Author's Note: I'm not dead, the story's not on hiatus, and that's not ice cream. Retail, the single most common cause of creative death – story at eleven. I apologize for the shortness, but I figured that y'all would prefer something small to nothing at all. I'm seriously up against a hardcore creative wall right now. Suggestions would be helpful.

Kagayaku Means to Shine

Anime: Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Rating: PG-13

Written: 31 March 2008 – 26 July 2008

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The clink of silverware and the sounds of dishes touching down on the table were the only sounds, ringing through the overlarge dining room like pealing bells.

Nishiki ate calmly and quietly, methodically working his way through the breakfast laid before him, while across the table Nishiko was apparently attempting an interpretive work of art with her own food. With her eyes pointed at the table just between them, flicking up every few second to land on her twin once more, Nishiko did nothing with her food but continually rearrange in on her plate, not a single bite making it to her mouth.

Finally, his food gone, Nishiki stood up from the table and left, without a word or a backwards glance. Nishiko set her fork down, stared at the mess of food on her plate, and felt as if she should have been crying. When Satoru got up and left as well, she realized that she was.

Classes flew by when she wasn't looking, and it wasn't until she realized with a start that she was looking at her English book during Math class that she was able to get her mind in gear. As soon as she really felt like she was getting focused on her schoolwork, class ended and lunch began.

"Well good. I'm hungry anyway."

She was already out on the lawn and looking for Mika before she remembered that the blonde had other plans that day and that she would be eating alone with Satoru. Nishiko had made lunch for both of them, and was unaccountably happy that she'd actually remembered to bring the food, since her record thus far into the day wasn't exactly spotless.

Satoru showed up promptly and made appropriate noises of gratitude at the food provided for her, then proceeded to silently work her way through her half of the meal and take off after the shadow of a bird, leaving a thoroughly bemused duelist behind.

"At least she's happy," Nishiko finally muttered before lying back in the grass for a quick nap.

Fortunately for her, the quiet lunch had been just what she needed to keep her focus, and her afternoon classes received much more of her attention than their brethren of the morning, interrupted only by occasional brief meanderings of the mind. She threw herself into swim practice after classes, but was left only with a vague sense of tired emptiness.

The second day after her discovery of the note passed very similarly to the first, with the only exception being that she was able to have lunch with her beloved Mika, which did much to banish that uneasy feeling following her second awakening in a row with the name Eriko echoing in her head.

She lay that afternoon with her head in Mika's lap, while the blonde girl ate her usual hearty meal and listened with one ear to Nishiko's musings.

"And I haven't seen him at all today either, so I don't know what's going on anymore."

"Hmm," Mika said around a mouthful of rice, "I don't know. I haven't seen my brother either, but he tends to disappear from time to time anyway. I'm sure if you just wait it out, he'll show up sooner or later. Speaking of waiting..."

"Hmm?"

"How long do I have to wait for that girl to go away?"

Mika used her chopsticks to indicate Satoru, sitting only a few feet away and contentedly playing with a butterfly, teasing it by waving a flower in the air near it.

"I, uh...well, she's in my class, she sort of follows me around, you know? I don't want to be mean and tell her to get lost..."

"Well I can do it for you, then. Hey you! Get lost, we're-"

She was cut off by Nishiko's hand clapping over her mouth.

"No, no, don't do that! I'm, uh, I'm supposed to be watching out for her, you know, so I can't send her away...look, she's far enough away that she can't listen in, so we can still talk."

"Watching out for her? How come?"

"It's, uh, nothing. That is to say, I can't really talk about it right now, sorry!"

Mika's expression was full of suspicion, but she subsided slightly and resumed eating.

"I don't like her, and I don't like her hanging around like that. I wish you'd send her away."

"I can't, really...I have to keep an eye on her for at least a while longer. She's not that bad if you get to know her a little."

Mika's distrust was evident, though, and the rest of lunch passed in strained silence.

And so the days passed. Most every morning, she woke with a name on her lips and an ache in her chest and her feelings for Mika seeming so pale and empty, but every morning she shook it away because after all, she loved Mika and Mika loved her.

It was a full week later before anything changed, and even that was just barely in time to stop Nishiko from going full-on insane. That second note had been tormenting her for seven entire days, and she was about ready to start shaking down every duelist that she knew of to figure out who had left the thing when finally, it was revealed to her.

"N-N-Nikki!?"

END CH.29