Dust covered the book much as it did the rest of the library. It was also old, abandoned, and smelled like just the same. But this wasn't a fault, from Utena's perspective, of the book she held. It was a familiar scent, a welcomed one. She associated it with safety, privacy, and that little chill of danger. This small library wasn't a space open to the public, and neither so was the book she ran off with.
The library was a long since closed building that had been left to decay. It was planned to be replaced with a new library, but the budget was always lacking. For the time being, it was locked up and stripped of most anything valuable. This left the library's shelves empty, making the building purposeless.
Not entirely purposeless. It had its uses, if only among the reckless and brave. As students were known to be, many paid no mind to the littered "KEEP OUT" signs posted all over the fences and even on the library's walls and doors. An abandoned, isolated location such as this was the perfect place for rebellious types to hang out. Anything could be gotten away behind the library's walls and within the maze of shelves and desks.
Utena had less nefarious uses. She noticed the library on her own, in the midst of her own nightly explorations. She had heard of the building in passing, but it would eventually become her home away from home. Upon realizing just how abandoned the abandoned library was, she immediately began to use it as a hideaway, a sanctuary she could retreat to when she needed privacy or a place to slink to when it was dark. Utena never verbally admitted it, but many of her traits were suspicious qualities -- sneaking, eavesdropping, borrowing without returning, just to name a few.
Before long, Utena had made the place her own. She found herself to be the most frequent occupant, allowing her evenings and sometimes entire nights to be spent alone. It was exactly how she wanted it. Soon, too, did she have the layout memorized, and had she familiarized herself with a fascinating detail of the library; the number of remaining books.
She was never quite clear when she had added the tome to her collection, but one had eventually caught her attention. While flippantly searching the books once more with keener eyes, Utena had noticed a bizarre emblem etched into one of the covers. It practically glistened in her vision, as if gravitating towards it. She thought she was kidding herself, that she felt an energy from the book.
Not doubting that gut feeling for long, Utena had opened the book. She discovered it to be an occultic writing, a list of recipes for all sorts of mysteries. She kept joking with herself to read on, feeling the next spell or curse to be even more laughable than the last. That attitude changed when she next blinked, and hours had vanished. More obsessively than she thought, had she been flipping through its pages.
Utena's evenings had regularly then been to reside and research more about the book. One of the curses described in the book had looked especially enticing, and even relatively easy to make. Many of the ingredients, once understood, were simple alchemical components -- nothing too complicated that she couldn't find from a chemistry lab elsewhere.
Am I really going to try this? Utena wondered. It can't hurt to try. It would be a fun story to tell people…
For the past year, there was a student that had tugged at her heart, even though the two had almost never spoken. Utena was too shy and terrified to speak up about her feelings, so instead of ever approaching her, she would follow her from afar, in the shadows as a stalker. She dreamed of a way to truly express her desires, how she wanted total dominion over everything this woman was, and now, she was on the verge of finding a way. Jokes or not, Utena was putting her trust in the book to provide that power. A hex for binding a specific target, reducing their weight and instilling an unquenchable thirst for their capture, so it claimed.
The ingredients were gathered into Utena's bag, quietly stolen from an unsupervised chemistry lab. Salts, minerals, acids, and a bowl of wine. All Utena sought to do was bring the ingredients to the library and double-check that she had everything right.
"A strand… of hair?" Utena read the book from her own private corner. She had the recipe for the curse still in her bag, and while almost everything had checked out, there was one detail she had overlooked. "A strand of the target's hair, ahh." Utena took a deep breath. If there was any real hurdle before her now, it was getting that piece of hair from her crush's head.
Footsteps made Utena alert. Someone was walking around in the library, close to her corner that was so distant to reach. Without warning, the source of the steps appeared; another student, a young woman with an unamused scowl, fashionably dressed with cool colors that contrasted the sunset hues which painted the walls and bookcases.
"O-Oh, what the fuck are you?" the girl gasped, smartphone in hand and at the ready. "Hey, oh, you must be another student. Are you trying to scare the shit out of people, creep?"
"Wh-What? I wasn't--!"
"You zombie-looking freak!" the girl cut Utena's stammering off sharply. She gasped again, fanning herself with her free hand. "Yeah, good thing I'm dusting this place out first or else we would have had you fucking creeping people out."
