Kenji looks at me softly, flicking her impossibly long scarlet and gold scarf over her shoulder. her arms press to her sides as she shivers in the cold of the Yamaku night.

It wasn't too bad of a "date," if you could call it that. Instead of going to the festival, I slept in, and caught Kenji heading out of the dorms at the same time I was.

After insisting that she didn't believe in my "common chauvinistic male conceptions of relation," she said we could just "hang out."

But when the check came around, I picked it up, and despite her squirming, she eventually let me pay.

In return, she promised me a bottle of whiskey she had saved in her dorm room for a "good time."

Kenji givs me a brief nudge, her roughly cropped dark hair waving in the night wind.

"Hey, Hisao?"

"Yeah?"

"D-do you b-belive t-that w-women are o-opressed in t-the world t-today?"

Her voice has an uncharacteristic stutter-as if she's scared of my answer.

But I know the right one. Something about her calling Lilly "a fucking blonde traditionalist dyke," clued me to the fact that Kenji is a very "empowered female."

I give her glasses a light flick as she shivers in the wind, waiting expectantly for my answer.

"Of course I do. Unless they don't pay for the bill."

She gives a pout, her voice shaky in anticipation.

"Hisao!"

I give her scarf a tug.

"You know I do."

I'm rewarded with a bright, genuine smile, as she glances up with me, a glimmer behind her spectacled eyes.

"Come on Hisao, let's get to that whiskey. We'll have a picnic, just for fun, right in my room."

====

As we arrive at the dorms, it doesn't take much effort to sneak past the night guard.

Kenji opens the door to her room with a slight fumbling of the key. I'm assaulted by the wafting smell of garlic.

Her room is like any other girl's room… except for the fact that it's not. Haunting remains of children's toys litter the room, a beheaded care bear, several mutilated barbies, and a large bag of garlic.

She flops lightly on the bed, waiting expectantly for me to come in.

"Hisao, what're you waiting for?"

I get a running start from the door and catch her in a rolling tackle, tickling her as I find myself on top. She looks at me with a calm, expectant gaze.

"Come on, Hisao?"

I give her a light nudge with my elbow.

"Just making sure you don't have any feminist tricks up your sleeve, Kenji."

She gives a light giggle as she punches my arm, her hands moving towards my belt.

"Well, there was that one time I had revenge sex [spoiler] with the Nurse [/spoiler] for not giving me the meds I wanted, so I filled his condom with chili oil."

I stop. Surely she hasn't filled mine with some sort of devious device.

"You're not going to do that to me, are you?"

Her hands, impossibly soft, undo my belt and move to my zipper, teasing with soft, short, tugs.

"Come on, Hisao. You wouldn't deny the girl who managed to take on half the opposing track team, would you?"

Holy shit.

"Why'd you do that?"

She gives another girlish giggle.

"The track captain asked me to. He wanted them tired for the race."

I give her a light slap on the chest as I slip out of my pants, her breathing growing heavier.

"Any other partners I should know about?"

She gives me a piercing look, but relaxes.

"Well, you know… for now… just you. That's all that matters right now, isn't it?"

I suppose so. I guess we'll have time to talk about it later.

I move my fingers to her blouse, and we go at it.