Chapter 3
It happened the night before.
‘…I can’t back down.’
Vita’s resolve was firm.
I can’t back down over something as trivial as this.
Of course, a change of sex wasn’t something one could dismiss as something trivial, but who was Vita Shamal?
Wasn’t he the very embodiment of a competitive spirit that absolutely had to see every contest through, unable to stomach losing even the most ordinary bet?
A man must never run from a contest.
To run away from a contest was the shame of a lifetime—an impossibility.
‘I’d sooner lose than back down.’
Just because his body had become a woman’s didn’t mean anything had changed. He couldn’t allow himself to cut an ugly figure by loudly challenging someone, then disappearing.
Besides, as a member of the disciplinary committee, he couldn’t keep letting a delinquent like Carlisle off the hook!
“Hey, let’s fight-!”
And so, this was the situation now.
After a brief silence, an answer came.
“Who are you?”
Ash-gray hair and golden eyes.
An alpha male who looked as though he could have stepped straight out of a shoujo manga as its male lead approached Vita.
Carlisle Schultz himself.
Vita hadn’t been tall even as a boy, and now he was even smaller.
Flinch-
Naturally, the tall Carlisle’s approach intimidated him a little.
‘He’s only tall for no reason…’
Feeling the difference in their heights all over again put Vita in a bad mood.
[Hey, did you hear? They say Princess Hera of Libra is dating Carlisle.]
[Huh? No way… Did he already break up with Lindsey?]
[Well, his girlfriends do change pretty often.]
Hera, Lindsey—and even Emily Swan, his own unrequited love, an angel—Carlisle was constantly being linked with the girls rumored to be the prettiest in the academy. Vita found even that extremely irritating.
A lifelong rival—that was exactly how it felt.
There was no way he could be friends with someone so obnoxiously tall and, on top of that, so promiscuous.
‘A man, you see, ought to be devoted.’
That was how Vita thought. Perhaps one could call it an innate set of values.
‘Of course.’
His dream since childhood had been for first loves to marry each other.
Vita’s pure nature had also led him to deliberately keep his distance from the lewd things his peers inevitably encountered.
He didn’t want to know about such things before experiencing them himself.
[Vita, look at this. Isn’t it really hot?]
[I’m not interested in that.]
Of course, he was a man, so he was at least somewhat interested.
‘Urgh…’
He was barely holding out, really.
His pride wouldn’t allow him to look at so-called sexy things and pleasure himself. Perhaps his innate competitive spirit had manifested in a strange direction.
Anyway, from Vita’s perspective, if he were to sum up Carlisle Schultz…
He was a faithless bastard. The sort of person Vita didn’t even want to deal with.
Most men liked chaste women, but if that was what they wanted, shouldn’t they first be chaste themselves?
So imagine how furious Vita was when Carlisle, the exact opposite, took first place away from him—and even stole his unrequited love.
Whoosh- Whoosh-
Suddenly, a large palm waved in front of Vita’s rage-filled eyes. It seemed his thoughts had run long.
“Are you mute, by any chance…?”
Honestly, what a way to talk.
“I’m not mute, you mute-!”
As Vita shouted angrily, he heard a snicker.
“So you’re not a doll after all.”
Gwaaack-
Vita nearly vomited up everything he had eaten that morning.
He hated to admit it, but the bastard had a face worth looking at, at least, so perhaps such vulgar advances worked on women.
‘Of course, that only works on women. I’m a little different.’
All he wanted was to beat him up.
So Vita raised the wooden sword in one hand.
‘You’re getting a beating today.’
Today, he would win without fail.
***
“Anyway, let’s fight-! Kendo rules.”
Vita raised his wooden sword.
Carlisle, looking at it, was utterly dumbfounded.
‘What the hell is this woman?’
Had she lost her mind?
Carlisle furrowed his brow and fell into thought for a moment. From his perspective—
[Hey, fight me-!]
Hadn’t he accepted that strange, hot-blooded boy Vita Shamal’s challenge? The boy had been as bothersome as a leech, and Carlisle had been bored, too. So he accepted the contest, only for some woman to show up on the day of the duel.
