"Tell her no food is allowed in my car."

The taxi driver nudged Karma—he was sitting beside him--when he saw the foreign girl taking out cupcakes from her tote bag through the rear mirror.

"Oh, sorry sir," said Arina, shoving it back into her bag as the driver's jaw dropped hearing her speak perfect Japanese.

"How did you learn Japanese, pretty girl?" he asked in curiosity.

"My uncle's wife taught me, sir, she's Japanese," Arina lied quickly.

The driver was intrigued and asked further in detail about their relationship and where she originated from.

"The Orlas Union, sir,"

"WHAATT!??" he spat, spontaneously driving to a near pavement and slamming the brake. The car came to a stop.

Realizing the problem, Arina quickly covered her mouth, regretting what she just blabbed out.

"What's the matter, uncle~?" said Karma.

"You!!" he pointed at Arina, "get out of mah car! My son was in Korea when the Red Army killed him!" he yelled, as her stomach plummeted.

"Sir, I'm sorry for your loss..."

"But uncle~ you're now blaming a child to be responsible for your son's death? Are you a man child~?" Karma raised an eyebrow and Nagisa also nodded in agreement.

"Tell me, girl, where are you from exactly?" the driver ignored him and asked Arina in a dead tone.

"...Normady, sir," replied Arina hesitatingly.

"Absolutely disgusting!! Get out! NOW!!" he snapped, continued ignoring Karma's words.

"It's okay, Akabane-kun, I can understand why he feels this way..." said Arina, sighing, then smiled to pretend she was fine and got out of the car.

"Pai pai! Stay strong guys!" she waved to the injured guys in the backseat. "You and Akabane-kun keep going to the hospital, remember to keep an eye on those two, alright? I'm gonna catch up soon."

"Take care, Arina..." said Nagisa, looking concerned.

"Be careful, don't tell anyone you're from Normady," reminded Karma.

'Alright!" nodded Arina and closed the car door as she watched it drive away.

Merely minutes ago, she was sitting in the car, giggling, excited about everyone's reaction to her cupcakes, and now there she was, standing in the middle of nowhere in the city. She zipped out the messenger bag and rummaged for her phone.

'Wait' she thought, she kept on rummaging but there was no sign of it, had she lost it somewhere?

Nevertheless, Arina remained calm and went searching for a solution. Unfortunately, there was no way to catch a taxi in her area; therefore, she went around to look for a telephone box.

Nearby her was a gang of high school students (the guys that kidnapped Kayano and Kanzaki during the Kyoto trip lol), since they assumed she couldn't speak Japanese, they shared their opinions out loud about how beautiful that foreign girl was.

Arina, of course, understood what they said and wondered how will they react if she told them she was an Orlas girl, will they ignore her beauty also?

"Excuse me!" she said while approaching them (the gang gasped at her ability to speak Japanese).

"I had lost my phone and am now in the need of going to the hospital nearby, will you be kind enough to drive me there?"

They immediately smirked in a malicious way and whispered something to each other's ear, which Arina overheard anyway. They were planning to kidnap and rape her, but since they were only a bunch of high school kiddos who posed no threat to her whatsoever, she decided to teach them a lesson instead.

"C'mon, gurl," a guy who was seemingly the gang's leader (from what Arina assumed), prompted her to get on his motorcycle. Arina had no objection and followed the instruction to their malevolent sneer at her pure innocence.

"Hurry up! My friends are dying!" urged Arina, acting as if she was actually innocent.

"It will not be too long, pretty gurl," said the gang's leader with a sly smirk plastered on his gaunt face.

***

While they have almost arrived at the hospital, Nagisa was left with a constant worry for Arina, he fidgeted in his seat and his butt suddenly bumped into something hard.

"What it's, Nagisa-kun?" Karma asked upon hearing his friend squeak.

"It's Arina's phone!!" he briskly said. "She must've forgotten it!!"

Nagisa was expecting Karma to get anxious and suggest driving back and search for her but certainly not his usual chill face, Karma calmly shrugged, "There are many solutions, Nagisa-kun~ stop worrying too much."

"But she's a foreigner!!" Nagisa quickly debated back. "And a beautiful schoolgirl too! What if some strangers take advantage of her?"

Karma didn't said anything in return, though he looked as if he was also worried, scratching his neck repeatedly.

'Hope that chick of the Evil Empire dies in the street' thought the driver. Meanwhile, Nagisa was praying for Arina's safety.

***

"You surpassed the route to the hospital," stated Arina, looking sideway to the hospital building lying across where they were heading.

"I reckon there's a faster way there," said the gang's leader maliciously, while his friends drove closer to them to encircle her from possible escape.

"At least when you lie, do it wisely. Look! We just have to turn right and we're already there by now!" whined Arina to their savage laugh.

"Realized it now, huh, girl?" one of them said, snickering.

