I have a message from another time... Eyrie Productions, Unlimited presents UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT - SYMPHONY OF THE SWORD - Intermezzo: Ohtori Academy Spring Semester Blues Benjamin D. Hutchins with Philip J. Moyer (c) 2001 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited The auburn-haired girl sat alone at a table in the corner of the Ohtori Academy main dining hall's outdoor patio, a bowl of hot-and-sour soup steaming gently in front of her. She was frowning at a copy of the White Tower, the campus newspaper, which she held in one hand while munching a chicken finger with the help of the other. "Wakaba! Wakaba! Did you hear?" an excited, slightly frightened-sounding voice hailed her. She turned to see the short, slim, blond-headed form of Mitsuru Tsuwabuki from the Academy's Elementary Division, running toward her table. The youngest member of the Student Council, Tsuwabuki wore his black, white and gold councillor's uniform with a touch of self-conscious pride which seldom failed to amuse Wakaba. It failed today, but that wasn't Tsuwabuki's fault. "Yeah, I heard," she replied, putting down the paper. Ever the pragmatist, she looked the boy over and said, "Go get something to eat." He glanced at his empty hands, seemed to realize that he -had- in fact skipped over the lunch line to come direct to Wakaba's table, and sheepishly went to do as instructed. He returned shortly with a loaded tray, put it down opposite her, and took a seat. "What do you think is going on?" Tsuwabuki wondered as he started forking up fettucine alfredo. "This is the third disappearance in a month." And the fourth so far this school year, Wakaba thought, but she didn't bother saying it; Tsuwabuki would only have given her a puzzled look. Nobody else seemed to remember the first of the vanished anymore. It was one of several things which had started to give Wakaba the sneaking suspicion that there was something not quite right about Ohtori Academy. "I dunno," she said honestly. "Seems like trouble is following the Student Council. Maybe you'd better watch your step, or get a bodyguard." "I can take care of myself," said Tsuwabuki with slightly comical self-importance. "Besides," he added with a touch of worry more appropriate to his age, "it's only people who were on the Council last year who are disappearing now. I was only brought in to replace Mr. Saionji, so I should be safe... right?" Wakaba shrugged. "Unless whoever's behind it is just starting with the older ones first." "You really think somebody's -doing- this? Making the Councillors disappear?" "I doubt it's an accident," Wakaba replied. "Saionji I could believe just wandered off and got hit by a truck or something. He was weird enough to do that, and it'd serve him right. But Miki, no." (Inwardly, she blinked, surprised at herself for that sudden spurt of bitterness and for what it might be camouflaging. Was she -worried- about him, the big jerk? It wasn't like he deserved it - and there was the bitterness again... what a muddle. With an effort, she put it aside and paid attention to what Tsuwabuki was saying.) "When Miss Kozue replaced him on the council, I talked to her about it," Tsuwabuki said. "She told me he was right there where he belonged when she went to bed, but when she woke up he was gone. And the really weird part is - she said his pajamas were still in his bed. Like he'd just disappeared right out from inside them." Wakaba shook her head. "She's an odd one, that girl. Can you imagine, still sleeping with her brother at their age? Something not quite right about that." "They had separate beds," Tsuwabuki said righteously. "Sure," Wakaba replied, dropping it. "Anyway," Tsuwabuki went on thoughtfully, "how do we know Miss Arisugawa's disappeared the same way? She was very fond of Mr. Kaoru. Maybe she just went looking for him." "And didn't tell anybody? Leaving all her clothes and her sword behind? I doubt it." Tsuwabuki looked glum. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point." Then he brightened slightly. "Hey, I bet you'll be named to the Council to replace her. Then maybe we could try and find out." Wakaba gave him a skeptical look. "Me? On the Student Council? Don't be an idiot." "Well, why not?" he asked, a bit huffily. "You're an honor student. Your classmates look up to you. And," Tsuwabuki went on with a smile a little slyer than his years, "it's no secret that Deputy Chairman Ohtori has his eye on you." "Someone mention my name?" said a deep, dryly amused voice. Tsuwabuki and Wakaba both turned toward it, then blinked in surprise and got to their feet. Standing next to the table, smiling a pleased and private little smile, was the very same Deputy Chairman, Akio Ohtori. Tall, handsome, graceful, and ever so slightly mysterious, Akio was the idol of many of the school's female students (and a few of the male ones, too), even if he -had- looked rather harried and preoccupied for most of this school year. Oddly, he seemed perfectly collected now, in the midst of such alarming developments as the sudden disappearance of a third member of the Student Council. He held a tray in one of his long, slim hands and gestured vaguely to the nearest chair with the other. "May I join you?" he inquired politely. "Oh, ah, sure, please do," said Wakaba, going a little pink and indicating the same chair. With a gracious smile, the Chairman sat down, then nodded to Tsuwabuki. "Good afternoon, Mr. Tsuwabuki," he said. "Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman," said Tsuwabuki self-consciously. "How - how are you?" "I've had a lot of unpleasant duties to attend to of late," replied Akio, "but today, things are looking up. Today I get to be the bearer of -good- news for a change." He turned to Wakaba, smiling. "Miss Shinohara, I'm pleased to be the one to inform you - you've been nominated by the Trustees to fill the latest... er, vacancy... on the Student Council." Wakaba blinked at him. Tsuwabuki tried not to look smug. Seeing her reaction, Akio took on a look of concern. "Is there something wrong, Miss Shinohara?" he asked. "Um... no, not at all," Wakaba replied. Then she took on a look of crafty amusement and said, "Didn't I tell you to call me Wakaba?" "I'm on official business," Akio replied piously. "Uh-huh," Wakaba replied. "So... what do I have to do? About this Council thing, I mean." "Well, if you plan to decline, nothing. If you accept... " The Chairman reached into his shirt pocket, removed a small item, and placed it on the table in front of her. "... Put that on." Wakaba picked up the item and regarded it. It was a silver ring, the band fairly broad, with the Academy's pink-rose signet. The sight of it, so close up, gave her a keen stab of something like nostalgia. She'd seen them before, of course. Tsuwabuki was wearing one right now. All the members of the Student Council had them. But beyond that... "Utena had one of these," she murmured. "Beg pardon?" said Akio, leaning a little toward her. Wakaba flushed. "Oh, ah... nothing." She'd learned long since that it was pointless mentioning her missing friend to anybody. No one seemed to remember that she'd ever even been there - not even Akio, whose home she had, as his sister's roommate, shared for half the previous school year. Luckily, he hadn't heard her; he'd just think she was going nuts if she tried to bring the subject up. Maybe she -was- going nuts, but she didn't think so. Delusions were one thing, but she had pictures, and it would take a hell of a delusion to make her see -photos- of somebody who never existed. She considered the ring and the opportunity it represented in this context. The Student Council's fate and Utena's had been intertwined in weird ways throughout the previous year. If anyone knew what had become of her, it would be them. Unfortunately, all the Council's members who might know were gone; three had vanished mysteriously, and the fourth had gone off to study abroad for his senior year. But wait... there were -five- councillors, sort of, last year... and though the fifth was often absent on some unexplained business or another, she was technically still a student. Maybe Wakaba could get some answers out of her. Slowly, deliberately, she put on the ring. Akio beamed at her, his smile momentarily distracting her from her self-appointed mission. "Congratulations, Miss Wakaba!" said Tsuwabuki. "Welcome to the Council!" Akio glanced at the young man with a sort of "oh, are you still here?" look - not hostile, the Deputy Chairman was never hostile, just kind of languidly bemused. Tsuwabuki took the hint, reddened a little, bowed, and excused himself with further congratulations for Wakaba and a promise to see her at that evening's Council meeting. "Such an enthusiastic young man," said Akio with an indulgent smile. "Anyway. Now that we're alone and my official business is completed, I can call you Wakaba. Would you like to come for a drive with me this afternoon, Wakaba, to celebrate your appointment? We could go to that spot on