She wore a plain short-sleeved shirt on top and a short skirt below.
But strangely, she wasn’t wearing any shorts underneath.
Flap- Flap-
Literally, every time the wind blew, the hem of her skirt fluttered, offering fleeting glimpses of what lay beneath. Her panties were showing.
Carlisle couldn’t make sense of the situation and ended up snickering.
‘What, no way…’
Is this one of those?
This was certainly the first time he’d encountered such a novel seduction.
Still, for some reason, he found it appealing.
She had a rather fierce air despite her small frame. At the same time, she was remarkably cute.
Her long, wavy red-gold hair wasn’t tied back even with a single ribbon, and the sight of it blowing in the wind as she held up a wooden sword was strangely bold—enough to intrigue him.
Of course, Carlisle wasn’t the only one.
The students who had come to watch were murmuring with all sorts of reactions.
“Who’s she?”
“She’s totally my type.”
“Is she a new student who just enrolled?”
That was how the boys reacted.
“What’s that girl doing?”
“She really isn’t wearing shorts underneath?”
“She did that on purpose. Obviously.”
The girls, by contrast, grumbled and eyed her warily.
“What, scared?”
Completely unaware of those whispers, Vita stood there with utmost confidence.
No, of course. He did have some shame.
‘But why should I care?’
He was a man, after all. This wasn’t even his original body, so what did it matter if his underwear showed? Besides, in kendo, it was a sacrifice worth making: it made moving easier. In fact, not one of the clothes his father had given him was pants.
Whoosh-
Once again, the skirt fluttered in the wind.
Carlisle stared blankly at the plain white panties before finally speaking.
“So who are you? Where did the actual person go?”
“Th-that’s…”
Ah, right.
Only then did Vita belatedly realize there was a contradiction.
***
A fact he had completely forgotten. Naturally, he had to reveal his identity for the duel, didn’t he?
After all, from the other person’s perspective, some unrelated woman had shown up.
‘…But this is still troublesome.’
There were roughly twenty to thirty spectators. The problem was that there were far more of them than he had expected.
‘……’
And on top of that.
Vita’s expression stiffened when he spotted someone.
One of the three flowers of Saint Antiope Academy.
A pure-looking beauty from Reindeer—the same dormitory as Vita—with lake-blue eyes and translucent silver hair.
‘Why is Emily here…?’
And Vita’s unrequited love.
In the end, revealing that he was Vita at this moment was no longer an option.
What idiot would tell the girl he liked that he had turned into a woman?!
“Right. Can’t do that.”
To someone watching, she made a fascinating subject.
Carlisle muttered to himself, shook his head, sighed, and clenched his fist.
With such a unique personality, Carlisle Schultz found himself wanting to humor her.
Vita opened his mouth.
“Th-then. My name is Vi… no, Bianca!”
That was close.
“What’s your relationship with that guy?”
The question shot toward the flustered Vita at once. After hesitating for a moment, Vita decided to bluff.
There was no need to make excuses to this guy, anyway.
“Does that matter right now? Anyway, you can fight me instead, can’t you?”
Carlisle was dumbfounded, but the woman before him definitely intrigued him a little.
Her stubborn insistence was strangely refreshing.
He said with a snicker.
“Even if I were a complete degenerate, I wouldn’t compete with a woman. Maybe in another event.”
Well, yes. If he were to compete with a woman, there would be only one possible circumstance. At least, that was how he saw it.
The fish took the bait, flapping away, unaware it had been hooked.
“What is it…?”
She reacted with childlike innocence, puzzling over it as if trying to come up with the answer herself.
Carlisle couldn’t tell whether that was really her personality or an act, but it felt as though he was discovering a new preference he hadn’t known he had.
‘She’s cute. Why…?’
It seemed she had reached a conclusion; she spoke to him.
“All right, then. I don’t mind competing in whatever event you want.”
“You’re not going to change your mind?”
He had made the proposal, and his opponent had accepted.
Carlisle effortlessly scooped the woman into his arms.
“W-what are you—?!”
