So there I was, more or less dressed in the suit I was born in, and looking just a little disheveled. Sure, my whole body was smeared in blood. Sure, I stunk up to high heaven. I’ll even admit that their might have been the best part of a goblin’s innards smeared across my torso and legs, and I was carrying a bloody, gory twisted piece of metal as a club – but I still don’t think something like that gives her the right to do what she did!

The young lady on the other side of the door was rather gorgeous, by my first impression. Long wavy blonde hair which curled and ended midway between her buttocks and knee. Even the frazzles that were sticking to the sides seemed cute to me, who hadn’t seen a single other living human ever since this mess had came down upon us. Her chest was full, round, and looked like it’d be about the proper size to hold in one’s hands, and she had a tiny waste and cute little narrow legs and feet accentuated her hips nicely. A lot of her face was covered by her hair so I couldn’t see it the best, but I could tell that she was wearing glasses of some sort.

All in all, she looked like an angel to me.

And then she let out a scream, charged me with the mop she was holding like a lance, and landed a direct attack against my only friend and ally, Little Bud!

I was on my knees, on the ground crying and gagging, before I even had a chance to say, “Hi! How are you?”, or anything! Pain rippled up my groin, into my brain, and deep into my soul. I’m certain even Cloudme was cringing from the blow she’d landed on me – and she didn’t let up even then! Countless blows rained down across my head, shoulders, and back while I was doubled over in agony.

Why?! Little Bud had never hurt anyone! He wasn’t trying to sword fight with her, he didn’t throw any insults or threaten anyone. He just kind of liked to hang around and do his own thing most of the time. Little Bud isn’t bad, and there. Was. Absolutely. No. Reason. To. Attack. HIM!!

Anger welling up inside me, I let out a roar of pain and frustration and grabbed the end of the mop as she was swing it at me. With a hard yank, I pulled it out of her hands and then I swung it and knocked her down and across the floor away from me.

Her glasses flew off somewhere to the side, and she was trembling with one arm up in front of her face and between us. “Plee.. please don’t kill me!” Her voice was low and shaking, and I was slowly trying to get myself straightened back out.

I roared back at her, “Just why the hell not?”

Her face paled even whiter and she tried to scoot back further away from me, but she was stopped when she bumped backwards into one of the coffee tables in the room. Tears were leaking down her cheeks, and I was getting myself back under control more and more by the moment. Thank goodness for CON! Its healing power can’t be overlooked. “Stats,” I muttered to myself, and was rather surprised to see that her whole series of attacks had only did a total of 14 points of damage to me. The rats hit and did a lot more damage each time, than she had.

“Please… Please. I don’t want to die.” She was shaking like an autumn leaf in a windstorm. “I’ll do anything, if you just don’t kill me. Don’t hurt me.”

“Anything?” I growled back at her, a little harsher than I intended. I might be recovering from her attack, but my throat was still burning from the fumes I’d inhaled a while ago when I’d went in and opened up the windows in the rat’s room, and to be honest it was still a little squeaky and shaken from where Little Bud had almost faced a life decapitating injury.

Pale and shaking, she trembled back, “I promise! Please!!”

Seeing her shake, and looking at the color of her complexion, I could tell that she was scared out of her wits. Honestly, I don’t think I could blame her, I’d probably be in the same shape as her if I was in her shoes. But, it still didn’t change the fact that I was still blazing hot under the collar for what she did to Little Bud!

“Strip!” A single word, that left no doubt of what I expected from her.

“Wha… What?” Her eyes were wide and her hands trembled as tears rolled down her face.

“You heard me. Or do you mean to tell me you didn’t mean what you said just a moment ago.” OK, honestly, I was starting to be ashamed of myself somewhat now. Sure, I was mad at her, but all I wanted to do was really scare her a bit. But how do you back down after making a demand like that?

“No… No, I’ll do it.” Her voice was so faint I barely could hear it, but I could see her hands move to the buttons of her shift as she began to undo the top one. I stared for a moment as she fumbled with clumsy fingers with the button, and then I got embarrassed and dropped the mop and turned to check outside the door.

