It's cold… Who's crying? It must be a dream. Or rather snatches of a dream just before awakening. She only needs to open her eyes and get up, but how numb her body is! And where from does this smell of soil and moist come? Only having parted her lids, Utena finally comes to feel how strong her headache is. She sits up, leaning on her left arm, and looks, confused, at her right hand marred with black soil. Is it still a dream? Utena takes a look around wincing from the pain in her numb neck.
She's seated at the bottom of a shallow hole between the rose bushes near the glass wall of the greenhouse in the Ohtori Academy yard, and the dense fog behind the glass forms an impervious pall. Her clothes are stained with dirt, there are some bruises and abrasions on her legs, and she feels there must be some more under the clothes. How did she happen to get here? And who's crying at the opposite side of the greenhouse? Utena tries to recall what she was doing before waking up here, and her mind moves as grudgingly as her limbs. She stands up unsteadily, and suddenly a single thought rushes through her head, making her forget the nagging pain in her joints and the sore pulsation in her head.
"An…thy!" her voice is hoarse, and her first attempt to shout aloud fails. "Anthy!"
The only thing Utena has managed to recall is that Anthy was with her. Where's she now? What happened? Why somebody is crying? She feels anxious, almost panicking. Utena rushes at the greenhouse center, trying to distinguish the slight but ubiquitous movement in the foggy haze – flakes of something very light are falling down from the sky. Anthy isn't here, but somebody kneels near a big bush decorated lavishly with purple roses, sobbing hysterically.
"Excuse me," she addresses the figure hesitantly, having come closer. "Are you okay? Can I help you?" the crying girl doesn't react to her words, her back and the bush hiding what she's bent over. "Haven't you seen a swarthy girl in glasses here?" Utena can't help but ask what she's worried about the most. The girl doesn't react again, her back is trembling from her sobs. "Excuse me, can you hear me? Do you need help?" Utena comes closer and closer. Now she can see that the girl kneels over a hole like the one she has got out herself. What did she find there?
There's something wrong about this girl. Utena stops, hesitating. Her back – there's a hunch under her coat, and it moves, but not because of her sobs. The hunch's twitching by itself, like a little fussy animal! What the hell..? Is she injured? What had to happen to a person for a disgusting thing like this to emerge on her back?
"I'm looking for my friend, Himemiya Anthy…" Utena takes a quick step ahead – and hardly manages to spring back from something that flashes before her nose.
Now the strange girl is facing her. She isn't sobbing – only trembling slightly and sniffing, and her eyes, absolutely blank and dead, looking sightlessly from the tearful pale face are scarier than the knife in her hand. An uncomfortable weakness spreads over her body, and Utena feels her legs go leaden. Paralyzed, she's staring at the girl: at her long blonde hair, her expensive stylish clothes, at the black rose pinned to her chest, finally, at the cold blade pointed at her… As the girl moves towards her, Utena rushes away from the greenhouse.
Maybe the black rosed girl chases after her – Utena doesn't know: her minds switches to emergency mode, and she runs at hazard, away, into the wide world, hearing only her own heart pounding. Fortunately, she's used to physical activity and runs well, so, when she finally stops, unable to run anymore, there's nobody around her. Utena stands amidst the foggy haze, breathing heavily, looking upwards at the snowflakes descending slowly. How can it be snowing in this season? The snowflakes melt immediately as they reach the ground, and new ones replace them to disappear tracelessly.
Where is she now? Utena can't recognize the part of Academy she's at now. When running, she has turned around several times, so it can be possible that she has even returned back to the greenhouse – a disturbing thought. Utena walks ahead until she can distinguish a wall before her and a door in it – the fog is so dense that it's hard to make out even very close objects. Maybe the girl with a black rose is somewhere nearby, covered by the damp grey veil… At this thought, Utena rushes to the door – there's no use standing still in the yard, moreover, Anthy hardly would walk outside in such weather, so she must be somewhere inside the Academy buildings.
Having got into the door, Utena finds herself at the bottom of a staircase. It's very quiet here – probably, it's class time, so all the students are at the rooms. Or maybe there are no classes today at all? And what's time o'clock, by the way? Utena walks up one flight and enters another door. She remembers the corridor she has got into: she used to have classes here often. So, she needs to find somebody from the staff, tell them that there's a knife-wielding lunatic walking around and go to look for Anthy immediately. Utena's mouth gets dry as she imagines Anthy having already met the black rose psycho. She approaches the nearest classroom door and pulls the doorknob – it's locked. Just in case, she knocks three times.
"Is there anyone?" Nobody answers. Are there really no classes today? Or have they finished already? Or maybe haven't started yet? It's hard to guess the time of the day because of this weather – it can be early morning, late evening or even midday. Okay, let's try another door – locked again. Maybe there's anybody behind that door on the opposite side? Locked and silent again. Is there anybody at the Academy at all?
