She woke well after dawn, and sat straight up, realizing that there were classes today. What time was it?
"What?" he said, stretching in a very feline motion.
"I have to go to class."
"No you don't." He pulled her back down beside her.
"Yes I do. This is a school, if you hadn't noticed. You should, too."
"Watch this." Touga rose and shrugged into the magically appearing robe, left the room, and reappeared a few moments later with his celphone, then sat down on again on the pink bed.
Yumi could see the celphone screen. 362 unanswered calls. She stifled a laugh at the absurdity of the amount.
"Who's your homeroom teacher?" he asked, dialing.
"Sasaki Michiko-sensei. What are you..."
"Ssh. —Can I please have Sasaki Michiko-sensei? Thank you. ...Hello, Sasaki-sensei? Good morning, this is the Student Council President. You know that new transfer student, Maigo Yumi? I'm afraid there's been a mix-up; she's not actually supposed to be attending classes here. She's here for some very specialized tutoring, you see, but didn't have the heart to protest when they had her down for normal classes by mistake, you know how it is. Right. Yes, please do. Of course, sorry about all this. Thank you." He closed the celphone and put it down. "See how easy that was? No classes for you, ever again."
Wide-eyed, Yumi had put her hands to her face. "I can't believe you did that! Now all the teachers know!"
He laughed. "And does that really bother you?"
She gave an exasperated sigh. "How am I gonna learn anything?"
"I'll take over your education, of course."
"Great, then I really will end up being a courtesan."
"Hm, only if that's what you want to be paid for. But you don't have to go to class to learn, you just have to read. By taking over your education, of course, I meant I'll find you some books, if you have such an inquiring mind." He smiled and pulled her close. "As for matters of the 'floating world,' I believe I already am in charge of your education."
She blushed a little. She had never heard the phrase "floating world," but clearly it was a euphemism for bedroom things. It described this room rather aptly. A pink room called Floating World, she thought.
"Now, unless you're hungry or something, I think we should go back to sleep. It was a late night." He yawned over the last phrase.
Indeed, it had been a late night—and an eventful one. How had it concluded? She didn't even know! She had to find Teki-chan!
"I want to talk to my friend."
"Your friend? The bashful one?"
"Yes, the 'bashful' one."
"Do you have to?" He pouted a little.
She set her jaw in response. "Yes. I have to."
"Fine. Good luck finding your clothes." He settled back into bed.
She giggled. "I'll be back."

The wind from yesterday's storm had decided to stick around. Though the sun was warm, it was a fierce, gusting wind, determined to mess up hair and flip up skirts. It shouted in her ears. I'm here to stir things up! I'm here to make things change! And I'm not leaving!
"Like me?" Yumi said to the wind. Clouds hurried across the sky as if late for something important. If the wind softened a little, it would be a perfect day.
She spotted Miteki heading to the bridge, long indigo hair whipping around her face. Yumi ran to greet her. "Hey, Teki-chan. Wow, what's up with this wind!"
"Seriously. I should've tied my hair back," said Miteki.
"I'm really sorry I had to leave you last night. I'm probably the worst friend you could pick."
"It's okay. That...that was all just weird."
"What happened finally?"
"Oh, Arisugawa-sempai managed to kick him out and then I fell asleep hiding behind the door and she found me and let me sleep on her couch. Anyone would think I did something with her."
"That damn kendo jock's a strange one. I wish I knew what he thinks he's doing." But Yumi felt a pang in her gut, a feeling that maybe ignorance was bliss. "Well, no one ever knows. He'd kill anyone who asks."
"I don't like him," Miteki almost whispered.
Yumi laughed loudly. "Miteki, queen of the understatement. There's no shame in saying you hate his guts and want him to die a horrible death."
"Hey Yumi," some random girl called then. "I saw your friend leaving the Student Council dorm this morning! Is she stealing your boyfriend?" The girl's friends giggled.
"Is the wind stealing your brain? Maybe you should find it before you say something else stupid," Yumi replied. That shut them up. No one had expected the weird girl to come up with a snappy retort. But Miteki's face was red.
"My 'boyfriend,' huh? There's going to be a Brutally Murder Yumi Council if people are saying that," she muttered.
"The active half of the Student Council were looking all over for you the other day," said Miteki. "I was wondering if they make such a big deal of everyone who gets with him. Wouldn't they have to hold assemblies?"
Yumi laughed and mimed holding a microphone. "The best way to be seduced by the Student Council President is to write a love letter and then wait around in the rose garden. If you have been dumped by the Student Council President, please stay after the assembly for the mass seppuku ceremony."
This did not amuse Miteki, to whom suicidal thought was no stranger. Yumi blinked and changed the subject. "You know what he did just now? He called the homeroom teacher and told her to take me off the roster. So now I don't go to school at all, and yet here I am. Is that ridiculous or what!?"
"Huh? Can he do that?"
"Apparently."
"What are you going to do all day?"
"Beats the hell out of me!"
"But he still isn't going to class? He wants you around that much?"
Strangely enough, Yumi hadn't thought of it that way. Her heart leaped, and she said softly, "I guess so."
It seemed suddenly as though Yumi might have attained the impossible, Miteki thought, that shining treasure quested for by so many. Miteki looked at her in wonder. "Does he...love you?"
Yearning ripped unexpectedly through her whole being. Could she answer yes? If she said yes would it be true? If she believed hard enough...?
Who would dare take such a leap of faith? To be proven wrong and fall from such a height—wouldn't that break anyone? She wanted to believe, but she knew better...
"If he does I sure wish he'd fucking SAY SO!" she shouted. People looked at her. There were tears in her eyes. From the wind, right? Yes, from the wind.
She looked down, speaking as quietly as Miteki was wont to. "Wouldn't it make sense that if you believe hard enough, something will come true? I'm human only because I believed that I should be."
"It would make sense," said Miteki, "but the world isn't known for making sense. Maybe it works that way for you, though. You come from a different world."
"There wasn't any such thing as sense or nonsense. Making sense is a human concept." Yumi snorted. "I daresay you'd have an easier time of it anyway."
"Of what?"
"Winning your prince's heart, if you believe it into being."
"I don't know why you'd think that."
"Don't you? Yours is...pure. He's not so complicated. He'll tell you what he's feeling, and if he doesn't, you'll know anyway. Mine, he's something else. He's all deception, I can't read him, he never tells me his true feelings. He never tells anyone. If he felt anything for me he probably wouldn't tell me; if he told me I probably shouldn't believe him."
"How can you love someone you don't know, who's 'all deception'?"
"Because I know why."
Miteki waited for Yumi to explain further, but she was done explaining. She'd said too much already.
"Well, I bet he's 'complicated' now," Miteki said dismally, referring back to her own prince.
Yumi shook her head. "Not that way. He'll never lose that purity. His sincere heart is the essence of him."
She was right, of course. It was what made him lovable. "What's the essence of your prince, then?"
"A diamond shell."
No one who didn't love Touga would have thought of that, thought Miteki—that instead of being heartless, he was just one of those people who could never let anyone see his heart. No one who didn't love him would believe it, either.
They had arrived at the main school building, and Yumi realized she would have to walk back across the bridge alone while everyone else was heading in the opposite direction. That would look more than a little suspicious. Well, she could just run and look like she'd forgotten something.
"I'm sorry I can't be around more," said Yumi. "I don't know what'll be going on today, but if I get to, I'll come visit you later. Let's go to that coffee shop again."
"Yeah, let's do that."
"See ya." Yumi smiled, bright and encouraging on a day when nothing was that way, and turned and jogged back against the flow of students.
Time for Miteki to face another day alone, as always. At least she was invisible, so no one would ask her why she looked so pale and nervous.

