Vol.3 Ch.2: Eli's Familia ①

-Chapter 2-

Yuko, Tanabe, and Eli had made their way to the storage shed on the far end of the lake in Rigel Park. The three had been drenched by the night’s heavy rain, and after taking shelter in one of the park’s arbors, the three decided moving here for the night would be best. The three had just made their way inside.

“Let’s see, there should be a lamp up around here…” Yuko groped around in the dark, trying to find the lantern she recalled seeing the last time she was in here. After a moment, she managed to get it in her hands and, after fumbling around with it for a moment, got it to turn on.

The lantern illuminated the cramped space. There was the couch, which Yuko had remembered laying on, as well as a couple of chairs, and a table. All across the walls were shelves willed with various tools and objects. It all seemed like stuff used for taking care of the land in the park. Still, this was a place that people didn’t come very often, so it was the perfect spot to hide Eli for now.

“This is a nice little place… Good job, Maeda.” Tanabe muttered, after taking a look around.

“Hehe, thanks.” Yuko blushed just a bit, before shaking her head. Droplets of rainwater flew out from her hair. “Anyway, we’re all still soaked… it probably isn’t good to stay in these wet clothes.”

“You’re right about that, but… Hmm…” Tanabe brought his hand to his chin, trying to give the situation some thought. All the while, his face was blushing, and his eyes would occasionally glance towards Yuko.

“Y-yeah…” Yuko, blushing as well, lowered her gaze. Although it was probably a good idea to undress, there was no way she could do that in front of Tanabe, and in such a cramped space to boot.

“W-well, let’s worry about Eli first!” Yuko decided to just put the thought out of her mind and focus on the amnesiac girl they’d brought with them. “Eli, your clothes are probably soaked too, right?”

“Hm?” Eli, who was just staring at the shelves, turned her attention back to Yuko and nodded.

“Okay, let’s get this blanket drying first.” Yuko knelt down and reached towards the large sheet Eli had held tight around herself this whole time. The large amount of moisture it had absorbed made it quite heavy.

“Whoa…” Yuko blinked, getting a peek at the clothes Eli had been wearing under the sheet.

“Hm? What is it?” Tanabe turned their way too, his curiosity piqued. “Oh, wow…”

The outfit Eli wore was nothing like either could’ve imagined. It was a very sophisticated purple dress. The dress had many elegant frills and embroidered patterns. The dress went down to her knees, and Eli’s socks were similarly just as frilly. Of course, as impressive as the dress was, it too was drenched, and torn in several places to boot. As surprised as the two were to see such an unusually elegant outfit, the thought was soon replaced by the feeling of what a shame it was that it’d become so tattered.

“This dress is so amazingly pretty… It’s sad to see it so tattered, though. Where’d you get it?” Yuko asked without thinking.

“… I don’t know.” Eli spoke with a sullen expression.

“Ah, right… Sorry about that.” Yuko realized her mistake asking an amnesiac such a question and hung her head.

“So, what now?” asked Tanabe, after a few silent moments passed.

“Right… I guess we really should let our clothes dry…” Yuko glanced around. There was a bucket they could use to wring the moisture from their clothes, and some shelves they could probably hang them on if they rearranged some things.

“I guess… we should undress.” Yuko spoke in a small voice, blushing. “Just… let’s stay back-to-back, okay? Don’t look over here.”

“O-of course…” Tanabe couldn’t look Yuko in the face, clearly feeling some embarrassment himself.

After discussing how they were going to do this, the pair took the two chairs and faced them in opposite directions with their backs close together. They rearranged the shelves a bit so that there was a free shelf on opposite walls to hang the damp clothes. Lastly, the bucket was placed on Tanabe’s side first.

