Hi! how's it going? To whoever still reads this since I've been absent for so long.

After reconsidering for a while, I've finally came to this decision. To discontinue this book.

It's my fault entirely for coming up with such a complex story that requires probably up to 200 chapters to convey everything. Heck, there is so much stuff in the plot that I've now forgotten all of it and have to revise my notes and still can't grasp everything. Seriously, I've missed the point since the beginning and this isn't really what readers are coming for, a Asano x OC ff. This feels more like an individual OC success and the book cover is lying to newcomers lolol

Update: I have changed the cover lol

And the fact that I've poured in so much blood, sweat, and tears for a story that is barely what readers are looking for, really got me thinking many times before.

But no worries, since I'm going to discontinue this book, I will summarize the entire plot of the story to make up for the future loss.

Let's continue from chapter 75

***

To summarize the point of this thug arc, basically the purpose is for Arina to eventually make up with her ex-comrades, despite her current position in society. So they are now comrades again.

Asano and Arina went on a date (as friends, of course, they will never confess to each other, not due to pride, but shyness and insecurity) around Kyoto the day after as promised, but quickly broke apart when Arina realized Asano was still in touch with Liliana Chadwick and lashed her childish anger (jealousy) out. Clearly, she was just overthinking, and that got on Asano's nerves with how ridiculous she was acting. And it was Arina who fled away in tears without any explanation, leaving the confused Asano behind.

Regardless, he still really appreciated the fact that she now knew his deepest, darkest secrets (exposed by the thugs) and still managed to accept him, the real him underneath the shiny armor. She had that warm aura with her that never ceased to make him feel comfortable even if his greatest fear had become true.

Skip to a few arcs revolving around class E life. By that time the US intelligence agencies were working day and night to find the code to break the spread of virus caused by the rearrangement of the code system the Orlas privately transferred to the Chadwick family (who funded the project) by hacking into Yanagisawa's laboratory.

Meanwhile, there were some rumors about the existence of an Orlas technology that is capable of replicating an individual's face and voice among the US intelligence. However, since it wasn't confirmed, the news can not be discussed within Congress, though the Lower House kept nudging for it to be announced so they could plan steps ahead.

But when Alexei Avenir was interviewed on another day, he curtly objected to the rumor, deeming it as 'rubbish' and blamed the US for spreading false information so they could urge the Congress to raise funds for the military. The way he lied made it quite reasonable.

As a result, UN members didn't understand Japan's motive and imposed sanctions on Japan. However, the Orlas Union, by being one of the five permanent countries used their veto power to defend Japan.

'There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but only permanent interests in international relations' said Lord Palmerston. Now the world order had once again shifted. Japan had fallen to the Orlas' side.

However, there was this really big problem: the failed experiment from the lab that threatened to destroy Earth. Therefore, besides dealing with each other, every world leader was rushing to kill the octopus before it would come true. And here as everyone knows Arina had given up on the assassination, which caused Alexei to become more and more upset, even more now that he can't no longer send his underlings to force her through physical harassment given the octopus' protection ('strange,' he thought). He tried sending Normadian world-class assassins to E class but was rejected by Gakuho who held the decision due for various reasons.

At last, in desperation for the US to submit themselves before the world blew up, Alexei ended up revealing where the code to cure the deadly virus that was killing millions of people every week (oh, btw, under the Orlas control of the government, the Japanese were vaccinated by their vaccines, that's why they are immune to it) was located: inside his daughter's body. So that he could use it to trade for the US agreement to the resignment pact and end the Cold War.

That meant Arina's life was endangered. And the reason why he kept her for so long in Japan was finally revealed: to keep Belaya Posadka from falling if something ever happens, it would be best if the code is far away from the heart of his territory.

The issued decision reached one of his generals' ears, Sergei Fedorov, which paled him and immediately, he booked a flight to Japan just to inform Arina about it.

There was a deep history of why Alexei clearly resented his daughter, which dated back decades ago, the time when Japan hadn't banned Normadian language.

