Chapter 5: Chapter 4

I spent most of the day getting used to my body after lunch. One thing I liked was that I could keep going on even after I've finished without having to stop and rest, unlike in my original body. 

Still it had been a couple of hours and I had to take a shower. My dress was soiled and so I placed it to one side and took a quick shower. I was a little peckish after all that exercise so I though of going back to Kou's for a tea time snack. I picked out one of the dresses I bought and had not yet opened, got dressed and went out.

By now I was familiar with the route, and I skipped my way to Kou's. I don't know why I felt like doing so, but I felt  very light and it felt faster that way. There were a few more people today as compared to yesterday, and they all looked at me in mild amusement as I skipped away to the store, I very much aware at how I must've looked but I didn't care.

When I got there, the cafe was filled with several groups of customers. Kou looked rather busy though but we still chatted briefly so I just asked for my usual and went to sit in a corner. Today there seemed to be several civilian enforcers around, and I was wondering why they seemed to be gathered here.

Kou's shop had two entrances one facing the smaller streets, and one facing the coastal road with a nice view of the sea. I usually enter using the street entrance, but today a bus pulled up beside the coastal road and out jumps a group of kids just like me, about twenty of them. In the past, I would have admired how cute and innocent the children were, but the me who currently was an Exile this was my first time seeing someone of my age group.

Unlike normal children who would usually be uncontrollably running around, the children were rather well behaved and quiet. Rather, they were nervously eyeing the various guards as they walked towards the store, walking as if they were on a minefield.

They were led by a strict looking woman and a smartly dressed but fierce looking man. They were Exiles judging by their bracelets, and seemed to be one of the older groups as even Kou seemed to behave deferentially to them as he bowed on their way in.

"I expect everything is in order?"

"Yes of course headmistress, the second floor is ready and everything has been arranged." Kou said, uncharacteristically using standard Japanese rather than his usual Kansai accent.

"You're slipping Kou, I can hear a slight accent."

"...apologies headmistress." He said as he bowed.

Sniffing in displeasure, she motioned for the kids to head up a set of stairs behind a door. Turning around, she sees me in the corner and raises an eyebrow. Walking towards me she takes the seat opposite me.

"Good afternoon, and what do we have here. How long have you been awake child?"

"...I woke up yesterday ma'am."

"Interesting. I suggest you read up on proper manners before coming over to my facility, lest you have a hard time."

The gentleman eyed me but stuck to the other kids. I could see the kids glancing at me nervously before disappearing up the stairs.

"My name is Ms Keiko, I am the headmistress of campus one. I will be your headmistress shortly for several months."

"Good afternoon headmistress. My name is Hotaru. It is a pleasure to meet you."

I was not stranger to polite speak, after all my social class was the lowest of the low even before I became an Exile. I had worked in retail and customer services before so this was no problem. However she took out a long thin stick from somewhere, and hit me on my shoulder. It wasn't that hard but it still stung.

"Keep your shoulders relaxed, and straighten your back, hands on your lap and not the table. I will tolerate no sloppiness, is that clear?"

"Yes ma'am."

With that she stood up, and waited. I quickly stood up straight and gave a short bow and exchanged pleasantries. She must have considered that barely acceptable, but she sniffed and turned away, walking towards the stairs and disappearing behind the door. The clap of her heels could be softly heard as she went up.

The cafe collectively breathed a sigh of relief as they began murmuring softly again. A few praised me for me handling that well, if slightly clumsily. As for me, I simply slunk back in my chair, I dated not slouch in case she decided to pop back out.

"Well ya did quite well considering it's yer first time an' all." Kou said, he was carrying my order, but instead of coffee he had an apple flavoured milkshake. Ms Rikka must have drilled it into him after I left not to give me coffee, to my disappointment.

"Who was she?"

"Ah, she's the headmistress o' campus one. Campus one's where all new peeps go to fer acclimation. She's real strict, bu' she won't go after ya if ya behave. But if ya don't, well she's a scary one eh? They come here often fer classes on fine dinin' and all. Usually only the best kids though."

"Isn't she around your age?"

"She's from the first batch, oldest group 'round here. A year 'head of me." Kou said. "Up till the fifth batch, we ain't had a campus one, but she were previously a steward fer the royal family so she became the one in charge o' discipline. The guy's her assistant but he doesn't really do much."

He shivered slightly as if recalling a bad memory.

"We all had ta take a course on etiquette an all 'bout ten years back, and it were real nasty. Only Dr Komachi gets along well with her bu' even then she tries ta steer clear."

"Etiquette?"

"Yeah, basically ta speak properly, behave accordin'ly an' so on. 'The Ladies behave like proper Ladies, and the Men behave like proper Men.' is her motto an' she takes it ta the extreme."

"Are the disciplinary punishments really that scary?"

"Well we ain't considered people 'round here. No one outside cares if something were ta happen ta us. She's actually doin' us a favour really."

