Pray for the Revolution - Chapter One by Tenjou Utena neodios@email.com The sun was shining brightly - as if it was May but not October. Its hot rays sparkled on a lake's surface, danced on a wave's tops. There was only one person who was listening to the water splash that early morning. Rose colour haired girl was staring at the lake. Its sounds disturbed her. Listening to it, she was recollecting something bad - her eyes were filled with tears - and something good - her face was lightened with a serene smile. The wind had turned the pages of the brochure that rested on her knees, and the girl came round. She got up and walked along the avenue. She was turning the pages, but didn't seem to be reading anything. Deep in her thoughts, she hadn't heard the rustle of the scattering leaves and the chatter of heels approaching her from the heart of the park. She thought it was all a sudden: the curl of the multicoloured leaves, the book knocked out of her hand, someone's embrace... "Oops, I beg your pardon, charming lady!" There was a little bit sarcastic voice she heard, and a heavy breathing almost at her face. "I'm pretty late so I absolutely forgot to look around... but of course that's not enough for the excuse." Surprised girl stared at the one who was still holding her shoulders. She hadn't objected, but her stare was considered as reproachful. "Forgive me for this embrace too... But otherwise we could have fell together. Don't you think that might have been much more ambiguous situation? Well then, let me help you." With this said, he squatted to lift the brochure. The girl had descried him finally. Although the voice sounded like rather coarse feminine, it was a boy. He was about eighteen years old. He acted self-assurely, even imprudent sometimes - as if he was playing the game he'd made up by himself and was surrounded by people who had no clue they were players too. He was dressed in an unusually coloured grey and violet school uniform cut out like a typical private school uniform and a black peak cap put awry and cocked at a jaunty angle. He erected, surveying the brochure. He was about four inches taller then the girl, dark-complectioned and well proportioned. Pushing his steel coloured fringe off the eyes, he whistled: "Hey... it's our Academy publicity prospectus! My article is somewhere here. Are you going to enter?" He glanced at the girl from under his naughty wavy fringe. Violet eyes of the stranger looked into the girl's blue eyes unexpectedly and returned to the prospectus. "Yeah, enter.." The girl said in fascination. "Then we'll meet again!" The boy ascertained gladly, giving her back the brochure, and picked up his brief-case from the paved walkway. "Ah, whatever... I'm going to be late... actually, I am already. Boku wa Yurino Kage. If you'll ever be at the Ohtori Academy, look for me somewhere at the high school. How 'bout introducing yourself?" "Utena... Tenjou Utena." "Interesting name..." He hemmed. He slung his brief-case on his shoulder and walked away. He made some steps and turned around. "Bye, Calyx!" Utena looked down at the book. "Ohtori Academy...?" * * * Kage was sitting on the high school stairs. The teacher had driven him out of the class for the 20 minutes lateness. "Sure! I wish I could have a look at him missing the last excursion bus and crashing around the city all that time..." He had spent the evening at the bus parking and had been gazing at the stars all night long in the park. "A-ah, anyway, it's so hard to concentrate without having sleep and especially meal..." * * * The wind blew, and few rose petals fell at Kage's feet. Kage raised the head. One more whirling rose petal of snow white colour came down from somewhere above. * * * Nobody ever believed he saw that. But he surely saw - that square area in the mid-air and the stairs guiding up to it. He picked up his brief-case and walked along the street formed by the two school blocks. He was approaching the mysterious structure unable to take his eyes off it. Leaning his head back, he gazed at the place where the slender train of the rose plume descended from. He had been watched by someone's attentive eyes, and he knew for sure that they were exactly green eyes, estranged eyes of emerald colour. * * * Dark haired mistress of the rose bed turned the water on. Sparkling fountain watered the red and white field of flowers. * * * The wind blew, and cold drops fell on Kage's face. He shuddered, but