the seashore you enjoyed so much last time, if you like. It so happens I've the rest of the day free, for once." "Oh... uh... well, I'd love to, but... I have classes... " Akio made a negligent gesture. "You've just been named to the Student Council! You need some time to prepare before your first meeting. Besides, I'm sure if I told your instructors I needed to borrow you for something important, they wouldn't object." "But that wouldn't be true," said Wakaba, a bit mischievously. "That depends on your definition of 'important'," Akio replied with an easy grin. "Is it a date, then?" "Well... if you're sure it'll be OK... then... yes," said Wakaba. "Excellent. I'll go and make the arrangements with your teachers. Meet me in front of the Tower in half an hour." He rose to his feet, brushing down his trousers, and smiled at her again, raising an admonishing finger. "Don't be late!" "I won't," she said, and he turned and moved off through the crowd. Wakaba watched him until he was gone, then sat in thought for a moment. Then she rose to her feet, banging her hands down on the table, and cried, "YES!" Everyone in the immediate vicinity stopped what they were doing and looked at her. "What?" she asked them, then grabbed up her bookbag and dashed off the patio. She had just enough time to get home, freshen up a bit, and get back to the Tower. Three hours later, Wakaba strolled down the third-floor corridor of South Hall, humming a happy little tune. What a perfect day this had turned out to be! The afternoon's excursion, with its combination of innocent glee (zooming about the countryside in an open car on such an unseasonably beautiful day!) and mild, savory wickedness (cutting classes to do it!) had her almost floating along, nerve endings tingling. The Deputy Chairman was such a gentleman, and he had -such- a cool car; what was more, he'd said with a smile that, if she was a good girl and attended to her new Council duties well, he'd teach her to drive in it! How lucky could one girl -get-? She paused for a moment in her song, having noticed a large package lying on the hallway floor in front of the door to her room. Bending down, she picked it up - it was rather heavy - and examined it. It was about four feet by two by one, heavy but yielding to pressure, and wrapped in brown paper. The label merely had her name and address on it; no return address, no postage. How odd. It couldn't be from back home, then. Wakaba unlocked the door to her room and shouldered it open, wrestled the unwieldy package through, then kicked the door shut behind her and plopped the package down on her little table. She took off her shoes, sat down next to the table, tore off the paper, and then removed the lid from the box within. Inside were several items, the topmost of which was a letter in a sealed envelope. This she removed, opened, and read. Wakaba Shinohara South Hall #327 OHTORI ACADEMY Miss Shinohara: Congratulations on your selection to the Student Council. We are certain that you will uphold the fine traditions of Ohtori Academy, Cephiro's most renowned and respected educational institution, with all the pride and talent which you have demonstrated in your school career thus far. Enclosed, please find three new uniforms. You will be required to wear this uniform in place of the conventional Academy uniform henceforth, until such time as you graduate or otherwise leave the Council. Always remember to wear it with dignity and pride. It identifies you as unique, even among the Academy's distinguished student body. You will find one other item enclosed as well. Its purpose may not be immediately apparent to you, but be assured, its presence in this package is neither accident nor joke. Keep it safe and ready for use. Its purpose will be explained to you tonight, at your first Council meeting, along with the full rules, responsibilities, duties and privileges of Council membership. Again, our heartiest congratulations. We look forward to watching your progress through the Academy and into a life of importance and honor. Yours very sincerely, THE END OF THE WORLD Wakaba scratched her head. "The End of the World?" she murmured. Then, shrugging - must be some kind of alumni honor society or something, she'd heard rumors about that kind of thing - she moved the new uniforms aside to see what the mysterious "other item" was. It turned out to be, of all things, a -sword-. "What the hell?" Wakaba wondered, lifting the weapon from the bottom of the box and regarding it with bewilderment. What in the world was she supposed to do with a katana? She'd never held a sword before in her life. She drew it partway out of its scabbard and gently tested the edge with the ball of her thumb. It was sharp, all right. She drew it the rest of the way out, stood up, and hefted it in her hands. It didn't feel nearly as weird as she'd expected, for something so utterly alien to her experience. As a matter of fact, there was something curiously familiar, and curiously agreeable, about the sensation. I wonder how sharp it -really- is? she wondered. Then, without really thinking about it, she grabbed a sheet of paper out of the feed tray of her inkjet printer, tossed it into the air, let it start to flutter down, and brought the blade around in a sweeping, hissing arc. It bisected the sheet neatly, with no perceptible impact. The pieces fell right where the full sheet would have; if it hadn't been divided, it would have been as though the sheet had never been touched. Standing in the position her follow-through had left her in, Wakaba stared down at the weapon in her hands. Now how the hell did I do that?! she wondered. Yes, indeed. There was something -very- odd going on around here. She put the sword back in its saya (how did she know it was called that?), laid it on her bed, and picked up one of the new uniforms. A few moments later, she stood admiring herself in the full-length mirror on the back of her closet door. Not bad, not bad at all. The Council uniforms had changed this year. Last year's councillors had worn white, single-breasted jackets and colored pants. This year, the pants were white and the jackets black and double- breasted, with two rows of gleaming brass buttons and scarlet piping around the edges. Wakaba brushed some imaginary lint from one ebony sleeve, smoothed the trousers over her hips and nodded. She felt a little self-conscious - the pants were very close-fitting - but she had good legs and knew it, so she wasn't too worried about that. All in all, she thought she looked pretty darn sharp. It was a different look, though... perhaps a bit of experimentation was in order. She went to her dressing table and pulled the red ribbon out of her hair, letting it fall down around her shoulders. Then she brushed it out and fiddled with it a bit. That was more or less fruitless. She'd been wearing it in that same style (which occasionally drew unfavorable comparisons to an onion, but she liked it anyway) for so long now that she didn't look like herself to herself with it done any other way but that - drawn up into a bundle high on the back of her head, with a fat lock of it escaping in front to fall like a comma over her forehead, and a couple of stray curls near each ear. Sighing at her own inflexible image of herself, Wakaba put her hair back up, but after a moment's thought, she rummaged around in a drawer and found a black ribbon to use instead of her usual red. It went a bit better with the jacket, she thought as she looked back at herself out of the dressing-table mirror: a pretty, light-auburn- haired girl with wide eyes to match (she liked to think of them as distinctive and striking - such an unusual shade of brown for eyes). She had a high (distinguished and intellectual) forehead, a rather pointed (spirited and vivacious) nose, and small (cute and charming) ears, and was altogether satisfied with the overall effect. She grinned at herself, got up, and switched off the lights as she left the room. There was just time to get back to the Tower for her first meeting. She paused in the hall, wondering if she should bring the sword with her. The letter had only said "keep it safe and ready for use," but how ready was ready? Should she start carrying it with her? No, that was silly. The other councillors didn't carry swords around with them, and presumably they'd also received them. OK. Leave it here for now, at least until she found out what the hell it was for. Onward! The Student Council met in a room partway up the Ohtori Academy Bell Tower, in the center of the campus. Wakaba was fairly familiar with the Tower - Akio lived there, and the previous year he'd shared the place with his sister, Anthy Himemiya, and her roommate, Wakaba's best friend, the now-absent-and-mysteriously-forgotten Utena Tenjou. Wakaba had come by to visit quite frequently. On those occasions, though, she'd been bound for Akio's apartments at the top. She'd never stopped the elevator on the Council level before, and she wasn't entirely sure what to expect when she emerged. The