Chapter 2
“Well, you see. To be honest, I turned into a woman…”
Between Vita and the school nurse.
Their conversation, in summary, went like this.
“If that really is the truth, I can at least recommend that you visit a major hospital. You understand what I mean?”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
The kindhearted nurse seemed to be putting it delicately, but perhaps the major hospital she meant was a psychiatric hospital.
In the end, Vita had no choice but to leave the school nurse’s home.
He suddenly felt depressed, and a sigh escaped him.
“Haa—”
Still.
Even in the teacher’s position, it would have been hard to believe such a story. Still, the school nurse had tried to believe him, so perhaps he ought to be grateful instead.
“Why on earth…?”
Why had he turned into a woman overnight?
What was more, any way back to normal seemed hopeless—and now he was fully a woman.
Vita’s world went dark.
Maybe he would turn back after sleeping and waking up?
Could it all be nothing more than a strange dream?
He had considered all sorts of possibilities, but none of them made a difference. In the end, the only choice left was to tell his family about his changed state.
He was a little afraid of his exceedingly strict father’s reaction.
After all, if a grown son said he had pulled some harebrained stunt and turned into a woman…
‘I might really die.’
Vita repeatedly went pale, then blue in the face, but he couldn’t avoid telling his parents in the end.
And, as expected, both parents came to see him just two days later.
***
“What in the world happened?”
Just as Vita had expected.
His stern father, Maximilian Shamal, wore a cold expression.
“Well, Father…”
Extremely tense, Vita explained how it had happened. He had already explained it over the phone, of course.
How he had obtained a strange medicine, why he had drunk it, what had changed afterward, and the school nurse’s assessment.
“So, to sum up: you drank some strange medicine to beat that rival of yours?”
“…Y-yes.”
Though it was shameful even to him, he had no choice but to confess honestly to the parents who had brought him into the world.
His father clicked his tongue.
“You brought this on yourself.”
“…Yes. I know.”
“Thank goodness it’s vacation. If this had happened during the semester, what would you have done?”
Vita had to admit it, too. Perhaps this transformation was the price he had paid for a moment of blind competitiveness that had led him to misjudge the situation.
But, truly.
He had wanted to beat that bastard. Enough to enter a match without playing fair.
Vita’s spirits sank for no particular reason, and he lowered his head slightly.
Even the sight of his small hands below felt unfamiliar, filling him with gloom.
“That’s enough, dear.”
Fortunately, his mother, Emma Shamal, was always on her son’s side.
“He’s already the one most troubled by this, so why make him feel worse? If you look at it another way, we’ve been given a lovely daughter. That’s not a bad thing, is it?”
What was this? Was he imagining things?
His mother, with her curly brown hair and kindly, plump appearance, seemed to be in a good mood.
“Don’t worry, Vita. Your father and I have always wanted a daughter, too.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
His father protested.
“Honestly, you’re happy about it too.”
“Huh? Me?! What nonsense are you talking about? Did you eat something strange this morning?”
“We ate together, dear. Didn’t you say that becoming a daughter might not be so bad?”
“Now, dear…?”
An entirely unexpected marital squabble.
His father, Maximilian Shamal, cleared his throat, his face slightly flushed.
Vita was a little flustered.
What was this conversation?
He had no idea what was going on, of course, but he was privately relieved that the atmosphere was better than expected. They were probably trying to comfort him. Surely they must be disappointed that their son had ended up like this.
“Thank you, Mother. And you too, Father, of course.”
With his heart swelling, Vita spoke, and his mother chuckled.
“Oh my, really. Even your voice is lovely.”
“There now, dear. Stop saying pointless things and take this.”
Vita accepted an envelope his father held out. Inside was a new identification card.
“Bianca… Shamal…?”
“Well, since this is how things have turned out, I suppose I’d better get used to it.”
His father had always been meticulous about preparing for things.
“I brought some clothes, too.”
Then a multitude of women’s clothes spilled from the bag.
‘…When did he get these?’
There were so many that it was almost as if they had been prepared in advance—the quantity was simply absurd.
“Ah, thank…”
Was he supposed to thank him? Vita’s mind was in turmoil.
Vita didn’t know it, but his parents were whispering to each other as they watched his flustered expression.
-Looks like she likes them.
-You picked them yourself.
-Ahem, well… I can pick things out too.
