“So, you moved here a few months ago?” Ichika asked as she put on her sports bra.
“Yeah. It was a lot to take in, let me tell you.” Sue giggled as she pulled up her shorts. “Everything’s super different here.”
“Here?” Leah repeated. “Wait, did you live overseas or something?” It was now fifth period, their conversation continuing on from lunch and the class they shared in fourth period.
“Yeah. You’re from Japan, right?” Ichika looked at Sue expectantly.
“Oh, uh… yeah!” Sue chuckled. “You know it.”
“I’m a little surprised though,” Leah stared at the new Japanese girl. “Your English is really good for someone who just moved here.”
“Leah.” Ichika frowned.
“S-sorry. I didn’t mean anything bad. Just like, she doesn’t have an accent or anything.” Leah tried to explain herself. She sighed. “You’re right though. Sorry, that was wrong of me to ask.”
“You’re okay,” Sue giggled back. “My sister and I managed to get a lot of practice in before moving this Summer.”
“Sister?” Ichika repeated. “Does she go here?”
“Oh, no. She’s doing her own thing right now,” Sue answered.
“Own thing?” Leah repeated to herself as they made their way out of the locker room and made their way to the field.
“What’s she like?” Ichika asked. “Bet she’s cute if she’s anything like you.”
“She prefers pretty, but I think she’s cute,” Sue joked, grinning as the sun washed over her face as they emerged onto the track. “She’s a lot more reserved than I am though.”
“I see.” Ichika nodded sagely. “I hope we get to meet her soon.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will. Heck, if you want, we can meet up after school today. Sis and I were planning to meet up.”
“That sounds like fun!” Ichika answered excitedly. “What do you think Leah?”
“I mean it sounds fun, but I’m a little worried about Vivi.” Leah moped. “I might need to bail.”
“Vivi?” Sue repeated. “Is that the pink-haired girl I’ve been hearing about?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Leah asked.
“You kidding? The rumors are kinda hard to miss,” Sue chuckled. Leah began to frown. “Oh, but I’m sure she’s okay.”
“What makes you say that?” Leah asked.
“Well, she looks like she’s having a good time over there,” Sue pointed towards the fence. Beyond it was a pair of girls, a young Latina girl and a pink-haired girl.
“Vivi!?” Leah yelped. “What’s she doing here? She should be in class.”
“She’s okay,” Sue said with a grin. “I know the girl with her. She’s in good hands.”
“If you say so.” Leah frowned.
“How about this? After classes we can go check on her, and then we can hang out,” Sue proposed.
“I’d like that,” Ichika smiled. “I want to check in on her too.”
“Alright, you win.” Leah smiled. “If she’s okay, then I think I can hang out.”
“Score!” Sue cheered.
* * *
Among the girls, Vivi recognized a few. There was Kristy, a sophomore like herself, Bianca, a senior, and… “Oh no!” Vivi yelped.
“What’s wrong?” Riri asked.
“That’s my sister and Ichika!” Vivi exclaimed.
“Keep it down!” Riri shushed with urgency. “They haven’t noticed us. And besides, it looks like those two are preoccupied.” Vivi looked back at them. She was right. Leah and Ichika were talking with some other girl. At first she thought she could be a freshman or sophomore due to how short she was, but she had a bit of an older vibe, especially given how… developed she was.
Vivi couldn’t help but take in her curvaceous body. Something in the back of her mind filled her with a good feeling. She felt warm and fuzzy as she watched the many girls run by. It was strange, it wasn’t like the more intense imaginings she had with Erika earlier, but something simpler, a certain admiration.
Her legs tensed as an unfamiliar tension built between her legs. A distinct pleasant pull caused her to instinctively curl up her legs, squeezing them together. She bobbed back and forth as the warmth grew, her thighs rubbing against each other. She felt like a pressure began to fill her, in a sense similar to needing to go to the bathroom, yet different. Her eyelids grew heavy as she stared blissfully at the girls.
“Someone’s enjoying herself,” Riri noted with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” Vivi cooed. She blinked. That was strange. Her voice sounded a little strange. Not bad, but a bit more breathy and doting. For a second time today she thought of her mother, prompting an intense heat to flood her face. “Umm… what was I doing?”
“Uh… enjoying yourself? Why?”
