Chapter 255: Volume 5: Class A, Fuyuji Mikage Chapter 255: Advanced Nurturing at 4:30 AM

It was past four in the morning. The sun had not yet risen from the sea’s horizon. The whole of Advanced Nurturing was submerged in darkness. Only the crows and eagle owls, creatures that came out by night, occasionally let out a low-frequency, piercing cry that echoed through the silent campus.

Silver-white moonlight fell on the balcony and, through the glass door, into the room.

All was silent. On the dim bedside table, a phone suddenly lit up with a cold white glow. At the same time, a clock icon popped up on the screen, followed by a violent vibration. However, before the piercing alarm could even make a sound, it was completely silenced by a hand reaching out from under the covers.

Fuyuji Mikage hadn’t even opened his eyes yet.

His body woke before his mind did. His palm reached out to his side and touched a patch of warm, soft skin.

But unexpectedly, the next second, a warm breath, wrapped in the fresh scent of mint toothpaste, quietly drew near. A kiss as light as a feather had already landed at the corner of his mouth.

Shiraishi-mama… you’re way too clingy in bed…

Fuyuji helplessly lifted his eyelids and met the smiling face so close at hand.

In the dim light, Shiraishi’s amethyst eyes were clear as a lake. The curve of her smile held both cunning and tenderness. Her long lashes trembled like butterfly wings. Her nose tip brushed against his chin.

‘Good morning kiss?’

‘Mmhm.’

A fair arm gently wrapped around Fuyuji’s arm. Shiraishi’s brows and eyes curved. She quietly watched him, her body slowly drawing closer to his.

Fuyuji’s palm rested lightly on Shiraishi’s shoulder, feeling the quiet warmth of the room in the morning. Then he carefully pulled the slipped corner of the blanket up and tucked it in properly.

‘Up this early? Not resting a bit more? At night you were…’

His hand suddenly paused. The smile that had been in Shiraishi’s eyes began to drift. A faint blush came over her pretty face.

‘So I still want more.’

Fuyuji: “…”

You and Ai really are two extremes.

…

Last Christmas Eve, the two of them had only fallen into a deep sleep when a sliver of fish-belly white rose on the horizon.

Over the following month of winter break, plus these first few days of the new semester, Shiraishi, who was dignified and gentle by day, like a yamato nadeshiko, would quietly stay until the very end at night. She wouldn’t say anything explicit. She would simply, like a wife tending the household, silently attend to her husband.

And then came all sorts of heart-stirring maneuvers.

In front of Fuyuji, she would carry her thin pajamas off to shower. When she came out, her damp pale golden hair draped over her shoulders, all kinds of fragrances mixed together, and water droplets on her delicate collarbone cast a layer of luster under the light.

Or else, wearing loose loungewear, while helping Fuyuji blow-dry his hair, she would bend forward, intentionally or not, accidentally exposing some alluring scenery that invited deeper exploration.

Another example: when Fuyuji was doing exam papers, she would brush aside a strand of hair that had fallen across his cheek with one hand, revealing her flawless profile. Her fair fingers would reach out, and in a soft voice she’d remind him that he’d gotten this question wrong.

…

The effect… was obvious.

Every time, Fuyuji lost beneath this woman’s long legs in white stockings, and it turned into this.

Yet Shiraishi’s stamina was not just a little better than Morishita’s. Two days later, she would once again half-lower her eyelids, kneel-sit beside Fuyuji, wearing a look of “whatever Fuyuji says goes.”

Morishita-sama, on the other hand, was fiercely engaged with her boyfriend during the day, then turned timid at night, her mind wandering off, every grand declaration she’d made during the day completely forgotten.

More than half an hour later, with a click, the bathroom door opened and the light came on.

“Shiraishi-mama, arms up.” Fuyuji gently helped Shiraishi to her feet, displaying her graceful figure.

“Okay.”

On the bed, Shiraishi smiled and obediently raised her arms, seemingly enjoying this process of being cared for. Under the light, the faint pink on her skin had not fully faded.

Fuyuji swept the golden hair fallen over her back up in one motion, took the chance to fasten her bra clasp, helped her into the white underlayer he’d prepared last night, and then found a pair of pure white ankle socks.

