I spent the first two hours of class studying my notes from the night before. I wished I could compare Yukiko's translation to the original text in the black book, but it would be too risky. The last thing I wanted was to be caught by the professor and have it confiscated. Not to mention the possibility that Saeki might notice and become overly curious. If she discovered the truth, that I was in possession of the legendary Bible Black, who knows what she might do? At the very least she would demand that I share it with her, but the possibility that she might try to take it from me couldn't be ignored.
That's not to say that my feelings had changed for her. Even as I worked diligently to memorize various spells and incantations, I couldn't help but glance at her every now and again. Saeki wasn't ignoring me either. Our brief skirmish over Murai had been aggravating, but necessary. Saeki had made it clear that she respected nothing so much as strength, an independence of thought and free will. Or so I believed, and I didn't think I was very far off the mark.
I'd annoyed her, certainly, and surprised her as well. Her natural dominance had been threatened, but she seemed to appreciate my disobedience. I admired her beauty, if nothing else, and the girl looked amazing as she basked in the warm sunlight pouring through the windows behind her. When she caught my eyes, Saeki smiled and by the time the first hour had passed, I'd noticed something else.
She had her hands in her lap, pressing down on her skirt as she massaged her sex. The subtle motion of her hands drew my attention, As Saeki probably intended. She glanced around the classroom and seeing everyone else focused on the professor, she pulled the hem of her skirt upward. Not very far, but as she shifted in her seat and turned slightly in my direction, I could see the insides of her pale thighs glistening.
Saeki turned again, straightening her body and smoothing her skirt. I pouted silently and she hid a tiny laugh, pretending to cough. My cock strained for release, but all I could do was sit there uncomfortably and squeeze the growing bulge in my trousers. Standing up to Saeki, it seemed, had made her horny.
At mid-morning, we were allowed our usual break to use the bathrooms or have a snack from the vending machines downstairs. Normally, I spent my break with Imari and already she was looking at me with expectation in her eyes. I wanted to talk to Saeki, but she remained sitting at her desk, watching me with an inviting smile.
"Do you want to get some fresh air?" Imari asked, trapping me in my seat. "We could go up to the roof."
"Yeah..." I gave Saeki a lingering look. "Let's go outside."
I didn't really have a choice if I planned on skipping the Art Club for a second day in a row. Actually, I always planned on skipping it, but Imari was making it more difficult as she learned my tricks. She wouldn't expect me to do everything I could to put her in a good mood, though. Like going to the roof? I wanted to stay in the classroom and talk to Saeki, but if it made Imari happy...By the end of the day, she'd be putty in my hands!
Besides, I really want to ask her about Doctor Kitami.
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" she sighed, taking a seat on the short wall extending around the flat roof.
"Careful you don't fall off," I told her, leaning over the edge to look at the school grounds. We were three stories up and I'd never cared for heights that much.
"You always say that," Imari reminded me with a grin. "Sit down. We're not going to fall off."
"Yeah. Whatever," I said. "I like to stand...Hey, what did Kitami want this morning?"
"What? Oh, nothing important," she said, grabbing her hair as a cool breeze blew it into her face.
"Well, what did say? Did she do anything?"
"Like what?" Imari narrowed her eyes. "I just had to answer some questions."
"That's all?" I frowned, but maybe I should have been relieved.
"You look disappointed," she said. "Why? What did you think we were doing?"
"I don't know."
"Awww...Were you worried about me?"
"Huh?"
"I'm not sick, Minase," she said. "I'm perfectly healthy. You don't have to worry."
"Oh. Right," I said, nodding. If Imari wanted to think I was worried about her, so much the better. She was even smiling as she reassured me.
"She asked me about you."
"Me?"
"Well, she asked me if I had a boyfriend, and..."
"You told Kitami that I'm your boyfriend?" I stared at the girl as her smile melted away.
"No!" she snapped. "I told her I don't have one."
"Then why were you talking about me?"
"Oh! Forget it!" Imari scowled, shooing me away as she turned her head.
"How can I forget it?" I asked, reasonably. "Half the school thinks we're going out together."
"So?" Imari offered me a petulant smile. "Does that embarrass you?"
