Sitting all the way at the back of a high school classroom, and one seat removed from the window, which would have been the typical transfer student seat, Senka is staring outside in boredom. The school building is overlooking the suburban neighborhood, which appears sleepy despite the fact that it is actually located in urban Tokyo. As if realizing that someone is watching her, she turns around and raises an eyebrow.
"How did I get here? - you may ask... All I can say is that it has a very profound reason. One so profound that I can't even begin to explain." She mutters in a muffled voice, as her mouth is covered in a surgical mask. Her hair is completely black rather than bleaching out towards the tips, and almost all the skin visible under her sailor school uniform is covered in bandages to hide the gruesome scars and stitches all across her body.
"Senka-chan, who're you talking to?" Matsuda Hitomi asks in a hushed voice. She sits in the seat in front of the stitched horror girl, and is the only person who seems to care about the latter in this class since she transferred to this high school one month ago. After all, Senka is neither very outgoing nor a beautiful foreigner.
"I was thinking that Onodera-sensei is going on about how her latest marriage interview went badly again." Onodera Ritsuko, their homeroom and math teacher, is about to reach her thirties, and despite looking cute and being empathetic in her duties, she has been unable to find a partner. Within the past month she has had six marriage interviews, all of which turned out unfavorably. Several of them even had the audacity to point out her age directly. In a way, Senka has grown to like her, so if she had been present at the interview, she would have punched the man who dared to say something so insensitive.
"Ahaha, Ricchan always has bad luck with men. Even though she's so cute." Hitomi chuckles and shrugs.
"If you have anything to say, Matsuda-san, would you care to share it with the whole class?" The teacher's voice resounds through the completely silent room and the girl in question shows an expression that seems to say 'crap, I've been caught' while sticking out her tongue. However, Hitomi is a brazen person who is not afraid to speak her mind and turn an unfavorable situation around for a laugh.
"I was just thinking that if by the end of my time at high school you're still single, I wouldn't mind asking you to make me miso soup every morning, Ricchan!" She states with a straightforward grin, earning a wide-eyed blushing expression from Ritsuko. In the next moment, the female half of the classroom fawns over Hitomi's gallant and confident appearance, while the male half laughs while cheering them on.
"S-stop teasing your teacher, Matsuda-san! This is an actual problem for me, you know?" Ritsuko speaks with a flustered blush. Hitomi is the type to attract both genders with her charisma - so much Senka has been able to notice in her short time at the school. As a member of the track and field club, she has a great figure, is rather tall for a Japanese girl, and possesses an attitude all those spineless men of today could only dream of.
"But I'm not joking?" She adds with a shrug, earning her another round of cheers.
"A-anyway, we have a new transfer student today." The teacher announces after clearing her throat.
"You should have started with that, teacher." The class representative Sendou Takeshi states while pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. This causes a wave of laughter to run through the students again. Senka shakes her head at the fact that Onodera appears to have so little authority, but at the same time it seems that she is well-liked by her students, as they do respect her and never cause any problems.
"Please come on in." Ritsuko calls out to the door, ignoring Takeshi's interjection. Upon her signal, the door slides open and a girl with combed back red hair, tied in a large braid reaching down to the back of her knees, enters. The murmur runs through the class at the sight and everyone's eyes are locked onto her, as they are entranced by her appearance.
The transfer student has beautiful and smooth white skin, a large chest that seems to try and squeeze out of her uniform, and piercing green eyes highlighting her beautiful face. Walking with confident strides, she steps up to the teacher's platform and stops next to the podium to face the class. Standing beside Ritsuko and towering above her, it becomes clear that she is as tall as the new ace of the basketball club, Takanashi Kei. "Introduce yourself to the class."
With swift motions, the red-haired girl picks up a piece of chalk and writes her name out on the blackboard. It reads Reshia Shikora and is written in katakana, which is used to approximate the phonetic reading of foreign names; and her heritage as a foreigner is indisputable. Turning to the class with a self-assured smile, she puts a hand on her hip and addresses everyone with a single look through her attentive eyes.