Vivi shook her head. “Uh, it’s almost time for next period, so I’m going to go.”
“Okay. Catch ya later, Vivi!” Riri waved her goodbye.
“What’s going on with me?” She wondered aloud as she entered the bathroom, instinctively entering the women’s one, her warm body basking in the wave of cool air. She looked into the mirror, a smile crossing across her lips as she appreciated her reflection. A building sense of confidence held her as she placed her hand behind her head as a particular thought began to worm its way into her mind. “I feel kinda hot, in more ways than one,” she cooed in a low breathy tone, chuckling a bit. She lapped her lips before shaking her head, choosing to focus on the sudden dampness at her legs.
She sat down and sighed in relief as the pressure released, ignoring the fleeting thought of the slight difference the sensation left her with. After a moment she reached down to wipe herself. Her face crumpled with confusion as the dampness lingered. “H-huh?” She wiped again to little effect. Her body tingled and she blinked confusedly as the warmth tingled upon her flesh. “W-why is there so much!?” she almost yelped as she tried wiping more and more. “W-what’s wrong with me?” she questioned, her voice shaky. “What is-”
The period bell began to ring out, causing her to snap back to the moment. “R-right…” She stood up and took a deep breath to focus. “Whatever, I’ll deal with it later. For now I have to get ready for...” She gripped her head in frustration as she recalled the track again, but for a different reason. “Oh...” She briefly wondered why she signed up for that class this year of all years.
She grumbled as she left the stall and glanced again at her reflection. She blinked in confusion as she approached it, her lucid thoughts catching onto something she ignored yet recognized before. “M-my eyes… they’re… red!?” she yelped. Her breath quickened, as her mind wandered, the red slowly vanishing from her eyes, returning them to the blue she regularly had as if it had never left. “W-what’s happening to me?”
* * *
“Wow,” Carmen laughed. “That’s so cool!”
“It is not!” Vivi pouted as they made their way down the hall. Vivi had bumped into her on the way to her final class of the day, her best friend almost immediately asking about first period. While she’d been trying to avoid it the rest of the day, she was almost eager to tell Carmen in order to avoid the strange sensation she’d just felt. Almost fortunately, Carmen seemed fixated on all the kids taking her side and blatantly ignoring the anger of the others in her class, almost giving it a sense of levity. “I was seriously afraid!” Vivi still complained.
“Of what? If you transformed, you totally could’ve kicked his ass,” Carmen shrugged.
“That’s not the point!”
“Heh, you’re right I guess,” she chuckled nervously. “Kinda want to kick his ass though.”
“Carmen!” Vivi yelped. “That’s totally a villain thing! What magical girl goes around attacking people!?”
“Plenty of magical girls kick butt for their friends,” Carmen wagged her finger instructively.
“I’ve never heard of any,” Vivi pouted.
“Still, I’m only joking…mostly,” she chuckled, causing Vivi to sigh. “So, you ready for PE?”
“Ugh, I’m kinda afraid, honestly. I’ve never gotten naked in front of other girls before aside from Annie and sis when they helped me try stuff on… and Mom I guess. And besides...” She blushed as several embarrassing thoughts crossed her mind at once. The girls she watched earlier, the pleasant feeling from earlier, the dampness from before, and a craving underpinning it all. Heat blossomed within her as she shook her head and took a deep breath pushing the thoughts away. “...what if someone tries attacking me again? It feels like everyone knows because of what happened.”
“Yeah, rumors sure do travel fast,” Carmen scratched her head out of frustration. “Well, I’ll just make sure anyone who gives you trouble learns to shut up,” she winked.
“Hah,” Vivi sighed. “You really shouldn’t,” she said before looking to the side, a little embarrassed. “Thank you for looking out for me Carmen.”
“No probs. It’s what besties are for.” She smiled as they came to the locker room. “Well, you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Vivi moped as she stared down the imposing door. She clenched her hands as Carmen pushed the door open, leading her in. She took a deep breath and rushed in, trying to bury the intense fear building in her.
“It’s her…” one of the girls said as she entered.
“Great, we have to share with…?”
“Wow, it’s really her!”
“You think she’d sign my shirt?”
“Ugh, why are they acting like that?”
Vivi sighed as she noticed she was once again a center of the other’s conversation, looking down dejectedly before Carmen jabbed her in the side. “C’mon, let’s go and ignore them.”