room she emerged into was fairly, almost disappointingly, ordinary - ornate, like everything at Ohtori Academy, and nicely furnished, with several desks and shelves of books and files, but ordinary, all the same. It was clearly the Council's office, where the actual work of steering the school was done. There was no one here, which struck her as a little odd. They -were- having a meeting tonight, right? Directly ahead of her on the other side of the room was a large French door surmounted by a stained-glass rendition of the school's rose crest. This door stood ajar, and she could hear talking from outside it, so Wakaba made for it, pushed it open, and stepped through. "Ah!" said Mitsuru Tsuwabuki. "Miss Wakaba, you're here!" The other councillors sat (well, Tsuwabuki had just bounced to his feet, but the rest of them sat) around a circular patio table on the balcony outside the Council offices. With a single exception, the councillors gathered there were all new within the last month. The first had been Keiko Sonoda, an eighth-grade honor student who represented the Academy's junior high school. She had been appointed to replace the Council's former president, Touga Kiryuu. Touga was technically still a student, still the Council president, even, but he had gone abroad for a special study program, and given that he was a senior, it was questionable whether he would ever return to the Academy. His seat had gone to Keiko, though the acting presidency had been given to the Council's sitting vice-president, Kyouichi Saionji. Next, Saionji had started acting oddly. That wasn't much of a shock to anybody, since Saionji, though a popular and well-respected student and the captain of the Kendo Club, had always been a little erratic, emotionally. It was always put down to his artistic temperament. Whatever its genesis, his schoolmates had grown accustomed to his habit of getting a bit moody and weird from time to time, so no one had taken it amiss for a day or two... until he had vanished from the Secret Forest, where he had apparently been camping. Tsuwabuki, who was being groomed for the Council anyway, took his place, and the acting presidency devolved onto the next-most-senior member, treasurer Juri Arisugawa. Within days, Miki Kaoru, the Council's much-loved secretary and a young man just voted "Cutest Guy on Campus" for the third straight year in a Junior High Division student poll, disappeared without a trace from his bed. This caused considerably more consternation on campus than the disappearance of grouchy Saionji. Miki's twin sister Kozue took his place - somewhat reluctantly, it seemed to the student body at large - and began, with Acting President Arusigawa and the others, to call for an investigation of these mysterious disappearances. A relatively quiet month after that, Arisugawa herself had vanished as well. This left only one member of the Student Council who had been part of that august body before Christmas, let alone the previous school year, and her membership had never really been very well-defined: Touga Kiryuu's younger sister Nanami, who was in the same year as the Kaorus and Keiko Sonoda. Nanami was supposedly pursuing some kind of "special" study program as well, a mysterious affair which meant that she wasn't enrolled in any classes this semester, but was still a student, and tended to come and go from campus seemingly at random. She was here today, a slim, elegant, but rather harried- looking platinum blonde in gold and black. Sharp-tongued and difficult to get along with at the best of times, Nanami Kiryuu was clearly not experiencing the best of times lately; at times she seemed barely able to keep a civil tongue in her head. Her returns to the Academy campus tended to result in at least one towering row with -someone-, usually Keiko, who had once been one of Nanami's troika of best friends (some would say "minions"), or Kozue, with whom she had never shared the faintest trace of amity. The only member of the 'new' Council she seemed to have any patience with anymore was Tsuwabuki, her (now -this- was a long, weird story) ex-boyfriend. Remembering that fact, Wakaba reflected that maybe it wasn't so much that the Academy was getting weirder as that she was becoming more sensitive to its weirdness. "Take a seat, Shinohara," said Nanami brusquely, "and let's get started. You already know everybody here, I think." "Yes," said Wakaba, already starting to feel a little annoyed. She sat down in the vacant place between Keiko and Kozue. "Kozue, Keiko - good to see you." "Wakaba," said Kozue, nodding. "Hello, Shinohara," said Keiko. Funny thing about being called by her last name, Wakaba mused. When Keiko did it, it didn't seem odd, but coming from Nanami, in exactly the same tone, it sounded like an insult. Wakaba decided she was being too sensitive. "Now then. Our first order of business ought to be obvious," said Nanami. "Since every single officer of this Council has now disappeared, we'll need to select new ones. The End of the World is anxious that the business of the Academy continue normally, even in these strange times." "'Is'?" Wakaba interjected. "Singular? So the 'we' in the letter I got is, what, the -royal- 'we'?" Nanami gave her a frosty look. "If our newest member could be convinced to concentrate on the -important- details?" "Fine, sorry," said Wakaba, subsiding. Then she leaned over and whispered to Keiko Sonoda, "(Who died and made Nanami chairman?)" "(Arisugawa, apparently,)" Keiko replied dryly. "(... That was -cold-, Keiko,)" Wakaba murmured. "(Sorry,)" the brown-haired girl said, but she didn't particularly sound it. "Miss Kozue's brother was training me to take over the secretary's job anyway, Miss Nanami," said Tsuwabuki helpfully. "I think I can manage it." Nanami nodded. "Fine - any objections?" No one had one. "Very well, Secretary Tsuwabuki, congratulations. As to the acting presidency, normally I would nominate myself - " "Naturally," said Keiko dryly. " - But with my special study program," Nanami went on, resolutely ignoring the dig, "and the frequent absences from campus it requires, I'm not really suitable for the task." "I'll say," said Keiko, holding up her copy of the Council Handbook. "Listen to this." She cleared her throat. "'The President of the Student Council is the living symbol of Ohtori Academy, the ultimate representative of all that it means to be chosen as a student at this, the greatest school in the world. He is respected and admired throughout Cephiro, for by his nature he embodies the strength, courage, willpower, intellect and spirit that exemplify the finest qualities of our great institution.' Do we -know- anybody like that?" "Tsuwabuki, maybe," said Wakaba with a grin. "It doesn't say he has to be -tall-." Nanami gave her an irritated look. Kozue hid a snicker behind her hand and said nothing. After the meeting, Wakaba strolled south from the base of the tower, talking to herself. "Something to tell the grandkids about," she mused aloud. She adopted a bent-over posture and said in a creaky voice, "'And that's how I became President of the Student Council without having the faintest clue what being -on- the Council was all about in the first place.'" Then she straightened and chirped, "'Aw, no way, Grandma, you're making this up.'" Returning to the hunched posture, she creaked, "'No, I swear, it's true - ask Grandpa!'" Then she giggled, returning to her natural stance, and spun around with her fists under her chin, admonishing herself, "Oh, Wakaba, you're so -bad-!" It was early evening, and various students were walking here and there around the cool, well-lit campus. Several of them hailed Wakaba, calling congratulations on her appointment and compliments on her new uniform; she waved to them and cried her thanks, then continued on her gleeful way home, giggling. She stopped off at the snack bar for a self-congratulatory ice cream and ate it on her way down the hill to South Hall. Her bubbly mood was fractured a little bit by the discovery of Nanami Kiryuu leaning against the door to her room, arms folded. Still, she was feeling expansive enough to invite the blonde in; they hadn't clashed -too- violently over the course of the meeting. "So what's on your mind?" asked Wakaba as, with the responsibilities of the good hostess in her mind, she started making tea. "Come down to chew me out in private for not being reverent enough?" "No," said Nanami flatly. "I came to warn you." Wakaba paused and looked askance at her over the teapot. "Warn me about what?" "You're getting involved in something you have no understanding of," Nanami told her. "You're in danger." Wakaba snorted dismissively. "I had nothing to do with whatever happened last year," she said. "Whatever's going on with the disappearing councillors, I'm not involved." "Of course you are," Nanami replied. "You knew Utena Tenjou." Wakaba fumbled the sugar bowl, almost dropping it to the floor; she juggled it, got it under control, put it down on the table and then turned on Nanami. "How do you remember that name?" she demanded. "Nobody -else- around here does. Not even Ak - er, the Deputy Chairman." Nanami smiled coldly. "Did he tell you he doesn't remember her? Not bloody likely. In fact, chances are he killed her." Wakaba blinked. "-What-?!" she managed to say, after a few seconds. "Listen to me. I don't have much time and these are things you have to know. Deputy Chairman Ohtori is the End of the World. He manipulated the Rose Tournament that happened here last year, the Tournament whose Rose Bride was his sister, Himemiya. Tenjou won that contest, and I don't think she was supposed to. I don't know the details, but I think whatever she did at the end, Ohtori killed her for it, and that's why Himemiya finally ran away from him. "Back before Christmas, he gathered the rest of us - the old Student Council - together and told us some cock-and-bull story about how Tenjou had lost her mind and kidnapped Himemiya, and he wanted us to go and find them, and bring them back so he could 'help' them." She snorted. "Help them. Right. Into an early grave (if he hasn't already) and his own bed, most likely." Wakaba was staring at Nanami with a mixture of horror and compassion, as if not certain whether to believe her or pity her poor deluded mind. "You've totally lost me," she said. "I'm telling you, Akio Ohtori is a sick, sadistic wacko," said Nanami intently. "He manipulated us all for the sake of his little game, he messed up Tenjou's head and probably killed her, and he was screwing his own sister before she finally managed to escape from this place. And now he's got my stupid bastard of a brother out there trying to find her and drag her back." That seemed to make Wakaba's mind up for her. She folded her arms and gave Nanami a skeptical scowl. "Come off it, Nanami. That's the absolute stupidest thing I've ever heard, even from you." "You think so? Five of us were there the day he told us to go get his sister back for him. Three of us refused. One by one they disappeared: Saionji, Miki, Arisugawa. I agreed, but I think he knows I didn't believe his story, and I haven't been trying very hard. I'm sure to be next, which is why I don't have time to give you the details, or try and prove all this to you. I have to get out of here before he kills me too. I can't let him get his hands on Himemiya again. I have to find her first." "Aw, and you came to warn me out of the goodness of your heart," said Wakaba with sarcastic warmth. "I'm so -touched-." She put her hands on her hips and scowled again. "You're just jealous because the Chairman's taking an interest in me. You're trying to scare me off him with this stupid story about him and his -sister-, as if -that- were even -vaguely- believable." Nanami flushed and looked like she might be getting ready to make a fight of it, which Wakaba would, at this point, almost have welcomed; but then she subsided, settling back into a sitting position on the floor with a loud, heartfelt sigh. "I know it sounds bizarre," Nanami said, "and like I said, I don't have time to try and prove it to you. Just watch yourself, Shinohara. Don't let him get too close to you. Don't give him your innocence, or he'll destroy you, just like the rest of us." The blonde got to her feet, went to the door, and opened it. "I'm sorry," she said, "I can't stay for tea. You'll probably never see me alive again. I wish I could have done more to help you." She paused, looked down, then back up to look Wakaba in the eye and wish her, "Good luck." The door closed behind her, leaving Wakaba alone. "What the hell was -that- all about?" she asked the empty room. Kozue Kaoru had become something of an insomniac since her brother's disappearance. With nothing else to do, she'd taken to walking around the campus in the evenings, trying to tire herself with activity so she could get to sleep before midnight. Tonight, her course brought her past the Performing Arts Center. She was slightly surprised to find it lit up at this hour, but so it was. Despite the lateness of the hour, another day meant another rehearsal for the intrepid girls of the Theater Club. The club's rehearsals were closed to most of the student body, but anyone passing by could, by listening closely at the shadowy windows, hear what was going on inside. Kozue, lacking anything better to do, did so. Do you wonder Do you know... Do you wonder what I know? What is it that you know? "This is so neat, this is so cool, I got my own car in the mail!" "Oh really, what's it like?" "It's got a 3.8 liter fuel injected V-6 engine with turbocharger, automated fuel balancing, ducted intakes, cruise control, power steering, anti-lock brakes, bucket seats, air conditioning, security system, Dolby / Bose surround sound, crimson red body panels and *deep breath* Chrome Trim!" "Very impressive... but it was shipped in one thousand two hundred forty three boxes! Nobody could put that together!" "That's not a problem, I had two years of auto shop! Now, pass me that nine-sixteenths socket wrench... time to assemble the chassis!" "Right!" "Pass me the multimeter, time to install the electrical system!" "Right!" "Pass me the phillips screwdriver, time to install the dashboard gauges!" "Right!" "Pass me the arc welder, time to assemble the body panels!" "Right!" "There! All done! Isn't it a beauty?" "Wow, it's really cool! It looks like it's moving fast just standing there!" "But it's not ready yet - got to put in the oil and the transmission fluid and the unleaded low-polluting gasoline! There! All set!" "So what should we do? Where should we go?" "The zoo!" "The park!" "The stadium!" "The concert hall!" "The BEACH!" "Grab your stuff, and we'll get going!" "But do you know how to get to the beach? We've always taken the bus before..." "Don't worry, I looked at the map! Now hop in, let's go!" "Key in the ignition?" "Check!" "Atomic batteries to power?" "Check!" "Turbines to speed?" "Check!" "Soda in the cooler?" "Check!" "Let's GO!" "Ten miles per hour Twenty miles per hour Thirty miles per hour Forty miles per hour Fifty miles per hour Sixty miles per hour Seventy miles per hour Eighty miles per hour Ninety miles per hour!" "Wow, you're driving so fast, and the engine's purring like a kitty cat! You really know how to build a car, and you know where we are going!" "Aren't I the best? This is the life! Now we can drive anywhere in the world without worrying!" "Look out, look out, look out for that child in the street!" "AAAAHHHH!" *skreech!* "That was close!" "Look out, look out, look out for those unmarked turns in the road!" "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" *skreeEEEEeeeeech!* "That was too close!" "Look out, look out, look out for that oncoming semi!" "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" *skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeCRASHWRUNCH thud!* *rattle rattle rattle rattle* *plonk* "You -did- take driver's education, yes?" "owwww... does Gran Turismo Four Super Edition count?" "No." "Oh." Kozue stood and listened for a moment longer, but heard nothing other than Professor Ikuhara's encouragement of his players and the rattling and thumping of the tech crew at work. Shaking her head, she walked off into the night, murmuring to herself about the oddity of theater people. Wakaba had occasion to curse Nanami several times over the next several weeks; for she discovered, to her dismay and disgust, that the blonde's rantings about Akio Ohtori had, however patently absurd they were, nevertheless somehow damaged the trust she held in the Deputy Chairman. He seemed to run into her almost every day, helpful, dashing and charming. He kept his word and spent afternoons with her (after classes, now, and on weekends), teaching her to drive his scarlet Corvette. It was a wonderful time, and ordinarily she would have reveled in it unreservedly: the wind in her hair; the roar of the engine; the smiles, compliments, encouragements; the little touches; the growing warmth between them... bliss. But where before she had been flattered and made to feel slightly lightheaded by his attention, now she was flattered, slightly lightheaded, and also just a little suspicious. The pointless phenomenon was shackling Wakaba's buzz a little. There was no -reason- to be suspicious of him, dammit! He was just Deputy Chairman Ohtori, a nice guy with a cool car who liked her and let her hang out with him. He wasn't some kind of freaky incestuous serial killer. In fact, it was pretty damned rich of -Nanami-, of all people, to level an accusation like that one. Sure, she wasn't a serial killer (well, unless -she- was killing her former fellow councillors... no, that's just silly, Wakaba), but everybody knew she was in love with her own brother. She'd never made any secret of it. Most girls couldn't blame her, since Touga had been the number-two idol of female students throughout the school and his absence was regularly much lamented. Wakaba, on the other hand, wasn't most girls, and had been annoyed and repelled by Touga's charm for some time now. She wasn't at all