"No, it's just....I don't know," I answered truthfully. "But it makes it awfully hard for me to get a real girlfriend!"
"Maybe you're not asking out the right girl," she said. "Did you ever think of that?"
"What? You think I should ask you out?"
"I didn't say that!"
"You did say that!" I protested. "Fine! I'll do it. Do you want to go out with me, Imari?"
"That's how you're going to ask me?" she snorted. "No! I don't want to go out with a jerk like you!"
"Well, I don't want to go out with an annoying brat like you!"
"Good!"
"Good!"
We stared at each other for a few quick heart beats.
"I think we should go back downstairs," I suggested, being extra polite about it.
"Yeah," Imari agreed. "I'm so glad we could get some fresh air together."
So much for putty in my hands, I thought with a frown. She obviously wanted to go out with me, but had to go out of her way to make it as difficult as possible. It was Imari's fault anyway, so I didn't feel bad about calling her a brat. She'd started it.
At least I had an excuse to talk to Saeki for a minute or two. Murai had left the classroom like a shot as soon as we'd started our break. Doubtlessly, the excited girl wanted to find the guy she liked and see if the spell had worked or not. I didn't have complete confidence in it myself. Just because the spell on Ito had worked, it didn't mean that this one would. I wasn't going to be anything except confident in front of Saeki, though.
"So? What did you think of my magic?" I asked, looking down as she still sat in her chair. "Pretty impressive, huh?"
"Where did you learn to cast a spell like that?" she wondered. "Not from any of the books in the library. I've read all of them."
"Oh, I don't know." I shrugged. "You know how it is. Pick up a little here and a little there."
"Hmph...And two days ago you didn't believe in magic at all," she persisted. "Now you think you're some kind of sorcerer?"
"I've always been a fast learner," I told her. "Magic's just a diversion. I get bored easily, ask anyone."
"Well, you can't expect to get results by casting a spell you don't even understand," Saeki informed me. "Magic isn't that simple. There are complex rituals to follow, protocols and patterns. If you don't perform them just right, you'll never accomplish anything."
"Aren't you saying that because you're just a beginner?" I asked, getting a frown in reply.
The professor was ready to start so I had to return to my desk, but I left the girl practically biting her lip with annoyance. Man! That felt good too. I'd never seen the cool-as-a-cucumber Saeki looking so frustrated. It might have been a mistake being so smug with her, but now she knew how I'd felt after she'd left me standing alone outside the library. She wanted something more, something intimate and personal from me, but I'd pretended not to care.
And if the spell worked? That would be the coup-de-grace!
Murai returned, entering the classroom with much more reluctance than when she'd left. She didn't seem particularly unhappy, but definitely not ecstatic. Either she hadn't found that Asada guy, or she had found him and gotten no reaction. I tried not to worry about it either way. The spell I'd cast on Ito had taken several hours to affect her, after all.
"You've really gotten her hopes up with that stunt you pulled," Imari said. "Don't come running to me if Murai decides to trash you later on."
She'd snuck up on me and I just waved her away as I sat down at my desk.
"It wasn't a stunt," I said. "Wait and see what happens."
"She's going to be embarrassed and angry," Imari sniffed. "Just like every other girl you know!"
"What do you have to be embarrassed about?" I wondered, but she'd already turned around. Stupid Imari! What did she want from me?
We had two more hours of boring class until lunch and I spent it puzzling over the protection spells. There were four of them, but except for a few different words, the incantations were basically identical. For all of them, the caster was supposed to draw a pentagram on the palm of his hand -- A five pointed star turned upside down. In the center was drawn a particular symbol to ward off danger by earth, air, fire, or water.
That didn't make much sense to me. Most of the other spells I'd seen in the black book were pretty straightforward. Make a girl dance naked, or make someone fall in love. But the protection spells couldn't be literal, could they? Being protected against fire would be nice. That could actually come in handy if I was a fireman or something. But what about the others? Earthquakes, tsunami, a typhoon? It would take more than a spell to protect anyone against catastrophes like those!
