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“Apologize…Apologize!” The young woman demanded as she continued to twist the male bully’s arm. It disgusted her for how long she had to touch him for this lesson to be learned.
“N-no, it’s alright…” The female frail looking older classmen tried to insist, but Tenko wasn’t hearing any of it. She knew what she was this degenerate male doing.
“As soon as he apologizes to you, I’ll let him go! I swear!” The younger woman tried to ensure the other. At the threat of having his arm dislocated or worse broken, the male bully muttered an apology then ran off as soon as Tenko released him. The Neo Aikido master beamed with pride, hands placed on her hips at another young maiden saved.
“Hopefully, that degenerate male learned his lesson!” The energetic young lady glouted. “But how are you doing? Are you alright?”
The older classmen flinched, holding her bandaged arms up as if she was going to be attacked next. Tears welling up in her pale purple eyes. “I….I….” She whimpered and sniffled. “Y-you didn’t have to do that.” Even her voice was as timid as a mouse.
Tenko took a step forward. “What? Of course I did, I can’t stand-“ however before she could finish her thought, the other girl suddenly bolted away. Green eyes blinked a few times, dumbfounded as a faint blush came across her cheeks. Tenko just found herself staring dumbly in the direction the other ran off in for a few minutes before the sound of the bell ringing reminded her that she better head for class.
However, all that day, Tenko couldn’t get that mysterious upper classmen out of her head. It was so bad, to the point where even her friends noticed how out of it she was.
“Nyeh, Yonaga.” Himiko started as the three girls sat together at lunch. Her elbow gently poking the artist. “Do you think Chabashira has a fever or something? Her face has been red and she’s been making gross expressions all day that haven’t been directed at me.” The young mage pointed her spoon accusingly at Tenko, who was still lost in her own world.
Angie tilted her head and curiously narrowed her eyes at Tenko, who didn’t even seem to notice that Himiko was talking about her. How bizarre! The artist examined her and slowly followed the other’s gaze to a table where girls from an older grade were eating. Angie hummed before nodding as if she has decided something.
Suddenly and without warning, Angie reached out attempting to feel Tenko’s face. Naturally, Tenko flipped the fuck out. The Neo Aikido master’s expression twisted into an ugly face of surprise as she fell back then crawled underneath the table they were sitting at.
“Nyahaha~!” Angie laughed at her own mischief making while Himiko simply shook her head at the display. From under the table, Tenko’s face was bright red.
“You should never surprise a martial arts master!” The young woman scolded from underneath the table.
Angie, still smiling as ever, peered underneath the table to look at Tenko as she talked to her. “It’s okay! Angie trusts you not to harm a hair on her head!” She boldly and confidently declared which only served to fluster the other young woman more. “Sooooo, which one of those women have caught your eye?”
Tenko was even more confused and flustered. “Caught my eye? What does that even mean?”
The artist just laughed in response, meanwhile Himiko sighed. She was not going to crawl underneath the table to properly join in on their conversation. “Nyeh, who have you been grossly staring at all this time?” She asked, rephrasing the question for her confused friend.
“Oh.” Tenko fidgeted with her fingers in thought for a moment as she tried to think of how to explain. “The very cute one with choppy hair and bandages! I helped rescued her from a bully earlier this morning.” The martial arts master explained.
“Ohoh~! Angie sees! How divine!” Angie exclaimed, clapping her hands together as she whispered a quick prayer to her god. The artist then got up and started walking towards the group of older girl.
“What are you doing?? Stop?? No!!” Tenko aggressively, whisper commanded as she watched Angie go over to that table.
Himiko shook her head and went back to picking at her food. “You might as well get back up here, you know you’re too late to stop her.”
The mage was right, as she usually was. Tenko got out from under the table, sitting back in her seat. She has accepted her fate, that’s why she was facedown of course.
“Tsumiki Mikan!” Angie’s voice cheerfully cut through the despair as she sat back down.
“Huh?” Tenko forced herself to look up at the artist.
