(27) Moving on

Date: Still 22/Ago/35MT

Today I woke up feeling like shit. I could barely sleep last night, between the random spurts of crying and the nightmares… Yea, this sucks. Technically, those weren’t nightmares… Just the originals Yuumi’s memories. They were… Sad? I don’t know how to describe it, like something out of a 19th century political drama flick. A lot of betrayal, backstabbing, broken dreams, etc…

I replace the soaked pillow case with another, and head to the bathroom, where I strip and decide to look in the mirror before entering the bathtub.

“It’s so similar…” I mutter, reminiscing about last night.

“She deserved to rest… That she did, and she wanted me to continue. Her memories of her time in the heavenly realm show that… So I will keep on living, for you, and myself.” I tell myself in the mirror.

Her memories up there show that she had visions of what I did down here before last night… That’s awkward, but her reactions to me playing with myself were a lot more… neutral that I expected. She was shy about it, just like looking at someone else, and she seemed to wholeheartedly believe that I was within my right to do whatever I wanted to this body… Strange, but I will follow her wishes.

I carefully step into the bathtub, taking a basic shower. The thoughts passing through my head range from what I’m going to do today to what Yuumi did in her early teenage years. I might I was start treating these memories as my own. It’s what she would have wanted.

I step out of the shower and go up to the clothes dispenser, grabbing a pair of sports compression bra and some basic panties. While I put them on, I notice that I’m surprisingly more comfortable having these features than before. Maybe it has to do with me now having a memory of how it was growing up with them, contrary to the whole “New” feeling from before.

After putting on my undies, I walk back to the clothes dispenser and take out my sporty uniform. This is something that Yuumi wished, she was homeschooled and could never take part in any sports, this is also why I felt so attracted to cheerleading earlier, it was something she always wanted to do, after watching an action duel from the same tournament that her brother took part she was fixated with the girls making the crowd cheer for their challenger. I was already planning to accept the offer and while I doubt she would want me making decisions based on her earlier fantasies, it will be a great opportunity for networking either way.

Fully dressed, I grab my duel disk, phone and make my way out of the dorm room.

————

Reaching the field I find that it’s a lot more crowded than in the earlier days. Normally, most students wait until the professor arrives to come out, but today they are all here, waiting for him. Yasuna isn’t here today. She has classes that cycle from week to week.

So I walk up to Haruna and ask.

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

She looks at me and reveals. “Didn’t you hear? This is going to be the first preliminary examination!”

“Meaning?" I ask, confused.

“The professor is going to time our stuff and If we don’t make it to what he thinks we should, we get extra classes…” - She trails off, clearly dreading the prospect.

“Joy.” I sarcastically murmur.

The professor reaches the field, and after a concise explanation, starts the class.

——

‘That was… surprisingly easy.’ I think to myself, but don’t say it. I have seen what happens when you tell Mark that an exercise was easy. It doesn’t end well for you.

I was currently sitting down while my other colleges where still going at it. This was because I was a first year, so my goals were much more sane than theirs. From what the professor told me I performed like a second year, maybe has something to do with me following their regiment from the start instead of the normal one. At the start it was difficult, but after the first nanobot modification and a few days to get used to it, I’m fine.

————

The class has ended. The professor asked me to do some other exercises while the others finished up just so the stimulant would be necessary.

After the Pain Shower, that’s the nickname the others call it, Haruna approached me about the club.

“So, are you coming with us or no?” she plainly asks. The other, what I assume to be, club members are also eagerly awaiting my response.

“Well, yes, I—’ Before I can finish my sentence, I’m picked up by Haruna into a tight embrace.

“ONE OF US! ONE OF US!” The others chant…

After that embarrassing demonstration, I am told to come with them to the cheerleading club building, which is close to the action duel track, to complete some paperwork. I enter the building and see it’s spacious, with an indoor gym and all. I go to the front desk where I find the secretary.

“Hello, my name is Tsukiko. You're the newbie, right?”

“Yes.”

I sign some stuff, and Tsukiko explains how it works. Basically, I have practice two days a week which last two hours. Other than that, I also have to get fitted for a club uniform. The basic cheerleader outfit comprises a short tank top which exposes the tummy, a short plaid mini-skirt paired with stretchy panties, and the same type of sockless sneakers from action duel class, oh and no bra. The entire outfit is made of a “chromicolor” fabric which can change color on the fly and even make some interesting graphics and effects. I’m supposed to have my first practice tomorrow where I’m told they will explain all I need to know before we start with the activities.

After I’m done with my stuff, Haruna and two other cheerleaders called Nanako and Naeko tell me they are going to take me to a restaurant to celebrate and, amusingly, it’s the one I went to with my friends before, funny how that works. This time, however, we get treated much better; the waiter doesn’t bat an eye and we don’t pay upfront.

Curious, I mention my earlier experience to Haruna.

“WHAT?” she inadvertently shots aloud.

“Yup.” I confirm.

“That’s insane.” Naeko adds.

“More than insane, that’s terrible. Pour Yuumi, you deserve better!” Nanako finishes.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know, we would have gone to another restaurant if you told us!” Haruna tells.

“Heh, don’t mention it. I don’t really care.”

