Ura High School

"... You sure about that?" said Sofia, looking at the screen. It seemed like they had just wrapped up the battle, though Scourge was still pretty wrapped up in something. Then again, she wasn't exactly versed in this operating thing, and Leslie looked like she was a lot more experienced about the whole deal. "All right, if you say so. Maybe they'll have some time to talk to each other," she rationalized to herself. Still, it'd be prudent at least to hide the PETs from view. The shelves under the old man's picture weren't exactly clandestine, but they'd do for the moment. Getting up, Sofia stretched out for a little bit before leading the way out towards the large gym building, just close by.

With most of the club activities for the day being relegated to the culture clubs housed in the main building, the gym was deserted by the time Sofia opened the creaky side door, which conveniently had a rather fragile lock. As dark as it was, the windows provided enough light for them to see the door to the nearby changing rooms. "Alright, doesn't look like anyone's in, c'mon," she said, heading for the promised land of freshness. Toting her bag along, she headed for her locker and extracted a wrinkly white T-shirt and pair of sweatpants from her bag.

"Laziness wins again! Forgot I had these in here from last week since I wanted to use 'em to change into, but I never ended up using them and just never bothered to take 'em out," she grinned.

Sofia's remark made Leslie double check her screen, but she didn't see anything that'd make her change her mind. "Yeah, they got the rewards and everything. They're not in any danger now. ...Or at least no more than they would be in the middle of a giant lava flow." Scourge didn't seem like an idiot, and she knew Martia could handle herself for a bit, so...yeah. No worries there. She set her PET next to the other girl's, and walked off.

Of course, the walk to the gym was a brief one, since that building was practically on top of the dojo. But now she had to wonder...were they still using that old lock that was super easy to get open for the side door? Or did they wise up and replace it? ...Nope, still there. She made a mental note to not ever bring that up, if she happened to end up as an instructor. Ironically, she'd probably be the one in charge of it...

Anyway, no one was inside, so in they went. Sofia made a pit stop, procuring herself some clean clothes. "Heh, lucky you. I get stuck putting this stuff back on. They're still pretty clean, though, I guess." Actually, on that front, the longer she wore them, the less true that became. To that end, she went ahead and started undressing, removing her headbelt and jacket. "Come to think of it, my locker was right around here. Bet I could totally screw with whoever got it, since they never change the combinations on these things. ...Nah. I'm not that kind of girl!" She was, however, the kind of girl to casually reach down and remove her sports bra, adding it to her growing collection of clothing she was wearing. ...Yep, that felt good. Definitely nice to have more of her body exposed to the air right now. "So, the showers as good as ever? They always beat the crap out of the one I have back home." Even if she didn't have her own private hot spring, she'd still take baths and not showers.

"Er, beat up... how, exactly?" She was confused as to how much wear and tear a shower head could take. Surely they didn't toss it around or anything? "The showers here still work fine, I think. Though there's one in particular that kind of growls for a little bit before it gets working, the juniors always keep coming up with dumb stories about it. Like there's some ghost of a molester or something," laughed Sofia, as she unbuttoned her blouse and lifted it up off of herself, exposing her much less impressive plain white cotton bra atop a decidedly average-looking torso.

The girl paused for a moment to stare down at her chest once again, pinching at her belly slightly as she did so. She was eating healthily enough, so it wasn't that; it was more that the fat much more preferred to settle on less desirable areas. A small hiss of a sigh escaped her lips as she went about unbuttoning her skirt as well.

Allowing it to fall to the ground, she stepped out of the drab Ura High uniform skirt in her long slender legs, with her lower body now only clad in a pair of striped white and blue panties. She bent down to pick up her sweaty things, messily folding them as quickly as she could before stuffing them in her locker. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind, and she snapped her fingers and clicked her tongue. "Damn it, I don't think I brought any towels."

