The Next Step In A Relationship

An hour later, kendo had begun in the gymnasium of Samejima High School, and Hana was in the very first match of the day. Unlike fencing, there would be no gender separation for kendo, meaning that Hana could go up against a boy as well as a girl. As she picked up a shinai, one of her team mates asked her, “Did you see how the fencing club did earlier? I heard you saw most of their matches.”

“Yeah,” she replied to him. “They had a pretty good day. I think they won the most matches between them and the other school we went up against.”

“I heard your friend Kishio-san kicked some girl’s ass in her match, like it wasn’t even close.”

“I had to miss it to meet with the team, but I heard the same from my other friends who stayed to watch. I heard she won it in less than a minute by getting two consecutive touches.” She then picked up her helmet and told him, “Anyway, I have to go face my opponent.”

“Good luck.”

“Thank you very much.” Hana then walked out to the playing field, which had been adjusted to meet kendo standards, and stood opposite of her opponent as she put her helmet on. The two then bowed to each other before walking closer together and kneeling. As she waited for the referee to begin the match, she thought to herself, “This is the first match of the first meetup of our season. I will not let the pressure get to me.”

The referee then declared, “Begin!”

Hana and her opponent, who was indeed a boy in the same grade as her from another school, both immediately began rubbing the tips of their shinai together in an attempt to create an opening to strike. Both of them also yelled at each other as they continued to do so before Hana saw an opening and tried to attack, only to be quickly deflected. The two were now locked in at a much closer distance, their faces less than a foot away from each other. Hana pushed back her opponent a few feet before he surprised her with an attack, forcing her to back off a bit before once again blocking him with her shinai.

As the match continued, Ruka, who was now sitting in the stands and watching Hana, said to Yoko and Tenko, “I’d say she’s doing pretty good so far.”

“Of course she is,” Yoko replied to her. “Why wouldn’t she? She’s the best sword-wielder in all of Yokosuka. No one exists that could match her skill. Even you’re beneath her, Kishio.”

“I mean, you didn’t have to throw that last bit in there,” Tenko told Yoko, a bit annoyed that she had put Ruka down to elevate Hana. “I don’t disagree, but come on.”

“It’s the truth.”

Ruka insisted to Tenko with a chuckle, “I don’t really care, Tenko. It’s fine.” Then, out on the field, Hana made a dash towards her opponent, striking his shinai twice and pushing him out of bounds, earning her opponent a penalty point as well as herself cheers from the crowd. Ruka yelled out, “Good job, Hana!”

Hana chuckled before the bout continued, with her opponent striking her shinai before the two clashed, both of them trying to force the other to let go of the bind they found themselves in. Hana then let out a yell before pushing her opponent back and then striking his helmet. In response, all three of the referees watching the match called out at the same time, “Stop!” At the same time, all three held up red flags, indicating that Hana, who had a red flag on her back, had scored a point. As the crowd once again cheered, one of the referees told the two players, “Line up! Seiza!”

“If I can get him to get another penalty point,” Hana thought to herself as she and her opponent knelt down. “I’ll win. I’ll try to get him to go out of bounds again.”

The same referee from before then declared, “Begin!” With this command, both Hana and her opponent immediately went at it, their shinai clashing several times in quick succession.

As this bout of the match happened, Mari was watching from the other side of the gym, having attended the meet to see Hana in action. As a matter of fact, it was her own school that had sent a team to Samejima High School, enabling her to blend in with the other students as she studied Hana’s swordplay. As she watched them continue, another girl in her school said to her, “Mari-chan, wanna see this video I got from the fencing meet earlier?”

“You got a video of it?” Mari had been unable to attend the fencing meet, and was curious to see if this acquaintance of hers had gotten any videos of Ruka or Yoshiro fencing. “Let me see.”

“I got a video of that one really good girl from Samejima High School, Kishio-san,” the girl said, immediately piquing Mari’s curiosity. “Take a look.”

As Mari watched the video, which caught all three bouts of her match, she remarked in amazement, “Holy shit, she kicked her ass like it was nothing. All three of those rounds were over in a minute.” She thought to herself, “Kishio-san was definitely holding back when she fought me. I wasn’t familiar with how she fought, so she easily could have killed me if she wanted to. Now, though, I’ll be ready when we meet again.”

