I read the letter again. It is the same stationery that I am so familiar with. This letter came directly from the acting chairman, who prefers to be known as "End of the World." What a stupid moniker. I much prefer my alter ego, the Bloody Rose. Thanks to my powers, nobody needs to realise that the harmless weirdo who tends the rose garden was the same soulless killer who murdered an entire group of Duellists for the Revolution.

Yet the wishes of the letter cannot be denied, and so I have found myself backed into a corner. I read the letter again, knowing that I am stalling for time, and hoping that the corpses will prove to be the easiest thing to clear out of that forsaken building...

As the one engaged, you understand the rules of the Rose Seal. The one engaged must live with the champion of the duel for Revolution. It is expected that you will obey your new master without hesitation, and always with a cheerful and obedient disposition. Do not fail in your task, and the Revolution will come swiftly upon the wings of the phoenix...

I stared at the letter, hoping that I can burn it to a mere cinder with my hateful glare. Nothing came of it, though, and I realised that I have a bit of housecleaning to attend to. If I am quick enough, my new master will never know that the Rose Bride is the mastermind behind the deaths of six individuals...

"Kuso..." I gathered my bags and raced to the closet where I kept the skeletons of the past. Ten minutes later, I am locking the doors to the eastern dormitory from the inside, hoping to stall the new champion from entering before I am done. If memory serves me right, the innocent girl's name was Utena Tenjou. I mouthed a silent prayer to the girl, hoping that she would not have to die as the others would.

Gathering a 40 gallon janitor's drum for my hunt, I started with the kitchen, where I had hidden the body of the first victim, Akinori Shimaoka. The younger brother of the student council president, I bore him no ill will. He was not even a Duellist for the Revolution, but he was the one to make an example of. I had hoped that the council would see reason in my letters to them after the deed, but they refused to do so. I gathered the foetid remnants of the deceased child and dumped them in the large drum.

I moved on to the second body, which I had hidden in the downstairs bathroom. Naohiro Tanikawa, the secretary. His obsession was with art and not time. Perhaps he had the key to Kaoru's "shining thing," but he was also abusive. I made sure he would never strike a woman again. Gathering the body, I disposed of it in the drum and moved upstairs.

The third corpse belonged to Shigeru Okabe, the vice-president of the student council of ten years before. His body was the first successful use of my infamous signature of blood and body parts. I had only to dispose of what the forensic team didn't gather up, and that went into the drum with the others. Moving on, I entered the second storey bathroom. The body of Michiko Shimaoka, council president, lay nude and half shredded in the old tub. I gathered her parts up and threw them into the drum. The last body would be the hardest to recover, and was in the room that would be my home for however long Miss Tenjou would remain the champion of the duels.

Mariko Koyama, council treasurer and campus playgirl. I think my hate extended most to her, as evidenced by the rather brutal treatment of her once beautiful frame. I lifted her still body and dumped it into the 40 gallon janitor's drum. Closing the lid, I heaved a sigh of relief. I began to think of what I would do to clean up the mess I had left over ten years of satisfaction. Should I bother with bleach and disinfectant, or would my powers be best employed for this purpose?

I shrugged. I didn't have much time before Utena showed up, and I still had the drum to destroy before anybody could discover what was inside. I glared at the drum, and it wavered out of existence, becoming a wormeaten bunk. With a few careful movements of my hands, the blood and gore became water stains and cobwebs.

I sighed in relief. It would be child's play to clean this mess up, and nobody would be the wiser. The sooner I could dispose of the newest Duellists, the sooner my intent to foil my dear brother's hopes for Revolution would come to full bloom...