A young girl named Aleksandra Aristova, nicknamed Sasha Aristova, possused a fiery, bold personality (which was unusual for women at her time) whose family worked in a high position for the government so they were considered an aristocratic household compared to the 90% of Orlas citizens, was highly intelligent and well-spoken, became an ambassador to Japan at only around the age of 20, not to mention the first Orlas woman to achieve that rank.

However, her ideology and vision were conflicted with the system her country was running, which kind of resembled federal democracy.

During one of her trips to Japan, she met a man named Hirose Tsutomu who also worked for the government, and despite being more than doubled her age, eventually fell in love with this young girl's charm, sharp intellect, strong vision and kindness.

He lovingly called her Sasha, a dark brunette woman he loved so much with an angelic kind of beauty and very pale, transparent green pair of eyes, and was influenced by her idealistic vision. He helped her by contacting translation services and setting up a smart system to break through the Orlas GFW to aim at stuffing the outside world's knowledge into the Orlas territory in secret, the goal is to keep the citizens from being continuously brainwashed by their government. And it worked for several years without being caught.

Eventually, with her great ambition, Aleksandra Aristova set out a dream to create a New World Order herself. But with her status as a woman, everything damped her ten steps behind a man. At last, she did the unthinkable.

She used the greatest weapon a woman had: femininity, to try and seduce the Comrade Chairman into loving her so she could obtain power directly from him. This man had a reputation for being a womanizer. Hot and cold. He will love you today and go to bed with another woman the next day. Since he had power, he always had many options; so why bother sticking to a woman only?

However somehow, Alexei had never seen a woman like Sasha in his entire life; no one was near as charming and intelligent, and no one was near as cold to him as her. She understood his psychology and made him chase her for years, and he liked it. It was exciting, fun. He was a hunter and she was a deer.

In the end, after all those chases, Sasha began to be more fed up with herself, believing herself to be some source of a goddess even a current self-deemed Spasitel of the world couldn't resist but submit to. She finally agreed to be with him. But little did she know now that the hunt is over, the passion will eventually die.

She was the only woman to call the Spasitel by his nickname, 'Alyosha', and the one he officially married to. Together, they had a daughter who she named after the goddess of Peace, 'Arina' on a cold morning on February 29th. She looked almost identical to Sasha when she was a baby, and got the hair color from her father.

Her mother held her baby in her arms and kissed on her little nose, promising to protect and love her until the rest of her life, and wished for her little Arina to never forget what she said. The thing with this baby was, she was always laughing, a happy child. She reached her little arms out to stroke her mother's hair.

Happiness didn't last for long. Alexei had finally grown tired of the deer he hunted a while ago, regardless of how pretty it looked. He was also irritated by the fact that his wife never knew how to shut up. She was too bold, and too opinionated, which were traits he found irresistible during the chase, but definitely not now that it was over. He bashed her ideas of reforming the country, and ended up cheating on her with more docile women without her acknowledgment.

The day finally came, and Sasha together with Hirose Tsutomu was caught for their illegal scheme. Tsutomu was banished from Japan after leaking government's info through the system he set up along with a large group of underground workers. The scandal got so big that Japan decided to ban its citizens from learning Normadian without signing up for government surveillance so situations like this wouldn't happen again. Meanwhile, Alexei was infuriated by the woman he had devoted so much of his time to. He arrived at a decision to execute her, publicly.

On a heavy snow day in January, hundreds of people stood in the middle of Belaya Posadka Square to witness the death of the Comrade Chairman's wife. Their daughter, Arina Avenira, being almost one year old by that time, was moved to stand in front of the crowd to see her mother's death up close.

In her final words, Sasha boldly expressed her love for her people, and was not afraid to speak out about her vision for the future, for the people, for the country, for the world's peace. She will look after them all, even after her death, and was shot to death by multiple gun points. After the execution, Alexei issued a deletion to every piece of information relating to his ex-wife, including her photos and every political conference tape he had gone to with her.