I had to make certain that nothing had heard the commotion. Right? Yeah, that’s what I was doing! In fact, I made certain to look up and down the hall several times – just to be safe of course. It’s not like I was feeling ashamed of myself, or that I was embarrassed at what was going on behind me. I just had to make certain nothing was coming to attack us…

After several moments, and looking up and down the hallway several times, I finally shut the door and turned my attention back to the young lady. At this point, she now had on even less clothes than I did (I was still wearing the janitor’s belt, if you remember!), and she was sitting on the ground with her head hung and her arms in front of her covering as much of herself as possible.

It was quite embarrassing to see her like that, and to know that it was my fault, but if I’m honest I’d have to admit that I let my eyes soak in the image for several moments. After all, her head was down and she wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. How would she know if I was staring at her or not? Though for some strange reason, she did seem to tremble a little more violently as my eyes wandered over her shamelessly.

After a few moments, maybe a few loooooong moments, I finally turned my head and started snooping around the room itself. This place was in perfect condition. No corpses. No smell of rot or decay in here. There were several coffee tables, three luxurious leather chairs, and two white leather couches in the room center of the room. A television was mounted on the wall and showed a blank blue screen with numbers moving across the bottom corner of it. I assume it was probably in “seek mode” and was looking for a channel signal and was failing to find any. There was a small sink and counter in the back of the room, with a coffee maker sitting on it and a vending machine just a ways off to the side with a broken glass front. Candy wrappers and potato chip bags were crumped and overflowing the trash can off to the side. A door was shut in the far corner of the room. Letting the sense of peacefulness that the room itself exuded, I slowly worked my way back to the other door and opened it.

Nirvana!

My immediate prayers had been answered! Like I was thinking earlier, the teacher’s lounge had a fully functional bathroom in it – and that included a full size shower/tub! The naked girl might look like an angel to me, but this looked like Heaven!

I didn’t hesitate even a moment before I checked the water. Seeing it run, I was in the shower and under the faucet before I’d even taken time to take off my belt.

“Hey you! Get in here!” I shouted into the other room and was pleasantly pleased with the sudden sound of movement I heard.

“Ye.. yes?” The young lady’s voice was quiet and weak, but she came on into the bathroom like I’d told her to.

“Get in here and help me out. Wash my back!”

“……” There was a moment of confused silence on her part, and then she stepped on into the tub behind me.

“Don’t be afraid to scrub either. I’d almost rather have the skin washed off than to have to be like this any longer.

“O.. OK.

“And you don’t have to stutter every time you try and say something!”

“O… OK.”

I couldn’t help but sigh. “You got a name, girl?”

“Ye.. yes.”

“Want to tell it to me?” This was getting annoying in some ways, trying to talk to her. But I do have to admit, the washcloth she was scrubbing up and down my back felt divine.

“Isa.. Isabella.”

“Isabella what?

“Isabella Starchilde. My father is the CEO of Starchilde Enterprises. If you don’t hurt me, I’m certain he can give you whatever you want once we get out of here.” Her voice was still low and quiet – I had the feeling it might be her natural voice.

“Isabella, I’m Drake.” For the first time since this started, I got to tell someone my actual name. I wasn’t “Unchosen” or “Bloody Hell”. I was back to be plain old Drake again for the moment. I’ve seen that “Bloody Hell” staring back at my so often over the last few days that it’s nice to actually reaffirm my own name again.

“What level are you?” I had to know.

“Level?” She sounded confused. “I was ranked fourth in the class overall, the last time we had the standardized tests.”

“Wait a moment!” I was so surprised that I had to stop scrubbing to make certain I’d heard her correctly. “Don’t tell me you’re still Level 1. Or 0?”

“Umm…” The washcloth quit scrubbing my back and I could feel her hands tremble against me.

Turning around, I grabbed ahold of her wrists and demanded, “Say STATS. Right now!”

Big eyed, she stared up at me and whispered, “Stats.” Really, I had to admit, she truly was a gorgeous woman. The water was running down her and dripping off all the right places.

“What.. What’s this?” She was staring off to a space just a few inches off of the side of my face, so I knew she was seeing the same status window I saw when I said “stats”.