"*sigh* Not literally beat up! We're not total meatheads!" Hey, she graduated from this very school. And with not terrible grades, even. "It's just...really old. Like, maybe 50 years? Might as well not even have it." Mentioning the growling one, however, made Leslie smirk. "Ha, I remember that one. The ghost of Hentai Hideki, right? Whenever you bend over while it's running, it's like someone sticks a finger in one of your holes, even when no one else is around! Oh man, I remember this one time...nah, I shouldn't. It's kinda gross." Grossly hilarious, but still.

Setting her removed clothing on the bench, the martial artist started undoing her hand tape, its repeated use making it as though the tape itself was helping remove itself. And...hmm? Why was she pinching herself? "Something wrong? I hope you're not thinking you're fat or anything, because that'd be a joke." Though, she was self-aware enough to know that such words rang a bit hollow when they came from someone who looked like they didn't even have belly fat.

Leslie proceeded to drop her shorts, revealing nothing but a pair of pink panties, and tossing them into the pile with the rest of her stuff. "...No towels? Don't worry, I know just the thing." Sofia would hear her casually stroll into the next aisle, followed by two brief, but extremely audible instances of metal scratching against metal, followed by a slamming noise. When she returned, she held a pair of large white towels. "Here's some advice. That big locker where the basketball team keeps some of their crap? They don't know it, but part of the right side can come loose with a little force. Sounds like hell, as you probably noticed, but keep it brief, and don't do it with a bunch of people around, and no one should notice if you swipe a towel for yourself. Just make sure you toss it in the laundry basket next to it, so they won't miss it." Speaking of tossing, she threw her suddenly removed underwear on top of the clothing sundae, flung one of the towels over her shoulder, and extended the other one to the other girl. "Shall we hit the showers?...No, I don't mean literally."

"Hey, I know I'm not fat! It's just..." Slight pause, as she followed Leslie into the next aisle absentmindedly. Introspection about boobs aside, she never was one to really care about that sort of thing. Live and let live, her father had always said. And of course now her thoughts were wandering off to him again. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts of old memories, she continued. "No, never mind. Towels, huh... Waah!" she yelped, jumping in fright as she heard the extremely loud gnashing and slamming of Leslie doing... whatever it was she was doing in the next aisle.

Procuring towels, apparently. She was a bit hesitant to take the one offered to her, but eventually she relented, draping the towel over her arm as she reached back to unlatch her bra. "As if they weren't already beating those poor things up... I'm honestly expecting to hear the door just fall clear off tomorrow with all that noise you made," she sighed, tossing her bra onto the pile and starting on her hair ribbons. Leslie was already done, it seemed, and she was still struggling to get the second one off. "Hang on, hang on, lemme just get the last of these cleared out, I've got just a bit more on than you do! Don't beat up those showers yet!" she laughed.

Lastly, her striped panties made their way onto the pile. Stretching her arms out to loosen up, she grinned. "Last one in's got the hots for Hideki!" she said, sprinting past Leslie with a laugh. With her clear false start, she made her way to one of the nearest faucets first, tossing her towel off somewhere less likely to get drenched. "I win!" she declared, though her victory pose would probably be a lot more dignified with more than her sweaty birthday suit on.

The shower came on soon after, resolving at least part of that dilemma. "Cold! Whoa!" she shivered, shaking her wet bangs out of her face as she allowed all of the water to cool down her overheated body.

"Just...what?" Sounded like Sofia was going somewhere with that...but she didn't follow up, so maybe not. Leslie shrugged, and resumed her quest for towels. It was the right side, as she recalled, so...the scraping and screeching of metal confirmed it. Reach in, grab a pair...and slam it shut. There, good as new, and they could dry off.

Once the second towel was accepted, the martial artist finished off removing her clothes, and waited with a hand on her hip. "Eh, it's been that way for years, at least, and it's never happened. Maybe someday, but tomorrow? Doubt it." She watched the other girl take off the rest of her clothes, though she was clearly nonplussed about her comment. "At this rate, I'm gonna have to beat SOMETHING up, just to get you off my case!"

