Chapter 4: Surrender
"Sei-sama!"
Yumi's scream erupted from some primal place inside of her, some dark void where all of her mortal fears lurked. She reached helplessly around the car and eventually managed to take hold of the grip handle above her as her body jostled back and forth. In spite of herself, she had almost forgotten all about Sachiko as she faced the specter of certain death.
"Sorry, sorry!" Sei shouted back, though she was grinning from ear to ear. "Did you see that guy back there, though? He almost ran into me!"
"I think you have it the other way around!"
Even years after Sei had gotten her driver's license, her driving hadn't seemed to improve much. If anything, she appeared to have become more brazen now that she was used to putting her life on the line every time she got behind the wheel of a car.
And now she's risking my life, too, thought Yumi. And maybe the lives of those pedestrians over here.
"Sei-sama! Sei-sama, do you see the crosswalk? There's a crosswalk over there! There's—"
"I see it, I see it!" Sei said, blowing past a few people. "Those folks were way on the other side. Relax." She stole a glance at Yumi, which only served to make Yumi more nervous because she wasn't keeping her eyes on the road. "Where is this place supposed to be, anyway? Which arcade is it?"
"I'm not sure, but I think it might be the one across from this ice cream shop I go to now and again," Yumi managed to say while suppressing the urge to point out all of the hazards that Sei seemed to be ignoring. "My brother Yuuki goes there sometimes, so it would be my best guess."
"Great, show me the way, Yumi-chan!"
She turned a corner sharply when Yumi told her they had to take the next street, and Yumi's stomach lurched accordingly.
"Sei-sama," she said pleadingly. "Why are we going there, anyway? What's gotten into you?"
"Whaaat? You don't want to save your friend from the hands of Kashiwagi Suguru?" Sei exclaimed in her usual exaggerated fashion.
"Are you talking about Alice?" Yumi looked at her with confusion. "How do you know she wants to be 'saved'? I'm sure she's hanging out with him for a reason. Besides, I would have thought you'd be trying to avoid her after…."
"Oh, come now, Yumi-chan. Do I look like the type of person who feels awkward after a failed romantic encounter?" Sei reached over and tousled Yumi's hair. "There's never been any awkwardness between you and me, after all, has there?"
"In your opinion," Yumi said, pulling back to avoid her hand. "But fine, even if you don't feel awkward seeing her again, why bother? Why do you care?" Yumi could remember how serious Sei had become—a rare occurrence—the moment she had mentioned that it was Alice who Kashiwagi had been with.
"I'm just trying to do you a favor, Yumi-chan. I know you're worried about her, or you wouldn't have even said anything to me."
"To be honest, I've been trying to avoid her myself, actually," Yumi admitted.
"What? Why?"
"After you told me that insane story, how was I supposed to look in her eyes and not imagine you and her...together?"
Sei laughed out loud, barreling down the road as Yumi muttered her next instruction. "Good call. Maybe it is better that you spare her your hundred faces."
When they made it to the arcade, Sei parked on a side street—legally or not, Yumi wasn't sure. Yumi followed her in disbelief as Sei practically skipped down the sidewalk to the entrance of the game center.
"It's been awhile since I've been in one of these," Sei said, then grabbed Yumi by the wrist and pulled her in.
The icy atmosphere of the air conditioned arcade blasted Yumi in the face immediately, making her wince a little. It took her a second to adjust, and she only thought to move from in front of the automatic doors when she felt people coming in behind her.
"C'mon!" Sei shouted, flashing her a broad smile and tugging her along the closest row of game cabinets.
"How are we ever going to find them in a place like this?" Yumi asked. She looked around the expanse of rail shooters, generic dancing games, pachinko machines, and all other manner of low-brow entertainment.
The people who were standing around seemed to whip by like mere streaks as Sei pulled her; she didn't even have a chance to excuse herself when she brushed against them. It almost seemed to make time slow down in a weird way, and all she could see clearly was Sei's back, a long arm extending behind her, leading to the hand that had captured Yumi's wrist. Underneath, Sei's legs galloped in joyous abandon.
I love this woman.
