"Once upon a time, there was a young girl grieving over the death of her parents.
Suddenly, before here there appeared a traveling prince on his white horse.
He held her close, enveloping her in the scent of roses, and wiped away her tears.
'Little one, bearing alone your grief,
Do not lose your strength and nobility as you grow older.
I will give you this ring to remind you."
"Will I see you again?"
"This ring will guide you to me."
Was the ring from the prince meant as an engagement ring?
Whether or not that was the case, the girl made up her mind. Because of the strength of her admiration for the prince,
The girl decided to become a prince herself!
But is that really what he meant….?
Chapter 1: the Rose Bride
A blonde girl, hair swept up gracefully, stood in the by the door, hands on her hips, surveying the hallway of the school.
"That girl is late again…? How foolish." She murmured fondly.
"Francine!" One of the girls called out to her, raising an arm. "Who are you waiting for?"
"My boyfriend!" Francine joked, shooing the girl with a hand wave. "You go on ahead!"
"Boyfriend?" The girl chuckled as she walked away. "Then I guess you got dumped! Your 'boyfriend' left the dorm earlier this morning!"
"What?" For a moment Francine was angry, but then she laughed, covering her face with one hand
"That girl…"
. . .
"Ms. Beilschmidt."
"Huh? Yeah?" The white-haired girl spun around, looking up at the teacher with a curious expression.
"Do you plan on wearing those strange clothes all semester?" The teacher stared sternly down at her with cold blue eyes.
"All the boys are dressed like I am!" the student protested, gesturing to her dark jacket and white shorts.
"You're a girl! Why do you wear a boy's uniform?"
"Ain't no rule a girl can't wear a boy's uniform! This is just more awesome, is all!"
"You little…."
But before she could finish her sentence, the girl turned and ran down the hallway, making her escape.
. . .
"Hey! Maria!"
She only slowed when she heard someone call out her name. It was a boy, a few years older than her.
"I hear you punched that one kid silly the other day! You should really join one of the sports' teams, you know. How about track? We'd be glad to have you…"
Were they still going on about that? Idiots… "I'm a girl, you know!" she protested, pointing to her (admittedly, very flat) chest. "I don't wanna waste my valuable time running in circles with some sweaty boys!"
"You're practically a boy yourself," he grumbled. "You do wear the boy's uniform."
"That's PRINCE," She corrected, holding up one finger to shush him. "Instead of being a princess to be protected, I want to become an awesome prince!"
He grabbed Maria's wrist and shoved her finger out of his face, irritated. "And what's that supposed to mean?"
She yanked her arm out of his grip. "Well that's just rude. No way am I telling you now!" And she stalked off.
Her memories were far too precious to share with rude people like him…
She slowed her pace in front of one of the large windows, looking down over the courtyard. Hm? Squinting, she saw three figures emerge from the greenhouse. The first was a tall man, dressed in an odd version of the uniform, with dark indigo pants, crisply ironed, and a white shirt decorated with gold braid, the cuffs turned up to reveal more purple-blue. He wore a scarf looped casually around his shoulders, the pale color of the fabric matching his wheat-blond hair.
Following him was another man, dressed similarly, minus the scarf. His strange uniform, however, was white and a dark forest green. He wore a white mask over the upper half of his face.
Behind them both was a girl with neatly coiled brown hair and glasses. She was plain and barely noticeable beside the other two men, and in fact Maria only realized she was there when the masked student addressed her directly.
Watching them, she fiddled with the rose ring on her right hand, only half paying attention.
There was a pause, a brief exchange, and she could see a scowl forming below his mask.
Huh? She thought to herself, what's going on? A lover's quarrel?
Suddenly, the man in green raised his hand and slapped her in the face.
"Hey!" Maria exclaimed, although from up here there was no way they'd hear her. "That's going a bit far!"
The man in green raised his hand to hit her again, when suddenly his peer, the student with the scarf, caught his wrist, smiling enigmatically.
She was distracted from the scene by a body colliding with hers. "Mariaaaa!" Francine called her name in a sing-song voice, subtly groping her.
"Francine! Don't do that!" Maria squirmed, trying to escape the blonde's arms.
The French girl only tightened her grip. "It's your punishment for leaving me behind this morning," She teased, "Now apologize before I start to cry!"
"Okay! Okay!" she flailed her arms helplessly, but before she was forced to do something as undignified as apologizing, Francine released her, her blue eyes trained on the figures down in the courtyard.
"Oh! It's Sadik, huh?"
"Sadik?" The name was unfamiliar to Maria, and she frowned as she glanced down at the three conferring students.
"You don't know who he is?" Francine seemed surprised.
"Oh, is he famous?" Maria couldn't care less who the students idolized; none of them were as awesome as her, after all. "At least I know who the guy in front of him is. That's Ivan Braginski, the Student Council President, right?
"Exactly! And the other one's Sadik Adnan, the Vice President."
Remembering the girl, Maria pointed her out, asking "And her?"
"ahm…" Francine squinted for a moment, trying to make out the girl's vague features. "I suppose that's Anna Edelstein."
