Her Brother's Keeper: A Story of Alpha Centauri
Round One

Christiana and Amanda-mouto were facing one another in the middle of the arena, waiting for the chime to sound. Amanda-mouto was armed with a standard wooden bokken while she was using her trusty practice naginata. Silence had fallen across the entire exhibition hall. The only sound that could be heard was the gentle hum of the air conditioning while everyone waited for the match to begin.

As soon as she heard the chime, she pressed an easily parried attack. It was so easy to deal with that she had learned it during her first week of training, well before her special training had begun. ‘Time to feel her out without showing my hand to Sakura-nee,’ she thought as she made a slight lunge towards her patSister.

Unexpectedly, the younger girl retreated hurriedly, not even trying to block while still keeping herself outside of the reach of the spear-like weapon.

‘What the heck,’ she thought her mind in more than a little turmoil. ‘I wonder what she will do if I do this.’ She held her pole-arm in a position which left her open to many basic attacks.

This time, the other girl just stood there. She didn’t press forward, nor did she retreat. Meanwhile, she held her simulated katana in a defensive position.

‘What is she doing?’ she wondered. Amanda-mouto’s actions simply weren’t logical. It was common practice to spend the first few moments of a bout to feeling out their opponent to get an idea of their abilities. She honestly didn’t know how to react to her patSister’s actions. This went against all of tactics that her sensei had taught her about armed combat. As a result, she spent a few seconds observing her opponent.

Shrugging to herself she slowly approached Amanda-imouto, one step at the time. The girl reacted by retreating like she had done before.

‘Well, lets see if I chain some basic attacks,’ she considered before performing three easy to block slashing attacks, starting at waist level and working up towards the head. This time her adversary backed up in a panic until her back was literally against the wall.

‘She’s scared of me!’ she finally realized. ‘Why? It’s not like it would hurt her even if I hit her. We’re both wearing protective equipment.’

Out of consideration for her opponent, she slowly retreated to the center of the arena instead of pressing her advantage. As she retreated from the bokken welding girl, murmurs arose once again in the gallery above.

The younger sibling slowly, hesitantly, approached the center of the ring with her hardwood sword held in a basic blocking position. Once she also made it to their starting point, she nodded in recognition of the favor her patSister had given her. Then she made some very weak and probing attacks.

‘I think she’s realized that I’m not out to hurt her,’ she thought as she sloppily and gently blocked the incoming attacks. ‘I don’t want to scare her again and I don’t want to show my hand to Sakura-nee either. This is a suitable compromise.’

The two of them traded basic strikes back and forth until the younger female had gained enough confidence to press her. ‘Finally! This might turn into a decent match!’

Out of nowhere, an unexpectedly advanced move came at her and she automatically parried the blow and did a perfect riposte in the form of a naginata kaeshi-waza. As soon as she blocked and knocked aside her adversary’s bokken, she completed a counter attack, striking the other girl’s wrist guard with the simulated blade.

“Point!” the staffer called out, followed by multiple judges agreeing over the sound system.

‘Whoops,’ she thought. ‘I didn’t mean to show my hand like that.’ While not a difficult technique it did take a bit of skill to pull off perfectly.

After this one strike Amanda-imouto went back to her old pattern. Until the time ran out, she constantly retreated. However, this time she was careful not to get backed into the wall.

‘Well, that was a pretty boring match,’ she thought as the ending chime finally sounded.

“Winner, Christiana’ The Matriarch declared in the seats above the arena floor. Sparse applause followed as she bowed to her opponent and then to the staffer who had acted as the referee. Finally she bowed to her Mother before leaving the arena.

-----

---

After stripping off her protective equipment, she rushed up into the gallery to witness Sakura-nee’s match. As she emerged into the seats Haruhi-nee and Wendy-imouto waved her over to an empty seat next to the pair. She went and sat down.

“She didn’t put up much of a fight did she?” Haruhi whispered into her ear, being careful to make sure no one else in the stands overheard them.

In response, she shook her head.

“You’re not even sweaty,” her oneechan observed.

“Nope,” she responded in a low tone. She didn’t want to shame her patSister, so she only gave a quick, one-word response.

“Christiana-oneechan you were so cool out there,” Wendy-mouto commented with her adorable voice. The smaller girl was quite excited, it seemed. “You’re going to fight again later, right?”

“Yep, I sure am!” she responded with a smile. “I made it into the second round.”

“Congratulations!” the younger girl squealed and positively hopped up and down in her seat.