“Y-yeah,” she nodded as she followed her to one of the farther corners of the locker room. She claimed one of the lockers and quickly sifted through her bag to pull out her gym clothes. She sighed as she lamented what came next.
“I know, it’s intimidating. I was scared my first time too,” a familiar voice called out from behind.
“Oh, hey Irina!” Carmen waved, as the dragon girl approached.
“Hey, Carm, Vivi,” she waved back as she claimed one of the lockers next to Vivi. “If you want, I can shield you with my wings.”
“Thanks, Irina,” Vivi smiled. She took a deep breath as she took off her backpack and proceeded to remove her clothes. “Oof,” she squeaked as she shifted around her sports bra. “This thing is tight,” she complained before putting on her gym shirt.
“They wouldn’t be much use if they weren’t,” Carmen laughed.
“First time?” Irina asked.
“Y-yeah,” Vivi admitted bashfully.
“I thought you would’ve used one with your training.”
“You know about that?”
“Oh, yeah, Carm told me all about it,” Irina laughed.
“Oh, Red and I are the only ones who do those workouts,” Carmen laughed. “Vivi’s too much of a lightweight anyway.
“Carmen!” Vivi protested as Irina pulled back her wing, the two laughing.
“Wow, she looks so cute,” she heard one of the girls say, causing her to snap to see the several sets of eyes looking at her.
“Stop that, you’re scaring her,” another voice complained. Vivi looked towards the door to watch Erika make her way into the locker room. Her gaze lingered upon the dryad, her shirt in her hands as the warmth returned, her cheeks growing red.
“Happy to see me, cutie?” Erika giggled, setting Vivi’s cheeks ablaze.
“You’re late,” Carmen commented.
“Yeah. My Japanese teacher wanted to talk to me before coming over,” she explained as she ducked to Vivi’s side, quickly taking off her shirt, causing Vivi to look to her other side in an attempt to abate the heat.
“Don’t tell me you’re already taking extra work this year?” Irina frowned.
“Not yet. My moms and I have actually been talking about that. Mama was pretty dead set on me being valedictorian, but ever since coming out she’s been reconsidering a lot of stuff like that. She’s chilled a lot. I still want to take my AP classes, but it’s nice to take the pressure off, y’know.”
“I’m glad you talked to them,” Vivi said with a smile.
“Thank you for encouraging me to.” Vivi looked at her just in time for her to pull on a tank top. “I don’t know if I’d have felt comfortable talking about it if you hadn’t.”
“Oh, uh… I’m sure you would’ve done it at some point.”
“Someone’s being modest,” Carmen teased.
“Vivi? Underselling herself? I’m shocked,” Irina laughed.
“I… don’t do it that often… do I?” Vivi asked.
“Less than you used to,” Erika answered.
“That aside, let’s go,” Irina instructed, the four all heading to the field.
The girls all funneled onto the field, talking and gossiping as they awaited their teacher. Finally, a woman with a long dark ponytail and a set of white rabbit ears approached them. “Good afternoon girls. I’m Mrs. Higgins, and I’m going to be your gym teacher for the year. Today, we’re going to start with going to take it easy and start with a...” she trailed off as she looked to the side of the field. Vivi and the others followed her gaze to see a dwarven looking man approach the group with a grumpy red dragon boy beside him.
“Crap. What is he up to now?” Irina grumbled to herself as Vivi trembled beside her. Why was Todd here?
“Higgins. Hold up!”
“What is it Damian? We’re starting class.”
“You got one of mine with you.” Mrs. Higgins glanced at her students and then looked back at him with a confused look.
“What is this about Damian?”
“There was a mistake in the paperwork. Mr. Tailor is supposed to be in my class.”
Mrs. Higgins stared at him with a vicious glare. “There was no mistake. I handled that myself. Mrs. Tailor is a girl, and she’s a part of my class. End of discussion.”
“The paper I have here says otherwise.” The dwarven teacher countered, handing her a paper.
“What is this nonsense!? She was a part of my roster this morning.”
“And evidently, it was corrected this afternoon.” He turned to face the group of girls. “Tailor, get over here.”
“I...” Vivi trembled. “But...”
“That’s garbage!” Carmen shouted in disgust. “Who the hell decided that!?”