"Anna…Edelstein?"She repeated the name, committing it memory.
Francine pouted cutely, shrugging her shoulders. "All she ever does is take care of the roses, even though no one asked her too. She's kind of bizarre. And she's actually going to be in our class this term."
"So is Sadik going out with that Edelstein girl?" Maria inquired, trying to make sense of the earlier scene, where she'd witnessed him slap her.
"Of course not!" Francine turned back to the window, "He'd never fall for a girl like her! The only reason the three of them are together right now is because they're part of the Student Council."
Maria noticed a slight blush on her best friend's cheeks. "Kesesese!" She burst into laughter, slapping Francine's shoulder in amusement. "He's your type, isn't he?
"Huh? No way, don't get jealous," Francine returned playfully, one arm sneaking around Maria's waist again. "You know I have eyes only for you!"
. . .
Five teenagers were silhouetted against the sky, framed by red curtains. Anna and Sadik, standing side by side, faced the other three. A tall girl, dressed in white and uniform blue, with a steely glare behind square glasses, a young man sitting in a chair, wearing white and cream-yellow, with curling blond hair and a stray strand that looped curiously above the others, and of course Ivan Braginski, expression like a delighted child.
Sadik addressed them all, "This is short notice, Council Members. What's the meaning of this meeting?"
The blonde boy frowned down at his book, adjusted his glasses, and near-whispered, "we wear the Rose Signet because we are chosen to do so."
The blond women nodded in agreement, adding in a mumbling, deep voice, "An' our only rule is t' uphold th' code."
Ivan smiled. "These two have a problem with the way you've been treating the Bride lately, you see." He sounded amused at the idea.
"Hm?" Sadik glanced at each of them. "That so?"
"Well, she is engaged to you currently, but you can't just do whatever you please, silly." The cheerful words of the Student Council President had an air of steel behind them.
"Whatever he pleases?" Murmured the sitting boy, displeased at the idea.
"Whatever he pleases, y' way?" The tall girl grumbled.
"That is to say...Stop beating the Bride, Sadik." Ivan took the lead in their complaints, eyes shut and smiling peacefully. "We wouldn't want you breaking her or anything, you see…"
"Stay outta this," the masked Vice President replied roughly, "The Rose Bride and I are deeply in love. I don't wanna hear you complaining."
"Deeply in love?" The blond boy, still studying his book, whispered the words like they were a curse.
Anna spoke, her voice polite and respectfully. "At the moment, I am Mr. Adnan's Bride. I will do anything he wishes."
"Y'see?" Sadik grinned broadly. "That's how it is between us. If yer really that worried 'bout the Code, win her back in a duel, like the Code says!"
"Ah ah ah," Ivan warned playfully, "Don't forget that your next duel will be soon!"
"I'm already lookin forward to whoever will challenge me!"
. . .
"Whoaaah, Maria, that's pretty! The rose pattern?" Francine squinted at the ring on Maria's right hand. "Hey! That's our school emblem, isn't it?
"Yeah, looks like it," Maria nodded.
"Who'd ya get it from? It's cute!" The blonde girl swung her bag cheerfully as the two walked back from classes together.
"A prince on a white horse gave it to me. He said it'd guide me to him… I was really little and stuff, I guess."
"I know what you mean" Francine replied, "When I was a little girl, my mama said that I was the princess of the fish kingdom! And I actually believed her…"
"I guess that means you always did that fishy-lips pout, huh?" Maria teased, imitating her.
"Hey, no fair!" Laughing, Francine raised her hand to swat her, when they noticed a crowd by the bulletin board.
Maria, nosy as ever, shouldered her way through the students. "What's going on?"
"Someone's love letter got posted on the board," she was informed.
"Hmm, let's see what it says…'so I had a dream where I was dancing with you, Sadik…You were smiling so gently. You must think I'm an idiot.'" The boy reading the letter aloud broke off with a cackle. "I'll say!"
Maria growled at him. "You guys are the dumbasses! This is such a stupid thing to do." She glanced over at Francine…and to her shock, there were tears in the blonde girl's eyes, despite her attempts to hide them.
"Francine? You sent this letter to him?"
Sadik was not getting away with this.
. . .
When she confronted him, he merely shrugged. "How should I know? Someone probably picked the letter out of the trash and stuck it up their all on their own."
"Why would you throw it away somewhere public?"
Sadik shook his head. "It's my letter. I can do whatever I want with it. But yknow, thinking about it? If that kind of silly letter got to amuse someone, it's all for the better. Are ya done?"
Maria glared up at him. "No. You're captain of the Kendo Club, right? I'll fight you after school."
He stared at her like she was crazy. "What?" suddenly, his eyes fell on the rose ring. "So that's it, huh? You must be the next challenger. Alright then. I'll meet ya after classes in the Dueling Arena behind the school, ok?"
"I wonder, I wonder…do you know what I wonder?
"I hear there's some lame ass duel in the forest today."
