Ohtori Academy

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Chronolith

Lady Crysiana

The stories focusing on Utena's Ohtori Academy and Angel Sanctuary's Kurai.

Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://www.branchandroot.net/archive/).

"Zettai Ni" published on 2005-01-04 20:18:47.

"Engarde" published on 2005-01-05 14:36:47.

"Double Entendre" published on 2005-01-05 15:28:34.

"Such a Kicking" published on 2005-01-05 16:37:16.

"The Dangers of Boredom" published on 2005-01-07 15:19:46.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on September 6, 2019 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

Cover illustration is "Effect of the Butterfly" by Anastasiya Markovich, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anastasiya_Markovich_Effect_of_Butterfly.jpg).

Cover design by Branch.

Zettai Ni

Chronolith

Kurai finds something odd in her realm. Drama, I-3

"Are you sure?"

Kurai sparred Noise a quick glance over her shoulder. Noise's one wing drooped noticeably, her eyes were dark with worry, and she chewed—cutely—on her bottom lip. She knew that she was asking a lot of her retainer, but she had a feeling that it would be best to investigate this newest anomaly within her realm on her own. Even if it did make Noise deeply and obviously unhappy.

"I'm sure."

"I don't like this."

Kurai laughed before she thought better of it. "I know. I'm sorry."

Noise sighed with great feeling and ran her hands through her hair, making it stand on end. "No, you're not. But could you at least avoid getting too damaged as I do not want to explain to those who care about you exactly what happened and why."

She put her forehead against her best friend and companions. "I can't make promises I can't keep. But I'll try." Without moving her head she locked eyes with Noise and grinned, "I wouldn't want you to deal with an unhappy Setsuna."

Noise tilted her head up and pressed a kiss against Kurai's head. "Be quick. Be safe."

Kurai could only nod. Anything else would have been too much and unnecessary. She turned away from Noise's worried eyes to contemplate the perfect silver bubble that had manifested on the out edges of her realm. The bubble touched Assiah, butting up against so closely that it seemed to rub raw the psychic skin keeping the planes apart. Staring at it she thought she saw flickering images of a castle, a forest, a cathedral, and for a moment, and endless plain of horizons. She didn't really know how she was going to get from the here of Gehenna to the there of the not quite real place inside that bubble. Not knowing what else to do she placed her hands against the silver, misty edge and pushed forward.

She heard Noise's yell and then a roar like the rushing of a thousand wings and then there was nothing.

"Why are you here?"

She looked up into eyes too dark a shade of green to be quite human and the way eternity echoed was definitely not human. The girl, on the edge of womanhood with the subtle swell of breast and hip just beginning, wore a short red shift and gold bracelets that looked more like shackles than jewelry watched with perfect neutrality. Kurai picked herself up off the gray, dusty ground as she considered her answer. The emptiness of the place, and the knowledge in her companion's eyes, makes her nervous.

"Because this place is in my realm."

The woman-girl cocked her head to the side, purple hair falling along the side of her face, half obscuring those inhuman eyes. "The place inside my head is much bigger than the place outside it."

Kurai did not know what to make of that comment, so she went around it. "Who are you?"

That seemed to give the woman-girl a pause. She fiddled with the gold bracelets—shakles—awkwardly as she thought about it. "I am the Witch."

"Witch?" Kurai repeated, tasting the term and the power inherent within it.

"Because I have no prince to save me, because I want no prince to save me, I am the Witch." The woman-girl said plainly. There was no sorrow in this statement, only simple fact. "My world is fractured," the woman-girl locked eyes with Kurai and she felt as if she were drowning in all the years of this creature's life on the endless plain of horizons, "I am fractured."

"Why?" Kurai managed to gasp out, because she could not stand under the weight of that self-knowledge. A distint rumble of what might be thunder rolled around inside the emptiness. The woman-girl turned so fast her hair spun out in tangled arch around her. The look of naked fear made Kurai reach to touch her, but she froze when the girl snapped back around with a movement so fast it could not have been mortal, maybe not even immortal.

"What are you?" she whispered.

The woman-girl grabbed her by the shoulders, staring down in Kurai's eyes with an intensity that chilled her to the bone, and said with fierce desperateness. "The swords are coming, you have to run."

"Swords?" Kurai echoed dumbly. She was so confused. Even when Alexial came back as Setsuna and the world turned inside out, and Heaven and Hell were in chaos, she had not been this confused.

The woman-girl shoved her away so hard she stumbled, nearly twisting her ankle. "RUN!" She screamed. The woman-girl couched down, hair falling over her face, obscuring those wild, inhuman eyes. "You have to run. The swords..." the woman-girl's voice broke.

