The Love Letter Lovelies
by Glee-chan
07.
That whole night Makoto thought about Kaede. When they parted ways after school, she could tell Kaede was still upset about the Love Letter Lovelies. No amount of kissing had changed her mind in that arena. Still, to be so insecure as to ask Makoto to her house really worried her. Kaede seemed so strong in other areas, but when it came to this sort of thing she seemed just like any other girl. She had insecurities.
The next morning Makoto decided she would be extra nice to Kaede, not that she wasn't before. She didn't want the girl to think that she was interested in anyone else but her. But all the plots and schemes she came up with that night left her brain when she opened her shoe locker and once again Izumi's envelope plopped into her hands. Lowering her eyebrows, she was about to tear it up, but something stopped her.
If I show this to Kaede, it might take her mind off those other girls and maybe she'll feel better once she has the task of protecting me.
It was a lame idea, but Makoto wanted their young romance to go back to how it was before. So she took the letter up with her to Class 1-3. As usual, she arrived before Kaede, so she made small talk with Noboyuki. Maria was present, but Makoto didn't want Kaede to walk in the room and see her chatting it up with another girl. All thoughts of Izumi and the jealousy situation left Makoto however when Kaede walked into the classroom wearing a headband that had plush cat-ears on it.
"Aw!" Makoto squealed and ran over to her before she reached the desk. "You are SO cute!"
Kaede had her small Kaede-smile on as she reached up and poked on of the ears on her head. "I found this in my closet. Last year at the culture festival my class did a Neko-Cafe and the girls wore these ears."
Makoto just wanted to squish her right there, but they were in the middle of class. Reaching their desks again, Kaede took the headband off her head, then promptly placed it on Makoto's. Her eyes sparkled when she looked at her. The small chuckle she made when she laughed came out from her mouth.
"You just wanted to see me with the ears, huh?" Makoto asked, looking up as if she could see the top of her head.
"Yes." Kaede nodded. "As expected, you're completely adorable."
Makoto giggled, but she noticed Kaede's eyes drift from Makoto's head to her desk. She spotted the envelop and some of the sparkle left her eyes. Not stopping her, Kaede reached to the envelop and opened it up herself. She read it, then handed it to Makoto soundlessly. Makoto read the letter, now angry at herself for bringing the stupid thing up to the class in the first place.
"I want to apologize properly. Can you meet me after school at the Sakura Tree in the courtyard?" Makoto read out loud.
Noboyuki was eavesdropping as usual. "Don't go."
"You think I would?" Makoto pouted.
Kaede looked at the letter again, then glanced to where Izumi's new seat was. She was watching them read her letter. "If I come with you, it should be alright."
Makoto looked at Kaede, feeling slightly ruffled. "Why should I go and listen to her apology?"
"Because you're a good person." Kaede looked at Makoto and gave a solemn nod. "If I'm there she wouldn't try anything. You can at least listen to her."
Sighing Makoto felt obligated now. She didn't want Kaede to think she was a bad person for not having the slightest interest in hearing an apology from the mousy girl. She gave a sad nod of agreement.
"Forget about that." Maria suddenly broke the mood, apparently Nobuyki wasn't the only one eavesdropping. "I REALLY want a picture of you in those cat-ears."
Makoto glanced at Kaede, expecting her to swing her shinai at Maria. But Kaede was already pulling out her mobile, that gleam returning back to her eye. "Me too."
"Wha-" Makoto suddenly felt silly. "No way!"
Maria had her phone out as well. "C'mon, do a few poses for us!"
Kaede pulled her fists up to her face in a cat paw like pose. "Do something like this."
Laughing a bit, Makoto shrugged. At least the cat-ears made Kaede happy again. She took a cute pose, and gave a meow sound. Both Maria's and Kaede's phone flashed a photo. Makoto changed the pose up a bit, sticking her butt and acted more cat-like. They took more photos. This went on a few more times, until both of the girl's faces went white and they stopped taking pictures. Turning around Makoto already knew what to expect. Hayashi-sensei was looking at her, shaking his head.
