Ellie stiffens as Yua looks back at her with a smile that didn’t quite seem to reach her eyes. It only took a second for Ellie to realize that it was forced, and less than one for the dark thoughts to return. Her grip on her backpack tightening as her gaze drops to the ground and she falls in step behind Yua, silently brooding and fighting back tears.

[i]Oh god, what did I do? She… she’s suspicious of me isn’t she? She sees that I’m just some weird poor girl and just want to steal her stuff. I look disgusting, my clothes are filthy, I have nothing… And she… she’s pretty, and rich and must have so many friends back home… And I have nothing…[/i] She gulps heavily as the last thought runs through her mind, the joy she had felt from her little escape into the forest vanishing as she realizes how pitiful she must seem next to this beautiful girl.

So lost in her self-degradation was she, that she didn’t even notice the argument at the gate until she heard Yua’s voice again, and she finally looked up. Noticing the multiple thuggish looking boys, she stopped dead in her tracks like a deer in headlights. From the looks of the slight crowd in front of the gate she realized something was going on, she hadn’t heard what was said, but he saw one of the boys staring blankly into Yua’s eyes until one of the others pulled him away and started screaming something about her being a trickster. Was that what a succubus was? Some kind of trickster monster?

As the non-creepo boy from the bus stop speaks up again, writing a check his ass probably wouldn’t be able to cash, the bot Yua had put into a trance seemed to get angry, screaming at the other boy. Ellie, terrified of an impending fight, just wanted to get away. Reflexively, she reaches out and tries to grab Yua’s arm, not wanting to leave her behind. Whether Ellie managed to grab her or not, before she could actually pull her away the random olive-haired girl takes down the large guy. A startled squeak escapes Ellie as she jumps back, possibly pulling Yua with her. Terrified, she just stares at the girl as she speaks, before looking at Yua and mumbling under her breath, “I… I think we should go…” she says, the twinge of fear that was ever present while on the bus quickly coming back.