(A/N: Hello everyone, and welcome to my newest story. I am super excited for this one. I've had the idea for it for several years now, but just never got around to. Finally though, after re-watching the series, inspiration struck hard, and I finally got down to it. And I must say, after completing the rough draft, I really think this is going to be one of my best stories. I hope you're ready for it, because I'm going all out with this one. It takes place almost immediately after the anime ended, and no, that horrible movie remake of it with characters turning into cars is not going to be a part of this story; seriously, that was such a disgrace to a great series. I did take some inspiration from it though for a few things, including the manga as well for some of the characters, but we'll be getting to that later. While this story is going to center around Juri and Shiori, the other characters will have their own roles and arcs in the background. And just a heads-up now, some of the stuff that comes up will be sensitive material, but I really plan to do this story justice. I hope you're prepared to feel all the feels, because we're about to get to it.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"A MIRACLE OF ORANGE AND VIOLET"
Chapter 1: Always In Your Shadow
She was following her again. Always, always following her. And while Juri was always observant of what went on around her, a trait she had picked up from her skills as a duelist, her stalker wasn't really being discreet.
Ok, maybe stalker was a little extreme of a phrase, but she was following her. She wasn't being sneaky or trying to hide, but she also never approached, and always maintained her distance, staying just in the background. Under different circumstances, Juri may have inquired the girl about it, but considering who it was, she didn't.
Shiori Takatsuki, Juri's childhood friend, and the girl she had been hopelessly in live with for as long as she could remember. Such a complicated thing their relationship had become. And such a painful one too. In the past, Juri had been content to secretly love her best friend from afar, as painful as that had been, but ever since Shiori had discovered the truth about her feelings, things had changed.
Juri knew it was her fault. Her and that stupid locket, the one she'd kept Shiori's picture in. She'd worn it for years, constantly pining away for her best friend, internally suffering in silence, all the while coming across as the perfect, cool and collect person that she portrayed. Captain of the fencing club, member of the Student Council, one of the top students at Ohtori Academy, loved and admired by all the students, coming from a rich and powerful family, it truly seemed that Juri had it all.
Such fools they all were. None of them knew the real Juri. They didn't see how much she suffered in silence, how insecure and bitter she was. All her popularity and everything she had going on for her, none of it really mattered to Juri. There had only been one thing she ever truly wanted, but she didn't think it was something she could ever have.
But having Shiori as a best friend was better than nothing. Even if they could never be what Juri wanted them to be, she'd still rather have the violet-haired girl in her life however she could, all the while keeping her feelings a secret. She feared that if Shiori ever did discover her feelings for her that it would destroy their friendship and she would lose her completely. After all, there were many people who looked down on a girl loving another girl. And losing Shiori was what Juri feared above all else.
Which was why when Shiori mistakenly came to the conclusion that Juri loved Andou, their mutual male friend, who did in fact have a crush on Juri, she had allowed her to believe it. It would allow Juri to keep her true feelings a secret. She didn't even care that Shiori had "stolen" him from her, forming a romantic relationship with him, seemingly out of spite.
It was a flaw of Shiori's for sure. She seemed to have a habit for hurting people, usually unintentionally. And when it wasn't intentional, she never seemed to realize the extent of the hurt she inflicted, or realized just how painful her actions were to others. It was one of the reasons why Juri considered her to be "innocently cruel", as she called it. It had been why Shiori gotten together with Andou behind her back, convincing him that he wasn't the one Juri loved. But that hadn't been what had hurt. No, what had hurt was seeing Shiori with someone else. It was almost more than Juri could bear.
She understood why Shiori had done it, and it did in part relate to her being innocently cruel. Shiori had a massive inferiority complex when it came to Juri. She supposed that was really her fault though. They had been best friends for pretty much their entire lives. Juri had always been the standout, the golden child, so to speak, that everyone always loved and admired, while Shiori had always remained in her shadow, no one special, just Juri Arisugawa's best friend, nothing more.
It was, perhaps, almost expected that she would develop an inferiority complex when it came to her. Trying to one-up her by "stealing" the boy that she thought Juri loved had been her way of trying to get out of her shadow, a way of having something to hang over Juri's head, to show that she wasn't as inferior as she felt.
It had been a shallow and underhanded thing to do, and naturally hadn't lasted. Even so, Juri hadn't been foolish enough to come to believe that Shiori would ever come to return her feelings. That would take a miracle. And, ironically, Shiori had been the one to tell her to believe in miracles.
Well, every day for a long time, Juri had hoped and prayed to have that miracle. And when she realized that it would never come, she instead began to wish for one that would take away her feelings for her best friend and put an end to her pain and longing. Yet neither of these things had ever come to pass, and eventually, Juri had grown bitter and come to reject the very idea of miracles.