Then, out on the playing field, Hana managed to get her opponent to once again go out of bounds after blocking three of his attacks and then pushing him back with two of her own, causing the referees to all yell, “Stop!” They all then raised their red flags, giving Hana her second point and a victory in the match.

As the crowd cheered for Hana’s victory, Mari’s acquaintance remarked, “Aww, it’s too bad Ishiba-san lost. Miyashita-san is just too good.”

Another girl next to Mari replied to her, “I heard she’s friends with Kishio-san. Maybe those two get along well because they’re really good at swordplay.”

Mari chuckled and said to the two girls, “Oh, you two have no idea. They’ve been friends for a pretty damn long time. I’m not surprised they’re both so good at their respective sports.”

…

After the matches had ended, Hana talked with the rest of the Fox Knights while still dressed in her bogu and carrying her helmet under her left shoulder. “We had a pretty good run today. Out of fourteen matches, we won ten.”

Yoshiro asked her, “When is the next meetup?”

“We’re having one on May 18th after school, and another on May 24th. This time of year’s always a bit busy, but it’ll slow down by mid-June.”

Then, Tomoyo, who had attended the meetup separately, walked over, catching Ruka’s attention. “Oh, hey there, Yamanaka-san.”

“Good evening,” she replied to her very formally with a bow. She then turned to Hana and told her, “You were really good out there, Miyashita-san. You really are amazing at kendo. I thought you were the, um…” Blushing slightly, she turned away from her a bit before continuing her sentence with, “I thought you were the best of all.”

“Aww, thank you, Yamanaka-san,” Hana replied with a smile. “I mean, I wouldn’t say I was the best person out there. We have plenty of great kendo players in our club.”

Feeling like she had done something wrong, she immediately apologized and said, “Oh, um, my bad! I’m sorry!”

“It’s fine, Yamanaka-san.”

She stepped back a bit as she said before tripping on a small box behind her, “I- I- I shouldn’t have sai-“ Before she could fall to the ground, Hana used her free hand to grab her and pull her up, unintentionally pulling her close to her as she did so. As Tomoyo practically crashed into Hana and came within inches of her face, her face lit up in a bright red blush.

Yoshiro asked her, “Yamanaka-san, are you okay?”

Tomoyo then backed off of Hana, thoroughly embarrassed as she stammered out, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to trip and fall into you!”

Hana chuckled and patted her on the shoulder, telling her, “You don’t need to apologize to me, Yamanaka-san.”

As Tomoyo continued to be enamored by Hana, Yoko remarked to Kumiko and Sayaka, “Sometimes, I wonder how she’s my boyfriend’s cousin when they’re nothing alike.”

“If you ask me,” Sayaka replied to her. “I think Yamanaka Tomoyo-san might be gay.” When her theory was met with silence from both her and her girlfriend, she added, “Well someone had to say it eventually.”

Kumiko asked, “You think so?”

“Just look at her. I acted the same way when I first met Hana-chan. Even today, I can still be enamored by her looks, even though…” She then held Kumiko’s hand and told her, “I ended up finding someone else I truly love, and she’s even prettier.”

Kumiko smiled and blushed, telling her girlfriend, “God, you can be so cute, Sayaka.”

Yoko admitted to Sayaka, “You might be onto something. I just think she’s too shy to admit it, kinda like how you used to be, Miyamura.”

“Exactly,” Sayaka nodded. “Before I boosted my confidence by being in the Fox Knights, I acted much the same way.”

…

May 17, 2026

Kumiko was battling a small fox-like magical beast with multiple tails that had been trying to bite people on the street while also spitting acid at them. Sayaka watched, having been told by her girlfriend that she could take care of it by herself. As the fox beast dodged a swing of Kumiko’s sledgehammer and then tried to bite her, she blocked the bite with the handle, which caused a new problem: The unwillingness of the fox beast to let go. “Come on,” she shouted at the creature. “Let go, you little bastard!”

Sayaka shouted from the sidelines, “Rip it off! How strong is its grip anyway?!”

