(no subject)
[OOC: Some text taken from EP 22 and 23 of Shoujo Kakumei Utena.]
So. One more experiment failed, and once more he must assess the data collected as best he can.
(Only those with beautiful memories are allowed to wish, 'If only those days could last forever, if only I could still be what I was back then.')
Four beautiful and worthy memories, all summoned and protected forever at the touch of her hand and the barest whisper of her voice. And until that oaf Saionji had intervened...
...no. Much as he wanted to, he could not even blame Saionji for what had happened.
It is a poor scientist indeed who blames his instruments and tools for his own failures.
In the end, it all came down to the fact that the girl in the elevator, the girl who had fit so perfectly against him as he drove the sharpened stem of the rose into her with a single smooth thrust, was not a proper Rose Bride.
She had been, once. She had tried to be again, for she had come to him of her own free well and had given herself to him, submitting to him as a proper Rose Bride should submit. Clearly, there was something inside her that wanted to be the Rose Bride still, something that longed for the power she had once held deep within herself. But his rose could only do so much -- there was something inside a real Rose Bride that could not be duplicated or replaced with a substitute, no matter how powerful.
The sword.
Or eternity, in the shape of a sword.
A useful shape, true, but one that would not be needed when it was in his own hands.
It would have to be taken from the Victor, from Tenjou Utena herself. Taken, and the former Rose Bride destroyed.
(That sort of sacrifice is what is always demanded.)
Simple enough, perhaps. But even so...
'For the life of me,' he murmurs, 'I cannot determine a fool-proof scenario.'
Silence, and the echo of his own voice in the darkness. He can barely hear Mamiya breathing, though the boy is close beside him.
'Isn't there any way besides allying myself with her?'