Disclaimer: Revolutionary Girl Utena was created by other, more talented people.

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"Himemiya!"

There's a stitch in her side. Stitches – heh, she'll need stitches all over after this. Bruises on her hands, from where the coffin lid has scraped. Bruises on her knees, from flopping against the Rose Gate when the weight of her own body became too much to bear. And the constant pain in her chest, from where Anthy stabbed her in the back.

Doesn't matter now. Pull. Pull.

"Himemiya!"

It was cold inside her coffin, she remembers that. Cold, but quiet and safe. There were no dead parents in there; no mourners who looked at her with pity and asked her if she was all right, as if anything could ever be all right again. She could have stayed like that until the end of the world.

Is that what she'll find in this coffin? A scared little girl who'd rather die than live in pain?

Is that the secret that's been hiding at the End of the World?

"Himemiya!"

Bruises on her hands and knees, and pain in her chest, but none of that matters. What matters is a promise: That they will be drinking tea and laughing together ten years from now. And another promise, all those years ago: To become the prince who would save the one girl in all the world who'd never be a princess.

It was all a lie, the castle in the sky and the eternal love and the prince on a white horse, but her promises… those were true. Even if the world comes crashing down, she knows those things are true.

"HIMEMIYA!"