(46) Day 3 Other Schools (15.8 m < 16.0 m)

Compromise was the key word. When it came to Ookojima, being able to enjoy being 10 times their size was a blessing to the girls. Giving a bunch of high school girls the freedom to do what they wanted while Magnified could be dangerous. Rules had to be put in place and people had to be around to ensure they were followed. With the island being only one of many that were hosting schools during Magnification Week, the military must have been spread thin helping the enforcement.

From Sakuragawa, our absurdly large Health Committee also helped the locals. Kamiya-senpai and the other girls were patrolling around to make sure nobody was breaking the law. Apparently, the smaller committees of the other schools were helping out as well, but we were the biggest contributor.

That was what Yae told me that Senpai had explained to her. She told me this as she rested with her back on the hot sand, and I was sitting atop her expansive navel in between the unzipped parts of the parka Tokiwa had loaned her. In return, I explained to her about the meeting with Ranko Sasakura which was coming up soon.

“We’ll be pretty busy then, Touya.”

“You’re telling me. We still a little wiggle room before we have to get going at least,” I played with the gigantic zipper in front of me. Although Tokiwa’s parka wasn’t supposed to be thick, it felt like a heavy blanket to me. The zipper itself needed two hands for me to hold too.

Knowing that, I glanced towards the other guys. It surprised me how much progress was happening there. Tokiwa had somehow managed a sand igloo with an entrance a small child could fit in. She had gotten so into it, she didn’t seem to mind being seen in her black string bikini anymore.

Saeki and Eguchi were creatively decorating around it while Fujimoto was directing them smoothly. They had gotten the gyaru’s and the class rep’s attentions too as Shiina and Yoshikawa were bringing in literal tons of sand and water while Nomiya was taking photos of the development.

“Tokiwa… she’s good.  I didn’t think she had that sort of talent. Isn’t it hard with so much sand?”

“I heard you can make things easier with clay and glue, but she didn’t bring that, did she? Saeki-kun and Eguchi-kun are good too. How can they make something so detailed?” my childhood friend joined me in staring in disbelief.

It seemed we weren’t the only ones to think so. Their construction caught the attention of some other people – townspeople, male students, and more importantly – female students.

“Wow. What is that?”

“Those sculpture skills… they aren’t from our school are they? The director would offer them a scholarship in a heartbeat.”

Click! Click!

A pair of 15+ meter girls in violet sailor uniforms had stopped by the beach and spotted us. A twin tailed girl with glasses was also in awe while the other girl, the long haired brunette with a camera, was taking photo after photo.

All of us guys recognized the second person immediately “Oh. It’s that camera girl.”

“Camera g- Oh, it’s you boys,” the girl also recognized us.

“You know them, Aya?”

“I bumped into them earlier… oh, I mean that I ‘almost’ ran into them.”

So her name was Aya. Fujimoto was the one to greet her back. “Well, I guess we should give our proper greetings this time then. I’m Fujimoto from Sakuragawa High over in-”

“Sakuragawa? Oh, you’re from the school with all the health committee members helping out.” It was surprising how well known our public school was. The private school girl bowed her head respectfully in greeting. “Thank you for your school’s efforts. I’m Aya Kurose from Kogei Academy of Art and Design. This is my friend Sumika Izumi.”

“Kogei? Isn’t the place where-”

That name was familiar. As expected of a private school – its name carried renown. Yae and I must have heard that name so many times back in middle school when we were deciding which high school to attend.

“Kogei? Where have I heard that name before?” Yae’s forgetfulness actually surprised me more than the school’s name itself.

“Yae, you forgot? Kogei i-”

“Kogei? That’s that super big school in Tokyo for art prodigies!” Shiina’s loud voice drowned me out. She was also familiar with it. “Didn’t you want to go there, Minamin?”

“Yeah, I-” Nomiya turned and nearly choked on her spit when she saw in Kurose’s hands. A bright glimmer was clearly visible in her eyes. “Eh? No way. Is that a Maboroshi Film Camera?”