I reminded myself that the spells had probably been written a thousand years ago, maybe even more than that, when people didn't know anything about science. It probably made sense for some primitive culture to believe that the devil was responsible for something like a volcano. Heck, didn't they used to think a thunderstorm meant the gods were angry?
It wasn't easy believing in magic, but I didn't have much choice anymore. After everything I'd said to Saeki and Imari, most of it right in front of our classmates, I'd put my reputation on the line! If Murai's love spell didn't work, I'd be the laughing stock of the school and Saeki would surely find some way to rub salt into my wounded pride. Imari would just say, "I told you so!" and that might be the worst part of all. I hated it the way she was always right about everything.
Hmmm...I remembered my lighter was still in my bag. It didn't work very well, barely enough to light a candle in the basement, but all I needed was enough flame to test a spell. It wasn't like I had anything better to do, I thought, glancing at the professor as he droned along in his monotonous voice.
I drew a pentagram on my palm, hunched over and doing my best to conceal what I was doing. Saeki might have been a little miffed at me, but that would only make a girl like her even more curious. After drawing the pentagram, I turned my head to see her eyes narrowed like a snake's as she tried to figure out what I was up to. I smiled to myself and drew the symbol for fire in the center of my palm. This, I decided, would be a definitive test of the book's power...and mine!
After pretending to need a new pen and pulling out my lighter instead, I made a loose fist of my hand. I whispered the incantation through the hole between my fingers and palm, but I didn't feel any different. I looked around the classroom and brought my hands beneath my desk. The ratcheting sound as I tried to produce a flame seemed very loud, but nobody else noticed. The professor kept talking and nobody even looked at me, except for Saeki.
I jerked in pain as I burned my hand. "Ouch!"
"Is there something wrong, Mr. Minase?" the teacher asked, and of course, everyone else was staring at me.
"No sir," I replied. "Sorry."
Fuck! I'd burned my hand. Not badly or anything, but obviously the spell hadn't worked. I double checked my notebook and so far as I could tell, I'd done everything correctly. That didn't bode well for Murai, or for me if that love spell didn't work. Maybe the spell I'd cast on Ito hadn't worked either. I still couldn't rule out coincidence, after all. I'd assumed my spell must have worked, because the Bible Black was in the encyclopedia. It was real, but did that mean its magic was real as well? Probably not and I'd left myself wide open for some serious humiliation in the near future.
Needless to say, I felt very disappointed, even chagrined at my stupidity. Just like I'd told Saeki a few days before, magic was all superstitious nonsense. I glanced over at her and she smiled as if she knew exactly what I'd been trying to do and enjoyed my failure. She'd say that magic was too powerful for a total amateur like me. The stuck-up girl could be right, too. What if I'd screwed it up somehow? Maybe I'd missed some silly detail and I suddenly wished I hadn't told my sister to ignore the footnotes!
I nursed my tender hand until lunchtime, but the burn wasn't anything serious. It only felt worse than it really was, for obvious reasons.
"Where's your lunch today?" Imari asked. "Aren't you hungry?"
"Yukiko didn't have time to make me one this morning," I reminded her. "She overslept, remember?"
"Well, that's okay," she said. "I don't mind sharing mine!"
"Thanks, but I'm not very hungry anyway."
"You have to eat," Imari insisted, pulling a chair close to my desk. "You're too thin as it is, Minase."
"You're one to talk?" I teased her. "What kind of sandwich is that?"
"Egg salad. You're lucky I brought two of them."
It was nice having lunch with her, although we did it nearly everyday. I tended to take things like that for granted, but not always. I appreciated her generosity and Imari always managed to have an extra sandwich that she didn't mind sharing. Sometimes it almost seemed as if she'd deliberately packed a lunch big enough for the both of us.
"Eat the rest of my rice for me," she said. "I can't eat too much."
"Why not?" I wondered. "Are you okay?"
"It's Wednesday," Imari reminded me. "We've got physical education right after lunch."
"So?"
"We're going to swim today," she said. "If I eat too much, I'll sink like a stone."
"No volleyball?" I asked, frowning.
"Don't look so disappointed," she chided me with a giggle. "You might get to exercise more than your imagination for a change."