She let out a sigh, but in that sigh, Sofia raced off to the showers, making Leslie just sigh and walk over. "Yeah, having the hots for a boy ghost. That's totally my thing." Wrong on both accounts. ...Really, now that she thought about it, that shower was kind of a special place for her, since, depending on how one defined it, it was where she lost her virginity. ...But she probably shouldn't tell Sofia that, it might give her the wrong idea.

Upon reaching the room of showering, she slung her towel up on an unused nozzle, then went to the other side and turned it on. "...Oh, fuck me that's cold!" She instinctively stepped back, taking a moment to warm up. "I don't remember that one being like that..." She cautiously extended her hand, seeing if the water was any less frigid. Fortunately, it was now only cool, so in she went. "That's better. Ooh, yeah..." She took a few moments to let it flow over her body, feeling wherever it went. "...So, about the karate club. Everyone in it nice? I remember everyone complaining about one asshole, but he was the same class as me, so he should be gone. ...Come to think of it..." The martial artist turned over to the other girl, unconsciously taking a moment to clarify her next statement. "...Karate club's a pretty odd choice for a girl. I mean, I'm into it because it's been my family's whole thing for centuries, but...why'd you end up there?"

"Ahaha, got someone else in mind that you can't spare some love for a ghost? Poor Hideki," laughed Sofia, as she shivered under the freezing waters the shower provided her, though Leslie's yelp did cause her to reconsider how cold the water actually was. What was this, some kind of impromptu ascetic training? Thankfully, the temperature warmed up slightly to a more manageable level.

Then, it was on to the small talk. "Um, huh? Yeah, everyone's really nice in the club, but... why I chose it? I didn't tell you earlier? Though it's kind of a personal reason, I think, but I don't really mind telling you," said Sofia, staring forward at the tiled shower room wall. Starting to trail her fingers through her hair, she pulled her hair aside to keep the water out of her eyes. "My dad used to run a dojo, for kendo, to be exact, back in Netopia. Times were a bit hard but we still made do with what we had. Then I got some call to this bigshot academy or something. We were both a bit skeptical about it but dad told me I had to at least give it a go."

She shifted over to the other side of her hair, continuing her story as she did so. "The school turned out to be great, I made a lot of friends, I scored a lot on the exams, I... uh, had a bit of a heartbreak once, too, so that was an experience. Still, it was good times."

"Only problem was that before I graduated, I got word that my dad got really sick, and before I could get home, he was already... Y'know." She paused for a bit, as if she was holding something in. "So I try to remember him by through martial arts and stuff. Though, I mean, sure, there's the kendo club itself, but going in there is a little too hard for me, so I just picked something close."

Turning towards Leslie, she sheepishly laughed. "Ahaha, sorry, I kinda ran my mouth and made it a little heavy, didn't I? Though, hey, speaking of heartbreaks and Hideki earlier, did you have anyone like that back when you were still here? There's a bunch of cute boys here too!"

"So, no jerks? Good." So she wouldn't have to bust any heads if she ultimately took over the club. Good to know. "Well, if you did, I don't remember it. You don't have to share if you don't want, though. Not trying to pry or anything." But share she did. ...A father with a daughter running a dojo? Why did THAT sound familar? And if she did so well on her exams, why couldn't she have been a year older so they could be classmates? She worked hard to get her slightly above average grades, dammit, a good tutor would've made it way easier!

The last part, however, got a bit heavier, as their origins proved to not be so different from each other in a darker way. "So, your father...ah. That makes sense. Losing a parent when you're still young...no one should ever have to feel that." Leslie thought for a moment, but when Sofia started lightening things up again, she decided to decline elaborating on how she knew that feeling all too well. "Heh, don't worry about it. If a little darkness bothered me, I'd have probably snapped years ago." Sad part is, that was probably true. "Eh? My...er..." Hoo boy. She probably shouldn't tell the naked person she was taking a shower with that she was into other girls, but..."...I've...had a few crushes. And then, there was this one boy. Nicest guy in the world, like I couldn't even believe he was for real at first. He was head over heels for me, but I can't really say I liked him as anything more than a friend. But, I couldn't let him flail around in the friend zone like that, so I dated him for a little bit. One night, we were at my place, with my father out of town as he does sometimes, and...well, things got physical. Afterward...I realized I was basically just stringing him along so I wouldn't have to reject him...so I broke up with him, right then and there. He took it hard at first, but eventually we got to being friends again." She took a moment to pause, realizing something. "Actually, how's he doing? He should be a senior now. Name's Ryuto Saito, he's pretty good at everything, but not really memorably so at anything. Tall, with long black hair. You'd know if you've met him, since you'd walk away going, 'Wow, that guy's totally fake being nice.'. But, nope, he really is. Any of this ringing any bells?" She kinda hoped it was...it might be nice to drop in on Ryuto while she was over here.