That had been childish and conceited of her, she knew that now. The pain of unrequited love had caused her to grow resentful to the point that she even looked down on anyone who dared to believe that miracles were possible, and she had even become determined to disprove them. It had been, in truth, the reason she had chosen to get involved in the dueling tournament for the Rose Bride. Supposedly, according to the one known as End Of The World, whoever possessed the Rose Bride by the end of the tournament would obtain the ancient power of Dios and be able to perform miracles and bring forth the new world revolution.
Juri had no interest in such power. No, her only interest had been to prove that miracles did not exist. If miracles didn't exist, then her suffering hadn't been from the lack of one, as if the universe had decided to withhold such a gift just to make her suffer, and her pain would be nothing more than her own foolishness. And if her pain was a result of her own foolishness, then she had the power to overcome it; she just needed the strength and determination to do so.
She'd tried, God knew she'd tried. She'd tried to let go of her feelings for Shiori. In her head, she'd "let go" of them more times than she could count. At least she had told herself that she had. The falsehood of that though had been evident in the way she had hung onto the locket with Shiori's picture in it, clinging to the smallest of possibilities that someday, somehow, Shiori might come to return her feelings.
Until the day she'd had enough. Unable to deal with the pain anymore, she'd taken off her locket and thrown it into the lake. And yet it had somehow fallen into Shiori's hands, allowing her to figure out where Juri's heart truly lied. From there, everything had fallen apart.
After her discovery, Shiori had grown almost vindictive towards her, and seemed to even go out of her way to hurt her. She even got involved in the Dueling Game tournament herself to try and claim the Rose Bride. And while Juri knew that Shiori could be cruel and spiteful at times, this had been a period where she had almost seemed like a different person, almost like she had become possessed. It was hard to remember though, as Juri's memory was a little fuzzy of what had happened during that time.
That phase had ended though, seemingly at the same time Shiori had lost during what the Student Council had come to call the Black Rose portion of the Dueling Game, where several unexpected participants had joined, each one also behaving very out of character, yet going right back to normal after their loss. Shiori too had gone back to normal after losing her duel to… someone, Juri couldn't remember who. Be that as it may, their friendship had greatly suffered from Shiori's actions. And now, with Juri's feelings for Shiori having become known to the object of her affections, she didn't think that their friendship could ever go back to what it once was.
Everything seemed to come to a head when Ruka Tsuchiya, the former captain of the fencing club had returned after being away for a long time due to his health. Juri knew that Shiori had been crushing on him pretty hard in the past, and with his return, the two of them had started dating. This had actually surprised Juri, because she was fully aware that the one Ruka really loved was her.
Naturally, being a lesbian and in love with Shiori, Juri was unable to return his feelings. What more, Ruka had been one of the few people who knew that Juri was in love with Shiori. But it soon became apparent that Ruka's relationship with Shiori was far from sincere and that he was only using her for something. She'd tried to warn Shiori of this, but to no avail; Shiori was convinced that Juri was just trying to ruin her relationship. How ironic that it had in fact been Ruka who had been concocting some kind of scheme to destroy her and Shiori's relationship instead to completely crush Juri's feelings for her. He wanted to "free" her, as he had put it.
It had been cruel of him, what he had done. With some manipulation from End Of The World, Ruka had gotten Shiori involved with the Dueling game again, and once she had lost, he'd publicly dumped her and disgraced her, leaving Shiori humiliated and heartbroken in front of the entire school. And perhaps Shiori had deserved it, to an extent, after the things she had done, but it had made Juri feel as if her own heart were the one being ripped out to see the girl she loved in so much pain.
She still couldn't believe she'd done it, but she'd actually gone to Ruka and requested that he get back together with Shiori, prioritizing her happiness over anything else. That hadn't gone over well. Things had even gone in a completely different direction when he revealed his involvement with End Of The World, who turned out to be none other than Akio Ohtori, the brother of the Rose Bride and the chairman of the school. As the former wielder of the power of Dios, he'd shown her a promise of that power, not only reaffirming Juri's belief in miracles, but fully committing her to attempting to win the tournament. There had just been something about him, a power and influence that he'd held that could draw people into doing what he wanted in a way that Juri couldn't explain.
And so she had dueled. And she'd lost. Well, no, not lost, not exactly, she'd forfeited. After her opponent, she still couldn't remember who, just that it was the current champion, had made an attempt to strike the rose from her chest, the method in which one won a match in the Dueling Game, the sword had accidentally snagged the locket with Shiori's picture in it from around her neck instead, destroying it in the process. Juri had conceded the match after that, losing the will to keep fighting.
