Voices of the Present

Family Obligations
Part II

Thursday, Dec 7, late afternoon

I won't scream, I won't scream…

The situation could not have been more surreal. It was like something out of one of those books which took place in some untamed wild period in the distant past.

Hitomi's eyes and face above Chiyo portrayed passion like she had never seen in her twelve years of life. Just as one emotion seemed to take hold, another would take its place.

Her senpai's free hand ran softly down her cheek. She became acutely aware just then of the smell of the older girl's breath.

Chocolate, no doubt lingering from the girl's dessert from lunch.

Chiyo's determination for restraint became sorely tempted as she felt the throat guard pulled aside and that free hand traced the curve of her chin, descending then into fingers caressing the soft skin of her throat.

Caressing?

She shivered despite herself. Although it was due to her growing fear more than any reciprocation of Hitomi's feelings, she'd later wonder if her response had played into what happened next.

Because it was then that Hitomi's new intentions became clear and Chiyo's resolve not to scream evaporated. Hiromi's hand jumped down from Chiyo's exposed neck to slip under her breastplate and snake her way to the lightly covered soft flesh beneath.

Chiyo drew in a breath, but any sound was arrested by Hitomi's lips descending to meet Chiyo's own in what was her very first kiss. The potential romantic ramifications of the event didn't register for her until later that day, however, as in that moment she feared far worse was about to happen despite her assailant's gender. Neither she nor her attacker had closed their eyes and, while she had little experience with such things, the look of unrestrained lust was obvious even to someone as innocent as Chiyo.

She could feel the hand roughly kneading her small breast beneath the breastplate, although for now still covered by the clothing she wore to, among other things, prevent chaffing. Hitomi's tongue traced along the inside of her lips and Chiyo found herself having to decide whether she'd bite it when it tried to slip between her teeth. Before she had to make such terrible decisions, however…

"Hitomi!"

The voice screaming into the room echoed off the walls and the girl thus called blinked. Her eyes seemed to come to themselves again and the look of lust was replaced by one of shock, then horror.

Chiyo felt the hand that had been struggling to hold more and more territory in the confined space between her clothes and her protective breastplate withdraw and, as quickly as the volatile girl had come onto her, Hitomi jumped back onto her hands and knees above her kohai.

"Chi…yo…"

The younger girl didn't wait to see whether Hitomi's confusion lasted or to discover who the unexpected third party was now in the room. She jumped back, grabbing her shinai in her hand again, and stood in a defensive crouch. Only then did she take further inventory of her surroundings.

She watched as Miator Secretary Kano Mizuho descended on her roommate and pulled the now stricken looking woman into her arms. Within moments, Hitomi collapsed into a blathering heap of confused emotion.

It was almost surreal watching the girl who had been close to raping her now crying pathetically and repeating "I'm sorry" over and over again even as one of her hands possessively embraced the new girl to her body and the other hand hungrily grasped one of Kano-san's breasts, seemingly trying to force her way directly through the fabric of the uniform blouse covering it.

Chiyo was further confused as Kano-san, her right hand stroking Hitomi's short hair in a clear effort at reassurance, looked up at her kohai with apologetic eyes and sadly mouthed "Forgive her" before she turned her attentions entirely to the freakishly erratic girl in her arms.

It was only then that Chiyo became aware of a fourth presence in the room.

"Unless you wish to lose what little remains of your innocence, Tsukidate-san, we should leave them now," Sister Hamasaka said tersely from across the room, still standing at the entrance to the dōjō where she and Kano-san had recently made their miraculous entrance.

Realizing where Kano-san's efforts to divest the Miator Vice President of her protective bōgu were leading, Chiyo broke off her stare and made her way quickly out of the room and the bizarre events that had filled perhaps no more than the last five minutes of her life, although it felt like she had aged five years in that time.

She didn't stop once she was out of the room. Tossing aside her shinai and her protective kote gloves as she went, she kept running through the halls of Miator, down the manicured paths outside, and to the reassuring confines of Strawberry Hall.