"Hey!" Utena shouts aloud into the corridor. "Is there anybody?" the last echoes of her voice die out absorbed by grave silence. But wait – is it really that grave? Utena can distinguish some sounds – very quiet, but definitely coming from somewhere ahead. Let's come closer – sure: the sounds of a piano come from the music class. Somebody is playing a beautiful and slightly sad melody, and is doing it jolly fine, by the way. Can it be the music teacher? He would be able to call the security staff, and he even could have seen Anthy… Utena almost bursts into the music class.
A handsome guy, maybe a year younger than her, wearing the Student Council uniform, having taken his hands off the keys, turned to face her with a look of slight surprise.
"Uh, hi," he smiles a bit confusedly.
"Have you seen any teachers here?"
"Ehm, nope, I haven't," what is he so perplexed about?
"Don't you have classes today?"
"M-m, no. I came here to the Council meeting, but, as I was a bit too early… uhm, I decided to play on piano for a while," Utena can't help but note that he's a sweet guy. "And how did you get here?" that's quite a strange question.
"I e-eh…" Utena stops, aware that her answer would be much weirder than the question. "I'm looking for my friend, Himamiya Anthy," the right answer comes to her mind. She'd better not tell him about waking up in a hole behind the rose bushes. "She's a swarthy girl, about of my height, wears glasses with big round lenses. Maybe you know her?"
"Of course I know Anthy-san," the Student Council guy replies in a strange tone again. Is he somehow timid, or what? "And what's your name?"
"Tenjou Utena."
"Kaoru Miki. Nice to meet you, Utena-san," he smiles again, sweetly and, it seems so, genuinely. How can he be possible to smile like this while something weird is going on outside and a mental girl with a knife is wandering around? Oh, wait – he doesn't know about her, most probably. But that snow – he must have seen it! Utena tries to calm down. Of course, she has gone through a stressful situation, but that's not a reason to lose her temper with this already timid guy.
"Miki-kun, so you haven't seen Anthy?"
"No, Utena-san. Are you sure she's at the Academy now?" Utena nods, sure of it. "Then she must have gone to the kendo training room, to Saionji-sempai."
"Who's Saionji-sempai?" Utena has never heard this name. Did Anthy know that guy?
"Saionji-sempai is the Student Council Vice Chairman and the kendo team captain. Don't you know him, Utena-san?" Miki looks surprised. Why does he think Utena must know that Saionji guy?
"No, frankly, I've never heard of him before. Are you sure they're at the kendo training room?"
"Of course, Utena-san. I'm positive that Saionji-sempai is there now, and, if Anthy-san is at the Academy, she must be with him," Miki seems to know what he's talking about. "Do you know where the training room is?"
"Yes, Miki-kun, I can find it," Utena forces a smile. Who's that Saionji? What Anthy has to do with him? "Thanks."
"You're welcome, Utena-san."
"You play very well, Miki-kun," it would probably be impolite to leave him straight away.
"Thanks, Utena-san. This is The Sunlit Garden, my favorite composition," he places his hands back on the keys and continues playing from the moment he stopped at. "Would you like to listen to it?"
"I'd like to, Miki-kun," Utena replies honestly. "But I need to find Anthy. So I've got to go."
"Okay, Utena-san. See you."
"Oh, by the way. When you go to the meeting, take care – there's a strange girl, probably a mental case, with a huge black rose on her chest wandering around the Academy. Today she tried to stab me with a knife, I hardly got away."
"With a black rose on her chest? That's strange indeed, Utena-san. Thank you, I'll try to be careful."
Utena leaves the music room. Kendo training room is quite far away, so she needs to hurry up. She rushes through the corridor, runs down a flight, enters the nearby building, walks up another stairs…
"Hey! Wait!" somebody who was standing a flight higher quickly moves away, so that Utena can't see who it was. "Stay over there!"
Utena quickly runs up the flight. Where could he go? Yes, he probably slipped through this opened door. She enters through it into one more corridor looking not less deserted than all the corridors she saw before. No, that stranger couldn't have reached the corridor end, and, if he even managed to, his hasty footsteps would be heard in this silence. Therefore, he must have entered one of the classrooms. Maybe Utena would rather not chase after that weird runaway, but she needs to find at least somebody from the Academy staff to warn them about that crazy chick with a black rose! And the stranger can possibly help her. She pulls the nearest doorknob – locked. Let's try the next one, then – wow, it's open.
The room Utena gets in is a small foreign languages classroom with nine seats equipped with linguaphones. There's nobody here, though. The room looks quite regular – neatly placed desks, clean blackboard, a stack of copybooks on the teacher's desk corner – unless the misty haze and ceaseless snowfall in the window and a small radio on the desk closest to the exit. Who could have left it here? Utena picks it up and tries to turn it on – the radio doesn't work. Okay, it doesn't matter anyway – she needs to check the remaining classrooms and, if there isn't anybody, get to the kendo training room.