When it came down to it, the locket hadn't been anything important. It was just a normal trinket, not even that valuable. However, it had been a symbol of sorts for Juri, a physical representation of her love for Shiori and any hope of being with her that she had been projecting everything onto. As such, it had also served as a metaphorical cage that prevented her from moving on. Without it though, she almost felt as if her hope and love had been shattered to pieces along with her locket, and she had lost all motivation to continue the duel, tearing the rose from her own chest.
Ruka had then told her that she was finally free, and his true intentions had finally become clear to her. He'd known that Juri couldn't let go of her feelings for Shiori, and so he had colluded with Akio to orchestrate this whole thing. Dating Shiori, dumping her, manipulating both of them into partaking in the Dueling Game again, it had all been a ploy to force Juri into giving up on Shiori once and for all, like some kind of twisted intervention.
It had been cruel and deceitful, but, to his credit, it had worked. Without the locket, Juri had felt a sense of freedom, a liberation from all that had caused her so much pain. The locket had been holding her back, acting as a representation of what she had clung to, and now that it had been destroyed, she could finally let it all go. She just had to walk away from it all. And she had.
She was far from grateful though. She'd never wanted Ruka's "help", and he'd had no right getting involved. But it wasn't until later that she had learned why he did it. Apparently, his health was a lot worse than he had let on. In fact, his illness was terminal, and he died shortly afterwards. His dying goal had been to free Juri from the bonds of her love for Shiori so she could move on, free of her pain.
Well, he had succeeded. And much to Juri's frustration, she found that she couldn't exactly hold a grudge against him for it, because it had been his dying wish to see her set free. He'd spent whatever time he had left trying to help her. It was kind of hard to hold a grudge against someone for that.
But while she couldn't hold that against him, she still wasn't grateful to him for it, nor would she ever be. She would have preferred if he'd never meddled, even if his actions had ultimately freed her. It was her life, not his, and if she wanted to spend it pining after Shiori and live with the pain that came with her unrequited love, then that was her God given right, and he didn't get to have a say in the matter, no matter how much he thought he was "helping" or how much he wanted to "free" her.
Which brought her back to the situation at hand, Shiori constantly following after her. She'd been doing that ever since they heard that Ruka had died, always maintaining a distance, never approaching, seemingly wanting to rekindle their friendship. And Juri continued to do her best to ignore her, determine to finally move on and put her feelings behind her once and for all.
Well, no, that wasn't exactly true. As it turned out, Shiori had decided to join the fencing club. She'd already been fairly skilled at dueling, and now it seemed that she wanted to get better. As the captain of the club, Juri had no choice but to interact with her during club meet-ups. But while when fulfilling her role as captain she was all smiles and encouragement, being friendly and treating Shiori no different than any of the other club members, outside of it though, she chose to ignore her, less her resolve break.
But that was becoming increasingly difficult with Shiori's constant presence. How was she supposed to move on when the object of her affections was always right there, following after her like a lost puppy? It was causing Juri to reach a breaking point. Whatever this was, it was time to put an end to it and clear the air once and for all. Only then would she truly be able to finally move on.
(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)
Shiori continued to maintain her distance, wanting to approach, but not daring to. What right did she have to even be in Juri's presence after what she did, let alone be friends with her again? Joining the fencing club was already a pretty bold move, and there was no way a simple apology could make everything right between them. And, truthfully, Shiori didn't even think she deserved forgiveness. What she had done had been cruel, there was no two ways about it. She certainly hadn't acted like a best friend.
It had been a power trip of some kind. It was the only way she knew how to describe it. After spending her whole life feeling as if she wasn't even worthy of being in the great Juri Arisugawa's presence, the one she looked up to and admired more than anyone, she'd finally felt as if she had gotten a leg up on her once she saw what was in her locket.
Shiori had known that Juri was in love with someone. No matter how stoic the orange-haired woman pretended to be, Shiori had always knew her well enough to be able to tell. And with the way she treasured that locket, she'd known that it had contained a picture of the person she loved in it. She'd always wondered who it was.
At first, she'd thought it had been Andou. The three of them had always hung out together when they were younger, and it seemed like Juri was always watching the two of them, seemingly with jealousy and longing. So naturally Shiori had come to this conclusion. And she'd known that Andou had been in love with Juri. That had been why she had gone after him, telling him that Juri was in love with someone else, and then taking him for herself.
It had been extremely petty of her to do that, mean even, but somehow, in her mind, the reason that if she could steal the person that Juri loved, even when he loved her too, it would show that she wasn't so far beneath Juri after all, that she could stand on more equal ground as her and not feel so inferior.