Yumi furrowed her brow. The thought had come seemingly out of nowhere—but it was true. It wasn't surprising or anything. It was something that she already knew very well, but the thought had never spontaneously arisen and expressed itself quite so clearly before. Otherwise, it was a mundane feeling, it had a tone that said, "Of course." The thought didn't make her want to do anything, and it didn't make her want Sei to do anything, either.
It was almost as if she were surrendering—to what, she wasn't sure—perhaps to Sei, perhaps to the circumstances. Her mind had said: Okay, I give up. I love you.
What a strange time and place to think this, Yumi thought as she struggled to keep up.
They came to a screeching halt very suddenly near the claw machines, and when Yumi snapped out of her dreaminess she could immediately see why. Sure enough, there was Kashiwagi. He had his arm around a much shorter person, a person who was fruitlessly trying to pinch a stuffed panda between the talons of the metal crane.
"Those things are a waste of money," Sei said to them in her typical way of forgoing any attempt at introduction. "You'd have better luck playing pachinko."
Kashiwagi turned his head first, then Alice followed suit. The elder's face seemed to contort in mild surprise for a second, but he quickly recovered.
"Look carefully, Alice," he said, leaning towards her, though he was clearly speaking to Sei by proxy. "That is the face of an uncultured woman. Guard yourself properly from her influence if you don't want to end up being one of those people who throws recyclables in the regular trash and wears their outdoor shoes inside."
"Huh?" Alice said, a bit startled, but when she finally saw Sei and Yumi standing there, a strong blush rose up into her ears.
Yumi noticed with a bit of surprise that Sei seemed to be gritting her teeth, that her body was tense as if she were holding back from some kind of forward motion. She and Alice were looking each other directly in the eyes, and Sei's stare was filled with a barely-disguised violence.
Oh, Yumi thought. She looked back and forth between them. I see.
So Sei liked Alice. That's what it had been.
She thought it was a bit stupid that she hadn't realized it before. Maybe her mind had made too many assumptions and she had taken Sei's dismissive attitude at face value. Why wouldn't Sei find Alice attractive, anyway? She was basically her type—well, except for the whole "body of a man" thing. Certainly, even after realizing Alice's predicament, she couldn't just turn off the way she felt. Yumi could understand that.
The intensity between them, though—that spoke of something else. Yumi wasn't really the perceptive type, but even she could notice it. Something else had happened besides their encounter at the bar, something that had stoked the fire and frustrated them both, but Yumi could only guess what it might have been.
"Hmm, what's going on?" Kashiwagi said aloud, echoing Yumi's thoughts. He seemed to have noticed something strange as well, but otherwise he was totally confused, and Yumi wasn't sure who he was addressing when he asked. Not long after he said it, he looked over at Sei. "What a fine coincidence that we've run into each other today, Satou-san. Good afternoon." He glanced a Yumi. "Nice to see you again today, Yumi-chan." He winked at her.
Yumi couldn't help but think of how—in the grand scheme of things—Kashiwagi and Sei were actually a lot alike. Maybe that's why they seemed to hate each other's guts.
"What are you two doing here?" Sei asked, again quite rudely. Yumi could never fully get over how presumptuous she always was. No wonder everyone tended to assume that she was foreign.
Kashiwagi actually laughed. "How uncouth! We're here for the same reason as you two, I imagine? Or did you come here to find us?"
"We came because we...needed Alice-kun for something," Yumi interjected, before Sei could respond. She stepped forward, and noticed that Sei relaxed slightly beside her.
Kashiwagi raised an eyebrow. "And what, exactly, do you need her for? We're having a grand old time on our own."
"Satou-san is my English tutor," Alice said, finally speaking up. "We have lessons this evening. She was just coming to pick me up—it's nearly time."
Yumi recoiled a bit in surprise. She wondered if that was true or if Alice had made it all up on the fly. At any rate, it was an unexpected save; Alice did seem a bit uncomfortable with Kashiwagi, now that she took a good look at her.
Kashiwagi seemed to accept the excuse nonetheless. Whether this was because he believed her or because he had no intention of prodding further, Yumi wasn't sure. "I'll tell you what," he said to Sei. "Get me that panda from the claw machine, and you can take Alice-kun right away. If you can't, then I keep her for another hour."
"You want a stuffed panda that badly?" Sei asked.
