Chapter 1
The angry wind whipped Utena's pale pink hair into cotton-candy froth as she tensely waited for a response. A black-green sky coated with lightening bolts had passersby hustling to find shelter against the impending storm. Nervously glancing at the sky, strangers muttered to each other in hushed uncertain tones how a storm could develop so quickly without any warning from the weathermen.
One look at the rigid blonde woman's face standing next to Utena would have answered their question. Sparks crackled from Kanae Ohtori's small frame, and her eyes had become frozen violet crystals ready to pierce, bloody, and maim on impact.
She stood a far cry from the sandy-haired "princess" of the Ohtori Dynasty, constantly photographed with coiffed hair, manicured nails, and guileless smiles. The paparazzi would have failed to recognize any trace of their new "it" girl in the dangerous figure poised in the midst of a thunderstorm.
"Are you sure?" Kanae asked Utena, her taut frame quivering repressed rage.
Utena gave a curt nod, anger and frustration fighting for a dominant place in her thoughts and voice. How had it all gone so terribly wrong?
"The Dragon's Fire Pearl was my personal favorite," Kanae continued in that curious voice, "and now you tell me that my favorite pearl, one our pearls, one of the pearls is gone? Taken? Stolen!"
Thunder boomed as Kanae thumped her palm with her delicately-boned fist, punctuating the words.
"Jefa, I promise you that I checked into every single detail of the transfer of the Dragon myself." Utena retorted. "Impossibly, these guys knew where the pearl was coming from and exactly where it was going."
"Impossibly is right Utena. Impossibly. Only a select few in the family knew about the Dragon's Fire, and even less knew where we kept it and where I was moving it to." Steel sharpness layered the rage in Kanae's voice, and if Utena were anyone else she would have been lying broken and bruised on the floor from the power of that voice alone.
But Utena was The Tenjou, and her family was descended from gods. She stared unflinchingly at the debutante. "Then the Ohtori have a problem, Kanae. The Dragon's healing fire is out of Ohtori hands, and Wakaba is in a coma because of those bastards."
Fat raindrops began to barrel down from the sky in furious plops on and around the two women.
"Of course, with the Dragon's Fire gone, the Ohtori are one step farther from claiming eternity's power." Utena innocently continued with wide eyes.
Kanae pressed her lips into a bloodless line, but pretended to ignore the pink-haired girl's taunt.
"You may hate me Utena and you may hate my family, but we own you body and soul until the debt is paid." Kanae recited grimly. Dios knows she had said it to the obstinate girl at least a hundred times over the past four years.
Flashes of blue fire lit Utena's eyes at the Ohtori heiress's words as Kanae's cell phone began to ring. Opening a Burberry umbrella with one hand while answering her phone wit the other, Kanae turned away from Utena and listed for a few minutes, occasionally speakingin a feigned happy voice.
Snapping the phone shut, Kanae rolled her eyes. "We'll finish this conversation later. I need to get ready for the press conference. Damage control has officially begun— my father wants me to stand next to him dripping in jewels and look properly mystified at what the "smart people" are talking about."
"As if he doesn't know precisely who he put in charge of security and operations for the family four years ago." Kanae finished, snorting in derision, a twinge of the hurt at her father's mandated subterfuge leaking onto her face.
Walking toward her purple Mercedes-Benz, Kanae shouted over her shoulder, "Call a meeting at your place tonight. 10 o'clock sharp. And clean your living room for Dios's sake, it's a mess!"
Utena grinned. She knew how much her "organized" mess pissed Kanae off, which was why she wasn't going to touch a thing when she got home.
Jogging in the downpour toward her black Jeep Cherokee, thank Dios she had changed into a tracksuit before heading out, Utena's mind drifted to the sight of Wakaba earlier that morning, hooked up to machines and monitors as she struggled for life in that bleak hospital room.
