Katawa Shoujo - Akira Satou Route

Act 5-7 Under my skin

I'm brought back into the world of the awake by the beeping drone of my alarm clock, the red panel glowing '7:00 A.M.' as if trying to burn its image into my mind. Unable to keep my eyes open, my tired hand takes random whacks at the nightstand until I'm able to quell the racket, feeling no guilt about turning over and burying my head into the warm, welcoming embrace of my pillow. The covers weave around my frame and I'm bathed in warmth again, the thought of class today a distant image in my sleep-addled mind.

The oddly familiar scent of cherry fills my nose as I roll face-first into the pillow. Upon sitting up, it becomes clear that the girl who was previously here with me has opted to wake up sooner and call dibs on the shower. I'm only able to make it halfway back to dreamland before my alarm clock goes off again, though.

The alarm, the shower, the closet, my backpack. They don't understand. I love you, bed. You're the only one that understands me. It's with a heavy heart that I finally force myself awake, casting the covers off and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

On one hand, I could try and join Akira, which would both save a bit of time and grant me another few glances at her naked frame - two things one can never have enough of. Then again, it's probably for the best that I don't go pushing my luck, especially when Kenji's almost certainly cooped up in his room. I feel like I should be worried about him walking in on Akira, but I just don't feel very worried; the door doesn't lock, but even if he did decide to try and use the shower, he'd probably mistake her for me.

That's a pretty interesting question, actually. Should you worry about the girl you like being seen naked by someone who is, for all intents and purposes, blind, and would probably mistake her for a guy in the first place? It would be another issue entirely if it was one of the other guys in class, but...

I'm thinking too hard on this, I need to be getting ready for class - I'll only be able to squeeze in a five minute shower, but I suppose that's the price to pay for having a guest over for the night. If anything, I'm thankful that we didn't get caught.

Halfway through my morning routine of cleaning up all the notes on my desk and making sure I've taken all my pills, I'm interrupted by a stark, almost energetic knocking.

Now, it can't be Kenji. Kenji's knocks are lazy, but frantic at the same time, as if to say 'I need to see you but if you're not here then it's fine.' The knocks I'm hearing right now are more like 'I need to see you and I'm going to keep knocking until someone answers the door.' Could it be Shizune and Misha, perhaps? I wouldn't be surprised if they found some kind of contrived excuse to yank me away for 'volunteer' duties so early in the morning. The only other possibilities are Lilly and Hanako, and... well, they wouldn't knock like that.

No other way to find out, I guess.

As soon as I open the door even a crack, I'm bombarded by an energetic "Hey Hisao! It's been a while since I've seen you, huh?"

"Good morning, Emi." I reply, quickly becoming more alert from just her presence alone. I subconsciously straighten my posture and adjust my shirt, keeping the door only cracked enough to talk to her - there's the benefit of Akira's suit not arousing much suspicion, but I'd rather not take any chances in case there's more visible than just her outerwear.

A stack of yellow notes sits between Emi's hands and she looks like she may have just finished a morning run, a few beads of sweat still clinging to her face. Her hair is tied into two tight twintails, swaying as she hops back and forth, seemingly in a hurry to finish whatever it is she's here to do and get to a shower.

Despite being so jittery, though, she takes a moment to look me up and down, no doubt since this is the first time we've met in a while. "You look pretty worn out. Girlfriend keep you up all night?" She winks before giggling to herself, shuffling through the notes and then picking one out for me.