Disclaimer: i do not own, nor claim to own, anything strawberry panic. it all belongs to the respective creators.

Chapter Two: New Friends, New Foes

"Hey, hey, what are the transfer students like?" An orange-haired Lulim student asked her friend. Everyone had gathered in the dining hall and it was common knowledge that Miator had just gained two new transfer students. One was supposedly a fourth-grader and the other was supposed to be a fifth-grader.

"They're probably very pretty." Her green-haired friend replied.

"I'm so curious!" The orange-haired girl exclaimed.

"Does Oshibaru know about the transfer students?" A third Lulim girl asked her brown teddy bear.

Just then, the green-haired girl's elbow bumped her glass of water. Before it could topple over though, a hand came and steadied it.

"Oh, sorry," The girl apologized, looking up to see a black-haired girl with twin red bows in her hair whose hand had caught the glass.

"It's okay." The girl responded, smiling. "Just be more careful."

"Do you know about the transfer students, Tsukidate-sama?" A Miator student asked the girl sitting next to her.

"No...Um...Yes...That..." The blue-haired girl said, stumbling over her words in her embarrassment.

"Did you hear about the transfer students?" A navy blue-haired Spican asked her friend.

"I have no interest in Miator's transfer students." The pink-haired girl said, acting rather offended at the question.

"Hikari, you can't like anyone else other than me." A green-haired Spica student told her blonde friend.

"Yaya-chan, people will be mistaken about us." The blonde replied, blushing furiously.

"Transfer students huh?" A blue-haired Spican said to herself as she looked out the window.

"Here is the dining hall," Miyuki explained to Nagisa and Sakura as the three of them, plus Tamao, stood outside a pair of double doors. "Before you start eating, please greet Etoile first."

"Hai!" Both Nagisa and Sakura said simultaneously and Miyuki opened the doors.

As soon as the doors opened, everyone in the dining hall turned around to look at the new students. Most of them smiled welcomingly at Nagisa, who felt like everyone's eyes were piercing her, but as soon as Sakura stepped into the room in all her cool indifference, there was a collective gasp from the group as everyone stared at the beautiful, not to mention confident girl, as she strode alongside her younger sister.

*They're all staring at onee-sama,* Nagisa thought, glancing at her sister out of the corner of her eye and admiring the confidence that positively radiated off of her.

*They're all staring at me,* Sakura thought to herself, heaving a mental sigh. *Why do they always stare at me? Kami-sama, I feel even more like Sachiko onee-sama now.*

"These are the transfer students, coming to greet Etoile." Miyuki said, dragging Sakura out of her thoughts. They had stopped in front of a trio of Miator students who seemed to be surrounding a fourth. The three girls parted to reveal a blue-haired Miator student that Sakura realized was not the Etoile. Nagisa however, thought the exact opposite.

"She just left..." The blue-haired girl started to say but Nagisa, in her ever-increasing nervousness, cut her off.

"Um...Nice to meet you Etoile-sama!" Nagisa said, bowing to the girl as Sakura, noticing Nagisa's mistake immediately tried to stifle her laughter. "I just transferred her today," Nagisa continued, still maintaining her bow. "I'm a first...No...I'm a fourth-grader, Aoi Nagisa. Um...That... Please take care of me!" She finished, bowing even deeper as Sakura vainly tried to keep herself from bursting into laughter.

"Nagisa-chan, you're mistaken!" Tamao exclaimed, finally pointing out Nagisa's error, forcing Sakura to regain her composure, not that anyone had noticed her efforts to maintain a straight face during Nagisa's speech.

Nagisa heaved a breath of relief just as a Miator student came up behind her without either her or Sakura noticing until she spoke. "We meet again." The young woman said directly in Nagisa's ear. Nagisa opened her eyes and looked to the side, finally noticing that someone had come to stand so close to her. Sakura noticed it too and tried to hide her annoyance, but still wound up frowning slightly.

"AHHH!" Nagisa exclaimed in shock, jumping a few feet away from the girl who had spoken in her ear. She looked at the silver-haired girl for a second before recognition registered in her eyes. "You're the one from this morning!" She exclaimed, pointing her finger at the girl.

"Oh, you remembered? It's my honour." The girl said, smirking slightly, annoying Sakura even more.