He was asleep again when she returned, so she got back into bed beside him. She could use some more sleep. It was too windy outside. Wind moaned against the outside of the building.
She woke a few hours later from hunger. Curious, she looked out the window to see that the wind had decided to calm down after all, and it was an utterly beautiful day outside. She had to tell him. "Touga, look, the weather's so perfect."
He sat up and yawned. "Is it? Let's go to the beach, then."
She looked at him excitedly. "The beach? Really?"
"Sure. There's a nice spot not too far away. Do you have a bathingsuit?"
"I think so."
"Why don't you go get it?"
"Okay!" She ran to her own dorm, full of anticipation, and found the designer bikini that Kozue had helped her pick out. It was a modest cut, but the sides were sheer, and it was a cute pink and white flower print. Over the suit she put on some clothes appropriate to a day of summer leisure. When she got back to his room, he had done likewise, and gathered beach supplies as well.
"Oh, you look adorable. I can't wait to see you in your suit."
Yumi grinned. He had his hair tied back loosely and a casual shirt hanging halfway open. She poked him where his chest showed. "Not so bad yourself. But you don't think you're showing off too much of the merchandise?"
He laughed. "So you're the only one who gets to see it now?"
"We can pretend that's how it is. After all, if we're going to the beach together, we must be a couple." Suprisingly, she didn't feel yearning when she said that, just sly amusement.
"I suppose I'll have to indulge you, then." He fastened one more button.
They were on their way in a little sedan before she knew it. He wished there was a convertible to take, but the only one around was the Trustee Chairman's. That car had a raw, provocative energy to it that was almost sinister, but he could have borrowed it easily enough; however, the reason he didn't take it was that he couldn't drive standard.
"Are you old enough to drive?" Yumi said suspiciously. Wasn't eighteen the driving age here, and he seventeen?
"No, but the cops don't know that."
Yumi laughed. "You're going to get us in trouble!"
"I never get in trouble."
"Oh, that's right, you can charm your way out of anything. Well, charm us some food, I'm hungry."
"Me too. There are lots of nice shops where we can get something."
"Won't we look weird, being there on a school day?"
"Not really; lots of students will skip on a nice day like this."
"Lots of delinquents will skip on a nice day like this."
"In that case, we'll be delinquents." He turned on the radio and they laughed at the mangled Japanese versions of American pop hits.
They arrived soon, and took some box lunches from a noodle shop out to the waterfront along with the requisite blanket and umbrella. Yumi had obviously never seen the ocean before. "Aahhhh! It's so pretty!" she exclaimed, her eyes wide with wonder just like a small child's. She laughed with pure delight. It really was a perfect day to be there.
Carrying the box lunches, she ran down onto the sand, giggling as she almost lost her footing on the uncertain surface. Soon they found a spot for the blanket and umbrella, and sat in the meager shade eating and watching waves roll in and seabirds cavort.
They finished lunch and Touga fished sunblock out of the bag. "Oh, look!" said Yumi. A little white butterfly, seeking shelter from the sea breeze, had landed on her shoulder. "What's it doing out here on the beach?" The butterfly closed its wings thoughtfully, as if to say, I was just wondering that myself. Yumi laughed. "Aw. See, it's lost!"
Touga, apparently, was not amused.
"That's an awful serious face. What's wrong with a little lost moth?"
"It's a butterfly," he said in a strangely flat voice.
I'm sure I have no idea why, but it seems you're an uninvited guest, she thought to the little insect. She turned her shoulder landward and blew at it to send it on its way, but instead it made for Touga's bright hair.
A look of horror came over his face. "Get it off!" he cried in a voice she'd heard him use once before—the voice that came out when he was somehow stripped of his armor and his wounds torn raw. "Augh! Get it off!" He shook his head violently but only succeeded in getting the hapless creature tangled in his ponytail.
His urgency was too great for her to be confused. Responding without thought, she quickly combed through his hair with her fingers until the offending bug was caught in her hand. She moved away and released it. I don't know what you did, but if you show those wings around here again I'll rip them off. It fluttered away, innocent as anything. A couple of kindergarten-age boys were sniggering at the handsome youth freaking out over a butterfly in his hair. Yumi gave them a look that made them turn and run.
She went through his hair again to make sure there weren't any bits of wing stuck in it. He was trembling. "I got it," she told him gently. "It's all gone." If there was a reason why a little white butterfly could get under his armor so well, somehow it didn't matter now. Today was supposed to be happy. She put her arms around him and her chin in the hollow of his shoulder, and waited for him to stop shaking. "Didn't you want to see my bathingsuit?"
This girl, who longed so for his emotion, who wanted so badly to get into the truth of him, now after that display was pretending like nothing happened? She knew there had to be something behind it, and yet she just disregarded it entirely? He felt a surge of affection for her. He should thank her for getting rid of the thing, but his pride also refused to acknowledge such an outburst. He wished she could know how much it meant—her small kindness of not asking why he hated those little white butterflies with black dots.
If she asked later, would he tell her?
That he would even consider such a thing shocked him. Regardless of the fact that he could never speak of it to a living soul, what would she do with a piece of knowledge like that? It would just rankle inside her and make her angry at the world. Besides, she wouldn't ask. She'd already decided not to.
What a strange girl. Silly, and funny, and good in bed; deranged, and opinionated, and kind when you least expected it. Kindness was something unfamiliar to him, so much so that when he saw it he had to wonder if it was self- serving. Not so with her, at least not this time.
It was one of those weird things about the world, how some small kindness that a person thinks nothing of makes the biggest difference to the recipient, and the first person deosn't even know—but there's no way to tell her.
He'd more or less planned to indulge her anyway, so he may as well feel tenderly toward her for the day.
"Yes, I do want to see it," he smiled. "Off with those clothes now."
"I get that a lot from you." She grinned and shimmied out of her shorts and T-shirt, then made some mock model poses for him.
"Ah, that suits you perfectly. You are too cute." Seeing her so adorable and carefree, against the perfect backdrop of the sunlit ocean, filled him with a buoyancy so nostalgic it was almost painful. For some reason he'd known that taking Yumi to the beach was the way to find that feeling, and it had simply been a day to find it. It was the airy elation that came from looking at something commonplace and yet truly beautiful. It would vanish when the day ended and he probably would forget ever having felt it. But this was the kind of moment someone like her lived for, moments that made one feel like beauty and purity shone at the center of everything and the sorrow of living was just an illusion. It was strange for him to be feeling this way, as though he had stepped into some kind of alternate existence.
The loveliness of the seashore flowed into her until she became part of its beauty, the embodiment of simple joy at being alive. "Come on, let's go swimming!"
He wondered if, at this moment, he could call himself happy. Things moved slowly and brightly as if in a movie flashback of a childhood memory. "We have to put this on first." Touga found the sunblock that he had flung somewhere in his panic and held it up.
"Whassat?"
"Silly, it keeps you from getting sunburned. Come over here." He rubbed some onto her back and shoulders and she sighed blissfully, staring out at the ocean, her lover's hands on her back. It was so warm and wonderful she could only breathe, taking in the exhilarating salt air and sighing again. If there was anything more to life, she had no idea what it was.

That was how the day went, playing in the waves, looking at seashells, admiring the scenery and each other fitting into it. They found dinner at a café and took cute pictures in a photo booth. The shore faced west, and at sunset they sat on a dune down the beach where they had wandered and watched the orange sun sink below the water, turning the sky more colors than Yumi would ever have thought to see. Wrapped in his arms, watching something so beautiful, she felt as though her body was too frail to contain her happiness. Surely she would dissolve into a burst of sparkles...
Worn out from frolicking all day and too enchanted to stay conscious, she was asleep with her head on his chest when Venus appeared. He woke her with a kiss on the cheek, and without any words they stood and climbed back down the dune, and walked leisurely hand in hand through low-tide seafoam. The sky overhead was such a deep lapis blue, it felt as though she could drink it. The sound of the waves seemed to come to her from the core of the universe. Perhaps she was dreaming. It was the same kind of feeling as in the rose garden that first night, an infinite dream existing in one moment that seemed to encompass forever.
In that kind of space it really felt like there was nothing she couldn't do, nothing that was impossible.
A couple with a child, having spent most of the afternoon at the beach, was packing up. The little girl pointed at the two walking through the seafoam in the twilight. "Mommy, look, it's a fairy princess."
"Oh really."
"You don't believe me? See, she's all shiny. And she's got a prince with her."
"Mmhm."
"You aren't even looking! Daddy, tell her it's a fairy princess."
"Well, Yumi-chan, grownups aren't very good about things like that. You'd know better than us."
Yumi, half listening, turned and realized that the little girl had the same name as her. Little Yumi, perhaps four or five, blinked with a rapt expression on her round face.
Yumi smiled and took a small pinkish conch shell from her pocket. "My name is Yumi too," she said and put the seashell in the little girl's hand, knowing Little Yumi would think it magical, since it came from a fairy princess. The child was too full of wonder to say anything.
Embarrassed, Little Yumi's mother giggled. "Yumi-chan, thank the fairy princess," said the father, amused.
"Thank you, himesama," Little Yumi whispered. She couldn't take her eyes off the fairy princess, and watched as she rejoined the prince and continued up the beach, the pair silhouetted against the twilight. She made a wish that someday she could reach the magical world they came from.

The letter that End Of The World had been expecting for some time now had finally arrived.
An unusual girl has come under my acquaintance. Somehow she knows about the duels. I do not know how she could be of use, but the intensity of her feelings makes her easily manipulated.
Seitokaichou

He smiled. Another duellist? A girl with such strange origins might well be able to unleash the Power. She had not the weakness of will that would make her suited to a Black Rose Signet; he would have to craft a ring for her and send it with the reply. He leaned back and watched the pen write on its own.
Those who know of the duels must participate in them. Let her believe that Tenjou has hurt you deeply, and cultivate her hatred until she is ready to kill.
The paper floated into the envelope, which sealed itself.
To craft a ring was a painstaking process that required assistance from the Rose Bride. "Come here, Anthy," he said into her mind.
He put on his favorite album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, as he waited. "For the benefit of Mr. Kite, there will be a show tonight on trampoline..." The eerie, enigmatic strains appealed to him; it was the kind of world he created. But she was making him wait. Lately Anthy had taken to rebelling in little ways, like seeing how long she could resist his command without passing out from the pain. Apparently Tenjou Utena's headstrong ways were infectious. The sooner he got to claim that pink-haired siren, the better.

The next day Yumi was resolved to go to the coffee shop with Miteki. Of course, she had to wait until classes were over. So to pass time after they woke late in the morning, she persuaded Touga to help her find books as he'd more or less promised to do. They went to the Student Council dorm's library.
"Well, have you read Genji Monogatari?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"That's a good start, then. The Enchi edition is supposed to be the best..."
Somehow she had managed to get by with about a third-grade reading level, and he ended up reading it to her. Whether it was the sound of his voice rendering the literary masterpiece, or just that she actually liked the story, he had no idea, but she was completely entranced, drawn into the millennium-old spell of the Heian court. He decided to skip ahead to famous chapters, and once the title character began to show his philandering tendencies, Yumi had found a new nickname for Touga, teasingly calling him Hikaru-no-kimi, the Shining Prince. In return he had to call her Lady Rokujo.
"Rokujo? I'm Rokujo?!" She smacked him on the arm as he laughed. Rokujo was the token jealous bitch among the Shining Prince's lovers. "No veiled, indirect criticisms from this corner! Hmph. If I met the real Hikaru-no-kimi right now, I'd run away with him. He must have had considerably more tact dealing with his ladies."
"I'm sorry. That was mean." He laughed a last time at the reaction he'd gotten. "In truth, you're really Akashi, the uncivilized yet charming maid who catches his eye when he's exiled himself from the capital. That fits almost too well, my lady Akashi."
"If you keep calling her uncivilized, Akashi is likely to stay that way forever." Though her feathers were no longer ruffled, she stuck out her tongue. But he slyly caught it with his lips, making her squeal in surprise, and then suddenly they were making love in the library of the Student Council dorm, volumes of Genji Monogatari scattered around. He murmured verses of the Shining Prince's love poems to her. It was almost ridiculously romantic. In her heart she felt a shy, trembling fascination, altogether too much like some unsuspecting girl chosen for Genji's seduction.

