Utena, Revolutionary Girl Fan Fiction ❯ Sang Sur les Roses ❯ Chapter IV ( Chapter 4 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
The first willow fall of an early spring brought out the groundskeepers and their steel wool bristle push brooms to scrub and scour the smooth white conduits. Under one of a thousand stained glass windows a pair of girls ambled by throwing their 20-foot gossamer shadows on the ruddy glass.
  ; “Kashira! Kashira! Gozonjii kashira!” The girl on the right with braids coiling upwards tautly like glass beadwork donned a bonnet and cloak setting a wicker basket down on the ground.
  ; “Obaa-chan! Obaa-chan! Are you well? I have brought you healthy fare to cure your ills!” From behind a wooden door softly a voice croaked, “Come in, come in my sweet child,” lured the grandmother to her precious grandchild. Creaking the door slowly open Akazukin-chan stepped precociously into the cottage's foyer. The shutters closed save for a crack in the wooden slats wide enough for a mouse to slip through fired a beam of dying sun and swimming dust into the fetid, dark house. “Hai my tender heart,” floated the sumptuous voice from the black, “please close the door behind you.”
Akazukin-chan squinted prettily and saw the outline of a black iron bedstead, aglow in the dark was a graying white downy, thick duvet clothed over it. “My Obaa-chan, what big eyes you have!” She commented to the blunted face.
  ; “The better to see you with my dear.”
  ; “Obaa-chan, what big ears you have!” Akazukin-chan gaped.
  ; “The better to hear you with my dear.” The voice drifting from the sleep boater dropped an octave.
  ; “Obaa-chan, what a big nose you have…”
* * *
  ; In all her years of attending Ohtori, Juri never left the campus save for visiting the Kiryuu mansion and only when it was absolutely necessary. Hou'oh-shi was a quaint village-esque beachfront town with loping cobblestone hills, huge parks, a conglomeration of big business and family owned establishments passed down through the generations. Bean cake and ramen carts were pulled along the streets serving to smartly dressed professionals. The farmer's market and weekly souk was the main attraction every Saturday on the promenade. Green grocers boasted their best produce: sweet fruit, buds like jewels ripe with juice and summery flavors. Avocados, damp apples, unblemished squash, bananas, dreamily glistening purple and white grapes, and berries by the barrelful. The sharp, crisp snapping of long green celery, giggling rattles of legumes in burlap sacks, ears of corn that had their husks peeled back to expose their salivating sweetness, and tomatoes so round and plump they would burst at the touch of a knife. Silversmiths hawking ostentatious baubles, fodder for the Ohtori female populace that would clash with every outfit they owned and break uniform protocol. Beneath the maze of canopies were clothing, novelties, books, pottery anything to deflate a bargainer's coin purse. It was the baker's stall Arisugawa approached, a brown brick of banana nut bread, a bottle of cow's milk, and a plastic jug of cider went into her canvas tote. Seating herself comfortably on a small bench big enough to fit in a tiny garden, Juri relaxed under the shade of a maple caressed by the breeze. She tore off a thick corner of bread and added a bit of milk to her hazelnut coffee in a thermos cup. For a moment she glimpsed at a pyramid of churned butter containers in the baker's booth regretfully, but she had no knife to spread it with. So she made up her mind to purchase a tub or two of the salty sweet cream before she left. For the moment she was content to concentrate on her newspaper.
  ; “`Ohtori Sweeps District Semi-Finals for All-High School Baseball National Championship Pennant. Considered its miracle worker, pitcher with the right arm cannon Sudo Akihito, 17, is the center of swirling rumors about his alleged recruitment by pro-ball draft scouts. His parents Sudo Natsuki and Motoaki dispel the gossip stating, `Ryukoku University has already sent him an acceptance letter.' Sudo is a senior at Ohtori Gakuen and is graduating this year.'”
Juri snapped the leaves of her copy of the Toho Shinbun wanting to see the print slide off the paper that dryly blotted black on her fingertips. He was a cheat and a louse; Juri's pretty unpainted lips drew to the slide in an ugly sneer as she deposited the folded paper into the steel green mesh waste bin on the corner marching her way back to campus. The fine weather brought joggers, dog walkers, and parents with prams to the park and Juri deciding to blow off some of her frustrations took to the narrow granite serpentine paths ensconced in carpets of green. She lay back in the bright sun confident she wouldn't get her cream slacks or rust satin blouse grass stained. The sun gave an unnatural golden burnish to her tangerine curlicues and glances by men and women were tossed her way. Then the air smacked of something familiar. Springing upright she scrutinized the dark thicket of spruce in the distance with thin turquoise eyes and bolted abandoning her cider.
