Tanukichi Okuma | Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist

*NOTE: This chapter is an introduction all on its own, so Tanukichi finds the ring for the first time partway into this chapter. Also, in this version of the Shimoneta universe the characters are all university students who are above 18, and as such they attend Tokioka University.*

Anna... would she remember me?

A memory played in the forefront of my mind. The two of us playing as children: me, a social outcast hated because my father was Zenjoru Okuma, the infamous ero-terrorist; and Anna, the famously pure-hearted and righteous daughter of Matsukage Nishikinomiya, a powerful politician with connections to the inception of the public morality laws.

I remembered her innocent smile, her disarming joy and passion. The hand that reached down to pick me up from the ground after I was knocked down by classmates, the burgeoning but short friendship that taught me the value of moral behavior. As the daydream of her smile all those years ago faded and my brain slowly returned to its current place in the universe, resolve and excitement once more bubbled within my chest.

With a grin plastered on my face, I stared at the ground. Today was the day. The day that I would attend Anna's school. My first day at Tokioka University: the finest, most morally upstanding institution in all of Japan!

A strangled yell caused me to glance back, but it seemed that someone had merely stumbled on the train and they were already apologizing for the noise. As I turned back to stare contemplatively at a spot on the floor, the face of an angry gorilla flashed in front of me, staring straight at me!

Upon closer and calmer inspection, I realized that it was a large, hairy, and scary man. His eyes bore into my back, intensely focused.

Shit. Ugh! What a disgusting word. I mean, uh-oh. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, but his gaze never shifted from my back. Did he know who I was? Was he scandalized like much of the nation when I aced the Standardized Morality Test at the end of high school and was accepted into the esteemed Tokioka University? If so, I might be in danger.

A new thought struck me, and I felt myself gulp. Could he be... could he be a pervert??? That... that was a thing that could happen, back in the day... right? Homosexuality? Or was he just a weird fetishist?

I breathed harder and harder, my heart racing as I considered the possibilities. Suddenly, a woman walked by the man. Well after she had passed him, her calm face was suddenly replaced by one of shock and horror, and she screamed out, "Help! This man touched my gluteus maximus!"

Her shaking finger pointed directly at the man whose eyes had been staring daggers into mine. Along with everyone else, I openly looked towards the two people.

The man blinked, realizing that the woman was pointing at him. He fumbled for a moment, his mouth opening and closing. Finally, he said, "I was not touching your gluteus- Even if I had, what's wrong with that?" At that last question, something bordering on curiosity seemed to seep into his tone. His brow furrowed, and he stared into the woman's eyes.

Wait, did he seriously not know what was wrong with that? I briefly glanced around the train and saw that most of the people seemed almost as confused as the man being accused. Their naivety was clearly wrong. Terrifying, even. And yet it seemed so... moral, so right.

Some on the train, however, clearly knew what was up. It was mostly older people, along with some from the younger generation that probably weren't nearly as upstanding as someone pure like Anna, or most of the students at my new university. One older gentleman to my left muttered, "Only in the PM generation," before turning back to the newspaper projected from his wrist. A mob began to move towards the man and woman, and from their faces it was clear that they were out for blood.

Following the man's question, the woman tentatively took a step back and weakly said, "What's wrong with that? It's... it's indecent, immoral! You... you pervert."

Her breath caught on that last word, and she gave a slight sob. Now, even the people who hadn't known what was happening appeared to be shocked and outraged. The man waved his hands and said, "I would do no such thing! Indecent?! I-I-"

His face was aghast, but he could go nowhere to avoid the people surrounding him. I played back over the encounter in my mind. The man hadn't even been near her, so she was lying for some reason! As I saw people start to move to their PMs, likely to contact the Morality Police, I knew that I had to do something. Saving him was the right thing to do, the thing someone like Anna would do without a second thought. I knew she wouldn't let an innocent man get arrested this way!

I quickly whispered, "Moyori Station map," to the PM on my wrist, and scanned the hologram that it emitted. There! An escape route, if I need it. In a flash, I grabbed a bandana out of my backpack and tied it around my head, covering my hair and forehead. I ruffled my clothes as I stood up and tossed the jacket of my school uniform into my backpack. After unbuttoning my long-sleeved shirt's buttons to reveal the t-shirt underneath, I removed everything that was even remotely identifying from my pants and rolled up my sleeves a little.

With a deep breath, I rushed towards the people. On the way there, I saw a silver ring on a seat. For some reason, I felt compelled to put it on. Due to the situation at hand and the plot-like fate that was guiding my actions, I didn't even think about the morality of my possible thievery before I scooped it up and slid it onto my finger.