“Huh? Yes. You recognized it?” In an instant, Kurose’s eyes sparkled as well.

Abandoning all inhibitions, the gyaru and the private school girl ran towards each other and grabbed the other’s hands. The photography aficionados’ fingers intertwined.

“Kyaaa!” We lost both of them to their hobby talk.

“I didn’t think we’d get someone else who liked taking photos like Aya. Hopefully she has better taste in subjects,” the glasses girl chuckled before heading towards us. She did her best to slow and steady her pace when she got onto the sand so as to not disturb the sand sculptures. “I’ve got to hand it to you. I’m supposed to be a sculpture specialist, but I wouldn’t be able to handle sand like this. Especially when it’s so delicate to work with at this size.”

Her praise was to Saeki, Eguchi, and Tokiwa.

“It’s just sand,” Tokiwa shrugged. She would have appreciated the compliment more if the glasses girl, Sumika, wasn’t very obviously staring at her boobs. “W-What?”

“You… You have a really hot body.”

“Eh?” the scantily clad Tokiwa stepped back the moment the Kogei girl stepped towards her. Thankfully, Yoshikawa and Shiina acted as her personal guard and stepped in the way.

“Excuse me.” “Those are some totes scary eyes you’re making right now, girl.”

“Urgh… Right. Sorry. I lost control of myself for a second there.”

“So even private schools had their perverts…” I remarked. It made a lot of sense to me.

“Touya…” I was shushed by Yae.

“Hm?” The twin tailed girl turned her gaze towards me. Had she heard my mumbling?

“Um, hello?” I stuttered out as she approached.  With me on Yae’s stomach, I was in the shadow of the 16 meter Kogei student. When she couched down to get a closer look at me. I was buffeted by the wind her giant body displaced.

The girl called glanced over at Yae and then back to me. She said nothing.

“Is something wrong?” Yae was also unnerved.

Again, the Kogei girl said nothing. She kept staring right through me.

All of a sudden, she made her move.

Ziiiip!

“Huh? He-! Mpff-!” “Hyaa! What are you doing?

Wordlessly, the twin tailed haired girl grabbed the zipper of parka and pulled it up. Her hand slammed into me, knocking me flat against Yae’s stomach – my head slipping into the deep opening of her belly button. She then pulled the zipper up toward Yae’s chest, trapping me inside the darkness of her parka with my only light coming from whatever could pass through Yae’s cleavage.

“Ugmff!” I quickly found myself vertical as Yae stood up. My entire body was taken along for the head rattling ride that was my 16 meter childhood friend standing up and backing away defensively. Even though gravity pulled me down, I found that the parka was tight enough on Yae’s body to wrap around me and keep me from slipping out.

“Hm… Not as much of an impression as I’d prefer. Maybe if it was a tighter outfit… Ooh, a wet T-shirt would look good. I’d love to see how that would look with a tiny guy wrapped up inside.” I could hear the bespectacled twin tailed girl’s voice through the parka.

“Touya, you’re right. This girl is a pervert!” Yae had seen the girl’s expression. Whatever it was, it made her let out a cold sweat. I was well aware of that as my body was bathed in it.

I wasn’t sure exactly what happened in the world around me, but Yae started moving. I was jostled up and down with each step she took. Because of her size, she cleared greater distances than she normally would with her stride, so before I realized it, the sandy beach far below me became the blue sea.

“Whoa…!” I paled as the parka stopped pressing against Yae and started fluttering about from the wind her large scale motions generated. My body slid down a full meter before it blew back into me. I grabbed onto it, not wanting to risk falling.

“Hey! What do you think you are doing?!” I was thankful when a shout stopped Yae from fleeing further. She stopped moving, meaning her was not swinging around at a speed that would easily fling me off.

