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Tokusatsu Fighter, Episode 39!

*A man in yellow armor rushed into an abandoned warehouse.*

Eh? Golden Lock is going to fight the dark lord by himself? How come I am the last one to know?

*The protagonist of the show yelled in the background sound as the man in yellow armor rolled on the ground.*

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Loter threw himself onto the couch as soon as he got back to the dorm. His gray suitcase was left standing beside the door. He purred as he buried his face in the soft fabric of the couch.

"Go take your luggage back to your room," Hiroku said, carrying both of their suitcases while entering the unit. Yawning, Hiroku pushed and let Loter's one slide to him.

"I will. I'm tired," Loter replied without heaving his head up. His suitcase slowly approached him and stopped as it touched his foot.

Not responding, Hiroku went into his room and closed the door.

Loter continued lying there. His eyelids shut uncontrollably. The couch's thick cushion felt extra soft to Loter after lying on a floor mattress for nine days. The familiar smell of dust mites only added to the coziness.

Loter's intangible will of getting up was greatly suppressed by the tangible comfort.

I'll just stay here for another twenty seconds. Then, I will go to Tori. She must be stressing out, facing the vice principal alone.

Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen. Sixteen. Fifteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen. Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen. Two-teen. Eleven. Nine…… Six… Wait, what? Where am I? Should I do the counting again from twenty? No, I need to go find Tori. I need—

……

……

……

What? I need to get up.

Before his consciousness could escape his head again, Loter slapped himself on the occiput and purposefully rolled off the couch.

"Ouch." Loter groaned as he crawled up from the floor.

I have to get to Tori. I can't be sleeping.

Not laying an eye on his suitcase, Loter walked to the elevator. When he finally arrived at the first floor, he saw Tori and Vice Principal Neosol standing before him.

"Ah, Mr. Spawman. We are just looking for you," Neosol said with a genial grin and walked into the elevator immediately.

"Yes, what took you so long? You said you were just putting down the luggage." Tori followed behind the vice principal and asked. Her eyes blinked in innocence and a genuine curiosity.

"Uhhh," Loter uttered and swayed his eyes between the woman and the girl as he failed to generate an intelligent excuse.

"It must be the stomach. The unfamiliar food in Haban must put your stomach under a lot of pressure." Still smiling, Neosol tossed Loter a perfect cover-up.

"Yeah, that's why. I was in the bathroom this whole time. Huh, huh." Loter ended his sentence with an awkward laugh. Even he himself had no faith in his ability to lie.

However, Tori did not seem to spot a single thing that was off. She nodded and asked with genuine care, "Are you still feeling unwell?" She shifted herself closer to Loter as she spoke.

In the meantime, Neosol's grin widened and blossomed. For some reason undiscoverable, she exited the elevator and, before leaving, she said, "I just had a whim, so, Mr. Spawman, you're in charge of the rest of the campus tour now. Enjoy your time, kids."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Wait, what?" Loter was caught by surprise while Tori was smashing the "close" button.

"She is a very cute lady," Tori giggled and commented after the elevator doors slid together.

"Yeah, but what tour are we talking about?"

"Ms. Neosol said she would introduce me to different parts of the school, just like how you have, ha-, had a school tour when you first came here." While explaining, Tori slightly shifted a bit more toward Loter and discreetly held his hand.

"That makes sense. Where has she taken you to?" Loter proceeded with the topic they were on. He did feel Tori's soft and tiny palm grabbing onto his hand, yet he was used to it enough not to bring it up.

"We have not started yet."

"Okay, I can show you my dorm first."

Tori nodded enthusiastically. Her eyes sparked.

"By the way, did she assign you a unit already?"

"Yes, she said the room is 406."

The elevator arrived at the third floor. Loter led Tori through the vestibule and into the hallway.

"Hey, Lod. Long dime no see," Kiznaq exclaimed without a sense of urgency as he left his unit. He rushed to Loter with quick steps. His eyes flicked to the holding hands and quickly rose back to meet Loter's.

"Kiznaq! This is Tori. The new student here." Loter reached his free hand high into the sky, waving and making the occupied one even more obvious.

Staying slightly behind him, Tori took a tiny step forward. "My name is Tori Kayama. I am from Haban." She said with her back pushed forward and her shoulders lifted upward. The confidence in her voice was firm and concrete.