“The principal, that’s who.”
“Damian, I swear to god...” Mrs. Higgins hissed. The two teachers continued to bicker while Carmen glanced over to see Todd chuckling to himself off to the side.
“You...” Carmen glared at the dragon boy. “This is all your doing.”
Todd looked at her and laughed. “Nope! Dr. Rosen was the one who got off his ass and did something, as usual. Now go back and play with your girly exercises while the boys and I remind Ja-”
There was a loud thud as the dragon boy fell flat on his ass. “Deadname my friend one more time and see what happens!” Carmen shouted. “Then we’ll see who’s laughing.”
Todd growled. “You wanna fight, buttercup?”
“Why not? I took your dad down, I can take you down too,” she retorted in a low quiet voice. Todd stared at her, a mixture of shock and anger tearing through him.
“So, you’re one of the ones who did it to him.”
“Oh, you didn’t realize? I was THE one. How’s his throat, by the way?”
Todd let out a deep disturbing roar as his body became covered in scales. Unlike his father’s massive hulking form, Todd’s body became thin and slender, as if missing many of the muscles his father had developed. Whether it be a result of his father’s own workouts or a simple matter of age was uncertain. “You’ll regret doing that to him! I’ll make you pay!” he roared.
Vivi watched Carmen’s hand rise towards her chest. “Carm, wait!”
“I’d like to see you try!” Carmen pulled out her locket and snapped it open. In a flash of light, the girl was changed, the dark-skinned girl now clad in a brilliant yellow and white magical girl uniform comprised of a tracksuit and mechanical bits such as a headpiece and gauntlets.
Todd splayed out his claws and lunged at Carmen. The magical girl could only smirk as she watched him make such an exaggerated attack. She stepped to the side, and pulled up her arms, dodging one claw and blocking the other with her gauntlet. As Todd recoiled, shocked by the absence of damage, Carmen quickly jabbed at his snout. She followed it up with a knee to his stomach and then another punch to his cheek, forcing him to the ground. She pulled her arm back, an instinct grabbing her. She’d gotten used to the hectic pace of combat. In any other situation she’d follow up with an attack to knock out her opponent, but she didn’t.
“Had enough?” Carmen taunted.
Todd rose from the ground, snarling and growling as flames flowed from his mouth. Carmen’s attacks had been effective, but her opponent had stern defenses and an equally fierce offense. Even so, Carmen couldn’t help but feel her confidence grow as she watched Todd’s body sway ever so slightly. He wasn’t some officer who regularly trained, nor was he one of the professional goons who prepared for combat. Todd was just a self-righteous boy with no true experience.
“What the hell?” Todd grumbled. “Stand still!”
“Sure, I’ll take it easy on you,” Carmen said with a mocking tone.
The dragon boy began another assault, swiping at her again and again. His attacks grew wilder and increased in number. He added fire to the mix, making his onslaught all the more dangerous. And yet, there was no damage. Carmen seemed to put even less effort into her evasion, simply pivoting on her ankle to avoid some of his slashes. And then finally, Todd raised his arm, filling his claw with every bit of strength he had and swung at Carmen.
And he missed.
Todd tumbled to the ground, his snout meeting the ground, his heated pants singing the ground.
“Loser.”
“You bitch… How did you...”
“Now fess up. You got Rosen to harass Vivi, didn’t you?”
“It’s not like he disagreed.” Todd argued. “Someone needs to teach that freak a lesson. Even he said so!”
“Seriously, you’re just upset that we beat your dad, aren’t you?” Todd looked at her with a perplexed look then looked back at Vivi. “Wait, seriously? You didn’t know that? She’s like the only girl in school with that kind of pink hair!”
“Shut up!” Todd grumbled, muttering something under his breath.
“What was that?”
“I said, that must’ve been why he was so eager to talk to the principal about it,” Todd admitted. “He and my dad were friends. And like hell he’d let that brat off scot-free.”
“So, let me see if I got this right. Dr. Rosen went to the principal to punish Vivi for outing your dad as a criminal?” Todd glared at her.
“Todd!” Irina shouted at him as she approached along with Vivi. “You have got to be kidding me. You’re still defending him after all that he put everyone through!?”
“Shove it, Rina!” Todd grumbled as he turned to walk away.