I rolled my eyes, but she did have a valid point. I hadn't forgotten it was Wednesday. Like most of my male classmates, I'd been looking forward to seeing the girls jumping around in their shorts and t-shirts. Especially Rika Shiraki, everyone wanted to see as much of her awesome body as possible. Unfortunately, the girls physical education teacher liked to keep the class interesting and the pool would be off limits to the boys, largely because we'd be in the gymnasium playing basketball or something.
Just the thought of getting a look at Shiraki, or even Saeki, in their swimsuits was enough to give me a serious erection. Would they be wearing their own? Or did the school provide those conservative one-piece suits that the swim team wore? I looked at Imari, trying to imagine her in a string bikini, but she'd never wear anything so sexy as that.
Saeki, on the other hand...
We'd been on our lunch break for almost fifteen minutes already and I'd been ignoring her. The failure of my protection from fire spell had really shaken my confidence and the last thing I needed was a confrontation. Saeki always made me feel as if she could see right through me. Imari did too, but being my best friend, I was used to it and she posed far less of a threat to my ego.
Saeki in a skimpy bikini, a black one with cups that barely covered her nipples and a wisp of nylon trying to cover her pussy, what a sight that would be! She wasn't nearly as introverted as I'd first believed. Even sitting there at her desk, reading poetry by Yeats as she picked at her lunch, I knew she wasn't shy or reclusive. Saeki just didn't like to waste her time. The girl had a purpose, I thought, unlike most of the other girls in our class. I just didn't know what that purpose might be yet.
"Minase!"
Murai rushed into the classroom, pink-faced and breathless, and wearing a smile entirely too large for her pretty face. We all stared at her, Imari and me, Saeki and a few other students taking their lunches at their desks.
"Minase! It worked! Thank you!" she gushed, skidding to a stop in front of me. "It was unbelievable! Thank you!"
"What? Calm down!" I told her. "What are you talking about?"
Being excitable by nature, we were used to Murai's irrational outbursts of joy or disappointment, but the girl was positively elated as she thanked me over and over. Any second, I thought, she was going to throw her arms around me and start kissing my face. Imari stared at her, but I caught Saeki blinking her wide lavender eyes at me.
"Just listen," Murai said. "It's incredible! Thanks to you, everything with Asada has turned out great!"
"Really?" I asked, forgetting all about my failed protection spell. "I mean, of course it did!"
"I thought it was hopeless," she continued. "He never showed even the slightest interest in me, but after you cast that spell...What an unexpected twist!"
"What happened?" Imari wondered, smiling reluctantly. It was impossible not to respond to the raw happiness radiating from Murai. Her emotions were overwhelming.
"I was leaving the cafeteria just as Asada was walking in, and all of a sudden he told me that he's in love with me!" Murai explained. "It happened so fast. Even before I could tell him how I felt, he confessed everything. It was unbelievable!"
"See? I told you it would work," I said, but more for the benefit of Imari and Saeki, than Murai. She'd never doubted me. I couldn't believe the spell had worked that quickly!
"And that's not all," she added. "Asada's girlfriend was standing right next to him, but he didn't even care! He begged me to accept his love in front of the whole school. Can you imagine? I've never seen anyone look as stunned as she did! Pretty pathetic, huh? Getting dumped like that in the school cafeteria?"
"Too bad for her," I said with a shrug, but I had no idea who Asada's girlfriend had been. Obviously, it was Murai now.
"Yeah!" She giggled. "I can't believe what an evil woman I am! My own beauty terrifies me!"
The girl was enthralled with success, completely lost in her own world, and she had me to thank for it. My spell worked, as well or even better than the one I'd cast on Ito. At least this time nobody had gotten hurt! Murai wasn't humiliated, her new boyfriend was in love, and for all I knew, they might even live happily after. I couldn't help but grin with smug satisfaction.
"Oh no, Minase!" she said. "There's no use in falling for me, too! To think I've finally bewitched a man...I know it's a sin! God forgive me, but Asada belongs to me now!"
"Huh? I wasn't..."
"And I owe it all to you!" she suddenly remembered. Murai did throw her arms around my neck, bent over and hugging me as I sat in my chair. "You're my savior! What powerful magic you must possess! I can't even begin to repay you!"