After classes, Miteki found Yumi waiting for her just outside. Yumi's eyes looked as if she'd recently awoken from a fantastic dream. She radiated happiness like some kind of angel fresh down from heaven. Always aware that the concept of happiness was something out of her own reach, Miteki almost felt envious. "Hi, Yumi-chan."
"Teki-chan! What's up! Oh, it's nice weather again, isn't it."
"Yeah, it is. Should we walk to the coffee shop?"
Yumi giggled. "You totally read my mind!" They began walking, Yumi making an effort not to force Miteki to match her altogether too sprightly pace.
"How come you smell like boy's aftershave?" Miteki asked, realizing immediately after she said it what a stupid question it was.
Unexpectedly, Yumi flushed. "Eeeh! You don't usually ask such silly things."
"Sorry, that was dumb. I knew right after I said it." But they looked at each other and laughed at themselves.
"So what did you do yesterday?" said Miteki.
"We went to the beach!" Yumi beamed.
"That must have been nice." Miteki was reminded of dandelions. Yumi's happiness was as sunny, as uncomplicated, and as vigorous.
"It was wonderful!" Childlike, she twirled around with the force of her elation, making her skirt fly up.
"Um, you probably shouldn't do that in the uniform," Miteki suggested.
"Oh..." She giggled, chagrined, as it occurred to her what Miteki meant. "Well, don't you think these uniforms are silly anyway? I mean look at these sleeves. What weirdo designed this?" She pulled at a mass of pouf. "It's almost embarrassing going off campus in it. Why don't we stop and get into our own things? Then you won't have to lug that school bag all over, too."
"Yeah, good idea. These skirts are too short for my taste. It makes us look like porno game characters or something."
"Seriously. I think I saw a CD- ROM with Kozue at the media store."
"Eww!" They laughed and, after changing, continued on to the coffee shop, and right through dinner made a point of not talking about anything important.

Miteki and Yumi had ended up doing a bit of shopping, since she had to replace the uniform that was ripped, and then going to a movie. She returned after dark, much later than she would have expected. There were no lights on in his rooms, and she heard faintly that strange operetta music playing from a tinny record. Fear stabbed into her gut. Had she been gone too long?
Unlike the first time when a sense of urgency had made her fly like wind, now she was seized up; her feet would hardly move, her blood turned to ice water with the terror of what she might find. But she forced herself back to that shadowy room with its tall, curtained windows and music too sophisticated for an uncivilized girl like her. She found him there finally, sitting in an almost Byronic pose of fighting off inner demons. The fear evaporated. He was so beautiful like that, beautiful and fragile in a way that spiked through the center of her existence, so beautiful she was afraid to touch him, as though he might shatter into a million pieces if she drew another breath.
But she went to him, softly, and fell to her knees beside him and put her head in his lap like a puppy. "Don't do that."
"I'm sorry..." he murmured, absently touching the nape of her neck. "I... You have some kind of power, the way you drive away that darkness... Your presence lets me forget..."
His words answered to the truth of herself, making her feel that false pretensions such as "body" and "mind" melted away to reveal the shining core of her essence. If the depths of her consciousness warned that these words were empty flattery, she did not hear.
"You should have told me," she whispered, voice shaky with emotion. "Say you don't want to be alone. Say it and I'll never, never leave you, not for a moment."
"I..." he began. She waited, tears pricking at her eyes, for him to form words. He spoke so quietly, as if afraid someone might overhear and taunt his weakness. "It's true. I hate being alone. I can't stand it. You know that's why I always... But it doesn't change. In the end, it's just like being alone. Because it doesn't mean anything."
He was right: she had known. This was the flicker of angry sadness behind his eyes, the inevitable curse that every human being was one's own separate entity—and therefore always alone. A curse that "love" was supposed to break, and so he searched, through all of its more earthly manifestations. So he knew how to get love and how to use it, but not how to receive it, nor how to give it. Somehow, he had forgotten. Somehow this most basic and most powerful of human talents had been taken from him.
Somehow she would remind him.
Deep in her soul, beyond awareness and irrelevant, the cry for vengeance echoed. If this was the result not of cruel circumstance, but of another's actions, if she ever found that individual—armies of demons would pale to see her wrath.
Yet she was not the only one who felt this way for him. "But I'm not any different. Maybe I'm strange and uncivilized, but I'm not the only one who would wish to end your loneliness. I have no special powers, only feelings like anyone else."
"Those feelings break anyone else," he said roughly. "I can't even stop it. People who feel that way either move on or burn themselves to ashes. The force of their feelings frightens them so they can't even come near me. But you are different. You're strong, you have brightness inside you. When everyone else just wondered, for some reason, you came. Somehow, you knew..."
She heard the words he left unsaid. Somehow, you knew I was hurting. Her body trembled, too weak to contain the force in her spirit. She squeezed his hand and pressed it close to her face. "Tell me. Tell me what darkness you would have me drive away. Tell me what hurts you and I will fight it to my last breath."
He pulled her into an embrace, reminded of yesterday when, without so much as a curious glance, she had gotten rid of that little white butterfly. For a long time they said nothing. The record had reached the end and crackled quietly.
Then suddenly he switched on a dim lamp, and when her eyes had adjusted to the change in light, he held something small and gleaming out to her.
"I want you to have this," he murmured.
A circle, silver and pink enamel.
A Signet ring?
She gasped. "Me? Why?"
He looked deeply into her eyes with something that could only be trust, and pleading, and that flickering shadow of pain he had named as inescapable loneliness. "Because you want to fight for me."
Take this ring, and there's no turning back, whispered a voice from her gut. Put it on and you are bound.
Bound? Bound by what?
I am bound by one thing, she thought, and that will not change from a piece of jewelry, Signet or no Signet.
"A ring means a promise," she said. "I'll have to promise you something."
"Promise me...that you'll keep your brightness. Promise you won't lose your shining strength, no matter what."
He spoke not of the force of her feelings, but of something beyond that, something even she herself did not know. Perhaps it was clear to others, including him, that the essence of herself was some "shining strength" that gave her the power to withstand such fierce emotion as she felt for him. But she was human, and seeing oneself clearly was difficult for any human being.
If this was what he asked of her, she would not refuse, though she did not entirely understand. If it was indeed the essence of her, she would not lose it. "I promise."
He took her left hand and slipped the ring onto her, where it fit snugly as though she was never meant to be without it. Where it sent some kind of energy buzzing along her nerves—how, she had no idea, but the moment it was on her finger she felt starved with lust that seemed inappropriate at the moment. She looked away, blushing, wondering what strange enchantment was on this piece of jewelry.
"I know..." he said, touching her shoulder.
Her heart beat faster. "What...what is this?" she breathed.
"It's your wish. You want to fight off my loneliness, and this is the only way I know how." He touched her face intently.
"But..."
"I told you, you're different." He kissed her, slowly, tenderly, and they made their way back to the pink room.
"Hikaru-no- kimi..." she whispered.
He'd put on a fine performance, he thought, and without telling her any lies—though perhaps he was revealing too much truth. Anyway, he never lied to her; she just believed what she wanted. But he found himself hoping she could keep her promise. She would need every bit of her brightness and strength, when he did what must be done.

They spent most of the following day in the library reading more of Genji, or rather, he read and she listened. She was in no hurry to go anywhere without him. Anyway it was raining again, a slow, fine, soaking rain with no storm involved this time. Instead it was accompanied by a thick mist that lingered through the night after the rain stopped. But it began to fall again the next morning, growing heavier. By the afternoon, under such baleful weather, Yumi had a craving for Miteki's miso soup. Besides, she wanted to inquire after Miki. They hadn't talked about any of that the other day.
Yumi informed Touga of her intention to visit her friend for miso soup, and then, for some reason, invited him along. How ridiculous. Not only would they not be able to talk if he was there, but it would be a trying ordeal for poor Miteki, who she knew had no particular fondness for him. She didn't really want to just leave him alone, though...
Touga laughed. "Go with you? She doesn't seem to like me very much."
"Oh, she's just shy."
"Well, that would be too much pressure on a shy girl like her, to have the Student Council President over for miso soup."
There was that whole status thing. "Yeah... I guess. Well, I'll have to bring some back for you. Her miso soup is absolutely the best."
"That might be nice."
She gave Miteki a quick phone call, wishing there was a present she could bring, but this was no weather for walking downtown to get thank-you presents. She'd just have to pay for Miteki's coffee next time they were out.
"I won't be gone so long this time," she said, touching Touga's shoulder.
He pretended to pout, and she had to kiss him. Pouncing, he trapped her in an embrace and murmured, "Gotcha."
"If you really, really don't want me to go, you'd better tell me."
"No, it's okay."
"Sure? Promise me you won't be sad."
"I promise." He gave her an innocent-child look, which made her giggle.
"I'll be back soon." She kissed him a last time and left.
A few minutes later he thought he should have found her an umbrella. But he hadn't been able to find his for a long time. He couldn't even remember what color it was.