“Calm down, shortie,” her womb-mate commented with a chuckle. “It’s almost time to watch Sakura-nee and Kelly-imouto’s match.”

“Ahhh, she’s okay,” Christiana commented as she leaned over and hugged her little patSister. Then, in a less joking manner, she continued, “Just be quiet during their match okay? You don’t want to break their concentration.”

“Okay!” came the response as the girl stopped her fidgeting and her face took on a more serious expression.

‘She’s so cute!’ she thought as she gazed at the youngster. Being the youngest in her own matFam, she only got to see her younger relatives occasionally. While the babies were charming, the older kids were also kawaii in their own way.

“Look they’re starting,” Haruhi-onee pointed out as the staffer returned to the floor.

In all honesty, the bout between Kelly-imotou and Sakura-neechan was quite boring to watch. As in Christiana’s fight, the younger girl merely tried to defend herself while her elder pressed the attack. Kelly spent all of her time retreating and guarding herself against the blow after blow that her patSister rained down upon her.

“Is it just me or is Sakura-nee being extremely aggressive?” Haruhi-oneechan whispered. “I mean she hasn’t even let up for a moment. Poor Kelly-mouto.”

Even Wendy-mouto chimed in. “Sakura is just being a meanie,” she remarked, also in a whisper. Even the young child could tell that things were off right from the start. “When you fought you weren’t mean,” the little blonde pointed out, her eyes firmly locked on Christiana’s.

The older girl just smiled in return and wrapped her arm around the little girl’s shoulders before giving her a quick, sideways hug. Then she focused her attention back on the arena floor.

Not much had changed during that momentary pause. Sakura-oneechan was still pressing her younger opponent while the younger girl desperately tried to defend herself from the constant onslaught. It was very clear who had the upper hand.

Finally, Kelly-imouto stumbled while retreating and Sakura-nee scored a point while her opponent was off balance. This seemed to take the wind out of Kelly-mouto’s sails, as she barely even tried to defend herself after that point. Needless to say, Sakura-neechan quickly scored the second point, and the entire match was over in less than two minutes.

“Wow, she was brutal,” Haruhi-nee whispered so that only Christiana could hear.

It was quite clear that the rest of the audience felt the same way. While there had been polite applause after Christiana’s bout, there was only silence after Sakura-nee’s and Kelly-mouto’s match. Even patMother Patricia didn’t clap afterward. Apparently, she could read the mood of the rest of the family.

“How could she do that to her own patSister?” Christiana muttered under her breath. “Especially one of her youngers?”

“I don’t know,” came Haruhi’s quiet reply. Apparently, she had heard Christiana’s comment and thought that it was a question that she should answer. “I could never do that to Kelly-mouto. She’s such a sweetheart.”

‘I agree,’ Christiana thought as she stood to go downstairs and prepare for the third and final match. ‘If this had happened in any other setting, what Sakura-nee just did would be considered bullying.’

“Give her hell,” Haruhi-nee said after standing and giving Christiana a quick hug. “I know you won’t let someone bully you.”

“Good luck, Chris-nee,” little Wendy-mouto said after giving Christiana a hug of her own. “I know you can win. Teach Sakura-nee that it is wrong to treat her own patSister like that.”

“I will do my very best to teach her just that,” Christiana said as she made her way to the stairs. Then, with a short wave, she thought ‘Let’s do this,’ as she went through a doorway leading out of the arena’s observation level.

----

Chapter 15: Round Two

After she had donned her protective pads, Christiana approached the entranceway to the arena floor, her naginata grasped firmly in her hands. As she entered the auditorium floor, the sight of Sakura-oneechan entering through the opposite doorway greeted her. The dark-haired girl was carrying a hardwood bokken practice sword and wearing protective gear similar to her own.

The match began moments afterwards when the venue’s employee told the girls to bow to one another and take positions. Then they gave the order to begin and both girl’s finally began the fight that they had spent months training for.

‘Here we go,’ Christiana thought as the order was finally given. ‘I can’t afford to lose or my chances to be with both of my Siblings will go out the window!’

The match began uneventfully as the two girls tried to feel each other out. It only took Christiana a few moments to notice a possible weakness. ‘She is slower to react to attacks coming from her left to her right than she is from sweeping slashes coming from her right to her left.’

This was a standard weakness that her Sensei had told Christiana to look out for, and exactly how to exploit it.

