It has been a week since Arina's first arrival at Kunugigaoka Junior High and the students were gradually getting used to her presence, until one day they stopped bothering her completely, letting her roam free around the school in peace.
There had been pretty interesting stuff that happened within the previous week; Torii Hidetoshi did come to school with his brand new Bell helmet and created a bloodshed situation when he decided to headbutt Seo Tomoya. He was suspended later on; however, due to his excellent performance in class, he only got a warning from the principal and got his helmet confiscated.
Koyama Natsuhiko outperformed almost all the students in the top twelve of his class and had a major character development ever since the day Asano Gakushuu approached and told him 'With your strength, you should more boldly look down on others'. Koyama became so much more confident after that, unfortunately even to the point of being egotistical, but he felt a strong obligation to Asano because of this.
Mizuno Ami Peterson got the inspiration for her youtube video after her first P.E class, titled 'That one kid in class whose vomit always ruins the day'. Araki Teppei was her first viewer (like always), he couldn't help but laugh at how badly she cosplayed and portrayed Akeboshi and the janitor man.
Arina Avenira had been contemplating a lot about joining which club; Asano highly encouraged her to join the athletics club to pursue her talent but to his discontentment, she joined the cooking club instead.
'What a waste of talent' he thought.
She met Minami Mei during her first day joining the club, also from her class, and they quickly became friends. The two frequently discussed topics of culinary art and sometimes went shopping together.
Today while baking sweets for the club activities, Arina had something in her mind as Mei was constantly talking about her boyfriend.
"I can't wait to let him try these!" she said, frosting cupcakes skillfully.
"He would be a FOOL if he doesn't like your cupcakes!" declared Arina certainly, grinning broadly, as an idea arrived at her head to which she turned to the club president.
"Oh, senpai! -- lovely senpai, say, perhaps it would be very lovely if I could bring some cupcakes with me and share them with the world...oh well, how many should I take?" she whispered whilst flushing.
The club president was Mei's older sister. Despite being only one year apart, her sister was way taller than Mei was, she stood at 5'6 compared to Mei who was only around Arina's height. Both sisters possessed light purple hair and golden eyes. While Mei chose to tie her hair to a low side ponytail with a lovely ribbon rope hairband, her sister preferred to let her hair down. There was always a hyperfeminine vibe hanging around them that no other girls in school could match up with (Arina idolized Mei for this trait so much). As a result, they were pretty popular among boys if not for Nagasawa Juria's status and beauty to claim the 'queen bee' title by all students.
"Take many as you like," said Minami Maki—Mei's sister, smiling softly.
"O-o-oh, I will forever remember you as a benefactor!" said the dreamy Arina in sheer gratitude, clasping her hands together in delight. In imagination, she saw class 3-E moaning to the scrumptious cupcakes and sighed dreamily.
She wrapped up more than twenty cupcakes and put them in a tote bag as Mei began to question why she had to bring home so much.
"Why would you take home this much, Arina?" she inquired.
"Why, Mei-chan, the cupcakes you baked are just too IRRESISTIBLE! I figured people are not truly living their life to the fullest if they don't at least try them out once in their life! They may have regular cupcakes, of course, but nothing is as comparable to yours — I shall always pity them. But I needn't now, because I've got enough for my neighborhood I suppose."
Mei giggled.
"Then you should definitely take more!" she said eagerly, shoving more cupcakes into Arina's bag. Arina lowkey grinned for being able to satisfy Mei with words only.
"Oh, Mei-chan, you're whom I adore so much. THANK YOU very -- very much for being always so sweet to me. I somehow think we're something of kindred spirits, aren't we? I shall get going now. I wouldn't want to be late for my visit to-- I mean, for my meeting with friends!" waved Arina happily, as she checked the time and hurried her way out of the main building to the class 3-E's building.
While she was already halfway to her precious 3-E senpais, she realized that she forgot something. It was Seo's in need of help that she forgot, he asked her to help him photocopy some documents for the student council's work this afternoon to which she agreed out of kindness.
Arina panicked and immediately changed her direction to a convenience store nearby.
'Oh dear me, fifteen minutes more, hope I could make it by then!' Arina thought whilst checking the time on her phone screen, she was referring to the time when the student council meeting start.
She intended to put her phone away when it suddenly rang, she stared at it while the words on the screen were 'NOT SO CLASSY SEO' who was calling her. She swiped right to answer the phone call knowing what he was up to.
["Arina!! Where are my papers!?"] yelled Seo exactly like what she expected him to. She quickly responded back.
"Oh, dear Seo! I'm SO very sorry! I'm on my way now!"
["Hurry up!! Asano-kun is scolding me because of you!"]
"Waaaait," she began to acknowledge that there was such a thing called 'justice' in this world. "Why, it's your job, Seo. Oh, Seo -- irresponsible Seo, you should've done it earlier so you wouldn't have to rely on a such a forgetful person like me. I didn't like how I'm forgetful, but maybe you should too feel sorry for your irresponsible self--"
["Why would I!?"] questioned Seo through the phone.
There were strange noises coming out from the alley she was passing by. She halted her footstep and had an urge to discover what was happening in there.
"Hold on," Arina told Seo as he got confused.
["What do you mean!? Hey—"]
Before he could finish his sentence, he got hanged up by Arina as she put away her phone and marched into the alley.
"3-E, you mean that 3-E?"
Her eyes widened at what she was witnessing; Ito Itachi—class 3-E's class monitor--was lying on the ground, injured. Beside him was a redheaded boy, pinching another Kunugigaoka student's face against the wall.
"What an awful pretext for picking a fight," the redheaded boy said in a soothing voice tone.