* * *
  ; Under the bridge by the still iridescent lake two combatants collided, sparks flying from their sabers blasting away the oxygen. “Come on Tenjou! Fight to win! Don't tell me I'm wasting my time!”
  ; “TAAAAH!!” She jarred her rapier against his and hard at battle they were again. Neither was aware of the underbrush, twin fluorescent amber beams hidden in the foliage powerful enough to destroy them, to watch their charred empty carcasses whither to dust. How dare he? Was Tsuchiya mocking her with that stripling? She had no carriage! No form! No grace! There was talk, there always would be talk her mother always warned Juri, but she evaded the babble with panache going about her business teaching her students, running the team, attending classes, even involving herself with the tedium of Seitokai formalities. And then his face had to turn up again. He hadn't the consideration to even speak to her once upon his return. Was there no news to report? How was his family? Would he return to the council and the game? Was there a remote chance to change his mind? Trifles that's what they were and she had moved on, Touga had finally invited her to be his partner for the upcoming chairman's ball permitting the family gave its consent for any of the Ohtori clan to leave the compound. But he was negotiating with the matriarch for it to go as scheduled in her husband's honor. Touga had a demon's silver tongue and could persuade even a rock to bleed for him. There was no sense in beating a dead horse so she left the same way she came.
  ; An hour went by, their energy sapped, Utena and Ruka sat against the brick wall sinking into the hill guzzled salt replenishing juice from sports bottles.
  ; “What am I fighting for exactly, Ruka? I thought this was about the fencing team.” He finished his drink and with his eyes closed hurled it into a bin 15 feet away where he made a basket that would put Ohtori's star basketball player to shame.
  ; “Don't believe the story do you? I'm not entirely surprised.”
  ; “I never said that.” Utena told him defensively.
  ; “All mixedbloods suffer from terminal doubt,” Ruka informed her.
Utena tipped her head without conviction. “Terminal doubt?” There was something in Ruka's story, sinister and seductive, and things he omitted unsure if it was truly for her benefit.
  ; “It's the best description I can offer you. There are more like us at Ohtori- the world in fact- than you think.” This was unheard of. Incredible! What hadn't Aunt Yurika told her? What had she been missing out on?
  ; “What do you mean by `more of us'?”
  ; “Mixedbloods,” Ruka explained, “are those who have one human parent.” Utena's thoughts immediately were with her mother; she was a true innocent in every way therefore unable to predict the consequences of her actions. But who would guess that marriage could be such an omen. She veiled herself in silence allowing Ruka to continue. “Our kind can no longer afford to survive on pride alone. The clan's numbers are dwindling in the world so our `pure blood' is thinning out. The last few generations have been unable to make it though to the final stages, that has both positive and negative results.” This jargon he used was no better than Utena trying to read Sanskrit. When this was their topic of conversation he seemed to cipher everything expecting her to read between the lines or was it that they were never quite alone? “I had returned to Ohtori some months before you showed up.”
Utena had to speak, had to let her lungs empty then fill with air or she might drown from anxiety. “Why did you leave?”
  ; “My grandfather died. The news came quite suddenly and that I had to return home quickly.” His tone of finality intimated to her he was uncertain of his future at that moment. Home would have meant a lifetime prison sentence. “When an elder leaves this world, Tenjou, quickly an heir must be selected to lead the clan or lest be chaos. My cousins are less… democratic we'll say about family affairs of such a sensitive nature. I have two older siblings. My sister has a child and my brother is at present in graduate school, neither was enthusiastic about receiving sponsorship so my mother advised me to assert myself as a prospect. The executors of my grandfather's estate went into deliberation and reached consensus rather quickly for my tastes and proclaimed me the new Alpha.” Again these terms escaped her like morning dew sliding off grass blades. Every family had secrets and as Utena grew and matured clues left behind from her parents' shadows glimmered in the dark like a dangling silver keys fastened to a chain made from dreams suspended in the air over her palms. Was she not supposed to reach out and cage it between her fingers and interleave it in the doors so wretchedly sealed and foreboding teasing her in plain view?