But even if Aleksandra Aristova had died, her legacy continued to live on. What she left for the world was her daughter.

Meanwhile, Hirose Tsutomu, he was not executed but was thrown into the inhumane experiment camp reserved for political criminals. And what to do with Arina? Whenever Alexei looked at her, she reminded him of his past wife. The wife he hated so much. As a result, he shipped her away along with the Japanese criminal.

Fun fact: Arina's mother is inspired by Natalie Dormer's version of Anne Boleyn

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

That's the end of Arina's parents' arc. Now we will move back to the current timeline when Fedorov arrived in Japan to convince Arina what is about to happen.

Of course, Arina refused to believe him. Then the incident struck and she found herself being captured by the military. Overnight she had became a trade property. Her life will be at risk if her father decide to get rid of her life along with the code inside if the bargaining goes wrong.

Fortunately Koro-sensei found out and interrupted the bargaining. Arina was still in a state of disbelief at that time. But later when she was taken away to perform surgery to remove a 9-millimeter shell from her body with encrypted code inside, her rose-colored glasses world shattered.

Thus things clicked, and the trauma was so great she began to recover her past self. In other words, she finally recovered her memory of what happened before she was brought into the surgery room that day after Fedorov found and returned her to her father.

After grandpa Tsu was gone, she was left to fend for herself in the military camps during the Winter War with Suoma, being raped every single day and almost freezing to death on several occasions.

After this continued for a while, one day she learned from observing and gathering the strength to pick up a rifle and shoot her first kill while he was looking away.

The first shot was overwhelming. Her head became dizzy, her shoulder was somehow damaged from the unexpected recoil and her ears were partially deaf.

Thus this incident accidentally revolutionized her entire character. To feed herself, she became a cannibal, feasting on the soldiers she shot. She didn't have the size and strength, therefore she had to be smart. She came up with primitive booby traps, which fortunately worked to some level, and began to fight the guerilla warfare way. She mastered hiding in the snowbanks, red dot sights and eventually iron rights, completely unaware of her achievement until she killed at least hundreds of people.

Her identity became widespread. Soldiers began to gossip about her, and eventually general Fedorov was the one who came to pick her up and identified her as the missing daughter of the Comrade Chairman.

Back to the present day, this time Arina fell into the darkest, deepest depth of despair. Not just depression, she became mentally unstable, and mad, and started to hallucinate about her father. She cut her throat on purpose and was rushed to the hospital by Koro-sensei. But even with the presence of the beloved teacher, nothing can be done to save her. Arina was eventually diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

She saw her father in her sleep, in the mirror, in her own reflection, and every time she would scream like a total maniac. However, she still showed up for her final junior high exam and failed miserably, crying into her exam paper. That was the first time Asano had seen her in a while, and without question, he did his investigation on what happened and ended up knowing the entire political conflict from beginning to end from General Fedorov which included Arina's state of being (by that time the news hadn't yet been broadcast for the world to know about)

The fact that Asano also tried to cheer Arina up, though, it was just that she was partially insane to be treated normally. And it was just suffering for Asano as well when he tried to interact with her.

By that time the US had obtained the cure from the help of Koro-sensei and began to vaccinate its citizens including the rest of the Western sphere. The whole world now learned about the Orlas' deeds and schemes, including the confirmation of the photosynthetic veil technology and the inhumane treatment of test subjects during the experiment (Plus the complicated father-daughter relationship between Alexei and Arina)

The truth about missing Japanese government officials being shipped to the Orlas to go through experiments for bio-weapons was also uncovered, which revoked rebellion across the nation. The news was also covered all around the world. Most countries voted against the Orlas during the UN conference.

Played back a month before the rebellion, Arina, still in a state of insanity, mistakenly slashed Asano with a knife while hallucinating she was doing so to her father in the mental asylum. But it was that horrible incident that drove her back to being herself after the hallucination was over.

