Eventually, of course, Anthy Himemiya began to tire.
She had never been the physically active sort back at Ohtori, and was not used to so much walking. She had been walking for hours now, and she was surprised that she hadn't tired sooner. Much of that energy, she imagined, came from the simple joy of being free. It was not the freedom of running away, either. She had no reason to run; Akio could do nothing to bind her to him now, if she did not wish it. Agony is defined by relief, and she hadn't realized, even after so many centuries, just how much pain she had taken onto herself for her brother. And now she was finally free of Akio, and the hungry ghost he had become. Free of Ohtori Academy, that whirlpool which had pulled in and destroyed so many souls over the years.
Anthy stopped walking, stood still for a moment, suddenly sad. It was her brother's whirlpool; every riptide and eddy of his design. But she had built it for him. She had gotten the magic in the family, not him. But magic and power are not mutually exclusive, and Akio was certainly the one with power. Still, she had done his bidding of her own free will. Even a tyrant rules by consent of his subjects, no matter how difficult he makes it for them to withhold consent. She didn't think her brother had enough force of will to maintain his kingdom of illusions without her magic, but she wasn't certain. For the very briefest of moments Anthy considered going back, to personally tear down that theater of horrors she has helped create.
No. She felt more in charge of herself that she had since she was a child, but she was not sure if she'd be able to resist her brother if he tried to pull her in again. She might. But she might not, and her freedom was too new and precious to her to risk it now. Someday, perhaps, when she had a bit more experience living under her own power. When she found Utena...
Hope and resolution welled up in her again. She would find Utena, and she'd show her that her sacrifice hadn't been in vain. And Utena could teach her how she was able to be so confident, to be kind to herself and others, to make friends even out of her rivals.
Someday, together we'll shine...
The sun was halfway through it's descent across the sky, so Anthy sat down on a low stone wall paralleling the road to take stock of herself, careful not to wake Chuu Chuu, who had fallen asleep draped over her shoulder, tail wound lightly about her neck. She set her suitcase down at her feet and looked around. It might be hard to make friends, she thought, if there aren't any people out here.
Anthy had met no other people at all. She had hiked through miles of lovely landscape: bright woods and meadows and rolling green hills, and alongside glittering ponds and streams. There was fairy tale beauty to it all, and a untamed look she'd never seen in the ferociously manicured grounds of the Academy. No people, though, or buildings for people to dwell in. But there was evidence that people came through this land, or had once. Structures that were obviously Man's work. The knee-high rock wall she sat on, for instance. She's crossed over a few bridges, of wood and of stone. The hills she'd passed had been sparsely crisscrossed with strung wire fences, and the denser parts of the forest had lamp-posts along the road. The road itself was unpaved but well-worn; it even had that raised part in the center that happened to dirt roads traveled by cars. The net effect was that this was an area that people passed through regularly, if infrequently.
This was further evidenced by the abandoned vehicles she'd passed. They were all about, on both sides of the road. It seemed that the minute she passed out of eyeshot of the last one, a new one would appear in the distance. They ranged in condition from simply abandoned for no visible reason to utterly ruined wrecks. Anthy had stopped to examine the first few, but gave up when it became apparent they were a regular feature on this leg of the journey. They weren't just cars either. She's passed by bicycles, motorbikes, carts and covered wagons, tanks. There were landed and crashed airplanes, stranded boats and ships, and once she could make out what looked like a submarine wedged between two hills in the distance.
None of this alarmed Anthy much, given to the oddities she's been involved in most of her life at Ohtori, but it was certainly puzzling.
Chuu Chuu yawned a few centimeters below her ear, sat up and looked about. Then he hopped down onto her knee to look up at her. "Chuu?" he asked, cocking his head. Anthy smiled at him, then turned and looked on down the road. The trees had thinned out to nearly none, and she had the feeling that they may reach desert within a few miles.
"Well, Chuu Chuu," she said. "The sun's going down, and I don't think we should keep walking in the dark. But I haven't seen any place we could spend the night. Any ideas?"
The silly little marmoset cocked his head the other way, then reached into the little bundle tied to his back and pulled out a cracker. He gnawed halfway through it, paused, blushed, remembered his manners, pulled forth another one and handed it to Anthy. She giggled as she took it with a nod of thanks, and nibbled it thoughtfully, regarding the path ahead.
Then she noticed a small smudge of color in the near distance that looked out of place in the landscape. Another car or some such, she expected. But it gave her an idea this time. Lifting Chuu Chuu back onto her shoulder and her suitcase from the ground, she stood and continued down the road towards it.
It was indeed a car, parked among the brush a yard or so from the path. Not a wreck, but had clearly been abandoned long ago and suffered exposure to the elements, overgrown with weeds and grass. It had been a nice car, too; something expensive and classic, like an older model Cadillac or Mercedes, and a convertable at that. Once it must have been a lovely vivid pink, but was now a faded rusty rose.
Akio had loved driving. Being in the car with him was usually terrifying. She was never behind the wheel herself, but sometimes, sitting in the passenger seat watching landscape whip by to fast to really see, she wondered what it was like to be the driver. Well, no time like the present to find out. And what was the use of being a witch if she couldn't manage a more efficient mode of transport? The faster she could travel, the sooner she could find Utena.
Anthy slipped one hand into her pocket, and her hand closed around something small and solid therein. She pulled it out and studied it: Utena's Rose Crest signet ring. The late afternoon sun glowed on the smooth enamel of the crest, highlighting the jagged crack across it, like a fork of black lightning. She closed her fingers around it again, and regarded the ruined car again, thoughtfully. When she opened her hand, the sunlight glinted again on the Mark of the Rose, stamped in chrome on the key. With a satisfied smile, she opened the driver's side door, bright pink and polished chrome, seated herself in the smooth upholstery if royal purple velvet, and fastened her seatbelt. Chuu Chuu hopped off her shoulder to the passenger seat and looked up at her.
"Shall we, then?" Anthy asked him.
Chuu Chuu sat and sank his tiny claws into the seat in preparation. "Chuu!" he agreed.
She turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life. She pulled out her old glasses from her overshirt, the lenses now dark enough to block out the glare from the setting sun, and slid them on as she pulled out onto the road and they continued on their way.