"How can I forget?" Nagisa asked incredulously. "Suddenly coming up so near to me, and then...then..." Nagisa trailed off, blushing as an image of what had happened that morning popping into her head. "You can't do this!" She cried as the girl stepped up to her and she stepped back. "Where do you think this is? You're right in front of Etoile-sama!" She exclaimed, becoming more embarrassed by the second.

"Etoile?" The girl asked, leaning in and crossing her arms in front of her, the same way that Sakura herself sometimes did, a habit she picked up from Sachiko.

"That's right!" Nagisa said, pointing at the blue-haired Miator student she had talked to before the silver-haired woman had shown up. "Don't you know? She's a very great person, even greater than the Student Council President!" This declaration almost had Sakura laughing again as the four girls from earlier looked confused and Miyuki put her hand to her head in exasperation. "That's why..." Nagisa said, continuing on, completely missing the looks she was getting. "That's why...at this place...in front of someone this famous..." She was cut off as the silver-haired girl stepped closer, forcing Nagisa against the edge of one of the long tables. The two girls looked at each other for a few moments, and then the silver-haired girl stepped forward, forcing Nagisa back into the present. "You...You can't do this!" She cried, throwing up an arm towards the girl who caught her wrist like it was nothing.

"Who says I can't?" The girl asked, pulling Nagisa closer to her.

"That would be me." Sakura said, finally having enough of the silver-haired girl and stepping between her and Nagisa. "If you don't want to have to deal with me, then I suggest you leave Nagisa alone right now." She demanded, her fury-filled blue eyes locking with the other girl's amber ones.

"Onee-sama..."Nagisa said, looking up at Sakura gratefully.

"Sister?" The silver-haired woman asked, confused. "How is that possible? You two look absolutely nothing alike."

"If you must know, I'm adopted." Sakura informed the girl, ignoring the fact that she was declaring this to the entire student body of all three schools. "Last year there was a car crash, of which I am the only survivor, and I was adopted by the Aois after I got out of the hospital."

"I see..." The silver-haired girl said. "Then, since you're not really related, it's okay for me to do this." In a matter of seconds, Sakura was in the same position Nagisa had been in before she interfered.

"Onee-sama!" Nagisa exclaimed, realizing that Sakura might not be able to move like Nagisa herself had been unable to when she locked eyes with the silver-haired girl.

"Nagisa," Sakura said, not breaking her gaze with the other girl. "Go stand with Tamao and let me deal with this." Nagisa nodded her head and joined Tamao as they, and the rest of the dining hall, waited to see what would happen.

"This is a first," the silver-haired girl said, looking down at the black-haired beauty in her arms who was glaring at her slightly. "I've never had anyone keep a steady gaze with me without swooning."

"Get used to it then." Sakura replied bluntly, still glaring at the other girl.

"Oh, a smart mouth," the girl said, smirking slightly. "I like it." She grabbed Sakura's chin and leaned in as if she was about to kiss her. The next thing she knew, she no longer held the other girl close to her and the arm that had been holding Sakura's chin was twisted behind her back, a hand with a grip of steel clamped around her wrist.

"Try that again," Sakura said, tightening her grip on the other girl's arm to emphasize her point, "and I'll break your arm."

"Is that a threat?" The silver-haired girl asked, looking at Sakura out of the corner of her eye.

"It's whatever you think it is." Sakura replied evasively, letting go of the girl's arm. "Take it as a threat, a warning, whatever. Now, if you'll excuse me." She turned to where Nagisa and Tamao were standing slightly behind her, Miyuki standing slightly behind them, staring at her in open shock. "Nagisa,"

"Hai, onee-sama?" Nagisa asked, becoming nervous at the look Sakura had in her eyes.

"I seem to have lost my appetite so I'm going back to my room. If you need anything, you know where to find me. You," here Sakura turned to glare at the silver-haired woman again, "stay away from Nagisa, I'll know if you try anything and if you so much as lay a finger on her, you will regret it and I don't give a damn in hell that you're the Etoile. Kapish?" With that, Sakura turned around and walked out of the dining hall, swinging the double doors shut behind her.

