The Love Letter Lovelies

by Glee-chan

23.

It took to the end of the week for Hayashi-sensei to come back to Kaede and inform her that despite his best efforts the school wasn't keen on having two Kendo Clubs. This didn't surprise Maria in the least. Undeterred, Kaede had been thinking about this response and mapped out a plan for the five of them to practice Kendo on their own. Maria wasn't around for these plans, she only learned of them from a flier she saw on the school community board on a Friday Morning.

"The Unofficial Yumuto Girls Kendo Club will be accepting new members on Friday…." Maria read. "Just when were they going to tell me about this?"

She was talking to herself. She looked at the meeting place, which looked to be a public park that Maria often passed on the way home. She had seen Makoto walk the same route and figured it was her to suggested the location. Groaning from having to deal with Kendo, she took the flier with her to Class 1-3, reading further.

When she sat down in front of Shiho, Hikaru and Mio were at her desk again. This had become a tradition of late. They still hadn't decided between them who got to date Maria, so it always ended with a fight while Maria slunk deeper in her seat. This time, they spotted the flier and the fight was halted for a bit.

"Kendo?" Mio asked. "You're into that sort of thing?"

"Not really." Maria told them the truth. "But I said I'd join so…"

"Is that true?" Hikaru looked excited. "Me too, I'll join too."

"Hey, don't decide things on your own." Mio cut in.

"I'm not. It's okay if I join, right?" Hikaru asked.

Maria really didn't want her too, but it wasn't her club, it was Kaede's. "Kaede-chan is trying out new members today, so if she says yes then-"

"I'll definitely try out!"

Mio wouldn't be defeated. "Me too."

Groaning, Maria handed them the flier. "All the details are there."

"I won't let you down, Fukui-chan!" Hikaru beamed.

"Me either! I'll be your sparing partner."

"No, I will!"

"I said I would be first!"

Shiho was laughing behind her. "You're so popular Maria." Maria wanted to stab her in the eye.

As usual Maria slunk in her desk as the two argued some more. She looked behind her at Shiho, and got a glimpse of Yui taking a seat in her desk. Yui saw Maria looking at her and gave a soft smile. She still looked out of breath to Maria. She also looked pale. She had been keeping an eye on her ever since the moving trip. She didn't look that well. Still her parents hadn't called her about anything and no one else seemed to notice, so Maria thought maybe she was being over protective because of what happened on Monday.

"Hey, can you two fight somewhere else." Makoto came walking through, trying to get to her seat.

"Oh. Sorry Mako-chan." Mio squeaked.

As the two ran off, Makoto winked at Maria. "You owe me."

Maria laughed, forgetting about her worries for the moment. "Do I? What do you have planned for me to do then?"

Looking up, Makoto looked as if she was considering it. "Maybe I'll make you dress in something funny for the Kendo thing?"

Maria shrugged. "I guess you need a mascot, huh?"

"It's too bad we're doing this on our own. We could of gotten some cool uniforms." Makoto pouted. "How weird would it be if I was in gym clothes going…" And she imitated swinging a shinai with her book bag.

All at once the contents of her bag went flying all over the place. Maria ducked out of the way of a text book, while Shiho behind her squawked as a protractor bounced off her head. Red faced Makoto was on her hands and knees trying to pick up her stuff. Maria was about to get up and help her when he noticed Hayashi-sensei was standing behind a crawling Makoto with her gym shirt draped over his face. Holding in the urge to laugh, Maria lightly kicked Makoto to get her attention then pointed at the homeroom teacher.

"Let me guess…" Makoto whined as she turned around on her knees.

"Well Princess," Hayashi-sensei was pulling off her gym shirt. "it's never boring with you around."

"I-I'm sorry!" Makoto spoke, still on her knees.

"Get up." Hayashi-sensei pulled her to her feet. "How is it that every morning you're fooling around? It's always you."

"I'm not doing it on purpose!" Makoto whimpered.

"Well… finish cleaning up while I do attendance." Hayashi-sensei shook his head, handing over the shirt.