Utena stuttered, her anxiety intensely flaring up. This was a nightmare scenario for her, to be suddenly ambushed like this in a place she considered safe. What's this bitch doing here? she thought. Who does she think she is?! This is my territory!
"God, you've got this shit organized and everything," the student said. "You must come here everyday, don't you?"
Utena's face was red with embarrassment. She bit her lip hard, backing away deeper into her corner. If an escape was needed, she had her hands at the ready to grab her bag and run. However, there was one thing she wouldn't be able to snatch in that situation, and that was the occultic book.
Her eyes had been drawn to it, and the other girl noticed. "You read in here?" she said, semi-curiously picking up the book by a corner.
"Kaoruko! D-Don't-- Please put it down!" Utena barked. Her panicked voice made the girl wince.
"Whoa, okay," Kaoruko rolled her eyes and placed the book back on the desk where it was. "How do you know my name? I've definitely never met a girl like you."
Utena paused. There wasn't an easy way to admit that she kept at least some tabs on everyone she crossed paths with. In Kaoruko's case, the two shared a class, their seats not too distant from one another. Despite the limited interactions, this was still enough time for Utena to dedicate Kaoruko to memory, along with only a small handful of facts; she was a rowdy girl, she liked to swear, and she had a cult of boys at one point.
But those facts did little to aid Utena in the moment, and her silence wasn't an appeasing answer for Kaoruko. At the very least, Utena did manage to get Kaoruko to let go of the book, but in doing so, she had invited Kaoruko to inspect the corner more thoroughly.
"Are you… planning something…?" Utena asked.
"Yeah," Kaoruko nodded, "me and some guys are looking to throw a big party. Like serious stuff. This old place is perfect, so you should grab your things and go. Why are you here alone anyway?"
"O-Okay…" Utena stuttered out that answer, instinctively submitting herself to Kaoruko's orders.
"Yeah, you're definitely not invited," she laughed, "especially looking like that. They weren't kidding when they said this place was fucking haunted."
Fuck off, you stupid slut, Utena thought. She wouldn't dare let those thoughts escape her mouth. "Um, okay," she hesitantly replied. It stung to just ignore Kaoruko's insult, but she was used to this kind of treatment. "W-When's the party? I'll just stay out of… your way, if that's--"
"Friday," Kaoruko said. "Tomorrow I'll be coming by again to clean up, and the day after this place will be poppin'." Kaoruko fanned herself, opening up the collar to her blazer to vent out some hot air, "this library sucks-- it's so hot!"
"Well, th-there's no AC, after all…"
"Obviously." Kaoruko rolled her eyes dramatically. She pushed the book aside, clearing a space for her to sit. Just that touch to the book was enough to make Utena twitch. "People will be too drunk to notice how hot it is, right? Like, the drinks will be really cold, so…" She looked to Utena, as if she was an expert that could verify that plan, but there was only silence.
"Shit, whatever," Kaoruko grumbled. She unbuttoned the top layer she wore, exposing a white top underneath. The overshirt was then laid back onto a nearby chair. "Anyway, are you on your way out? Get your shit and go. I've got to dust this place out at least a little bit to make sure we all don't die partying in here. Not gonna get done if I've got you hanging around."
Utena continued to hold her tongue while her thoughts raged. Once again, she found herself being walked over by other people. Worse yet was that she was being attacked by this normie, some party-crazed deviant that was worth a dime-a-dozen around the school. What gave Kaoruko any right over her to own her hideout, much less to be used for some alcoholic meet and greet?
Utena listened, however furious she was. Confrontation was not her strong suit, and so she forfeited the library without any fight. She swiftly picked up her belongings while Kaoruko vaguely looked busy inspecting the rest of the library. Utena would shoot her nasty looks when her back was turned, a gesture that almost made her forget to grab the tome.
God forbid a bimbo like her got her fingers on this, Utena said, half-joking to herself. She grabbed the book, but she froze. In the corner of her eye, Kaoruko's blazer had caught her attention. Kaoruko herself was still distracted, leaving the blazer vulnerable, and Utena curious. There was especially one fine detail that intrigued her intensely; a thread of blonde hair, pressed into the collar with a dab of sweat. It had an enticing shine, it was so clean and well kept much like the rest of Kaoruko's hair.
Utena was still frozen. When she snapped to, her next action was already in motion. Before she acknowledged it, she had the single string of hair wrapped around her finger, so tight that it could cut off circulation.
