[ Watashi ]

[ Tomodachi ]

[ Saint Seiya ]

[ Clamp ]

[ Fanfiction ]

Traveling was fun, but definitely tiring. I had reached this brilliant conclusion after having yawned at least ten times, and after having wondered for at least an hour whether I would ever be able to summon enough energy to get up. From beyond the room's door, I could hear the Vice-President was up and about, and so, as a guest respectful as her host, I discarded tempting laziness and got up at last. Outside, the sky was a depressing dark grey, the clouds a wall above my head. It seemed to be quite cold, even though there was no trace of snow left.

Snow....

I smiled softly to myself. I had been told it didn't snow much or often in Cambridge, but it had snowed yesterday, after night had fallen.

In your honor, Ariane.

I had looked at all four BAIT members funny when I had heard that, dimly wondering whether they were joking or whether they were serious. It might have seemed ludicrous to think that way, but this was BAIT, and BAIT was definitely not an ordinary group. On impulse, I walked to the window and opened it a little, allowing the icy cold morning air to brush my face, and breathed deeply. Abruptly, a gust of wind took in my hair, sending it flying in front of my eyes, and then faded as suddenly as it had come. I chuckled, closing the window.

No, BAIT was not an ordinary group, even if only one of them was aware of a very peculiar aspect of that truth.

I quickly dressed up, and then knocked on the living room door.

"Come in."

I found the Vice-President sat in front of his laptop, the living room already back in order, as if nobody had slept there. As the fact sank in, I wondered for just how long Tim had been awake. He turned towards me and wished me good morning. I returned the wish, inquiring if he'd had a good sleep, and he nodded. "Sure, no problem; even if," he pouted, "I forgot to take a blanket."

Oh my.... I tried very hard to stifle the laughter rising up my throat, repeating to myself this wasn't funny. Not funny at all. Sure, there was central-heating, but still, to sleep without a blanket during the winter in Cambridge.... I shivered inwardly, and told him, "You should have come in the room and retrieved one."

He looked appalled at that. "Impossible, I couldn't disturb your sleep!"

Hmmm.... I looked at his expression, and understood he was being very serious. I knew I stood no chance of convincing him that he shouldn't have worried that much about my sleep, but nevertheless I told him, "Of course you could, and moreover you should have."

As I had expected, he shrugged off my words, and I sat down into the sofa, eyeing my shoes with a mixture of dread and disdain. I was in no hurry to put them on and start walking along Cambridge's streets. The pain in my left heel was a mere distant ache, but I knew with absolute certainty what was bound to happen once I started wandering around with those cursed shoes, despite the protection of the plaster I had carefully set on the torn skin. Ah well, there was no much help for that, and I could hardly waste my time idly sitting in a sofa while I was in Cambridge. I asked Tim, "What's the plan for today?"

He checked his e-mail, and then replied, "Well, Kristin is working until the end of the afternoon, at which point we're all gathering at her place for some chocolate and tea." Chocolate, hey. I grinned contentedly to myself, trusting K-chan to put to good use the extra dark chocolate I had brought from Belgium. "Doug is busy with writing and posting letters, and will only be able to join us at the beginning of the afternoon. Serge should be around a bit later, and the President won't be available until we get at Kristin's...." Tim smiled. "Let's go outside and have a walk. I'll show you around," I suddenly saw a glint of mischief in his eyes, "I know some interesting bookstores." I laughed at that, and nodded assent.

Bookstores were likely one of the best baits to lure me out and convince me to wear my infernal shoes. I reached out and brought the godsrotted fashionable things to me, focusing on a way to convince my left heel that it didn't hurt, and that the skin on it wasn't so badly torn it'd take weeks to heal properly.

The scent of all those books was absolutely wondrous. I could have stayed in this place for hours, wandering from shelf to shelf and back again, studying covers and titles, reading synopses on the back of the most promising books. As Tim caught my attention on yet another book I should really read, I was reminded why I loved bookstores so. There was a strange kind of peace in places like these, as if they were somehow outside of the world, or even outside of time itself. All this store lacked was a cat lazily lying on a random shelf. Now, that would have been perfection.

Heaven....