Listening to Leslie recite some of her own experiences, Sofia listened intently, then began to rack her memories for the indicated person. "Tall... Long black hair, hmm... I know there's a guy that fits the description, but... Nice? I don't know, every time I see him he's hanging out with the delinquents. It's like... you know those stereotypical ones you always see on TV or something? Yeah, those kinda guys. Not sure what his name is, but I'd guess that's probably him. Maybe there's some other tall black-haired guys that cut their hair, but like... Everyone here's black-haired to some extent, so it's hard to tell. Ahaha, sorry, I'm kind of being a stereotypical Netopian, aren't I?"

With that said, she shook her head slightly, shaking off a bit of the water in her hair. "Whew, this is nice! I've always taken these sneaky showers by myself, but having someone else around is nice too!" she laughed, as she reached for the shower faucet. Unfortunately, she was attempting to do so with her bangs obscuring her eyes, which were already half-closed from the powerful shower spray, so she was essentially blinded.

As such, she started off entirely in the wrong direction, with her reaching hand only stopping when it hit something... that distinctly didn't feel as hard as a shower wall. "Waah!" she instinctively yelped, as she retracted her hand. "S-Sorry! My bad!"

...Delinquents? Ryuto? Leslie couldn't help but snicker. "Yeahhhhh...somehow I doubt that's the guy. I actually saved him from getting beating up by a gang before, so...I really don't think he'd go crawling over to any of them." Still, what if he did? She hadn't heard from him lately...great, now she was just a little bit worried. Luckily, Sofia's stereotyping snapped her out of it. "Everyone's black-haired?! Um, look at me! That brown's all-natural! And I've seen Electopians with hair of every color of the rainbow!" Except orange, come to think of it. Who knew why. "Anyway, thanks, but I'm pretty sure that guy's not Ryuto." He'd better not, anyway, or there would be hell to pay.

She closed her eyes, letting herself focus on the feeling of the cool water on her skin. "You know, I always wondered if the PE teacher knew about these sneaky showers. Well, ex-PE teacher, by the sounds of it. You'd think after a while she'd find out by accident, or something. Well, if by some miracle I actually take over, I'm here to say...that I really don't give a rat's ass. If someone needs or wants an extra shower, then for gods' sake, they oughta be able to shower."

...Okay, there was someone else here, why did she grab her chest without even thinking? ...Wait a sec. Her right arm was raised so she could get her side, and her left hand was on her hip...which meant...oh. OH. Leslie's eyes bolted open, just in time to see Sofia return her hand to herself. "Whoa!" Not so much from the groping, but just seeing someone that close to her all of a sudden made her take a step back. "Oh, you surprised me there, Sofia! That's what I get for letting my guard down, huh?" She'd do it more often if that was what happened. "Don't worry about it. Not the first time it's happened in here..."

"...Anyway..." She should probably change the subject, and preferably to something that wasn't a depressing story about her life. Which was most of them from the last 10 years. "...Oh, I just realized something. Why are you in Electopia, exactly? I mean, if you and your father had a dojo, and something happened to him, shouldn't you be running it?"