'I should visit her again and see if she's awake,' Utena thought with a wince. She could feel the beginnings of a thrumming headache press insistently against her forehead.
Looking down at the silver ring trapped on her finger, Utena bit her lip and rubbed her thumb in a well-worn gesture over the ornate rose seal locking her life in a constant battle with her enemy.
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"Okay Anthy, I'll see you in a bit . . . and don't forget to bring the chocolate-chip cookie dough cheesecake, you know it's her favorite. She's going to be in a shitty mood and may need the distraction." Shiori clicked off her crystal-studded cell phone and turned back to the cards and chips lying in front of her.
"I thought chocolate-chip cookie dough was your favorite," Keiko drawled, an impish smile curling her lips as she dealt two cards to the other two players at the table.
Shiori giggled and brushed her long hair back in a careless gesture. "Well, Kanae's not the only one who needs a distraction. This guy at the frats was totally checking me out last night, and we were just dancing and then Jason, like, got all stupid and angry."
"You could do so much better than Jason, Shiori. I mean, when he's drunk he gets all over other girls, and then he gets really clingy and calls you all the time trying to figure out where you are." Mitsuru rolled her eyes at the expression of indignation and sheepishness blooming over Shiori's face.
"I know guys, it's just, like, you know, he's really sweet when we just sit and talk together…" Shiori weakly tried to defend her relationship over the high-pitched fussing of her two best friends.
Utena stretched out on the forest green reclining chair and tried not to gag. The non-identical triplets, or the "Twerpy Trio" as Utena called them, may have been some of the Ohtori family's best guards, but Utena could not get past the inane chatter of the co-eds whenever they got together.
"Utena, you should, like, stop frowning so much. You're going to get those ugly old woman wrinkles." Misturu called over, taking a break from Jason-bashing.
Shiori and Kanae burst into more giggles before jumping to a new conversation about Paris Hilton's latest album release.
Closing her eyes and trying to refrain from bashing the girls' heads together, Utena's mind jumped back to earlier that day, when she'd sufficiently de-compressed enough from her "meeting" with Kanae to go to the hospital and check on Wakaba.
When Wakaba had first been recruited by Kanae to serve the Ohtori, she had insisted on calling Utena daily to go out to lunch. When Utena had ignored the phone calls, Wakaba had taken to showing up unannounced at the museum office where Utena passed her day hours as an appraiser and interpreter of ancient maps, a large smile on her face and on her heart.
Utena didn't know what in Dios's name was wrong with the short brown-haired girl. Wakaba quickly learned Utena's history and status from the triplets' gleeful whispers, but rather than turning from Utena in distrust she had gone out of her way to befriend the pink-haired firecracker.
Weeks of perseverance on Wakaba's part eventually paid off when Utena grudgingly began to admit to herself that she enjoyed Wakaba's company and looked forward to the times when they could hang out away from "work."
No one looking at the two of them could have understood the amicable bond that had developed between the somber Tenjou and the jolly new trainee of Kanae's.
As Utena had walked into Wakaba's private hospital suite, she was struck by how tiny and helpless her fierce friend looked on the bed.
Leg and arm in casts, bandages across her upper body, catheter inserted into her arms, ventilator beeping incessantly in the background . . .The room hummed anxiety and distress as Utena forced herself to sit beside Wakaba, her hands shaking with the strain of not jumping up and dashing from the room.
Her pulse accelerating, Utena's skin twitched with remembered panic but she forced herself to lean over and give the unconscious girl a brief kiss on the forehead. Wakaba had nearly given her life to protect the Dragon's Fire Pearl. For Kanae, the next step would be reconnaissance and recovery of her family's hallowed power. For Utena, it would be retribution.
Counting backwards in Greek to regain some control, Utena had risen from the bed and walked out the door, her strappy healed sandals clacking against the silence of the hospital ward.
"Mistress Tenjou," one of the Ohtori bodyguards assigned to watch Wakaba's suite had rushed forward, apprehensively keeping his eyes trained on the ground when Utena had stopped and turned around.