She knew she must have presented quite a scene to those who saw her, but she didn't care.

She kept running until she reached her room, blessedly devoid of her roommate at the moment, and shut the door securely behind her. It was only then that she allowed herself the tears which had been buried beneath her shock as Hitomi had had her way with her in the dōjō.

Her back was against the door and she slowly slid down the barrier to the hall outside until her bottom hit the floor, her hakama-covered knees pulled up against her as much as her protective clothing would allow. She wasn't sure how long she sat there feeling sorry for herself before a knock sounded on the door behind her.

"Go away!" Chiyo cried, uncharacteristically terse.

"It's Sister Hamasaka. I assumed you'd rather not return to Miator, so I have brought you your clothes. That is, unless you wish to wear your current garments for the rest of the day?"

The practical words brought Chiyo up short and she came to herself enough to realize how much she really did need to get out of the bulky clothes still encumbering her. She also knew she had at least three bruises to attend to. And those were just the ones that could be seen…

Slowly she rose and stepped away from the door. Before inviting the senior nun into her room, she walked over to a drawer and pulled out one of her many neatly folded handkerchiefs. She wiped her face down carefully and then blew her nose, clearing it for the first time since the start of practice. It made her feel better. Not like a hot shower would, but certainly enough for now.

When she felt even remotely presentable, she crossed back to the door and opened it, motioning the infamous Strawberry Hall disciplinarian into the room before closing it again.

Sister Hamasaka did, indeed, hold Chiyo's folded Miator uniform in her hands. "I'm assuming after the recent events that you'd like to change in the bathroom, Tsukidate-san." She paused a moment as Chiyo looked away, flushing, and nodded. "That's perfectly understandable. If I may, however, offer to help you out of your breastplate and tare? It's easier with help and I believe from your movements that you have been injured?"

Chiyo just nodded again in general assent. She turned silently to allow the seemingly ancient woman access to the fasteners. She appreciated the Sister's careful manner and the offending garments quickly fell into the older woman's hands, and just as quickly found themselves on her bed. She then accepted her uniform from the Sister and made her way to the door of her bathroom.

"If you would like, Tsukidate-san, you may take a quick shower. If you don't mind me taking a seat on your bed, I am perfectly willing to wait while you tend to your body. After that we can discuss attending to everything else."

Chiyo wasn't sure she was ready to 'attend to everything else', but she had already determined Sister Hamasaka understood far more about what had just happened than did Chiyo, and the young girl's curiosity was greater than her outrage at her treatment by her Vice President.

If such treatment had gone any longer, though…

Chiyo shivered again in fear and fled into her bathroom to cover the reflex.

In the refuge of the closed room, Chiyo was able to take inventory of her wounds. Despite the protection of her tare, the first blow to her hip was still bruising. It was relatively faint, though, and while it was sore it lacked the throbbing pain coming from the ugly, purplish lump that was forming on her thigh where Togi-senpai's blunt shinai had slashed onto skin protected only by her relatively thin hakama.

Finally, the back of her right hand, her dominant hand, was bruising as well. She already could tell that injury was likely to be the most vexing for her. Although thankfully the kote had done its job and nothing was broken, Hitomi obviously hadn't held back when she knocked the shinai out of her hands. Chiyo was academically at the top of her class and used her hands a lot, her right hand predominately. She was going to feel this bruise easily through the weekend while studying for coming term exams.

Well, there's nothing to be done for it. Nothing permanent, other than my pride and I don't have much of that anyway. Not with my well-earned reputation for being Miator's pet absentminded klutz.

She reached around the toilet to grab some tissue and blew her nose again. After dropping the spent paper in the water she took a quick look in the mirror to check on the state of the abused organ which had been the avenue to drain her tears for the past hour. Other than some redness, everything on her face looked fine. Further down, though, she noted something which surprised her.

She bruised my breast!