sorry he was in Gaulia, or wherever he'd really gone. Anyway, for Nanami to try and discredit the Chairman with an accusation like that was an interesting example of the pot calling something -other- than the kettle black, the way Wakaba saw it. And yet for some reason, the things Nanami had said and the way she'd said them stuck in Wakaba's mind, and kept replaying at awkward times. Lately, as the middle of the semester approached, she thought Akio was starting to realize that she was becoming uneasy around him. He didn't let it show much, but it was clear that his feelings were starting to get hurt. And how could she explain? "Oh, yeah, before she left the last time, Nanami Kiryuu told me you were a murderer who used to rape his own sister." Not really a sparkling example of the conversational arts, that. So she cursed Nanami inwardly, said nothing about it to him, and tried to put it out of her mind. She read the Council Handbook and slipped into the routine of Council business, went to her classes, and generally got on with things. She was a bit disappointed by the whole Council experience; with Nanami apparently making good on her plan not to come back to the Academy again, there was nobody there who knew a damn thing about the previous year's weirdness, or what the swords were for. At least, nobody who was willing to talk about it. Wakaba had the suspicion that Kozue Kaoru knew more than she was letting on, but she didn't know the girl well enough to press her. She was also troubled by bizarre dreams some nights, dreams in which a voice she didn't recognize called her name and implored her to come to the Forest of Secrets. As if she could? The Forest was off-limits to students, even the Student Council, and its gates were always kept locked. She tried to shrug off the dreams and wondered what was causing them, but they cost her sleep when they came, sleep she could ill afford to lose now that she was so much busier. The term progressed, then, in a strange combination of pride, exhilaration, frustration and annoyance for Wakaba Shinohara, until finally, just as midterms were approaching, she decided to risk prying at the only crack she could see. One afternoon, after changing from her uniform to civvies for a date with Akio, she rummaged through her stacks of photos and pulled out a pretty good one of Utena, taken not long before she'd disappeared. Wakaba well remembered the morning it'd been taken. Utena had been going somewhere with Deputy Chairman Ohtori - he was running some errand on a Saturday and had invited her to go along with him. Wakaba remembered her consuming envy as she'd snapped the photo of her best friend just before Akio had come to pick her up. The reason she'd taken the picture was obvious just looking at it: Utena had been dressed in something other than the old-fashioned black boy's uniform she always wore. That happened so rarely that Wakaba had committed herself long before then to immortalize it on film every time she had the chance. The girl in the picture was tall for her age, long-legged and athletic, with long pink hair that feathered naturally around her lovely face, wide royal-blue eyes, and, even dressed as she was now, a tomboyish air about her. She wore a red-and-white-striped sundress; Wakaba, feeling a bit catty that day, had told her it made her look like a barber's pole. Utena had merely laughed and stuck her tongue out at her friend - the next shot in the stack was that pose. This one showed her normal face, smiling and confident, ready to take on the world. Utena had almost always shone that way... Wakaba dashed at the tears forming in her eyes - now was -not- the time for that! - and tucked the photo inside her motoring jacket. She would need it, and her full composure, later. Akio Ohtori's red Corvette sat, its engine softly pinging, at the observation point above Sonett Beach. Its owner and Wakaba sat up on the decklid, their feet hanging down into the back seat, and ate lemon ice as they watched the sun dip toward setting out beyond the rolling breakers and the bodysurfers enjoying the last hour or so of daylight. "Are you feeling all right lately, Wakaba?" Akio wondered. "I've noticed, for the last little while, you've seemed... distant. They're not working you too hard, are they?" Wakaba shook her head. "No, I'm fine," she said. "Just had a lot on my mind." She steeled herself - now or never, Shinohara - and went on, "Can I ask you something?" "Of course," Akio replied, putting his ice cup down on the decklid and turning his full attention to her. She put her cup down next to his, reached into her jacket, and took out the photo. "Do you know this girl?" she asked, handing it to him. Akio took the photo and looked at it, and Wakaba's heart nearly stopped. For an instant - just the barest instant - his face had frozen into a statue's lifeless visage, his green eyes like ice. His pupils contracted, nostrils flared, fine silver eyebrows quivered. His hand spasmed ever so slightly, as if he'd fiercely squelched a reflexive urge to crush it into a fist. As quickly as it came, the phenomenon was over, and he was looking at the photo with blank puzzlement; then he handed it back, shaking his head and looking guilelessly back at her. "Sorry, no," he said. "I can't recall ever seeing her before. Friend of yours? Is she a student? I think I'd remember having seen someone like that around the Academy." Well! Here was a quandary. If Wakaba hadn't been watching with all her might for his reaction - if she'd given him anything less than her utterly undivided attention - if she had so much as -blinked- at exactly the wrong instant, she would never have seen his reaction, never have known he was lying. But she had. He was. He knew Utena, all right. Knew her, and if what had swept over his face when he saw her unexpectedly was any indication, hated her. Nanami had been right about that much, and suddenly Wakaba felt very keenly the blonde's warning that she was in danger. So what was she to do now? She could laugh it off, claim that the girl in the picture was a friend from back home, his name had come up in a conversation, and her friend had said she thought she knew somebody by that name. That was a lame lie, and anyway, he would know she was lying, because he knew damned well who Utena was and that Wakaba had been her best friend. She could admit that she remembered Utena and had been testing him, and demand to know what the hell was going on. A glance around showed her that there was nobody within a hundred yards of them; the sun was sinking into the sea and the surfers had packed it in. The nearest people were walking -away- along the seawall and would be out of sight in moments. OK... plan C. "I don't know," Wakaba replied, regarding the picture quizzically. "I found it in my desk drawer the other day. You know how disorganized I am, I haven't cleaned it since last year... anyway, I found a bunch of photos of this girl, and I have no idea who she is. I was hoping you might recognize her - I mean, you seem to know -everybody-." Akio nodded, looking thoughtful, then shrugged. "No idea," he said. "They might be pictures of the last person to have your room. Sometimes people leave things behind, and the cleaning crews don't always get everything, particularly in the desks and bureaus and such." "Mm. Yeah, you're probably right," Wakaba agreed. She tucked the picture away in her jacket again. "Oh well. Idle curiosity." She glanced at her watch. "I guess we better get back. I have a Council meeting tonight." "Of course," said Akio. With that easy grin he had, he put his hand on the headrest of the driver's seat ahead of him and vaulted over the seatback, slipping effortlessly behind the wheel. Wakaba climbed a bit more sedately into her own place, Akio started the motor, and they roared off down the access road to the coast highway. "She's really purring tonight," Akio remarked casually as he guided the 'Vette lazily onto the highway. "Shame we don't have a bit more time to really put her through her paces." Wakaba mustered a grin. "Another time," she said. "Kozue really gets on my case if I'm late for meetings." Akio smiled. "Well, that's the vice-president's job," he told her, "to get on the president's case." "Was it like that when you were a student?" she asked him. A shadow passed over his face, there and gone like the slash of light from one of the highway's overhead lamps, and he replied, "Yes... yes it was." The light crossing his face, revealing that momentary frown, brought the true gravity of the situation home to Wakaba. It was getting dark and the highway was deserted but for them. She was alone with a man who might very well have killed her best friend, who might further know that she suspected him. She suppressed a shiver. If Akio didn't realize it, then everything depended on her not letting on how scared she was. Her heart was pounding so hard that she wondered how he could possibly not hear it. OK, relax, Wakaba, she told herself. You're OK. At least half a dozen people know