Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own Utena. I bow to the masters.
"I wonder I wonder, do you know what I wonder?"
"They say a brave knight is coming to slay the evil dragon!"
"But wait! That's not a knight! It's just the gardener!"
"Oh brave gardener, can you slay the evil dragon?"
"But I'm not a gardener! I'm just a little boy!"
"Well, you know what they say. Little boys have a way of growing up into knights..."
*********
Tsuwabuki Mitsuru had returned to Ohtori Academy, no longer a child. He stood tall in the traditional school uniform. Or rather, at the moment, he sat. On a rather uncomfortable stone bench, with no company. He was growing steadily more bored by the minute.
The nearest town was fifty miles from the school, and few people on the island possessed a car in any working condition. So Tsuwabuki was left waiting at the station after he arrived late in the afternoon.
It was a nice town, he decided, if a little dull. The people were certainly polite and helpful, and the little restaurant beside the train station had excellent ramen.
Around twilight, the thrum of an automobile engine roused him from his contemplation of a mathematics textbook, and he looked up to see an old blue convertible turn onto the road to the trainstation. He shut his textbook with a snap, and replaced it in his bag before standing and descending the steps to wait on the sidewalk.
The car pulled to a stop. An older man of indeterminable age sat in the drivers seat. He looked quite strange to Tsuwabuki, with shoulder-length pink hair. His face was long and lean, all sharp angles, and his dark eyes seemed to bore into his soul as he stood beside the car.
"Well? Are you or aren't you going to get in?" Sharp tone.
"S-sorry, sir."
"Sensei will do. I am Mikage Souji. You, I believe, are the young man the academy has asked me to ferry from town to school." The man's voice was cool dispassionate.
"Yes, sensei." He heaved his bag into the back seat, and got in. The man shifted gears, then hit the gas. The car tore away down the road and away. Tsuwabuki's eyes widened briefly. The landscape sped by in a blur.
"They say Ohtori is fifty miles away, but the road is rather twisting and strange." the professor said abruptly. "It's as if the island doesn't conform to the laws of physics."
"I remember." Tsuwabuki said, looking out at the blurring scenery. "I was in second form at the academy."
"Do you?" Mikage asked, glancing over at his passenger. Something in his eyes made Tsuwabuki shudder and look away. When he looked back, the professor's eyes were on the road again.
"Honestly, no. It was a long time ago."
Mikage chuckled, but said nothing. Tsuwabuki slanted a look at the man. But the professor's face was calm, composed, and completely unreadable. Somehow, the sign of emotion unnerved Tsuwabuki even more.
"I suppose it's changed a lot since I was there." he ventured.
"Not so as you'd notice." Mikage's reply seemed a bit acerbic to Tsuwabuki. He fell silent, then piped back up again.
"I heard that there's a new deputy chairman." Tsuwabuki said suddenly. "Touga Kiryuu. Wasn't he on Student Council back when I was in second form."
"Oh yes." Mikage's smile seemed strange somehow, as if he was in on a joke that Tsuwabuki hadn't the slighest clue of. "And his sister is a student at the school."
"Sister...?" A wave of dizziness made Tsuwabuki sway in his seat. When it passed, he looked up to find Mikage looking at him with a sort of detached interest. The pink-haired man looked back at the road.
"Yes, Nanami Kiryuu. Has her head in the clouds most of the time. A terrible student." A very long silence fell again as Mikage seemed to concentrate fiercly on the road, and Tsuwabuki tried to focus on the blurring scenery outside of the car. He'd long given up trying to find the speedometer on the strange convertible, and was occupying himself trying to figure out whether the green was trees or grass. Finally, he grew bored, summoned up his courage, and blurted out:
"What do you teach?" Mikage looked at him, and once again, he felt as if he'd said something terribly stupid.
"You might say that I am a professor of philosophy." Again, that irony in the professor's tone made shivers run up and down Tsuwabuki's spine. "I run seminars. Those truly interested are always welcome."
"It sounds interesting." he heard himself say, as if from far away. The world felt detached as he rode in the strange car with the professor, but he could hear Mikage's words easily, as if the car were enclosed. The wind whipped his hair about, and Mikage's as well, but what had to have been a cold driving wind off of the ocean was reduced to a vague feeling of cold, and his hair going in every which direction.