“Geh-! Busted just like with Hazuki…”

“Uwah… I’m saved. Thank you...” I heard Yae let out a breath of relief. I hoped that meant that she would get me out of the parka, but the way she went about it was far too dangerous from my perspective.

Ziiiiiiiip!

“Gwah!”

Whoosh!

Having grabbed onto the parka instead of Yae’s skin, I was taken along with it when Yae unzipped it completely. I felt the whiplash as my body jerked left and right as the loose jacket fluttered around like a flag in a typhoon.

“Kyah! Touya! Why are you there!?” Thankfully, Yae spotted me immediately. An enormous hand wrapped around my torso and pulled me off safely before I lost my grip.

“… Thanks. At this height, I don’t think I’d be safe hitting the water,” I felt relief despite being gripped tightly in a girthy hand. While it was rude to Yae, my mind immediately made the connection to that movie with the giant monkey in it.

“Sorry. I panicked when she came running at me,” Yae apologized for putting me in danger. It wasn’t her fault.

Yae headed back to shore slowly and steadily in order to not make me nauseous. Our destination was the cliffside past the rocks where we saw the Kogei girl being shouted by a very animated pair of girls.

“Oh. Is that Saeki’s sister?” I recognized Yuno Saeki, our quiet classmate’s younger sibling, as one of the two. The other was a girl with a different school from both Sakuragawa and Kogei, but she also had the health committee armband on her.

… Actually, I realized that it said ‘Health and Discipline Committee’ on it.

“You perverted girls are worse than the boys! I swear! If you were at my school, you’d be shrunken down as punishment once the laws change to let girls get Reduced!”

“Uwah… Easy there kid. You’re going to pop a blood vessel getting that mad.”

“Don’t call me a kid! I’m Ruri Asagiri! Isuzu High School’s Health and Discipline Committee Chairman!”

“A Chairman? You’re still a first year though, so you are still a kid, right?”

“Why you-!”

Something told me Isuzu High School had several disciplinary issues if a freshman was in charge of both the health and discipline committees. Other schools problems weren’t our problems, but she had my sympathies. Our school doing a majority of the work this time hopefully would ease whatever burdens she had.

“Ruri-san, you need to be careful. Onii- I mean, some boys are right there. Maybe you should move down the coast a little.”

“Gah… Right. Sorry.”

“Ah. Asano-senpai. Touya-senpai.” With the Isuzu student told to move the Kogei girl away, Yuno Saeki turned towards us. She saw Yae approach and left Asagiri to be the one to lecture the Kogei girl. “Are you two okay?”

“Do I look okay?” I asked with my vision completely filled with my underclassman’s face as she leaned in to have a better look at me in Yae’s hand. I felt like a doll being curiously looked over.

“… Honestly, I can’t tell, Senpai,” my giant underclassman frowned. She turned to Yae as though asking for permission. “Asano-senpai, can you please put Touya-senpai over here? I can check if he got any bruises or scratches.”

“Sure.”

Where did Yuno Saeki point? It was on a cliff that the girls all actually stood over. The scenic lookout point that was 12 meters above the sandy beach was chest high to them. Even when Yae put me on the grass at the top, I found myself staring up at my underclassman who stared a hole right through me with her piercing, serious gaze.

“You look okay to me, Senpai. Actually, can you even get injured that much on this island? I still don’t understand how they made things here. Their DL field is far more advanced because everything here was built for Alteration. They’re supposed to let out some particles that work with the field right? Can they release this much for an entire island?”

“Maybe this whole place has them… Actually, maybe not. The air around here seems pretty normal. When I activated the at home version, I felt an electric pulse. I don’t feel that here. I can probably ask Sasakura-sensei’s sister later for you. Yae and I are supposed to meet her soon.”

“Oh. Please do let me know then, Senpai,” she thanked me for indulging her curiosity. She paused for a moment and turned her head as something else had caught her attention. “Uh… Asano-senpai. That’s not a place to put your jacket.”

