glared at, Ningning instantly dropped to her knees, wrapping both arms around Yukina’s thighs and apologizing nonstop.
“I was wrong! Yukina-sama is an onee-san, Yukina-sama is 180 centimeters, Yukina-sama has F-cups—”
“I already said, don’t say things like that when there are so many people around…”
There were still quite a few other students in the shoe locker area.
They all turned to look at the two little lolis huddled together.
Some even couldn’t help laughing out loud. Yukina’s face turned red from embarrassment.
“Alright, alright, I’ll buy you snacks. Hurry and get up. This is too embarrassing.”
“Yay, thank you, Mama!”
“You…”
Yukina felt her fists really harden.
She kind of regretted that back when she was playing the game, she hadn’t controlled Mashiro to hit this girl a few more times.
“Oh right, oh right.”
Ningning blinked, stood up, and patted her skirt. She suddenly seemed to remember something, the tip of her tail lightly curling upward.
“If you could choose, how tall would little Yukina want to grow?”
“…I can choose?”
Yukina froze for half a second.
Mm… if I could choose, it would still be better to be a bit taller.
But too tall wouldn’t work either. Being too eye-catching and always getting stared at would be uncomfortable…
So conflicted.
Gradually, for some reason, the familiar figure from earlier under the tree shade—holding the black umbrella—floated up in her mind.
“…At least.”
Yukina pressed her lips together. Her fingertips subconsciously touched the cool surface of the shoe locker door beside her.
Her voice grew a little softer than before.
“At least I wouldn’t always have to tilt my head so high just to see other people’s faces… right?”
“Little Yukina.”
Ningning’s raccoon dog ears turned a little, as if she understood something.
She patted Yukina’s shoulder and leaned in close to her ear.
“Everything will come true in your dreams.”
Anger
This time Yukina was truly angry, but before she could lose her temper, Ningning had already laughed and run away first.
“…Honestly.”
If she kept arguing with an idiot too much, she would start turning into an idiot herself.
When she walked out of the shoe locker area, Yukina still couldn’t help thinking of Mashiro’s figure before she disappeared.
Where did she go in the end?
Did she enter the school, or did she secretly go home…?
She pretended to casually turn her head, sweeping her gaze toward another row of shoe lockers not far away.
In the shaded corner at the end of the corridor, there was a shoe locker with its door half open.
That was Mashiro’s shoe locker.
The name tag on the door had been torn halfway off, leaving only the fragments of the characters “Reizuki.”
The hinges had been pried out of shape. Through the half-open gap, one could see the inside stuffed full of all kinds of trash, with filthy words written all over it in marker.
It was really excessive.
Students came and went around them. Some changed shoes, some chatted.
People passed by without giving it an extra glance, as if this was simply a “normal” part of the school.
This was what made her the most uncomfortable—not the blatant malice, but the indifference that everyone treated as only natural.
Though the current Yukina didn’t really have the right to say anything about it.
…
Morning light slanted in from the windows on one side of the corridor, laying bright square grids across the floor.
Outside the windows was the sports field. A few students were running. Farther away were the hedges and the outer wall, and beyond that there was nothing.
Yukina walked along the window side, her gaze drifting intentionally or unintentionally toward the outside, sweeping across every figure under the tree shade.
“—So anyway, the stories circulating around school lately are super scary! Has little Yukina heard about them? The Seven Mysteries of the campus recently!”
Ningning shamelessly leaned in again, lowering her voice.
Her raccoon dog ears twitched nervously a couple of times as she began to chatter on about her ghost stories.
“Someone said that lately, as long as you get close to the biology classroom, you’ll inexplicably get goosebumps all over and your back will feel cold. Eugh, like something is staring at you. They suspect it’s… a ghost causing trouble!”
Yukina answered weakly:
“…It’s just that the air conditioning in the biology classroom is set too cold.”
“Uh. That actually seems right. Oh, and the chemistry classroom! I heard that any student who stays in the chemistry classroom for more than two hours gets sick after going home, with the exact same symptoms! Everyone says they’ve been cursed!”
“The air conditioning in the chemistry classroom is also set too cold.”
“Then, and then, the audiovisual room! Someone said the walls in the audiovisual room have started seeping some unknown liquid lately—yellowish, and with a weird smell! Some people suspect something is buried inside the walls!”
“…”
“…Fine, I get it. It’s definitely because the air conditioning is set too cold. Damn it, why is everything because of the air conditioning!”
Ningning swung her tail in frustration, her raccoon dog ears standing straight up.
“It’s all little Yukina’s fault for turning all these romantic campus legends into maintenance work orders!”
“…Actually, not necessarily.”
Yukina pulled her gaze back from the window, her tone suddenly softening.
“That one about the audiovisual room… maybe something really is buried in there.”
“…Eh?”
Ningning blinked. Her tail slowly drooped, and her footsteps slowed by half a beat.
“…For real?”
Yukina turned her head slightly. Beneath her bangs, her cherry-colored eyes gazed faintly at Ningning as she said softly:
“Last month, didn’t a PE teacher go missing?”
“Ehhh—?!”
Ningning grabbed Yukina’s sleeve at once. Both ears pressed tightly against her head, and her tail clamped shut as well.
“Little Yukina, don’t scare me! A-are you serious? Do you know some insider info?!”
“Not telling you.”
“Aaaah! Little Yukina, you’re so mean! How am I supposed to go to class in the audiovisual room after this…!”
That should be about enough.
Yukina thought silently to herself. Giving Ningning a little lesson was better. Scaring her a bit could also make her behave more.
Just as she was preparing to say a couple more words…
Bang.
A schoolbag solidly slammed into her shoulder—neither too high nor too low, right onto the wound beneath the bandages.
Yukina sucked in a sharp breath from the pain and staggered half a step to the side. Before she could even steady herself…
“Do you not have eyes when you walk?!”
A rough, hoarse voice pressed down from above her head.