End of Eternity

by The Chairman's Wing

The Victor and her Bride return to Ohtori as new Duelists and old are bound to the rose seal and Akio makes his final bid for eternity.

2. Chapter 1: A New Hand is Dealt

Chapter 1: A New Hand is Dealt

Kouu looked around in wonderment at the campus of Ohtori.  Its size was incredible, its architecture fanciful.  Delicate-looking arches and white pillars dominated much of the architecture, and the place in general reminded him of pictures he'd seen of French chateaus, at least as far as outward appearances were concerned. 

He adjusted his spectacles, and ran a hand through his straight blonde hair.  Kouu was taller than the average Japanese male, with a slim build.  He looked all around, letting his soft brown eyes take in the entirety of the campus from his vantage point just inside the gates. 

A maze.  That was the best way to describe the campus, Kouu thought.  Its labyrinthine, marbled hallways and colonnades, seeming to glow white in the late morning light, wound almost at random.  Only when one really stopped to think about it did any order in the place become apparent.  In the center of the university stood the Tower, the place where all the high-level administration took place.  Surrounding it was the group of buildings where lower administration was located.  This included guidance counselors and faculty heads.  Sprawling out even further was the campus proper, a huge complex of lecture halls, dormitories and classroom buildings

Of course, he saw all this from the perspective of one who was quite lost.  Left to his own devices within the vast campus, he wandered.  It was all well and good to know that there was a way through the maze, but not actually knowing the way made knowing of its existence pointless.  If only he could find the guidance counselor's office somewhere in this sea of incoming freshmen and transfer students...

The blonde sighed.  All he really wanted for the moment was a dorm room and the accompanying key.  He'd spent a long plane ride from his last trip to America to return to Japan, and then a lengthy boat ride to the island.  His clothes, khakis and a loose white button-down shirt, were rumpled.  He needed a shower, and he needed a shave.  More than anything, he needed sleep.  His head felt as if it was stuffed with cotton.  Worst of all, people were too much in a hurry to stop and help.

Somewhere up ahead, Kouu began to hear a voice above the crowd. 

"Look out!  ...sorry!  Hey, outta the way!"  This voice, clearly a girl's by its sound, was easily the loudest.  It grew louder as she ran towards him down the hall.  The others were just mutters, barely audible.  Most of them seemed to be sounds of admonishment.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" a student yelled.

"...sorry!" she called back without stopping.

Then the body connected to the voice came into view.  Her dark auburn hair was tied in a ponytail--a topknot, really, Kouu thought.  This was all that was visible for the time being.  To his eyes, it was like watching the fin of a shark coming closer, closer...

For a moment, it seemed as if she would be like the countless others and pass him by, but then she changed the angle of her run suddenly and headed straight at him.  Packed as the hallway was, Kouu had nowhere to go without shoving someone aside.  He tried to sidestep as the hallway sprinter broke through the knot of people directly in front of him, but there was no room. 

She crashed into him.  His partial sidestep meant he missed most of the impact, and was only put slightly off-balance.  The girl, however, began a nosedive into the floor.  Her books fell out of her arms and were scattered across the floor. 

Moving with surprising speed, Kouu reached out and grasped her wrist as she fell away from him.  She nearly dragged him down on top of her before Kouu gained control.  There was a moment of precarious balance, and then Kouu slowly righted himself.  He pulled the girl upright a second later. 

"Are you okay?" he asked, smiling faintly.  The girl looked up at him.  At six-foot-one, he was taller than her.  Not by as much as he would have expected, though.  She was tall for a girl, and she walked with a confidence in her stride that seemed to add to her height.  Or at least, she ran with confidence in her stride.  Her hazel eyes delved into his brown for a moment, and then she bent down to pick up the books she'd dropped.  Kouu crouched down to help her.  It had long been a habit of his to help people who needed it, especially women, and even more so with good-looking women. 

She perfectly fit the description.

"I'm really sorry about that," she said to him.  "It's just that I'm going to be late for class in a couple minutes, and I barely have any idea where it is..."

"I understand," Kouu said.  "I'm lost here, myself."

He handed her books over and they stood.  As she turned away to head on down the hall, the blonde tapped her on the shoulder. 

