Mikey! (Manjiro Sano x OC) [Tokyo Revengers]

II. Beauty

There are many beautiful things in the world, like the baby's first cry right after it's born, or the sun when it is about to rise or set, or the hands of lovers clasped by each other, or friendships that last forever, and promises kept, and many more. She knows all of these but Karina could not appreciate them. She could notice only a few, experience even fewer.

Her parents got divorced when she was just ten. Since then, she has stayed with her mother who was completely wrecked by her separation from her husband. The woman became abusive and alcoholic, venting all her anger to her daughter. It's a good thing that she's always busy working at the factory though and only meets her child a few times a week. But when they do meet, Karina would always have a new set of wounds and bruises that she needs to hide.

Abused inside her home and bullied outside of it, Karina feels like she's living in hell. Every single day.

On this day she's lucky enough that Aiko and her group didn't beat her up for fun. No, they have a different plan set for her. They lead her to a school she doesn't know and show her another picture. A cute girl with blonde hair is in it. "Remember her face," Aiko commands, "there she is. We'll distract Draken. Now go!"

Karina is pushed toward the gate. Almost losing her balance, she wobbles as she approaches the beautiful stranger. Arms full of books, she purposely bumps the blonde. The books scatter on the floor with soft thuds.

"I'm sorry!" Karina instantly apologizes as the other girl helps her pick up her things—props—and helps her stand up.

"No problem. Your uniform. You're not from here, are you?" The stranger looks at her without suspicion.

Karina shakes her head, her unruly curls bouncing with every turn. "I-I-I just borrowed from your school's library. O-ours doesn't have the stuff your school has." How smoothly how she lies. Like she's used to it. Maybe she is. For she's always lying when she says that she and everything's okay. Not that anyone cares anyway.

"I see. But these are plenty. Don't you have someone to help you?" the beautiful blonde asks.

"No" is Karina's reply.

One by one, the other girl transfers the books to her arms. When they're holding the same amount of books, the stranger looks at somewhere beyond the school's gates.

Then, she frowns.

Karina looks at where the stranger is looking and sees Aiko openly flirting with a scary tall boy. She wonders if he's the Draken that Aiko and her friends were referring to.

"It's okay. Come on, I'll go with you." The beautiful girl looks irritated though Karina doesn't know why. But at least everything is going as planned.

Is she relieved?

No.

She couldn't be.

Is she feeling bad because of the dirty deed she's doing for her bullies?

The walk toward Delilah's is not quiet. The stranger introduces herself as "Emma" and, though looking uninterested at first, starts getting friendly with her. She talks about random things: about how delicious the food in her school cafeteria is, how big their swimming pool is, and how their library has more books than any other school library in Tokyo. "You should consider transferring to our school," she says with a smile.

Karina can taste the bile that rises from her stomach. How can she do something awful to such a nice person?

But it's too late to back out now. They're only a few steps away from Delilah's and she's sure Aiko's friends are monitoring their every move.