Seinen Kakumei Utena
Utena and Penguindrum characters belong to their various owners.
WARNING: Parts of this work contain depictions of transphobia, controversial shoujo fantasy trans situation that in no way reflects real life trans people, and misogynic magic attack leading to forced masculinization.
Notes: After much delays, here comes the promised update . . . if still not quite the conclusion of this novel of a fanwork. Please see Endnotes for more.
Finale Arc: The Day We Shine Together I
'Do you know? Do you know? Do you wonder what I know? There's this super uber way to call 'change'! You can call it - say it with me - re-vo-lu-tion! And, it takes this special little something to start something as grand as a revolution! Do you know what that is? Do you? Do you? Do you really. . . ?'
From within the inverted castle hanging upon the artificial sky came a brutal threat, delivered in the tone of a civil offer:
"Allow me to show you how the world works.
"It's time."
It took her an eternity to realize that roses and blood were the same shade of crimson. By then, it was already far too late for her to wake from her rose-colored dream.
She saw, with her mind's eye, a vast multitude of colossal roses each containing a coffin as its heart; they all were hovering adrift upon space with phantom grace. The sight of these roses - or, to be more specific, the coffins they harbored –- pinned her to her guilty past like an insect to its specimen case.
'I don't suppose you can count how many duelists are coffined in there?'
"A million," she replied; it did not occur to her to question just who now was speaking into her troubled mind.
' . . . that exact?'
"I see no reason to count; what has surpassed a certain number is indistinguishable from a million for my purpose."
'And what do you deem as your current purpose?'
"That's-"
'What do you see yourself doing ten years from now?'
Ten years? What was a mere decade to one such as her, who had been in constant falling for millenniums?
Yet . . . didn't someone once ask her this same question a while ago? Perhaps . . . maybe . . . exactly ten years ago?
"In merely ten years from now, I think . . . I will still be . . ."
- the chick in the egg, yet to hatch -
"I'll be . . ."
- the girl in the coffin, yet to live -
"I'll . . ."
'Do you see yourself still remaining as the witch in the glamour, still living while dead even ten years from now?'
Startled by the close proximity of the enigmatic speaker/intruder, the Witch turned to see, now beside her, someone she thought she would never meet again -– not even in dreams.
"You . . . you're . . . "
"Takakura . . . Himari, is it?"
For a moment, all Himari could do was stare.
"Ah . . . what a brilliant soul you do possess, that even this invisible storm fail to dim your fiery brilliance." Letting go of the female gender symbol he had been prying at, the idol Seen stood up to his full, elegant height while regarding her with glinting eyes. "No wonder you qualify as the Princess of the Crystal's worldly avatar."
"Seen-san . . ." The girl found her focus - once blurred by the invisible storm –- now inexplicably fixated upon this long-time celeb. Back in elementary school, back when she still led a life approximating that of an ordinary girl, she too had idolized the idols on her TV screen just like the rest of her classmates. Seen already was Japan's biggest star since that early on; it was his fame that had first planted the seeds of idol aspirations in Himari's young heart. Meeting this intriguing, larger-than-life entity - who had just been rummaging through the invisibl-ized audience members as though in search of something precious - had the youngster heady with awe. "What are you doing?"
"Say . . . you, too, are a star gazer, aren't you?" Not answering her question, Seen - clearly seeing right through her - instead started walking up towards the gawking girl via those signature mile-long legs. "I can tell by the look in your eyes." His shapely lips curved in a smile. "Say, have you noticed how the more popular the idols, the more beautiful they are. Do you know why that is, Himari-chan?"
Himari shook her head; Seen's smile broadened; the people surrounding them -– 'invisible' to begin with –- seemed no more significant than distant shadows in the backdrop.
"Takakura Himari, Maiden of Fate," said the idol, and Himari could have sworn he was somehow growing increasingly handsome even as the distance between them shortened. "Surely you should know by now that people's souls –- their 'penguindrums' - carry power enough to alter even reality. As such, the emotions people exude, when in significant quantities, an enact what we call magic." He now was right in front of her, such that she was glancing up worshipfully at his breathtaking face from her inferior height. "It is with magic - magic enacted by people's desire for the idol 'Seen' - that I'm upholding this princely appearance currently keeping you captivated."
