10 A School Full of Girls

Monday, 6:40 A.M.

He definitely heard the sound of warp stations and the chattering of teenagers. Ms. Akayoru wasn't wrong.

He'd been laying down on his bed, the third volume of 'A Certain Magical Index' in his hands, for the past 30 minutes or so. He'd gotten in the shower, ate a honeybun he decided to pack for whatever reason, and brushed his teeth. Now, all that was left was for him to wait for Lea to call for him to pick up his uniform. Figuring that he'd have to go back down to the first floor, he figured he might as well slap on a T-shirt and pajama pants.

"No reason to get all dressed up or be half-naked or anything." he thought to himself at the time.

A few moments later, he heard an odd knock at his door. He moved the book away from his face and lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Huh? Aren't the rooms supposed to be soundproof?"

Slowly, he put his bookmark in between pages 19 and 20 and sat the volume down on his bed. He hopped up and walked over to the door, grabbed the handle, and opened it.

The person he saw before him was Ms. Akayoru with one hand holding a shirt, tie, and pants, and in the other a pair of black dress shoes. For some reason, he exhaled out of relief. Maybe he thought he'd been sent to some parallel universe where the walls were no longer soundproof or something, and the person at the door was actually some gigantic scary ogre coming to kill him.

"Here you are, Mr. Tadashii," said Lea. "I've instead decided to bring you your uniform."

He tilted his head and grabbed the uniform from her, freeing her of that task. "Oh, really? Well, thank you very much, I guess. What made you decide to do that?"

"I figured I'd take pity on a poor soul such as yourself," she responded firmly. "Much to Ms. Ichida's displeasure, of course."

Nakayama put on a weird smile in the realization of something. "Oh...I get it."

"By your scent and appearance, I take it that you've already prepared yourself for the day. A wonderful display of maturity and responsibility in a young man such as yourself." She took a slip of paper out from her skirt pocket and placed it atop the shirt, tie and pants.

"Hm?" he hummed, looking at the paper. It had several various things written on it in neat handwriting. Bullet points, too. The main thing he noticed was a bullet point that read:

Homeroom: 4A F13 (Floor 4, Hallway A, Room 13)

He could not decipher what the 'F' stood for, so he paid it no mind. That was the class he'd be attending for the rest of the year. He knew not whether it would be for his entire academic career.

"I've written down a few things you might like to know on your first day, such as your lunch break and your classroom and such. I've also reminded you of Maiya's location if you happened to forget and my office if you need to talk to me face-to-face."

Strangely, Nakayama felt as if she was treating him a little too well. But, in reality, if she didn't do all this for him (aside from protecting him from Maiya's grasp), then he'd probably be in a hell of a pickle trying to navigate this gigantic building.

"I see. I appreciate your help!" he said to her, nodding.

"It's no problem, Mr. Tadashii. Once you arrive at your classroom, your instructor will take responsibility for you from then on. I trust that you'll make a great student."

"Yeah, you've got it," he said before turning around. Then, he caught himself as if he'd forgotten something. "Oh, by the way!"

One of Lea's eyebrows went up.

"How come I was able to hear you knocking on the door? You said the walls and stuff were soundproof, right?"

"Ah, yes. So long as the door is closed, this room is completely soundproof. But, that only includes the outside. From beyond this door, I cannot hear you or talk to you. However, whatever happens to this door will translate inside of the room, understand? If I speak, you will hear nothing and I will hear nothing if you do the same. If I knock on the door though, then you will hear it. On the contrary, if you happened to knock on the door from the inside, then I still wouldn't be able to hear it. Does that answer your question?"

"Ah, I think I get it. Thanks."

With that, he finally turned around and began walking over to his bed. Lea shut the door behind her as she walked out of the room. He decided to wait a little while before putting on a likely uncomfortable uniform, so he went back to his book.

7:49 A.M.

"Hm, I guess it's about that time," he said.

It was an hour later or so and about 40 minutes until class would actually have to begin.

Unfortunately, he became a bit nervous. It was the first day of school after all, and he'd know absolutely no one. The only people he'd became acquainted with were two oddly contrasting adult women. Nevertheless, he put 'A Certain Magical Index' volume 3 down and put on his uniform, using a pair of the socks he brought along with him to wear under his new dress shoes.

After about a minute or so of putting on the uniform, he noticed how unusually comfortable it was.

