Author's Note: I've read quite a lot of fanfiction in my years of life...some good...some bad...some weirder than I can ever describe. But I have always had a big imagination, so this time I decided to let it run wild. After an all night Red Bull, sushi, and movie binge with a couple of people from the POA staff, we got to discussing anime. Utena came up, and of course that led to talk of the final battle. What would have happened if Utena wasn't the princely, gallant person everyone usually depicts her as being? What if Anthy and the others later find her, but find something totally unexpected? So you can guess the sort of scenarios that came from that...this little piece of fiction is one of those scenarios... How it Started She remembered at the time that she still had days before her next paycheck. The job she had taken on, as a clerk in the clothing store near the college she attended, just wasn't cutting it lately. And now with most of her money going towards dorm fees and tuition, Utena Tenjou was in a rut. She had contemplated on taking on a second job, but her studies these days were hard enough as it was. She had no illusions about the impossibility of adding more to her plate. Even now she could recall that dreary November day. It was cold and damp, the kind that crept in through the gaps of your jacket and slid icy fingers down your neck. The marbled sky wasn't helping her mood, which was already ruined by the grumbling of her stomach. Maybe it was pride, or a sense of rebellion, but Utena refused to give in and beg a loan off of her dorm mate. The pink haired college student would just have to tighten her belt and skip a meal or two...at least until her next paycheck. Hell, she thought, it'd be good for her figure. She was already of a somewhat slender build. Pale skinned and with the muscle tone and outward grace of an athlete, she was already getting a few looks from some of the guys in her class. But with her icy blue eyes and cold demeanor, she quickly put them in their place. Utena simply had neither time nor patience to deal with the hassles that came from relationships. She could really care less about the phone numbers and party invitations she had been racking up. Although they seemed to be coming less frequently lately...word of her antisocial attitude had gotten around campus. So it was that with a slightly annoyed mindset, made worse by the weather, Utena made her way down a side street in the direction of home. It kept her well away from the main strip with all of its torturous scents of fried, grilled, and sugar coated delights. It was still daylight out, but the road she was traveling was passing along a secluded trash littered section of the park, that ran parallel to where she was now. An area that had a rough reputation of late. So it wasn't surprising that Utena was feeling more alert than usual. Her hooded eyes, shaded by the bangs of her short pink hair, cautiously kept glancing about. That was when she first heard it...the faint pickings of a guitar. It came faint and echoing (past the worn parked cars and dilapidated buildings) in this run-down part of town. As she continued walking, it grew louder in volume to where she was able to make out a tune from the jumble of notes. A man was sitting on the back of a park bench with one booted foot propped up on the other as he balanced himself with a guitar in his lap. He had a large green mohawk and several piercings in his eyebrow, nose, ear, and lip. There was a tattoo of some random punk or metal band on his arm, which was left bare in the tee shirt he was wearing. The shirt itself was a contrasting faded black to the black jeans he wore stuffed in the knee-high boots. Altogether, a disturbing character. Utena hoped to continue by him without being stopped, but she had only gone two feet in the other direction when a decidedly British-accented male voice broke out behind her, "Hey chickie! Hold up a minute!"....wonderful... The light pink curls of hair that fell just past her ear tickled slightly as she turned, her face neutral. This guy was the last person she wanted to deal with right now. Her voice came out cool, "Yeah?" The man hurried up to her, stopping just a few feet away from her. Ducking his head apologetically, he asked, "Say, do ya know what time it is?" Just great. He was probably going to try and mug her or something. Not that she couldn't handle it or anything. It was just the annoyance of having to deal with it all together. Flicking out her wrist from within the sleeve of her dark green winter coat, the face of the watch flashed in the dim light of day. "It's a quarter of six." The man gave a heavy sigh and threw up his hands. "Just great...the gang was supposed to meet me here to play a few sets and they never showed up! And after they called me out here and all..." Utena raised a shapely eyebrow in disbelief. It sounded like an unlikely story. Why didn't this guy just hurry up and leave already? Her voice came out as incredulous, "Are you certain you were supposed to meet them here?" She gestured about them making sure to keep the distance between them. The crumbling buildings around them and the graffiti littered bench made his story seem off. "Yeah", he said with a nod, "The park bench on the corner of Elm Road and Dithers Street." Utena sighed with a wave of dismissal, "You're not on Elm Road. This is Dithers and Walker. Elm Road is parallel to this one, clear on the other side of the park." This guy was either clueless or a bad liar. But either way, she didn't have time for this. As she was about to walk away, the guy stopped her progress with a self-mocking laugh, "Oh man! No wonder! Hey thanks for the help, chickie! I'd have been waiting here all night otherwise." That statement struck a chord within Utena's being for some reason. Her face lost a little of its coldness as she asked, "All night...but why? If they weren't coming to meet you, why would you waste your time sitting out here in the cold?" The mohawked man gave a lighthearted chuckle and stood, "Naw, it wouldn't have been all night. My friends would have found me eventually. They would definitely have come looking for me if I hadn't shown up after awhile." Utena looked up at him perplexed. His comment made something within her feel hollow and aching. Why did that sort of stupid behavior appeal to her? Wasn't it naïve? Had she ever been like that? "Are you so sure your 'friends' would have come looking for you? Are they really that loyal?" Utena's voice had taken on a harder edge that was sure to rub the other guy wrong. The pierced stranger however surprised her by not getting upset at all. He simply smiled in confusion as he walked closer. "Of course. Why would they abandon me? All I'd ha to do was be patient and have faith...don't you have friends like that?" That turnabout question caught the girl in an awkward and disquieting hesitation. But before she could think of what to say, the man appeared beside her and gave her a friendly slap on the back. As he began steering her down the street he gave another guffawing chuckle, "Hey come on, chickie! I'll buy you a burger down at the fast food place on the next block. My way of saying thanks for helping me out." Utena was startled by the carefree attitude and offer, and despite her protestations they ended up going there anyway. As they picked up the food from the attendant, the mohawk man getting more than a few stares from those around them, he introduced himself as Jared Summers. He was a musician from a local punk-rock group called Crysanthium Ecstasy. Utena had merely smirked at the name, which caused Jared to exclaim, "Hey! Got you to smile! Yeah, lame name, I know...but we aren't too bad! You should stop by our hangout sometime. We usually plug in at the 'Horse and Saddle'." And that was the turning point in the mundane life of college student Utena Tenjou.
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