Embarrassed and not knowing exactly where I should be looking, I let go of her hands and turned back around again. “Tell me what the numbers say. You don’t need to give me the words, just the numbers from left to right, top to bottom.

“Umm.. OK. 4, 12, 12. 8, 14, 6. 7, 6, 8. Should I keep going?”

“Give me a moment.” Only a 4 strength. No wonder her attacks didn’t hurt much. Her knowledge and will seemed fairly high to me. (at least I was assuming that’s what KNO and WIL stood for; I still hadn’t confirmed it.) And a 14 Mysticism; that was leaps and bounds higher than mine – and she was only level 0! Who knows, maybe she’d be able to read that book I’d found earlier. That is, if I could trust her to read it. “What’s your HP and MP,” I asked.

“17 HP and 34 MP,” was her quiet reply.

Her life wasn’t anything to brag home about, I had about 7 times more life than she did, but her mana was already about half of mine and I was eight levels higher than her! I hope that book has something useful in it because it doesn’t seem like she’s going to be doing much fighting otherwise, and everyone needs a way to protect themselves in this new reality.

The rest of the shower passed in silence as we were both lost in our own thoughts while I was trying to get myself scrubbed clean. Even after I got out, the lingering smell of perfume wafted to my nose – and I still had over two more days of damaged smelling to deal with!

Looking around for a towel, I didn’t see any in the bathroom so I asked, “Anything to dry off with in here.”

“Umm… I’m sorry. I don’t think so. I think the teachers must’ve had to bring their own if they ever wanted to use the showers here. Kind of like how it was with us when we wanted to use the ones in the locker rooms.”

“I guess that kind of makes sense,” I grunted.

“Oh! Hold on a moment.” Isabella brushed past me and quickly moved back into the other room. I have to admit, she had a fine and lovely backside which I watched the whole way out. Her hair covered it and clung to it just enough while it was wet to really help focus the eyes to its perfect shape.

A moment later she bounced back in (and I mean her top half bounced slightly as she rushed back in) and held a flowery cloth out to me. I didn’t ask what it was, but I used it to dry my hair and then I handed it back to her and watched her do the same. The blush on her cheeks was quite warm and rosy as she squirmed under my gaze, but she didn’t try to turn away or demand for me not to look. Once she was finished she draped the cloth across the bathroom sink and turned and went back into the other room.

I guess she must really think I’m some sort of creeper guy. Sighing, there wasn’t anything I could do about it now. It’s too late for first impressions, and I can’t change the past. Slowly I followed her into the other room and by the time I was coming out of the room, she was already bouncing back towards me with another flowery bundle of cloth in her hands.

“Here. I thought you might want to wear this.” Expectantly, she held the cloth out to me and I took it and unfolded it to see what she’d brought me.

A dress….

Obviously, she absolutely thought I was a creeper boy.

“Umm.. Is there anything in here for a guy to wear? Shorts? Sweat pants?” I had to ask.

“I’m sorry.” Was she smirking at me? “This is the lounge for female teachers only. I guess a few of them must’ve had a change of clothes or two stored in here, but nothing like that from what I found looking around earlier.” I swear, I think she was smirking at me.

Shaking my head, I pulled it up over my head and slid it on. This must’ve belonged to a really large woman because the thing had an opening in the front that exposed my chest almost all the way to the bellybutton! Still though, it was better than being naked. I’ll just pretend it’s a poncho like I made earlier that burned up.

“And what about you, “ I asked. “Aren’t you going to get dressed?”

“Can I?!” She sounded almost shocked.

“You better. We’ve got a lot of things to discuss about what’s been going on, and neither of us need the distraction right now.” But later. Later is a different story I thought to myself.

Half bouncing, she moved over to the kitchen area and pulled open a thin door that I’d overlooked earlier. It wasn’t anything more than a small closet with a few dustpans and brooms in it, and a single rack which housed several different dresses on a hanger. Without taking time to look at them, Isabella pulled the first dress off its hanger and over her shoulders. It was a pale yellow summer dress that clung suggestively to her still damp body.

I needed to fill her in on a whole lot of things, but I had a feeling I was going to be distracted no matter what.