"Those Who Conquer Summer, Conquer Exams"
This is a well-known maxim passed down among students preparing for entrance exams. How one studies — no, how one has studied — in a well-planned way for the upcoming exams just six months away is the key factor that determines whether they pass or fail.
And yet, I only managed to make use of half the summer, and wasted autumn in its entirety. Now, it's already late autumn.
There’s no more time to waste. I need to make up for lost time in a hurry...
But I'm not the kind of person who’s that serious.
Hypothetically, if I had the kind of immense focus that someone like Ryou-nee has — the ability to study more than ten hours a day — things might be different. But I don’t have that kind of stamina.
Even with breaks, five to six hours a day is probably my limit.
At this point, I had already decided to lower my sights from my original goal of Chikuryou High School.
And whether it’s good luck or bad luck aside, a ridiculous amount of money had come into our household.
About 10 kilograms of gold bullion — a gift I received as thanks for saving the world in the other world. (Over there, it was treated as pure gold, but realistically, due to their technological limitations, the purity was probably around 99%.)
Originally, I received it as twenty 500-gram bars. I cashed them in at various exchange places (taking 10 kilograms to one place would be suspicious and probably not even accepted. Not that an unidentified 500g gold bar isn’t suspicious enough on its own), and as a result, we got three new cars and a new refrigerator. Even then, we still had a good amount left over. We decided to split the remaining funds: 30% as a shared family fund, 30% to me, and the remaining 40% evenly split among the other four family members.
In short, I personally became ridiculously rich.
So I can easily afford three years' worth of tuition at a private high school. Maybe I should just go to one.
Ah, but private high schools don’t use the standardized prefectural entrance exams. That means I’d have to change my study plans to match the private school's exam. But no, it’s not time to panic yet. I should start by working through past exams from the public schools — that won’t be a waste — and study each subject using reference books. The fundamentals of learning don’t change, after all.
And just like that, it was December before I knew it.
Looking back, last month was full of upheaval.
First, we informed the neighbors that someone named Tachibana Yuri — me — had come to live in the Tachibana household. Officially, we said she wasn’t a secret love child, but rather a war orphan my father had taken in. This doesn’t contradict the backstory that Yuri lost her birth mother in the war and became an orphan before meeting Tachibana Tsukasa.
It’d be weirder to go around telling everyone she was a secret child, anyway. Most ordinary Japanese people wouldn’t pry into someone’s past if they just said, “I’m a war orphan.” And that’s exactly what happened. Many of the neighbors expressed sympathy toward me. It hurts to deceive them.
I even heard stories about how the Tachibana family had a missing eldest son, and how everyone in the house had been gloomy until I (Yuri) arrived. That made it hurt even more.
Next, regarding internal/external ki manipulation. It's probably weakened even more compared to when I was in the other world.
It started back when I was being held in a government facility. Out of sheer boredom, I tried to use magic (like making a light bulb glow) just for fun, but nothing happened. I tried multiple times — still nothing. I forced myself to accept that it must be because I was in a cage that blocked external ki.
But even now, I still can’t use magic.
Then I thought, what about touki (battle aura)? So I went back to that athletic park where I took physical measurements in the summer and ran the same tests again. The results? Maybe slightly worse.
I figured that kind of fluctuation could be due to weather or my physical condition, so I decided to run daily tests whenever the weather was good. I thought doing it for 10 or 20 days would yield some consistent results — but that was probably a mistake.
My current records do surpass the ones from August, but that’s likely because I’ve been training daily. The conditions aren't the same anymore.
Even if you can use touki, that doesn't mean you don’t need to train your body. I learned that in the other world. Touki and muscle probably work together like multiplication — even if your touki weakens, you can make up for it with increased muscle mass.
And now, compared to August, I’ve built up a bit more muscle, and my body has changed.
Yes — my body has changed.
I created a family registry listing me as a 14-year-old about to turn 15, but physically I’m probably a bit younger. From August to November — over four months — I grew about 6 cm, reaching 154 cm in height. I also gained 6 kg.
Hina bluntly said, “Yuu-chan, your body is finally going through puberty.”
Ryou-nee said, “Maybe I should have started you over from middle school.”
Dad said, “You’ve suddenly become a proper girl now.”
Mika-nee, who lives in a dorm and I barely see, hasn’t said anything — but I’m sure if she had seen me, she would’ve said something similar.
My clothes had to be forcibly updated to match my new body shape.
Seriously — girls’ clothes change a lot when they go through puberty. Right now, I’m probably right in the middle of that transition. Back in August, I was still in the early phase, so people went easy on me. But in November, the clothes I was made to buy were completely chosen by the overly enthusiastic third daughter, who went full-on with her fashion sense.
I only managed to tolerate it because I had already built up some resistance over the summer, had time to adjust during September and October, and because — even if it was her full-on fashion sense — I understood that she meant well and just picked what genuinely suited me. But if I had just returned from the other world, I would’ve outright rejected it.
Even Hina’s excessive doting finally began to settle down in December.
The turning point was when I muttered:
“Did you want Ryou-nee or Mika-nee to cuddle and snuggle with you every day too, Hina-nee?”
That hit her like a ton of bricks. Her face turned pale in shock, and then she immediately apologized. Apparently, she had intended not to do the same things to me that she had disliked when done to her by Ryou-nee and the others — but she ended up doing them anyway. So she was apologizing for that.
Honestly, it wasn’t that I disliked it — it was just annoying. But if she was going to stop, I had no complaints. Out of curiosity, I asked her what kind of things she hated, and they were surprisingly different from what I’d expected.
"Eh? You’re okay with hand-me-downs?"
"Not underwear, but tops? I actually prefer them."
