Academy’s Drunk Fighter

A morning like any other.
The birds chirped, and the flowers bloomed.

“Whew, morning workouts really do feel good.”
She looked out the window at the rising sun as she prepared breakfast and slowly savored her meal.
The clock read 6:30.

If she left for the academy now, she’d arrive with time to spare.
“Alright, let’s go.”
The blue-haired girl hung her student ID around her neck and stepped outside.

[Ariel Noah]
There was strength in her stride, and she had a good feeling about the day ahead.
After all, she had beaten out countless competitors this year to become the second-year student council president!

Her father had smiled when he heard the news, and that alone had made her Monday morning feel bright.
A man who barely reacted to anything was smiling—what more could you ask for?
On her way toward the academy, however, she came across something that triggered a moment of cognitive dissonance.

“Uuuugh…”
“…A homeless girl?”
A gray-haired girl was passed out between piles of trash and a discarded mattress.

If she were just some ordinary vagrant, Noah might’ve walked past without noticing. But the girl’s appearance wasn’t something one could overlook.
Too striking to be called a mere homeless person.
Most people would probably feel an instinctive urge to protect her at first sight.

She looked more like someone’s custom-built android, abandoned for unknown reasons.
“…No, more importantly…”
Noah squinted at the girl’s face. A familiar memory surfaced.
“The Mad Bitch of the Entrance C—…no, no, that’s not it.”

The girl who got drunk and caused a scene at the entrance ceremony.
She’d already earned herself a weird, widely-known nickname. But lying here asleep like this, she looked far too peaceful for any of that to make sense.
Still, Noah couldn’t fathom why the girl was sleeping here of all places.

“What time is it…”
She still had plenty of time before classes started.
Today was the first day of the second-year term, and she’d left an hour earlier than usual just in case something happened.

Which meant she had two options: go on to school, or wake the girl up.
Noah chose the latter.
“Mnngh… five more minutes…”

She couldn’t tell if it was drunken babbling or sleep talk, but as she tried to rouse her, the girl slowly rubbed her eyes and sat up.
“Uh… hi?”
“…Who are you?”

“I’m a student at Central Academy. You were sleeping here, so…”
“Oh, I see.”
The girl nodded like she understood, then picked up a bottle of something sitting beside her and took a swig.

“What’s that?”
“Liquor. Tastes bad… want some?”
“Uh… I’m good.”

“Okay.”
Their conversation was going nowhere, so Noah tried asking a question to move things forward.
“Mind if I ask why you were sleeping out here?”

“Hmm?”
“…?”
“Ah, right.”

The girl closed ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) her eyes, as if trying to recall something, then spoke.
“Yeah, yesterday I went out to find a job agency or something… but I guess I passed out on the way.”
“Are you… sick or something?”

“No, not that. I just haven’t eaten in about a week.”
“You haven’t eaten… for a week?”
“There’s this illness where I’ll die if I don’t drink alcohol, but booze costs too much. I tried eating grass like in comics, but I guess that was pushing it.”

Noah fell into deep thought, watching the girl mutter to herself about how manga aren’t real after all.
Should she bring this girl to her place and give her a proper meal?
No, wait—what if this is all a joke? Isn’t this starting to feel like the beginning of a complicated mess…?

But Noah wasn’t the type to abandon someone her age who hadn’t eaten in a week.
“Uh… wanna come over and eat something at my place?”
“I’d appreciate that, but I don’t have any money.”

“M-Money’s not a problem!”
“This isn’t, like, a kidnapping scenario or something, right?”
“Of course not!!”

And so, Noah’s protective instinct shattered her wariness toward the stranger in an instant.
She brought the girl to her house and sent her into the bath first.
“Are you sure it’s okay to help me this much? You’re being so kind, I feel bad.”

“…It’s fine.”
The truth was, the girl looked like she hadn’t bathed in days—her overall condition was clearly not great.
Noah hadn’t intended to go this far, but since she’d already invited her over, she figured she might as well let her clean up.

“Puhah…”
“Waaah…”
She then offered the side dishes she’d made earlier, already portioned out for serving.

Even then, the girl still looked wary, asking, “There’s no sleeping pills in this, right?”—but once she gave in and started eating, she emptied the bowls at a terrifying speed.
“This is delicious!!”
“R-Really?”

“I mean, it’s not restaurant-level or anything, but if your friends came over, they’d probably say it’s pretty good.”
Noah shrank back a little at the brutally honest review, but seeing the girl fill her cheeks with food made her feel warm inside.
“Come to think of it… your hair isn’t actually gray, huh?”

