Life together for a few days went by smoothly Utena got a job helping Juri pay for the apartment so that they. Could get a two bedroom together but the only apartment they could get that was closest to both of their works. Had three bedrooms with two bathrooms this didn't bother either of them at all. Utena one day at breakfast asked a question she has been tip toeing around "Do you think the other's are… you know here?" she said this as she pointed to the table swirling her finger around. Juri looked up from her toast before speaking "You mean in the adult world?" Utena could only nod "I don't know I guess if we're here then they should be as well…" Utena went back to eating her cereal "I just don't know who did…" Juri said as she took a sip of her tea Utena quirked her eye brow "What do you mean by that?" she bit in to her toast "I mean who has won the duels against Akio?" Utena's spoon dropped right on to her plate "What did you??..." she couldn't even finish her question.
Taking another sip Juri looked in to Utena's eyes "I still remember it all like it was yesterday. It comes to me while I am asleep." Utena didn't touch the spoon "But… I fought him… that should have been the end." Juri smiled "I guess you were wrong." Juri said swishing her almost empty tea cup; the silence was defining "We all forgot about you for a while. That however didn't last long the student council started to remember." Utena asked a question that hit her like a bullet "Only them?" Juri nodded "No one else seemed to remember who you were or even what happened. I ended up fighting Akio for Shiori… But unlike you wanting Anthy's friendship I did this for love." She sipped the last of her tea after speaking. Utena lowered her head "I didn't know that would happen." Juri smiled razing her now empty glass "I would do it again in a minute." Utena's words escaped her lips "And just like me you haven't found her." Juri nodded Utena's slender finger's picked up the spoon as she finished it she felt sad. She should have been the only one to duel him; she should have been the only one. Juri was about to get up for more tea when the door bell rang "I'll get it…" the only thing Utena heard after that was the crashing of the tea cup hitting the floor. There stood a young man with blue hair and matching blue eyes his smile was wide "So are you going to invite me in sempai?" Utena's response was first "Miki!" bolting from her seat she pushed Juri aside who was still awe struck. They hugged as she simply watched as they interacted, Juri snapped out of her daze when Miki touched her arm.
"C… come in side." She stepped to the side letting him in, she cleaned up the cup bits and listened in on their conversation. "Still looking for Anthy I see." He said pulling out a stop watch clicking it "Yes." "It's no use…" he said in a low voice Juri stood up at this "What do you mean by that?" Miki clicked the stop watch again how Juri missed that sound he looked right at Juri "She's still their…" Juri's eye brow arched up on her forehead it slowly lowered as she realized he was talking about Shiori. "You mean… what I did, I did it for nothing?" Placing the stopwatch back where he had taken it out of "Well… no she just needs the will." Utena this time asked the question "To do what exactly?" Miki turned on her "To leave…" Juri's voiced her thoughts "So… that's what you did, just simply walk out of the gates of Ohtori?" he shook his head "No I did what you both did." Now both girls looked at him astonished "I had the duel against Akio. I will admit that I tried the walking out thing…" Utena arched an eye brow at him, Juri sat down at the table "But you couldn't for some reason could you." He showed only his hand staring at it, it took them a moment "No ring…" it dawned on them both they looked down at their own hands now. No rings both of their ring fingers were bare no tan lines no nothing why didn't they notice this until now? Even Utena should have noticed! Hell! why wasn't she yelling about how it was gone? What did it all of this mean?
During the rest of the day Miki spoke to them about the possibility that anyone with the exception of the student council could walk out. Of the gates of Ohtori under their own power, the council members will had been taken from them. By end of the world once they placed the rings on, exiting the school was like that of a nightmare they couldn't mealy awake from. They had to fight through it finding their own place in the world. Miki folded his hands up to his nose, "The only problem is they are not willing to escape."
