Chapter 7

"Where did he take her? Where the Hell did he take her?"

Anthy was almost screaming at Saionji, her face a mask of fury. If she'd ever felt anger like this before, it was so long ago she couldn't remember. The power of the emotion coursing through her was electrifying and terrifying all at once, but feeling the anger was better than feeling the fear that she knew was lurking somewhere deep down underneath her rage, hiding like a monster beneath a trap-door.

She was holding Utena's dropped foil in a steady, businesslike grasp, its tip pointed at Saionji's heart. Only the foil was no longer a modern fencing foil; it had changed into a deadly sharp rapier blade as soon as Anthy had picked it up, responding to her need as anything of Utena's always would.

Saionji only smirked at her and Anthy had to seriously fight down a sudden urge to kill him. It wasn't that she had any concern for his life; she'd quite happily have wiped him from the face of the Earth with no regrets. But she needed him alive if she was going to find out where Utena and Touga had gone.

The rest of the stadium was empty except for Anthy, Saionji, Juri and Miki. The audience and the judges and the referee had all fled when the strangeness began. People were tiresome like that throughout countless dimensions.

Juri and Miki reached Anthy at that moment, hurrying over from the other side of the ring. As soon as Utena had disappeared, Anthy had beaten them to Saionji's side, knowing he was their only likely lead. Taking in Anthy's stance and her hold on the sword, Jury said approvingly, "Not bad, Himemiya. Perhaps I should ask if you want to join the fencing team too."

"No thank you," said Anthy calmly. "Not really my thing. But…" Her gaze hardened into ice as she looked into Saionji's defiant eyes. "Tell me where they've gone right now or I will use this sword to inflict more pain than you can imagine."

"I'll hold him down for you," Juri volunteered.

"Juri, I think that's going a bit far," Miki said worriedly.

"I think it's just far enough." Juri disagreed. "What the Hell even happened? How did Touga worm his way into playing this match? Why did he disappear with Utena?"

"Whatever Touga did, that was Akio's power," Anthy revealed.

Juri and Miki made twin noises of shock while Saionji grinned.

"It was just a little parting gift you brother gave to Touga before he died."

"That bastard," said Anthy. "I should have known."

"You really should have," Saionji agreed. "You've forgotten how the world works, Anthy."

The point of Anthy's sword flicked across his face. He screamed, and a trickle of blood marred his cheek.

"Tell me where they've gone right now," Anthy said. "Or I'll ruin your beautiful face forever. You'll break long before I'm ready to kill you, believe me, but this way there'll be no undoing the damage. You'll carry it forever."

Anthy knew Saionji. She knew his vanity was so great any threat to his looks would frighten him even more than the prospect of death. But either he was extremely loyal to Touga or even more afraid of him than he was of losing his beauty, for he remained stubbornly silent. In punishment Anthy slashed the point of the sword down his face from forehead to jaw, right over the centre of his left eye. A little more pressure and she'd have put the eye right out of its socket.

Miki winced. Juri crossed her arms. "Impressive control," she murmured. "Are you sure you don't want to join the fencing team?"

Anthy smiled. "Like I said, it's really Utena's thing. I'd rather put my energy towards helping the creatures that others abandon and look down upon. But right now, doing this is necessary."

Juri gave a disappointed sigh and muttered something about the heretical logic of choosing injured bunny rabbits over swords.

"Saionji? Are you ready to talk?"

"Anthy, how could you?" Saionji whined, dabbing at the blood on his face. "We used to be friends!" He cringed as she raised the sword again.

"We were never friends, Saionji-sama." Anthy put a world of venom into the honorific Saionji had once ordered her to use. She pointed the sword at the space between his spread-eagled legs, her voice soft and dangerous. "And perhaps just for saying that, my next stroke should aim lower?"

As she'd hoped, that was enough to break him.

"Alright, alright. I'll talk! But I don't know where they've gone. Honestly I don't." Saionji looked up at Anthy fearfully, and seeing her pitiless expression, slid his eyes desperately towards Juri and Miki, seeking quarter with them but still finding none.

"All I know is that Touga has Akio's ring and that it will take them to a place where Utena is meant to despair. He needs her to give up her heart sword so that he can use its power combined with Akio's ring to make a new magical world. He promised that if I helped him, he'd take me there with him. That I could be princely and important there, the way I used to be in Ohtori. The way I never am here in this stupid world."