There was no denying the two pinpoint bluish spots along the bottom and to the side of her admittedly small right breast. It was faint, and she couldn't feel anything painful even as she carefully probed the area, but it still irked her to have something that intimate so mistreated.

Especially since she's the first one to touch me there. How dare she!

The usually timid and meek girl felt outrage for the first time in years. She scowled as she turned from the sink mirror and went to turn on the hot water, then banked it down a bit knowing she needed to weigh the desire for hot water on her sweaty skin and sore muscles, and the effect hot water might have on spreading her bruises. She resolved to keep the shower brief.

Delilah, Chiyo thought back to Hitomi's words as she felt the blessed spray of warm water on her face. She's the wife of Samson in the Bible. The seductress who cut his hair, destroying his legendary strength and leaving him vulnerable to his enemies who then humiliated him.

What can Delilah possibly have to do with Nagisa-oneesama? Chiyo was mystified with the reference. Nagisa-oneesama wouldn't hurt a fly. She brings out the best in people. She's never humiliated anyone…well except maybe Tamao-oneesama but I don't get the sense Hitomi-senpai meant that. Anyway Tamao-oneesama has made her feelings known quite clearly about that incident.

Chiyo continued her quick rinse off, increasingly curious for answers regarding what had just happened to and around her. While she was certainly intense, Hitomi-senpai had never been uncontrolled in all the time she had known the older girl. In fact, her self discipline was well-regarded by all who had trained with her or sparred with her.

When Father asked his friend Iwamura-sensei to train me in kendo so that I'd be prepared to excel at short-blade skills in school, there was never any doubt with whom I'd be paired.

It makes no sense.

She had found no answers by the time she stepped out of the shower and finished drying herself off. She knew most of those familiar with her at Astraea would expect she'd be in full victim mode now, paralyzed by fear. Those people would be confusing lack of focus and general naïveté with foolishness. Yes she was ignorant and innocent, perhaps even a hopeless romantic, but she wasn't an idiot. If nothing else, her grades proved that.

Resolving to find answers, she finished straightening her Miator uniform – it wouldn't do to be anything less than pristine as she spoke with Sister Hamasaka – and strode out the door in her best display of confidence.

For once, she didn't trip over her dress hem or otherwise break the mood as she made her way deliberately into the room and sat down on her roommate's bed opposite the patiently waiting Sister Hamasaka.

She noted the Sister had what looked to be a bemused smile on her face. Chiyo couldn't for the life of her figure out what the woman could possibly find so funny.

"May I ask what you are smiling about, Sister Hamasaka?" she asked the first of what would be many questions.

"I'd respond 'you', but you might misunderstand the reference and find it in poor taste given your recent experience." Chiyo must have looked confused because the old woman continued explaining. "You're stronger than you look, Tsukidate-san. I've watched you here at Miator and wondered whether this school was doing you a disservice. I feared the choice made for you to attend Miator had resigned you to one of the two paths before you – the path of least resistance for one attending these hallowed halls."

The diminutive girl usually liked riddles, but she wasn't terribly much in the mood for them right now. Still, she could puzzle out the meaning of the words she was hearing pretty easily.

"Marriage," Chiyo clarified. "You mean Miator's mission to prepare girls for marriages of status."

"Exactly," the woman nodded. "But Togi-san seems to have found your fire, although the circumstances are…unfortunate."

"Unfortunate!" Chiyo cringed as she realized that in her indignant outburst she had just raised her voice at the notorious Sister Hamasaka. She watched as the old woman cocked her head in curiosity, almost as if she was wondering what Chiyo would do next.

"Um…" she added more calmly, "if you hadn't gotten there I don't think Hitomi-senpai would have stopped until either I screamed for help, I somehow fought her off, or…um…" Chiyo could feel the blood flowing to her cheeks, embarrassment filling her. Suddenly she found her hands the most fascinating thing in the world, and her eyes wouldn't move from them.

"Or she raped you?"

