Panting. Wheezing. Grasping for breath. It was as if I was suffocating while breathing air. Sweat dripping down my back. Any longer and my nose would have started bleeding.

I was actually going to die!

"Come on… stop overreacting, you loser. We only ran for like an hour at most." A silver-haired girl said while fixing her bow.

"AN HO- An hour?!" I protested. "That is not an amount of time a 7-year-old should travel to get to school! How is someone supposed to study after enduring this much exhaustion?!" I leaned against the board that read 'Amone's Schools'.

URGHHH!! I'm just so pissed. HAAAH! And tired!

"Mao literally everyone around you is fine. Maybe you are the one who needs to exercise more." The girl quipped while patting my back.

I think she realised that I was about to throw up from exhaustion.

"Their houses were probably closer to the school than ours! I mean, I bet Luha is exhausted too." I looked to my side at the other 7-year-old. She noticed my gaze.

"Oh, me?" I nodded. "I'm just fine." This world is just filled with traitors, isn't it? Curse her and her innocent child stamina. Also, bless her. Urgh.

"Hah! You're the weak one here Mao!" She quipped.

"S-shut up!" I fumbled. Luha was supposed to take my side there. "Let's just get going! No, wait a minute." I almost forgot that I was the one tired.

But this wasn't me being out of shape! This was my second time going out for this long a jog within two hours. After all, the one responsible for taking care of Clintarou was me. The one who would labour to this extent so early in the morning and still be up for school was me.

I was totally and utterly not out of shape. I was rightfully exhausted!

At least now when I grow up I could tell my kids that I jogged kilometres {a/n: actually just a kilometre.} just to reach school.

"I'm read- Nevermind Haah!" I was still short of breath.

"You wuss... Just lean on your onee-san." Yuuno put my arm around her shoulder.

"Older my a-" The hand almost let go, I put more weight on her to assert the support. "I respect you Yuuno-nee!" I lied.

It was her revenge for the thing I did for her exams.

She cracked a smug grin.

"musclehead."

"Did you say something?"

"No, Yuuno-nee."

Hey, I had a free gofer. You wouldn't see me give that up for some stupid pride!

As we went ahead, Yuuno nodded and the gatekeeper nodded back his head before opening the door.

"First day?" His voice was rather lively and mocking.

"Is it that obvious?" I replied half sarcastically. You could guess I was not in the brightest of moods.

"I mean you look half-dead. lol." This time the 40-year-old openly made fun of me. This was just open ground now.

"At least I look more alive than you do. I mean what do you even call that luggage under your eyes. Bet the aeroplane staff doesn't allow that in the cabin."

Ooof. I killed him.

"Tch... You just enjoy the sun kiddo!"

I waved my hand off before entering the school.

This time was different. There was no grand entrance ceremony for the two of us. Just a lonely excuse of a gatekeeper.

The school had two roofed paths that separated perpendicularly. One was clearly labelled senior and the other was clearly labelled junior. It was obvious where we were headed. Or that's what I thought.

"Where are we headed?" I asked.

"It's literally right in front of you, you blind fool."

"You mean that?"

"Yes, that."

"But that's just a huge assembly of sweaty folk on a grassy field."

"You'll be one of them too. Welcome to the entrance ceremony."

Mind you it wasn't half as bad as I was making it out to be. But there were a lot of people. 9 grades with 15 kids in each. So around, I don't know, 135 kids?

See, I could multiply now.

That doesn't sound like a lot anymore.

It was just that I could feel their salty sweat all the way from here. Combine that with sweat shared between Yuuno and me? It was vile.

We lined up behind everyone and the people upfront started to pull their shirts off their pits.

"Good morning everyone!" Another old man up front started talking.

IS THIS VILLAGE ONLY POPULATED WITH OLD PEOPLE?! What sort of joke is this?! I need some eye candy.

Was it because I was used to being surrounded by pretty people? But my eyes were really missing the lack of wrinkles on an adult face.

"Today is the beginning of your adventure. It is what you will remember when you look back in your life. This is the starting point of your story. The fountainhead to your spring. The crappy introduction to your novel. The getting hit by the truck-kun of your isekai. The degrading tsundere to your hen-" And the headmaster's bullshit continued.

###

It will not come to any of you as a surprise, but I was traumatised from the hour worth of bullshittery that happened. I wiped my sweat off my forehead and realised that it was my entire face covered with a layer of sweat. Or rather my whole body.