With Yuko and Eli facing one wall, and Tanabe facing the other, Tanabe began. After loosening his uniform’s green tie, he unbuttoned his shirt and removed it. Still wearing his hair down, some stray droplets of water from his hair happened to drip down across his toned abs and muscles. The cool sensation caused him to shiver just a bit, despite the rather warm temperature. He took his shirt and wrung the moisture free of it into the bucket, before placing the shirt on the shelf to dry. After hesitating a moment, Tanabe unbuckled his belt and removed his trousers, repeating the same process he did with his shirt. After that, he sat in the chair in his bare boxers, and slid the bucket behind him across the floor, for Yuko to use.

“It’s all yours.” Tanabe quietly spoke, feeling a bit embarrassed knowing that Yuko was right behind him despite being nearly nude.

“Got it.” Yuko nervously acknowledged, grabbing hold of the bucket.

Yuko started with Eli. It took her a few minutes to figure out the specifics of Eli’s dress and how to get it off, but she eventually managed to do so. Eli wore a silk tanktop underneath, in addition to her underwear. It wasn’t particularly damp, so Yuko decided it’d be fine to leave those on. She wrung the moisture from her dress and set it up on the shelf.

After that, Yuko took care of her own clothes. She loosened her red tie and unbuttoned her shirt as well. Much like Tanabe, her hair was wet as well, and some water dripped onto her chest, causing her to jump with an “eep!”

“Everything okay?” Tanabe asked without turning around.

“I-I’m fine! It was just a drop of water!” Yuko frantically reassured.

“R-right. Yeah, the water feels so cold even though it’s so warm tonight.” Tanabe awkwardly responded.

“Y-yeah, haha.” Yuko’s face was beat red.

As Yuko motioned to remove her shirt, more water dripped onto her chest, sliding down into her sizable cleavage. It caused her to shudder a bit, but Yuko made a point not to make any more outbursts. She wrung the water out of her shirt and set it up on the shelf beside Eli’s dress. She removed her skirt and socks and did the same thing.

“Mmh…” Yuko narrowed her eyes. She was hoping this was all the clothes she’d have to remove. But sure enough, due to the thin fabric of the summer uniform’s shirt, even Yuko’s bra was completely soaked and felt quite uncomfortable.

After hesitating for a moment, Yuko built up her resolve and unhooked her bra. Her large chest swayed with a bit of a drop after being freed from the moist fabric.

I can’t believe I’m doing this, with Murakami right here behind me… This is way too embarrassing!

After squeezing the fabric as much as she could, Yuko placed the bra on the shelf beside her other clothes, and then took a seat in her chair. Eli was already seated on the couch, which was on Yuko’s side.

“All done… I wonder how long we should wait around like this?” Yuko asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

“Good question…” Tanabe answered, staring up at the ceiling. “It sounds like the rain has basically stopped. The last time I saw the forecast, I don’t think I saw any rain expected for tomorrow, so the storm may have finally passed.”

“That’s good… And with this heat, hopefully our clothes will be dry soon.” Yuko spoke.

“Yeah. They’ll still probably be a bit damp though.” Tanabe smiled wryly.

Time passed slowly. The two made small talk whenever something came to mind. Eli remained silent, simply hugging her knees on the couch. Needless to say, they were all quite bored.

“So, are we going to have Eli stay here tonight?” Tanabe asked, speaking up again after a small bout of silence.

“That’s probably for the best.” Yuko reasoned. “If she doesn’t want the student council to know about her, it’s probably our best option. Though I feel kinda bad for her…”

Yuko looked toward Eli, who was continuing to silently space out.

“Are you okay with staying here tonight, Eli?” she asked.

“… This is fine. I like it here.” Eli spoke with a yawn.

“That’s good.” Yuko gave Eli a warm smile, although Eli didn’t really seem to notice.

“Still, we should try to figure out what we can tomorrow.” Tanabe spoke. “Unfortunately, once classes are over, I’ll be at club most of the day. The big tournament is this weekend, so everyone’s putting in extra time. I have to be there as an example…”

“Oh right…” Yuko frowned. “Though, I don’t have a shift at the café tomorrow, so my afternoon is free. I’ll definitely come by to check on Eli during that time.”

