“Hey, look at Miyako’s new glasses. She looks cute in them!” 

“Yes, yes.” 

“And look at Sakura! She really has grown lately, hasn’t she?” 

“Really.” 

“Ooh, and when I see those enormous thighs of Yumiko, I want to put my head between them!!!” 

“I’m glad.” 

“Hey, are you even listening, Takao?” 

“Exactly.” 

“You bastard!” 

“Ouch! Why did you pinch me?” 

“Why are you sleeping when I’m talking to you! Can’t you see how lucky you are to be in a class filled with such pretty girls!” 

“Aren’t you a bit too enthusiastic... If you’re that eager to talk about them, why won’t you approach one instead?” 

“That’s...! Anyway, who’s saying that! There is no way in the world you would do that!” 

“Maybe you’re right... but unlike you, I’m not talking about girls all the time.” 

“Tch. You’re no fun.” 

He stood up from my desk and returned to his seat. 

The person I was talking to, Yamaguchi, was apparently someone who I could call a best friend... but that was because I had no other friends. Either way, we had known each other since primary school. Even though he seemed silly at first glance, he could be reliable at times, surprisingly. To give an example, the last time I had been away from school, he lent me his notes. Their quality was questionable, but still better than nothing. 

We had been in the same class since the beginning of primary school, and we just happened to end up in the same class in middle school as well. I remember him joining the art club, and even though I had never seen him drawing something, he seemed to be satisfied. As for me, I hadn’t joined any club, and if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t really change that decision. 

He usually was the first person to welcome me when I entered the classroom; I mean, if it wasn’t for him, nobody would really welcome me. We also talked during the lunch break, or rather, he talked to no one in particular while sitting on my desk (literally), because I had long since gotten tired of his pointless small talk. Well, there were days when he discussed something else, like recent manga or TV series, but that was a rare occurrence. 

Anyway, it still seemed surprising to me that he was afraid to talk to a girl. I was sure that it was within his capabilities to talk to one. 

If you asked me, it’s not like I wasn’t interested in girls. In my opinion, the proper time for relationships like that had yet to come. Soon, we would go to high school, where we were likely to meet an entirely different set of people, gradually forgetting about what happened earlier. Supposing that I had somewhat acquired a partner for myself, we would have gone to different schools and lost contact bit by bit, finally resulting in breaking up. There was a small chance of going to the same school, either by a lucky coincidence or one of us making a biased choice. Either way, there was no way that I would encounter a situation like that, right? 

Come to think of it, I had a girlfriend in kindergarten. It’s an exaggeration, of course, but to be honest, she was the only girl I had ever been friends with. I don’t remember it clearly, but her name was Nanami and I recall her dumping me. Really. I remember that back then most kids refused to play with me for reasons unknown to me. She had been one of the few that did not, so that was quite an impact for me. 

Soon after I completed my lunch, the bell announcing the end of the break rang. 

•

A few hours had passed and the school day finally came to an end. Like I said before, I didn’t attend a club, so there was nothing left for me but to go home. I took my bike from the stand in front of school and headed for the exit. After some time, I had overtaken all other students on my way and the road before me became empty. 

I lived in a normal, two-story house with my parents and sister. She was two years older than me, therefore she was a high school sophomore. 

Having reached home, I parked my bike behind the fence and entered inside. 

“I’m home”, I said under my breath. That wasn’t really necessary as nobody had been home – my parents came back in the evening, and my sister attended a club in her school. 

Bending down, I took off my shoes and then took a step inside to immediately head upstairs where my room was located. It was a pretty generic and uninteresting, rather small room. There was a bed that apparently was made by my mother after I had left for school, because I didn’t usually do it myself, a plain wooden desk with a few books I didn’t read at all and an older laptop that was still good for browsing internet or watching videos, but playing games on it was rather a struggle, and a closet built into the wall. On the floor lay a small colorful, soft carpet. 

Having placed the bag on the floor, I changed myself into casual clothes as I found the slightly wet school uniform a bit uncomfortable. Some people liked to stay in it all day long, but to me it was unimaginable. 

Studying was a thing that almost nobody liked, but unfortunately had to be done almost every day. Wasn’t it a bit ridiculous that after a long, dull school day I had to spend another hour doing the same boring things? On the other hand, it wasn’t like I had anything better to do. 