She kissed me a half dozen times, the last one full on the lips, and let me go. She left the classroom much as she'd entered it -- In a hurry!.
"I'm so happy, I think I'm going to pee my panties!" Murai informed us, which seemed like a strange thing to say. Extreme happiness is like a drug, however, so none of us could blame her for acting so silly.
"Congratulations, Minase," Saeki said, rising from her chair. "You must feel pretty good about yourself now."
Her tone may have been a little sarcastic, but I didn't see any outright hostility on her face. Of course, I had no idea what was going on behind that mask of indifferent beauty she wore. Had I I'd actually fucked this girl? Sometimes I wondered. The events on the train felt more like a dream than anything else, and Saeki's behavior, before and since, kept me off balance. Were we friends? Lovers? Or competitors, now that she knew I had magical powers? Perhaps she thought of me as an ally or an enemy, or maybe just a tool that she could use to get what she really wanted...Whatever that might be.
I reminded myself that I had to be wary, just as Imari had warned me.
"Oh, it was nothing, really," I said, shrugging. "It could've just been a coincidence."
"I don't believe that!" she replied, dismissing my modesty with a snort.
"How did you do it?" Imari wondered. "Did you really learn magic from those books?"
"Sorry," I told her. "I shouldn't talk about it too much. Saeki's right, amateurs have no business dabbling in witchcraft."
"Why you..." she held up her fist. "I don't want to dabble in anything!"
"We should get together sometime," Saeki suggested with a smile. She played with the tip of her blonde ponytail as it curled past her shoulder and between her breasts. "It would be interesting to compare notes, don't you think?"
"Grrr..." Imari frowned as the other girl returned to her desk, content to let me think about her offer.
Unfortunately, I had to worry about Imari's cold stare. Her eyes were like daggers trying to pierce my heart.
"What's the matter now?" I asked with a sigh.
"Nothing," she replied, but I knew better. Either she was angry because I hadn't told her anything about knowing magic, or she didn't like Saeki's flirting. Either way, I was screwed.
"If you have something to say, just say it."
"Well, I hate to rain on your parade, Minase," she said, "but that kind of thing just doesn't sit right with me."
I narrowed my eyes at her. "What do you mean?"
"You know, trying to manipulate other people's feelings with a curse like that," Imari explained. "It's in very poor taste, even if it is just a joke."
"A curse?" I shook my head. "It wasn't a joke either!"
"Whatever," she said. "Don't get too caught up in that weird stuff, okay? Everybody's going to be looking at you funny."
I didn't know what to say to that!
"If they think you're a freak," she continued, "that'll make me the best friend of a freak."
"Right," I said. "Thanks for the warning."
Sometimes I didn't get her at all! Did she believe in magic now, or didn't she? There could be no other explanation for what had happened with Murai and that Asada guy. I'd cast the spell and a couple hours later...
The bell rang announcing the end of lunch. Imari and Saeki, along with the other girls, began gathering their purses and heading downstairs. They had physical education, swimming on that day, and I was relieved to be rid of them for the next few hours. Well, I was happy not to put up with Imari, but the idea of getting together with Saeki was one that lingered in my mind. Comparing notes? I wasn't too sure about that, but the way she'd smiled and played with her hair made me willing to play along if it got me some time alone with her.
I was supposed to go down to the boys locker room and change for my own physical education class. We'd be outside, playing basketball or just doing jumping jacks, or something equally pointless. I'd never been much of an athlete and sports barely interested me, beyond watching girls play volleyball, I mean. But they wouldn't be doing that today, so I really had no reason to attend the class, did I?
Not when I had a sudden and dangerous idea. If the spell had worked for Murai, why wouldn't it work for me? The book's power was undeniable. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I must have made a mistake with the protection spell. I'd have to go back and translate everything related to it, and be more careful in the future. Magic was real and I'd cast two spells successfully, so why not use that power for myself? I deserved something for all my hard work and having a loving, devoted girlfriend would be the answer to my prayers!