the owner of the emerald eyes shuddered too. Standing at the edge of the arena, she stared at the lonely figure far below her. Flashing drops hit her back and legs, remaining ones dropped down at the feet of a man standing at the road. He could not see her, but he looked up and felt her presence. "Anthy." The girl stepped back hastily and turned around. "Akio onii-sama..." * * * Kage felt the chills down his spine passing off and the emerald gaze leaving him. Rain-like drops from the cloudless sky seemed to him like the tears suddenly. * * * "Who's there?" "What?" "I asked who had you been looking at." "I just stared at that magnificent school." "Really?" Akio stepped forward to stand at her side and looked down, but nobody was there. * * * Kage felt the freezing and deathly coldness suddenly. "Here you go, damned romantic, you've get pretty wet," he grumbled and hurried to warm himself in the nearest foyer. * * * Akio's heart started to beat frantically - half because of seeing such a distant ground, half because of something else, something incomprehensible. But it was really deserted down there. "You're so bold to look from this high." He sighed. "Come on, little sister, I want you to pose for me." "New painting?" "Yep. I want to imprint you being free for the last time." * * * "Jesus Christ..." Kage sniffed, taking a seat on the bench behind the rose-bush. "The entire Student Council...!" "So... it's the 27th?" The blue haired youth asked, making some note in the large notebook with the Academy emblem. "Yep, this year 27th of October," President Kiryuu confirmed. "Why?" Haughty Arisugawa raised her eyebrow. "Does it matter?" Saionji shrugged his shoulders in irritation. "This sort of case is worth putting your own business aside. However you may refrain... I'm sure I'll win so you can even refrain from coming at all." "The letter reads that 10.27 is a mystical and significant date for the Ends of the World... yet I've got the feeling that its significance is obscure to Sekai no Hate." Touga gave Miki the letter. "But the attendance is really free." "What nonsense are they talking?.." Kage wondered looking out of the bushes. "Whatever, I'm coming." Juri took a look at the letter. "This is a chance to win the Bride." "Wow," Kage blinked in amazement. "Various crap is rumoured, but if she's gonna search the bride along with three guys, one should have something to think about..." "There are NO chances you have." Saionji grinned. "The Bride of the Rose will be mine, and all the power will be mine as well." "There's nothing written about the tournament form here..." Miki remarked uncertainly. "Exactly. That's why I suggest to refrain from shouting about one's victory," Touga cast a sullen glance at Saionji, "and to prepare for any ordeals." * * * " Ohtori Academy..." Utena was reading the names of the articles authors. One of the last articles was titled 'The Rose Kingdom' and was signed by Yurino Kage. "The first thing to greet you here will be the hedge of the cream coloured roses and only then - the stone rose at the school gates, the emblem of the Academy..." * * * "Kage-sama! Kage-sama! Kage-sama!!!" Stretching himself, he came out of the class. "Is it true that you have birthday soon?" 'My God, he thought, where in the world they get such data sources?' "Yep, that's true. To be exact, it's 27th." "What roses do you like the most?" "I like lilies... and white roses." "And the odour?" "What?" "The smell, what's your fave smell?" "I don't smell any fragrances. Can I come back? I need to finish the crib." "...Then I'll choose the deodorant for you by myself." "Hold it there, it's too expensive." "Even for me?" 'Oh no... Kozue...' "I really have to go... but... wait..." He lingered but came closer then. "Hi, you chemistry terror... I haven't heard your brother playing his grand piano recently. Had he moved on his music class frightened by my old haunted dorms?" "Well... he's so busy... just like you." "Busy doing what?" "Will you take a walk with me?" Clenching his teeth, Kage took Kaoru's arm. "So?" He asked when they'd passed by the bunch of his classmates. "That's how the rumours appear," Kozue remarked contentedly, turning round the corner. "Don't you know you stain my image being so inaccessible...? What have you asked about?" "Miki." "Oh, yeah. He buried himself in training. As well as Juri. Oh, and it's quite impossible to get Touga or Saionji out of their stupid kendo