Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ Kagayaku Means to Shine ❯ Hajimaru: To Begin ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter Eight

Written: 23 December 2005

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~

 

The next morning, Utena was tousled and cheerful when she came down the stairs and into the kitchen, her slippers shuffling on the tile floor of the cooking area as she came up behind Anshii and wrapped her arms around the slim waist, nuzzling into neatly-brushed, vanilla-scented hair with a happy sigh. Anshii pause in cooking the fish for breakfast and looked back over her shoulder.

 

“You're in a good mood this morning,” she remarked with a small smile, and Utena laughed into her loose hair.

 

“Naturally. It's your fault, you know.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Yeah. I didn't think I'd ever see you again when I left that place, and then you showed up at my door just when I needed you. I'm not over that deliriously happy feeling yet, and things like this and that,” she made a vague gesture, but Anshii knew what she meant, “Just make me remember how happy you make me. In case I haven't said it recently, I love you, Anshii.”

 

Anshii turned around in Utena's arms and looped her own around her prince's neck, tilting her head back a little to plant a kiss on the taller girl and then smiling and leaning against her. “Me too. I love you so much.” They stayed that way for a few seconds, quietly enjoying how neatly they fit together, before the smell of cooking fish made Anshii jump and spin around to attend to their burning breakfast.

 

Utena let her go with a laugh, then turned and headed back up the stairs to wake their slumbering children for breakfast and school.

 

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~

 

They all sat down to breakfast together, the twins making big productions out of very carefully picking up the pieces of their fish, which had been cut up by Anshii, more for self-preservation than anything. Utena couldn't help but smile at the children, who had only recently mastered the fine art of manipulating their small chopsticks and were still prone to drop things. Nishiko smiled back at her papa, and safely guided a glob of sticky rice into her mouth.

 

Of course, Nishiki chose that exact moment to drop a piece of fish on the table, and Utena immediately swooped in and retrieved it for the little girl before she made any attempt at using her chopsticks at that odd angle. The pink-haired girl was positive that if she tried, there would have been a mess of spilled tea to clean up as well.

 

The little girl looked very frustrated as she tried to pick up the same piece of fish three times and couldn't quite get it, and her face screwed up as if she was about to yell or throw her chopsticks. But just as Anshii moved towards the girl, Nishiko put her hand on her twin's arm, and she immediately calmed down, then they both resumed eating, with a little more success.

 

Utena and Anshii looked at each other, but didn't say anything. Soon enough, breakfast was over and it was time to get cleaned up and leave for school. Everything got done with the minimum of fuss for once, and the two young women bid the twins goodbye at school, hugging and kissing both of them and sending them off to their teachers before climbing back in the car.

 

It was quiet for a few seconds, then Utena glanced at her mate. “What exactly was that about at breakfast? Ki-chan looked ready to explode, and then she just calmed right down when Ko-chan touched her.” Anshii looked thoughtful.

 

“Well, it could just be something related to them being twins. I've heard of things like that before. But somehow I think that this might be different. Like them starting to walk and speak early, like them being stronger and smarter than most other children that age. I wonder if it has to do with . . .” She touched with one fingertip the base of her left ring finger, and Utena frowned and reflexively moved to touch the same spot on her own left hand, then pulled away from it as if burned by just the memory.

 

“What does that have to do with anything? I mean, I know it's mine, but I don't use it. How could it be affecting them?”

 

“I don't know. It's just a theory, though. It could very well be that they're just exceptional children and twins.” It was clear from her voice that she didn't think it could be explained away that easily, but Utena didn't say anything further and soon enough they were at their own school, exchanging subdued goodbyes and parting ways to go to class. They met again at lunch, but the twins were not mentioned at all.

 

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~

 

Back in Shibuya-ku, in Yoyogi Park, a crowd of young children wearing blue hats gathered around one of their teachers, milling uncertainly and looking very unhappy, having picked up on the worry and fear in their teacher's body language. Their other teacher was missing, along with one of their classmates, Nishiko Tenjou. Ashley-sensei had gathered them up into a group, then left Cara-sensei to watch them while she went to go find the missing girl.

Nishiki had tried to speak up and offer to go, but she had been shushed as the adults took control over things, so she sat quietly under a small tree, completely unconcerned, even in the face of mean comments about the little girls whose parents were `queers', according to their own parents. She simply ignored them all, and after a while they got bored with and moved on, which was just how she liked it.

