The True Elites

Chapter 4.5-6: Operation Delta

"Start from the beginning," I told her.

"Right."

Kushida sucked in a mouthful of air before starting her story.

"So, earlier today I was invited out by some friends. You know that huge pool that's normally reserved for use by the swim club only, right? Yeah, well apparently, that reservation was lifted for today and the next two days, the final three days of our vacation."

The pool in question was even bigger than the one we used during swim class. As a special event, it had been opened for communal use. I imagined that it would be extraordinarily busy.

"So, we arranged to go to the pool for the morning. Since there's a rule that each student can only go to the pool once over the whole three days, we all decided to go at the same time. Ichinose-san and her friends were there, as well as Hirata-kun, some Class B boys and some of my friends. Oh, that Yagami guy from your class was there, too."

Light and Hirata had played soccer with Nagumo in the later hours of the afternoon today. That must have meant they'd spent some time over the morning and lunchtime hours at the pool, and then split away to spend some time on other relationships.

Being popular sure did sound like a hassle.

"But what surprised me the most was Horikita-san's presence."

"Horikita attended?"

"Mhmm," Kushida nodded, and took a sip of her tea. "Horikita-san seems like she's started to change a little recently."

Indeed, Horikita upon first enrolling to this school would never consider attending an outing such as this. However, after being beaten down again and again, it looked like Horikita had finally started to grow.

Particularly, Horikita had faced strong embarrassment in the Zodiac special exam, when she'd made a deal with Light behind her classmates' backs and it had ended up backfiring on her. That event was likely to be the trigger which caused Horikita to begin emerging from her shell.

"Anyway, the three creepy weirdos from our class also turned up: Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudō. I'm pretty sure nobody invited them, but they were constantly whispering to themselves and glancing at me as we walked to the pool."

It wasn't difficult to understand why such behaviour would cause you to be hated by the girls. They were the polar opposite of Hirata, who nobody could possibly imagine would do anything distasteful.

"So we went into the changing rooms, and changed into our swimsuits. A bit later, the degenerates emerged, once again whispering, and staring at us girls. I was sure I saw one of the fuckers salivating."

Kushida wrinkled her nose, a repulsed expression distorting her features.

"Then they left us alone, and for a couple of hours I just forgot about it. But then, they went back in the boys' changing room and came out in their normal clothes, like they were trying to sneak off. I drifted away from the main group to eavesdrop on them. All they were talking about was which girl had the best body! It was disgusting."

As a boy, it was difficult to relate to such a feeling. Were somebody to examine my body, I wouldn't feel anything really at all. However, for girls, it was a completely different story.

"So, they ended up noticing me and I had to act like it was just a coincidence I ran into them. And..."

Kushida tightened her hands into fists, presumably in an attempt to stop her hands from shaking.

"The fact that Yamauchi kept looking at my tits wasn't even the worst part! It was like their eyes were looking through my swimsuit. It made my skin. Crawl."