It was late afternoon when I left Ohtori. I felt drained. And in some small way, I felt sorry for the Chairman, a lion with no fangs and only stubby, dull claws. He’d never escape from that place; never gain back his former glory. Tenjou Utena had destroyed that possibility. I wondered how Anshi had felt when she understood that. And I wondered if she felt any lingering pity for her brother, who had trapped her there for so long. I still had some time to kill before I had to get to the helipad, so I wandered the streets of Hoou randomly, stopping at a café for a light meal. The seats were full of students and I eavesdropped openly on their gossip. It was all the usual kinds of things, which reassured me. It was time for me to go. Time to go home and make my final report to my client. Time to close this case. With a sigh, I headed down a small street and watched people hurrying to their homes for meals. The street became pedestrian only, then narrowed into an alleyway. I slowed my steps, to give my stalker some time to catch up. It wasn’t hard to hear the footsteps, even on the crowded streets. They had stopped when I had, resumed when I had. I saw a small cul-de-sac to my right and knew that I had found a good spot in which to make my stand. Stopping where I stood, I hunched over my overnight bag, pretending to rummage around in it. The footsteps made no attempt at muffling themselves and I knew immediately when the knife had been swung. Putting one arm out to intercept the swing, I stepped back and leaned into a classic koshi-guruma. I took the knife from my assailant’s hand as she went flying into the cul-de-sac, landing heavily on her butt with a "whoof." I glanced at the knife – an antique tanto. Saionji’s, in fact. He had played with it as he talked to me in his study. I looked down at my attacker who hadn’t moved since she landed. She breathed heavily, her face sneering with anger, but said nothing. I ticked the questions off on my fingers as I talked. "One – why do you hate Anshi so much? Two – why do you hate Saionji so much? Three – what is so important that you feel murder is worth committing? Four…I can’t think of a four right now, but I’m sure I will." I stared down at her, as she glared up at me. "Four – are you going to sit there all day?" I reached out a hand, which she ignored. Standing and brushing herself off, Kiryuu Nanami walked past me with not even a word of apology. As she passed me, I reached out and spun her around. She struggled, but I grabbed at her arms and held them tightly. Her eyes narrowed. I realized that I was the one holding the stolen knife…and I was manhandling her. I wouldn’t put it past her to scream bloody murder and get me arrested. I let her go and she stumbled back a few steps. "You’re an idiot," she said. "Just like before – no one listens to me, they think I’m crazy. But I’m the only one who sees what’s going on!" Her voice had risen, become shriller with each word. "It’s just the same! Don’t you see?" Her voice cracked and she stopped shouting. Heaving with emotions I couldn’t begin to understand, she stood; fists clenched staring at me, daring me to deny her challenge. "No." I said, tired once again. "No, it’s not like it was. The duels are over Nanami. You don’t have to fight anymore." My words seemed to suck the anger right out of her. She slumped, defeated. I checked my watch. The pilot wasn’t expecting me any particular time. I could wrap this up before I left. "C’mon," I said and took her arm, guiding her down the alleyway to a larger street. I found a vending machine; got us some canned coffee and sat her down on a bench. The streets were nearly empty, everyone inside for their evening meals, TV and however else they forgot about how awful the world was. Nanami wouldn’t look at me, but I watched her. She looked young, younger than me by a little, anyway. And she was the one who ran the company. A lot of pressure for a young woman. I felt bad for her, but not that bad. "Are you going to make me ask you again?" I said, at last. She shook her head. "Well?" When some time passed and she still hadn’t said anything. "It’s all confused," she snapped. "I don’t know where to start." "Start at the beginning," I suggested, but she shook her head again. "No. The beginning makes no sense, neither does the middle. Only at the end did it make sense. And now it’s not over." She looked up at me. "That’s the problem, you see. I thought it was over. But it isn’t. You’re here and you don’t understand." I finished my coffee and tossed the can in a wastebasket. "You’re wrong, Nanami. I do understand - I understand everything." And I met her eyes evenly. She looked at me hard, for a long time, and then took a shuddering breath. "I hope to God you do. I don’t want to lose him again." "Who, Touga?" I wished I smoked or something – I was restless, with