you were going driving with the Deputy Chairman today. If he doesn't bring you back to school, people will wonder. Kozue will miss you at the Council meeting, check your room, raise the alarm. He has to know that. Even if he suspects, he can't do anything about it right now. That was all very good and logical; but she looked up and down the empty stretch of highway and felt desolate and alone, all the same. For the moment, she was utterly in Akio's power. It was ironic; after all the fantasies she'd had in earlier days of moments like this, the reality was a stark and frightening thing. She didn't particularly feel like sliding across the seat and leaning against his shoulder now. He seemed to notice her regarding him intently; glancing at her, he said softly, "Penny for them?" Wakaba, jolted out of her reverie, gulped and said, "Um, n-nothing. My mind was just... wandering." She looked up at the night sky, just for the sake of not looking at him. "Nice night, isn't it?" she said, hoping desperately she sounded conversational. "Indeed," Akio replied, smiling. Nothing seemed to be amiss on -his- side of the car, anyway. Wakaba felt herself relax a little, even began to feel a bit silly. Nanami would be amused to see how paranoid she's made me, she thought to herself, annoyed. The thought was at least half bravado, though, for her heart continued to hammer until they arrived, without incident, on campus. Alone in her room, Wakaba leaned back against the inside of her door and breathed. She and Akio had said their goodnights in front of South Hall as usual, and there had been nothing out of the ordinary about the words that had passed between them, but she'd gone on feeling that odd sense of danger anyway, right up until the moment the Corvette's taillights disappeared around the bend. She didn't think he'd bought her lie, and the same thoughts kept ricocheting around inside her head: If Nanami had been right about the second thing she'd claimed, that Akio did remember Utena, what was to stop her from having been right about the first, that Wakaba was in danger? Or any of the -other- wild things she'd said? Sighing with irritated confusion, Wakaba took off her driving clothes and put her uniform back on. For a moment, she considered the picture of Utena she'd used to trick the truth out of Akio. She felt the absence of her onetime best friend all the more keenly because of that, and this particular shot of her made Wakaba feel sad now, for some reason. Still, she wanted some memento of her friend with her now, in this uncertain time, and if this picture wouldn't do, she had others. So she put it away, rummaged around in the stack, and found another, this one of the two of them in last year's school uniforms. Utena was bent over a little bit, a look of patient, burdened amusement on her face; Wakaba was on the black-clad girl's back, arms around her neck, legs around her waist, grinning broadly over her shoulder and most likely in the midst of declaring again her undying, eternal love. Wakaba wondered who had held the camera. Probably Himemiya, she decided. She smiled to herself and tucked the picture into her uniform jacket, then buttoned it the rest of the way up. On her way out the door, she paused as her doubts assailed her again. Nanami's accusations echoed in her head, given added weight now by the fact that one of them had been proven true. Was it really possible that she lived in a world so perverse that kind, charming Akio Ohtori was a murderous villain and bitchy, petty Nanami Kiryuu was the voice of truth and reason? Wakaba didn't let herself consider the answers to those questions, but she felt sufficiently uneasy just by their presence in her mind that she picked up the sword she'd received with her new uniforms and took it up to the Tower for tonight's Student Council meeting. Its presence, and her obvious preoccupation, raised a couple of eyebrows, but nobody said anything about it. The meeting passed with nail-biting, tedious slowness for Wakaba, and though Keiko Sonoda seemed inclined to comment on -that-, she somehow managed not to, outright. Finally, it was over, and Wakaba rose from her desk and gratefully said her goodnights. The others, staying behind to finish up some paperwork, returned them rather absent-mindedly from the depths of their work, but Wakaba was herself too preoccupied to notice. Some strange impulse made her decide to take the stairs down to ground level rather than wait for the elevator. At the bottom, she emerged onto the Quad and stood looking around. She still felt nervous, as though she were being watched. The buildings of the Academy were dark, the well-lit Quad and walkways deserted; the hour was late, nearly ten o'clock. Ahead of her, the white marble stairs leading up to the Secret Forest gleamed in the lamplight. The Secret Forest... Well, the hell with it. What was there to lose? It wasn't like she could have the creeps any -worse- tonight. She crossed the Quad, climbed the stairs and stood before the locked door. At least, she assumed it was locked. The place -was- off-limits to students, after all. She reached out and grasped the handle to give it a tug. As she thought - locked. Something cold and wet splashed the knuckles of her left hand; she jerked it back and shook beads of water from her hand and the rose signet ring she wore there. Something beneath her feet shifted and ground, and water started pouring from the chutes to either side of her, running down the gutters alongside the path and curtaining off the door. There was more grinding, stone against stone, and Wakaba had a sense of ancient, powerful mechanisms before the water and mist cleared to reveal the doorway standing open in front of her. She regarded the ring for a moment, then shrugged and went through. The forest was dark and spooky, which was about what she'd expected. Ahead of her, the path continued in among the looming trees, and led to... ... stairs. Spiral stairs, leading up into the starry night sky. "What the hell" was becoming a well-worn phrase in Wakaba's mental lexicon, in both its interrogative and resignative senses. She went up the stairs. There were an awful lot of them, and they led through a region of cloudy twilight before emerging into, of all things, -daylight-. Up there, wherever "there" was, it was a bright and sunny day... ... And there was a castle hanging upside-down from the sky. Wakaba stood just inside the archway, on the great round stone platform at the top of the stairs, and looked up at the castle. Wakaba, my girl, she told herself, I think you can upgrade that "something weird is going on around here" notion from a suspicion to a dead certainty. She fought down a nervous laugh, wondered why such an outlandish place as this would look familiar to her, and walked a bit further onto the platform. There was a small, grayish object - a heap of rags, perhaps? - in the center, and she approached this, wondering if it might contain some answers. Remarkably, it did. As Wakaba approached, it stirred and turned to face her, revealing itself to be... a boy? No, Wakaba corrected herself as she got a better look at him. This was a man - his face, though boyish, had a maturity that no boy his size would possess. He just happened to be a little more than two feet high, that was all. Now that she took a closer look at him, she could see that the little man was haggard and worn, his face, though handsome, marred by stress and pain, his robes ragged and bloodstained. She wondered if that was some kind of headdress, or if he really had a horn in the middle of his forehead. His drawn face brightened as he saw her, and he said, in a soft, raspy voice, like one that has been overused recently, "Thank the Pillar... you've finally come. I've been calling to you for weeks. What kept you?" "That was you in my dreams?" Wakaba asked him. "I thought I was just going nuts." The little man sighed. "No, Wakaba Shinohara, you are not going nuts. Not yet, anyway." He bowed, winced, and straightened slowly. "I am Clef, Master Mage of Cephiro, and I have need of your help." "-My- help?" Wakaba knew the legend of the Master Mage; everyone in Cephiro had heard stories of him as children. He was supposed to be the eternal protector of the realm, wise and kind, possessed of the greatest sorcerous powers in the land. Few had ever seen him, though, and fewer still really believed the stories. He was a reassuring tale for children, like Father Christmas. Somehow Wakaba had envisioned someone rather taller in the role. "Indeed," said Clef gravely. "Aside from that smirking wretch Ohtori, you are the only one left at this school who can recall the Knight of the Rose." "Knight of the... " Wakaba gasped, her eyes flying wide. "Utena! You mean Utena, don't you?" Clef nodded. "I do." "Where is she? What's happened to her?" "She has passed beyond this world," said Clef, and as Wakaba's face crumpled he raised a hasty hand. "No, no, I don't use that phrase as a euphemism for death!" he insisted. "I mean it literally. She has