rakuen | 1st Petal: Physicalité

Entry tags:

1st Petal: Physicalité

Characters: Utena and whoever
Format: prose
This log is: open
Location: gym
Summary: Utena's decided to start training for a rather direct and obvious way around using a Weapon
Warnings: -

A new duel game. Like the old one but with a few subtle differences. It was a remix, a mashup of her previous life and the lives of all her fellows who'd been dragged into this cloistered and poisonous shangri-la.

She remembered her first duel back at...wherever. She'd used a broom against the gleaming and vicious katana of the Machistador. She hadn't pulled a sword from anyone's chest that day, nor when she beat the Red Lesser Prince in their rematch. You couldn't bring an external weapon this time, but there had to be another way...

She flexed her right hand. Over the combatant's glove, she wore a silver ring embellished with a rose. The silver, she noticed, had become tarnished. She had a feeling that polishing it would not help.

Damage caused pain to the Weapon, yes. But one was not required to wield a weapon in Exaclan. The round was also considered over if the opposing Player was incapacitated.

(She'd had to look that word up in the dictionary)

Being knocked out was one form of incapacitation. It seemed a good enough plan. After all, there'd been enough rough and tumble in the old duel game. Heck, she'd managed to disarm her friend the Onion Princess without drawing a weapon.

With that in mind, early in the evening, she faced off against an old canvas bag. The sky was turning pink as she opened the books she'd brought with her: old manuals of "The Gentleman's Games of Boxing and Wrestling". The next day she was going to see if there were clubs for any such sports she could help with, but for the moment this seemed the best idea.

For a while she managed to stick to the form she was shown, precisely punching and tackling the bag. But as time went on, her technique deteriorated while conversely her power went up. She'd never been one for the precision of the Proud Panther fencing, or the Machistador's Kendo. She'd fought her way through the duel game on a kind of iron will. She needed to win in order to rescue the Rose Bride and that was that. It was what princes did: swung swords at men larger than them until their arms felt like clotted tubes of pain, went up against skilled swordsmen (and women, could not forget the Proud Panther, or herself) with nothing but pure gumption and a conviction in one's own rightness (not to mention the discreet help of the man behind it, though that wasn't present in the final duel). They ended up with scratches, welts, eggs on the sides of their heads, fingers that would not move. Righteousness was its own reward. And her friend's smile.

With those thoughts in mind, the bag began to fold rather impressively for a girl her build with each blow. Each time she lifted it, there was rattling from the chains.

She stayed at it for quite a long time, pushing herself. Eventually though she noticed another presence in the gym.

"Who's...there...?" She called towards the doorway. Backlit by the setting sun, she couldn't tell even if she'd known the person.

Her knuckles were starting to bleed. She'd forgotten to bring handwraps.

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Lyra knew she had to get stronger. While she wasn't frail or delicate, she was small, and most of the people she'd have to fight would be bigger than her, and she didn't want to force her Weapons to have to compensate. So she'd gone into the gym to practice- and found someone else there. A girl, older than her, but probably not by much- most of the people here were teenagers, it seemed.

"I- Oh, were you practicing in here already?" Lyra asked, tilting her head to one side as she walked in.

Utena looked momentarily down at her knuckles then smiled sheepishly at the child. "Yeah, but I guess not for much longer!" She said, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh... I'm a player this round, so I thought I should get some more practice in. The only reason I won my first fight" Was because I fought dirty, which en't anything new "Was because the person I was fighting wasn't that used to their weapon. I don't want to win by luck again," Lyra said, looking up at her with a bland expression.

Utena looks momentarily shocked and it's written all over her face. She was never good at disguising her emotions.

"But...you're way too young to have to fight!"

"I'm twelve! And besides, I've had to fight before." Lyra might be young, but she's seen more than a girl her age should have to see, and while she's handled it well, it still shows in her eyes.

"Besides, if I don't fight, I'll lose tokens. And I don't fancy the idea of doing nothing about the memories I've lost either."

"You shouldn't have to fight. I'm gonna find a way to get everyone's memories back when I win." She was full of pluck and determination and the kind of iron, boneheaded will that often got you just as far as the best laid plans.

"I'm going to get everyone's memories back that I can. And how are we supposed to win anyway? Those legend fragments that lady talked about?"

Because when it comes to sheer, stupid determination and will, Lyra's pretty far up there.

"That's what they say but I have a feeling it's gonna be a lot more complicated than that."

Just a hunch. She was on the lookout for mysterious benefactors and manipulators.

"It always is, with stuff like this. Besides, I can't believe they'd just hand us the answer that easily. But whatever's going on- I'll get everyone out. I've done it before."

Lyra was looking for lies, manipulations, and some hint at what whoever was behind this was actually after. A loose thread to tug on to unravel the whole mess. A way to disrupt things, to give everyone a chance to get out.

Then Lyra hit the punching bag, with surprising force for a girl of her age and build.