"At first it was just a casual desire—but we've been trying to get it out for the past fifteen minutes, so now it's personal."
Yumi completely understood. The moment you put even a single coin in one of those machines, it usually meant a commitment of at least a few hundred yen. The closer the prize got to the exit slot, the more painful it was to quit, even if the prize itself wasn't even worth it.
Kashiwagi reached over to the console of the machine and pressed the button to release the claw, since Alice had seemed to lose interest. Everyone stared as the claw dropped down, lightly caressing the panda's rear end, as if it were coyly flirting, before rising back up the track completely empty-handed, then spreading open over the exit chute without a prize.
Yumi always thought that the way these claw machines pretended to drop invisible prizes in the end only served to mock you into angrily shoving more coins in the slot. Apparently it had worked this time, at least.
Kashiwagi stepped back, pushing Alice gently behind him. He gestured towards the machine in invitation.
Yumi noticed Sei take on a determined look just then. Before long, she was pushing past the three of them and settling in front of the machine, reaching into her pants pocket for a few coins.
It's because she's competing with Kashiwagi-san, Yumi thought. Sometimes she wondered if they secretly liked each other. She could actually almost imagine them sitting in a cafe, shooting the breeze over tea, then quickly pretending to hate each other the moment someone familiar walked by.
They were birds of a feather, after all. Yumi could even remember the first time Sei had mentioned it. They had been running around looking for Sachiko and Kashiwagi when the two had disappeared together during the rehearsals for Cinderella back in Yumi's first year of high school. As they tripped over ginkgo nuts, Sei told her that she had trusted Kashiwagi, that she had assumed he wouldn't put any moves on Sachiko because she had an instinct about him. They were the same kind of person, Sei had explained, and that's how she knew.
At the time, Yumi hadn't realized that Sei was telling her that Kashiwagi was homosexual—and that, by the way, Sei was too. It was only during the Forest of Thorns incident that she had put two and two together, and realized that Sei was...that kind of person.
Then again, Yumi had no right to think of them as "those kinds of people" anymore. It had taken her a little longer to figure it out, but after all Yumi was one of them.
"You're gripping that rather expertly, Satou-san. It's a little suspicious, considering your usual proclivities," Kashiwagi said while he watched Sei manipulating the joystick.
It took Yumi a second to realize what he was implying, but as soon as she did, she was immediately scandalized. Both she and Alice started blushing at the same time.
Sei, however, didn't miss a beat, her eyes trained on the awkwardly-placed prize in the glass chamber. "You say that, Kashiwagi," she said, omitting the honorific as was her custom with him, "but I saw the way you caressed the trigger button with your fingers. I could have sworn I saw a wave of sensual nostalgia fill your face. Was that a wistful sigh I heard, too?"
Yumi had to look away, her face burning. She just couldn't believe what they were saying, right out in the open where people could hear—those two really brought out the worst in each other.
At least my suspicions are confirmed, Yumi thought. They're obviously friends.
Somehow, this notion seemed even more distasteful to Yumi than the way they were teasing each other.
When Sei finally dropped the claw, it opened its metal fingers like a hungry mouth, enveloping the panda in its entirety. Through some apparent miracle, it grasped the bear without its usual weak touch and started to lift it towards the exit chute.
Everyone held their breath.
At the last moment, right before the toy had cleared the edge, the grip of the machine loosened. The panda suddenly slipped down to the ends of the claw, so that it was hanging only by its tiny foot.
Sei swore—in English, Yumi noted with some amusement—and pressed her face close to the glass. The claw dragged the bear slowly across the last patch of toys that blocked part of the exit. For a few seconds, the prize teetered on the edge.
Then it fell down the chute with a satisfying plop.
"Ha-ha!" Sei shouted, throwing her hands up. "On the first try, too!"
"Yes, after we had moved it closer for you," Kashiwagi grumbled.
Even so, he released Alice to Sei's custody without much of a fight, and then began to wander off to waste his money on some other machine. Before they started to leave him, though, he turned around and shot Sei one last look.
"If you're planning on starting a harem, Satou-san," he said, "then you're going about it all wrong."