It was very foggy, and puddly as well. Yumi walked carefully, not minding that she was getting quite soaked. She'd be waterlogged whether she went slowly to avoid puddles or ran and splashed herself. Besides, she didn't entirely trust herself not to get lost in the thick, clinging fog. She could barely see two meters in front of her face. At least it wasn't very cold.
Perhaps in her own room there was an unopened box of cookies or something that she could bring Miteki. She was considering turning toward her dorm when she saw a large, red-hued mushroom floating through the mist. It was moving toward her. She squinted, trying to figure out what on earth it could be.
Her heart sank, making a cold weight in her stomach, when the floating mushroom materialized into the Trustee Chairman with the red umbrella.
"You poor thing, you shouldn't be walking around without at least a raincoat," he said easily, and came close enough to hold the umbrella over her. "Here. Where are you going in this awful weather?"
Yumi couldn't answer. She froze on the spot and broke out in goosebumps.
The voice...
That deep, rich, powerful voice...
The voice of secrets...
"He's so used to manipulating people, he never realizes it when it happens to him... If he can use it, he wants it...he has to use because he was used."
He misread the cause of her unease (deliberately?) and laughed softly. "Don't worry, I'm not some weirdo. See, I work here." He gave her a name card with the signet on it.
She looked at it, but the lines of the characters danced meaninglessly at her. Somehow she managed to take it with a bow, as one was supposed to do. She had nowhere to put it, though.
"Where are you headed? Come on, I'll walk you."
She had no reason to be scared. No reason!
But there was something...something else she was supposed to know...
Well, maybe if she put up with him, she'd find out. "Thank you, sir. I'm going to visit my friend in Kurihama dorm."
"You're a good friend, to visit in such weather. What's your name?"
"I bet you already know," she said cheekily. "I'm the famous weird girl."
The Trustee Chairman smiled. She didn't like his smile at all. The lump in her stomach grew heavier. "Ah, you're the new girl? Maigo Yumi, is it? You should try not to get in so many fights."
"I seem to have a knack for it," she shrugged, wondering if the Brutally Murder Yumi Council had been formed yet. Conversation about herself, however, would get her nowhere. "May I ask what someone as important as yourself is doing wandering around in the pouring rain?"
"I like to walk around the school and see how everything is. It's kind of a routine. I feel a sense of responsibility toward this place, after all."
"Is that so." What could she say to get him to spill something else important? If he had a secret like that—he must have tons of powerful secrets! She was willing to bet that he'd noticed her ring and deliberately wasn't commenting on it. "This shiny little ring," she said, holding out her left hand. "What's it mean? I'm not in the Student Council. So why do I have one?"
"Those rings are not the sign of the Student Council," said the Trustee Chairman, "nor of academic prowess, or anything like that. They are the sign of true strength of character."
Yumi snorted, thinking, Then why has Nanami got one?
"Which, in all honesty," he went on, "is what this school aims to give its students, even more than a decent education. But some, of course, are born with it." He looked at her.
"You flatter me," she said with a hint of sarcasm. "But what about the duels?"
His expression went blank. "Duels?"
She looked back, challenging, which was not only extremely disrespectful but took a lot of nerve. The black-lashed, jade green eyes were very unnerving. He had to be pretending. Yes, he had been talking about the duels that time! The voices from that scene came back to her all too clearly. And hadn't Miteki said that he was Himemiya's brother? It wasn't like he didn't look the part. He did not, however, look the part of Trustee Chairman. The title conjured a picture of a distinguished middle-aged man in a suit, not some graduate-age guy in a scarlet shirt.
Why was he pretending not to know? She had the ring. She knew.
He forfeited the staring contest, reminding her by doing so how rude she was being. "Here it is, Kurihama dorm. I've enjoyed your company." Stopping outside the entrance, he looked down at her again, and quite unnecessarily put a hand on her waist to make sure she didn't trip on the step.
She jumped. "Geh!" No way. He had not just done that. She knew she ought to smack him upside the head, but couldn't summon the nerve. Her eyes flashed indignantly. "Don't touch me! You apologize!"
"I'm truly sorry, Yumi. I didn't mean to startle you."
"You can call me Maigo." Even though that wasn't actually her name.
"Well, if you insist, Maigo- san." He looked faintly amused.
"Thank you so much for kindly making sure I didn't get lost in the fog." Her polite words were competely toneless, as though she was learning lines phonetically for a play in a foreign language. "Please excuse me now."
He closed the specifically-red umbrella and held it out to her. "Here, keep this."
She blinked at him.
"You need it more than I do. You seem to enjoy walking around in the rain," he said, rather cryptically. He wouldn't leave unless she took it, so she did, wishing she had the nerve to hit him with it, but of course she had to bow instead. He walked away, vanishing into the rain and heavy mist.
"What the fuck was that," she muttered as she walked inside to Miteki's room. She knocked on the door rather than barging in like last time.
She would not acknowledge the feeling that had shocked through her when he touched her. There was no way she would admit to it having happened. (Anyway, she'd just been kissing Touga, and one couldn't expect too much restraint of the human body for a while after that, what could one expect of oneself, really, spending so much time in the pink room, between that and Genji Monogatari anyone's mind would be on that track, now wouldn't it, no matter what else was going on, and wasn't it what they called a reflex that...)
Miteki answered finally. "Hi Yumi-cha—what happened to you?! Are you sick?" she interrupted herself with conern.
"What?" said Yumi.
"You're all white and shaking, and soaking wet, that's what! You really do need some miso soup. You look like a half-drowned cat."
"I'm not sick."
"Come sit down. What happened, then?"
Gratefully sitting on a chintzy sofa, Yumi found that she had been nervously crumpling the name card in her hand—terrible manners. But she had no family to shame, so that hardly made any difference. "This happened," she said, opening her fist in front of Miteki's face.
"Huh?" Miteki carefully uncrumpled the card. "Ohtori Akio. Oh, I could not remember his name! Did you find this somewhere?"
"No, he gave it to me." Yumi thought her voice sounded too calm.
"Really? When?"
"Just now."
"No kidding? Wow, you're so shaky. Let me put on some tea. I was going to wait to make the miso soup, so you could learn how."
"Thanks. That sounds nice." Yumi saw with mild surprise that she was, in fact, trembling quite violently. She hoped that it was a recent development, and that she had not looked like a scared puppy in front of the Trustee Chairman. It felt like she'd awakened from a terrible nightmare. Her heart was pounding, she was shaking, and who was to say that the dampness on her face was not partly cold sweat?
She looked at the name card again. Still it made no sense to her; she just didn't know enough kanji. Did it say Acting Trustee Chairman, and not simply Trustee Chairman? Did that mean he wasn't the real one? That would probably make a bit more sense, though not much.
Miteki returned, and Yumi asked her, handing her the card. "Can you read everything this says to me? I really don't read very well." Well, actually, she was just too nervous to concentrate.
Miteki sat down. "Well, his name is Ohtori, but he's engaged to the Dean's daughter, Ohtori Kanami or something like that—or was she the Dean's granddaughter? Anyway, that probably means he's been adopted into the family that owns this place. This character aki says 'dawn,' and o says 'life,' so his given name says 'life of dawn'—that's a reference to the morning star. Not that that helps you a whole lot."
Yumi's eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. The giant bell was sounding again, louder than ever. "No, it does mean something—" She put her head in her hands as if trying to pull the knowledge out. "He's telling me something, or he wouldn't have given me the card. What is it! I'm supposed to know!"
Miteki looked at the other side of the card, in case some kind of message had been written on it, but there was only the same information in English. "He really does scare you, doesn't he. I don't know, I've never even seen him up close, really. I'm not actually a very good reader of auras." She would have thought that the Student Council President was a bigger threat to Yumi's well-being, but she wouldn't say anything like that.
"Morning star..." muttered Yumi, still trembling.
"You know, the morning star has some kind of bad connotation in the West," said Miteki. "I can't remember right now, but I've got books. I like books about symbolism and things. We can look it up. I don't know if that would have any bearing on anything, but...well, symbolism is powerful stuff."
"Why did he give me the umbrella?"
"Huh?"
"He had that before," said Yumi, pointing to the red umbrella she had put down beside her shoes. "And he gave it to me just now before I came inside. I don't understand." But, truth be told, she almost did understand. It was as if he'd heard her thought the other day, You're not allowed to have anything that color! So he'd given it to her—mocking her, surely.
This was ridiculous. She had to be paranoid. Coincidence, all of it.
Except it wasn't. Ohtori Akio was the voice of secrets.
And what did he have to do with all of it? Something important, and she was supposed to know, but she didn't.
"That is strange," Miteki murmured, and went to get the tea.
Once she began sipping the calming, earthy green tea, Yumi began to feel much better. "What about this part?" She pointed to the rest of the information on the card.
"Oh, he's just the Acting Trustee Chairman? That means something's happened to the real Trustee Chairman. Either the other trustees voted him down, or he died or retired and they haven't picked a new one yet. Anyway, I guess that makes more sense. He is pretty young to be the Trustee Chairman. Yeah, look, he's still a student at the university."
"There's a university?"
"Yeah, but the university campus is downtown. There are college and graduate classes, and it's really exclusive; you have to take a whole new entrance exam even if you've spent your whole life here. We don't see any university students up here, and there aren't very many, I think less than a hundred. He must live up here, though. See, this says he's a third-year grad school student. I wonder why they picked a student to be the interim Trustee Chairman. It doesn't say what his degree is. Well, actually, Acting Trustee Chairman could just mean the real one doesn't feel like taking the responsibility at the moment and is letting Ohtori Akio take care of it. Maybe it's some kind of training thing because he's in the family..."
"I'm sure I have no idea. This place gets weirder by the second."
"Yeah, seriously." Miteki spotted Yumi's hands clutched around the warm cup of tea, and nearly dropped her own cup. "You have a ring!? Did he give you that too?"
"Hell no, I wouldn't have taken any ring from him! Touga gave me this."
"Oh, I see..." Miteki had thought that perhaps Ohtori Akio had given Yumi the ring because it seemed to forbode something. Even if Yumi's "boyfriend" had given it to her, Miteki couldn't shake the feeling that it didn't mean anything good for her. She wanted to tell Yumi to take it off, but of course Yumi would refuse, if it was from the Student Council President.
Yumi sighed. "When he gave it to me, he asked me not to lose my 'shining strength.' I'm not sure what that is... Do you think I have something like that?"
"Of course you do," said Miteki without hesitation, and then blushed a little for being so frank. "Well, you have something that makes you always stand up for what you believe in. And a capacity for happiness that I...can't really understand. Somehow, you have this ability to—to make people forget that they're sad."
Yumi blinked. That was kind of what he'd said too. "Thanks, Teki-chan."
Miteki, feeling rather silly, stared at her tea.
"Well, enough about me," said Yumi finally. "I really wanted to know how Miki was doing. He's always so nice to me... Have you seen him? Is he okay?"
"I don't know," Miteki replied with the quiet wistfulness more typical of her. "I mean, he's acting normal at school and everything. He's been playing the piano for longer than usual, though. That probably means he's upset. I—I can't ask him, because that would mean I know what happened..."
"Yeah, that's a dilemma, isn't it. I can try and talk to him, though. It doesn't matter if I know—I'm just the weird girl. Or we could talk to Arisugawa-sempai."
"...We? Why would she want to talk to me?"
"Why not? She knows you like him, and actually, she seems to approve the match."
Miteki went red. "She knows?"
"Well...I'm sorry, I told her. She was asking about you. I think she's appointed herself your guardian angel."
Miteki contemplated her tea some more, trying to think what this meant. "My guardian angel? What would people make of that? I wonder if it's gotten around that I left her room the other morning." She laughed mirthlessly.
"Even if people drew that sort of conclusion, no one would even think about being mean to you, not even Kozue. With Arisugawa Juri's protection, you're pretty much invincible."
Miteki smiled a little then. "And there's you. Not only are you notorious for catfights, but you have a ring now too. Nobody wants to get on the wrong side of the students who wear the ring."
"Yeah..." Yumi looked at her ring. She hadn't thought of the status it would accord her. What use that would be, if any, she wasn't sure. She looked back at Miteki, who wasn't a girl to express herself very openly; her face showed only traces of worry around the grey eyes. It occurred to her that they were in almost identical situations. "We're in the same place, aren't we? You want to be able to help him, but you have no idea how. I know that feeling, believe me. You don't know how to get close to him. You can't let him know that you know, he doesn't want you to know, you just feel it, he'll hate you for knowing, he'll never forgive you, he'll never forgive you for stealing his secrets!" Yumi found she was yelling by the end of this. Ashamed, she hunched over and put her hands in her hair as though nursing a headache. "Oh boy..."
"Yumi-chan..." said Miteki with concern.
She was murmuring strange things that made Miteki worry for her sanity. "I shouldn't know, I shouldn't know. I shouldn't be human. I should never have seen that. Why does it stay in my mind? Why couldn't I fly away?..."
"Yumi-chan?" Miteki tapped her on the shoulder and reminded herself that Yumi was probably not schizophrenic; that she had, in fact, once been something other than human.
Yumi sat up straight, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't come here to whine at you. Let's go make miso soup."
"Yeah, let's." They stood up. Miteki could only guess at what Yumi had to put up with from her incomprehensible player. Shining strength was right—Yumi had that in abundance. Miteki wished, not for the first time, that she had that kind of courage. Maybe Yumi could teach her how to go about finding it.