"The guardian had this clutched in her hand when we found her." Hand wobbling with nervousness, the bodyguard handed Utena a torn sheet of paper.
Utena's eyebrows raised at the name the bodyguard had given Wakaba, but she reached out and took it with a quiet "Thank you."
Turning back, the most powerful and most dangerous of Ohtori's elite warriors strode down the hallway and out of the hospital.
Wanting to put as much distance between herself and the hospital as possible, Utena had waited for her breathing to return to normal to examine the paper. With a few crude strokes, obviously drawn with Wakaba's pained hand, a crooked bird soared above a scratched set of lines.
Leaning against her car, Utena had brought the paper closer to her face, trying to figure out what Wakaba was hoping to convey in the sketch. A bird flying above some lines—had Wakaba used a faulty pencil?—or were those sticks? Or maybe fire? A bird flying above fire . . . .
Utena's face had turned white and she slumped against her car, unseeing eyes scanning the area as she tried to contain a shout that would have rocked half the city.
A phoenix. Wakaba had drawn a freaking phoenix flying out of fire.
The phoenix, a symbol of resurrection and renewal, was the chosen crest of one of the most powerful and devious pearl families in the world. Known more for their nightclubs, hotels, and casinos due to the entrepreneurship of the youngest members of the clan, the Kiryuu connection to pearls was long since forgotten to all but the select few still fighting for the trapped powers of the ancient gods.
The. Kiryuu.
'No, no, no, no, no, nononononononono!' Utena gave a silent cry, shaking her ponytail in denial and crumbling the paper into her tightened fist.
A tiny sliver of heartache pierced Utena's chest as a picture of Touga's laughing face flashed across her vulnerable thoughts.
Utena grabbed the memory, and with a ruthlessness that would have made her father proud, she and shoved it back to the dusty recesses of her thoughts. Oh Dios, her father . . .Touga . . .
It was too much. The Tenjou ruthlessly locked the memories away before they could consume her, fixing her mind shields until she was again composed. Serene. Controlled.
She had no desire to dwell on the past. Not now. Not ever.
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Several hours later, post-cheesecake and a rousing game of Texas Hold 'Em, the triplets and Kanae laughed merrily around Utena's heavy oak kitchen table, their glasses leaving water stains despite the coasters Utena had intentionally left by the napkins.
"Misturu," Kanae murmured, half-jokingly, "remind me never to teach you girls a card came that involves money."
Utena remained in her recliner, silently working on a cross-word puzzle and wincing every few minutes as she heard glasses thump on her mother's old table. Those water stains were going to take forever to come out.
'You really need to stop thinking about killing those girls,' Utena chided herself, 'You're going to get indigestion.'
Dios, it had been an hour already. When was Kanae going to start the meeting so they could get the hell out of her apartment?
Across the living room, Anthy stretched out across her yoga mat in setu bandasana or bridge position. Her long curly purple hair was piled in a messy ponytail, and her usually piercing green eyes were closed, a look of serene concentration smoothed across her face. A homemade banana-blueberry-and-non-fat-yogurt smoothie perched carefully beside her, the prize she daily indulged in when she completed her routine.
Finally, with moans and a shriek of delight from Keiko, the poker game was over. Outside the half-moon hung like a dim lamp in the inky sky, and wispy clouds circled the light like tantalized insects.
Kanae cleared her throat delicately, and brushed a perfect lock of blonde hair behind her ear. She had come straight from the press conference, and still wore her elegant Christian Dior blue sheath with blue-kissed freshwater pearls.
'The devil wore Chanel.' Utena grimaced.
"Ladies, the press conference this afternoon was a fiasco. As we expected, the police have no leads and no witnesses to the theft of my pearl."