She didn't seem irritated at all with what he said. Instead, she threw her arms around both Yumi's and Alice's shoulders, and replied, "Like you would know, Kashiwagi?"
It was only when they reached the car that Yumi wondered to herself why Kashiwagi hadn't seemed to mention or even imply anything about her talk with Sachiko. Maybe he had assumed it had all gone well? Perhaps he just didn't think that it was any of his business.
If that was the case, then he was right.
Sei walked over to the passenger side and pulled the door open, giving both of the girls in front of her a questioning look. Yumi, realizing what was happening, smiled to herself and gave Alice a little nudge towards the open door. Alice said nothing, but she was blushing furiously as she obediently sat down.
Those two need to work something out between them, Yumi thought—though of course, she doubted that they would do so in front of her. She was more curious about how they would behave when they were side-by-side and couldn't escape each other. After all, with the exception of the festival play a few years before, which didn't count because they were totally unaware that the other existed, she had never even seen them in the same place together until now.
Sei's driving was oddly subdued as she sped down the street. She was still taking unnecessary risks, in Yumi's opinion, but there was a slight bit of deliberate tension when she would flip on her turning signal or when she'd come to a stop at a light. It was almost as if her mind was on something else, so her body was trying to compensate by being a bit more cautious automatically.
She had grown a bit more quiet, too.
"So," Yumi said suddenly, from the back seat.
Alice jumped at little at the sudden break in the silence.
"Where are we going now, Sei-sama?" Yumi finished asking, placing a comforting hand on Alice's shoulder.
Sei flashed Yumi one of her mysterious smiles through the rear-view mirror. "We're going somewhere to celebrate Yumi-chan's liberation."
"Liberation?" Yumi asked, completely bewildered. "From what?"
"From the thorny vines of love, of course."
"Wow, what a beautiful landscape," Alice whispered in awe. The garden spread out before the three of them, and it indeed looked impressive on this early spring evening. The buds of future flowers were just starting to emerge, and Yumi noticed what looked like a hedge of roses that she couldn't remember seeing the last time she had come. The last time, it was because…
Yes, that's right. Yumi could remember it now. She had a nasty habit of somehow only showing up at Katou Kei's place whenever she was having a spat with her Onee-sama. True that this time, it wasn't exactly a spat—just a sad realization—but it still wasn't exactly fair to keep offering Katou-san her worst self, was it? Didn't she deserve better?
When they wandered through the front gate, Sei turned to the both of them. "Yumiko-san is familiar with my face by now, since I'm always over here, and I'm sure she remembers cute little Yumi-chan." Sei gave her a smile that filled Yumi's chest with a warm sensation—quite against her will.
Then Sei turned to Alice. "The landlady here doesn't allow men," Sei explained to her. She studied Alice for a moment, raking her eyes up and down her body and scratching her chin. "I think you'll pass as female, though. Your clothes are androgynous enough today, and your face is downright feminine as usual. Truth be told, Yumiko-san probably thought I was a boy when she first saw me, anyway."
Yumi could see that. Back then was around the time when Sei first started wearing her hair very short, along with casual clothes, since she no longer was required to wear the Lillian uniform. Combined with her rather handsome features, Yumiko-san might have had reservations when watching from far away.
"So I'll head over and ask permission," Sei said. "You two wait here. If she wants to talk to you, just bow and play along with the usual pleasantries. Once she hears your voice, she'll know for sure that you're a girl."
Yumi watched as Sei headed towards the main building of the grounds. She'll know for sure that you're a girl, Yumi repeated in her mind. She found it interesting that Sei had said that Yumiko-san would know that Alice was a girl, not that she would think that Alice was a girl. The distinction was subtle, but it was important.
Even if Sei had no intention of acting on the feelings she obviously had, Yumi couldn't help but feel happy that Alice at least seemed to have a friend who was understanding. It would have been easy for Sei to dismiss Alice's claims that she was a girl, to wave it away like many people did and insist that it was all in her head.
That casual generosity, that quiet acknowledgement of other people's true selves—the kind that was never offered with any expectations—was precisely one of the things she liked most about Sei. It also made her annoyingly perceptive, though, even when you were trying to keep something from her.
