ARCHIMAGE

               Jude McLaughlin - tohubohu@utena.org
     http://www.1freespace.com/women/tohubohu/archimage.html

A Shoujo Kakumei Utena fan-fiction, set After Ohtori. Contains spoilers
galore for anyone who hasn't seen the entire series, and a few for people
who haven't seen the movie.

I don't own Shoujo Kakumei Utena. The series and movie, along with all the
characters and concepts, belong to Chiho Saito, Be-papas, and a variety of
other corporate entities. The bits here that don't belong to them are mine.
Please don't post this story, steal it, or otherwise claim that it was
written by someone other than Jude McLaughlin.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part Nine: Palimpsest

Here then at home, by no more storms distrest,
 Folding laborious hands we sit, wings furled;
 Here in close perfume lies the rose-leaf curled,
Here the sun stands and knows not east nor west,
Here no tide runs; we have come, last and best,
 From the wide zone in dizzying circles hurled
 To that still centre where the spinning world
Sleeps on its axis, to the heart of rest.

--"Gaudy Night" by Dorothy L. Sayers

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

We climbed a long, familiar spiral staircase, but these steps were of black
marble that was dusty with something like ash. The steps were deeply worn
in a narrow path down the center, as if hundreds or thousands of feet had
walked exactly the same road.

As we rose, clouds obscured the strange horizon and the graveyard it
enclosed below.

Water hung in the air all around us, coalescing on our faces and hands and
clothing. It didn't rain so much as manifest. The winds were still,
thankfully, but the last leg of our trip was still chilly and clammy.

I noticed that the sky wasn't sky at all, but a flat, grey plain that hung
above us. The stairs led up to a white marble slab, laid over a large,
square hole in the sky. The slab was wide and flat and without features,
except for a tiny replica of the school's rose carved in the very center.

"It's sealed," Nanami whispered. "So nothing can get out?"

"No," Miki said slowly. "So he can't get in."

"Then who comes down here?" Saionji asked.

"Who buries the dead?" Juri responded with a pointed look at Anthy.

Anthy studiously ignored them and examined our latest obstacle. Finally,
she turned. "He hasn't sealed it from the outside. As I said, he prefers
not to remember this place. I think we can move it."

The steps were wide, and we all stepped up to get our shoulders under the
marble. Once all of us were braced, Juri said, "All set? One, two, three,
lift!"

We heaved. We strained. Just as I was beginning to see spots before my
eyes, there was a creak of protest as the slab ground against something
else made of stone -- the sky? We paused, took a breath, and tried again.
This time it slid noisily backward. Daylight poured in.

After a few seconds, Miki called, "Stop!" When we obeyed, he crawled up the
last remaining steps and peered out the narrow opening at the top
cautiously.

"Okay, okay," Miki said. "We're in the woods behind the school. There's no
one around."

"One more heave ought to do it," Nanami said. "Kyouichi has got to be able
to get through."

"Hey," Saionji said, a little annoyed.

"Well, you are bigger than the rest of us, Saionji," Juri said. "What have
you been doing, weightlifting?"

"Keiko liked it," he muttered.

I saw Nanami give him an uncomfortable sideways glance.

We moved it a little more, and we all stepped up into the light.

It was high summer at Ohtori, a hot afternoon thick with the scent of roses
and pine trees. The blue sky soared overhead, and a distant jet left a con
trail through the otherwise cloudless vault. Trees, tall and brooding,
struck skyward all around us. Through the trees, I could just see the
sparkling white parapet of the tower.

I shivered.

As one, we looked to where we remembered the stairs to be, but there was
nothing but trees and grass and bushes. We stared for a few moments,
searching.

"Where is it?" Miki asked, almost indignantly. "Where's the arena?"

"Maybe," Saionji began, unsure, "maybe it's only there if you open the
gates from the outside?"

Nanami snorted. "Didn't either of you listen to Utena's story? It was a
projection, an illusion, from that big machine the Chairman keeps in the
tower. It was only there when he wanted it there."

There was a silence. Then Miki said, "I admit, that's a part I can't quite
follow. If it was an illusion, how did we climb up it? Here, in the woods?
If the top of the arena was really supposed to be the top room of the
tower?"

"Magic?" I suggested. "I mean, come on, we just walked from Boston to
Ohtori."

"She's right, you know," Nanami said. "Don't try to apply logic, Miki. It's
real and unreal at the same time. We just have to live with it now and
argue about it later."

Anthy asked, suddenly. "Who has their rings?"

We all looked at each other, then they all looked at me. "Um. Well, I do,
you know," I said.

"Anyone else?"

Nanami scowled, but she drew the necklace she was wearing out of her
blouse. Her signet was strung on the gold chain with a small, gleaming
diamond pendant. Saionji dug in one pocket. He came up with a handful of
change, a Swiss Army knife, and his signet.

Juri said, "Mine's at the bottom of the Pacific." She ignored our stares.

Miki blinked and said, "Um. I lost mine. A long time ago. It didn't seem
important, then."