Kurai turned to start to run as the ground under her feet began to fracture. Cracks forming underneath her faster than she could move, the constant shaking nearly throwing her to the fragmenting ground. She tried to scream as the ground vanished and she was falling into nothing, and then there was darkness that wasn't so much the abscence of light, but the abscence of everything.

"Oi! Are you alright?"

Bright blue eyes and bangs the colour of easter basket grass filled her vision, and Kurai could only gape.

She was flat on her back in the middle of a grass hill. The birds sang sweetly in the summer air and she smelled honeysuckle and roses. The girl leaning over her smelled of roses, tea, and something sharp and tangy. And the desolate, endless plain was gone. Kurai sat up and rubbed her head. "I ... I think I am alright."

The girl smiled brilliantly, "Good! I was worried for a moment. You started falling down the stairs and would have gotten hurt, but I caught you and brought you here."

Kurai stared at her. There was something around the edges of the girl. Something that shone like starlight. Like the woman-girl in the endless plain this one was not quite ... normal. There was a quality of eternity etched into her being like the runes etched into Alexial's sword. The girl's smile faultered for a moment and Kurai realized that she had been staring a little too long. "I'm ... I'm sorry. Where am I?"

The girl frowned, and Kurai realized that was a very odd thing to say. She forced herself to smile apologetically. "I'm new." She said by way of explination.

That seemed to clear up everything. "Yeah, the Academy can be confusing for new students." She stuck out her hand in what struck Kurai as a singularly straight-forward gesture. As if everything this girl did was direct, honest, and so innocent it hurt. "I'm Tenjou Utena."

"I'm Kurai." She reached out to take Utena's hand when the other girl was tackled by what appeared at first glance to be a low flying missile of some sort.

"UUUUUTTTEEEEEEENNNNNNNNAAAAA!" the missile sort itself out as a giggle girl with dark brown hair and the sweetest smile Kurai had seen since Setsuna. The girl nuzzled Utena, practically purring her head off. "MMmmmmm found you!" she giggled.

"Utena-sama," Kurai looked up to see the woman-girl of the endless plain. Except she was wrong. The echoing power, and the knowledge, and the intensity of person was gone—even if the decided otherness was still there. Her hair was contained in tightly bound crown around her head, and those inhuman eyes were hidden by glasses. But it was the girl, or at least part of her. Kurai chewed on her bottom lip.

Utena held the brown haired girl at arms length, but smiled gently at her. "Wakaba, I meet someone new."

That got the attention of both the not-woman-girl and the brown haired missile. "This is Kurai. And she's new to Ohtori Academy."

Kurai couldn't focus on the introductions that happened afterward. She felt too disassociated and confused and completely and totally out of her depth to take in any more information. Her mind was spinning. She found herself arm in arm with the bouncy, giggling brown haired girl and the sweetness of her soul overwhelmed everything. Being near the girl was like ... hot chocolate in winter or strawberries in the middle of summer. She could feel herself relax bit by bit, as the girl—Wakaba?—giggle up at Utena, tried to draw Anthy into conversation, and showed Kurai the landmarks of this place.

She could feel power underneath her feet, could feel the different flavours of it as she walked the campus. And she could feel a very subtle, very familiar taint to everything. A feeling of unspeakable foulness that lurked on the edges of everything and made her shudder.

It wasn't until the sky began to change colour into the first hints of dusk that Kurai realized that she should probably leave, go back to Noise, and the relative safety of her own realm. She gently disentangled herself from Wakaba, and politely thanked Utena. Who smiled, shook her head, and said that no, no she was glad to have been there to help. Utena helped her to her feet and Kurai felt for a moment the flicker of a thousand wings and the shine of starlight.

And she was unnerved.

But it was Anthy, with her dark eyes and quiet manner that unnerved her the most. And when she turned to leave, it was Anthy who caught her eyes, even behind the shadowed rescesses of her glass. It was in those dark green eyes that she saw that woman-girl, that she saw Witch.

The Swords

And then she was standing in her own realm, next to Noise, shivering as if she had walked into the dead of winter naked.

Engarde

Chronolith

Kurai is depressed and Hatter is curious. Drama with Angst, I-3

Kurai was used to walking her realm with Noise's steady presence at her back like a tether that kept her from flying apart from all the different directions in which her land, her people, her responsibilities pulled her. But today she walked the length and breadth of it alone. She did it to reminder herself that she, and her land, and her people, were not part of Assiah though they were so achingly close to it. Close enough that it rubbed against the softest skin until it broke and bled. She did it to remember that they were not angels, or demons—no matter how individual members might theorize or debate; that they were their own, a people apart. The forgotten and despised children of God.