On December midnight she snuck out of the mental asylum and wandered on the street on bare feet. The snow and its coldness subconsciously brought her memories as a child back. Alone in this world. She had committed too many sins, to the point of being unsavable. Tell God would he forgive a girl who murdered and hurt as many souls as she did? No, he wouldn't spare her. She shall be isolated from the rest of mankind. She shalln't experience the joy they have, nor the same pain they go through.

Alone in this world.

A family of a mom, dad, brothers or sisters had always been the only fantasy of hers, yes, only, the only true fantasy for the dreamy Arina. Just imagine eating a warm dinner with all of them beside a heater, your mother cooks the food for you, never realizing it she peered through the windows' frozen glasses and gaped just like she did when she was ten. Her breath formed into a foggy cloud before her vision.

She walked past the familiar streets she had grown so familiar with that she needn't think to know where she should turn to reach the tallest bridge they have here. She passed through Kunugigaoka's main campus, the place that used to bring her so many joyful moments; through the orphanages that she frequently stopped by to play with and gift the children something to eat or play with; she walked past without looking back at the convenience stores she used to love so much and would stop by everyday; through the graves of the ones who died in the 'Tragic Fate of the Outcasts' incident she would mourn to even 'til this day; up and down she went and didn't notice the many abandoned buildings her gang had stationed at. At last she reached the bridge; her bare feet were burnt by the icy snow, as if thousands of needles were stabbing into them; her body quivered; her teeth clattered. She was too numb that now even moving is hard. Fine, if jumping wouldn't kill her tonight, the cold would.

Beside her, there was a weeping woman. It was strange that she was doing that in the middle of the night, let alone while it was snowing heavily outside, but Arina had lost her conscious mind enough to be unable to form a basic thought to herself, let alone notice the woman's presence.

Inside her head right now, was empty — blank empty. As long as there wasn't a thing that could trigger her trauma, she was in the most peaceful state of her entire life. But something just snapped at that moment, and she found herself instinctively pulling the woman back from the handrail before she could jump into the freezing water below. They both fell into the ground of thin snow behind with a painful thud.

Acknowledging Arina's presence and the fact that she just tried to save her, even though her reputation wasn't that good in the eyes of the public, the woman temporarily brushed away her despair to save this girl first.

Unfortunately for Arina she was sent to the police which meant she was back at the mental asylum the next morning. However this time she got herself a new visitor, the weeping woman from the night before. Turned out she just found out her soulmate of ten years was cheating on her all these times, as she fell into an incurable depression.

However, after that night, seeing the real Arina Avenira by flesh and bones — the most unfortunate girl alive trying to save her, had ignited something in the woman's heart. Turned out the myth about a father mistreating his own kid this terribly was real. And here she was, still living and trying to save another person's life. Maybe it was a blessing for her to discover her husband's true nature, as it was for this little girl about her father.

We always do stupid things when we can't handle the truth, arent' we?

For some reason her presence alone stopped the woman's intention of taking her life. After battling with another series of schizophrenia, General Fedorov explained to Arina that she had not just saved a person's life, but also her will to live. Somewhere in her mind and heart, Arina felt at ease for once after a long period of time. Her guilt was lifted for a moment. Perhaps, just perhaps, she deserved to be loved just like anyone else in this world, just a bit, a bit of love is already too much.

From that moment, she began to sneak out of the asylum more and more. Not to seek suicidal opportunities, but just to relieve her guilt like the other night.

But it was just a relief for her every time she found her way back to nature — where there was no sight of humans, and where one could have no care for the world — the world built by mankind. She didn't have to think about politics, love, and her father.

'Why can't we just admire a tree for the way it was, rather than how much we can make by cutting it off' thought Arina while staring at those naked trees during winter. Although sometimes, she could just hear her father's voice out of nowhere, but it was okay, everything was fine now. He wouldn't appear in places like this. General Fedorov wasn't here, therefore father wouldn't be here. There was no one here, therefore father wouldn't be here. There was no conflict here, therefore father wouldn't be here.

