Chapter 43: Becoming a Woman (Part 2)

Women have menstruation, and with it, monthly abdominal pain and bleeding.

I knew that much from health class and from things I’d heard from girls around me. So I quickly figured out what was happening to my body.

But that didn’t mean I had the slightest idea how to actually deal with it when it hit me out of nowhere.

Class had come to a halt. I stood up, blood dripping down, frozen in place while the entire class stared at me. My seat was stained with blood.

On top of that, my stomach felt heavy, and sharp, needle-like pain kept stabbing through me at irregular intervals.

Honestly, maybe it would’ve been easier if I’d just passed out. But after a year of living in another world, I’d developed a certain tolerance for blood and pain.

"Are you okay, Alice?"

It was Yuna who broke the silence in the classroom. Before I realized it, she was standing beside me, peering into my face with worry.

"...Pretty bad, actually."

I felt awful—no, worse than awful.

"You did look kind of out of it today, Alice."

"Did it come all of a sudden? Are you alright?"

Before I knew it, Jun, Fumika, and several other girls from class I was close with had gathered around me. They seemed to be shielding me from the boys’ stares. I was grateful for that.

"Let’s head to the nurse’s office… can you walk?"

"Ah, yeah… I think I can, but this…"

I looked down at the trail of blood running down my thigh.

Yuna pulled out a towel-like handkerchief and handed it to me.

"Here, wipe with this."

"But it'll get dirty..."

"I don’t care about that… or do you want me to wipe it for you?"

The last thing I needed was to look like we were doing some yuri couple act in front of everyone. I quietly accepted the handkerchief from Yuna.

I wiped the blood trailing down my thigh. I wanted to clean inside my skirt too, but with everyone still watching, it felt too indecent.

For now, I’d have to settle for wiping as far as I could reach from under the hem.

"Sensei, Alice isn't feeling well. I’ll take her to the nurse’s office."

"Ah, alright... Take care of her."

The middle-aged male classical literature teacher let out a relieved sigh and gave his permission for us to go.

"Can someone go with you? I’ve got to stay and clean this up."

"Yuna should go. We’ll handle the cleanup," Jun offered.

"But…"

"Jun’s right. We’ll take care of it, so please stay with Alice, okay?"

Fumika backed up Jun. The other girls chimed in, encouraging Yuna to go with me. One of them had already gone to grab a mop and bucket with the teacher’s permission.

"...Alright then. Thanks, everyone."

"...I’m so sorry. And thank you, all of you."

I felt deeply sorry for making them deal with something so gross, and I gave them a sincere apology and thanks.

"Don’t worry about it. We all help each other when things get tough, right?"

"Sensei, I’m sorry for interrupting your lesson… we’ll excuse ourselves now."

With Yuna gently pulling me along, we left the classroom.

I ended up walking pigeon-toed, trying not to let anything drip further. It was pathetic.

The first place we headed after leaving the classroom was the girls’ bathroom right next door.

I just wanted to fix this horrible situation.

"I’ll go get you a change of clothes. Try to clean up in the meantime, okay?"

We split up inside the bathroom, and I went into a stall.

『I'm sorry, Ikuto-san』

From inside the stall, Alicia apologized to me.

I took off my skirt and let it fall.

Seeing my lower half soaked in vivid red, I involuntarily held my breath.

『...Why are you apologizing? Did you know this would happen, Alicia?』

After a moment of hesitation, I decided to take off my panties too.

Wearing something soaked in blood felt disgusting, and it wasn’t hygienic either. If I didn’t have a spare, I’d deal with it then.

『Since I had no experience with this myself, it simply didn’t occur to me... But now that Minstia-sama’s blessing has worn off, the anti-aging effect I had is also gone. I knew this day would come eventually. I should have been more careful...』

I sat down on the toilet after removing my underwear.

Drip by drip, blood fell into the white porcelain bowl, blooming into deep crimson flowers.

"Kinda gross..."

『Huh? So that was actually true? I always thought it was just an excuse for slow growth...』

『Heh... So that’s what you thought, Ikuto-san』

Uh-oh. That was a bad slip.

『Anyway, what's done is done... More importantly, will this come out?』

I held up the skirt I’d taken off. The back was stained with red.

『I can clean it with Purify, but... if it’s not white, it takes the color out along with the stain...』

So that’s why Alicia’s robes were always pure white. Mystery solved.

Hoping the stain would come out, I folded the skirt, hid the bloodied panties inside it, and set it on top of the toilet tank.

『But... are you okay? I mean... showing something like this to someone else—especially a man—it must’ve felt uncomfortable...』

Naked from the waist down, I began wiping away the mess with toilet paper.

A sour smell filled the stall.

"I don’t think it bothers me that much... Probably won’t cause too much trouble. Guys already have a hard time even talking about this stuff."

If anyone made the mistake of joking about it, they'd probably get excommunicated by the girls in class.

Some of the boys might whisper about it like it’s some pervy topic, but... well, that’s just how it is. Sorry, Alicia.

"More than that, the idea that this pain’s going to come every month—that’s what really gets me."

Now that I was calmer, the stomach pain came back into focus and was all the harder to ignore.

『...I agree. I’d heard about it, but actually going through it is rougher than I imagined』

The two of us let out a long, shared sigh.

Just as I’d finished cleaning myself up, there was a knock on the stall door—Yuna had returned.

『Alice, I brought your change of clothes. Unlock the door』

I mean, I’m still half-naked down here… but it felt pointless to worry about that now, especially with Yuna.

I unlocked the stall door.

"How are you feeling, Alice?"

Yuna peeked in with a worried look, holding a paper bag in her hand.

"I brought your gym uniform. I also borrowed a pair of spare panties from the nurse’s office, so use these… and here, a pad. Do you know how to use it?"

『…I don’t think there’s a single male high school student who would』

『And I don’t think there’s a single female high school student who wouldn’t… Anyway, I’ll teach you, so I’m coming in』

Yuna stepped into the stall and locked the door behind her.

Then, as I sat on the toilet with a fresh pair of panties pulled up to my knees, Yuna’s crash course on how to use a pad began.

…If anyone saw this, it’d be seriously embarrassing.

But Yuna was being completely serious, teaching me because she was genuinely concerned for me, so I pushed any weird thoughts aside and focused on her instructions.

Now I understood why girls sometimes carried pouches when going to the bathroom.

…I’d always assumed they just had makeup in them.