THE DEFINITION OF REALITY Sword of the Rose SwordoftheRose@aol.com "Everything which you can imagine is real." -Pablo Picasso *** Anguish filled her heart as she watched the open coffin fall. She could hear a high pitched sound that was neither a shriek nor a song, coming ever closer. Himemiya was lost...Anshi. She didn't save her. The most important person in her universe; the person Utena had structured her entire life around, was gone. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else ever could again. Then the world spun, and the deadly wave struck her, and she knew no more. The world Akio had built extended only through Ohtori and its' environs. Like the tiny people in a glass snow globe, the real people of Ohtori knew nothing of the worlds beyond that globe. When Utena escaped his world, she was lost as only the most real of us can be. Utena didn't know enough to know that some things should be impossible, and because of that she won. But when your options are so completely open and you neither know nor care where you end up, any reality is possible. Including our own. *** Triste walked slowly toward the school, her head down and her steps slow. She had awoken to find herself just inside city limits in a place she was sure she had never been before. There wasn't much Triste could remember about her life before she woke up here. She found a hospital, and after she recovered had been moved to a foster family and a social worker. English came slowly, but what she learned, she remembered, and after not too long it was decided that she should go to school. Her foster mother, a motherly, earnest woman, tried to get Triste to remember her name. Sometimes it seemed so close to her, but then a look crossed her face that spoke of pain. She accepted the name they gave her, and went on with her life. She was already registered, so she went directly to her first class. It was World History. Triste got a few funny looks from her classmates. It was the pink hair, which apparently no one else here had. It wasn't the first time she'd been stared at, so she divided her time between looking out the window and listening to the teacher. "History is supposed to be the study of truth, of the way things really were in a particular time and place. But it can be difficult to know exactly what the truth is. Books can be destroyed; oral memory can be altered through time. The best we can do is teach you the most agreed-upon truth." Only a few people were listening, but Triste was interested in spite of herself, and dismayed. "Truth should be truth," Triste whispered. "Real should be real." //a goddess' green eyes // swords // pain // love // betrayal //despair //. She gasped as the strong emotions took her. It was hard, to know that somehow this was part of her past. But what past? It didn't seem to fit into this place at all. Triste felt an unbearable longing for someone she couldn't name or even quite describe, but mixed with that longing was a great sadness. Did she do something wrong? What happened? Triste sighed, and slumped in her seat. Class after class passed in an unremarkable stream, until it was after lunch. Triste entered English Literature, and sat down near the back left corner. A moment later someone else entered the room, and a blaze of light flooded her soul. It was She. No one who saw Triste could have missed the hungry, hopeful look on her face. The girl walked toward her and stopped at the seat in front of Triste. "Utena-sam- Utena?" A lock of dark purple hair brushed her desk. The name sounded familiar. Very familiar. Triste kept her eyes on Her. "Utena...Is that me? I see you in my dreams. Who are you?" She wanted, irrationally, to throw her arms around this person and never to let go, to drink in the presence of her, to...protect her. The girl's face shadowed with dismay. "You don't remember, do you." It was not a question. "Remember what?" Anshi reached out and brushed back Utena's hair. "Remember me." It was a command. *** Blue eyes looked questioningly into calm green eyes. The green seemed to deepen and widen into a pool. Utena sank deeper and deeper until she found herself looking up through a wavery world. As soon as she realized she was in water, she began to choke, but a hand reached down and pulled her out. She stood with Anshi beside a pool almost filled with water lilies. Around them were trees and gently rolling hills sprinkled liberally with many kinds of flowers, far too many kinds, in fact, to be growing in such a place. Roses grew wild over the hills and were carefully cultivated around the pool and along a white stone path that led around a hill into the distance. The air was warm and humid, with a slight breeze. The sun shone benevolently out of a blue sky. A simple log house stood nearby, and its' single wooden door stood open in welcome. When Anshi spoke, Utena was startled. Speech seemed almost unnecessary in such a place. "This is it, Utena. The sunny garden that Miki-kun, like so many others, can remember in his heart. This is the beginning of everything." As they watched, a figure riding a white horse appeared in the sky. They could see the horse galloping for two beats against the blue, then with a slight shimmer he was galloping along the hills toward the house. The boy riding him had short tousled lavender hair, white clothes somewhat the worse for wear, and a white cape. He carried a sword at his side, and he looked very tired. He slowed the horse as he got to the door, and nearly fell off as he got down. The horse stood patiently as his master leaned against him for a long moment. A girl came out of the open door. From where they were standing they could hear none of the exchange, but it was clear that a great deal of mothering and scolding was going on. It seemed the two were not very far apart in age. The girl had purple hair not much longer than the boy's. She wore a simple knee length red dress, and had a golden bangle on her left arm. The girl helped the boy into the house and closed the door. Anshi closed her eyes and spoke, "Any moment now the townspeople are going to arrive. And the prince will not be there to save their daughters. I will have made sure of that. Such a simple spell it was, to keep him in bed so that I could take care of him. There was no other way that he would have stayed. My brother was noble, and we were innocent. He would have died without me, you know, though we are very nearly immortal. To be the only prince in the world is a great burden. The people of this town thought that he existed only for them. They did not realize that the prince traveled all over the world to rescue princesses. Part of his magic involved transporting himself through time and space. How else could one person hope to rescue everyone?" Utena blinked. The sun had moved across the sky rather more rapidly than it should have been able to do. It was still daylight, but more late afternoon or early evening. Somehow she had missed the people coming who now gathered around the house. Light glinted off numerous swords. Utena reached for Anshi's hand, and Anshi smiled grimly, glad for the companionship in this. "Big town," Utena said, puzzled as more and more people seemed to arrive out of nowhere. "It wasn't just from one town that they came. They came from all the towns, everywhere. This was a very long time ago, so that did not add up to as many people as you might think. But it was enough." Anshi sighed. "They came through the rift my brother had left so that anyone could contact him here if they were in need. The people had no idea, of course. Only the most perceptive would even have a brief feeling that they were passing through a doorway. When they came, if they were from different towns, I would keep them from seeing each other. That night- Tonight- they won't care." A roar went up from the crowd. "I wouldn't let them in," Anshi said dreamily, already distancing herself, "And so they decided to come through me." Someone began to scream. "Surely a body couldn't hold a million swords..." She trailed off as she came painfully back to herself and realized Utena was no longer there. She caught sight of a valiant flash of pink fighting her way through a crowd who did not seem to notice that she was there. "Utena- There's nothing you can do! You can't change the past!" Anshi followed her as quickly as possible. When she caught up with Utena, she was silent. Utena was lost in grief. She hurled herself at the swords, trying to take them out of the now silent body. Her hands grasped at hilts, then blades. Nothing even cut her hands. She knelt before the figure, eyes dead with sorrow. "I couldn't save you, Anshi," she whispered. "I lost you again. Why can't I save you! ?" Utena cried. Anshi came up quietly behind her and put her arms around Utena's shaking body. "Utena. Utena-sama. Look at me." Utena turned a tear-streaked face toward Anshi. She reached for Anshi's face with a trembling hand, touched her. "Himemiya. Anshi." And then they held on to one another as though they would never let go.