Such a childish and foolish notion that had been. Their relationship obviously hadn't lasted since it didn't come from a place of sincerity. Sure, Shiori had some feelings for Andou and found him to be attractive, but she hadn't really been all that interested in him romantically. At most, her feelings for him had been little more than a small crush. And her whole ploy had also been completely futile since Juri had seemed to be completely unfazed by her and Andou dating.
And then she had learned the truth when she saw what had been inside the locket. It had been a picture of her. Of her. She, Shiori Takatsuki, was the one that Juri loved. And this discovery had changed Shiori's life. She now looked at the world with new eyes, as if seeing it, and Juri, for what they truly were for the first time. It was such a stunning revelation that Shiori didn't know how to handle the onslaught of emotions that had begun to hit her, and so she had sought to work out her feelings by going to the Mikage Seminar.
That was still a confusing time for her. Her memories and feelings for the next couple of days since going there had become distorted and fuzzy, if not leaving full gaps in her memories of what had happened. Shiori had just decided to dismiss it as being stress related though. But something had happened during that time, as she had taken on a malicious nature, with all her malice targeted at Juri. She didn't really remember what she had done to her during that time, only that it had been pretty bad.
Despite considering Juri to be her best friend, Shiori was also extremely jealous of her. She envied Juri's popularity and natural talent. She'd hated feeling so inferior to her and feeling so inadequate and unworthy. And Juri didn't even seem to notice, always having a smug air of arrogance and superiority about her, at times even coming across as conceited and condescending. It really affected Shiori's self-esteem, and she had begun to grow bitter and resentful towards her.
Regardless of these negative emotions, Shiori still cared about and enjoyed being with Juri, considering her to be her best friend. It was a strange series of conflicting feelings that only upset Shiori more. And to make matters worse, Juri always treated her like an equal, never once putting her down or holding her superiority over her head. In a way, that made it worse, or it made Shiori feel like she was the one in the wrong, that her feelings were unjustified, which only made her feel even worse, and this in turn increased her bitterness, sometimes making her want to knock Juri down a few pegs.
And yet along with all of that was an underling fear that she would one day lose Juri from her life due to the gap between them. Often times, Shiori would feel that Juri was only friends with her simply out of pity. After all, why else would someone as great as Juri bother with someone as lowly as her unless it was out of pity? And while she appreciated Juri's kindness and treasured her friendship, she didn't want it to be based on pity. She hated being looked down on, but was also grateful for that pity, because it allowed her to remain by Juri's side. But how long would such a pity last before she was cast aside? This had been a driving force in Shiori wanting to get one over on her, to show that she wasn't so far beneath Juri after all.
But finding out that Juri was in love with her had changed that. All her life, she had felt that she was always losing to Juri at everything. But if Juri loved her, then that actually meant that she had been the one who had won all along, because she was the one who affected Juri the most. If Juri loved her, then in her eyes, Shiori was the one who stood out, who mattered the most. If Juri loved her, then there wasn't such a gap between them.
What more, this gave Shiori power over her. The great Juri was all but powerless before her. And with that power, she could bring Juri down to her level, or completely crush her if she wanted to. That meant that it was actually her, not Juri, who was the superior one. This was why, in her eyes, the one in love was always the loser, because they were always at the mercy and power of the one they loved, always vying for their attention and affection. This meant that Juri was actually the one at her mercy. And as such, she intended to keep Juri's love prisoner, allowing her to keep Juri with her forever.
At least that had been her reasoning. Some other stuff had happened after that, some of it confusing and fuzzy, especially when she got involved in the Dueling Game. Things had become really strained between her and Juri after that. And then they had taken another turn when Ruka returned to the school.
Unlike the last boy she had thought she had stolen from Juri, Shiori had been genuinely crushing on the former captain pretty hard. However, she knew that he'd only had eyes for Juri. This had fueled Shiori's jealousy, making her feel even more resentful. It was always Juri, perfect Juri. No one would ever so much as glanced in her direction as long as Juri was around.
This had confused her in the past. Why nothing had ever happened between Juri and Ruka? For all intents and purposes, they should have made the perfect couple. Yet they had never gotten together, and Ruka had to eventually leave the school due to his health.
It seemed that Shiori hadn't learned the first time she tried to steal a man from Juri. Not that Ruka was Juri's at all given her sexual preference, but things were different this time. Shiori did have feelings for Ruka, and she now knew that Juri would never return his feelings. She also didn't feel so inferior to Juri anymore. So she had pursued a relationship with him, and he'd wanted to be with her too. Her, not Juri. She'd won, she was finally above Juri in something. Someone had chosen her over the "Beautiful Female Leopard", as Juri was sometimes called, even if it was by omission.