Just to be sure Christiana tried the same probing sweep a second time, only to get the same response. ‘I have you now!’ she thought at first, but as the probing went on, she became less sure of herself. ‘I shouldn’t overthink it, but that is a pretty glaring flaw in her sword work. Could she be faking it?’ As a result, she kept probing her patSister for weaknesses only to replace none that were as obvious.

Meanwhile, Christiana was faking a flaw where she was slower to parry attacks when she was retreating than when she was moving forward or sideways. However, she made sure not to make it obvious just as her teacher had instructed her to. ‘Fight smarter, not harder, as Saito Sensei told me over and over.’

Soon afterwards, after her initial probing was over, Christiana went on the offensive. She did not want her opponent to discover any of her own flaws. ‘Looking for weaknesses too long can be just as bad as not looking at all. Sensei also drilled that into my head.’

Sakura-nee seemed surprised by the sudden onslaught. Not even twenty seconds of the three-minute match had passed and Christiana was already pressing her. Because of the much longer reach of the naginata, the older patSister had no choice but to retreat or risk the younger girl scoring a point. However, constantly attacking wore away at Christiana’s stamina quickly and she was rapidly out of breath despite not scoring any points.

‘I need to pace myself,’ she kept thinking. The problem was that whenever Christiana slacked off on her attacks Sakura-oneechan showed another opening. This caused the inexperienced blonde to expend more energy in attacking the older girl once again.

For some reason, Christiana couldn’t seem to land a strike, even when attacking with a sweep from her opponent’s left to her right. ‘She was faking it!’ the younger patSister realized as the fight wore on.

‘She’s trying to wear me down!’ Christiana realized after a minute and a half of this constant attack and retreat. Since this was only her second match against someone other than her teacher, it took her a while to catch on. Having already spent half of the match attacking with nothing to show for it, Christiana couldn’t help but become angry at herself for falling for the ruse. Of course, constant retreat should have worn Sakura-nee down as well, but she wasn’t even breathing hard at this point.

‘Wow, she is in good shape,’ Christiana thought as she refused to be baited into another attack. This caused Sakura-oneechan to pause momentarily before showing a second and different opening.

In response, Christiana simply shook her head and stood her ground, giving herself a moment of rest before she circled around the center of the combat ring. Sakura-nee had no choice but to circle around with her in order to keep facing her. This went on for a good fifteen seconds until the frustrated older patSister finally broke in to attack.

‘The match is as good as mine,’ Christiana thought as the dark-haired girl charged her, apparently hoping to get within striking range of the blade of the naginata. ‘Silly girl, all I have to do is change my grip like so and you are still in range of my weapon.’

With that thought, Christiana shifted her grip towards the blade end of the shaft as opposed to holding it from the middle. This was one of the classical advantages of the spear-like weapon: the ability to change its turning radius with a minor shift in how it was grasped. Using this method, she was able to strike Sakura-onee on the top of her helmet.

“Point!” came the call from the many virtual referees and the venue’s on-site staff person. The clean strike was easy to see from virtually any angle. Upon this being decided, the match’s clock was immediately stopped.

Polite applause burst out from the audience. The point had been hard won, taking almost three quarters of the allotted time to finally be scored. Her family appeared to realize just how hard Christiana had to fight in order to achieve the point.

With this strike, the score went from zero to zero to Christiana one and Sakura-oneechan zero. The older patSister had to land at least one hit in the remaining time in order for her to stay in the running by putting the match into overtime. It was highly doubtful that the older girl could score two points to win the match in the remaining thirty some odd seconds.

‘Don’t get cocky,’ Christiana thought to herself as she followed the referees’ instructions and re-took her position in the center of the arena. The truth was, she was still tired and panting slightly. She was also overheating rapidly because of the protective padding she was wearing mixed with the exertion of fighting. Sakura-nee, on the other hand, seemed unfazed by the bout and was breathing normally as she took her spot opposite Christiana.

As soon as both girls took their positions and entered their respective stances, the chime sounded, showing that the match was back underway.

‘I can’t get sloppy here, the match is riding on my performance over the next thirty seconds,’ Christiana thought as she sprang into action, immediately going on the offensive. If her opponent did not have the chance to attempt a strike, then the bout was as good as over.

Once again, however, her fatigue reared its ugly head and after about fifteen seconds she began to make minor mistakes. At first, it was only errors like placing a little too much weight on her front foot while making a thrust, but it kept getting gradually worse.

In fact, the change was so gradual that the focused girl did not realize her mistakes until five seconds before the match would have ended with her victory. That was when she stumbled slightly during a thrust.