When Sei showed up again, it seemed that formal introductions weren't necessary. Yumi looked over and saw that the old landlady Yumiko-san was peaking at her from between her white curtains. Yumi bowed as usual, and the woman smiled at her, then disappeared.
Sei led the two of them through the path in the garden and up to Katou Kei's door. Suddenly, Yumi realized something.
"Sei-sama," she said. "I don't remember seeing you give Katou-san a call earlier about visiting her. Did you guys already have plans? Are we intruding?"
"You're not intruding."
"Were you guys planning on meeting today?" Yumi repeated, getting increasingly suspicious that Sei was just dropping in without notice.
"No," Sei said. "But I figure she's here. She's probably done with that soup by now."
Yumi's eyes widened. "That's right!" she said. "I forgot all about that."
They had left the university cafeteria in such a hurry, that she remembered Sei hadn't even cleaned up her plate. It hadn't been a big deal at the time, because the assumption was that they would be returning in a few minutes, but after Yumi had told Sei about Kashiwagi, they had unthinkingly raced to Alice's rescue.
How inconsiderate! Yumi thought. She covered her face with her hands as she imagined Katou-san grudgingly cleaning up Satou Sei-sama's mess. Worst of all, it had all been Yumi's fault! She had been so distracted by what happened with her onee-sama, that she couldn't even remember if she had properly greeted Katou-san.
"Relax, Yumi-chan," Sei said, and she threw her a knowing glance. She had obviously been reading Yumi's varied expressions. "It'll be all right. Katou-san isn't the type to hold grudges about this kind of thing."
"She seems to hold plenty of grudges against you," Yumi mumbled.
Sei grinned. "That's because I deserve them."
She knocked on the thin door and before long, it creaked open. Katou Kei immediately gave Sei an irritated glare, then looked curiously over at Yumi and Alice.
"Fukuzawa-san," Katou-san said, ignoring Sei completely, "who's your friend? She's cute."
Alice blushed and offered a meek little bow, a gesture that somehow came off as a curtsy.
Sei smirked at her, then turned to Katou-san. "This is Alice," she said. Katou-san didn't comment on the lack of a family name, and simply let them all inside.
Before long, they were seated at the low table, while Sei was over by the small kitchenette, setting up the tea. Yumi imagined Sei was serving them all, instead of the host, as a silent way of apologizing.
Or maybe it was just in line with her natural tendency to help herself, instead of just asking for what she wanted.
Sei brought the tray of tea over and poured the drinks. When it was Alice's turn, they both would not look at each other. Sei pushed the cup towards Alice, and their fingers brushed momentarily. It was only then that Sei locked her in a brief gaze, and Alice's breath seemed to hitch subtly.
It was something most people wouldn't have noticed—but Yumi was watching very carefully. When she looked up at Katou Kei, she realized that she had been observing them, too.
"There's something you're not telling me, Satou," Katou-san said, looking over at Sei.
"Hm?" Sei murmured with obviously feigned disinterest, holding her teacup with one hand and bringing it to her mouth.
Katou-san glanced at Alice. "Is this your girlfriend or something?" she asked bluntly.
Yumi nearly choked on her tea when she heard that, sputtering and coughing, as much as she tried to suppress it. Immediately, it caused a chain reaction, Sei also nearly choking on her tea—but with laughter.
"Look, your rude behavior is rubbing off on your kohai now," Katou-san said to Sei, but she was smiling pleasantly and she waved off Yumi's numerous apologies. Alice simply looked on in amusement.
Once she was sufficiently recovered, Sei shook her head. "No, no. Alice is a...former school friend of Yumi-chan's, you could say."
"Oh, from Lillian Academy?" Katou-san looked at the three of them, obviously a bit annoyed that everyone else had the air of knowing something that she didn't.
"But Alice is friends with Sei-sama, too," Yumi couldn't help but chime in, "even though they just met recently. We rescued her from a creepy senpai today."
"Wouldn't that be you, though?" Katou-san said, turning to Sei.
Sei only smiled in return. "None of that's important," she said. "The only thing that matters is that yet another one has joined the ranks of us free people! Hurrah!" She held up her teacup as if she were giving a toast.
"Who, Alice-san?" Katou-san asked.