Turning my head because Yae had mentioned, I saw what my underclassman was looking at. Yae had taken off the parka and put it on the edge of the cliffside that was at the end of the protective fencing for normal sized people.

Seeing the parka drape over the tall, unscalable wall of the cliffside was a disturbingly surreal sight. The cliff had made the perfect coat hanger for a giant girl like Yae…

“A-Ah. Sorry. I just wanted to take Tokiwa-san’s parka off after all of that and didn’t know where to put it,” Yae was embarrassed after being called out. She likely felt uncomfortable after having been lewdly looked it while wearing it. Her swimsuit suddenly felt a lot more comfortable to be in if it didn’t attract the Kogei girl.

“… I guess it does look like a fitting place to put it,” the health committee member agreed, but she struggled to resist doing. “Never mind that. Asano-senpai, Touya-senpai, you’re lucky Ruri-san and I were here. The Kogei girls are just as crazy as Sakuragawa if not worse.”

“I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. Thanks, Yuno-chan. As expected of Saeki’s sister,” I praised the giant girl only to receive a side glance from Yae which I was sure was because I addressed her so familiarly. It was only because it was a pain to have to call two people Saeki. I was thankful Yae knew not to address the topic and let her keep talking.

“Senpai, don’t praise me here. Onii-chan’s right down there. It’s embarrassing,” my health committee junior tried to shush me, but her voice was louder and probably alerted her brother more than my voice. “Actually, I’m actually happy I found you two together, Senpai. I only knew where Asano-senpai was and not you. We’re really spread thin right now with patrols.”

She sounded exhausted. It looked like she had been patrolling with the other school’s health committee member, and by the sounds of it, a lot of girls were causing trouble.

“I’m guessing that you want me to help out? I guess I do have to fill in for Matsu after all.”

“Sorry, but you can’t really do that much at your size alone, Senpai.” I felt insulted by the immediately dismissal, but she wasn’t wrong. “But thankfully, Asano-senpai’s here too. Narumi-senpai was hoping you and Asano-senpai together could take care of someone that we think you’d be the best people on the job to deal with her.”

Considering our class had problem students like Yukimura, I was a bit hesitant to agree, but it was my job as a health committee member to support them when they needed it during our island stay.

“That okay with you, Yae?” I asked my childhood friend for confirmation because she was being dragged into my duties too.

“I guess so? It depends on who it is, doesn’t it?” Yae agreed but made sure to ask the most important question the two of us had.

Yuno Saeki’s answer surprised both of us.

“It’s Aoi-senpai.”

Upon hearing that name, both Yae’s eyes and my eyes widened.

“Takahashi?” “Aoi-chan?”

(47) Day 3 Hotel Ten-Scale (16.0 m < 16.2 m)

“Is this the place?”

“I’m pretty sure it is. I don’t think there’s any place as big as this in the whole island, Yae.”

“It doesn’t look like it’s naturally supposed to be here. Is it like those Magnifiable Blue Rooms?”

“Probably… The way the road connects is what makes me unsure, though. Can you put me down now, Yae? I kind of want to feel regular sized for just a bit longer.”

“Regular sized? Oh, I guess when we go in…”

“Yeah.”

5:00 was the time when Yae and I made it to where Yuno Saeki had pointed us. There was still an hour until we were supposed to meet with Ranko-san. That meant we had less than that amount of time to find and figure out what happened to Takahashi.

Well, at the very least, the trip to our destination afterwards wasn’t going to be too far. The meeting place was in the same area Takahashi was in.

The road leading out of the city from the west end branched off a kilometer away. By car, it would have taken a few minutes, and by foot, it would have taken me at least an hour to get there from the beach. Yae’s walking pace matched a car thankfully so we made it there quickly enough.

At the foot of the mountain that the port was near was a Japanese-style inn, a ryokan. You honestly could not miss the hotel even in the depths of downtown. 

Its name made it fairly clear how large it was.