"Excuse me," he said.  "I don't want to hold you up any more, but could you point me toward the guidance counselors' office?"

"Sure," she said.  "But you may want to get your glasses checked."

"Oh?"

The redhead girl pointed to a doorway about ten feet behind Kouu and to his left.  There above the door was a sign that read "Guidance Office."  Kouu sighed.  He turned back to thank the girl, but she was already gone.  He caught a brief glance of her topknot bobbing up and down as she dashed through the hall, and then she passed out of sight. 

As the blonde headed to the office, something on the ground caught his eye.  He edged his way through the crowd until he could see it, close to the wall.  It was a textbook, probably one of the ones the running girl had dropped earlier.  He picked it up, and looked at the cover.

"Introduction to Advanced English," the cover read.  Kouu spent a moment silently sympathizing with the girl he'd run into.  English was a tough language, full of contradictions and backward-seeming rules, not to mention an inconsistent phonetical system.  He'd had an edge by learning the language in America, where speaking it was a necessity for daily living. 

He wondered how he would return the book to its owner when it suddenly occurred to him to open the front cover.  He did, and saw writing on the inside.

Property of Akemi Kawabe.  If found, please return to East Dorm, room 301.

"Well," he murmured, "it looks like I have an appointment this afternoon, then."  With that, he tucked the book under his arm and entered the guidance office.

________________________________

Akemi left her English class in a rush, thankful to be out of the classroom at last.  It had seemed as if class would stretch on forever, especially since she was somehow missing her English book.  She wondered if she'd have to buy another one.  She sighed, remembering that the book she'd bought was one of the last used editions the library had.  Chances were very good that if she didn't get her original book back, she'd have to buy a brand-new one.  She'd already almost exhausted her budget.  The last thing she needed was another expense.  Hopefully someone found her book, maybe even the young man from the morning collision.   He'd looked nice enough, whoever he was, and would probably return it to her.   She went over her budget mentally, calculating how much money she'd have until her next check from home if she had to buy a new textbook.  The total wasn't exactly an uplifting sum.  She supposed she'd just have to get by. 

She was wandering the halls at a more sedate pace now, having no classes for two hours or so.  It gave her a nice, leisurely lunch period.  Lunch, she thought, was the next best thing to being released from the final class of the day. 

As she walked to the cafe, she noticed a girl with long silver hair and dark blue eyes standing off to the side of the hallway, holding a piece of paper in her hand.  Every so often, she passed a scrutinizing gaze across the paper, and then took in her surroundings.  She would look bewildered for a moment, and then go back to the paper. 

"Um, excuse me," Akemi said, walking up to the girl.  "You seem kind of lost."

"Well, yes," said the silver-haired girl with a faint, sheepish smile.  Her voice was soft, but strong enough that Akemi could hear her over the noises of the hallway.  "I suppose I must be.  I found my dorm just fine, but now I can't seem to make heads or tails of this thing."  She motioned with the hand holding the paper--evidently a map of the campus, Akemi realized.  Every freshman that went to orientation got one, and they could be acquired at the guidance office as well.

"Where are you trying to go?" Akemi asked helpfully.

"I'm trying to find the cafe," the lost girl said.  Akemi's eyes lit up at the response.

"Oh, then you can just come with me," she said, smiling.  "That's where I'm headed, so I'll show you the way."  The silver-haired girl bowed.

"Thank you," she said, straightening.  "By the way, my name is Ran Oshima.  I'm a transferring sophomore."

"I'm Akemi Kawabe," she greeted.  "Sophomore."  The two headed down the hall, chatting amiably.

"So, what's your major?" Akemi asked.

"Anthropology," Ran answered.  "I'm particularly interested in ancient religions and cults.  What about you?"

"Psychiatry," Akemi said.  "I want to have my own practice eventually, but my guidance counselor last year spent most of her time trying to convince me that I'd make a great student counselor somewhere."

"Really?"  Ran looked surprised.  "The same thing happened to me at my last school.  They kept trying to get me to switch my major to something more conventional."

"Where did you go to school before?" Akemi asked.

"Tokyo University," Ran said. 

