°˖✧Gaijin✧˖°

°˖✧Popstar✧˖°

She probably should have expected this.

School is back in session, which means she gets to be surrounded by her peers and her friends once more. But the problem is that everyone and their mothers saw what happened on the news. That means that she's getting questioned like she committed murder and now she's stuck in an interrogation room - except, instead of one cop grilling her, it's more than she can count.

"Anaya-chan, what was it like? Did they try to force you to do anything you didn't want to do?"

"What did Claw want with you, Anaya?"

"That guy that took you was handsome, wasn't he?"

That last one legitimately made her recoil and internally ask, "What the fuck?" Who in their right mind asks a kidnapping victim about the beauty of her kidnapper? She's not even a master at social interaction and she knows that!

But, on the flip side, there are people who have been incredibly kind. Those people are, unsurprisingly, her fellow Art Club members, the Body Improvement Club, the Telepathy Club, and their teachers. She has no idea how she's going to carry so many gifts home, from the flowers from Chizuru to the big alien plush the Telepathy Club got her.

"You're very popular today," Shigeo comments, giving her a tentative smile at lunch time. She has the sneaking suspicion that he's trying to make her feel a little bit better about all the eyes on her. She's not used to being the center of attention, nor does she particularly like it. It makes her nervous, like she has to perform or something.

"For all the wrong reasons. Once the novelty wears off, they'll leave me alone," she quips, taking a bite of the pork katsu they've been served for lunch today. "Besides, if anyone should be popular, it should be you! You're the one that defeated the boss of Claw and saved me. You're a hero!"

Blushing softly, he looks away. "I-I don't know about that. It was just the right thing to do."

She smiles, her heart fluttering. She knows it was the right thing to do. And he doesn't expect anything in return for doing such good things, too, which... Well, it's one of the many things she loves about him. She plucks a piece of katsu from his tray and presses it to his lips. "Eat up," she coaxes him, which only makes his face redden more.

"They act more like a couple than some of the actual married people I see," Megumi comments, staring out the window at the giant broccoli that has sprouted in the middle of town. How people are able to go on with their lives without going as far as to question it is a mystery. How people haven't tried to eat it is also a mystery.

"I guarantee you that if you ask anyone that doesn't know them, they're going to assume they're together already," Dimple smirks, taking a sip of the carton of milk that he stole from the lunch cart.

"When will you stop stealing crap? You and I don't even have to eat since we don't have active stomachs."

"Probably when I die."

"We're both dead already!"

"Anaya! I knew there was much more to you than what meets the eye!"

Both of them look over, finding the local busybody (and girl who is way too keen for her own good), Mezato Ichi, standing in front of the two holding her signature pink camera in front of her. "After all... what would a world class psychic organization like Claw want with an ordinary schoolgirl?"

Oh, she didn't even refer to me as foreign! That makes me so happy! Ari cheers internally, the implication of Ichi's words going straight over her head.

Ichi points right at her, a glint in her dark eyes. "You and Mob are one in the same, aren't you?! You're a psychic as well, and the reason Claw wanted you to join them and kidnapped you was so they could exploit your powers to take control of the world!"