“I never said you could use my first name.”
“You’re a gyaru. Means you’re trying to get with a guy, right? Guess I don’t have a choice. I’ll go out with you.”
Crap, crap, crap, CRAP! This guy is bad news! First of all, stalking doesn’t count as meeting someone. And does he not get that I’m not interested?! We don’t even know each other! I should’ve brought someone with me. And a gyaru’s not a slut, you jerk! How do I turn him down? It would suck if he got all butthurt about me rejecting him... Gotta handle this right. Ugh, this is so damn tricky!
“Just be honest already. I’ll make you feel real nice.”
Ruka started to panic. When Yoshiyama walked right up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, something snapped inside her.
Goodbye, Yoshiyama-paisen’s, y’know... And sorry to his parents. You might wanna give up on ever having grandkids.
She got ready to kick him in the—
“Ugh!” Yoshiyama’s face twisted in pain.
Two hands in black gloves glowing silver gripped his head from behind. “Can’t you tell you’re upsetting her?”
“Wh-Who the hell are you?!”
“I have no intention of giving you my name.”
“What are you... Agh! Ahhhhhh!” Yoshiyama screamed, and his arms and legs started flailing around. Then his face went slack. The gloved hands let go of his head, and he slumped to the ground with his body sprawled out on the dirt.
“G-Ginka...” Ruka stammered.
Ginka Shijunana looked down at Yoshiyama with a harsh glare before letting her exoforce fade. “I made the right choice coming here.”
“Wh-What’d you do to Yoshiyama-paisen?”
“I ran a small amount of exoforce through his body, which rendered him unconscious. Don’t worry, he should wake up in a few minutes.”
Her cheeks are pink. She must’ve left in the middle of Mei and Hina doing her makeup.
Ruka stared at Yoshiyama before looking back up at Ginka with a strained smile. “There’s a ton I wanna say, but... Thanks for saving me.”
“You’re welcome. Shall we head back to the classroom?”
“No, wait, we gotta take this guy to the nurse’s office.”
“Hmm...?” The look on Ginka’s face said she didn’t understand Ruka’s suggestion at all. “Why? This man tried to assault you.”
“Sure, but he’s knocked out. I feel bad just leaving him here.”
“You feel bad...?”
“Uh, yeah. Is that a problem?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that, but...” Ginka opened and closed her mouth a few times without any words coming out. She shook her head. “Ruka, why are you so kind?”
The compliment made Ruka flinch. Normally she would’ve just accepted it or maybe joked about it. But she was still tense because of Yoshiyama, and that made her feel weird about what Ginka had said. It took her a sec before she could say anything.
“Where’s this coming from? My wallet’s seriously hurting after we went shopping, so I’m not gonna give you anything just for saying something extra nice.”
“That wasn’t flattery. I truly wish to know... He is a wicked person who used violence to try to force you to obey, yet you wish to take him to the nurse’s office. Why show a villain any kindness? How were you raised into such a caring person?”
“S-So many questions...” Ruka tried acting like she was overwhelmed, but Ginka wasn’t backing down.
Guess I gotta give her a serious answer, but...
“I don’t think I was raised in a special way or anything. Everything’s normal... I’m normal. A normal gyaru. Wait, what does a normal gyaru even mean?”
“Anything you can think of would be appreciated. Please, tell me anything that comes to mind.”
“You really want a serious answer, huh...”
Ruka felt Ginka’s intense questioning wearing her down. She made sure her skirt didn’t flip up as she squatted next to Yoshiyama. Then she grabbed one of his arms with both of her hands. He probably had thick arms and legs because he was on the soccer team, and he was too big and heavy for her to carry on her own.
“Help me carry Yoshiyama-paisen,” she told Ginka, “and I’ll see what I can remember.”
Ginka didn’t look too happy about that, but she grabbed his other arm.
The two of them started pulling Yoshiyama toward the nurse’s office. His feet dragged on the ground, and his arms were at weird angles like they were rotated back behind his shoulders. It was a pretty awful way to move someone, but Ruka didn’t feel too bad about it because of what he’d tried to do to her.
She thought about Ginka’s question as they dragged Yoshiyama along. “If you’re hoping to hear a whole backstory about my kindness or whatever, I got nothing...”
When she rooted around her brain for the word kindness, nothing stood out. She was happy Ginka had said something so nice, but she felt like her life wasn’t really about that.
“Whatever you can recall is fine,” said Ginka.
“Okay, but, hmm...” Come on, there’s gotta be something rolling around in here... Ruka thought hard until something finally came to her. “Ryoko-san—my mom, she’s a nurse, and she came into my school when I was little to be, like, a guest speaker? She told our class, ‘Don’t forget how precious life is, and don’t forget to be kind.’ It was pretty awkward having my mom teach a health class, though...” Ruka chuckled a little.
Ginka’s expression didn’t shift. Ruka got serious that’s it? vibes, so she thought about it some more.
“Oh, my grandma scolded me once, and she said to remember that everybody’s circumstances are different. And my grandpa used to tell me to follow my heart when I wasn’t sure what to do, I guess...”
Ruka groaned like a broken vacuum. She could probably come up with something better if she calmed down, but those sad examples were all she could think of between the gym and the nurse’s office.
I’m sure Gin-san’s mad... But when Ruka glanced to the side, Ginka looked fine.
“I see... So there’s nothing special about you, Ruka.”
“That’s so mean!”