Akemi went silent.  Ran's tone had been very matter-of-fact when she spoke of her transfer, but...  Tokyo University was one of the most difficult-to-enter universities in all Japan, certainly one of the highest-ranked schools.  Most people would have been happy just getting in, never mind their major.  Most people wouldn't even think about transferring away.

"Tokyo University?" Akemi echoed.  "Wow..."

"Well, the anthropology program here is better," Ran said.  "I barely made it, actually.  The entrance exams for this university are pretty tough."

"You're telling me," Akemi nodded.  Her exam scores had been passable, but her kendo scholarship was what made her admittance to the university a sure thing.

"But then, from what I've been told, everyone who makes it here "just barely" makes it.  I guess the fact that we're here is merit enough on its own."

"Yeah..."  The redhead wondered what kind of scores Ran had gotten on her entrance exams.  She was half-tempted to ask, but it might seem rude, and she didn't want to offend a potential new friend. 

The two remained silent as they entered the cafe.  Like many of the non-classroom structures at Ohtori, the cafe had a feeling of light openness to it.  The white marble pillars seemed to amplify the light, making everything brighter. 

Part of the cafe featured outdoor seating for nice days like today.  Most of the outdoor tables were already taken, Akemi saw.

"By the way," the Akemi piped up as she scanned the outdoor area for an open table.  "You wouldn't happen to have seen a blonde guy with glasses wandering around anywhere, would you?"

"Blonde with glasses...  Not sure," Ran replied, trying to remember if she'd seen the man Akemi was thinking of.  "Was he very tall?"  Akemi nodded.

"He's about as tall as..."  Her gaze latched onto a tall young man with long red hair walking through the café, and she pointed in his direction.  "He's about as tall as that guy."

The man Akemi pointed to was impossibly good-looking, with features that were fine, but not without strength.  He wore a black uniform, almost military in its appearance, which struck her as odd.  There was no set uniform for Ohtori University.  The only dress code at Ohtori implied that students would wear casual attire and make an active effort to look nice.  Uniforms were reserved for one special set of people.

"I think that's the Student Council President," Ran observed.  "Touga Kiryuu." 

"Yeah, I think you're right," Akemi said, her eyes never leaving him.  "The blonde guy was about as tall as him, but didn't stand out nearly as much."

Akemi began to wonder if perhaps the red-haired man stood out a little too much.  She watched as the eyes of almost every girl in the open-air cafeteria were drawn to him, and she imagined she could hear a collective sigh of adoration.  Sheepishly, she realized she was caught up in the same reaction.

The president stopped at nearly every table, visiting briefly with its female occupants.  She'd heard rumors about Touga, rumors that pegged him as the playboy on campus.  Judging by what she saw, the rumors were at least partly true. He'd share a word or two, sometimes a wink and a flirtatious grin, and be off again for another table.  The silver-haired girl realized that he was enjoying himself immensely. 

She supposed it couldn't be helped.  Boys would be boys, after all. 

Akemi sighed as the man left.

"It should be impossible for a person to be so good-looking," she said.  Ran nodded in agreement.  "Oh well," Akemi said.  "Hey, by the way..."

"Hm?"

"I was wondering," Akemi asked.  "Are you doing anything this evening?"

"Not really," Ran said.  She'd had half a notion to wander around the campus in an attempt to commit at least some of it to memory, but she could easily forego that for a while.  "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was just thinking," Akemi said.  "I'm making dinner this evening, and I was wondering if you'd like to join me."

________________________________

Kouu sat on his bed, resisting the urge to fall asleep.  It wasn't that he didn't want to sleep.  He'd just taken a shower a short while ago to freshen up and hopefully make himself a bit more alert after his flight.  Instead, the opposite had happened.  He now felt relaxed and more tired than ever.  However, he told himself he needed to leave the comfort of the East Dormitory and get an idea of how the campus was arranged before tomorrow, when he'd have to be in classes. 

The blonde let loose a jaw-cracking yawn as he stood and grabbed the T-shirt he'd left lying on his bed.  He pulled it on as he walked towards the door leading out of his room. 