“Shiraishi—”

Before the words could finish, a pair of slender, fair ankles, carrying a faint coolness, had already come to rest quietly on his thigh. Five delicate toes, evenly arranged and pressed together, their nails bearing a healthy pink glow, like five warm pink jade stones.

The air in the room was silent for a few seconds. Only the occasional birdsong from outside the window remained.

Shiraishi propped her chin on one hand, smiling as she watched Fuyuji, who had lowered his head in silence. She didn’t speak. She merely shifted her overlapping feet slightly, adjusting the angle to the side, drawing a beautiful arc with the arch of her foot, making the arrangement of her toes even more layered.

Making the beautiful curve of her arch and the arrangement of her toes even more layered.

“…” Fuyuji silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Damn. Over this period, this wicked woman had figured out his weak points…

“Is mine prettier, or is Morishita-san’s prettier?” Her voice carried a smile, the tail of her sentence lilting upward slightly.

“Both are pretty!” Fuyuji blurted out without thinking.

Shiraishi said with a half-smile, “Balancing both sides is scumbag behavior, you know.”

Fuyuji said nothing. He simply devoted himself to wrapping that “chief culprit” tightly and completely into the pure white cotton sock.

A few minutes later, Shiraishi stood gracefully, wearing a red-and-white tracksuit that perfectly outlined her figure, gentle yet carrying a trace of allure.

Fuyuji glanced at the wall clock, then took her hand and got down from the bed.

“It’s about time. We should go gather. Shiraishi-mama, how about you still…”

Fuyuji slowed his steps, hesitating over whether to tell his bro or Miki to ask them to look after Shiraishi today.

Yesterday, Mashima had issued a notice. This morning, all students in the school would take buses to some deep mountain forest for a joint camp. The first day was only for getting familiar with the dormitory environment, but the fatigue of travel was unavoidable.

“I’m fine, you know.”

Shiraishi reached out a hand and, without any effort at all, lifted the suitcase Fuyuji had placed on the floor. It even seemed a little light to her.

“So Fuyuji isn’t allowed to tell Yamamura and the others. Otherwise…”

Her violet eyes flickered a few times. The hand held in his gently scraped twice against Fuyuji’s palm. A smile rose at the corner of her mouth. She didn’t continue.

Fuyuji: “…”

Cunning wicked woman! Making it convenient for you to keep sneaking off, huh?

“Let’s hurry.” Shiraishi, supporting herself on Fuyuji, extended a foot wrapped in pure white ankle socks into her sneaker and was the first to step forward. “Later, we have to pretend we met at the door, okay? Otherwise Morishita might see through it.”

“Fine.”

Fuyuji let out a helpless sigh, then took the suitcase and followed close behind.

The war between a few girls was something he’d better not interfere in.

The door closed with a bang, completely cutting off the corridor light. The air conditioner’s fan blades closed. The room sank into darkness once more.

…

Passing through the long tunnel at the prefectural border, they arrived at the snow country. Under the night sky, a vast expanse of white, white… white blur?

cough cough, anyway, roughly the same!

On a Thursday morning not long after the third semester began, over a dozen buses printed with the Advanced Nurturing school emblem formed a long line and drove out of the highway tunnel one after another.

The long darkness finally receded. Before their eyes, a stretch of clear, cold skylight suddenly spread out. Under this abruptly opened clear light, the silent forests on both sides stood quietly, draped in already-melting, wet snow. Melted snowwater dripped from the tips of deep green or withered brown pine needles, making soft tap, tap sounds in the silence. Layer upon layer of forest ridges, mist winding among the treetops, extending toward a deeper, colder distance…

For the first-year students, this was an unprecedented special exam, one that emptied out every student in Advanced Nurturing at once.

Inside the bus belonging to first-year Class A.

The Class A students, instructed in advance to change into tracksuits and bring a full set of spare clothes, sat in the bus in the order of their names, each doing what they liked to pass the time.

Game consoles, playing cards, books, and… doing exam papers?

Yes, I’m talking about you! Exam-cramming king Shimizu Naoki!

