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                     Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
                               presents

                UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT
                      - SYMPHONY OF THE SWORD -

               Third Movement: A Rose for the New Year

                         Benjamin D. Hutchins

                (c) 2001 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited


        Christmas Day came bright and clear, the previous night's snow
smooth and unbroken on the hills and yards of Morgan Lane.  True to
Kei's warning, Sylvie Daniels did indeed pretty much wake the house
with her boisterous arrival, which apparently involved waking the
Morgan twins with hands chilled in the snow outside.
        A bit of noise and confusion ensued, until finally the whole
ship's company was turned to in the living room: the ship of
household's supposed captain, Ben Hutchins, known to all as Gryphon;
his wife (and ostensible exec) Kei Morgan; their eldest daughter
Kaitlyn Hutchins; her school roommate and best friend Utena Tenjou;
Utena's former (and most likely future) schoolmate Miki Kaoru; Kate's
brothers Leonard Hutchins and Corwin Ravenhair; Corwin's
self-professed boon companion Nall Silverclaw, who claimed to be a
dragon but who looked more like a flying cat; and of course the twins,
Priss and Guy, still looking a bit annoyed at their rather rude
awakening.  Everyone was disheveled and yawning, but bright-eyed -
well, Corwin was looking a bit fried, but he came down from his room
instead of up from the basement, so he must have gotten -some- sleep
after pulling his second all-nighter in a row to finish up what he
would only describe as "an important project."
        Gryphon bustled about with hot cocoa and little marshmallows.
Kei delighted all assembled by starting a fire in the fireplace with a
zot from her Cosmic Rod.  The crew said their good mornings to each
other, settled into places around the big, gaily decorated Christmas
tree, and settled down to the serious business of gifts.
        First there were the big, fuzzy red stockings, which had been
carefully removed from the mantel before Kei lit the fire.  Everybody
had one; from somewhere, Gryphon and Kei had even found one for Miki,
short notice and all.  Each contained a couple of stock items - it
seemed traditional, for instance, that the toe of each be stuffed with
an orange to give it that proper weight and hang angle, and also that
each be equipped with a bottle of dry roasted cashew nuts.  Further
space was filled out by various small candies, batteries, and such
small essentials.
        Other things were more individually tailored.  Priss, for
instance, received several power packs and a spare collimator crystal
for the new blaster she'd received as her one Christmas Eve present,
while Kate's had a new set of strings for her guitar, a very small
tiger, a new whetstone, and a harmonica.  The others all had similarly
tailored bits, and they sat around comparing notes and chattering
happily, a warm, congenial gang, until everyone was finished and it
was time to start pulling things from under the tree and opening them.
        There was no formal rotation now, as there had been the
previous evening - just a gleeful free-for-all of tearing paper,
scattering ribbons, and delighted exclamations.  Books were a very
popular item in this house, which Utena had guessed might be the case,
given the number of well-populated bookshelves in it.  Even Nall got a
book, a large, imposing and handsome volume in gilt-edged parchment
and tooled leather.  Its text appeared to be handwritten in an
extremely angular script, and it had many lavish pen-and-ink
illustrations of - what else? - dragons.  Nall declared it the finest
copy of the Great Draconic Codex he'd ever seen, and thanked Corwin
profusely for it.
        Corwin, Utena was amused and pleased to see, was wearing the
silver rose brooch she'd given him the day before, though it looked a
little out of place affixed to the top pocket of his pajamas.  And
what pajamas they were, too, black silk with silver buttons and
edging, with a relaxed but refined cut, as timeless as an Armani suit.
They were almost -formal- in their simplicity, nearly elegant enough
to wear to a state dinner, let alone to bed.  As she surveyed him, he
seemed to feel her gaze upon him, and turned to look, then went a
little red and smiled.
        "Looking sharp today," she observed with a grin.  "I figured
you'd have fallen asleep in your workshop and still be wearing the same
clothes as Tuesday."
        He chuckled a little shyly and said, "Only the best for
Christmas morning."
        She rummaged around under the tree and found a pair of
packages that she hadn't seen before, labeled for her, from him.  They
were both wrapped in the same gold paper, the small flat one secured
to the top of the big blocky one with a broad cross of red ribbon
surmounted by a bow.  The blocky one was quite heavy - not too heavy
to lift, but heavy enough that, sitting on the floor as she was, Utena
preferred to slide it across the rug for a closer look.
        "Open the little one first," Corwin told her.
        "OK," she said, untied the bow, and tore the end off the
smaller package's wrapping paper.  The package, which proved to be a
white cardboard box about eight by three by one-half inches, slid out
easily; she held it in one hand and removed the lid with the other.
        Inside was the wristwatch she'd seen the day before,
disassembled, on a bench in Corwin's underground workshop.  It was
complete now, a big, round, expensive-looking analog chronometer with
a timer bezel, separate little dials for the sweep second and day, and
a little window for the date.
        "Wow," said Utena.  "Neat.  Sturdy-looking, too," she added,
strapping it to her wrist and holding it out to admire it.  "I've
never had very good luck with watches, but this one looks like it'll
be able to keep up with me," she said with a grin.  "Thanks!"
        Corwin smiled and said, "Turn the bezel to 30."
        "OK," said Utena, complying.
        "Now press in that stud there at four o'clock."
        "Four o'clock... got it."
        With a click and a whir, the face of the watch swung upward on
a hinge like the lid of a tiny portable computer, revealing a circular
display panel and a speaker grille.  The stud at two o'clock slid
outward, revealing itself to be a small telescopic antenna which
jutted up at a jaunty angle.  Utena raised her eyebrows.
        "Two-way wrist TV?" she inquired with a smile.
        "Not quite," Corwin replied.  By now, everyone else had
stopped what they were doing to watch, his siblings being familiar
enough with Corwin's gift presentations by now to know that something
neat was probably coming up.
        "Say your name into the speaker," said Corwin.
        Utena gave him a cocked-eyebrow look, but raised the watch
anyway and, feeling a bit foolish, said firmly, "Utena Tenjou."
        The watch beeped, whirred, beeped again, and then gave a
series of cascading tones that sounded rather pleased with
themselves.  The large, blocky box vibrated a bit, then made a noise
that was halfway between a hydraulic sound an an animal's growl.
        The side of the box suddenly dented outward with a startling
WHANG.  Then it did it again, a bit to the right.  A third time in the
center bulged the box's side far enough for the silvery metal to tear
through the paper.  Then, with one final impact, the whole side of the
box broke away from the rest and fell to the floor.  Wisps of steam
escaped from the open side of the box, and then, with measured tread,
something emerged.
        It was another robot, about the same size as Lesser Mazinger,
but of a completely different style.  Where Lesser Mazinger was all
smooth armor and sleek lines, black, dark blue, and silver, this robot
was built along bulkier lines, and in an older-fashioned style, with
rows of what looked like rivets studding its gray armor and bright red
accents.  Its barrel chest and massive shoulders had scarlet plates,
and rivet-studded red cuffs ringed its wrists and ankles.  Its head
had a glowering human face and a red and gray pharaonic-headdress
motif happening.  On its back, a pair of what appeared to be rocket
thrusters rode like a set of aqualung tanks.
        The robot strode across the plate it had knocked out of the
side of its box, its steps pressing footprints into the thin metal,
then out on to the carpet, where it paused, looked around, and placed
its hands on its armor-kilted hips as if to say, "Well, now what?"
        Lesser Mazinger, who had been loitering near Kaitlyn, took
notice of this newcomer and marched over to investigate.  For a long
beat, the two robots stood, perhaps six inches apart, surveying each
other.  Utena and Kaitlyn both broke up laughing at the sight.
        "Utena Tenjou," said Corwin proudly when his audience had
regained her breath, "meet Tiny Robo."
        Hearing its name, Tiny Robo turned.  Utena leaned forward and
picked it up by either side of its rounded torso, noting as she did so
that it had a satisfyingly substantial weight to it.  It didn't object
to this treatment by its new owner, merely put its hands on her wrists
to steady itself and regarded her with its permanent pharaoh's scowl.
She peered closely at its face.  Its tiny eyes, perhaps the size of
pinheads, irised with a miniscule servo sound, focusing on her in
turn.
        "Wow," Utena repeated.  "His eyes must have taken you hours."
        "Dorothy had to help me calibrate them," Corwin admitted.
"Her hands are steadier than mine."
        "Hello there, Tiny Robo," said Utena cheerfully, setting the
robot back down on the rug.  "It's nice to meet you."
        "Like Lesser Mazinger for Kate, he's programmed to obey your
instructions, and protect you, as best he can.  He can record whatever
he sees and hears - I'll show you how to retrieve his logs and stuff
later - and knows a bunch of basic games.  His AI is pretty advanced,
especially for his size, so he can learn new things, too.  He and
Lesser Mazinger can keep each other company when you and Kate are
out."
        Tiny Robo turned and went back to where Lesser Mazinger stood,
arms folded.  The two robots regarded each other for a few seconds
more; then Lesser Mazinger stuck out his hand, and Tiny Robo, with
comical solemnity, shook it.
        "L-looks like th-they're g-going to b-be f-friends," Kate
observed with a chuckle.
        "What's the watch for?" Utena wondered.
        "It's a control system.  You can give Robo commands with it if
he's out of earshot, and the display shows you what he's looking at,
see?  He can home in on you if you're wearing it, too."  Corwin gave
his sister an apologetic look.  "I tried to get a similar system
working for Lesser Maz, but to fit the receiver into his brain casing
I'd have had to leave out a lot of his AI functions.  Pitfalls of
designing to a pre-existing form factor... "
        "Th-that's OK, C-Corwin," Kate assured him, smiling.  "I
l-love him anyw-w-way."
        "Wow, Corwin," said Guy as Lesser Mazinger and Tiny Robo
locked their hands together and began a classic contest of robot
strength.  "You make the -best- robots.  When I'm a big-time space
hero, build me one, OK?  A -big- one."
        Corwin laughed and ruffled his half-brother's hair.  "Sure
thing, Guy.  You make the big time, I'll build you the strongest robot
in the world."
        Gryphon sighed theatrically.  "Most people's kids want to grow
up to be firefighters or doctors.  Mine want to be space heroes."
        "It's natural for kids to want to emulate their parents,
Mr. Hutchins," said Utena, smiling.
        "I suppose you've got a point, Miss Tenjou," Gryphon replied.
        "You don't have to call me that," she said.  "Just 'Utena' is
fine."
        "Quit calling me 'Mr. Hutchins' and we'll talk," said Gryphon
with a grin.
        "Oh wow!" said Priss.  "Sylv, check it out - a Triple-Draw
holster for my needler!  Thanks, Dad!"
        "Cool," Sylvie agreed, crowding closer to her friend for a
better look.  "That's the kind with the spring catch in it?"
        "Right, you can strap it to your arm and then pop!  Somebody's
in for a bad afternoon."
        "Awesome!"
        Kei and Gryphon exchanged slightly dubious smiles.
        "At least it means you never have to set foot in the Barbie
aisle," Kei pointed out.
        "True, true," Gryphon replied.
        "Hey, Corwin, these guys are gonna rip each other's arms off
if they keep this up," Nall announced, standing a safe distance back
from the two straining robots.
        "Nah," said Corwin, "they're just playing.  They're programmed
to cool it if there's any risk of damage."
        "Remarkable," Miki observed, tripping his watch.  "You built
them yourself?"
        "With my own two hands - well, and Dorothy's," Corwin
confirmed.  "It's a hobby of mine.  I like robots."
        "Where -is- Dorothy?" Utena wondered.  "You'd think she'd come
up for -Christmas-, at least."  She looked discomfited then, as if it
had just struck her that she might have stepped in a hole, and she
added in a more hesitant tone, "Um, unless that's, you know, not
allowed or something.  I sorta skimmed the chapter about domestic
robots... "
        "Oh, no, she has the run of the place," Corwin assured her.
"She's just... kind of shy.  I usually go down after lunch and we have
our own little Christmas in the workshop."  He sighed, shaking his
head.  "I wish she could make friends more easily, but... well, you
saw what she's like with strangers."
        Utena chuckled.  "You sound like a worried parent.  Maybe you
should send her away to school."
        Corwin gave her an odd look, but before he could reply,
Leonard drew everyone's attention with his delighted reaction to the
Master Grade model kit of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer he'd just
uncovered, and the morning moved on.  For someone who had appeared
unheralded on the morning of Christmas Eve, Miki came away with a
pretty respectable haul, a datacrystal player and a small but
comprehensive sampling of Kate's favorite music (all across her wide
band of musical likes).  He had to be reassured that no one was
holding it against him that he hadn't been able to do much shopping,
but he was starting to learn - he only had to be told once.