My time after school was filled with boredom. Since the school had been boring as well, did that mean that my whole life was boring? Well, there were times when I got hooked on a book, game or TV series, resulting in me spending all my free time with it, so I guess that wasn’t true. 

That said, maybe I should have joined a club? Anyway, I would still have a chance to in high school. 

The rest of the day went as follows: I played a game on my console for some time, then my parents came back and not long after that, I had dinner. I ended up going to bed before 9 o'clock as if I were a little child. 

•

A girl entered her little room. 

She had long, light blonde hair and an eye blue like a deep sea. Her left eye was hidden behind a black eyepatch. 

That wasn’t because of a scar or any other issue with that eye, though. 

She wore it just because she liked it. She felt good with it. Perhaps she believed that it sealed a power hidden in her. 

The small room was filled with furniture so there was almost no free space left. 

On her left there was a closet built into the wall. Inside it there were clothes and lots of things she didn’t use anymore, like stuffed toys and board games. 

There was more space on her right side. Next to her stood a desk with a computer on it. On its opposite there was a bed covered with a gray blanket. 

Behind it stood the most colorful part of the room, holding most of the owner’s personality – a bookshelf with a variety of books, figurines, DVDs and lots of other things. 

If this room was shown to a random person, they likely wouldn’t guess that it belonged to a girl. There were no elements that would emphasize it, like cute patterns on the bedding or anywhere else. 

The girl put her bag down on the floor and lay down on the bed. 

She took the portable console from the shelf behind her and held it high above her head. After a moment, the screen illuminated her face with a white light. 

That one eye of hers seemed to be focused on the screen, but then suddenly she lost her grip and the console fell on her face. 

“Ouch...” she instantly let out a faint sound. 

Having gradually lowered her hands, she didn’t take the console back, but looked at the ceiling for a longer while without displaying any emotions on her face. 

"I won’t ever forgive you, you filthy humans...” she muttered. 

She moved her hands to place the console back on the shelf, and then stood up from the bed to leisurely leave the room. 

•

The next day, Friday. 

“<Hey, hey, Takao! How are you today!>” that idiot said that using broken English. 

“Why are you talking to me in English? Learn how to pronounce it properly first.” 

That’s right, it was Yamaguchi, apparently the best friend of mine. 

“Hey, should we go hang out somewhere after school? It’s Friday after all!” 

Yamaguchi made that proposal every week, but I always refused. 

A few months ago, I had decided to agree on a whim. He brought me to his friends in the neighboring class, 3-A, where we discussed over the matter of our destination. After a discussion that took the entire break, often straying from the intended topic, we settled on a karaoke. After school, we went to a place apparently owned by family of one of his friends. Obviously, they forced me to sing, which turned out to be pretty bad, but it wasn’t like theirs was better. 

During all this time, I was feeling constantly nervous. Even though I had known Yamaguchi for a few years already and his friends seemed to be friendly as well, I didn’t feel good with that bunch. 

Since then, I just didn’t want to hang out with Yamaguchi at all. 

“No”, I gave a short response that he expected. 

I sat down at my desk located next to the window. The bell rang, indicating the beginning of morning homeroom class. 

… 

After a few more or less boring hours, the lunch break finally started. 

“Takao! I’m coming to you!” 

It was Yamaguchi shouting to me from the other side of the classroom as he approached me. 

“What do you want, Yamaguchi? Someone has new glasses again?” 

“No, Takao. Listen, when I was going to the toilet an hour ago, I saw something interesting!” 

“Interesting, in a toilet? I don’t want to hear it...” 

“No, no. I saw an interesting person! A girl I have never seen before!” 

“Let me guess, it was a girl with enormous boobs... I’m not interested, could you finally find a different topic?” 

“Quite the contrary! It was a tall blondie. She was taller than me, and she was completely flat! As if she were a crossdresser!” 

“It’s not like you’re the tallest one...” 

“Shut up. I think she’d be your height, or even taller.” 

It was a fact that I was quite tall, but I didn’t pay attention to that. It wasn’t like I looked like a basketball player, in fact there were a few people in this class taller than me. 

“But! Let me get to the interesting part!”, he continued, “She had this weird thing on her eye!” 

I didn’t pay much attention to what he was saying, just enough to make a relevant response so he wouldn’t pinch me again. 

