[h2]Himawari Yuri, Cafeteria[/h2]

Eating lunch at one of the most noticeable tables in the whole school had never been part of Yuri's plan to avoid notice and stay out of the way of the school's more belligerent lot. No matter how nice the spot was, there was no way that it could justify the trouble that came with sitting there. But for a member of the Fashion Club, eating somewhere else would have been [i]more[/i] trouble. On the plus side, eating with the rest of the club when possible was much like curling up next to pride of lions; she would be all the more noticeable a target but not that many people would be willing to start a fight over it.

On occasion, it could still be more trouble than it was worth: Suzume's constant need to give everyone nicknames was just [i]troublesome[/i]. Her own, for one, had taken her over a week to work out where the older girl had gotten it from. It would have been easier if the girl had shown some respect, not that it was likely, for other students not being so fluent in English nor so good at speaking it... ironic as that might be.

The tan girl spared a jealous glance at the cutesy food. It wasn't that she wanted such cute food to eat, at [i]all[/i]... but could Suzie go just one hour without flaunting her wealth at all costs? Not only did she have access to good, fresh food, she could even get it made with stupid artistic flourishes. Then eat the cute panda riceballs like it was worth even less than the convenience-store lunch Yuri was picking away at!

Had anyone else started acting like beating someone of a higher level was strange--or if she lost her wits and wanted to draw attention to her carefully preserved Rank 0 status--then Yuri might have pointed out that anyone who wanted to advance would try and defeat the higher ranks [i]by definition[/i]. Instead, she straightened her bog-standard uniform and went for something that was hopefully somewhere between "vaguely intelligent" and "sufficiently concurrent". "She's a transfer student with something to prove. It could be considered an achievement that she got the right uniform. At least she cares enough about her appearance that she isn't walking around in rags."