"Ahaha, I-I guess it wouldn't be the first time, haha," she blurted out. Come to think of it, why was she the more embarrassed party here, shouldn't it be the other way around? Shaking away the weird thoughts from her head, she focused more on the conversation, which Leslie was more than happy to continue in a less related direction. Still, it concerned her past, so that quieted her down a little, but she still tried to keep her tone chipper. "Ah, well, I mean, I'm obviously not good enough to run that dojo right out of school... I'm not as amazing as the Battle family, after all! Hahaha!"

Once her memories came flooding through, however, it was difficult to keep up the farce, so she resorted to hiding her face from Leslie. "Plus, I don't really have any family there, so it would've been pretty hard to keep living by myself. Aunt Judith's pretty much the only family I have left, and she took in someone like me... I owe her everything. It's been great here, and everyone's been really nice, so I think it's going to be a while before I revisit the old dojo."

Letting her face be obscured by the shower spray for a little while longer, she then reached for the faucet -- the actual one, this time, and turned it off. Reaching for the towel, she began drying her hair off, though the towel was very much oversized, given that it was commandeered from the basketball team. "I think we should be getting back now, don't wanna leave the Navis out for too long," she said, her voice slightly muddled by the towel.

...No family, huh. She still had one living parent, but Leslie could certainly appreciate such a thing. "Oh...uh, wasn't trying to pry, or anything. Honestly, if something happened to my father, I don't think I could really live up to the family legacy just yet, myself." Sure, she was good by normal standards, but compared to her lineage? Not so hot. "Not that I'd have much choice but to try anyway. Inheritance is a bitch."

On that note, she reached over and turned off her flow of water, grabbed her towel, and started drying off her own hair. "So, I guess if you go to this school, you live here in Yoka? It's a pretty great place, if you ask me. Nice and quiet, but if you need some action, you're still only a quick trip from the city. And the zoo and hot springs keep things from being too sleepy. Say, where do you live? Maybe I'll drop by sometime. Er, if you and your aunt don't mind, anyway."

"Huh? ...Oh crap!" Leslie froze for a moment, realizing what she'd done. "I never jacked Martia out! Well, I'm officially a sucky operator..." She picked up the pace on her drying, making her way downward as she progressed. "Damn! Really not on my A-game right now..." It was probably just nerves about her upcoming interview, but still. Small comfort to her Navi.

"Haha, we better hurry!" said Sofia, as she hopped away from the showers, having finished drying off after her head start. She retrieved her (relatively) fresh clothes from her bag, as well as the underwear she had discarded earlier. She leaned against a wall that wasn't covered with cold metal locker and slid the striped garments up. "Oh, by the way, Leslie, thanks for, uh, hanging out today? Was pretty fun, I don't think I've had anyone to kind... y'know, really talk to since I got here. Sorry I sorta offloaded my life story onto you, though, maybe we can do something more fun next time," she laughed, finishing up latching up her bra and quickly tossing on the wrinkly clothes she had scattered onto the changing room floor.

Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she shook her slightly wet hair, now devoid of her usual white ribbons as she balled up the towel Leslie had given her. Leisurely walking over into the next aisle, she stopped as soon as she saw her target: the laundry basket about halfway across the room. Crouching into a ready position, she grinned to herself as she hurled the balled-up towel in a wide arc. With the water weighing it down slightly, it was able to retain its form and netted Sofia a clean two-pointer. "Yessss!" she said, pumping her fist.

"No kidding." It didn't take much longer for Leslie to dry off, and as soon as she'd done so, she raced off to where she'd set her clothes, and one by one put them back on. "Hanging...out? ...Yeah, it was nice. I...well, let's just say I don't get to hang out much, and that there's reasons for that, and I'm leaving it at that." Sofia seemed a little bummed over her own story, no need to compound that with her own tale. "And don't worry, telling me your story didn't ruin the mood. Trust me, I've heard worse." And lived worse, if that was all there was to it.

While the Netopian girl was the first to start redressing, the martial artist was the first to be fully redressed, thanks to her outfit being very conducive to slipping on and off. "Guess I win the dressing contest, huh?" She walked over, and watched the shot. "Hey, not bad! ...Heh. Now it's my turn to show off!" She wadded her own towel into a ball, and turned away from Sofia. Then, putting her martial arts training to more frivolous use, spun around the other girl, who would most likely manage to turn around just in time to see her dunk. "How'd you like my inside game? Guess it makes sense that I'd have a more physical play style, huh?"

