Day.1: N-n-no Clothes!?

Let's take it that this is the day after the opening ceremony. In Shinsen High, the "opening ceremony" is something mainly to remind students school's reopening. It is, in itself, not a school day. Hence, the title is "Day.1", the official first day of school after a long break.

"Oh no, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

"Heisuke-kun!? Why didn't you wake me up this…" I slid the classroom door of Form One open in a way mom wouldn't have approved if she was still alive. The classroom was empty. That's weird. My anger from this morning vanished. I recalled briefly that our first lesson was homeroom.

I dashed downstairs the Second Year, Form One's class, where our senior and Heisuke's senior in the Kendo Club, Okita Souji, was. "Okita-senpai!" to my horror, the class turned out to be empty too. I told myself to calm down and try other places. After all, not every lesson takes place in the classroom. Even if my class was supposed to be homeroom right now.

After getting an empty infirmary, science labs and the school kitchens, I was on complete Panic Mode. Where was everybody? I even triple-checked my calendar to make sure it was a school day.

Swallowing a lump of worry, I hastily walked towards the final place in the whole school I haven't checked yet – the Sports Hall. If there was no one there, I'd call the police. What other choice did I have? Become a full-time detective? Not in this day and age; I can't even get a part-time job since I'm not 18.

You know, adult logic. 21st century. Sometimes, I wish I was living in the Edo period. I'm pretty sure it wasn't that complicated with samurais. It might not even be too bad to join the Imperial Court.

Back to reality. At this moment, I was sweating profusely, I swear my tie was crooked, and my side ponytail was loose. Not to mention, my heart was probably beating at 150bpm. That was exactly how worried I am. When my hand reached for the slider, I saw that it was trembling. Somehow, I managed to force it to stop. Then, from sheer will, I forced it to slide the open.

"…!?" what I saw was probably supposed to make me either sigh in relief or seriously call the police, but it instead made me scream.

"Kyaaaaaa!" I slammed the door back where it originally belonged and turned so that my back was facing it, my face reddening. Why… why are they all…

Before I could even complete my thought, Heisuke slid the door open again, but so abruptly I didn't have time to react and stumbled, landing on… his chest!? If it wasn't a chest I was accustomed to seeing since I was a baby, I probably would've have fainted right on the spot. On the other hand, Heisuke, who was open-minded as usual, didn't even seem to notice my embarrassment, which was a relief in its own way.

Until Okita-senpai came along.

"Chizuru! What's wrong? Why were you screaming like that?" Heisuke was flashing me his "are you alright" looks he's been giving me since my parents passed away.

"U-Um, why are you all, um, h-h-h-half n-naked?" I stuttered in reply, 99% because a hot half naked boy with red brown hair was staring at me with emerald eyes. It was definitely not good for my vocal cord.

Heisuke blinked, staring at me for three full seconds before he suddenly exploded with a loud "Oh!", as if he came to a realization.

"That's right! Chizuru's a girl, so you weren't informed!"

I froze, his words striking me with more impact than it should. Then again, that was probably Okita-senpai's fault again. If I rephrase it, doesn't Heisuke's words literally mean 'Oh yeah! I totally forgot you're a girl since you're like a boy most of the time! I didn't even realize!'

Nice one, Toudou Heisuke. I shot him the best glare I could muster.

Okita laughed, throwing his arm over Heisuke's shoulder. One can really see the height difference, but I was distracted by the muscles he (and Heisuke) got from kendo training. They appeared… attractive.

"Heisuke-kun, you don't know how to handle girls, do you?" Okita-senpai's light tone drew my attention away from the beautiful abs. Wait, what was I? A pervert? I mentally slapped myself for losing focus even for a second. "Chizuru-chan's the only girl; of course she'd be embarrassed being in the same tight space as us boys, right? Though it's bold of her to come into a nest of beasts…" he shot me a smirk which frankly, looked cute instead of evil. Not to mention he was spot-on.

"That's not –"

Before I had a chance to retort, Harada Sanosuke walked towards us inquiringly. It was in his nature to be… curious. Overall, he's an open-minded teacher, similar to Heisuke, so being around him is almost as safe.

"Eh? Chizuru? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the neighboring girl's school?" he blinked at the sight of me. I blinked back, not understanding and staring at his partially revealing chest. He was wearing his suit, but it was unbuttoned. Unlike Heisuke and Okita, an adult's chest was sexy… especially when he's the Health & Physical teacher.

"Chizuru?" Harada repeated. I looked up so quickly I felt the strain on my neck which painfully hurt. Disadvantages to being literally the shortest person in the school.

"Umm… why isn't anybody wearing clothes?" I got straight to the point, afraid that I'd get too embarrassed to utter a single word later.

"We're doing a health check-up!" Nagakura Shinpachi laughed all the way to our side. The first thing I noticed were his muscles, because they were just that noticeable, even if you didn't want to.

The second thing? He wasn't wearing anything but a boxer!

"W-w-w-w-w-w-why are you –" I unsteadily took steps backwards with a flushed face as Nagakura approached, his muscles twitching in a way he probably finds cool, but girls would think ew. He flashed his biceps and triceps simultaneously, raising his eyebrows in such a way I can only describe as flirting, no matter how badly I don't want to admit it. Nagakura would definitely make a bad flirter.

"Hmm? Muscles are to be shown! If not, how can this be a health check-up, eh? Muscles are proof that you're doing well!" he flashed his white teeth at me through a grin I'd find charming without the muscles. It was so extreme I'd felt like taking back what I said about adult's chest being sexy (Harada's still is).

That is, until Hijikata appeared, using his wooden sword to hit Nagakura's head mercilessly. He crumpled to the ground in a painful way, wailing, "Hijikata-san, that was mean…"

Did I mention Hijikata's nicknamed the Demon in our school and he's good at kendo even though he's not in the kendo club? At this very moment, a bump was swelling at Nagakura's side, and it looked really painful.

"Shinpachi! If you wanna mess around, do it elsewhere, where I can't see it! No, actually, on second thought, don't even do that! This is why no co-ed school would hire you, idiot!"

Not knowing what else to do, I did what I do the best: smile, and chuckle nervously until the crisis was over.

Which meant somehow calmly getting out of the sports hall and running all the way to Shogun Girl's Gakuen next door after accompanying Nagakura to the infirmary, where Sannan Keisuke, our school physician handed him a bottle of red liquid he claimed to be of good quality medicine, where Yamazaki Susumu, a Second Year, assistant of Sannan, tried to stop him for reasons unknown to me, Nagakura drinking it anyway, then me returning to class after my check-up to see him with white hair.

Yup, my high school life was going smoothly, alright.

Yukimura Chizuru, day. 1 over!

As you probably noticed, Chizuru has a slightly different personality here than from Hakuouki. That's because we're not in the Edo period! :D She deserves, well, more freedom as a girl since it's the 21st century, so I thought it'd be fine if she was more of a typical teenager than always acting like a 'woman'.