Hotel Ten-Scale – this was the place where all of the students from all the schools were supposed to meet up at the end of the day. For the English language used in the name, it was surprising to realize that the hotel was so Japanese in appearance, but what was more remarkable was certainly its size. Because it had been Magnified, it spanned at least half a kilometer in length and what had to be 200 meters in height at minimum for the three story inn.

At a size ten times larger than any ordinary inn, it was on par with the replica Sunshine 60 building I had been in before but much wider. The regular sized road went alongside a Magnified pathway that led up to the enormous entrance. When Yae put me back down as I had requested, it felt like I had been Reduced again.

“I thought being by the road would make me feel normal, but honestly, the cars heading in look like toy cars now.”

“I have to agree. It’s very surreal now that there’s something the same size as me now. It’s bigger than the downtown buildings too, so it’s really out of place.”

“I guess that’s the point so that everyone knows where to go. Takahashi sure is the indoorsy-type, heading to the inn without going anywhere else.”

“Knowing Aoi-chan, she probably just got forced to walk around too much.”

Our opinions of Takahashi were a bit harsh, but we were super close friends, so this was to be expected between the three of us.

Yae made her way into the ryokan through the large door. I started running down along the regular sized road that ran through the non-Magnified entrance: a hole in the wall. Yae waited for me on the other side with a bemused smile on her face that she struggled to hide.

“Maybe I should carry you.”

“No… I can handle it. You just find out where Takahashi is and I’ll be right there.”

“Okay, but you better catch up soon, Touya.”

My stubbornness was my undoing. Yae listened to me and quickly made her way to talk to the Magnified inn receptionist. I realized too late that there were literal city blocks of distance between the entrance and the reception table. It felt dangerous to cross the giant sized hall alone.

“Hey, what are you doing trying to go that way? Follow the road!” my attention was called by a male student who was ahead of me. From the uniform, I guessed he was a part of the same school as the girl who had been patrolling with Saeki. He must have been one of that school’s male health committee members.

“The road? Oh… Whoa. That’s pretty cool.” I realized that the car road sloped downwards into an opaque glass tunnel. That tunnel crossed the hall through the floor, allowing regular sized people to get to what looked like a parking lot by the reception desk.

“By the way, if you’re thinking about peeping on people skirts from under that glass tunnel, it’s one-way glass. You can see in from above but not below,” the Isuzu student told me.

“So like those one-way mirrors at police stations? I knew we’d be staying at this hotel, but I didn’t think it’d have features like that.” I told him as I started to jog.

It was only a few brief minutes, but Yae finished speaking to the reception clerk before I got out of the tunnel. When I stepped out, I found myself under her shadow as she bent down to meet me.

“Touya, it looks like Aoi-chan’s legs gave out from walking so much. Apparently she had to be brought in and put under Narumi-senpai’s care.”

“Her stride is ten times mine, and she’s still tired out? As always, she’s super bad a physical activity,” I laughed for a moment, but after realizing Narumi-senpai had taken care of her, realized why Saeki had asked for our help. “If Narumi-senpai’s involved, though, she must be out like a light.”

“Oh right… Even I slept like a rock after her lap pillow,” Yae recalled. “They’re out by the foot bath apparently.”

“A foot bath?”

Yae was too impatient to wait for me to follow along behind her, so she grabbed me walked out with me in her hands. I reluctantly had to accepted and waited while dangling in her grip until she put me down on the wooden floor outside.

What my childhood friend called a foot bath, I called a hot spring. The ryokan had a scenic view of the ocean due to its higher elevation, but it also had a small lake that I was clearly seeing steam float up from.

“This is a hot spring isn’t it? Is it natural or manmade? I’ve never seen one this huge. Did they somehow Magnify the hot spring or did they Magnify this inn around the hot spring?”