        After all the gifts were opened and the wreckage of paper and
boxes disposed of, the company dispersed to their respective rooms to
get themselves presentable for the rest of the day.
        "I n-n-never g-gave you a t-tour," Kaitlyn mused to Utena as
the latter emerged from Kate's bathroom, shrugging into one of her
black jackets.
        "No," Utena replied, grinning, "you didn't."  She went to the
desk, picked up the watch Corwin gave her, and strapped it on.  "Going
to have to get used to wearing one of these again," she noted,
admiring it.
        Kate smiled and hopped up from her bed.  "W-want that t-tour
now?"
        "Sure."
        She'd already seen most of the house; Kate showed her the bits
she hadn't managed to explore yet, including Gryphon's study (a
pleasant L-shaped room that took up about half of the third floor, the
rest being Kate's room, the master bedroom, and a couple of unused
rooms), the room back beyond the den on the ground floor which
appeared to be more or less another den, and the basement.  This last
was a nice place, no dank catacomb but rather a finished and furnished
space with a pool table, a bubble hockey machine like the one they'd
had such a good time with at the Hockey Hall of Fame, chairs, and an
old but functional stereo system.  It was the kind of room, Kaitlyn
explained, that parents put together so they could banish their
teenage children to it and have the upstairs in peace.  From there,
they put on their coats and went out into the back yard.
        This was much larger than the front yard, several times bigger
than the area of the house itself, and enclosed entirely by a
sturdy-looking stockade fence.  There were several cleared paths
through the snowdrifts, one leading to each of the two outbuildings
standing there and a couple more that seemed to just meander around.
One of the outbuildings was a big, dark wooden structure; Kate
informed Utena that there was a swimming pool inside it.  The other
was smaller, and seemed, at a glance, to be made of paper and wood,
not unlike the way some buildings were made back in Cephiro.  In fact,
it looked quite familiar indeed, and Utena suspected she knew what it
was before Kate led her over to it and slid open one of the wall
panels.
        "Dojo," they said together, and Kate grinned.  "S-seen them
b-b-before, eh?"
        "Saionji was the captain of the Kendo Club back home,
remember?  The school had one of these."  She chuckled nostalgically.
"That was where I challenged him to that first duel, as a matter of
fact.  Stole one of their practice swords, too."  She looked around,
at the neatly racked weapons, the brightly polished floor, the serene
order of the place.  "How come it's warm?"
        "S-special p-p-paper," Kate replied, thumping one of the walls
with a fingertip.
        "Oh," said Utena.
        Kate closed the door, and they walked around the path.
"Th-there's a r-rock garden under all this s-s-snow," she said,
gesturing vaguely.  Off to one side of the dojo, a pool of water about
ten feet across, enclosed by a low stone wall, steamed gently in the
chill of the wintry morning.  Utena went and looked down in it, and
laughed to see a half-dozen fat golden carp swimming serenely around,
unaware that the temperature just above their artificial hot spring
was at least fifteen degrees below freezing.
        "N-nuclear fusion is a w-wonderful thing," Kate observed with
mock reverence as she came up beside Utena and surveyed the pond.
"Sure, it p-p-powers s-starships and m-makes g-galactic commerce
p-possible, b-but more imp-portantly, it l-lets Dad k-keep t-tropical
fish outd-doors in w-winTEEEEEERRRRR!!!"
        Utena whirled, puzzled, as her roommate's last word spiraled
up into a yowl, to see Kate dancing an odd little dance, trying to
reach behind her with both arms and not really succeeding.  Finally,
she gave that up and spun around, fists clenched, face flushed, to see
Nall winging his way back toward Corwin, who stood at the bend of the
path near the corner of the dojo, dressed for the outdoors.  Or
rather, trying to wing his way back toward Corwin; Nall was actually
giggling too hard to fly straight.
        "You'll p-pay for th-that, d-d-dragon!" Kate declared, and,
bending, she scooped up a handful of snow, packed it, and let fly.
She was no Coco Martinez, Utena noted, but she didn't throw like a
girl, all the same; the missile missed its intended target, but it
splattered Corwin pretty solidly.
        Corwin blinked through the snow suddenly encrusting his face,
then slowly raised a hand and, very deliberately, wiped it away from
his eyes.  Below them, it split to reveal a sly and growing smile.
        He set his teeth and whistled through them.  On either side of
the path, like ninja rising from mist, Priss and Sylvie raised
themselves from behind snow-covered rocks.