"Only the truly committed join my seminars." Mikage said. He was looking at Tsuwabuki again, and the teenager felt like a sudden weight had settled on him. "It takes a great deal of time, and energy, and courage."
"I'd... have to think about it." Tsuwabuki gulped, and looked away, only to find that the convertible was coming to a stop by a fountain. They had arrived.
"If you make up your mind..." Mikage pulled out a single ring. It was white, carved of some strange smooth stone, with a rose signet that matched the seal of the school set in it. "Come see me within five days time."
Tsuwabuki took the ring automatically, and then he was out of the car, taking his bag, thanking the professor for the ride. He found himself wondering what had happened as he searched for his dormitory, and later concluded that he really didn't want to know.
***
He caught little glances of the girl as he traversed Ohtori, saw her turning corners, the back of her, never the front, never the face. He saw the strange rose crest ring on her hand, the graceful and lithe movement of her body, and the odd panther-like movement that seemed oddly familiar.
He'd seen the white-haired President of the Student Council escorting her around, a hand on her elbow, gripping her and tugging her along, eyes wide and eager. Treating her as no girl ought to be treated. Like property.
It wasn't right. Mitsuru couldn't remember why, but he knew that at least.
He was so distracted by the girl that he almost forgot about his preoccupation with Mikage Souji, until he crossed paths with the forbidding professor, and the man gave him a look that seemed to see right into his soul. For a moment, Mitsuru had seen the man turning to walk towards him, but then, seized by an irrational impulse, the blonde student had stepped into his classroom.
Mikage hadn't followed him.
All and all, it was a very strange day for him. Between his wonderings about the girl and Mikage, he found himself standing on the broad road out of the central plaza of the school, facing the forest. The forest that he'd been admonished never to go into.
As he stood, looking into the shadows of the forest, he heard two voices, raised. One of them, a girl's, and another, the voice of the Student Council President.
"You can't do this, Yuki-san!"
"Quiet! I'll do whatever I want, as champion. /You/ are mine, and you obey me."
That decided him. Mitsuru headed into the forest, looking around, following a footpath. He heard fabric tearing, heard the girl gasp, and...
He emerged before a set of white gates. Yuki stood over the girl who was so familiar, holding a piece of her uniform blouse in his hand.
"Hey!" he shouted.
Yuki whirled. "You! What are you doing in the Duelling Forest?" he demanded.
"What are /you/ doing to her?" Mitsuru demanded, stepping forwards. The girl looked up, saw him, and her eyes widened.
"Whatever I please. It's no business of yours."
"I don't think so. It's wrong, and I won't let you do it." Mitsuru insisted. "Leave her alone."
Yuki laughed. "Or what? You'll challenge me to a duel? Please."
"Sir, I don't think..." the girl began shakily.
"Shut /up/, Nanami."
Nanami. Nanami. The name was familiar. Too familiar, and Mitsuru was committed. "/You/ shut up. I'm not letting you touch her ever again, you slime."
"Be careful who you insult, boy." The white-haired teenager dragged Nanami to her feet, and grabbed onto the gates, which, Mitsuru realized, were open just enough for him to slip through. He started forwards, then Yuki thrust Nanami through the gates and stood in the opening. "How about this. If you can get to her... you can challenge me to a duel. And if you win, you can have her." He sneered, then stepped back.
The gates slammed shut.
Mitsuru glared at them, walked right up to them, grabbed the handle, and yanked. The door remained obstinantly shut. Cursing, he yanked on the handle again. Stepping back, he stuck his hands in his pocket, and examined the gate.
It had a swirled pattern on it, almost like a rose. A rose. His hand closed around the white ring, and he pulled it out of his pocket, and examined it. The material of the ring was a perfect, smooth, egg-shell white, and the crest resembled that of Ohtori Academy. He examined the ring for a moment, then slipped it onto his index finger, and grasped the handle with that hand.
Something cold hit the ring, and he jerked his hand back, examining the rose. It was... wet?
He only had a second to wonder however. Water poured out behind him, and he turned to see it pouring out of vine-covered aquaducts into stone gutters on the ground.
Behind him, the gates opened, fog obscuring them out of nowhere for an instant. Then the fog cleared. The gate was open, and an immense stone rose stood atop them.
Mitsuru lifted his hand to examine the seal again. It remained the same, albeit a bit wet. Shrugging, he walked through the gates. Before him were a spiralling set of white steps, leading up to something that obscured the sun. As he wondered where the other supports for the structure were, he looked up... and up... and up...