Jolting at the abrupt realization she had somehow allowed herself to fall spellbound under Seen's charms in spite of current eerie circumstances, Himari tried backing away; she then realized he had since reached over clasping the back of her waist.
"Seen-san . . ."
"Himari-chan, you see . . . an accident earlier on has left me bruised," said Seen, smiling down upon her with lash-veiled eyes. "See?" He tapped a well-manicured fingertip upon his high, perfect-seeming nose-ridge. "Such imperfection is unacceptable on one being watched, being seen by the world at large, is it not?"
Himari noted the hypnotic twinkle visible in the biseinen's big green eyes, and found her raised guard again lowering. "Seen-san . . ."
Clearly sensing this, Seen leaned downwards such that his beauteous face hovered above hers. "Himari-chan with your soul so bright . . . won't you fuel my glamour tonight?"
It took Himari to process what he was saying; by then, the idol had since hovered a hand over her chest in a gesture what seemed strangely, inappropriately intimate.
"S-Seen-san-"
Before the girl could speak further, her chest abruptly came aglow, from within which a red, vibrant, apple-sized globe gradually surfaced into view . . .
". . . how . . . how'd you . . . ?!"
Reeling from an awesome agony exceeding even what s/he had experienced throughout the past hellish decade, Utena struggled to remain on hir feet from where he faced-off against his opponent in pained defiance.
"You seem surprised," said Akio, who remained unruffled from where he observed hir current half-beaten state with elegant indolence. "Have you learned nothing at all from ten years ago? A fight against me isn't going to be some safe play duel."
". . . you . . ." rasped Utena, panting heavily as s/he mentally scrambled to retrace everything that had happened thus far in this seriously uneven battle, trying to find if there was any potential opening s/he might have previously overlooked . . .
It all happened so quickly; one moment, s/he and the other gathered Duelists were facing off against the Ends of the World with weapons drawn; the next, the whole gang of them got their hands full as Akio's innumerable animated vines –- having since spilled over the Castle's interior to envelope their surroundings –- attacked them with the sinuous agility of a mollusk's tentacles. Righteous souls ablaze, the Duelists slashed out at the monstrous vines, still confident that they'd triumph over their thorn-barbed lengths . . .
. . . before each and every thorn sprouting off the many vines abruptly enlarged into full-sized, outward-pointing swords, before cutting at them in one massive, insect-like swarm.
In a way, these thorn-turned-swords resembled what Utena could remember of the Swords of Hate, which draw strength from their sheer vast numbers. Yet, where the Swords of Hate resembled a rabid, mindless mob, these new swords were far more difficult to counter in that each and every one of them displayed notable individuality combat-wise. Fighting them was like fighting a group of skilled, well-coordinated swordsmen - ones with no physical bodies to get them in each other's way.
Having taken multiple stabs (and had survived likely only because of Dios' Power), s/he eventually did manage to get rid of the wolfish, slicing swords assailing hir from all sides, Utena then found, to hir horror, that hir comrades had all been skewered through by a colossal formation of entwining, crisscrossing swords now flaring organically all along the Castle's vast interior like some ravenous hydra colony.
Barely a minute into their battle, and already s/he was the only one left standing against their inhuman adversary.
"Juri-sempai . . . . Shiori-san!" S/he watched helpless as the women remained still from where their delicate figures hung lifeless and limp upon the swords holding them up. "No . . . this can't be . . ."
" . . . on't . . . give up . . ."
The faint voice from behind had Utena whirling around, only to have hir wild hope dashed by what s/he then saw. "Touga . . ."
Having somehow pulled himself free from the Thorn Swords, the redheaded Duelist now was struggling to support himself against a white wall, currently stained red by the blood seeping out from numerous large wounds splitting his torso open.
"Don't . . . mind us . . ." strained the mortally wounded man, already sliding down in a trail of macabre crimson. "Keep . . . fighting-" He then collapsed to the floor in a pool of his own blood.