Chiyo was shocked at the bold, profane word uttered from the mouth of the Astraea empress of propriety. She looked up, her mouth agape. She half expected lightening to strike the woman down before her.

"I can tell you with complete certainty that is exactly what would have happened. I am so honest if for no other reason than you already have it figured out. That said, I can also assure you that I would never have allowed it to happen." Sister Hamasaka paused just a moment and Chiyo could see the steel in the woman's eyes which made her so frightening to the students under her care. "As soon as I realized events were spiraling out of control and Togi-san was catching the full brunt of it, I retrieved Kano-san and we ran to help her. I'm sorry we didn't predict this and save you the abuse you did incur. If you wish to blame someone, you may blame me. Whatever you do, however, I ask you for the sake of many of your friends to please never speak of any of this again."

Chiyo's head was spinning as she listened to the Sister's words. Blame her? 'We' didn't predict this? Events spiraling out of control? Sake of my friends? Never speak again?

Just what is happening here?

Once again, the image of these happenings being straight out of a novel came to her and she wished it were so. But the pain in her leg was real. This all was real, and she was determined to understand it all. Most of all, she was determined to make sure Hitomi didn't hurt anyone else, most especially Nagisa-oneesama.

"Is Hitomi-san sick?" she asked, trying to reason things out. "I've known her four years now and I've never seen anything like this. If she's this sick, she's dangerous Sister Hamasaka. Will you be there the next time she explodes? Have there been other girls like me?"

Sister Hamasaka shook her head. "Nothing like this has ever happened before, Tsukidate-san. We have assurances it will never again happen, and I trust the person providing those assurances. Let's just say she's been through a lot this week."

"You mean Hitomi-senpai?" she retorted incredulously. "How can she make any promises as uncontrolled as she is? Sister Hamasaka, she could really hurt someone!"

Sister Hamasaka looked intently at Chiyo, apparently weighing her response. "If Togi-san's trouble was a medical condition, you would be correct. If it were what doctors call schizophrenia or mania, she would be medicated and monitored. She would also be a ghost of the vibrant and strong-willed girl she is now. She is none of those things." The old woman's eyes pierced into Chiyo's own. "Tsukidate-san, what is learned cannot be unlearnt. I want you to ponder that wisdom for a few hours while I obtain your assistance. It is a strange coincidence that you have come into my care this afternoon of all afternoons. We are expecting a visitor who I believe you know quite well."

"A visitor?" Chiyo's eyebrow raised at the unexpected turn of the conversation.

"Your mother is coming to provide treatment for pain and nausea for two my peers who came home from the hospital today. She wishes to speak with you. I had intended to retrieve you while your mother worked, but I would now suggest we both go to greet her together when Secretary Suzuki-san from Le Rim brings her to the Sister's Residence."

"Mother?" Chiyo was surprised, but not shocked. When the mother had visited her daughter in the hospital, she had mentioned her desire to help where she could. She was a proud alumna, and she also just wanted to help make it clear to the world she didn't blame the unfortunate events of Sunday night on the facility that had, in many ways, made her what she is today.

Chiyo watched as Sister Hamasaka rose. "Shall we go meet her? Sister Carina coordinated making sure she was greeted at the gate, but it won't be too much longer before she will be arriving at the residence. After having run frantically in public once already today, dragging Kano-san behind me, I'd rather not lose my dignity or credibility again so soon." Chiyo watched as the woman actually smiled. She motioned with her hand to the door and Chiyo rose to walk out with the surprising woman.

Chiyo paused at the door, one more question on her mind. Actually an old question that hadn't yet been answered to her satisfaction. "Sister Hamasaka, you said I had a few hours to ponder your words about unlearning learnt things. When I fled the dōjō, Hitomi-senpai was uncontrollable. Mad. Is she safe to be left alone right now? Shouldn't someone be monitoring her?"