Anthy nodded. "So there are three of you who can get us back in here when
the time comes." She walked toward the gate to campus. "Come on. He's
distracted with his current game right now. We have a chance to look
around."

Yet again, we began to follow her, but Saionji exclaimed and we stopped.
"It's gone!" he said, pointing back at the green lawn behind us -- lawn
that showed no signs of the staircase we'd just come up, nor the heavy
marble slab we'd worked so hard to move.

Nanami laughed, just a little. "Of course it is, Kyouichi."

At the gate, we were faced with a new conundrum: how to get out. Before,
when we were leaving the dueling arena, the gate was already open, left
that way by the second combatant to enter the forest. (How did it know to
stay open the second time anyway? Why didn't other students stray inside?)
But now, it was closed and locked... and the mechanism to unlock it was on
the outside.

"I could boost someone over," Saionji suggested. "How about you, Arisugawa?
You're used to hopping over fences when you chase crooks, right?"

Juri favored him with a sour look. "Oh, and what would I do on the outside,
Saionji? Tickle the gate open?" I inadvertently glanced at Anthy, then
blushed. I don't know why. Juri displayed the back of her hands and wiggled
her fingers. "No ring, remember?"

Saionji had the grace to look abashed, but he looked at Nanami and me. "One
of you then?"

Miki stepped back from examining the gate. "Hush! There's someone coming
from the other side!"

We all stared at him, and then, to tell the truth, we scampered like scared
rabbits deeper into the dark woods. All except Anthy, who somehow was in
the woods when we got there.

"Is it him?" Nanami wondered as we all settled behind a low shrubbery.

"Shhh," Saionji hissed, his hands tightening on his katana.

I heard the familiar noise: a click, followed by the rushing of water. I
knew exactly when the grinding of the stone gate would start, how long it
would take to swing open and up, becoming a massive marble rose over the
portal.

"Duck!" hissed Miki.

We all did, even me, despite my burning curiosity to see who was coming
through. Fear and caution made us all stay down a little too long. When
Miki, Juri, and I raised our heads, we all gasped. The path lined with tall
white urns overflowing with roses had appeared, and so had the dueling
arena. It stretched up to the azure sky, looming overhead as if it were
about to teeter over and crush the whole campus. A thousand memories
flooded over me -- the feeling of mounting those endless stairs, the space
of the arena, the castle hanging over us all like the Sword of Damocles...

"Damn," muttered Saionji as a small door in the base of the arena pedestal
slid shut quietly. "All I saw was red fabric and gold braid. No face. But
that was the Rose Bride."

"Boy or girl?" Nanami demanded.

"Eh?" Saionji responded. "I don't know. I told you, I didn't see."

Nanami sighed in exasperation.

"How does the Bride get in anyway?" Juri wondered.

I blinked. "You're right. She doesn't have a ring."

We all looked at Anthy, who looked back at us. We sighed and shrugged.

"That's not the openwork gondola," Miki said, peering. "So they're not that
far along in the duels, anyway."

A moment later, Nanami realized, "Hey! There was an elevator there all
along!"

We all turned accusing looks on Anthy, who just smiled enigmatically and
said, "Shall we go? At least the Bride opened the gate for us -- for a
moment. If we don't hurry, we'll be stuck here until the Victor comes."

We stood and started on, but Nanami hung back. "Wait," she said. "Shouldn't
we stay and find out who the Victor is now?"

"We probably won't know him -- or her," Saionji said, adding the last
hurriedly with a look around at the rest of us. "Let's get out and see if
we can find anyone we do know."

We ran through the gate, and it closed behind us a few seconds later,
shutting down the flow of water that obscured the outer gate. We jogged
down the steps, through that second gate. Then we all stopped. And stared.

It was perfect. It was unchanged. Gleaming white buildings shone in the
sun. Lush, springy, green lawn stretched between the white concrete
walkways. A few students in Ohtori turquoise drifted here and there in the
distance, talking among themselves, not noticing us. The familiarly shaped
buildings brought a cascade of memories.

We all stared up at the tower.

Finally, Juri cleared her throat. "We won't find anything by standing here
gawking until he comes to find us. Let's go."

That got us into motion. We drifted along the walks and byways into the
campus proper.

I wasn't sure where to go. It was so overwhelming. I glanced around at the
others interrogatively. Only Miki seemed to have an idea, so we followed
him toward the music rooms, along the fence dividing the campus from the
woods around it, and the town beyond that.

Outside the building, we could hear the piano, and we all stopped. The
music was magnificent, resounding, somehow orchestral despite being
rendered by only a single instrument. At the same time it was eerie and
funereal: a dirge for a god.

We found ourselves at the door, looking in. The person at the piano wore a
uniform that momentarily made my heart stop: white, high-necked jacket with
tails that trailed the floor behind the piano bench. But an avalanche of
unkempt white hair was trapped by a tangle of leather at mid-back and
waterfalls of lace poured from the cuffs and throat. It wasn't him.

The music crashed to its conclusion, and we all stood, frozen, amidst the
echoes of its grand finish.