It was the Witch's shattered realm that eventually drew her—with all its psychic pain and loneliness like a blackened mirror for her own.

She stood where she had stood that first time, the first time she had fallen through its silver borders. The first time she had seen Anthy as she really was, or was meant to be. Kurai knew the Great Angels, lords of Hell, Lucifer and the Messiah, and knew a fair number of their psychic reflections, but she had not—at least not yet—meet anything like Witch. Or like Utena.

Kurai placed her hands against the smooth dome of silver and leaned her forehead against it, careful to avoid thinking about going through the silvered glass-like stuff.

And it wasn't fair that she would fall in love, with one or both of them, when she couldn't have one or both of them. Just like last time—just like Setsuna.

It just wasn't fair. She wanted to know when she would find someone who loved her the way Setsuna loved Sara or Utena loved Anthy. Because she was tired of being in love, when no one loved her back.

"One thinks that one's lord's Royal Wife is somewhat ... distressed," Mad Hatter commented, hir voice sliding through the darkness like whiskey through rich coffee.

Kurai looked up to where se sat, lounged insolently really, on a twisted tree branch that she was fairly positive had not existed there moments before. "Hatter-san," she sighed resignedly. "What do you want?"

"Is it not enough that perhaps one wished to look upon Her Majesty's beauty and spend pleasant moments in her company?" Hatter asked sweetly. Cocking hir head to one side she managed to look both coquettish, innocent, and sly.

Kurai made a face. "I'm not beautiful."

"Oh, there you are very wrong." Hatter appeared before her. Clasping her chin with two fingers, se stared into Kurai's black and silver-blue eyes. "Her Majesty is quite lovely, and will only grow to be more beautiful with time."

"Stop it!" Kurai smacked hir fingers away. "Stop it..."

Hatter might have been angered and offended had it not been for the naked pain and distress on Kurai's face. So se dropped hir hand without further comment as se waited for the inevitable explination. Kurai wrapped thin arms about herself and looked away.

"You don't love me, or think me lovely, Hatter-san. You never have," she said without looking at her shadowed companion. Hatter's face was unreadable. "It was only ever a pretty lie to get the promise that you got." Kurai turned to lock eyes with Hatter, and despite the tears her face was hard. "You can stop lying to me now."

"This one does not always lie, Kurai. This one is honest and tells the truth when it needs to be said—and you are lovely..." Hatter stopped as Kurai shook her head violently, denying all se said. Se was not, perhaps, entirely sure what se would have said to Kurai, to make her believe. But it did not matter. Still shaking her head, and not looking at the demon, Kurai turned and plunged into the swirling silver mists.

Hatter placed one hand upon the border of the other realm thoughtfully. It hardened underneath hir fingers, and se got the very clear sense of no. Se could probably force hir way in, but it was not hir way to do so. Se cocked hir head to one side.

"What are you then, and what is our little Queen to you?" Se asked.

For a moment se saw the image of a girl with wild purple hair and emerald, inhuman eyes in a dirty and torn smock. Hir eyebrow arched. The girl mouthed only one word to hir.