After miso soup, which indeed left them both in much better spirits, Miteki retrieved several books of assorted sizes from her bookcase.
"What are those for?" asked Yumi.
"To look up the symbolism of 'morning star.' I get the sense that it's important somehow." Important in a bad way, Miteki thought, but didn't say.
It seemed that Yumi was picking up on her thoughts, however. "Important in a bad way?"
"Well—maybe."
"Can I put the music back on?" Miteki had put on some band called Arashi while they were cooking. Yumi actually didn't much care for it, but she wanted to hear something.
"Sure." After two and a half songs, Miteki found the entry she was looking for. "Look, here it is. This is what I was thinking of. It's the Christian symbolism."
"Christian?"
"That's the biggest Western religion. It's really the biggest influence on Western thought. Of course, most people out here wouldn't get named based on Western symbolism, but this is what I thought of when I read the name." Miteki read the story of Lucifer, the Morning Star, and the fall from Heaven, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
"Well, that is a pretty bad connotation," said Yumi. "So the morning star means...the Devil?"
"Yeah, that's about the size of it."
Yumi looked again at the crumpled name card. "And when you saw this, that's what you thought of?"
"Pretty much."
Yumi didn't doubt her friend's intuition. It seemed to go along with the odd, nervous feeling she got when she saw the tall Trustee Chairman in his scarlet shirt and purple tie. But here, now, what did it mean? And why did it mean anything? She knew it had to mean something. The sense of vast meaning beyond her grasp was overwhelming; the giant bell was going off like mad. "Have you ever had any visions about him?"
"No, never. I'm sure of that."
"This adds up to something. I just have no idea what."
"Me neither." Miteki sighed. "It really feels like...like there's something huge going on beneath the surface that we can't see."
"Yeah, I think you're right about that." And they both had the sense, though they left it unsaid, that it was something from which they had to protect the people they cared about. Did Miteki know about the duels from her visions? Perhaps she had seen bits and pieces, Yumi thought, but not enough to know anything. If she did, surely she would have asked Yumi about it by now. And now, it was probably getting late. "What time's it?"
"Almost eight."
"I should go. But tomorrow, we could go to dinner and hunt down Miki."
"In the dining hall, you mean? I don't usually go to dinner in the dining hall..."
"Well, maybe sometime, anyway. I'll try to catch him in the meantime. I bet you don't care much for the dining hall, do you?"
"Um, not really." Miteki didn't like being around that many people if she could just make dinner alone in her dorm.
"It'll be okay if I'm there to protect you," Yumi grinned. "If worst comes to worst, I can just beat the crap out of Kozue again."
Miteki laughed. "Well, I guess it'd be worth going for that possibility, then."

Having left the crumpled name card with its enigmas in Miteki's care, and carrying a plastic container of miso soup back for Touga, Yumi returned to the Student Council dorm. Making sure Nanami wasn't around, she put down the soup in the kitchen and went to find him. He was standing out on a balcony watching the moonrise, where the sky was clearing in the east. The rain had stopped and the night was warm; the hazy moonlight gleamed on the low mist, making an eerily beautiful picture. She joined him, silently, and later offered him the miso soup. He nodded, and she went to heat up a bowl; when she returned he had set out some saké.
"I hope you had some dinner before this," she said.
"I did," he lied. He didn't want her fussing. "This is pretty decent miso soup."
She smiled. He finished the soup and they poured saké for each other, admiring the quiet moon.
A poem from a thousand years ago floated up in his mind, and he recited it.
"What can vie with a misty moon of spring,
Shining dimly, yet not clouded over?"

A warmth lit in her heart, and not from the saké. Perhaps it was silly, but she loved to hear his voice at poetry, caressing the delicate syllables like his hands upon her body... It was one that had been quoted in Genji Monogatari. They had read that chapter just before making love in the library.
She replied with a verse she had spotted in a collection of poems even older than Genji, from a time when subtlety had yet to be invented and the written word still had a fresh air of foreign glamour. The poetry of that time had the passionate directness more relevant to herself. She was suprised at how well she remembered it. "Love is a torment
Whenever we hide it.
Why not lay it bare
Like the moon that appears
From behind the mountain ledge?"

He looked at her, impressed, and a little amused. She giggled tipsily.
"But love is not like the moon," she said, pondering with her chin in her hand. "The moon gets bigger and smaller, and sometimes disappears entirely. It's more like the sun, that always burns brightly, even when we can't see it."
"You don't think love ever changes? Even the sun is going to burn out someday, you know. Billions of years from now, it will go dark forever."
"Then what will happen to the moon?" she wondered.
"It'll be dark, too."
"That sounds sad. Will all the stars burn out someday, too?"
"Yes. But new stars will be born."
"What does it sound like when a star is born?"
She must be drunk, he thought. This conversation was getting odd. "I don't know if it makes a sound."
"Does it make a sound when it burns out?"
"Maybe if it explodes."
"Really? Stars explode?" Her eyes widened.
"Sometimes. But I don't know very much about astronomy. You should ask the Trustee Chairman."
Yumi dropped her cup. It broke with a low tinkle.
"You are drunk," he said, picking up the shards of pottery and putting them on the table.
"No! He's scary!"
"Who? You mean you've met the Trustee Chairman?" He looked at her blankly.
"He follows me around. He's really weird!" She looked frantic, grabbing his hand as though begging him to protect her.
Touga blinked. Could she actually know who End Of The World was? "What do you mean he follows you around?"
"He shows up when I'm walking around in the rain. I don't understand! What does it mean? Morning star—what does it mean? Who is he?"
So she didn't know, but she was on the verge of knowing. Not that he'd tell her. "Yumi, you aren't making sense. Hey, stop that, you'll make yourself sick." She was shaking her head harshly, not a good thing to do after ten or twelve shots of saké.
"Tell me! You know, don't you..."
Her words were not slurring, but her movements were becoming unsteady. He took her into his arms before she could fall out of her chair. "Ssh, now. I let you have too much to drink. Just look at the moon..."
"No, stupid! This isn't saké talking! I'm telling you, that guy's scary! Who is he, really?"
She was even more stubborn when inebriated. "Don't be frightened, Yumi. There's nothing you need to worry about."
"I beg to differ! Trustee Chairman my ass, there's something up with him. You gave me the ring, why won't you tell me?"
"There's nothing to tell. Ssh, Yumi, dear Yumi, don't worry. If he scares you, I won't let him near you. Stay with me, and I'll protect you..."
Finally he'd figured out how to calm her drunken anxiety. She curled up and clung to him, growing sleepy.
Suddenly she returned to the earlier part of the conversation. "Do you think that love changes like the moon?" she murmured.
"Maybe."
"Sometime, you ought to tell me what you really think love is..." She yawned. "Because I'm not going to burn out..."
As they watched the moon again, she drifted off, and then he carried her inside.
It was much later when a blurry sense of rapture woke her. He was doing things to her, kissing her body, between her legs...
Not quite awake, she sighed loudly, and her breath came faster. She twisted, and in the near-total darkness she saw through half-closed eyes—
Touga was asleep beside her.
Then who—

