Title: The Fairytale of LifeRating: PG
AU-Crossover Strawberry Panic and Shoujo Kakumie Utena
Characters are not mine. I am just borrowing.

The Ohtori campus stretched out before her, and she thought it terribly odd that it should come to resemble a funeral mound. That its pathways and buildings should rise up and arrange themselves as a never ending maze with wills of their own. It had become something other than what she had meant it to be. It had become a place of dreams, neverending fairy tales, and this was not a good thing. It robbed the students attending of the most important part of life, growing up and learning how to change. There was little she could do about it though. She no longer had a say in the school's affairs. She was but a shadow on the wall, and few ever had the heart to try and find her.

She stood where she always stood, a grassy hill overlooking the stables. She liked to watch the horses and their riders. She liked to remember what it was like to be young and alive. The pulse of winning a race, or making a jump that felt impossible. She could see other things from where she stood. The forbidding monument of the current chairman's tower, the tame but still wild forest, and the secret arena it led to. She grimaced and tried not to think of all that had come to be. She had become just as trapped as some of the students. She had been ensnared by a similar trap, but hers was one of her own making. She could not go once she discovered what had happened, and she would not be forced to leave by a magician and his dirty tricks, or even those that carried her family name (and they had tried). She stayed, she told herself, to try and protect the students of Ohtori. She stayed, she knew truthfully, to protect the memories she had built in creating the school.

A sharp wind blew, and brought with it a stray whirlwind of rosepetals. She smiled. Roses, yes, and what sharp thorns they produced to protect themselves in this place. The chairman thought he merely plucked flowers for his bidding, but what he took produced something stronger. Something he could not see would be his undoing, because every rose he crushed in his hand was the invitation for the one thing he feared...change.

She brushed a stray strand of hair from her eyes. Odd habits one kept from old lives long since lived. It made her smile in that melancholy way of hers. Students jogged by, but did not notice her presence, except that one did. A girl with pink hair stopped to catch her breath.

"I thought you were top notch at all sports," she said without thinking. Knowing the girl on sight, because she recognized a fellow prince when she saw one, having heard the talk of an underclassman that had dared stand up to the student council.

"Jogging isn't my favorite," the girl said. "I'm better at quick bursts." She looked over and smiled. "Are you a teacher?"

"After a fashion, Miss Tenjou," was the reply. She added, "I'm Amane."

The girl blinked, "Very informal for a teacher."

"I'm not fond of formalities at this time in my life."

The girl nodded and stretched a little more. "But, I've never seen you around. I guess...Do the other teachers talk so much about me?"

"People tend to talk when someone is so successful at going against the grain," Amane stated. She added, "I used to be the same way."

"I don't do it for attention. I just want to be-"

"Yourself. Yes, I know." She tilted her head slightly and asked softly, "Will you remember that?"

"What?" Robin blue eyes blinked in confusion.

Amane shook her head, still smiling, though slightly. "Just always be yourself, and you won't have any problems."

"Right." She looked off at the joggers in the distance and said, "I better try and catch up. Maybe I should just stick to basketball." She waved a quick goodbye and ran off.

Amane watched her go and said, "Or fencing." She sighed and shook her head. The sun was beginning to set. The night in Ohtori brought with it darker revelations. She crossed her arms over her chest and shut her eyes. "She'll be the one, Hikari. She'll be the one, and then I can leave. I promise."

End.