gone to another plane, indescribably removed from here. I was able to track her progress, but I was under attack at the time... all I could do was contact the nearest person there who was even vaguely suitable and hope that he would help her. But now I am filled with dread. I fear that it was ultimate folly to entrust her to the Chaoswalker." "Um... how about if you assume that I have no idea what you're talking about and start over?" Wakaba inquired. "And if you needed my help so bad, why didn't you just come to my room and -ask- for it instead of doing that freaky thing with my dreams?" "I cannot set foot on the Academy campus without terrible consequences - Ohtori has seen to that. As for the rest, there is no time for explanations. Ohtori is probably following you here even now. If you love Utena Tenjou, you -must- do as I say! Will you become my apprentice? Will you go to her aid?" "Me? Apprentice to the Master Mage, are you out of your MIND?!" "Very possibly," Clef replied without a trace of irony, "but my options are somewhat limited. Please, I beg of you - will you go to the Rose Knight and ensure that she is safe? It will mean leaving your world, perhaps never to return, but after your confrontation with Ohtori today, I wouldn't give good odds for your continued survival here as it is." "So he -has- been killing the others?" "No," said Clef, "he hasn't killed anyone - yet. Though not for lack of trying," he added with a bitterly ironic chuckle. "The Rose Knight barely escaped their final encounter with her life. Please, Miss Shinohara. Time is short." Wakaba suppressed a hysterical urge to reply, "And so are you." Instead she swallowed hard and said, "All right, I'll do it. I'll see that she's safe." Clef bowed his head in acknowledgement, then raised his gnarled, beaked staff. He seemed to stand a little straighter, the pain easing out of his face, as he leveled it at her and, surrounded by a sudden light, declared, >GIFT OF MAGIC!< The light whirled around Wakaba, almost lifting her clean off the platform. She felt a strange sensation of vertigo, and something else besides - an odd but undeniable feeling inside her, as though some strength she never knew she possessed had been unlocked and was spreading through her body. "What was -that-?" she asked as the light faded and her senses returned to normal. "I've unsealed the sorcerous potential of your spirit," Clef told her. "Only time will tell what power you have, or can grow into; I haven't time to train you properly. Or train you at all, for that matter. You must go, now, this minute, before - " "But - " Wakaba interjected. "Get away from her!" a voice rang from the archway Wakaba had come through to arrive here. She whirled, gasping, to see the Deputy Chairman standing in that archway. He was dressed in a white uniform like those worn by the previous year's Student Council, all white but for the scarlet and gold accents and braids. His silver hair was out of its customary ponytail, flying loose around his shoulders, and at his belt he wore a saber. Akio strode onto the platform, his swordbelt chinking softly at his side, and leveled an imperious finger at Clef. "By God, if you've hurt her, wizard, you'll answer to me! Wakaba, are you all right? Step away from him, quickly. He's a dangerous madman." Wakaba glanced back and forth between the two figures, the bedraggled little sorcerer and the tall, regal figure of the Deputy Chairman, and felt torn. Was it possible that all of her misgivings about Akio were just artifacts of Nanami's stupid jealous rantings? He looked so righteous, so... so -princely-, standing there in his white and his gold, with his scarlet-lined cape and silver hair ruffling in the cool breeze that blew across the platform, and the concern on his face was obvious. Her heart warmed a little inside her just to see that look in his emerald eyes, and know that it was for her. But she hadn't imagined that flash of ice-cold hatred that had spilled across those eyes when they had looked on her picture of Utena. Had she? She didn't know what to believe. "Trust me, my apprentice," Clef hissed through his teeth, taking a step toward Akio. "You -must- trust me." He steadied himself on his feet, raised his gnarled wooden staff and clanged its metal-shod tip down on the stone of the platform. "I... " said Wakaba. "Wakaba, don't listen to him!" Akio pleaded. "I've known the Master Mage for many years now. We were good friends once, but he's changed, become twisted and cruel. He's trying to lead you into a trap, he's already bewitched you." He held out his hands. "Please, Wakaba. It's not too late. Throw off his spell and come home with me." "Come home with me"? Did he mean that simply as "return to the Academy", or... ? Seeing the question flicker across her face, Akio smiled, his eyes softening. "Yes, that's right," he said. "If you want to... " Despite her mistrust of him, despite her confusion, Wakaba's heart skipped a beat, and she took a hesitating half-step toward him. Have I mentioned, Utena Tenjou's voice said dryly in her mind, that he's engaged? Wakaba blinked. Of course! That's how he got to have the same name as the school; he's engaged to be married to some descendent of the Academy's founder or another, and they sort of adopted him ahead of time in anticipation of the event. He owed everything he had to that engagement, and here he was offering to take a freshman in the Academy's High School Division to bed with him? Why hadn't it ever occurred to Wakaba before now how bizarre that notion was? She turned to Clef and nodded, quickly, before she could change her mind. "Wakaba, no!" said Akio despairingly. His hand went to the sword at his belt. "You'll pay for this, wizard!" he declared, and drew. Reflexively, Wakaba turned, putting herself between Akio and Clef, and her own sword sprang out almost of its own will. "Don't you come near him!" she barked, surprising herself with the note of command in her own voice. Even Akio was a little taken aback by it; he blinked, half-stepping back, before regrouping himself. "Wakaba, please," he said. "Don't make me do this. I don't want to fight you. I... I think... I love you." She froze, stunned, with a sparkling warm glow flaring inside her. Then she took a step toward him, uncertain herself whether she intended to attack or embrace him - and the glow withered as the photo inside her jacket crinkled slightly, that tiny sensation carrying with it a reminder like a sledgehammer to the brain. It was as if Utena herself had just come up and tapped Wakaba on the shoulder. -That- was what had made Wakaba sad about looking at the other photo: it reminded her that Akio had been acting like he loved Utena too, back in the old days. Wakaba remembered feeling jealous of her friend, envious of her good fortune, annoyed that Utena had apparently managed to snare the school's greatest prize - the Deputy Chairman's heart - without even trying, or seeming to know what to do with it. He'd acted like he loved her, and then... what had Clef said? "The Rose Knight barely escaped their final encounter with her life." The insight burned across Wakaba's neurons like a torch flame. He hadn't loved Utena; he'd wanted something from her. Whatever it was, she must have figured it out at the last moment and refused him, and then he'd tried to kill her. And now... now he wanted something from Wakaba, too. It was all just an act. Just a stupid, manipulative, slimy, underhanded ACT! Wakaba's blush faded. She stopped in her tracks, squared herself, and raised her drooping blade, her entire body suffused with rage at the realization of the way she'd almost been had. "Ha!" Wakaba spat. "Like you love your sister? Like you loved Utena? You lying bastard! You recognized her picture in an -instant-. I saw it in your eyes. Nanami was right about you, she was right about -everything-." /* Orgy "Blue Monday" _Candyass_ */ Akio stood silent and unmoving for a second; then his eyes narrowed, his face hardened, and he said simply, "So." If one is of the opinion that it's best to begin any course of study with a major challenge, then Wakaba's formal initiation to the art and science of swordfighting was the perfect way for her to begin a career as a duelist, because for this, the first clash of arms that would actually leave a mark on her conscious memory, she was up against one of the finest swordsmen, perhaps -the- finest swordsman, in the world. It was something like a miracle that he didn't take her head off with his first sweeping lunge. "Hurry UP," she cried as she desperately defended herself, "and do - whatever - you need - to DO, Clef!" The Master Mage was torn between his desire to help her and the fact that she was right - what he really had to do was tend to business. Then he hefted his staff, turned away from the raging battle of blades, and faced the archway on the -opposite- side of the platform from the entrance. This one looked like an entry arch, but instead of an open doorway, it had merely a flat face of stone. Which was fine, since anyone walking through it would only plummet to their doom anyway - there was nothing beyond it but sky. >Gate of the Worlds,< Clef intoned, >be ye unsealed! Heed the will of Clef, Master of Mages! Open unto this mine apprentice, and deliver her to the side of the one she hath sworn to protect!