She woke with a gasp. But she had already awakened. And she was in the same place, the same degree of darkness, he was sleeping the same way. It had felt so strangely real...
Was it a dream? She didn't know. She had no way of knowing whether or not she had dreamed that. Except that no one else was there, so it must have been a dream, right?
Right?...
She was suddenly terrified, and at the same time still caught in desire, dream-induced or not. She had to wake him. "Touga... Touga, wake up."
"What? Yumi..."
"I was dreaming..." If she said it, maybe she would believe it. Just a strange dream.
"So?"
"Touga, I need you..." She moved closer to him.
At the moment, wakened from his own saké-assisted sleep, he was too lazy to satisfy her. It crossed his mind that for him, that was rather pathetic, but he was also too lazy to care. "Can't you do it yourself?"
"Please." She needed him to erase the memory of that frightening strangeness. If he was too tired, well, then, she only wanted to be close to him. "Hold me."
He gave in, if only to get her back to sleep faster.
This was enough, the warmth of his body enveloping her; it was where she belonged, after all. But then his hand moved idly down to fulfill the lingering demands of dream lust. She was ready, and he didn't make her wait. Bliss spread through her...
She kissed him gratefully. "You owe me," he said.
Nestling into his arms, she smiled, though it was light out before she fell asleep again.

A couple of sunny days passed quite uneventfully. They finished the important chapters of Genji Monogatari and began on another period classic, Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book. Yumi made a habit of joining her friend to eat lunch outside or downtown. She spent a little more time about; Touga thought that either she disliked being cooped up in his rooms, or she was afraid that he might tire of her. She probably did fear the latter, but wasn't aware of it herself. She shared his bed but they didn't have to make love every night. After what he'd said to her about his loneliness, she couldn't let herself leave him for very long.
One pretty evening she returned from a trip downtown with Miteki, bringing with her a box of fancy sushi for him. She put it in the refrigerator and, as usual, had to search the dark rooms for him. Was he asleep? The door to the pink room was open a crack, and Yumi poked her head in.
Good thing she'd put the sushi in the fridge first, or she would have dropped it now.
She could almost hear her mind shutting down, whirring to a stop like a computer in a power outage. Heat rose to her face and she should have walked away. She should have been able to walk away. But she couldn't.
A longing so fierce it was a spasm of pain flared through her lower torso, leaving a dull ache behind. She bit her lip. It was happening again—
Saionji Kyouichi was with him, and she was watching.
It hadn't started too long ago. They weren't naked, yet. Kissing, stroking, fingers tangling in hair, reaching up shirts, nudging crotches with knees.
Was she jealous? She couldn't tell.
This was forbidden to her. She should not be seeing it.
Forbidden, but weren't the forbidden fruits the most delicious? Just the other day she had heard a story like that.
There was terrible beauty to it, and she could not turn away.
He looked at her.
Touga was kissing Kyouichi. But he was looking at her. Teasing. You like it, don't you? Kyouichi nipped at his neck, and he smiled knowingly at her.
The painful longing went through her again. Her skin was so hot, surely she was about to burst into flames.
He'd known that she would come back just in time for this. He'd even left the door open for her. Why did he want to do this to her? Just to see how she'd react?
He ran his tongue over his lips slowly as Kyouichi reached down his pants. He half-closed his eyes and moaned softly. Yumi trembled...
Somehow, the door had swung all the way open, and moments later Kyouichi caught sight of her standing there with a face like the Rising Sun flag.
The kendo jock broke away and announced none too happily, "You have a guest."
"Why, Yumi," said Touga, pretending to be surprised. "No need to feel left out, you know. Why don't you come join us?"
She hadn't thought it possible to get any hotter without spontaneously combusting, but she was proven wrong. Her legs became suddenly unreliable and she wobbled on her feet.
He walked over and took her hand. Kyouichi glared at him, then seemed to give up on protesting and looked Yumi up and down appraisingly as Touga led her in.
She had absolutely no idea how to feel. Apparently the part of her consciousness that recognized emotions had shut down along with the part that manufactured and sorted thoughts.
He put his fingers to her lips, stroking them softly as though to make sure they were ready for kissing, and then moved his caress down to her shirt, where he began to remove her clothes, torturously slow. Kyouichi helped, and then she was naked, desire so strong it ached.
Maybe for some reason what she was feeling was fear, because Touga said in her ear, "There's no reason to be so frightened, Yumi..." He bit her earlobe gently, making her gasp.
"Scared, is she?" Kyouichi smiled wickedly. "Better tie her up, so she doesn't run away."
"Hmm, good idea." Touga took something from the box under the bed.
Next thing she knew she was being tied spread-eagled to the pink bed with pink silk cords, Touga over her, kissing tenderly and crooning, "Yumi, sweet little Yumi, don't be scared," as Kyouichi fastened the knots at her wrists and ankles. She was still trembling. She wanted him to touch her...
"Oh, put her the other way," said Kyouichi.
"We can't do that, she'd suffocate on a pillow," Touga replied rather scornfully, chiding him for having said anything of the sort.
Kyouichi made a small sound indicating that he couldn't care less.
"Besides, she needs to be able to see what's going on—don't you." He gave her a meaningful smile. Then, as if punctuating his words, he returned to Kyouichi who was finishing up the knots.
When all was tied securely they fell on the bed and made out beside her, tongues and limbs twining, stripping almost carefully. She stared, as pristine uniforms were shed, revealing pale grace and toned power. Breathing, little sounds, sighs of pleasure. They were—beautiful.
Touga was on top and she could see Kyouichi's hands roaming places even she had never gone. They kissed slowly, almost with a kind of strange restraint, like they were hesitant to show too much passion; and then Touga's lips were moving down, earlobes and neck, shoulders, chest. He licked Kyouichi's nipples with his thigh pressed between the other's legs.
Why were they so beautiful together? It was like shining a light between two mirrors, the light reflecting into endless space, magnifying its brightness. The beauty of them shone that way, so radiant that she forgot her own existence. She couldn't figure out how to feel, except for the thing that she was supposed to feel, and that was desire. Pure uncluttered lust, the kind that made everything else disappear. Including identity and emotion.
He looked at her again. He seemed to gaze into the core of her desire, inviting her to lose herself to its tidal pull.
As if she could do otherwise. She was not sure a delicate human body could stand this, watching them touch and tangle, shadows adorning the contours of their bare skin. Fierce yearning ached and throbbed. She struggled, starving for contact, but Kyouichi's knots held good.
Slowly, so slowly, Touga put his hand on the curve of her waist, over her navel...
Please, she thought quite clearly, oh please.
Kyouichi, not even glancing at her, touched her inner thigh. Her eyes closed. Touga's hand moved down...but not all the way; he paused above her center, and gave her pressure with his fingertips there.
It was teasing—it was torment—but so good. She cried out.
Then someone's other hand was on her shoulder, her breast. Warm bodies sidled over to meet hers, to enfold her, two pairs of hands wandering over her, soft straight hair and soft wavy hair falling on her. Two mouths teasing her, but she knew which was Touga's, she knew that perfectly well. The other one was a little less gentle. Each found a nipple, and she panted, writhing. It was too good...like sinking into something smooth and warm that would keep her wrapped in ecstasy forever...like the kind of dream that, when one wakes from it, makes one go back to sleep trying to reclaim it.
Kyouichi bit her too hard, deliberately, she was sure. "Ow!"
"Now, Saionji, be nice," Touga scolded.
The kendo jock's response was to pull away nonchalantly. His expression was unreadable, something like mild annoyance, but that was how he usually looked. Putting his hands on her hips, he began kissing the velvety skin at the top of her thigh.
She felt herself clench with desire. Was he going to do that to her? His lips felt strange on her—different. There was only one who was allowed to touch her there... But the laws failed. Pleasure was the only law.
You said he didn't like girls, came a stray thought.
Touga, stroking her nipples now, touched his lips to her shoulder, her neck, the corner of her face. "Why..." she whispered at him. He only smiled.
Kyouichi's hand parted her flesh below, and his tongue played with her center. She yelled and bucked. Of course Touga had done this to her before, but...different, strange...and the more erotic for it. Touga gave her that smoldering stare, and she could feel his hardness pressing into her side. She heard her breath heavy, urgent—the teasing rapture was unbearable. There was nothing but that chemical command.
Finally as though at some cue, Touga's mouth fixed on hers at the same time that Kyouichi's fixed onto her sex. Pleasure shot through her, clear to her extremities, making her toes curl. She kissed back hungrily, her shoulders struggling toward him as her bound limbs craved to embrace him. Then she seemed to lose the capacity to move, moaning into slow playboy lips, because the kendo jock was sucking at her swollen bud, and she was coming. The bliss went on and on...
When her climax faded after some incredible length of time, she gazed at her red-haired captor through heavy-lidded eyes, overtaken by his tantric spell. She was no longer herself, but simply a vessel for sensation. More, said her gaze.
Kyouichi sat up and, with the disdainful air of a cat cleaning itself, wiped his mouth, as much to say, Girls are so messy.
It wasn't over. She was relegated to watching again as they tangled again, and Kyouichi did to Touga more or less what he had just done to her. And Touga looked at her, the rapt expression of pleasure playing over his features, burning into her. There was nothing more beautiful... He put a slender hand to her lips, stroking; straining for his touch, she sucked on his fingertips, where she could taste what was probably the scent of forest-colored wavy tresses. As he started to come Kyouichi stopped, and pinched him with his hand, sparing Yumi a smug glance that told her, Now this, stupid girl, is how you please Kiryuu Touga. Indeed, Touga tossed his head, making small, pleading moans and digging his nails into her shoulder.
Finally he let Touga come, and Touga did so vigorously, making a rather intense face and moaning for what seemed like quite a while. They both watched him, Yumi looking reverent as though in the thrall of some holy visitation, and Kyouichi looking strangely possessive.
Suddenly, with savage hunger Kyouichi straddled him and, perhaps because he was still looking at Yumi, pinned him down by the wrists.
Touga was no longer looking at her then. He tried to move away but Kyouichi, who was exerting real strength, held him down. "Kyo-chan, don't..." he whispered. The hint of a dark smile glinted in the violet eyes.
A shadow hid Touga's face; she could only guess at the flashback of fear in his eyes. Clickita-whirr, her mind started up again, and she felt anger building in her.
"Please don't..." he said, barely audible. Kyouichi only seemed to grow more sadistic and moved his face closer to Touga's.
What was he doing? Didn't Saionji see he was hurting him? This wasn't some seductive game. He didn't like it, and Saionji was being mean. Really mean. Even if these two being cruel to one another was daily routine, she would not watch this. She twisted and jerked, and somehow managed to dislodge a foot from its binding—had she ripped the cord?—then promptly kicked the kendo jock in the ribs.
He whirled on her with a piercing sneer, and she looked back defiantly, even as she saw a hand moving to hit her. But Touga sat up and caught it, perfectly composed, and sighed with exasperation.
"For heaven's sake, can't you children get along?"

