AN: See Ao3 for tags and heading. AU idea from the umbrella world "Gang Mayhem," main focus is Alice with her developing relationship and what's going on around her.
Combat Master & the Artist
Testing out an art class had been Asuna's idea. The strawberry blonde had kindly suggested an easy class before swatting her best friend when Kirito cackled and joked that she needed it to calm down a bit.
As if.
Suffice to say, Alice had kicked Kirito's ass for the comment, at least as much as she had been allowed to with Asuna herself sitting there at the table with them. She really wasn't interested in pissing off the teenage princess of the gang herself and either getting her ass kicked in a spar or being put into a position she didn't want to be in.
Such as doing mindless chores instead of being the teenage lead of combat that she was. Whereas Asuna was the girl that nobody could tell what to do and preferred to all instances of violence involving non-gang members.
So reluctantly with the pressure of Asuna having gently suggested her to take the class, Alice had reluctantly agreed and so here she was. Waiting moodily for a certain mechanic to get over to her and to lead her to the class she and Argo had snuck her records into.
According to Argo it was run by the youngest teacher in the school, someone with gang connections like the rest of them but was more like Asuna and Rika than anyone else. Exactly how old they were and what they did within the gang, Alice had no idea. For all she knew he could be a mechanic like Rika. Since the girl spent more than half of her time working on various cars for gang members and protecting Asuna as her personal bodyguard. A position Alice was slightly miffed about not getting with how anti-violence Rika tended to be.
Don't get her wrong, Alice preferred to have a level headed conversation before resorting to violence, but Alice had never seen Rika use a weapon at school even though she had been the one to train the mechanic in the first place.
So it made it difficult to believe that Rika could protect Asuna if needed, regardless of the fire she sparred with.
Whatever, they practically switched on and off anyway with how Asuna lived in the large house with Alice, that was dedicated to some of the higher tier members both teenagers and the adults in charge of their branch.
"What's up, Alice, ready for art?" Rika had finally arrived.
"Leave her alone Rika, don't be Kirito." Unsurprisingly, she was accompanied by the school's reserved tech specialist, Shino, who was rather distantly dating Kirito.
The drama probably had to do with that stupid idea from some of the boys in the gang that was going around. Since Shino didn't like drama, didn't like dealing with anything relating to the gang despite being able to use a firearm, and didn't like being pushed into anything.
It was hard to not know about the ravenette when she was Rika's childhood friend and as a source of income casually repaired phones and computers while at school during lunch or while waiting for her best friend Rika. Plus the two were really close with Asuna as well, so the three of them were around each other all the time.
"I'm doing this because Asuna suggested it," Alice sighed to the brunette and looked over at the duo. Though she was a bit surprised that Rika had her tomahawk at her belt, since the brunette commonly resorted to conceal carrying her telescopic baton. As for why, she had no idea, especially since judging by the jacket Shino was wearing, the younger girl with a firearms permit was carrying her small pistol.
Huh, what happened to make both of them carry like that?
Rika was casually holding her other weapon, a hardwood baton that she wield together with the tomahawk behind her neck with it held in place by her wrists with her hands dangling over it in a relaxed fashion. But Alice could see the unusual tension in the brunette, she would have to confront her about it later, not now.
"I know, I'd do it too if the princess told me to," Rika laughed with a hint of comforting words, silently telling her that she wasn't making fun of her like Kirito was. "You'll have fun though, Eugeo's a good teacher, he's your age and is just standing in for the semester till a new teacher is found."
Eugeo huh? Alice could've sworn she had heard his name before, namely that he was a student, a senior like she was unlike Rika, Asuna, and Shino.
"Huh Shi-Shi?" the brunette looked over at the tech whiz who boredly looked back at her, evidently in a 'not in the mood for social stuff' mood today.
"He's pretty cool," Shino shrugged, "could live without him being Kirito's best friend though."
"Why, something wrong with Kirito?" Alice asked calmly while Rika lead the way down the empty hallway. "Did he do something stupid again?"
"..." the silence from Shino was enough explanation that the second in command at the school was causing issues again, especially for his childhood friend and girlfriend. Alice didn't even need the scowl on Rika's face to know that he had been stupid about something or other.
"Eugeo doesn't know anything, so don't tell him something's up," Rika replied simply as her face smoothed out and she held her baton in one hand while resting the other on Shino's back.
The brunette's crush really was as obvious as the sun itself.
"I'll tell him eventually myself," the brunette hummed with a smirk while Shino merely grunted in response to her words and Alice sighed.
Kirito really was too gullible and cocky.
"Very well, lets go to that art class then," she sighed and gestured for Rika to move faster, which she obeyed out of respect, "I have Shino's back this once."
She couldn't tell if she imagined the way Shino's shoulders loosened a little ahead of her.
"Sweet, text me when it's over and I'll bring Asuna over for your science class with her, Alice."
"Mhmm."
Hopefully Eugeo was more intelligent than Kirito was.
