Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ The Revolution ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from any anime series found within this Ranma 1/2 - Utena crossover. Ranma and Utena both are licensed by Viz Media in America and are copyright their respective owners.

 

The Revolution

Chapter Six

By Dr. Suekeiichi Kaiton

 

Ena arrived at the doorstep and immediately realized something was very wrong. Usually the house was brightly lit but instead it was bathed in darkness that seemed almost tangible to her, a living pall that curled around her ankles and forced her ever towards the shining steel plated buzzer. Fear welled up inside, she didn't want to be here tonight, something was off in the air like the pungent stench of rotting flesh, not anywhere visible but insidiously close. Her left ring finger itched awfully along the parallel white scars circling the thin layer of fat over her bone. A ring had once fitted that finger, a ring that ended up causing her nothing but trouble and heartache, yet at the same time held the inescapable nostalgia of her youth. That too, however, was tainted with pain.

 

She always fled from pain…when she was a child; as an adult she'd tried to face the agony and keep a stiff upper lip in the face of unimaginable torment. She had failed, however, and now was nothing more than a child again. How many others were trapped in perpetual youth? How many other people went about their daily lives with merely half a soul? Those at Ohtori had even less, or so she thought, since they were beaten spirits clinging to their pleasant memories like security blankets against the encroaching dark of growth and adulthood. Sex was not equal to adulthood.

 

Ranma was still a child as well; he hadn't even grown out of adolescence, despite physical changes and a slight maturation of his temper and mind, or so Nodoka had told her. Were all people trapped in a vicious static loop of emotional pain and anguish? If so then what was the bloody point of going to Ohtori and bringing the Revolution? Was it more than Akio believed? Was the power of Dios something that held sway over a human heart? The pain lanced through the lattice of scars; the remembrance was too soon, the wounds bloody still since a year hence.

 

Failure was eternal, the only eternity she could readily believe in, and it was all around her. Each person held within unknowable depths that were not easily plumed and carried emotional scars worse than her physical ones. How could anyone make any difference in the world if there was nothing but pain and sorrow?

 

No one answered the door. It was unlocked, it usually was, but she felt strangely hesitant to open the door without permission. The aura of the home had shifted, changed, and alien feelings rose under her breast, a burning flare of pain before the scent of stale sweat and ruthless arrogance stung the nostrils.

 

It smelled of roses.

 

It couldn't be, it just wasn't possible that he would follow her this far, not this far beyond the strange nexus of time and possibility anchored below the Rose Gate of Eternity. Akio himself would not be so gauche as to personally usher she back, it wasn't his style, this was another agent. The Prince? It was impossible she knew but the thought persisted. Reaching out, her hand grasped the icy brass handle and pushed open wide the door to a singular gloom accompanied by the breathing of three individuals.

 

Utena stepped inside the house of her lover and self-proclaimed boyfriend (although she did consider him her paramour she would never admit it) with the cautious steps of an elder rat casing the newest high-tech trap. The bait was better but a trap was always recognizable, sure it was dark now instead of light, sure the scent of roses was cloying and fetid as opposed to sweet and fragrant, but she knew danger lurked within. The door shut and despite the fear she removed her boots. The tearoom door was shut.

 

Breathing, yes, Ranma's breathing came from behind the opaque door into the livingroom. It was rough and ragged, like he breathed after a heavy bout of sex or exercise, and she presently thought that perhaps he was merely cheating on her - it didn't account for the scent but she knew when she wasn't welcome. Could it just be her body's reaction to rejection? She never had felt truly comfortable in the world since appearing in an alley. Even with all the wounds scarred over she ached for weeks.

 

A drop of blood expanded on the wooden floor. Her blue orbs caught it and galvanized on the spot. A struggle? Menstrual blood? A sign of reckless deflowerment? She suddenly felt pain strobe out of her flesh and pulse for a moment of excruciating perfection before dialing down to anguish, a moment later the cycle continued and she collapsed to the floor. Blood drops pattered to the floor like the sound of oncoming rain clouds. She screamed as fluid poured from the elastic keloid tissue tracing veins across her torso, splattering irregularly bit by bit until she thought she might die. Arching her back in a curiously canine gesture, she bellowed out a rasping call for help before collapsing into the pool of her own lifeblood.

 

Ranma opened the door at the sound of her scream and rolled her onto her back, her head resting in his lap, the floor smeared with red in a wide swath around her. Anthy rushed past him and pinched the sides of her forehead.

 

“What's happening to her?”

 

The Rose Bride leaned forward over the prostrate girl and ran her hands over her torso. “The seal on her sword is cracking. Her memories of despair are shattering her soul.”