  ; “What does `Alpha' mean?”
Ruka shrugged. “Ultimately what you and I are. Why you and I have been given that,” he indicated to her rose seal.
  ; “You saw the prince too?” At that moment a weight dropped and a seed planted, the clever lies that had been instilled in her psyche since childhood were drying up and blowing away as autumnal leaves gave way to winter's crystalloid chill. She heard Ruka whisper, “Only those fortunate enough to want the prince will see him. All others will have to suffice for the ecstasy of suffering for their Rose Bride.” The Rose Bride. Himemiya Anthy. It all made perfect sense now. Her most endearing roles was the one of the slave, her coquettish air as she watered the roses adequately threw everyone off-kilter as they were truly the virgin brides lining up for sweet sacrifice tearing their teeth into a thickly honeyed apple disguising the poison beneath. Feeling ten feet tall and pride swelling with in her noble breast, Utena went back to the rose garden this time shining in broad daylight. But it was Himemiya that took the preliminary steps and opened the door. She stood there wearing a pleasant empty grin on her striking dark face; her hair was loosened, as it was that night she was laid out and bared for Touga and Saionji holding her golden pitcher now empty. Utena mutely followed watching the shift and bulge of flesh and muscle under the linen of the Ohtori girls' sailor fuku. The material stretched over her sinuous distended curves maturely and voluptuously. Utena's throat was parched; Himemiya's breasts and rear were fuller than anticipated.
  ; “Dozo, Tenjou-sempai.” Her voice was quiet and filled with wonder but Utena followed her into the miles of rich florae, the humidity wafting down from the tiers as the bushels of roses grew so tall passing the galleries of some of Ohtori's smaller edifices. Founts spurted water from cherubic statues and spouts shaped like angelic faces. Seashell basins and over-extended sandstone blossoms caught the overflow. The only bit of furniture in the hothouse was a three-legged glass table that Himemiya set her pitcher atop. Utena expected to see something labeled `Drink Me' on it instead. “Please sit Tenjou-sempai,” Himemiya showed her to a wide stone ledge surrounding a depression in the floor accommodating blue and orange roses. What exactly waited for her in this strange garden rousing fantasies of the light and romantic but it was the reality of the dark and bold that enticed then ensnared her here. Doors would be spread open to release the pure magic behind them.
  ; “You are Himemiya Anthy?” Utena questioned unmoving from her place on the floor.
  ; “Correct.” The Rose Bride said nothing else waiting for her guest to continue.
  ; “Just to let you know I have been speaking to Tsuchiya Ruka, so I know quite a bit.” Himemiya placed her pitcher under a cherub's open mouth.
  ; “Do you now?” Utena blazing stepped forward and knocked the pitcher from Himemiya's grip. It clumped to the floor bursting water.
  ; “How can you allow yourself to used like that? They're animals! I saw how much they wanted to tear you to pieces! Is there some kind of sick reasoning behind that? What's the purpose?” Himemiya turned away her lips flattened and her eyes dropped to a more relaxed state one that appeared to be natural for her.
  ; “Tell me Tenjou-sempai, if you were that disgusted with what you saw, why didn't you leave?” Utena stepped back as though Himemiya picked up her pitcher and doused acid on her. Her channel was smoothed over by juice brimming within; the scent snapped up by any encroaching male would bring Utena complications. Close enough for Utena to press her lips to Himemiya the Rose Bride's smile made a fetching comeback setting Utena's nerves on white fire. “A kiss then, for the brave prince.” The hangman's noose of her buttery textured limbs roped around Utena's slender neck as Himemiya brought her head closer to the taller, pale girl. `Like a witch,' Utena thought attempting to loose herself from Himemiya's mad grip. The white sunlight pooled then dissolved into her glacial green orbs, such icy beauty that Utena knew had nothing substantial beneath the rollicking surface.
  ; “What are you doing with the Rose Bride?!” Boomed a hateful voice just beyond the entwined girls. The indecent scene played out before Saionji, his fingers contracting around empty air so desperate to feel under his calloused fingers the tsuka of his shinken. Utena struck and dumb by the pair freed herself unsure of who was more frightening at the moment. “Who are you? This is private property!” Saionji's mouth rapidly fired rounds like a minigun and he seized Utena by the arm drawing her closer, his nose pushing into her hers. “You will keep your distance or…” The Fukukaichou needn't close his sentence. The clutch of a nearly fully matured male spoke for itself. Utena weakly stifled her groans hearing the stress his fist made around her slim ulna when he suddenly took the pressure off.
