A Foriner Continues the Trope (Yuko)

It was that time again wasn’t it? Time for the new kid in school to introduce themselves to class. Yuko Himura had actually been in the same shoes 3 years ago, when she first moved into Shibuya with her mother. Still ,such formalities were pointless in her opinion. What was the point of the new kid trying to make a good first impression, when they were gonna get bullied like hell anyway for being the new kid?

Said new kid was a boy from America called Ron. He looked kinda weird, having silver hair and bright red eyes, kinda like those white bunnies that gave Yuko the creeps. Her best case was that his family had moved into Japan for work reasons. Japanese schools were far too depressing for anyone to willingly enroll in them, for reasons that Yuko would rather not think about. Then again, American schools weren’t safe either, for reasons she also didn’t wanna think about.

As luck would have it, Ron’s seat was right next to Yuko’s own, although the delinquent didn’t seem all that interested in socializing. She was too engrossed on her textbook, where instead of trying to figure out the equation written on the chalkboard, she was scribbling something else on the pages with a black marker.

It should be noted that a certain event that forever changed Yuko’s mundane life had yet to occur. As such, she didn’t have any magical friends to have psychic conversations with inside her own head, for better or for worse. At that point, she was still just an average teenager who rebelled against the system, pierced her face and dyed her hair a million colors. Unusual, yes, but still relatively ‘normal’.

When the new guy asked her if she knew what page they were on, the punk-looking girl sighed and held her textbook up, pointing at the page number with her finger. Ron would also be able to see that she had drawn a bunch of doodles all over the page that were… not very family friendly. They weren’t particularly well drawn either, but they were kinda creative in how obscene and crude they were. For the sake of keeping things PG, it shall be left up to the reader’s imagination to decide what these doodles looked like.

Yuko spent the rest of the class being bored out of her skull, a fact that definitely showed in her body language; Her pink eyes staring lazily into the void, her elbow resting on the desk, while her hand in turn was used as a stool for her head. She tapped her foot impatiently and drummed her painted fingernails against the desk from time to time. She didn’t seem at all interested in the class, and when all the ‘good’ students in the front row were holding their hands up to answer the teacher’s question, Yuko just went back to defacing her textbook with inappropriate drawings.

During breaktime, Ron approached her and asked her about her drawings. He was obviously trying to break the ice, but she clearly meant well. There was no need to stoop to everybody else’s level and bully the new guy. “Nah, I’m not much of an artist. I did calligraphy when I was younger, but I don’t think that counts as art. I just have nothing better to do most of the time.” The delinquent girl explained, before reluctantly extending her hand. “My name’s Yuko Himura. And I guess I already know yours. Heh.” She let out a chuckle.

Yuko shrugged indifferently when Ron asked her what she did for fun. “When I do have something better to do, I do… whatever I feel like, I guess. As long as it’s fun. Usually I hang out with my boy Junpei and a new kid, Mika. Really big guy with blond hair. When you see him, you’ll know it’s him, since you can’t really miss him.” The punk-looking girl explained, all the while absentmindedly fiddling with one of her spike-shaped earrings.

She nodded at Ron’s explanation of what he did with his free time. “Wandering around town sounds fun too. I do that sometimes when I need to clear my thoughts. Shibuya is an alright place, but make sure you stay away from the slums. There’s lots of shady activity going on there, and foreigners are usually the first victims.” She gave her friendly warning.

Completely unaware of the more supernatural occurrences taking place outside, Yuko sat back and loudly cracked her fingers. “There’s one thing calligraphy is useful for. Here, I’ll show you. Can you give me a sample of your handwriting?” The multicolor-haired girl asked, taking out a blank sheet of paper and a pen.

“Yeah, they’re kinda cool, I guess.” Was Yuko’s rather simple reply when talking about her two friends, either having not much else to say in regards to them, or not being that good at talking about such things with others. She did, however have something to say in response when the silver-haired youth claimed that he knew how to defend himself. “Yeah, that’s cool and all, but I doubt your American kung fu would do much against thugs using actual guns.” The punk girl stated rather coldly. She was clearly not one to mince her words.

The Japanese delinquent gave a small pout at seeing the word that Ron had written on the paper. “‘Tree’, really? Jeez, I was hoping you would write a longer word, you know. But sure, I can work with this…” Yuko said, taking the pen in her hand and moving it with the same elegance and finesse as using a paintbrush, sticking her tongue out as she focused on her work heavily.

When she was done, the word ‘Tree’ had been rewritten below its first instance with writing that was nearly indistinguishable from Ron’s own. “With enough practice, I can mimic anybody’s handwriting. I could even forge your signature and shit. Pretty wild, huh?” She cockily smirked.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on why, but Yuko felt like Ron hadn’t taken kindly to her warning about not going near the slums, as if he thought that he was strong enough to single-handedly beat an entire gang of thugs. With his average height and build, it sounded highly unrealistic, unless he had some kind of magical device that allowed him to transform into some kind of super sentai hero… But that kind of stuff didn’t happen in real life.

The American student was quite impressed by Yuko’s ability to copy his handwriting, which in turn made the female delinquent beam with so much pride her nose almost got as long as a tengu’s nose. “Hehehe… Thanks! I’m quite amazing, aren’t I? I guess calligraphy is like riding a bicycle. You never forget it once you’ve learned it.” She said, while putting her ‘masterpiece’ inside her backpack.

“It’s a useful skill for forging sick notes and the like. Not as useful for changing my grades in progress reports, since that data is stored in the school’s computers.” The pierce-faced girl further explained.

While Yuko was wordlessly pondering to herself how to hack the school’s master computer with her very limited skills, and not be caught while doing it, Ron was having another spiritual conversation in his head that the delinquent girl was not privy to. It was actually a good thing she couldn’t hear it, otherwise she would think that Ron was genuinely schizophrenic for talking to himself. Not to mention, she would be further concerned for his mental health if he mentioned anything about a cyberspace-like dimension called the ‘digital world’.

As far as she was concerned, this was a completely normal conversation that only served as a decent time waster between classes. When the young American asked her if she had anything planned after school, the girl politely shot him down. “I don’t have much to do later, buuut… Sorry, I’m not really interested.” Yuko might have been a rebel, but that didn’t mean she went out with boys she’d only just met. It usually took some time for her ice queen heart to warm up to someone enough to trust them.