Lines of Defense

At the rate this Summer break was going, Kouji felt he was going to be spending a lot of his days just laying around. Not like he could afford to do much else, maybe there was somewhere free he could head to for fun.

With all this idle boredom, he couldn't forget his conversation with Moku. As much as Kouji didn't want to admit it, he was envious of that boy. He may not have been the brightest bulb in the shed, but at least he had a goal for himself.

***

"Wow." Kouji was admiring the works put out before him. "These are really nice." It might've been stereotypical, but that boy really enjoyed his anime.

"I know." He hardly hid his modestly. "With this, I bet I can sweep the whole thing!" He expected winning first place would be no challenge for him. Usually he stood at least top five, but these paintings felt special to him.

"I wouldn't be that hopeful." Kouji replied. "I'd hate for you to be disappointed. Plus we haven't even seen the other works on display."

"Come on, if I don't have some confidence in myself. How can I hope to become a better artist in the future?" Moku had a dream of making making his own popular manga. No matter how unlikely, he wasn't going to give up. "Don't you have a dream?"

"…" He fell silent in hearing that word. "Of course I got a dream. Everyone has something they want." Kouji took his friend's hand off his shoulder. "Just need to flesh mine out, that's all."

In reality, he didn't plan that far in the future. With everything that has been thrown at him in his life. It was a challenge to not be set on whatever was occurring in the present day.

Most importantly, he didn't know what he truly wanted. Sure, he changed himself around and tried to make something of himself. But what could such a vague goal mean for someone like him. Thankfully, at least he was going to have his next high school years to work that out…

***

"Hello?" He answered his phone. Only as he was saying the words, did he regret picking it up so quickly. Now whoever this was, was going to think he was desperate or something. It was Anastasia, so thankfully that girl wouldn't notice.

"Kouji." She said through the phone. "Are you home right now?"

"Yeah." He leaned back onto his futon. "I got nowhere else I could be. You know, if you wanted to come over-"

"That's good!" She cut him off. "I was hoping if you could come over to my place?" An invitation from her? That came as a surprise to him, since normally everyone just went to his house. Must be due to the circumstances, he figured.

"Sure." He accepted the offer. After all, he had never been inside her apartment building. On the outside, it was much larger than most of the other buildings surrounding it. Of course, since it was an apartment, clearly her abode was much smaller on the inside. Either way, it would've been neat to see what her living situation was like.

"Great!" He could hear the excitement in her voice. "Can you be here soon?"

"You're just down the road, so I can be there in ten…" As he was saying that, Kouji got up from laying down. That was when he realized just how lazy he had gotten this break. It was almost lunchtime, and he still hadn't taken a shower. "Maybe make that 20 minutes…"

***

Once he had gotten himself clean and proper to go to her place. That was exactly what Kouji did. Walking to there was uneventful, and so was entering the lobby.

It was a pristine lobby, the floors were waxed. He could even see his faint reflection on them. The walls decorated with beautiful paintings, rare ones no doubt. The person at the concierge was well kept, and looked very much professional as he approached.

"Welcome." The man said, in a mature and polite manner. "I see you are visiting?" He asked.

"Y-yes." With how formal the man was, Kouji couldn't help but bow a little when talking. "I'm here to see Anastasia Shiga?"

"Ah yes, and you must be… Kouji Arisawa. Or should that be Kuzuhana? She wasn't really sure when she informed me of your visit."

"Arisawa is the right name." He pulled out his ID as proof. "I've had my name changed, so I'm sure that caused some confusion." While he wasn't planning on confirming it with the girls, considering he was leaving. Arisawa was what he had it changed to when he came here. So that was going to be the official one.

"Right, well sorry for the delay. This is just part of the protocol, you understand. For safety reasons." The man explained to him that this building was for girls attending Tenfumi Academy that were from outside of Japan. That made sense to Kouji, but what didn't would be how the elevator worked. According to the concierge, they went directly to each girl's units.

"And how does that work?" He asked, confusion was visible on his face for all to see.

"Well, it's simple." The man didn't think much about that statement. "Each unit is the entire floor, so it opens up to where they're living."

"Oh okay… Wait, what?" Did he just say that each floor was an entire unit. That was insane, this place looked tall, but it also looked wide. Certainly a lot wider than where Kouji was living, where saying he had the entire floor wasn't as impressive. That also meant there were a lot less girls living here as well. This place seemed like it had five, maybe six floors. So that would be six girls at most, assuming that there were even that many foreign students.

Finally, the man led him to the elevator, where he thought things would be simple, but it wasn't over yet. The concierge opened up a panel, and entered a code. Surely used as a deterrent against any potential trespassers.

"Let's see, she's in room… 401." The fourth floor, pretty high, he thought. "Now just stand right here." The man pushed him into place, in front of where the code box for the elevator was.

"What else is there?" He asked. It was explained that as another step of security, they would ring up the girl expecting visitors, another defense against impostors.

"Kouji, is that you?" Soon enough the camera showed up with her in front of it. "It is!" The quality of video was near impeccable, this really was one advanced system. From the looks of it, she had on an apron on top of what she usually wore at home. "Great you're here! I can't wait until you come up."

The man finished the process of calling the elevator, now satisfied with the proof. He left, and Kouji was now waiting for it to come down.

So this was where she lived. From the way he saw it from the outside, he never thought how much luxury she was living in, despite not actually having a house like the other girls. Now that he thought about it, Kouji had never been to Teru's or Himawari's homes. Those places must've been even more impressive.

Ding! The elevator finally made it way to him. Quickly, he got on and made his way up to the fourth floor. When he exited the elevator, he found that it dropped him off in a small room with only a door in front of him. Must've been the last line of defense against intruders. This place really took its security seriously.

Kouji was about to knock on the door, but he paused. This was going to be his first time being here, and for all he knew. The last time as well. What was this hesitation he was feeling? Just last week he was certain about leaving them behind, but now that he thought more about it. Doubt arose in his mind.

Of all the girls, Anastasia was definitely the one that was going to take this the hardest. Yet when he informed Waa, she wasn't glad to hear it either. He shook his head. Why should he be so worried about how they feel about him. It's not like most of them care about him, he's just their tutor anyway.

"Hello?" He knocked on the door, regaining his resolve. She should be close, seeing as she knew of his arrival. "Anastasia?"

"Come on in. It's unlocked." She said.

Anastasia was excited for his visit. For now it was time to commence with operation Anastasia… She couldn't come up with a better name.