Kumiko tried doing as her girlfriend said, but the fox was not willing to budge. “Damn it! Get off the fucking handle!” Almost on cue, the beast let go, but as it did, it first sprayed acid at her, forcing her to dodge as it fell to the sidewalk and began to let off steam from how hot it was. The fox beast then managed to sink its teeth into her right leg before Kumiko had a chance to block it, causing her to scream in pain, “Agh, fuck!” As the beast then let go, leaving a bloody mess on her leg, Kumiko had enough and swung her hammer down on its head, killing it with a swift and decisive blow before collapsing to the ground in pain.

Sayaka ran out to help her, shouting, “Kumiko-senpai!” She then knelt down to look at her wounds, noticing how deep the beast had sunk its teeth into her skin. “You’re bleeding pretty bad. Does it feel like anything is broken?”

“No,” she replied to her. “Bandage me up, make the report, and call me an ambulance, Sayaka.” She then looked down at her injuries and expressed in frustration and pain, “God damn it, of course this had to happen to me!”

Sayaka did as instructed and pulled a set of bandages from her pocketbook, covering up Kumiko’s wounds and putting pressure on them with one hand as she pulled out her phone to call for an ambulance to take Kumiko to the hospital. “I’ll call an ambulance first, and then I’ll let the Agency know. Getting you help is the most important thing.”

A man on the street then noticed them as well as the dead magical beast laying nearby. He ran over, concerned about them but unaware of what had happened, and asked, “Hey, are you girls okay? Do you need help?”

“We got it,” Kumiko told him, trying to get him to ignore what he was seeing. “My girlfriend is calling for help now.”

The man was clearly stunned to hear such a relatively deep voice come from Kumiko, although her voice was certainly not as deep as it may have been had she not begun to transition. “Oh, uh, okay… Um… Are you a-?”

“Girl,” Sayaka told him as she dialed for help. “She’s a girl, yes.”

…

A few hours later at the Agency hospital in Yokosuka, Kumiko was lying in a hospital bed, with Sayaka and her father sitting next to her. Kumiko’s father was watching the evening news on TV, and as he did, he shook his head at a story that was playing. “Unreal. Can you believe that shit, girls? Some people are really sick in the head.”

“That’s horrible,” Sayaka replied. “I can’t believe someone would just massacre an entire family like that, even the baby.”

“I hope they hang whoever did this,” Kumiko added, also clearly disgusted by the crime being covered on TV. “Some people deserve to lose their right to live.”

“I can’t agree more,” her father nodded. “But enough of that. How are you feeling now that it’s been a few hours since you got bit?”

“My leg doesn’t hurt as much. The doctors said I’ll go in for scans in an hour or two.” She then looked over at an IV that was pushing antibiotics into her left arm to fight any infections caused by the bite. “They were more concerned about an infection than any damage to my leg, really.”

“I’m not surprised. You never know what kind of germs are inside an animal’s mouth, especially one not from our world.” He then checked his watch, got up from his chair, and said to them, “I gotta go fill out some paperwork to get you your medication, Kumiko. It’ll be a while, but by the end, you should be all set to leave.”

“Bye, Dad, I love you,” Kumiko told him with a smile.

“I love you, too, dear.” He then gave her a kiss on the forehead. “This will be all over soon.”

As her dad drew the privacy curtains around the bed to fully hide Sayaka and Kumiko from the hallway before leaving, the former asked the latter, “Has he always been that affectionate?”

“Affectionate?”

“I’m not really used to dads being like that, honestly.” Sayaka shrugged and explained, “I know my dad loves me, but he’s more reserved about it.”

“It probably helps that ever since the divorce,” Kumiko replied. “He’s been raising me by himself with next to no input from my mom. He once told me that while he was happy with a son, he did always want to eventually have a daughter, too.”

“I guess he got his wish in the end.”

“He sure did.”

“And I’m glad you figured it out,” Sayaka said with a chuckle as she got close to her. “Because it meant I got to meet you.”

Kumiko smiled and gave her girlfriend a kiss, which she returned within seconds as the two began making out in the hospital room. Eventually, Sayaka got up from her chair and got onto Kumiko’s hospital bed to kiss her better, the two of them also feeling each other’s bodies. As Kumiko’s hands gently caressed Sayaka’s shoulders, she asked her, “Are we really doing this in a hospital room? You know we could get caught, right?”