           /*  Carl Orff  "O Fortuna"  _Carmina Burana_  */

        "Oh, s-s-slag," muttered Kate.  She and Utena glanced at each
other, then dove in opposite directions behind the large boulder next
to the koi pond, just before the first salvo impacted their cover.
        The battle was joined, and it was glorious.  Though
outnumbered, Kate and Utena were far from outclassed.  Kate had a good
eye for area effect: she could make apparent misses turn into
collateral hits by gauging the splatter radius of her fire.  As for
Utena, she had to throw from the stretch, her full windup leaving her
too open a target, but who cared if her fastball lacked a bit of its
normal velocity?  It was all about coming in over the plate in this
particular game.
        Guy wandered outside after a bit, having heard all the
shouting and trash-talking and gotten curious about what it was all
for.  He endeavored to remain neutral, but inevitably got drawn in on
the side of Evil, and then it was four to two.  Nall, having started
the melee in the first place, retired to Corwin's shoulder and
confined himself to talking smack in the general direction of the
embattled roommates.
        "Th-the s-situation is n-not imp-proving," Kate observed,
ducking a salvo from Corwin and Priss and tagging her brother nicely
with her return fire.
        "Keep them busy for a second," Utena replied, slipping fully
down behind the rock.  She keyed open her watch, grinned, and called,
"Tiny Robo!  Round up Lesser Mazinger and anybody else you can find
and get to the back yard pronto!"
        "(Grr,)" replied the watch.
        A few moments later, the cavalry arrived, if two toy robots
and a confused pianist can really be considered "cavalry".  Miki
Kaoru, trotting along behind the two flying robots with puzzlement on
his face, figured out pretty fast what was going on when the Forces of
Evil gave shouts of delight and aimed all their fire at him.  Yelping
in consternation, he broke into a run, dashing across the path and
throwing himself behind Kate and Utena's boulder.
        "Hiya, Miki," said Utena, handing him the snowball she'd just
finished packing.  "Glad you could join us.  Do me a favor and see if
you can take out Daniels.  She's got a wicked slider."
        Lesser Mazinger and Tiny Robo took the fight to the enemy
withou delay; taking up stations in front of the boulder, they ignored
enemy fire entirely as they diligently rolled up snowballs almost as
big as they were, then delivered them in their own unique ways.
Lesser Mazinger hoisted his between his hands, aimed carefully, and
then launched both hands on their rocket thrusters, the snowball still
clamped between them, to smack soundly into Corwin's chest.  Tiny Robo
simply hefted his and heaved it like a shot-putter, lobbing it in a
high, hard arc that smashed down quite satisfyingly atop Priss's
head.
        "Why, you - !" Nall cried, and launched himself at Lesser
Mazinger.  The black and blue robot, undaunted, recalled his hands,
deployed his flight wings, and the two began an intricate dogfight in
the skies above the battle proper.
        Miki looked down at the snowball Utena had given to him,
peeked around the rock at the enemy position, then smiled and handed
it back.
        "I won't need this," he said, and then went to the edge of the
rock.  "Cover me."
        Utena gave him a puzzled look, then grinned and rounded the
rock.  "Go!" she said, and delivered a punishing double shot to keep
Sylvie's head down.  Miki went, darting to the right of the dojo and
disappearing behind it.
        "Kaoru's trying to flank us," Corwin declared.  "Sylv, go get
him!"
        "My pleasure, boss," Sylvie replied with a grin.  She went the
other way, back along the dojo wall, figuring to intercept Miki as he
rounded the far side in his attempt to get behind the Forces of Evil.
        "Give it up, Ravenhair!" Utena called from behind the boulder.
"Don't make me come over there and give you a whitewash!"
        "I'd like to see you try!" Corwin replied.  "I'd have you
eating snow before you could say 'lemon flavor please'."
        "Ohhh, is that -so-?" Utena replied.  "Is that a -challenge- I
hear?  You know I used to be a duelist."
        "Snowballs at 20 paces?  Face it, Tenjou, you're outclassed.
It was a nice touch turning my creations against me, but I've got all
the advantages.  Better position, better snow, more troops - "
        "Bigger mouth," Utena replied, then whipped out from her cover
and let him have it.
        "Gaaah!" he declared, sputtering.
        "Crush them NOW, Tiny Robo!" Utena declared, pointing
dramatically.  Tiny Robo hefted a new snowball, this about the size of
a decent bowling ball, and hurled it square into Corwin's chest.
Already unbalanced by Utena's salvo, he let out a despairing yawp and
crashed backward into a drift.
        "Ch-CHARGE!" Kate bellowed, rounding the other side of the
rock.  Tiny Robo declined to obey this instruction, instead hanging
back to provide supporting fire, as Utena and Kaitlyn dashed across
no-man's-land and the battle shifted from ranged fire to the brutal
realities of hand-to-hand combat.  Leonard emerged from the house at
that point, new bokuto in hand, and decided he wouldn't try to get to
the dojo until the back yard stopped giggling and writhing.
        Somehow, Kaitlyn managed to subdue both the twins, despite the
fact that Guy was now fully involved and struggled with all his heroic
might; that left Corwin to Utena, and before too long, she had him by
the hair, her knee in the middle of his back, levering his face toward
a patch of undisturbed snow.
        "Well?" she said with a grin that threatened to split her face
outright.
        Corwin heaved himself up a little, but his knee slipped in the
snow and spilled him back down again.  The tip of his nose touched the
snow.
        "-Well-?" Utena repeated.
        Before Corwin could reply (or mount another escape attempt,
whichever he was planning to do), a blue, black and white blur
spiraled past, pitched upward, and then plummeted with a distressed
yowl into the koi pond.
        "Whoa!" Utena remarked, letting up on Corwin's head.
        The pond flared with a bright yellow light; for a second,
Utena had the frightful thought that Lesser Mazinger had exploded or
something, but then the light rayed brightly upward, collapsed into a
beam, and a -woman- popped up out of the surface of the pond.
        She was tall and slim, with jet-black hair almost as long as
she was tall.  It was thick and straight, gathered into a tremendous
ponytail, with a group of narrow forelocks flying free to frame her
wide-eyed, high-cheekboned face.  She resembled Corwin, the bits of
Corwin that didn't look like his father, and had markings on her face
similar to his - the same triangles on her cheekbones, and a heavy,
open-centered oblong mark on her forehead.  She had jingling golden
earrings made of clusters of memory rods and was dressed all in white
and red, with a splendid, white-fur-trimmed red overcoat and boots.
In one hand she held Lesser Mazinger, in the other a very wet and
bedraggled-looking Nall.
        "Hello, everyone!" she declared, then looked around with a
bemused expression before finally settling on Corwin's rather
interesting-looking predicament.
        "I'm sorry, have I come at a bad time?" she asked with an
impish grin.  She walked across the surface of the no-longer-glowing
pond, hopped down from the edge of the stone wall, and stood grinning
as Corwin scrambled to his feet, brushed snow from himself, and
assured her that she hadn't.
        "As a matter of fact, your timing couldn't be better," he told
her with a smirk.  "Mom, this is Kaitlyn's school roommate, Utena
Tenjou.  Utena, my mother - Skuld Ravenhair."
        Skuld turned her smile on Utena, who was bowing.  "You were
about to give my son a whitewash, weren't you?" she inquired.
        "Um, well... yes," said Utena.  "But I beat him fair and
square!  He deserved it."
        "I see," said Skuld, nodding.  "Well, in that case you'd best
be about it.  I don't want him thinking I'm going to bail him out of
all his troubles - he's too old for that sort of thing," she said
pleasantly.
        Utena blinked at her, then grinned, turned, grabbed a
flabbergasted Corwin by the front of his coat, and snuffed out his
hurt cry of, "-Mom!-" with that patch of snow that had his name on it.
        "Now then," Utena said briskly as she let him, sputtering and
wiping at his eyes, back up off the ground.  "Where'd Miki get off to?
Miki!  Where are you?"
        Momentarily, Miki appeared around the far corner of the dojo -
not a hair out of place, smiling placidly, and leading before him a
very red-faced and wet-haired Sylvie Daniels with his hand on the
scruff of her neck.
        "Now, are you going to be a good girl?" he asked her
indulgently.
        "For now," she replied petulantly.
        "Can we go inside before I freeze solid?" Nall inquired.  "I
mean, I like snow and ice and all, I'm a White Dragon, but there are
limits."
        Miki was introduced, everybody picked themselves up and dusted
themselves off, and the crowd adjourned.  The twins and a still-shaken
Sylvie went roaring off to make trouble somewhere else, probably down
the street; Leonard, finally able to pass, said his smiling hello to
Skuld and entered the dojo for his morning kata.  The rest of them
went to the living room for mugs of hot cocoa while Nall basked on the
hearthstones in front of the fire to dry out.
        "(What'd you do to Sylvie?)" Utena murmured to Miki as she sat
down on the couch next to him.
        "(Something Kozue did to me once when Dad took us skiing,)" he
replied.  "(She called it 'the Frozen Punishment', though I forget
exactly what she was punishing me for.)"
        "(I don't think I -want- the details.  Your sister's got a
major mean streak.)"
        "(I hadn't noticed,)" Miki replied dryly.
        Corwin came back downstairs from putting on dry clothes,
having taken the second worst pounding of the whole engagement,
collected a mug of cocoa from the tray by the kitchen arch, and looked
for somewhere to park.  Utena patted the free third of the couch to
her left.
        "No hard feelings?" she asked with a conciliatory smile.
        Corwin put his cocoa down on the end table and grinned.  "Like
you said, you beat me fair and square," he replied, moving to take the
offered seat.
        "a-HEM," said Skuld with a look of mock petulance.  "I seem to
remember -somebody- was too busy getting his face scrubbed to greet
his -mother- properly... "
        Corwin prudently aborted the seating operation and went to
give his mother a hug and kiss hello instead.  Not until that moment
had it occurred to Utena that Skuld's arrival had been at all weird.
She'd read that the technology existed here for teleporting machines.
Did Kate's dad have one built into his artificial hot spring?  That'd
be strange, but then, he -was- a bit eccentric - in a charming kind of
way.  She liked this whole family, weird parts and all.  She decided
not to worry about it as Corwin finally took his assigned place and
reclaimed his cocoa.
        Kate came from the kitchen, where she'd opted to make herself
some mint tea instead of the cocoa, and sat down on the floor in front
of the sofa, smiling.
        "D-Dad's doing p-pizza for lunch," she reported.
        "All -right-," said Corwin.
        "On Christmas?" said Utena dubiously.
        "It's only lunch," Skuld pointed out, plunking down in the big
brown armchair.  She, too, looked much younger than she had to be, not
that much older than Kate - around the same age, Utena reflected, as,
say, Saionji.  Skuld and Corwin could have been siblings separated by
a handful of years, like Kate and Priss, rather than mother and son.
The concentration of these youthful immortals in this area was
starting to feel more than a little surreal, as if Utena had slipped
into some kind of bizarre Peter Pan world where the grown-ups had
figured out a way to do it that didn't force them to leave Never-Never
Land.
        The five of them chatted about this and that - the rather odd
circumstances of Miki's arrival, which Corwin hadn't heard about
before; the midnight Mass; the state of things back on Tomodachi,
where Skuld made her home.  Corwin's mother took a few minutes to
examine the robots he'd made, and was duly impressed.
        "This is excellent work," she noted, looking over Tiny Robo.
"Let's see your power core, little guy, c'mon."  With an obliging
growl, Tiny Robo opened his plastron, revealing a startling maze of
tiny pipes and conduits.  "Steam pile!  Very nice.  Love the tubing.
Seems a bit overpowered for a toy, though."
        "Future expansion," Corwin explained.
        "Of course, of course," said Skuld.  "OK, TR, you can close up
shop," she said, and released the robot back to the floor.  "Smart
design.  Very good work.  You must have been really motivated," she
added, a twinkle in her eye.
        "I always try to do my best work," Corwin replied piously, his
cheeks going a little red.
        "Of course, of course," Skuld repeated.  "Utena?"
        "Yes'm?" said Utena, looking attentive.
        "I can't reach from over here," said Skuld, "and the fire's
making me too lazy to get up.  Mess up Corwin's hair for me, would
you?"
        "My pleasure," said Utena, and she did that thing.  Kaitlyn
giggled.  Corwin sighed, but not in a manner that indicated he was
suffering.

