How to Survive an Otome

Arata was walking down a street by her college dorm in Tokyo. To the left was a green embankment leading to a glimmering canal covered with cherry blossom trees. It was a perfectly generic road to spend some time fantasizing about a perfect romance.

It would too cute and wholesome if her crush Ayaka Seizura had to come walking up the hill in the opposite direction. They could make eye contact and begin a perfect romance, but then again, a beautiful teacher, or a cute seamstress, even a surprisingly resilient tom-boy or a optimistic twitch streamer. Any of these women would be a perfect match for her and she would be more than happy to have them nearby.

Because Arata was the ultimate simp for Yuri content and lived her life with a code of steel.

That one day she would have a cute gamer girlfriend.

However, she had no idea how much life was about to change and how terribly her romantic dreams would fall apart.

"Excuse me." She bumped into the speaker anyway, he had tried to alert her but it was too late. The abrupt collision stunned her, she had been walking too fast to begin with, now she turned and began to fall but a strong arm grabbed her wrist.

"Wahhh" She screamed, like Mario getting hit by a shell.

"I'm sorry space cadet, although I can't pretend to be upset that I could you falling for me." She looked into the face of a tall man with blonde hair and glasses, he looked like a professor and she was sure that some sort of harassment claim could be laid against him. But considering that he had stopped her from falling down such a steep embankment, she decided to simply take a step back and pull away her arm.

She held her wrist with her hand and stood across from him, her tilt over the edge had spun her around him and she became genuinely impressed by his athleticism.

"Nice catch." She joked and he smiled at her, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks. He adjusted his tie.

"Thank you, if you'd like to repay me, I know a great spot where we could grab a coffee-"

"No thank you."

"Wait but."

"No thank you, goodbye." She walked away.

This type of encounter was not abnormal for Arata. Her whole life she had been sick. Sick with attractiveness.

So many times, in her life, the men had found her. When she was in kindergarten her childhood bully had come to her defense against a group of cute but mean girls. He had said "The only person that can tease her is me." Before confessing his love and promising to marry Arata in the future. She shuddered at the thought.

The time her family went to Hawaii and the surfing instructor, only a year older than her, had brought her shells every day and then asked her for a date. She declined.

Her brother's best friend, who moved in with them when he burnt down his family home with a panini maker from Chinatown. Who had fallen in love and asked her to please forget that her brother would disapprove and give him a chance? She prioritized family of course.

Her childhood friend Jimmy, who had been her best friend for ten years before proposing at the Pizzeria down the street from their homes.

Her neighbor, teacher, tutor, the mail man... All of them had tried to sway her on her mission and all of them had failed.

She returned to her fantasizing.

She looked to the shimmering river at the bottom of the hill, cherry blossom petals caught in the wind landing in the already dense water. Leisurely she decided to take a walk to the water's edge, where she saw something quite strange.

There were the cherry blossoms landed in the water a current grabbed them, but instead of flowing up the river the turned and spun in a circle, which grew faster by the minute.

"There you are!" A cute boy ran behind her. "You'd never believe it but I think that the professor mixed up our papers." He smiled and rubbed the back of his head. "Anyways, the thing is I actually forgot where I put yours, perhaps I could get your phone number and call you when-"

She put her feet over the railing and jumped into the river. He reached out to her too late and she hit the water. She raised her head back up, in the middle of the whirlpool when she heard a bang. There hadn't been any clouds in the sky but lightning struck the river, it shot into the whirlpool hitting Arata. Shocked by the current of electricity, her body froze and she sunk.

She realized that she was sinking and kicked up but as though a weight was tired to her, she continued to drift down deeper and deeper.

She asked herself a question: "Why did you jump in the river anyway?" But only a gurgle escaped. She closed her eyes and waited for death.

At least it would be almost painless.

Warmth touched her lips and air blew into her mouth, she felt a hard weight on her chest and started choking. She was turned on her side and continued to choke and sputter as water escaped her lungs.

She drooled and stared at the ground. Before propping herself up on her elbows and slowly trying to lift herself up, a steady arm once again grabbed her. This time he helped her rise rather than stopping her from falling.

"I'm glad you regained consciousness." She looked towards him. He was tall, handsome and wore the plate armor of a samurai. Behind him stood a retinue of good-looking men. They each posed to depict their various personality's.

"Is this an Otome?"