Tomoko Kuroki

Yuri stood in the doorway as if she waited to be welcomed in and I stepped aside to allow her passage. Was she this formal even outside of school? She went inside, unlaced her shoes and removed them from her feet. I observed her nimble fingers working over the shoe laces. In silence, she stood up and looked at me as if she was expecting me to say something.

I thought of saying something funny but I couldn't think of anything so I just shifted nervously on my feet. When we were at school, at least we had homework and assignments to talk about.

"It's good to see you."

Yuri looked up. "Huh?"

"I-I said that, uh, it's good that you and Mako are here now," I stammered, "t-the food was getting cold."

Yuri narrowed her brow. "We're not that late."

Did she think I was berating her!? "We… we should go inside with the others."

Yuri nodded but said nothing. I figured she was still upset about me inviting Nemo without talking to her first.

Mako and Yoshida were chatting casually by the dinner table. The delinquent seemed very excited about the movies she had brought but lit up even further when Yuri and I entered. She called us over.

"I remembered how much you two loved Kowarith, so I brought both movies; Kowarith I and II!" Yoshida said excitedly, not noticing the cold air between Yuri and I.

Yuri said something about it being a good idea though I couldn't tell from her voice if she was being sincere, and I hated it. I realized that every single movie Yoshida had brought was a Disney film and I cursed the fact internally. There would be no nude scenes tonight. Was some light erotica really that much to ask for?

There was a knocking on the door and I stood up from the conversation. "That must be Nemo."

Yuri shrugged indifferently. I decided to ignore it.

When I opened the door, I was met with a familiar face. Or rather lack there off. Emoji, or whatever her name was, from my school was standing in the doorway, her clothes torn apart and tears running down her cheeks.

"Woah! Have you been raped?!"

Emoji looked at me through tears, sniffling. "W-what? No, you idiot!... I was in the area, on my way somewhere, when I accidently fell into a gravel pit and hurt my leg… It really hurts!"

I stared at her, not believing my ears. A gravel pit?! "Uh…"

"Can I come in? Please?" Emoji begged.

Heck, if she had fallen into a pit, the least I could do was try and help her. I didn't know if I should let her in though or get my mom to drive her to the hospital. "Mom?!" I called.

The girl cried even louder the moment my mom was at the door. Mom, equally as shocked, tried to calm Emoji down as she brought inside and helped her into a chair. Not long after, all my other guests were in the hall as well.

"Ucchi-san! - what happened to you!?" Mako wanted to know as soon as she entered.

Emoji retold the story of how she had been walking through the neighborhood when she had suddenly slipped over something and fallen into a gravel pit, twisting her ankle in the fall and knocking herself unconscious for who knows how long. She had lost her phone but miraculously found the strength to drag herself to my home as she by sheer luck and fortune had remembered my home address.

"That's so terrible!" Mom said. "That must have been a long way to go with a twisted ankle. We don't have any gravel pits anywhere near this neighborhood."

Emoji nodded vigorously through her crying. "Yes! Very terrible indeed!"

Yuri and Yoshida stood wordlessly, staring at the crying girl while Mako kneeled at the floor inspecting Emoji's leg. Her socks were torn to pieces with large holes in them while all her clothes were covered in dust and dirt. She had bruises everywhere.

"Despite what happened," Mako said with some optimism in her voice, "I think you got pretty lucky. You don't seem to have taken a scratch."

"Try looking again. I'm sure there must be a scratch somewhere! I think I need to stay here until I'm feeling better."

Mako stared at her for a split second until she began to reinspect the twisted leg. I really didn't know what to do with myself, but when I noticed two pink twintails appearing in my front yard, I quickly shifted to greeting Nemo in the doorway. It was actually her this time.

"Woah, what the heck is going on here?" Nemo asked. She was already in her pajamas for some reason. A full-body kigurumi lion pajamas with outlandish pink fur, a purple mane and two massive plushy horns. If it was from one of those chuuni animes she liked so much, I didn't recognize it.

"She fell into a pit," I mumbled and gave a brief retelling of the story. Nemo didn't seem to react at all. When I was done, all she did was making an uninterested 'hmm'-sound.

"Does she need to go to the hospital?" I asked.

"No, no, no - I'm sure my leg will heal very soon."

"Your leg is fine, Ucchi, I think it's just your ankle that got twisted," Mako assured her as she got done inspecting the leg for the second time.

"Hmph!" Emoji groaned as she crossed her arms. I didn't get it. Was she angry?!

Mom took out her phone and started dialing a number. "I'll call your parents and they'll come and pick you up. What's your home number, sweetie?"

"Don't! Like I said, my leg will heal eventually! Then I'll be on my way! Do you not want me to stay that badly?!"

No one in the hall said anything. Mom looked sternly at me. I gulped. "Uhm, I… d-do you w-want to stay here until your leg is feeling better?"

