Chapter Text
Once upon a time...
...there was a princess grieving over the deaths of her mother and father. Before this princess appeared a prince traveling upon a white horse. His appearance gallant, and his smile gentle, the prince enveloped the princess in the scent of roses, and wiped away her tears.
"Little one bearing up alone under grief, please lose not thy strength and nobility when thou growest up. As a token of this day, please retain this."
"Pray, shall we meet once more?"
"This ring should guide thee to me."
Was the ring from the prince meant as an engagement ring? That part was good, but because of the strength of her admiration for the prince, the princess made up her mind to become a prince herself! But is that really good for her?
Utena dreamt restlessly, visions of a rose garden and an idyllic coastal city flitted across her mind. In her dreams, a great tower rose from a white marble school, its height drawing her gaze to the moon- its hideous green eyes staring down at her. Where had she seen those before? Then a girl, a beautiful girl in a red dress whirled and whirled. What was this sad feeling in Utena’s heart?
Her head thunked against the back of the seat before her, jerking her awake.
“Ah!”, her eyes opened to an… empty train car. “Huh?”, the train was filled to the brim when she boarded, she felt lucky she even found a seat at all, now not a soul could be heard or seen. “Everyone must have gotten off…Ah! I hope I didn’t miss my stop!” Utena rose, grabbed her slim backpack and walked post rows and rows of empty seats. Piles and piles of luggage lay haphazardly, “No one took their stuff?”
Finally, she found an exit that wasnt blocked, and another person! A man in a business suit stood by the exit, pacing back and forth and checking his watch every 5 seconds. His brifacse swinging about as he retraced a span of 5 feet over and over. Utena heard him muttering “so late…so so so late already..” to himself.
“Hey!” She called out to him , “Some train amirite? Know where everyone went? Eh, you alright there?” The man didn’t register her question , instead opening and shutting his briefcase and fiddling with his watch. This guy must have some mental problem… I knew a guy who would do that with his watch too…Wait…who?
After a few seconds of empty silence, the man finally looked at Utena.
“Err…hello…if you are searching for others, they are all outside.” His gaze returned to the watch. Interpreting this as the conversation ending, Utena opened the door- the sudden light making her squint.
The train door opened to a group of people passionately talking amongst themselves. A girl in pigtails and pink skirt first noticed Utena, “Hey another passenger!”
8 pairs of eyes turned to her. “We're just discussing the situation we find ourselves in.” She pauses. “Did you have weird dreams too?”
Utena thinks, “Weird dreams…” A magnificent tower. A soft hand. Green eyes. A man in red. Green eyes. The smell of roses. The moon, smiling. Green eyes. “Yeah, I guess. There was a tower, and a guy…” She trails off.
‘Fascinating!” The pig tailed girl exclaims, “All of us strangers, but all of us had the same dream. Do you think it means anything?” A blond pony tailed woman loudly scoffs, “Oh come off it Marina…”
“Excuse you Karin! But I was asking our new friend?” She waits for an introduction.
“Tenjou Utena!” She slightly bows her head.
A woman in a wheelchair to Utenas right raises her hand ,” Im Olivia. Lovely to meet you!”
Ther rest say their names in a circle. “Henryk” says a blond man standing besides a meditating man in yellow robes ,” And this mystical fellow here is O’saa”. The yellow-robed man does not interrupt his meditation. The blond woman turns to Utena, “Karin Sauer, journalist and reporter”. An eye-patched man in front of her drags from a cigarette, “Daan”. A buff, imposing man leaning against the train mutters “Marcoh.” A scrawny boy in overalls answers “Levi”. Above his head, Utena catches a flash of flowing red hair. Marina cuts in “Oh thats Abella, she’s busy trying to fix the train”. Utena bows, “Nice to meet you all! What's going on? You said the train needs fixing?”
Olivia nods, "That's right. It stopped suddenly, we narrowly avoided crashing into traps laid on the tracks. That, on top of the dreams…”
“Dreams?”
Marina's expression darkens, “Yeah, everyone here had the same dream, the moon, a tower, a laughing man. The festival of Termina…I’ve studied enough of the occult to know there had to be something going on here. I mean this can't all mean nothing right?”
“Oh please. This has Bremen meddling written allll over it” Karin interjeced. The eyepatched man Daan chuckled as he took another drag of his cigarette. “Something funny about that?”
Daan exhaled a mouthful of smoke ,“ Funny? No. But I think it's too quick to jump to any conclusion right now”.
“Listen, I'm a reporter, Ive seen plenty of Bremen atrocities to know what they're capabale of. Mass delusions, a strange fog… Theyre probably experimenting on this place, now that the war is over, they need new guinea pigs.” Karin’s tone and stance were firm, but Utena sensed a quiet dread in the woman’s voice.
“And I'm a doctor. So believe I’ve seen my share of atrocities too, Karin. Perhaps there is a hallucinogenic agent in the air…being spread by…something…” He takes another puff. Their stance reminded Utena of two people about to duel.
“Well…what should we do? Call for help? Wait here?” Utena broke the tense silence..
“Perhaps it's best we wait by the train, Maybe help will arrive, eventually” Olivia offered.
Karin turned away from the group , “Its about time I got going actually. Anyone else heading into the city?” At this, everyones attention turned to the forest around them. Buildings and rooftops jut from above the treeline, the silhouette of a massive tower rose over everything. “If you’re heading towards the city,” Daan stomped out his cigarette, “You’ll wanna head towards that tower” .
“Tower…” Utena repeats under her breath. The sight of the building's shape, so far in the distance, made her stomach feel tight. Faintly, she smelt the scent of rose petals.