“We need to go to the place where we’ll compete. My room, if we’re going to do this alone.”
Vita was thoroughly flustered, but his ears perked up at that.
“…Just the two of us… competing?”
His obsession with competition twisted the meaning of those words in his ears.
It meant that Carlisle was taking his contest with Vita seriously.
But what kind of event could it be?
Vita hesitated, utterly guileless, genuinely wondering what Carlisle had in mind.
***
“Put me down, now-!”
Vita kept squawking.
“You’re the one who said you wanted to compete.”
His reply carried a note of laughter.
“Then what are we competing in?!”
But Vita couldn’t take it anymore. He was thoroughly enraged.
Carlisle hadn’t told him and had been circling around the question like this the whole time.
“It wouldn’t be fun if I told you.”
Carlisle’s expression was serious, as if they both knew exactly what this was and there was no point pretending otherwise. He even said he would put Vita down and leave if Vita told him here, so Vita could only take that as him saying he would call off the contest. For now, Vita gave in.
“…I have no idea what kind of bullshit you’re talking about, but fine. Put me down. I can walk there myself.”
As the tension left him, Vita recalled the scene from earlier: the spectators had been staring blankly in their direction.
Emily Swan, his unrequited love, had even been among them, which left Vita feeling depressed.
“No, you can’t.”
But Carlisle refused again.
“Save your stamina.”
That subtle remark made Vita’s gloom disappear.
Right. The contest came first, after all.
‘Just what kind of event is it…?’
Was Carlisle telling Vita to conserve his stamina because he was genuinely serious about competing with him? Vita had abandoned a little of his dignity for the sake of the contest, but Carlisle’s reaction made him feel fairly good.
‘Well, fine. I’ll definitely win.’
Assuming on his own that it must be an impressive contest, Vita fanned the flames of his resolve, unaware of what his opponent was thinking.
Flump-
And then.
At their destination, Carlisle threw Vita onto the bed in his dorm room.
“Huh, wha…?”
He’d said they were going to compete, so why was Carlisle throwing Vita onto a bed?
Only then did Vita realize how strange this was.
“How old are you?”
Why was he suddenly asking Vita’s age?
“The same age as you.”
As Vita answered, an inexplicable irritation welled up.
This guy clearly wouldn’t even have cared whether the male Vita Shamal was the same age as Carlisle. Of course, that was aside from the fact that Carlisle currently saw Vita as someone else.
Was it just a feeling?
Looking back, Vita had always felt a strange irritation whenever he faced Carlisle.
Vita alone considered Carlisle his rival, and Vita alone paid attention to him.
When he thought of it that way, it felt inexplicably unfair and truly irritating.
“I thought you were younger.”
Vita found the remark so absurd that he could only give a hollow laugh.
“So what?”
“I meant it as a compliment.”
Carlisle was already standing right in front of Vita.
“It bothers me to touch a minor.”
Something about the wording sounded strange, but Vita agreed with that statement. Minors should be protected.
Even a delinquent from Ouroboros might have lines he wouldn’t cross. That was a little unexpected.
And then, the very next moment.
Vita was rendered speechless.
What was that guy doing?
Carlisle was taking off his shirt.
Even so, Vita found his gaze gradually being drawn to him.
‘…So it really was genetic luck.’
Carlisle’s superior male physique was enough to make Vita feel inferior; at that moment, Vita became fully convinced that his past losses were due to the world’s unfairness—the difference in their inborn physiques.
Carlisle, willfully misreading that interested look, chuckled.
“Then shall we begin the contest…?”
Huh? What did he say?
Vita had definitely sensed something was off, at least vaguely—ever since earlier.
‘…No way.’
The idea that flashed through his mind was so absurd that Vita let out another hollow laugh.
He was old enough to know what was going on. In other words, the various signs before his eyes were saying…
No, no…?
No matter how crazy Carlisle Schultz was, no matter how free-spirited he was…
‘He couldn’t possibly go that far…’
But Vita had been wrong.
Something beyond the bounds of common sense had happened.
“Mmph-!”
What the fuck is this-