“Make sure to ask around and try finding out if there’s a missing student, too.” Tanabe said, brushing back his hair. “Even if we avoid contacting the council, we should try to find out what we can about Eli.”

“Right, will do.” Yuko answered. “If I have to, I might stop by the middle school too.”

“Good idea. Though, don’t go intimidating our underclassman.” Tanabe chuckled.

“I-I’m not intimidating, am I?” Yuko pouted.

“Hahahaha!” Tanabe laughed cheerfully at Yuko’s response. Feeling a sense of relief at the lightened mood, Yuko also began to chuckle.

As the two shared a joyful laugh together, Eli glanced their way and smiled.

“Familia…” a weird phrased suddenly slipped from Eli’s mouth.

“Hm? What was that, Eli?” Yuko looked her way, after hearing her say something.

“This feels like… Familia.” Eli whispered.

“Familia? What’s that?” Yuko tilted her head.

“I feel like I’ve heard it before, it sounds like the English word “Family”, doesn’t it?” Tanabe said, trying to place it.

“Family, huh?” Yuko thought hard. “Wait, Eli, are you saying we’re like a family?”

“Mm-hm.” Eli nodded simply, wearing a light smile.

“Huuuh?! L-like, like Murakami and I are your p-parents or something?!” Yuko was frantic, the idea causing her to blush hard.

“Don’t be silly, Eli. Haha…” Tanabe, unknown to Yuko, was also blushing quite a bit.

“Hehehe…” Eli simply laughed, enjoying the reactions of the embarrassed nearly-nude pair by her side.

Still, even Eli wasn’t entirely sure why the phrase ‘familia’ had come to her, nor did she know if the meaning they’d concluded was really what it meant. It was simply a word that slipped out. A word that she was very familiar with, deep in her subconscious…

---

“Well, I’m off.” Tanabe nodded, standing at the doorway of the storage shack.

“Right. See you!” Yuko waved goodbye with a smile.

After the pair’s clothes had dried enough they both got dressed and decided it’d be bad to stay away from the dorms any longer. They’d made the decision to go back separately, if only to divert any strange attention they could get for returning together so late.

Yuko simply let her eyes wander around the shack while she waited for enough time to pass so she could leave. Her eyes eventually landed on Eli, who was still resting casually on the couch.

“You’re sure you’ll be okay here on your own, right?” Yuko asked again, just to reconfirm.

“Mm-hm.” Eli nodded.

“There shouldn’t really be anyone around here in the morning, but still, it might be better to stay hidden until I come back tomorrow.” Yuko reasoned, trying to think through the situation.

“Okay. I’ll stay here.” Eli gave a small smile.

“Good.” Yuko gave Eli a look of encouragement.

After waiting around a few more minutes, Yuko finally decided to take her leave.

“Sleep well, Eli. I’ll see you tomorrow.” she spoke gently from the doorway.

“Goodnight.” Eli responded.

And with that, Yuko had closed the door behind her and begun making her way back through Rigel Park. The ground was still rather messy, but at least the rain had mostly stopped. Still, Yuko groaned at all of the droplets of water from the park’s trees that continued to drizzle down upon her as she made her way out, desperately trying to stick to any paved walkways as much as possible.

Finally, with clock well after midnight, Yuko quietly entered the deserted lobby of the dorms and made her way back to her room. It was late enough that no one was even watching the front desk. Yuko sighed heavily as she dreaded the possibility of a student council interrogation over her late arrival time, which had likely been marked automatically on the reception desk’s computer due to the student ID sensors at the dorm’s entrance.

Well, nothing I can do about that…

With a feeling of resignation, Yuko quickly called for and entered the elevator, taking it up to the floor where her room awaited. Upon arriving back to her familiar abode, Yuko quickly stripped herself of her still relatively damp clothing and hung it up, before changing into her usual pair of pink bunny pajamas and diving into her bed, totally exhausted.