nothing to do with my hands. She nodded and finished her coffee. She stared at the can until I took it from her and threw it away. Let her be restless too. "Yes. My beloved brother." A slight, almost imperceptible stress on the second word. Nanami looked around, then back at me. "You don’t have a cigarette or anything, do you?" I shook my head. "Oh, well, that’s probably for the best. I don’t really smoke." She clasped her hands in her lap. When she began to speak again her voice was very low and soft. "After he graduated, we all thought the worst was over. While she was at the school, Tenjou did something to him, you know. He dropped out of sight for a while. That was when I took over as acting President of the Student Council. It was awful - I hated it. Miki was so serious, Juri, well, she looked at me like I was a worm, you know. Saionji was gone, and I was glad. He was a terrible person. He clung to my brother like a barnacle, always pretending to be as good as him. When he came back I tried to make him feel bad, but he wouldn’t. He took up his position like he had never left. And worse, my brother and he seemed to have made up – become closer even. Too close." "Lovers?’ I asked. She shrugged. "Well, at least it seemed that way. Whether they actually were, I don’t know. Everyone was hinting, and hinting about other things. Touga and I had a disagreement and I left home for a while." She sighed. "Up to that point, I had always assumed it was Tenjou Utena’s fault. From the beginning, my brother obsessed about her. But after I left home, I learned something horrible and I had to come back. And that was when I figured out that it wasn’t Tenjou – it was that Himemiya witch." I stuck my hands in my pockets. "So you found out. About her and her brother." She looked at me with huge eyes. "It was disgusting. And Tenjou so blind, so innocent…" Her words became a hiss. "Even when I warned her. She pretended there was nothing wrong. Idiot." She put her face into her hands, but when she pulled them away a moment later her eyes were dry. "And then, all of a sudden – it was over. Tenjou was gone, Himemiya was gone. And we all twirled like, streamers in the breeze, with nowhere particular to go. "I thought it would be better once they were gone, I really did. I went away myself, for a while. Went to college, got a business degree. Then I heard from my parents, there seemed to be something wrong with my brother. I came home and found him wandering the house, as if he had lost his memory. I tried to talk with him, but he barely remembered anything at all. Like it had all been a dream." I leaned back against a streetlamp while she went on. "His memory had nearly disappeared…not just of the events at Ohtori. Of *everything.* And I began to get worried. That’s when I began to run the business. It’s been years since then, and he still fugues sometimes, or gets depressed. He needs me now…." She laughed bitterly. "Do you know – when I was a child, all I wanted was to be the most important person in his life? And now I’m trapped by that very wish." "And me?" I shook the pocket that held the knife. "You? You started it all up again. Touga had been doing much better; he was paying more attention to business, spending less time in his dream-state. Then you came, asking all those questions about Tenjou and Himemiya. The next morning he was gone." "Gone?" Her face was bleak. "Gone. When he came back two days later, I had no idea where he had been, and he couldn’t remember. Or he wouldn’t say. He said he’d gone to find Tenjou Utena, that he was her prince. I was livid. After all this time, I thought we were free, at least of that name. I tracked you down…and you know the rest." I let the silence between us deepen for a while. "And killing me would have solved the problem?" I asked finally. She looked up, genuinely surprised. "If you can ask that, then you don’t really know everything, do you?" And she smiled, a strange, twisted smile. "Just like it was before." I thought about that. I felt like she was telling me something, but that the meaning was just beyond my reach. "One more question and then I’ll see you to wherever you need to go." I said. "Did the Chairman ever try to seduce you?" She laughed that bitter laugh again. "No. It might have been better if he had." But she fell silent and wouldn’t say more. I offered her a ride anywhere she wanted to go, but she turned me down, saying that she was staying with friends. I let her go, and watched her slim form disappear into the night, all the time thinking about what she had been trying to say to me. ------------------------------------------------------------ Glossary of terms: Koroshi-guruma: Hip Wheel. A throw in judo.
Back to A Special Case Index - Back to Revolutionary Girl Utena Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction