2026-10-21: Stepping In
- Log: Stepping In
- Cast: Ririka Kawase, Arisu Aizawa
- Where: Gekkoukan High School - Classroom Building
- OOC Date: October 21, 2026
- IC Date: Monday, January 28, 2013
- Summary: Arisu is being bullied (again), this time pranked with a bucket of water in a bathroom. Ririka happens along and tries to offer some assistance. The two get to talking for a bit before heading to their clubs.
(|================ Gekkoukan High School - Classroom Building ================|)
-======================================= Iwatodai City/Tatsumi Port Island ====-
Gekkoukan High School features a rich and lavish atrium which blends modern and
classical architecture, with wide-open windows welcoming students into an
entrance hall with massive Grecian pillars and an impressive stained-glass wall
at its other end. The Sword and Staff Statues displayed prominently here are a
popular meet-up point! Here, as well, one can find the event bulletin board,
various faculty and club rooms, the nurse's office... and most importantly, the
school store, where one can buy Gekkoukan's various popular breads. A classical
stone corridor outside passes by a beloved Persimmon tree in a garden where
students can relax on benches, before leading students to the gymnasium, where
one can enjoy the indoor swimming pool and running track available here.
Up the stairs, the halls are sleek and modern, with diamond- and square-tiled
flooring and traditional sliding doors. Corkboards on the hall walls are
decorated with a dozen club posters, advertising the many after-school
activities available to students here, and water fountains at the end of the
hall are available to quench one's thirst. Inside the classrooms, one finds more
of that square tiling, on which stand desks and chairs two a row. A raised
podium allows teachers to lecture behind a blackboard or a projector screen
which can be pulled down to display their slides, while a desk off to the side
at the front of the class gives them a place to seat themselves down. The
windows are wide and expansive, covering an entire wall; there are windows
leading out into the hall, as well, and they can be slid back for the curious to
peek into the classroom. The back of the room features a second blackboard,
alongside shelving for books. (And... manga? Who put those here...?)
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
It's Monday! And Monday means classes. Ririka's having a decent day, overall. She has been enjoying the looks and questions about her new haircut--after keeping it long for as long as she can remember, the day before she finally got it cut short, and she's still riding the high of that change in her appearance. It's in a bob with the left side tucked behind her ear, and the right side pulled forward to frame her face. It stands out on her!
... Of course, she also stands out for the mere fact of being a girl who's 172 cm tall, matching a lot of the boys, and with red eyes. She's dressed in her school uniform, of course, with dark purple tights for the weather and a leather bracelet on her right wrist.
Once the classes ends, Ririka pcks up her things and slings her bag over her shoulder. She's humming a tune to herself as she walks through the halls. She's heading for the practice room to meet the rest of her band, paying attention to her surroundings but not expecting any trouble.
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
There is a loud commotion from the girl's bathroom, followed by a girl throwing herself out the door. Arisu catches herself on the other side of the hallway, glaring up at the door way. Her uniform is soaked through as her hair drips down her face. She looks down at her uniform and frowns as two voices laughs from within the bathroom.
Arisu sighs and grumbles to herself. "Damnit. I know this is going to go away. They will get sick of it eventually..."
From within the bathroom, two voices loudly carry on. 'Did you see her face?'
'So shocked each time. L-O-L'
'Serves that tattling bitch,right.'
Arisu sighs and looks at her uniform. At least it was just water this time.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka blinks as a girl is all thrown out the door, drawing to a sharp halt. "Wha--" She looks between Arisu and the door for a moment, frowning in worry-- "Um..."
But when she notices Arisu's condition, that pushes her into action. She quickly rushes oer, kneeling carefully beside the other girl. "H-hey, are-- are you okay? What happened to you?"
And then she hears the voices, looking over. "... Oh." From the sound of it, there's two girls picking on this one. She frowns, looking at Arisu with concern. She should do... something, right?
... If Ichika were here she'd probably headbutt them. That... might be a bit too extreme for Gekkoukan. But maybe she could do something else...
"Hang tight," she says, standing up again. She turns to face the bathroom door, and gets her phone out and the camera ready.