Doing exam papers on a swaying bus. Doesn’t it make you dizzy just looking at it?

Sitting at the very back of the bus, overlooking everyone, Fuyuji voiced this question in his head. Beside him were Morishita Ai and Yamamura Miki. Ahead of him were Shiraishi and Kamuro.

The rule about sitting in name order had, for Class A’s Fuyuji, about as much binding force as nothing at all.

Beside him, Yamamura had closed her eyes, her head resting on his shoulder, swaying slightly with the bus’s jolts, her breathing long and steady. Morishita, on the inner side, was even more absurd. Her whole body was almost curled up, collapsed into his arms, sleeping without a shred of dignity, a few strands of hair stuck to the corner of her slightly open mouth.

Fuyuji, meanwhile, sat in his seat, craning his neck to look at the screen in front.

“Bro, hit him, hit him! Self-charge, go—”

The excited but deliberately controlled voice cut off abruptly.

Kamuro slapped her phone face-down with a smack, turned her face sideways, and shot a cold glance backward.

‘How about I just let you play it? It’s your account anyway, isn’t it?!’

Fuyuji gave an awkward laugh and raised a hand to his lips, making a zipper-closing gesture.

‘Please continue… Great Master, please!’

Kamuro let out a cold hum, withdrew her gaze, picked up her phone again, and, without changing her expression, raised the screen a few centimeters higher, adjusting it to an angle easier for the back row to see.

Seeing this, Fuyuji was somewhat moved.

“She’s really cute, isn’t she? Kamuro-san.” In the front-left seat, Shiraishi, legs placed together at an angle, maintaining her usual posture, turned her head slightly and spoke in a low voice with a smile.

“Of course. She’s my bro.” Fuyuji said smugly.

The hands holding the phone quietly tightened. Kamuro’s silver teeth clenched. Her earlobes reddened.

“She’s very pretty, yet always wears that look of not wanting to deal with anyone else.” Shiraishi raised a hand to cover the corner of her mouth.

“Her legs are long too,” Fuyuji continued supplementing without any self-awareness, his gaze sweeping over Kamuro’s legs, which still looked slender even under the tracksuit pants. “But deep down she’s kind. A classic sharp tongue and soft heart.”

Kamuro lowered her head. Her side ponytail fell across her cheek. Her arms were gathering strength.

“A little shy, but her athletic ability is among the top in our class, and her studying has caught up too.”

“As I thought,” Fuyuji let out a final heartfelt sigh of admiration, completely unaware of the increasingly low pressure building in front of him, “this is the unique charm of my bro that makes you unable to stop. Kamuro!”

The moment the words landed—

“Go die, Fuyuji Mikage!”

Kamuro, her emotions reaching the critical point, suddenly exploded! She whipped around, her delicate fist cutting through the air with a whistle, heading straight for Fuyuji’s face.

“Well come!”

Fuyuji laughed out loud, pulled his neck back, and lightly dodged. One strike missed, and Kamuro grew even angrier. She immediately followed with another horizontal sweep. For a time, in the stuffy back seats of the bus, a world-shaking battle unfolded, one capable of extinguishing the universe and causing the very Dao to fall.

A few minutes later, as if he finally couldn’t bear to watch his class’s horseplay any longer, Mashima, who had been sitting at the very front with his eyes closed, stood up, clapped his hands, and drew everyone’s attention.

“Alright, it’s about time. I apologize for interrupting you while you were so enthusiastically engaged, but please quiet down for a moment and hear me out.”

The moment those words landed, the Class A students silently stopped what they were doing and looked toward Mashima, not at all surprised. After so many special exams, what was about to be explained was self-evident.

Fuyuji, who had settled down, gently woke Yamamura and Morishita beside him. Although he already knew the content of this special exam, it wasn’t impossible that some changes had been made.

Scanning his gaze across all the Class A students, ensuring they could clearly hear what came next, Mashima spoke in a deep voice.

“I believe you’re all mentally prepared for this. Correct. In about an hour, this bus will arrive at its destination, the Forest School. There, you will participate in a special exam.”

He paused.

“The Mixed Joint Camp! That is the name of this exam.”