************************************************************ Logging Started: 05/07/2001 at 21:08:23 ------------------------------------------------------------ In the real world, it rains- a dull grey drizzle that mists the earth under a slow falling leaden blanket. Though it's not a downpour, the weather combined with the deepening of the hours toward dusk leves the streets of even Tokyo threadbare of walkers- those that are about hurry quickly from car into restuarant, from building into building, from curb to bus. The rain falls on Utena as she walks, her hands deep in the pockets of her coat, collar drawn up, almost leaning into the wind that tosses about. It's not the weather that bothers her; nor is she in a hurry to get home. Quite the opposite; she's heading deeper into the night, because she.. feels something. No better description for it; a dark heavy sense of something deep in her heart; like thunder, a breaking storm. So it is that she travels through the rain and to the rooftop of the school; almost on autopilot. He said it would appear. She had no reason to doubt his words. And.. there it is..a drfiting stair whose bottom step does not touch the ground.. seems to be made of rainbow mist. She swallows, glancing up into the sky; the stair does not reveal its destination, but she already knows. Taking a deep breath, she puts her foot on the bottom stair- and it becomes solid. She's able to move quickly up, legs remembering before her brain does- this caracole, this winding stair. It's here. It's actually here. The branch in the road and the new gate throw her momentarily, but soon enough, she finds her way in; the gate sliding apart to let her into the so-familiar Arena. Although there's no sun, and no direct source of light, it is- as it's always been- brisk and warm, summery; a bit of a shock, traveling from rain and grey into blue brightness. Like walking into an oven, or into the center of hell... She pulls off her coat and lets it fall near the inside of the Arena gate, walking in a few paces deeper, turning her head from side to side. The Castle's lights shine down on her. There is almost a sense of electricty in the air... an undeniable tension that almost carasses the skin as one enters the Arena. Consecrated to one purpose alone, and now... here, in the 'real' world, such as it is. But Utena is not the only person that the Arena has called... or was it the arrival of the shadowy figure, leaning against the Gate of the Challenger, that called the Arena? In his hand is a single red rose, the stem shimmering slightly from the rain and a thin trail of blood - the result of simple scratch from a single thorn. Touga raises the rose to his face, his eyes closed, and inhales deeply its faint fragrance. "So it has come to pass... everything is in place, Tenjou-kun..." he intones quietly, although it seems that his voice carries across the entire arena to the pink haired girl. The light seems to shift slightly, brining the red haired duelist into its embrace. Indeed, he appears to be ready to duel here and now... two simple swords, rapiers that would be used by the old European duelists, lay against the wall at his side. "The question is... are you ready to face destiny once again? Or was it the simple feeling of this place that called you here? The desire to known if your cursed destiny had caught up with you at last?" Utena stiffens visibly, sucking in her breath- if there be electricity here, she be the lightning rod; iron, and the bolt travels through her into the ground, welding her feet to the floor where she stands. For a moment her face reflects absolute surprise- even while part of her is grimly thinking that, once more, she managed to walk right into it. As she rallies, her voice carries- just as well as yours, once she's found it. "Touga. So Juri-sempai was right.... " There's accusation in those last five words. "I didn't want to believe her, but..." Utena says, "You -are- involved with the End of the World." The rose pauses for a moment, obscuring Touga's expression as Utena's words cross the empty space between them. His eyes drift closed for a moment, and the fragrance of the rose is the only thing he allows his senses to take in as he reflects on what has happened. So, Juri had spoken to Utena...? And how much has she told the Victor, who had no idea of the true extent of the game? He had to assume that it was enough. The red haired duelist turned and walked out into the open area around the arena, a small smile on his face. He said not a word until he had crossed to within a short distance of Utena, not looking at her directly. "What is the End of the World, Tenjou-kun? Just a word, a concept that no one truely understands. But we all live in fear of it, the thought that our safe, comfortable lives will be disrupted. But in the end, we all serve the End of the World..." His blue eyes turned to her face, the smile fading slightly... the rose rising quickly to cover the expression. "That is what we want, in the end. Crack the world's shell. For the