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The light patter of rain, and a clap of thunder. That was how it started, and then the rain came down harder.
Utena sat in the room she shared with Anshi, studying. She had nothing better to do, and she had a big exam in math the next day that she absolutely could not afford to fail. Then there came a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," Anshi said, getting up from where she and Chu-Chu had been playing cards. She opened the door.
Red hair, white uniform, that was the figure standing just outside the dorm room.
"Huh?" Utena said looking up and brushing some of her pink hair away from her face. "Touga, what are you doing here?"
He just smiled, his violet-blue eyes fixed directly on her, "you are as beautiful as ever Utena," he said still just on the outside edge of the room as if awaiting an invitation. "I came to ask if you would like to take a walk with me," his voice was suave and beautiful as ever.
"But it's raining," Utena said looking back down at the Math book in front of her.
"I have an umbrella, and besides you don't look as if you are doing anything that is very fun, so it is my duty to rescue you from your boredom."
Utena smiled in spite of herself, and closed her text book. "Alright, since I have nothing better to do," she said and stood up.
"Utena-sama?" Anshi's voice spoke up. "Are you sure it is a good idea to go out when there is lightning?"
"Don't worry about it Anshi, we'll be fine," Utena reassured her, and then walked over to Touga, "lets get going, it's going to be dark soon."
Touga nodded and they headed out of the dorm.
Anshi watched them go, the light flashing off her glasses. something bad is going to happen tonight she thought.
A bolt of lightning forked across the sky, Illuminating the road. The pavement shone a beautiful silver for a moment, and then faded back into shining blackness. Night had fallen.
"Maybe we should turn back now," Utena said, looking up at Touga.
"But isn't it so lovely out tonight? It would be a shame to waste such a night indoors," Touga said smiling behind his hair, which just now looked the colour of blood because of the darkness.
"I guess you're right," then she paused, listening. She could have sworn she had heard a child crying. "Did you hear that?" she quietly asked Touga.
He nodded. "It sounded like it was coming from the river."
Utena looked in the direction of the river, with the fog and the rain, the lights reflected dimly in the dark water, giving it an eerie glow. "We have to do something, someone might be hurt," she said, and began walking toward the noise, forgetting the rain, forgetting the umbrella, forgetting everything but the frightened whimpering cry and the dark figure on the other side of the bridge.
"Utena! Wait!" Touga called, running after her, but it seemed she did not hear him.
She continued walking, a streak of lightning caused a burst of bright bluish light that illuminated the figure that crouched near the ground. Utena saw it clearly, but her mind only registered it in bits and pieces. Yellow hair, red streaked and pooled everywhere, a woman, a child. The child looked nearly dead. Utena realized then that the red pooled everywhere was blood. The child's blood.
The woman that was sitting hunched over the child must be trying to help him, Utena thought and ran forward, not hearing Touga's frantic calls for her to stop. The Thunder rumbled.
Utena finally reached the woman and the child and froze. She knew that child, with his short blonde hair and his innocent face. It was Tsuwabuki Mitsuru, an elementary school boy who was obsessed with Nanami.
"Excuse me . . ." Utena said to the woman hesitantly, for the woman seemed to be crying behind the sleeves of her kimono.
"Oh, thank goodness you came," the woman said in an almost child-like voice, "he doesn't seem to be breathing." Then the woman looked up.
Utena screamed and screamed, the rain beating against her face, blurring her vision. She had to get away, had to run, but her legs grew weak beneath her, and she did something she had never done before. Se fainted.
Voices. Utena could hear them but she could only make out fragments of a conversation.
". . . Should have been there for her . . ." one voice said angrily.
“ . . . Tried. She ran off alone . . .” another one responded. Utena could tell that both voices were male and sounded somewhat familiar.
“ . . .You should have been careful . . . the bridge,” the angry voice argued.
Then finally the fog in Utena’s mind cleared and she remembered what had happened, the woman, the child, the bridge, when she fainted, she remembered hearing footsteps behind her.
“She’s coming around,” said Akio’s voice. Utena opened her eyes to see two figures standing over her, one being a worried, somewhat angry looking Akio, and the other being Touga, looking very upset.
“What exactly happened?” Akio demanded, “what did you see.”
Utena shivered with cold and with fear, as she remembered what had made her faint. “The woman, the one at the bridge, she . . . her face . . .” Utena couldn’t get the words out.
“Here, drink this,” Akio held a mug of something warm to Utena’s lips, and she drank. She glanced up once to see Touga standing in the corner of the room, he had dark circles under his eyes, and he looked paler than normal.
“Now try again,” said Akio, taking the mug away from Utena’s face.
“She didn’t have a face.” That was all that she said, but Akio’s look darkened, and Touga’s looked more fearful.
“Touga,” Akio said, his voice calmly suppressing rage, “you are no longer needed here, go.”
Touga looked as if he had been hit, he opened his mouth as if to say something, but Akio stopped him.
“You have already done enough damage for one night,” he said, and Touga turned and left without a word. Outside the thunder rumbled.
“I’m sorry about this happening,” Akio said once Touga was gone, “he should have been more careful, but it seems that he doesn’t really care about you.”
Utena just stared flatly at the door where Touga had last stood. Akio went on.
“It was very stupid of him to take you out on a night like this, what with the Mujina and all.”
“The Mujina?” Utena asked, “you mean that’s what she was?”
“Yes. Thankfully you were alright, and I found you in time. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.” Akio smiled down at her.
“What about Tsuwabuki?” Utena asked worried, “he was hurt.”
“He will be fine. He has been taken to the hospital.”
“Good. And thank you for rescuing me.” Utena said quietly, looking into akio’s eyes.
He smiled again. “What did you expect, I am your prince after all.” And then he kissed her.
There’s nothing I can do to help her now, thought Touga as he rode his motorcycle in the rain, she is under his control now. And I did nothing.
And he rode off into the night, his hair a blood red streak, in the murky blackness of the world.
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