"Oh..." he murmured, then cleared his throat. This had to be a joke. He hoped. But there were dusty footprints on the stairs, indicating that /someone/ had gone up.
Grimacing, he set his foot on the first step, and began to long climb.
Several stories later, he leaned against a pillar. The steps ended shortly, so he fought to catch his breath. Finally, he turned, and stepped up the last step, through the archway.
It was an immense, round platform, with regular spikes around the edges. The seal of Ohtori Academy was lain out in white and red bricks beneath his feet.
And in the center, stood Nanami, dressed in a red gown. Across from the gate stood Yuki.
"Oho, so you managed to get in!" the white-haired teenager jeered. "No weapon, though. So sad. Nanami, attend to us."
Mitsuru, took several steps forward, and Nanami produced two roses, one in each hand. The one she gave to Yuki was a pale purple rose, tucked carefully into his breast pocket. She stepped back, even as he reached for her, then turned and walked to in front of Mitsuru. Her eyes stared into his, and he thought something burned in them, before she held up his rose.
It was black, and she said "Whoever loses their rose, loses the duel." As he watched, she tucked it into the pocket on his uniform, and walked back to stand before Yuki. She held her hands together, then they flashed apart, and she chanted "Roses of the Noble Shrines, power of Dios that sleeps within me, heed thy master and come forth!"
Yuki stepped forwards as she swooned backwards, extending his arm to catch her, and, as Mitsuru watched disbelievingly, a ball of light bloomed on her chest, coalescing into a sword, which Yuki grasped the hilt of, and drew forth, declaring "Grant me the power to bring the world revolution!"
He thrust Nanami aside, and she tripped on her skirts, falling aside. Mitsuru froze as Yuki lunged for him, then dove aside.
"You're no duellist." Yuki laughed as Mitsuru scrambled back, eyes wide. "You don't even have a sword! This is going to be easy!" He dove after the scrambling blonde, a fierce grin on his face.
Mitsuru hit the edge of the platform, and made the mistake of looking aside, at the ground. He gulped. It was a /long/ way down, he realized. Then he looked up, as Yuki bore down on him, and bent backwards as the sword came down...
It was only by virtue of this that he came away alive. The sword slice down his cheek, leaving a jagged wound that /hurt/. Almost blinded by pain, Mitsuru, looked up, and saw it, as Yuki got his balance back. He only had a second... his leg lashed out, tripping Yuki, and he seized the rose as the duellist fell, the sword clattering to the plaza, yanking it out of Yuki's pocket.
Somewhere, bells rang, and Yuki's shocked yell was lost among them. He rolled off of Mitsuru, turned his head, spit, then stalked off. Mitsuru closed his eyes for what seemed to be just a second, but when he opened them, Nanami was gone, and steps were sounding on the steps.
Bruised by his fall, and his face hurting, Mitsuru sat up, looking around. The sword was gone. Nanami and Yuki had left. All that was left was the black rose in his pocket, and the pale purple rose that he was holding near the head.
The sound of footsteps came to a halt, then, as Mitsuru squinted, he recognized Mikage walking briskly across the arena to him.
"Do you need a hand up?" Mikage asked, leaning down and extending one.
"Yeah. Thanks." Mitsuru took Mikage's hand with his left hand, and the professor hauled him to his feet.
"Not bad, considering you weren't armed." Mikage observed, reaching up to touch the wound. Mitsuru winced as the finger traced it. "It's going to scar." the proffessor went on.
"You... you saw that?"
Mikage shrugged. "There's a spot from the school where you can see the duels, if you have binoculars."
"How did you know..."
"The bells ring whenever a duel begins, and whenever one ends. I got here in time to see you divesting the President of his rose. Neatly done. Here, give it to me." Mitsuru mutely handed it to the pink-haired man, and Mikage ripped the petals from it, letting them scatter on the wind. "The other one?"
Mitsuru looked down at the black rose, and pulled it out. Mikage didn't rip the petals off, however, he merely took it. "Come. We have much to discuss." the pink-haired man said, and turning abruptly away, headed for the steps. Mitsuru hesitated. "Well?"
The blonde duellist touched the wound on his face lightly, winced, and then followed Mikage down the steps of the duelling arena.