Revolution of the World." Her heart is beating too hard. Too hard to let her think clearly, as he approaches. Drumbeats of betrayal, frustration, and disappointment. Drumbeats of anxiety; she stares at you with that curious blankness that overtakes her face when she's caught between anger and confusion; you've seen it, perhaps once or twice before. Her mouth shines pink in the light when she answers. "... don't LIE to me!" The blankness snaps and becomes that beautiful swell of righteous fury; the fire brightening her eyes. "I won't listen to another word of lies! I didn't come here to ... to be lied to." She sees the rapiers resting against the wall, out of the corner of her eye, but doesn't seem to be turning much attention to them. "It just felt like... I should be here. And then you're here. I know about Akio, Touga. I know that the End of the World made a lot of people hurt. And if you can't even face up to the fact that you've been HELPING that happen...." She squeezes her eyes closed. ".. You're not the person I thought you were. I knew something was -wrong-... but I had NO IDEA it was THIS wrong..." Her small frame shakes. "Why?" The deeper core of the statement- 'how could you do this to me?' is something you can sense underlying her words. How could you betray ME? "Juri understands nothing... she has trouble seeing the world beyond her small, selfish shell she has built around her heart. Even in the end, she did not grasp the true nature of the Game, else she would have not torn her rose off in her final duel against you, Tenjou-kun." Touga's smile returns to his face again, seeing the Utena that he knew before everything had happened standing before him... the paranoid, terrified little prince who kept fighting because it hurt far too much to stop. He paused and let the rose dip down to the level of her face, closing his blue eyes for a moment. "Why? Utena, you would not believe me if I told you why I am here. But now you have pierced to my true heart, to the devil within who cares for naught but himself. The one who would betray every friend for a goal that can not even be touched, much less attained." Touga's voice was disdainful as he spoke, the very truth that he had not yet lied to her about the purpose or his place in the Game... but that she simply had never asked. "Saionji was correct when he told you to not get involved. You have no idea of the true scope of the Game, no matter what Juri told you. But as I said, you would not believe me if I told you my intentions, Tenjou-kun. But we must all act within the rules... for without those Rules, there is only chaos." Touga's hand snapped down, and then upwards, tossing the rose in his hand high into the air above them. It seemed to pause for a moment before it feel back to the Arena floor. The red petals scattered across the floor and behind them it seemed as if a wave of red traveled... hundreds, thousands of roses springing from the floor in a crimson wave that traveled from the where they stood to the very edges of the Arena, tossing a blizzard of red petals into the air. The petals drift down, like flakes of blood, and the Arena floor roars to life, a million roses springing up so eagerly from the surface, thorns shining in the bright light, buried under the softness of the petals. As all things are momentarily swept up and reconfigured with the blooming of the hellishly red roses, where Utena stood disbelieving a moment before is only emptiness. The roses seem to swirl around a particular spot on the floor, where the small girl sits fetally crouched over herself, her hands clasped over her ears, face buried under a wild uncoiling of her massive pink locks, falling around her to melt into the roses. A single, small butterfly/moth with black spots flutters above her head, landing on a lock of her hair; just for a moment, those roses around her seem to become green cabbage; you can smell them, and see them- just for a moment. The butterfly flits away and she raises her head, staring at you with torn, shattered eyes. Touga continues to speak, almost acting as if he is unaware of the short vision... although it plays back in his mind, as clear as the day that he saw that girl, given a glimpse of eternity. But he continues speaking, as if nothing as changed. "People did not *die* in our world, Utena... not of their own volition. Akio and Anshi, doomed to live forever. Mikage, trapped in a hell of his own creation. Living forever, trapped in the body of a student... but chaos was the bane of all." Touga smiled and walked across the distance between them, his eyes looking down into Utena's shattered ones as he kneels down next to her. "What did you see, Utena...? What did you see when you saw the End of the World? When you saw eternity?" He raises one hand, gently brushing a lock of her pink hair away from her face. "I did not see the greed of a fallen prince..." he says, but stops after a moment. Utena pushes your hand away from her face- slowly, not quickly, with a strange and disturbing strength in her fingers. "I