Her mouth tightened in frustration. "And worst of all, the Kiryuu and the Kyouichi stood their gloating with their despicable children as the press threw questions at my father. I would have jumped right off that stage and kicked the smug smiles off their faces, the bastards."
"Do you think they know it was one of, you know, one of the set that got stolen?" Anthy asked in a muffled voice due to being in ardha sirsasana or half-headstand position.
"I'm almost positive. They hovered like vultures around a fresh carcass, relishing my family's disgrace. They wouldn't have been so excited about the prospect of the Ohtori losing any of the other large pearls in our collection."
Kanae got up and paced the room, her heels clicking softly as she carefully avoided Anthy's smoothie. "Oh, they know," she repeated softly to herself. "I never thought one of them would actually have the nerve to steal from us."
Kanae's eyes glowed at violet stab of heat, and the lights in the room flickered briefly in response.
"Somebody is either very very clever or very very stupid. The Ohtori are destined to unite Dios's Tears and harness the powers of the gods of fire, earth, wind, and sky. Any other family who thinks they have a chance are seriously fooling themselves."
The triplets nodded their heads in unison at Kanae's impassioned declaration, anger and indignation at the dared affront to the Ohtori family etched visibly on their faces.
Utena's eyes narrowed briefly at Kanae's reference to the supposed predestined fate of the Ohtori family, lightly shaking her head at the audacity.
'And how are you planning on getting your claws on the last two of Dios's Tears, Kanae?' Utena asked herself, malice dripping like acid spills from the unspoken thought.
Kanae continued talking. "As you are all aware, Wakaba's recuperating in the Ohtori suite at the hospital. She still hasn't regained consciousness, so unfortunately we don't have any insights into what exactly happened or who she saw."
Utena's mind flew to Wakaba's sketch hidden in her nightstand drawer. Keeping the information to herself for now meant the Ohtori might suffer. That was a good enough reason for her to keep her mouth shut.
Falling into a heap on her yoga mat, Anthy eagerly reached for her smoothie. "So what are you going to do Jefa? What would you have us do?" Her soft Trinidadian accent asked between smoothie gulps.
"To take out Wakaba, whoever stole the Dragon's Fire must be very good. His or her training and experience is probably comparable to yours." Kanae began.
Muttering filled the room as the triplets looked at each other and then Utena and Anthy in amazement. Who could claim better training than the sworn guardians of Ohtori, students of the grand Mikage himself?
"The police are completely useless. My father has advised me to retrieve the pearl before the annual unveiling of select Ohtori collection pieces at the Queen's Museum. He had promised the Queen's sister she could wear the Dragon's Fire for the evening. " Kanae declared, slightly gritting her teeth.
'In other words,' thought Utena, 'the old bastard made a stupid promise and is now giving you hell so he doesn't lose face.' 1 month. That was cutting it pretty close, even for the little blonde she-devil.
"Let's go to the Kiryuu and the Kyouichi tomorrow and bust some asses." Shiori thumped her fist on the table in emphasis.
Utena winced again for her poor table and glanced at the co-ed in surprise. She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times she had heard a serious normal thought come out of the Shiori's mouth. Even when Kanae had almost been kidnapped two years ago, Shiori had maintained sweet spaciness full-time.
"Dios, I wish it were that simple Shiori, I really do." Kanae answered.
"It can be. That simple I mean," Anthy injected, her eyes hard as emeralds, "we just have to choose our targets carefully."
Counting of the fingers of her hand, she continued, "Saoinji just opened a gentlemen's club in the Red Light District that supposedly tailors to the darkest and most depraved of the male appetite." Kanae gave a little shiver at Anthy's words. From the few perfunctory social functions all the families had allowed their young children to attend, Kanae had tried to avoid being the target of Saoinji's cruel sense of humor.
"Also, Touga and Nanami are co-owners of that new nightclub, The Academy, and Touga also manages the adjoining restaurant Castle in the Sky. The Kiryuu heir has also just ended a high-profile romance with Juri Arisugawa that sources tell me was a front for highly profitable and highly illegal insider trading."
