Chapter 1.

Takashi Morinozuka (known as Mori to his friends) leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. The professor for his Modern History class had a deep, droning voice that put a least 80% of his students to sleep almost instantly, leaving them to beg their more alert neighbors for notes. Takashi was in the remaining 20%, although Professor Takeda's long (though interesting) lectures did make him slightly drowsy. It didn't help that half the time he couldn't even hear the professor over the whispering squeals of his female neighbors every time he stretched or ran a hand through his hair. He had begun trying to sit in the back of the lecture hall, between two boys at each class, but the girls had figured that one out and started to come in early and fill up the back row. Eventually, he'd had to resort to his current strategy, which was to sit in the corner, between Imai-san, who had taken pity on him and agreed to be his shield (personally, he thought that the fact that a girl always sat next to Imai-san in an attempt to get Takashi to look at her was a definite factor in the young man's willingness to help the tall freshman) and the wall.

At three o'clock, the class ended. Takashi gathered his books together and began the walk to the Mathematics building to wait for Mitsukuni, as he always did on Fridays. The university campus was large, but Takashi had always walked quickly, partly because of his long legs and partly because his father had drilled into him at a very early age that any trace of slowness leaves openings for enemies to strike. He didn't think that anyone was going to attack him, but the stoic Morinozuka had always had trouble breaking habits. Unfortunately, this included his habit of not looking where he was going. Usually his reflexes were enough to keep him from bumping into people, but on occasion (and only on his off days) they failed him.

It appeared that today was one of those days.

He had just turned the corner of the building with his head tilted up to see if the rather ominous clouds overhead were moving away (which they weren't) when he heard an "oof", and felt something connect with his shoulder with just a little too much inertia behind it. He stumbled back a few steps, regained his balance , and looked down to see a girl sitting on the pavement in front of him. There were books and papers scattered around her.

"Oh shit!" the girl said, and then obviously realizing she had bumped into someone, glanced up at him. "Sorry," she said shortly, and began to crawl around on her knees to pick up her thing.

Takashi blinked for a moment, a bit thrown off by the girl's dismissive attitude, but his good upbringing prevailed and he crouched down to help pick up the papers as well.

They had gotten about a third of the pages off the ground (the books had been stacked in a pile next to the building) when the clouds finally burst.

"Shit, shit, SHIT!" the girl roared, trying desperately to simultaneously shield her fistful of paper under her jacket and pick up the now increasingly damp sheets off the ground.

When she tried to pick up an especially wet page and it ripped in half, she sat back on her heels and buried her face in her hands. It took Takashi a moment to realize that she was crying.

He looked around helplessly. He had never been very good at comforting hysterical females. Eventually, he decided to sit next to the crying girl and hold his jacket above both of them. He patted her arm awkwardly with his free hand.

The girl's head whipped around with such speed that Takashi was surprised it didn't twist off.

"You!" she hissed, glaring at him venomously, "This is all your fault!"

Takashi blinked in surprise. How was it his fault? He had just been walking along, minding his own business, when she had bumped into him! It was her fault, for carrying too many books and things.

He expressed this in a single "Hm?" that seemed to infuriate the girl more.

"Yes, you! If you had watched where you were going, this wouldn't have happened!" She paused and looked around at the scattered sheets and burst into tears again. "Now I've got to write my history paper all over again!" she whimpered, and Takashi winced. From the number of pages around them, he could see that her paper had been quite long. It would probably take a long time to re-write it.

"Notes?" he inquired hopefully. Maybe the damage was not quite as bad as he had thought. Maybe her notes were still intact, and he hadn't possibly ruined someone's perfect average.

His hopes were dashed when the girl gestured hopelessly around her. "All of my papers were here. I was just about to go to the library to finish the last page." She rubbed her eye with a muddy fist. "I guess I'll just have to renew the books and start over."

Takashi felt a stab of guilt. True, it hadn't been totally his fault, but he had been a definite factor in the loss of the girl's hard work.

"Can I help?" he asked, impulsively.

The girl looked up at him with a wry smile on her tear-streaked features. "I'm afraid there's not much you can do to help, unless you happen to have a collection of books on weaponry during the Muromachi period."

Takashi blinked again.

"I do," he said, slightly surprised.

There was a frozen moment before the girl launched herself at him and seized his collar. "Where?" she demanded, her eyes blazing.

Takashi was quite surprised by this sudden action, to say the least, but he managed to keep (most of) his composure.

"Back in my dormitory room," he said, a little unsure of whether or not telling this strange female which building he lived in was a good idea.

But apparently, the girl did have some courtesy. "Would you be willing to let me borrow them?" she asked, her whole face pleading. "I promise I'll return them in good condition." She paused, obviously struck by something, before standing hurriedly and bowing to him. "And I'm very sorry I bumped into you and yelled at you."

Takashi stood as well, a little embarrassed by her sudden apology. When she straightened, they both blinked. Takashi had, as was his habit when talking to anyone, looked down about two feet below his own eye level, as this was where most people's faces were in comparison to his own. Unfortunately, this resulted it him staring straight down at the girl's (rather ample) cleavage. He hastily snapped his eyes back up, his face beginning to heat up.

The strange girl had looked straight ahead, and he could see from her expression when their eyes finally met that she had also been expecting someone a bit shorter. Because, compared to most of the girls Takashi knew, this girl was tall. Her head reached his collarbone, and he could almost look her in the eye. He probably wouldn't be able to see the top of her head of she wore heels (which would be a silly thing to do, seeing that she was already so tall).

"Well?" the girl prompted, jerking him back from his thoughts, "I'm reliable, I swear!"

"All right," he said calmly, "I'll get them for you."

"Really? Right now?" the girl said, obviously excited. Then she stopped, seeming to recall herself (really, it was almost laughable how easy it was to read her emotions). She shook her head. "Actually, I have to get to class now, and I bet you do too. How about you give them to me tomorrow? I'll wait at the library at one." She grinned hopefully. "Would that work?"

He nodded, a little dazed at how energetic she was.

"Oh great!" She turned on her heel, obviously about to leave, when she suddenly spun around again. "Oh, what's your name?"

"Takashi Morinozuka." He paused for a second before inquiring "Yours?"

She smiled at him luminously. " Sumiko Ikeda," she said.

Then she was gone.