[centre][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/400350117485608964/862829377099661322/maihead.png[/img]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/400350117485608964/862829259486527498/maitext.png[/img][/centre][hr]The moment Mai saw Yonaka, she called out to her and came running.

[color=#54cbd3]"Yonaka-san!"[/color]

[color=a187be]"So, you got any leads? Think of this as high stakes initiation!"[/color]

[color=#54cbd3]"A couple..."[/color] she mused, tilting her head back in thought. [color=#54cbd3]"There's this boy. Name's Kenzo Kishi - like the Prime Minister? He works at this ramen place down the street. Well, anyway, apparently someone jumped him one night while he was out making deliveries. At least, that's what we think. No-one really knows what happened. He just came into school one day, all bruised and beaten up, and just pretended that he didn't know what everyone was talking about. It's weird, right? I mean, we could all see it. It wasn't like he could hide it."

"And there's this other girl, Mitsu Fujiwara. Real artsy-fartsy type. She's on the track team, but she had to take a break for a while. Sprained muscle or something. I heard she's back to running again now, though the coach still thinks she should ease off. Thing is, I know some guys on the track team who said that it's actually way worse than a sprain, and Mitsu is just tryna put on a brave face cause she's scared of being taken off the team. She didn't get it on the field either: she just left practice one day, perfectly fine, and the next day she came in saying she had sprained a muscle. Maybe it's nothing, but I want to check on her just in case there's more to this story."[/color]

Of course, there was more to it than that. Fujiwara had been Mai's friend back in the day. Even when no-one else would give her the time of day, Fujiwara had taken her under her wing. Even though they weren't friends any more, Mai wanted to make sure everything was alright for her. She knew, she just knew, that there was more to this story than a sprain, and she wasn't going to rest until she got to the bottom of this mess. She owed her that much, at least.

[color=a187be]"Now, despite my reputation..."[/color] Mai blinked, coming back to reality. [color=a187be]"I'm not sure it's the best move to threaten kids into telling who beat them up by threatening to beat them up. Seems kind of pointless to me. Today is the day of a soft touch Yonaka."[/color]

Mai couldn't hide how offended that comment made her. [color=#54cbd3]"That wasn't what I was asking for,"[/color] she replied tersely. What kind of girl did Yonaka take her for? She wasn't a thug. She had her grudges, even enemies, but if Yonaka seriously thought she was going to suggest they go around beating everyone up, she had the wrong person. She was happy to toy with some of her classmates, but the moment it got physical was the moment it when from an investigation to cold-hearted torture.

[color=a187be]"Of course I'm not going to go around flirting with a bunch of first years, but who doesn't want the approval of a pretty girl like me, right?"[/color]
 
Dang. She knew plenty of her classmates who had some subtle and not-so-subtle crushes on Yonaka, and despite his reputation as an incorrigible stick-in-the-mud, Kenzo was no different. Forbidden fruit was always the most tempting, after all. But if Yonaka didn't want to put on the charms for Kenzo, that only left Mai, and [i]that[/i] wasn't going to work. She might have had a similar "bad girl" reputation, and they were both pretty cute, but Yonaka was cute in that "just walked off the cover of a magazine" way while Mai was cute in that "pat her head and give her hugs" way. It was completely the wrong vibe.
And even if she had the looks for it, it was still out of the question.  She was happy to do most things for the gang. If they needed her to steal something, or fight someone, or take a hit for them, she would do so gladly. But she drew the line at having to play nice with that turbo-nerd, and the thought of having to pretend she actually [i]liked[/i] him made her want to puke. They needed a different strategy.

[color=a187be]"In any case. They might be able to relate to you, more. After all, you're in danger, too, right? Maybe they don't want to be treated like helpless little kids either."[/color]

That made Mai laugh, and not in a happy way. [color=#54cbd3]"'Maybe they'll relate to you'. That's funny."[/color]

[color=a187be]"...You are a first year, right?"[/color]

She rolled her eyes at that last remark. Adolescence was taking its sweet time getting round to her. People still looked at her like she was ten, nine, even eight years old. On one mortifying occasion, she was even mistaken for a little boy. Still, it was better than what some people got. Puberty had been kind to some of the girls in her class, but most were in that awkward, gangly phase of acne'd faces and greasy hair, where the body couldn't quite decide whether it was an adult or a child, and managed to combine the worst aspects of both. Mai would take looking like a child over [i]that[/i], even if it was only for a few months more. Oh, she wasn't stupid. It would come for her eventually. Puberty wasn't something she could just avoid, and when it eventually decided to come for her, it was going to hit her like a freight train. She hadn't dodged the bullet, she just had a stay of execution.

[color=#54cbd3]"Not if you listen to anyone else talk about me,"[/color] she scoffed, casting a wary glance towards the gates. She shook her head, as if physically clearing the dark thoughts that were beginning to form in it, and looked back towards Yonaka with a grin. [color=#54cbd3]"I mean, when you look as mature and elegant as I do, everyone always mistakes you for a high-schooler!"[/color]