        Lunch was as good as advertised, despite the fact that pizza
seemed somehow inappropriate for Christmas Day.  Utena had an
opportunity during this meal to observe the byplay between Gryphon and
the two mothers of his children.  She wasn't sure what she'd been
expecting, but it wasn't what she saw; the three of them were all
completely at ease, without any trace of the sort of awkwardness one
might expect from such a situation.  In fact, there was something
slyly humorous, almost... -conspiratorial- about the interactions
between Skuld and Kei, as though they were the only two people in the
universe who knew the punch line of a very funny joke, and they
were feeling smug about it.  Utena spent several thoughtful minutes
wondering why this seemed familiar to her, but couldn't pin it down.
        She didn't have time to ponder it much after lunch.  Corwin
gave her a tour of his workshop complex (which was impressive, if
slightly surreal); they found Dorothy in the medical section,
performing routine maintenance on the Medicom 3000.
        "Dorothy, could you come here for a second?" said Corwin.  The
robot girl stopped in her work, turned to look at him, then crossed
the room and stood, expressionless, waiting.
        "I failed to introduce myself yesterday," Dorothy said
suddenly, looking at Utena.  "I'm R. Dorothy Wayneright.  I apologize
for the oversight."
        "It's all right," said Utena, feeling a little uncomfortable
under Dorothy's steady dark gaze.
        "Is there something you need, Corwin?" Dorothy asked.
        Corwin asked her to accompany them to the console room, which
she did without demur.  This room was an office-like space with
several computer consoles in it - the nerve center of the lab - and
the Christmas tree standing in the corner looked a bit out of place
amid the white and chrome.  Corwin went to the tree and picked up one
of the two packages underneath it, turned, and handed it to Dorothy
with a smile.
        "Merry Christmas, Dorothy," he said.
        Dorothy's face changed, very subtly.  She still didn't have
much of an expression, but there was something different about it - a
slight softening around the eyes, the faintest hint of color in the
bridge of her nose.  It wasn't much, but Utena spotted it, and smiled
a little to herself.
        With quick, economical precision, Dorothy divested her gift of
its wrapping paper, revealing it to be a book, large and
leather-bound.  Utena couldn't tell what it was; the markings on the
cover were in a language she couldn't read.  Dorothy opened it to look
at the title page, and a slip of yellow paper fell out of it.  She
caught it before it could reach the floor, examined it, and then
carefully tucked it back into the book.
        "Thank you," she said, her voice, like her face, slightly
softer than usual.  She went to the tree herself and removed the other
item, then handed it to Corwin.  "This is for you."
        Corwin unwrapped his present and grinned with delight.  "Hey!
Cool!  I've been wanting a new one of these for a while now."  He
removed the device, whatever it was, from its packaging - it looked
like a fountain pen, but Utena suspected it wasn't - then clipped it
into the top pocket of his outer shirt.  He smiled, put his hand on
Dorothy's shoulder, and then kissed her on the forehead, which
actually raised the slightest hint of a blush in her cheeks.
        "Thanks," he said softly.
        "Merry Christmas," she replied, a little shyly.
        Utena, who was starting to feel a bit of a voyeur, went and
busied herself looking at one of the computer displays, which seemed
to be running a real-time tactical display of the airship traffic
above a couple of blocks of downtown.
        "I'm sorry," said Dorothy, and Utena realized she was being
addressed.  She turned around, a puzzled look on her face.
        "For what?" she asked.
        "I didn't know you would be here," Dorothy told her, "so I
didn't get you anything."
        "Oh... uh... I wasn't able to get anything for you either,"
Utena replied, a little embarrassed.  "I only met you yesterday, and I
didn't have an opportunity."  She grinned encouragingly.  "We'll just
have to do it the next time, huh?"
        "... If you insist," said Dorothy; then she turned and left
the room.
        "That went well," Corwin said, and it took Utena a moment to
realize that he wasn't being sarcastic.  "I know it's hard to tell,
but I think she likes you.  Y'know," he went on, "I've been thinking
about what you said this morning, about sending her to school... I
know you were joking, but I wonder if it might really help."
        "Well... I suppose you could ask her.  I don't really
understand how that sort of thing works... there aren't any robots
back home."
        Corwin sat down, gestured her to a chair, and did his best to
explain the somewhat dysfunctional lot of robots and androids in
modern galactic society.  What it boiled down to was that Dorothy, not
having been certified as a sentient lifeform by the Turing Institute,
was not a person in the legal sense of the word.  She had no civil
rights, no standing at all in society.
        "So... she's just... your property," Utena observed.  "Like a
toaster."
        Corwin nodded.  "Yeah."
        She gave him a scowl.  "I thought you were better than that,"
she said in a tone that combined anger and disappointment, and she
started to get up.
        "Whoa, whoa!" said Corwin, spreading his hands.  "I don't like
it any more than you do!  But there's nothing I can do about it
myself."
        "I don't follow you," Utena replied, but she sat back down and
listened, anyway.  "Or are you just going to say that society's to
blame?"
        "Well, in a way."
        "It's nothing better than slavery."
        "I agree.  I do.  But it's a thorny issue galaxy-wide right
now.  The social system for sentient artifacts is broken.  There -is-
a way out for Dorothy, but it requires her to take action herself,
and... well, so far, she's refused to do it."
        "What is it?"
        "There's a regulating body for artificial sentience," Corwin
told her, "the Turing Institute, on Turing III.  A robot seeking
emancipation can go before the Institute Board and be tested, and if
the tests are passed, that's it - the robot is declared a free
intelligence, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof."
        "Could Dorothy pass?" asked Utena.
        "Oh, without question," Corwin answered, unhesitating.  "She
doesn't act it, but Dorothy is a lot more... -human- than a number of
regular people I know.  She'd pass... but she won't go."
        "What?  Why not?"
        "I don't know, exactly," said Corwin helplessly.  "Every year
I suggest it - every year I send in the sponsorship form.  The yellow
paper in the book I gave her was the certified copy of this year's.
It gives her six months to contact the Board and schedule an
appearance to be tested.  I have to file that first because I'm her
owner; a robot can't file for emancipation without its owner's
sponsorship.  No legal rights, you see... it's a vicious cycle."
        "So if a robot's owner wants to keep it in bondage... "
        "Yeah.  I -said- the system is broken.  There are reform
efforts put forward every couple of years, but... "  Corwin shrugged.
"Robot rights aren't high on anybody's list of priorities, with the
telepath situation and the whole Species Isolation movement and
whatnot.  Anyway, I sponsor her, but she won't go.  She says there'd
be no point, and I can't budge her."
        "Couldn't you -order- her to go?"
        Corwin blinked.  "You know, I never thought of that.  I
suppose I could... but that's just it, I don't -want- to give her
orders.  And I don't know how she'd take it.  She might take it as a
rejection, and... I'm... all she has."
        "But if she were certified - "
        "I know, I know.  And I wish like hell she'd just go and get
it done with, but it's like she doesn't want to be her own person.
She'd rather just stay down here, keep the place running, and look
after me when I visit."
        Utena gave him a sly smile.  "Maybe she's got a crush on
you," she said.
        "Maybe," Corwin allowed, failing to blush only because his
mind was occupied with the technical details of the problem.  "I did
rescue her from a pretty bad situation, years ago.  Even if she does,
though, she never gives any indication - because it's improper for a
simple robot to make that kind of advance."
        "That's... really sad.  What a stupid system."
        "Yeah.  Tell me about it.  Anyway, what I was thinking was, if
I could get her to go to the W with you guys for a while, maybe she'd
realize that there's a world outside these tunnels, and people in it
other than me, and then she'd -want- to be certified and go out and
-live- in it."
        Utena considered.  "That might be worth a shot," she said
after a few minutes' thought.  "It worked for somebody I knew at my
old school... she wasn't a robot, but... similar situation."  She
shrugged.  "At any rate, it probably couldn't hurt.  But - if she's
not a legal person, how would you enroll her in a school?"
        "She has my sponsorship document," Corwin said.  "That means
the Institute has looked at the data I provided and determined that
it's at least worth testing her.  I think WPI would take her, at least
on a trial basis, on the weight of that.  They'd probably want her
certified before the end of the sponsorship period, but that's after
the end of this school year anyway.  And someone actually at the
school would have to take responsibility for her, since I won't be
there.  I'd have to make a formal loan of her to some enrolled
student."
        Utena examined the situation and sighed wryly.  "Life is a
circle," she said.
        "What?"
        "Nothing.  Forget it.  I'm sure one of us could handle that.
If not me - I don't know much about that kind of thing - then Kate, or
Miki.  He's a fast learner, and good with tech stuff."  She shrugged.
"Ask her and see what happens."
        "Yeah... yeah, I think I will."  Corwin got to his feet.
"She's due for routine maintenance tomorrow - I'll ask her then.
Meantime, I think Len was trying to put together another sledding
run, and I missed the last one," he added with a grin.

        The rest of Christmas Day was a blur of fun - there was indeed
another trip to the Sledding Hill before it got too dark, then
Christmas dinner at 105.  This was not as sumptuous an affair as Eiko
Rose's Christmas Eve feed, but good all the same, and a bit more
intimate with just the family around the smaller round table in the
house's seldom-used dining room.
        After that, Kate and Miki decided to go out caroling, and
dragooned Utena, Leonard, Corwin and Nall into accompanying them,
Utena protesting all the way to the street that she couldn't sing.
She forgot about that when they got into it, though, and they made a
round of the neighborhood, brightening Christmas night a little bit
for Gryphon and Kei's neighbors.
        They got back to the house at around ten, and, having had an
early morning and another full day, they went to their beds content,
and slept the sleep of the just.

        The next morning, Utena woke early, got up, showered and
dressed without waking Kate, and went downstairs, wondering if anyone
else was even awake yet.  It was only nine, after all, and around
here, that was practically the wee hours of the morning.
        She found Zoner in the den, reading.  As she entered and sat
down in the red leather wingback chair across from him, he flipped the
attached ribbon bookmark into the book and set it on the arm of the
chair.
        "How did you know?" she asked him bluntly.
        "Know what?" Zoner replied.
        "About Miki.  That he could help Kate."
        "I didn't."
        "Then how did he get here?"
        Zoner shrugged.  "I had nothing to do with it."
        Utena gave him a skeptical look.  "Come on.  Who else could
have done it?  You brought -me- here."
        "No I didn't," Zoner told her.
/--
                        11:45 PM EASTERN TIME
                       TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2404
                            BANCROFT TOWER
                       WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

