8:25.

That was the time displayed on the screen. It was a very real number.
It took the girl 3 seconds to process all of this. Her eyes opened wide. The words tumbled out of her mouth.

"Ah… I-I-I…" She took a breath.

"I'm late!" She screamed.

The movements that followed were almost too fast to follow. She pulled off the blankets and ran into the bathroom in her pyjamas. She returned at lightspeed and complained to the empty room.

"Why didn't you wake me up?!"

The voice, whose hard work had been rewarded, (understandably) replied angrily.

"That's just what I've been doing all morning!"

"Argh… You know I can never wake up if all you do is yell. You should have beaten me awake!

"As if that's even possible." The voice replied.

"Ohhhh, why does this have to happen every day? In my next life, I hope I'll be the kind of person who can wake up easily even at the crack of dawn." The girl muttered, and quickly began to change, taking clothes off, putting clothes on, getting into the sailor uniform, and finally smoothing down her messy hair. The few rebellious strands were--

"Haaaaah!"

pushed down with spirit.

She grabbed her light beige bag and her keys. The moment she was about to dash out the door, however, the voice spoke up again.

"Hey! Don't leave me behind again!"

"Oh, sorry!"
The girl hurried back and grabbed a small phone strap lying on the desk. It had a simple design, made with green leather and yellow metallic decorations. Because she didn't have a cell phone, there was a key (that wasn't her room key) hanging from the strap.

"Thanks."

Extraordinarily enough, the disembodied voice had been coming from this phone strap the whole time.

The girl moved over to the door and reached out for her western belt. It was by the door so she wouldn't forget. She put it around her waist and secured the buckle. There were several green pouches hanging from the belt. Over her right thigh there was a brown leather holster holding a revolver. Naturally, it was just a model gun that did not go against any firearms restrictions. But that was besides the point that most girls did not carry around such things, model gun or not. But thinking too much about things like this would slow down the pace of the story, so please don't worry about it too much.

The girl opened the door with incredible force and ran out of her room. The sound of the door closing and being locked echoed down the hallway, as well as the voices of the two people(?) running down the hallway.

"I'm definitely late, Hermes! It's all your fault!"

"Why is it my fault? You're the one who slept in, Kino!"

And so the high school student "Kino" and her mysterious cell phone strap "Hermes" noisily began their day.