"My name is Lethia Sykora. I'm from Russia and will be attending this school from today onwards. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She speaks in fluent Japanese with a foreign accent, and the class breaks out in voices filled with awe.
"So beautiful!"
"Her hair is so smooth, I'm envious..."
"How cool. "
"Her skin is white like snow."
"Look at that rack!"
"Hey, who said that just now?!" Unohara Rika growls when the voice of a boy comments on Lethia's large breasts. She is a petite girl with twin tails and a childish face, which a certain type of people may prefer to the more mature looks of Lethia.
"A flat board like you has no right to judge our preferences." Kitagawa Satoshi replies with a smug expression. If not for his good looks, nobody in the class would take him seriously, as his abrasive personality does not garner him any friends. However, he possesses a dark charisma that makes him attractive to some girls. And those girls rush to his aid in this situation.
"You're only jealous because Kitagawa-san would never pick you." Asahina Yasuko remarks snidely. She is one of those girls who could be considered beautiful, if she did not ruin her looks with the wrong type of makeup.
"Go back to being a cutting board." Hanayama Aki heckles, despite the fact that she is only slightly larger than Rika, but lacks all the cuteness the latter brings with her well-shaped face and petite frame.
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"Everyone quiet down! You are giving Shikora-san a bad impression of this class." Ritsuko claps her hands together and brings order to the chaos that is beginning to break out caused by the separation of genders. "Do you have any questions for your new classmate?"
"What's your cup size?" Ishihara Ginji, emboldened by Satoshi's earlier remarks about chest sizes, asks with his nostrils flared in a perverted grin.
"In Japan, I have to buy H." She states and puts a finger to her lips innocently. The whole class is speechless and even Furukawa Ino, who people always associate with the saying 'looks smaller under clothes', is staring in disbelief. "Anything else?" Lethia's expression has a hint of mischief mixed in, but on the surface she appears slightly clueless as to why everybody's jaws are slack.
"Umm, do you know what club you are going to join?" Kotobuki Hikari asks reluctantly. She is from the volleyball club and her intentions are obvious, seeing as the new transfer student is almost ten centimeters taller than her. And judging by her slender but slightly toned legs, Lethia is clearly the athletic type. Others immediately realize the opportunity and raise their hands in anticipation of being picked for asking her, so that they may try and invite her to their respective clubs.
"I would like to take a look around, first." Lethia responds with a radiant smile. It is an indirect invitation for the students to give her a tour for their clubs after school. As expected, both boys and girls are already eyeing her ravenously, each with different priorities in mind. "But I think a club where I can learn more about Japanese culture would be the best." Upon these words the sports club members show a hint of disappointment as they lower their hands again.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Imagawa Masashi asks boldly, causing everyone to stare at Lethia expectantly.
"No, I don't." With an almost seductive expression directed towards the entire class, she responds unhesitatingly.
"Alright, that's enough with the personal questions, everyone." The teacher steps forward to stop the introduction session. "You'll have time to get to know her better after homeroom, so for now, let's find you a seat." She looks across the classroom to see where it would be best for Lethia to sit, spotting the one right next to Senka, all the way back and beside the window. "How about that one?"
"Where else, it's the typical seat for the student transferring in during the school year." Senka rolls her eyes and mutters, which Hitomi overhears and responds to with a chuckle. Staring at the red haired girl as she approaches, the stitched girl shows a hint of irritation, which is answered with a friendly smile.
"Hello, my name is Lethia Sykora, what is yours?" She introduces herself once again and asks in a whisper upon sitting down on her new seat. Looking at her sideways with a dubious glint in her eyes, Senka does not respond immediately.