Kanae started in confusion. "Do you mean Juri Arisugawa the model? With Touga?"
The triplets gave her a withering glance. "What! Kanae, no joke, where have you been living? Under a rock? Her face was freaking everywhere." Keiko whipped out the latest copy of Vogue from her pink canvas bag and flipped to an ad, pointing gleefully to the statuesque orange-haired lady.
Touga's "fling" with the Parisian model and Olympic fencing champion had dominated the paparazzi's lenses for over three months. Juri had been the new face for some high-end fashion house and while her stylishly-draped figure had been plastered on billboards, her stylishly plump bank account had swelled from the sale of stocks before their announced losses.
Kanae nodded her head slowly. "Ohhhh, okay, I remember seeing her at a fashion show last month in Tokyo. I think I have one of the dresses she modeled in one of my closets. But I thought Touga was sleeping with some European countess?
Utena kept her face carefully blank.
"A nightclub is a good place for a quick, dirty exchange. Dancing hotties, no lights, lots of liquor. No notice, no muss, and no fuss." Misturu inserted helpfully.
"He's so hot," Shiori mooned playfully to Kanae, "that every magazine has pictures of him with a different stick-thin model or royal or heiress."
"Exactly. And a gentleman's club provides a 'safe' place to do business with little stress." Anthy's voice created another layer to conversations that were beginning to clutter the living room like floating pieces of paper.
Shiori started chattering about the latest summer fashions, and Anthy and Misturu raised their voices to better hear each other, creating a tangled web of pitch and sharpness and texture that beat against Utena's brain like a reverberating pulse of blinding illuminating lights.
"So what." The quiet words cut across the chatter with all the sleekness and coldness of a samurai sword, the first real words Utena had spoken since the girls had arrived at her apartment.
Kanae blinked. "Excuse me?" She drawled.
Utena turned her head and locked eyes with Kanae. "So. What." She drew each word out.
"What are you going to do, Miss Ohtori? Sit here and whine to us about how daddy is breathing fire down your ass? You've had us sitting here for hours, and I have to be at work tomorrow at 6 am to receive a shipment from Kenya."
Kanae's knuckles tightened at Utena's words, but she refused to rise to the bait.
"I'll tell you what I am going to do, Tenjou," Kanae began, intentionally leaving off the "Miss" to remind Utena of the facts of her current position. She was slightly disappointed when Utena did not even blink at the obvious slight.
Turning to the triplets, Kanae proceeded to outline their assignment—chatting up patrons and staff at The Academy and breaking into the back rooms to look for any information. Mitsuru, Keiki, and Shiori listened attentively to their instructions and giggled to each other. Going to The Academy would be too much fun, especially since they had 2-for-1 drink specials before 11:30 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.
"Anthy," Kanae said in a warm voice, "your brother's hosting another fundraiser for a shipwreck expedition in the Philippines, and he's invited Saoinji as a Diamond Plate guest. I can't go since my father wants me in Milan for an interview with a fashion magazine, so I need you to bat your long eyelashes and get a seat at Saoinji's table."
Kanae poked the Anthy's shoulder teasingly. "With you working your magic on the fool, I am sure you can learn something of use."
'Better you than me,' Kanae thought wryly. She still tried to keep the hell away from Saoinji whenever she could get away with it.
Anthy gave a small frown, almost imperceptible but for the tightening of her cheeks, but nodded her head to Kanae. She hated her brother Akio's parties, especially the ones when he was trying to raise money for another treasure hunt. And she was going to have to find a replacement yoga instructor to teach her classes next Friday so she could go shopping and get her hair done for the fundraiser. Damn!
Finally, Kanae's eyes returned to Utena, the warmth in them oozing out like lava streaming down the sides of an erupting volcano.