“It’s still not acceptable. Mark my words, if someone did that to me I would have told my daddy to sue them out of existence!” Nanako declares.

“Serious question. Why do you people use the word ‘daddy’? Don’t you think it’s cringy?” I ask.

“You people?” Naeko asks. She looks angry.

I quickly explain myself. “By you people, I mean from the blue dorm.”

“Oh… I don’t know, it just happens?” Naeko continues.

“Well, he made it so we exist?” Comments Nanako.

“So did your mother, do you call her mommy?”

“Ew, no, gross, that’s a sex thing.” Nanako continues.

“And daddy isn’t?” I reason.

“No… Most of the time no.” Nanako explains.

“Hey talking about sex, have you taken any names yet, Yuumi?” Haruna asks out of nowhere.

“Err.. No…” I awkwardly say, fidgeting in my seat.

Naeko quickly moves in to tease me about it. “Oh? Whats this? Have someone in mind? Is it a yellow boy? Or are you already aiming at blue? If you want, I can drop a hint in for him.”

“Hmm, interesting offer, but I don’t play for that team.” I gather my courage to say.

Haruna furrows her brow. “See! I told you she was a lesbian!” She exclaims loudly.

“Not here!” I yell.

“Oh, sorry. But come on, you don’t have to hide it. Most of the girls in the blue dorm are Bi or Lesbians, so you’ll fit right in.”

“Yes, Lesbian for the uglies, bi for the stud — Oof,” Naeko tries to say before getting elbowed by Haruna.

“Neko…”

“Yes, Haruna…”

“Don’t say that.”

“Got it...”

Haruna then turns to me.

“So Yuumi, which one of us do you think looks hotter?” She asks, raising her arms in an endearing pose.

“Er….”

“Come on, don’t be shy.” Urges Nanako, standing up and getting into a pose that highlights her generous behind, with her flowing, tail-bone length, dark hair also highlighting that area, all against her beautiful milk chocolate shade skin. Her chest area isn't lacking either.

“I don’t know…” I say in a whisper quiet volume.

“It’s me, right? Come on, these big girls are the best.” Naeko teases, pressing her big breasts together with her luscious brown hair flowing over them slightly and her piercing deep blue eyes looking at me.

“Can… Can you stop? Please, this is uncomfortable.” I implore.

They don't, and instead get closer.

…

…

“Ahahahahahha, come on girls, give her some space.” Thankfully, Haruna stops with the teasing.

My face is red like a tomato.

The rest of the lunch goes much smoother, and after some goodbyes, I return to the dorm room.

————

“This is stupid…” I mutter.

What is stupid, you ask? The real reason for Yuum… MY parents deserting me.

This is something that the spirit started to tell, but I didn’t let it finish. So first of all it wasn’t instant, Yuumi had been dueling behind her parents back for a while after what happened to her brother, most of the time these duels where done in public parks with duel gazers, she was just a kid after all. Her parents weren’t stupid. They knew this and told her to stop. Multiple times they did this, to where Yuumi kind of stopped listening to them and treated them as empty threats.

That was until a fateful afternoon, Yuumi had gotten hold of a real duel disk with solid vision and took it out for duels. The way she did this is convoluted. Had to do with a fake ID and shit like that. When her parents found out… Well, she was out of the house before the end of the day. Because of the ties of the Katayama family had with the council, they edited the central city record and changed her name and family ties.

The central city record is a massive database that every institution inside or external to the city points to for the identification of the city's citizens. It’s what the Virtual Identity also points to. This means that every institution just links to the database instead of keeping their own records for names, age, sex, ID photo, etc… actually they're obligated to do so as it’s illegal to keep that information stored in their systems. The result is that if you can change someone’s record; you are almost changing reality itself. The continued reliance of these systems also results in people being overzealous in believing their output.

That’s how they could pull this off. Of course, from then on, the story degrades.

Yuumi was a spoiled child, being thrown into the streets with barely anything to her name other that what she previously had considered pocket change (2000@) didn’t do anything good for her. She was taken advantage of, not in a rapy way, mind you, but that almost happened. Her big break came when she was accepted to the academy, or at least for the tryouts, she didn’t stop dueling in the public parks where dueling arenas were common place (Like the ones in Duelist kingdom at the start of DM) and scrapped everything she had together to pay for the application to the NWDA tryouts.

The day where she went braindead is still a mystery. I don’t see what could have resulted in it, but I’m not ruling out an assassination attempt by her family. An attempt that succeeded, mind you, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. This puts in question the security of the NWDA, the hotel I frequented before the tryouts, was also their responsibility. I hope that at least the island isn’t so easily compromised.

————

Date: 23/Ago/35MT

It was the next day. After having lunch, I went over to the cheerleading club building to have my first practice.

I found the others girls there already waiting for me.

“Hey newbie. Ready for your first practice?” Asks Nanako.

“I guess so.” I tell.

“Don’t be so shy, we won’t eat you, promises, hehe.”

“Neko, you're scaring her.” Tells Haru. “Yuumi, the locker room is over there. You’ll find your uniform in the locker. Make sure to put it on correctly.”

“Yes, Haruna.”

“Haru, call me Haru, your one of us now.” She tells.

“Sure, Haru.” I say before making my way to the locker room.