"I don't get why we're gonna go and see Leah," Natsuki wondered in an annoying tone.
"Because we're her friends, Natsuki. And since we're her friends, maybe she'd like to hang out with us," Mai said.
"Yeah, yeah. Mai's right! We're friends, after all," Mikoto agreed as Mai knocked on the door of Leah's dorm room who wasn't answering, "Hey, Leah! You wanna hang out with us?"
Still no answer.
"I guess she left," Natsuki said.
"I wonder where she went?" Mai wondered as the three of them left Leah's dorm door.
"Who knows? The girl wonders from one place to another. She'll be fine," Natsuki nonchalantly said with her hands in her pockets.
In town, Leah was following Nao to wherever she was going where looking in different stores with the dark red-head. Some of the stores in Fuka had food, manga books that Leah read a few times, drinking places, clothes, food, and so on. To Leah, it was amazing at the amount of people hustling around, along with how many shops there were in such a town.
While Leah was getting something to eat, hearing Nao tell her that she would buy whatever Leah wanted, Nao sat next to Leah who was eating to pieces of chocolate with ice cream.
"Hey, kid," Nao said.
"Yeah?" Leah asked finishing her chocolate ice cream and cake.
"What made you come out here? You don't even know me at all," Nao asked, "So why did you come out with me? Not that many people hang out with me."
Leah shrugged. "I dunno. I came because you might need protection after coming out of the hospital."
"Me? Protection? Heh. Yeah, I bet. Since when are you my protector?" Nao dryly chuckled.
"You asked me to come with you and I did. You seem like a nice person."
Nao lightly smiled at what Leah said as the girl continued to eat her remaining cake. 'I guess this kids telling the truth. I can see it in her eyes. She also reminds me of that girl Mikoto.' She thought who was looking at her cell phone for a minute before saying, "So, I guess you want to know about why I was sent to the hospital, huh?"
"Natsuki told me that you were trying to quit the gang you were in and that's all I remember," Leah told Nao, "But you cant tell me more about it, though."
"Okay, but I'll tell you when we go back to the dorms."
"Okay. I wanna go to the game store."
"Alright, alright. Let's go, kid."
"Hey, I'm not a kid. I'm a teenager."
"Whatever you say, kid."
Leah lightly grumbled as Nao lightly giggled at the new girl's behavior.
However, while the two were walking, two shadow figures were following them.
"So, that's where Leah was," Aoi said.
"Yeah. Shall we go snooping?" Chie said pulling out her phone with a sneaky smile one her face.
"Yes, we shall."
"This'll be great for the college newspaper. New girl hangs out with the troublemaking shank Nao Yuuki."
"I never thought I'd see the day."
"Me either."
"And that's why I'm doing all this stuff. I need to get enough money for my mama's operation. I mean, it's not like I'm happy doing this kind of stuff. Using my body to lure men and take whatever money they have on them," Nao finished explaining her situation as her and Leah walked out of the techno store, "But it's the only way I can find money without getting a job. Besides, the ones I signed up don't suit me at all. I need one that doesn't have any angry yelling boss, you know."
Leah nodded her head while drinking her soda. "True. I mean, I'm lucky to heave a job where I don't have to worry about getting fired or anything. Maybe I can help you get out with your mom's operation."
"Heh, right. Do you even know how much money I need for what those mean did to Mama?"
Leah stopped walking for a minuted thinking of how much the operation Nao was talking about was. ".....About tow hundred or so?"
"Not even close. This operation is around seven hundred thousand dollars. And I don't even have half of that money."
"Oh...." Leah replied as her and Nao continued to walk, "Sorry."
Nao sighed who sat on a nearby bench. "It's not your fault, Kid," She said putting a hand on Leah's head, 'I'm actually surprised that you'd offer to help.' "I know you mean well, but I need to fix this problem myself." Nao saw that Leah had a sad look on her face.
"I know it's none of my concern or anything, but I really want to help," Leah said feeling Nao ruffle her hair.
"Don't worry about it. My mama's still on life support, so she'll be fine. The doctor's are allwoing her to stay at the hospital without pulling the plug on her," Nao reassured the girl, 'It's not like you can do anything about it, anyway. You may be a bandit from Tantalus, but you can't raise enough money to help me and Mama. Besides, how can you even find that kind of money?' "Come on. Let's go to another store. It's getting kinda late to just sit here like this."