"And then there's Utena." Kanae flexed her shoulders, popping out the kinks without rumpling her exquisite dress. "Bitchy Utena, always angry at the world and ready to jump down the throat of everyone, even if she's just wishing you 'Good morning'."
'Now that's not fair,' Utena thought, 'I mean, I'm nice to Wakaba.'
Kanae knew very well why Utena was not in a good mood and could never be in a good mood about anything to do with the Ohtori family.
"Never send an amateur to do a professional's job. That's what Mikage taught us, and that's why I'm sending you after the leader of the pack." Kanae circled closer to the reclining chair and practically loomed over the girl.
"We can't afford any more screw-ups. Bring me back his fucking red head so I can mount it on the wall." Kanae roared softly, the words falling like icy shards on Utena's head.
It irked her that The Tenjou was the best of the best. She was like a wild beast, under the ownership of the Ohtori but refusing to yield or be tamed. This wildcard status made Utena dangerous and Kanae just annoyed.
She had known this was coming. All her instincts and all her training had boiled down to this one moment Utena had been anticipating and dreading since Kanae had walked through the door.
But she was safe as long as she didn't let emotion get involved, right? She was a professional. She was The Tenjou. She would go in and get the pearl and maybe actually collect a few shards of her heart still lying on Touga's floor. She should probably kick his ass while she was at it no no that would make him think that she still cared and he would make her weak again and—
"Fine." Utena answered Kanae, leaning forward in the chair so the blonde was forced to lean back again or have their heads knock. Utena smiled mockingly at Kanae's retreat. Coward.
Kanae sniffed and smoothed her hands down her dress to recover her composure. "Excellent," she clipped, "this meeting is now adjourned. Ring Chu-Chu if anything comes up while I'm in Milan."
The Ohtori's only daughter elegantly exited the apartment, the triplets yapping at her heels in excited vocalized bursts about cute boys on campus and music trivia.
Anthy slowly rolled her yoga mat and slipped her manicured toes into designer flip-flops. Running her slim hands through the purple strands and retying the ponytail, she eyed Utena warily but made no move toward the recliner.
Utena kept her gaze steady on the dusky-skinned girl. She had nothing against the Himemeya family, although privately she felt the brother and sister were fools to entangle with the Ohtoris.
Anthy sighed with a twinge of disappointment at Utena's silence and left the apartment. If only the girl wasn't so damned stubborn about everything.
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The thunderstorm continued to tear across the late night sky, pounding and shaking the earth with gusty winds and heavy rains and brief bursts of lightning jolts. Humming parts of Rhapsody in Blue, Utena lay in the living room, a steaming cup of hot chocolate resting on one side. Her black cat Prince lay sprawled, nudging the ball of light laid carefully on the floor beside them.
Tears fell in tiny rivulets down her cheeks, and every few seconds she would unsuccessfully wipe a few crystals away with the back of her pale hand.
Thunderstorms reminded her of her parents. And the last day she had seen them alive . . .
Her aunt had held her during thunderstorms, when the young pink-haired child had woken her with pained screams in the middle of the night.
Touga had held her, rubbing his hands over her back and shoulders and kissing her neck to distract her from the booms outside.
Touga . . . Utena groaned and lightly banged her head against the floor. Even in the midst of her bought of self-pity and weariness, the idiot managed to insidiously enter her thoughts. Damn.
The cycle of ambitious self-destruction, family anguish, pride, deceit, theft, murder—Utena knew deep down in her soul that it would never end until one of the families finally united Dios's Tears.
Her family's future lay in her currently helpless hands, as she lay bound as a lapdog of service to the loathed Ohtori.
But not for much longer. Utena rubbed her hand along Prince's back, her eyes fixed on the precious stone shimmering dangerously beside her.
As falls the dew on quenchless sands, blood only serves to wash ambition's hands(1).
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1 The quote is from the dark and dreamy poet, Lord Byron. Please please review! I would love to hear what you think!