I winced as I hustled, a heat burning into my finger. Somewhere behind me, I vaguely processed a paler than usual face and white hair that I hadn't even noticed before. I grimaced but put the searing pain out of my mind. I had to help the innocent!

I finally pushed my way into the center of the people and popped up next to the man and woman. With a raised fist, I called out, "Stop harassing this man! For I am the one who touched this woman's gluteus maximus!"

Whispers and pointed fingers abounded as the train slowed. The man simply stared at me, jaw agape, while a frown briefly crossed the woman's face. The doors hissed open, and some people began to jockey with each other as they entered and left. The woman paused, then said, "Ah, yes. I suppose it was you." She shot a glance at the grizzly man she had first accused, fire in her eyes.

The people began to close in on me now, clearly getting ready to call the morality police. I grabbed the woman's arm and shouted, "It is here that we must depart! We can handle this from here!"

With that, I yanked the woman off the train with me. She said, "Um, yes, of course! I'll call the guards here, no need to worry everyone!"

After barreling through the doors, I heard the big man behind me jolt into action. He took two heavy steps towards the doors and said, "Wait! You can't-" Just as he was about to get to us, the doors shut. His angry, scary face smushed against the glass, his eyes never leaving mine even as the train slowly started to move away.

I took a deep breath, sighed, and faced the woman. Her previously frightened face morphed into a cold, indignant fury. She took one step towards me, her flats clicking on the stone. Her large and jiggly bust pushed up right below my nose. It took everything in my power to stare right at her eyes.

Which was weird... I've always had those urges and inclinations as someone who was unfortunately aware of lewdness, but I've been able to keep it under wraps so far. As I briefly glanced down at her trembling chest, I couldn't help but feel as if something was different. It was almost like it was more enticing than ever before.

She let out a strangled cry, breaking me from my thoughts as she lightly hit my chest, and said, "How dare you? I was about to make so much money off that guy-"

"I knew you were up to something..." I muttered.

She gripped my shirt, her lips twisting, then pushed me and stepped away. Before I could even react, her expression changed yet again, her eyes artificially growing large and wet and afraid. She spun around and sprinted away while pointing at me and yelling, "Guards! Help! That criminal touched my gluteus maximus!"

As she ran, guards sprinted past her straight at me. I turned on my heel and ran, my eyes darting around the station. A few people milled about and moved away from me, but hardly anyone even acknowledged me. I saw the corner I had to get to for my escape and felt a small burst of pride.

Getting chased by guards wasn't how I planned on being moral today, and it did feel wrong, but at the same time I knew I had done the right thing. Just before I reached the corner, however, Morality Police wearing white uniforms rushed out of the passageway!

Panic gripped my chest. I turned again, but more came from my left. And my right. They were everywhere!

I backed up against a concrete wall, frantically looking around as the Morality Police streamed towards me over the tracks and on the walkways. Okay, okay. Maybe if I can get through that gap there... no. Maybe they'll understand if I just explain that-

"AH-HA-HA-HAAA!!!"

The highest-pitched and most rambunctious laugh that I had ever heard rang out, stopping everyone in their tracks. We all slowly looked up towards the ceiling. It was primarily made of glass, with two flat metal beams in the center that were separated so that the station was open to the sky.

The source of the laugh was standing atop one of the beams, her hands brazenly on her hips as she surveyed the land below her. Her head was covered with a pair of white bikini underwear that stretched over her face with a pink bow near her forehead, covering all but her nearly golden eyes. Black hair billowed behind her in the wind and fell to her but when down. The white cloak that was precariously wrapped around her seemingly lithe yet relatively curvy body likewise billowed in the wind, revealing her naked side underneath the two buttons that seemed to hold it together near her shoulder. Her hand placement pushed out the sides of the cloak, making the slits down her sides that the wind revealed even bigger.

The stationmaster had run with the guards to you, but now he was gawking up. He shook his head, cupped his hands near his mouth, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Passengers, evacuate now! It's the ero-terrorist Blue Snow!"

For a split-second, it was as if the whole station froze in time. It was silent, with passengers glancing fearfully to one another, and with officials looking towards their commanding officers. From her canopy on-high, Blue Snow shouted out, "Big dicks!"

Suddenly, the dam broke. Everyone seemed to stop paying me any mind as all of the Morality Police jumped into action, preparing to apprehend Blue Snow and evacuate the station. People screamed and ran, the whole place erupting into terrified commotion. Some, however, stayed in place out of something similar to morbid curiosity.

