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| ===Extra 1 - Switched Perspectives===
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| (This scene takes place towards the end of volume 1 between chapters 13 and 14)
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| Kaede shut the massive tome and lifted it with both hands. Carefully straining to maintain balance in her upper body, she reached over to deposit it on the bedside counter.
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| It always felt odd that something so simple in her previous body -- an act she could accomplish one-handedly without thought -- now required care and concentration.
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| Since arriving at Hyperion, Kaede did consider putting herself on a physical training regime beyond just her archery exercise. It was a hassle to find oneself so weak that even daily tasks proved difficult at times.
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| However...
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| 'Athletic' didn't quite define her. Other than archery, Kaede had only found sports and martial arts fun when friends dragged ''him'' in, when ''he'' felt like part of a team.
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| ...Even if it was just beating each other up with bamboo sticks and laughing about it afterwards.
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| But in the Königsfeld Academy, not only did Kaede lack workout buddies, she also attracted odd stares and whispers wherever she went.
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| For the first time in her life, she had felt genuine sympathy and understanding for hikikomoris -- shut-ins suffering from acute social withdraw.
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| So while Kaede holed up in Pascal's room pouring over encyclopedias of the new world, she made herself one excuse after another for why she wasn't jogging circles outside.
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| --The weather was too windy.
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| --The morning was already late and cadets had began their outdoor classes.
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| --Her body felt sluggish from sleeping too few hours last night.
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| --And most recently, her loathsome period.
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| But most of all, Kaede questioned if it even helped for her to exercise.
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| Without the testosterone levels of male bodies, bodybuilding was not just slow but also limited in effect. Given her low initial strength, spending hours per week in addition to her meditative archery for a five or ten percent boost just didn't seem a worthwhile investment of time.
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| It wouldn't even help her stamina much. Her Samaran body's rapid tissue recovery already gave her more physical endurance than most people needed.
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| ...Or perhaps that was yet another excuse.
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| After forgetting to pull her comforter back up, Kaede shivered as she felt yet another breeze blow in from the window.
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| She had opened it after Pascal's departure to help ventilate the room. Another 'side effect' of being a girl was that she found male odors... a little too obvious.
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| Pulling off the bedcovers to stand beside the bed, Kaede stepped forth in her thin legs. Her exposed arms and thighs could feel the chill as she walked over to the window. The self-heating magical undergarments might keep her body temperature warm, but that didn't stop the tingling on her skin from the late autumn air.
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| Kaede reached out with her small hands and pulled the window closed before seizing up in one last tremble. Her delicate arms wrapped themselves around her chest again as she made her way back to the enticing warmth of her... well, Pascal's bed.
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| There was once a time when Kaede wondered if small and cute girls ever felt as fragile as they looked.
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| In her current experience, the answer was a resounding yes.
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| Her wrists didn't just ''look'' thin. They even felt like they might break if she tried to apply too much force.
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| Her bare shoulders always felt chilly and desired the embrace of warmth. Her small feet wanted precise, dainty steps to uphold the same steady balance. Even her slim fingers would examine items with a delicate touch before attempting to pick them up.
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| Every simple act left a different sensation from the 'apply strength to everything' approach that came naturally to men.
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| Not every girl was petite and small. But with such feelings in mind, Kaede could certainly understand why the aspiration for ''protection'' was so prevalent among feminine desire.
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| The yearning for safety, for security -- mingled in among the feminine culture of romanticism and love.
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| Of course, to seek shelter from danger was a trait shared by all biological species. But since the macho-oriented culture that governed 'acceptable' male behavior considered it a 'weakness', men rarely yearned for such thoughts and feelings.
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| ...Not on a conscious level, at least.
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| 'Safety' was unmanly. A true man would strive for ambition and adventurous thrill.
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| To seek fame like Achilles, to journey the unknown like Odysseus. To forge dreams into reality like the great kings of old.
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| So for Kaede, casting a spotlight on such emotions was rather an experience -- one she wasn't exactly opposed to either, to her curiosity and surprise.
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| Not that one minor detail like this meant she was agreeing with Pascal.
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| Perhaps she was meant to be a girl? Yeah right. Perfectly male or female personalities were the exception rather than the rule. Most people belonged somewhere in between.
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| It simply took introspective self-reflection for one to recognize their other self -- which unfortunately, women did far better than men.
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| After all, examining oneself for weaknesses was 'unmanly'. The macho creed was to claim invincibility and shift all imperfections away, right?
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| The side-effect of too much testosterone was outright idiocy.
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| Though it would be far-fetched to declare that Kaede was happy inhabiting a girl's body. Sure, she did not miss the alpha contests of male expectations. But the bladed whispers of women as they stabbed their way up the social pecking order was just as painful.
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| Lifting the comforter once more, Kaede pulled her legs back under the soothing warmth of soft fabrics.
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| A gentle smile spread across her lips as she felt her silky skin rubbing against smooth charmeuse once more.
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| Apart from the obvious physical changes, like how tall she was or how she expelled liquids, there were also a bunch of unseen nuances that came with both its good and bad.
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| For example, her skin.
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| It was soft, smooth, and delicate; translucent like perfect porcelain, flawless to behold and touch.
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| Even she couldn't help but admire it.
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| For a girl back on Earth to have such skin, Kaede would have to wonder how much daily effort was spent on lotions, moisturizers, and even baby oil.
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| But those same attributes also made it really sensitive.
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| This... was actually a problem.
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| Being an aristocrat, Pascal's mostly-cotton bedsheets were probably as good as the modern ones Kaede used to sleep on. He apparently found it the right balance between comfort and firmness, at any rate.
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| But for her, it felt coarse.