I quickly checked my watch, and wondered how we were going to reach the cinema in time. Tim had mentioned a movie that really deserved to be seen, a movie called "Elizabeth", focused on the famous queen of England. I had been surprised by his sudden wish to make me see it, the more so since we hadn't been able to warn Doug that we wouldn't be back at Tim's room before the middle of the afternoon, but then I had gone along, unwilling to worry. After all, I was the guest, wasn't I? So I could let myself be led and showed around, be pampered like the lady I had never been and would never be.

"Oh, look here!"

I turned towards Tim, and saw him reaching up to the highest shelf of the row we were presently scrutinizing, and taking out what almost had the size of a graphic novel--or however it was one called a "bande dessinee" in English, I even doubted there was an equivalent--if only somewhat narrower. He held it up to me, commenting, "I read this quite a while ago, it's one of the best fairy tales I've ever come across."

A fairy tale, huh.

I carefully took the book from his hands, and admired its beautiful hardback cover, night blue with small silvery stars, and the leatherlike binding. English publishers sure knew how to make beautiful books. The title was "Stardust", by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, and below the cover illustration, I read, "Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie". While Tim was explaining why this was a good story, and that he'd gotten it in not such a beautiful printing, I opened the book, and started flipping through its pages.

Illustrations, everywhere.

Beautiful illustrations....

A night....

Magic....

A star, fallen from the sky....

A foolish young man, besotted with illusions....

A unicorn....

White....

Blood....

Flowing on fragile blades of grass....

Death....

I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second, and then brought the book close to better smell the perfume of its pages. Hmmmm.... I smiled to myself, and then turned towards the Vice-President of BAIT, nodding. "You can stop tempting me, Tim, you made it. I'm buying this book, along with the rest". The rest in question, was a pile of books that he had offered to carry around for me. Gallantry.... Chuckling silently, I followed him towards the cashier, and I thought I was starting to be truly hungry.

I stopped, cursing inwardly. I hated eating while walking, I had lost the habit since my highschool years when I had needed to finish lunch by the time I entered one of Liege's libraries. Besides, there was no need to hurry, since--"There's no way we can get to the cinema in time. Damn, sorry about that."

I shrugged, smiling gently. "Don't worry about it, Tim. I had lots of fun plundering that bookstore, and I'll be able to see that movie when I get back to Belgium anyway." Besides, I was relieved we'd miss it, since we were supposed to meet with Doug at this very moment at the Vice-President's room. I'd have felt badly for leaving him waiting and wondering where the hell we might have disappeared to for two hours at least. Yes, missing the cinema was definitely a good thing. We started walking again and I followed Tim, admiring the wonderful ancient buildings of Cambridge as we went.

It had been a bad mistake on my part, and a very bad one at that.

Of course, I had excuses: since I wasn't into games, I didn't have any inkling as to a gamer's mindset, and I had had no idea what a gamer meant by "just playing for a little while".

Now, I knew.

I was used to Nathalie playing for an hour maximum to finish a level or some action she had started when I arrived at her apartment. I usually had fun watching her, I often liked the designs and backgrounds of the games she played, as well as their music, so watching wasn't a problem. But then Nathalie never played console games when I was around, her console being an old one that she seldom used anyway.

When we had come back to Tim's room, we had waited for a while, but Doug had somehow failed show up. We could hardly start watching stuff--to be more precise, the Vice-President had declined my offer of watching some Fushigi Yuugi, which Doug had already seen, while waiting for him--without Doug, so Tim had asked me if I didn't mind him playing a game for a bit with a friend of his, for a little time--just the time for Doug to show up. Of course I had said yes....

Fortunately, the book I was reading was a good one, one which I could make last, even if I would eventually finish it. "Stardust", the fairy tale I had just picked up was definitely a good choice, an intriguing universe, with a moronic main character who needed to be beaten a few times before he grew up to discover there was a world and people beyond his so important self. The story was a good one, and reading sense being kicked into the main character was enjoyable.... I lifted my head from the book as dissonant sounds resounded in the room, to see Tim and his friend reaching yet another stage of this game called "Xenogears". I looked at the television screen, and didn't like what I saw. Two mechas--or at least they looked like mechas to my uneducated eyes--confronted to an ugly boss--not much different from the previous one as I recalled. As the fight started, I focused back on the book, and wondered.