don't have to answer that question... that or anything else you ask me. You don't have the -right- to ask me those questions. I don't even think you're who you say you are. Touga... my Touga, the Touga that I know... no, you're nothing like him." She gets up to her feet, looking down on you; her eyes are still burning, but the fire seems to have shifted direction. She steps away, crushing roses with every step under her heel, grinding petals and thorns alike into mush wherever she moves. Utena walks over and picks up one of the rapiers from the wall, calmly. Touga simply stands where he was, not turning to face Utena as she takes one of the rapiers into her hand. He shakes his head slowly, his blood red hair swirling about him for a moment. "And that is the Utena I knew, before the final duel... as sad as I am to admit that." He simply lowers his hands to his side and turns about to face her, a sad smile on his face. "The poor lost prince, no longer sure what she is fighting for... but willing to face anything, simply because she can not imagine stopping. We have all grown, have we not. But at least your path to this point was... less painful than before..." He trails off and shrugs, closing his eyes. Utena looks at the sword in her hand, and quirks her head at you. "I'm not finished." she says softly. Examining the sword for a moment, she tests its weight in her hand.. then pivots at the waist, and throws it off the edge of the Arena; the blade flashes briefly in the air, and plummets out of sight beyond the stone crennellations. "If you're the heartless, soulless thing you're claiming to be.. then here." She grabs the second rapier, and tosses it at you. "Go ahead, cut me down. I'm giving you an open opportunity. But I'm not wearing a rose, so to beat me you'll have to hurt me with that sword. If you can do that, then there's nothing more to be said, is there.. and all this talking you've done is meaningless." She draws in her breath, standing among the shattered roses at her feet. "I cherish the memories I have of that past with Touga, and I won't allow them to be polluted- by you, by anyone, not even by myself. So if you want to make those memories go away... if you want to cut your own heart out... then do it. Here's your chance, Touga." There is a sharp click as Touga automatically reaches out to catch the sword in his hands, the blade rattling inside of its sheath from the force of the impact. The red haired duelist's expression doesn't chance, but he opens his eyes and slowly slides the blade free from the scabbard, before repeating the motion and hurling the scabbard over the side of the arena. Now with only the naked blade in his hand he walks over towards Utena, stopping when he is only a few feet from her. His eyes narrow slightly, and the blade comes up and over his head. He hesitates for only a moment... and brings the blade slashing down. A moment later the blade embeds itself in the arena floor less tha an inch behind Utena, piercing the heart of one of the crimson roses and vibrating from the force of the impact. In the same motion Touga wraps one of his arms around Utena, pinning one arm against her side. His other hand grabs her free one, holding it out and away from both of them as he pulls her against him, his blue eyes looking into hers. Utena's hair slides away from the side of impact; blown by the force of the blow; a few bits of her hair cut off and drifting to disappear among the roses. It was that close. But she doesn't break her gaze away from you or flinch. Just the smallest Mona Lisa-esque smile tugs the corners of her mouth, before you grab her, and crush her hips against yours; this hard pull making her stumble slightly as her foot tangles on a rose-vine. She looks up at you from under your chin, breathless. "Did you think that I would actually strike you, Tenjou-kun?" Touga asked with a half smile on his lips. "You never could appreciate sarcasm, even back then... Did you really think me so foolish, to chase such a nebulous goal?" He leans his head to the side for a moment, lips inches away from yours, before he continues. "I was there, long ago... I saw a young girl, hiding in her coffin that she should have never seen, and I mourned the loss of beauty. A loss that was dictated by one man. I want the duels to end, Utena... but we can only end them within the Rules. And I don't want to see what I saw after the final duel... when you were defeated by Akio, but refused to surrender..." Touga leans backwards, gently holding you out at arms length for a moment as he looks into your eyes, almost as if he were trying to judge what lay there. "No matter what Juri has told you about Akio, it can not begin to even touch upon the truth of the man. Her exposure to him was a simple car ride, a view of the End of the World. Akio can be subtle, seductive... he can defeat you even before you know you have begun the battle. That is why I do not want you involved... he is corruption incarnate." Touga shook his head for a moment, looking into the dueling arena... remembering