Gakuen Kino:Volume1 Chapter1

Chapter 1

Under the summer skies, a student raced up the slopes surrounded by cherry blossoms as though her life depended on it. A girl wearing her sailor uniform rushed out of the already empty dormitories. Just then, a guard by the lobby greeted her. Plainly yet trying to be humorous, he said “Ah… Even if you flew there at the speed of light, I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to make it. Good luck!”

The girl known as Kino was a first year student in the school, which consisted of both middle and high school sections. A number of students who lived in the dormitories came from far away places and were there especially to study. Others made use of the school bus to travel to school.

And so, the pouches and gun around her waist swayed along with Kino’s desperate running.

“Maybe we could still make it!”

The moment she exclaimed this with hope, the alarm mercilessly rang out throughout the school campus signaling the start of lessons. The distance from where they were to the school was at least a few hundred meters away and the road was a slope, which required quite an amount of energy to climb. For a student living in the dormitories and using the cafeteria daily, the distance from there to school did not leave much of an impression.

“We’re really late…”

“Incredibly late. You deserved it!”

A dejected Kino and the cellphone strap, Hermes, hung around her waist began to squabble with each other. Kino started to move with heavy steps as though her bag and guns, as well as her headband and sailor uniform, had gained a few thousand kilograms in weight.

“Hey Kino, you don’t intend to run anymore?”

“Since I’m fated to be late, forget it… Might as well wait for the teacher to be out of class before sneaking in. It’s easier.”

“You’re really lacking drive. It’s doesn’t matter if you do this in school, but if you think like this during ‘battles’, we’re doomed.” Hermes commented, bringing in the subject of something completely illogical.

Kino continued on the empty slope and harshly replied, “Even with you saying ‘Battles’…are they even for real?”

“What are you saying?!” Hermes answered angrily. “Don’t you believe me? If not, then why are you currently talking to a cellphone strap? If it wasn’t for real, wouldn’t Kino have become a weirdo who talks to herself?”

“Well… That’s true…But even if ‘transforming into a bringer of justice and fighting demons within the school’ was true, what am I to do? Ah this is so frustrating!” Kino spoke without enthusiasm and took out her handkerchief to wipe off the sweat that had gathered after her run.

Hermes then made an attempt to cheer her up. “Alright, Kino. To allow you to have a successful school life, your memories and combat abilities have been slightly limited. As soon as something happens, you’ll transform into a fighter of justice and battle it out with an army of demons intending to take over the universe! After all, you are a hero chosen by the Goddess!”

With an air of confidence that came from heaven knows where, Hermes explained everything which if spoken by a normal person, were words which would be dismissed and treated as though the speaker’s brain had been damaged. Kino however, simply stayed still with a dumbfounded expression and looked up at the blue sky.

“I don’t feel all that powerful though…”

“When the time is right you will understand.”

“I hope it doesn’t come too soon. I just want to have a normal, peaceful high school life.”

“Even if you’ll be frequently late?”

“Yup!”

The two proceeded towards the school, conversing with each other without much sense.

The school and its gates appeared before them as they completed climbing up the slope. The steel gate had already been shut tightly, but there was a smaller door for entrance and exit…

“Oh shit…”

Kino frowned in disappointment. Just ahead stood four students wearing sailor uniforms and white collared uniforms with bands saying ‘Student Council: Special Forces’ around their arms. One look at their expressions and even a wailing child would obediently keep quiet. This was the Special Forces team that belonged to the school’s ‘Extremely efficient yet intimidating student council’ doing their job. Although they are not always on duty by the gates, today was an unfortunate coincidence.

“Why… Of all days to die it did it have to be today…” Kino, who wasn’t late yesterday spoke with annoyance.

Kino slowly made her way towards them, muttering “Oh right, can I transform right now and kill those four instantly?”

However, Hermes refused to respond. The existence of this speaking cellphone strap is illogical, but at least its actions are fairly sensible.

“Alright! The student in front, take out your student handbook!” One of the four student council members demanded, she was a second year high school student.

“………”

Giving up the idea of killing, Kino reached into the pocket by her book bag and took out her student handbook without protest. A third year boy whose face resembled a snake snatched the book away and carefully compared the student photo with the person herself. Feeling extremely bothered by this male student, she purposely mimicked the photo’s graceful expression in order to annoy him. However, this snake-faced boy was both strict and professional and could only return the handbook and jot down her name in the record book.

“You’re Kino from the high school section, year 1 class X, am I right? Let me ask you, how many times have you been late during this school term? Would you kindly answer?”

He asked this to purposefully to make things difficult. Normally teachers would record the number of times a student had been late, but the student council can’t possibly do a double check daily, and even if it was confirmed they couldn’t do anything about it. Mostly, they were just looking to create trouble. If a student actually did reply with a number, they would reply with “That’s quite a lot, isn’t it!” or, “There shouldn’t be so many, should there?” And if one had to answer but didn’t have any, “Can it be that you can’t remember because there are too many?”

“Although I can’t remember the exact number of times… I’m sure it’s less than 200,004,500.” Kino replied matter-of-factly in a nonchalant attitude. Goodness! She was only pretending to be calm under the intimidation of 4 people against 1.

“Well then, we’d like to check if you brought any restricted objects!”

(~14% translated)

Back to Prologue

Return to Main Page

Forward to Chapter 2