Chapter 31
St. Antiope Academy was located in a bustling downtown district.
The street right nearby was one of the main thoroughfares, too.
It was still early afternoon. Warm autumn sunlight enveloped the surroundings. Leaves dyed in vivid autumn colors occasionally scattered in the breeze, while people out shopping bustled along the main road.
Of them, three in particular—a group of female students—drew the attention of everyone around them.
“Trust me, Bianca!”
“You're already pretty enough, but we're going to transform you today!”
They were strangely enthusiastic.
Emily Swan and Shasha were clenching their fists, while Vita looked flustered.
“Ah, no… I'm really fine as I am.”
“Sure, sure. You are fine as you are.”
Anyway, the first place the three of them visited was a famous hair salon downtown.
Jingle-
The salon seemed remarkably busy inside. Rather than a simple hairdresser's, it had the feel of a wedding hall.
Beneath elaborate chandelier lights lay a clean marble floor; a subtle aroma of herbs drifted through the air, and the walls were covered in mirrors.
‘Why is it so fancy…?’
The reason Vita was flustered was nothing special. He had always gone to a tiny neighborhood hair salon.
“Ah, customers! Could you wait a moment?”
“Yep, got it. Let's go wait over there.”
There was even a place on one side where people could sit and drink coffee.
For now, the three of them took seats there.
“Is there any hairstyle you like?”
“How about this? I think it would suit you.”
Shasha and Emily seemed fairly familiar with places like this.
“What do you think, Bianca…?”
“H-huh?!”
Vita was startled.
Many customers were having their hair done, and the sight of several skilled stylists moving busily had captured his attention.
“Ah, sorry. What did you just say?”
After letting out a soft sigh beside him, his seatmate Shasha spoke.
“Obviously, Bianca. We have to decide on a style first!”
“Isn't there a style you want?”
But the truth was, Vita…
Of course, everything felt new and fascinating, but he had absolutely no interest in any particular hairstyle.
‘Still, if I'm changing it anyway…’
Short hair would probably be best. Come to think of it, long hair felt like a nuisance.
Why hadn't he cut it until now? Well, coming to a salon was a real hassle.
“I don't really mind, but… maybe short?”
But Vita was immediately met with vehement opposition.
“Ehh—what a waste!”
“You can't be serious…?”
Both Emily and Shasha objected.
“Do you know how hard it is to grow it back that long?”
“Exactly, Bianca. You went to all the trouble of growing it out.”
In fact, he hadn't grown it out himself.
Whisper-whisper- murmur-murmur-
The two girls conferred.
“Then how about this? Let's leave it to the owner.”
“Hmm, should we?”
Vita nodded to accept Emily's suggestion.
A little while later, the salon owner approached the three of them.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. What can I do for you today?”
Come to think of it, Emily and the owner seemed to know each other.
“Oh, sis. Today it's not me…”
“Oh my, how cute!”
“It's my friend who's getting it done.”
Vita was slightly flustered when the salon owner looked at Vita and exclaimed in admiration. Of course, Emily's reply right afterward flustered Vita too.
‘F-friend?!’
It definitely wasn't a bad feeling. If anything, he felt good.
A little while later, Vita sat in the chair with his eyes closed.
It felt as though nearly thirty minutes had passed.
‘I wonder how it will turn out?’
He was curious, but in truth, he didn't particularly care how it turned out.
He wasn't interested enough to open his eyes just to check.
Well, whatever.
To be honest, Vita felt a little strange, somehow. It was hard to explain exactly, but he felt as though the part of himself that was male was gradually disappearing.
“All done. Open your eyes, miss.”
Then Vita opened his eyes. Emily and Shasha, who had come over, were covering their mouths.
“Wow, amazing.”
“You look absolutely gorgeous!”
In fact, Vita was speechless too. A sigh escaped his lips.
“Ah…”
What the…?
The mirror reflected Vita looking unbelievably feminine. The style itself had only changed a little, but the overall impression had changed dramatically.
Wavy hair with added curls, tied into a side-up ponytail on one side.
“I trimmed all the split ends and flyaways, too.”
“Th-the tied-up part…?”
At Vita's question, the owner smiled sweetly.
“You're so cute, young lady. I thought I'd give you an even cuter look. What do you think? Do you like it?”
Vita was too embarrassed to answer, but Emily and Shasha beside him nodded enthusiastically.
“You have to say you like it!”