Emoji looked at me directly in the eyes (I think, it's hard to tell with that girl) and nodded. "I-if it's not too much to ask, Tomoko-san." Was she blushing?!

Mom greeted the new guests and helped us reheat the pizzas which had turned cold by now, before returning to her and Dad's room. Left alone with these five girls, I felt slightly anxious but it gradually faded away as we sat down to eat the pizzas.

Emoji insisted on sitting next to me, claiming that that specific chair was the one most merciful to her damaged body, while Yuri took the chair to my other side, although she had been sitting somewhere else before. This forced Nemo to take the seat at the other end of the table.

"It's ok," Nemo said and smiled at me, though I wasn't really sure what she meant by that.

Yuri was picking at her food, the only one of us choosing to eat with a fork and knife. The rest of us ate with our hands. I had an urge to lick my fingers but didn't want to gross out my guests. I could try and then follow it up with a mastubation joke or something but I wasn't too sure how well it would land.

I had been slightly afraid that I would sit in silence and not know what to say to my guests but as it turned out, they, as usually, led the conversation. Sort of like in school. I could sit nice and quietly by the end of the table and simply enjoy their company.

A while later, when we had finished eating, I took them to my room. It was weird to think about having these five girls be the first to enter my most private space other than Yue and Komi-something. But it didn't feel so bad as I thought it would. They were all my friends, sort of, and Emoji was just resting for a bit.

Nemo walked around like she was in an amusement park. "Your room is nothing like I imagined it, Kuro. I thought you'd have a lot more anime posters hanging and a lot more garbage lying on the floor."

"Are you calling me a slob?"

"Not at all," she smiled, looking around my room. "Did you mom help clean your room?"

"Shut up, Nemoto-san."

Mako put her sleeping bag down and turned towards the rest of us. "Oh, well, should we change into our pajamases now?"

I stared at her. Was she really suggesting all of us should strip naked right in front of her? Couldn't she at least try to be more subtle about her outrageous sexual urges?

I was about to comply when Yosida grabbed her bag and went to the door. "I'm going to change first," she said and headed towards the bathroom.

I couldn't help but to feel a little disappointed. By the time all of us were in our nightwear, I hadn't managed to catch a glimpse of anything lewd. Emoji borrowed a shirt from me which left her in complete silence.

Kowarith was put on my television. Yoshida was lying on her stomach up front, watching the movie intensely, while chatting with a heartening Mako who did her best to show interest.

"W-what do you and Mako usually do when you're… uh, when you're having a-a sleepover?" I asked Yuri in a whisper.

Yuri turned towards me. "We usually just talk." She shrugged. I wanted more and raised my eyebrows at her.

"Gossip," Yuri sighed lightly.

I nodded. "Oh. Uh." What did I have to gossip about? The only thing I knew anything about was anime and manga and I knew none of that was interesting to anyone here, maybe besides Nemo. "Like… about what?"

Yuri looked around to see if anyone was listening to us. "Like… who is being a bitch in class and stuff like that."

"Oh!"

"You know, people like..."

Nemo, who had been sitting next to me, leaned down, putting her head in my lap like a purple dog. "Like me?" she smiled.

Yuri shut up like a clam, pulled back and stared straight at the TV. She huffed. "Not everything's about you."

I felt like I was caught in a cross-fire. Were they going to fight? Should I be scared?

"Well, what were you talking about then?" Nemo asked.

As Yuri said nothing, I decided to explain. "Well, we were just talking about what people usually do when they're having a sleepover."

"What? Have you never been to a slumber party, Kuro?"

A shiver ran down my back. Did she really want me to admit how big a friendless loser I was? Wasn't that obvious? Nemo's smile faded from her face in a short moment but then sat up and patted me on the back. "Well, I have. I'll tell you everything you need to know."

Both Yuri and I looked at her suspiciously.

"We usually do each other's hair, you know, girly stuff like that: giving each other makeovers. That kind of stuff. That's how I got my pink hair, by the way! Oh, and we also play spin the bottle - it's usually the most fun when there are also guys involved. You know, 'kiss his cheek', 'kiss her cheek'."

"I think we should play that game," Ucchi said. I had completely forgotten she was there until she said that.

"You mean to tell me that you, Akande-san and Asuka-san never gossip?" Yuri asked dryly.

Nemo smiled at her. "Oh, we do. However, we usually talk about crushes - not who's 'being a bitch'."

Yuri skeptically narrowed her eyes at her. I was also suspicious. "Crushes?"

"You know, who likes who."

Like boys and stuff? I felt like I was at the gates of a totally different world. All talks about guys I had never had had been with Yue or with myself inside my head and the occasional talk with Komi-something of whom I suspected would attempt to rape my little brother before the end of the year.

It was settled then. One way or another, tonight would be the night I learned about the secret of dicks.