End Part 2
"I wonder I wonder, do you know what I wonder?"
"They say a brave knight is coming to slay the evil dragon!"
"But wait! That's not a knight! It's just the gardener!"
"Oh brave gardener, can you slay the evil dragon?"
"But I'm not a gardener! I'm just a little boy!"
"Well, you know what they say. Little boys have a way of growing up into knights..."
*********
Tsuwabuki Mitsuru had returned to Ohtori Academy, no longer a child. He stood tall in the traditional school uniform. Or rather, at the moment, he sat. On a rather uncomfortable stone bench, with no company. He was growing steadily more bored by the minute.
The nearest town was fifty miles from the school, and few people on the island possessed a car in any working condition. So Tsuwabuki was left waiting at the station after he arrived late in the afternoon.
It was a nice town, he decided, if a little dull. The people were certainly polite and helpful, and the little restaurant beside the train station had excellent ramen.
Around twilight, the thrum of an automobile engine roused him from his contemplation of a mathematics textbook, and he looked up to see an old blue convertible turn onto the road to the trainstation. He shut his textbook with a snap, and replaced it in his bag before standing and descending the steps to wait on the sidewalk.
The car pulled to a stop. An older man of indeterminable age sat in the drivers seat. He looked quite strange to Tsuwabuki, with shoulder-length pink hair. His face was long and lean, all sharp angles, and his dark eyes seemed to bore into his soul as he stood beside the car.
"Well? Are you or aren't you going to get in?" Sharp tone.
"S-sorry, sir."
"Sensei will do. I am Mikage Souji. You, I believe, are the young man the academy has asked me to ferry from town to school." The man's voice was cool dispassionate.
"Yes, sensei." He heaved his bag into the back seat, and got in. The man shifted gears, then hit the gas. The car tore away down the road and away. Tsuwabuki's eyes widened briefly. The landscape sped by in a blur.
"They say Ohtori is fifty miles away, but the road is rather twisting and strange." the professor said abruptly. "It's as if the island doesn't conform to the laws of physics."
"I remember." Tsuwabuki said, looking out at the blurring scenery. "I was in second form at the academy."
"Do you?" Mikage asked, glancing over at his passenger. Something in his eyes made Tsuwabuki shudder and look away. When he looked back, the professor's eyes were on the road again.
"Honestly, no. It was a long time ago."
Mikage chuckled, but said nothing. Tsuwabuki slanted a look at the man. But the professor's face was calm, composed, and completely unreadable. Somehow, the sign of emotion unnerved Tsuwabuki even more.
"I suppose it's changed a lot since I was there." he ventured.
"Not so as you'd notice." Mikage's reply seemed a bit acerbic to Tsuwabuki. He fell silent, then piped back up again.
"I heard that there's a new deputy chairman." Tsuwabuki said suddenly. "Touga Kiryuu. Wasn't he on Student Council back when I was in second form."
"Oh yes." Mikage's smile seemed strange somehow, as if he was in on a joke that Tsuwabuki hadn't the slighest clue of. "And his sister is a student at the school."
"Sister...?" A wave of dizziness made Tsuwabuki sway in his seat. When it passed, he looked up to find Mikage looking at him with a sort of detached interest. The pink-haired man looked back at the road.
"Yes, Nanami Kiryuu. Has her head in the clouds most of the time. A terrible student." A very long silence fell again as Mikage seemed to concentrate fiercly on the road, and Tsuwabuki tried to focus on the blurring scenery outside of the car. He'd long given up trying to find the speedometer on the strange convertible, and was occupying himself trying to figure out whether the green was trees or grass. Finally, he grew bored, summoned up his courage, and blurted out:
"What do you teach?" Mikage looked at him, and once again, he felt as if he'd said something terribly stupid.
"You might say that I am a professor of philosophy." Again, that irony in the professor's tone made shivers run up and down Tsuwabuki's spine. "I run seminars. Those truly interested are always welcome."
"It sounds interesting." he heard himself say, as if from far away. The world felt detached as he rode in the strange car with the professor, but he could hear Mikage's words easily, as if the car were enclosed. The wind whipped his hair about, and Mikage's as well, but what had to have been a cold driving wind off of the ocean was reduced to a vague feeling of cold, and his hair going in every which direction.