The hair relaxed in Utena's palm when she had finally made it back to her room. Her heartbeat was pounding. It had suddenly dawned on Utena that she was actually committing to this arcane ritual. Her real, actual intent with gathering these ingredients, separating them into specific proportions, lighting candles, drawing sigils with chalk on a blank mat, and putting a bowl of wine in the center to provide an offering of hair was to control another human.
Utena laughed, openly laughed at herself, convincing herself again that even if the experiment flopped, she could say it was all in good fun. "At least I'm having fun," she told herself, looking down at the set up she had made on her floor. The preparations were complete.
Opened to the relevant pages, the book lay not far to her side. It wasn't the original curse she had settled on, but one she found to be more befitting of her ire. Utena traced the archaic words with a finger, highlighting to herself that it would take "one full cycle of the rotating moon and sun" for the effects to begin -- twenty-four hours, she assumed. Utena looked at the time on her phone. It was almost 7 pm, and this limited how long Utena could hesitate to begin the ritual.
She looked at the hair one last time. The candles were lit and the wine was still. Utena's eyes grew wide, flaring up in excitement as she released her two fingers. Softly, just like a feather, the brown hair fell. It touched the surface of the wine, stood there, and then slowly sank into the red-black depth. It was gone.
The next step was a prayer. Utena hated this part, she had despised memorizing the necessary chant, but after clapping her hands together, folding her fingers over each other, she felt possessed. Not by a spirit, but her body was manipulated by a demon of obsession, one that lived in a pit inside Utena. She was much more dedicated to this ritual than she gave herself credit for. All of her being was put into making sure this curse was going to work.
Kaoruko had arrived, and Utena was not far behind. Utena had been following her that entire day, as far as she could, and she was pleased to see that Kaoruko was true to her word. Indeed, that next day she had returned to the library to continue fixing it up. The sun was setting, just like when they had confronted each other before, and best of all, she was alone. Utena giggled to herself, but she didn't let her humor get too loose. After all, this was going to be immensely embarrassing to herself if the curse failed, and there was also a lingering possibility she would be caught by Kaoruko sneaking around.
Fortunately, there were no surprises to get in Utena's way. Shortly after Kaoruko entered the building did Utena come after her. She knew the best places to keep out of sight, and so she kept a close-eye on Kaoruko, and on the time as well.
Utena anxiously watched each minute tick by, hidden behind a tall bookcase. Her heart was racing between being full of excitement and being hollowed with doubt. Kaoruko was still there, moving perfectly according to how Utena envisioned it. The minute changed, and it had then been exactly twenty-four hours since Utena cast the curse.
Kaoruko yawned, then coughed. "Fuck all this dust," she snarled, "shit." Then, she continued to move a desk to one corner so a space could be cleared.
Utena was on edge. Why am I so damn stupid? she asked herself, immediately passing doubt over the curse and the book in its entirety. You really thought this was going to work, Utena?!
Interrupting her usual self-berating was a thud. Utena perked up, and she saw that Kaoruko had tripped, just slightly did her knees give out and she found herself supported by the table with both arms. She brushed some hair out of her eyes, then looked around with a second yawn. Utena cowered more behind the bookcase, spying on Kaoruko through an empty shelf. Was it actually taking effect after all?
Kaoruko ignored the sensations plaguing her, focusing instead on her work. She grabbed two chairs and began to drag them across the tiled floor. She panted, "What the hell?" Earlier she had been able to pick up a stack of chairs, at least three at a time, but now she found herself struggling to drag just two of them. This fact was noted not only be her, but by Utena as well.
Kaoruko winced. After giving up on two chairs and limiting herself to one at a time, she felt a sickeningly warm spike drill through her head and into her stomach. She breathed heavily, constantly wiping away at sweat that beaded her temple. "This library… I-Is it really gonna be this hot?" she whined as she collapsed into one of the chairs she had been moving. "Fuck, dude, we need… some fans, or…"
Utena's eyes continued to widen, as if they knew no bounds to how expressive they could be. Her mouth was left agap, It's working… She's actually…
It was true, though only Utena herself recognized what was happening. Kaoruko, having become delirious soon after the effect took hold, wasn't going to guess the effects overtaking her. She tossed around in her chair and opened her shirt down a button to help cool off, but she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. Each passing second was another slither of herself being stolen away into nothingness.
