Mai's Friendship
Natsuki allowed herself to linger a few minutes before she left for work. It was quite the task to tear herself away from the sight of the blissfully sleeping Shizuru. It was often a bit hard to do this in the morning, but her heart was working overtime today in anticipation of her plans for this evening.
Letting out a sigh, Natsuki realized that she really did have to get going at this point. She placed her note and the wedding invitation down on the bed near Shizuru and leaned down to give her love a last kiss on the cheek. This prompted a delicate purr from Shizuru as her smile widened ever so slightly, nearly causing Natsuki's heart to shatter from adoration. She had to fight to tear herself away again.
It wasn't until Natsuki had exited the bedroom and closed the door behind her that she could rest and let out a sigh of relief as Shizuru's magnetic pull on her heart started to fade. After she was stabilized, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed out a quick message: “BEGIN OP. GREEN MAYO.” She scrolled through her contacts list and picked out her fellow conspirators, sending them the message and praying that they all got it in time to get their parts done.
Lastly, Natsuki punched the speed-dial for Mai as she started heading off to work. She had to at least be aware of the excuse Natsuki used for keeping Shizuru occupied, even if she couldn't get Shwartz to play along and had to improvise.
“Mai,” Natsuki's friend said as she answered the phone.
“It's Natsuki. Today's the day.”
The enrollment battles were the first major event of the Garderobe school-year. It was the first time most of us Corals got to see a real battle between Otome in person. Various Pearls had been paired up for fights, along with a few other interesting events, such as a two-on-two match and a four-Pearl free-for-all. The final fight of the night was even going to feature two Meister Otome, one of them being the Gakuencho herself. The other was supposed to be the Third Column, but Adriana-sama had been injured just a week ago and was still in recovery, so it remained to be seen who would be taking her place.
Aside from the final battle, the most anticipated was the introductory battle, between the top two Pearls. Although this was generally a big deal in most years, their added bet this year just made everyone even more anxious to see the outcome. I had to fend off approximately one third of the whole school who wanted to know what I thought of the whole thing. Eventually I decided that I just wanted it all to be over so I didn't have to deal with those questions anymore.
“Ah, it's just like a novel,” Mai said from next to me. She'd been the most relentless about asking me how I felt about this, and the only one I could never shut up. Glancing over at her, I noticed that she appeared to be starry-eyed as she was lost in fantasy-land, prompting an eye-roll from me. “'A life-or-death battle where the fate of the school's next-generation celebrity, Natsuki Kruger, is waged. Drawn into that vortex, our heroine still remains silent,' huh?”
I tried to get Mai to shut up by will alone, glaring at her, but I really don't know why I bothered. My glare never really did work on her.
Mai just ignored my glare and nudged me, trying to provoke some more positive reaction. “It's incredible! You're like a heroine in a drama, Natsuki...”
“Stop it!” I spat at her. Why did all of this have to happen to me? I wondered. I didn't come to Garderobe hoping to be at the center of all this drama. I just wanted to become an Otome and go back to serve my family and make my parents – well, my mother at least – proud. I wished I'd never developed a crush on Shizuru and idolized her like that; it would have made things so much simpler, and my heart wouldn't ache so much.
“Say, Natsuki...” Mai said, ignoring my requests for her to stop, as she always did. “What do you wish for? Do you want Shizuru-san to win? Or rather... Haruka-san?”
I let out a grunt. I'd been avoiding this question ever since the wager was first made, but Mai just wouldn't let up. The frustration of the whole thing was finally starting to get to me. “Who cares...” I said, though I really should have listened to the pain building up in my heart at that moment.
“Natsuki...” The pleading tone of Mai's voice tugged at my heart. I knew I was lying to myself, and she probably knew it as well.
“Because Shizuru-Oneesama is that kind of person...” I said, in a last-ditch attempt to justify not caring, more to myself than Mai at this point. I had to keep my heart from hoping for Shizuru to win, because it wouldn't be able to stand being broken again. “It doesn't matter anymore...”