        MegaZone, Experts of Justice field agent, former Wedge Defense
Force commander, and occasional avatar of Chaos, was fairly certain
his presence here at Bancroft Tower had the most to do with the third
thing on that list.  He was accustomed to being tugged hither and yon
by the ebbs and flows of the twisted fate he called his own; but this
was kind of an odd place for him to find himself, anyway.  Not that he
disliked Bancroft Tower, far from it.  Still, he hadn't been here in
years, and it was kind of strange that he'd decided at random to
wander up here tonight and look at the city.
        He stood with his elbows on a crenelation of one of the
miniature turrets that flanked the walkway to the tower, looking over
the shifting lights of Worcester, finding amusement in how little the
city (except for the very core of downtown, which was now somewhat
taller than he remembered it) had been allowed to change in the four
hundred years he had known it.  For a conurbation that had been
leveled by atomic fire twice, it looked remarkably as it had when he
had first arrived in 1989.
        For that matter, so did he, but in his case the appearance was
a lie.
        He was about to write off whatever strange inspiration had
brought him here and go home when there was a bright flash of light
and a strange electric noise from behind him.  Unconcerned, he turned,
hands in the pockets of his black leather trenchcoat, and looked
toward the source of the light.
        In the pavement under the arch of Bancroft Tower's two halves,
there was a circular, slightly dished, smoking depression that
stretched almost from one side of the tower to the other.  In the
center of that depression... 
        ... was a girl.
        Zoner blinked, took a few steps closer, and had a closer look.
Yes, a girl, definitely, no question about it, in her middle teens, he
thought - hard to tell in this light - lying curled in a fetal
position on her side in the middle of the crater.  Steam rose silently
from her rather tattered black and red clothes and her long pink hair.
Zoner frowned thoughtfully, sniffing at the air.
        "Roses?" he murmured; then, snapping back to the business at
hand, he stepped into the crater, knelt down next to her, and put a
couple of fingers to the side of her throat.  OK, fine; a -live- girl,
that's better than the alternative.  And very pretty, too, he noticed
in an abstracted sort of way.  He straightened, brushing dust from his
knees, and frowned down at her.
        "Damn shame," he observed, "folks throwin' away a perfectly
good white girl like that."
        With a soft "pop", someone else appeared under the arch as
well.  Zoner took a half-step back, uttering a not-too-distressed
"Whoa!" as he did so, and regarded the newcomer with puzzlement.
        The new arrival was a short man - VERY short, about -two feet-
short - in elaborate robes, with a stiff ruff of gray hair and a
youthful face that didn't match it.  Either he had a horn in the
middle of his forehead, or that was some kind of weird headdress he
was wearing.  He held a gnarled wooden staff with a sort of beaked
curl at the top, and regarded Zoner with a look of pained intensity.
        "Beloved of Eris, Walker in Discord, hear me!" he declared, and
then flickered like a badly tuned video image.  Zoner blinked,
realized belatedly that he could see right through the little guy.
"The girl before you is named Utena Tenjou.  On the calendar of your
world, her date of birth would be December 29, 2389.  You will need
that information if you are to establish her in your codified
electronic society."
        "If -I-... ?" Zoner began, but the illusory midget cut him
off.
        "There is no time!" he barked.  "Listen to me carefully,
Chaoswalker!  That girl is the last hope of an entire world, but her
destiny is incomplete.  She must be guarded, kept safe and well.  I
know you have the power to do this.  You must - "
        Suddenly, the little man flinched, looked to his left with an
expression of horror, and vanished.
        "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi.  You're my only hope," Zoner
muttered to himself. 
        He stood scowling at the place where the little man had just
been, then at the girl, then at the spot again.  Then, with a put-upon
sort of sigh, he bent and scooped her up in his arms.  She didn't
react, but even as deadweight she wasn't all that heavy.  Or maybe he
was just forgetting how strong he was.  Either way, he straightened
easily, looked around, and said in a sing-song tone,
        "Eriiiis?"  A pause.  "E-riiiiis!"  Nothing.  "ERIS!"
        A young woman with shaggy blonde hair, ratty jeans and a
leather jacket with an American Volunteer Group blood chit on the back
sloped out from behind the other turret.  "What?" she asked, sounding
a little annoyed.
        "Is this one of yours?" said Zoner, gesturing towards Eris
with the young girl in his arms.
        Eris sauntered the rest of the way over to the edge of the
crater, brushed the girl's long pink hair away from her sleeping face,
looked, and shrugged.  "Nope.  Never seen her before.  Cute, though.
Where'd you get her?"
        "She just appeared," Zoner said, "in a flash of light."
        "Oh.  So, the usual."
        "Pretty much, except for the magic midget."
        "Midget?!"
        "Well, the image of one.  Little guy, about so high, funny
staff with a beak, robes too big for him."
        Eris sighed.  "Clef."
        "Who?"
        "Clef.  Master Mage of Cephiro.  What did he say?"
        Zoner cleared his throat, then proceeded with a passable Clef
impression. 
        "'Beloved of Eris, Walker in Discord, hear me!  The girl before
you is named Utena Tenjou.  On the calendar of your world, her date of
birth would be December 29, 2389.  You will need that information if
you are to establish her in your codified electronic society.'"
        Zoner shifted back to his own voice.  "Then I said, 'If
-I-...', then he said - "  Zoner shifted back to his very best Clef.
        "'There is no time! Listen to me carefully, Chaoswalker!  That
girl is the last hope of an entire world, but her destiny is
incomplete.  She must be guarded, kept safe and well.  I know you have
the power to do this.  You must - '"
        Zoner returned to his own voice.  "The he recoiled as if he
were about to be struck and vanished."  
        "Hmph.  Thank you, that's very complete of you.  What the hell
is going on over there?" Eris mumbled, talking to herself rather than
Zoner.  She stood for a while looking down at Utena, then looked up to
her minion.  "Well, I guess you better do what he told you."
        Zoner blinked.  "Just like that?"
        "The Tenth World is in a mess," Eris told him, "and the
Council of the Aesir are still trying to figure out what to do about
it.  They'll probably end up sticking some poor jerk with going there
and finding out as a Trial of Ascension.  Until then, just do what
Clef said, put her somewhere safe and keep this whole thing on the
QT.  I'll see what I can find out, but don't get her hopes up."
        Zoner looked down at Utena for a moment, then sighed.  "Man, I
don't have time for this," he muttered.  "OK, I'll do what I can."
        "Great, you're a sport," said Eris sardonically.  She turned
and headed back toward the turret she'd come past.  "See you around."
        "No kiss?" asked Zoner plaintively, but she was gone.
"Bitch," he added in mock anger.
        Zoner sighed again and walked away, carrying his unusual
burden.
--/
        "Then I took you to the Crowne Plaza and put you to bed, and,
well, you know the rest."
        "So it was the midget?  Clef?" she wondered.
        "I dunno about that," said Zoner.  "I got the impression he
was surprised by it too.  He didn't seem like he'd just done what he
was warning me about - more like he was -witnessing- it."
        Utena frowned thoughtfully.  "Well, if it wasn't him... and it
wasn't you... who could it have been?"
        "You didn't see anybody working a banishment on you before you
left, did you?"
        "No... but things were awfully confused there at the end, and
I don't know much about that kind of thing.  There were the swords... "  
She shook her head.  "It's all a big jumble.  I can't make sense of
it."
        Zoner looked thoughtful for a second, then said, "Hang
on... let's look at this from another angle.  Thursday night, when you
went to sleep, what were you thinking about?"
        "How much I hate what's happened to Kate," she replied
immediately, in a tone that made it clear she thought that should be
obvious.
        "You wanted to help her."
        "Of course.  She's my friend.  The best friend I have here."
        "Did you think of your other friend?  Miki?  You asked me how
I knew he could help her.  The way you said it, seems like you'd
already thought of it."
        She thought back, then nodded.  "Yeah... now that you say
it... I did.  Just before I dropped off, I could see him.  Almost feel
him there."
        "And the next day, here he is," said Zoner.  "Don't you think
that's suggestive?"
        "Of -what-?"
        "Think about it.  Has anything like this ever happened
before?"
        "Of course it - " Utena began, then skidded to a verbal halt as
she realized what he was saying.  "... Saionji!" she murmured.  Then
she shook her head.  "That's stupid.  Even if I had a power like that
and didn't know it, why would I wish for -Saionji- to come and beat me
up?"
        "Kate told me you were sick with the flu, had come down with
it the night before.  Fever does odd things to dreams... "
        Utena considered it.  "I -did- have a dream that night.  A
nightmare, really.  My first duel was with Saionji... I thought his
sword was fake, didn't realize I could get hurt, even killed.  I think
I dreamed about that.  I'm not sure, I can't remember it very well,
but I remember waking up thinking he would be... "  She trailed off,
then said in a slower, more thoughtful tone, "... right there."
        "I think," MegaZone said after a moment's thought, "we may
have this surrounded."
        "No," said Utena, shaking her head again.  "No, there's a
hole.  You're thinking it's dreams, powerful images, bringing people I
know across from Cephiro?"
        "As a working hypothesis, it beats 'sunspots'," he replied.
"You were dueling for a great power, right?  Well, I think maybe you
picked up your prize package on the way out."
        "Then there's a hole," she repeated.  "I dream of Himemiya
every night.  Every night I wish for her to be with me.  So if your
theory is true, then where is she?"
        Zoner shrugged.  "Maybe something else is preventing her from
coming across."
        "Like what?" she challenged him.
        "How should I know?" he replied.  "Maybe whatever Clef was
trying to warn me about.  I'm not a sorcerer, I'm a chaoswalker, and
I'm hardly an authority on the Tenth World; I only know what you and
Eris have told me in passing.  It's supposed to be a pretty weird
place, and from what you've told me about your friend, she's not
exactly your average citizen.  Who -knows- what kind of intersections
of power might be blocking your whatever-you're- doing?  Dammit, I
wish the midget had finished what he was trying to say!  It might have
given me a clue.  I wonder what the hell happened to him."
        "Do you think you can find out?"
        He shrugged again.  "I can try.  Eris told me to keep it as
quiet as possible and not make any promises I might not be able to
keep, and it's -way- outside my field, but... I'll see what I can do.
First I need to square things away for your friend Miki, though, since
it seems he's going to be with us for the duration.  But after that...
well, we'll see.  What'll you do in the meantime?"
        "Get an education," Utena replied.  "Try to learn as much as I
can about where I am and how I might be able to get back.  Hope."
        Zoner nodded.  "That's good."  He got up, stretched himself a
little, and smiled at her.  "You have," he remarked as he went to the
hallway door, "great strength and nobility, especially for someone so
young.  Hold onto them - never lose them - and they'll see you through
anything."
        He didn't know why that statement made her look at him so
strangely.  She sat looking at the door he'd left through for several
minutes, pondering that, before sighing and going to the kitchen to
rustle herself some cereal.
        No formal gathering for breakfast today; people were taking
the day at its own pace, getting up whenever, doing whatever.  Len and
the twins disappeared almost immediately on waking.  So did Gryphon
and Kei, heading into the city for some ill-explained purpose.
Corwin, worn out by two all-nighters in a row and a very busy
Christmas Day, was still sacked out, and Nall, when he sloped into the
kitchen and mooched some sausage while Utena was working on her toast,
opined that he would remain that way for some time.
        Kate wandered in, yawning, still in her pajamas, and had some
Rice Krispies; Miki took more time to appear, since he didn't come
down until he'd finished washing up and dressing.  (He looked odd to
Utena, dressed in regular clothes.  She was so used to seeing him in
his Student Council uniform that the image of the uniform itself had
become wedded to the image of him in her mind, and she kept wondering
who he was when he first appeared in the room.)
        They chatted about this and that over breakfast; Utena kept
her discussion with Zoner to herself, not wanting to drop it on Miki
until he had the opportunity to finish absorbing what had happened to
him.  His reading of the book Kate had given him had been interrupted
by the bustle of the holiday, but today looked like it was going to be
quiet enough for him to finish it.
        Indeed, after breakfast, the four of them retired to the den.
Utena took up her favorite position in her favorite chair with her
favorite dragon, and made a stab at finishing "Beat to Quarters".
Miki wound up reading the last of "So You've Just Arrived" on the
couch while Kate lay on the floor nearby, propped up on her elbows,
going over some sheet music.
        Miki finished reading, closed the book, and looked across the
den at Utena.
        "I'm not sure -why- I believe it," he said with a puzzled note
in his voice, "but I do."
        "I had the same reaction," Utena said.  "It's like it's so
strange it can't -help- but be true."
        "But if it is... then... how did I get here?"
        "That's... kind of hard to say," Utena hedged.  "Zoner seems
to think -I- did it."
        Miki blinked.  "How?"
        "With the power we were all dueling for."
        The blue-haired boy scowled, irritated not with her but with a
memory.  "The power wasn't what -I- was dueling for."
        "Well, no - me neither, if you'll recall," said Utena wryly.
"Anyway, Zoner thinks I got it, and it's doing weird things to the
universe when I have really vivid dreams about people I know back
home.  I'm not convinced, but... there -are- signs he might be right."
        She told him about Saionji.
        "So that's where he went," Miki mused.  "He just up and
disappeared last week.  Nanami found his camping gear out in the
Forest of Secrets.  It was like he'd just gotten up and walked away in
the middle of the night.  But then he's been acting weird ever
since... "  Miki trailed off, his brow furrowing in concentration.
"... ever since... ARGH!  Something -happened- to us before then,
something -important-, why can't I -remember-?"  He pounded his
forehead with the heel of his hand.
        "Whoa, whoa, don't hurt yourself," Utena protested.  "It's OK.
You'll think of it.  By 'us' you mean the Student Council, I suppose?"
        "Yes... "  He shook his head.  "A couple of weeks ago, before
finals week started, we had an unscheduled meeting... but I can't
remember what it was about.  It's just... gone."
        Utena gave Kate a troubled look, but her tone and manner were
cheery as she told him, "Ah, don't worry about it.  It'll come back to
you if it was important."
        "I hope so," Miki replied, not sounding completely convinced.
"So... if you don't know for certain how I got here... then am I stuck
here?"
        "I... "  Utena faltered, looked down.  "I think so."
        "... Oh," said Miki, his expression unreadable.  "I... I see."
        Utena hung her head.  "I'm sorry, Miki.  If MegaZone's right,
it's my fault."
        Miki glanced up at her, saw her miserable expression, and
smiled, a bit wanly, but bravely all the same.
        "Cheer up, Utena," he said brightly.  "You're looking for a
way back, right?  You must be, if you're here and Miss Himemiya is
still there, after everything you went through for her sake."
        "Well... yeah... I mean I would be, if I had any idea where
to start.  I'm still... trying to get my bearings."
        Miki's smile did not flag.  "Then I won't worry," he said.
Utena blinked at him, as if startled by his declaration, and he
responded cheerfully, "Have you ever failed yet?  Even if it takes you
years, you'll succeed in this.  I have faith in you.  And I'll help
you any way I can."  His smile became a little sentimental as he
added, "After all - I want to see Miss Himemiya happy too."
        "... Miki," said Utena softly, her face going blank with
astonishment.  Then it crystallized into a look of determination, and
she nodded firmly.  "Right!"  Then she grinned.  "What the hell, with
you on my side, how can I lose?  This world has a civilization that
spans a galaxy."  She went back across the room and plunked down in
her chair.  "All I need is for you to learn their science and we'll be
home in time for the prom."
        "Er, well," said Miki, his smile becoming a bit nervous.
        "Relax, I'm kidding," said Utena.  "Well, sort of.  That
probably -is- our best chance at getting home.  Lucky I ended up going
to a good school here, too.  And fell in with a good group," she added
with a grin at Kate, who had spent the whole conversation so far
absorbed in checking and timing the revised score.  She looked up and
smiled, revealing that she'd been paying attention regardless.
        "I'm s-s-sure M-Miki will b-b-be w-welcome at the D-Double-U,"
Kate agreed, "if he w-w-wants to c-come."  She smiled.  "S-say... all
y-you h-have to d-d-do now is s-s-summon one m-more of y-your old
c-classmates, and w-w-we'll f-finally have en-n-nough p-people for
b-b-baseball."
        "Right," Utena replied wryly.  "'Cause I'm sure we'll be able
to get Saionji to play next time we see him."
        "That's really puzzling," Miki mused.  "Before... -whatever-
happened at that last meeting... he seemed to have made his peace.
Well, you saw him, before you went to claim the power, remember?"
        Utena nodded.  "Yeah.  He was almost like an actual person.
Touga was still a twink, though."
        "Touga never really got any better," Miki admitted, "but
Saionji... he came to the Council barbecue on the last night and was
more or less -normal-.  I wish I could remember what happened... "
        "You had a -barbecue-?" Utena inquired incredulously.  "I'm up
the freaking belltower getting my mind turned inside-out and -you-
bastards are having KABOBS?  Man, with friends like -these-... "
        "What?" said Miki, puzzled.
        "Forget it," Utena replied with a dismissive wave.  "Take too
long to explain."  She shook her head and muttered to herself, "(A
-barbecue-, my God.)"
        Miki didn't have much to say to that.  He would have liked to
ask, "Just what -did- happen to you that day?" - but that would have
been tactless, and Miki Kaoru was not tactless.
        Instead he shrugged and said rather lamely, "It seemed like a
good idea at the time."
        "If y-you are c-c-coming back w-with us," Kate mused, "w-we'll
need t-to m-m-make arrangem-ments.  And c-come up w-w-with a c-cover
story.  W-we c-can't just t-tell Miss M-Montaigne that Ut-tena
accid-dentally summoned you f-from a p-parallel d-dimension."
        "I don't have any records," Miki said, as if it had just
occurred to him.  "Would they even admit me?"
        "You have to take a test," Utena said.  "It's tough, but hey,
-I- passed.  Even skipped a grade.  You shouldn't have any trouble."
She laughed.  "They might just hand you a diploma and show you the
door, then you'd have to figure out what do with yourself all over
again."
        Miki smiled.  "I hope not.  What was it like?  Who would I
have to talk to?"
        Utena put down her book and settled back, scratching Nall's
ears, and told him.
/--
        The administrator MegaZone introduced her to, a short, solidly
built woman with a bun of strawberry blonde hair, went by the name of
Miss Claudia Montaigne, and was a thoroughly pleasant and kindly
individual.  She expressed the proper sympathies for Utena's tragic
loss.  Apparently, Utena learned, her family had very recently been
wiped out in a spaceliner accident, leaving her utterly alone in the
world - on top of the aforementioned mishap at her previous school,
which had rendered the place unable to continue her education and
destroyed the records of her career to date in the process.
        That was indeed quite tragic.  Almost equal to what had
actually befallen her, and much easier to explain to a layperson like
Miss Montaigne.  Utena made the appropriate noises of thanks for the
administrator's sympathy, which appeared to be as genuine as the story
was false.  It would have made Utena feel a little guilty, if what had
really happened to her hadn't been just as bad.
        The test, administered there in Miss Montaigne's comfortable,
homily-appointed office on the first floor of the Daniels Hall
dormitory, was tough, but nothing she hadn't seen, difficulty-wise, at
Ohtori.  Some of the subject matter was abstruse from her point of
view, but "So You've Just Arrived from a Parallel Dimension" helped
fill in some of the technological gaps, and Utena's knack for fudging
things filled in the rest.
        Once finished, she sat in the armchair where she'd completed
the test, fiddling with the handle of her suitcase, wondering what
MegaZone had pulled Miss Montaigne out into the hall to discuss with
her.  The door was too thick for her to hear much; just the murmur of
voices.  At one point, she thought she heard Miss Montaigne, whose
higher voice was easier to make out words in, say, "No, that's out of
the question.  After last year I simply couldn't," and a few moments
later, after a short but urgent-sounding burble of Zoner's deep,
indecipherable murmur, "I see your point," and then, after a bit more,
"Very well."
        The door opened, and Miss Montaigne re-entered; Zoner stayed
in the hall, his hands folded in front of him, looking ever so
slightly worried.
        "Congratulations, dear," said Miss Montaigne with a beaming
smile.  "You've passed your admissions examination - not only passed,
but qualified to enter as a second-year student.  Welcome to the
Institute."
        Utena stood up, gave a little bow, and said she was glad to
be admitted.
        "And we're certainly glad to have you.  Now.  If you'll come
with me, I'll show you around the campus a little, and then we can
meet your roommate."
        Roommate?
        It hadn't even occurred to her that she'd have to have a
roommate.
        This could be awkward.
        Outside the door, she paused and looked searchingly at
MegaZone; then, in a hushed voice so Miss Montaigne, who waited with a
patient smile a bit farther up the hall, wouldn't hear, she tried one
more time:
        "Who are you?"
        He smiled, made a quick little gesture, and tucked a card had
hadn't been holding into the top pocket of her jacket.
        "If there's anything you want, anything at all, come to me,"
he told her.  "I'll be your guardian angel."
        Then he turned and strode off, rounding the corner to the left
and heading for the common area between Daniels and Morgan Halls, the
place Utena had heard him call the Wedge.
        "Wait!" she said, running after him, but when she turned the
corner, he was gone.
        Confused, she went back to Miss Montaigne, and they went for
their walk around campus.  It was a nice campus, not as big as
Ohtori's, nor with as many striking features, but it was pretty and
most of the buildings had a pleasant feeling of oldness and
serviceability to them.  They were, Miss Montaigne informed her
proudly, the only high school in the country with its own working
nuclear-fission research reactor - a real museum piece, living history
right there in the basement of the Washburn Labs.
        Eventually, their tour concluded, the Dean of Student Life led
her charge across the Quad to Morgan Hall, the tall, rather boring
brick dorm standing kittycornered against Daniels in the northeast
corner of the Quad.  There they climbed to the fourth floor, and, as
Utena stood with mounting uneasiness, Miss Montaigne knocked on a door
about halfway down the hall on the right.
        "Oh!  M-Miss Montaigne, h-hello!" came a soft, rather husky
voice as the door was opened - from where she stood, against the wall
off to the side, Utena couldn't see its owner.  Miss Montaigne stepped
into the room, and there was a brief, murmured conversation.  Utena
wondered what the administrator was telling the hapless girl upon whom
she was being foisted.
        Then Miss Montaigne stepped back out of the door and declared
cheerfully, "It seems everything's settled.  Come and meet your new
roommate, dear."
        Taking a breath and squaring herself, Utena stepped around the
doorframe and paused in the doorway.  The girl standing inside the
room blinked at her as though surprised, and Utena took the moment to
take her in.
        She was a pleasant-looking girl, a bit shorter than Utena,
built trim but strong like a well-made sailboat, with clear skin and
thick medium-brown hair that tumbled down over her slim shoulders and
behind her back with a very slight natural curl.  She had an open
face, a bit rounded, with a neat little nose and wide brown eyes, a
couple of shades darker than her hair, behind big round rimless
glasses.  Pretty, but not beautiful, not in a reach-out-and-smack-you
kind of way.
        Utena envied her the flexibility that must give her.  She
could take a little time and care, and probably make herself quite
noticeable in formal clothes; or she could not bother, as now, and
settle into an easy anonymity in gray jeans and a school sweatshirt.
Utena didn't have that luxury - especially with her hair color, which,
she had noticed in her tour of the campus, seemed to be even more
unusual and striking here than back home.
        This girl's sweet-faced, calm carriage - the rather tentative
air she had about her, as though she were not fully convinced that she
was, in fact, pretty - rather reminded Utena of someone else, but,
surprisingly, not in a way that clawed the raw spot in her heart; just
with a sort of comfortable familiarity.  She thought she could
probably like her new roommate, if only she didn't so desperately want
to be elsewhere.
        "Kaitlyn Hutchins," said Miss Montaigne, gesturing, "meet
Utena Tenjou."
        Kate bowed.  "I'm v-very p-p-pleased," she said.
--/
        Miki considered this.
        "Doesn't sound so bad," he said.  "I wonder who I'll end up
rooming with."
        "Too bad whoever it is probably won't be as cute as your last
roommate," Utena told him; then, at the slight falling and reddening
of his face, "Oh, Miki, I'm sorry.  That was a stupid thing to say."
        "It's OK," said Miki, trying for his brave smile again.  "I
just hope she'll be all right.  She must be very upset that I've
disappeared."
        "W-who?" Kate wondered.
        "Kozue, my sister," Miki replied.  "We're twins, like Priss
and Guy.  We were... estranged... for a while, but lately we've been
finding our old balance again."
        Utena sighed, her palm to her forehead, a pained look on her
face.  "Man... even without -trying- I screw things up for people."
        "We're not back -here- again, are we?" said Miki with gentle
irony.  "You're starting remind me of the way Miss Himemiya used to
be.  Blaming yourself for things you couldn't help.  I'll be all
right, and so will Kozue.  She's strong.  She won't give up."
        At Anthy's name, Utena looked up, startled; then she realized
he was right and cracked a smile.  "'Used to be,' huh?"
        "The last time I saw her," Miki replied with a grin, "she was
standing tall.  It was a wonderful thing to see."
        "I bet," said Utena, with a bit of wistful nostalgia.  Then
she collected herself, became a bit brisk by way of compensation, and
said, "Well, look.  Come back to the W with Kate and me.  We'll try
and keep each other sane while we figure out what to do about our
little problem."
        Miki nodded.  "I'd say that's the best offer I'm likely to
get," he said, still grinning.
        "Oh, speaking of sane," said Utena, reminded.  "Kate - there's
something I've been meaning to ask you."