  ; “Come now Saionji, we mustn't treat our guest so rudely.” A stroking voice bit and sucked the oxygen hotly swirling around the trio. Kiryuu Touga poised for the warm kill as he zeroed in on Utena shut and locked the door. A slim sick grin lit his pretty, angular face up as he arrogantly approached. Saionji who was deathly quiet stood rigid as a soldier. “There are always alternatives,” he suggested to his friend knowing his advice would simply wash over the kendoka like a warm shower to whirl and belch down the drain. Where was that damnable key! Utena scanned Touga's white and red trimmed jacket for a breast pocket and finding none she was paranoid to feast her eyes lower. “I can't imagine what Utena did so horrifically to upset you so.”
  ; “Tenjou imbued herself where she had no right to be!” Saionji shouted.
Touga replied coolly, “Perhaps she saw something interesting.” He was focused completely on her to whom Utena narrowed her blue eyes at his scornfully as he beckoned to her with his filthy innuendoes. He swept past his friend homing in on Utena whose body bent on revolt readying for a backlash seized her by the shoulders and slammed her into the glass behind. Stunned and dizzy, as an amnesiac burrowing from the thick dirt of a temporary grave Utena was in no form to stop his lustful delving. “Ohhh yes…” he hissed bunching his soft fingers into her jacket pulling it apart. Utena caught a spray of gold from between her dark rose lashes, her coin buttons dispersed in every direction popping like frying butter in a skillet. And there it was. The black tank shrouding her pert breasts was rumpling out from the taut Lycra waistband of her red shorts, but it was the sliver of gold shyly gleaning in the semi-darkness of Touga's overbearing shadow. It was the jacket that caressed and draped down her smooth legs before hitting the dirt under her feet and gone was her tank, but she heard no cloth torn nor were her arms raised for Touga to properly remove it. The little tab of gold between her breasts shifted facetiously on her oily skin. Hagalaz, the deformed `H' with the connecting line at a slant. “A lesson taught is a lesson learned,” Touga husked bringing Utena from her swoon. Her bared breasts she was unaware of concentrating on Touga's hypnotic mouth. “So you're going to be the one to bring revolution?” He challenged suspending a fist above her head, his right arm barring her from any break out. Utena was at a loss. If what Ruka rambled about twisted her mind in knots what Touga was purring made even less sense. “To expunge the pain and suffering of the dark forces for all of us to mend our ways and begin a new path… a golden opportunity for us not to miss. Hagalaz is more than apt for you.” Touga ripped open his jacket uncharacteristically hurling it to the floor. He exposed his gorgeous pectorals and six-pack to Utena who only saw a swinging gold pendant much like her own. “But here I'm pack leader, and no one tells me when my fun time is up.”
Utena's eyes glazed over. “You're crazy,” unconscious of what she murmured.
  ; “And you shall be my queen.” Touga said with a new dazzling insane light brewing within his indigo-blue pools. Her advanced senses branched out by the millisecond but her mind was no longer connected to her body as it failed to heed any commands she shouted to it. An insalubrious nebula of heady warmth veiled her body as the ground below left her feet and met her bare back. Touga insinuating serpentine lightning bolts through every glassine mental pathway and link that was just vibrating with the first fine emotive pulses of life in Utena's brain. She exuded a surprised yelp as Touga's heaving torso met hers. Utena dared not open her eyes as she felt the additional two pairs of passionate stares barreling down on her, just simply let her body shut down as Touga's voracious tongue played around her lips and teeth. Try as she might closing her legs was simply not an open option as Anthy's slim hands were at her waist to draw down her shorts. Binding her arms down to the ground was Saionji she was sure since his hissing breath was escaping from behind gnashed teeth, Touga was not as this impatient nor was his every move laced with such bold fury. Taking care to unlace each oxford and roll down her red anklets was Anthy. She gingerly rotated her smooth thumb around the underside of Utena's roughened heel sliding up to the balls of her feet; the Rose Bride then repeated this on her other foot.