Sakura went up to her room and collapsed on her bed, completely drained. Even though she didn't show it, seeing that girl face-to-face and up close had sparked something inside her and she couldn't figure out what it was. For some reason, the Etoile had looked exceedingly familiar to her, as if she had known her at one point in her life. *But that's impossible* She thought to herself, staring at the ceiling. *I saw her through Nagisa's eyes earlier and didn't feel that strong familiarity that I did when I saw her in person. Plus, I only came to Miator today, so I can't have known her, could I?* Sakura sighed and pondered this thought as she got off the bed and walked to the window. *Where do I know her from?* She asked herself, deciding that she must have met the girl somewhere before, as she put her hand on the glass. *Where?*

Nagisa sighed, she was sitting in the dining hall with Tamao and all anybody seemed able to talk about was the spectacle of Sakura, not only pinning the Etoile's arm behind her back in the blink of an eye, but also so bluntly, not to mention boldly, and openly rejecting the Etoile.

"Nagisa-chan?" Tamao asked as Nagisa heaved another sigh.

"Hmm?" Nagisa asked.

"Sakura-san sure is protective of you isn't she?" Tamao asked, guessing the reason for her new roommate's repeated sighs. She too, had heard the open discussions about Nagisa's older, adopted, sister.

"Yea she is," Nagisa agreed, "but she's always been like that, ever since..." Nagisa stopped, wondering how much she should tell Tamao about her sister.

"Ever since what?" Tamao asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Well, after the car accident, when she was in the hospital, one-sama was really quite depressed." Nagisa explained. "My mother had known her sister since before the accident because she was interviewed by her for numerous columns and articles that her sister wrote and they became fast friends and she got to know Sakura because of it. Anyway, onee-sama was highly depressed over her sister's death and after I saved her from falling out her window, she fell asleep on the ledge and almost fell, so when the question was raised as to where she would go, she opted to stay with me and my parents for a while. Since then, she's been super-protective of me, but not overtly so. We get along great and she's really fun to be around, she always finds a way to make me laugh and I swear that her smile is contagious. I've never heard her laugh, but she sings with a voice like bells."

"I see," Tamao said, smiling a little. "She sounds like a remarkable person."

"Yea she is." Nagisa agreed, smiling, and the two went back to their meal.

Meanwhile, Etoile Shizuma Hanazono was rubbing her wrist that had been held in Sakura's grip of iron and getting an earful from Miyuki.

"Honestly," Miyuki was saying as she and her best friend ate at the table with the other Student Councils from Lulim and Spica. "I don't know why you even tried something like that, and with a new student no less! Have you no respect for your title at all?"

"Of course I do." Shizuma stated in her detached way. "It's just that..."

"It's just that what?" Miyuki asked, pressing her friend to explain further.

"I couldn't help it." Shizuma finished lamely. "She looked so much like her that I couldn't stop myself, even though she's been gone for well over ten or eleven years now."

"Ten or eleven?" Miyuki asked confused. "Who on earth are you talking about?"

"Her little sister," Shizuma said. "When I was little, before I came to Miator, I was really good friends with the daughters of some family friends. The younger one was only a year younger than me and was my favourite of the two. She was always smiling and laughing and I swear it was contagious. The older one was the same age as me and she was always happy too, though not as crazy as her little sister. Then, everything changed."

"Changed?" Miyuki asked. "How?"

"The younger one disappeared, the last time I saw her was when I was seven or eight and when I went over the day after the last day I saw her, she was gone. No one told me where she went and I thought she had died, the way her sister had become cold, indifferent and stopped smiling altogether."

"So, is she dead?" Miyuki asked carefully, not wanting to give her friend bad memories.

"No," Shizuma replied, shaking her head, "she's still alive, but living with somebody else now. I don't really know what happened, but for some reason, she just decided to leave and was being taken care of by a young woman who had become her guardian in place of her family. I just..."

"Miss her." Miyuki finished and Shizuma nodded.

"When I saw that girl, the look in her eyes as she looked at her sister reminded me so much of her that I forgot for a moment that it wasn't her and I..." She trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, in any case," Miyuki said, deciding to end this topic of conversation, "next time, do us all a favour and don't forget." Shizuma merely nodded again and resumed her meal, all the while considering how much the new transfer student looked like her old, lost, childhood friend.

A/N: hey people. not much to say today so just R + R, or you wont get the next chapter.