“Alright, so why didn’t you talk to her?” 

Yamaguchi made a troubled expression. 

“That’s because... she’s not my type!” 

“You took quite a while coming up with the reason. Listen, I know that I’m in no position to say that, but instead of talking about girls, you should become friends with one...” 

“No..., you!” he lost his reasoning and began to act embarrassed. 

“No, I’m not interested...” 

“So why are you saying that!” 

“Because I think that would be better for you...” 

“And I think that would be better for you!” 

The meaningless quarrel continued for a while before being interrupted by the bell. 

•

The classes came to an end, and I was called to stay on the cleaning duty with some people from my class I didn’t really talk to. 

When I was cleaning the floor by the front door, a teacher suddenly came in and called out to me, most likely because I was the first person she had seen inside. 

“Fujioka-kun, could you lend me hand?” 

It wasn’t like I had any way of refusing. I was supposed to be cleaning anyway. 

“Yes?” 

“There are storage rooms upstairs. Could you carry all the boxes from the room on the right to the faculty office for me? I’d be thankful.” 

I put away the broom I was holding and headed upstairs. On the 4th floor, there weren’t any classrooms, but only two small storerooms and the rooftop entrance that should be closed. 

Standing in front of the clearly old door on the right, I inserted the key into the hole and tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t move. Confused, I pulled the door just like that without expecting it to open, but to my surprise, it opened. Either someone had left it open, or the lock had stopped working at all. 

Worried that I would be stuck inside if the door somehow closed on its own, I put a flower pot that was in sight to prevent it. 

Inside the dusty room there were a dozen boxes. They seemed to be relatively small, so I decided to take two at once. 

Consecutively climbing the stairs up and down carrying the boxes, I lost the track of time. In the meantime, the hallway was deserted and it got dark outside. It wasn’t because the sun had already set, but because dark rainy clouds had accumulated. 

When I reached the storage room panting, I saw that there were only three boxes left. 

“Finally.” 

I decided to take them all at once. Together they slightly obstructed my vision, but luckily for me, they turned out to be of the lighter kind. 

Having put away the pot and closed the door, I strolled off downstairs. My arms and legs quivered from the continuous load, but I picked up my pace a bit.  

The building seemed devoid of any life besides me. Thanks to the ominous rain clouds outside, it looked as though it had already been evening. Had it already been raining? I couldn’t really confirm that before leaving the building. 

Before I knew it, I stopped paying attention to my surroundings. I wanted to head home as fast as I could, even though nothing interesting was waiting there for me. I guess I just wanted to avoid getting drenched in rain if possible. 

I turned a corner. 

I quickly took step after step gradually descending. I turned a corner again. I didn’t think about anything anymore since all I wanted was to finally exit that building and go home already. 

The only sound that could be heard were my own footsteps reverberating throughout the empty hallways. 

I turned a corner again. 

… 

Suddenly, I got startled by a signal from my foot. I had set my foot in a wrong place trying to skip two steps at once and lost my balance. I tried my best to regain it, but it didn’t work. 

If my hands had been free, I would have quickly grabbed the railing, but unfortunately, they were holding the boxes. I thought about throwing them away, but I couldn’t bring myself to. Besides, I doubted that I would be able to do it fast enough. 

I was somewhere in the middle of the stairway. If I fell from there, it would likely result in an injury. 

I wasn’t able to touch the ground with my feet anymore. The boxes slipped out from my hands. I already instinctively closed my eyes in preparation to an impact or even loss of my consciousness. 

How long it would take before someone noticed me there? I would make my parents worried... 

Really, I was such an idiot for running on the stairs. 

… 

Just when I thought I was flying horizontally, I felt as though something was trying to grab me by my shoulders. 

After a moment had passed, I fell not on the hard floor, but on something soft. I didn’t feel any pain as well. Had someone perhaps put mattresses on the floor? 

No, this was way softer than the kind of mattresses that were used at school. If anything, it was more like a bed. A pretty flat bed, though. However, that wouldn’t explain something grabbing me just a while ago. 

Wait, that could mean only one thing. 

There was only one way to make sure. I slowly opened my eyes and immediately learned the answer. 

Right before me, there was a face with a large blue eye looking directly at me. There was a black, irregularly round thing where the left eye should have been – an eyepatch. 