But which girl did I want, I wondered. I mean, I could have any girl I desired now! That strange and wonderful truth made my stomach knot up with excitement. My cock grew hard as I imagined the possibilities.
"Imari?" I asked myself aloud, being quite alone in the classroom.
She would be the obvious choice. I already knew everything about her. I loved her, but more as a sister than a girlfriend. That opinion was changing, however, because I'd definitely begun to notice her physical beauty. There was a certain appeal to having sex with her, much like my perverse desire to fuck Yukiko after seeing her masturbate that morning. Sex with Imari would feel wrong, but didn't someone once say that the forbidden fruits were always the tastiest?
What about Saeki? What would it be like to have her groveling before my cock with desperate affection? Pretty nice, I figured. But part of the reason I liked her so much was precisely because she'd never submit her will to anyone, or so I imagined anyway. She just didn't seem like the sort of girl to beg a guy for anything. Plus, she knew magic. If I cast the spell on Saeki and she found out about it, well...Someone definitely once observed that there's a fine line between love and hate!
"Wait a second..." I thought aloud, smiling as my mind finally caught up with the possibilities.
If I could have any girl I wanted, why would I ever pick someone as annoying as Imari or cold as Saeki? If I intended to use a love spell for myself, I'd want to use it on the most beautiful, desirable girl possible -- Rika Shiraki.
She was perfect. The idol of the entire school. Other girls envied her, the boys lusted after her, and teachers respected her. Being her boyfriend would be like taking an express elevator to the top of the social ladder. I'd be popular and accepted into the most influential circles. More important than that, however, was the simple fact that I would have a gorgeous girlfriend. Shiraki would love me completely and I could forget about chasing Saeki or trying to figure out my relationship with Imari.
After carefully weighing the pros and cons, casting my spell on Shiraki was the only real choice I had. Shoot. We might even get married someday, I thought, and her family was rich. I'd never have to work a day in my life, unless Rika's father wanted to give me a job as the vice-president in charge of fucking his daughter! Oh yeah! An office on the top floor, two private secretaries, and a beautiful wife who would never stop loving me. That's precisely why I was attending college in the first place! My dad would be so proud of me.
If a simple spell could make my life a thousand times better, then it wasn't hard to understand how someone could become obsessed with magic. Those girls from twelve years ago must have been overcome by the Bible Black's seductive potential. I could sympathize with them, because I felt myself being drawn towards something dark and unknown, but glittering with promise.
I had a sudden urge to be rid of the book. I could put it back where I found it and forget these crazy ideas. That would be the safe thing to do. Magic had made a victim of Ito, perhaps of Asada as well, I wasn't sure. The members of the old Magic Society had definitely been victims of their own foolishness. Did I want to wake up some morning and find that I'd somehow ruined my life because of magic? Those were sobering thoughts, but in truth, I'd already made up my mind. The idea of having Rika Shiraki for a girlfriend was just too attractive to resist.
Performing the spell exactly as I had for Murai, I cut a doll out of paper. I still had her pin and I pricked my thumb, writing a bloody "S" over the doll's heart. I whispered the proper incantation and all that remained was to put the doll someplace where Rika would find it. The girls locker room would be perfect. She would be swimming along with all the other girls from our section. I just had to find her locker and slip the doll inside. By the end of the school day, she would be mine!
Of course, the school was far from deserted as I made my way downstairs. Only Section A of the first year students had physical education class that period. Section B and all of the second year students were attending their normal classes. That meant they were busy, but some people were inevitably moving about the hallways. The last thing I needed was to get caught not only skipping my own class, but sneaking into the girls locker room! That wouldn't be easy to explain and I'd probably end up labeled a public pervert!
Fortunately, there wasn't anything else at that end of the building and if I needed an excuse, I could always say I was going to the boys locker room. They were right next door to each other, after all. It would be going in and coming back out that would be tricky.
I stopped at a nearby drinking fountain, double checking the hallway behind me. All clear, I thought, and it was now or never. I pushed my way quickly through the door and wasn't surprised to see the girls had a locker room nearly identical to the one for boys. That made it a little easier as I knew the layout, but which locker belonged to Shiraki? I'd expected to see name tags or something, but maybe the girls weren't assigned permanent lockers. Or perhaps they didn't want to advertise which locker belonged to which girl, because I finally did notice a few were claimed.
