path_unprepared | (no subject)

(no subject)

Whatever we inherit from the fortunate
We have taken from the defeated
What they had to leave us - a symbol:
A symbol perfected in death.

It's only when he's back in his office, and notices that his book is no longer in his hands, that he starts to wonder.

It takes a minute or two before the memories come back, but when they do it's as if they'd been there all along, and he picks up almost from where he left off.

The Rose Bride. Anthy Himemiya, who can somehow be enrolled and not enrolled at Ohtori at the same time, who is and is not in that bar at the same time, and who is and is not the Rose Bride -- no, is the Rose Bride, has always been the Rose Bride, will always be the -- but then how can she be there and here and both and neither?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Sempai."

Mamiya is staring out the window, holding in his hands a stopped hourglass.

"We're down to the last rose."

'Yes.'

He turns his head slowly to look at the boy.

'Working with the memories of others may not be enough.'

"No," says Mamiya.

"She has evaded us."

The cat by the window stretches a paw out; catches the bird before it hits the window.

'Her, and her current champion. But I think it best to focus on her.'

There are two empty teacups on his desk, with the remains of tea leaves and a little liquid at the bottom of both.

'To work backwards from her, as it were.'

The window-sill hides the bird's struggles, but not the cat's fascination.

"Backwards," he echoes.

Experiments require subjects, and control groups.

"Where will you find her?"

'There is an elsewhere. A place where there is a Rose Bride who appears to be no longer a Rose Bride.'

He walks over to the window, to join Mamiya in the watching.

'Or so it seems. The definitions are nebulous.'

Mamiya looks at the hourglass.

"No longer a Rose Bride," he says. "But what's left?"

'What, indeed.' It isn't a question; the inflection's off. 'The shadow of what was, and yet can never be.'

The bird's struggles are starting to weaken.

"The data would be useful," Mamiya says.

'She will still have some knowledge of eternity, even if it is currently beyond or outside of her grasp. Even if she has had it once, and given it up.'

One hand rests lightly on Mamiya's shoulder.

'If she knows how to give it up, she may know how best to give it to another.'

Mamiya slants a smile over his shoulder at Mikage.

My life may be just a moment, but...
Eternity means that this moment lasts billions of billions of years, without end.

"Yes, sempai."

I want eternity.

'We must defeat Tenjou Utena and obtain Himemiya Anthy,' Mikage says quietly, with the air of a child patiently repeating a long-learned catechism, 'and then we must kill her. The Power of Dios will bring eternity.'

The bird is twitching feebly now. The cat delicately licks at a front paw, grooming between its toes.

'And so the Rose Bride who is no longer a Rose Bride must be made to tell what she knows...or learn how to be who she was.'

Mamiya looks back out at the window.

"Absolute destiny," he murmurs, "apocalypse."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only