Sayaka broke free from the fog that enveloped her decision-making in the moment and realized where they were making out, intensely blushing. “Oh, uh, well… Um…” She looked around, making sure there were no gaps in the covers that gave them privacy. “We, uh… We could continue. I don’t think anyone can see us, and we can stay quie-“

Kumiko blushed as well when one of Sayaka’s hands landed on her crotch. She peered down at the hand and said, “You… You’re touching me…”

Sayaka was thoroughly embarrassed, but a part of her compelled her to not let go. “This feeling inside me,” she thought to herself. “I don’t want to let go… I can’t let go. I want to see more of Kumiko-senpai, but… Will it bother her? She doesn’t like this part of herself, so does she not want to go further?”

“I’m as hard as a fucking rock right now,” Kumiko meanwhile thought to herself. “And that’s the problem. Will she really be okay with this? I mean… She is a lesbian, but so am I, and yet I can’t shake the fear that if she undresses me or we try to have sex, it’ll be a turn off for her.”

After a while of simply staring at each other, Sayaka asked her, “Am I… Am I bothering you?”

“No,” Kumiko replied. “You… You don’t have to let go. I like that.” Without a word, Kumiko then used her right hand to slowly pull up Sayaka’s shirt past her bra, revealing it to be a rather frilly pink lace top. “Are you… Okay with this? I know we’ve made out before, but we haven’t gone this far.”

“…I didn’t say stop, did I?” Taking this as a sign to continue, Kumiko then pulled up Sayaka’s bra, exposing her bare chest to her for the first time in a sexual context. Despite her face still being bright red, Sayaka reminded her girlfriend, “What? You’ve seen them before. We’ve gotten changed in front of each other. What’s so different now?”

“We should keep quiet,” Kumiko whispered to her. “Remember, a nurse could come in at any moment… Or my dad.”

“Oh, right,” Sayaka whispered back. She then sat up and adjusted her shirt and bra to better reveal her breasts to her without fully taking them off, at which point Kumiko began to touch her experimentally. “Your hands are really soft, Kumiko-senpai.”

“Th- Thank you…”

“Hah… That feels nice…”

Kumiko was mesmerized to actually touch Sayaka’s bare skin in such a sensitive and relatively private place on her body. “It isn’t as far as down there,” she thought to herself as her gaze briefly went down to the area between Sayaka’s legs. “But this still feels nice. They feel so soft. It’s like I’m at peace by touching them.”

Sayaka then looked over and took a deep breath, preparing herself to take things a little bit further. “Let me, um… Let me undo this…” She then backed up a bit on the bed and laid down so that she could reach Kumiko’s waist. Worried about what could happen next, she asked her, “Do you want me to touch you, too?”

Silence followed for several seconds as the weight of what Sayaka had asked her settled in. Realizing she was about to take a very big step in their relationship, and wanting to satiate her own desires, Kumiko affirmed in an almost desperate tone, “Please, Sayaka, do it.”

Having received permission, Sayaka closed her eyes, cleared her mind with a deep breath, and began to undo Kumiko’s hospital gown enough to do what needed to be done. She thought to herself in the meantime, “This is as far as I’ll go. I’ll touch her a bit and see what happens. It wouldn’t hurt, right?”

A few minutes and some restrained moans from Kumiko later, however, Sayaka found herself wiping her mouth with a paper towel and fixing her bra and shirt hurriedly, paranoid that they were about to be caught as the high of the two getting physical with each other quickly wore off after Sayaka had finished pleasuring Kumiko. As she did, Kumiko fixed her gown to cover herself up again, telling Sayaka, “No one is to know we did that here.”

“Agreed,” her girlfriend replied as she threw the paper towels away before then washing her mouth out with a cup of water from a nearby sink. She thought to herself as she finished cleaning, “If I wasn’t so paranoid, I would have asked her to do something for me in return, but I don’t want to take any chances, especially not after I wound up using my mouth instead of just my hands. God, why did I let myself go further than I wanted to, especially in a damn hospital?!” She then looked over at Kumiko, who had a satisfied look on her face. “Although… I am glad she enjoyed it. Perhaps she isn’t as hesitant as I thought.”

Kumiko looked over at Sayaka and said to her, “Uh… Thanks for that. I love you, Sayaka.”

“I love you, too.” The two then shared a brief kiss before Sayaka sat back down in her chair, the two of them now acting as if nothing had happened while they were alone.