 

“Is there anything you can do?”

 

“I can withdraw her sword from its sheath…but it may kill her physical body.” It was a dangerous operation to pull the physical representation of a person's will out of their fleshy sheath, especially if the body was currently bleeding out over the floor. The scars were bleeding. “She may fall to pieces without her will.”

 

Ranma clutched her tighter and tried to ignore the sickeningly sticky texture of his girlfriend's blood slowly drying on his skin. “Is there anything else we can do…can't you do something with your magic or something?”

 

“I can't cure a sickness of the soul, Ranma, Utena realized that I was here and does not want to return to Ohtori.”

 

“Shit!” He tapped her cheek, leaving twin dabs of bloody fingerprints on her light skin, and Utena's eyes peeked open, blue irises focused on nothing. Dead like a doll's eyes.

 

Anthy licked her lips and rubbed Utena's left breast in a circular motion. “Rose of Nobility…” Blinding light began to cascade and coalesce in her cupped palm, motes of shining dew stretching beyond the walls of the house and constraints of physical space to a world beyond, a world of magic and mystery. Somewhere within the dark sanctums of his eternal thirst, The Prince of Lies felt the tug of Eternity lance out from the sheltered paradise of scars into the greater world beyond.

 

Ranma closed his eyes and brought an arm to shield his face, the light was simply too bright. He'd fought gods and kings before but none of their supposedly magical tricks held a candle to the suffocating powerful energy he felt swirling around him now, a palpable stench of ozone filled the air and he felt his muscle begin twitching in nervous anticipation.

 

Light was being pulled from all directions, leaving only shadows in the world as Anthy's hand pressed lightly under Utena's sternum, her appendage a glowing disk of light. He turned away completely as the pink-haired girl began to violently twitch and moan, the painful tearing of body and soul nearing its zenith. Anthy closed her eyes as well and pressed her hand deeper into her lost paramour's chest cavity. Grasping the handle of her lover's blade, she tore it quickly and painfully out. “Please…Come Forth!”

 

Everything was gone. The light, the struggle, the blood; Ranma, Utena, and Anthy were clean as was the floor, not a drop of blood betrayed the violent rebirth of Tenjou's will. Ranma checked Utena's pulse and found it regular and steady before a slim hand encircled his wrist. Utena looked into her boyfriend's eyes and saw recognition mingled with worry.

 

“Ranma?”

 

“Utena…thank god.” He helped her sit up and let her back leaned against his chest, wrapping his arms around her protectively. Her eyes closed in rapture, basking in the love lavished upon her by the sweet and equally damaged man clinging to her. Wait just a moment? Utena? Lids flashed open and she saw the other figure gently cradling her heart sword.

 

“Himemiya. How long have you been here stalking me?” The words were a bit too harsh considering there was no malice in her voice or venom in her attitude. “I've been thinking about you and the others for the past few days, that was because of you, right?”

 

“I've been following you since you left, Utena-sama. I…do not agree with what happened to you and so I disobeyed Oni-san's orders and left the campus. I've watched you for the past three days.” As the purple-haired girl stood up a deep red business suit phased into being around her and Chu-Chu popped out from behind her ear. “I humbly ask for your forgiveness, Utena-sama for the many things I did to you.”

 

Utena pushed Ranma's hands down away from her sides and used her palms to scoot her behind further into his crotch. She ended up looking like a petulant little child in her parent's lap. “Forgiveness is long in coming, Himemiya, especially now.” She crossed her arms under her slight breasts. “I'm not going back.”

 

Anthy's gaze fell to the floor and Utena's sword fell from her limp fingers to clatter on the floor with the jarring metal clang of solid steel. “I understand…it will not be easy for you.”

 

Ranma brushed back Utena's short bangs. “Anthy came here with an invitation for me-“

 

“Don't take it, all she ever says is the same lie over and over again.” She could feel the anger welling up in her soul. Her sword began to glow red. “You can't go to Ohtori Academy.”

 

“I think I may have to…just so I can find the bastard that did this to you and snap his bloody neck.” Even though she couldn't see it, she knew he had that roguish smirk on his face. Anthy watched the two with rapt attention, waiting for them to make a decision. “I feel like I was called there? Do you know how that feels?”

 

She did, she knew how sometimes the pull of Ohtori Academy can drag you out of bed and across half the country just to fall dead exhausted before the wrought iron gates. She knew the hollow feeling inside from some forgotten trauma, some petty vice growing like a tumor inside your heart; oh yes she knew just how powerful the lure of Eternity was…but she could resist it, right? “Yes.”

