Chapter Four

The Path Not Prepared

"Is is possible for an hour glass to run slow?"

You asked me that once, didn't you Tokiko? My answer may be belated, but I'm afraid that now is the only time that I may provided you with a resolution. Only in this false world, this artificial reality, only in my heart may the sands of time come to a halt. I had the capacity of stopping time, but not reality.

Her eyes scanned over each picture thirsty for every detail. An unintended smirk lit my face as I saw her lashes flutter upward and he lower lip slowly drop. I knew that instant that she had come across some familiar faces.

"They were all members of the Mikage Seminar,"stepping from the shadows I announced my presence.

My greeting however was met rashly by her fist. Falling to the floor I cupped my hands over my stinging cheek, but my gaze remained fixated on her. She truly was her prettiest when she was angry. She hovered over me breathing heavily her fist still clenched and her eyes burning with freshly stirred rage.

"So your the one who's been manipulating everyone!" she screamed.

I chuckled lightly to myself scrambling to my feet, "You seem to be screaming stay away from my precious memories. Is it that you don't want to end up like your friends?"

"My memories are mine and mine alone," she defended.

"But of course they are," I laughed once again. "Everyone one of them fought to perserve a precious memory. A memory so valuable that it consumed them. I offered them freedom," I added gesturing to the photos on the wall.

Her expression remained unsoftened and I saw her fist drawing back for another blow. "I bet," I continued trying to avert her wrath,"you wish you could make your own memories eternal. Someone changed your life, didn't they, and you long to live in those memories. It is that longing that has brought you this far. You and I are the same, Utena Tenjou." I held up my finger baring the rose crest ring.

"I am nothing like you!" she released another blow. "I challange you to a duel, to prove I'm nothing like you, you manipulative bastard!" she finished as I fell helplessly to the ground.

The last time I saw Mamiya he was hovering over the water tank clutching the final black rose. I could hear the memorable sound of faint dripping water in the distance. This routine would soon end.

"Utena Tenjou is strong."

"Yes I know. I believe she would have killed me if not for my rose crest ring."

Mamiya plucked the rose from the aquarium and brought it to his chest. Gazing into his eyes I could feel my chest begin to fill with confidence. Planting a delicate kiss on his tender lips as my good bye I entered the elevator.

There I was crumpled in the corner of the elevator peering motionlessly at its gray walls as it traveled downward. My heart began to go deeper, and deeper; this was my confessional.

"In truth we are no closer to reaching our goal then when we started all those years ago. Tenjou gets closer to obtaining Dios everyday as we remain unprogressed. She must be defeated in order to continue. It's time for the hour glass to shatter!"

A solitary tear rolled from the corner of my eye. Capturing it with the tip of my finger I held it out before me. If I had been a machine it would have been considered a malfunction, but I wasn't the machine that everyone believed, I was a man. I had truly become alive while amongst the dead.

"Oh Tokiko, I knew you would come back!" I smiled to myself," You've come back to claim your victory once and for all."

In my mind's eye I could see Mamiya, still in his robe, tending to his dear roses.Mamiya... it was all gradually becoming clearer; my bitter sweet illusion.

Hearing the nostaligic ding of the elevator reaching the final floor I rose to my feet as the heavy doors slid open. I was met by a blinding light and the extension of a black rose.

I met Tenjou at the schedule time, despite my injuries. She stood proudly a top the spiraling arena the rose bride at her side. I was determined not to be defeated.

For most of the duel it appeared to be equally matched, at points it even seemed as if I had the upper hand. Time passed at a grueling pace as we waged on and my memories began to hang heavily over my head, clouding my vision. The photographs set upon the desks crowding the arena revealed something violent, a memory lost in flame.

"Soji you are going to lose this duel."

The face smiling at me from the frames was of Mamiya Chida, the Mamiya my heart remembered, but not the Mamiya I had been sharing my days with.

"My sister existed only in you memories and there you will never defeat her."

"Mamiya is that you! Where are you!!" I paniced.

It all became painfully clear to me, who burned down Nemuro Hall. I was the sinner! I was the murderer! All this time I had been blaming it on innocent Mamiya. At his vindication I realize bitterly that I had been seeking eternity for my own selfish needs!

My memories that I had held so precious, so dear, were all false! All I had sought out to make eternal were lies! What is real and what is not? What is a machine without memory? What is a man without memories? I am nothing, only a defender of lies. I had been searching desperately to keep Mamiya with me, to eternalize that memory, but it to had become distorted. If he, Tokiko and Nemuro Hall were all lies what security do I have that I, myself am not fiction as well. Did I too burn in that fire along with my memories.

Mamiya...its been decades since I've seen you last...

Feeling the ground collapse around me I found myself falling through a bottomless pit with nothing grab unto. I wept uncontrollably as my black rose was torn from my chest, I had been defeated. Collapsing to my knees my body trembled as it waswrought with grief. For the first time in my existence I was experiencing true pain and loss...if I ever did truly exist.

"You finally won, Tokiko."

And Mamiya...I truly loved you.