…

May 18, 2026

Riko, who was adjusting her prosthetic arm in her and Hana’s dorm room as she sat at the room’s desk, turned around as her roommate walked in and set her bookbag down on her bed. “You made the front page of the school newspaper.”

“I saw that,” Hana replied to her. “I assume you had something to do with it.”

“Fuck yeah, I did,” she confidently boasted. “One of the boys in the newspaper club got a Hell of a shot of you getting a good hit on that guy you fought. I managed to process the photo and get it put on the front page just in time before it went to print this morning. I spent all Sunday helping with this week’s edition of the newspaper.”

“It looks wonderful, Ayano-san. Yoshiro-kun also appreciates the photo of him fencing that was in the sports section.”

“We normally don’t do much when it comes to the fencing club besides list out who won in matches and whatnot, but I decided to throw in a picture from them, too.”

“Is sports your main forté as an assistant editor for the school newspaper?”

“At this point, yeah. I get sent all the sports articles and photos every week to review before they get published.” She then finished her adjustments and took the arm off, setting it down on the desk before grabbing a spray bottle and then a wipe with her remaining hand to clean it off.

“Do you need help, Ayano-san?”

“Nah, I got it. I’m glad that monster didn’t take my dominant arm, otherwise I’d be screwed.”

“Alright.” Hana pulled out her homework from her bookbag and began to diligently complete a math assignment. As she wrote down a fraction she copied from a textbook she placed next to her on her bed, she asked Riko, “Did you get the same math assignment from Narushima-sensei’s class, too?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Riko confirmed with a hint of despair in her voice. “I can’t believe he just blasted us with this shit out of nowhere. This homework is harder than I thought it would be.”

“Do you need help?”

Clearly desperate to get assistance, she enthusiastically replied, “Oh God, yes, please.”

“I’ll help you when I finish with this, okay?”

“Thank you. You’re a lifesaver, Miyashita-san.”

Hana then got a text on her phone, which prompted her to sigh as she read it, “Oh, what the Hell now?”

…

A Few Minutes Before

Ruka was busy making dinner for her and Tomoyo when she heard her cellphone ring. She looked over and saw that it was from Kumiko, so she picked it up and answered it with, “Hello?”

“Hey, so, uh,” Kumiko said as she walked by herself on a solo hunt, still wearing her school uniform. “You can’t really tell anyone else this. In fact, Sayaka doesn’t even know I’m telling you this, so you can’t tell her you know, okay?”

Confused, Ruka asked her, “Kumiko-kun, what is it? Is something wrong?”

“No, no, it’s just… You see…”

“Just tell me.”

“Sayaka gave me a blowjob when I was in the hospital.”

Stunned by Kumiko flatly saying such a thing, she paused for a few seconds to collect enough words to formulate a response. “…What?”

“We started kissing, and she pulled her shirt and bra up, so then…”

“In a hospital of all places?”

“I know, I know, it’s not the best spot to have sex, Ruka-kun. It’s reckless.”

A bit concerned due to how Kumiko was phrasing it, she asked her, “Did Sayaka make you feel uncomfortable or force you into any of this?”

“No,” Kumiko affirmed very quickly. “I hate to say it out loud, but… Oh, fuck it, whatever. No one else is around me. Sayaka asked me if I wanted to go farther, and I practically begged her to touch me.”

“Well then… That’s a risky place to do such things.”

“Trust me. I’m aware.”

Perplexed by Kumiko’s behavior, Ruka asked her, “Aside from the choice of location, what’s the problem? It sounds like you wanted it.”

“Since nobody else is around, I’m just gonna fucking say it. I’m afraid that Sayaka is gonna get turned off by my dick.” Due to the way Kumiko phrased it, Ruka could not help but stifle a laugh as she took some meat out of a pot with tongs. “Hey, come on!”

“I’m sorry,” she apologized to her. “It’s the way you said it. Well, Sayaka seems to have liked that… Part of your body enough to put it in her mouth. What’s the concern?”

“You know Sayaka’s a lesbian, right? Full-blown, all the way, ‘no boys have a chance with her’ lesbian. I’m gay, too, but, you know… I’m a girl who still has some boy parts, if you know what I mean.”