To the side, I spotted the white woman with white hair from earlier. She stuck to the wall, nearly naked with her most sensitive areas barely covered by chains that looped around her. People seemed to be giving her a wide berth, but a few dirty men who had noticed her hiding in the shadows were openly ogling her from afar. It appeared as if one or two members of the Morality Police had noticed her as well since I saw one or two of them approaching her.

As they did, Blue Snow suddenly yelled, "Cock-a-diddle-pussy!" She let out another laugh, "AH-HA-HA-HAAA!" The sound burned itself into my brain while I looked around for an escape. The police who had been going towards the woman left her alone, seemingly figuring they could get her after they dealt with the most pressing issue.

Police climbed up to where Blue Snow was, but just before they got to her she called out, "I am naked beneath my cloak! Touch me and you will remove it, thereby breaking the law and ruining a woman's decency in public!"

She feinted at the one of the police, who blanched and flinched away. "Public decency laws cripple you like a spent dick; you can't get it up for justice! AH-HA-HA-HA-ha! Oh, how freeing it is to cure my blue-balls by pumping out my pent-up dirty jokes!"

What the hell was this woman's problem? That "joke" didn't even really work, and it was disgusting to boot. I spotted a rope in the distance, hanging off an exposed window, but there were too many people in the way. The white woman in the corner, whose body I increasingly noticed was quite curvy, seemed to focus on me from a distance, her expression blank. Did she want to turn me in? Was she working with Blue Snow, and she was just waiting to do something perverted to someone like me?

Blue Snow's hands fell once more to her hips, and she yelled to everyone still milling around and running in the station, saying, "I demand a world free from tyrannical Morality Laws, with dirty jokes as a civil right for all!" She reached into her cloak, then pulled out several cards. Fanning them out, she continued, "I will see to it that such a day comes to pass! Now, I'm afraid that I must pull out prematurely. AH-HA-HA-HAAA! Farewell! Bye-bye!"

With that, she flung several handfuls of her cards into the breeze and jumped from the roof. The cards fluttered down to the shell-shocked citizens below. One came towards me, and I reached out to grab it. I turned it over in my hand to see what it said, only to find-

PORNOGRAPHY! A sinful, immoral, evil depiction of the female form! A woman sitting on the ground with her boobs covered only by her arm and her other hand lightly resting on her black and frilly panties, looking up in clear and unadulterated lust!

I threw it to the ground, my heart beating in stress and outrage. Definitely not in strange, seemingly intensified arousal, though the stiffening in my pants might beg to differ. Around me, people gasped, yelled, and blushed in shocked outrage at the immorality of the cards before them, as they should! One innocent man behind me even asked, "What is this?"

And a woman replied, "I don't know, but... it's interesting."

Wait. Some people were not as innocent as I thought. Some may have been blushing in shock, but others were doing so due to arousal. Some of the older people seem comfortable with it. Excited, even. Meanwhile, many of the morally upstanding adults in their late teens and early twenties were confused but aroused, clutching the cards to their chests or near their eyes like a beautiful and treasured mystery.

People fell to the floor, their gazes locked on the obscene pictures. They grabbed the cards from the ground, stuffing them into briefcases and pockets or just staring at them wistfully. I couldn't help but stare helplessly around me at this lewd and horrific display of terrorism in action. It was like the things my father had done, but even worse! And in this modern, enlightened era, no less!

Without warning, A hand clapped down on my shoulder. My throat clenching up, I stumbled back, only for the underwear-clad face before me to register in my mind. The terrorist! Without missing a beat, Blue Snow gave my shoulder one more pat and said, "I've got things under control here, you've gotta get to school on time! It'd be a problem for us both if you're late or imprisoned!"

She took off, her cloak flying up to expose the majority of her shapely upper thighs as she ran towards the police and the general area where the curvy white woman had been. The white woman seemed to have moved somewhere, though, since I didn't see her anymore. "Wait, how did you know-"

I shook my head. Now was not the time for this. Police streamed after the quickly disappearing form of Blue Snow, running away from me. I glanced back and saw a clear path to the rope!

As quickly as I could, I trotted towards it. On the way, I passed groups of people who were trying to make off with their cards, or who were burning the images on them into their brains before tossing them so that they wouldn't be caught with the incriminating material and jailed. Smart thinking, even if it was immoral.

Once I reached the rope, I glanced around me, but there were no police in sight and the people in the station were too focused on other matters to take note of me. I gave the rope a slight tug, then looked down the side three-story building to the alley below.

