Chapter 1: Awakening
The noise of the wind whistled past his ears. The sense that he was falling aired in his mind as the questions began flooding in.
"What happened? What is happening? What will happen next?"
The answer to the last question soon came to him as he had an odd feeling something was coming up.
Sure enough, what appeared to be ground suddenly manifested in front of him. For what seemed like several seconds, he braced himself for impact.
Then, almost as sudden as the hard ground appeared before him, Mimoto found himself jolting up in a sweat. He checked himself for any injuries. Seeing none, he felt himself gradually relax
As he began to calm down, Mimoto noticed something odd about his surroundings.
The architecture room he was currently in was certainly a lot more traditional than his Tokyo apartment. In fact, to him it looked like he suddenly found himself backwards in time.
As he inspected his surroundings, he heard a nearby door open. Turning his head towards the room's sliding door, he saw a beautiful girl with long, hip length black hair standing there.
The two of them locked eyes for a moment as the situation registered in their minds.
"Oh! You're awake!" Said the black haired girl. "Do you feel alright?"
"Oh, um. Yeah. I feel fine now." Replied Mimoto. "Where am I?"
"You are in the Isuzu household," The girl stated as she sat down beside him. "I am Isuzu Hana."
"Mori Mimoto," He said, introducing himself to Hana. "How did I get here?"
"We found you passed out on the road," She explained. "After that, we decided to bring you here."
"Wait, 'we'?"
"My friends and I."
"Oh, well. Thank you then."
"No problem. Actually, I should probably tell them you're awake."
Before she could turn around and leave, however, Mimoto felt something rumble in his lower area, as if something was about to burst.
"Oh, um… do you have a toilet I can use?" He asked.
"Sure. There's one down the hall. Let me show you," She said as she stood up and led Mimoto to a room at the end of the hall.
"Thank you." He said before entering the restroom.
As he let nature take its course, Mimoto had a few moments to himself.
First and foremost in his head was "What happened?"
All he knew was that he was on his way back to his apartment and was riding the bus before he suddenly fell asleep. And then all of a sudden, he found himself in a strange room with a girl explaining to him that they found him passed out on the road.
To some, this scenario of being in a strange place with a beautiful girl may be a dream come true. To others, a perplexing mystery. For the 17 year high school old student Mori Mimoto, it was certainly the latter as he began to wonder just exactly what happened that caused him to suddenly appear in this situation.
One thing was certain, though. And it's the fact that Mori Mimoto was now, effectively, a stranger in a strange land.
Once he was finished with his business, he then washed his hands before exiting the toilet. There, Hana stood by the door waiting for him.
"Are you done?" She asked.
Mimoto nodded before the two made their way back to the room where Mimoto had awoken.
"Alright, just wait here and I'll tell the others you're awake," Hana told him before exiting the room, leaving Mimoto by himself.
He wasn't alone for long, however, as Hana soon returned with four other girls in tow.
"Mimoto, these are Miho Nishizumi, Saori Takebe, Mako Reizei and Yukari Akiyama," Said Hana, introducing each one of her friends. Each one of them said "Hello" or "Hi" when their name was called out.
"Mimoto Mori. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, too," Said Saori with her usual enthusiasm. "Hana already told us you were doing fine."
"Yeah, thanks for that. Still don't know how or why I was unconscious."
"You know, you're lucky we didn't run you over with our Tank," Stated Yukari.
It was at that moment that Mimoto had to do a double take.
"Wait, did you say 'Tank'?" Said a perplexed Mimoto. "As in "Battle tank" tank?"
The girls looked at each other.
"Y-yeah… what else would we be talking about?" Said Miho.
"Why would the five of you be in a tank?" Asked Mimoto.
Again, the girls looked at each other.
"We're practitioners of Senshado…" Uttered Hana only to be greeted by an even more confused face from Mimoto.
Now Mimoto really did feel like a stranger in a strange land.