Maria found herself loving these little moments between the teacher and Makoto. She was just so cute. It was because of her cuteness that Hayashi-sensei hadn't punished her, Maria was sure. She just looked too adorable. She found herself wondering what Makoto's gym shirt smelled like, then felt shame immediately afterward. Kaede was sitting beside her afterall. She tried not to feel jealous of Kaede, be sometimes she couldn't help it. She landed the jackpot with Makoto as a girlfriend.

After school Maria wasn't looking forward to Kaede's Kendo Club. She thought about skipping it, but saw Yui's smiling face walk up to her. She still looked pale. Maria once again felt worried. She knew Yui was kind hearted, but something told her she was going to kill herself bending over backwards for everyone else. If nothing else, Maria wanted to go to the club meeting just to make sure Yui didn't over do it.

They walked to the park together, Yui humming to herself as Maria held her hand. She looked happy. Maybe Maria was overreacting. Some of the color in Yui's face seemed to have coming back.

Yui looked down at Maria, and grinned. "It's been a while since we walked like this Maria. I missed it."

"I don't live next to you anymore so we can't walk to school together." Maria thought out loud.

"Hey Maria…" Yui spoke after a while. "…I want to be your sparring partner. Is that okay?"

"Of course it is." Maria wondered where that was coming from.

"Great! I didn't know if you wanted to be paired with Yukimaru or Harima." Yui blinked.

"No way. It was a complete mistake to ask them out in the first place." Maria found herself pouting. "Now I can't get rid of them."

Yui laughed. Maria joined her a bit. It was strange that she wanted a girlfriend so bad, and had two girls after her but wanted nothing to do with them. Though in all fairness Maria really didn't think it was as funny as Yui seemed to think it was. Out of nowhere Yui's laughing turned into coughing. Shooting her eyes upward, Maria saw Yui laugh again, waving her hand away.

"I lost my breath laughing so hard."

"It wasn't that funny…" Maria giggled at her.

Yui breathed in. "I know… I guess I just miss you is all."

Maria wonder where all this was coming from. She and Yui had always been close. In fact she spent the night more often now that she was living away from her home due to her sister's loud sex sessions. Technically Maria was seeing more of her. She wondered why Yui was feeling so lonely. Giving a protective hug on Yui's arm, Maria smiled up at her.

"You don't have to worry about me so much, you know."

"I like worrying about you." Yui looked away. Maria was glad she wasn't pale anymore.

"I should be worried. So much pampering and I'll get used to it. What will happen when Yui-chan gets a girlfriend? I'll be all alone." Maria teased.

"Then I won't get a girlfriend." Yui said in a matter of fact tone.

"Don't be silly." Maria pushed her slightly. "I want to see you happy too, you know."

Yui smiled down at Maria. "I'll get one when you get one, okay?"

Maria rolled her eyes. "So basically both of us are going to be single forever, you're saying?"

"No we won't!" Yui's smile disappeared. "You'll get a girlfriend for sure, Maria. Don't give up!"

"Okay, okay!" Maria laughed. "You don't have to get so serious."

Looking a bit bashful Yui shrugged again. "I just want to help."

"I know you do." Maria told her.

When they arrived at the park, the rest of the Love Letter Lovelies were there, along was several other girls. Sadly Hikaru and Mio were among them. On looking at the girls present Maria saw a theme. Most of them were the ones that Shiho had outed as lesbians in their class. There were a few from other classes too, but they all looked the pretty type, not the kendo version. Maria was sure that most of the girls who signed up were thinking Kaede's Kendo Club was that in name only and was more or less a lesbian thing. Kaede, herself, seemed oblivious to this, as she was holding a bunch of shinai sized sawed off broom handles for them to use.

Joining Shiho, Maria rubbed the top of her head. "Well… this is bad, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I think they're where expecting something else." Shiho looked slightly worried.

Yui looked around. Then all at once she gasped. She leaned down to Maria. "Aren't these the same girls who-"

"Yeah." Maria interrupted her, then thought she should throw Yui a bone for catching on quicker than normal. "You're right Yui-chan… it's the lesbians."