This was the game which had been so much discussed on Soc, wasn't it? What was so great about it? After being exposed to it for more than an hour, I had seen nothing which tempted me. I didn't like the music, I didn't like the designs, and I didn't understand a word of the story--being Japanese-impaired which Tim and his friend weren't. Trying to discard the jarring sounds from my mind, I thought I really wasn't one for games. No, definitely not. Certainly, there had to be a subtlety behind all this repetition of the same things, the same actions and scenes, a subtlety which I couldn't grasp, a subtlety which made this game the unforgettable experience its players claimed it was....

Yes, certainly. But as it was, to my uncivilized self, this was as boring as you could get.

Suddenly, a knock resounded on Tim's door, and at last Doug entered the living-room. I was more than happy to see him, at least there'd be someone to talk to, and I could stop reading this book before I reached its end.

After all, I wanted to read it back home, not here.

Doug apologized about being so late, and I readily forgave him. We started talking, waiting for Tim to finish his current action and end the game, but somehow, he and his friend went on playing. Doug asked Tim how long it would be until they could stop, to which Tim replied, "Sorry, but there are few saving points in this game, and we have to reach one, it might be a while." If I could have sweatdropped at that moment, I'd have. So Doug and I kept on talking of everything and nothing, reading stuff, and once in a while checking the screen in the hope the gaming might reach an end.

Perhaps it had no end....

I distantly heard Doug asking Tim a question about the game's storyline, and I almost immediately gave up on understanding the reply. I knew nothing about "Xenogears" and its concepts, Doug knew at least enough to follow, I didn't. I inwardly wished this session would end soon. I knew Doug was feeling uncomfortable, both because he knew I didn't care in the slightest for the game, and because he was too kind and gentle to tell Tim that certainly he'd been playing enough for the moment.

One didn't order the Vice-President around, the more so when one was the Secretary of BAIT. I sighed, understanding this and resenting the order of things.

If only....

I....

Yes, I....

No....

I nodded, aware that I was the only one in the room to feel the slight breeze, and acknowledged the reminder, the warning. All of a sudden, the game's scenery changed, and for the first time I saw a beautiful landscape, nice music and animation. I watched, surprised, while Tim explained things which had no meaning for me.

How different this was from the rest....

And eventually, thanks to some kind god, Tim and his friend reached a saving point and ended it. I had an inner sigh of relief, because I had been very much afraid that they might continue. I looked outside and saw night was falling.

They'd been playing for more than three hours, almost four.

A bad mistake...yes, indeed. Not one that I'd make again any time soon. I closed my book and set it back somewhere safe, while repeating to myself:

Never trust a player who claims he only wants to play for a little while, never say no to a player who asks whether you don't mind if he plays just a little bit.

Never.

From high above one of Trinity College's Towers, a Black Unicorn snorted. It had been a near thing, she had avoided a catastrophe only through incredible chance. Ariane had felt her intervention at the last minute, focused as she had been on her thoughts. The girl wasn't patient, she had never been, and even though the Black Unicorn wasn't too fond of patience herself, still she recognized the wisdom there was in waiting and enduring.

The Black Unicorn shook her head, pawing at the stony floor with a forked hoof, knowing she was at fault in this as well. She'd discarded her watch, too intent on observing closely all the preparations for the night's event. She showed her teeth in a comical attempt at a grin as she pictured Ariane's reaction in her mind. The girl was light-years away from expecting what was going to happen.

It would be lots of fun.

On the other side of Cambridge, a young man excused himself and left a room which smelled of chocolate and a thousand other delicate perfumes for a few moments. Stepping outside, he turned towards the center of the city and its ancient colleges, smiling to himself.

Seeing.

What others weren't aware of....

The plan he had devised was perfect, there was no way it could fail. People were so easily manipulated, moved like pawns on a chessboard. All you had to do was to know where they were inclined to go, and then think accordingly. Nobody was exception to that rule, not even the Vice-President. Oh yes.... The young man focused his eyes, watching the tiny, faraway shape in the distance. She was black, utterly black, darker than the night itself, and yet she shone brighter than stars....

