rakuen | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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..."

1st Petal: Physicalité

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry for the delay!