Dormitory hallways all looked the same to Kouu.  Fluorescent lights overhead illuminated a tiled hallway painted off-white with thick, plain wooden doors placed at even intervals down both sides.  At the end of the hall were an elevator and a flight of stairs that serviced all five floors of the dormitory.

But, like everything at Ohtori, there was an air of the aesthetic.  The elevator had a caged door, and the stairs wound around the shaft and spilled out into the first floor day room.  He walked to the elevator, but saw it was on the fifth floor.  Considering that the blonde was on the second floor, the stairs would be a much faster alternative.  So he descended the stairs, wondering how much of a budget this university must have taken.  Someone, he reflected, had to have a lot of money to do something like this.

Unlike the four floors above it, the ground floor was only half-occupied by dorm rooms.  The other half was a large, open space that included a television, several tables and chairs, a small kitchen area and a battery of vending machines near the door.  Kouu headed to one of the machines to get a drink, and noticed a youth of about his age trying to decide how he wanted to spend his loose change.

Kouu stepped up to the machines and nodded when the young man noticed him.  Giving it no further thought, Kouu dropped his change into the machine and came away with a can of green tea, which he promptly opened and drank deeply from.

"You new around here?" asked the voice of the young man.  Kouu nodded again, turning to regard the person addressing him.

He was a bit shorter than Kouu, but not by much.  He had soft, dark hair and eyes that were a dark brown, almost black.  His face was thin and angular. 

"Today's my first day," Kouu elaborated, when it seemed apparent that this other person wasn't going to reply anytime soon.  

"You just transferred, then?"

"Something like that," Kouu explained with a shrug. 

"Oh?  What do you mean by 'something like that?'"

"I spent a lot of time traveling, so I never stayed at one school long enough to get a very complete permanent record.  When I applied here, they wanted to test me to see where I was.  By their standards, I managed to do well enough to actually earn some credit toward my freshman year.  So I have a light course load this year."  Kouu stopped to take another drink.  "Listen to me, rambling on when I haven't even told you my name...  Kouu Koharu."

"Taki Suzuka," The black-haired student said.  "I was just wondering why I hadn't seen you before.  I got here about a week before classes officially started, so I've seen most of the people around campus."

"It's a nice place," Kouu said, looking around.  "I kind of wish I'd arrived a day or so early, myself.  At least I wouldn't have missed any orientations."

"Ah, you're not missing much," Taki said, cracking a grin.  "Teachers here don't really do much the first day except hand out the course syllabus and try to get to know the students.  If you've missed anything, I'm sure you'll be able to make it up fairly soon."

"Yeah, I guess so," Kouu said.

"Considering you are here... I don't suppose you're taking kendo, are you?" Taki asked suddenly.  "As your extracurricular activity, I mean."

"No, afraid not," Kouu said.  "Fencing's my preference."

"Ugh, you're one of them."  The look on Taki's face indicated equal parts disappointment and irritation.  "You'd be a waste on the fencing team."

"'One of them?'" Kouu asked, faintly amused.

"Sorry, no offense.  Kendo is just better, that's all." 

"Oh, is that so?"  Kouu's tone carried a note of challenge, as well as surprise. 

"Sure," Taki said.  "Tell you what: if you don't believe me, come with me to the kendo practice this afternoon.  You'll see the real value of kendo."

"I don't know..." Kouu mused.  "It's not like I haven't seen kendo before."

"Then you haven't seen what a real kendoist can do with it," Taki said with his most winning smile. 

"If you say so," Kouu said.  "This ought to be interesting, then.  When's practice?"

"Well, actually," Taki said, checking his watch, "it's only in about thirty minutes.  Care to walk there with me?" 

"Sure."

The two headed out the door, arguing the merits of their sports most of the way to the dojo.

*              *                 *

"And so?" Taki asked, as the two walked back to the dorms from the kendo session.  "What did you think?"

"Well, from what I saw," Kouu began, "it looks all right, I guess."

"You guess?"

"Well, I mean, I could have fenced against most of the people there, I think."

"You're kidding," Taki said.  He almost sounded offended, Kouu thought.  "You'd take on a kendoist with fencing moves?"

"Well, not head-on, no," Kouu explained.  "Think about it.  Taking a kendo strike straight-on with a fencing foil wouldn't work very well, but I could definitely see myself maneuvering around a lot of the people in the dojo."