"Oh no." Yui pouted. "Kaede-chan's dream is going to be ruined."

Feeling awkward, Maria thought she should tell them. They had to right to know before Kaede got to into it. She let go of Yui's hand and walked over to the group of girls who were looking at Kaede with curious expressions on their faces. Feeling incredibly awkward she cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Uh… you do know that Kaede-chan is serious about this being a Kendo club, right?"

"Huh?" One girl blinked a confused face. "Y-Yeah of course I knew that…" it obviously was a lie.

Hikaru took an all-knowing face. "Don't tell me some of these girls think that this group is about something else?"

"Well what was I supposed to think… everyone already in the group are… well… you know." Another girl blushed.

Maria raised her hands. "Okay… I'm sorry if the whole thing was misleading…"

The first girl who lied looked at her shoes. "Still… if all of us are the same way… I guess it is a good way to meet people without it looking suspicious."

There seemed to be a general agreement to this. Shiho and Yui joined them. Shiho stressed again that Kaede was serious about Kendo and that she'd expect them to be serious as well. Most of the girls decided to stay regardless, though one or two shrank off as quietly as possible. By the time Kaede joined them with Makoto, Maria had the misunderstanding cleared.

"Thank you everyone for coming. I'm pleased to see that I'm not the only one disgusted at the school's official Kendo club."

"Yeah, it sucks." A girl in the group grumbled a little too enthusiastically. "Thanks for setting this up Ozawa-san!"

"I recognized that this group is unofficial, but I hope we can really make this fun." Kaede started off, handing everyone broom sticks. "Once I get some money, I'll try and buy some real shinais. But until then, I hope this will be okay."

"I'll buy my own." Mio said out of no where. "It's wrong that you have to pay for everything."

"M-Me too." Hikaru narrowed her eyes at her friend, not wanting to lose even in this.

Kaede raised her eyebrows and nodded. "If you feel like it. I understand if you can't. We'll figure something out, okay? Now, let me teach everyone some simple strikes first then some training swings to help build your endurance."

Maria took her spot next to Yui while the group did as they were told. As predicted all of them were terrible, with the exception of Shiho. They practiced basic moves before Kaede thought it was best they build up their arm strength. Everyone was tired just from the few strikes they learned.

As they practiced, Maria glanced at Yui. She was swinging her broom stick up and down like everyone else, but there was no power in it. She was back to looking pale again, and was drenched in sweat. Maria dropped her stick. Yui eyes were glazed over and her mouth was hanging open. A wheezing sound was coming out, as her whole body was swaying with each swing. Maria, yanked the stick out of Yui's arms, then gripped her skinny body. As if on cue, Yui's body went limp and Maria guided it slowly to the ground. Her chest was moving up and down rapidly, her mouth gaping open.

"Yui-chan!" Shiho seemed to realize what was happening.

Everyone stopped and gathered around. Maria shoed them away. "Yui-chan, can you breathe?"

Yui shook her head, her eyes barely focusing on Maria.

"It looks like she's having an asthma attack." Shiho said, with general agreement from everyone else. "Why didn't I see it earlier?!"

Kaede was already on her mobile. The other girls were looking nervous. Maria held her, wish she knew what to do. She wished she could give Yui her own breath. Watching her gag and choke for the little air she was getting was making Maria feel out of breath too. Yui weakly squeezed Maria's hand, her eyes filled with fear.

"Hold on… help is coming…. just hold on Yui-chan." Maria cradled Yui's head.

"M-Maria…" Yui wheezed.

"Shhh… Don't talk." Maria ran her fingers through Yui's sweat soaked hair. "Just focus on breathing. Come on, I'll do it with you." Maria breathed in and out with Yui's attempts. Yui seemed to take courage in this and did her best to breathe with Maria's rhythm.

Thankfully the paramedics arrived minutes later and hooked Yui to an oxygen machine. Maria didn't look at the kendo group behind her. When the girl was stable enough for travel, Maria jumped into the ambulance with Yui and was off to the hospital without a second thought. It was only when Yui was taken into the emergency ward did she remember to call Yui's parents.