She ended up leaving the city by walking on foot days and nights. She would never return. She didn't want to hear her father's voice anymore, or the things that would trigger her trauma.

She had her ways of surviving without a single penny in her pocket by selling self-written poetries on the street, or if more desperate, she wouldn't hesitate to sell info about her father. Sometimes she would get an extra tip, since after the truth about the father-daughter relationship was revealed, the world had finally sympathized with her, but it didn't mean that they would get closer to her. She was still the daughter of Alexei Avenir and the Japanese law of protecting minors couldn't apply since she wasn't a citizen. And her father, who was the one responsible for the citizens of his country, had abandoned her.

After her visa duration is over, she would belong to no place in this world.

But Arina never paid a mind anymore. Who would even adopt her? She could survive by herself, that's it. Just by herself. She bought a ticket to a remote area without knowing where it was located. She just wanted to get out of this world of mankind.

She sat in a corner of a train station like a homeless person — oh, she was, in fact, a homeless fifteen-year-old — and waited until nearly midnight to board the train. At that time, there would be few people, therefore she could be at ease knowing her trauma wouldn't get triggered that easily.

The commute took almost a day, and after getting off the train, she opted for a life like a wildman in the wilderness. But it was still snowing outside, and Arina, who only had one big coat she wore from the asylum, didn't know if she could survive this winter, but it was worth trying.

She had always been reckless, just like Asano commented.

But things didn't go as she expected. The scenery of the winter wilderness reminded her of her traumatic past so much that she began to break down and cry after a day.

But who could've saved her now? Unlike in the past, she was the only one responsible for her reckless action.

The world was empty now in the eyes of Arina. She could find no safe place in this world. No place would've wanted her. No place on earth. She hated winter. Her mother died in winter. Grandpa Tsu died in winter. She was abandoned in winter. She had to survive the Winter War. She killed hundreds in the Winter War. Winter is cold and unfeeling. She and winter were mortal enemies.

Sadness, starvation, coldness, all came along with winter. Arina blinked her frozen lashes to adjust her watery vision. She did so three more times and ducked her head inside her coat to seek warmth and slid down next to a tree trunk and leaned against it.

She was going to die, in winter, just like her mother and grandpa Tsu. Dying beside a tree, she closed her eyes. Her stomach rumbled. Her red fingertips were so numb they stopped shaking. Her toenails turned black from walking too much and her feet started bleeding. At last she finally stopped sobbing.

Only if one dies, then their hunger, pain, and agony would go away forever.

But she didn't die. Arina felt something land on her head, as if patting it. She didn't have the strength to turn around anymore, but somehow, she knew just from the warmth, that was her teacher, Koro-sensei.

He gently apologized for arriving so late to be with his beloved student when she needed him the most. The Orlas government was coming up with a special plan to seize him so he had been dealing with that for the past week.

Arina didn't answer, and he took and wrapped her inside his cloak. Her little face poked out from the cloak underneath his giant, yellow, smiling face. The warmness of him sheltering her was enough to drive the young girl's wide opened eyes to feel damp again. He rocked back and forth, reassuring his beloved student, 'Coldness, starvation, pain, they won't come for you anymore. Sensei will forever protect you. See? There's nothing to be afraid of.'

In a world where she belonged to no place, inside this cloak did Arina find safety. A tear rolled down her freezing cheek. Will Koro-sensei protect her forever? Will he leave her just like everyone who ever loved her?

'Forever,' he said, smiling — even his beady eyes were smiling, 'forever.'

Snow continued to fall, but it didn't stop her from feeling warm and safe. Never would Arina's past self believe that last year will be her first and last Christmas. Life circumstances would never allow her to experience those happy moments again. But here, within Koro-sensei's cloak, she was able to re-experience all those warmth and happiness again. Maybe for this time only, once and for all, cherish this moment. Cherish it.

Will Koro-sensei keep his promise and stay with her forever?

Tears kept rolling down her numbing cheeks.