After that, the mood hadn't been quite the same, but still they managed to do things to her that she wouldn't have thought of in the most tantalizing dreams. And they fell asleep, all of them, a lover clinging to Touga on either side. Yumi woke as dawn began to creep up on the sky, and made a face at the sleeping Saionji—he was probably just pretending to sleep—before getting up carefully and walking to the window, looking at the landscape in the blue-grey light. Shapes of buildings and trees floated in morning mist, but the sky was clear, stars vanishing; the world was absolutely still, and serenely beautiful. A bird tentatively broke the silence, but then thought better of it. The morning star gleamed at her; pretty as it was, she shivered, though it took a minute for her to think why. At the moment that enigma seemed to have very little reality.
She went to the bathroom and then stared at herself in the mirror, naked, adorned pretty much everywhere with hicky spots and slight chafe marks at wrists and ankles.
What had she become? Where was this going?
She wondered if she should feel cheap as a pornographic manga at a train station kiosk, but she didn't. She wondered if she should feel jealous, but she didn't. She just felt strange.
Fragments of a dream came back to her. Those little butterflies landing on him, covering him completely in a mass of white wings with black dots. He cried out. She couldn't reach him and she was screaming at him to fight them. But he didn't know how. Then Saionji appeared, challenging her to a duel, smirking as he threw her a kendo stick. Churchbells clamored and the shining castle twirled above. The kendo stick became a sword because she willed it to, and she made a furious swordstroke with a martial cry, willing the malevolent butterflies away, and they flew off like so many scattering flower petals, but no one was there...
There was something, revealed by the butterflies, some object or sound or something, but try as she might she couldn't remember. Perhaps it was better that she didn't. Her dream world was seldom very kind to her.
She looked at the chafe marks on her wrists, blushing slightly as she remembered what heights he had brought her to—what heights they had brought her to. Better than dreams. Even if some sense of dignity protested, she knew she would do it again if the chance arose. But...what a strange game. All this trouble, all for pleasure. Play at it too long, and pleasure would become one's only reality, anything else no more than jumbled nonsense.
Was that the kind of consciousness he existed in? That would explain why he was full of deceptions, because even he couldn't see any more where his true emotions lay. Of course it was like that; he was always hiding himself in sensuality. He made her do the same.
That was the meaning of "floating world."
She sighed. Didn't he understand that there was nothing that could make her think him weak, nothing that would frighten her away? And no rush of pleasure that could separate her from her own feelings? Somehow she had to tell him that his true self was not weak, nor ugly, nor corrupted, nor anything that he would want to keep hidden. Somehow...
But why did she keep ending up seeing them together? Why was it so terribly, strangely beautiful? One would think she'd be repulsed or jealous or something. Maybe that was how a normal girl would feel, and a normal girl she most definitely was not. What did she feel on seeing them? Awe to the point of fear; longing to the point of pain; fascination to the point of shame...
Her ring glimmered, holding its own enigmas. Had Saionji seen it? she wondered suddenly. Would it matter if he had?
What was Saionji up to, anyway? The Student Council Vice President's uniform was now on the floor of the pink room with two other uniforms; perhaps that meant he'd been readmitted for some reason. And had shown up to gloat at Touga.
Or something.
That was a strange relationship right there, to say the least. A childhood friendship had degenerated to the point that they didn't know how to do anything but be mean to each other and pork.
Yumi shook her head. She couldn't help but wonder which one of them Touga was using to taunt the other. Probably both.
She wouldn't get back to sleep if she climbed back into the pink bed. She wanted to leave and sleep in her own dorm, but the thought made her feel cowardly. Like it would label her too chicken to wake up with an extra lover. So back she went, quietly, shivering again under the pale gaze of the morning star. She hoped the sun would hurry up and rise. It really felt like the morning star was watching her.

It was Kyouichi who left the bed about an hour after dawn, dressed and departed without a word. He was probably getting ready to go to class.
Touga thought about class, but decided it could wait a couple more days. Next week he'd start acting like a student again. He suspected Yumi would resent the return to routine, since he'd effectively removed her from class; but there was nothing to be done for it. She was so strange, she probably didn't do too well in class anyway. Besides, she'd meet her fate soon.
She wasn't asleep, he noticed, only halfway there, staring into space. He rubbed the night's tension from her back, and, smiling lazily, she finally dozed off.
She had performed quite well last night, for something he'd never tried before. But he was really making fun of her for seeing him with Kyouichi. She knew that. (And obviously she really did have a taste for it.) It had been very good, but he probably shouldn't try it again—Kyouichi just didn't get along with girls. A next time could turn into an all-out fiasco.
Though the weather had turned nice again, they spent another day inside, sleeping late and reading. They were almost finished all the important parts of Sei Shonagon; soon he'd have to find her some other famous novels and simple history books and things...
When he asked her, late in the afternoon, what she might like for dinner, she said, "I'm going to dinner with my friend."
"Again?"
"Yes. Sure you'll manage without me?"
"Well, maybe."
"There are three simple rules to managing without me," she said slyly, counting out on her hand. "Don't sit in dark rooms by yourself, don't listen to sophisticated music, and don't pick up weird kendo jocks."
He laughed heartily. "Are you saying you didn't have fun with the latter?"
"That's right. I was faking it. Couldn't you tell?" She stood, pretending to be insulted at his laughter. "Well, I never!"
"You do make it impossible to manage without you."
"Then I suppose all's as it should be." She grinned mischievously. "I think there's some of Teki-chan's soup left in the fridge. I can bring you something else back if you want."
"Well, bring back whatever you like."
"I'll be back. Probably before dark." She twirled a lock of his hair, and was out.