his last duel against Akio. "He does not duel, he fights... and if you get in his way, he will kill you." Utena says, "... I've already met him," Utena whispers, glancing to the side. "I have something that he wants, at least, that's what Juri-sempai and Himemiya both tell me." She lifts her head back to return your glance; her hands remain at her sides, where the rose signet on her left hand glimmers faintly. "... he called me 'milady'." Her brows begin to furrow, and she reaches a hand then, brushing her thumb along the side of your face under that hair... seeing the intensity of the way you look at her, and the feeling in your eyes when you warn her against Akio. "But if you feel that way about him... and he's the end of the world.. then I really don't understand, Touga..." Touga leaned his head to the side, a resigned expression on his face. "Do you remember what I told you in the cafe, when I first arrived here, Tenjou-kun? That we simply could not stop, no matter what the cost? That in the end, we *have* to see this through? This is what I speak of... I need to know that he has been stopped, that he has been defeated. That he will not be able to reach out and touch any more lives." He leans into your touch for a long moment, closing his eyes. "I had hoped you would not have seen him... apparently things must move more quickly now." He pauses for a short moment, and raises his hands to gently cup your cheeks, one of them sliding down to the line of your neck. Then, before anything else can be said, he leans over and kisses you fiercely on the lips. Utena admittedly, was not -quite- prepared to be snatched up and kissed. She was about to say something, in fact, but the words simply go flat and wither unspoken in her throat. She freezes up, at first- just as she did the night of the ball, her cheeks suffused with glowing redness, and she makes some small sound that might, or might not be, protest. Doesn't the kiss come at the end of the story when everything's been accomplished? But there's two years, and memory, and pain in it, and she's just beginning to slide her arms around your neck, hesitantly, when she pulls back her head, with a gasp. "... we... I mean.. I.." Damn it. She wanted it so badly in the past, and didn't get it, and now that she's gotten it, why doesn't it feel -right-? Because there is something... off about it. Not a lovers kiss... passion there yes, but... not quite what would have been expected. Touga leans back and slips your arms around around his neck, a sad expression on his face. A moment later he hand slips behind you, pulling the sword from where it rests in the roses. "Good bye, Utena. It is time that everything ends... once and for all." He turns away and starts to walk slowly across the arena, naked blade resting on his shoulder as he moves... not really seeming to disturb the roses as he passes. Utena is left behind, as you walk away. A white rose in a sea of red; slowly brushing her fingers over her lips. But if the kiss was wrong, letting you just... walk off is wrong too, and she goes in pursuit, or starts to at least, until she trips over another vine that hooks over her right ankle and sends her crashing headfirst- into the thorns. She curses bitterly, and frees herself, and starts off again, but each time she gets only a few feet before the roses trip her up, apparently actively defying her. "Touga!" she yells after you, frantically, "... Touga!" Touga stops for a brief moment, turning around to look at Utena as she tries to struggle across the sea of roses to reach him... the irony of the situation strikes him as humorous for a moment... for did he not feel the same way when she left the last time? "You may not wish to be a princess, Tenjou-kun... but there is only one way you can stop me from protecting you, and you threw it over the edge of the arena. Now... things will be settled. One way, or another." He turns back, starting towards the stairs again with that same slow, insistant pace. It seems as if the roses are actually getting deeper... a trick of the mind, but he appears to be sinking into them as he moves away. Utena has a sudden deep, almost sickening realization of what that strange kiss and that naked sword and that walking away are adding up to, and that, coupled with Touga's own grim words about just what kind of a person this Akio really is hits her like a hammer on the base of the neck. Dizzily she stumbles on, even as the roses get up to her waist and the thorns get thicker, drawing blood here and there from scratches on her legs as she stubbornly pushes on, cutting her hands when she tries to push them aside. AS her progress gets slower and slower and you fade, she hurls her voice after you, "... how can your DYING solve anything?!" And, in a very real sense, it's all come back around- didn't you once rescue her from her stubborn desire to be dead? Her voice shatters as she screams after you again, screams at the damn roses to let her /go/, screams at you not to LEAVE her, and by GOD if she had the power to