Despite her positive attitude, Kiznaq was not impressed or, more accurately, uninterested. He glanced at Tori and quickly said his name before shifting his attention back to Loter. There was a conspicuous awkwardness and hesitation in his conflicted eyes.

He stuttered, "Lod, I, I—"

Out of his expectation, Loter interjected, "Is this something important? Can you tell me later? I'm giving Tori a campus tour." The girl behind him flushed, and the boy before him smiled, relieved from his stress.

"Of course, we will dalk lader, and please dell Hiroku aboud id. He needs do hear d'is doo."

"Okay, I'll tell him about it."

"Good, good." Kiznaq hurried away, rounding them without any extra eye contact.

Tori glanced at the leaving guy and softly asked Loter with her mouth close to his ear, "Did I do something wrong?"

"What?" Loter intuitively asked back and said, "No. I think you did pretty well. Very confident. Kiznaq is just a little shy. Besides, he seemed to be occupied. You don't need to worry about it. I will introduce Key to you later. He'll be happy to know you." Loter opened his dorm unit, entering while still holding hands with Tori.

Tori made several gentle "oh" sounds as Loter began his most certainly unnecessary summary.

"That is the couch. Beside it is my suitcase. That's the television. That is a table—"

"Where do the two doors lead to?"

"Oh." Loter pointed at the one on the left. "That leads to my bedroom." He then pointed at the one on the right. "That leads to Hiroku's bedroom, and there is another door to the bathroom… There." Loter moved a few steps to point at another door in the unit.

"Can you show me your room?"

"Yeah, I just cleaned it before going to Haban."

Loter opened the door, and Tori peeked in.

The laptop on the desk was closed with a thin layer of dust on top of it. The windows were locked, and the blinds were drawn down. The alarm clock quietly sat atop the drawer. Beside it, the wrinkled quilt lay on the bed like a wrung rag. Above it was the poster of Strikelet.

"Hah, hah, hah," Loter laughed awkwardly as he saw the quilt. "I must've forgotten that part before I left."

"Do you not know how to fold quilts? I can teach you." Tori released Loter's hand and went past him, entering the bedroom with bobbing steps. She quickly strolled to the bed, and Loter followed, letting the door close itself.

Tori deftly snapped the quilt twice, turning the wrung rag into a smooth sheet of cloth. With an even smoother sequence of dexterous actions, Tori turned the mess into a fluffy rectangle.

"See? Now is your turn." Holding her mellow grin, Tori pulled up the rectangle and undid her earlier effort with a toss and a fling.

"Uhh." Loter had his eyes swayed between the girl and the bed several times before he said, "Yeah, you need to do it again."

"You need to pay attention this time." Tori gladly warned Loter without a wisp of a threat in her voice. She folded the quilt again, and Loter restated his request. The process repeated another time before Tori came up with an idea.

"Okay, you stand there and held, hold your hands out," Tori commanded while giggling.

"Yeah?" Loter followed the instructions with some curiosity. As he glanced sideways and realized Tori was no longer beside him, a pair of soft palms held his wrists from behind. The short and thin fingers clung to the back of his thick and wide hands.

Tori's unfluent words came from behind, "I will, I will hold your hands, and we will did, do it together, alright?"

"Okay," Loter answered. His cheeks faintly blushed. He could sense the soft touch on his hands. However, this touch was a bit too light that the fingertips were barely brushing on his hand hair. Then, Tori tightened her grip yet shrunk back immediately when her skin pressed onto Loter's.

"I am about to start. Are you ready?" Tori audibly swallowed a mouthful of her own saliva. She was looking at the quilt by sticking her head sideways, and she peeked at Loter for a moment. But, his expression could not be seen from her angle.

"Ye, yeah." Loter, influenced by Tori, also stuttered.

"Okay." Tori slowly held her palms around his hands. Seldom to no strength was put into the grip. By a little bit, she tried to move her hands forward.

Loter followed, perfectly synchronizing her movement. Even the slightest shift in position was done without any dissonance.

They held up the quilt and began. Tori's voice came first, their arms and hands moved second, and Loter's fingers either grabbed or released.

Loter was not sure if he was hallucinating or if he was actually listening to Tori's heartbeat. Either way, he found the rhythm amusing.