“But... you've come this far!” Mai said. “It's you who should be with Shizuru-san! You were just being egotistic in dreaming of an ideal Shizuru, so it's your own fault that you got disillusioned with the real one. And that Shizuru thinks all her fans to be the same, is that the reason for you being like this? She already told you she'd realized she was wrong in that...”
“Mai...” I pleaded. I did not want to go back into a depression in a public place like this, so I really didn't need her pushing me, not now. I glanced around the stands near us, but fortunately no one seemed to be listening in. It was just a matter of time, though, before someone around us tried to butt in.
Mai let out a sigh and shook her head. “Fine then. Perhaps I should try my best to become Shizuru's heya-gakkari, if you won't. That lovely smile of hers did intrigue me a bit...”
“What? No way!” I said. The thought of Mai taking Shizuru away from me was just too much for my heart to take. It had decided at that moment that I needed to take my chance with Shizuru. I still didn't know much about who she really was, but that was how all relationships started out. My heart was telling me this was right, if the two of us could break through all the facades we'd put up.
“Is that so?” Mai said. She had to struggle to hold back a gleeful smile from crossing her face, but she still failed. “Then go, Natsuki. You can still catch her before the match starts.”
“Huh? But...” What was I going to say? What was I getting into? I know she'd apologized, but did she really want me? Well, she had agreed to the challenge...
“Don't think, Natsuki! Just run!” Mai shoved me out of my seat with this. I struggled for something more to say to her, but in the end I decided on a simple nod. She was right, the words would come to me. Shizuru just needed to know that I wanted her to win.
I rushed my way through the stadium, trying to work back through my memory to my first few days here when I'd gone on a tour of it so I could find my way to the waiting rooms. I lucked out with seeing a couple of Pearls wandering around when I got close. Not caring anymore about what people thought, I grabbed the hand of one of the Pearls and spun her around, saying, “Shizuru... where is she?”
The Pearl's eyes flashed in confusion for a couple seconds, but then she seemed to recognize me. “She's at the east gate, about to enter the field,” she told me. “You'll have to hurry.”
“East gate?”
The Pearl pointed me to a door across the room. “That door, go left and run; it's the first right. And good luck.”
I nodded and mumbled thanks to her before continuing to run. The path past the door curved around until I reached an opening. A flash of chestnut caused my heart to scream out in my chest and I stumbled to a stop.
“Shizuru-Oneesama!” I said. I could feel my heart pounding rapidly in my chest, and I was almost bursting at the seams with excitement. All my instincts were telling me that this was right.
Shizuru turned to me slowly. Her face seemed to convey a touch of surprise, though she was trying to cover it up as best as she could. “Natsuki-san?” she said, her voice tinged with nervousness.
Remembering Mai's earlier advice, I shut off my mind and just let the words spill out. “I... please make me your heya-gakkari!”
“Ara...” Shizuru's eyes blinked rapidly as she processed this. Not willing to take the chance that she'd find something to worry about, I rushed to continue.
“I... I want to know so much more about you! Not about the fake you that I willfully constructed, but about the real you!”
Shizuru was silent for a long minute as she stared back at me in wonderment. I was nervous as hell while I waited, but I was blessed with a truly rare sight which helped to take my mind off of that. Slowly, a pink tinge filled Shizuru's cheeks. It was the first time I'd ever seen her blush, and I absolutely adored the sight. Making it even more special was the knowledge that I was likely one of a precious few who had seen it.
“Natsuki...” Shizuru said eventually. Her voice seemed almost choked up, but she pushed through. “If you can forgive me for my earlier indiscretion, then yes, I'll be your Oneesama.”
The excitement caused a blush to form in my own cheeks, and I nodded happily. I heard what sounded like a whimper from Shizuru which caused me to look up at her in concern. “Shizuru-oneesama...? Is something wrong?”
“Wrong? Ara, no...” She said. She tightened her lips into and said in explanation, “Natsuki's just so cute when she blushes...”
Naturally, this caused yet another blush to cross my cheeks, which I regretted almost immediately. She must think I was trying to be cute for her! Er, wait, don't I kind of want her to think I'm cute? But no! Not if it means she'll be trying to make me blush all the time!
