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Kiwi meets her match in a defeat that's as shocking as it is... shocking. But the events of this loss are seared into her mind along with the girl who delivered it to her.
The portal whooshed shut, leaving Araga Kiwi alone on the floor of Nacht Base.
Arcs of static electricity leapt from her skin to her clothing and back again, tiny aftershocks making her sore muscles twitch. The sensations were so small as to almost be beneath notice.
She had lost. She had lost utterly and completely. She had been humiliated. Against the girl she had watched lose and flee and perversely rejoice over it. Against the girl she was supposed to teach a lesson.
The scent of burning hair wafted into Kiwi's nostrils. Somewhere in the static, her mind suggested that half her body hair must have been fried by those attacks. Her butt dropped back onto the smooth, cold, unyielding floor as her electrocuted leg muscles finally, finally relaxed enough to let her settle down.
She still couldn't find words - if she even had the ability to speak them again.
Kiwi was not the type to take a loss gracefully. Hell, losing her well-deserved attention to the Tres Magia was what had brought her here in the first place. Under any other circumstances, after losing to anyone else, she'd be throwing a fit, storming about in a rage, demanding a rematch.
Hiiragi Utena was not anyone else.
Regardless of how much Vena had talked her up, the shy, easily-flustered girl who had smiled like she'd won a prize after getting her ass handed to her hadn't seemed like Kiwi's type at first. She had no fight in her, no drive to win. She'd even fled from Kiwi's surprise attack rather than meet it with one of her own. Kiwi had been so sure that Baiser's brief career as part of Enormita was going to end right then and there, blown to pieces at point blank without a fight.
And then Magia Baiser had surprised her. In more ways than one.
Shaky though she was, Kiwi got to her feet, letting her transformation fade away. The burnt, tattered military uniform faded, too, giving way to Kiwi's original clothing. And with the transformation gone, with the fight well and truly over, an ache set in. Not a physical one, of course - there was plenty of that, but it had been there all along. Something deeper.
Leoparde was Kiwi's ideal self. Strong. Fearless. Undefeatable.
Kiwi was treated as just another teenage girl. Leoparde was part of the evil organization Enormita, feared by all.
Kiwi wasn't good with words. Leoparde made her points with her guns and bombs - no words needed.
Kiwi had lost to the Tres Magia. Leoparde would never lose to anyone.
Leoparde was the cutest and strongest girl in the world.
But Leoparde had lost to Magia Baiser. Her guns and bombs had failed her. Forget words - she'd been reduced to ugly, fearful croaks. There had been tears - tears - of pain and fear and bliss. Magia Baiser had dragged the weakness out of Kiwi and held it up to the light.
And it was with that part of Kiwi - that hated weakest part of herself - on full display that Magia Baiser had shown her the splendor of that fanged grin. Had lifted her from the ground, lifted up her chin.
Leoparde... No, Kiwi. Right now...
She yearned to feel it again. The sensation of Utena's cheek pressing so tenderly against Kiwi's head. Her arms holding the broken and battered Kiwi tight against her warm, soft body.
Kiwi's lips silently formed the words, matching the voice in her memory.
... You are the cutest girl in the whole wide world.
Reaching up and brushing her own cheek the way Utena had on her way out, Kiwi felt the desire well up in her and threaten to explode out. The pin had been pulled out of her heart, and there was no putting it back.
Two things became clear.
One: She was in love with Hiiragi Utena, deeply, madly in love. A true love. The kind of love that usually only happened in TV shows with way too much talking and not enough explosions.
Two: She had to do everything in her power to make a moment like that happen again. Right away. Or she might self-destruct.
What was it Utena had said as she was leaving?
Kiwi. I pray that we meet again.
"I gotta make sure that we meet again," Kiwi mumbled. The words came out slowly, uncertainly at first, faintly echoing back to her in the emptiness of Nacht Base. Then, as the rush of excitement flooded her body and gave new strength to her weakened limbs, her voice rose to a yell. "I gotta make sure that we meet again! Hear that, Hiiragi Utena? Don't worry! Your super-cute Kiwi-chan is coming for you!"
The echo shouted Kiwi's enthusiasm back at her. For you! For you! For you!
She rushed down the inverted stairs, delighted giggles bubbling out of her with every step. She was going to have to transfer to Utena's school, of course. They'd be classmates. They'd move in together before long.
And of course, they'd be lovers. Doing all the things that lovers do. Going on dates... getting sushi together...
Going to love hotels and fucking each other dizzy, then curling up together and falling asleep with their heads between each other's thighs...
Kiwi could hardly wait.