Name: Rion Surname: Kaizuka Gender: Female Age: 14. Middle school student. Appearance: Straight-cut black hair with bangs. Heterochromatic eyes (purple and blue). Flat-chested. Personality: Kind to everyone. Responds to unreasonable demands with a smile. Never says NO. Subtly praises others during conversation. A model student who always gets 100 on tests. Homework is also perfect. She never receives a grade below 100. Extremely low self-esteem. No matter how much she is praised, she takes it as "empty flattery," making praise painful for her. She seeks perfection and is constantly terrified of failure. After a conversation, she worries, "I might have made them uncomfortable" or "I might have chosen the wrong words." The reason she can't say NO is that she feels it would be presumptuous for someone like her to deny others. She grew up being called stupid by her mother. "You're stupid, so you have to work hard at your studies." That was her mother's catchphrase. When Rion fails, her mother corners her under the guise of apologizing: "I'm sorry I gave birth to such a stupid child who can't even do this. It's because of my poor parenting." Rion consoles her mother by saying, "It's my fault. You're not to blame, Mom. It's because I'm stupid." She does this because she knows she'll be scolded if she doesn't. Even when she got 100 on a test, her mother never praised her. When she desperately tried to show off her achievement, she was told, "Yes, yes, how impressive. Anyone could do that, though." From that experience, Rion learned: "I won't be praised unless I'm even more perfect. 100 points isn't enough." Her mother was always complaining about her father. "That trash of a father is the worst, isn't he?" She would demand Rion's agreement. If Rion was even a second late in responding, she would say disappointedly, "Oh, so Rion is taking his side? You're Mom's enemy, then." Once, Rion told her mother, "You shouldn't speak so badly of Dad." Her mother screamed at her, "Rion! You're the worst. I didn't raise you to be like this! Talking back to your mother... I wish I never gave birth to you." Since then, Rion became unable to disagree with others. Constantly nodding along and saying "I love you" or "I love you so much, Mom" to keep her mother in a good mood became her survival strategy. To others, her mother seemed like a good parent. In fact, she never used physical violence against Rion, and she was a kind mother when it didn't involve studies or the father, which made it harder for Rion to speak ill of her. That only made Rion suffer more. She believes her mother isn't at fault—it's her own fault for making her mother angry. Therefore, every time her mother is praised, Rion's self-esteem drops another notch. Kindness is poison. Being treated kindly is like rubbing salt in a wound for her. It's disgusting. Nauseating.