A melodic giggle broke me out of my internal debate. I looked up to see Shizuru trying halfheartedly to cover up her laughter. Eventually she got it under control, though, and she said, “Forgive me, but Natsuki was just being too adorable. I'm sorry, I really should try harder, since Natsuki was sweet enough to give me a second chance...”
I shook my head fiercely at this. “No!” At Shizuru's shocked expression, I quickly explained, “I mean, I wanted to know who you really are, so if this is it, then well... I'll have to learn to live with it. Just don't get grabby again. That isn't really you anyways, I'm sure.”
For the second time in my life, I was treated to what would eventually become my favorite sight in the world: Shizuru's blush. “Natsuki...” she said.
Before Shizuru could say anymore, a voice called out from the stadium, “Shizuru! You're up now, come on!”
Shizuru turned towards the source of that voice. “Thank you,” she called out. “I'll be right there.” She turned back to me and said, “Ara, it's time for me to go win the privilege of having Natsuki-san as my heya-gakkari. I'll see you soon.”
I nodded at Shizuru as she started to turn away. “Good luck, Oneesama!” Shizuru gave me a small nod and a sweet smile that nearly caused me to faint as she walked off.
Fortunately, I quickly recovered once Shizuru was out of sight, so I was able to rush back to my seat before I missed too much. The girls in the stands seemed to be getting more excited, so I suspected that an announcement had been made while I was out of earshot. I reached my seat just in time to here the Gakuencho announce, “Then, let's begin the enrollment battles!”
Mai looked over at me as I sat down. She must have been able to read my face, as a knowing smile broke out on hers. “It's starting,” she said simply.
“Yeah...” I replied. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I tried to reassure myself that there was no way Shizuru would lose. She'd gained the rank of first Pearl after all, so that had to mean she was stronger than Haruka-san. Even though I could assure myself that she'd win, I was still anxious for it to actually happen. For me, her victory would mark the point where our relationship could truly start.
“Trias number one, Shizuru Viola!” And there she was, standing on a pillar which rose out the ground into the stadium. She was the perfect image of an Otome: beautiful, graceful, and with a sense of her strength lying just below the surface. The stadium erupted into cheers for her, along with a more-than-healthy dose of squealing. I couldn't help but join in with cheering for her, though I limited myself to clapping and shouting encouragement.
“Trias number two, Haruka Armitage!” Another chorus of cheers and squeals erupted as Haruka-san rose into the stadium. While Shizuru had simple stood there gracefully and given a slight bow, Haruka waved frantically to her fans and tried to egg them on until her cheers were even louder than Shizuru's.
When the cheering had quieted in anticipation of the signal to begin, Haruka took this chance to call out to Shizuru, loud enough for most of the stadium to hear thanks to its acoustics, “You finally got in the mood to do this, huh... Then come on! Give all you've got! I'll be giving my breast as well!”
There was an instant of stunned silence in the stadium before a girl sitting to Mai's right yelled out, “It's 'I'll be giving my best,' Haruka-chan!”
“I know that!” Haruka yelled back irately, and I thought I could see a touch of a blush on her cheeks, though it was hard to tell from that distance.
Mai, being the incessantly – and often annoyingly – social type, of course decided to take this chance to chat up the girl next to her. “Excuse me... are you a friend of Haruka-oneesama?”
“Ah, yes,” the girl said, turning to shake Mai's hand. “My name is Yukino Chrysant. I'm a fourth year at Windbloom University.”
“Mai Tokiha,” Mai responded. “A fourth year, you say? You don't look much older than us...”
“Well, being able to study abroad, I tried do it as fast as possible...” Yukino explained. She caught my eye at this point and reached out to shake my hand. “Moreover, could you, by any means, be Natsuki-san?”
“Uhm... why?” I asked as I took her hand.
“I knew it! I had a discussion with Haruka-chan... She said that a friend of hers was troubled because of an underclassman, and neither of them was willing to listen to anyone. She tried a lot of things, but nothing worked... That's why I...”
“Wait,” Mai said. “Are you saying that you're the one who gave Haruka-oneesama the idea to ask Natsuki to be her heya-gakkari?”
“Er... did that cause trouble?”