He brought something for her to eat and drink. The way she gulped down food so rapidly after days of having nothing to eat pains Koro-sensei; and the fact that she refused to go back didn't help either.

At last he respected her decision and let her stay, but he just made sure that she wouldn't starve or freeze to death. He built her a warm shelter and left her a ton of food.

During her time in the winter wilderness, no matter what Arina kept experiencing hallucinations. But at least there was no one around that she could potentially hurt anymore. The long days felt like months. But it was her decision. She had let herself isolated from humanity.

But it was during this week of complete isolation that this childish, young girl grew the most. When you no longer interact with other people, when you only have yourself to talk to, that is when you discover the most about life. Reality is only an illusion. The pillow is red because every human say so, but is it really the truth? Through a dog's vision he would say otherwise. So what does reality truly look like? Is money real? Is power and position real? No, everything is just a fictional invention to properly manage human society. Society is an illusion created by mankind. You can't realize this when you're too busy battling with the system this fictional society has made.

She had realized it now. Everything. Including what love truly is. Everything is just a result of biological evolution. Your emotion is the result of biological evolution. Ethics is created for a chance of survival and functionality within a tribe. We're social animals, that's why. But love, pure love for your enemies is not natural. The inability to feel danger is not natural.

'Be at peace with yourself, Arina,' she told herself, trying to meditate against the mental illness, 'be peaceful, always.'

Arina did nothing but try to mediate through her trauma every day. But it accidentally brought her the wisdom needed for someone who was as unfortunate as her. She faced herself in her reflection on the river's surface to overcome her fear of hallucination. She faced her fear of winter, becoming one with winter, just like herself in the past. The difference now was that she no longer did it out of fear, but she now did it with peace, being at peace in the sight of her worst enemy, winter.

After a week of self-reflection, she ran into a small village 20km away from the area where she was camping just outside of the woods. Oh, you truly can't run away from humanity at all. You could even find them in Antarctica. But it was okay, she wasn't going to turn away anymore, she was a human after all.

'Let your soul be at peace, always.'

The villagers ended up spotting Arina and rushed to accommodate her, which surprised her at first. It had been a while since she was treated like this by strangers, and it drove Arina to tears for she truly missed that feeling. Even during the darkest timeline in history, there is always a glimpse of hope for humanity.

Within the village, the story of a widowed man who just lost his daughter and shut himself inside his cottage was very frequently gossiped about. People would pass by and knock on the door to see if he was still okay or they would drop some food on the doorstep to make sure he wouldn't starve during winter. When Arina heard about this, the first thought that came to her mind was 'How nice it must be to die and have your father weep over your grave' but having healed almost completely, she just lightly slapped herself for having such selfish thoughts.

Arina decided to visit the man. She tried to conceal her identity during the process and came up with different ways to get him through the pain. This man was a parallel to her father. Whenever he opened his mouth he would only speak about his daughter and how much he loved her and how he wished to see her grow up and experience the beauty of life. He just wanted to see her continue to live and be happy. How he wished that for her. His beloved daughter.

'And I shall wish every father on earth would love their kid as much as he does,' Arina shut her eyes and prayed at night. Especially Asano and his father — she prayed he would not be afraid to express his love to his son, to say I love you to him. But her father was an exception. She no longer minded if he loved her or not, because no matter what, she would love every existence created by this universe.

One day the widowed man revealed his and his daughter's favorite activity when she was still alive: building a snowman together. Arina immediately invited him to build many snowmen with her. Even when her mental state was still fluctuating, she still tried to laugh a lot out of joy. Laughs are contagious, aren't they? Eventually the man mentioned his daughter's dream of building a whole castle from snow. And overnight when he went to sleep Arina was awakened all night to make his daughter's dream come true. Her nose kept running from the dropping temperature at night, but she was still at it.

Suddenly a few gunshots rang in her ears and all her trauma came back all at once. Was it just in her imagination, or was it real? She lowered her body while pressing her gloved hands tightly against her ears, shutting her eyes. No, even if something ever happened here, she wouldn't give up on this dream of that child.

