The School Nurse in the Bathroom
"Those whose names I call will take their belongings and proceed to the Special Class dormitory."
The entire incoming class had gathered in one place. At last, the proctor was about to announce their fates.
"Number one, Hoshikawa Himari. Room One."
"Ooooh—"
—Clap clap clap clap.
Himari stepped forward and received the keycard to Room One.
Awe-struck gasps poured out, along with applause thick with both congratulations and envy.
Himari's own expression, however, remained as stiff as ever.
It wasn't that she was unhappy. It wasn't that she disliked the honor of ranking first in her year.
There was simply something else weighing more heavily on her mind.
That school nurse…
As she dragged her suitcase toward the dormitory, Himari absently stroked the ring finger of her left hand. She had never learned a healing skill, so she had patched it up herself with a clumsy bandage.
How did she know?
The fact that her left ring finger took damage every time she activated a skill was something she had told no one. A successor to the Hoshikawa family was expected to embody perfection and refinement at all times; weaknesses had no place in that image.
The only person who knew was her father, the one who had taught her the technique.
She saw it with her eyes?
No. That was absurd.
If that childlike teacher really were an ordinary school nurse, her combat ability would be no different from any civilian's. Tracking Himari's sword draw with the naked eye — and after seeing it only once — should have been impossible.
Which left only one conclusion—
—She's a watchdog Father sent to keep an eye on me.
Himari bit her lip.
She had decided on Korea so abruptly because she wanted to see a wider world and experience something new. Nearly twenty years spent confined to the family estate had left her restless and stifled.
She knew her father disapproved. But to monitor her like this was going too far.
In that case, the way that woman had so strangely hidden her face must have been an act as well.
—Click!
As she opened the door to the grand Room One of the Special Class dormitory, Himari steeled her resolve.
I need to make myself perfectly clear.
"All right, here is the first-year Special Class roster."
Morning faculty meeting.
Lua was wedged in among the assembled first-year teachers. It was the first faculty meeting of the new term, and the chairman had specifically asked even the extracurricular instructors to attend.
"Look it over carefully, and feel free to speak up about how we should handle them."
The grade-level head was a burly man who had made a name for himself as a tank during his active hunter days. He ran the meeting with the same blunt force as his appearance, which Lua privately considered a relief.
"So the top seat really is this student."
"Honestly, cutting a sandbag clean in half. How many years has it been?"
"It's not just Hoshikawa Himari — this year's full of talent. The major guilds are already taking an interest."
Listening to the chatter among the teachers, Lua looked over the Special Class list that had been passed to her as well.
Just like in the game…
She ran her eyes down from the top. Every name below Himari's was one she had heard to the point of exhaustion. The first-year Special Class was the core cast of the game's story, after all.
But at the very bottom, Lua's gaze came to a halt.
Huh?
Something was off.
The last name on the Special Class list — in other words, the student who had taken tenth place — was Yu Juju. That unusual name was no typo.
She's supposed to be first in the Advanced Class.
Lua tilted her head.
In the game, the student named Yu Juju fell just short of the Special Class. Eleventh place on the class placement test, to be exact. She had even challenged the protagonist to a duel out of jealousy over losing the Special Class spot by a single rank.
And yet here she was, sitting in tenth.
This is different from the game.
Lua swallowed hard without meaning to. She remembered what Yu Juju used to say to the protagonist in the game.
—If it weren't for you, I would've been in the Special Class!
What if this was that very "what-if" world?
There's no protagonist at the academy right now.
Her heart dropped into her stomach.
This was not something she could take lightly.
The protagonist's role was to drive the story forward, stand against the trials that came crashing down, and grow both himself and his companions. Without him, there was no one to solve the problems that would arrive. The students would never face the issues they carried and grow past them.
And yet time is still moving forward like this.
The world Lua was in now — Felix Academy — was not a game world that froze when no player was present. Time flowed exactly as it did in reality.
Which meant the scheduled events would unfold without fail.
The gate outbreak in the academy's underground that existed in the story. The emergency student assembly. The live combat drills. Midterms and finals. The fact that the class placement test had proceeded according to the scenario was proof enough.
Then… what about everything that happens after the second semester?