"Touga!" Scampering over, past the many sword tips scraping hatefully at hir skin, Utena hunched down beside hir fallen comrade. "Don't worry, I'll . . . I'll . . ." Dread flooded hir heart as s/he realized how s/he - unskilled with exercising Dios' miraculous power - was impotent in healing her comrade's grievous wounds. "Touga . . . "
"Tenjou . . ." Touga's gaze, trained upon hir, were turning dull from fatigue. ". . . always wanted to see you . . . cry for me . . ." His dropping voice knocked the tears out of Utena's eyes like a brutal punch.
"You idiot! You-" S/he stopped at feeling his (alarmingly cold) hand clasping onto hirs.
"After you win . . . tell Kyouichi . . . tell him I-" And Touga's hand slipped off hers as his weary eyes closed in fans of red lashes; his soul sword, laid beside him all along, turned semi-lucent as though diluted, weakened.
"TOUGA!"
"Thus how your groom sacrificed himself for your folly."
Jolting, as though from a physical cut to a nerve cluster, Utena looked slowly away from Touga and up towards Akio, who had since moved through the nest of twisting, snake-like vines and to hir side.
"The boy loves you, you know," said hir handsome, monstrous foe now glancing down upon hir from his dark, imposing height. "He had loved you since before Ohtori, since before your parent's funeral, since before you even knew about his presence." His green eyes softened with an empathy that, given its current context, was downright condescending. "But now, because you've decided to turn him and everyone against me for your personal vendetta, this has to happen-" He had to stop as Utena dived straight for his heart, sword first.
For one heart-stopping, almost exhilarating moment, it seemed to Utena as though s/he really would have slain Akio on the spot, just like that. S/he watched, rapt, as hir soul sword's sharp tip neared that conveniently bared chest; that dark, firm stretch of muscle s/he once caressed with girlish, exploring fingertips so long ago, in another lifetime . . .
. . . and the sword slipped seamlessly through both flesh and clothes, as though hir opponent was but an apparition out to trick her eye.
"Wha . . .?"
"I am my sister's brother." Hir opponent (or was it werely an apparition?) regarded her calmly. "Swords don't have the same effect on us as they do you."
Memories of Anthy getting pierced through by the Swords of Hate – bloodless and undying – resurfaced in Utena's mind, as s/he struggled to comprehend Akio reveal. "B-But then . . . the Duel called Revolution, when we fought-"
"I was never under threat from your sword back then," explained Akio with perfunctory patience. "The duel was merely a visual spectacle to get you to let go of your stubborn will - your soul sword's true essence. You did so the moment my sister backstabbed you at your most passionate."
The reminder had Utena's eyes darting involuntarily towards Anthy's coffin, barely visible under the many mobile swords currently swarming its rose-shaped structure like troublesome insects.
"Anthy . . ."
Something small and rodent-like stood visible atop the coffin fidding with a glowing penguin hat . . . wait, was that Chu-Chu? The creature –- along with the hat –- disappeared off view soon as Utena spotted them. Nonetheless, the spell was broken: the creature's surprise appearance somehow diluted that maddening haze of despair previously hindering Utena's ability to reason, allowing hir to again analyze the crucial info revealed . . .
"I see . . . I see now." Taking in a deep breathe, s/he forced hirself to look –- really looked –- the Ends of the World in his beautiful, reptile-cold eyes. "You really are the Morning Star, the Devil. Yes, you have power in the form of brute strength, but you still ultimately need your victim's consent to use their will for your own purpose –- and you need my will for whatever you're planning to do tonight."
A visible hardening of those eyes confirmed Utena's suspicion; s/he continued on:
"Ten years ago, you tried using my will - in the form of my soul sword - to help you unlock Dios' Power; this time, you also need the same to regain this same power for your own use.
"So, as long as I refuse to surrender my will to you, you have no means of ever regaining the Light of the World, without which you cannot control the Fate Train and manipulate reality."
S/he laughed aloud then, even though hir face still was wet with tears of sorrow, of fear.