"Veee…how scary! The brave warrior girl's fighting for her friend, though…"
"Idiot warrior, more like. She better watch out."
"They have some weird rules in the forest! I don't understand it…"
"Do you, I wonder…"
"I wonder, I wonder…do you know what I wonder?"
Maria stared at the gates to the Dueling Arena. Who knew there was a huge place like this out behind the school?
She'd brought a baseball bat, because that's all she had to fight with, but suddenly she was feeling far less self-assured.
"How am I supposed to get inside, anyway? The gate's locked—Hey!" as she tugged on the door, water splashed on her right hand. "That's cold!"
The door was suddenly unlocked, for some bizarre reason. "How weird…whatever, I'm heading in!"
Behind the door was a huge flight of stairs. She took a deep breath and started climbing. "How unawesome…" She panted, wondering how far she'd come.
It wasn't for awhile that she reached the top, and came out in the arena itself.
"What on earth…Is that a castle?"
"Hm?" Sadik was waiting for her, and glanced upwards at the upside down castle rotating above the arena. "This is your first time seeing the castle, I guess…"
"What is it? I couldn't see it from down there!"
"It's a mirage, of a kind." He seemed unconcerned, as though flying buildings was ordinary for him. "Look, if it'll calm you down, think of it as magic."
"A mirage?" Maria, on the other hand, was not quite ready to let it go.
"What really surprises me is that someone like you has the Rose Signet…don't look at me like that, girl, your ring. Never mind. Anna! Prepare us for battle."
The girl Maria had watched earlier in the courtyard approached, now wearing a long, pale purple dress.
"Anna…Edelstein? What are you doing here?" She stared at the brunette girl as, eyes demurely on the ground, she came forward and pinned a rose, dark green like the rest of Sadik's clothes, to his chest.
Sadik shook his head. "Of course the Rose Bride would be here," He answered for her.
Maria stared down at her as Anna pinned another rose, the silver-white color of her hair, to the front of her jacket.
She took a deep breath. That scent… "It's the same as my prince's roses," Maria muttered, dazed and confused.
The shorter girl glanced up at her. "The person whose rose is knocked off loses the duel," she informed her quietly.
"Huh?" Maria shook thoughts of her prince from her head.
"Good luck to you."
Slap!
"Hey! How dare you wish anyone else luck!" Despite her quiet voice, apparently Sadik had overheard.
Anna apologized hastily, but he was furious, and continued yelling at her.
Maria frowned, disgusted. "You're stupid! He treats you like this, and you let him?"
The brunette glanced at her through her glasses. "He is the duel champion. He can do with me as he wishes."
"What?" Maria was confused. "Isn't he your boyfriend or something?"
Sadik interrupted. "Let's just start already." He turned and walked towards the center of the arena.
Maria glared at his back, for a moment, before following, newly determined. "I don't understand what's going on, but I'm going to have to beat him."
. . .
The two took up places at either side of the arena, Anna between them. She held out her hands and started to chant.
"More magic?" Maria muttered, as a ball of light formed between Anna's fingers.
The girl's violet dress billowed as she started to bend backwards, and was only supported by Sadik's arm. Something started to protrude from the center off her chest—the hilt of a sword! Maria's eyes went wide as Sadik drew it and stabbed the sky, shouting, "Grant me the power to revolutionize the world!"
The bells, back at the school, started to ring.
Maria blocked the first slash, and the second, and the third, with her wooden baseball bat.
"You're pretty good…For a girl." He shoved her onto her back. "But I do kinda wonder about your sanity, challenging the sword of Dios with a baseball bat…You've got me a little interested.
Maria stumbled to her feet. "The battle's not over yet!"
"Little one, bearing alone your grief,
Do not lose your strength and nobility as you grow older…"
She could hear the words of her prince as she charged him with a yell, taking him by surprise.
"Wh-what?" He hadn't expected a full-frontal assault, had been too busy monologuing. "No way!" The petals of his green rose fluttered to the ground. "I…lost?" He stared at the ground, eyes wide. Suddenly, he remembered the consequences.
"Anna!"
She glanced at him just once as she walked past to stand by Maria. "Cheer up," She said softly, "Sadik." It was the first time she'd addressed him by his first name.
She stopped just in front of Maria. "Ms. Maria," she said softly, "I am the Rose Bride, and from today on, your fiancé.
Author's note: Thank you for taking the time to read! I'm sorry it's so long. There are a few things I've changed, as I'm sure you've noticed. As far as human names and roles, in this chapter we have Maria Beilschmidt(Prussia) as Utena, Anna Edelstein (Austria) as Anthy, Francine Bonnefoy (France) as Wakaba, Ivan Braginski (Russia, of course) as Touga, and Sadik Adnan (Turkey) as Saionji. Juri and Miki were seen but not named, and I'm curious to see if you can figure out who it is before next chapter, haha~ I kind of want to do a chapter per episode, personally, but hopefully they're not all as long as this one! Please, any criticism would be nice! A big thanks goes to .nu/scr0ipts/ (remove the zeroes) for their scripts, which really helped me keep this close to the original!