“Oh, no you don’t!” She chased after him.
“Carmen!” Vivi called out, running up to the magical girl. “You didn’t...”
“Hey, I couldn’t let him get away with hurting you, could I?” Carmen chuckled.
“But what if you got hurt?”
“Oh, please. There was no way he was ever hitting me. Heck, I barely even did any damage. He just tired himself out.”
“Wait. Did you plan for that?” Vivi asked. Carmen grinned. “Carm! That’s so cool!”
“Hell, yeah, it was!” Carmen laughed as the dwarven gym teacher walked by, grumbling to himself. She looked over to the rest of the class, seeing their teacher staring her down. “Uh, guess we should go deal with that.”
“Y-yeah...” Vivi frowned.
“Miss Kressler.” Mrs. Higgins said as the two approached, Carmen now back in her gym attire. “I hope you have a good explanation for what just happened.”
“I, uh, was trying to help out my friend.” Carmen answered anxiously.
Mrs. Higgins sighed. “Carmen, you need to be serious about this. I realize that things have changed a lot, and you’ve done a lot of good out there. But this is a school. You can’t go using your powers to fight people. It didn’t look like that boy got too beat up, but if something did happen, you could’ve ended up in more trouble than you are now. Seriously. This kind of thing could get you expelled.”
“I...”
“Mrs. Higgins, please wait,” Vivi begged. “Carmen was just trying to help me. And she did her best not to hurt him. He tired himself out instead.”
“Vivi, you have to understand. Even if we all saw him provoke the situation, that doesn’t make it okay,” the rabbit woman said with a sigh. “Listen, I’ll do my best to smooth things over with the school. Carmen, you’ll still probably get punished later, but I’ll see what I can do to help.”
“R-really?” Carmen looked at her.
“I mean. It’s the least I can do, after you and your friends have helped my friends in the past.”
“We did?”
“Yeah. Back at the fight at the mall a few months back a few of my friends got caught up in it, and you protected them.”
“I… wow...”
“As for you, Vivi.”
“Y-yes’m,” Vivi squeaked.
“You don’t have to worry. You’re not getting dragged away into some other class. And I’ll do my best to stop Dr. Rosen from messing with things anymore.”
“T-thank you,” Vivi mumbled, a happy blush snatching at her cheeks.
“Anyway. Now that that’s settled, back to class,” Mrs. Higgins directed them. “Alright class...”
* * *
“Talk about an eventful first day,” Erika giggled as she pulled her normal white top back on.
“Tell me about it,” as Vivi adjusted her skirt. “I’m exhausted.”
“Well, it’s over though, so we can put it all behind us now,” Irina said, trying to console Vivi.
“Ooh! I have an idea,” Carmen chirped as she led the four out of the locker room. “Why don’t we go grab some smoothies to celebrate the first day of school.”
“Um, well, actually...” Vivi started.
“Yo, Vivs!” another voice chimed in. The group looked over to see Riri dash up to them. “You holdin’ up okay?”
“Huh? Wait, did you...”
“Yeah. I kinda skipped last period,” Riri chuckled. “I saw what happened.”
“I’m fine. Thanks for worrying though.”
“Hey, Vivi, who is this?” Carmen asked.
“Oh, this is Riri. She stood up for me in Dr. Rosen’s class earlier today.”
“Yeah, we got thrown out together,” Riri said with a grin.
“Wait, you got thrown out!?” Erika yelped.
“Y-yeah… It wasn’t fun.” Vivi frowned.
“Yeah, he sucks,” Riri groaned. “That aside. You!” She turned to look at Carmen.
“Y-yeah?” Carmen answered.
“You were super cool out there. How you totally messed with that dragon boy and tired him out! Wanna hang out?”
“Uh, well, I was planning to hang out with Vivi.”
“Um, actually,” Vivi spoke up. “Erika and I were planning to hang out after school.”
“We’d like a little private time, if that’s okay,” Erika elaborated. “Are you okay with that?”
“Alone time?” Carmen repeated. She eyed the two, watching them both evade her stare and noticing the subtle blush creep over their cheeks. “Oh! I get it! Sure! We can hang out some other time. Guess I can hang out then! Wanna come with, Irina?”
“I’d love to, but I should go talk to Mom and make sure Todd doesn’t make things worse,” Irina stated.