  ; Once again on that highway where she met Ruka that night Utena saw herself carried down that endless black, her hair ripped backward on end on her scalp. Her chariot, a huge thrumming red machine she felt almost flying apart from the demonic speed she was traveling at. Looking to her right she saw her driver reclining on the calfskin white leather seats, an arm curled behind him his left hand navigating the huge double ringed steering wheel. Touga, his ruby satin mane a foot longer imitated a prince's cape on the wing his uniform a stunning black trimmed in gold complementing his sexy body doing him better credit than his white one. A triangular red flap waggling like a tongue in the breeze Touga pulled down on his jacket for comfort and the white braids hanging from the gold disk epaulets that spanned his shoulders, one looped beneath his left arm and the other weighted by a pair of gold spearheads attached to his jacket undulated in the air. He turned to Utena, gone was the stealthy cockiness from his eyes as they thanked her for simply accompanying him on this leisurely drive. There were no pins to adhere the gold sunray tiara in Utena's wavy locks, tickling her rosy cheeks were the mint silk horsetails on her overblown gold beaded shoulder ornaments. Utena felt sensual and beautiful in her deep rose satin sleeveless military gown embracing her athletic body. The petticoats so exaggerated they nearly filled the front seat. Allowing her lithe figure movement was the skintight dress split up the front to her hips edged in black, held closed by four large gold coin buttons. Her white braid fluttered and her gold teardrop earrings swayed heavily. On each tiny wrist was a pink satin cuff; Utena brought a hand up to tenderly brush her fingers across the gold and emerald brooch at her throat. Touga's right hand clasped hers and Utena brought it down to rest in her lap.
  ; `Where are we going?'
He pointed upward. `Look up! So many stars…' A firmament of diamonds, each burned like archaic bonfires whose clean glow dropped down to accent her jewel tone eyes. They shifted and mapped out the future, Utena envisioned their convertible tracing each constellation their destination unknown and unimportant. `I promised I'd take you to them,' Touga continued as Utena hypnotized with the stirring skies above. `The stars won't leave us… not ever!'
&n bsp; `Oh Touga… there are so many stars!' Tears crawled down Utena's cheeks. `I can see them in your eyes.'
&n bsp; `And I see them in yours, Utena.'
&n bsp; `I… I'm so happy…' He grinned and switched the radio on Utena's buzzing ears catching a song she'd never heard before. Drawing her close into his powerful chest she saw rising in the distance the faint florescence of escalating spires and turrets of a sprawling crystal castle. A fortress of light and sanctuary constructed within this bottomless hell just an arm's breadth away but never attainable, just something to bring your fingers to as one spun on a caracole after choosing their weapon of preference waiting for the bells to peal and the gates to roll down.
  ; You answered my kiss with your teeth
&n bsp; My blood on your belly
&n bsp; My hips on your thighs
&n bsp; I drink your sweet whispers
&n bsp; I've survived on your lies
&n bsp; The first time you saw me you knew
&n bsp; Seized up nude on the tile
&n bsp; You looked and you laughed
&n bsp; I cried out to live, to take my revenge
&n bsp; I've parted your knees, pressed inside you
&n bsp; My body divides you, a white hot syringe
&n bsp; Baby, I've got a cruel Jones for you
  ; Utena's hands gaining purchase on the muscle play of Touga's back, he split her down the middle with his raging cock a hot, oiled machine drawn in and out of her inlet. Her buttocks spanked the stones her corded thighs clawed at his waist like a thing possessed. She babbled drunkenly as she was ridden, bucking as a drowning victim on a tsunami-ravaged sea dragging her body firmly on his lap to thrust viciously into her burning body and Utena left to wonder cringing within at the painless sensation of his entrance. Utena watched blearily as Touga's cruel shaft was forced between her seeping nether lips toying with her undeniable passion and his shiftless eyes met hers and felt his hand leave her hip and worm its way down between their joined bodies and his fingers tickling her. The wet filmy hood was lifted to free her clitoris for him to squeeze in his fingers. He veins so thin and constricted, dilated lubricated with her surging blood blossoming to the white surface of her flesh where Utena's jaw dropped as she sang her ecstasy, roiling with abandon in her sex's scalding cauldron. Her muscles clamped down about his cock setting him off into an oblivious interim as Touga left his body transforming into pure sensation. Plummeting into the tawny-crested waves of the crushing sea Touga tumbled surrendering to the buoyancy of the heavy salt water willing himself to sleep declaring his battle lost predicting the war won. Propelling the saltine fluid with eloquent butterfly strokes was Utena, an angel, lowering her arms down to his shoulders then finally face-to-face pressing her lips to his. Touga's respirations were smooth and easy; his questioning eyes searched Utena's smiling face adrift in the confining jewel faceted marine.