Juri had tried to warn her about Ruka and his motives, but Shiori hadn't listened. It was easier to believe that Juri was out to get her as revenge for what she had done, if not because Juri wanted to rise above her once more. How naïve and delusional she had been. She'd actually fancied herself as Juri's better. Even if it had only been in Ruka's eyes, at least someone acknowledged her worth.
Or so she had believed. In truth, Ruka had played her for a fool. He'd never been interested in her, he'd just been using her to get to Juri, always Juri. Their whole relationship had just been a ploy. Shiori was worth nothing to him; she had just been a means to an end, only useful for as long as it suited his purpose, a mere stepping stone in his true goal, not caring how she felt or what would happen to her afterwards. And she'd tried so hard to please him, she'd even slept with him. Yet once he was done with her, he'd coldly dumped her in front of the entire school.
It had been a devastating blow for Shiori, and she'd pretty much had a mental breakdown, begging in front of the whole school for Ruka not to leave her, making an utter fool of herself in the process, humiliating and disgracing herself before the entire student body. Not only was she losing Ruka, she was learning that he never cared for her at all, that she had been just a disposable pawn in his pursuit of Juri.
And with that, her pride had shattered, her ego destroyed. She was no one and nothing, she had no one and nothing. Everyone around her only saw her as worthless, her only value being acting as a stepping stone to get to Juri. Even Juri herself, the one person who actually loved her, seemed to be done with her, and that had been a result of Shiori's own actions. Her need for control, her pettiness, her jealousy, her desire to have Juri under her thumb, had ruined their relationship.
She'd been angry, hurt, heartbroken, humiliated. That's where her ambitions had gotten her. And when she heard of Ruka's death and figured out what his intentions towards Juri had been, all she had been left feeling was a numbness. She had nothing left, she was all alone. And yet, at the end of it all, she found there was really only one thing she wanted.
She wanted her best friend back. She wanted things to go back to the way they were between them. Because despite the resentment and need to dominate Juri that she felt towards her, she had indeed treasured their friendship. But then she'd lost it, along with everything else, because of her foolish actions. Now she just wanted to forget everything else and just go back to the way things were before.
As if that were possible. She knew that there was no going back. There was too much bad blood between them now. Too much had happened, too much pain had been caused by her. She couldn't just offer an apology and expect everything to go back to normal, no matter how much she wished she could. Hell, she couldn't even bring herself to approach her, and Juri seemed content to just ignore her.
Well, not completely. After deciding to join the fencing club, Juri did interact with her. But she treated her just like any of the other club members. She was friendly with her, yes, but no more and no less than anyone else, as if she really were any other student instead of her ex-best friend and former love interest. It was to be expected after all. Frankly, Shiori was surprised she hadn't severed all ties with her sooner. Juri truly was a better person than her in all things.
Even though it was clear that Juri wanted nothing more to do with her, she couldn't bring herself to let things go. Because the truth was, Shiori missed Juri, a lot. She wanted her best friend back. She wasn't foolish enough to think that things would go back to the way they were before, but she was at least hoping for… something. And that's why she continued to follow after her, just in case Juri ever did decide to give her something, anything. However long it took, she just wanted to be acknowledged in some way.
So she continued following at a distance, giving Juri her space, but also letting her know that she was there. She watched as the orange-haired girl turned the corner, and she sped up her pace a bit so she wouldn't lose her and hurried around the corner.
Quite unexpectedly, she found herself freezing in place as she very nearly rushed past her quarry. Juri was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and eyes closed, an unreadable expression on her face.
She opened her eyes and fixed Shiori with a look and spoke to her outside of the club for the first time since she had started ignoring her. "What do you want, Shiori?"
(A/N: And there's the first chapter. Yes, I know it was pretty much as recap of what happened in the anime, but I felt it was important, not just to get the story going, but also to look at things from the perspective of both Juri and Shiori. I really enjoy getting into characters' heads, and I did a very detailed examination of both their characters, including using information that the creator said about them as well as using the anime, manga, and even the movie remake as references. I like to think that after the anime ended that they resolved their differences and came to understand each other, and so allowed themselves to give their love a chance. The credit scene seemed to imply this was what happened as well, so yay. As you can probably tell, this story is going to center around their relationship post-anime. Thus, a bit of a recap from both of them was necessary. The real plot will begin next chapter. I hope you'll come back to check it out, because I promise it's going to be good. Like always, I'll be updating every other Wednesday, so let me know what you think of things so far and I hope to see you again.)