“The one that has caught your eye! Her name is Tsumiki Mikan!” The artist clarified, before clapping her hands and leaning down to rest the side of her head on Himiko’s shoulder. “Angie is very thankful God-sama has sent you someone to help you move on from Himiko!”
But Tenko didn’t process that last part, over the sound of her own heart beating and her mind drifting to new thoughts.
‘Tsumiki Mikan…..’ That was the name that would haunt Tenko’s brain for weeks to come.
-
“So, are you going to tell me why you’ve been stalking us?” The red headed upperclassman asked, hands on her hips as she stared down at Tenko who was hiding behind some bushes. Naturally this made Tenko flip out a bit as her face blushed red, incredibly flustered as she thought her hiding spot was a good one.
“What? Stalking you? Stalking is a criminal offense that is more becoming of a degenerate male than of someone like me!” The martial arts master poorly attempted to defend herself.
Mahiru couldn’t really argue with that, however her eye twitched right before she sighed. The Ult photographer pulled out about a week's worth of polaroids. “If you’re not stalking us, then how come you’re in the background of all these pictures?”
Tenko carefully took the other woman’s hard work and flipped though them. She….was indeed in the background of every picture. How embarrassing. “Stalking makes it sound so bad!” She once again defended herself. “I’m protecting you!”
The martial arts master finally stood up and made a pose to show off her prowess. “There are far too many male delinquents on this campus! A group of cute young women can never be too careful!”
Mahiru blinked a few times, processing Tenko’s words. She took her photos back and placed them away. “You know, an easier way to do that is to just ask if you could be our friend. Then we could all hang out together and you don’t have to be in the bushes.”
“B…But you’re upper classmen. Would you really want to hang out with someone from a different grade?” Tenko looked away from Mahiru, two of her fingers pressing together in a bashful fidgeting manner.
Now far less annoyed, Mahiru giggled and shook her head as she placed a hand on Tenko’s shoulder. “Of course, I would never base potential friends on something as superficial as that!”
The Neo Aikido master looked at the photographer with hope and stars in her eyes. “Are you sure? I must warn that I can be a lot to handle!”
Mahiru weakly smiled. “You and most of the people at this academy. Come on, let’s go get you introduced to the other girls.” And with that, the two walked together to get acquainted with Mahiru’s friend group.
-
Tenko found that hanging out with the older girls was quite enjoyable! However, she did tend to bump heads with Saionji-Senpai quite often. She was just so mean to Mikan! It made her blood boil. Eventually, though, the picking on Mikan while Tenko was around seemed to stop. The martial arts master seemed to wonder if Koizumi had something to do with that. Her and Saionji-Senpai seemed to be closer to each other than the rest of the group.
Tenko guessed the exact reason didn’t matter as long as things improved for Mikan! She was just so cute and fragile, the martial arts master could barely handle it! Merrily, she carried the ultimate nurse’s books for her to her next class. Following along like a lap dog on a leash.
When suddenly and taken by surprise, Tenko was pulled into an empty classroom. Now unsurprisingly, the martial artist responded by flipping their assailant over on their face letting the books drop but stopping them from hitting the ground by catching them with her foot.
“WAH, UNCLE UNCLE!” The punk rocker light musician cried out from on the ground.
Tenko quickly let her new found friend go. “Mioda-San, why did you attack me?” She asked while raising her leg up to start carrying the books normally again.
“Because, it’s time we cut the shit.” Hiyoko’s voice broke through the strange situation. She was rudely sitting on the teacher’s desk. “When are you going to stop being a coward and just ask the pi-“ The traditional dancer stopped herself, she wasn’t trying to pick a fight right now. “When are you going to ask Mikan out?”
“…..Saionji-senpai….I am a girl.” Was Tenko’s bewildered response.
Both Ibuki and Hiyoko both break out into laughter. Ibuki hopped up from off the floor to hug Tenko from behind. “Tenko-Chan! Girls can love girls. It’s crazy that the ultimate girl lover didn’t know that?”
