(no subject)

[path_unprepared]

[OOC: Spoken text taken from EP 23 of Shoujo Kakumei Utena.]

Incandescent darkness and birthed puppets
Are named, anthropoperipherism
'Here we go.'

The first clash of steel on steel echoes across the arena as the duellists meet. She takes his initial assault rather better than he had expected.

'Well received,' he says quietly, a chill smile flickering across his face at her grimace of fierce concentration. 'However....'

And he strikes out again, a sharp slash that sends her flying backwards, landing ungracefully on her back. She gasps as she falls, the wind momentarily knocked out of her.
Pulling the strings of the world is a single existence
For the others, an imaginary puppet-craft
A twinge of pain in his shoulder reminds him faintly of their last encounter.

('I'll beat you to a pulp and prove I'm better than you!')

'I'm not in full form yet,' he says, more to himself than to her, as he massages the aching joint. She had thrown him rather forcefully to the ground, he recalled...how odd, that he should still feel it even now. 'The shoulder you damaged is still painful.' And the expression on her face as he shifts his sword from left hand to right hand is magnificent -- so much fire, so much passion -- and he can't keep the delight from his voice when he adds: 'But don't think I'm going to lose to you!'

She is on her feet now, trembling slightly, one hand clenching the hilt of her

(borrowed)

sword, as if she can draw strength from it. 'Quit joking around!' she shouts. 'You really think I'll be beaten by some string-pulling bastard from the shadows?'
Subzero darkness and birthed creatures
Correlated, anthropoperipherism
'That is incorrect.' And he lashes out, driving her backwards with great, sweeping strokes. She regains enough of her footing to attempt a counter-assault, but she fights from anger, and so it is a small matter to bring both of them around and send her stumbling back once more, forced to cling to one of the

(hundred)

desks to remain even partially upright.
On the natural stage are the units of existence
Comprised of an imaginary creature-craft
'That is incorrect.' Unconsciously, he has adopted the lecturing tone that had been so useful in the past, the confident and forceful manners of the teacher correcting a promising pupil's mistaken assumptions. 'Those who received my black roses came to me of their own free will. Then they stood here in this place of their own free will. Anyone who stands here is the same as I am -- they come, for they are lured by eternity!'
Words are born, the encounter, then a hesitation
'Shut up!' she screams at him. 'Don't accuse others of doing what you did for yourself!'
Knowledge is born, the encounter, then a void
He wants to laugh at her youthful silliness, but that would wound her too deeply. And so he simply advances, and in a two-handed strike aims high, near her throat, and the blade sings as a few strands of her delicate

(pink?)

hair fly free in the wind.
O, where am I, when am I?
'I knew you from the moment I first saw you.' He has to keep advancing, wearing down her resistance. She will understand in the end. She has to. And if he can get past this initial stubbornness, she will be so much more open to what he has to say. 'You met your "special someone" long ago, did you not? That person changed your life forever, did he not? And now you're standing here, purely on the strength of that illusion. That's why you were able to enter the duelling arena. Am I wrong?'
Spell, incantation, mystery, prayer -- myself!
(teacup rose petal the two of them in a chair meant for one her on his lap lips pressed held so tightly eternity in lips and eyes)

'In the end, you're just like me.'
Stage, destiny, magic mirror
(take this ring Nemuro-kyouju for her all for her to do what must be done defeat her cut the rose and she will understand)
Full moon, mysterious and transmutable
'And right here -- right here I will defeat you, Tokiko!'
I'm an imaginary living body come to its end
'What nonsense are you talking about?' she snarls. 'I won't lose to scum like you!'
Full moon, mysterious and transmutable
'Such a stubborn girl, my Tokiko.' He admires her for it, naturally, but this whole charade is becoming rather tiresome. 'I doubt you'll understand unless I destroy that rose.'
I'm an imaginary destined body come to its end
She makes the first move, racing toward him, but her reflexes are not as sharp and after the first clash of swords it is a mere matter of careful footwork for him to spin her around, reach for her, one broad slash aimed to send her to the ground again -- and then she attempts to evade him by jumping back --

('I absolutely can't stand someone who doesn't look after himself!')

So young. So predictable. And again his voice rings out, triumphant. 'I knew you would jump!'
Seeking time, without rest,
A speleomorph that goes on living
She curses, still in mid-air, and then the Rose Bride calls out --

'Utena-sama!'
(not her name not her name)
'Utena-sama!'
(not her name Tokiko Chida is her name)
'Himemiya!'
(sent by the Academy's board of governors)
'Himemiya!'
(with her younger brother Mamiya)
'Utena-sama!'

Ash on an old man's sleeve
Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.
Dust in the air suspended
Marks the place where a story ended.
Dust inbreathed was a house-
The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,
The death of hope and despair,
This is the death of air.

'Sempai...you're going to lose now.'

And he freezes, sword poised to strike. 'Mamiya!'
Seeking land, armless, legless
'Your rose will be destroyed by her.'
Still existing I am, transparent, intangible
The voice beats into his head like the sound of a tolling bell -- he knows it so well, has heard it so often, why does it send inexplicable echoes ringing in his mind, driving out all rational thought? 'What did you say?! Where are you, Mamiya? Mamiya!' The photographs on the desks, all one hundred of them, all of Tokiko and Mamiya...or are they? 'Mamiya!'

(a picture worth a thousand lies)

'Who...who is this?' The boy in the photograph...is not Mamiya. Cannot be Mamiya. And yet --

'You can't defeat her.' An inexorable voice, full of dust and ashes. 'You'll never defeat the sister of mine within your memory, not for all eternity.'

The heat of flames on his face, as the building burns...never mind those who are still inside, it was Mamiya's doing, the boy still holds the candelabra, the three candles still flickering....

'Tokiko!' His mouth doesn't seem to move properly, he is fighting to speak through the ashes that are choking his throat. 'Eternity is right here before my eyes! I'll defeat you, grasp the power to change the world with these very hands! Why don't you understand me?!' She doesn't understand...why doesn't she understand? Perhaps she still fears? 'I accept everything -- even your brother's sin!'

The blow catches him sharply across the upper part of his left cheek, sending his glasses

(glasses?)

flying to land with a clatter on the soot-covered ground.

'Sempai, now watch carefully. At that time, at that place, who was actually there and who was not? Who actually set fire to that building?'
If to be warmed, then I must freeze

The candelabra in HIS hand, Tokiko's face, her eyes dark with horror and revulsion and pity and eternal loss...eternal loss...and then the ash and smoke and flames rise up, consuming him, and in the reddish-glow there is the first glimpse of
And quake in frigid purgatorial fires

(eternity)
Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars.

darkness --

a faint sigh...

'Mamiya...it's been a long time. How many decades has it been since I saw you last?'