Of Mortal Enemies and Strange Odds (Riko)

Tearing her hair out or banging her head repeatedly against the wall both seemed like very good options for Yuna at the present time. The reason being? Math. The subject had to be the absolute bane of her existence. She was only barely passing the class already, and the score she'd gotten on the test they'd gotten back today- 28 out of 50- would do very little to help that grade back up.

So Yuna found herself in the library, desperately trying to figure out what she did wrong on so many of the problems. It took all of twenty minutes before she groaned and planted her face in the book. Ughhhh… This doesn't make sense! If she'd been irritated before, now she was nearly out of her mind with frustration. Slowly propping her head up, she sighed again. She took this moment to glance around, and realized that one of her classmates was sitting at the table with her. Maybe she can help me...

Nervously clearing her throat, she glanced around again before opening her mouth. "Uhm… Excuse me…"

Ear buds were a fabulous invention. Even in the ever guarded silence of the library, Riko had full access to her collection of music. So, as she sat and poured over the textbook in front of her, the dark haired girl listened to Howlin' Wolf. Studying came by so much easier with a pleasant distraction. Just because she was out of the woods with that math test, didn't mean that she could start slacking off just yet.

And who knew when she would get a call to run off on some assignment handed down from the near omnipresent Nero Ookami. Life was just too hectic to be idle. Well. It was mostly too hectic. Riko still found some time for herself. And she was at this fine school! Which was full of many pleasant distraction, as well.

Quietly, she hummed along to herself as she flipped a page. Someone had approached her, a blonde girl who looked rather familiar. Riko pulled one of her earbuds out in time to hear her interject into her studies.

"Yes....Inase-san, right?" she smile pleasantly up at the girl.

It was always a good thing when the person you were trying to get the attention of actually noticed you. Yuna hadn't even realized that the other girl had had earbuds in until she'd taken one of them out. On the plus side, it meant that the girl might actually be able to help her. On the other hand… this girl's name completely escaped her. "Uhm… it's actually Ise. B-but that's not important!" the latter part was accompanied but a reddening of her cheeks and a bit of hand waving.

Taking a moment to recover herself, Yuna pulled the textbook over and pushed a few strands of hair out of her face. "I… uh… I was wondering if m-maybe you could help me out with the math we've been covering… I-I haven't been understanding it." She punctuated the confession with a shamed expression and a sigh, not to mention a fairly dark blush.

She glanced back up and brought her hands together in an almost desperate plea as she spoke again. "Y-you will help me, won't you? I really need to bring my grade up!"

Ise...NOT Inase. Riko could have kicked herself for forgetting someone's name like that. Sure, one couldn't be expected to memorize everyone's name, but it was the principal of the thing. Here was a cute girl who had come all the way over to seek her advice and she got her name wrong. It was unforgivable! Well, at least this was her chance to make up for that little flub and really show off how clever she was.

She could picture the blonde girl blushing as adorably as she currently was, while saying something along the lines of

"Oh, Riko-chan! Thank you so much, for help me with those math problems!"

The camera would zoom in, as they kissed on a rooftop, at night, and slowly fade to black. That was such a lovely scene! Eagerly, the detective-in-training made sure her music was off and she devoted her full attention to the textbook that had been presented to her. Glancing up from the pages, she saw her classmate's plight written plainly across her features.

"Yes!" she declared, with a confident grin, "Of course I'll help! Let's see what we can do about these grades of yours."

A sigh of relief escaped Yuna's lips as the dark haired girl agreed to help. "Thank you so much! I really, REALLY, need help with this. I got a twenty-eight on that test… and I don't understand what I was doing wrong!" Frustration was very quickly beginning to color the little blonde's voice as she pulled the textbook over, with the papers where she'd been trying to do the problems in the book and, judging by the fact that nearly every one was partially erased, she hadn't been succeeding.

If one took a closer look, one would discover that less than half of the problems were actually completed, and less than half of those were correct. Yuna would never admit it, but nearly half of the correct ones were only correct because the answers were worked out in the back. "I just don't get it!" she whined loudly enough to get shushed rather quickly by one of the librarians.

The blonde shot the librarian a glare before turning back to her rather impromptu tutor. "Can you try and explain this to me? How Akiyama-sensei explains it doesn't make sense." She couldn't help but pull a face at the mention of the teacher of her least favorite class.

Being noticed by the librarian was never a good sign. But, her frustrated classmate seemed to have had just about all she could take when it came to the subject of math. While Riko was certainly no math whiz, she did know a thing or two about it. As with most subjects, Riko was fairly good. Not top of the class, good, but pretty good.

She had been putting a lot of effort into her studies. After all, the only reason she was here in this fine school was because she was working for Mr. Ookami. Getting a failing grade would not look good. And then she would have to sit through a lecture...not just from aunt and uncle...but also from the cantankerous old man, himself.