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
Arisu winces when she hears Ririka. Great someone else is involved. This was just going to turn into a thing that won't go away now. The dark green haired girl turns to look at Ririka, frowning slightly. "I'm so sorry. You don't have to---"
There are two girls just hanging out in the bathroom. One of them, A-Ko is trying to smoke out the window. The other, B-Ko, is washing her hands as she looks over to a thrown over bucket and evidence of it's contains thrown in one direction.
"Tch...nice looking out. You think she got someone involved?"
"Tattling, Bitch. Whatever." A-Ko tries to hide her cigarette as she smiles at Ririka. "Hey, stay out of this."
"Trust us. That girl is not worth it."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka doesn't even really wait to process the scene when she pushes the door open, she just hits the button a few times to take shots with her primed camera.
"That'll do it." She quickly pockets the phone again, frowning at the two girls. "If she's not worth it then there's no reason for you two to mess with her again, is there?"
She reaches for a handful of paper towels and then steps back out the door to check on Arisu. "Here. Let's see if we can find an empty classroom or something and get you dried off a bit. I'm Ririka Kawase." She's hoping whatever was in that bucket was just water.
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
'Hey!'
'What the hell!'
'Forget it. We got her enough.'
Arisu holds her arm as she stands behind Ririka, mostly letting the other girl lead her through everything. "Aizawa Arisu...you really didn't need to...I deserved it kinda." She adds that last part with a certainty that isn't just blaming herself for what is happening. The dark haired girl sighs but finally nods again.
Once they find the safety of a room, Arisu takes a look at Ririka. Her eye darting around her outfit almost reflexively. As for what Arisu is covered in, it was definitely just water today but you might've heard last time they loaded it with cleaning product.
Arisu curls a locke of hair between her fingers, frowning as she looked more embarrassed than anything else.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka doesn't know what she's going to do with the photo yet--but there's no way she's telling those two girls that. She just leaves without saying anything else. Let them wonder.
Ririka is, of course, just wearing the standard Gekkoukan uniform--it's a school day, after all. Though Arisu might notice that Ririka's swapped her red ribbon out for a slightly more purple one, and the leather bracelet tucked under her right cuff. "I don't think anybody deserves to be bullied... what happened?"
She hands the paper towels over. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want, but... I'd feel pretty bad if I ignored someone that needed help, you know?"
Ririka's been known as an extraordinary piano talent since she was little, but in the last few years she also started a rock band, Polychord.
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
Arisu notes the cuff immediately. She had seen those around but never developed the urge to check into why some students had this on their uniform. She holds her arm, looking off to the side when Ririka asks what happened. It was safe right? No it could probably come back and bite her. Maybe this was a trick. She keeps her mouth shut, looking back as she is handed a paper towel.
"It's better if I don't involve you. I'm pretty tough." She forces a smile that is clearly not genuine.
After drying herself off, Arisu looks over at Ririka, finally recognizing the musician from in passing. "Thank you. I don't deserve it but thank you."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
@emit
Ririka's worn it for a while, though her style outside of school is... well, a little counter-cultural, as some might put it. (Not that she lets that bleed into her uniform that much.)
Ririka might be the best at reading people sometimes, but in this case, that smile looks pretty fake to her. For her part, she's sincere in her concerns (even if she doesn't have a clear plan yet.)
"Yeah, well... I'm pretty tough too, you know?" Ririka sits back against the edge of a desk. "... you sure you don't want to talk about it? You kinda look like you could use someone in your corner..."
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
Arisu sighs as she lets her shoulders fall. What was the harm? She looks over to Ririka and finds somewhere to sit. "I...told an adult something I shouldn't have...according to them. Honestly if I didn't and something happened, it would've been on me."
She finds her spot on another deck, sitting down gracefully almost on reflex.
"Those girls were friends before...I was the one that betrayed their trust. Even if it was for the right reason." Arisu makes eye contact with Ririka, nodding affirmatively. She seems to be settling down some but there is a part of her that still seems anxious.
"That's a nice leather bracelet."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
So she tried to do something responsible... and now she's getting bullied. Ririka frowns a little. She's drumming her fingers on her thigh now as she thinks. "Hrm... was it the smoking, or... something else?" She pulls her phone out of her pocket to look at the photos she took.
"If you were worried for their safety, then it sounds like you did the right thing... right?"
But friends before... "That sucks. I'm sorry... but it seems like they're the ones betraying you if theyve resorted to picking on you..."