A woman's bitter laugh shook the pianist's thin shoulders, and she stood,
turning to face us. Bereft of artificial colors, bereft of her own color,
her heart-shaped face drawn oval with hunger, her blue eyes icy and
hollow...

"Kozue?" Miki breathed.

"Welcome home, oniisan," she replied, draping herself decoratively over the
piano. "To what should I owe this visit?"

Her uniform wasn't entirely white. There was a slash of pale blue across
her left sleeve and a thick, silver braid looped from the left shoulder to
the sapphire clasp that held the lace cravat in place. The waist was cut
long to emphasize her hips and breasts.

"Kozue," he said again. "Kozue, your playing..."

"Yes." His twin reseated herself at the piano and began to play again,
skeletal hands flowing lightly over the keys. Rich chords and amazing
improvisations did not obscure the familiar tune of "The Sunlit Garden."

Miki drifted over, entranced. He aimlessly took up one of the many battered
notebooks stacked on the piano and looked down. His eyes scanned over the
notes scribbled there, and he gasped.

The music crashed in an angry discord. "Don't look at that," she snapped.
"It's not done yet." She snatched the book from Miki's apparently nerveless
hands.

"But, Kozue," he said, "it's brilliant."

"I know," she replied, glancing lovingly into the book, as if to make sure
he had not, somehow, altered the notes there. "But it's not done. So you
see, my dear brother, what Akio-san has done for me." Kozue's hand swept
dramatically to encompass the room. "He has given me dominion over your
kingdom." She leaned toward Miki menacingly. "Did you know that Mozart had
a sister too? That they were a team, like us? And that she died in
obscurity, despite the fact that even he knew she was better than him?"

"But you stopped playing... on your own." He drew back from her, puzzled
and horrified.

"Miki's playing is so beautiful, Kozue, why can't you play as well as him?"
she rapped out. "Miki's such a good boy, Kozue, why can't you be good like
him? Miki's such a dutiful child, Kozue, why can't you learn from him?" I
could see six silver hoops in her right ear as her hair shifted back.
"Well, I am myself now, Miki, dear. I am brilliant. I am better than you.
I've bested you at everything now." She took up the notebooks and strode
past us to the door. There she turned back, striking a pose in the doorway
-- hipshot, her right hand draped high on the doorframe. "At everything,"
she repeated, and held up her left hand.

A rose signet gleamed in the dim light.

"Did you miss it, dear brother?" she mocked. "Or did you just... forget?"
And with that, she was gone, leaving behind the fading sound of her boots
striking the tile and more of her bitter laughter.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
We picked our way around to the cafeteria next, avoiding the main quad. As
the others occupied a table, Juri and Anthy pushing Miki gently into a
seat, I fetched some tea. Students glanced aside at us, but no one reacted.
No one asked us who we were, or why we were there. After living in America
for so many years, it struck me as odd that I shouldn't have to defend my
presence anywhere I was out of place. I couldn't really pin down whether it
should be odd at Ohtori or not.

When I got back to the table, Miki was saying, "Well, I mean, I guess it
was mine. It could've been. But... I can't remember whether I lost it
before or after the last time I saw Kozue. I think it was after. So how
could she have gotten it?"

Saionji accepted tea with a nod, and said, "Like he doesn't have plenty of
rings to just hand out. She's probably bluffing."

"We may have misunderstood her," Juri pointed out. "She could have simply
noticed that Miki wasn't wearing his."

"She's so changed," Miki said despairingly. "So angry. At me? I don't
understand." I pressed a cup of tea into his hand and he stared into it.

"Miki," Nanami said quietly, "let me tell you something. She's angry at the
whole world. Not you."

"But why?" he asked.

"Because," Nanami said, laying one hand on his shoulder, "you're brilliant
and she's not. Because she feels she's always lived in your shadow. And
this is what the Chairman can give her: a spotlight."

I glanced at Anthy. Her eyes, fixed on Nanami, were full of old grief.

"Tenjou... Utena?"

I suppose I was a little over-reactive, wound up as we all were. I spun up
out of my chair at the sound of that tentative voice.

"Wakaba?" I stared at the slight figure in her skimpy little Ohtori uniform
("Nice, fluttering skirts," I thought viciously), holding a stack of books
in front of her.

"Utena?" she said again, a little louder, a little more sure. "UTENA!"

The next thing I knew, I was on the floor in a heap with Wakaba. She had
already gone through colliding with me and hugging me and saying my name
over and over, and had now taken hold of my shirt and was shaking me
furiously. "What happened to you? Why didn't you write? Why didn't you say
goodbye? Are you all right? You look terrible! What school are you at now?
There were such rumors! Did you really get hurt? Were you really expelled?
Why are you here? Who are all these people? What's going on?"

I managed to get hold of her hands and stop her from rattling my teeth out
of my head. "Wakaba? What are you doing here?" I asked, dazed. "You should
have graduated two years ago!"

"What are you talking about?" Wakaba sat up on my stomach and looked down
at me carefully. "Why do you look... so old?"