"Huh, I guess that goes to show how good that Maiya is at her job," he muttered to himself. A little while ago, he'd sat the slip of paper Lea gave him on his bed, so he picked it up and looked over it briefly before putting it in his pocket. He didn't know whether or not he'd need anything on the first day, so he didn't think about rummaging through his suitcases to find anything. It's not like he brought much, to begin with.

He took his key and also stuck it in the pocket of the long, deep blue pants of his uniform and made his way to the door, opening it, shutting, and locking it behind himself. He made an exhale and scratched his hair in the middle of the empty hallway of the tenth floor. There were probably around 3,000 people in the building at this very moment, yet this hallway was completely uninhabited. It was an indescribably odd feeling. Either way, he slowly made his way to the same elevator he and Lea had used about 2 hours ago or so. He pressed a button and waited.

Naturally, the elevator wasn't as immediate as it was before, considering the fact that plenty of people were probably using it. Fortunately, there were probably about 5 to 10 elevators (that seemed to be able to comfortably carry upwards of 10 to 20 people) in the entire school.

When the elevator opened, there was no one there.

"Hm, maybe someone had just gotten off of it at one of the bottom floors or something and I'm just the next one to use it." he assumed.

He walked in and pressed a button that had the number '4' on it and the doors closed. As he rode to the fourth floor, he felt a nervous chill down his spine. Despite his conscious efforts to calm himself, his unconscious racing thoughts and beating heart were certainly going against his wishes. He knew he shouldn't have been that anxious as there wasn't much of a reason for it. Or, maybe there was. Instead of studying math and English, he'd be practicing magic arts which were in a completely different realm compared to his semi-normal life back in Moku City. Magic was still used there, but it was nowhere near as prevalent as it was in this city.

Finally, the elevator made a 'ding' sound and the doors opened slowly. And, to him, they seemed to be something like a grand unveiling. It certainly was something of that nature.

When the doors opened, he was greeted with a bright, lively scenery of teenagers walking through the hallways beneath the fluorescent lights implanted into the ceiling. It was noisy, but it was a breathtakingly comforting kind of noisy, though it didn't really make much sense to him. The clacking of dress shoes, the sound of people chattering youthfully in the early morning. Many people carried backpacks, suitcases, and such, but that was to be expected. Since he was the only one who'd received a dorm, it made sense that everyone else was only still 'preparing' to receive theirs.

But, for some reason, something was off.

He stepped out of the elevator and onto the stainless steel floors of the fourth floor, carrying nothing but a couple of things in his pockets. A cellphone, a slip of paper, his keys, and a couple of lead pencils. Quite the contrary compared to everyone else who all looked as if they were moving from house to house.

But, even amongst the difference in items, something was wrong. Something was different.

No, two things were wrong.

As he looked around, turning his head and darting his eyes in every direction, he couldn't help but notice the oddly long hair on each of the students. Every one of them had shoulder-length or longer. Not to mention, all of them were unusually short. None of them seemed to possess the height of the average man. In fact, he thought he might've been the tallest person on the floor at that point at only 5'8. And, even from his distance, he noticed just how soft all of them looked. They weren't fat, it was just the fact that their skin looked softer and smoother than anything he thought possible.

One of the things that caught his attention the most was their eyes. Of course, he couldn't actually see their color in all their glory from the distance he was at, but one thing was certain:

A large amount of them, if not all of them, were looking at him as they walked.

That was one of the things that he deemed "wrong."

Clearly, he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the passing teenagers. Weirdly enough, none of them looked at him with vicious eyes as if he was some kind of threat. It was mostly out of curiosity or surprise. Perhaps even excitement.

The next thing that rubbed him the wrong way in the midst of this all-boys academy was what they wore. Or, was it even a boy's academy?

Skirts. They wore the female equivalent of the uniform he was wearing. In fact, he specifically remembered seeing that design in Maiya's magic menu. A deep blue short-sleeved blouse with the same color skirt reaching quite a bit above the knee. One might call it, considering normal 'dress code' rules where he was from, "against school policy."

Quite a few of them wore knee-high socks and feminine hair accessories and such. But, why? Well, that's when he felt he came to some sort of realization.

"This...this isn't an all-boys academy…!" he shouted in his mind, staring blankly at the passing students.

"This is an all-girls academy!!"