"You've lost your mind," Taki concluded. 

"I'm not saying kendo isn't a good form of swordsmanship," Kouu said.  "I think it's about as good as fencing or anything else.  It's no stronger or weaker.  It's just a matter of finding a style you like and getting good enough with it that you can play toward its strengths."

"If you say so."

"I say so," Kouu said, effectively ending the argument.

There was a moment of awkward silence, and Kouu couldn't help but smile.  Despite the somewhat boastful bravado, Kouu thought he could get along rather well with Taki.

"Well, anyway," Taki said, breaking the silence, "what are you doing for dinner?"

"Dinner?"  Kouu thought about it for a minute and looked at his watch.  The time read about 4 p.m.  "Well, it's kind of early for that, don't you think?"

"Well, there's a great place just off-campus, but a lot of the students go there for dinner.  You need to get in a bit early if you don't want to stay for an hour just waiting to get served."

"Point taken," Kouu said, as they entered the dormitory.  "But before we go, I have something I have to do."

"What's that?"

"I found someone's book laying in the hallway," Kouu said.  "I need to get it back to her soon."

"'Her?'"  Taki's voice latched onto the word instantly.  "I'm going with you."

"Can't you just wait here?"

"Are you kidding?  I hate waiting.  It'll make the time go by faster if I'm doing something, so I'm going with you."

"Whatever you want," Kouu sighed.  He went upstairs to his room, grabbed the English book from his desk, and then started up the stairs to the third floor.  He didn't notice Taki had taken the elevator until he stepped off the lift at the third floor.

"You could've taken the elevator and saved yourself the stairs," Taki said with a grin.

"I got here just as fast as you did," Kouu pointed out.  Taki shrugged, and the two headed down the hall.

"What room is it?" Taki asked.

"301," Kouu replied, quickening his pace to reach the end of the hall opposite the elevator and stairs.  Taki reached the door a half-second before the blonde, but Kouu knocked first.  There was a long pause as the two waited for the door to open, and Kouu wondered if the book's owner was out. 

As soon as he thought about turning to leave, though, the latch turned and the door swung inward.  Through the doorway, Kouu could see a tidy room that looked a bit more spacious than his own, and he thought he saw someone else in the background. 

The auburn-haired girl who poked her head through the doorway looked up at Kouu in recognition.

"Hey, you're the one I bumped into earlier," the girl said.

"Miss Kawabe," Kouu said, holding up her English book, "I believe this belongs to you."

She reached out for the book, looked inside the front cover, and nodded. 

"Yeah, this is mine," she said.  "Thank you for returning it."

"Not a problem," Kouu said.

"I really should do something to thank you, though," Akemi said.  "Hmm...  have either of you eaten dinner yet?"

"No," Taki said quickly, beating Kouu to the response.

"Well, then, come in," Akemi said, opening the door wider and motioning for the two to enter.  "I made dinner for me and a friend, but I have a lot left over, so help yourself to whatever you want."

As Kouu stepped in, he saw the friend Akemi mentioned.  She was a girl with silver hair and deep, dark eyes, and there was an air of quiet thoughtfulness and contemplation about her.

"I should introduce myself," the redhead said, then laughed.  "My name is Akemi Kawabe, in case you hadn't guessed.  I'm a transferring sophomore."

"Taki Suzuka," said Taki.  "Sophomore."

"Ran Oshima," said the silver-haired girl as she finished pouring herself a glass of tea and stood up.  "A sophomore.  Just transferred."

"I'm Kouu Koharu," Kouu said.  "A freshman."

"Nice to meet you," Ran said, pouring two glasses of tea for the newcomers and refilling her own.  "Are you two staying in this building, too?" 

"Not me," Taki said.  Ran shook her head and handed Kouu his glass of tea.

"I'm living in a different dorm complex," Ran said.

"I see."

Meanwhile, Akemi was still thanking Kouu for the return of her book.  "Well, if you live in this building, at least you didn't have to come far to bring me the book," she said.

"Oh, it wasn't a problem," Kouu said.  "Certainly nothing compared to going to the kendo dojo to watch this show-off."  He pointed at Taki when he thought the dark-haired kendoist wasn't looking.

