To the Rescue (Yuri)

'Gee, thanks for the concern but I can take care of myself when my art isn't at stake...' Hana both wasn't surprised Yuri hadn't heard of her manga, but at the same time she got enough fan letters she was still hopeful random people she talked to might just have heard something. "It's a one time thing," Hana told the girl firmly, closing her eyes and looking serious. "I was caught off guard. That's all." Hana could avoid people when she wanted, and she was much harder to intimidate if it was just her own well-being on the line. But the girl's manga drawings were like her children.

Hana attempted to shift the conversation back the other direction, her reasoning being quite the opposite of Yuri's. She didn't want to dwell on the ordeal. "If you're interested, I can get you a copy," she shrugged. "It's not that hard since I work for the company when I'm not doing school stuff." Working for a manga magazine was actually pretty great for her. 95% of her hobbies involved art. Getting paid for doodling things she would have done anyway... icing on the cake, so to speak.

Hana had watched Yuri roll her shoulder; she was obviously a bit sore. So why was she inquiring? Was she some sort of super hero who had gotten beaten up to protect her identity? Psh. No that was stupid. That was the sort of thing Hana imagined in her manga ideas, not the sort of thing that actually happened.

No luck there, eh..?

A one-time incident probably meant Hana didn't know the bullies to well, if at all. Chances were there would be nothing actually useful that Yuri could get out of the girl and, with that in mind, she was okay with changing the subject. She'd just have to get information elsewhere, maybe stalk them around a little on campus, casually ask some other students that might know better or maybe might have been bullied as well.

In any case, lifting her can again: "How much is it?" Yuri asked, patting a free hand against her pocket to check for her wallet. "I'll pay now an-..." Cutting herself off with a rather visible narrowing of her eyes, the look on her face shifted quickly from casual to pretty much livid in the span of about two seconds. Her carefree tone shifted to a low, annoyed growl, not with respect to the conversation they were having, but the feeling of her hand against her pocket.

Those damn jerks took her wallet. Oh boy, did they just dig themselves into a hole they didn't want to be in...

"... I'll pay later..." finished Yuri, making no attempt to hide the growl in her voice.

"I didn't actually mean you needed to pay..." Hana insisted quietly even as she watched the girl instantly change attitudes. She'd had her money stolen? Hana gripped her sketchbook, her own unhappy realization only just barely evident. Her voice showed it far more than her looks, if you didn't count how tightly she had her arms crossed. "You had your money stolen saving my book..." she concluded. It didn't take much thought. She'd just been talking about paying, right?

"I'll help you get it back. We can find them. I bet they aren't far away." What was she going to do? Who knew? But she was a smart girl. Yuri seemed like a smart girl as well. That meant there were two smart girls and three idiots distracted by money. How would one of her heroes in her manga stories do this? Well, if they weren't able to physically fight anyway?

"Besides, then we'll be even, right?" She did owe Yuri something for all this trouble, especially with this new revelation. Hana quickly looked around for any signs of the girls that had already walked away. They weren't immediately in sight, but she was pretty sure she knew where they might go. She was quiet, not unobservant.

The vague twitch now present in Yuri's right eye replaced her earlier growl. Now wasn't the time to get pissed. She'd save that for when she went to get back at those losers... So, in a partially-successful attempt to quell her anger, the girl took in a deep breath, paused for a several-second chug of her tea, then exhaled and straightened up where she sat. Rage no longer visible; still there, but no longer visible, more of a slight irritation at this point.

"Probably best to avoid them..." she said, leaning back against the bench and crossing one leg over the other. She felt like getting Hana involved any further would only end up bad for the girl, but it was also a little bit of selfishness on her part. Revenge was a dish best served personally. "We don't wanna cause a big scene or anything. We got pretty lucky a little while ago, but if a teacher were to show up this time around, we could get in some real trouble."

After attempting another sip, Yuri stopped, peered into her can, and quickly realized it was now empty. Evidently she finished it off in her angered state and failed to notice. "... Hm. Well, anyways, I'll get it back somehow," added Yuri with a gentle shrug of her shoulders. She hopped up from her seat, dropped her can in a little trash bin beside the bench, and turned to offer Hana a helping hand in standing up; or maybe it was just a handshake. Hard to tell. "Thanks for the tea. I'll have to check out that manga of yours some time... though I'd feel pretty weird not paying for it."