Kaoruko slowly picked up her head, holding it still with both hands. A migraine was now inflicting her, and she decided then that the library was not going to be worked on. "Fuck this shit," she told herself, rising to her feet. But when she did start to move, it had finally hit her. She noticed right when her feet touched the floor that something was different. Right away, Kaoruko gasped and shivered intensely. She swayed away from the chair and closer to a desk. She spun around, wanting to understand her shifting surroundings, but the turn only increased her sickness. She nearly fell, tripping over her own two feet but managing to stay standing.
"Wha-- Holy shit, holy shit," Kaoruko stammered. She bit her fingers, aimlessly trying to find some answer to her predicament. "W-What's happening?! Is someone there?!"
Utena flinched. Was she caught? Then, she giggled. Did it matter? That was a more fun question to her. The anticipation was volcanic in her heart.
Now crawling on the floor, Kaoruko threw reason out the window. She started yelling for help, hoping someone could stop this disease or at least explain to her what was happening. Her voice, even when trying as best as it could, was only as much of a whisper to Utena, the only person that could hear her pleas. It made Utena want to bust into laughter, but she remained silent, having bigger plans to make her debut than to be caught giggling maniacally.
Utena couldn't hold herself back any further. She stepped out from behind the bookcase, her eyes immediately targeting Kaoruko. Fortunately, as far as the book had described, the effects of the curse were permanent, so she had no other time limit restricting her fun.
Kaoruko jumped when she heard the creaking of a footstep. A terrifying image came to her mind, the simple sight of a hideous monster, but the reality was so much more horrible. As she slowly rotated to face Utena, her arms hugged at her gut, still wrestling with the queasy sensation of a more conventional illness. All of her ailments doubled in intensity when she looked up at Utena. The creepy, awkward student that she had only just met the day prior was now an unparalleled monster, a massive demon that was once mistaken for a mere ghoul.
Utena didn't slow her approach. Kaoruko screamed and stumbled back, unable to look away from the awe-inspiring sight of Utena stepping triumphantly from the shadows, coming directly at her. In a panic, she tried to run away, but the impending sound of footsteps trailed her so much faster. Her stumbling only carried her weary body as far as under the table beside the chair she had been sitting in.
Any feeling of safety for having gotten that far was fleeting. It was no protection against Utena, her eyes still locked on her prey. With one hand, Utena held the chair and tipped it aside. Kaoruko shook and curled down to the ground, bracing for impact. When the chair hit the floor, the sound made her jump into the air for a split second before she fell to the ground. She was a crying mess, as Utena kneeled beside her.
"That was my seat," Utena said. Her teasing was dark and stoic. "This was my library… You thought you could… take it away from me?"
Kaoruko was pained just to lift her head up. Tears streamed down her reddened cheeks as she tried to comprehend Utena's form. It was almost impossible to consider this the same girl as yesterday, the girl that was so timid and weak that could be knocked down with a little push. No longer was this the case. Though she couldn't understand why, all Kaoruko felt was fear for Utena.
"W-Why?!" Kaoruko shouted. "How did this happen to me?! W-Who are you?!"
Utena tilted her head. "Who am I?" she asked. "Who are you? To me, y-you look like… a tiny slut. A bug in my way."
Kaoruko shook her head violently, exaggerating her gestures so that they could be read. "I-I'm not a slut! Or a bug!" she cried out. "For the love of fucking god, please! You have to fix me! Please, I'm going to die like this!"
"Are you?" Utena's face went plain, but then a smile was shocked onto her lips. "Is that your plan? To die pathetically like an insect? Well," Utena giggled, pushing the table back and raising one foot into the air, "let's make that…happen."
Kaoruko shook her head again, she raised her arms in protest, but as the shadow of Utena's loafer creeped over her face, she knew this was nothing she could talk her way out of. She had lost that ability right when she recognized how much better Utena was, and now, just like the bug she denied being, she had to scurry away. She turned around and ran, ignoring the tipped over chair and focusing only on creating distance between her and the crazed Utena.
Utena blushed as that smile persisted. She relished in how much fear she could generate in one woman by simply raising her foot. She toyed with her for now, letting her run off along the floor while she stomped her foot behind her. Each of her footsteps made Kaoruko shriek, quieter than the time before but always genuine and desperate, weaker in volume only because she was quickly running out of breath. Kaoruko panicked as much as Utena was amused.