        Gryphon sat and listened patiently as Kaitlyn and Utena
explained to him the situation, as best they could - the tournament
Utena had fought in at her old school, its protocols and implications,
the rather muddled, unsatisfactory way in which it had ended.  They
told him about Saionji's sudden appearance at the W; he'd heard about
that before, of course, but now it had added depth and some disturbing
shadings, given the context of his previous encounters with Utena.
Utena finished it up with a recounting her musings on the morning
before Christmas Eve, that she was going to have to find herself a
weapon and get back into some kind of fighting trim, in case she
should find herself confronted by further adversaries.
        He sat with his eyes closed in thought, and for a moment, she
wondered if he'd fallen asleep; then they opened, looking straight at
her, and he nodded pensively.
        "Probably a good idea," he said.  "I'm not sure offhand what
to do about a blade - from what you've told me of your fighting style,
I doubt any of mine would suit you."
        She nodded.  "That's all right.  What I need from you is help
with the other part.  I'm out of practice - I need someone to train
with.  I hate to ask Miki, after all he's been through - last time I
saw him back home, he was hoping to leave the Duelist's life behind
him - and Kate says she's willing, but not until you've had a chance
to gauge me."
        Gryphon looked at Kate.  "As journeywoman," he told her,
"you're free to pursue any route you choose.  You don't need me to
approve of your sparring partners."
        "I know," Kate replied, "but with our differing styles... I
stand to learn and to teach, not merely to provide an opponent for
sparring.  Such a thing might not be proper for one of my stature."
Utena noticed that her way of speaking to him became much more formal
when addressing this subject, which she found interesting and a little
unnerving.
        Gryphon considered this, nodded again.  "Fair enough.  You're
right as far as it goes - you're not a master yet, so you have no
business taking a student."  He smiled a little, glancing from one
girl to the other.  "But a collaboration of equals, enriching the
styles of both - that's integral to the roots of the Asagiri
Katsujinkenryuu.  Tetsuo Asagiri and Talar Kem were just such a pair,
and look what -they- made together."
        "Equals?" Utena said, then gave a nervous laugh and a
dismissive wave.  "Me and Kate?  Nah.  I'm untrained.  Oh, I must have
some talent," she admitted, "or I'd never have survived the
Tournament, but nobody ever taught me a thing except by example.  I'm
not in Kate's class."
        Gryphon smiled a bit more broadly.  "Well, that's what Kate
wants me to test," he said.  "So if you're willing, why don't we do
that?"