"I am not a show-off," Taki said.  "I'm just good."

"And also modest," Kouu added, earning a laugh from the two girls.

"So you're taking kendo too, Kouu?" Ran inquired.

"Actually, no," Kouu clarified.  "Fencing is more my style."

The look on Akemi's face eerily mirrored Taki's.  Kouu rolled his eyes.

"Don't tell me we're going to start in on this again..." he moaned.

________________________________

Akio sat in his tower in the center of campus, smiling softly to himself.  As usual, events were falling neatly into place.  That four of his new prospects had already managed to meet and start getting to know one another pleased him greatly. 

They were like tarot cards in their way, he thought.  A given card from the deck could mean one thing on its own, and something else in company of other cards.  There were more sides to each of his new players than perhaps they themselves even knew.  

As they grew closer to each other, he thought, they would eventually begin to uncover their secrets, and then things would really get interesting.

And aside from the four already within his realm, there were others on the way.  He would have them all assembled, in the end.  And what a show it would be.

"Mr. Ohtori," came a rich, female voice over his intercom.  "Miss Yanagi is here to see you." 

"That's fine, Miss Tamiko," Akio said.  "You can send her in." 

He smiled as he thought of his temporary Rose Bride.  Amaya Yanagi was many things, he thought, but he was honestly quite glad Rose Bride would soon no longer be one of them.  The role had never really fit her, Akio thought, but then... 

"Any port in a storm," he murmured.

"Did you say something, Mr. Ohtori?" asked Amaya, standing in his open doorway.

"Nothing important, Amaya," he said, giving her his best smile.  It was the smile he had used on countless women over the years, the one that melted hearts almost instantaneously.  And his dear little Amaya was no exception.

It was a pity, he thought, that his time with her would be drawn to a close so soon.

________________________________

Utena stared through the windowpane of the tiny hotel room as the rain slackened and the dark sky began to brighten. Himemiya's head rested on her chest, and the room was silent, save for the sound of her soft breathing and the pitter-patter of the rain. Eventually, the quiet was broken by the sound of an alarm clock. Utena kicked it off the table, irrationally hoping to delay Anthy's departure for a few hours. It was to no avail, as she felt Anthy begin to stir against her.

"You didn't sleep," Anthy whispered. It wasn't a question.

"No," Utena admitted, burying her face in Anthy's mass of gorgeous violet hair, breathing in her scent.

"Neither did I," Anthy confessed, reaching up and gently caressing Utena's face once, before slowly extricating herself from her Prince's arms.

Utena watched Anthy as she slowly moved about the room and got dressed. Her eyes drank in Anthy's every detail.  Utena knew, with a dawning feeling of sick horror, that this might be the last time she would ever be able to see Anthy again. After Anthy was done dressing, Utena slowly followed her to the small table in the kitchen of the hotel suite they were staying in. Utena nabbed some donuts from the refrigerator while Anthy grabbed an apple. As Utena sat down, Anthy started to leave the kitchen and head for the door.

"Himemiya… you're leaving?" Utena asked as she felt a cold lump settle in her stomach.

"We said goodbye last night," Anthy said quietly. "If I stay too long, I might not be able to make it through that door."

"But… can't we…"

"You know it's too dangerous to be seen together. If his men see us travel to the school together, they'll know we're planning something and that I'm not serious. Even renting this room was pushing it."

"Anthy… goodbye," Utena said, her voice choked.

"Goodbye, Utena," Anthy whispered back, before leaving the hotel room.

Utena ran to the window and watched as Anthy emerged from the hotel entrance a minute later, and climbed into a taxi. Utena waited until the taxi was out of sight before she went back to the bedroom.  Carefully grabbing Anthy's favorite sweater, she clutched it close and curled up in the spot where they had laid the previous night, silently weeping out her sorrow.