Kaoruko came to a halt, quickly glancing backwards to see that Utena was still hot on her trail. All of her running was matched by just a few simple steps forward. That fact was one racing through her mind, clouding her decision making. She had run straight into an obstacle; a wall, a flat dead end. No escape seemed reachable by just going forward. She turned right; another wall, a corner. She turned left; Utena's shoe slammed to that side just then, cutting off that exit. No matter where she turned, there was no outrunning her pursuer. Kaoruko fell to her knees.
Without somewhere to run, Kaoruko resorted to begging. She turned to face Utena, much she would a person, but in front of her were two godly legs that soared into the sky. Instead of yelling and crying like she had planned, she was only stunned before the immense sight. Her legs became stiff, taking her backwards several more steps until she was just shy of touching the wall.
"Y-You can have the library!" Kaoruko shouted. She wrapped her arms tightly around her chest. "I'm fucking sorry! You can have the fucking library, fuck the party! J-Just let me go!"
Utena rubbed her chin, her grin still as wicked as ever, like a promise she was making to Kaoruko down below. She really wanted to be witty in that moment; she wanted to say something clever, funny, preferably both. Despite the power high, Utena hadn't become any cooler, much to her own disappointment.
Having drawn a blank, Utena only blinked and continued to pick up her foot. She licked her lips; little squeaks poured out of Kaoruko's mouth, tickling Utena's ears, and she could hear those squeaks get louder the longer she left her foot suspended.
"You're worthless," Utena deemed, "so you deserve to die."
Kaoruko screamed incoherently and buckled down. She crawled, but she knew there was no escape, and eventually lay still with her head tucked deep into her arms. Like a rocket charging right at her, Utena's loafer was crashing down upon her, its shadow darkening to consume Kaoruko's pathetic form.
Utena's foot landed. For Kaoruko, there was a deafening slam from all around her. She spasmed, and all the air in her lungs was choked out. The earth shook like it had been impacted by a meteor, and Kaoruko was in the dead center of it.
She cried, then became hollow and silent. She shivered again, opening her eyes to see darkness all around her. Kaoruko twitched severely while rotating her body to peer upwards; right above her was the ridged bottom of the shoe's sole, hovering above her neck as the tip leaned against the wall. Kaoruko whined, shivering back away from the bottom of the shoe.
Utena set her foot to the side, allowing her to peek down at Kaoruko and observe her intense reaction. Her classmate looked traumatized, so badly horrified that she could easily die from choking on her own tears. Utena laughed, but muffled her amusement behind a pale hand.
The foot rose again, and its movement inspired a new wave of spasms and shakes from Kaoruko. "Please!" she screamed again. Her words did nothing to slow down Utena's second stomp, or her third. Over and over she raged, bashing her foot into the corner with as much strength as the strike before it, but always making sure that Kaoruko wasn't in a position to be hurt. She wanted to torture this weakened person, and she could only imagine how terrible it had to be, reduced to a fearful state and reliving a cataclysmic experience repeatedly, an earth-shattering ordeal happening on tempo for what had to feel like an eternity. Her imagination was not far from the reality Kaoruko was enduring.
Utena stomped one last time, just slightly off beat. Her foot now stood flat on the tiled floor, its edge only centimeters from Kaoruko. Her grin had eased, but it was still electrified with amusement. Kaoruko's expression hadn't changed, but she no longer had any voice. Even her whimpering was gone, as lifeless as her eyes had become. The only sign of life she maintained was her violent, fear-induced shaking.
"Do you know why… I didn't step on your neck?" Utena asked. There wasn't a response, at least none that Utena heard. "You're worthless, but out of all the whores on campus, you are pretty cute."
"... C-Cute…?" Kaoruko coughed. It was the first word she had managed to form clearly from her tongue since the stomping first began. She had to say it aloud, to believe that this was actually a deciding factor in whether she lived or died as an insect.
"Cute in a… an abusable sort of way," Utena said. She had tried to remain cool and plain with her tone, but she was pressured into a giggle at the tail end of her words. "Like, someone should put this dumb bitch in her place, kind of cute."
"That's the only way you can live. You have to entertain me now." Utena slid her foot toward Kaoruko. She actually had to show some control here, it would have been terribly easy to move her foot too far and kick her toy without meaning to. "Lick this shoe."
Kaoruko didn't understand at first. She wasn't trying to play dumb, but the concept of dragging her tongue across the edge of a leather shoe was so foreign and unexpected. What kind of humiliation did this bitch have in store for her? She understood just enough to correctly guess that this was only the beginning.