"A favour?"

"Yea, by makin' us behave properly and givin' rough punishments, the enforcers will have no reason ta punish us. 'Cause she's so strict, most o' the enforcers don't do anythin' anymore unless they have ta. Once ya leave campus one though, other Exiles'll be in charge o' ya while the enforcers just guard the premises, they won't get involved in disciplinary action unless they have ta."

"Don't stop some o' them taking matters into their own hands though. Even the headmistress can't do nothin' 'bout that." He said as he finished setting the table beside me.

"As I said before," Kou said as he leant down to whisper, "the guards 'round here are 'right, but the ones above are bad news."

With that ominous warning, he went off to tend to the shop. I sat there, as prim and proper as I could, sipping away at me milkshake and eating my melon bun. The civilian guards simply stood by not moving an inch as they observed their surroundings.

There was some ruckus upstairs every now and then, some shouting, but most of the people in the cafe ignored it. Some left though, as if they couldn't stand to be there.

Kou's shop was usually very cozy so I could understand why he had a business despite that going on upstairs, but it would explain why his business was rather small. All in all, it was just his affable personality and his talent as a baker and a barista that managed to keep him afloat.

I didn't have much appetite when I reached back to my room later that evening, so I ordered a bowl of ramen to my room again for the third time. This time I asked the waiter if there were any laundry services. He said that there are laundromats in this building for the residents, and directed me to it.

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Eating my food slowly, I searched up on female etiquette as I ate, vowing to prepare myself as much as possible before I go to campus one. Still, my body was that of a child and I soon felt sleepy, so I went to take a shower and went to bed. I wasn't in the mood to continue my study of my body anymore, but I slept rather lightly that night.

The morning was warm, but there was still a cold autumn breeze in town. I sent my clothes for a wash and again headed for Kou's for breakfast and had my usual. This time he brought out some coffee, telling me I was limited to only one cup for the morning. A compromise after Ms Rikka caused such a commotion the day before, even Dr Komachi and apparently the Council yielded.

Apparently it was an ongoing experiment to see how coffee affected children below twelve. There were several studies in the past, but this time as it was a study on Exiles, somehow it got approved by the Ethics Committee for a full blown long term test. It really put into perspective just how the outside world sees us and treats us.

After a few years though incident numbers convinced the Council to limit the amount of coffee administered a day and only to select few Exile children without a history of having a seizure or an epileptic fit. Obviously Ms Rikka was kept out of the loop on this until yesterday, where she further limited that amount to only one cup of decaffeinated coffee and only in the mornings.

I was relaxing as per usual, when another beep came from the bracelet. Apparently my administrative details have finished processing and I was going to be transferred to Campus One later after lunch. I was wholly unprepared and begged Kou to give me more advice.

"Honestly kiddo, I ain't got nothin'. I never had to go to Campus One so I'm not really sure, bu' it should be better compared to my time. As long as ya don't do anythin' silly or behave badly ya should be fine."

"But what is behaving silly?"

"Frankly? Anythin'll get ya into trouble. I suggest doin' exactly as yer told, but even then somethin'll probably come up. Wish I could help ya kiddo."

As it turns out, no one has come out of Campus One unscathed as the other customers chipped in, telling me of their own horrifying experiences. And they were horrifying, borderline torture and abuse. I was not looking forward to this. Especially because as one of the newer kids, we won't spend nearly as long in Campus One before the academic term starts and we are transferred to our respective Schools. As such, I would very likely be targeted by the older students, as well as the enforcers. The headmistress too will be far stricter on me compared to the rest, and all in all I prayed I would be able to make it to April.

Never have I been more tempted to run away than I was today, Kou assuring me that I'll be fine, though he didn't sound convincing when his eyes got rather shifty. But I was told that I will be able to return to Harbour town once a month and that we would see each other again which made me somewhat happy. 

"By the way Hotaru," Kou said as I was leaving. "Dr Komachi wanted me ta tell ya something. 'Do your best' she said."

"What does that mean do you know?"

"Well...there talk o' the new experimental facility thats makin' the rounds lately. No one knows the criteria to enter, bu' from what I hear they have one o' the best amenities o' the entire Upper Town. In exchange though, I hear the trainin' plan is different from the norm and is very rigorous and strict. No one knows what its purpose is though, but that's just rumours."

With that came my last time setting foot here for a while. Kou gave me a melon bun free for luck, and I slowly savoured the sweet taste of the bread as I walked back to the hospital.

After I collected my laundry, I went up to my room and found that several boxes had already been prepared for me to pack. 

I didn't have much anyway so it was quick work. I decided to soak in the bath one last time, as I physically relieved myself of some stress that I had accumulated. I managed to go for about three rounds when I was alerted to prepare to leave in half an hour. Being a girl meant that it took some time to get ready, so reluctantly I left the tub and dried myself thoroughly down and got dressed.