I didn’t get my question answered as my voice was heard by the person who had been waiting for us, Narumi-senpai. Clad in a ryokan yukata, she pulled her long hair back behind her ear elegantly. “Oh, Kirishima-kun. You’re finally here. I was hoping my SOS would make it to you.”

Narumi-senpai was seated at the edge of the veranda, her bare legs dipping into the 2 meter deep hot spring below. Those 2 meters, though, were only 20 cm in her perspective, so it really was a foot bath to her.

My upperclassman who loved giving lap pillows also had someone with her – the person we had been called to find: Takahashi. She was fast asleep on the soft thighs that I would have to pull myself up to get on top of. A line of drool stood out on her face. I also noticed that, although she was still clad in her uniform, her shoes and socks were off. She must have used the foot bath.

“Did you need us to get Aoi-chan off you, Senpai?” Yae moved to sit down by Narumi-senpai. In an effort to avoid her legs, I rushed forward. That forced me to also have to avoid her descending, round rear end as she sat down. I stumbled into the gap between the two awake giants and slammed into Senpai’s thigh.

“Oh, no. I’m fine with letting her sleep a little longer. She certainly had an experience earlier,” Narumi-senpai answered. I realized she was quietly braiding Takahashi’s hair without jostling her. She was as gentle and kind as ever, but she sure did love doing things to people. She welcomed physical contact.

That was also why she stopped braiding Takahashi’s hair for a moment to use a single finger to push me back into her leg when I was trying to push myself off of it. Senpai’s warmth poured into my body, and the smell of yuzu fruits entered my nose. Considering she was in a yukata, had Senpai taken a dip in a yuzu bath? The certainly would be a hot spring for the girls at this size, so I had to assume the inn’s facilities for the girls included a Magnified yuzu bath.

“Comfy, isn’t it, Kirishima-kun? Ufufu~!” Narumi-senpai’s ability to make someone relax turned my whole body into jelly. A full minute passed before she released me, suggesting a different experience. “Oh, but I’m sure you’d rather head down the stairs and take a dip in the hot spring.”

There actually were stairs that led down the Magnified ryokan to where the hot springs were. When the less than knee high drop from the veranda to the ground required a flight of stairs to me, I certainly felt the difference in size between us. I was reluctant to head down, but Senpai grabbed me from where she was seated and transferred me from her right side to her left.

“Takahashi won’t roll off and crush me, will she?” I was standing in the narrow space between Takahashi’s sleeping body and the edge of the wooden floor. She made an impassable wall, preventing me from getting further away from the edge. “Actually, knowing you, Senpai, she’s probably out like a light.”

“Ufufu~!”

With no real choice but to down to the springs, I walked down the normal sized staircase that felt like a Reduction Accommodation until I made it down to the hot spring. Because I was still clad in my uniform, I easily felt the heat.

“Whoa… That’s steamy.”

I was right that it was a hot spring, but it was deeper than the ones I was used to. I could definitely swim and dive into the water like with a swimming pool, but that would likely hurt because of how hot the water was.

“Is it hot, Touya?” Yae was curious. She also wanted to experience the water like Senpai. I turned to see her start taking off her shoes and socks. The long black cloth that could cover a telephone pole hit the ground with a hard thud from my perspective.

“Uuuh…” my mind went blank as Yae’s feet lifted off the ground and rose above me. With her passing 16 meters tall now, her feet were over 2 meters long – longer than I was tall. Her foot stench mixed sweat, salt, and sand assaulted my nose. The ocean water from when Yae was in the ocean earlier helped assuage the odor, but looking at her looming bare feet triggered my memories of Yukimura.

Splash!

Yae’s feet entered the hot spring/foot bath, sending out a hot wave of water that thankfully did not get to me. That did not mean that I didn’t get wet, however.

Drip! Sploosh!

“Gwargh!” What I thought was a bucket-full of water drenched me. Looking up, I saw another pair of feet, replacing Yae’s which were now in the water. Narumi-senpai had taken hers out. Being at the feet of two bare legged girls enjoying a foot bath, it was unavoidable.