I stared at her. Shinohara Wakaba, exactly as I remembered her. Exactly.
From the exuberant ponytail to the spitcurl over her high forehead, from
the voice to the uniform. "Oh, god," I whispered. "He didn't let you
graduate."

"I'm a junior, Utena, you know that," Wakaba said, puzzled. "You are too.
Or... are you?" For the first time, she looked up at the group at the
table.

I peered up at the table. I could see Anthy smiling down at me sadly. Juri
and Nanami were still calmly drinking their tea. Miki was picking up the
books that Wakaba had flung aside, and Saionji was rubbing the side of his
head angrily.

"Sa-sa-sa-saionji-san!" Wakaba stuttered. "What happened to your hair?!"

Juri drained her tea and stood up. "Come on, we're attracting attention.
Let's get outside. We can explain to Shinohara-san a little more freely
there."

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
We stepped out into the quad, where hundreds of students were milling
around, walking, talking... I'd forgotten the thunderous din that their
voices made, echoed back by the high, white walls of the school. It was
like walking into a wall of noise. Only Saionji, Miki, and Wakaba didn't
wince when it hit us.

Wakaba clung to my arm, just like the old days. I felt suddenly naked
without my uniform. Anthy took my free hand. I smiled at her gratefully.

Juri led the way around a corner where the noise was somewhat less and we
were at least partially out of sight. We all stood around awkwardly for a
moment, and then Juri said, "Shinohara-san..."

Wakaba looked up at Juri suddenly and went pale. "A-a-a-arisugawa-sempai?"
She looked around more carefully. "Micky?" she asked, using the nickname
the girls used to use for him. Then, in a somewhat flatter voice, "Nanami-
san?" Her eyes settled on Anthy... and there was no recognition. But there
was a small flare of anger when she saw that Anthy was holding my hand.

"Wakaba," I began, feeling at a loss, "about what happened..."

"Oh, Utena!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "I forgot to tell
you! I'm engaged!"

My stomach flip-flopped. My eyes flicked to Anthy, then back to Wakaba.
"En... gaged?"

"Yes! Isn't it exciting?" She clasped her hands together and she looked up
at the sky, her eyes wide and dreamy. "We've been engaged for a whole month
now! He's so handsome! So kind! My very own prince!"

I glanced at Saionji. He refused to meet my eyes. "I'm, er, very happy for
you, Wakaba. Who is......?"

She looked back at me, then past me at the students in the quad. "Oh, no! I
have to get to class! Utena, you find me later, okay? I want to hear
everything, everything! Oooooooh, my own Utena-sama is back!" She hugged my
arm tightly and ran off.

I shut my mouth firmly.

"She always did fly around like that," Saionji said vaguely.

"What do you mean?" I asked, angrily.

He looked taken aback. "Just... she was... enthusiastic." I narrowed my
eyes at him. "Oh, come on, Tenjou, the girl's a ditz, stop looking at me
like that."

I glowered. "She's not a ditz. I'll thank you not to speak that way about
my best friend."

"Really?" he inquired, his temper rising to the occasion. "If she was your
best friend, why is she still here? Why didn't you care enough to rescue
her years ago?"

"Enough!" snapped Nanami and Juri at the same time. Saionji and I stared at
them, but they were staring at each other in surprise.

"Seitokaichou!"

"Seitokaichou!"

"Seitokaichou!"

We all spun as we heard the exclamations. I was expecting, of course,
Kiryuu Touga. I think we all were. But we saw...

The crowd of students parted like the Red Sea before Kozue, who strode
along the white pavement confidently, smiling and waving at her fans. I
heard sighs of, "Kaoru-sama," and, "She's so beautiful," and, "I wish I
could be like her," from some of the girls nearby.

We watched until she disappeared into one of the buildings.

"So," Juri said finally, "we know who the Student Council president is."

Anthy put an arm around Miki and led him back around the corner, speaking
to him softly.

"Do we... know who the Rose Bride is now?" Saionji asked. "I mean,
'engaged,' it's got to be..."

"No," Nanami said. "It's not her."

We all stared. "How do you know this?" Saionji asked.

Nanami smiled smugly. "The Rose Bride never wore a half-carat diamond
engagement ring."

Juri barked a laugh. "Good eye, Nanami," she complimented.

I slumped a little with relief.


  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
We drifted around a bit after that, back away from the quad where there
weren't so many people. We briefly stepped in to look at the fencing salle.
It was empty, but Juri stared down blankly from the balcony to the workout
floor. It took us a few moments to get her attention. Saionji wanted to
stop in the dojo, nearby, but the door was locked.

I was hot and tired and thirsty and trying very hard not to look at the
tower. My head hurt from the bright sunshine, and finally, I said, "Look,
let's find someplace to sit down for a bit and think. We aren't
accomplishing much this way."

"Really," Nanami said, mopping her forehead with a linen handkerchief.
"It's so hot. I don't remember it being so hot here, do you, Miki?"

"I don't," Miki said, then turned a self-deprecating smile on her. "But,
frankly, I don't remember noticing the weather much at all while I was...
here."

"Look!" said Nanami suddenly, looking past him. She pointed to a slender
young man who was sitting underneath a tree and reading a book. "He's
wearing a Student Council uniform!"