“Yeah, probably just because I didn’t have anywhere to wash for a while.”
“…Right.”
She wanted to say, If you’re ever in trouble, just come here again. But even she knew that was too much meddling.

Everyone has their own circumstances.
Poking into them too deeply wouldn’t do either of them any good.
Like a kid who begs to adopt a pet just because it’s cute, only to get bored and abandon it later—Noah had no intention of being that kind of thoughtless person.

She’d feed her and send her off. That was all she intended to do.
She didn’t have the means to take responsibility for someone else’s life.
“Mm… still, it really has been a long time since I’ve eaten a meal like this.”

“…Ugh.”
In that moment, she felt a thump in her heart.
‘No, Noah. Don’t—! Don’t say anything stupid!!’

Her lips almost moved naturally at the words “It’s been a long time since I ate a proper meal”, but she barely managed to hold herself back.
“Haah… Uh… so, where are you living now?”
“The academy dorms. It’s the old dorms, but it’s cheap, so I like it.”

“At least you’ve got somewhere to sleep…”
“Right?”
And then silence fell again.

What caught her eye this time was the bottle of alcohol sitting on the table.
“More importantly… that thing you said earlier about dying if you don’t drink—was that real?”
“I was joking. My head just hurts a bit, it’s not like I’ll actually die… probably?”

“Thank goodness.”
Seriously, what a relief.
Maybe it didn’t matter when they were just applicants, but once someone officially entered Central Academy, all disruptive substances like tobacco or alcohol were strictly banned.

Especially since Noah had become a second-year student council president—she’d thoroughly reviewed all the academy’s regulations.
When she explained this to the girl, the girl’s movements froze.
“Total… ban? Is there really no exception?”

“Nope. There was this one upperclassman who claimed he was addicted to nicotine and tried to treat himself by smoking on campus… ended up causing a fire and getting expelled. That’s why the rules got stricter.”
“That bastard.”
“Huh?”

“Ah, no, nothing.”
Noah watched the visibly anxious girl for a moment, then glanced at the ticking clock and quickly grabbed her bag.
“Ah, I gotta go! Don’t you need to get going too?”

“Today’s Monday?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow… I must’ve been unconscious for two full days!”

“…”
Noah was stunned speechless by the girl casually admitting she’d been passed out for two days—but now she really didn’t have time.
“I’ll see you at school if we run into each other!”

“Thank you.”
.
.

.
.
.

The girl who took me to her house for a bit—her name was Noah.
I was able to learn quite a bit from her.
First, that today was Monday.

Who would’ve thought I’d pass out so soon after heading out to look for a job agency?
And for two whole days, no less.
If it hadn’t been spring, I might’ve actually died of hypothermia.

Well, I guess it’s lucky I woke up.
But the real problem was the news that alcohol was completely forbidden.
I’d hoped I might be able to get a temporary permit or something, but to think it was a total ban…

All thanks to some nameless, goddamn bastard of a senior who screwed things up.
No matter how much of a game veteran I was, there’s no way I’d memorized every single academy rule—so I had no idea.
“What the hell do I do now…”

Not being able to drink at the academy—
That immediately meant a drop in my mental stats.
And since I couldn’t exactly go around telling people about my curse, getting official permission was out of the question.

“Hiding it… huh…”
Probably not gonna work.
Maybe with some tiny Japanese-style pocket bottle, but this body was too small.

Even if I switched to cans, there’s nowhere to hide them in this frame, and if I put it in a tumbler or bottle, the smell alone would give me away—or I’d end up getting checked.
A clear screw-up on my part.
Still, it’s not like I could just not go to the academy, so I was desperately trying to think of a solution.

Then—
I remembered the student ID hanging from the girl’s neck.
[Ariel Noah]

“That name… I’m sure of it…”
She was one of the potential heroines a player could choose in the game.
But Dreaming World had incredibly high freedom—whether someone became a heroine or not depended entirely on the player’s choices.

If I remembered correctly, if Ariel Noah wasn’t chosen as a heroine, she’d end up in mortal danger within a month.
“Grrrgh…”
With all these problems piling up, my brain felt like it was about to explode.

I took another swig of the bottle—about half gone now—and let out a sigh, looking up.
There was a convenience store in front of me.
[White Day Chocolates Now On Sale!]

“….”
A corporate product for those who wanted to participate in White Day but didn’t have the skills to make chocolate by hand.
“Ooh.”

Some would call it a cash grab. Others would say it’s just a bit of fun. But looking at that chocolate, I felt a good idea coming together.
I had no clue if it would work—but it was worth a try.