“It's amazing! You look incredible!”
That sharp yet adorable look had truly come alive.
Light reddish-blond hair glittered beneath the lights, with a side-up ponytail on one side.
‘Can a hairstyle really change you this much…?’
Dumbfounded, Vita answered that he liked it.
***
“It suits you, Bianca.”
“You should keep wearing it from now on.”
The two of them wore strangely satisfied expressions.
“I feel so refreshed. Seriously. You look so pretty now.”
Emily in particular kept saying things like that. Vita had felt awkward at first, but he began to feel pretty good too.
He realized, if only a little, that people really did look better when they made an effort with their appearance.
“So we're done now, right?”
At Vita's question, the two shook their heads.
“Huh? We're not?”
“We're only just getting started.”
“W-what?!”
Naturally, Vita was so flustered that he stopped walking. But they had meant it literally.
“W-wait a minute-!”
When they reached the front of a building, Vita's face turned red.
“Why are we going in here…?”
Because the items visible beyond the glass in front of him were women's lingerie.
In fact, the building in front of them was a women's underwear store.
‘Ugh, what…’
Vita was intensely flustered.
But the two girls, who were remarkably in sync, went out of their way to say it again.
“Listen, Bianca. If you're a girl, you obviously have to wear feminine underwear.”
“Emily's right. Underwear is what completes a woman!”
No, why?
Was that really common sense?
“Underwear can just be more or less anything…”
Can't you just wear something comfortable?
Vita tried to continue, then timidly swallowed the rest of his words.
“This won't do, this girl.”
“What are we going to do with her…?”
The two of them wore serious expressions.
Emily suddenly asked Shasha what kind of underwear she was wearing.
“Me?”
At that, Shasha seemed to ponder for a moment. Then her face suddenly turned mischievous, as if she'd thought of something.
Look around- Look around-
After checking the surroundings and confirming that no one was nearby,
Swish-
“Something like this?”
She slightly pulled her blouse aside.
“W-what are you doing!”
Vita was extremely flustered, while Emily giggled.
“Our innocent Bianca has never seen underwear like that before, has she?”
A flashy red bra. Far bolder than it looked.
‘Shasha… you're daring. A-and…’
Vita nearly got a nosebleed, but fortunately, perhaps because Vita's body was female now, that didn't happen.
“Mine's similar to that, too. Though the color is more subdued.”
R-really?!
Vita hadn't expected Emily to agree, so he grew even more flustered.
“See? Not underwear with character designs on it. You should pick something pretty, too.”
And while Vita was too flustered to answer, it seemed the two of them had already gone into the underwear store and were beckoning him over, leaving him no real choice.
“Come on, Bianca.”
In the end, Vita went into the underwear store as well.
Beyond the glittering display windows lay the world of mature women.
“Welcome! Please feel free to look around.”
A salesclerk's friendly voice.
The scene around him made Vita's face flush bright red.
Since they'd come all this way, perhaps they intended to buy some things for themselves as well.
“What do you think of this? Isn't it totally cute?”
“Oh, it really is.”
Shasha was holding a lace-trimmed bra. Emily seemed to agree.
“What about you, Bianca? How about something like this?”
“No, I mean…”
Isn't that too feminine?
“I, uh, something like that…”
Vita broke out in a sweat.
Girls are scary.
Yeah, really.
***
The questions continued afterward.
The two girls put their heads together at Vita's ambiguous response.
“Then how about this?”
What Emily held this time was even more extreme!
It was girly in the extreme, which somehow made it even more embarrassing.
He wasn't a girl, so there was no way something like that would suit him.
“Ugh, no.”
Vita couldn't continue and merely shook his head repeatedly.
Emily tilted her head slightly.
“Is it too much? I think it's really pretty.”
“R-rather…”
Vita, who had been staring at one spot for a while, finally spoke.
“Can I choose one myself?”
“Oh, really?”
“Let's do that, then.”
In other words, he wanted something without character designs, with a reasonably plain feel.
Because he'd spotted some underwear that was only a little feminine and otherwise fairly plain.
“What about this…?”
At Vita's question, the two nodded slightly.
“It's a little plain, but… I suppose it isn't bad.”
“Want to try it on?”
Having secured their permission of sorts (?), Vita slipped straight into the fitting room before Emily and Shasha could change their minds.
Since he knew they were doing this for his sake, it was quite difficult to keep refusing them outright.
“Phew-”
So, once he was left alone, a faint sigh escaped him.