I exchanged a look with Juri.

"Well," growled Saionji -- maybe his head was hurting too. "Let's go talk
to him."

We all went over, Nanami striding ahead in eager curiosity. When I saw how
Saionji was walking -- bringing his feet down heavily, fists clenched -- I
fell into step beside him, hoping to moderate how much he vented his stormy
temper on this (relatively) innocent student.

The student was very much absorbed in his book. His short, pale hair,
dappled by the lights of the tree overhead, and the flash of his glasses
were all we could see of his face. But it was a Student Council uniform,
clearly enough: pale green trousers, white tunic, and braid.

Nanami walked right up to him. He turned a page of his book. She cleared
her throat.

He looked up, startled eyes going wider as he took her in, then the rest of
us, and scrambled to his feet. He bowed. "Um, can I help you?"

"Yes," said Saionji in a voice of thunder. I stepped on his foot, and
Nanami cut in neatly in the interval thus afforded. I missed whatever she
said as Saionji turned to glare at me.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Saionji hissed.

"We're not going to get much out of him if you scare him half to death," I
whispered. "Sorry."

"Tenjou-san --" he began dangerously, then stopped and contented himself
with another glare. We both turned back to the conversation in progress.

"I am Akimoto Toshiro, Kiryuu-san," the student said with another bow. "I
am honored to meet you. If you will forgive my asking, are you the sister
of Kiryuu Touga-san?"

Nanami looked considerably surprised. I felt considerably surprised.

"Yes," she said cautiously. "Do you know of him?"

"Of course," said Akimoto. "He is the kind advisor to the Student Council."

Nanami, for once, had nothing to say. I said, a little inanely, "So you're
a member of the Student Council?" My eyes dropped involuntarily to his
hand, which still held his book, one finger marking his place in it. He was
wearing a Rose Signet.

"A minor associate only," he said politely, but his eyes dropped to his
hand, following my gaze. He glanced over at me, down at my hand -- and
froze for a split second. "So, you are... alumni, then?" He stared at my
ring.

"Um, yes," I replied, caught off-balance by his quick deduction. "Back for
a visit."

"How extremely kind of you," he said formally, using the opportunity for
another bow to tear his eyes away.

Nanami gave me a brief sidelong glance, but if she meant to tell me
something with it, I missed it. She said, "Akimoto-kun, who..." She let the
sentence trail off, shaking her head. "I hope that we will meet again," she
said formally. "Perhaps when we visit the current Student Council. Good
morning."

"Um, good morning," said Akimoto, looking around at us. He picked up his
bookbag and looked wistfully at his comfortable reading spot before walking
off. No one else moved.

"Why didn't you ask him who else is on the Council, Nanami?" asked Saionji
bitterly.

"I didn't think of it," she snapped. "Why didn't you ask him who the Rose
Bride is? And you, Utena, what the hell did you mean by letting him know
that we were alumni?"

"I didn't let him know," I said, trying not to sound too defensive. "He
figured it out from the ring. And anyway--"

Saionji cut me off. "Great, now the Student Council will know that we're
here for sure. Kozue might've kept her mouth shut, but that means he--"

Anthy cut him off. "I doubt very much that he'll find out from the Student
Council. He won't be ignorant of our presence that long."

There was a little silence. Then: "He looked so young," said Miki, his
voice full of surprise. I had thought the same thing.

Juri said, suddenly, "If you want to know who the current Rose Bride is, I
can think of an easy way of finding out. We could go to the rose garden--"
her eyes slid sideways towards Anthy, "--and see who's taking care of it."

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
We paused in one of the nearby buildings to get some water, cool off, and
rest for a few minutes.

"I don't remember this building," I said, looking around at the high,
vaulted ceilings and arched windows so common at Ohtori. It was beautifully
cool, hidden away from the sun by all the grey stone here. I had a brief
sense of how old this building might be, all these perfect white buildings
standing like so many tombs, each with the same word written over the
door... It did make me wonder. "Was this here when...?"

"Yes," said Nanami. "I used to take dance lessons here. Look, you can see
the windows of the music rooms in the main building through the doors over
there."

Juri raised her hand for silence and we all heard footsteps clicking toward
us. She gestured sharply for us all to hide. I slid into a narrow niche
with her and Anthy. I glimpsed the other three stepping quietly into a
broom closet.

Click, click, click, click.

Then, from the other direction: click, click, click, click.

"President Kaoru," said a male voice, deep and ironic, but not at all
familiar.

"Vice President Fujiwara," Kozue said, just coming into view and stopping
there. We pressed further back in the niche, back against the wall, trying
to be as thin as possible. The stone I'd been blessing moments before felt
like it was freezing the sweat in a cold line down my spine, and it was all
I could do to keep my teeth from chattering. Anthy's body heat pressed
against my side. I could just see Juri's scowl by a thin line of light from
the hall.

The other stopped walking just out of sight. "You don't normally come into
this part of the building," he observed casually.

"We have visitors," she replied, equally casual.