"That's right!" Utena snarled up and at tall immaculate Akio from hir short(er) bloodied height. "You will fail to ever regain Dios' Light. I, by my willpower alone, can make you FAIL, you horrific MONSTER who'd KILL when people's interest conflict with yours!"
"Aren't you and your entourage also trying to kill me exactly because my interest conflict with yours?"
At that, Utena's fiery passion again wavered, as its fuel - hir self-righteousness - got dampened by Akio's to-the-point question like a candlelight under cold rain.
"I see you have retained your willful blindness even after having supposedly grown as a person because of that 'long, hellish decade' you got put through," said Akio, wryly.
Utena clenched hir fists at his jab. "I will never give you Dios' Power," s/he hissed. "You will never get to be the Prince again, not ever."
"Oh, Tenjou-kun, you are naïve." Back straight, Akio smiled down upon hir in indulgence-veiled disdain. "Do you seriously think you can afford not to return to me my rightful power?"
Utena was understandably taken aback by his words. " . . .what are you talking about?"
"Do you wonder why you were unable to heal Touga's wounds even though you harbor Dios' Light of the World?"
The pressing question had Utena going rigid: why was it that s/he was unable to exercise hir painfully earned power even in such an urgent situation? Touga, Juri, Shiori . . . everyone could be saved, if only-
"-AH-" Utena barely reacted in time as a few Thorn Swords within hir immediate vicinity suddenly shot point first at hir. S/he tried blocking them with hir soul sword, but its blade got clipped from the impact. Undeterred, the assailing swords then flew right past hir head, leaving strands of sheared pink hair falling past hir rigid shoulders.
"Wonder why your once-valuable soul sword is now failing against my Thorn Swords –- which are merely fresh forged from the souls of those mediocre masses currently watching the show?" asked Akio, observing Utena's shock with hooded eyes. "Surely, even a self-delusional person as yourself must have realized by now." He pointed a finger down and straight at hir nose. "You, have grown up into the kind of deadened, world-weary adult who have no hope of properly channeling Dios' spirit, and thus cannot hope to exercise his power."
Utena further paled at Akio's statement. "Wha . . . nonsense!" S/he waved hir hand about in agitated, defensive anger. "I . . . I've destroyed the Swords of Hate using Dios' Light just days ago! And, just now, I've fought my way . . . all the way up to this Castle-"
"You were able to do all of that only because of 'friendship," countered Akio, cut hir off with dismissive crispness. "Basically, your spirits were lifted by your friends cheering you on. And even then, the whole lot of you together were no match for my might." His narrowed eyes gained a feral, predatory edge. "What do think you can on your own, now that you've lost those making up your support system?"
A possibility – as horrifying as it was enraging, occurred to Utena then. "Is that why you've killed everyone off right from the get go?" s/he asked. "Just to bring me down so I'd become too weak to fight you?" She gestured around at her fallen friends. "These people were once your pupils, your very own Duelists! Are we really that worthless to you all along?"
A coughing sound, wet and sickly, had Utena glancing down to see Touga now convulsing on the floor in apparent suffering.
"Touga!" Utena cried out in both joy (at his, at least, being alive) and worry as she crouched down beside her comrade. "Hang in there!"
"Looks like Touga-kun is still alive, albeit drowning in his own blood," noted Akio, conversationally. "Go on, do try and save him with Dios's Power." His voice hardened with impeccable cruelty. "If you can."
"Touga." Pressing trembling hands down against Touga's reddened, heaving chest, Utena wished with every fiber of hir being that something –- some miracle of sorts like what had previously gotten the two of them this far –- would occur, that hir dying friend would make it through like all good guys do in fairytales and cartoons and movies. "Hey, get up . . . get up and prove Akio wrong! Touga!" Tears escaped hir eyes (again!) as s/he merely got hir hands stained red while the redhead - profile veiled under long hair - continued to weaken. "Touga!"
At hir wits' end, s/he hung hir head in despair, all the while acutely conscious of Akio's scorching eyes watching her.