Oh yes, this was going to be fun.

A lot of fun.

I hugged myself, wondering why the hell I had decided to change clothes at the last moment. Godsrotted stylishness, me of all people? No way. I was anything but pretty or coquettish. Sighing, I thought it didn't matter. All that mattered was that I was freezing. To wear a short dress in winter was folly, even if the dress was nice and I enjoyed wearing it the rare times when I chose to wear something other than pants.

It was all because of a remark of Doug's which I had overheard by chance. Yes, I had heard him say on the day before that he'd be wearing formal suit attire. After all, we were supposed to go to a nice restaurant after the tea and chocolate at K-chan's house.... So I had grinned, and decided on wearing formal attire as well--or rather attire which was formal for me. I had enjoyed Doug's, Tim's and Serge's reaction when I had asked them for a minute so I could get a change of clothes. I had brought the dress solely for this purpose, because I had been certain the BAIT Boys would organize something classy, and damn if I had intended to be caught by surprise.

Hmmmm.... Perhaps I was coquettish after all...how humiliating!

Doug spotted a small pool of ice on the walkway, and I gleefully stepped on it, allowing myself to slide for a few meters. This was so much fun. I loved winter, for the snow and the ice, for the sun shining by ten degrees centigrade below zero, for the sun's blazing reflection on snow crystal, and for the peaceful silence the snow brought to places.... Belatedly, I realized the Vice-President hadn't joined me, but had rather kept on walking like a reasonable man who has left behind such childish amusements.

How strange....

Tim should have been the first one jumping on the excuse for a prank. Of course, I knew another childish being who'd have grasped the opportunity to have some fun of her own. Had Tim known of her existence, that would have been a good reason for him to refrain from enjoying a slide on the ice, but there was no way he could even begin to guess...oh well. Discarding the useless reflections, I spotted another pool of ice and enthusiastically stepped towards it, closely followed by Doug.

"So, what did you think about the extracts of Saint Seiya I showed you?" I stared at Tim expectantly, waiting for a reply.

"Well.... I usually like old style designs, but here," he grinned, "I don't like the characters designs, no." I froze when I heard that, unable to believe what he'd just said.

I exclaimed in the middle of the street, "What?!" I shook my head. "You don't like the designs?!"

He shrugged. "No, they're ugly."

I chuckled in the dim light of dusk. "Oh come, Tim. The manga's art is ugly, yes, but the character designs! Both Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno did the designs for Versailles no Bara, the designs they made for both series are very close, you love one and you'd say you find the other ugly?"

He grinned wider. "Absolutely."

I stared at him, saying in a carefully controlled voice, "You're telling me that Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno's character designs for Saint Seiya are ugly, you're telling me that the character designs of a series which has been worshipped by myriads of fans for more than ten years, and which was more than famous, even in Japan, is *ugly*?"

He nodded back at me, smiling and apparently enjoying himself. "Yes, sorry to tell you that, obachan, but they're ugly."

Ugly....

My fingers closed on the handbag I was carrying along.

Anger....

The muscles in my arm tensed....

I....

I....

I forcefully relaxed my grasp on the handbag.

Focusing on my heartbeats....

Focusing....

It was no use to get mad, it was stupid, and would serve no purpose. To hear someone say that Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno's work was ugly.... It was absurd. Tim was trying to get to me, he was teasing me, as was his habit, and I wouldn't gain anything by taking the bait. I could only think that he had no idea what telling me that Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno's work on Saint Seiya was ugly gave rise to. No, certainly Tim had no idea how important Saint Seiya was to me. But what if.... Oh, to hell with all that. I forced the turmoil of emotions away, sending the burning anger back.

Back....

I had to let him get away with it, continuing would have been ludicrous. Yes, I had to let him win. No matter how I hated to give up and stay silent.

"A penny for your thoughts, obachan"

I looked at the Vice-President, and smiled. "I was just thinking that it won't always be thus, you won't always get away with the prize like this...."

He laughed. "On the contrary. This is the order of things, and it will last--"

Wind rose around us.