"I know." He sounded bored.

Kozue smiled thinly. "They're old friends of Ends of the World."

"Failed duelists then?" Now he sounded vaguely interested

"You could say that," Kozue drawled, folding her arms and leaning against
the wall. "Or, perhaps, not."

There was the slightest of pauses before he replied. "Does it matter?
They're past it, Madame President. I spoke to Toshiro, too. They're old.
They missed their chance. It's kind of pathetic that they're even here,
don't you think?"

Kozue shrugged with one shoulder, tilting her head at the still-unseen Vice
President. "One of them reached the duel called Revolution. Of course," she
added, ironically, sweetly, "that was before your time."

A footstep sounded on the marble floor. "You can't mean that..."

Kozue shrugged again, smiling slightly. "I know what I know."

He laughed, shortly. "I wonder." He paused again, then: "You don't really
think any of them have the power to take the Bride from me, do you?" he
drawled.

"I don't think you should worry about them," Kozue said. "Perhaps you won't
have the Bride when they get to you."

"Oh, really?" That piqued his interest and a little warmth rose in his
voice. "Maybe you'd like to try?"

"Perhaps." Kozue produced a rose -- an intense, dark red, so dark it looked
nearly black -- and extended it to him. "The arena, after school."

"Hmph." He took the rose and walked past her, dropping it casually to the
floor at her feet. He was a tall, slender boy with broad shoulders and
long, dark hair, one side of which hung forward to partially veil his face.
His Student Council uniform had black trousers and his right sleeve was
black to the elbow. At the edge of my vision, he stopped and turned back to
face Kozue. "Oh, and Kaoru-san? Stay away from Hoshiko." His voice was
perfectly level and conversational, but there was an edge to accompany the
verbal warning. "I have as many eyes as you do." Then he turned and
continued on his way.

Kozue remained leaning against the wall, watching after him, her smile
fading with each passing moment to an ugly sneer. When we could no longer
hear his steps, she pushed off from the wall. We heard her walk a little
way down the hall and open a door. "Hello, Hoshiko-chan," echoed her voice
with chilly clarity. "How are you today? Just stopping by to give you a
little Student Council news..." The door closed, presumably behind her, and
we couldn't hear her any more.

Juri stepped cautiously from the niche and peered around. Satisfied that
the hall was empty, she gestured us out and opened the door to the others'
hiding place. We hurried toward. The only available door for Kozue to have
passed through read, "Dance Studio."

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
Outside, we leaned against the shaded but still warm wall at the back of
the building and sighed with relief.

"That was close," Miki muttered.

"At least we know who the current Victor is now," Saionji said. "It was
worth it to find that out."

"Interesting that it's the Vice President," Juri said, peering
speculatively at Saionji.

"Equally interesting that Kozue is challenging him now," Nanami commented.

"We could sneak into the forest and up the stairs, I suppose," I said, a
little dubiously.

"We could put a stop to the whole thing!" Saionji said, nodding furiously
and shaking his fist, which happened to be holding his katana. I stared
momentarily at his hands, fascinated by the realization that no one had
questioned him about carrying a weapon around the campus. "End it all right
there."

"It won't end that easily," Anthy said gently.

"No," Juri agreed. "I know a place we can watch the whole thing and not be
seen." She smiled grimly. "We don't have any opera glasses though."

"Then we'd best be getting over to the rose garden," Nanami said. "I want
to know who the Bride is once and for all, dammit. We're finding out
everything but that."

"If it's not... your brother," Miki said slowly, "will you stay and help us
anyway?"

Nanami turned an outraged look upon him, but her face softened almost
immediately. Her mouth twisted into a wry smile. "He's here, and involved,
so it doesn't matter whether he's the Bride or a Duelist or something
else... he's part of it, and I want to get him out."

Miki matched Nanami's smile with his own, then sighed. Then he looked up at
Juri. "Juri-san... why did you come with us? I mean, Nanami and Saionji-san
and I... we all have people we need to help. But you were free."

Juri leveled her gaze at him, then looked away across the grassy field
toward the woody outer verges of Ohtori. "Ending things. My job is all
about ending things. It's just part of my personality, tidying up loose
ends."

We all stood in silence after that, listening to the calls and voices of
students in the distance.

Nanami looked around. "Let's move on. I don't really want to stay still
under the many eyes of either Fujiwara or Kozue."

"Or..." I began, then trailed off, looking upward.

"Nor him either," Nanami muttered, then strode off to find the rose garden.
We all followed.

I dropped back beside Anthy and took her hand. As we entered the hall that
housed most of the classrooms, I looked over my shoulder automatically for
the guidance counselor, but thankfully the halls were empty. We hurried
past the classrooms and into the shadowed arches of the cloister walk which
surrounded the greenhouse of Anthy's old rose garden. I felt Anthy's steps
growing slower and more reluctant on the stone floor of the arched arcade
and squeezed her hand reassuringly.