"You know, I come to school every morning wondering what new thing I'll discover you doing. You never fail to disappoint me, Akiyama."
"Sorry Sensei." Makoto reached up to pull off the ears, but he stopped her.
"Oh no. You're keeping those on, Princess. For the rest of the day you have to wear those, as punishment."
"B-But… the other teachers…"
"Wouldn't it be grand if you had to explain to them individually why you're wearing those? Punishment. As for you two," He was now looking at Kaede and Maria. "Give me your phones. You can have them back at the end of the day."
"Oh no fair!" Maria complained.
"You know the school's policy about using phones in class."
"But class hasn't started yet." Maria tried to argue.
"It starts as soon as I enter the room, and if I recall I was greeted by camera flashes shooting directly into my eye." Hayashi-sensei took her phone then reached for Kaede's. She handed it over to him. "Meet me at the teachers lounge after school and you can have them back."
"I apologize Sensei." Kaede bowed.
"Yeah… whatever." Maria glowered.
Despite wearing cat-ears, the rest of the day was relatively dull. At lunch they had talked a little bit about meeting Izumi after school, but that was barely interesting. Kaede seemed more interested in quietly watching Makoto's head, as the ears seemed to bobble slightly every time she moved. Her cheeks seemed to be in a permanent state of pinkness. Makoto couldn't help but enjoy Kaede admiring her like that and allowed lunch to go by with hardly a word being spoken.
The end of the day, Makoto decided to go with Kaede and Maria to the teacher's lounge before she went to confront Izumi. As they exited the office with their phones, both checked them for messages as they started to walk silently towards the shoe lockers. When they reached the stairs leading to the down to the lockers, Kaede stopped. A shadow went over her face.
"What's wrong?" Maria asked. Even she noticed it.
"I can't come with you to Izumi's apology." Kaede said darkly. "Something's come up."
Makoto's stomach felt uneasy now. "What? What's happened."
"I-" Kaede looked at Makoto, noticed Maria still hanging about, then stopped herself. "I'll explain everything later."
"Kaede-chan?" Makoto didn't like how cryptic she was being.
"I apologize for my behavior, Mako-chan. But I have to go. Fukui-san… I would be most appreciative if you took my place today."
Makoto saw the pain in her eyes on having to say that. Whatever that came up must have been really important. Maria agreed and in an instant the kendo-girl was down the stairs before them and was gone. She was actually running. Makoto looked at Maria, feeling worried. Just what was going on with Kaede?
"Well… that was dramatic." Maria tried to lighten the mood as they reached the shoe lockers. "Even I'm curious."
As they changed shoes, somewhere along the line Maria roped Yui into joining their group. Makoto felt slightly better at this arrangement. The walk to the Sakura Tree wasn't that far from the school entrance was so it took them little time to arrive at the arranged meeting place. Izumi was already standing by the tree waiting for them, holding what looked to be a cake box in her hand. When they arrived she looked even more mousy than ever at seeing a group accompany Makoto.
"Y-You brought f-friends?"
"After what you said in your letters, I didn't want to come alone." Makoto spoke in a cool voice, trying to imitate Kaede.
"I w-w-would never hurt y-you." Izumi's eyes shot to the box she was holding. "P-Please don't be f-frightened of me."
Feeling uncomfortable Makoto waited. But Izumi didn't say anything, she just whimpered pathetically, shaking like a leaf as she held the box. Seizing the opportunity to get her so say her piece, Makoto gestured towards the box. "What's that?"
"It's… It's proof. P-Proof of how serious I am when I a-a-a-apologize." Izumi spoke in a small voice. Her arms reached out and offered the box to Makoto. "T-Take it."