-You were the one who wanted a daughter, and now you’re making such a fuss…
-Good grief, dear. That was ages ago.
For reference, Vita’s family had no fewer than four sons.
In other words, long ago, this eccentric couple had tried in their own way to have a cute daughter, but before they knew it, they had ended up with four sons. Such a sad story.
That an old wish had come true now in such a strange way was certainly unexpected.
Naturally, thanks to his parents’ overflowing concern, Vita spent all afternoon that day undergoing a full medical examination.
[There is nothing wrong.]
There were no health problems; physically, his body was entirely female.
When the final diagnosis from the major hospital came down, Vita was devastated, but reality could not be undone.
There had been some twists and turns, but somehow everything was resolved.
His parents said he could transfer schools and that his mother should stay with him for a while.
Vita firmly rejected those suggestions.
[No, it’s fine.]
He understood all their concern, but he still intended to keep attending this academy.
Transferring schools just because he had turned into a woman? That would make him look like a complete loser.
He had no intention of doing that.
[Anyway, Vita. Now that you’ve become a woman, be even more mindful of your conduct.]
[Contact Mom right away whenever you run into trouble!]
After repeatedly admonishing him, his parents returned home. They had always respected their children’s wishes.
Late that night, Vita lay alone on his bed, thinking.
Well, how to put it? It had been easier than expected.
‘…I thought I was going to get scolded badly.’
Well… all in all, it had been easier than expected—almost bewildering.
In the first place, his parents had merely pretended to be fine to spare him. He couldn’t imagine that they truly welcomed him changing like this.
‘Oh, right…’
Then Vita suddenly remembered something that had slipped his mind.
Before he knew it, the day of the match he and his opponent had agreed to had arrived.
The time they had set was now right in front of him.
***
A new day dawned.
Saint Antiope Academy consisted of three separate dormitories.
Upon first enrolling, new students underwent an aptitude assessment.
Afterward, each was assigned to a dormitory suited to their disposition.
Reindeer, whose emblem was a reindeer, represented courage and passion.
The dormitory Vita Shamal belonged to was home mostly to emotionally perceptive students. It had a strong liberal-arts bent, with an interest in literature and social studies.
Second was Libra.
Its emblem was the scales, and its motto was intelligence and inquiry. It was the dormitory for eccentric students. Every student there had an odd personality, and most leaned toward the sciences, with a fondness for technology and magical studies.
And last was Ouroboros, the dormitory of freedom and infinity.
Its emblem was a black snake coiled into a loop, and of the three dormitories, Ouroboros was the most disorderly.
At the very edge of the academy, fistfights between students were not uncommon.
Free spirits.
That was the charitable way to put it; less charitably, there were quite a lot of delinquents.
Yet someone had brought this world of disorder and survival of the fittest to heel.
It was ‘Carlisle Schultz’.
“I hear he’s never lost once?”
“Oh, that guy…?”
There was a rumor that he had flattened everyone who picked a fight with him.
It happened only a week after ‘that guy’ transferred in.
That guy—Carlisle Schultz—was a cheat for plenty of other reasons, too.
The top student the previous year.
He had knocked Vita Shamal, the perennial number one in the academy’s overall evaluations, down to second place.
“So he’s a delinquent and good at studying, too!”
“Isn’t he really cool…?”
The person those shrieking girls were looking toward.
Perhaps he was the very image of the ‘bad boy’ girls were always talking about.
Ash-gray hair and golden eyes.
His eyes were languidly narrowed, as though waiting bored him, giving him the air of a black panther.
He was tall and handsome, with a solid build that drew admiring gasps.
Carlisle Schultz stood leaning against a tree in the shade.
Why was he standing there?
Well, who knew.
He was due to have a match shortly with that passionate boy called Vita—or Vitamin or whatever. That had to be the only reason.
“Eek-! Carlisle!”
There were plenty of spectators.
It was vacation, but this was too entertaining an event to miss.
Murmur- murmur-
Carlisle Schultz was disgustingly popular. He was so used to this attention and these stares that he was sick of them.
But why wasn’t his opponent coming?
“Did he run away?”
“Oh, come on. No way.”
The whispers grew louder.
Just as Carlisle frowned and slowly opened his eyes.
With all those students waiting for a single person.
“Hey, come fight me-!”
Suddenly, a high soprano note rang across the wide clearing.