After School
The familiar confines of the Service Club felt both comfortable and charged with a new, unspoken tension as the four of them reconvened after school.
No sooner had they gathered that Jahy buzzed over to Masao, her curiosity overriding any sense of decorum.
"Masao," she began, her voice earnest. "I have a question for you."
A familiar sense of dread prickled at the back of Masao's neck. He eyed her warily. Her expression, however, held no mischief—only a pure, innocent curiosity.
"What is it?" he asked, his guard still up.
Jahy, oblivious to the social minefield she was about to traverse, plowed ahead with the single-minded focus of a scholar seeking truth.
"Why are the people in the books in your room, and the ones on your computer, not wearing any clothes?"
Her eyes were wide, clear pools of innocence.
Beneath that guileless gaze, Masao felt a cold sweat erupt all over his body. He didn't need to look to feel the twin glares of Yukinoshita and Hiratsuka boring into him like ice picks. His spine went rigid.
In that moment of sheer panic, his brain achieved escape velocity, his intellect momentarily eclipsing the great thinkers of history.
A strained, wooden smile stretched across his face.
"J-Jahy… what are you talking about?" he stammered, the pitch of his voice climbing an octave. "I don't understand. People with no clothes? Ah! You must mean my physical health textbook! You know, the one the school gave us during the health education seminar. I must have just left it in my room afterwards. It's purely for anatomical study! You'll learn all about it when you're older. Ahaha~"
'I'm a genius! A flawless recovery. Everyone's seen that textbook; it's the perfect cover.'
He let out a mental sigh of relief and mopped his brow.
'I'm sweating from the mental gymnastics, but the crisis is averted.'
He knew Yukinoshita and Hiratsuka-sensei weren't fooled. But with a plausible excuse on the table, their sense of propriety would prevent them from dissecting his lie further.
"Oh! A text on the human form," Jahy mused, her interest now fully captured.
"In that case, I should definitely apply myself to it." She rummaged in her small bag and produced a volume. "Here. Instruct me."
When she'd left his room, she'd snagged one of his books, thinking it might contain useful human knowledge.
She hadn't imagined it would prove relevant so soon.
The moment the book left her bag, Masao's heart stopped dead in his chest.
'I'm finished.'
Had it been a standard gravure lewd magazine, it would have merely painted him as a typical, hormone-driven teenager.
But the cover Jahy now held aloft featured a "magical girl" who had consumed a truly alarming quantity of "milk", the consequences of which were depicted in exaggerated detail.
It was a niche interest, to put it mildly.
Yukinoshita's gaze could have flash-frozen hell.
"How revolting," she stated, her voice dripping with contempt.
Every ounce of goodwill Masao had built with her evaporated, plunging his social standing deep into the negatives.
Hiratsuka, who had been on the verge of offering a teacher's lenient perspective on teenage curiosity, took one look at the cover and snapped her mouth shut.
Any defense she might have mounted died before it was born.
Oblivious to the social execution she had just performed, Jahy blinked.
"What? What's the matter?"
Her innocent question shattered the thick silence.
Hiratsuka cleared her throat, her cheeks tinged with pink as she plucked the book from Jahy's grasp.
"I'll be confiscating this. It is not appropriate reading material for you."
Jahy frowned, watching the book disappear into the Hiratsuka's possession.
'Is it forbidden knowledge…?' she wondered, a spark of determination igniting within her. 'I must investigate this further when the opportunity arises.'
—
Meanwhile, Masao was in no state to manage Jahy's academic curiosity. He was facing an existential crisis.
His reputation lay in smoldering ruins, beyond all hope of repair.
'Farewell, my bright, upstanding, virtuous, and pure-hearted image…'
(The collective, unspoken thought of the room: What image?)
Watching Masao sit as still and gray as a statue of ash, Yukinoshita let out a soft, exasperated sigh and pressed her fingers to her temples.
"Masao-kun," she said, her tone weary.
"Yes?" he mumbled, his voice hollow.
"I am aware that boys your age develop… certain interests. I have no desire to pass judgment on your… particular proclivities. So, there is no need to dwell on this excessively. However, in the future, have the decency to secure such materials properly, where Jahy cannot stumble upon them. She is a child. Such things are not for her eyes."
Her words, pragmatic and surprisingly merciful, were a balm to his shattered soul.
Masao looked up, his hands clasped over his mouth, his eyes shimmering with misplaced gratitude.
"Yukinoshita… are you an angel? You… you understand me!"
Yukinoshita immediately took a sharp step back, holding up a hand as if to ward him off.
"Stop. I will acknowledge my angelic nature, but let me be perfectly clear: I do not understand you, I have no wish to understand you either, and I would prefer your 'hobbies' to remain a minimum of ten meters away from me at all times."
"Hah!" Hiratsuka barked a short, amused laugh, the tension in the room finally breaking.
"She's right, you know. It's normal for a boy your age to look at… things. But…" Her tone shifted into one of gentle admonishment.
"…As your teacher, let me offer some advice. The kind that's a little too… specialized… well, let's say it doesn't align with mainstream values"
She felt a professional obligation to say it, worried about the warped ideals young men could sometimes absorb from the darker corners of media.
"Okay. I understand," Masao agreed, his voice meek. He truly meant it; between his exhausting training and his now-complete "research," he felt he had graduated from that particular phase of his life.
—
By silent, mutual agreement, the three older members in the room let the matter drop.
Jahy's attention was soon captured by Masao's grueling training session.
'So this was "weight loss"? Mere physical exertion?'
It finally made sense why he returned home each day looking half-dead. While she understood that such efforts could forge strength, the concept held zero appeal for her.
Her path to restored power was through collecting the scattered mana stones, not this tedious, sweat-drenched struggle. It was an inefficient and painfully slow method of self-improvement.
When the training finally concluded, Masao dragged his leaden body toward home, exhausted.
Today, he was accompanied not only by his usual companion Yukinoshita but also by Jahy.
Hiratsuka departed alone in her sporty car. He watched her car peel away, into the distance.
At the usual crossroads, the group parted ways.
This time, however, Yukinoshita lingered for a heartbeat longer than necessary, a faint hesitation in her step before she turned and walked away, leaving Masao and Jahy to their evening.
___
__
Show your support with Power Stones guys!
[email protected]/Raven_scroll (30+ Advance Chapters)