Leslie's smile faded, however, as she realized what she was delaying. "Urk! C'mon, we've gotta get our Navis back!"

"Damn, guess I lose this away game," laughed Sofia, as she led the charge away from the gym, with her slung bag fluttering behind her as she ran. Even though it was a rather hot late afternoon, the recent shower allowed it to be a bit more of a cool-off jog than anything else. Making their way out of the darkened gym back to the detached building, Sofia sped inside, relieved to find that the place was untouched from the few minutes that they were gone, and their PETs were still there.

[<< Wrapping Up Practice - Kotobuki Net.]

"Sorry, Scourge! I kinda hopped away to do something else for a bit. Let's go home," she said, initiating the jack-out sequence, and allowing Scourge's holographic model to appear before her, though she looked slightly mad, with her hands on her hips.

"Sure, sure, I'm sure you two snuck away to do something suuuuper important," groaned Scourge, who was now relatively cleared of the inky mess, thanks to the PET's self-maintenance functions. "Still, that bit of virus busting was pretty good, so I'll forgive you. Where's the other girl anyway?"

Luckily, both Leslie and Sofia were pretty quick, and speedily returned to the Karate Club's building. Most importantly, the PETs were untouched, and so the martial artist quickly grabbed it and started the jacking out process. "I'm really sorry, Martia! That was stupid of me to leave you in there!"

"Well, it could've gone bad...but it didn't, so I guess I can forgive you."

"Well, good. Everything okay? No lasting damage?"

"All systems operating at full power!"

"Just making sure. If something had happened to you while I was off, I'd be so pissed at myself..."

"Well don't worry, I'm just fine."

Leslie quietly nodded, then turned over to Sofia. "I should probably head over to the office soon, while the big wigs are still here. But, before we do, we oughta trade contact info. I mean, even if I end up working here, that's no reason we can't be friends." And she could certainly use some more friends her age.

"Oh! Sure, hang on, lemme beam it over to you," said Sofia, working through the menus to find the little "Contact Share" app, transferring her e-mail address over to Leslie's PET, with surprisingly deftness, considering her earlier bouts of incompetence with operating. Looking a bit smug for herself, she said, "Hee hee, I might not be a whiz at being an operator but I can definitely work these social apps."

"Oh, brother," muttered Scourge, rolling her eyes as her hologram disappeared.

The PET was then quickly shoved into her bag, and the girl was getting ready to head out the door, before she remembered something. "Ah, right! I live pretty close by, on Karasuma street. That row of new shophouses near the bus terminal. Just look for "Fuwafuwa Bakery", that's my aunt's shop. Come by anytime you want, Auntie loves all the students that come around. Thanks again, bye!" she said, waving her goodbyes before running out the door energetically. However, as soon as she was out the gate, she stopped in her tracks for a moment, before running off in another direction from her house.

[>> Front Counter - ACDC Town.]

"Hey, Martia?"

"Already set it up!" Almost as soon as Leslie's PET had accepted the data, a second beam shot out from it, over at Sofia's.

"Thanks. You're the best!" The other girl started to leave, but stopped in time to tell the martial artist where she lived before actually doing so. "Fuwafuwa Bakery? Right, I know where that is. I'll check it out sometime!" Hopefully its treats had similar traits to the name. "All right, I won't keep you any longer. Bye, Sofia!" She let out a little wave, before sighing. "Well, guess I'm off to the principal's office."

"Something tells me you didn't end up going there often when you were a student."

"Eh, once or twice. ...This is gonna be so weird..."

"You mean going in not as a student in trouble, but just a woman looking into a job opportunity? Yeah, I can see that. But you've come all the way here, so get a move on! Mush!"

"All right, all right..."

((+28 Mutual FXP for Matia and Scourge))