But she can just rebuild it if something ever happens, is it?

No, everything was just in her imagination. She was hallucinating again.

'Hide inside the thing you're building, Arina, cover yourself with it, the enemies are coming.'

She used to do this a lot. A lot. She used to build hideouts for her own safety using snow, and hid beneath it. But no, Arina, she had to get over it. It was over now. She was safe now. Let's set it aside and build it this time for a child's dream come true.

The next morning the man stood in shock at a snow castle big enough for him to crawl inside. Arina just faintly smiled after a sleepless night. No, turned out she didn't hallucinate last night. The Orlas military was really looking for her and actually spotted her last night. She had to leave now, that was why she did her best to avoid coming too close to the potential hideout. What if they shoot it down and she won't be here tomorrow to make this man happy for once?

Before going, Arina didn't forget to thank the villagers and make the widowed man promise her he would continue to move on, to live a happy life with or without his daughter. 'I can be more than sure she would very much love the castle I left her! It's lovely, isn't it, uncle? Loveliness already exists in the snow during its natural state, she just happens to make me realize it and do more things with it. Always see the loveliness everywhere, okay, promise me, uncle? And we can build another snowman the next time.'

She was caught and brought to Tokyo by a few members of the military where the rebellion was happening. The reason for that was that her father had found out she was selling his info everywhere for money and decided to punish her publicly once the rebellion in Japan was over and the military could rejoin to bring her back to him.

Arina still didn't know a single thing upon arrival, that her country was shipping Japanese government officials overseas to become their test subjects. People poured out into every corner of the street and ahh...the US including Nato decided to fuel the flame when they chose to aid the rebellion by supplying the leading anti-Regenism party in Japan with weapons and tanks....

The city was engulfed in fire and chaos. Many famous landmarks were burned to ashes. Children screamed and cried. Every few minutes a place will explode by having someone throw bombs at those locations. Arina ran around the city in terror, searching for injured people.

But those explosions and sights scared her into hysterics that she could barely even stand without shaking so much that she collapsed on the ground.

Despite so, cameramen on helicopters and drones were everywhere in the city, broadcasting the chaotic moment for the whole world to witness.

Where was Koro-sensei again? Arina hadn't seen him for five days straight already. Had they successfully killed him off?

Somewhere amid the dire situation, Nagasawa Juria was bravely shoving other people away to try and find her father and Sae in the hope of rescuing them.

Meanwhile, never mind her fear, Arina gathered the courage to overcome her trauma and stood up to run around and save the injured along with the medical staff.

This continued for days before she bumped into one of her comrade brothers' gang meanwhile the rest were distributed all across the city. A spark of hope ignited in Arina, and she began to devise plans using her existing manpower (yes, this is the time when all the thug's arcs come together for this final moment)

Together they found the leading party and negotiated with them on how to take down the fake military the Orlas set up during the tearing of the US-Japan Security Treaty.

With her charisma and strong speeches resulting from her passion for bringing goodness into this world, for the first time ever Arina appeared to be her own person, an image of a leader she needn't imitate anyone's manner before.

They tracked and located the missing government officials, which included Juria's father, the Prime Minister, alongside their missing classmate, Shirayuki Sae and freed all of them.

However, tragedy struck when Ryuuki — Arina's most beloved brother — took his last breath here by using his body to shield his Big Sis against a bombing session.

Trauma kept rushing back to Arina during the rebellion, which made it ten times harder to endure, but while crying and holding Ryuuki in her arms, she had to continue standing up to brush her trauma away so she could save everyone who was now in need of saving.

Always, she cried her tears and she stood up.

In the end with threats from the US to declare war on the Orlas Union, realizing it was not worth the effort, they retreated. With the return of the government officials and the main reason the leading party was still standing firm, Japan hailed Arina as their hero. All the ones that ever despised her before had now bowed to her with respect. She was gifted with an honorable medal directly from the Emperor and Japan had now decided to protect Arina against her father.