We stepped out onto the lawn and there it was, the glass gleaming in the
sunshine. I looked up at the cloudless blue sky and thought of Greece, of
the glass-hard reality of that clear, brilliant sky. This sky was brighter,
but more distant. When I moved toward the greenhouse, following the others,
the pull of Anthy's hand in mine stopped me. Anthy didn't move. She stood
frozen to the spot, staring.

I looked at the Birdcage. It hadn't changed. Even the spray of red roses
near the door looked exactly as I had remembered. I thought, suddenly, of
watching Anthy remove dead blooms, prune branches and leaves, and pluck
spoiled fruit from the plants in our garden at home. I tried to remember
seeing her do that here, but I couldn't. I remembered her watering, cutting
roses to put in a vase, and... not much else.

Anthy still hadn't moved. I turned to her, wanting to tell her that it was
all right, that she didn't have to... She looked up and smiled at me. "I
know," she said.

I squeezed her hand again and we started walking forward again, slowly. The
others were already at the door. Saionji pushed it open.

Anthy and I walked slowly up to the Birdcage. She dropped my hand, and went
forward, but not to the door. She laid the palm of her hand on the glass
and looked inside. Then she looked at me. "I'll wait out here," she said,
simply.

I nodded and went inside.

There was someone watering the roses. Or, rather, he had been watering the
roses. He stood still now, the graceful watering can (the same watering
can) held suspended in one surprised hand.

It was Akimoto Toshiro.

He looked from one to another of us with an expression of calm bafflement,
but said nothing.

I could hear Nanami say, in an undertone, "Well, he does wear glasses..."

Saionji was not so subtle. "He's the Rose Bride?!"

Akimoto heard this -- indeed, could not help hearing it. "Oh, no," he
stuttered. "I'm just... helping out. I mean, the... Rose Bride... is always
so busy. Are you looking for...?" He let the sentence trail off, looking at
us uncertainly. "I mean, outsiders aren't supposed to know about... but
you're not really outsiders, are you?"

"Not really," said Juri. She stood looking out at the green lawn of the
cloisters. After a thoughtful pause, she asked, "Akimoto-san, how long have
you been on the Student Council?" Her voice was gentle, detached.

"Oh, only for a semester..."

"Arisugawa Juri."

"Arisugawa-san."

"I see. I suppose it's a great responsibility."

"Oh, yes, Arisugawa-san. I am very honored to have been chosen."

"And have you dueled yet?"

He flushed uncomfortably and carefully set the watering can on the little
bench. "No. I have not... I haven't yet."

"But you attend the meetings."

"Of course! I attend, and listen. When it is my turn, then I will duel."
His voice trailed off a little.

"How many people are on the current Student Council, Akimoto-san?"

"Five," he replied uncertainly. I saw Nanami and Saionji exchange a puzzled
look. "Arisugawa-san, I am not sure that I should be telling you this..."

Juri turned to look at him, catching his uncertain gaze. "I was on the
Student Council, once," she said.

He nodded.

"Take my advice," she said, suddenly harsh. "And get out of it." Then she
turned and walked out of the greenhouse. The rest of us followed in a
ragged group, pulled along in the wake of her exit. There seemed to be
nothing else to do.

Juri walked past Anthy, into the building and through to the quad on the
other side. It must have been in the middle of the hour; the lawn was
deserted although we could hear distant voices from the windows of the
buildings. We had to run to catch up with her.

Saionji and Miki both spoke at once when we caught up. "Arisugawa, why
didn't you ask--" "Juri-san, are you--"

Juri shook her head once, sharply. "It would have been no good, bullying
him. We learned something, anyway."

"Even if we still don't know who the Rose Bride is," Nanami snapped.

Juri shook her head again.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
We were sitting in a group under the tree where we found Toshiro earlier --
the same tree, I recalled, that Wakaba and I sat under for lunch many days.
Saionji and Juri had gotten us all cans of iced tea. The sun had become
unbearable after the rose garden, and we needed to cool off again before
our already short tempers began to flare.

Students went by: chatting, running, shouting, jumping around on the
masonry -- all the things one does between classes in high school. Heat
waves shimmered up from the pavement, distorting everything slightly.

"Damn, it's hot," Nanami muttered. "I wish I'd dressed for this, rather
than real November weather."

"Shall I throw you into the swimming pool?" Saionji inquired sweetly.

"NO!" Nanami snapped, eyes wide, starting up from her seat. When we all
stared at her reaction, she settled back down and put up a huffy veneer.
"What a stupid thing to say, Kyouichi! How childish!"

He eyed her sidelong. "Oh, right, you had a dip already today," he
commented, taking a drink.

She glared at him. "Well, you're all ready to fight, despite the fact that
you were obviously beaten not once, but twice today."

He bristled. "That's different."

"Oh, stop it," Juri said tiredly. "We've all had a very long day -- or
several days, or something -- and we don't need to make it worse by poking
each other's sore spots."

Into the ensuing silence, Miki said, "My fingers still hurt, Anthy. Is that
supposed to happen?"

"Only when you think about it," she said, although she took the cryptic
edge off with a smile.