Heights are the absolute worst.

I bit my lip, feeling a flutter in my chest. I took one more deep breath, then grabbed the rope and swung over the side of the building. Someone seemed to notice me, so I slid down as quickly as I could, the fraying rope burning my hands as I went. It was all I could do to refrain from crying out in agony, but my feet hit the ground soon enough.

There was no one in sight. I ducked behind a dumpster, breathing fast. I took off my bandana and got it back into my backpack, then straightened out my hair. My trembling fingers had some difficulties with my shirt buttons, but I got it soon enough, and the jacket was similarly not too much of a challenge. I put my tie back on, stood up, and smoothed out my clothes. Why did I have to be involved in perverted terrorism on my first day of school, the first day of my new life!

I sighed, looking myself over. It seemed good enough. The alley was still clear, and the sidewalk beyond was crowded enough with the usual early-morning bustle that I could slip in unnoticed. And my PM hadn't started beeping yet, so I seemed to be in the clear. I checked my watch and saw that I should be able to get to school with a good fifteen to twenty minutes to spare even if I walk at a fairly slow pace. It would have been nice to get there early enough to tour the whole university before my first class, but I at least wouldn't be late today, and I should still have time for that at some point.

I closed my eyes while regulating breathing and calming myself down. As the adrenaline left me, the pain in my hands grew more and more noticeable. My palms were hot and slightly cut from the rope burn, and for some reason the skin below the ring on my finger still felt a little painful. Once I felt calm enough, I opened my eyes in preparation for my walk to school. I got lucky today, luckier than I had any right to be, so from now on I have to be-

A low yell burst from my lips when I opened my eyes. The nearly naked woman from the station stood before me, her legs provocatively open and one hand resting on her hip. The chains around her clinked with each one of her slight movements, only really covering her nipples, vagina, and some parts of her boobs, stomach, and back.

She smirked at me, the action not quite reaching her half-lidded eyes, and said, "Great work back there. Nearly didn't make a fool of yourself. Don't know what the deal is with Morality Laws or that weird shit back there, but that's beside the point. I'm Regina by the way."

She cursed! She-she didn't have a PM! She only had chains on her body, and her neck and wrist were bare. I said, "Um, well, I-"

"Hup-hup-up," she said with a small, dismissive wave. "Hold on a second. I gotta get through this whole spiel first." At that, she rolled her eyes and shrugged, which caused her bountiful bosom to jiggle uncontrollably beneath the chains. Normally, I would be into it but able to ignore it, but now... now, something was drawing me in even more than usual, and they just kept on bouncing well beyond the time that I would think physics would have allowed them to.

Regina reached her hand into her tits, grasping for something. The smooth globes sloshed out towards the chains, which in turn pushed back and bit into the fat skin. After a moment of tumultuous foraging, her hand came out with three index cards, and the removal of her hand allowed her boobs to fall back into place and jiggle against one another.

As I stared at the sight of her beautiful boobs and wide hips with a newfound and strangely intense desire, Regina held the cards up loosely before her eyes and began to read them out in the dry tone someone might expect to have the weather read to them for the seventh time in the same day. She said, "As I said before, my name is Regina. You can call me anything you want. Ring Bitch, Ring Slut, Bandy Randy, Whore, Bootylicious, Silver ****, or whatever else gets your motor running. You are now the owner of the Reality Ring. Use it to shape the realities of any woman that happens to catch your eye."

What is she talking about? I looked around, searching for an escape, but something held my feet firmly in place. I couldn't move, she somehow hadn't heard about the police, so either she's ignorant or something is going on... the ring!

My eyes widened as I reached down to tug on it. It didn't even budge, but after a few seconds of tugging on it, I fell to my knees in anguish, feeling as if my entire body was set on fire and beaten with a crowbar. As I soundlessly tried to scream and writhed on the ground, Regina tossed her first card over her shoulder and said, "Oh, yeah, you probably don't want to try that. The Ring doesn't appreciate rejection, so unless you wanted to die from embarrassment after that debacle up there I wouldn't try that again."

This has to be a dream, please let this be a dream. There's no way that I already had a run-in with ero-terrorism, implicated myself, and am now wearing the magic ring of another terrorist!

After a sigh that pushed out her chest for a moment, Regina continued on to her next card. "The Ring allows you to alter the realities of women with a thought. Change their bodies and mind at a whim, keeping them aware or unaware of the changes as you see fit. Mold women's personalities, bodies, lives, and minds to your satisfaction. Make them slaves, lovers, pets, or friends, change their pasts and their present, or alter their reality in any other way that you see fit."