club. Whether they idols or not, all of them are cranks in a way..." It was obvious that councillors' conversation accidentally overheard by Kage was much more important than it seemed to him. Something far global dwelled behind it, but Kage could not understand what exactly. He needed information to transform his vague presentiment into something more definite. If only he could learn more... "Thanks," Kage let Kozue's arm out of his distractedly. He felt chills coming down his spine. Emerald eyes were somewhere there. "Break will end soon, and you need to return to your block yet." * * * Anthy knew for sure - he was somewhere there. She hadn't descried neither his face, nor his clothes, but she was certain that she could recognize him. She felt him as she had felt once already. * * * "O.K., if you want to get rid of me - you will," Kozue approached the stairs. "I have attestation in biology in a week. Can I come?" "Sure." "Then see you later! Anyway I don't need an excuse to come." "Yeah..." Kage waved his hand after the girl running downstairs. The owner of the magic gaze was very close, but obviously wasn't hurry to look around trying to prolong the time of the exciting waiting. The bell rang eventually. The corridor became deserted momentarily. They remained tet-a-tet at the entire floor at the opposite ends of the corridor. They turned around simultaneously and at that exact moment the corridor plunged into the twilight - the sun had been covered by the tousled dove colour storm cloud. Clasping her arms to her chest, Anthy stepped forward trying to make out the young men standing in the shadows. The light sparkled on his hair as if it was steel - he took a step too. But before something could have happened... "Anthy, there you are." Man's voice reached them from the shadowed colonnade. "You're expected to be in your class." "Yes, I'm coming!" The girl hastily turned around and disappeared in the colonnade's semi-light. Chattering steps of the speaker followed her. "Anthy..." Kage repeated, covering his eyes from the sun peeping out from behind the clouds. "So that is your name... Greece flower..." * * * Days passed by all of them. One had spent them in the gymnasium, in one's studio, among roses or dreams, in the silence of one's cosy house or in the noisy bustle of the school corridors. Kage hadn't been looking for Anthy. Somehow he got a feeling their meet could harm her - he remembered the voice that had separated them, and the coldness, pursuing him ever since that day. However, he put the coldness down at some indisposition. "Had too much studies," he explained everybody. "What? You?" Kozue snorted. "Then I had, too. As well as Himemiya." "What's wrong with her?"' "What's wrong with you?" "Had too much studies..." "You have a crush on her, haven't you? Whenever I mention her..." "Kozue, you're baka... I'm just curious." "Well, she's our dean's sister. Since that studying isn't obligatory for her... as opposed to you or me." "Quit dreaming, write the reactions down. I'm your boss now." "Yurino Kage-san, may I ask you for a favour?" the teacher looked from behind the edge of the cracked vase. "Can you please take it to the home economics department and ask to glue it up? I'll check your assistant's work." "Oh no..." Kozue moaned. "Don't put me in a spot." Kage winked at her and took the china vase. It was so cumbersome that Kage could hardly see the path. Shouting 'Beware' in a middle of the large break was quite meaningless - no one could hear anything though the noise. "Kage-sempai, may I help you?" "Oh, Miki, it's you... Thanks. Together we can smash this damned vase significantly sooner. Why don't you just play for me tonight? What music room will you play in?" "Actually... I don't play currently. I'm sorry. I'm having fencing training instead." "Kozue told me there would not be any competitions in the nearest future. You've got season acute condition... e-er, I mean, er, c-cute activity increase?" "Sorta... I'll take part in the most important competition in the end of this month. If I win, I'll play you the most beautiful melody ever composed... no, I'll compose it for you... no, if only I win, the world will be the beautiful melody itself!.." "Wo-ow!" Kage carefully went round the group of a students, keeping Miki in his sight. "So all I have to do is to wait until 27th?.." "Yes, twenty... Kage-sempai, how do you come to know about the date?" "How come? It's you who told me few