"Mm-hm! I'm very intrigued, to be honest," she beamed. "Like, every nation and culture has their own set of criminals! I'm very surprised to learn that Japan has young students who are already committing crimes! Even though my uncle told me it has the lowest crime rate in the world...but well, I guess we just couldn't survive in this world without flaming a bit of adrenaline—"

"Why is she suddenly talking so much?" asked a fat guy in their gang, sweatdropping.

"She will regret it soon," one said devilishly.

"I'm looking forward to what you will do to me also. I'm sorry, it just sparks my curiosity. Ah! But first of all, where do you use as your secret base? Is it at your home? Or—"

"Shut the hell up, gurl!! Or you will regret it badly!!" the gang's leader snapped.

"It's that bad?" asked Arina in excitement. "You know, life is so boring, but people like you make it so exciting! This is honestly a brilliant adventure!"

"We are not going to Disney land for f*ck sake!! " exclaimed the gang's leader. "This. is. a. kidnap. do. you. understand!?"

"Shh!!" Arina quickly placed an index finger on her lips. "What if people hear you?"

"Oh, yeah...right," the gang's leader rolled his eyes, as well as his friends. The difference was they were not rolling their eyes at the foreign girl.

"As if I just snapped out of dreams, you know, and I realized this is the reality because the world we live in is never safe—"

And she continued to express on and on about her vision of the world, so much to their tiresome. As a result, the gang drove faster to their destination to end her endless blabbering.

"I was confused at first, but then I concluded 'Hey! Maybe people are not that bad after all!' I figured I should know their history before I can judge. Being able to sympathize really changed me! Changed how others view me also. But still, saving souls is definitely not an easy task, but I'd like to—"

"Seize her," ordered the gang's leader while they already reached their destination at his house's basement and parked their motorcycles.

"Is this your parent's basement? Certainly not a wise move, isn't it?" said Arina thoughtfully.

"As leader said, we gonna make you regret badly for being insolent!!" a guy with a ponytail spat as he seized and tied her wrists with a rope.

"Oh, wait!! Before you do this—" said Arina importantly.

"Hah! Started begging for mercy?" the fat guy snickered scornfully at her.

"Let's have some cupcakes first!" she beamed, as they nearly pass out helplessly from her irrelevant offer.

"I've never encountered such a bold victim!!" the gang's leader spoke, gritting his teeth. "Everyone!! Let's teach her the definition of a real crime!!"

"Ah haa! How amateur," said Arina mildly, effortlessly dodging all their grabs and attacks with her wrists tied up. "Did you even learn any proper form of martial art?"

"How annoying!!" exclaimed the ponytail guy, together, they attempted to grab her but failed. "Should've tied her to a pole!!"

"Who is she!??" questioned the leader exasperatedly as he shoved others out of his way to increase the chance of seizing her.

Arina wasn't exactly collected but tried to appear as so. She continued dodging all their attacks until the fat guy in the gang had had enough and leaped out brandishing a knife at her; although Arina was actually caught off guard by his unforeseen move, her instinct saved her by seizing the chance and releasing her wrists from the rope using his knife attack deftly.

"WHAT!??" the fat guy yelled in disbelief. His firm grip loosened from the shock as he almost dropped his knife.

"Why did you release her, Butaro!??"

The leader stopped all his moves just to grab Butaro by his collar. Butaro squeaked and eventually dropped the knife to the ground, which the other gang member quickly caught it.

"I--didn't...sh--she..." he choked, struggling to speak properly, "she...it happened...so fast."

"If you guys are real men with honor," said Arina, as the gang snapped out of Butaro's state and lunged in to seize her.

"Now, now! I haven't finished my sentence" -- she said while continuing to dodge -- "If you guys are real men with honor, you shouldn't have teamed up just to attack a defenseless girl. That's (she ducked down from a kick) very shameful!"

Her words weren't at all effective as she had to block another punch, "Listen!! Let's do a 1v1! It's more efficient that way than huddling together and letting me slip away!"

The gang halted their move set and burst out laughing.

"How bold you are gurl," the leader simpered scornfully.

"I'm better than you then," smirked Arina confidently, hands on her hip, pretty much to their rages. "If you lose to or don't even dare to face a vulnerable girl on a 1v1, I suppose you shall be burned alive by shames and humiliation."

"Hmpf! Bring it on!" said the leader pompously, not realizing he had subconsciously eased his gang's members' temper.

He ordered his gang to step back and watch the show. They agreed and formed a circle around them as if it was a venue.

"So!" said Arina, raising her index finger, "who will be the referee?"

"I will!"

Their heads swiveled at a guy with a big, round pair of glasses. He stepped forward with a smirk.

"Please go easy on me, I have always been bad at hand-to-hand combat," informed Arina honestly, smiling.

"As you wish," the gang's leader howled with derisive laughter.