"Dios' Light of the World is eternity, shining things and miracles all in one. Should you be able to utilize the Light's full might, anything should be possible; you can heal Touga and the others of their injuries, and be a proper match for even me. But that power is impossible for a dead-end adult like you to control; the one who can wield the Prince's Revolutionary Power effectively . . . is me."
He took took a step forth; Utena tensed from where s/he was down on the ground holding onto Touga, uselessly.
"I hereby offer you two choices: return the Power to me, and I will use it to heal your friends' injuries; deny my request, and they will all die here, now, in defeat and agony." Stance tall and imposing, Akio had his hawk-like glare bearing down upon Utena - currently on hir elbows and knees - like a raised sword. "Make your choice, Tenjou-kun."
Utena, eyes obscured under pink bangs, pulled back hir lips to reveal gritted teeth.
"I just . . . don't . . . understand . . . !"
". . . I just don't understand what's going on . . . Seen-san!"
Grasping, Himari kept protective hands over her chest, where her penguindrum was getting drawn out against her will.
"Lovely Himari-chan." Still exuding that pulling, magnetic power from his palm - that which tugged at her penguindrum - Seen's voice now sounded sweet as his fabled singing. "Will you refuse even me?"
His words had Himari turning downcast, red-faced. "Seen-san . . ."
"Had a certain Tsuchiya Ruka perhaps advised you to debut as an idol so as to have your crime-cursed brothers again be make visible in society's eyes?"
At that, Himari lifted her head in shock. "How'd you . . . know?"
"Forget about Tsuchiya Ruka and whatever plan he tried selling you," urged Seen, now holding her gaze with his own. "That man is good as dead. I am the one who is alive, and famous; I am the one packing enough influence to sway public opinions all across Japan and even worldwide. I alone can save your brothers . . . and you along with them."
"Seen-san . . ."
"Imagine yourself and your brothers getting to live life in broad view: going back to school, laughing under the sun . . . living without fear of social persecution, just like all children should be allowed to; you too, deserves a bright future."
By now, Seen had his hand cupping Himari's small face, now paling to the point of appearing translucent. "I need only your penguindrum to help you realize this beautiful future."
" . . . bright . . . future . . ." Vision losing focus, the young girl's guard against this beautiful, powerful man lessened, as her penguindrum began to drift forth and towards the idol's waiting palm like a fallen petal upon steady current-
"STOP RIGHT THERE!"
The outcry –- girlish, but warmed at the edges by a mature tone –- shocked some of the dulled senses back into Himari, causing her penguindrum to involuntarily snap back into her body. Shadows shifted about, as frantic hands pulled her backwards and away from Seen, who now got two swords -– a French foil and a Japanese Katana -– leveled at his throat.
" . . .imari-chan! Himari-chan!"
"Hibari . . . Hikari-chan?" mumbled Himari, barely recognizing her prim friends from their current disheveled states. Already, they were slapping at her shoulders like children throwing a fit.
'You idiot! How could you?"
"How could you leave us behind trying to sacrifice yourself?!"
"Sorry . . ." she mumbled, barely able to look at their teary faces with her own tear-blurred vision. " . . . 'm sorry . . ."
"It's okay now," assured this round-headed, brown-haired woman –- the one who cried out from before - now stepping past the reunited Triple H. "Stay back with your friends, okay?"
"Um . . ." Himari regarded the woman's plainly pretty profile, currently drawn tight, with wariness. "You are . . . ?"
Unhearing of her words, the woman stopped in front of Seen, where she glared up at the much taller man.
"Just what in the world have you become, that you'd even try to take advantage of a little girl like this?" she demanded in a voice as angry as it was pained. "Answer me, Tatsuya!"
"Wakaba," said Seen (so his real name is 'Tatsuya'?), smiling despite being held at sword point by two swordsmen - one of whom being Kaoru Miki - both currently swarmed by translucent female gender symbols clawing viciously (if ineffectually) at their bodies. "Today is the day you come back to me."
"I . . . have never wanted the Power of Revolution, not even back in the day.
"But . . . how is it that I'm less worthy of this supposedly noble power than you?
"How is it that I'm a lesser adult than someone like you?!"
Slamming a fist down upon the floor, hard, Utena then pushed hirself up to hir full height to again face Akio.