Miteki was understandably nervous, but Yumi had come up with a rather devious plan. Well, it wasn't completely devious, Yumi told her; it just involved a bit of lying. She had made a quick run off campus and picked up two boxes of fancy cookies, having them gift-wrapped. One box she gave to Miteki, "for putting up with me and feeding me miso soup." The other she carried with her as they walked across the bridge to the dining hall.
"It goes like this," Yumi explained. "I'm going to apologize to Kozue—"
"You've been in Japan too long," Miteki blurted.
"Listen, I'm telling you this so you won't be mad later. I'm going to apologize for beating her up and explain that you and I are friends. But then I'm going to tell some blatant lies, like I came to agree with her that you're a threat to her brother, and that I'm working to keep you away from him."
"What? What good is that going to do?"
"It'll get her off your ass, if she believes me."
"Are you sure that'll work?!"
"No, but spying is risky business."
"...Spying?" Miteki said skeptically.
"Sure. I'm trying to get into her confidence. If I can convince her that I want to 'protect' him too, she'll tell me if something's bothering him. I mean, she may not see straight, but she does watch him like a damn hawk."
"Do you think she knows about—?" said Miteki in a squeaky whisper, eyes round.
"No, I don't think she does. But that's another thing. I want to try and keep her from figuring it out, like we did. Her knowing wouldn't be good for anyone."
"You're right..."
"Three people know. You, me, and Arisugawa-sempai. None of us is going to tell anyone. So, to really protect him, we have to keep anyone else from putting things together. And Kozue is the one who would want to. If she sees that he's upset, she won't ask him why—but she won't even blink until she finds out. That's obsession for you," said Yumi wryly.
"What if..." Miteki whispered very quietly, though there was no one in earshot. "What if Saionji tells someone?"
Yumi sighed. "Well. He just might be that mean. I don't know how we could stop it. Unless we had something to threaten...him...with..." She trailed off, getting a very strange look in her eyes.
"Huh? Uh oh, now what's your idea?" Miteki gave her a sidelong look.
"Oh, I couldn't!" Yumi squealed, her eyes now as round as Miteki's had been a moment ago. She couldn't tell people that! Anyway, wouldn't that do more to anger Touga? Not something high on her priority list. "Never mind. That definitely would not work. We have no way to threaten the captain of the kendo team. We're out of luck in that department."
"What? Come on, tell," said Miteki. If Yumi had any ammunition against Saionji, she wouldn't mind hearing about it.
"No. It was stupid," said Yumi in a voice that closed the subject completely.
Miteki still wondered, but told herself that her childish spite for Saionji wouldn't help Miki at all.
"You know what's weird, though..." Yumi was impressed at how casual she could make herself sound. Maybe she really could pull off this spy thing without a hitch. "I think the Student Council Vice President has been readmitted."
"What? You mean they reversed his expulsion?" Miteki was suprised. It was weird enough that he was still hanging around campus; it was unheard of for such an upscale institution to admit it had made a mistake.
"Yeah. There'll probably be an official notice sometime."
"How—how do you know?"
"I saw him in his uniform, so I just kinda guessed. But maybe I'm wrong." Yumi pursed her lips to suppress a fit of embarrassed laughter at the fact that she had mostly seen him out of his uniform.
They had arrived at the dining hall. She shook her head forcefully, trying to clear it for the task. "Anyway, I think I can make this work. Can you just wait outside for five minutes or so? I need to look like this is behind your back, after all."
"Yeah, sure." Yumi seemed confident enough, thought Miteki, so maybe it would really work. It made her feel better that her own part was something in which she excelled—being invisible.
"Alright. Let's go!" Yumi said in badly accented English. Apology gift in hand, she stepped into the dining hall and looked around for the girl wearing a uniform three sizes too small. As she'd anticipated, Kozue was at a table avidly trading gossip with her cronies over empty plates.
"Excuse me, I'm so sorry to interrupt..." Once she had Kozue's attention, she kept her eyes down in humility. "I want to apologize to you, Kozue. Please forgive me for acting so horribly the other day. I really feel awful about it." She bowed and held out the prettily wrapped present.
Kozue narrowed her eyes, but Rini nudged her under the table, reminding her to at least pretend she had manners. She nodded in return and took the gift, managing a noncommittal "Well..."
"I—I just wanted to say I was wrong," Yumi went on. "I mean, you and your brother were so nice to me, and I was terrible to you. And that girl you were talking to, well, she and I are friends now. Because it turns out we're both really weird." She made a nervous laugh. "I thought you were just being mean, but you were right all along, trying to keep her away from him. The person I like can handle a weird girl like me..." She laughed again, self-deprecating. "But she's got this dark streak, and Kaoru-sempai would just get hurt, wouldn't he?"
She could see that Kozue was falling for it. It was hard for anyone to disbelieve an echo of their own sentiments.
"I'm glad you feel that way," Kozue said haughtily, "but then why did you make him talk to her in here the other day?"
Yumi had already thought of this. "She stole his music book. I was trying to get her to let me give it back, but she wouldn't, she was hellbent on having an excuse to talk to him. I was trying to warn him away from her, but I had to tell him where his book was."
Kozue's hands clenched with anger. "He's been acting so strange lately—" she hissed, almost to herself. "I knew it. I knew it was her!"
Chiharu and Motoko furtively exchanged worried glances.
Yumi blinked with what she hoped was innocence. "He's acting strange? But I don't think Miteki's been around him enough to really upset him. What about that Himemiya girl he's always making eyes at? She's even weirder than us."
Motoko suddenly caught sight of Yumi's ring. Wide-eyed, she whispered to Rini.
Kozue stared furiously at a point on the table. The weird girl was really hitting some nerves. "Yeah, she is weird," she spat, unable to even look up. "She creeps everyone out. Everyone but him. Of course there are girls who like my brother, he's always nice to everyone. But Himemiya's the one who hurts him. Maybe—maybe I wanted to blame someone else because I can't protect him from her—she's friends with the Student Council. It makes me so mad." She spoke in a low voice through clenched teeth, afraid of shouting in her fury.
Rini whispered to Kozue, who was not at an angle to see Yumi's left hand.
Kozue's head whipped up to face Yumi, and she shouted then. "You're in the Student Council!?"
Conversations stopped. Eating utensils paused in mid-air. Heads turned.
"No! No, I'm not!" Yumi looked around nervously. This probably shouldn't be happening; she'd been holding her hand out of view, or so she thought. She turned back to Kozue. "Really, I'm not. I just have the ring. Tenjou Utena has one too, and she's not in the Student Council."
"Where'd you get it? You didn't have it before!"
Yumi didn't think to lie. She didn't think that even though she used a voice for speaking to someone less than a meter away, everyone was still waiting to hear her explanation, and her voice carried in the quiet. "Touga gave it to me."
Countless whispers rustled, making the place sound like a forest in a breeze. Someone dropped a glass. Several girls jumped up and ran out of the dining hall. The girls at Kozue's table simply gaped.
Miteki took a peek in the window. Uh oh, she was right about the Brutally Murder Yumi Council. Apparently it was not time to go in yet. She hoped that this was part of the scheme, though she knew it couldn't be.
Footsteps sounded and stopped next to Yumi. There was Nanami in her Student Council uniform, cheeks pink with anger, flanked by her evil-eyed lackeys. Yumi looked back at her, just a little bit afraid.
More footsteps sounded and stopped behind her. She recognized Juri's perfume and held in a sigh of relief.
There seemed to be a battle of wills. Those who weren't holding their breath were students known for their indifference.
"Hm," Nanami sniffed, pretending to lose interest. She spun on her heels like a soldier and walked away. The lackeys glared darkly before following her.
Yumi turned and quickly bowed to Juri, her thanks quite audible though unsaid.
Juri grabbed Yumi's hand to see that she did indeed have a Signet ring. "Maigo Yumi, what have you gotten yourself into?" Then, with her mixed blessing of keen observation, she saw the barely detectable chafe mark on Yumi's wrist and raised an eyebrow before she could stop herself.
Yumi went deep scarlet and pulled her hand away. Anyone watching (and there were plenty of people watching) would think that Juri had just made some kind of move on her.
Juri shook her head in something that looked like regret and left, returning to her own dinner. The dining hall seemed to come back to life, though many conversations now were about Yumi, who was still standing like a one-girl island.
"Do you want to sit down?" said Chiharu, rather timidly.
Yumi shook her head. "Thanks, but Miteki will be here soon." She turned to Kozue again, speaking very quietly. "Well, my point was, I'm really sorry, and I owe your brother for being so kind to me. So please believe me, even though she's my friend, I'm trying to repay him by keeping her away from him—in the end that's better for her too. Maybe together we can figure out how to keep him safe from that creepy Himemiya. There are so many people who would take advantage of kindness, he just needs to be protected, doesn't he?"
Kozue was confused. Was this the same Yumi who had gone nuts and mercilessly beaten the crap out of her? She had been scheming her revenge, planning to get together with Touga again somewhere Yumi would find them. Someone that smitten couldn't be completely impervious to jealousy. But Touga hadn't showed up at school, and now Yumi was apologizing, and even sympathizing with her. And Yumi definitely was not after Miki, not with the way she looked at Touga. So how was it that she was able to understand Miki's predicament so well? It was ridiculous that Kozue should have an ally in battles she'd always fought alone, but...
Someone with a Signet ring, rumored to be the Student Council President's serious girlfriend, would make a very powerful ally.
She needed time to figure this out. "I'll write you," Kozue said tersely. Rini kicked her under the table. "I'm, uh, glad you didn't mean all that stuff."
"Thanks, Kozue-chan." Yumi smiled her sincere, wistful smile and went to the buffet. Once people started walking around again, unobtrusive Miteki showed up beside her.
"What happened?" said Miteki.
"Umm..." Yumi saw the curious, suspicious, half-concealed stares. "Let's grab some food and go back to my room. ...Unless you want to try and catch him. I bet he's in here somewhere with Arisugawa- sempai."
"Maybe another day." Miteki caught the stares as well. "Yeah, let's get out of here."
Laden with food, Yumi nearly walked right into Tenjou Utena, who was heading for the buffet. "Oh, excuse me," said Utena.
The sight of that trim figure with the shock of pink hair filled Yumi with anger. You—you hurt him. You hurt him! She wanted to give Utena a good crack across the face, like Nanami had—it couldn't hurt her reputation much; she'd already managed to make herself infamous. But because she wasn't keen on acting like Nanami, and also because she was carrying her dinner, she settled for shifting her hand so that her ring was straight in Utena's line of sight.
Utena, who had clearly been either absent or oblivious during the scene Yumi had caused, made a little gasp. Yumi tried not to smirk and kept walking, looking straight ahead.
How...? Why hasn't she been in the duels yet? thought Utena, incredulous. I don't even know who she is. —Could she know the Prince!? Utena's heart jumped, and she determined that next time she saw the aqua-haired girl in a less crowded space, she would have to ask her.