        They stood in the backyard dojo, facing each other with Kate
and Miki bearing witness off to the side, and Utena marveled at the
change in him.  In the house, in jeans and a t-shirt, he seemed like
little more than what Zoner had called him several days before, a
perpetual college student - a young, sturdily built man, cheerful and
even-handed when dealing with his rambunctious brood, who still seemed
more like his younger siblings than his children.  In gi and hakama,
standing in his dojo, he changed, became harder and a bit colder, his
face serious, eyes intent.  Utena actually felt a little intimidated
by him.
        "Listen carefully to what I'm about to say," he said, his tone
uncompromising, but not harsh.  "Your life may depend on it.  If
you're taking this anything less than completely seriously, leave now,
because you may be killed if you persist."
        She looked back at him, squared herself, and nodded.
        "I'm not going to try to teach you Katsujinkenryuu," Gryphon
told her.  "We don't have anything like the time.  Serious study of a
kenjutsu ryu takes years of dedicated living.  You would have to come
and live here, attend one of the local schools, and spend most of your
spare time here in this dojo for at least the next five years to
achieve anything like the level of technical competence either of my
two current students has - and the first year would be spent
unlearning everything you already know.
        "I know," he went on as she opened her mouth to repeat her
earlier protest, "that you've had no formal training, but you survived
and prevailed in a tournament against what sound like some very highly
skilled opponents, and that means you learned something, all the
same.  The ancient martial arts didn't appear out of nowhere, you
know; they had to be invented, by talented people, through trial and
error, before they could be passed down.  That's what you did.  You're
already a martial artist in your own right - I'm just going to try and
see how advanced.
        "But before we start, there are a few things you need to know.
Katsujinkenruu is a form of kenjutsu, not kendo.  We don't wear armor
here, we don't use shinai.  Our test today will be conducted with
bokuto, swords of solid, hard wood.  Make no mistake, these are
dangerous weapons.  Musashi Miyamoto killed many men with wood.  If
you or I miscalculate or lose control, either of us may do the other a
serious injury.  I'm prepared to accept that risk.  Are you?"
        Utena nodded.  "All my duels were fought with live steel," she
said.  "I'm not afraid."
        Gryphon considered and replied, "Live steel, but non-lethal
rules.  That's the other thing I'm going to try to do for you today.
All but the last of your duels, and that was interrupted, were fought
for a non-lethal goal, the scattering of a flower.  Dangerous, but not
with deadly intent.
        "That's all changed now.  Your old schoolmate wasn't
interested in a flower; he wanted your life, and Kate's when she
involved herself.  It's going to take a shift in your tactics to
compensate for this change in your opponents.  You're going to have to
learn to defend your -life-, not your vest pocket - instantly,
instinctively, and by any means necessary - or there's no point in
engaging.  You might as well run away, or start carrying a blaster."
        "I understand," said Utena.
        "Is that what you intend to wear for this?" he asked.
        "It's what I'll most likely be wearing when a real fight finds
me," she answered.
        "Fair enough," he said.  "It's just that it may be damaged."
        "I have others."
        Gryphon smiled a little.
        "Then let's get this show on the road," he said, and charged.
        This was a little unusual for him.  In a real fight, he almost
never attacked first, preferring to let the enemy come to him.  In
this case, though, he was trying to show her how to protect herself
from an aggressive foe, and that required him to play that role; so he
did, and made for her at a dead run, his blade set.
        Utena gasped - he was so fast! - and barely interposed her own
before he would have taken her squarely in the chest, deflecting his
strike so that his blade hissed across her upper arm.
        "You would just have lost the use of your right arm," he told
her, and whirled inside her guard, gently tapping her temple with his
elbow.  "That would have knocked you down, probably out.  This fight
is already over."
        They regrouped.  "If you'd like to use some of our usual dojo
etiquette," he said, "we could bow between these clashes.  It's not
required, you're not really my student, but it helps to add a bit of
punctuation to things."
        She gave him a dry little smile, still reeling mentally over
how fast he had "dispatched" her, and bowed.
        "Yes, Gryphon-sensei," she said.
        He grinned.  "I guess it beats 'Mr. Hutchins'," he said, and
attacked again.  This time she avoided his opening blow, knocking his
blade aside with her own, then took a half-step back and launched her
own counterattack; but, ignoring his displaced weapon entirely, he
reached out with his free hand, grabbed a handful of her uniform
jacket, and slung her to the floor, then stomped on the flat of her
blade and laid his own against her throat.
        "This isn't a Zorro movie," he noted.  "Your enemy's sword is
not his only weapon.  Nor is yours, yours."
        Then he pulled her to her feet and they backed away and bowed
again.  Utena was starting to feel a little foolish at having
instigated this.  It was stupid.  The man -looked- only a few years
her senior, but he was over four hundred, and had studied the art he
now practiced so effectively on her for more than eighty years.  What
had she expected, that she'd stand a chance against him?  And he was
going easy on her, too.  The way he'd thrown her to the floor had been
-gentle-, and he'd only told her that the elbow to the head would have
stunned her, rather than actually stunning her with it.
        Actually, now that she thought about it, that made her a
little angry.
        He came for her again, and she dodged his first swing
entirely, swaying her body back from the arc of his blade, then
coiling into a crouch and springing forward.  Their weapons met with a
ringing clack.  Utena shoved Gryphon's sword down and away, its point
rapping against the dojo floor.  He moved inside her guard again,
overbalanced her, and shoved her away; she stumbled back, then
countercharged.  He slipped the strike, just as Kate had done to
Saionji, and as she passed him, his sword very gently touched her
back, between her shoulder blades.
        Angrily, she whirled.  "Don't treat me like a child," she
said.  "Pulling your blows, pantomiming everything - how is that
supposed to gauge how I can really stand up to punishment?"
        Gryphon gazed back into her eyes for a moment.
        "OK," he said.  "You asked for it."