"--as long as roses last."

As long as....

Roses....

Last.

Roses....

Roses....

The wind faded, and I laughed. "Funny, but I was about to say the same thing!"

That got his full attention. "What?! How can you--" He interrupted himself, and I allowed the sentence to remain unfinished. Certainly, it had a very precise meaning to him. After all, he was BAIT's Vice-President, and BAIT had been created after its members had discovered Utena, and was based on its student council. So I could guess what the image of roses might mean for him, but in my mind, the meaning of that was also quite clear.

It was one of those ancient sayings whose origins had been lost with the passing of time. Grinning at the Vice-President, I stepped forward, eager to reach K-chan's place.

As long as roses last....

Absolutely, Mr Vice-President.

Absolutely.

K-chan quietly ushered me and Serge to the living-room of the small house, and we sat down in the sofa while she was saying she'd soon come with tea and biscuits. As soon as we had entered the house, I had smelled a wonderful perfume of cooking in the air. There was chocolate, and also, very strong, the smell of something I knew and liked. I had been unable to put a name on it, but then it didn't matter. It was likely K-chan's landlords' cuisine I had smelled, mixed with the chocolate she had made. I had barely been able to get a glimpse of the kitchen, K-chan having briskly chased me away from there, even though I had proposed to give a hand. I had just had the time to see Kyri there, and then K-chan had led Serge and me to the living-room.

Tim and Doug had disappeared, either to help in the kitchen, or to use the restrooms. K-chan brought tea, and Serge and I started to talk. Now, what did computer scientists do when they met? Why, they unfailingly started discussing those wretched machines known as computers. They talked business, and it looked like neither Serge nor I were an exception to that rule.

Hmmm.... Strange, both Tim and Doug had been gone for quite a long time now. I let my mind wonder where they might have been for a few seconds, and then discarded the question as most likely unimportant and meaningless. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a door opening, and saw K-chan bringing items to the table on the dining-room next to the living-room. At that moment, Tim and Doug reappeared, apparently busy helping K-chan to set the table. I distantly thought K-chan shouldn't have gone through all that effort, she was bound to be tired after a day of work and--

"All right, if you'll please come sit at the table."

Serge and I got up in the same time, and as I reached the dining-room and saw the table, I froze, saying in an astounded whisper, "Oh gods!"

The table was set all right, it was set for a full five courses dinner, with all the different glasses for white and red wines and water. This wasn't a casual gathering for enjoying tea and chocolate, this was--

A state dinner. A....

I sat down, overwhelmed by the enormity of what was happening here and now.

"I see our little surprise has worked perfectly!"

K-chan laughed, and I shook my head, chasing the numbness away. "You...." I laughed despite myself. Damnit, I had been fooled like a highschool kid! But then, it felt so wonderful to be fooled like this, to have friends who would fool you like this, and do this for you.

So wonderful....

"You got me for sure!" I added quietly, "Thank you, this is fantastic."

"Wait, get a look at the menu, Ariane-obachan." I grinned at Tim, for once not annoyed in the least by the form of address, and followed his advice.

There was a small card with each guest's name on it, and a stylized rose beside it. Mine was pink, Doug's was blue.... Looking at the other stylized roses on the cards and their colours, I realized we each stood for one of the characters of Utena, even if--

"I'm sorry, I made a mistake on the colour for yours, Ariane." I looked at Doug, who added, "It's supposed to be white."

White, hey. Tenjou Utena.... I smiled, bowing at the compliment. "It's okay , Doug, and thank you." Utena.... Funny, I wouldn't have cast myself as her, because she had character traits I lacked or hid, but I was touched by the comparison anyway. I took the menu, and chuckled as I saw its title: "Decadence." I should have known.... "A banquet presented in honour of The Lady Ariane...." Hey, waitasecond--

"You!" I laughed. "I am not a lady, how many times must I repeat this?" They all protested of course, and I quite happily let them win the argument. I opened the menu and grinned like a fool. I could see the hand of the President here: French names had been carefully used to give the beautiful and intriguing names only dishes of high-class French restaurants had.

