A/N: I randomly searched and found a picture on google that fit our mysterious stranger watching in the balcony. So I put it here!

She had average skill.

When the match started, I was uncertain and cautious. As such, I waited for her to attack first. Not seeming to care, Yumi moved forward and aimed her sword in a bodily strike, which was rather easy to match and slide off course. The moment our swords caught each other, I could feel the strength behind the strike, which to my surprise wasn't much.

Either she was going easy on me or her physical strength was low.

Behind me I could hear the club cheering. Forcing myself to focus, I quickly shifted my sword in a counter attack, pushing it forward to strike at her chest while her own sword was still caught on mine. Yumi stepped back, easily avoiding the movement.

Her footwork wasn't bad at all.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the referees waving their flags below the waist. No valid points had been scored. Relaxing my sword, I walked back to the starting point and resumed my practiced starting stance. I noted at that moment that Yumi still seemed very relaxed, there was no hesitation or shaky movements as she also prepared for the referee to signal the beginning of this point.

When he had, I moved forward, deciding to test her defense. Once she was in striking distance, I raised my sword in a swift cut towards her upper shoulder. Instead of blocking the cut, she avoided it by using a quick turn that put her out of the way. Not giving her a chance to recover from the movement, I simply lunged forward in a strike similar to the one I'd attempted on her in our initial attacks. This time she couldn't avoid it and I felt my sword hit the armor around her collarbone.

Red flags came up signaling my point.

When we began again this time, Yumi immediately attacked. At first the movements were easy to block, but they became progressively harder. It became clear to me that her speed made up for her lack of physical strength. Just as I thought that I'd get the chance to strike, she'd bring her sword forward for another attack. It seemed that while I was testing her, she'd been testing me as well.

The exchange ended when she scored a hit on my right wrist. Despite the armor, I could feel pain spike up my arm. I'd never felt so thankful for the mask, it kept people from seeing how much the point had hurt.

As we walked back to our starting points I flexed my wrist attempting to ignore the pain that came from each little movement. This was the sort of situation in which my lack of experience showed. I knew mentally that when an attack was coming towards the inside of your wrist, you twist it to make the sword hit the outside instead. It reduced the chance of injury. In practice, however, it was much harder to remember such things. As quickly as she was moving I could only do what my body had practiced, the movements that were so beat into it that I could move without thought.

No amount of practice can stand up to having an opponent right in front of you.

The referees signaled the point to be hers. The next point would mean the end of our fight.

I brought my sword up into my beginning stance. My wrist continued to throb, but I pushed it from my mind. If I won here we stood a better chance at moving to the next stage of the tournament. Although, I guess with Fujii and Mori behind me there was very little chance that even if I did lose that we wouldn't progress.

Running these thoughts through my mind, I forced myself to relax.

"You can do it, Nao-chan!" a very familiar voice called out. "And when you win I bet Takashi will let us eat cake to celebrate! Let's eat strawberry!"

For a moment I almost lost my stance. My free hand came up to my mask instinctively, seeing as if it hadn't been there I would have covered my mouth to hide the snickering his words caused.

Of course Honey was thinking of cake at a moment like this. If he didn't doubt I could win, why should I?

We were signaled to begin, and I darted forward, pushing my pain to the back of my mind. Before she could attack, I swung my sword at a lower body attack. Surprised, Yumi barely managed to step back. The movement put her off balance, giving me a chance to swing at the same spot on the other side. This time she brought her sword down to counter. Without a second of thought, I shifted my stance and swung my sword up. A satisfied smile reached my lips as the sword hit the lower side of her arm with a nice thump.

The final point was mine.

I broke away from her as the referees waved the red flag. My eyes darted away from them to where the club stood in the balcony. To my surprise my eyes were met with grinning faces and cheers.

"Good job, Nao-chan!"

"You won!"

"Great job!"

For a moment I forgot that I was supposed to be walking back to the bench. I could only stare up at them. How long had it been since I'd had a reaction like that when I won a competition? Even as this ran through my mind, for some reason I didn't know, my gaze shifted over to where the auburn-haired boy had been standing before.

Unlike when my eyes found the host club, this boy wasn't cheering. If anything, he looked pissed.

"Morioka-senpai!"

Startled, I tore my eyes away from him and looked to our bench. Ayumu was grinning and even Kaede held a small smile. As I rejoined them I was shocked to suddenly have the first year sling his arms around me in a hug.

"You did great!"

I couldn't move. Ayumu was actually hugging me?

He released his arms a second later with a sheepish smile, seeming to realize that I wasn't that appreciative of the contact. That smile almost immediately went back to a grin as he remembered his original point.

"I got worried when she scored on you, but you didn't get hurt! You're amazing, senpai!"

You didn't get hurt…

His words brought the pain back to the front of my mind, making me realize just how much worse it hurt than before. I guess it hadn't appreciated the stress put on it from my final movements for the finishing point.

Fujii suddenly relaxed his left arm on the top of Ayumu's head as he studied me. He then gave me a grin similar to the one Ayumu held.