The black uniforms sticking to my skin didn't help.

I would have been less drenched had I walked into a heavy shower.

"That was a… uuuu." Yuuno complained. "That's why I flunked these classes. They are awful."

"Can we head back home now?" Luha was leaning on both of us. For the first time ever I really wanted to push her off my shoulder.

She wasn't sweating as much as but she was really hot.

"What are you on about Luha, it's time for classes now." Yuuno slyly got her off and got up.

"Reallyyy?"

"You better believe it." I could almost see her say teehee. It was like she was handing the baby over to me. She would make a terrible parent. Can't even love such an adorable creature.

The crowd started to move and we got caught in the flow. The next minute, Luha and I were in a classroom. Not an extravagant one… but a classroom that was reminiscent of an anime classroom.

A large window, slowly rotating fans, wooden desks, cabins in the back.

Give it a year or two and there would be a teasing master born in this exact classroom.

"Get in kiddos!" A black-haired teacher pushed the two of us in. I turned around to see a mountain of a man... but it was a mountain of a woman. Not old. She was like those light novel teachers who would drive a car terribly fast and smoke while acting all cool and mature.

We nodded and slouched all the way to the back seats.

"Yo everyone. For today's lesson we have- addition."

Straight to business.

###

"And that is it for the geographical status of Hokkaido." The teacher put her book down. The same teacher who started the class. Apparently, she taught every subject. But that should be part of course being an elementary subject teacher.

It barely took me a night to learn everything.

"You can all pack your bags and leave now!" The large teacher said. And leave the kids did. Almost in a rush.

The kids seemingly lost interest in me. Maybe it was because of our time together in kindergarten. Or they were at the stage when nothing mattered to them except having fun. Perhaps, they stopped because their parents weren't there to check the progress of our relationship. But sucking up to me was not their priority anymore.

Not that I was complaining.

If they were all over me this year and the next and the one after that, it would be exhausting.

But they weren't so I was fine.

After the majority of the kids left, so did Luha and me.

Subsequent to the final bell we met Yuuno back up on the gate and headed down the long path home.

It was 2 and I was more tired than I had ever been.

If the walk to the school was considered difficult, the way back was literal hell.

The only positive I could think of was that it was a little cooler. Not because the temperature of the air dropped, there was just a large cloud covering the rays from the sun. The lack of radiation was enough to cool the temperature of our skins.

Nonetheless, we arrived back home an hour later, skin so red that if we were in America we'd get free petrol.

The door opened up right before we entered and an amicable face popped out.

"Oh dear… you look awful!" The grandma of the house greeted us. "Lucky for you this caring old lady. I prepared a cool bath for yo-"

"Our bathroom right?!" Luha was the first to cut her off and hop in the house.

"Ah… yes." Oba-chan turned around.

"I'm going first!" Before she could leave we grabbed her shoulder.

"We are all going together." She wasn't a selfish kid, no. But she did like her personal space. Too bad... personal space wasn't an issue compared to our boiling skin.

"No way." Luha fooled, trying to escape.

"Yes, way." We held on tightly while dragging her up the stairs.

The door was aggressively opened.

The uniforms were sent flying off and we plunged into the tub.

If there was one way to exploit the body of a kid was that we had lost all the shame related to our outwards appearance.

There was no tension you would find when adults bathe together.

We were just a bunch of kids splashing around in the large bathtub.

"Today was abysmal." I melted into the cold water. "I am never doing that again."

"Except… you are." Yuuno melted next to me. "You'll do the exact same thing tomorrow. And the day after… for a whole year."

"That is… terrible." Luha melted next to her.

Yuuno acted like a screen between the both of us for some reason.

It was almost as if she didn't realise that Luha was almost like my own child… And the fact that demons don't get reproductive urges. Ever.

But she acted like a screen nonetheless.

We bathed and wiped our skins clean of all the dirt, sweat and grime.

Our epithelium slowly turned into the white colour that it was previously.

In order of whiteness that would be me being the darkest but still really white. Russian-American half breed- what can I say? Then Luha who was almost light pink. From what I could tell she was a dryad. Still a demon. And then we had a pale woman devoid of all blood. The damn vampire.

Her skin absorbed no light and was almost translucent.

Yuuno was the first to get out and wipe herself off. Then it was Luha... and finally me. I preferred being cleaner than those two. And boys have more to clean.

That stuff aside, the bath ended and we retired for the day.

Or so I sincerely hoped-