‘Well, if I find help, I’ll be sure to let them know the rest of you are here…if there is help at all” Karin turns and walks into the distance. Daan stretches his back, “ Same here. “ He moved into the forest, heading the opposite way of Karin.
“W-wait! Is it such a good idea to be splitting up like this?” Utena shouted, but neither Daan or Karin look back. “Geez…what's their deal?”
“Hmm dont know, but maybe they have the right idea.” Marina reaches into her bag. “I’ll be heading their way too, but I’ve got to take care of some stuff first. Hang on, you never answered my question Miss Utena.”
“Huh?”
“The dream. What do you think it meant?”
{J u s t a l o n g l o n g t i m e}
Utena scratched her head, “Dunno. Maybe nothing. Maybe something”
“What about that ring?”
{ L e t g o o f m e}
“My ring? Hah, it probably sounds silly to you, but a prince gave it to me as a child. He said to always honor my nobelness, and that it would one day bring me back to him”
“How romantic, I dont think it's silly at all Utena,” Olivia beamed at the thought of the beautiful prince. “Like a wonderful romance novel…”
“Neither do I. But I wonder…the symbol. It's a rose I take? Reminds me of my studies of the Sylvian. Or maybe Vinuska?” Marina reaches into her bag, fumbling around for something.
“Sylvian? Bremen? Termina? You guys sure say a lot of strange stuff around here,” Utena sighed. Just where was she?
Marina suddenly produced a hideous leather bound book, a wicked eye on its cover seems to pore into Utena’s soul. “Here, read this, call it a little gift from your favorite occultist! You seem a little out of your element here. You’ll have to tell me where you’re from some other time, I wanna take care of this first.” Marina returned to the train carriage, her shoulders grazed the business man as he stumbled down the steps. “So late, so late, so late” Utena heard him mumbling. Wordlessly, the meditating O’saa rose, dusted off his skirt, and headed into the woods.
“Hey! You should probably-” but the man is already out of sight. “Seriously! What is everyone’s deal here!”
Olivia laughs “You know, I was asking myself the same thing.”
“Its likeI’m going from one loony bin to another.” Utena sighs.
“Loony bin?” Henryk leans forward, no longer watching over his ‘mystical friend’.
“Just a joke, but it's true. It's kinda…why I am here,” Utena smiles but suddenly realized she had no recollection why she was here. She thought about just before she woke up. There was the crowded station, the stretches and stretches of land. The dream. The prince. Green eyes and rose petals.
(I’ l l g o m y w a y)
“Utena? Utena?”
Utena shook her head, not realizing how lost in thought she was. “Oh sorry about that Henryk! Just thinking”.
Henryk nodded “Yeah, just noticed you seemed to space us a little.” A loud metallic CLANK startled the remaining passengers, right after a “Sorry!” was shouted from the train's engine.
“Speaking of thinking, I’m thinking I'm hungry. And soon the rest of us will be too. I’m gonna go search for food. You coming, Utena? Olivia? Marcoh?”
“You're nice to ask Henryk, but I'll just slow you down. I’m gonna wait here by the train, maybe I can find some helpful herbs around here.” Olivia looked at the plentiful and colorful flowers on the edge of the tree line. Marcoh mumbled something Utena thinks sounds something like “...with her…”
Henryk looks back to Utena, “Well, Pink, looks like it's you and me” Utena caught his gaze travelling up and down her body, his eyes resting right at her red shorts.
“Actually! I think I’ll see if the mechanic needs anything.”
Utena climbed the short ladder to find the red haired woman hunched over the trains engines. Tools scattered everywhere, her clothes stained with grease, oil, and what Utena thinks is a bit of dried blood. Her hair…what did it remind her of?
“Yo! I dont think we were introduced but I'm Utena. You’re Abella right?”
“Oh, another passenger! You woudlnt happen to be a mechanic or train engineer would you?”
“Ah…no sorry.
“No apologies needed, wasnt’t expecting it but its nice to be pleasasntly surprised. Hand me that wrench on top of that box?” Utena grabs a huge wrench, her athletic arms strained under its weight. “Agh, here you go!”
Without missing a beat, the mechanic grabbed it and promptly swung it on the engine like a massive hammer. Utena caught the definition of the woman’s muscle, sweat glistens as a loud CLANK came from the impact between metal and metal. The sound made Utena jump but only elicited a small frown from Abella. “Sometimes that works…Hmmm…. I dont want to leave from here, but knowing you’re here…”
Utena stood at attention “Yes! Do you need help with the engine, MIss Abella!”
“Miss? You're a funny kid. Abella is enough. Buuuuut, maybe you could look around for something that could help us out here. Parts, tools, schematics, anything you happen to come across could help us all.”
Utena leaps to action “Understood, Abella! I’ll head out right away!” She spun on her heel but was stopped by a quick, firm grip on her shoulder. “Hang on! It might be dangerous out there. Take this!” The mechanic hands Utena a metal bat, who takes a few practice swings with it.
“Thanks! I’ll be back soon.” As she turned to the forest, she looks up to the shadow of the tower once more. What is this feeling in her chest? Anxiety? Dread? Memory? Whatever was at the tower, Utena knew it was important, and knew it had something to do with why she came here. A path to the west led her through the woods and past abandoned shacks, a strange mist surrounded her, obfuscating her vision. What are all these things everyone is talking about too? A festival? Strange gods? She glanced at her ring. It seemed to shine, despite the dim light of the grey day. Whatever it was, Utena knew she was ready.