[color=orchid]"Ah, Akira-san! [i]Yoroshiku[/i],"[/color] Rika replied as she led her out of the burning building. Akira didn't seem to recognize the danger she was in, but Rika was strong enough to tank any falling debris, and they were close enough to the entrance that it wasn't necessary to literally sweep Akira off her feet. Still, she pulled her along in a brisk jog, and they made it out of the flames, out from under the ceiling of the building, and out of the 'hard hat zone' around it. Rika let out a small sigh of relief.

	[color=orangered]"I'll get the boy!"[/color] Natsumi called out.

	The sudden declaration caused Rika to whirl around in alarm. There weren't any boys in the group! Was there a civilian still trapped inside the burning building?! ...No, it was Kaeru she'd been talking about. Shock was replaced with confusion, while her distress remained. A small part of her wondered if this was going to turn into a harassment report, but Kaeru seemed to be playing around. Rika sighed. Finally her emotional state seemed to settle on amusement. It certainly [i]seemed[/i] like Natsumi had made a mistake, there. Kaeru was totally a girl, right? Right.

	It then became clear why Rika had been in such a hurry to 'save' Akira, as the building did indeed collapse behind them less than 50 seconds later, while the crowd of civilians cheered and groaned in equal measure. That, alongside the demons she'd just fought, was also a familiar sight to Rika. What was unusual about this particular job, though, was the distinct lack of injury. Unlike her previous jobs, this one had not been a desperate struggle of life and death. It had been easy—even... fun. Perhaps, working in a group wasn't so bad. True, she could have handled the job herself, and it might have even still been easy—but it wouldn't have been like this.

	[color=orchid]"I don't need healing,"[/color] Rika observed, as though that were unusual. [color=orchid]"My outfit does, though."[/color]

	She'd said it so casually, but on closer inspection... yes. Her sleeve was shredded to ribbons, and her jacket was positively soaked with blood. Her shadow arm in particular [i]reeked[/i] of it, and though the smell was reduced quite a bit once she dismissed it, it still remained noticeable on her, now that it wasn't competing with the smell of the smoke inside the burning building, or being swept away by the wind outside. Yet with everyone gathered inside the van, they could all see that she and the others were more or less completely unharmed. Rika only had some bruises on her arm that she didn't think looked that bad, personally.

	Once they'd arrived back at HQ, Rika seemed prepared to slip away, herself, but Natsumi stopped her. She greeted her as "Rika-san," which reminded her that she'd told the others to call her "Rika-[i]chan[/i]" by mistake earlier. [color=orchid][i][b]Please[/b] let them all forget about that,[/i][/color] she pleaded to any gods who would listen, almost missing Natsumi's actual question, which seemed to startle her. [color=orchid]"Another branch..? Uh, no, I was... a freelancer, I guess. Not a very good one though."[/color] She ruffled the hair on the back of her head with a shy but strong smile. She seemed to know what she was doing, despite downplaying it. Internally, though, she was once again begging to any higher powers that could hear her thoughts that they would all forget about that time they all had to salvage her [i]failure[/i]. Which reminded her: [color=orchid]"Eh, they're cold by now, but, I ma— ...brought cinnamon rolls for the break room. If the front service clerk didn't eat them, I guess,"[/color] she hedged. [color=orchid]"Truth is, I was supposed to go to orientation today, you know? —but the alarm went off, so I kinda just dropped everything and... [sub]slipped in?"[/sub][/color] She looked away, blushing a bit.