"Only the truly committed join my seminars." Mikage said. He was looking at Tsuwabuki again, and the teenager felt like a sudden weight had settled on him. "It takes a great deal of time, and energy, and courage."
"I'd... have to think about it." Tsuwabuki gulped, and looked away, only to find that the convertible was coming to a stop by a fountain. They had arrived.
"If you make up your mind..." Mikage pulled out a single ring. It was white, carved of some strange smooth stone, with a rose signet that matched the seal of the school set in it. "Come see me within five days time."
Tsuwabuki took the ring automatically, and then he was out of the car, taking his bag, thanking the professor for the ride. He found himself wondering what had happened as he searched for his dormitory, and later concluded that he really didn't want to know.
***
He caught little glances of the girl as he traversed Ohtori, saw her turning corners, the back of her, never the front, never the face. He saw the strange rose crest ring on her hand, the graceful and lithe movement of her body, and the odd panther-like movement that seemed oddly familiar.
He'd seen the white-haired President of the Student Council escorting her around, a hand on her elbow, gripping her and tugging her along, eyes wide and eager. Treating her as no girl ought to be treated. Like property.
It wasn't right. Mitsuru couldn't remember why, but he knew that at least.
He was so distracted by the girl that he almost forgot about his preoccupation with Mikage Souji, until he crossed paths with the forbidding professor, and the man gave him a look that seemed to see right into his soul. For a moment, Mitsuru had seen the man turning to walk towards him, but then, seized by an irrational impulse, the blonde student had stepped into his classroom.
Mikage hadn't followed him.
All and all, it was a very strange day for him. Between his wonderings about the girl and Mikage, he found himself standing on the broad road out of the central plaza of the school, facing the forest. The forest that he'd been admonished never to go into.
As he stood, looking into the shadows of the forest, he heard two voices, raised. One of them, a girl's, and another, the voice of the Student Council President.
"You can't do this, Yuki-san!"
"Quiet! I'll do whatever I want, as champion. /You/ are mine, and you obey me."
That decided him. Mitsuru headed into the forest, looking around, following a footpath. He heard fabric tearing, heard the girl gasp, and...
He emerged before a set of white gates. Yuki stood over the girl who was so familiar, holding a piece of her uniform blouse in his hand.
"Hey!" he shouted.
Yuki whirled. "You! What are you doing in the Duelling Forest?" he demanded.
"What are /you/ doing to her?" Mitsuru demanded, stepping forwards. The girl looked up, saw him, and her eyes widened.
"Whatever I please. It's no business of yours."
"I don't think so. It's wrong, and I won't let you do it." Mitsuru insisted. "Leave her alone."
Yuki laughed. "Or what? You'll challenge me to a duel? Please."
"Sir, I don't think..." the girl began shakily.
"Shut /up/, Nanami."
Nanami. Nanami. The name was familiar. Too familiar, and Mitsuru was committed. "/You/ shut up. I'm not letting you touch her ever again, you slime."
"Be careful who you insult, boy." The white-haired teenager dragged Nanami to her feet, and grabbed onto the gates, which, Mitsuru realized, were open just enough for him to slip through. He started forwards, then Yuki thrust Nanami through the gates and stood in the opening. "How about this. If you can get to her... you can challenge me to a duel. And if you win, you can have her." He sneered, then stepped back.
The gates slammed shut.
Mitsuru glared at them, walked right up to them, grabbed the handle, and yanked. The door remained obstinantly shut. Cursing, he yanked on the handle again. Stepping back, he stuck his hands in his pocket, and examined the gate.
It had a swirled pattern on it, almost like a rose. A rose. His hand closed around the white ring, and he pulled it out of his pocket, and examined it. The material of the ring was a perfect, smooth, egg-shell white, and the crest resembled that of Ohtori Academy. He examined the ring for a moment, then slipped it onto his index finger, and grasped the handle with that hand.
Something cold hit the ring, and he jerked his hand back, examining the rose. It was... wet?
He only had a second to wonder however. Water poured out behind him, and he turned to see it pouring out of vine-covered aquaducts into stone gutters on the ground.
Behind him, the gates opened, fog obscuring them out of nowhere for an instant. Then the fog cleared. The gate was open, and an immense stone rose stood atop them.
Mitsuru lifted his hand to examine the seal again. It remained the same, albeit a bit wet. Shrugging, he walked through the gates. Before him were a spiralling set of white steps, leading up to something that obscured the sun. As he wondered where the other supports for the structure were, he looked up... and up... and up...