Utena places her hand on the doorknob when loud crackling and electric noise comes from behind. She turns back quickly – there's no doubt that the noises come from the radio which seemed to be broken. What the hell..? She takes the radio in her hands again. The speaker hisses and rattles fiercely, and the gadget itself seems to vibrate from this sounds. Utena tries to switch the channel – useless.
"The ape detected! The ape detected! The ape runs away! Catch the ape!" girlish voices come through the noise, imitating grotesquely the monotonous speech of robots from sci-fi films. What's that? A chill runs down Utena's spine – there's something threatening in these words about the ape… Before another thought comes to her mind, the door behind her flies open with rumble. Having turned, Utena springs back, almost getting seated on the desk where the radio used to lie.
A cobby, ape-like built freak stands before her, wearing terribly dirty castoffs which probably used to be an Ohtori Academy student's male uniform. His yellowish-pale face covered with purulent acne is twisted in a disgusting grimace, saliva drips from the corners of his grinning mouth bristling with uneven yellow teeth, and his small squinting eyes look at Utena with degenerative spite. His disproportionally long arms with huge hands and sausage-like fingers are covered with dark swollen veins, and a thought flashes through Utena's mind that these hands must be strong enough to break her neck easily.
What the hell it is? Is it a human at all? Blind fear grips Utena's mind with fingers of ice: it's hard to imagine a position worse than the one she is in now, blocked by this monster in a tiny room at the third floor. Afraid and disgusted, she wants to scream, but, breathless, can only open her mouth voicelessly. What is this creature going to do? And what if there are more of them here? Utena shivers at this thought - what if Anthy is in their hands now?
All those thoughts must have rushed through her head within a fracture of second, as the freak doesn't manage to approach her, or even to react at least somehow, when she grabs the nearest plastic chair with thin metal legs and throws it at his Neanderthal-formed skull covered with sparse wooly hair. Of course, it wouldn't really harm him, but Utena gets a second or two to fling out of the room. She rushes through the corridor, pressing the hysterically crackling and squealing something in girly voices radio to her chest, and the damned freak runs on her heels, so that she seems to feel his hot odorous breath on her back.
The coveted door in the end of the corridor, the door to the staircase, is so close. Utena needs to concentrate on what she's going to do – it won't be easy. Having thrown the door open with her shoulder, she immediately jumps aside – she's so fortunate not to lose her balance! – and, seeing the back of the freak, who got into the door, before her she pushes him ahead with all her might. The degenerate rolls down the steps with nasty sounds, and Utena rushes back into the corridor, running to where she came from. She stops only at the bottom of the stairs where she noticed the running figure, falling on her knees and pressing her perspiring forehead against the cold wall. The radio in her hands has fallen silent, maybe yet when she was upstairs.
What happened? How did that creature get to the Academy? Why was it wearing that uniform? If it got it in the Academy – and where else? – then why it was so old and dirty? Was it a human or… or fucking what? Too many oddities at once: a lunatic in the greenhouse, a snowfall which never happens in this season, the Academy being deserted, and now this freak… And the radio too, by the way. Why has it fallen silent as suddenly as it turned on? And why does it seem not to work again? And whose voices were on that channel? Utena doesn't know any radio program where anything like that could be broadcasted. Should she take it along with her? Utena puts the radio into her uniform's chest pocket – it hardly fits it.
Anyway, there's nobody here to answer her questions. She needs to find Anthy as soon as possible and get both of them out of here. It's probably no use looking for teachers – whatever is going on, the situations has obviously got out of control. To take Anthy away from here is the only thing which matters now. Utena opens the door before her – she can reach the kendo training room through the second floor of the building as well.
This corridor is also empty. There are no sounds, and all the doors are closed, most probably, locked. Only Utena's hasty footsteps echo in the grave silence. Okay, now turn here, then get to the next building, and then just one more corridor to the training room… Please, wait for me, Anthy.
Having noticed a half-opened door, Utena stops. She would better just pass by, probably, but… She hardly can explain to herself why she enters an empty classroom with remnants of some chalk-written equations on the blackboard and a stopped clock above the entrance door. Maybe this room reminds her of something she has forgotten? Utena walks slowly by the isle between the desks. It's strange that there are notated sheets on one of them, near the window now overlooking the impenetrable mist – what could they have to do at a maths classroom? Utena picks up the sheets with battered edges – they're covered with symbols mysterious for her. That's a pity she can't read musical notation. What's the name of the composition, by the way? The Sunlit Garden – it sounds familiar. Oh, yes – it's the favorite melody of Kaoru Miki, a Student Council guy. Could he have forgotten these papers here? But what could he need them for? He was playing it by heart when she saw him – so he doesn't need the notation. Who else could play The Sunlit Garden from those present at the maths lesson?
Utena leaves the classroom in a state of pensive distraction. Why can't she get rid of the feeling that those papers got in her way for some reason? She shakes her head. There's no time for this bullshit – she must hurry up to find Anthy!