Riko, you need to try harder

Riko, this isn't a charity

Riko, I expect more out of you

Riko, stop wasting so much time flirting with girls

"OK, let's see what we've got here..." Riko forcefully ejected the thoughts of the speeches she had to sit through out of her mind and began to go over the problems that were giving Ise-san such a hard time. Which turned out to be almost all of them. This was looking to be a more time-intensive task than she had first figured. But, another glance up at the cute girl only served to strengthen her resolve.

"Right, I can see how this would be tricky." she started. Gesturing the blonde to take a seat next to her, she moved the book over so it would be between them. With her own pencil, she pointed out a few areas on the pages that the shorter girl should pay attention to and tried to impart some advice that might make solving the equations a little easier.

"So, how about we start off here." she said, after wrapping up her first lesson, "Try this problem out and see how it goes."

After however long they had spent with Riko walking Yuna through the problems, they still looked like a foreign language to her. However, at the very least, she could actually read the language now. Sort of. At the very least she was grateful that Riko wasn't looking down on her for having trouble understanding the material.

"Alright… I'll try it…" Yuna wasn't convinced she fully understood the problems, but she had to at least try it after all. She leaned forward over the paper, a look of intense concentration on her face as she tried to decipher the bizarre symbols masquerading as numbers and figure out the answer.

It took her a solid minute, but Yuna eventually arrived at an answer, though she wasn't quite sure what the answer was supposed to mean. In any case, she was pleased with herself- she didn't take nearly as long as she normally did on these problems. She passed the paper over to her impromptu tutor immediately, hoping she managed to get it right. "I'm not sure if it's right… but I think I got it!"

Once her lessons were through, it was up to Yuna to take the information that had been provided and see if she could improve upon her skill. But, she wasn't the only one who was nervous about it. Riko had never really done much tutoring. She hoped that she had been able to provide some help to the girl.

Yuna went to work on the problem and after about a minute she had an answer jotted down and turned to the would-be detective and presented it. "OK, let's see..." Riko looked it over, seeing how she arrived at her answer and gave a slow nod of her head.

"Hey, I think you got it!" she declared, triumphantly. She certainly had been trying hard enough.

It was a nervous few moments for Yuna while her impromptu tutor was going over the work she'd done. She was actually thinking about asking Riko to tutor her in the subject regardless of whether or not she got the answers right, the girl did explain it a lot better than their math teacher, after all.

When the dark haired girl confirmed that she'd gotten it right, Yuna let out a muted squeal (they were in the library after all) and threw her arms around the girl. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She was whispering, as she didn't want to get thrown out by the librarians, but was exceedingly excited- she actually understood the material.

The moment of realization that Yuna had managed to pick up on Riko's lesson was followed by a celebratory hug. What better payment could the detective ask for! She grinned as the blonde girl tried to contain her excitement whisper. It was nice to have a successful tutoring session. Proof that she did manage to pick up something that was sticking. Hard work really did pay off!

"No problem at all." she said back, "Always happy to be of service."

She produced one of her business cards and presented it to Yuna, "As a matter of fact," she added, "If you ever need me, just give me a call. For tutoring or...anything else."

She tossed a playful wink as she left her offer about as open ended as possible. It was a long shot. But, certainly well worth the shot!

Once the little blonde was pried off of her tutor, Yuna eagerly took the card offered to her and looked over it, looking confused for a moment as she she did. Once everything registered, her face shot up toward the dark haired girl, wonder in her eyes.

"You're a detective, Ri-chan?" she said, automatically giving the girl a nickname. "That's so cool!" Yuna meant what she said, she really did think it was awesome that Riko was a detective. Granted, she thought her surrogate sisters were awesome, and they were wrestlers.

It was at that point that Yuna noticed the time and immediately let out a gasp. "Oh no, is it that late already? I have to go!" She set about frantically gathering up all her things and stuffing them unceremoniously into her bag. Once that was accomplished, she threw her arms around her tutor again and whispered "Thank you so much, Ri-chan" before turning and rushing out.

The card was usually a hit. Most girls in her class couldn't claim that they were a detective. Or even an assistant to a detective (as was her title, not that Riko was going to make any corrections). Then, the girl flew off in a panic. Stuffing her belongings back into her bag before another hug was tossed Riko's way.

"Ah, it wasn't any trouble." she said, with a wistful sigh, "See you!"

What a cute nickname! As far as study sessions went, this went rather well. As far as Riko was concerned. She rested her chin in her hand as she stared off into space. Yes, Riko certainly loved her school. Then she noticed the time, herself. "Ah! I'm late!"

The detective went through a similar process of cramming everything back into her bag and rushing out of the room.

(OOC: And thread is finished!)