________________________________

Another night had passed without Anthy, and Utena had hardly slept.  She stared gloomily through the window as the sun peeked over the edge of the trees outside.  Utena hadn't expected this to be so difficult. The days were easy enough, she supposed, when she could bury herself in her class work and quiet routine of information gathering, but the nights… the nights were when the dreams came and when there was no one there to hold her close when she woke up screaming, no one to hold her close and whisper that it would be okay, that she was free now. Miraculously, the person who was supposed to have been her roommate did not seem to have shown up.  That at least made it unnecessary to explain what was going on to her roommate, though she knew that her nightmares creeped out the other people living on the floor.  That was fine with her--she generally avoided them as best she could. No way of knowing yet who was under HIS control.

Never one to let depression and gloom to keep her down long, she quickly dressed in a tank top and shorts--the weathermen had promised another scorcher today--and went outside to take a jog around the campus. The running helped clear the veil of exhaustion that had hung over her for most of the previous day. Utena considered trying to find some sleeping pills. She wasn't sure how many more near sleepless nights she could take. And even during the increasingly rare times she managed to fall asleep, she often had horrible nightmares. It was perhaps the worst thing about her separation from Anthy--there was no longer that knowledge that even in the dark of night, Anthy would always be there to hold her and soothe her pain and brush away her tears. Utena forced herself to speed up, trying to escape her memories.

"Running," she whispered. "I'm always running."

*          *          *

The first few years after Himemiya had found her had a sort of dreamy quality about them. Anthy was filthy stinking rich, having raided several of Akio's huge bank accounts and stolen a large portion of his money before he'd realized what she was doing and shut off her access. Of course, by then it was too late. Their first home was in a little house in Tokyo but they hadn't stayed long.  Instead, they left after a few weeks and took the first plane they could find to California in the United States. After a few months, they had moved to the East Coast and done their best to lose themselves in the general population. Anthy insisted that Utena work and get her high school diploma, so after she learned enough English to get by, she took a hodgepodge of night courses and correspondence courses whenever and wherever she could. With Anthy's encouragement, she began taking self-defense classes, basic fencing courses, and even learned how to handle a pistol, more for the purposes of helping her to regain her confidence than anything else.

One summer, they had decided to tour Europe for vacation. It was during their visit to Zurich, Switzerland, that Utena began to notice an oddity. Wherever they went, they were followed but identical-looking men in black suits, oftentimes driving in black cars, and once even a black helicopter. After about two days of this, Utena pulled Anthy into a women's bathroom in museum they were visiting.

"I think we're being followed," Utena said bluntly.

"I know," Anthy responded calmly. "They've been following us ever since we left Japan."

"Ever since… they're not… they're not…"

"They're his," Anthy said quietly.

"Oh no… what do we do? Should we try and take them out?"

Anthy smiled a little. "No, we can't. Even if we succeeded in beating all thirty of them, he'd just send more. We'll just have to move on again."

"You mean we have to run away? Again?"

"There's nothing else we can do, is there?"

And that was when the idea of returning first started to grow.

*          *          *

After Utena finished her run, she returned to the dorms, feeling considerably better than when she had left. She quickly headed for the shower, and again she was grateful that the dorms rooms all had their own bathrooms. She did not fancy explaining the scar on her stomach to the other students. The shower helped soothe her aching muscles, but not so well as Himemiya's backrubs. After she got showered, she quickly dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans. It was interesting, she noted to herself, how she was now inconspicuous from the rest of the campus bunch unlike at the academy with her boy's uniform.  She checked her time and noted she had a chance for a quick breakfast before classes started. With a sigh, she slung her bag over her shoulder and moved forward to face the day.

________________________________

Chores were the only thing occupying Anthy's time when she was alone.  Despite her room being immaculate, she would repeat tasks over and over in order to keep herself busy.  Since returning to Ohtori, it felt like the only normal thing at times.  After experiencing the rest of the world, Anthy thought of Ohtori as a different dimension, a reflection of the past she had escaped.  Now she was back in this world.  Chores could only last so long, and once they ended she would start thinking about how the room felt empty without Utena.