"She's not alone, Tsukidate-san. If she were, you would be correct. I assure you for now, however, that Togi-san is no threat to anyone as long as Kano-san is caring for her." Chiyo's doubts must have been evident even from the back given Sister Hamasaka's next words. "Please don't make me draw you charts and diagram positions, child. Such things are best learned from your peers, I can assure you."

Chiyo's suspicions now confirmed, her cheeks doubtless a flaming bright red, she fled out the door determined not to let the Sister see her embarrassment.

She knew she would never think of the old woman the same way again.

/*/

"So how has your training been going?"

For nearly an hour, Chiyo had been dutifully helping her mother care for two wizened nuns who had managed to escape the confines of western medicine and professed relief to be back home and in the much gentler hands of an eastern-trained physician. The fact said physician was an Astraea alumna and former Étoile sweetened the experience for the old women no end.

Chiyo had performed this service many times for her mother, and was actually quite accomplished in many of the basics of the art. It had often been assumed Chiyo might walk in her mother's footsteps; at least it had been before her brother had died.

So intent had she been on the work they were doing, Chiyo hadn't expected the personal question out of the blue. It had been spoken in Chinese, a language Chiyo was quite proficient with and which she doubted the two nuns would be able to follow at their fluent pace. Still, the surprise caused her to fumble the acupuncture needle she had been holding out to her mother and she heard it tinkle as it hit the floor.

"Wh…why do you ask?" Chiyo's uncertainty doubtless leaked over into her voice and certainly ruled her face.

"Your hand for one thing, daughter of mine." Tsukidate-sensei turned her head to regard her child and indicated with her head the bruised appendage Chiyo had been extending into her mother's view, repeatedly, as she helped. "I've been hoping you'd mention it on your own, but I decided since you weren't that I'd ask. I also noted you're limping, favoring your right leg ever so slightly. I doubt anyone else would notice, but it's my job to notice such things. That bruise on your hand came from a shinai, transmitted through kote. The limp is from a thigh injury, which I'm pretty sure is illegal in kendo. What happened?"

Chiyo should have known she couldn't hide anything from her mother. She was the wife of a Master in an ancient ryūha, surrounded by practitioners of it and other similar traditions. Those who followed the ancient arts tended to be traditionalists in other areas of their lives. Through necessity as well as interest, her mother generally practiced what western providers would call 'sports medicine'.

Today had brought many firsts into Chiyo's life. First kiss, first grope. She wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to add 'first lie to mother' to the distinguished list. Still…

"You know Togi Hitomi-senpai attends Miator. Iwamura-sensei's star girl student?"

The older woman nodded as Chiyo began her explanation. While she spoke, the young girl pulled out a new needle and carefully extended it to her mother.

"She's captain of the Miator kendo team. In addition to team practices, we train just the two of us on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Those private practices are free form and we spar more aggressively than the team does. I haven't been properly focusing since I came to Miator, and Togi-senpai chose today to…um…chide me for it."

"I see," her mother answered, attention split between the conversation and the needle she was carefully placing in her patient's back. "Sometimes a firm rap on the knuckles and swat on the read end is a great motivator. It certainly worked wonders on your brother at times. Still, I hope you two are being careful. I realize you're doing kendo, not koryū, but don't forget a shinai can still cause injury."

"Um, I think Togi-senpai made that abundantly clear, mother."

Her mother smiled at the rueful admission. "Hence why we call them learning experiences." The smile on the woman's face then faded and she turned again to face her. "Your father has heard rumors that you've gained a reputation already at Miator. It has…distressed him."

Chiyo's stomach lurched at the news and she gulped. She was glad when her mother started back into Japanese to speak again with her patient, giving Chiyo a chance to get her heartbeat under control and wipe her now sweating palms on her uniform skirt. Given a choice between a distressed father and a mindless and lustful Hitomi, she was pretty sure she'd choose the latter.