Utena picked her books up and slung the bag over her shoulder. She seemed sincere, but she wasn't going to let a middle schooler fight in a duel if she could help it. That's for high schoolers.

"Well, good luck." She said over her shoulder as she left, sillhouetted by the setting sun. "I'm Utena by the way."

Good, Utena! You look kindof cool!

"Good luck to you too, Utena!" Lyra called, as she started hitting and kicking the bag like it had personally offended her.

"Sherlock," he answers.

"New hobby? Or are you training to some practical purpose?"

"Oh, hi Sherlock!" She said with a wave, before sucking the end of her knuckle, tasting the familiar salt. She'd read somewhere something that said it was actually good to do that but she couldn't remember why. "I'm trying a different approach. Battle hurts the Weapon, right? So I thought if I worked on fighting hand to hand I could win just by knocking my opponent out. That way I only have to hurt one person instead of two."

"Sensible. I would offer to help, but as we discussed, the rules make that troublesome."

"It's alright. Are you...being forced?" Oh she wanted to protect him. Congrats Sherlock. You're now in the same mental category as the Rose Bride.

He smiles. "Thank you for your concern, but no. Miss Euphemia has been very kind thus far. And if I ever do choose wrong, I expect I could make keeping me more trouble than it is worth."

By means up to and including murder, if his Player is abusive enough!

"If...she ever hurts you. Or you decide you no longer want to be a Weapon. Come find me. If I win you, i'll let you go free. You won't have to do anything." At that very moment she was picturing how he would look in a billowing red dress.

"Thank you," he says gravely. "You may be sure I will keep that in mind."

A little while later, and Utena was again joined by several of her fellow students. This time, a boy and a girl. Both in shirts and pairs of trousers hacked off at the knee to make improvised shorts, because this was their appointed sparring time, new round or no. The girl was smiling, gesturing animatedly as the boy listened, solemn-faced.

"-- not sure how I'd fight a tiger, anyway- Oh!"

She broke off in surprise. "Sorry, are you training?"

"Well I guess not for much longer." She says sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head with one hand and examining the knuckles of the other. "A tiger, huh?"

Suzaku nodded quietly at Sora's words, he had no idea how they'd fight a tiger anyways. It was strange, this everyone having the exact same dream; Suzaku wasn't too sure what to think of it; how to deal with it.

He looked up at the girl and noticed her knuckles; they were bleeding. "Are you all right?"

"It's a strange dream we had," Sora mirrored the other girl's gesture almost perfectly, before Suzaku's question made her pause and look at her more closely.

Blood! She was over in a flash. "Ah, your hand!"

"Oh this? I just forgot to bring handwraps." She said, blushing, grinning and holding it out to show hey, it's not really so bad, it's just blood!

Suzaku nodded, it didn't look too bad and she didn't look to be in pain. "Do you mind if we use the other half?" He gestured at the rest of the room.

"Do you want to borrow some of ours?" She lifted her arm, to show the bag hanging from her elbow. Water bottles, towels and a first-aid kit. They were apparently prepared for this. "We have a couple spare, I think."

"That's very kind of you." She says, bowing and admitting to herself that she's starting to feel thirsty. "I'm Utena, by the way. Well I don't know about tigers but I did once see a guy punch out a kangaroo." Oh Touga. You're kind of ridiculous when you think about it.

Suzaku raised an eyebrow, a kangaroo? Well... he wasn't sure what to say to that. "Urh... I'm Suzaku, this is Sora," he gave a small smile before it faded and he stood still and silent.

Edited 2011-02-09 21:54 (UTC)

"Right, I'm Sora," she knelt down to put the bag on the floor, and retrieved one of the bottles and some of the wrappings. "It's nice to meet you, Utena! But, um, why was the guy punching a kangaroo?"

"He was defending his sister." Which didn't really make all that much more sense, but whatever. Utena was still running on Ohtori's wacky logic.

"Are you guys Players too?"

That made a little bit more sense and Suzaku nodded and then shook his head. "No we are weapons for this round, are you new here?" He hadn't seen her before so he guessed she had come on the tram that had arrived the day before.

Ohhh. Yeah, that made total sense. Sora was fairly sure she'd punch a kangaroo if it was attacking someone she cared about. That resolved, she stood up and held out their contributions to Utena's training efforts.

"Yeah, we're both Weapons... Suzaku got to play last week, though!"

"I see..." Utena fidgeted a little bit. "I don't really like this system. It's not right to own people. But I feel like I have to try to win this thing...Thanks." She didn't look too happy about it though as she poured hydrogen peroxide on her knuckles, watching it foam up pinkly.

Suzaku nodded, he hadn't liked that aspect of being a player either, but it turned out the vow could be interpreted quite loosely. He hadn't vowed to own any of the people he had had as weapons.

"It's not fair that they make us fight, but if we fight we can get our memories back and work out how to get out of here and how to stop the people who kidnapped us."