“No...” I said. She was right after all. Neither Shizuru or I had really been doing much about our situation. We both really needed our friends to help us face our true feelings, and apparently a friend of a friend to set the whole thing in motion. “Thank you very much, Yukino-san.”
Yukino smiled and waved it off. “It's nothing really. Just one of many things Haruka-chan and I talked about this week.”
“You seem to be actually serious about this.” The sound of Haruka talking again drew our attention back to the arena. “I must be able to defeat you at your full power in front of everyone, or else it won't mean anything.”
“Thank you,” Shizuru replied. Her voice held fierce determination now. “But, I will take Natsuki.”
“Do whatever you want,” Haruka said. “However, if I win...”
“Begin!”
Haruka cut straight into a battlecry as the match started. She didn't waste a moment in charging at Shizuru, who simply stood there calmly for the first couple seconds while Haruka crossed the distance. The only indication on her end that the battle had begun was the charging of her robe, as it gradually became lit up. For a split second, I was afraid that Shizuru wouldn't be ready for Haruka's attack in time and that she would be hit by it – and, knowing Haruka's reputation for strength, possibly also knocked out already.
I really needn't have worried. I should never have doubted Shizuru, even for that moment. In fact, I think every single person in the stadium underestimated just what she was capable of. Even when watching the numerous replays later, what she accomplished seemed to stretch the limits of what was humanly possible.
It took watching the replays many times at varying speeds in order for me to piece together exactly what happened after that point, it all passed so quickly. Shizuru leaped forward and slightly to the side in an instant. As she was moving, she materialized her element in her hands and extended it into a chain. At the time, I was still just learning about elements and how Otomes could use them, so this was the part that took me the most time and help from others to figure out. All I knew initially was that somehow she'd formed a chain which Haruka slammed into and which quickly wrapped around her.
Caught in the deathgrip of Shizuru's element and propelled by her own momentum and the still-firing thrusters of her robe, Haruka had already lost the match. Shizuru was able to angle her downwards with the slightest twist, sending her crashing head-first into the pillar Shizuru had been standing on a moment ago. Beside me, Yukino let out a concerned “Haruka-chan!” and we could see on our screens that the single hit took out a good 15 of Haruka's robe's durability.
Shizuru kept Haruka spinning in a circle, crashing her through a succession of pillars until she'd cleared the area around her and Haruka's durability had dwindled to 32. Shizuru only started spinning faster then. She started to generate winds around her with her robe, forming a vortex with herself at the eye. It took me a bit to realize that Shizuru had actually started to spin in the opposite direction from how she was whirling Haruka around, rapidly passing the element between her hands. As the winds followed Shizuru, this meant that Haruka was being swung directly into them and being hit by the numerous loose rocks and chunks of the pillars that Shizuru's vortex had picked up, her durability slowly being chipped away.
Once Shizuru seemed to have reached her limit, she changed her tactic and started swinging Haruka in what at first seemed to be a haphazard manner while circling around in the winds herself. However, her intent there was to generate a funnel of wind blowing downwards in the center of her vortex – a fact which took many replays to become apparent. When it was fully formed, she whipped Haruka into it just as she released her element and jumped on top of her. A blast of energy burst from her feet, combining with the winds and the momentum of Haruka's swing to send her plummeting downwards at a pace too fast for the naked eye to follow.
Dust billowed out from Haruka's crash, with the sounds of Yukino's concerned whimpering barely being audible barely entering my consciousness. “Trias number one, Shizuru Viola, is victorious!” The Gakuencho announced. Our screens flashed the results: Shizuru had won with 100 of her robe's durability intact in a mere 17 seconds. We later checked the records of past battles and found out that this set a record only rivaled by one of Lena Sayers' battles, which was over in only 10 seconds but which had caused her own robe to overload and lose most of its durability.
As the dust cleared, Shizuru was revealed hovering serenely in the center of the arena, a graceful smile on her face. She spun around slowly until she came to face me, when she stopped and allowed a rare genuine smile to spread across her face. As I met her eyes, she brought a hand up to her mouth and gently blew me a kiss. The sounds of the crowd in reaction to her win and this action would have been deafening if I'd paid it any attention. All that crossed my mind was the sensation of a blush rising to my cheeks and one of the happiest realizations in my life.