Mine

~~~

It had not been one of her wiser ideas, Kurai determined in retrospect, plunging into the silvered mists that were steadily encroaching into her territory. But she had to get away from the Mad Hatter and all the pretty lies that simply were not true, no matter how much she wanted them to be. Ever since Setsuna had gone back to Assiah the weight of those lies—the ones she had told herself, the ones other people like Akane had told her—pressed against her until parts of her cracked from the strain.

Witch's realm was one of psychic eminenations. A maelstrom of seething emotions that shivered and changed, nearly physically tangible things that could rip and tear. It was an unsettling place to be even when Kurai was able to control herself, but when she was feeling shattered and beyond all protection it was unbareable. Emotions like shining lances, like glistening swords, speared her. Cut her open and left her to bleed.

She was rocking on the barren ground, hands pressed so hard against the sides of her head that her ears rang, trying to block out all the endless screaming that was as much her own as it was the the centuries of bottled emotions left in this place to howl. Kurai had the disconcerting feeling of falling and the sound of rushing wings. Then gentle fingers that were cold to the touch pried her hands from her head. Witch knelt next to her, emerald eyes bemused.

"You should have run from the swords."

Kurai resisted the urge to check herself for wounds. Somehow she knew that nothing here could hurt her body unless she believed it could. Rather than being reassured by the thought, she was terrified. She gripped Witch's slender arms. "Where are we?"

Witch shook her head. Pulling away from Kurai's grasp she walked a little ways away from the kneeling Dragon Queen and stared out at the endless horizons. "We are in the place inside my head that is larger than the place outside of it."

It was the same answer that she had been given before, but now it made more sense—and less. Kurai stood up slowly, as if pushing through heavy water. As she stood the decision she had start to make when she first stared into Anthy's strangely hopeful eyes clarified and solidified. "Come away from here."

Witch turned back to her. They were so close that whispers sounds like ringing bells, too loud, too likely to be heard. "Would you lead me from here?"

The air shivered around them, hinting at the return of the maelstrom. "We'll lead each other."

Witch's smile bloomed, blazing and fierce. It was the last thing that Kurai saw before the darkness claimed her and the rushing wind. When she awoke Noise was peering down at her with anxious concern. Past her worried retainer she spotted Mad Hatter who was staring not at her, but at the opalescent dome of Witch's domain. Kurai sat up, everything in her body screamed in protest, but her head felt strangely clear. As if she had been cleansed of the paralyzing depression. In its place was a hard determination.

She went to stand next to Mad Hatter, who glanced inquiring down at her. Without saying a word Kurai placed her hand against the silvered surface and thought: "Soon." It was enough.

Double Entendre

Chronolith

Kurai has a plan. Drama, I-3

Kurai was surprisingly uninterested and unconcerned by the announcement that Heaven and Hell had started competing for souls again. The tennis thing was a little odd, but otherwise it was business as usual. She did rather hope that it didn't lead to another war. She'd be obligated to get involved—on whose side would be a little convoluted, considering—and she was busy right now.

"Here they are," Noise said as she dropped several large volumes onto Kurai's desk. "All the records of the Triumvirate of the Dragons."

Kurai made a purring sound in the back of her throat that could only be described as both appreciative and pleased. Noise watched suspiciously as Kurai dived into the materials with an expression that meant scheming was definitely on her master's mind. And Kurai never schemed. Ever. Not even when that suspicious, smug demon was slinking around Gehenna. Noise did not like it when life got weird. Especially when it was her master who was getting weird.

"No one has done the triumvirate ceremony since before the first wars,"Noise said. Kurai made small sound of agreement. "You don't have to do this," Noise said, rather plaintively. "Besides, you have to be a triumvirate and you're just you."

Kurai looked up, eyes very dark—and for a moment Noise thought she saw eternity flicker queerly within them—and stared at her retainer in away that made Noise feel as if Kurai were lining up all Noise's loyalties and all her little betrayals and weighing them. It was uncomfortable feeling. And not a thing she was used to. Not from her master.

"I am not yet Triumvirate, but I will be."

Noise did not like that statement. She liked the narrow, determined look even less.

And in the darkness of the recessed window that looked over Gehenna's forever twilight realm, Belial frowned in slightly troubled thought.

And in a plain where eternity echoed a young not-yet-woman looked up into the fractured sky and began to smile.

Such a Kicking

Chronolith

Constantine gets an invitation from the Witch. Drama, I-3

He was used to days like these. Days when London said "keep your head down, boy, or I'll give you such a kicking." Days when the sky spit rain, the lorries never fucking stopped, and some feathered rat decided to shit on your favorite (only) trenchcoat. Days like these a man's only option was to get thoroughly pissed and stay that way until London's mood changed for something less homicidal.

At least that was John Constantine's plan until Mad Hettie grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into her alley. On better days he knew to avoid Old Compton Street for just these reasons, but today was not one of his days.

"She's been trying to reach you Herself, she has," Mad Hettie said in lieu of a greeting. John had a bad feeling that he knew the 'Herself" Hettie was refering to. "She's been tryn' but you've been shuttin' her out the way you shut out everything so I'm here to tell you and you're here to listen, Johnny-lad."