Who here would be talking to Father? Hitomi-senpai? Chiyo weighed the possibility and dismissed it. Hitomi-senpai is many things, but she isn't a snitch. Madness aside, she said today that she wants to see me improve but she also made it clear she feels she can help me do it. She said her honor is at stake. Now what that means after today, I have no clue. I'm not sure I want to be in a room alone with her again.

She knew no other students who likely could know her father. She truly was at a loss and she hoped her mother would soon shed more insight on the bombshell she had dropped.

About twenty minutes later, the two of them were standing back in the front room of the residence. Sister Hamasaka was off handling some things that couldn't wait, and so they were alone.

"What has Father heard and how did he hear it?" Chiyo inquired into the silence.

"Something about you managing to destroy the dorm room of two of your senpai in an effort to clean it? Then falling down stairs during your punishment. Various other things, some of which I've since been able to verify with Hamasaka-san. I then confirmed a little myself when I startled you with my first question."

"Sister Hamasaka shared all that with him?" Chiyo felt disappointed and more than a little betrayed by the woman she had begun to trust this afternoon.

"Actually, no. She swore to me she had not spoken to any outsider of the events your father recounted. She simply verified it privately to me. That said, she said she knows who did speak with your father. She also said something about learning things that can't be unlearnt and it all being related. She said you'd know what that means."

Chiyo pondered what she was hearing. All related? Hitomi's madness, Father knowing about my reputation at Astraea? Her head spun with all the uncertainties floating between her ears.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long," a familiar voice interrupted the two, although it appeared to Chiyo that there was little left to be said. Any further words regarding her questions she expected would be with the newly arrived Sister Hamasaka. "I just spoke by phone with Sister Carina. She will be here shortly with a car to take Tsukidate-sensei to the train station. You're sure you'll be okay from there?"

"Absolutely," Chiyo's mother answered without hesitation. "I knew when I came here so late that I'd be getting home at an ungodly hour. I'm a night person and the trains run late back home. I'll be fine."

The sister looked comfortable with the assurance, smiling at her former kohai. She then turned to Chiyo and said, "If you wish to pursue your answers, I suggest you go to the station with your mother. I expect you will discover the beginning of your new path along the way. If you don't, then I suggest you bid your mother farewell and I will walk with you to Strawberry Hall to let you in the gate. It's after curfew and Sister Carina locked it before she went to bring the car here."

Chiyo looked curiously at her mother, who shrugged. "This is your voyage, not mine, Chiyo-chan. My ship has already sailed. Now it's your turn to choose to leave the shore or not."

With those cryptic words which left her certain there was more that her mother had no intention of sharing, she watched her mom slip over and give Sister Hamasaka a hug before turning and walking out the door. Through the open door, Chiyo could see the mini-van the sisters would use to ferry passengers and get small quantities of supplies. While Astraea was extremely well off financially, the sisters preferred to live simply and be as self-reliant as possible.

Sister Hamasaka looked at her expectantly as she pondered the waiting car. She could see her mother thanking someone before getting in the van through the side door and sitting behind the passenger seat. As she watched her mother closing the door, she made up her mind and bolted out the door of the Residence to take the open passenger-side front seat.

"So nice of you to join us, Tsukidate-san," the young House Sister of Spica, Birgit Carina, said pleasantly as Chiyo closed the door and belted herself in. Chiyo marveled at the lithe blonde nun dressed as she now was in black jeans and a Spica Blue sweater that nearly matched her eyes.

"Now things get interesting…" the Nordic woman added in English as she started the car and moved forward down the lane to the world waiting outside the Maiden's Garden.

For some reason the words sounded ominous to Chiyo's ears.


***Author's Note***

I want to thank four friends for whom this chapter is dedicated and without whom it would not have happened. CelticX, EJ Daniels, Burning Hunter, and Rin-chan. Thank you for being such wonderful people and a beacon of inspiration for a muse that is struggling at best. Really, thank you for keeping me going.

As always, I appreciate all my readers and the feedback I get from those who appreciate my little drabble. It is an honor to know you find my story worth your valuable time. Thank you!