That person’s hair was blonde and probably fairly long. I was dumbstruck when I came to realize that it was a girl. 

Did that mean that I found myself in that cliché situation I had seen in some unambitious anime? The soft thing that I had fallen on were, in fact, her breasts, and in a moment, she was going to slap me while screaming “Baka!” and then run away? 

Somehow, nothing like that happened. 

I couldn’t bring myself to look there directly, but judging only from my sense of touch, the surface I had landed on was rather flat. 

That didn’t change the fact that this situation had earned the title of the most humiliating in my life, though. 

I was sure that I hadn’t seen that girl before. We were both left speechless, and I wasn’t able to let out a single word from my mouth or move any of my limbs. Neither was she. 

In that situation, I felt as if minutes passed, but in reality, it was no more than a dozen seconds. 

“...” 

Suddenly, she broke the silence with a barely audible voice filled with insecurity. 

“Are you... okay?” 

So nice of her to worry about me. I think that I should have asked her this question first – it was me who caused her inconvenience. 

Feeling that I was able to finally let something out of my mouth other than mere breath, I averted my eyes and answered: 

“Yes...” 

At that moment, I wasn’t able to think logically. A girl had just miraculously appeared out of nowhere in a school that I thought was empty and saved me from a tragic fall. What was she, an apparition? 

Since I was still lying on her body rendering her unable to move, but most importantly, embarrassing both me and her, I had to get up. 

I tried my hardest not to accidentally look at her face and avoid touching her body again, and used my outstretched hands and legs to stand up. The fact that they were wobbling from the load they had been taking on just before and from all the stress didn’t help. That position must have looked very, very ambiguously if someone happened to see us. 

I hoped that nobody saw us there. 

“...” 

Somehow, I finally managed to end up in a somewhat stable position and slowly stood up. 

I looked at her body lying in front of me motionless. I confirmed that she was wearing our school’s girl uniform. From the color of her ribbon, I was able to deduce that she was a third grader just like me. Her silhouette was very slender, simple. 

Standing before her, I closed my eyes and bowed earnestly. 

I picked up the boxes that were scattered around her and thankfully hadn’t spilled out. 

That was everything I could do. I hoped it would suffice. 

After that, I approached the stairway as quick as I could and took the first step, but then became hesitant. 

Should have I left her there just like that? 

I didn’t have to ask myself this question anymore, because just then, she stopped me with a barely audible voice that I was able to hear only because the building was perfectly silent. 

“Wait.” 

I turned over just to see her on the floor in the same position as before. That lying silhouette paired with the quiet voice of hers gave off a feeling as if she had just woken up. 

She then asked me a question. 

“How they... call you?” 

The way she worded this question reminded me of a fantasy novel. I couldn’t care less about that though, maybe it was a dialect thing. I answered her question truthfully. 

“Fujioka Takao...” 

I noticed her looking down instead of making an attempt to turn her gaze to me. She slightly opened her mouth and said in a transient voice: 

“Now that you owe me your life...” 

An uncertain moment of pause followed before she continued in an even quieter voice. 

“...would you like to become my servant... or something...” 

I wasn’t able to see the expression on her face because she was effectively hiding it from my view. 

Before I knew it, she stood up, picked up her bag from the floor and passing by me, ran downstairs. I turned my head and saw her silhouette gradually disappearing from my vision. 

I stood there for a good while not being able to move a single limb. For a split second, there was an idea in my mind to run after her, but in the end, I was too nervous. 

Her question left me confused. What did she mean by ‘servant’? 

It took a few minutes for my consternation to pass so I could finally bring the boxes to their final destination, and having fetched my bag from my classroom, leave the school. 

In spite of the rainy clouds stretching across the sky, it wasn’t raining yet. 

I guessed that I had to hurry if I didn’t want to get wet, so I took my bike from the stand and hurried back home. 

That girl had most likely transferred here just recently. I didn’t tend to walk around the school during recess, so it was likely for me to not come across her conspicuous figure. What was with that eyepatch of hers, though? Why had she been in the school that late in the first place? 

Before I knew it, I became so interested in her that I couldn’t bring myself to forget about her. It was a strange feeling that I hadn’t ever felt before. What I knew for sure though, was that I was going to have a hard time trying to come across her again.