When Mad Hettie said 'listen,' particularly in that tone, Constantine felt a chill go straight through him. Things never went well for him when Mad Hettie came around to chat. It was never the friendly chats, only the 'some supernatural 's come around callin for you' sorts of chats.

"Hettie..." he tried. Sometimes the Constantine charm worked on the old bat. She gave him a beady-eyed glare. This was not one of those times.

"No. You listen here, you scallwag, you scamp, I'm 267 years old and I know these things. She got a need for you, so I'm to tell you and you're to listen." Hettie had a vise grip on his arm, so shaking her off and dashing off down the lane was out.

The thing was, Mad Hettie really was 267 years old. She was also a prophet, a witch of little talent, and completely buggering nuts.

"Who is trying to talk to me, Hettie?" He tried with what little patience God saw fit to grace him with.

Hettie fixed him with a look that was surprisingly reminiscent of his nan's. "You know who. John Constantine. Witch. She's been trying to reach you, but you've got yourself locked up tight, haven't you?"

Ah sweet buggered Jesus, that was the answer right there that he didn't want to hear. "I know a lot of witches, Hettie. Yourself for an example."

"Not any old witch, old sorceress," Hettie said, shaking his arm for good measure. "The Witch."

Shit.

"Well, she could bloody well pick up the phone and call, like anyone else, couldn't she?" He said. When in doubt, sheer bastardness tended to see the day through.

Wind found it's way into the alley, knocking over rubbish bins and rattling about empty bottles. John hunched his shoulders instinctively. At the mouth of the alley stood a girl with wild hair and inhuman eyes. John hunched his shoulders more, if it was possible, and started a stream of profanity that only threatened to get louder and more blasphemous as it went on. The girl locked eyes with him and the words went to ash in his mouth. She held out one slender hand—her dainty wrist encircled by a heavy gold band that he was pretty sure was no ordinary trinket—and beckoned him.

Then she was gone as if she had never been. Didn't even have the decency to vanish with a sound or a bit of theatric dust. Straight unnerving, that was.

"Well," Hettie said with immense satisfaction. "She's come Herself to give you an invitation."

"Great," said John "now if she'd only said where to."

Well I am going down to nowhere
Its not too far from here
The Rainâ€™ll be running rings
Around this tinpot cavalier
and there are skeletons and wastrels
As far as the eye can see
So if you want me baby
The Nowhere's where Iâ€™ll be

Yeah I am going down to nowhere
Oh its childsplay
We are turning up our collars
We are hijacking the day
And you can tell me about your journeys
You can tell me all your dreams
But nothing comes close
To the nowhere that Iâ€™ve seen

And all you people heading somewhere
Well you donâ€™t know what youâ€™re missing
Cos there's nothing like the freedom
Of a place where no one listens

So I am going down to nowhere
It is steeped in history
This is high-rise living for a
Joke Like me
We are such pretty little failures
On streets paved with fools gold
And no-one will think twice about
The nothing that theyâ€™ve sold

And all you people heading somewhere
Well you donâ€™t know what youâ€™re missing
Cos there's nothing like the freedom
Of a place where no one listens

So I am going down to nowhere
With the drop-outs and the bums
Iâ€™m a soldier of the vacuum
When the darkness comes
Iâ€™m a vaudeville comedian
In a theatre of bones
And Its a laugh a minute
When nowhere is your home

The Dangers of Boredom

Lady Crysiana

Someone takes an interesting walk. Drama, I-2

He supposed that he should be doing something more active than walking down the street, but with all the confusion lately, he didn't see that he had many options other than to entertain himself. After all, Ryouma was busy testing his limits on his own somewhere, and all his other playmates seemed to be wandering off in the wake of the Nationals.

He noted, suddenly, that he'd walked further than he'd planned, and looked around to see what kind of place he'd arrived in. Turning his blue eyes to the gate next to him, he cocked his head thoughtfully at the rose seal on top of it. The place felt of magic and foreboding.

Which probably meant fun.

Given that the gate resisted a polite touch to it, he had to find a way around it. If the feel of the place were any indication, it seemed that he'd annoyed something by bypassing the gate entirely. It was really quite unreasonable, though, for there to be a barrier that no one meant someone to overcome. He made a pleased noise to himself and went on, only to discover an interesting tableau.

A girl with pink hair who couldn't be more human if she tried was talking quickly to a girl who was a not-human, and attended by a girl who might never have been human...or alive, for that matter. The third girl turned inquiring, unnatural green eyes on him, but he simply looked back, waiting for her to make the first move. She crossed over to him, watching him warily, and reached out a hand to him. She commented that the barrier had apparently been breeched in two realms, now.

He answered her that barriers rarely concerned those people whose specialty was to walk through walls.

The never-human replied that she did not need distractions, particularly at this time, but that invitations might be issued for a later date.

He shifted, acknowledging her right to ask him to leave, and turned to head back towards the gate. At the very least, he'd remember where this place was, as it seemed to be a most interesting development. Perhaps he could bring Ryouma next time.

The pink haired girl turned to look at the never-human, frowning quizzically. "Anthy?"

Anthy turned back to Utena with a slight smile. "It was a cat, Utena-sama. It must have gotten in from the street. It's going home now."

"A cat?"

"Just a cat." Anthy smiled softly at nothing, and turned back to Utena and Kurai.