"... Ootsuki Senka." She finally says, her voice muffled by the surgical mask covering her Glasgow smile. Her expression makes it clear that she considers this a bother, and she turns away from the transfer student. This causes her gaze to meet with Hitomi's, who has a smug grin on her face that speaks volumes about what she thinks Senka's feelings at the moment are. "Turn around, class is starting." Waving at her, the stitched girl rests her chin on her palm and looks down on her notebook to avoid further conversations.
"Ugh, what a drag..." It is lunchtime and Senka is sitting on the rooftop alone, eating the sandwich she bought at the cafeteria. She suddenly turns her head and stares into space, a skeptical expression on her face, as she purses her lips. "What's with the sudden character dump? It's almost like they're going to be relevant this time around..." She finishes the sandwich, takes a sip from her canned coffee, and sighs.
"Hey, you're up here all by yourself again, Senka-chan." The door to the rooftop opens and Hitomi sticks her head out from the crack. "Too busy in the classroom?"
"What about you, Matsuda-san? I expected that you would be among those to surround the new transfer student and shower her with questions." The doll-like girl quickly covers her mouth to hide the scars. Luckily, she has already finished her meal and won't have to tiptoe around the foot to avoid showing off the gruesome stitches holding her cheeks together. While the fact that she is covered in scars is not a real secret, it has grown to become a source for rumors, since she keeps it under wraps at all times. Even though Senka knows that Hitomi is not the type to gossip needlessly, she prefers not to let anyone know in the first place.
"Jealous about your shiny spot as the new transfer student being taken? By a busty Russian girl no less." Flopping down on the bench next to Senka, Hitomi remarks with a sarcastic laugh. Her own chest is considered to be on the large side, and is one of the largest in the class, to the point where people wonder why she is in the track and field club, where they may get in the way. Furukawa Ino was indisputably the largest - before Lethia came along - and she attends the tea ceremony club after all.
"You have no right to speak about busty..." Senka says with an annoyed look at the chest of the girl beside her.
"Hey, I'm going to get a breast size reduction first thing when I graduate." Hitomi answers and opens her homemade lunch box. Within is a huge portion that could feed more than two people, but this is what she eats every day due to her fast metabolism and the afternoon club activities. She takes out a carton of milk and begins to drink from it in large gulps.
"Others are worried about their chest being too small, and you speak about getting yours turned smaller?! Damned privileged people!" Grabbing Hitomi's chest in irritation, the stitched girl squeezes them around, causing the former to make an incredibly girlish voice that only further increases the latter's anger.
"Stop it, Senka-chan! Ahn!" Hitomi is unable to resist, as she is holding an open carton of milk in one hand and grasping chopsticks in the other.
"What are your hobbies, Shikora-san?" One of the girls surrounding Lethia asks, her expression filled with wonder at seeing the silky red hair from close up.
"I like to travel when on vacation." She responds with a smile while employing her fork and knife in a refined manner, picking up a slice of potato from her homemade salad. "And I like journeys where I can meet and... mingle with locals."
"So you have been all around the world?" Another asks while hanging onto Lethia's every word.
"Not to as many places as I would want to." The red-head answers with a longing distant look in her eyes. "I wish to see and experience so many more cultures."
"What do you know about Japan?" Hikari inquires, interested to hear what views of this country the foreigner who speaks Japanese fluently may have. She bears no ill will, but it is clear that she hopes to affirm her image of overseas people and their lack of knowledge of her culture aside from the stereotypes perpetuated by movies and pop culture.
"I hear that every school has their own legends." Lethia says and the surrounding girls look at her in surprise. Then one of them begins to laugh and the others follow her example. Astonished by the response, the former looks around in incomprehension, before Hikari releases her from her ignorance.
"That in itself is a legend." She states while laughing.
"... but, to tell the truth... there are a set of rumors about this school." The first girl reluctantly admits in a hushed voice, as if she fears that the wrong people might hear it. While several others react with dismissing laughs and disapprovingly raised eyebrows, Lethia immediately turns to the one who spoke with an intrigued glint in her eyes.
"Mouri-san, right? Please, tell me more~ ♪"