"Why, no, Yumi-chan has awoken from love's spell today. You could say she was like sleeping beauty."
Yumi groaned in embarrassment. "Sei-sama, I don't need the whole world to know about—"
"Did a prince on a white horse come to deliver true love's kiss, then?" Katou-san asked over Yumi's loud complaints.
Sei started to laugh, glancing at Yumi meaningfully. "Not a prince, and not true love—but an important kiss nonetheless."
Then Sei said nothing more. Not because there was nothing else to say, but because Yumi had pressed both hands to her mouth and shrieked for her to stop.
Even as she sat there, though, silencing her senpai and hearing Katou-san and Alice giggling at her embarrassment in the background, she couldn't help but feel a swell of gratitude growing inside of her chest.
What only one or two years ago would have been the worst thing imaginable—something absolutely devastating—had just happened to Yumi that day. Yet, she was surprisingly fine. Yes, she had cried initially, and, yes, she was still a bit depressed about it all, but she had recovered quickly and Sei hadn't allowed her even a minute to feel sorry for herself. Perhaps Yumi was a stronger person than she had initially given herself credit for.
Or perhaps that was simply the magic of Satou Sei.
Cars wooshed by, giving off a pleasant and repetitive sound that made Sei a bit sleepy. In truth, she had been in a daze almost all day, preoccupied with the two troublesome girls that she hadn't seemed to be able to escape from lately.
The silence in the car enhanced the mood. Neither Yumi nor Alice spoke to her, only whispering amongst themselves every once in awhile, and before long Yumi had settled in the back and taken to staring out the window. It was dark, but whenever they passed by a streetlight, Sei could glance in the rear-view mirror and see that Yumi was still wide awake. Sometimes their gazes would meet for a brief moment.
When they made it to the Arisugawa house, it was already a bit past the time when their tutoring sessions were meant to end.
"You can just tell your mother that we decided to do your lessons at the library," Sei suggested, as she parked a few meters away from the entrance to let Alice out inconspicuously.
"No, that's fine," Alice said. "Mother's not going to be home until later tonight, and Father works at the office until pretty late. I doubt they'll notice I was even gone."
Sei only nodded. Alice seemed to take that as her sign to go, fiddling with the passenger door handle a little too long, casting a few furtive glances at Sei.
Something else was on her mind, clearly, Sei thought. She didn't ask about it, though, and simply watched her as she struggled to say something.
"Th-thank you, Satou-san," Alice said finally. "Thank you for everything. It was actually really awkward being with Kashiwagi-san today. You really saved me." She looked behind her towards the back seat. "You, too, Yumi-san. Thank you both very much."
As she was getting out, Sei followed her with her eyes. She couldn't help but look at the girl: at the way her thin clothes clung to her form as the wind blew against her when she stepped out, at the way her short, messy curls bounced along the sides of her face.
Sei felt a finger poking her in the side, bursting her out of her thoughts—or, rather, lack of thoughts.
"If you're done checking out Alice, why don't you walk her to her front door and make sure she gets in fine?" It was Yumi, whispering from the back of the car.
What a silly thing to say, Sei thought. Of course Alice would get in just fine. It was her own house, wasn't it?
But obviously that's not what Yumi had meant. What she had meant was: "If I were Alice, I would want you to walk me to my door."
And so Sei, who usually didn't pick up on these kinds of things, had to rely on a normal girl like Yumi to point out the kinds of normal things that normal girls like Alice liked. She got out of the car as well and joined Alice on the small patch of sidewalk that led to the gate.
"Why were you with Kashiwagi, anyway?" Sei asked her.
Alice shrugged and only offered a sheepish look—aimed at the ground—while she punched in a code on the keypad under the gate's intercom. The gates gave a rusty sigh as they opened, just as Sei had remembered from the first time, and they both stepped through to the other side.
"To be honest," Alice finally admitted, as they trudged through the garden and towards the front door, "I had no one else to talk to about...things. You know which things. So I called him up." She looked a bit embarrassed. "It was a bad idea, though. He immediately acted like he was taking me out on a date, and it made me really uncomfortable, especially since I know he doesn't even like girls."
"He likes them a little bit," Sei said, and she looked back towards the direction of the car, towards Yumi, but she couldn't see her past the tall hedges of the garden. "You're right, though. He doesn't like them enough for that."