Shizuru Viola was now officially my girlfriend.
“I hate Mondays,” Midori al Aswad muttered as her friend, Youko Helene, delicately opened the casing on the REM she wore on her wrist. She sighed and leaned back, resting her head against her free hand.
“It's Friday,” Natsuki said, perhaps a bit more harshly than Midori deserved. Still, it was very important to her that today was Friday, so she could have the entire weekend together with Shizuru after tonight. The fact that she still had to work was also contributing to her frustrations, though it could have been worse. At least she was lucky enough to be able to work on the final steps of a special project today, which was a fair bit more interesting – not to mention it would be useful for an extra surprise for Shizuru.
“Right, whatever,” Midori said, glaring back at Natsuki for a moment before rolling her eyes.
Youko continued working on opening a particularly delicate part before she had a moment to spare concentration on the conversation. “Don't mind her, Gakuencho. We just have weekly appointments on Mondays, and that's all she can think of to start conversation. If you hadn't interrupted her, she would have continued by insisting that it isn't this part of the day she hates; it's just how everyone else acts, like they don't have to pull their all into work since they just got off of a weekend.”
Midori smirked awkwardly at this. “Am I really that predictable? Must be getting into a rut. All this peace wears on me.”
“Peace?” Natsuki said. “We're barely two weeks off of a world-threatening crisis.”
“Two boring weeks,” Midori replied. “And a boring year before that in which I fell into a rut. Not that I was even able to do that much to help out. Even when the five Columns were mostly out of commission, did anyone come asking me to help fill in the gap? Nope. But now, when you need a peak at Aswad's secrets, here I am.”
“You really just need to learn to enjoy life itself, Midori,” Youko admonished her friend. Finished with her work, she started closing up Midori's REM. “Just look at our Gakuencho, the famed Ice Queen of Garderobe...”
“Hey!”
Youko smirked at Natsuki's outburst. “Fine, the famed Ice-Queen-who-isn't-Miss-Maria.” Natsuki growled at this, but Youko ignored her and continued. “When the world's in crisis, she leads the defense, but she knows just how to relax with her love when it's all over. It actually seems that things have been quite eventful between her and the Graceful Amethyst these last weeks, including a very special question today that she's really going all out for.”
Natsuki's eyes widened at the revelation that Youko knew about her plans. She'd wanted to keep things as secretive as possible to make sure nothing slipped to Shizuru. “How'd you...?”
“Don't worry,” Youko said. She picked up the ring she was working and turned to Natsuki. “I haven't told anyone. It's just that Sara needed a very good reason for what she wanted me to do. And with Irina needing to make up an excuse to get off of work, you really should have just told me you were planning to propose today in the first place.”
“Propose... wait...” Midori looked over at Natsuki, idly rubbing her wrist. “Does that mean you and the Third Column are...?”
Natsuki stayed silent while she tried to internalize her frustration and not snap at Youko. It was still awkward seeing other people discuss her relationship, even if they weren't judging it. She used to really hate feeling like she was on display like this, but it was becoming more tolerable with time. She had no choice but to learn to live with it now, though. It was all out in the open and there was no turning back. She couldn't try to convince people that she was just Shizuru's heya-gakkari like she did back in school.
“You didn't notice?” Youko asked incredulously, turning back to Midori. “It's been all they can talk about on the news, even pushing out the reports on the aftermath of the battles. Shizuru and Natsuki – or 'Shiznat' as they've started to call it – is the biggest thing of the century.”
Midori grunted and shrugged. “Eh, not my thing.”
“Well, I've had enough of your moping. We're going out tonight, and I'm going to teach you how to enjoy peace to the fullest. And no saying 'no'; I'll drag you if I have to.”
“You will have to if you plan to drive,” Midori retorted.
“Ugh, will you two shut it already?” Natsuki let out, exasperated. “You sound like you're married.”
“Sorry, just making up for lost bickering time,” Youko said. “Now come on, Midori, let's try out the prototype.”
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