“Right? Chabashira-chan, you like girls.” Hiyoko’s the backside of her hand is raised to cover her impish snickering. “The faces you make at Mikan are like a pig in heat.”
“Well, Mikan is very cute! It’s hard not to get flustered by her!” Tenko tried to defend herself which only got an eye roll from Hiyoko and more laughter from Ibuki.
“Girls who don’t like girls romantically don’t get flustered by other girls like that.” The traditional dancer bluntly explained. “They don’t fall for other girl’s fake cutesy shit.”
Blink. Blink. ‘Fake cutesy shit?’
“So….” It took Tenko a minute to realize she wasn’t breathing and to force herself to breathe again. “Do you like other girls, Saionji-senpai? And what about you, Mioda-san?” She looked at both the girls, almost terrified of their responses.
Now it was Hiyoko’s turn to blush and look away. “No, but it wouldn’t matter if I did. I have a family line to continue.” There was both embarrassment and bitterness in those words.
“Ibuki likes everyone!” The musician boldly declared, letting go of Tenko to pose dramatically. That…..answer was kinda vague.
The girls then spent the next 10 minutes scheming and yapping until suddenly the bell rang, with Tenko still holding onto Mikan’s books. The girl sprinted out of the empty classroom in a panic to deliver the books to the maiden they belonged to.
-
It took weeks of Ibuki and Hiyoko proding behind the scenes for Tenko to both accept her attraction to Mikan and to be willing to do something about it. Tenko asked Mikan to eat lunch with her alone on the rooftop.
The two young women barely even looked at each other as they sat by the other’s side, bento boxes in their lap. Them both red faced and slightly trembling though for different reasons. It was almost like a challenge to see who would break the awkward silence first.
Mikan was eventually the one to lose the unspoken quiet game. “T-Tenko, can I ask why you invited me up here?” The nurse still refused to look at the other as she asked this.
The martial artist took a deep breath. She needed to harden her many nerves into steel just as she’s practiced. Carefully, she placed the bento box off her lap and on the ground before scooting over to be sitting in front of the upperclassmen.
Gently yet firmly, Tenko held Mikan’s hand in her own before bending down low.
“Tsumiki Mikan, I, Chabashira Tenko, am in love with you. I find you incredibly adorable and I wish to protect you forever and always!” Tenko’s voice got louder and louder as she nervously got through the confession. She was scared to look up to see the other’s reaction and her own fear pissed her off. How dare she be a coward in the face of love?
Inside of Tenko’s loving hands, Mikan’s trembled as she began to sob. “….No….No…” The nurse started as she began to shook her head. “I’m sorry, you can’t. I’m sorry, you can’t.” She started to spiral and pulled away from Tenko.
Tenko looked up to see despair in Mikan’s eyes. Hopeful green swirling in pained pools of purple. The nurse suddenly rushed to her feet, pulling food all over the both of them. “You can’t love me. That’s a terrible thing, I’m sorry.” Mikan continued to apologize.
“Is….Is it because I’m a girl?” The martial artist’s voice cracked as she asked.
“W-what?” Mikan blinked away a few tears before violently shaking her head and pulling her hair. “No! It’s me! I’m awful to love! I’m lowly, I’m dirt, I’m….I’m…” The nurse broke out into full on choking sobs. She turned to run, but with her clumsy nature and the tears in her eyes she started to fall.
Time seemed to pause. All of Mikan’s miserable life flashed, it wasn’t even good as a rerun. However, Tenko managed to grab the nurse’s arm in time and pull her back to safety. The nurse didn’t even process the disgusting popping sound that came from her shoulder as she forgot how to breathe in the arms of a woman who claimed to love her.
“Hey now!” Tenko started to scold despite her own tears. “I said, I wanted to protect you no matter what! That means even from yourself, okay? If you’re low as dirt, I’ll dig you up and carry you to the mountains!”
Mikan blankly stared up at Tenko for a few minutes. It was too late for her, the predator animal was caught in the trap.
A sheep who thought she was a wolf and the wolf who dressed like a sheep laid there on that rooftop embracing each other.