Life After Roses
by Makani
Chapter 1
Back to the Menu
Utena stared out the window of her classroom at the new school
without seeing anything. It wasn’t new, but Utena had never managed to consider it
anything else. Her new uniform had arrived almost a year ago, but she still hadn’t
changed out of the uniform she’d worn at Ohtori Academy. The navy blue and red
boy’s uniform reminded her of the duels, but even joining her new school’s
fencing team hadn’t brought back the magic or the way she had felt.
She’d transferred to this school after she’d been released from the hospital because she heard that she had been expelled. Akio and the student council held total control over that place and she knew that reapplication wouldn’t have done any good. It was a closed place, its own world, and it trapped you inside an egg, fearing to let you see the light of day. Freed from that place, Utena could see the sky, but she still couldn’t fly. She had done a lot of thinking while she had recovered from her experiences there.
She transferred her gaze from the window to the ring on her hand.
The smell of roses.
Her prince, the one who had given her the ring, had tried to turn her into a princess and she had almost given in to that desire, but her noble heart – damn her noble heart! – had driven her to be a prince, and she couldn’t regret the decision, for she had found her princess… but she couldn’t save her. Just as her prince had let her down, she had let Anthy fall from her grasp, a prisoner to the man who had almost become her prince.
Utena was fed up with princes. She wasn’t even sure if she could keep her so-called “noble heart” and remain a prince herself. Despite the stagnant world of that academy, Utena had learned more there than she expected she would learn anywhere else.
Her eyes flickered briefly to the chalkboard. The teacher was lecturing and writing things on the blackboard. Utena picked up her pen and scribbled in her notebook. She didn’t even try to read the words. If she looked busy enough perhaps the teacher would leave her alone.
A tone sounded in the hallway and as the teacher began to dismiss the class, Utena shook herself from her dreaming and stared down at her notebook. Amidst wordless scribbles and lines her hand had written, in almost illegible writing, “Himemiya Anthy.” She slammed the book closed, startling the girl who sat next to her, and jammed it roughly into her bag, bending the edges. Glowering, she stalked from the classroom and out of the building into the warm air.
Her current school wasn’t half as beautiful as the academy and the central courtyard featured a fountain instead of a greenhouse. It was a flat building with about five stories but nothing much to distinguish it from other schools. She rushed by the fountain in an effort to get through the gates before she was harassed by the usual storm of freshmen girls who often took up post there.
Utena was used to having a sort of following among females, but this group of five girls took stalking to a whole new level. They made her long for the simple pursuit of Wakaba. She really missed Wakaba. She had received one or two letters before they had stopped entirely. In the few that she had received she read that Anthy was rumored to have run away, or been expelled, or even murdered by some mysterious man. Wakaba was certain that Anthy wasn’t at the Academy anymore because it didn’t seem like anyone was taking care of the roses, although Wakaba reported in another letter that she had once seen Akio in the greenhouse with a woman that Utena recognized through the description as Kanae Ohtori. Utena had written back that Wakaba should send her information about where Anthy had gone and if she was still alive, but she had never received a reply. Had that fall in the Arena killed her? Utena didn’t think that she could bear the thought of that; if Anthy were dead it would be her fault.
“Utena-sama!”
The five-fold voice cut through her thoughts and Utena broke into a run. She didn’t even have to look around to know where the voices were coming from. Bolting to one side of the gates, she managed to get up into a tree and over the side of the wall before the voices could come any closer. She didn’t want to have to deal with them today – she hated to deal with them any day, but her mind had wandered back to Anthy, and it wasn’t the same without the Rose Bride standing by her side.
Utena hit the sidewalk and kept running, cursing and swearing enough to turn the air blue. She hated this! If this was what it meant to be a prince she would sooner rip her noble heart out of her chest. Her eyes stung with tears. Her only princess was out of her reach. A picture of Anthy in the greenhouse with her watering can flashed into her mind. She didn’t care that her princess was a witch! Her speed threatened to reach a fever pitch, but when tears blurred her vision until she couldn’t see where she was going, she reluctantly eased back to a slow jog and finally into a walk while she cleared her eyes and blew her nose on a handkerchief.
Her long pink hair defied her, stinging into her red eyes, and she had to put her bag down as she forced it back into place. There was a florist shop just ahead. She would be safe in there. Sometimes she stopped there after school, even though the smell of the roses made her both wary and tearful. She picked up her bag and hurried down the sidewalk.
It had been almost two years since she’d left the Academy of the Roses, but the smell still brought back many memories as she entered the sunny little shop. The owner gave her smile before resuming a discussion with a customer.
It was a simple shop full of clear vases and glass shelves. When the sun poured in through the many tall windows the whole place sparkled with little rainbows, complementing the living rainbows of flowers that took up every possible space. There was precious little walking space and every path was carefully outlined with displays. No matter how cold it was outside, it was always warm in the shop, so Utena supposed it wasn’t surprising that it reminded her of the greenhouse.