Alice sighed. "If I dress as a boy, I attract the wrong kinds of people, people who aren't interested in who I really am," she said, her voice wavering a bit. "Sometimes I even manage to attract girls, which is what I want, but they don't see the real me. I feel like I'm lying to them if I try to act like a boy. But if I dress like a girl, then they won't even notice me—unless, well, they're people like you...and Yumi-san." She said that last part quietly, as if she were unsure. Sei was a bit surprised that she had noticed Yumi's tastes so easily. Perhaps it was a sixth sense, the same as how Sei had felt herself when she first saw Kashiwagi.
"But even with you, look what happened," Alice continued. "You saw who I was on the inside, but then you were surprised by my body. It's like I can't win no matter what I do. I didn't mean to repulse you, but I guess it was inevitable."
Sei looked at her with some annoyance. "You didn't repulse me, Alice," she said. "It was just...a breakdown in communication. It's like when you overhear someone and think they're speaking Japanese for a split second, but soon enough you realize that they were actually speaking Spanish. It just surprises you, that's all. It throws you off for a moment." Sei smiled. "Especially if you thought you heard them say a rude word, like mank—"
"Either way, I'm sorry for bringing so much trouble to the two of you today," Alice gently interrupted. "If there's anything I can do to repay you, just let me know."
"Forget about it," Sei said casually, then began to turn to leave. After a second, though, she stopped. She looked at Alice. "Maybe there is something."
"Something?"
"Something you can repay me with," Sei said. She knew that she was having yet another crazy thought, but she had been following through on those impulses lately, and even if they hadn't always worked out, they had led in interesting directions.
At any rate, she wanted to know. She just wanted to know for sure. And if it turned out that she had been wrong about Alice, then she could stop agonizing over it.
Alice smiled and took a short step towards Sei. "Like I said, I'll repay you with anything you want. How can I be of service?"
"You don't need to be of service," Sei said, waving her hand dismissively. She looked directly at Alice's face in the dim light of the garden lanterns. "But you can repay me with a kiss."
"Huh?" Alice seemed taken aback, as she often did. This time she seemed at a loss for words as well.
"On the mouth," Sei elaborated, as if Alice hadn't figured it out already—though she probably had.
"Um…," Alice stuttered. At first it seemed to Sei that she was struggling to find a way to ask Sei why she would make such a request, to satisfy her confusion. But after a moment, the expression on her face settled, and she looked into Sei's eyes with a matching intensity. "All right," she said.
Sei took Alice's chin in her hand and tipped her face up towards her. She bent down, even as she felt Alice stretching up to meet her.
Lightly, their lips met. It was a chaste kiss, the kind that Sei imagined people had all the time in the deserted corners of the darker stairwells at Lillian Academy; the kind that she had snuck herself with a few underclassmen here and there.
It was nothing like their first kiss had been. No desperate sighs, no deep explorations. However, when she pulled back, her lips were a little more moist than they had been before. She could still feel the kiss even after they had separated, even as they stood there and stared at each other. It felt like the lingering tingle of electrical static, and somehow it made her heart pound hard in her chest.
She noticed then that Alice was also breathing heavily.
Well damn, Sei thought to herself.
It would be stupid to pretend that she wasn't attracted to her now. Yes, she had hoped that she was wrong. It was a risk to feel this way, no doubt. Not only because of Sei's past, but because of Alice's present and future. It was just so plainly, obviously inconvenient to feel this way.
And yet there it was.
"All right," Sei said to Alice after she had composed herself a bit. "Guess I'll see you later, then. Thanks for the kiss."
Alice, not quite back to her normal self yet, smiled bashfully. "Is this how you get all the girls to repay you when they owe you a favor?" she asked.
Sei reached over and tousled her hair. "Only the cute ones," she said.
She started to walk down the path back to the entrance, and nearly tripped over a few rocks as she glanced back at Alice. Alice didn't seem to notice, though, and merely waved to Sei shyly as she passed through the still open gates.
When Sei reached the car, Yumi was nowhere in sight. She peered through the window at the passenger seat and the backseat just to be sure, then she set off along the sidewalk, sweeping her gaze left and right along the path.
