Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ The Most Unexpected thing... ❯ Chapter 6

Revolutionary Girl Utena: The most unexpected thing...

Part Six

Miki smiled slightly, watching the crowds filling up the seats. "I see Wakaba's right up front," he reported to Juri with a slight smile.

Standing nearby him Juri's orange hair flowed down her back. "Good," Juri looked up, meeting Wakaba's eyes and warming at the girl's happy smile. Utena and Anthy sat down nearby her, and Juri felt a bit of relief at that.

"You know they'll keep an eye on her," Miki softly reassured her, "and now we have to concentrate on our matches."

"True," Juri limbered up, the long white fencing uniform clinging to her body. She looked over at the other fencers, assessing them with her eyes, then let her gaze wander to where the free sword competitors awaited.

"Well, isn't that interesting," Miki murmured as they saw Nanami moving from the audience towards where her older brother waited.

"Isn't it?" Juri agreed.

Nanami walked forward, her long golden brown hair flowing down her back in a braid. "Saionji," she nodded to the green haired swordsman, then moved on. "Big brother," and her voice had an odd gentleness.

"Nanami," Touga smiled, his long red hair flowing down his back, a single lock dangling in front of his eye. He looked at her curiously, "Are you going to be competing, too?"

"I wasn't planning on it," Nanami calmly replied. She looked at her brother thoughtfully, "You do know that Shiori's manipulating you, right?"

"Of course," Touga smiled slightly. "It's remarkably petty of her, trying to have Juri defeated so publicly." A soft chuckle, "Now if it was you, Juri would be in far more grave danger."

"True," Saionji said with a smile, "Juri would be facing a real trial if she had angered you, Nanami." His face went grim, "I still remember what you did to Anthy.."

"Jealousy makes one do strange things," Nanami said to them simply. She looked over at Touga, "So why are you going through with this?"

Touga smiled slightly, his hair blowing back from his face. "When one is flat on their back," he smiled wryly, "it's not very hard to get concessions from a person. But I did give my word, and I do intend to keep it."

"You two need to start thinking with your brains," Nanami pushed a lock of hair back from her face, "not with your..."

"Nanami," Saionji scolded her.

Nanami sighed softly, shaking her head. "I'll see you both later," and with that she headed towards the stands. She saw a figure enter the large fencing hall, and frowned as she made a straight line towards Wakaba. She moved to intercept her, gabbing hold of the beautiful woman's arm.

"Well," Shiori looked Nanami up and down, taking in the sleek duelist uniform that the blonde had chosen to wear, "Are you competing, too?"

"No," Nanami said crisply. She gave Shiori a frown, noting the overly tight school uniform she was wearing, "Did that shrink in the wash?"

Shiori narrowed her eyes. "I guess I should go to my seat," she tried to tug her arm free,

"You're not sitting there," Nanami said.

"Oh yes I am," Shiori smirked as she broke free.

"Oh, dear," Anthy sighed, watching Shiori stalk towards them.

"Suddenly, I'm glad that you asked me to sit in the middle," Wakaba noted, sitting safely between Utena and Anthy.

"She tries anything," Utena promised, "she'll regret it."

But before Shiori could take the seat right beside Utena, Nanami was there. "Would you mind?" she asked them, plopping down so that the only spot left for Shiori was the one beside her, well away from Wakaba.

Utena blinked. She didn't know why Nanami was actually helping Wakaba, but she wasn't going to question it. "Sure," she smiled.

Shiori sat down, scowling. "What are you up to?" she glared at Nanami.

The blonde smirked. "What, confounding you isn't reason enough?" Nanami drawled. She looked out to where the matches had started, the lower ranking fencers moving against each other. "I didn't like it, you believing I could be bought so easily," she said quietly.

Shiori hesitated, looking over at the intense young woman's face. Finally she softly murmured, "I misjudged you, certainly."

Juri tensed, watching Shiori make her way towards Wakaba, then felt a flash of relief as Nanami acted. "We're going to owe her one, later," Miki mused, watching the matches with an amused air about him.

"Probably," Juri agreed. The first sets of matches were nearly over, and Juri wasn't terribly impressed. "Our turns are coming up," she said, "be ready."

"Good luck," Miki offered as Juri's name was called out.