< He banged the staff against the stone again, swept it in an arc, and aimed its beak squarely at the gate, bellowing, >DIMENSION DOOR!< Scarlet lightning shot from the gem in the head of the staff to the blank stone face of the archway, and with a sound like a thunderclap, it gleamed, rippled, and opened, revealing not the blue sky behind it but a coruscating field of a million eye-bending colors. Wakaba stumbled backward under her opponent's onslaught. Already her shoulders were aching, her ribs heaving, and he didn't even look a little bit put out. She was doing a lot better than she would have -expected- she'd do, what with having never, to her knowledge, prosecuted a swordfight before, but she was still -losing-. Akio gave her a cool little smile, as if he'd read the thought crossing her mind. "A pity you only got the imprint of that clown Saionji," he remarked. "Had you instead been sufficiently attached to someone with -talent-... oh, say, Arisugawa, or even Tenjou herself... this might be something approaching -sporting-." The mention of Utena's name, and Saionji's too, filled Wakaba's heart with fire. The fatigue and soreness vanished from her body as that fire spread outward from her breast to the farthest corners of her. She bent herself to her task with this renewed energy, driving herself forward and actually challenging -his- defenses for a moment. Teeth gritted, she drove him back, taking some satisfaction in the sudden spark of surprise that crossed his eyes. "Saionji," she snarled, parrying his next thrust with vicious strength. "Is NOT," she continued, crossing his blade up and twisting it far out of position, though not quite disarming him. "A CLOWN!" she cried, leaving her right hand to hold his sword at bay with hers while she used her left, signet ring and all, to belt the Deputy Chairman full in the mouth. He tumbled backward, a small blot of blood flying up to sparkle in the sunshine, and their blades came apart with a singing scrape. It was a surprisingly satisfying experience. Well, whaddaya know, Wakaba remarked to herself in some tiny corner of her mind that remained cool and rational. I guess I still feel something for the big idiot after all. "Clef?" she inquired tensely as Akio gathered himself up and rose to his feet. The Deputy Chairman raised a white-gloved hand to his lower lip, wiping blood from the place where her rose signet had cut him. He no longer looked charming. "Go!" cried Clef. "I will hold him." "Are you sure - " "GO! It is the Rose Knight who needs you, not I!" She locked eyes with him for an instant, saw the fire there, and nodded. "I'll see you again sometime," she said, and sprinted for the gate. Behind her, she could hear the scrape of steel on stone as Akio pulled himself the rest of the way up and gave chase. Clef's voice bellowed something unintelligible, Akio roared in anger, and just as Wakaba reached the threshold and threw herself into the swirling madness of color, she heard a shattering crash and Clef's high, horrible scream. She fell, fell, fell into darkness, all the while wondering if Akio would be coming at her back like a speeding train. TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2405 WORCESTER PREPARATORY INSTITUTE The WPI Quad had seen a number of odd things this school year already, from the Institute Holography Club's avant-garde Interpretive Theater for Coherent Light presentation to the startling and impromptu sword battle between Kaitlyn Hutchins and Kyouichi Saionji the week before Christmas break. Now, in the middle of an otherwise-quiet spring afternoon, it was about to get another one. In the center of the Quad, right above the circular dedication stone, a sphere of yellowish-white light suddenly appeared, about twelve feet across, and hovered there for a moment like a soap bubble. Then, with a soft, musical "pop!", it, well, popped, scattering into little sparks and rays of light that faded and were gone in an instant. In the middle of the stone, a huddled human form lay crumpled, one hand still gripping the hilt of a gleaming katana. The students crossing the Quad paid little attention; they were becoming inured to this kind of thing this year. A girl in a funny uniform with a sword? Probably somebody here to try out for the Duelists' Society, or someone from another school who heard of them and came to see if she could take one of them on. As for the way she had appeared, well, sure, that was a little weird, but at least she hadn't come in a ship and thruster-scorched the grass again. Wakaba picked herself up, dusted herself off, stretched one aching shoulder until it didn't ache so much, and then looked around. One school to another, she thought, and made for the nearest building. No Akio, though. That was a good sign. Hopefully the midget hadn't died. He sure hadn't sounded like he was having much fun... She wondered, as she put her sword away, why she wasn't getting a lot of odd looks because of it, and because of her alien uniform. But then, she supposed it was just as well she didn't. She sure didn't feel like dealing with -that- right now. The nearest building was actually a low gray concrete structure wedged in between a pair of taller brick buildings that simply had to be dormitories. The carved nameplate above this structure's windows read "MORGAN HALL". Through the row of windows facing the Quad, she could see uniformed students moving around, walking back and forth, in and out. Some kind of common area, she guessed. Good enough place to start. She went inside, through the double doors, and stopped by a concrete post with a "POSITIVELY NO SMOKING" sign on it to get her bearings. The room was carpeted in the most boring brown carpet ever, and had several uncomfortable-looking restaurant-booth-style benches built into its walls. These were covered in the same carpet, with low tables that looked to be made of chunks of a bowling alley's floor. In the nearest one to her, there was a group of students sitting and listening to another one tell a story. There was a huge black guy, the biggest person Wakaba had ever seen; next to him, a cute little petite copper-skinned girl with a bushy shock of gray hair; then - whoa! - some kind of blue lizardy guy; then a normal-looking blond guy in a gray trenchcoat; then a pretty brown-haired girl with glasses. The speaker was standing facing them, and thus away from Wakaba, so all she could see was her back. Obviously "her", from that shape - but she was wearing a boy's uniform, tailored to fit her athletic, slender curves, and bright pink hair fell in a thick, tousled cataract down her back. Wakaba Shinohara's heart howled with joy. "UTENAAAAAA!" she declared, and sprang. /* The Primitives "Way Behind Me" _The Best of the Primitives_ */ Eyrie Productions, Unlimited I don't remember what you said presented I'm gonna leave the past behind me UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES All those lies inside your head FUTURE IMPERFECT Took my hand and led me blindly - Symphony of the Sword - Intermezzo: Ohtori Academy I'm gonna try my best move Spring Semester Blues I'm gonna leave you way behind me I'm gonna try my best move The Cast I'm gonna leave you way behind me (in order of appearance) Wakaba Shinohara I want to go Mitsuru Tsuwabuki I want to leave Akio Ohtori I want to grow Keiko Sonoda I want to breathe Kozue Kaoru Nanami Kiryuu I didn't want to be a fool Shadow Girl A-Ko Took my hand and so unkindly Shadow Girl B-Ko Put me down with words so cruel Master Mage Clef I'm gonna leave you way behind me The Hon. J. Maurice MacEchearn T'skaia Vorokoshiga'ar I'm gonna try my best move Ixtixtaaqitl't'chl'Vraihelt Ishkarat I'm gonna leave you way behind me Devlin Carter I'm gonna try my best move Kaitlyn Hutchins I'm gonna leave you way behind me Utena Tenjou I don't remember what you said Loser of Sleep I'm gonna leave the past behind me Benjamin D. Hutchins All those lies inside your head Took my hand and led me blindly Shadow Play Director Philip J. Moyer I'm gonna try my best move I'm gonna leave you way behind me Usual Suspects I'm gonna try my best move The Usual Suspects I'm gonna leave you way behind me Bull Session in Convertible I want to go John Trussell, Anne Cross I want to leave I want to grow "Revolutionary Girl Utena" I want to breathe characters by Saito/Hasegawa I'm gonna try my best move Master Mage Clef by CLAMP I'm gonna leave you way behind me I'm gonna try my best move Mr. Moyer gratefully acknowledges the I'm gonna leave you way behind me inspiration of Alan Harnum, author of the fanfic series "Jaquemart", Way behind me in his shadow play direction. Way behind me Way behind me Josh and Ford have a nifty house Way behind me The Symphony will return E P U (colour)