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| It wasn't sandpaper, but it felt like... bare skin against the carpet, or something like that. The scraping felt a hint itchy.
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| First World Problems, sure. It didn't even bother her unless she moved. Except she did, a lot, since trying to sleep with everything on her mind was hard.
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| But what could she do? Ask for him to switch to silk sheets?
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| Kaede had no doubt Pascal would offer plenty of wisecracks about that one.
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| So during the first week she did the easiest thing.
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| The long gloves and stockings of her undergarment set were charmeuse -- satin-weave -- and covered most of her arms and legs, particularly the parts that did the most rubbing. Kaede had never admired girls for their fabrics before. But these... they were unfair.
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| Well, lingerie were meant to be sleepwear. However embarrassing wearing pure white 'bridal lingerie' was, they were also her only undergarments.
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| Plus, they were blissfully comfortable, and she loved how the warm and silky fabrics tightly enveloped her delicate skin.
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| As Kaede considered herself a pragmatic person, the choice was obvious.
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| She would never have imagined herself sleeping in opera gloves, thighhigh stockings, and a sleeveless, backless leotard with a semi-translucent chiffon miniskirt. But then, just the 'herself' part was already beyond belief even a month ago.
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| Slowly taking off one glove with the help of her lips, Kaede gently ran her fingers across the exposed top of her thigh. The gliding touch felt halfway between a caress and a tickle, its comforting sensation soon tugging at the edge of her lips.
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| No wonder why girls enjoyed skinship so much. Who wouldn't like touching and snuggling, with feelings like these?
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| ...Certainly aeons better than the touch of coarse, hairy limbs from men.
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| Yet at that same moment, Kaede noticed that something was... off.
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| She had been in Hyperion for weeks already. Yet her legs remained as bare as a newborn babe. Forget exposed hair, there wasn't even a hair follicle in sight.
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| Some men might like to pretend that a girl's body was self-maintaining, but Kaede knew better. She had not shaved her legs or anywhere else for the weeks she spent in that body, yet...
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| There wasn't any sign of hair in her armpits either.
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| In fact, now that she thought about it, Kaede was sure she was completely bald beneath her neck.
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| Just what was going on?
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| ...
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| "Hey Pascal," Kaede asked the minute he returned from afternoon training. "Why is it that I don't grow any hair beneath my neck?"
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| "Magic," an amused grin stretched across his lips as he surveyed the small girl still sitting in his bed.
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| Kaede swore he answered that way just to irritate her. The obvious pleasure in his eyes as he took in her sight didn't help one bit.
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| She hardly even noticed when her cheeks began to pout under narrowing eyes.
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| "Do you shave my legs while I'm asleep or something?"
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| "Just what kind of pervert do you take me for?"
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| ''...The kind that summoned me in bridal lingerie.''
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| Kaede barely managed to avoid saying it out loud. The last time she retorted with those last two words, he ended up making her far more embarrassed than he was.
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| Pascal was someone who had no problems admitting anything he chose to do in the first place. Trying to shame him into a disadvantage almost never worked, especially when his skin was several crocodiles thicker than her own.
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| With a shallow sigh from his lopsided smirk, Pascal soon began to explain in his drawling fashion:
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| "Shaving is an uncouth method best left to commoners. We nobles have far more efficient means of tackling such trite inconveniences..."
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| Kaede felt her lips twisting as she listened. Although now that she considered it, she had never seen Pascal trim his hair or even shave his beard. Sure, he was barely a man in age, but there should still be ''something'' there.
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| "--Those undergarments have enchantments built in that nullifies hair growth across your body," he continued with his head held high in a proud, 'you-should-be-thanking-me' pose. "You never need to worry about removing any hair below your chin as they are kept from growing in the first place."
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| "After all, problems should be tackled at its source, not by suppressing its after-effects," Pascal lectured on.
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| "Too bad you couldn't take the same wisdom to periods then" Kaede cut him off with her first thought. "Stop it altogether, instead of just absorbing the blood."
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| "I am not really a medical expert," the reply came under furrowed brows. "But I have read that the menstrual period is an important aspect of the reproductive cycle, although the bleeding is more a byproduct than intended function. As for the cramps -- like we discussed the other day -- it would be inappropriate to trust a mere enchanted item to interfere in the function of primary nerves."
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| Despite her scowl, Kaede slowly nodded back. She certainly agreed that automation -- magical or not -- should only go so far when taking care of biological functions.
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| ...As unpleasant as menstrual periods were.
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| "There is a lengthy medical research article in the library about it if you have time to read up more on the topic," Pascal noted. "Although I warn you that the terminology is rather too specialized for ease of understanding."
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| ''Does that mean...'' Kaede blinked as she paused for a moment. ''He looked it up the other day to see if he could help?''
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| Even though Pascal's know-it-all attitude often annoyed her to no end, she had to appreciate that same desire to understand and help at times like these.
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| The silence between them lingered as a gentle smile made its way to her lips.
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| ...Although it came far too soon, and not for the first time:
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| "By the way, the same set of enchantments on your undergarments also provide skin care, assuming you take care of yourself and not do something like lay under a blistering sun all afternoon."
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| Then, with his lopsided smirk returning once more:
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| "Try to keep yourself in pristine condition for my enjoyment, all right?"
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| The only response Pascal received this time was a pillow tossed into his face.
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| <noinclude>
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| {| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
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| |-
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| | Back to [[Daybreak:Volume_1_Chapter_14|Chapter 14]]
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| | Return to [[Daybreak_on_Hyperion|Main Page]]
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| | Forward to [[Daybreak:Volume_2_Chapter_1|Volume 2]]
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| |-
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| |}
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| </noinclude>
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