It Was Only Between the Lines That I Could See the Words

Our school’s dorms don’t have private bathrooms; they use a centralized bathhouse, similar to a large public bath.

The bathhouse is divided into male and female sides, fully automated. You swipe your card to enter, swipe to turn on the water, and are charged by the minute. A male student’s card can only enter the men’s bathhouse, and a female student’s card can only enter the women’s.

So, some clever person is bound to ask, “If I, a boy, get a girl’s student card, can’t I just go into the women’s bathhouse?”

Do you think all those girls are blind? You can tell the difference in gender just by looking. So there’s absolutely no possibility of sneaking in—

Until after my transformation.

The gender on my student card has now been changed to female, so I can only go to the women’s bathhouse. Because the bathhouse is automated, it’s open 24 hours. But since it’s already several hours past midnight, no one else besides us would be there.

The four of us had been running around the abandoned dormitory building all night and were all more or less sweaty. Exusiai’s suggestion to take a shower was naturally passed unanimously.

Since the main door of our girls’ dormitory building was already locked, we went around to the window at the back, planning to climb in. We live on the second floor, and this wasn’t the first time we’d done something like this.

As usual, Saber, whose physical fitness far exceeded the average, was the first to grab onto the anti-theft bars outside a first-floor window. After her transformation, her lighter weight made her movements even more agile than before. She pulled herself up on the iron bars, and her leather-shoe-clad feet landed silently on top.

From the moment she stood on the windowsill to the moment she opened our unlocked dorm window, she barely made a sound.

Like Kaitou Kid, she coolly pushed up her monocle, swung one leg inside the window, and sat on the windowsill, ready to pull up the rest of us who were not as nimble.

But things were different now. Whether it was me and Exusiai, who had gained one percent of our original characters’ combat power, or Yukino, whose physical fitness had also improved after choosing the Karate skill, we were all much more agile than before.

Yukino tugged at the hems of her sweater and shirt to prevent any wardrobe malfunctions, and then her artistic canvas shoes were on the first-floor anti-theft bars. Saber, sitting by the second-floor window, reached out and pulled her up, helping her get to our dorm window even more lightly.

Yukino said thanks and was the first to slip into the dorm. However, after she stood up, her movements suddenly froze. For some reason, she turned her head and shot Saber a glare with her ink-wash-painting-like eyes.

Next to climb up was Exusiai. With Saber’s help, she also entered the dorm silently. Then something seemed to happen that made Exusiai turn back to look at Saber and let out a chuckle.

I stepped onto the anti-theft bars, grabbed Saber’s outstretched, warm little hand, and climbed up with very coordinated movements. After I stood firm in the unlit, power-out dorm, I felt Saber’s soft little hand apply a grappling technique to the area starting from my waist down to my upper legs.

I instantly understood why Yukino and Exusiai had reacted the way they did earlier.

Did Saber think she was a security checkpoint officer or something? Anyone with an unsatisfactory feel is denied entry?? What kind of wild security system is that?!

Naturally, I’m not one to take a loss. So after Saber came down from the window, I also, while she wasn’t paying attention, reached out and returned the favor, competing with her. The difference in skill between a grapple and a dragon’s claw is naturally determined by the extent to which one’s fingers can penetrate the opponent’s defenses with the force of splitting bamboo.

I felt that I didn’t lose out, and even came out ahead. After all, even though I’ve transformed, I’m still a man. A trap is still a man, okay. So in this tooth-for-a-tooth exchange, the value of my “tooth” was naturally not as high as Saber’s.

Like I had won a small-scale battle, I looked at Saber with a triumphant gaze. Unexpectedly, she just dusted off her hands, the corners of her cherry-pink lips curling up slightly into a “you may have profited, but I definitely didn’t lose” smile.

Only then did I understand. With Saber’s level of perversion, no matter what I, in this delicate and lovely illusory flesh of Kiriko, did to her, she wouldn’t be at a loss.

I have to admit, right now, you’re the stronger one.

No, you’ve always been the stronger one.

With the power out at night, we couldn’t turn on the lights. We used our phone flashlights and crowded in front of our lockers to get our bathing supplies. A basin to hold things, shower gel and shampoo were a must, a bath towel was also essential. As for a change of clothes, just underwear was enough.

I didn’t need to bring a bra, just a pair of underpants. Exusiai and Yukino naturally needed one more item than me.

I was the first to get my basin ready and moved away from the lockers, standing behind them, watching my three beautiful roommates pick and choose from their wardrobes.

Mr. Hemingway said it well: only by looking at a girl’s choice of undergarments, the part hidden beneath her outer clothes that is rarely seen by others, can you see her true nature hidden beneath her appearance.

#Although that sounds somewhat reasonable… Mr. Hemingway’s reputation has been tarnished again!#

Yukino, with her waterfall of black hair and elegant features, picked and chose, finally settling on the plainest, unpatterned light-colored top and pure cotton bottoms. Her choice of undergarments was like the first love in every young boy’s heart, pure and beautiful.

Next was Exusiai. I didn’t even need to look to know that her style would be much more seductive than Yukino’s. A style with lace embellishments and a sheer top half, plus a slightly see-through bottom, exuded a mature, adult charm. Exusiai’s handsome, refreshing, boyish-girl appearance, mixed with this adult charm, created a ‘gap moe’ that was fatally attractive to me.

Noticing me staring at her, Exusiai even spread it out with her slender white fingers, holding it up in front of me with her straight, thin arms like she was displaying an award, so I could get a good look. A bright smile hung on her tomboyish, pretty face, like a child seeking praise after winning an award.

While I was blushing a little at Exusiai, Saber also put a few strings into her own basin. Her moonlit-lake-like eyes looked at us, and she said in her heroic voice, “Everyone got their things? Let’s go, we have to climb out the window again.”

For a moment, I was a little confused. I couldn’t help but ask, “Saber, aren’t you going to bring a change of underwear?”

“Hm? I did,” the beautiful girl with her blonde hair tied back was a little puzzled, as if she didn’t understand why I would ask that.

She used one index finger to pick up the few black strings she had just placed in her basin, showed them to me generously, and said, “See, this is it,”

I also started to laugh. “Oh ho ho ho, so it is… a ghost! Are you sure these few strings aren’t torture instruments for tying up criminals, but normal clothing???”

In this short time, I was a little confused. I didn’t know if the word “underwear” in this day and age had come to cover such a wide range, or if Saber had accomplished the great historical feat of redefining “underwear.”