“Hmmm…” Ruka then realized what Kumiko was getting at. “Oh, I see. You’re afraid that sex with Sayaka would be difficult, if not impossible, because even though you’re a girl, you still have a penis, and Sayaka is not trans like you are.”

“Exactly! That’s what I’ve been trying to say!”

“Shouldn’t your little escapade at the Agency Hospital in Yokosuka have put that fear to rest? I mean, if she’s willing to blow you, I’m sure she’d be willing to let you go all the way when some more time passes in your relationship with her.”

“I still have that fear that that may be a step too far.”

“Tell me this. Do you love Sayaka?”

“A hundred percent, yes.”

“Do you want to have sex with Sayaka because you love her?”

Kumiko hesitated a bit, but then gave in and answered honestly. “Absolutely. She’s so gorgeous, Ruka. I’d love to do that with her.”

“Give your relationship a bit more time, and ask the question then. In the meantime, do what you and Sayaka feel comfortable doing. You two don’t have to go all the way so soon like Yoko and her boyfriend did. By the way, does your HRT affect, well… Down there?”

“No,” Kumiko blushed. “That part of me still works just fine, although that is another concern of mine as time goes on. I’d rather not have to take Viagra as a teenager just to get it up, you know, especially considering I still have dysphoria and all.”

“Right, right. Look, the point I’m trying to make is that you and Sayaka should communicate. That’s what makes relationships work. I may not have ever been in one, but I have seen other people get into them, and what makes or breaks them is how well they talk to each other. That’s one reason my Uncle Daisuke and his wife have such a great marriage. They’ve been together since he was seventeen and she was sixteen, and they’ve been married for eight years now. He learned from a few breakups he had before then that communicating with your boyfriend or girlfriend is the key.”

Kumiko, appreciative of the advice Ruka had given her, smiled and told her, “Thank you, Ruka-kun. I knew I could rely on you. Anyway, I gotta get go-“ She then heard what sounded like a woman screaming from across the street and turned around. “Hang on, Ruka-kun.”

“What’s wrong?”

The woman across the street from Kumiko then screamed, “My husband’s dead! Somebody killed him!” It was at this moment that Kumiko realized she was covered in what was presumably her husband’s blood.

“Don’t fucking tell me that Tsuda bitch struck again,” Kumiko sighed as she ran over. “I gotta go, Ruka-kun! I think our little man-hater struck again! Tell Hana-san!”

“Got it,” Ruka replied as she hung up and quickly began to text Hana the news. She then turned around and yelled over to Tomoyo, “Hey, Yamanaka-san, I gotta head out for an emergency! The food’s all set!” Make yourself a plate! I’ll eat later!” She then quickly got all the food ready for Tomoyo to take before quickly grabbing her keys and her phone and rushing out of the apartment.

…

A Few Minutes Later

Yoko and Goro were laying in bed together naked, having finished their own round of sex just a few minutes before. As Goro checked his phone and saw a few messages pop up, Yoko asked him, “I know we haven’t met up in a bit, and I’m sorry. I’ve been busy.”

Goro replied as he texted someone back before putting the phone down, “I know. I’ve been busy, too, Yoko-san. I’m glad we were able to meet up and do this, though.”

“Me too.” Yoko then smiled and gave him a kiss on his forehead. “You really know how to please a girl.”

Her boyfriend chuckled, appreciating her kind words. He then rolled over in the bed and asked her, “What about your mom? Does she know we do this yet?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have let you stay so long in my room like this. She knows what we do.”

“I’m surprised she’s so nonchalant with it all. Most of the other girls I’ve been with hid the fact they were fucking me from their parents as best as they could.”

“It’s nothing that hasn’t happened to her when she was my age.” Yoko then heard her phone vibrate with a text and read it. As she finished reading it inside her head, she quickly got up from her bed and began to hurriedly get dressed.

Goro, confused, asked her, “Yoko-san, what’s wrong?”

“Friend emergency,” she briefly explained. “You can stay as long as you want here. My mom doesn’t give a shit. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She then quickly kissed him on the lips and said, “I love you, Goro. Bye.”

“I love you, too,” he replied as Yoko ran out of the room. Once she was out, he picked up his phone again and began to text someone else, saying to himself, “And now I can deal with this without her seeing it…”