 

“Utena-sama, you must understand that I have come for you out of my own free will. My brother has nothing to do with this…I must make amends for the hardships and pain you experienced. I offer myself to your service in whatever way you see fit.” Her dress flowed into shadow and reformed in the sea-blue and white uniform of Ohtori. Waving her hands in a wiping gesture across the pink-haired girl she dressed Utena in a black male uniform top and red sport shorts. The grotesque spidery lattice of scars destroyed any enjoyment of her coltish legs.

 

“Don't Himemiya…just don't, I like the way I am now.” Utena grasped her sword by the blade and slowly fed the steel back into her body with the faint noise of rasping metal. It was too long; the blade was tarnished and pitted with rust. “Just don't bother me right now alright? You think I need a servant? All you're doing is trading one kind of slavery for another.” Ranma tried to rub her shoulders in an effort to calm the irate Duelist but she would have none of it, knocking his arms away brusquely. “You want to know what I want you to do? Take control of your life, Anthy, decide what you want to do.”

 

The Bride arose from her knees and clasped her hands before her. Uncertainty flashed behind her eyes as her hair morphed back into the tight curled buns she used to wear. “I shall follow you, Utena-sama, in whatever you may deign to undertake.”

 

The couple rose to their feet as well and Utena noticed for the first time Ranma's Rose Seal. “When did you get this?”

 

He looked down and seemed to see the ring for the first time. “I don't know…I guess I must have slipped it on in the mad scramble earlier.” Utena's eyes narrowed to slits and she turned to Anthy.

 

“He's accepted already. You put him up to it, didn't you?”

 

Anthy smiled her mocking smile and cocked her head to the side in puzzlement. “I don't know what you're talking about, Utena-sama, Ranma accepted the scholarship at Ohtori Academy University of his own free will. Perhaps he will be the one to bring the World Revolution?”

 

Utena slapped the dark-skinned girl to her knees. “I won't let you have him, you or Akio, or Mikage, or even Dios. Ranma's mine, do you understand?”

 

Anthy just nodded.

 

“Good.” She turned back to her puzzled boyfriend. “We have to get you packed now, we'll leave in the morning.”

 

“Why so soon? What the hell was all that about?” Ranma followed her upstairs to his room. “Anthy said I had to go sometime and I wanted to beat the shit out of whoever did this to you, what's wrong with that?”

 

“You don't know what you're dealing with, you can't defeat him, you can't kill him, he's nothing more than a phantom.” She threw a pile of his clothing on the floor.

 

“Wait a minute! Who are you talking about?”

 

“The Prince, the Devil, Akio, you'll find out. I'm coming with you.” He crossed to her side and grabbed her wrists. She struggled for a moment before giving up; he was much too strong for her. He might actually make it through the duels…

 

“So that's what all this was about, you just didn't want to admit to Anthy that you want to come back. Would it be so bad?”

 

“It would be lost face, you would never do it, and Anthy is not an ordinary girl.”

 

“I got that impression,” Ranma replied wryly. “Are you going back for me? To help me with the Duels? Or are you going for revenge?”

 

Utena smiled cruelly, exposing her eyeteeth, and scowled. “Revenge. I have…had a lot of friends back at Ohtori Academy and I'll be damned if I let that bastard Akio use them like puppets!”

 

Ranma realized that there were depths of meaning and history between Utena and Anthy and Ohtori that he did not and perhaps would never understand. Tension flowed from one entity to the other, anger lit his girlfriend's frame with new life, and he felt a competitive spark ignite within his chest for the first time in two years. He'd go to Ohtori and participate in the Duels, live by the Rose Seal, and, with Utena by his side; he'd free her from the shackles of her past. It was the right thing to do, the manly thing, the honorable thing to pursue.

 

He'd be damned before he let Utena down.

 

AN: Here's just a short response to the reviews on FF.net that caught my eye.

 

RubberNeck: I read your review early on and made the conscious decision to write Anthy's story so that you could read it as a Sailor Moon crossover. Sorry to dupe you like that but the idea hadn't occurred to me before (I'd always planned it to be a Utena cross) and I have to try it. Reading the fairy tale with Utena in mind makes for an interesting read. Just remember that it's a subjective tale and not wholly accurate.

 

Innortal: I'm glad that it surprised you so much. You should work on “I Do” more, that's one of my favorite EVA fics at the moment, although I have to question the decision to cross over with Ranma (I know I shouldn't say anything since I cross Ranma with just about everything), it just seemed a bit out of the blue. Still, keep up the good work.

 

ADShadowwalker: I actually was reading Yotsubato when I started writing this so I took the name Ena from that. Stupid as it sounds, I didn't realize that it was just Utena without the UT until your review. Creativity works in mysterious ways, huh?