“That’s a shame,” Carmen lamented. “Would’ve been fun. Well, we can still have fun while the two love birds go set up their nest!”
“C-Carmen!!!” Vivi shouted as her best friend ran off, Riri hot on her heels. “Geez.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she doesn’t get into too much trouble,” Irina chuckled. “Have a good time you two.” She winked at Vivi and Erika as she headed off as well.
“Everyone’s acting like we’re gonna do something weird,” Vivi muttered.
“It’s okay, Vivi. I like doing weird stuff with you,” Erika teased, causing Vivi’s blush to deepen to a bright scarlet.
“I… uh… yeah… I like doing weird stuff with you too…” Vivi mumbled. Erika took her hand in hers. Vivi looked at her, unable to control the heat conquering her face, a smile cracking through as they followed behind Carmen and Riri towards the gate.
* * *
The final bell rang, the pack of seniors departing their classes. Ichika quickly packed up and made her way out of the classroom, she managed to avoid any of the comments she encountered in the beginning of the day. While her last class, Drama, could certainly attract the kinds of flirts and nerds that would pester her to no end, this particular class had weeded out most of the bad actors. The ones who remained could be annoying at times, but they were also mostly well meaning and quick to distract themselves. As she headed out, she ran into Leah and Sue who had been waiting in the hallway for her to leave.
The trio left the large building housing the auditorium towards the courtyard where they found the others heading towards the gate. Surprisingly, Vivi and Carmen had also shown up accompanied by the girl that was with Vivi before and another girl she didn’t recognize not far behind.
“Chi! Sis!” Vivi called out to them, prompting Riri and the mystery girl to turn around and meet them as well. “Oh, you’re Sue from lunch.” Sue nodded. “But no Bianca? Dang I was hoping to see her. It’s been a while.”
“No, she wanted to hang out, but she had something to do today,” Ichika explained. “So, who are these two?”
“Oh, this is Riri, we met earlier today. She helped me out with Dr. Jerkface.”
“Oh, you had him today?” Ichika frowned. “Well, thanks for helping her out.”
“No problem!” Riri grinned.
“And this is?”
“Uh… well, this is Erika,” Vivi said with a blush, gesturing to the dryad.
“Oh, so this is Erika,” Ichika smiled. “Treat her good, you hear me. She’s a good girl and I don’t want to see her hurt.”
“Of course!” Erika said with a bright smile.
“I-Ichika, w-what’s that supposed to mean?” Vivi stuttered as her blushing intensified.
“Oh, I think you know,” Ichika giggled. “Anyway. You seem to be doing better than you were at lunch.”
“Yeah. It’s been a rough day, but I think I’ll be okay. I do want to head home though.”
“Want me to go with you, sis?” Leah asked.
“No, that’s okay. You should go out and have fun with Chi and the others. Besides, I… uh...”
“Vivi?”
“We wanted to spend some personal time together,” Erika interjected. “We’ve been talking all summer, but this will be the first time we get to just hang out. Y’know?”
“Alright then,” Leah relented. “Just make sure you rest up later, okay?”
“Right!” Vivi answered. “I’ll see you back home!” Vivi waved the group goodbye before leaving with Erika.
“They’re really cute together,” Ichika giggled.
“Ooooh, were those two dating?” Sue asked. “They were precious.”
“Vivi and Erika have always been close like that,” Leah explained.
“Wow, how long have they been dating?” Riri asked.
“They aren’t, they’re just friends,” Carmen commented.
“For now,” Ichika giggled again. “Erika was definitely eyeing her. And I’ve read some of their messages.”
“Knowing Viv though, she probably doesn’t realize anything yet,” Carmen said with a shrug.
“That’s a little mean, but you’re not wrong,” Leah laughed. “So, what do you all want to do now?”
“Mall time?” Carmen asked.
“Oh, heck yeah!” Riri cheered. “Let’s go!”
“I heard there’s a new boba place that opened up at Superstition! Let’s go there!” The others looked at Ichika quizzically. “Yeah, I had a feeling you wouldn’t know. It’s super tasty. You see it’s a type of milk tea that has tapioca in it.” She explained. The others listened to her intently, while at the back of the group Riri slowed down to match Sue’s pace, the two sharing a knowing glance and nodding to each other.