Danganronpa: String Theory (DrV3)

1.2 - Ctrl+Z!

I stiffen up as pain blossoms once again at my bicep- this time worse than the pain from my muscle twitches. Rantaro gives me a curious look at my flinch, but I just smile nervously and look away from him. Once his gaze is off of me, I let my eyes flick down to my arm, watching as the color of my blood slowly begins to seep from under the sleeve of my uniform.

Oh no, I think, biting my lip and clutching my arm in an attempt to staunch the blood flow with pressure. I don't want to trouble Rantaro again, he's too nice...! What if he gets annoyed with me? Or worse, thinks I'm doing it on purpose to get his attention?! Yeah, it's better if I just stay quiet. I'll just pretend I don't see any-

"Whoa! What happened to your arm, it's gushing! Who did this to you?! Was it a degenerate male?! Point your finger, sweetheart, I'll beat them up for you until they're unrecognizable!" The girl with those strange chain-link pigtails howls when she sees the mess of my arm, falling hard to her knees beside me. When Rantaro sits up at her words and moves to take my wrist so he can examine my bleeding arm, the girl's head slowly turns towards him in what resembles a weapon locking on to a target.

"I-It wasn't him, don't worry!" I squeak defensively, positioning myself so I'm in front of Rantaro where the girl won't be able to grab at him. "Rantaro's nice, I swear!"

The girl eyes Rantaro after my statement, the green haired teen obviously surprised by my little outburst to defend him. There's a dry look in the girl's eyes, like she could never believe my words, but after the two have a bit of a stare down (mostly one sided on Tenko's end), the girl eventually looks back to me and offers me a lovely smile.

"I'll stand down this time, but don't let your guard down, okay? Remember, all males are degenerates and can't be trusted! Be wary for the nice ones, they're the degenerates that you really need to watch out for!" She exclaims before pointing at herself brightly. "The name's Tenko Chabashira! Feel free to scream if you ever need me!"

"Uh, yeah... O-Okay," I answer, realizing there's no way a girl like Tenko would ever change her mind about boys. Even if the boy happens to be sweet or kind hearted like Gonta or Rantaro. "I'm Prairie Marble and this is-"

"Oh! That's such a pretty name for a pretty girl like you!" Tenko very obviously interrupts me, making it clear she's not concerned about learning Rantaro's name whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Rantaro is working on using that old sleeve of his that was wrapped around my arm to soak up most of the blood that had gushed out, patting my arm from the top to the bottom. As I lift my head to look at him for his verdict on this girl, I can see he's wearing a strange but amused expression on his face. As if he thinks she's one of the more odd ones around.

I don't blame him. She is kind of weird... Not terribly so at least.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then!" Tenko brightly comments, before casting a warning glare towards Rantaro on her way back to the others in the gym. I hear Rantaro muffle a slightly nervous laugh behind me, allowing my nerves to relax after Tenko's departure. Good to know he was able to get away unscathed without her going for his throat...!

"Prairie..."

I wince at his tone, turning to face him and shrinking back slightly as he lets out a sigh of disapproval that only serves to make me shrink back even more.

"If you're bleeding or in trouble, please let me know. Don't worry about me, helping you doesn't bug me or anything. And even if it did, I'd rather you bug me than pass out from blood loss, alright? I'd be more annoyed if you put yourself in a position where you could hurt yourself, even accidentally," Rantaro chastises me. I make a small noise and nod in understanding, despite not planning to keep the promise since I still don't want to burden him.