seconds ago." "Me?" "Yep. Look, you better skip the training today - you've given out noticeably... Oh, by the way, your sister have made considerable progress in her studies. There'll be no more problems with biology." "Thank you very much, Yurino-sempai. You're the only one I know to treat her this way." "What way?" "As anyone else, as an ordinary student." "You know, I'm not sure I understood anything, but I apprecia-a-a-a!!! Someone pushed Kage accidentally. He tried to to keep his balance and hold on the vase, but its heavy edge hit the metal grating. "Abunai! Beware everyone!!!" China splinters scattered and fell on the corridor floor. Miki bounced back cunningly, those who had been standing near the window managed to hide behind the columns. There was only the heap of of the china shives remained in Kage's blood-soaked palms. Raising his gaze he saw another victim of the accident - a young man holding an imposing file with a long scratch bleeding on his hand. "Oh my... it's terrible! I'm sorry, I must have tripped or ... that's doesn't matter. It's my fault anyway..." Noticing some papers on the floor, Kage squatted to lift them. "Ohtori-san, somebody pushed him", Miki said. "It's really not his fault." "Wait," Akio frowned, squatting near Kage, and caught his hand before it touched the paper. "These are important documents. One shouldn't stain them with blood." Slowly as if it was a dream, a drop of blood slipped down his chocolate skin. Kage's fingers squeezed in Ohtori's hand became quite cold and shudered when some strange blood got into the one of the multiple small cuts. Like an icy bead got under the skin and melted in his blood. "What's your name?" "Ohtori-san, it's really not his fault! I told you I saw someone had pushed him!" Miki hadn't calmed down yet. "My name is Yurino Kage, 12"e" class," Kage replied, not listening to him. "You're bleeding." "You too." "I'll give you my handkerchief..." Kage stood up and pulled the handkerchief out of the back pocket while Akio gathered the papers and erected. "Your hand, please. "Kage couldn't came round. If there was somebody else instead of this man, he would have laughed off, but now he felt strange depression - his hand was numbing, and the voice... the voice that interrupted his sudden meet with Anthy... The witnesses of the accident attentively watched Kage folding the handkerchief and Akio stretching his arm. But till Kage was smoothing the band, thick steam of blood flowed down his injured palm into Ohtori's wound. He pulled the wounded hand aside like burned. "I'll better turn to the first aid post... You should do it, too." He added hastily, trying to avoid attracting attention to his reaction. "E-er, Miki..." Kage appealed to Kaoru, when Akio got out of their sight and all witnesses went out to share their impressions. "I do realize I'm a dork, but... who was that?" "That man? Akio Ohtori, the Academy dean." "Himemiya's brother?" "Yep." "Pretty bad luck... Wonderful day, ne? It's only morning now, but I've almost killed the dean already. What will happened till evening, I wonder?.." "I'm not sure about the evening, but you have a birthday the week after. If only you neglect your wounds they'll inflame and you'll be unable to hold the tea spoon because of the multi-layered bonds on your hands." Kage glanced at his blood-soaked palms. "How shell I explain it to the teacher?.." "There's no need to. Everybody saw it was an accidence..." Miki kept speaking, assuredly and sedately. Kage could not concentrate on his voice and words meaning. Ice-cold coiling snake of the strange blood flew in his veins and that feeling pushed into background all the rest sensations. "You're OK? Kage-sama, you're so pale!" "I'm... cold." Kage pronounced hardly moving his cold lips and took some unsteady steps for the window, lightly pushing aside the students who supported him. Gaining his might all together, he opened the window wide. There was a ground in a turbid haze somewhere far below, and up there, much, much closer to him, someone's figure leaned over the tender roses. "Watch out, he's gonna fall out of the window!" He just wanted Anthy just to glance at him. Whatever cold shade of emerald was the colour of her eyes, it could warm him... Anthy raised her head. Fluffy scarlet rose trembled in her hand, shedding it's velvet petals. "Look at me," Kage whispered . "Have he said something?" People vanished around him. "Just turn around... and cast a glance..." He said in a breaking voice. "Is he raving?" "Oh my, he must be raving!" "Kage's raving!" * * * Anthy squeezed the flower convulsively and the wind carried some red petals away. He needed her help, and it was so easy to help - merely turn around and take a look. 