After five minutes, there was a knock on my door and two Enforcers walked in. Firstly, my hands and legs were cuffed, and some sort of teeth liner was placed in my mouth, apparently so I don't try to bite my tongue off or bite the guards. Then a carriage thing was wheeled in, sort of like those things you see in the movies used to wheel crazy people around. Once I got in, I was wheeled down into a van, and placed in a lying position.

The guards sat beside me and the van started moving, I could see the blue sky as we drove, sometimes the sun would shine directly in my eye and I had to close them, but even then it was uncomfortable as some sunlight still made its way past my eyelids. Mostly though it was rather nice if you forget that I was cuffed, gagged and lying down on hard metal.

Eventually the van stopped after about a forty minutes of driving. I was roughly pulled out of the van as my box of stuff was all but thrown out. There was another group of guards standing by for the handover process, as my restraints were removed and I was pushed towards them.

They made me pick up my box, and I was marched towards the campus. They were walking quite fast and as my legs were shorter, I was practically running beside them. They would roughly pull on my shoulder if I lagged behind, so I tried my best but the difference in size was very much not in my favour.

Campus One was made of four buildings each about a hundred meters long, perpendicular to one another forming a square. The main front facing building had a wide and tall tunnel running through to the centre, forming a sort of huge archway as an entrance to the parade square.

There were six floors with stairs at each corner. The first floor were all class rooms while the rest were for students. The centre of the building were the showers which partitioned us off from the other side which were the showers for the boy's dormitories.

The stairs were shared with the girls dorm of the other building. The dormitory was basically a long corridor with rooms about six meters wide and about twelve meters long that housed twenty people on either side of the corridor, stretching for about forty meters. My room was the closest to the showers and furthest from the stairs at the top most floor.

Once I reached my room, the enforcers left me and I faced six other girls.

"Well well look at what we have here. Fresh meat." Said one of the girls who was apparently the leader. She sneered as she took my box and flung it across the room.

"That's your bed there, furthest from the door. Welcome home bitch."

The other girls laughed raucously as they watched the situation unfold. I resisted the urge to punch her in the face, but I guess she noticed my look of absolute disgust.

"Oh look, you're a tough one huh?" She said as she grabbed me by the cheeks and shook her hand, the other girls surrounded me waiting for me to start a fight so I didn't do anything, "My name's Mei, and as long as you're in this room, you're my bitch. Clear?" 

She didn't wait for an answer though as she walked off and joined the other girls as they sneered in my direction. There was one more girl there, who like me wasn't part of the group. She was just meekly sitting by herself and reading something on her pad. She glanced up at me briefly, before averting her eyes. Evidently I wasn't welcome here as well.

I sighed as I sat on the bunk bed opposite hers. There were two small metal closets beside each bunk bed, and I unpacked my stuff into one of the lockers. Inside it was a roll of toilet paper, and a pad. The pad was already linked to me and my fingerprint so I could begin using it.

The intranet here wasn't as good as the internet outside, but it was better than the limited capabilities of my bracelet. Most of the things I could access were basically informative websites and articles.

There was no access to things like Ytube or Tweety or even FaceCheck, but there were a few clone copy sites that basically worked the same way but only limited to the inhabitants of the island. It was also heavily monitored so most people would just use it to browse videos of the outside world or messages.

I tried to find the social media accounts of my family and friends, my parents never did stuff like this but my sister used to post regularly. The last post in her account was before I became an Exile.

Kouya and Haruto though were doing fine at school. They looked like they had fun together at the beach during the summer holidays.

I found a picture of them with my sister at the beach, they were posing with her around a human shaped figure drawn in the sand, though she looked a little meek and only smiled slightly, nothing like the sister I knew. It wasn't captioned with anything, and it seemed like an innocent picture to anyone who saw it.

I thought that if I ever was given the opportunity to meet up with them, I would thank them for not forgetting about me, and for being such good friends to me and my sister.

My thoughts though were rudely disrupted by a slipper aimed straight at my face.

"Hey doofus, dinner's ready go get them for us. Bookworm, you can take her there." Mei shouted and pointed at the shy girl across me. The girl had already put on her shoes and was ready to go, but was surprised when Mei had called out to her.

The girl simply nodded and walked out of the room as I trailed behind her. I followed her down to kitchens at the main building. The line was very long, but it moved rather quickly. When we arrived at the front of the line, the shy girl gave our room number, and a bag of food was dumped into our hands and we were shooed off to make way for the rest behind us. She carried the food and I carried the drinks, together we walked silently back. 

"Hey," I started, just to break the ice, "my name's Hotaru, nice to meet you."

The girl kept quiet, but she nodded slightly and just muttered and soft introduction. It was here that I made my first friend my age, or at least an acquaintance who wasn't hostile, by the name of Michiru.