"Yumi-chan?" she called, a bit of panic coming over her. "Yumi-chan, where did you go?"
Soon enough, though, she found her not far from the Arisugawa home, on the other side of the block. She was leaning against the outer wall of the barrier to the house, looking up towards the stars.
"Yumi-chan," Sei said, still breathless—from the slight bit of worry or from the kiss, she wasn't sure. "What are you doing out here?"
Yumi seemed a bit out of breath, too. A tinge of pink was coloring her cheeks, but Sei wasn't totally sure what it meant.
She decided to assume anyway: "I see. So you were watching us," she said.
Yumi nodded, and Sei was a bit surprised at how freely she admitted it. "Then I saw you coming, though, and I thought if I tried to quickly get back into the car, then you'd definitely catch me. So I ran around the corner and tried to play it off like I was just taking a short walk."
Sei burst out in fits of laughter. "You're not really 'playing it off' if you say all of that, Yumi-chan."
"That's why I said I tried to play it off. Obviously it didn't work."
After they both had a chuckle and started walking back towards the car, Sei threw an arm around Yumi's shoulders. "You seem to like spying on me when I'm canoodling with other girls, hm? I remember that time I was with Kanina Shizuka when you hid in the bushes. Are you that jealous?"
Yumi huffed. "You wish. Shizuka-sama and Alice-kun can fight over you all they want."
"Ah, Yumi-chan, it's like an arrow to my heart every time I hear you say such things," Sei said in mock hurt. "Why can't you be jealous for once?"
And then, Yumi stopped abruptly and turned to face her. Thrown off balance from the sudden shift in weight, Sei skidded to a halt, looking at her curiously.
"Because," Yumi said after a moment, "I already have you, Sei-sama."
Sei raised her eyebrows, and she pulled her head back in surprise. She was a little shocked at Yumi's frankness. She had never said something quite like that before, even if it was true.
Yes, it's true, Sei said to herself. She hadn't really given it much thought until that moment; her connection with Yumi was often an unspoken thing these days.
But yes, indeed, it was true. Yumi already had Sei. They already had a deep bond that could not be severed by outside forces—even by other women—so what more could she possibly want? A typical relationship? Even if Yumi by some chance wanted that with her, they both knew that Sei was the aloof type. What's more, not only was she absolutely not monogamous, but she wasn't at all discreet about her philandering, either.
God, I'd make a terrible girlfriend, Sei thought. At least in the typical sense of the word.
But Sei wasn't a typical kind of person, either, and if anything Yumi seemed to appreciate that. For a moment, Sei couldn't help but feel extremely lucky, extremely grateful that she had met this short little spaz in high school.
She took Yumi's face between two palms and grinned at her. "You have me, Yumi-chan," she said, allowing herself a rare moment of sincerity for once.
Yumi closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to Sei's left hand, wrapping her arms around her waist. They were so absorbed in their two-person bubble that they didn't even notice the woman in the overcoat who was coming down the street until she roughly brushed past them. She had come so close that they were both thrown off and had to step aside to accommodate her.
Sei recognized the woman, and opened her mouth to say something, but by then the lady had disappeared quickly around the corner. She had seemed to speed up as soon as she came upon them.
"Who was that?" Yumi whispered, following Sei's gaze, apparently noticing the recognition.
Sei let out an amused breath through her nose. "That was Alice's mother."
A/N:
Hello again!
Thanks for reading, and all of your lovely reviews. Indeed, I was going for "something" when I wrote this, haha. Once the weird idea popped into my mind, I couldn't resist. Glad it's managed to pique some people's interest!
I think at this point it would be good to make a quick note: This chapter (and the one before it) makes some mild references to scenes in the Maria-sama ga Miteru novels that were trimmed a bit from the anime. Mainly, it was Sei's more open discussion with Yumi about Kashiwagi's sexuality (and her own), as well as Yumi's inner monologue during her kiss with Sei in the classroom.
If you have the time, I totally recommend reading some of the novels; they're hilarious and shed a lot of light on the characters. Sei is also even more of a cheeky bastard than she is in the anime!
Anyway, new chapter coming...soon or something. Gotta get some work done first. :P