Chapter 2: Memories of the past
In the following day a helicopter quickly crossed the ocean in direction to the research ship Keldysh. In its interior, Kozue and her grandmother, Anthy with her small friend, Chu-chu, observed the ocean from the helicopter. The young girl keep grandmother with questions, however, the old lady only smiles, saying that until the end of the day she already would know of everything.
"She must be a liar in search of fame and money. God only knows why!" Ruka Tsuchiya, one of the scientists was saying to Juri, trying to convince his boss that what the old woman said was only one another lie of that they already had heard. "It's like that Russian woman, Anastásia."
"They are arriving." Shiori said and the three people observed a helicopter going in the ship direction. Ruka one more time insisted.
"Anthy Himemiya Ohtori died with 17 years old on the Titanic, right?" The man with blue hair asks.
"Yes, exactly." Juri confirmed while the three walked in direction to the landing place where the helicopter would be.
"If she were alive, she would have more than 100 years now." Ruka insisted.
"She will make 101 in the next month." Juri said smiling.
"All right, then she is a very old lady liar!" Ruka said finally, rolling his eyes. "Hear me, I already investigated the past of this woman, until the decade of 20, and discovered that she worked as an actress. ACTRESS! Her name was Anthy Tenjou. There she was married one man named Miki Kaoru and they had moved for Cedar Rapids where they have two children. Now Miki Kaoru is died and if my knowledge is right, Cedar Rapids too!"
"And all that know about the Blazon of the Rose must be dead or here, in this ship. But she knows." Jury said while she observed the helicopter almost close to the landing place.
The helicopter then settled in the surface of the research ship, while Juri, next to an instructor, Shiori and Ruka, observed the landing of a place far away and safe from the helices of the helicopter. Minutes later, Ruka observed a good amount of bags removed of inside of the helicopter, with evident disdain in his face.
"She does not know how to compact bags, doesn't she?" He asked sarcastically for Shiori who just ignored him, while she observed Juri come close to the door of the helicopter. Soon, both the girl and the man observed Juri and more 3 men from the ship, helping to remove an old lady from inside of the helicopter, seated in a wheels chair with an strange animal similar to a monkey on her lap.
"Mrs. Kaoru, I am Juri Arisugawa, welcome to the research ship Keldysh." Juri said while she helped to place Anthy and the wheels chair in the landing surface, giving orders then to one of her subordinates. "Take her on the inside and show her new room."
Juri then helped down a young girl of inside of the helicopter and after she welcome her, all of them go down on the ship. After some hours, Anthy in her cabin finished to place some photographs on a small balcony, when then somebody knocks her door and soon, Juri, Shiori and Ruka had entered in the place.
"All good with the cabin, Mrs. Kaoru?" Juri asks smiling.
"Yes, it is very good, thank you, Mrs. Arisugawa." Anthy answers equally smiling. Waking up Chu-chu who was on her shoulder, the creature looks curiously to the strangers who had entered in the cabin.
"Chu?" The creature asked for Anthy, who smiles in reply, agreeing. Kozue then starts to open the bags that had been brought on board in the helicopter. Anthy then had her attention toward Juri.
"Already knows my granddaughter, Kozue Kaoru? She takes care of me."
"We have already talked some minutes ago, remembers grandmother? After the moment we have exit the helicopter." The girl answers while she looked at Juri and those who was with her.
"It's truth, sorry…" Anthy said, and Ruka looked at Juri rolling his eyes. Anthy then placed one another photo on the small balcony, saying softly. - I can never forget to bring these photos with me, they are what confirms that I'm keeping the promise I made to her…
"You would like more some thing, Mrs. Kaoru?" Juri asked for Anthy, and the old lady then raised her face to the young woman.
"Yes. I would like to see my drawing."
Some minutes later, Anthy was in a room, only in the company of Kozue, Juri, Shiori and Ruka. She observed the painting that was being protected with proper liquids for preservation, her green eyes, observed each curve that had been made in that old piece of paper. Badly she knows that her granddaughter was behind of herself, also, looking at the drawing.
During a moment, Anthy unconsciously closes her eyes, and see a distant memory as if it was yesterday, of beautiful almost pale white hands that full of ability finished to add the details in her work. And of deep and clear blue eyes in the same color of the blue sky, covered for some wires of hair pink, that gracefully form a beautiful feminine face. The blue eyes observed they target of the painting with extreme attention and they deep look, that also, demonstrated the great amount of love that the tracer have for the woman who was being portrayed in the paper piece.
Anthy then opens her eyes suddenly, only to closes them one more time, occulting the sadness that they are showing. The voice of Juri then wakes her from the memories of her past.
"An old king acquired a great and mysterious rock, of deep and beautiful rose color. He used the jewel to give to his woman, the queen. However, after she has used it during one of the parties, the jewel disappears in 1792. They say that this rock was shaped and became a jewel with format of rose decorated with diamonds. The Blazon of the Rose." Juri said while she showed the photo of the jewel for Anthy that observed the jewel in indifferent way. "Now, in our days, the Blazon of the Rose is valid more than what the Hope Diamond, one of the more famous of the world."
"It was a dreadful, heavy thing." Anthy said with a smile. "I wore only this once. When this drawing was done."
"You really think that this is you, grandmother?" Kozue asked while she also observed the photo of the Blazon of the Rose that Juri held in her hand.