"……!"
—Screeech!
The moment her thoughts reached that point, Lua shot up from her seat before she could stop herself.
At the scrape of the chair, the grade-level head broke off mid-sentence, and every teacher's eyes swung toward her.
"Ms. Han Lua? Did you have something to say?"
"Ah… I… um…"
Lua fidgeted, flustered.
"The restroom. Please."
"……."
Taking one look at Lua's deathly pale face, the grade-level head more or less grasped the situation and let her go without a fuss.
—Tap tap tap…
Lua slipped out of the conference room, shut the door behind her, and bolted down the empty hallway toward the nearest restroom. She needed somewhere quiet to sit and sort through her thoughts.
She rushed into the restroom,
—Clack!
opened a stall door, sat down on the toilet, and locked it.
She hadn't come here to actually use it — only to think — so she left her clothes on.
"Damn it…"
Staring again at the roster she still held in her hand, Lua bit her lip.
The game was titled Hunter Hunting Academy, but the protagonist barely got to enjoy academy life for even a full year of in-game time.
Because the second gate disaster hits right after second-semester finals.
Up to that point, hunters had been dispatched to clear every gate that opened across the country. But the moment the protagonist passed his second-semester finals, gate outbreaks multiplied beyond anyone's control.
The artificial island housing the academy was no exception. Uncleared gates overflowed, and monsters poured out into the open. The protagonist and his companions had to save a Felix Academy steeped in catastrophe.
The final objective is to move the protagonist's party, cut down the boss of the monsters occupying the academy, and restore the peace.
But right now, there was no protagonist.
In other words, the academy's defeat was already written.
Overflow. Defeat. Death. A hopeless future unfurled in Lua's mind. The entire artificial island would become a den of monsters, and nearly everyone — herself included — would die.
I don't want that…!
Without a protagonist, there was no one to raise the companions—
"……."
—Wait. Hold on.
A thought struck her, and Lua lifted her head.
Companions… meaning, if I raise the students myself, we could still put up a fight, right?
"That's it…! It's not like we're just supposed to lie down and die!"
Strength surged back into her all at once. If there was no protagonist, then Lua would simply raise the students in his place.
Her social anxiety would make it far from easy, of course — but it still beat dying to monsters.
I'm the only one who can do this.
In this entire world, only Lua knew the future. Only she could stop the disaster.
She had no choice but to try.
"All right!"
The instant Lua pumped herself up with a determined shout—
"What, exactly, is all right?"
"?!?!"
A low voice came from right outside the door. Lua barely swallowed a scream and clutched at her chest. It was a miracle she hadn't fainted on the spot.
"……."
Hoping to pretend no one was there, Lua carefully lifted her feet and covered her mouth. But it was already too late.
"I know you're in there."
"H-Hoshikawa Himari…?"
Lua finally answered. Himari's gaze still triggered her PTSD, but talking through a door made it a little more bearable.
"That is correct."
"Are there no empty stalls…?"
"There are not."
A polite but ice-cold voice. Lua found herself fidgeting with both hands, wondering what she could possibly have done wrong.
"I have something to say to you. That is why I followed you here."
"Does it really have to be in the restroom…?"
"This is a rare chance to speak without anyone else present."
Lua tilted her head. She couldn't begin to guess what Himari wanted to talk about.
We haven't even seen each other since the placement test.
"A-All right. What is it?"
"Teacher. Do you know where you are right now?"
"Pardon?"
It's a restroom.
Why ask something so obvious?
"You know why I came here, do you not?"
"I… really don't…"
"Do not play dumb with me!"
—Bang!
"Eek!"
The stall door rattled hard. For some reason, Himari seemed furious.
"I-I'm sorry. Let me think again…!"
Lua scrambled to apologize, then retraced the path that had brought her to the restroom.
Out of the conference room, down the hallway, spotted the restroom, went through the door on the right—
"—Ah."
Lua realized her mistake.
Without thinking, out of pure habit, she had walked straight into the men's restroom.
—Ding-dong-ding-dong.
At that exact moment, the bell signaling break time rang out across the entire campus. Before long, the footsteps of students leaving class began to approach.
Oh, sh-shit.