Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 7===

It wasn’t yet dawn.

“Nhh…”

Frenda sat cross-legged, raised her arms, and stretched her back inside a makeshift tent made from cardboard boxes. Even as she stretched, her hands didn’t reach the ceiling. The cardboard arrangement provided a fair amount of space. That unhoused man was apparently really thankful for what she had done.

Frenda Seivelun was acting as a member of the dark side. She needed to be able to adjust her sleep time and be at her best condition at an hour too early for most people to be awake.

She slipped out of the cardboard box house.

The park had a variety of facilities alongside it, including plenty of unmanned services like drink and bread vending machines, lockers, and a laundry. How was that kind of business handled on public land?

She felt sweaty after sleeping.

“In the end, there’s no one here.”

Frenda peered inside the entrance and found the outside world’s laundromats really did only have a bunch of washing machines lined up. Maybe they thought there wasn’t anything there to steal because the place didn’t even have the bare minimum of security cameras on the ceiling.

It was just past 3AM, so no one else was there.

“Okay.”

Fortunately, she still had some of her emergency cash. Laundry? That was a matter of life-or-death for a girl! (Really.) Frenda stripped off her only change of clothes and tossed each article into the washer. She didn’t even need her underwear right now. After she pressed the button to get the washer spinning, she frowned. She had chosen the more expensive express mode, but the timer said it would be 60 minutes until the washer was done.

(That’s not good… In the end, I won’t even have any underwear until this is done.)

The way she stood naked below the bright fluorescent light and stared blankly at her underwear spinning round and round may have had something to do with only just having woke up.

After a bit, she had a great idea.

She was already naked and there was no sense in wasting time, so she could take a bath while she waited.

During the day, the unhoused men had told her how to make 40-degree bathwater. After heating water up to 100 degrees in a pot using a portable stove, she poured that into a metal bucket and added cold water according to the ratio they had told her. The outside world’s lack of required fire alarms was a wonderful thing.

(Yeah, that’s it… In the end, I need a bath to really wake me up.)

She used a wet towel to wash her body, starting with her right upper arm. She left her underarms and neck for last.

For her head, she had to use up a whole bucket’s worth – 10 liters – of water. She used a single-use shampoo bottle meant for camping. You could get anything at a discount store.

(In the end, doesn’t the average bathtub take 200-300 liters to fill? I’m conserving a ton of water this way.)

And as her mind started to spin up, her capacity for shame slowly recovered.

…

Wait.

What do you mean I have to spend 60 minutes naked?

The girl’s face silently flushed deep red.

“Huh? Wait. In the end, huh???”

Even if I am still drowsy, why did I choose to act like I’m still in one of the luxury apartments we use for hideouts? I’m outside!! And I’m a young girl with perfect skin. Am I attempting an entirely pointless test of courage where I strip naked and get on an empty elevator late at night where I won’t have anywhere to run!?

(Faster, faster, faster, finish faster. In the end, fasterrrr!!)

Each minute and second seemed to drag on.

Finally, the spinning washing machine made a different sound. Now it sounded like a giant hair dryer? It must have entered its drying mode.

Was she going to make it?

No, her sharp survival instincts developed on the dark side were setting off warning signals.

It was faint, but she could hear footsteps.

And the gap between the sounds was wide, suggesting these were the long strides on an adult man.

(Wait, wait, wait, wait!?)

She heard a shrill beep.

The washing and drying were finally complete.

Frenda scrambled to get the washer open and pull out her clothes.

Her bra slipped from her hand and fell to the floor, but she ignored that for now.

As long as she got her miniskirt dress on, she could get through this. That was a simple action she did every single day of her life.

“Ugh!? M-my head and arms…why do they keep catching!?”

Was that because her maiden skin was still damp?

And the more she panicked, the less she was capable of getting her arms through the sleeves. Her head was caught inside the dress. Which of the three holes was she meant to put her hands through? The panic was really setting in now! How could she have gotten lost in her favorite miniskirt dress? She felt like a kitten with its head caught in a tissue box!

And the unhoused man who she had (calculatingly) rescued yesterday poked his head in the entrance.

Looking puzzled.

“Oh, what are you doing up this early?”

“Eek!? Ah ha ha☆ In the end, it’s nothing. Whew, barely made it…”

“?”

At the very, very last second, she draped just the thin poncho over herself, grabbed the other clothing in her hands and held it in front of herself to cover everything. Still blushing bright (and looking something like a teru teru bouzu or like her sister when changing into her school swimsuit), Frenda tried to laugh it off. Even if she had given up on putting on her miniskirt dress which kept catching on her wet skin and even if her striped panties were caught around her right ankle.