We watched the students again. I spotted Wakaba in the crowd, chatting
cheerfully with a number of other girls, but I couldn't summon the energy
to call out to her. I thought I glimpsed Kozue again, moving among a mob of
admirers, but I wasn't sure. There were other faces I thought I recognized,
scattered here and there among the crowd. Were they just people who looked
like my friends from six years ago? Or hadn't they been allowed to graduate
either?

I had expected it to feel familiar. I had, I told myself. But I hadn't
expected it to feel so unchanged. As though we had never left, or had never
been here...

Nanami proved herself more observant -- or, perhaps, less distracted --
than the rest of us again. "Hey, look. It's Fujiwara."

Miki raised his head and peered into the late afternoon glare. "There's...
someone walking with him, I think. Well, several people."

Juri's head snapped around from contemplating the ocean. "Let's get closer.
The Bride may be there."

Saionji sprang to his feet and began to walk fast. We all fell into step
with him. I gripped Anthy's hand tightly. When I looked over at her face,
her lips were pressed tightly together and she was frowning.

Fujiwara stopped, and the gaggle of students around him stopped as well. He
turned toward us slowly. We all stopped about twenty feet from him... all
except Juri, who continued another several steps before halting. She wasn't
looking at him.

I looked where she was staring. A girl, dressed in the standard Ohtori
uniform, stood there with her hands clasped modestly before her. Her hair
was captured into a traditional bun at the nape of her neck. She looked
down at the ground through large, round, wire rim glasses.

"Shiori..."

Juri's voice sounded like it hurt her to use it, and her hand drifted to
her throat, just under her chin, where the bruises had been earlier.
Takatsuki Shiori raised her head and peered up at Juri without a single
hint of recognition.

"I didn't think he'd try to put them on someone else," murmured Anthy in a
shaking voice. I glanced at her involuntarily, unable to read the rising
flood of emotion in her eyes. "I left them behind."

Fujiwara stood with one hand resting on his hip, watching Juri's face
dispassionately. "I gather that you know my fiancee?"

Shiori smiled vaguely at Juri. "Excuse me. I am Takatsuki Shiori. And your
name...?"

An expression of... horror? fear? anger?... flickered briefly over Juri's
face before she mastered herself. "Pardon me," she said, bowing. "Arisugawa
Juri."

Some kind of recognition made Shiori's eyes widen slightly. "Arisu...?"

Fujiwara's eyebrow rose. "Well, it's very nice to meet you, Arisugawa-san,"
he said perfunctorily. "Unfortunately, Shiori and I..."

"I was under the impression," Juri said, ignoring Fujiwara, "that you and I
had graduated together, Shiori-san."

Shiori blinked owlishly at Juri, her mouth opening and working.
"Arisugawa?"

"I have a pressing appointment," Fujiwara pressed on, sharpening his voice
and taking Shiori's hand.

Juri locked eyes with Shiori.

A light went on behind Shiori's eyes. She suddenly burst out, "Juri-san!"
Then she covered her mouth with her free hand and looked guiltily at
Fujiwara. With visible effort, she recomposed her expression into the sweet
blankness it had when we had approached.

"Didn't we, Shiori?" Juri pursued hoarsely, not even sparing a glance for
the Student Council Vice President.

Shiori's eyes were large and innocent as she said, "But you left me behind,
Juri-san. You always left me behind in so many things. Why should it have
been different this time?" And she allowed Fujiwara to lead her off, though
she kept watching Juri's face for a moment, almost greedily.

Juri's face remained blank as the Rose Bride turned away. Then she turned
and stalked blindly back through us, moving inexorably through students who
had, apparently, gathered round curiously.

I looked at Anthy and she shook her head, very slightly, and let go my
hand. When I looked at her, confused, she just nodded after Juri. I
blinked, looked at Juri's departing back, and jogged after her. Miki had
started toward Juri, but had stopped, his conflict evident in his face. I
passed him with a pat of reassurance (that I didn't really feel).

Once free of the students, Juri had left the path to return to the tree.
She stood, one hand resting on the trunk, staring at the spectacular
sunset. Ohtori always did have spectacular sunsets.

I approached cautiously, and laid a hand between her shoulder blades. Her
shirt was damp with sweat -- her jacket lay at her feet, where she'd left
it in her hurry to catch up to Fujiwara. We stood like that for a few
moments.

Juri finally looked around at me, eyes stormy, and bitterly snarled, "Loose
ends."

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
Have you ever really thought about the two of them? (asked Miki, while
Anthy was elsewhere) What are they? Who are they? How old are they? Where
do they come from? Why are they here? Why is he wasting his time in some
boarding school in Japan? Why is she working a regular job, living in an
apartment in Boston? What did they do before Ohtori? Did Ohtori exist
before them, or did they create it? Does Ohtori exist without them? Without
him?

And what is this game he plays, where we still wander the edges of the
board? We are pieces, colored by the hand that touches us, set against
whoever his pawns and knights and princes are now. Colored by her hand,
really.

I so want to believe that we're in the right, that we're coming to the
rescue, that we're really the princes this time. But can we? Can any of us
really be a prince, after all? What is a prince, anyway?

@---To be continued---@