"Didn't I tell you that it would end up like this?" he ask cheerily. "You barely managed to pull off a win and now it's up to me to be a hero and finish things off! Be glad your vice-captain is such a reliable guy. You can sit down and relax because I'll handle everything."

If I hadn't left my mask on I would have kept away my resulting scowl. How did he get off with having such a huge ego?

"The fourth match will begin soon. The match is Fujii Kana of Ouran High School vs. Suzuki Akio of Tokyo South."

I had reached up to remove my mask when the announcement began and almost dropped it in surprise. My entire face probably showed my amusement, because Fujii scowled immediately. Ayumu on the other hand suddenly looked very interested in the opponent that Fujii would be facing instead of Fujii himself.

"Kana?" I questioned, unable to help myself.

"It means powerful!" Fujii declared. "It's not a girl's name! Not even close to one!"

No wonder even Ayumu, as close as he was to Fujii, used his surname instead of his first. It seemed the egotistical boy was self-conscious of his feminine name.

"Of course it does."

"Dammit!" Fujii muttered, removing his arm from Ayumu's head. "It's just a name, you know."

He then turned around and seized his helmet from the bench. A bit of guilt pricked at me, but not enough for me to say anything. He might have helped me during the first two matches, however that didn't make up for the fact his ego was rather annoying.

Once had his sword in his hand, Fujii turned back to face me, pointing in my direction with his free hand.

"Don't tell a soul," he ordered. "It's not like anyone needs to call me by that name anyways!"

He then turned and walked out to face his opponent. It wasn't until this moment that Ayumu looked back at me, that sheepish smile of his in place.

"Fujii-niisan doesn't like his name."

I gathered that much.

Shaking my head, I took a seat on the bench, tucking my helmet beside me and placing my throbbing wrist in my lap. The entire time this conversation had been going on, Mori had remained seated and silent. Now that Fujii was gone and I was sitting next to him, he finally spoke up.

"You did well."

I was startled enough that I didn't immediately realize it was him who'd spoken. When I did, however, I simply put on what I figured was an appropriate smile and aimed it in his direction.

"Thanks."

Silence stretched between us for a moment and I took that as my cue to look to where Fujii was waiting for his match to begin.

"Mitsukuni will be happy."

I hesitated, then looked back to him.

"He said we'd have cake to celebrate if I won," I said.

I could have sworn I saw amusement cross his normally stoic expression.

"If we have time."

To no one's surprise, both Fujii and Mori won their matches, advancing our little team to the next round. After a short celebration, which included Fujii turning Ayumu's head into a mess of ruffled hair and turning Kaede's face burning red, we all began to gather our things together. Our next round was in a different practice room.

I'll admit that it was about this time when I started to get worried. It took all I could to keep the grimace from my face when I grabbed my sword. Forget my wrist throbbing, it was burning, sending sharp pains up my arm every time I moved it. For a girl with little physical strength, Yumi hit hard.

Once we had our things moved to the next room and were about to go meet up with the host club I excused myself with the excuse of needing to use the bathroom. Our next round wasn't starting for another hour so I grabbed my normal clothing to take along with me. It would be annoying to run around in my kendo uniform for the entire time, and it also gave me something to hide the cloth bandage I'd pulled from the first aid kit. After getting directions from one of the tournament workers, I located the bathroom and set my clothing on the counter.

Carefully, as to not cause myself any more pain than I had to, I pulled off my gloves and pushed up the cloth covering my arms. The area around my wrist had swelled up considerably and the place the sword hit had already turned into a rather dark bruise. I'd been involved in sports long enough to know that these were signs I should probably keep from using the hand and withdraw from the tournament to see a doctor.

Uncle would be mad. He'd been pleased to hear that I was invited to be part of this team. If I caused the team to have to withdraw…

"Morioka-senpai?"

Startled, I glanced towards the door. Haruhi stood just inside the doorway looking rather surprised. A second later her eyes caught sight of my wrist and her mouth opened in a silent 'oh'. Pushed into action, I swiftly pulled down my sleeve and picked up my clothing with my free hand.

"I was going to change," I informed her and turned to face one of the stalls.

She didn't say anything at first which allowed me to enter the stall and lock it behind me. I'd begun to take off the different parts of my uniform when she finally decided what to say.

"Have you told Mori?"

"No."

"Did anyone notice?"

"No."

Haruhi fell silent, taking those two bits of information in. Careful not to move my wrist more than needed, I managed to remove everything and pull on my dress. Instead of putting on my jacket right away, I exited the stall and sat my uniform on the counter. Haruhi's eyes seemed to settle on my wrist again the moment that it came into view.

"It could be broken," she said, sounding rather concerned.

"I don't think so," I replied while pulling the cloth bandage from its place in my jacket. "My opponent didn't have much strength to her hits."

"She was fast," Haruhi countered after a moment. "Couldn't that make up for it? And those swords look heavy."

I didn't have anything to say to that, so I just started wrapping my wrist. Haruhi watched for a moment then stepped forward, holding out her hands.