Upon seeing this momentary opening, her opponent made a lightning fast strike on Christiana’s outstretched arm, bringing the score to one point each.

As the calls of “point,” registered in her mind, Christiana wondered, ‘How did she move that fast this late into a match? I feel like I’m about to fall over.’

Moments later, as soon as the round ended in a tie, there was a commotion in the stands. While she was sipping from her water bottle and resting on the stool provided, it surprised Christiana to hear her Mother’s voice.

“The combatants will return to their dressing rooms while we discuss a certain matter,” the Matriarch announced.

An even larger hubbub followed. After glancing at Sakura-nee, Christiana could see that this occurrence also confused her patSister. It was quite abnormal for a Keeper contest combat match to be interrupted in this way.

Despite this, both girls followed the direction of arena staff and left through their respective doors.

----

Once the girls had left the arena, Miss Harrison Leaned over and whispered to Holly, “They are using a stimulant called ephedra to give Sakura an advantage.”

“How do you know?” came the redhead’s immediate reply.

“It has a very distinct smell, at least to us it does. I could smell its metabolites during the match. That is definitely cheating according to your House charter,” Harrison responded in another whisper.

“Do you have any proof?” came the reply.

“No, and since it is not widely produced on Cooper’s World it won’t show up on a standard blood test. However, it WILL show up on a scan run on Hope,” Miss Harrison replied with a devilish grin. “Their overconfidence will be their undoing. This is going to be fun.”

“How should I proceed?” Holly asked.

“Accuse Patricia of cheating due to how her daughter fought without tiring and invoke section three clause a of your House charter.”

“Live steel combat? Why?” came Holly’s shocked reply.

“Because it is the only way that a Matriarch can set any special rules for the outcome of a match in a tournament. Otherwise, only ‘standard rules’ will apply,” came Miss Harrison’s retort.

“So what rules should be added?”

“A blood test will be taken of both girls prior to the re-commencement of the match. If we replace any any irregularities, then the match goes to the one who has not cheated. The Mother of the cheater will also face censure by the rest of House Washington,” Harrison explained, her blue eyes sparkling with excitement.

“So even if Christiana ends up losing the match, she will still win if we can provide proof that Patricia broke the rules.”.”

“Exactly.”

As soon as the matriarch got to her feet and began making the statement that she had suggested, things went according to Miss Harisson’s plan. Patricia readily agreed to the blood tests and even requested a rematch if no performance-enhancing drugs or stimulants were found in either girl’s system. However, when Holly strongly protested this course of action with the support of two other Wives Patricia backed down on the rematch idea.

‘She is like a lamb to the slaughter,’ Miss Harrison thought as a unanimous vote to draw the girls’ blood for testing by all the Wives. The vote also stipulated that the blood was to be drawn in front of all those present, so the arena staff notified the nurse on duty in their small infirmary to ready the necessary equipment.

‘Patricia didn’t even protest when she was told that the contest was changing over to live steel. She seems to be more worried about being caught at this point than the wellbeing of her own daughter,’ Miss Harrison mused as she watched the drama play out before her. ‘What a bitch.’

----

When Christiana was called back into the arena, she was prepared to recommence the match. The last thing she expected was being told that she had to have her blood drawn in order to check for stimulants and performance-enhancing medications.

‘I have taken nothing that was not prescribed by a doctor,’ Christiana thought as a nurse inserted a needle into one of her veins.

Doing her best not to flinch at the sudden pain, Christiana tried to figure out the cause of this state of events. ‘Does this mean that Sakura-nee is suspected of taking something? It would make sense because of the way she didn’t get tired during our grueling bout earlier.’

Finally, the vials were filled with blood, and the nurse withdrew the needle from her arm. The medic then placed a tiny patch of NewSkin on her arm to stop the bleeding, and the medical procedure was complete.

Once Sakura-nee’s blood was also taken and the nurse had left the arena, Christiana’s Mother stood and announced, “Girls, per our House’s charter the match will continue using live steel. Please return to your dressing rooms to prepare for the continuation of the Keeper tournament.”

‘What?’ Christiana thought in total disbelief. ‘That is not something I signed up for!’

However, upon glancing over at her older patSister Sakura-oneechan and seeing her seemingly unfazed by the situation, she kept her cool. It would be one thing if the older girl was also upset and yet another if she were the only one protesting. Instead, she merely bowed to her Mother once again before leaving the arena floor.