"Oh..." he murmured, then cleared his throat. This had to be a joke. He hoped. But there were dusty footprints on the stairs, indicating that /someone/ had gone up.
Grimacing, he set his foot on the first step, and began to long climb.
Several stories later, he leaned against a pillar. The steps ended shortly, so he fought to catch his breath. Finally, he turned, and stepped up the last step, through the archway.
It was an immense, round platform, with regular spikes around the edges. The seal of Ohtori Academy was lain out in white and red bricks beneath his feet.
And in the center, stood Nanami, dressed in a red gown. Across from the gate stood Yuki.
"Oho, so you managed to get in!" the white-haired teenager jeered. "No weapon, though. So sad. Nanami, attend to us."
Mitsuru, took several steps forward, and Nanami produced two roses, one in each hand. The one she gave to Yuki was a pale purple rose, tucked carefully into his breast pocket. She stepped back, even as he reached for her, then turned and walked to in front of Mitsuru. Her eyes stared into his, and he thought something burned in them, before she held up his rose.
It was black, and she said "Whoever loses their rose, loses the duel." As he watched, she tucked it into the pocket on his uniform, and walked back to stand before Yuki. She held her hands together, then they flashed apart, and she chanted "Roses of the Noble Shrines, power of Dios that sleeps within me, heed thy master and come forth!"
Yuki stepped forwards as she swooned backwards, extending his arm to catch her, and, as Mitsuru watched disbelievingly, a ball of light bloomed on her chest, coalescing into a sword, which Yuki grasped the hilt of, and drew forth, declaring "Grant me the power to bring the world revolution!"
He thrust Nanami aside, and she tripped on her skirts, falling aside. Mitsuru froze as Yuki lunged for him, then dove aside.
"You're no duellist." Yuki laughed as Mitsuru scrambled back, eyes wide. "You don't even have a sword! This is going to be easy!" He dove after the scrambling blonde, a fierce grin on his face.
Mitsuru hit the edge of the platform, and made the mistake of looking aside, at the ground. He gulped. It was a /long/ way down, he realized. Then he looked up, as Yuki bore down on him, and bent backwards as the sword came down...
It was only by virtue of this that he came away alive. The sword slice down his cheek, leaving a jagged wound that /hurt/. Almost blinded by pain, Mitsuru, looked up, and saw it, as Yuki got his balance back. He only had a second... his leg lashed out, tripping Yuki, and he seized the rose as the duellist fell, the sword clattering to the plaza, yanking it out of Yuki's pocket.
Somewhere, bells rang, and Yuki's shocked yell was lost among them. He rolled off of Mitsuru, turned his head, spit, then stalked off. Mitsuru closed his eyes for what seemed to be just a second, but when he opened them, Nanami was gone, and steps were sounding on the steps.
Bruised by his fall, and his face hurting, Mitsuru sat up, looking around. The sword was gone. Nanami and Yuki had left. All that was left was the black rose in his pocket, and the pale purple rose that he was holding near the head.
The sound of footsteps came to a halt, then, as Mitsuru squinted, he recognized Mikage walking briskly across the arena to him.
"Do you need a hand up?" Mikage asked, leaning down and extending one.
"Yeah. Thanks." Mitsuru took Mikage's hand with his left hand, and the professor hauled him to his feet.
"Not bad, considering you weren't armed." Mikage observed, reaching up to touch the wound. Mitsuru winced as the finger traced it. "It's going to scar." the proffessor went on.
"You... you saw that?"
Mikage shrugged. "There's a spot from the school where you can see the duels, if you have binoculars."
"How did you know..."
"The bells ring whenever a duel begins, and whenever one ends. I got here in time to see you divesting the President of his rose. Neatly done. Here, give it to me." Mitsuru mutely handed it to the pink-haired man, and Mikage ripped the petals from it, letting them scatter on the wind. "The other one?"
Mitsuru looked down at the black rose, and pulled it out. Mikage didn't rip the petals off, however, he merely took it. "Come. We have much to discuss." the pink-haired man said, and turning abruptly away, headed for the steps. Mitsuru hesitated. "Well?"
The blonde duellist touched the wound on his face lightly, winced, and then followed Mikage down the steps of the duelling arena.
End Part 2