Hana's arms simply dropped to her sides along with her book when Yuri decided that going after the girls was a bad idea. She wasn't so sure... it wasn't like the teachers were roaming the grounds... and what if she had a credit card or something they could screw with? 'No, she can handle herself,' Hana told herself, sighing outwardly along with her inner thoughts. 'It's not like you're really big enough to put up a fight if it comes to that. This is why you don't try to interact with people who aren't Mako.'

Hana stood up, not shaking Yuri's hand. She wasn't a fan of touching, so she tried to decline as politely as possible by deciding she was distracted by something as she got up. A little lie wasn't as bad as outright refusing! Right? And was it really a lie? "All I would have to do is drop one off for you," Hana insisted in her calm tone. "I get free copies since I work for the magazine. It wouldn't be right to take money for those copies."

Besides, Hana wasn't currently lacking in funds; she'd literally just got her pay sent to her dorm that morning. Good thing she had stuffed that in her shoe where the bullies hadn't thought to look. She might have been down some cash too. 'Who charges someone who just got beat up to save your book money, anyway?'

Huh. That seemed just a little rude...

Yuri shrugged it off and let the hand that was denied fall beside her. No big deal. It made sense for the smaller girl to refuse help from someone who just got mobbed for her sake, so Yuri wouldn't hold it against her, and she was nice enough to be offering a free copy of that manga she wrote. Probably wasn't an intentionally rude gesture, no reason to actually be offended by it.

"Hmm... Seems unfair to take one for free, though..." Yuri replied, crossing her arms in front of her and pondering the thought for a bit. She could care less about the company that sold them, one copy wasn't going to make any difference there, but didn't the authors rely on those sales? "Well, how 'bout this? I'll give it a look for now, then after I've read it over, if I like it, I'll buy a copy for myself. That's fair, right?"

'You really don't seem to understand the idea of a promotion...' Hana kept her expression the friendly sort of neutral she'd been trying to maintain the entire time. She wasn't good at looking anything except unfriendly. She also wasn't good at taking advantage of people who just got beat up in an attempt to save her. She was missing her wallet; Hana was missing a page.

"It's not unfair," Hana told her. "If you want to do it that way, fine..." She shrugged very slightly. "If you want to come with me to my room, I can get you the copy. I don't much feel like going to the shop anymore anyway." Her new plan was to doodle until Mako came home and use her company to improve her own mood.

Hana motioned for Yuri to follow her, turning back around and heading towards the dorms. She adjusted her dress a bit to make sure nothing was out of place; it was decently short so it wasn't that hard to do. Plus she'd just been roughed up and climbing things. Within a few minutes they were at the room and Hana opened the door. She walked inside, leaving the place open for Yuri to follow.

Hana's side of the room was neat, organized, and obviously belonged to an artist. Nearly everything other than her clothes was art related. She even had several open books with various drawings in them. She reached under her bead and pulled out a bucket that had a pile of the magazines she'd been sent. She stood back up and handed it gently to Yuri with both hands. "Here," she nodded, looking up at the girl properly.

Yuri spent their trip to the dorms rubbing away at her bruises for the most part. She was inclined to talk on the way, but felt like it was a more wise choice to keep quiet for the moment... The majority of what she'd been saying up to this point, ever since they met up again after Yuri intervened, appeared to make the smaller girl feel worse about what happened, or maybe it just came across as insincere. If their situations were reversed, surely Yuri would have tried to offer something as thanks just the same, and perhaps feel guilty if she were denied that opportunity. Maybe that was what was going on here.

In any case, she worked all of this out in her head as they walked in silence. Upon actually arriving, Yuri followed right in after Hana and gave the room's interior a thorough, yet brief examination; it was rare for her to actually see someone else's dorm room, since she didn't really hang around anyone from school outside of class hours. It was the kind of the scenery she would have expected in the room of a manga artist, though any questions or comments she might have had were cut short by the magazine now hovering in front of her.

Well, no, not hovering. It was Hana's hand that Yuri reached out to take the magazine from, providing a grateful nod as she did. "Appreciate it," Yuri said, giving the cover a quick look over before returning her gaze to Hana. About time to stop the whole "no need to thank me" thing, she figured. "I'll give it a read some time tonight. Maybe during homework break."

"That's what a manga is for," Hana nodded. The silence of the trip back had helped her compose herself. She was once again the quiet, even-toned nerd girl that she normally was. It had been an eventful day, that much was sure. The giving of a free magazine was literally about the least she could do, but as long as she could do something it wasn't so bad.

"Thank you again... for saving my work," she told Yuri. It was her livelyhood, her heart and soul. She both drew for profit and for pleasure, and every drawing she put her heart into. The one torn page was a terrible enough blow. Any more would have been... heartbreaking. Almost literally.