Chrysalis
By Vic Woo
Finally, the butterfly has emerged from its chrysalis. | Mikage's life, after his "graduation" from Ohtori Academy. | Alternative Universe.
Disclaimer: I don't own Utena, and I never will. Be glad – it wouldn't be half as wonderful as it is now, what with my lack of creativity and all... Plus, only cool kids have their own anime series, and, as it is SO obvious, I have no life, therefore am not cool. Sorry to burst your bubble, because I know you were all expecting me to be this like…prodigy or something. Scripts gathered from duellists.tj Ohtori.Nu.
First Utena fanfic. Yeah, I know; my first project for such a vast, complex, symbolic series should have been much smaller – and originally, it was going to. But things changed.
I've been writing fanfiction for, I dunno...a few months now. At the beginning, it was just giving Ren Suu some ideas, beta-reading, and things, but eventually it grew to where I was actually able to survive on my own (gasp of shock and horror, I know)! So yeah, Ren Suu basically disowned me, saying I should get to work on my own stories before she corrupted my momentary career as a fanfic-writer. I don't know whether to take offense or not. Gee, Ren, sure didn't take you long to decide my fanfic career would be short-lived. XD Just joking with ya. I don't know about short lived, but it won't be the most interesting. But let's see how well Chrysalis fares before I start contemplating long-term expectations – or lack of them, rather. This is also a rather broad-ranged Alternative Universe. There are many references to Ohtori Academy, as this is Mikage, but they are mere references. It's more-so, how much he'd like revenge on Akio, than anything else. But you can interpret this anyway you want!
As of this point, 4:00 AM on March 15, 2004, I have only gotten through the Black Rose Saga/Arc of the Utena series. But, from reading through some Mikage/Nemuro websites, and general Utena information, Mikage/Nemuro "graduating" is the last anyone from Ohtori every saw or heard of him. Of course, that's excluding the fact that Akio erases all memory of Mikage from the student-body. This part annoyed me a bit. As the Utena anime series constantly seems to accomplish – much to the bane of Utena fans' existences, I'm sure – there were many unanswered questions as to how Mikage copes to graduating – does he continue to fall into the fake pretenses he set up for himself, or has Akio truly corrupted him to the point of starting over a new life, with new memories? Has he remained Soji Mikage, or returned to his ways of (Professor) Nemuro? For that to happen, he would still have to be alive of course...and, at my own pet peevish expense, there are no solid facts that prove he is alive, or if he's wasted away. There are theories, and they can be considered, but, since it's Utena, there isn't much solidity.
Yeah, okay, since I've now taken up a full page of my precious fanfic space… One last thing: I'll try and make this as wonderfully symbolic as the anime was, but don't count on it. I wouldn't even be able to figure out half the symbolic trappings scattered around in the series if it weren't for the glorious essays explaining them on the internet; and I know you're just the same. Unless…you're the writer of one of those said essays. If you are…please help me.
So! Without further ado, what you've all been waiting for (Pssh! Yeah right! Once you figure out there'll be no refreshments, half of you are going to leave!)
Chrysalis, Part I (Yeah, PARTS. Scary, isn't it? Might decide to get rid of them, though, if the plot changes just a bit more in my mind and forces me to squish all the chapters together.)
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[Scripts gathered from Ohtori.Nu] Chrysalis: Part I Prologue"Ah, Nemuro-kun. I was thinking it was about time you called me."
On the receiving end, the earpiece shook, violent tremors induced by Nemuro's trembling running through his veins, his muscles, the plastic of the receiver. He didn't want to listen, but he couldn't hang up – he tried; he wasn't able to.
"M-Mamiya…" The name, it was a sigh, released from between the man's lips. "How many decades…?"
Akio continued to speak, "Yes. The boy called Mamiya that you were keeping with you from your lingering attachment to Tokiko, died a long time ago. I exploited the illusion you cherished in your memory so much that you even halted your own time. The period where you hid the possibility in your heart, not growing up, was useful. However, that's all over."
"Mamiya?" Nemuro's voice began at its normal timbre – whispery, though – then soared to a searing treble. Desperation clung to his intonation as he continued to chant the boy's name. "Mamiya!?" He could not get over it. He had come so close to break Utena Tenjou; had come so close. But then... But then Mamiya had spoken to him; spoken directly: had told him he could not win! Had told him that Utena Tenjou would defeat him; she would knock the black rose off his breast – and that would mean ruin. Reduced remains. Remembrance. Recollection. Realization.
And Mamiya had been right. The girl had knocked the rose from his chest, and the petals had formed a cloud, and time had seemed to stand still, for one moment. It was that moment, when the grain of sand was suspended between the sides of the center of the hourglass that linked the two globes together. That glorious moment was gone in the blink of an eye, and the black rose petals blew away spastically, away from each other, joining each other, tearing apart, coming back together, until they were no longer in sight.
His mind had crumbled then, to ruin; the remains less than what one would expect from the man that was once Professor Nemuro. The genius.
He remembered Mamiya, had seen the true Mamiya in his mind's eye, and, as the pain of loss of everything scorched through his body, had hoped it was a delusion. But there was still recollection. And the pictures- the horrid pictures!
It was then that he had realized...
"From now on, the path before you is not prepared," Akio said calmly.
Streaks of white lightning appeared between Nemuro's already pale hands as he gripped the receiver tighter. His eyes widened just a bit, and his breathing came quick and harsh through his nose.
"You, graduate now."
"No! Mamiya—!" Nemuro reached out in the darkened room.
The other end of the line was alive, then clicked when it died.
The man was there one moment, gone the next. A blue uniform remained, but without a body to fill it.
Nemuro was no more.
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Yeah, just a prologue, I know. Damn short, too. ONE PAGE. God, I'm sorry; but it's 5:00 AM now, and I have to go to bed. It's Spring Break though, so for all you readers out there, don't worry, it'll be updated later today.
Please review, tell me what you think. Constructive criticism appreciated. Hell, I don't care if you flame me. As long as you read it! All attention is good attention!
Next Chapter: The beginnings of the new Soji Mikage, in the Outside world, as he makes a new path for himself.