"Oh, my, my!" gasped Arina wide-eyed, and from marching, she converted into running whilst yelling.
"Poor guy -- Put him down you evil redhead!!"
"Huh? I'm on the right here. What's wrong with saving a bullied student?" the redhead replied.
"Oh, it IS wrong to bully him back!" Arina rushed toward the spot and proclaimed passionately.
The mysterious redhead ignored her.
"Pretty please, would you release him?" she uttered in desperation, clasping her hands together.
Fortunately for the guy, the redheaded boy actually listened and let go of his face, he slid and flopped down to the ground.
"My! You're injured!" Arina said in a panic as she came over to examine his injury.
"If you think of yourself as a kind-hearted person, Arina, you should pay attention to the poor 3-E senpai who is lying over there first," the redhead said.
"It's natural for me to approach the person who's currently getting beaten up first...Oooh! I know! The ability to multiply myself would be nice! Why would I not think about it before?"-- Arina said gleefully while reaching for the aid kit in her messenger bag--"Oh! By the way, how do you know my name?"
"Hm~? You don't seem to be aware of your popularity," he replied in a playful tone.
"Oh! Is that so?" her eyes widened, as the bully whimpered in pain while she tried to apply pressure to the wound on his head using a gauze.
"Shh...it's okay -- it's okay. You're okay...," comforted Arina, rubbing his back gently, then carefully examining the rest of his injuries. "Your arm and leg are broken too...hang in there, alright? Stay strong."
"A-Arina..."
Ito Itachi called out for the girl as it immediately caught Arina's attention, to which she turned to him, concerned.
"Hold this, okay? I'm gonna bring you to the hospital soon," said Arina with a gentle smile, letting the bully hold the gauze on his own to stop the bleeding whilst she rushed over to Ito's side.
"I'm here -- I'm here..." she said softly, dropping to her knees and started examining his injuries and eventually treating them the same way as the bully's wound.
"May I know your name?" she asked with her back still facing the redheaded boy.
"Akabane Karma," he said, shoving his hand in pockets. "Don't mind my name sounding unusual for you."
"Oh! What a perfectly unique name! Is there a reason behind it?"
The way she acted friendly toward him and admired his name after witnessing and disapproving of his immoral actions made Karma doubt the girl's motive. Was she trying to manipulate him or something?
Just then, a blue-haired student called out for his friend's name and ran into the alley in a relief state when he finally found him, "You got into another fight?" he asked while his eyes widened.
"Your friend?"
For once, the foreign girl tore her attention away from the injured student and turned to look at the blue-haired student.
The moment their gaze met, he instantly blushed upon viewing her appearance. "Y-yes! I am his friend."
"Can you help me call the taxi to the hospital?" Arina said in a serious manner. "These two got some bad injuries that required certain tools--"
And her phone rang again, punctured through her words as she sighed and picked it up, "Oh, dear Seo, I figured you should resolve it yourself."
She then powered off her phone before the guy could burst out his anger, "Anyway, we shouldn't let them lying here any longer."
The blue-haired boy nodded and dialed the taxi number while Arina turned to Karma, "I'm gonna carry Ito-senpai to the car, and you gonna carry him (she inclined her head to Ito's bully) alright? Make peace!"
"No, why would I try to make peace with someone who deserves to be treated otherwise," said Karma, expecting to have her disagree with him, or so he thought. Arina was forgiving and respected his idea enough to say:
"Okay, I'll do it for you then!"
With a delightful smile, she made Ito hold the gauze on his wound and leaped on her feet, sauntering toward the bully--who was groaning in pain.
"It's okay...what's your name?" she whispered, gently patting him.
"Matsuda...Hakaku..." he panted.
"Alright, Matsuda-san! Let's get you to the hospital. Stay strong until then, okay?" beamed Arina, radiating positive energy, to which the guy slightly nodded despite still groaning in pain.
"And you pretty boy! What's your name?" she delivered her gaze at the blue-haired boy, as he again blushed.
"S-Shiota Nagisa, nice to meet you," he politely said.
"It's my pleasure to meet such a new, unique individual like you too, Shiota-kun! I like your hair-- no, I LOVE it a lot! not many guys I met are fond of long hair!" Arina giggled.
Nagisa was more shocked to see how Arina didn't get confused with his gender since his appearance overall was often described as 'feminine' according to others, he kindly replied, "T-thank you! and you're Arina Avenira from the OSOU right? Also, I thank you for taking care of the mess that my friend created."
He bowed as Karma instantly felt anger rising in his chest, "Nagisa-kun, there's nothing wrong with what I'm doing. That guy deserved to be beaten up for doing the same thing with a 3-E senpai. Sometimes violence is the quickest way to resolve problems."
"Hmm...what should I say...I don't think using violence to abolish violence would result in a nice consequence though. People would always -- always get involved in vengeance that way! It's like a never-ending circle," said Arina thoughtfully, continuing to apply pressure to stop the bleeding from Matsuda's head.
Finally, the taxi arrived as Arina had to try princess carry the injured guy so he won't experience any further pain from his arm and leg.
"Is that okay, Arina?" sweatdropped Nagisa upon seeing a little girl princess carry a full-grown guy to the taxi.
"Okay? Oh, I'm HAPPY that I get to help people!" replied Arina brightly, the taxi driver came out and opened the door for her as she put Matsuda in the backseat of the car.
"Karma-kun?"
Karma walked past Nagisa piggybacking Ito Itachi and also placed him in the backseat next to the bully.
"Thank you..." whispered Ito to Karma, to which he smiled in return.
"No problem~"
"Alright! Come on, boys!" Arina beamed, getting in the rear middle seat, followed by Nagisa. "Let's embark on the adventure to the hospital, shall we?"