Chapter 31: Common Ground

After finishing our luxurious dinner, we relaxed with drinks in hand.

"Eromi, don’t drink too much, nya."

"I know, I know. Just a light one tonight."

I’d already overdone it at Shachou’s place last time. No need to go wild again.

"Now that Eromi’s keeping herself in check, there’s something I want to talk about."

Shachou suddenly spoke up, her tone serious.

"What is it?"

"Remember when I mentioned making a summary of our backgrounds?"

Ah, right—she did say she was going to put that together.

"You actually made it?"

"Yeah. Hang on."

Shachou stood up and walked over to her bag in the corner of the room. She pulled out a stack of papers and a few pens, then returned and set them on the table.

"You’re writing it now…?"

"Figured it’s a good opportunity. I finished up the leftover work yesterday and brought it along."

…Well, fair enough.

"Here."

Shachou handed each of us a pen and a sheet. I took mine and skimmed through the contents.

"There’s quite a lot of sections here."

It even asked for our names and ages. Huh?

"Shachou, don’t you think ‘gender’ is kind of unnecessary?"

"Oh, that? Just a joke. Thought it’d get a laugh."

That’s… questionable.

"Shachou, you were drinking champagne when you made this, weren’t you?"

"Yeah… I was grinning to myself the whole time I wrote it, though…"

Knew it.

"Well, whatever, nya. Let’s just fill it out for now."

"Agreed."

So we started writing, pens scratching quietly across the paper.

"Do we really need to list our hobbies?"

We literally talked about that the other day.

"You never know what we might have in common. Just fill everything out for now."

Hmm… hobbies, huh? All right, scribble scribble.

We kept writing until every field was filled out.

"All done."

"Tama too, nya."

"Same here."

Looks like everyone finished.

"Hand ’em over."

We passed our sheets to Shachou, who began reading through them.

"There was a section labeled ‘sensitive spots,’ right?"

You’ve definitely had too much to drink, Shachou.

"Huh? That wasn’t on mine, nya."

Excuse me?

"Yeah, mine didn’t have that either."

Hey! Shachou!

"My bad. But still, writing something like ‘✕✕✕✕✕’—honestly, what’s wrong with you?"

"Because I like when it’s gently teased there. Feels nice, you know?"

"Right, right… anyway, moving on. As expected, our hobbies and preferences are all over the place."

Shachou brushed me off and continued summarizing the results.

"Figures."

"That much we already knew from our usual chats, nya."

"And we’ve got different jobs too. I’m still a student, after all."

Not to mention, our ages vary a lot.

"Still, Eromi, didn’t know you had a little sister."

There was a section about family, so I just wrote it in.

"Nya!? How old is she?"

"Nineteen. College student."

"Eromi, introduce her to me, nya."

…This cat’s terrifying.

"She’s got about the same chest size as me, you know. And she’s not even that cute."

"Tama isn’t interested in that kind of thing, nya. Besides, I don’t trust a brother’s opinion when it comes to his sister."

Nyako’s being annoying.

"Shachou, I’m just going to ignore Nyako, but… anything else?"

"Yeah, actually. There’s something really obvious we all have in common."

Huh? There is?

"What is it?"

"We’re all from the same hometown."

Wait—what!? Seriously!?

"I’m from Kisarazu in Chiba."

"Nyako’s from there too."

"My grandparents’ house is in that area, actually."

No way.

"What about you, Shachou?"

"Me too—Kisarazu."

Huh?

"Really? That’s actually shocking."

"Tama too, nya…"

"I honestly thought everyone here was from Tokyo…"

That’s… wild.

"This has to be a coincidence, right?"

"Doesn’t seem like one to me."

"Agreed, nya."

"Four people from the same hometown all turning into girls at the same time… that’s even possible?"

Definitely not.
Well, turning from a guy into a girl at all isn’t supposed to be possible in the first place…

"Shachou, aside from birthplace, nothing else stands out?"

"No, but… there’s something else that bothers me."

"What is it?"

"Even though our hometowns match, Chihiro’s situation is a little different."

Ah, right. She went to high school in Tokyo.

"Your grandparents’ house, right?"

"Yeah. It’s the place I visit during New Year’s and holidays."

So technically, it’s not quite the same thing…

"But looking over her background, Chihiro went to middle and high school in Tokyo—but elementary school was in Kisarazu."

"Ah, that’s true. My parents went abroad for work back then, so my sister and I stayed with our grandparents for a couple years. So yeah, my elementary school was in Kisarazu."

"And it turns out, the elementary school Chihiro attended… was the same one we all went to."

Wait—what!?

Hold on…

"So when I was in first grade, Shachou, you were in fourth?"

"That’s right…"

"When Tama was in first grade, Eromi was in third, and Shachou was in sixth, nya."

Ah, so Nyako’s two years younger than me, huh.
She never told us her age before—said it was a “secret” because of her idol status—but I guess in this situation, she had no choice.

"Thinking about Chihiro, it’s less about being in school at the same time and more about having gone to the same school or being from the same area. That’s what I think is the real factor."

A factor…?

A factor?

"I-I think so too."

"Tama as well, nya."

"Uh, sorry, but what’s a ‘factor’?"

Chihiro, I’m treating you to a parfait later.

"It means a cause or key element. Basically, I’m saying that might be the reason we all turned into girls."

"I seeee."

Yeah, that makes sense.

"So our birthplace might be the factor, huh? But aren’t there tons of people from there?"

There are plenty of guys from Kisarazu living in Tokyo. It’s not even that far within the Kanto area.

"True. But since we’ve got no other leads, it’s the only angle we can pursue right now."

That’s fair.

"So what do we do? Go check it out?"

I looked around to see everyone’s reaction.

"Tama doesn’t really want to go near that place, but at this point, it can’t be helped. So fine, nya."

"I don’t mind either."

Looks like Tama and Shachou are on board.

"Sorry, I’ve got midterms coming up soon."

Ah, right. It’s that time of year again.

"Chihirochi, you focus on that first."

"Got it, nya."

"Naturally."

"Sorry."

Nah, it’s fine.

Chihirochi’s got the hell that is test studying ahead of her—no one’s blaming her for that.

"So, what do we do? Go without her?"

Shachou asked.

"It’s already December, right? We’re all going back home for New Year’s anyway. Wouldn’t it be better to do it then? I mean, it’s better if Chihirochi’s there too."

"True enough… Chihiro’s especially younger than us, and it’ll help to have her there when we’re digging up memories. Tama, what do you think?"

Oh, right—Nyako had cut ties with her parents.

"No problem, nya. I’ll just stay at some hotel or something, nya."

"I see… then let’s meet up in Kisarazu at the end of the year. Try to dig up your elementary school memories before then."

Wonder if I’ll remember any of it…

"I’ll try."

"I’ll give it a shot, nya."

"Understood."

After deciding our plans going forward, we all nodded in agreement.

"Alright! Then as a change of pace, I’ll tell you one of my erotic stories!"

"Never-ending, nya…"

"Amazing, honestly."

"Eromi, what kind of story is it?"

Shachou asked.

"Remember earlier when we talked about erogenous zones? Let me show you my ××××."

Study well, my friends.

"Don’t you dare, nya."

"Even without drinking, you’re like this…"

"This one’s unreal…"

Ah—but Kana-chan’s clothes are missing…