"Lick!" Utena demanded. For emphasis, she adjusted the angle of her shoe, aiming the toe directly at Kaoruko's nose and pushing down. "For fucks sake, I really will hurt you, you know? I'm giving you a fucking chance here. Lick."
Kaoruko finally felt some motivation to move. Her entire body was shaking, as if she had just stepped off a roller coaster, each shuffle only slightly more certain than the one before it. Her body moved like a shambling corpse, practically falling on top of Utena's loafer. Am I really doing this? she wondered. This is what I have to do to live.
Yet, even with such a strong reason to comply, Kaoruko still found herself hesitating. Her tongue was held back by her teeth, just past her lips but hovering over the broad surface of the shoe. Like being forced to eat something vile, she knew she could only commit to the act by force. She plunged forward and dragged her tongue across the leather material -- it was bitter, dry, with a dusty taste that tainted her mouth. She licked again, even more dedicated than before. The last thing she desired was to fail at this one disgusting job and be punished for it, a penalty that she never imagined would hang so realistically over her.
"Huhu…~ I can kinda feel it," Utena whispered. She wasn't sure if that was meant to encourage Kaoruko or to belittle her, but she did admit that she was surprised. "Even with such effort, I can barely feel you… Licking away, like a dog. Ah, you're much more pathetic than a dog now, aren't you?"
Kaoruko shook her head, but she said nothing. Utena's taunting weighed heavy on her, but she didn't stop to argue. She licked, and each time she did, Utena felt a tiny tickle up her spine. It would actually start there, at her toe, and then ride up her body. She relished this sensation of being superior, ultimately above this other human in every way. Her eyes closed, and a loose finger shivered anxiously.
This is turning me on, Utena duly noted. She bit her lip in shame. I'm getting turned on by having another woman clean my shoe with her tongue. Why am I like this?
She smiled. Her own thoughts were, if anything, entertaining in their own right. She wondered if Kaoruko had noticed, and she wondered what Kaoruko would think. What would her opinion be of this unnerving girl that had stolen her pride and was tempted to masturbate to her suffering? Utena didn't deny she was creepy and had appropriately weird tastes, but even this made her second guess herself.
That shame washed away when she remembered another crucial detail about this situation. Her eyes lit up, like being awoken from hypnosis; the curse worked. All the salts and acids and wine, the lone piece of hair, the chanting -- it actually was able to curse someone, true to every last word in the recipe. An occultic spellbook hadn't deceived her, it actually did empower her exactly as intended. In all the fun she was having with Kaoruko, Utena hadn't even taken a moment to appreciate this success.
As that knowledge came rushing to mind, so did Utena's other priorities. Her heart went cold, then extremely hot at a singular thought. She remembered Haruka, and she remembered why she wanted to experiment with such a wild curse in the first place. She wanted to own Haruka, to hold her against her body and completely envelop her with love. All she needed was to repeat the ritual with a strand of Haruka's hair, and it would be complete.
But this, too, was fascinating. Torturing a random woman as payback for bullying her. Utena looked down at her victim, still dragging her tongue up and down the point of her shoe. She was perceiving a painting, a masterpiece, an art she had worked on and every detail was falling into place, almost too conveniently. Everything felt right about this, how there was a human soul bound to being her obedient servant.
Kaoruko's body was unexpectedly wrapped up into an embrace. She gasped and fidgeted, but with her depleted strength, there was no resisting Utena's motions. "You'll be my toy from now on," Utena explained, carelessly handling Kaoruko while she stood up to her full height. "You are worth nothing to me… so you better do everything you can to at least fake some value."
Utena wasn't confident that her words had the exact impact she wanted, but when Kaoruko's reply was frantic nodding and desperate agreement, she figured she had said enough. A creak echoing from elsewhere in the library drew her attention away from Kaoruko, further reminding Utena that she had to wrap up this encounter. Her first test with curses was a grand success, and it was only the beginning.
"Hey, Kaoruko? Where you at?" someone called out from the library's entrance. "We got everything you asked for. You still cleaning up?"
Utena looked back to where the voice came, then back to her new slave. There was no longer any time to play there at the library. Utena hastily grabbed her bag, as well as Kaoruko's purse which had been set on a desk earlier. She deposited the purse into her messenger bag, then grabbed Kaoruko herself, dragging her out an exit. The back doors made for a quiet getaway into the night.