"It is me, dear. - Anthy said, looking at her granddaughter, saying with a smile." Wasn't I a dish?
Jury laughed low e Anthy then directed her attention to the hunter of treasures. That immediately started to say:
"I tracked the registers of the insurance. He had an order of payment made in absolute secret. You can say to me who the claimant was, Anthy?"
"I imagine that was somebody calls Kyouichi." Anthy said, Juri and Shiori had smiled while Ruka looks surprised to the old lady.
"Exactly, Kiutaro Kyouichi. He was a millionaire. The object, the Blazon of the Rose is a necklace that his son, Saionji Kyouichi, bought for his fiancé, you." Jury said and Anthy sighs, remembering her old fiancé, answering yes for the hunter of treasures who continued with what she was saying. "One week before embarking in the Titanic. It was registered soon after the sinking. Then the Blazon of the Rose must have gone down with the ship."
When Juri said this, Anthy smiles, something that passed without Juri see, that then directed her attention for the drawing.
"Are you seeing the date?" Juri asked and Kozue approached to the piece of paper, looking in the indicated place.
"14 of April, 1912" The girl read and Ruka then said.
"That means that if your grandmother is who she affirms that she is, she was using the Blazon of the Rose in the day where the Titanic sank." Kozue looked at for Ruka and then Juri smiled to Anthy.
"That makes you my new friend." Juri said, Anthy then looked at for the table where some old and known objects were displayed. She then caught a small broken mirror while Jury said to her. "These are some of the things that we recovered of your cabin in the Titanic."
"This was mine." Anthy said with a smile while she and Kozue observed the object. "That is incredible. It is with the same appearance of the last time I have see this."
Anthy then turned the object in her hand, and she can see her old face in the mirror. She then placed the object in the place.
"The reflection has changed a bit…" Anthy then looks at the other objects while tears was trying to show on her face. Juri on her side, asked.
"Are you ready to come back to the Titanic?" Anthy remained in silence, and then after some seconds she agree. Some minutes later, Ruka then show on the computer a little cartoon that showed the way the gigantic ship must have collided against the iceberg until it had disappeared in the deep of the ocean.
"Here we go. The Titanic hits the iceberg on the starboard side." Ruka started while the computer showed the animation of the ship and what happens with it. "The great ship king of bumps along, pushing holes like Morse code along the side, below the water line. Then the forward compartments start to flood. Now, as the water level rises, it spills over the watertight bulkheads, with unfortunately, don't go any higher than E deck. So now, as the bow goes down, the stern rises up, slow at first, then faster and faster, until finally the ship got it's hole ass sticking in the air. And that's a big ass, Where talking about 20.000, 30.000 tons."
Anthy observed illustrations, finally after a long time, seeing what had happened with the luxurious ship after to shock itself with the gigantic ice rock. Her face did not demonstrate any emotion, but her eyes seemed to revive again each moment of that night.
"And the hull's not designed to deal with that pressure. So what happens? The ship splits, right down to the keel, and the stern falls back level. Then the bow sink, it pulls the stern in a vertical position and then finally detaches. Now the sterns section kind of bobs there like a cork for a couple of minutes, floods, and finally goes under about 2:20 A.M."
"Thank you for the excellent theoretician analyzes, Mr. Tsuchiya. But, the real experience… It was a little different…" Anthy said, her eyes never left the computer where it showed the ship sink in the deep of the sea.
"Can you tell us?" Juri asked, sitting down in front of Anthy, looking at her intently.
Anthy in turn stands up and turned over, looking at the screens of the televisions of the research equip, that showed the recorded images of the Titanic that the submarines have taken. In one of the screens, it shown one of the halls, where only one old door cover for sand and mosses, was indicating the entrance to an old great salon. In the memory of Anthy, she one more time heard the melodious music, and saw everything becoming new again for some seconds, then two men's who smiling, employee's of the ship, had opened the door so that the lady can enter.
The tears in her eyes had one more time fought to leave, and covering her face with her hands, the old lady starts to cry. Kozue then placed her hand on the shoulders of her grandmother and looked at Juri, Shiori and Ruka.
"I will take her back to the cabin."
"No." Anthy said, and when Kozue insisted, Anthy push's her granddaughter away. Determined, the old lady turned toward the group of researchers in the room. Sitting down in the chair one more time. Juri then caught a recorder, and sat down in front of Anthy again. Ruka, Shiori and Kozue had sat down in chairs closer from the old lady.
"Tell to us, Anthy." Juri asked, and then the old lady sighs heavily. When then her green and deep eyes looked at Juri.
"It's been 84 years…"
"All right, tries to remember any thing from the Titanic." Jury asked, and Anthy smiled, asking.
"You would like to hear history or not, Mrs. Arisugawa?" Jury then smiles, and remains in silence, as all the others in the room. Anthy smiles back when then, she once more starts her history.
"It's been 84 years. And I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used. The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was called the ship of dreams. And it was. It really was."
In one of the televisions in the room used for researchers, the image of the bow of the Titanic, covered for the sand and moss, was showing. However, that image, in the memories of Anthy Tenjou Kaoru, one more time she could see the front of the powerful Titanic in the days of glory before leaving the port of Southampton, in England, for city of New York in the Wednesday, 10 of April of 1912.
Yeah, Utena will. I love a great romance AxU, but I love a great drama too... So I will follow the movie, but this fanfic will have that "Happy after death" stuff too like Jack and Rose lol