 

Their less senior teacher, Cara-sensei, made her way over to the sitting girl and crouched, intending to ask if she was okay, then suddenly fell over backwards, shocked as Nishiki jumped up with no warning whatsoever and took off at a dead run.

 

Unsure of what to do, the young woman ordered the other children to stay put and took off after the girl. It was easy enough to catch up with her, seeing as how her little legs would only carry her so fast, but just as she started to speak again, Nishiki threw herself to the left with a yell, and she heard the unmistakable sound of a punch landing and a child crying.

 

Dodging around a tree, she came upon something startling. Nishiko kneeling on the ground and crying, holding her cheek with one hand and a slightly-mushed flower chain with the other, while Nishiki fought an angry-looking boy at least two years older than her and quite a bit bigger. She looked to be holding her own for the moment, having surprised him with a punch to the arm, but it wouldn't last much longer.

 

As the teacher stared, stunned, Nishiko dropped her flower chain and let go of her cheek, revealing a red mark like a slap on the dark skin. Then she stood up, calmly brushed her skirt off, and launched herself at the boy's legs, throwing him off balance so that Nishiki could punch him right in the face, knocking him down so that her twin could sit on him.

 

It all happened within a few seconds, so quickly that the teacher didn't even have time to react before it was all over. It took her another few seconds once it was over to process everything, and then she got mad. Marching over to the three children, she gestured for Nishiko to get off of the boy. He got up, and looked like he wanted to thank her.

That is, until he saw her expression. He opened his mouth to offer an excuse, but Cara simply grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him towards where the other children were waiting. He wisely shut his mouth.

 

“Nishiko-chan, Nishiki-chan, please go rejoin the other children. Ashley-sensei should be back soon, so tell her I've taken...” she glanced down at the boy's tag, “Chris Markee from the five-year-old class to the teacher's room.”

 

They nodded solemnly and went to do as they were told, walking hand in hand for no obvious reason.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~

 

That afternoon, Utena and Anshii were shocked to hear of the fight, though gratified to know that the boy responsible was in quite a bit of trouble and had been suspended for the moment. Kneeling down, they hugged and kissed their slightly mussed children, then hustled them into the car, where they road in their parents' laps for the entire ride home.

 

“Ki-chan?” Anshii asked the little girl in her lap, who looked up at her with those innocent blue eyes.

 

“Yes, Okaasan?”

 

“The teacher said that you suddenly ran off to where Ko-chan was. How did you know?”

 

“Cause I called, of course!” said Nishiko, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Big brother came cause I called.”

 

Utena and Anshii exchanged looks again. They'd been trying since the twins could talk to get Nishiko to call Nishiki either by name or `big sister'. No matter how often they corrected her, she persisted, until they were almost ready to give up.

 

“Oh, so you yelled for your big sister?” Anshii inquired gently, still trying in her own way to correct the little girl.

 

“No, didn't yell. Called big brother, didn't you hear me?”

 

“But how did you call her, if you didn't shout? The teacher said you were way out of sight.”

 

“She called me in my head,” Nishiki explained. “I knew where she was, but she say a mean boy try to take her flower chain and hit her when she wouldn't give it to him. So I went to go help her.”

 

The rest of the ride home was fairly quiet, the twins tuckered out and their parents thinking very hard. When they got to the house, they carried the sleepy children out and Utena stopped to take their mail, flipping through the envelopes with one hand. Just as the door shut behind them, Utena gasped and dropped all the mail and nearly the child in her other arm, staring at a white envelope like it had bitten her.

 

“Utena? Utena, what's wrong?” Anshii was worried. It wasn't like Utena to react to things like that. The pink-haired girl pointed silently at the envelope.

 

“It's . . . it's her. A letter from her!” Anshii was puzzled, and hitched Nishiki up on her hip before crouching to pick up the offending piece of mail. She turned it over and froze. The letter was addressed to Tenjou Utena-sama. Written in the bottom left corner of the otherwise unremarkable envelope, in handwriting neat enough that there was no mistaking it, was the return address. The address itself was somewhere in Kyoto city, apparently, but it was the name that concerned her.

 

有
æ –
å·
樹
ç’ƒ

 

"Arisugawa Juri."

 

END CH. 8