‘What is this, seriously…?’
Why was everything so overwhelming?
Being around girls was exhausting him. It was probably because he had once been a man, after all.
But Vita soon changed his mind a little.
‘Thanks to this, I feel like I've gotten a little closer to the two of them today…’
Especially Emily Swan. His unrequited love.
If he couldn't avoid it anyway, it was probably better to enjoy it.
Of course, he couldn't exactly enjoy it, but he had no intention of running away either. The two of them were only trying to look after him.
‘Right.’
After steeling his resolve, Vita began taking off his clothes one item at a time.
Until now, he'd always worn either completely plain underwear or character-print underwear. In a way, this was a truly enormous challenge.
After changing his underwear, Vita looked into the full-length mirror. It was definitely presentable. He was just embarrassed.
‘I-it might… actually suit me a little…?’
Vita Shamal had an eye for aesthetics, too. He didn't mind the fairly pretty result. Somehow, it even made him feel a little more confident.
“Bianca, are you done?”
But did he really have to show them?
This was a women's-only underwear store, and they had come for his sake. Vita had absolutely no understanding of the sensibilities shared between girls.
After agonizing over it, Vita pulled the curtain covering the fitting room aside just a tiny bit. The two of them happened to be waiting outside.
“H-how is it…?”
Emily and Shasha's expressions were like those of startled squirrels. They seemed flustered and fairly shocked. Neither of them had expected him to show it to them like this.
“Does it not suit me after all…?”
Vita had thought it looked good, but his timid murmur prompted an immediate response.
“Ah, no!”
“It suits you perfectly—you're adorable!”
The two girls shook their heads vigorously.
“It was just because you looked so cute!”
“You look really pretty, Bianca!”
Vita's expression brightened.
“R-really…?”
“Yes, really. You look so pretty, Bianca!”
Emily's praise in particular lifted the corners of Vita's mouth.
Thank goodness. Seriously.
Because Emily, the girl he liked, was happy with how he looked.
Of course, a thought suddenly occurred to Vita, too.
‘…Is it really okay for me to like her?’
She was praising Vita's current, feminine appearance. He knew that, and yet…
Since it was Emily herself, somehow, he didn't mind.
For no apparent reason, Carlisle Schultz's face also briefly came to mind.
But Vita shook his head vigorously, recalling his resolve that Emily Swan was the only one for him.
***
Meanwhile, while Vita was spending time with the girls,
[I am the magical girl Eve-! Guardian deity of love and justice!]
Carlisle was watching anime.
He had gotten information from that pink-haired underclassman of Bianca Shamal's, after all.
Since money hadn't worked, he had simply confessed his true intentions.
He'd told her it was for her senior—that he had no ulterior motive and simply wanted to become a little closer to Bianca.
And with that, Carlisle proudly showed her his album.
He had been wearing a heart headband and a wand strapped to his waist.
When he showed her Bianca Shamal in a state of complete excitement at the time, the other girl's expression turned strange.
“So that's why… You acted like that at the hospital that time…”
Carlisle didn't know what she meant.
She had said all sorts of things: that if things became irreversible, he had better take proper responsibility; and that, though she hated to admit it, her senior already seemed to like him, which was why she was telling him.
He'd heard quite a few strange remarks.
Anyway, what mattered most to Carlisle Schultz right now was watching the anime.
A cute little magical girl toddled around on the screen of his phone.
‘Well, compared to what I expected…’
It was pretty watchable.
He wasn't a child, after all. Was it really something to get that excited about?
That was what he thought at first, but Carlisle kept watching. Because Bianca Shamal liked it.
Then again, it had been the same back then.
Hadn't he gone around Wizney Park wearing a headband and carrying a wand similar to the magical girl's on the screen?
‘She was incredibly beautiful back then…’
Carlisle Schultz thought.
[I absolutely won't lose!]
He couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the line that played.
It was so like that girl—and so like Bianca Shamal.
And really, it was more watchable than he'd expected. Childish, yes, but not boring.
‘What is this…?’
What was it that made it surprisingly watchable? It wasn't bad for killing time.
Surprisingly, Carlisle thought the anime was pretty watchable in its own way.
After all, it was something that Bianca Shamal—and no one else—liked. He couldn't take his eyes off it.
And the following day, there was a class president election.
“I'll run!”
“Then I will, too.”
Vita and Carlisle both ran as candidates for class president.