She returned to her dorm for a quick meal and to gather some supplies from her room.  When classes had ended, she planned on getting to work right away on the rose garden.  The disarray it was in needed her attention.  The evening was becoming very late, meaning there would be less of a chance of people around to bother her.  From her closet she removed some gardening supplies, pruning sheers and the like.  The garden house had a storage room where supplies were kept, but these were special.  They were ordinary gardening tools, but the antique silver watering can was one of her favorite possessions.  It wasn't because of its worth but the sentiment.  Utena gave it to her as a birthday present.  When they had lived in America, Anthy had kept a small garden.  Utena had disapproved at first; the flowers were a painful reminder of what Anthy had slaved over for a long time.  "This isn't your job," Utena would sigh every morning she saw her tending to her flowers, but Anthy would smile, telling her that habits were hard to break, and that she enjoyed growing them for herself and only herself, which made the difference. 

Anthy grabbed the handle of the case the tools were carried in, placing the can on her desk in order to close her closet door.  She was all set to go, but before she picked up her treasure she had to take the cell phone resting next to it.  This had come into her possession soon after she left Utena in that hotel room. 

She wondered what Utena was doing.  Would she somehow know what transpired yesterday morning with her brother?  The cell phone was his way of keeping her on a short leash, contacting her whenever he wanted on a private line, knowing where she was when needed.  While Utena was at Ohtori, she couldn't go to her when it could mean putting her at risk.  There was almost no way to alert her of things to come, because it could be dangerous to be seen together often.

But Utena would surely know that dark moments were to come.  When she returned to her brother's graces, it was inevitable that duels would begin sooner or later, and that her time in this dorm room wouldn't be for long, because she would have to live in the new quarters assigned to her and her victor.

If her brother knew what she was planning with Utena...

No matter how hard things became, Anthy was going to remain determined to keep up appearances.  What she told her brother at her return had to sound as true as possible.

*          *          *

"So was I right with what I said just now?" his sensual but dark voice asked as he looked up at her from his desk, leaning back in his chair in comfort.  She looked at his ageless face with its smirk that never changed, as she processed his words, catching the cell phone he slid across the cherry wood finish.  His tie was still not fully done, she noticed.  The office where he carried out business looked larger than the one at Ohtori Academy but nonetheless felt more compact.

"Yes," she said flatly, averting her eyes not out of secrecy, but to keep up her abiding appearance in front of him.

"What was I right about?" he inquired, seeming to almost enjoy her standing on the other side of the desk once more, wanting her to repeat his words.

Anthy answered, "That I would return to you one day because this place is where I, the true Rose Bride, cannot escape."

*          *          *

Anthy was startled out of her memory when the silver watering can began to wobble.  After pocketing the phone, she lifted the tiny lid.  Popping out was her exotic pet.  "ChuChu!" she exclaimed, helping the monkey-mouse out of the opening, extending a finger.  He grabbed it, holding on as Anthy pulled him out.  He did have a knack of getting into everything.  He made a low "chu" noise, dropping to the table to sip from a cup of tea she left out for him.

"I've got to go, ChuChu," she announced, taking hold of the watering can's handle.  "I don't know when I'm going to be back tonight.  Look after the place, okay?"

The little creature continued to happily slurp his tea.

Heading back inside and locking the balcony doors, Anthy cleaned her cup and tied back her hair at the nape of her neck.  With no formal dress code at Ohtori University, unlike Ohtori Academy, Anthy was allowed to dress in a simple yellow sundress and matching sweater.   Slipping on her brown loafers at the foyer, Anthy smoothed her clothes and left for the rose garden.

There was much to think about on the way, like what else had transpired at her meeting.  She was told by her brother to attend the fencing tryouts that would be hosted by the team in a few days.  While the kendo club would have its participants, the fencing team's tryouts had built up a lot of hype.  It was going to look more like a tournament than anything else.

Anyone could say things hadn't changed a bit from the academy to the university.  However, there was a major difference, one only a few people knew about at the moment.  The entire Student Council could walk by her and wouldn't even stop to greet her.  They weren't rude people.  On the contrary, they were well mannered.  Each one of them was suffering from a memory lapse.  Anthy was almost jealous of it.  They remembered their academy days, but couldn't recall anything about duels or the Rose Bride.  Her brother instructed her to slowly but surely resolve the problem, remedied by a simple introduction.  They would have to get back to work soon, though they wouldn't be alone.  It was a bit frightening.  A few new competitors outside of the Student Council--with whom she was at least familiar--might be the new victors.