Character Profile: Sen Yarizui

Sen Yarizui is a young girl who just happens to be the best bento brawler, or 'wolf', in the western section of her hometown. Her nom de guerre 'Ice Witch' came from a small incident where, after a bento brawl during her first year of high school, she thought to buy a beverage named 'Ice Cold', not knowing that it was an alcoholic beverage (she thought the can looked nice). Thankfully the store's staff stopped her before Sen could purchase it when they saw her school uniform.

Sen is the president of the Half-price Food Lovers Club, and for the longest time its only member. Because of that, the club didn't get any official recognition from the student counsel. But that changed when Yo Sato and Hana Oshiroi joined following their experience in Hokey Mart, which is the store Sen frequently dominates. But Hana's membership was ONLY with the blessing of student counsel president Ume Shiraume, mostly for her concern of Hana's well-being - and her suspicion of Yo, who later gained the nom de guerre 'Pervert', mostly from his bad luck!

Sen's pride as a wolf is great, and will defend the honor of the western territory even to the point of being gravely injured. She dislikes violence for the sake of violence, and is generally a nice person, except for those who disrespect the bento brawls, but never bears grudges on anyone.. She can be a little clumsy in certain situations, and sometimes acts without thinking about the consequences of her actions. She originally saw Yo as a protege of her's, but in time saw the boy as a good friend.

And as for the bento battles Yo and Sen engage in, it goes like this:

The fighters, or 'wolves' that participate in the bento brawls in various stores follow an unwritten, but strict code. The battles DO NOT begin until the member of the store's staff designated as the store's 'God of Discounts' places the half-price stickers on each of the bentos to be fought for at the end of the day, and has left the shopping floor for the back room and the back room door closed. The stickers usually are red and yellow and are standard. However, 'special' stickers that feature laurel leaves on them are prized, and one is usually placed on the God of Discount's favorite bento. This is the bento that determines the champion for the evening at that store.

Once the fight starts, each fighter, or wolf, must fight for one particular bento. The wolves can use weapons, provided such weapons are not on their persons at the time and mostly use them for defense (one or more pairs of disposable chopsticks is one of them). A wolf can only take ONE bento per fight; more than that is just greedy and frowned upon, and a wolf cannot be fought once he or she secures his or her bento. Also, you don't necessarily have to fight to obtain a bento; basically sneak by two fighters if you're not inclined to violence (a strategy more to the liking of Hana), and this is allowed.

And above all, the fighters must protect the honor of the God of Discounts against harassment or intimidation from others – which includes 'boars', brawlers who will take-on wolves but are willing to cheat to get more than one bento. The wolves, in enjoying the spoils of their fight, are obligated before eating to thank all parties involved in their prize – the cooks who prepared the bento, their opponents who fought for them, and the store staff, in particular the God of Discounts.