stop you she would stop the damn world right /NOW/... ... and there's a bell that rings, somewhere in the Castle overhead, a deep and resonant chime- like and utterly unlike the bells that toll the beginning and end of every duel fought under the glistening spirettes. The exact moment- the exact instant that Utena's heart snaps in half as she imagines a world- not necessarily with Touga beside her, but at least with the POTENTIAL of him beside her- where he is gone and BY GOD I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN then the Castle flares, and bathes Utena in a cool, soothing green light- hidden gears turn far ahead, and the Prince falls from the sky, and Utena goes away, falling backward in her mind, giving everything up for one moment.. just one moment. And the roses in her way simply.. evaporate. Like so much shadow, banished by the coming of a pure and perfect light. She springs forward like an arrow cast from the hand of God, her feet moving to outrun Mercury. Her arms reaching out before her to grab Touga around the waist... Touga huffs slightly as Utena slams into him from behind, his sword sliding across the Arena to balance on the side for a moment... before it falls away, spinning into the darkness below the tower. He takes a staggering half step, falling down to one knee among the roses, the thorns cutting though the white fabric of his uniform and into the skin below. His eyes are a little wide... for the first time, she actually needed the Prince for an action he had committed... before, it had been everything in her heart that would defeat him. The thought is just enough to keep him on that one knee, instead of falling foward to be slice apart by the writhing mass of roses before him. Utena breathes out, as the power of the Prince releases her body and allows her back into possession of herself; although slightly dazed, she doesn't let it show. Instead she kneels in front of Touga, and seizes one of his hands to press it against the center of her chest, her fingers pressing his close against her. "This is what I fight with, Touga," she says softly. "This is what I've always fought with. This is /my/ weapon." Her heart. Of course. Did you think the Prince came for anything less? A mere emotion is not enough. No... the Prince comes when Utena's heart truly breaks- when her soul cracks with despair, or fear, or anger. Now and forever, that has always been the rule of their association. She rests her hands on your shoulders then, and pushes you back a bit just as you did her, and she... smiles. A beautiful, angelic, calming smile. "A real prince protects his subjects from harm. That's what he does. You guys are all looking up to me to take care of this... and I will, even if I don't understand it. It's not for you guys to do this... it's for me. That's my purpose, I know that much." From her pocket, she produces a small key, showing it to you. "That's why I have this. I see now why it's important that I hold onto this. And you have to trust me, Touga... believe in /me/." Touga smiles slightly, but gives a very small shake of his head. "You will take care of it in the end, Utena... I have faith in you for that." He raises his hands to lightly clasp yours and remove them from his shoulders, pressing them gently together above his heart. "All of the others have faced their fears, and in the end they have overcome them. But just as you walked away from me, you can not expect me to simply stay back and watch you fight alone. We all have to settle our battles, in the end." He looks at the key for a moment, and nods. "You will keep that safe from Akio... I trust you, and I believe in you." Utena's hands are warm under yours. She leans down, her hair falling to either side of her neck, and she presses her lips against each of your cheeks, resting her forehead against yours. "Go home, Touga. " she murmurs tenderly. "It's late. If something happens to you, I won't forgive you, you understand me?" She grins at you wryly. "You'll lose any chance you'll ever have with me if you die." Touga lets his mouth quirk in a small smile. "I expected that already, Tenjou- kun... but how many can die and say that they truely lived?" He shakes his head and stands, looking over towards the exit. "Do not worry about me, Utena. I will still be here when the dust settles, and everything is over." Whether Utena will still be is a matter of debate, of course... She nods, and stands herself, rubbing the back of her neck. "There's just one thing I don't quite know, Seitokaichou," she says in her usual boyish tones, ".. who the hell won?" Touga shrugged slightly, and turned so that he could flash her one of his patented playboy looks. "My dear Utena, we have not even fought yet... are you going to reconsider, mmmm?" he says with a quick wink. Utena's jaw hits the floor. *clang* "..." And some joker, perhaps, sets the bells ringing in the distance... leaving Utena standing there rather slackjawed as you grin that playboy prizewinning smile at her, and walk off.... "... that wasn't a duel?"