"Princely and important? You were never that in Ohtori. You were the same there as you are here – a cowardly bully filled with your own insecurities. You're disgusting."

Having gotten what she needed, Anthy turned away from Saionji dismissively. His shoulders slumped in relief, though his eyes darkened in resentment at Anthy's words. Once he would have struck her for daring to speak to him like that, but now he only glowered silently. This harridan was certainly not the Rose Bride he remembered.

"So," Juri said to Anthy. "Do you know where they've gone?"

"Yes, I know," Anthy confirmed.

"Can you get there?"

"Of course. Chu-Chu!"

The little marmoset popped questioningly out of Anthy's pocket. She picked him up and held him before her on the open palm of her hands.

"Chu-Chu, before we go, there's something I need you to do…"

With their backs against their respective boulders, Utena and Touga sat eyeing each other from opposite sides of the blasted arena.

Touga had recovered a measure of his debonairness even though he was still deathly pale and shiny with sweat. He waggled his eyebrows at Utena suggestively, eyes gleaming. "Can't you take pity on me, Tenjou? Even now? You've shattered my heart. My end is almost here. The least you could do is kiss my lips as I'm dying."

Utena snickered. "Losing your heart sword won't kill you, and if you want to whinge to someone, save it for your boyfriend when we get back. I don't want to hear it."

"Weren't you listening before? We're not going back. There's no magic left."

"Himemiya will find me," said Utena confidently. "She always finds me."

"That's not really something a normal girl could do, though, is it?" Touga looked at Utena slyly, as if this was something she wouldn't have been able to work out for herself.

"So what?"

"Didn't you want Himemiya to be a normal girl, all this time?"

"What I want is for Himemiya to be herself. I doubt that's something you could even understand, Touga. Besides—" Utena waved a hand around. "Me being here isn't exactly normal either, is it?"

"Tenjou. She's not coming. This is the landscape of despair. No one can reach this place willingly, and once here, no one can escape."

"Akio clearly could, so why not Himemiya?"

"She never had any power of her own. It was all a reflection of his."

"Ha. Shows how much you know."

Touga's voice sank to a low, seductive husk. "Tenjou, whether you want to admit it or not, it's just you and I, for all eternity. That's the only reason I did this in the first place. Because even if I lost, I'd still win. I'd still get to have you."

"You're delusional."

"And how long will it be, before you can't endure the loneliness? When night falls, the dreams of this place are terrible. You won't be able to bear them. You'll come running to my arms for respite."

"Like I said – you're delusional."

Utena leaned back against her rock and waited, keeping a wary eye on Touga and still holding her sword in a loose grip.

Only a few more minutes passed before she felt the disturbance in the air. She looked towards the sullen sky expectantly and saw Anthy descending with Chu-Chu on her shoulder, her purple hair flying in the wind and her eyes blazing.

Like Utena's and Touga's, her garments too had changed, but not into anything Utena had seen before. With some amazement she pushed herself to her feet as Anthy landed neatly, taking in the emerald green dress with a tight waist and long flared sleeves, the wide overskirt slit at the front with black tights beneath that came to just below Anthy's knees.

But what most arrested Utena's attention was the pure, shining sword she held in her hand. There was absolutely no mistaking what it was.

Catching sight of Utena, Anthy ran to her with a relieved cry and flung herself into Utena's arms. It was a somewhat lopsided embrace with both of them still holding their swords, not that it really mattered or made it any less warm.

"Utena," Anthy whispered, her face still buried somewhere in the region of Utena's neck, "I'm so glad you're okay. When I felt Akio's power, I thought…"

A tremor passed through her and she trailed off, holding Utena closer instead of finishing.

"I'm fine, Himemiya," Utena replied reassuringly, her free hand stroking the small of Anthy's back. "Akio wasn't a match for me when he was alive, let alone now he's dead."

She drew back enough to meet Anthy's eyes, glancing towards the sword before asking, "Is that your heart sword?"

Anthy blushed and smiled at her almost shyly. "Yes. I finally have my own, after all this time."

"It's beautiful. You look…Beautiful."

Pride brimmed over in Anthy's expression, mingling with her relief and the soft love shining brightly in her eyes. "Thank you."