'Cast a glance', the wind whispered to her. 'Turn around', the multicoloured buds prayed. It was so easy... and so hard - to cast a glance she thought can never be resurrected again. To cast a glance she had cast only at her prince... A simple glance was a betrayal. Anthy hurried to raise and turn around. The wind hit her back, played with her deep violet hair plaiting the rose petals into it... but the window the boy was supposed to be in was empty. The world became mute and turbid. The last thing he saw were bloody red petals carried away by the wind. * * * Utena was sitting muffing in a blanket on the uncovered bed in her semi-dark bedroom. Cold midnight air creeped into the room through the open window. Somewhere far away in an old dorm at the outskirts of the Academy Kage lay on the bed with one hand gangling in a steam of the cold air coming in from the wide opened window. But the air seemed nearly burning in comparison with the freezing drop of Akio's blood. The dean has got tangled the injured hand in about unbuttoning the shirt. Hissing in pain he disengaged it carefully. It would heart less if he didn't wash it so thoroughly but Kage's blood had been burning him and depriving of rest. Whenever he'd closed his eyes he'd seen a strange room with two-tier bed and an unskilful vague drawing attached to the wall at the head of the upper tier of the bed. But the wound was clear now. Nothing disrobed him any more - the vision ceased being importunate. Sitting at the edge of the bed, Akio took his shirt finally and leaned down to the sleeping girl's lips. Kage rolled himself up to a ball, propping his head against the wall an almost indiscernible in the twilight drawing had been attached on. Clutching his ice cold fingers to the chest he looked at the drawing but saw completely another sight - vast field of the red and white roses, long sword in his hand, white clothes... filled with admiration Himemiya's eyes, her trustful smile... 'Every rose has it's own colour, it's own aquires, it's own mystery hidden within the tightly folded bud. People are just like that - they have their own characters, their hidden abilities. Teachers of the Academy are ready to help all their students by working out a special curriculum aimed to reveal those hidden talents as fully as possible. As everywhere in the gardens, there must be careful gardeners...' She hadn't been reading by now - it was too dark - the words revealed in her mind as Utena followed the indiscernible lines by her fingertips. 'Long-long time ago in a far, far away land...' Utena pulled her hand aside the prospectus. '...there lived the Rose Prince who made all the girls in the world into princesses.' "Where is that prince now?" Her question remained without the answer again. The Prince of the Rose... The rose... 'The rose is refine and magnificent. It symbolize the beauty and style, and only such an elite school as Ohtori Academy could be able to afford to choose the rose to be it's emblem.' * * * "Kage-sama, can I come in?" "Kage-sama! Kage sama-a-a-a!" "Kage-sempai!" "Yurino Kage-san, open the door!" "Let me, let me!" Kozue resolutely pushed aside Kage's classmates. She approached the door and started knocking on it with the toe. "Wake up, you lazybones! I've got the tests tomorrow so get out of there! I know you don't care if you'll have problems with teachers, but what about me, you boss?!" "Gomen nasai, Kozue..."The voice coming from behind the door seemed to belong not to Kage, but to a much older tired man. "Forgive me all of you, but... I can not." "Are you sick?" Kozue asked plaintively. "Shall I call the doctor?" "No," Kage answered in a wheezy voice leaning against the door. "There's no disease, but... tell the teacher I've caught a cold." "Hey, it must be deadly cold in your room!" Kozue shudered touching the door. "Can you tell me what's going on?!" "If only I knew... I would have known how to stop it!" "Am I able to help?" "N-no..." "Who does then?" "I don't know... Just leave me here." "You always helped me, and Miki, and others... We want to help you now. Kage! Kage, do you hear me? Answer me!.." * * * "Hey, have you heard already?" "About