While she has her phone open she sends off a quick text to her friends to let them know she's running late.
"Oh?" Ririka smiles and holds her arm up, pulling the sleeve back. "Thanks!" she says with a smile. "It's kind of one of my favorites--one of the first ones I bought."
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
"No, it was worse." Arisu sighs and shakes her head.
"Yeah. That's why I was toughing out their abuse. Like if I did that...then things could go back to normal eventually."
Arisu nods as Ririka offers condolences. "Its fine. I mean they will either get it out of their system or...well they will probably just leave me alone now."
"It's nice. Though it's probably one of many though. If you want, I can customize it for you. Add something to make it all your own."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
"Worse than smoking in a school bathroom?" Ririka looks worried by that. "What could be so bad that it'd result in all of this?"
"Back to normal, like, the way things were before? I don't know..." She doesn't want to tell Arisu to just make new friends--Ririka has a hard time with that herself sometimes, after all.
"I hope they get it out of their system quickly, then..."
Ririka looks at her bracelet. "Oh, it's--it not being unique isn't a problem, it's more what it represents..." But she looks at Arisu curiously. "But, do you make clothing or something?"
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
"Yeah." Arisu sighs and looks around. There was no one else. She takes in a sharp breath before continuing. "They were going out late with two college guys. Real scuzzy boys who I knew would probably do something. Like I know I probably shouldn't have but I got a bad feeling from them the one time I met them."
"I guess. Regardless they'll forget about it and I can just go back to what I do." Arisu sighs and frowns as she looks at her outfit.
She looks up when Ririka explains the bracelet, finally smiling with a little pride. "Yeah. I'm in the fashion club actually."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka winces as Arisu explains what started all this. "They looked like second eyars..." she mutters to herself. "I can see why you told someone... I'm sorry that they're taking it out on you for doing that."
Well, things look... even murkier, now. Ririka frowns. She could tell an teacher, but the teachers can't be everywhere... "Well, uh... until they do, let me know if I can help?"
But she'd rather talk about happier things. "Fashion Club? Oh, that's cool! What kinds of things do you like making? What's your favorite style?"
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
Arisu shrugs in response to Ririka's words on what happened. There wasn't much else she could do with this.
"I'll let you know." Arisu says, fully unsure if she could follow through with this. She was already getting Ririka more involved than she should be. The dark haired girl looks toward the window, wondering if it was going to rain on the way home.
"Oh yes. I love Fashion...I do cosplay with another girl in my class when she is up to it. As for favorite style, that's pretty hard but I do like the Lolita style a lot."
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka's just as stumped for answers at this point.
"Cool. Even if you just, I dunno, want someone watching your back in the bathroom or something." Ririka chose to get involved! She can at least offer the advantage of safety in numbers, that's not too hard for her to do.
"Hey, cosplay is really cool! I've never really done it before--" She pauses to consider. "Well--I guess I dressed as a maid for our grade's maid cafe thing at the Christmas Village, so I guess that counts?"
She continues. "But yeah! I know how much work those outfits can take, that's really cool, and it's cool that you have someone who does it with you." She nods. "Oh, nice. Lolita styles are really cute, though they're not really my thing to wear."
<Pose Tracker> Arisu Aizawa has posed.
Arisu smiles sadly. "Thank you...I think what you did will probably help for now. They aren't the type to take threats well." She hoped that would be the end of it but Arisu has no way of knowing.
"Cosplay is fun. I don't know everything about the stuff I make but when it comes to costumes, I'm pretty good."
She checks her phone and frowns. "I'm late to club..." She sighs and finishes making herself presentable again. "Thank you for your help, Kawase-san. I'll make it up to you somehow." She bows her head and then starts for the exit.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka laughs a little, rubbing the back of her neck. "W-well, I didn't exactly threaten them... but... let's hope they chill out a little."
"Well, as long as you enjoy it, and you're excited by it, right?" Ririka says with a smile.
She nods, though. "Yeah, me too." Ririka stands up, pulling the edge of her jacket sleeve over her bracelet again. "You don't have to make it up to me, Aizawa-san, I just... wanted to help." She stands up again, pocketing her phone. "Can I walk with you to your club? I think we're going the same direction."