The morning air was crisp, the sun shining down on the groups
of teenagers who were moving through the campus towards their various
classes. Walking a little apart from the mob Utena smiled to herself
slightly upon seeing the brown haired girl who was impatiently waiting
for her and Anthy up on the bridge.
"Good Morning," Utena smiled at her slightly.
Leaning up against the railing Wakaba smiled back, "Good
morning, Utena."
From her place by Utena's side Anthy smiled gently and
repeated, "Good morning."
Rather surprisingly Wakaba didn't glare at Anthy or try to
accuse the dark skinned girl of stealing her Utena-sama away. Instead,
the brown haired young woman seemed to be preoccupied about something
as she fell into step beside them.
"Utena?" Wakaba smiled at the pink haired girl nervously.
"Yes?" Utena looked down at her curiously while casually
returning all of the sweetly called out, 'Good Morning, Utena-sama!'
from the girls with little waves of her hand. She didn't take all of
it that seriously, she just thought it was because of her boy's school
uniform.
Utena, it should be noted, could be a bit blind at times,
especially about the adoration that most of the school girls felt for
her. Utena was one of a few real idols at the school, along with the
members of the student council and a few others.
Wakaba's cheeks actually went a bit red. She took a nervous
breath before asking, "What do you think of Arisugawa Juri?"
Utena blinked. "I like her," she shrugged.
Wakaba beamed happily, almost as if this had been the perfect
thing to say, "That's good! Because I think I like her, too."
Before Utena could ask her anything more her friend was gone,
pelting off to her classes with her usual high energy level. "What was
that all about?" Utena blinked.
Anthy smiled sweetly, "I'm sure I don't know, Utena-sama."
"That again," Utena muttered, sweatdropping. "Look, you don't
need to call me that," she said with as much patience as she could
muster.
Anthy smiled sweetly, "But Utena-sama..."
Utena groaned softly.
Across the campus, two other students fell into step side by
side. The difference in their sizes should have made it look comic,
but the similarities in their stance and manner outweighed all the
differences. "Good morning, sempai," Miki smiled up at Juri.
"Morning," Juri smiled back at the handsome young man. The two
fencers walked along silently side by side for a few moments before
the orange haired woman said to him quietly, "Thanks for the
information about Wakaba."
"You went over to see her?" Miki encouraged.
"Yeah," Juri nodded. She smiled to herself slightly in memory,
"I gave her the tickets to the fencing match coming up, the one that I
first got for Shiori."
"Hmm," Miki nodded. The blue haired young man frowned slightly
as he tentatively reported, "I'm sorry to say that Shiori's been
pretty busy, lately."
Juri had to make a face upon hearing that. "Do I really want
to know?" she asked him a little plaintively. She had rather hoped,
now that they were actually split up, that she wouldn't have to hear
about any of Shiori's bed hopping ever again. Juri scowled, she had
certainly heard enough about it back when they were dating!
"It might be kind of important for the upcoming matches," Miki
sighed softly. He pulled a small notebook out of his breast pocket to
check over his information, "Apparently both Touga and Saionji have
fallen prey to her wiles."
"The free sword fighting demonstration after the fencing
matches," Juri groaned in realization, "Shiori's probably hoping one
or both of them will beat me."
Miki nodded just slightly in agreement. He decided not to even
mention anything about Shiori's rather embarrassing attempt to seduce
him, too. It was one of the very few times that he was actually
grateful for Kozue's interference in his life!
"So what do you plan to do now?" Miki looked up to ask her.
Juri nodded grimly, "Win those matches!"
The two separated and Juri walked on to her classes alone,
lost in her dark thoughts. She just couldn't believe the level of pure
vindictiveness that Shiori was showing. Especially when she considered
how the girl's own blatant unfaithfulness had been the main cause of
their break up. She just couldn't get her head around it...
"Juri-sama!" a cheerful voice loudly declared.
Juri was suddenly hit from behind by a heavy weight on her
back and shoulders, and it took all of her efforts just to stay
upright. After staggering about a few steps, Juri realized who was
perched on her back and asked, "Wakaba-san?"
Wakaba slid down to the ground, giving Juri a cheerful little
smile. "Sorry," though she didn't really sound too terribly apologetic
about it, "but I just couldn't resist."
"I've seen you do that to Utena a few times," Juri found
herself smiling almost unwillingly back, "I'm now feeling much more
sympathetic to her."
A smiling Wakaba fell into step beside her and said, "Then
next time, I'll do it while you're leaning out of a window."
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Juri raised an eyebrow.
"So?" Wakaba smiled irrepressibly.
Juri just had to laugh at that. She actually grinned down at
Wakaba and said, "You know, I think I like you."
"Good," Wakaba smiled happily. She tilted her head to the side
and asked Juri, "So what had you thinking so intently?"
Juri blinked, realizing that the young woman had jarred her
right out of her grim thoughts. "It doesn't matter," she smiled.
Standing not too far away from them a purple haired young
woman watched them talking happily away through eyes narrowed by
anger. "What's Arisugawa doing talking to a nobody like that girl?"
Shiori muttered angrily.
Shiori knew all about this Wakaba, of course. She knew the
different rumors around the school about Utena's 'special friend,' and
had heard about how Saionji had broken her heart. Under normal
circumstances, she could care less about a plain girl like that, but
watching her there walking with Juri made her blood boil.
Shiori's hand clenched into a fist, and she closed her eyes to
try and force the stinging, bitter tears away. 'I'm going to make her
pay for this,' Shiori silently vowed, 'for abandoning me like that.
She will so regret it, when she's finally defeated in the upcoming
matches.' A cold little smile teased her lips, 'And I am going to be
right there to see it.'
With a sudden cute scowl Shiori jerked up. She frowned in
thought, "Wait just a minute." She groaned, "Juri was the one who I
was relying on to get me in there!" She strode off, grumbling softly
to herself, "Damn, now how do I get in there?"
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