Utena bowed to the shopkeeper and found one of the reflective windows to check her face. Her eyes were red, but since her face wasn’t as stained with tears as it could have been, she would be able to claim that she had been rubbing her eyes. There was no need to concern her aunt. She turned and the smell of fresh roses almost brought the tears back. With a deep breath, she cleared her vision and looked around.
Resting in a crystal vase near the window was a bouquet of roses. Most of them were normal bright red roses that often reminded her of Touga, though there were a few white ones, but one other color caught her eye. It was a light purple rose in full bloom. Utena couldn’t help but stare at it; the color was far too light but it still reminded her of Anthy’s hair. She had thought that Anthy was the only one who could make the roses grow in all those colors. As the chime announced the other customer had departed, she rushed up to the counter.
“Excuse me, Nakahara-san!” She made another hasty bow. “Where did you get that purple rose?” Utena pointed to the vase, which rested on a glass shelf near the windows that faced the sidewalk.
“Eh?” The middle-aged woman with blue hair tinged with white smiled at her. “Tenjou-chan, I thought you didn’t like roses.” She looked towards the vase.
“I don’t really, but that rose reminds me of someone.” Utena couldn’t take her eyes off that flower. “If you’d sell it to me…”
Yuya Nakahara smiled, walked over to remove the single pale rose, and began to prepare it for travel. “A young girl came in with a rather large bunch of them. She had been selling them on the street, but she was afraid that they would wilt in the heat.” Skilled hands wrapped the rose in paper as the shopkeeper explained. “She didn’t want them to die; she seemed very worried. She sold them to me. When I asked her how she had made them that color she said that she had other colors. She said that she would sell me others tomorrow.”
Utena stared at the rose that Yuya placed on the counter in between them. “What did this girl look like?” Her voice edged on disbelief.
“A little shorter than you, I should think, dark skin, and long wavy purple hair. She was very polite.” The woman pushed the flower in Utena’s direction and turned to get something from the shelves. “Yes, very nice young girl.”
“Nakahara-san, did she leave her name?” Utena could hear her own voice rising to almost frantic pitch.
Nakahara paused and turned to look at her, a worried frown crossing her face. “Tenjou-chan, is something wrong? No, that young girl didn’t leave her name. Do you know her?”
Utena took several deep breaths to calm herself. Outside the shop several of her schoolmates were passing by and Utena could be sure that her fan club would be waiting for her when she exited the store. Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to care at this point. “Yes…I think I may have gone to school with her once. She’s going to come back tomorrow, is that right?” Utena reached into her school bag for her wallet.
“Yes. She said she was going to bring more roses. I will mention that you are looking for her. I will ask for her name this time. It was rather silly of me not to get it before.”
“Thank you very much, Nakahara-san.” Utena bowed again. “How much for the flower?”
“It’s the last one, why don’t you take it. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you excited over a flower. Perhaps it will bring you good luck in your studies, Tenjou-chan.”
Utena blushed and one hand wandered up to hold the back of her head as she gave an embarrassed little laugh. “I understand, Nakahara-san. I’ll try to work harder.” She picked up the rose. “Thank you very much for the rose!” She bowed several more times and hurried out of the shop. As she had feared, the five girls were waiting for her at the door, all attempting to get her attention.
“Utena-sama, why did you run away? We were all waiting for you to walk home together.” The tallest one said. Utena didn’t even know their names; she had never been good with names. Back at the Academy she would’ve simply ignored them with an embarrassed grin in Anthy’s direction. …Anthy. Utena looked down at the rose in her hand, bringing it up so she could look at it more closely. Was this one of her flowers? If Anthy was alive and away from Akio and the Cursed Academy, would she still be raising roses?
A teacup clinked. “I can’t do anything but raise roses.”
“You could be a florist then…”
“Oh, Utena-sama! You’ve bought a rose! Who is it for!?” A high-pitched and expectant voice cut through her thoughts. She couldn’t even tell which of the five had spoken.
“Ummm… It’s for me,” she said with her normal brutal honesty, realizing too late that she should have said that it was for her aunt. The five girls had crowded around her and were giggling to themselves, twittering like a flock of birds.
“I thought you didn’t like roses,” another one of the girls noted with a lilt in her voice. “It’s such an odd color. I’ve never seen a purple rose before.”
“Let me see!” One of them made a grab for it, but Utena held it above her head and dodged.
“No!” she said loudly, her voice harsh and her words quick. “No! It’s my rose! You can’t have it!” The last was almost a yell and Utena broke into a run again. Just as her ring had connected her with her lost prince, this rose seemed to connect her to her lost princess. Ignoring the cries of the girls, she ran all the way to her aunt’s home. She wouldn’t lose this rose. She wouldn’t lose Anthy again.
Utena put the rose in a vase and placed it on her desk. She tried to get some work done, but found herself staring at the rose most of the evening, wondering if Anthy had in fact sold it to Nakahara-san. Did she still have a chance to be a prince again?