She flicked another card away and held up a third. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "I've held this information before, but you seem nice enough. You helped out some people back there, at least. Besides, it might be interesting to see what's up with that Blue Snow chick, so keeping you alive could be worth it. Maybe. Her mask was different, to say the least."

Yeah, you could say that again. What was up with that mask choice?

"So..." She held up the last card and read from it, saying, "As the Ringmaster, large changes to reality will be beyond you for some time. Like a muscle, you must exercise with small changes at first, building up your power and your bond with the Ring. Changes beyond that which you are capable of will prove painful, and possibly fatal. As a side effect of wearing the Ring, the Ringmaster will develop a strong, carnal lust for women. This is a non-negotiable condition of the Ring and has already begun within you."

I stayed sprawled out on the ground for a moment more, catching my breath. This was all insane. Batshi- I mean, Batfeces levels of insanity! I sat up slowly and noticed that the pain had faded to an echo of an ache. As I rolled my neck, I saw Regina stretch out with her hands going above her head and her back arching.

Before, I would have averted my gaze. Now, I couldn't help but stare, my pants growing tighter by the second as I took in her practically naked form stretching before me. Her boobs pushed against the confines of her chains and out towards the open air, the metal digging into each one. The stretch flattened out her smooth stomach, yet it still appeared to be soft. White hair hung down to her lower back, barely viewable from the sides, and her hips flared out enticingly just below it. Her thighs were right in front of my kneeling face, thick and taught and creamy. Despite myself, I couldn't help but wonder how they would look when set in motion, and how her boobs would look if they were a bit larger.

I felt an almost imperceptible warmth on my ring finger. Without any warning, Regina jerked forward. She almost toppled over but caught herself just in time, stumbling backwards. Once she mostly got her balance, she straightened out in a way that made it seem like she was being roughly guided by invisible hands. Her chest ballooned rapidly, the lowest part of them falling from her upper chest to just below her ribcage even as they became more voluminous and bouncy. For a moment, the chain slipped off, revealing her boobs in all their bouncing, growing glory, but it quickly moved of its own volition to protect her "modesty".

After the growing stopped and her pert breasts, which were now larger than her head, stopped expanding, Regina hefted the orbs in her hands. They splayed out beneath and slightly between her fingers, flattening against her palms as she lifted them up. She shook them up and down a few times, her breath seeming to quicken at the sensation.

Was this really happening? It was all... real? I could barely think, and simply stared slack-jawed at the scene happening before me.

A blush invaded her cheeks, and she muttered, "Nice start, albeit innocuous and frivolous." She began to thrust her knees in opposite directions, out and then in, rocking her feet sideways in small, quick motions. The movement resulted in the fat and muscle on her thighs freely swaying back and forth, dragged one way and then the other.

I watched in rapt attention until Regina cleared her throat. "As much as I love that you're already taking initiative, I'd love it even more if you actually had some fun with me instead of just using me as your personal showgirl." Her slight smirk vanished as her half-lidded eyes made their return, and she added, "Oh, and it takes less power to change me than other women, so expect more pain with that same set of commands on someone else. You should be able to pull off that reality shift without too much effort, though, since it's not changing anything mental." She yawned, still shaking her legs, and then said, "You could also tell me about yourself. That's technically the protocol. I tell you about the Reality Ring, then ask you to share about yourself." She looked around, suddenly puzzled by her surroundings, and said, "Actually, where are we? This doesn't feel like my usual world."

I reached out and poked Regina's soft stomach. My finger met her skin and sank into it. I swallowed, backing up a step. I couldn't take off the ring. Regina was somehow real, even if this was all impossible. Maybe she wasn't even around for the last several decades, and that's why she didn't know about the Morality Laws? And she said I'd succumb to carnal lust, which was bad enough, but if the development had already started like Regina claimed then that would explain why it was more difficult to keep my mind centered around morality since the train incident.

After another moment of hesitation, I said, "I'm Tanukichi Okuma. I'm a college student. Today is my first day, actually. I'm going to Tokioka University, the most moral school in the country!"

"Ugh, buzzkill." Regina made a face and rolled her eyes, now swaying her hips in time with her thighs. "But cool, Tanukichi. New name for me, which is rare. Guess we'll end up having fun, fighting the mores of society or whatever. Maybe, I dunno. We'll see how it goes."

"I suppose we will." Could she be any more indifferent? Running my hand through my hair, I added, "Um, also, we're in Japan, so the Morality Laws that you mentioned before have been in place for a few decades. Basically, they make it illegal to do anything... well, indecent."

"Indecent? Like sex in public, gangbangs, or-" She paused for a moment, recalling the events at the station, and finished, "or dirty jokes?"

"Um, like none of those things, at all. Or media about them. A pure and innocent society is what's best for Japan."

At that, Regina frowned. Her arms crossed below her bust, pushing up her boobs provocatively. She said, "That sounds awful. And unenforceable. People probably don't follow those laws all that well. In my experience, it takes a lot to keep people from having sex, but it's really easy to push them towards it."

She sounded almost sad, saying that last part. Sad and longing, yet somehow aroused. I responded, "Well, it didn't go over well at first, but the people of Japan mostly came around. It really has improved our society! It isn't easy to enforce, sure, but our PMs make it way easier."

"PMs?"

"Yeah, it stands for Peace Makers. They alert the Morality Police if we say certain banned words or if we move our hands in indecent ways. They also double as our phones, computers, and e-readers. Stuff like that."

Regina slumped a little, and said, "Huh. Gonna be hard to deal with, but I think we can-"

WAIT, school! What time was it? I checked my watch and tuned out Regina. If I hurried, I should be able to get there with a few minutes to spare, but I'd be pushing it!

I cut in, saying, "I'm truly sorry Regina, but I have to run to my first class. Can we continue this later?"

As I straightened out my jacket, she replied, "Oh. Yeah. No problem. You didn't even try to grope me or anything.” Regina smirked, then sarcastically added, “Nice restraint, that's kinda new. I can come with you if you want in case you need to learn more about the ring or happen to do something stupid.”

"Um, that could be good... Not to be rude, but can you wear anything else?"

She just stood with a blank expression, continuing to shake her thighs since I hadn't made her stop, but her chains instantaneously became a shirt. A band still remains around her chest and around her hips, like a belt. "Yeah, whatever you want. You're the Ringmaster, so my clothes are yours to make."

"Cool, good to know. Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave you like that. How do I-"

"You just focus on what you want to happen to me, or say it. It takes some time to prevent those accidental discharges, but you'll get there."

I focused for a moment, and Regina immediately stopped shaking her body. As she rolled out a crick in her neck, her tits shrank back down to their original size with a bounce. Although they had reduced in size, they were still incredibly large. She shook her chest experimentally, her large and puffy nipples erect, then said, "Didn't expect you to change that back. Thank you, I guess. Feel free to inflate my tits again or to change me at any time."

"Thanks, I'll try to keep that mind and might take you up at some point. If you want me to, anyway." With a sigh, I finished straightening out my hair yet again and said, "Okay, can you wear the woman's uniform for my university?"

She eyes me for a second, inscrutable emotions finally passing over her face before it returns to her usual listlessness. Her head tilts to the side, and a second later an outfit appears on her. The long, navy blue skirt contrasts nicely with the grey blazer. The lapels were the same navy blue as her skirt, and beneath the blazer she wore a white collared shirt with a red tie. Her white hair was pulled back into a fancy braid that hung down her back, and her feet were clad in long, navy blue socks and black flats.

She twirled slowly, her skirt riding up her thighs, and said, "Well? How do I look?"

As I stared at her bust nearly bursting out of her shirt and blazer and her hips pulling her skirt out wider than nearly any other girl's could, I said, "You look beautiful- I mean, you look good! That should work."

She let out one dry laugh and said, "Thanks, good to know. Off to class, then?"

I checked my watch again. It would be tight, but we could make it. "Yeah, we're gonna have to jog though."

At that, I immediately took off into the crowd of people on the sidewalk. Regina was next to me, but it seemed like she was barely even exerting any energy. Maybe she wasn't. Who knows what she even is or what she can do. For all I knew she was floating beside me while pretending to run, or was a literal goddess of some kind. Actually feeling as if she was anything besides human was almost beyond my frazzled grasp at that point, though, so I just dropped that line of thinking for the moment.

As we got closer to Tokioka, the ring on my finger felt heavier and heavier in my mind. What would I do with it, and what would it do to me? I turned the question over in my head, even as I replayed the events in the station and my first, and hopefully only, encounter with Blue Snow. Who was she, and how did she know I was heading to school even in my makeshift disguise? While moving through the streets towards my new university, all I could really decide was that I would have to figure everything out once I had more time, and remain as moral as I could be. For myself, and for Anna.