“Hwaaaah~! This feels so nice!”

“Isn’t it just the right temperature? I may like to spoil others, but even I can’t compare to a luxury ryokan with a hot spring.”

“Haaaah~n! This is just what I needed after dealing with that weird pervert girl earlier.”

Yae was certainly enjoying herself. I couldn’t fault her. I wanted to take a dip too, but this was an actual bath instead of a foot bath for me. How sanitary the water would get after having Magnified dirty and sweaty feet dipped into it worried me. I was also not going to strip down in front of the girls. I did, however, loosen my tie and unbutton my shirt so I could dry off just a little before the two of them got back on topic.

“So what happened with Aoi-chan, Senpai? Is she okay?”

“I believe I’ve taken good care of her, but I wanted you two here just in case because you’re friends.”

“Just in case? She looks alright now, but you said she went through some experience,” I put my hand on my hip and spoke up. Yae turned my way. Immediately, I saw her turn red as she used her hands to cover her eyes (although she actually left gaps between her fingers that she could see through).

“T-Touya, your shirt!”

“It’s wet. And it isn’t much to see at your scale, is it?”

Narumi-senpai’s answer surprised me. “We can actually see it fairly clearly because of our sensory enhancement, Kirishima-kun. Ufufu… You’re more defined than I thought you were.”

“I-Is that right?” I became more conscious of my own appearance and so I turned my back to them.

“I saw Yanase-senpai on our way in earlier. I’ll ask her for a spare uniform and towel for you,” Yae quickly pulled her legs out of the water, nearly splashing me again. She was desperate to hide her red face.

“Aww, she’s embarrassed.” The sight of my barelegged, giant childhood friend running away gave my upperclassman a good laugh. “She was adorable while Reduced when we first met, but she’s just as adorable when I can see her eye to eye. You’ve got to love her, Kirishima-kun.”

“Of course I do,” I answered without any hesitation. I also, however, also decided to continue the conversation without her. “But really, why call us, Senpai? It looks like you have Takahashi handled. ‘Just in case’ doesn’t sound like an excuse you’d normally give.”

“It’s more for the aftercare,” explained my committee upperclassman with a frown. “Her legs gave out not because she was tired, but because she ran into someone she knew from one of the other schools. I’m not sure what their relationship was, but she said she spent all of her energy in that encounter.”

“Someone she knows?” I repeated, trying to sort through my memories for an answer.

“I thought you two would know. If you can take care of her when she wakes up, that’d be very much appreciated.”

So that was why we were here – to console Takahashi. I realized she had a very good reason to have exhausted herself too. The other two schools with us were Kogei Academy of Art and Design and Isuzu High School. It dumbfounded me earlier when Yae sounded like she didn’t remember Kogei, but I was still familiar with that school’s name even after all of these years. While it was true that we didn’t know everything about Takahashi’s acquaintances, there was only one person who could tire out Takahashi who we all knew in common. And that person, I was certain applied to Kogei.

“That face… Looks like you realized it,” Takahashi voice entered my ears. Turning my head in her direction, I saw that her eyes were open. She had woken up.

“Oh, Takahashi-chan, you’re awake,” Senpai spoke. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. I don’t need any aftercare. It’s more mental exhaustion than physical,” Takahashi sat up, scratching her head and wiping the drool off her face. She kept her eyes on me, treating the situation as something serious. “Yeah, she’s here, Kirishima-kun. I know it’s stupid of me to say this when I’m Magnified, but this sure is a small world we’re in.”

I saw it coming when I learned we had students from Kogei. Those words confirmed that who she had encountered was indeed who I had remembered. I had to admit, in some ways, I was thankful Yae had run off now, especially considering the relationship those two had together.

“Oh boy… It might be good to keep them away from each other then…”

Hopefully, we’d be kept busy enough by Ranko-san that the two of them would not meet.