Girls' clothes are more expensive than boys’ — sometimes even double the price. And for some reason, they buy tons of them. Since I’m not into fashion, it all just feels like a waste to me. If I said, “Clothes are expensive, so hand-me-downs are fine,” I might get scolded for lacking “proper girl education.” So I just keep quiet about that part.
“And besides, you’ve got great fashion sense, and your clothes are super cool, Hina-nee!”
This is all about how you say it. Instead of saying “I don’t like expensive clothes,” I framed it as “I want to be like Hina-nee, so I prefer hand-me-downs.”
Over this past month, I’ve come to understand how Hina thinks. As the youngest child up until now, she probably wanted someone to rely on her, to copy her, to look up to her.
“Ehh~? I don’t have good fashion sense, and I’m not cool either. You’re just misunderstanding, Yuu-chan.”
That’s what she said, but she pressed her hands to her cheeks and wriggled with joy. The strategy worked perfectly. Just one more push.
“But I can’t be like Hina-nee on my own.”
“I want to wear the same clothes as Hina-nee!”
“Please, pretty please!”
Hina folded easily.
“Geez... fine. If you’re going to say that much, then your onee-chan will give you her hand-me-downs.”
She’s so easy. The way she gave in so quickly makes me worried she might fall for a scam one day. As you may have noticed from this exchange, I—who will be starting high school as a girl next April—am currently undergoing training to fix my behavior and speech patterns. If I don’t, I’ll be forced to repeat things until I get it right. Even if I resist, thinking about school life starting in April, it’s better to just get used to it now. So, although I still use “ore” internally, when speaking, I use “watashi.”
As a bonus, when Hina talks to me, she uses “onee-chan” as her first-person pronoun. Was she really that tired of being the youngest?
But Hina seems to be bothered by something different than I am. She suddenly asked, with a serious face:
“Hey, Yuu-chan. Doesn’t it bother you? I used to be the little sister, and now…”
What is it that’s supposed to bother me? Cross-dressing? …I’ve gotten used to it over the past four months.
Makeup is annoying and I hate it, but I have no choice if I want to blend in. I’ll just have to get used to it.
As for my speech patterns, I’m just mimicking Mika-nee’s way of speaking, and since no one’s pointed anything out, I guess it’s fine.
Other things I hate…?
“You know, even though you're really older than me, you’re being treated like you're younger. Doesn’t that bug you?”
“Not really. Maybe you don’t know since you only went to middle school, but once you're out in the real world, being a couple years older doesn’t really mean anything.”
Well, I dropped out of high school in this world, so I have zero real-world experience. But I did live independently in another world, so that counts as experience, right?
“Besides, right now I’m learning a lot from you, Hina-nee—so I don’t mind at all.”
What I didn’t say was that, in my mind, I see this whole situation as a kind of pretend play, and I’m just playing the role of Hina’s little sister. Telling the whole truth isn’t always the right move.
In return, I asked something I’d been meaning to bring up.
“Hey Hina-nee, can I ask something? Are you uncomfortable with me using the girls’ bathroom or changing room?”
If our positions were reversed, I think I’d hate it.
“Hmm... It doesn’t really bother me. Because Yuu-chan’s already a girl. And even when we took a bath together, you didn’t do anything weird.”
“This might be a little crude, but... I don’t get excited seeing a naked woman. But I also don’t feel anything when I see male idols on TV either.”
I’m probably at the point where I can’t see women as sexual beings anymore, and I can’t view men that way either—at least not mentally.
I’m basically destined to stay single forever. (eyes glaze over)
“Then why not just use the girls’ bathroom whenever you want?”
“Well, it’s more about how others would react.”
“From other people’s perspective, you totally look like a girl. The only ones who know you used to be a guy are us—your family. And no one’s going to believe ‘a magic spell transformed me’ anyway. If someone blabbed, they’d just come off as crazy.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
She’s got a point. There’s no magic in this world. No one would believe that I used to be a guy over 180cm tall just by looking at me now.
“Oh yeah. Yuu-chan, have you decided on a high school yet? You said you wanted to go to Chikuryou before, right?”
“Actually... I haven’t been able to study as much as I thought, so I’m thinking of changing plans.”
“Oh really? So where are you aiming for now? With your grades, maybe Kasumizaka or Narukawa?”
Kasumizaka High and Narukawa High are both private schools. Both are co-ed. Kasumizaka is relatively close to home, while Narukawa doesn’t have a mandatory uniform policy. I took the entrance exam for Kasumizaka as a backup three years ago.
Thanks to safely converting the suspicious gold ingots I brought back from the other world, I don’t need to worry about tuition anymore. That’s a huge relief.
But still…
“Those two are probably backup options. I guess I’m still too frugal at heart—I’d prefer a public school as my first choice.”
“Then hey, why don’t we make Matsubara Girls’ High our first choice together?”
“Eh? A girls’ school might be a bit much...”
“You just said it yourself—no one cares that you used to be a guy. And it’s the closest school to home! If you’re going to be commuting for three years, being nearby is definitely a plus!”
She’s right. It’s close enough to walk, and if I think about doing chores, I could even stop by the shopping district near the station on my way home. Super efficient…
“C’mon, c’mon! Let’s go together! Actually, none of my friends are going to Matsubara Girls’, so I’m kind of in a bind. Help your onee-chan out, please?”
Ah, there’s the real reason. Still... a girls’ school, huh…
At the time, I kept coming up with excuses to say no. Hina kept trying to sell it with lines like, “They finally installed air conditioning in the classrooms this year!” or “Even when the weather’s bad, the commute’s not that bad!”
And then, about three months later—
Hina and I happily took the entrance exam for Matsubara Girls’ High together… and passed with flying colors.
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