"But who helped you to draw the sword out?"

"Chu-Chu, of course."

"Chu-Chu?"

"Who else would, Utena? Except perhaps for you."

"Yeah. I guess that's true. Did you come here intending to fight for me?" The very thought of Anthy being willing to fight for her reached into Utena and touched her somewhere deep in her soul. It was a feeling almost arousing in its intensity, like looking at Anthy's heart sword and knowing it meant she truly had regained herself, and was still choosing Utena, from all the choices she had.

"If you needed it," said Anthy, her jaw set firmly.

Akio had been wrong about Anthy, Utena reflected. So wrong. She wasn't a fragile doll easily broken by another's whim. She was strong. Far stronger than Akio ever could have imagined.

Utena ran her finger along Anthy's jaw, fascinated by this newly discovered side to her, feeling the muscles loosen beneath her touch and then tighten again for an entirely different reason. The response brought a mischievous smile to her lips. "Well, even if I beat him, Touga's failsafe plan was that he and I would be stuck here together for all eternity, but I explained to him his error there. I knew you'd find me and take me back to the real world. You know the way, right?"

Anthy nodded. "I do."

"Of course you do," said Utena softly, thinking of all the awful memories she'd seen. "If anyone knows how to find their way out of the land of despair, it's you."

Touga coughed in a way obviously meant to interrupt. "Well then, if you ladies are done being all gooey with each other, do you think we might be leaving anytime soon? The shadows are starting to lengthen, and staying at this place past nightfall is something I'd really rather avoid, if at all possible."

"You deserve to stay here and be eaten by despair," Anthy hissed, her sword suddenly pointed in his direction.

"Himemiya," Utena chided gently. "We can't just leave him here. I broke his heart sword. Don't you think that's punishment enough?"

Reluctantly, Anthy lowered her sword. Glancing back to Utena, she said, "It's your victory. You have the right to decide what happens to him. But he is right. We should be getting out of here."

"Touga." Utena jerked her head sharply, indicating that Touga should join them.

He didn't need to be told twice. Painfully levering himself to his feet with the help of the boulder he'd been leaning against, he limped over to Utena and Anthy. He seemed to know better than to push his luck by saying anything else, even thank you. Really he was a rather pitiful sight; another of Akio's victims who had never learned a better way.

Once they were all together, the three of them whirled away from the blasted landscape with a speed that made Utena dizzy and seemingly within moments they were back in the fencing ring. Both her own sword and Anthy's vanished as they landed, returning inside their hearts where they belonged in this world.

Seeing Saionji's bloodied face, Touga said without sympathy, "What happened to you?"

Saionji shot Anthy a fearful glance. "Nothing. Let's go. This was a fucking disaster. I told you it would be."

Touga smiled and gave Utena an elaborate bow. "Until we meet again; my fair prince." Bowing with less flair to Anthy, though with no less respect, he added, "And to you, the beautiful enchantress…Well done. It was an honour to be beaten by such worthy opponents."

"Enchantress?" Utena asked as Touga and Saionji walked away, still bickering with one another. "Is that what your appearance signified when you arrived at that place?"

"Perhaps," said Anthy. "Would you mind…If that was the case?"

"Not at all." Utena brushed Anthy's cheek. "I told you before you looked beautiful. And…Powerful." Her voice quivered a little and Anthy's eyes widened in surprise. Whether because of what Utena said or how she said it there wasn't quite time to determine.

"Utena!" Juri strode over. "Sorry. This has been a complete mess. I take full responsibility. I should have looked into your opponent more carefully and realised it was all a ruse. Realised Touga had entered under a false name just to set all this up."

"Don't worry about it, Juri. It's fine."

Juri studied her more carefully. "It is fine, isn't it? You're not the least bit upset."

"Let's just say…Akio's stupid stunt inadvertently allowed me to answer the question that had been bothering me for a very long time."

"Well, I'll get to work somehow explaining this debacle and see if we can get you into another heat. Unless you've decided that you're done with fencing forever now."

Utena grinned, eyes sparkling. "Just the opposite. I'm going to keep fencing, and our team is going to win the international championship of the Universiade. After that – who knows? If I can conquer Akio's memory in the land of despair, I can do anything I think."

And in due course they did win the Universiade. It wasn't the Olympics by a long way, but it was a start, and that was enough.