Juria was reunited with her father. Even though their relationship was never good to begin with, they hugged each other in tears. Ren rushed to find Sae and was surprised that she still didn't react much upon seeing him. Arina went back to Kunugigaoka city when her friends — friends, everyone from class A to class E — showed up in the aftermath of the rebellion to accompany her back.

Among them was Asano. It had been a while, and Arina still couldn't face him without feeling guilty, feeling like she was undeserving of love. Regardless, she decided to get the courage and marched toward to give him a bone-tight embrace.

She decided from this moment on, that she would no longer care about her own feelings anymore. He had always brought her the best feeling in the world, the feeling of being in love. But no more. From now on, she will only care if he's feeling happy or not. Her wishes now were for him to succeed in his future endeavors and for his parents to open up with him more, so he could feel the love from them, something Arina secretly wished for herself, but quickly brushed the thought away.

And maybe, if she was truly a woman with a heart of gold who would love and make him feel like the happiest person in the world, then Liliana would be approved by Arina to marry him in the future. He needs a person to grow old with. A person not from the audience seats but rather at the backstage, supporting him. Every girl with a heart of gold will be okay. Except for herself, because deep down, Arina had always known that she wouldn't be able to live a stable life. Her life will keep fluctuating like this, and she won't be able to give him a happy life if they ever get together. Being Alexei's daughter who rebelled against him, she wasn't even sure if she could live for long.

Hence why she will continue to keep her feelings to herself. She stopped fantasizing about her life with him in the future but rather, just his happy life in the future. The many things he will achieve. She will quietly save this world so he can achieve his dream in it. She will continue to look after him, even if one day she will disappear from his life.

However for Asano around this time, he still didn't give her the love as pure as she did for him. Love is only pure when it's selfless, now he just perceived her as someone who was very attractive, and he would get butterflies in his stomach whenever he saw her.

The teens threw an outdoor party in Ren's backyard as a celebration of Arina's victory and homecoming for Sae (even though she was like the most forgotten student in class A).

Arina narrated her whole journey but with elements of humor in it, turning the depressing real events into a fun chapter of her life. She would avoid telling them about her conflicts with mental illness, how she was surviving on her own, and the death of her loved ones. She would never want anyone to feel bad for her.

While turning on music and dancing under the sky full of stars that night at the party, Asano looked up to Arina as if she were some source of goddess. The wind blew her hair, as it glowed white while bathing in moonshine.

He took a breath in and out. Time just stopped whenever he saw her. She was twirling around in slow motion, laughing in slow motion, but his heartbeat would say otherwise every time.

This is a reference to that scene which I really like:

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

He invited her to a dance afterward. They shared many conversations while spending time together. Asano eventually found out about another of Arina's reckless decisions: sneaking into the Orlas' territory despite still being hunted for and defusing the new biological techs they have been experimenting with. 'Oh my goodness, can you be less impulsive?' questioned Asano.

It should be the work of a whole organization, but Arina insisted on going alone? Why? Because then the risk would be lower. And she assured him she could make allies there. Asano only slapped his forehead for her endless impulsive tendency.

But it was her mistake to reveal the intention to Asano, because now he also wanted to go. He wanted to go so he could protect her.

'No, Asano-kun, you can't protect me. No one can protect anyone,' said Arina, in fear of him dying just like the people in her life.

They both entreated the other to not do it until they gave up and decided to go together. It would be the first time for Asano to enter the world Behind the Iron Curtains.

The day before going Asano made sure Arina's disguise would look as convincing as possible, and she would make sure he had enough warm clothes with him, since he had never experienced the insane level of coldness there.

Somehow, despite entering the enemies' territory, Asano was over the top excited to explore a different world, while Arina only sweated in nervousness at the thought of losing him.

No, if anything ever happened, she would be the one protecting him. She had nothing to lose, as opposed to him, who had such a bright future ahead.

~ To be Continued ~