Haleine de la Mer, or a waltz of oysters, crab and caviar served with exquisite condiments on a bed of Angel's ebony hair; Tom Yang Goong, or a traditional Thai soup of hot sour prawn with lemon grass; Roti d'Agneau du Jardinier, or rosat lamb dish accompanied by a Rosemary Potato Bake and a "Caprice de Dieux"--Whim of Gods--salad; and at last, a Pizzicato of Tantalizing Desserts, or Hazelnut Coffee accompanied by Genoise Rose Cake, a Salad of Autumnal Fruits and Cointreau Chocolates.

My god, this was going to be absolutely fantastic.

I fleetingly wished I had a tenth of the eloquence I possessed when writing, so I could thank them properly, and tell them how touched and happy I was.... But I didn't have that talent. So I bowed again, and thanked them from the bottom of my heart for what would be an unforgettable evening, and a cherished memory.

Then, Kyri brought the first dish, and everybody started savouring the fine cuisine while its wonderful scent spread into the dining-room.

"What is love?"

I looked at K-chan as she asked the question, and felt a hush coming over her room. We had retreated there after the excellent dinner, to talk and have fun. Tim had left early, because he needed to get up early on the morrow to work on his coming supervision, And Serge had quickly followed him, in bad need for sleep. K-chan had showed me the Halloween pictures, and I had been astonished to see how really good the BAIT Boys had looked in costume and make-up. I had had a bit of fun for a few minutes, teasing Doug and Kyri about me wanting to see them in make-up too, and then we'd started talking quietly, about random things, fanfiction and such.

And now suddenly K-chan's question had shifted the mood to serious, or at least half-serious. Doug declined to try to answer, and I replied, trying to express as best I could my feeling and opinion on such a difficult subject. I didn't speak for too long, and K-chan seemed to quite agree with me. The conversation went on, mainly between she and I, while Doug and Kyri were listening, and shifted to the differences between men and women where love was concerned.

The President of BAIT was focused on our words with rapt attention.

"What about you, Kyri, do you think women give and men take?"

The President of BAIT nodded slowly, his eyes set on K-chan and I like a hawk's. "Absolutely. It always comes down to this."

I looked back at Kyri, admiring the way he had taken control of the discussion in two quiet sentences, and had become again the focus of the room. Not that he'd ever stopped being the center of things, he'd just allowed us to overlook that fact. There was nothing to say, Kyri was really at ease in social gatherings, in conversations be they futile or serious. I had been right when I had first set eyes upon him: his surroundings were only a glove he wore perfectly, no matter the colour or the fabric, and he blended in with the environment, in control.

It was likely though, that black leather suited him better....

The Black Unicorn silently followed Ariane and Douglas as they made their way back towards Trinity College, the young man having offered to walk her back. It had been a very interesting evening, one which had kept all its promises. Ariane's expression as she had understood what was really going to happen had been priceless.

As the two young people reached their destination, the Black Unicorn vanished, curious to check on something else.

So she had been surprised.

Not shocked, although he had seen, thanks to the light flashing in her eyes, that it had been a near thing, and she had reacted quickly, staring back at him and arguing his words with an amusing mixture of naivete, generosity and cynicism that he had found fascinating. He had been right to give that reply to Kristin's question.

Truth could sometimes be the most interesting of tools.

Besides, now she had been given a warning, and he knew that a part of her had received it and understood it for what it was. It was far better this way.

He liked it so much more when the opponent at least put up the semblance of a worthy attempt at resistance. Chuckling softly in the icy cold night, he slowly turned his head and looked up.

Smiling.

It was cold, very cold. Why he was still outside, the Black Unicorn didn't know. She hadn't expected to find him here, walking in the deserted streets in the middle of the night. She watched as he stopped, and slowly turned, looking up directly at her.

The wind rose, taking in her mane and tail, and she lowered her ears flat on her skull, fighting the almost overwhelming impulse to recoil.

He couldn't see her.

No, he didn't know she was here, he couldn't know. Nobody could know, nobody but Ariane and the Secretary. She was safe, set high up on one of Cambridge's main libraries roof.

She was safe.

Safe....

Safe.....

Down below he smiled, and then went away.

End of Day Two.

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