"Kobayashi," I read aloud.
She was the captain of the swim team The locker next to hers belonged to a girl named Mikimoto, also on the swim team. In fact, all the lockers with tags on them belonged to girls on the swim team. I didn't see one for Shiraki, or Imari or Saeki for that matter. There was no way I could search every locker trying to find Shiraki's in particular!
There were two other doors besides the one I'd come through. They were clearly marked as Female Showers and Pool Entrance. I opened the latter, just to take a peek. Man! I wished they had coed swimming! Saeki sat on the edge of the swimming pool, kicking the water with her feet and laughing. All the girls were having a good time, as if they were attending some sort of summer pool party instead of a physical education class. What a joke! Our coach would have us running laps around the building if he thought we were having too much fun.
Saeki suddenly turned her head, staring right at me as if I'd called out to her. Or maybe not as she didn't lose her playful smile and another girl snatched her attention. My imagination must have been working overtime with the adrenalin rush of being someplace so completely off limits.
I closed the door before I got caught and tried to think of a different plan. Maybe I could go to the shoe shelves and put the paper doll in one of Shiraki's street shoes. She'd be sure to find it, but there were always a lot of people in and out of there during school hours. I wondered if it might not be better to go to her classroom. It should be empty and I could put the doll in her desk...If I could figure out which one was hers. Yeah, the shoe shelves seemed like my best bet as I slipped out of the girls locker room.
"Hey! What were you doing in there?" a guy demanded, a second year student named Inoue. He had a nasty reputation for being a bully and I'd always gone out of my way to avoid him.
"Looks like we caught a peeping tom!" his friend said with a malicious chuckle. "Were you jerking off in the girls locker room, asshole?"
His name was Shinjou and if getting Inoue's attention meant trouble, this guy was ten times worse. Shinjou led a small group of ruffians. They were worse than bullies, more like small time criminals, and so tough that nobody messed with them, not even the teachers. It didn't hurt them that Shinjou's father had a lot of political influence, or so I'd heard. According to rumor, the old man was always pulling strings to keep his son out of trouble.
"I was just, uh..." I swallowed hard, recalling the many times I'd heard about Shinjou and his gang beating someone up or molesting some girl just for kicks. It was hard to believe they could get away with that sort of thing, but their menace was fearless and I only wanted to run!
"Sniffing my girlfriend's dirty panties?" he suggested. "Or looking for a pair your size?"
"What? No!" I shook my head vigorously. "You have a girlfriend?"
"Somebody ought to kick your ass," Inoue said, cracking his knuckles and looking at Shinjou as if waiting for permission. "Look at him! He's going to shit his pants!"
"We don't have time for this faggot," his friend decided. "If I catch you down here again, I'll drag your ugly ass to the roof..."
Inoue looked genuinely disappointed. "We're not going to fuck him up?"
"...just so I can throw you off and hear the splat," Shinjou finished, shoving me against the wall as if I'd argue with him. He was a lot bigger than me and probably on drugs to boot!
"Run, bitch!" the other guy said. "Get the fuck out of here!"
"Alright!" I agreed, trying to slip between them with as little physical contact as possible.
"I said run!" Inoue laughed as he tried to kick me in the butt, and I felt no shame as I did start running. I didn't look back until I'd turned the corner, grateful that they hadn't changed their minds and decided to chase me.
A few minutes later, I suffered the guilt and embarrassment of not standing up for myself, but I only would've gotten hurt. Nobody stood up to those guys and I counted myself lucky that they'd let me go with a warning. I had no idea what they might have been doing outside the girls locker room, and I didn't want to know. I only hoped they weren't waiting around to bother the girls after they were done swimming. The idea of Shinjou or one of his thugs touching Imari was more than I could bear. I thought about reporting them to someone in the school office, but that would only lead to a lot of questions I didn't want to answer.
I was seriously beginning to think I should have just gone to my class. After that little scare I didn't even bother going to the shoe shelves or to Shiraki's classroom. Love could wait until after my nerves were calmed down!