what?" "Yurino-san, the one who lives in seclusion in the cursed dorm." "Kage-sama! So what about him?" "He made an attempt on the dean's life." "?!" "He wanted to kill our dean." "Stupid rumour. I was told it had been an accidence." "Nonsense." "Nonsense is what you've said! He didn't attempt to kill anyone. He's KAGE after all! My boyfriend just pushed him when Kage carried a vase." "OK, OK. Then what can your 'boyfriend' tell us about the dean's and Kage's illness?" "?!" "Yep, I haven't seen neither of them almost for a week." "The dean must be quite busy as well as Student Council members, they seem to be preparing for something very significant." "Well, Kage is to be sick. Ask his classmates or teachers who tried to figure out what had happened to him... ask Kozue, at least... He's said to have an extremely bad condition." "That's the curse of the dorm at the outskirts. Someone is said to die there... by getting killed." "Kage will probably die too..." "If you love Saionji, you still have no right to talk this way about the one who's better than he is." "Wha-a-at?! Who's better than my Saionji-sama?" "Calm down. Tatsuya is yours and Saionji is common." "That big nosed spooky feeble guy is better than my Saionji? That scraggy malicious know-all is BETTER..." "Sounds like you don't fill sorry for him." "Well..." Anthy was listening attentively to this emotional conversation of four girls of her age. It eliminated her last doubt. Squeezing the bunch of white roses tightly, she went down the path guiding to the old dorms. Kage lay leaning over the edge of his bed. He gazed through the window-glass at the thick storm clouds carried by the autumn wind. October happened to be windy but hot. Leaves still burned on the trees and the late roses of the hedge were blooming with all their might and main. He had spent almost a week in his room, but he didn't feel neither hunger, nor thirst, nor loneliness. He hadn't close his eyes even for a moment - he did not need slumber to see the dreams of the strange life. But something was wrong today. He'd come to an edge and needed to go somewhere now, but where? He was tired of living in a strange body with the foreign memories, tired of being other's past. Staying in this rave or doing something, but what? "Kage-san? That is your name, isn't it?" Anthy asked timidly, flattening herself against the door. "I'm not sure of it any more..." He sighed. "But I am sure." "You're late. You can not be sure of anything." "I can be sure of you." Tears were filling her eyes as Himemiya spoke snuggling up to the door tighly. "There will be tournament tomorrow, you know what I mean, don't you?" "He's gonna draw the right to possess you." "Please run away. I want to save you, believe me. If there's still something precious to you, leave it all and escape from this world, he wouldn't forgive your existence." Kage was silent. Grey canvases had been curtaining with the white silk, and two pills were falling into the long crystal goblet. "Kage, do you hear me? It's time to decide, and I decide you will be saved. You'll escape. Kage?.." And all over again - silver sword, white cap, red carpets of the palace, gold brocade of the princess dress, white lace of the jabot, white paper, white silk of the pillow... white mist over the Academy, white clouds pierced by the steeples of the castle, white and red roses of the Arena... white and red dress of the Rose Bride. "Kage, do you hear me?" "Yes." "Have you decided?" "Yes." The voice had changed - it was the same young highish voice again. Anthy recoiled, and Kage clung to the door simultaneously. "Farewell, Kage..." Anthy whispered. Roses fell to the floor. "Tell me something at parting..." "One day you'll be free again..." Cold blood drop creeped down the door out of his palm. * * * Akio lay on the bed in his studio. Last painting was almost finished. It just lacked few strokes to be completed, but he could not concentrate. That dim familiar drawing that he kept dreaming of all trough the night deprived him of rest. He closed his eyes. A drop of blood creeped down and a little bit slantwise, crossing the drawing - dark skin, light curls, eyes of the sea waves... Young Rose prince. Dios, conjured by the power of love. Dios, killed by the same power. Akio straightened, sitting on the bed. To be continued... (c) September 5th, 2000 Tenjou Utena. Used here with permission. Shoujo Kakumei Utena is (c) 1997 BePapas and Tokyo Terebi.