"You answer me," s/he snarled with raging, explosive desperation. "Ends of the World!"
Akio remained unfazed. "Indeed, however low you've since fallen, you're still a 'noble' person by virtue of your self-righteous, yet also self-sacrificing nature. But selflessness alone cannot bring about true revolution –- it may even hinder it, as in your case."
"So what should I do?" snapped Utena. "Become selfish and vicious like you? Become willing to use underhanded means to achieve supposedly good ends just like you?"
Instead of answering hir question, Akio looked Utena in hir wild, anguished blue eyes, before asking the following question: "Tell me, Tenjou-kun: what do you see yourself doing ten years from now?"
Utena was taken aback by this question, which gave hir an inexplicable sense of déjà vu. " . . . what are you talking about?"
Sighing lightly, Akio lifted a broad hand snapping his fingers. A number of named coffins then started pushing their way out of the walls of Thorn Swords cluttering their surroundings. Some of the names visible from Utena's vantage point were 'amitie', 'choix', 'raison', 'amour' . . . .
"I'll show you the qualification of a true revolutionary - one capable of shouldering the Light of the World."
From amongst this deathly crop, a coffin titled 'soi' - encased within a stone-rose formation just like Anthy's –- sailed smoothly through the waves of sword blades, prior to opening up right in front of Utena.
Utena saw, to hir shock, what looked like hir past, teenage self coffined within: long-haired, shaded-in, girlish.
"Behold." Akio actually looked wistful as he gestured at the coffined figure. "That which you've lost ten years ago –- the quality crucial to accessing Dios' Power."
Wary and guarded, Utena studied this apparition of hir old self with goose bumps raised on the back of hir neck. "What I've lost . . . ?"
A voice - Utena's own younger, teenage girl voice - came to permeated the air, along with the scent of moist roses:
'Hey, if anything bothers you, tell me about it. 'I want to be your friend. 'I look forward to the day when the two of us will shine together . . . ' . . . the day we shine together . . . '. . . shine together . . .'
"What is this . . . ?" muttered Utena, growing fearfully agitated at listening to hir old self repeat herself in this haunting, almost psychedelic manner. "What is the meaning of this?!"
Pitying gaze trained upon hir pitiful state, Akio parted his tightened lips, and spoke.
'Do you know? Do you know? Do you still not know what it takes to start a revolution? 'Not even after all the hints dropped throughout? 'Never you mind, then. Because- '-whatever will be, will be! 'The future is ours to see! 'And what do we see here and now? 'Ah! If it isn't the fabled steed! 'Forged by the Greeks! 'And it's getting pulled straight up and towards Trojan territories! 'Just like in that song about that fallen country! 'Do you know? Do you know? Do you ever wonder-'
A sound - a bestial cry of a train's horn - drowned out whatever the phantom-ish shadows dancing on air were voicing, as the train – pulled by ropes of thorny rose vines – continued its ascend towards the upside down castle, tailed by an animated pink chopper hot on its trail.
A child of a blue-haired woman could be seen leaning out of one of the castle's many windows, taking in the surreal visuals with eyes like bottomless pools.
"Come to me," she implored, waving a slice of apple on a fork at the approaching train like one would lure a ravenous babe. "And deliver unto me my one and only." The cut apple - red as her lips - revealed pallid flesh darkened at the heart.
The train sounded its horn again, all the while emitting the following broadcast:
/"Attention all passengers: this train is approaching Castle in The Sky Station in one minute. Doors leading towards the Ends of the World will open on the right side. Repeat. Attention all passengers: this train is approaching Castle in The Sky Station . . ."/
End Finale Arc Part I
Endnotes: Umm . . . okay. So, due to its sheer length, the Finale, originally planned as a single chapter, now needed two more installments to detail the story's "climax" and "aftermath", respectively. So many people I want to thank, but I want to save the "wall of name" until the actual last chapter. To all you lovely people still interested in Seinen, much, much thanks for the encouragement you've given me thus far. I will try my best to upload the already partially completed Finale Arc Part II ASAP. Please wish me luck!