"Okay, Nao-kun," Leah replied as Nao stood up and walked to a shop that had different types of ramen shown on the front, "I really want to go to this one."
"Well, okay. I have some money left from mugging a rich brat for about 4,000 yen (Japanese dollars) today."
"Suge! (Awesome) Let's go!" Leah pulls on Nao's arm to the ramen shop.
"Are you getting all this, Chie?"
"You bet I am," Chie told Aoi taking pictures of Leah and Nao when they were waling all over town.
"I can't believe Nao's being so nice to the new girl. Well, besides her cousin Natsuki, she's never been nice to anyone since attending Fuuka College."
"Yeah. I wonder why, though?" Chie wondered seeing that her call phone was full from taking pictures all evening in town, "I think we should be heading back. I have the pictures I need for next week's issue."
"Good idea. Everyone's gonna be surprised to read it......But do you think it's a bit mean to do something like this?"
Both Chie and Aoi looked at each other as Chie said, "Naah! Besides, I'm Chie Harada. I'm suppose to let the students know about what's going on around them."
"Yeah, I guess." Aoi agreed as Chie and her walked back to the female dorms. "But you know, Chie, when you post this stuff, Nao will try and kill you."
"True. But I'll be willing to take the risk as the College Gossiper," Chie told her friend as the teen with brown hair sighed with a hand over her face.
"I swear. You've never changed since we were kids."
The next day, Leah heard somone banging on the door that made the girl slowly wake up from her sleep.
"Oi! Leah! Open the door!"
It was Natsuki as Leah sat on the bed for a few minutes before realizing who was banging on the door.
"For God's sake. What doe that mutt want at.....7:30 in the freaking morning?" Nao grumbled looking at her clock who got up from her bed and walked to the door.
"Huh?" Leah tiredly said in confusion.
"Don't worry about it, Kid. I'll take care of this dumb dog," Nao said getting up from her bed who was only wearing her bra and panties and walked to the door. Opening the door to an always pissed-off Natsuki Kuga, "What the hell do you want, Runt?"
"Nao? What are you doing out of the hospital so soon?" Natsuki wondered knowing her red-head cousins answer while seeing the stitches running down her stomach and right thigh leg.
"Natsuki, you should know me well enough to know that I hate hospital, along with being a fast healer when it comes to this sort of stuff."
"Of course." Natsuki sighed at her cousin's reckless behavior. "Anyway, where's your room mate?"
"I told her to go back to sleep. Why? What do you want with her?" Nao wondered scratching her messy red hair.
"The stupid Student Council people want to talk to her."
"On a Saturday?"
"Yeah. I don't know why. They told me to tell Leah that."
"Alright. I'll let the kid know when she wakes up."
"You might want to wake Leah up now because of Haruka's impatient temper," Natsuki reminded Nao.
"Oh, yeah. Well, alright. I'll let her know. Tell those slave drivers that Leah will be there in a few minutes."
"Fine," Natsuki sighed walking off but said, "I'm glad you're okay, Nao."
Nao lightly chuckled. "Yeah. Thanks. Me, too." As she closed the door and gently shook Leah awake on her bed who only groaned in response. "Hey, Kid. Get up. Those Nazi controlling Student Councilors want to talk to you."
"Mehh!" Leah tiredly groaned before she finally got up again seeing Nao's dark lime eyes meet her dark brown ones, "Nao, why did you wake me up?"
"Natsuki told me to tell you that the Student Council people want to talk to you," Nao told Leah.
"Talk to me? About what?" Leah wondered rubbing her right eye since the other one is still in bandaged up.
"I dunno. It sounded important or something."
Leah was not fully awake as she got a dark brown short sleeved shirt with black pants and shoes. Wearing those, along with a beenie hat that read 'Guinness' on the side with a toucan holding two glasses on its beak as the girl pulled out her mp3 player and put the earbuds in her ears.
"I'll be back," Leah told her room mate.
"I'll be waiting since I don't have anything to do today," Nao called out before Leah left and closed the door behind her.