"Right. At our old school, it was the same. I didn't like having to own any of the girls... but it was the only way I could save them, so I promised to serve them, instead. That's what knights do."

She smiled sidelong at Suzaku, then leaned towards Utena. "I think you want to do the same, so... won't you join us? It's better if we all fight together!"

"Alright!" Utena said, firmly clasping Sora's hand. Not the most Japanese thing to do, but since when had she been a follower of tradition.

"Right now, let's all swear to protect the Weapons of this school together and end this wicked game." It was like some Romance of the Three Kingdoms shit up in there.

Suzaku stood silently, he and Sora had already agreed to do their best to free everybody and he did not mind agreeing to help this girl as well. A small voice in the back of his mind told him it was useless, that he would fail again; everyone he promised to protect ended up dead.

No, he couldn't think like that. It was that dream, it had shaken him; they had to try. As naive as both Sora and Utena's ideals were Suzaku could understand them. They could at least try, even if it wasn't possible to save everybody. He nodded remaining silent and let Sora do the speaking, she was better at that then he was.

Sora wove her fingers into Utena's without a second's hesitation, and caught Suzaku's nearest hand with her other. Being a part of the group means holding hands, okay.

"I swear," she said, voice full of enough enthusiasm and determination to cover herself and Suzaku both, "Giving my word as a knight of justice, that we will protect everyone in this school with all of our power, until the game is over and everyone is safe."

She paused, then looked at them both with a half-smile. "Let's protect each other too, okay?"

Utena reached with her free hand for a sword to dramatically hold aloft. It not being there, she chuckled with embarrassement.

"I guess we ought to act as each other's Weapons then. My original plan was to just rush in and knock them out..."

Suzaku let Sora take his hand and nodded at her words. "I swear," his voice was quieter than Sora's, less enthusiastic. He didn't have much faith in their ability to keep to this oath. You could never protect everyone.

When Utena spoke Suzaku blinked. "But..." He frowned, "They are not our enemies. We aren't fighting enemies we are fighting others like us who have been kidnapped and forced to play this twisted game." He didn't like the idea of her knocking people out just because they'd had the bad luck to be chosen as a player this round.

"Maybe we could tell everyone how to care for their Weapons," Sora suggested, looking nervously between them for a moment. "Knocking them out might be a little much, unless they're actually trying to hurt people..."

Utena put a finger to her lips, visibly thinking. Her face scrunched up as she ran through alternatives.

"You're probably right. The last time I played a game like this everyone was a volunteer. Maybe there's a way to disarm them?"

Suzaku nodded, he hadn't heard of or seen any of the players abusing there power. It would be a stupid thing to do anyways, because they were only players for one round and the next round someone they had treated cruelly could be in a position to get revenge. But it would be something to watch out for.

Disarm them? He wasn't sure how that would work, unless she meant to make sure everyone had five weapons so that no one had to fight anymore. He looked at Sora silently.

"It would be different if everyone was in this because they wanted to be..." Sora nodded, similarly lost in thought. "If no one fights, then no one can get their memories back. So far, we've helped people by having some Players take all the weapons who don't want to fight."

She looked at Suzaku, meeting his solemn expression, "The boy, Kotarou. What happened to him... that's what we have to stop."

"I don't know...If I want to remember everything." Utena said quietly, under her breath. She was almost comfortable with not remembering just how she'd been stabbed. Almost.

Instead she decided to fixate on something external. "What's going on? Is someone in trouble?"

Suzaku nodded, he had a feeling he probably didn't want to remember everything. There was so many bad things that he had done that not all of his memories could be good ones.

At the question he shook his head, "Kotarou is alright now, but there was a battle, his weapon was broken and he ended up in a coma," his voice was tight. It had been his fault and he still felt guilty about it.

"Some people don't have strong weapons, or they don't want to fight at all." Sora tightened her hand around Suzaku's in a comforting gesture; it couldn't have been his fault, even though he still blamed himself for it. "I'll keep being a Weapon for as long as I can, if it means other people don't have to be used. My sword won't break easily."

Utena looked between them, concerned (did this upset Suzaku, perhaps?). That part was new. The post-duel coma had never lasted more than a few hours, in the case of the Black Rose duellists. Regardless, a child being hurt was nowhere near on her list of acceptable things to happen.

"Is there anything we can do? Can we bring him something when he wakes up?"

Suzaku shook his head, "He's awake now, this happened in the last round before you got here." No matter what Sora thought Suzaku knew it had been partly his fault, he should have been able to stop it, stop the weapon from smashing.

"He is linked with Huashi; his friend now, and she is a player for this round so he is safe."

"And he's stronger now... his weapon, I mean. Thanks to Suzaku." She smiled at him, a lopsided expression thanks to how grim his face was. "That's another thing I thought of doing. Getting everyone those rings. But then they'd be used more, right? Because they're powerful..."

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1st Petal: Physicalité

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sorry for the delay!