  ; `I can't do this alone.' Unfair! Only here was he loved, on the brink of mortality? These thoughts bled away as the sea foam gurgled in retreat from the jagged rock facets protruding at all angles in the hard packed brown sandbank like tombstones where his body washed up on a bed of seaweed. Coming to, as expected he was alone. Free on this otherworldly paradise Touga struggled to his feet, feeling them sink into the miles of sugary sand as he entered the jungle. Gum, palm, and fruit trees arched over him like green and brown caverns; mossy godlike mountains climbed above the white, steamy clouds, and vines boldly connected everything together like a singular life force. Blue pools, the runoff of mountain falls stowing fresh water that Touga cupped his hands into and drunk deeply. Pebbly winding roads pushed him into the very bowels of the island, blazing green and blue parrots squawked and shrilled on boughs, whistling white cockatoos distracted him as their yellow blunt beaks chattered musically. Coiling suspiciously were the anacondas and lizards on fallen logs and saplings, pulling back into shadow as Touga's towering figure walked past. After a refreshing meal of a cassava, which he sliced open with a sharp stone the wafting fragrance of passionflowers and aloe led him into a lagoon. A calm silvery fall poured into a lake surrounded by a glittering glassy cove that he knew to be made of geode stone. About to leap in clothed Touga stopped short when the thick humid jungle smog thinned and dissolved on the witch grass coated ridge and a white wolf bounded out. She angled a front paw then turned and vanished. Touga felt strangely abandoned but made no move to follow her.
  ; `Touga-sempai.' Anthy stood behind him, her hands clasped, interlocked fingers like snakes dormant on the satin folds of her white and red Rose Bride costume.
  ; `Anthy. Where is Utena?' Touga queried as though she failed to keep her appointment. The Rose Bride dispassionate as a purple rose shifted her emerald eyes to the left. Touga turned his body around to gaze at the quiet waterfall and for the first time saw a gaping blackness secreted behind the rushing water. Hopping down into the waist-deep lake he waded to the opposite side and climbed up scaling the narrow rock ledge. For a moment Touga stole one last glance at Anthy before venturing into the cave. Through the water her figure did not distort. He walked easier hearing the water lap against the volcanic rock throw aquamarine reflected light on the ceiling and walls. A current of arctic cold caused him to bring his arms up to shield his face and curl his upper body around. Bouncing off the rock was a hum as if a tuning fork had been struck, picking up the pace he ran until he found the origin of the noise. Carved out from the rock was a shrine as wide as the bay window in his study back home. Limestone Buddhas of varied sizes were arranged on the shelf. Incense stick cups were overturned, sensors were oxidized and decaying from the mold and underground heat, funerary pinwheels still turned from their slots in the sand. Armless doll-like figures, representations of the deceased stood upright and everything was laden with a thick, filthy layer of volcanic ash and gray dust resulting in discoloration. Saionji's face came to Touga's mind and his best friend prodded him to make a show of respect. Touga folded his hands aligning it with his face and bowed before moving on. Fundamentalist Shintoists who were so superstitious they could not walk through a door without performing some sort of ritual raised Saionji. It was when Touga visited his friend's family did he genuinely pity him.
  ; The Seitokaichou was forced to squint in the darkness until a firefly blip blinked demurely drawing him nearer. Touga felt a relieved smile arch on his face when he saw it. If Anthy was a moonflower then Utena was likened to a sunflower, she lay on a cross slab materializing from a glittering dream under a shower of moonlight. But wait, something was wrong! Touga stepped closer slowly trying to decelerate his heartbeat when he noticed something out of sorts about Utena's body. Her head tossed to the side and her legs folded over in the opposite direction Touga saw her midsection missing. A breeze flapped her white nightgown around her ankles, his eyes traveling up the snail trails of pink streaked from the blackened bloody mess that was once her abdomen. His yowl so distant he was unsure whether it was because his throat burned from strain or the screaming abyss rushing him like the sounds of the Starlight Waltz on an invisible gramophone blasting all round him as he was twirled into the dance by the lavender-haired devil he deified as he nearly launched him from the dome topped tower from the blue and into the black.
  ; TSUZUKU