She did and tentatively opened it after Izumi gave her a nod of permission. Inside the box were two items, and Makoto couldn't make heads or tails of them. One item was a cylindrical wooden stick, with the top rounded off in a smooth oval. The overall size of the stick was around a foot and it's thickness was about as broad as a hefty broom handle, which Makoto suspected that it was. It looked normal other than it was sawed off at one end and there was this rusty colored spill that had dried and stained the top. The other item was less confusing. It was a small neckless that held what looked like a red glass pendent. But on looking at the pendent, it look more like a vile with some kind of liquid inside.
"I don't get it."
"L-Last night… I g-gave up something v-very precious." Izumi's eyes looked slightly wild now. She pulled out her smart phone and started a slide show.
Yui immediately gagged and stepped back. Makoto would have done so as well if Maria wasn't holding her shoulder. The images being shown were frankly disturbing. The stain on the broom handle was blood, but not just any kind of blood. Izumi had deflowered herself with the broom stick. The images showed every step of the process in graphic detail. Almost in all of them she was grinning manically. When they got to images of Izumi filling the vile on the neckless with her maiden's blood, Yui literally started dry heaving on the spot, bending over and coughing. Makoto was frozen in the spot in fear.
"I did all of this for you Mako-chan." Izumi said, ignorant of the disgust on all of their faces. She wasn't stammering anymore. It was as if she got pleasure at them looking at those photos. "You can see how much I love you now."
"Y-You're sick." Yui shouted. Makoto was inclined to agree but she was too busy trembling.
"None of you will ever love her as much as I do." Izumi went on. "Ask me to do anything and I'll do it."
"Kato-san, enough!" Maria stepped from behind Makoto and took the box away. "Can't you see you're scaring her?"
Izumi ignored her and pulled a box cutter from her pocket. "I'll prove my love right now!"
The blade from the cutter came out and she raised her left wrist. She was going to cut herself right then and there. Acting out of pure instinct, Makoto pulled Izumi's right hand away, then tried to grab the box cutter from her grip. "Stop it!"
"I'm going to do it for you, Mako-chan." Izumi fought to free her wrist. In the process the blade lightly sliced the palm of Makoto's hand.
Recoiling, Makoto cradled the cut hand. It wasn't a deep cut, but it hurt like hell and drew blood. Izumi stared at Makoto with a sadistic ecstasy. She raised her left wrist again and made another attempt to cut herself. Out of no where Maria's fist planted itself into the side of Izumi's face. The punch was such that the smaller girl finally dropped the box cutter. A coughing Yui ran over and grabbed the weapon.
Maria went to Makoto's side after the punch to see if the cut was serious. But Izumi stumbled back up holding the side of her face. "If you fucking touch her again I swear to God I'll kill you."
"Listen to yourself! You're the one who hurt her! You're a sick freak. She'll never love you." Maria shouted back at her.
Izumi stepped forward, but Makoto's body automatically jumped slightly when she approached. She didn't intend to, but she was still frightened. "Just leave me alone!"
The small girl stopped walking forward. It was as if Makoto's statement broke her wild trance. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go that far Mako-chan."
"You're not allowed to say her name after what you did." Maria snarled at her.
"Mako-chan…" Izumi reach out for her, but again Makoto's body acted on it's own, and she clung onto Maria. Izumi broke out into tears. "I see. My virginity isn't good enough for you. What more can I do? Tell me! I'll do anything."
"What's going on here?" A teacher came running up. Apparently someone in the courtyard had seen the action and reported it.
Yui blustered out a quick explanation and handed him the box cutter. After understanding the situation, he took the box, the box cutter, and Izumi with him back into the school. The next day they would find out that she had been expelled. For the time being, both Yui and Maria took Makoto to the nurses office so they could wrap up her hand. In the process both took turns trying to calm her down.
"Hey. Give me your number." Maria said, after they were ready to leave school.
"Huh? Why?" Makoto blurted out a bit rudely.
"This morning I got a cute picture of Ozawa-san with those cat ears." Maria explained and pulled off the ears Makoto had forgotten she was still wearing. "You want it?"
"Oh." Makoto felt a bit perked up after hearing that. "Yes, I'd like that."