"Luck is for amateurs," Juri shot back with a smile. She nodded to the referee, then looked over her opponent. A slim young man, a bit taller than Miki. He was trying to look confident, but there was something in his eyes...

"Begin!" the referee called, and the boy moved. His sword flicked up, trying to make Juri flinch, but she calmly batted it aside. She saw an opening almost immediately, waited for a moment to see if it was a feint, then moved in, scoring the first point of the match in seconds. With a fierce look on her face Juri decided that this boy just wasn't worth her time, and scored the remaining points needed in only moments.

"I.. didn't even see you move, that last time," he took his mask off, looking up at her in awe. "How.." he trailed off.

"Get faster," Juri said to him simply, but she softened it a bit by adding, "we may have a rematch someday."

"Right," he grinned, moving off.

Miki had won his match also, Juri noted as she made her way over to get a bit of water. The members of the opposition were all looking at her differently, almost fearfully. 'Guess they've decided to believe in my reputation,' she mused.

"Go, Juri," Wakaba cheered, and Juri found herself grinning.

The next two matches were a little tougher, but not by that much. One scored a point on her before she took the tall redhead down, but other than that, the matches weren't tall that close. Miki made his way over to her, his face grave.

"There's at least one good fencer over there," Miki admitted, taking his protective helmet off. "It looks like I'm out, at least this time."

"Who is it," Juri asked him, unbuttoning the throat buttons of her suit, taking a deep breath then letting it out slowly, trying to relax.

"The blue haired woman," Miki nodded to where the woman was standing, "she goes to the same school as that redhead who gave you trouble does."

"Graviton, right?" Juri asked, feeling the blue haired woman's eyes on her. "Strange name for a school." She took another drink of water, "So who is in the finals?"

"You and her, apparently," Miki said dryly, "you both have been taking your matches by force, you know." He shrugged, "This next one, it's just to see who gets third."

"Huh," Juri paid more attention, seeing it was the redhead that had nearly beaten her. The woman was both fast and skillful, and she finished her match in only a few seconds.

"You're up," Miki gave her a grin.

Juri buttoned her jacket back up again, carrying the protective mask in her hand as she slowly walked to the ring, the blue haired girl doing much the same. "Best two out of three," the referee reminded them, "good luck."

"May the best woman win," the blue haired woman said, "which of course will be me. Try to give me a good match, please?"

Juri pulled her helm on, a slight smile on her face. She didn't choose to answer her verbally, instead she simply raised her foil to the guard position, waiting. There was a flash of a smile from the blue haired woman, who took up a guard position of her own.

"Begin!" the referee called out, and their swords came together with a clash. Back and forth they moved, silver blades flashing, searching for any weakness. The woman got her blade under Juri's, drove the sword up as she lunged in, scoring the first point.

"Nice," Juri admitted, stepping back a moment to try to loosen her arm. She couldn't believe the girl had pulled that off...

"Thank you," the blue haired girl nodded.

Juri stepped back into the ring, feeling Wakaba's gave on her. The girl practically radiated a sincere belief in Juri, and she felt a strength rising in her, banishing tiredness. Juri moved, following up on a weakness she had seen in the first clash of swords, swiftly scoring her own point on the startled looking young woman.

"Nice," The blue haired girl echoed Juri's own words, her grin one of honest enjoyment.

'This is it,' Juri thought as they came together again, swords flashing, 'this point wins or looses the match.'

The swords flashed back and forth, the audience watching rapt as the two women faced off. They were nearly the same height, their reaches nearly the same, and they were surprisingly evenly matched. For thirsty seconds, then a minute they sparred, each searching for an opening.

"There!" Juri gasped as she struck, her blade resting between the surprised woman's breasts.

"Point, Arisugawa!" the referee called, "Arisugawa wins!"

"JURI!" Wakaba was off the bench like a shot, throwing her arms around the taller girl's neck and bouncing up and down, "You did it!"

"Thanks," Juri hugged her, not caring about who might be watching.

'Juri won,' Shiori thought to herself sourly. 'Well, at least Touga and Saionji still have a shot at her in the free sword competition.'

To be continued....

AN: The blue and red headed girls are B-ko and A-ko from Project A-ko, visiting from Graviton High School. Yes, I like off cameos...