"Let me."

It was obvious that my one-handed job wasn't working that well. After only a second of hesitation I handed it over to her and watched as she carefully wrapped my wrist, making sure the bandage was tight and secure.

"You can't compete with it like this," she said when finished.

"I can."

"It looks really painful," she argued. "The others won't get mad at you if you have to pull out. They'll be disappointed, but I think they'd be more upset if you hurt yourself further by continuing. What if it really is broken? You could make the break worse."

I shook my head.

I couldn't do that. After I'd finally managed to make Uncle happy over something I'd done, how could I give up after a little thing like this?

"I'll tell."

Shocked, I focused all of my attention on Haruhi.

"What?"

Her face showed nothing but determination.

"I'll tell them. You're going to hurt yourself," she said slowly, as if to make sure that her words were sinking in. "It'd be dumb to fight like this."

"I can still fight!" I said instantly. "You saw how easily I got that last point, right? I can do this! Please, don't tell anyone. I can't forfeit."

Surprise took the place of her determination. I was fully aware of the fact my voice had broken with the last words. I couldn't do anything about that, though. The surprise soon gave way to hesitation.

"Why?" Haruhi asked.

I flinched.

"If you don't want me to tell everyone, you must have a good reason. Why?"

My reason was a simple one, but one that I was certain wouldn't keep her from telling the others.

"I'll tell you… afterwards," I muttered after a moment. "If we don't get moving now, they're going to be suspicious."

With that I grabbed my jacket and carefully pulled it on, making sure that the long sleeves covered my bandaged wrist. Haruhi looked like she was going to argue with me, but after a second she sighed and nodded.

"Fine, but if it looks worse after the next round, or you seem to be struggling, I'm going to tell," Haruhi said, giving in.

Relief shot through me.

"Thanks, I really appreciate this," I replied and gathered my uniform with my good arm. "I'm going to go ahead and go back to everyone, you do whatever it is you needed to do."

Haruhi nodded and headed into one of the stalls as I started out of the bathroom. As I turned in the direction I'd need to go, however, I found myself hitting something solid and sprawling backwards on the floor. A hiss of pain escaped my lips as I started to get back up and put too much pressure on my wrist.

"Morioka Nao, wasn't it?"

My eyes shot up to the voice and found a hand offered towards me. Reluctant, but knowing that was the only way I was easily getting up, I grabbed his hand with my free one. The stranger pulled me to my feet then bent over to grab my uniform from where it'd ended up on the floor. It was then that I realized this auburn-haired stranger was the same one I'd seen watching our match. The guy who'd looked so pissed.

This close to him I was able to get a better look at him. His auburn hair laid in messy strands around his his face. His eyes were a light tealish shade and his skin a slightly tan color. He had changed from his earlier casual clothing into a traditional kendo uniform that seemed completely natural on him.

"Uh...yeah," I replied, taking my uniform when he offered it to me. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me," he said, offering a good-natured smile. "I'm the one who knocked you down in the first place, it was the least I could do."

I hesitated, then gave him one of my practiced smiles as a response.

"You did well in your match," the boy continued, then paused for a moment, a rueful look appearing on his face. "Although it seems that you took a hard hit, didn't you?"

I couldn't breathe.

"Who're you?" I demanded, attempting to keep my sudden wariness from my voice.

The boy simply gave me a different sort of smile, somewhere between his original good-natured one and something different, something that sent a shiver down my spine.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm the captain of one of the participating teams, Kimura Ren. Perhaps my team will face yours sometime today…" he answered, then put an obviously fake, thoughtful look on his face. "Hm, although I suppose it won't be much fun if we do. What with your reaction when you fell just now. It looks like you must be in an awful lot of pain…"

Everything about Ren gave off a bad feeling. My mind switched to how he'd acted during our match, and to the cheerful smile he'd had when he first greeted me. I couldn't help the incredibly strong feeling that he was the worst person to have found out about this.

"Don't worry, though," he added on. "I'll warn my kohai to go easy on you. We wouldn't want something happening to make that little injury worse, would we?"

I was frozen in place as he reached out a hand to ruffle my hair.

"Well, I'll see you later, little Nao-chan. My team's expecting me."

It wasn't until he was completely past me that I managed to turn around. Ren didn't look back once as he cut his way through the competitors and spectators milling around the hall. A few seconds later he was completely out of view.

A/N: Fun chapter! Doesn't Ren seem like bunches of fun?

Anyways, I have two important things to tell you guys. 

1st: I can't remember if I've mentioned this, but I put this story in the Mori section of the OHSHCwattyawards thing, so if you guys don't mind, when the voting starts next month please vote for it!

2nd: The reason I'm saying the first now is something that I've mentioned quite a few times in recent messages. I'm going to be going on vacation for two weeks. Now, if I can get a chapter or two written between now and then there will be an update while I'm gone, but odds are this will be the last update till I come back. When I do come back things will be a little hectic with me moving to a different town in preperation for college next fall, so I probably won't be updating every week. Just thought I'd let you know!

Ciao for awhile!