       /*  They Might Be Giants  "Ondine"  _Back to Skull_  */

        The next hour was painful for Kaitlyn and Miki to watch.
Gryphon abandoned the considerate posture he had been trying to take
and shifted into his full 'sensei' persona - hard, uncompromising, and
painful.  He drove Utena mercilessly around the dojo, battering her
almost senseless as she tried his defenses again and again.  His
throws became bone-jarring, floor-shaking crashes, his blows
full-force and numbing.  And yet, as he did all that to her, Utena got
better.  With the stakes raised, her prowess rose to the challenge.
She got faster, her movements smoother, her counterstrikes stronger.
Everything about her became swifter and surer, her eyes brighter, the
set of her jaw more determined.  She started scoring hits on -him-
once in a while after the first half-hour.
        Still, it wasn't enough.  She showed remarkable endurance even
holding up that long, but he still had the upper hand.  He crossed her
up on her next attack, drove his elbow into her sternum, and sent her
reeling back, coughing.  Then he whirled, his blade hissing through
the air, heading straight for her neck.  He knew he could stop it at
the last possible instant, and for all her exhortations not to treat
her like a child, he fully intended to, for this could be a deathblow
if he did not; but she needed to know that it was real.
        She saw it and threw herself backward; the very tip of
Gryphon's bokuto just barely nicked her, raising a red line across her
throat, as she fell.  She landed hard on her back, skidded several
feet, then kicked her feet up and over, coming up into a crouch with
the fight raised another notch in her eyes.
        "You'd be bleeding to death," Gryphon told her, "if this were
real.  The cut wouldn't be deep, but it'd be enough to finish you in
a minute or two."
        Utena raised her right hand to her throat, shock bleeding
through the battle-ready gleam in her eyes, and he nodded.
        "At your old school you were only playing," Gryphon went on.
"Stay on the duelist's path now, and you'll soon learn how terrifying
-real- duels can be."
        Something sparked behind Utena's eyes, and suddenly she was a
bolt of lightning.  For a fraction of an instant, she looked like
someone else entirely; with his senses heightened for battle, Gryphon
could see her ki pulse and shift in that split second, blazing with a
blue-white light that hadn't been there a moment ago.  With a defiant
scream, she crossed the distance between them in a heartbeat, and
there was a tremendous sizzling flash.
        With a crash, Gryphon was catapulted straight through the far
wall of the dojo in a cloud of shattered wood and shredded paper,
splashing down in the steaming koi pond, trailing smoke behind him.
        Zoner, who had been ambling across the snowy rock garden at
that very moment, paused with a bemused expression on his face,
brushed a few droplets of hot water from his leather trenchcoat, and
looked down into the water.
        Gryphon was lying on the bottom of the pond, his feet
protruding above the stone rim, looking up through the still-rippling
surface of the water at the cloudy sky, a look of composed
astonishment on his face.  He didn't seem to care that he was
underwater.  One of the koi swam past, dodging out of the way of a
bubble of air that escaped from his mouth as he made some comment to
himself.
        (Gracious me, he said to himself.  I think I like this girl,
yes indeed I do.)
        "Omigod," Utena's voice came from the dojo.  Zoner turned to
see her standing in the tatter-edged hole in the wall, her face
stricken.  "I killed Kate's dad!" she cried.
        Kei, attracted by the crash, put her head out the back door,
then made a startled sound and trotted over to stand next to Zoner and
look down into the pond at her husband's startled, contemplative
face.  Then she turned to Utena with a grin.
        "Nah, he'll be OK," she said.
        Kate and Miki crowded into the hole along with Utena, and then
the three of them jumped down and rushed across to the pond.  Now
there were five people looking down at Gryphon, who remained on the
bottom, apparently unconcerned with his predicament, his face still
surprised and thoughtful.
        After about a minute of this, Kei mused, "Maybe somebody ought
to pull him out of the pond?"
        "Huh?" said Zoner.  "Oh!  Right!"  Reaching out, he plunged
his hand into the water.  Gryphon seemed to take notice of this,
snapping out of his reverie, and raised his own right hand, clasping
it.  Zoner heaved, and up he came, streaming water and steaming in the
cool air, shaking water out of his eyes.
        "GOD," he said, paused blinking and coughing for a few
seconds, and went on, "DAMN!  What the hell was THAT?"
        The front of his gi was -charred-, on the upper left, about
where his flower would have been, had this been a Rose Duel.  Streaks
of soot rayed out from a stiff-edged black hole about an inch in
diameter, squarely over his heart.  He bent his left arm at the elbow
and looked down at it; in his hand, he still clutched the remains of
his bokuto, which ended just above the tsuba in a blackened stub.
He'd managed to parry that last lightning-fast blow, for all the good
it did him.
        Utena sputtered, trying to apologize so furiously that she
couldn't actually get it out, her face a mask of appalled remorse.
Gryphon let her work at it, thoughtfully feeling at his left shoulder
with his right hand.
        "Hmm," he mused.  "I think that's broken."  He tried raising
his elbow away from his side and grimaced.  "Oh-HO yeah, that's
grinding in there, that's definitely broken."
        Utena dropped her char-edged bokuto in the snow and fell after
it to her knees, bowing her head, finally able to get out the words,
"Omigod I'm so sorry Mr. Hutchins I didn't mean to - "
        "Easy, easy, easy," he said, patting her on the shoulder with
his good hand.  "Get up.  Relax.  Let's go inside where it's warm,
I'll put on something dry and we can talk about it.  Calm down now.
It's OK."
        "It's not OK, I broke your -arm-, I nearly drowned you - I - "
        "You're gonna hyperventilate and pass out if you keep that
up," said Kei helpfully.

        "So," said Gryphon from the comfort of warm, dry clothes and
his favorite armchair.  "What was that?"
        "I... I'm not sure," Utena replied, still shamefaced.  "It
felt like... something like that used to happen sometimes when I
dueled.  When I really needed help, a... a -spirit- would come and,
and guide me."
        Zoner nodded.  "You -do- have a hidden power."
        "I... I guess so."
        Gryphon mused over this for a few minutes.
        "Well, it's quite remarkable," he said, "but if you can't
consciously control it, then you can't rely on it.  We'll have to go
again after lunch.  You showed real promise there.  I think by the end
of the break we can have you back on a solid enough footing that you
and Kate can train together without a problem - if you can keep from
blowing her up," he added wryly.
        "But - your arm," she said.  "Shouldn't you go to a hospital?"
        "Nah, it's already knitting," he said.  "Be fine by this
afternoon."

        It was, indeed, fine by afternoon, and Gryphon and Utena were
thus occupied for the rest of that afternoon.  First they had to spend
an hour replacing the wall panel destroyed by Gryphon's unscheduled
commuter flight to the koi pond, and then they resumed where they'd
left off.  With the initial gauging out of the way, they didn't clash
with the same frantic determination that had marked their first
sparring match; instead, they moved more carefully, feeling each
other's styles and talents out.  By three Gryphon was content enough
with what he'd learned of Utena to invite Kate to take part as well;
by five, the two girls were crossing blades without him, and he was
sitting in the corner with Miki and the two robots, sipping tea and
watching while Miki timed a bit of music.  The robots, each armed with
one of Lesser Mazinger's swords, mimicked the competition of their
masters, often with comical results.
        Fighting against Kaitlyn was an interesting experience for
Utena.  Her fighting style, being a form of kenjutsu, was similar to
those of Saionji and Touga, whom Utena had fought a combined total of
six times, so Kate wasn't coming totally out of left field.  Still,
kenjutsu was not kendo, and the two specific forms in question were
more distant cousins still.  It wasn't much like fighting either
Saionji or Touga - merely familiar enough to remind her of those days,
sometimes.  Kate was faster than either of them, if not as powerful.
        Utena had a slight advantage as to reach, which was
counteracted to some degree by her unfamiliarity with the balance and
weight of the weapon she'd been loaned.  Kate had an almost unnatural
ability to sense danger and move away from it before it reached her;
she avoided strikes she couldn't have seen, and sometimes fought with
her eyes closed, which was a bit unnerving.  She also fought silently,
without any of Gryphon's running commentary, except for the occasional
explosive, inarticulate cry when she was putting a particular amount
of effort into a strike or lunge.
        They fenced back and forth for an hour, and then Gryphon got
up and barked, "Enough!"
        Kate and Utena froze where they stood, lowered their weapons,
and turned to face him.  Kate automatically bowed deeply.  Utena,
unaccustomed to doing so, failed in it for a second or so, then did
the same.
        Gryphon returned the gesture with an air of great
satisfaction.
        "Good," he said.  "Very good.  Kate, you've improved since the
last time I saw you."  He looked a bit wistful.  "Won't be long before
I haven't anything more to teach you."
        "I'll always learn from your example," she replied, bowing her
head.  He smiled, crossed to his daughter and gave her a hug, then
stepped back so his gaze could take them both in again.
        "I'm satisfied," he told the two young women.  "Kaitlyn, if
you ever felt you needed it, you have my full permission to train with
Utena, wherever and whenever you wish.  I only ask that, when you do
learn something new from her, you bring it home and teach it to me,
and pass it on to your own students one day."  He grinned.  "That way,
your partnership will enrich not only your lives, but mine, and
Katsujinkenryuu into the bargain."
        "Deal," said Kate.  She turned to Utena.  "OK w-w-with you,
p-partner?"
        Utena smiled.  "Absolutely," she replied, and then, as though
testing out the word, "Partner."
        The entrance panel slid open, and Yuri Daniels put her head
in.  "Oh, you guys -are- still out here," she said.
        "Yeah, but we're about done," said Gryphon.  "I figured we'd
hit the pool, be in for dinner about seven."
        "A pool party on Boxing Day - the height of decadence," said
Yuri with mock disapproval.  "You're turning this place into a regular
Roman pleasure barge."
        "Where's the birthday boy got to?" Gryphon wondered, ignoring
the mock barb.
        "He and Larry are talking shop in the den," said Yuri with a
roll of her eyes.  "You know how they get.  Cybernetics and me, the
two great passions of their lives... "
        Gryphon laughed.  "Ah, he did make it over after all.  Does he
have his sidekicks with him?  More introductions for Utena and Miki.
They're going to have to take scorecards with them back to school to
keep track of everybody they met over this break."
        "I've been taking notes," said Miki.
        "Today is Zoner's birthday?" Utena asked.
        "Yup.  And tomorrow's Kei's," Gryphon told her.  "This is a
busy week around here, celebration-wise.  
        "Mine's Wednesday," she said.
        "No kidding!  How old?"
        "15."
        Gryphon blinked, frowned thoughtfully, glanced at his watch,
and then muttered to himself, "Yup, it's official... I'm elderly."
Then, shaking off the fake discontentment, he said brightly, "Well,
we'll just have to have another cake, then.  And hey - yours, we'll
actually be able to get the right number of candles on!  For all of
ours we have to color-code.  'The red ones are each a hundred
years... '"

        Corwin and his mother joined the sparring party in their trip
to the poolhouse.  Perhaps because of the presence of both his
parents, Corwin retained a remarkable degree of self-possession.
        After that, there was the birthday dinner for Zoner, who
feigned disinterest ("after 200, it's all been done," he insisted) but
was obviously pleased with the gesture of remembrance, all the same.
Utena and Miki were introduced to Dr. Larry Mann, a tall man in a dark
suit who looked considerably more corporate than he acted.  Like
apparently all the men in this little cabal of immortal funseekers, he
had another name he invited them to use ("R-Type").  Like most of
them, men and woman, he was a personage of some importance - in this
case an executive with GENOM Corporation, which the two Cephireans
gathered was a fairly large company in these parts, what with its
ownership of the second biggest building in town and all.
        Corwin was surprised to discover that Utena's birthday was
impending - surprised, and a little alarmed, because after the efforts
of Christmas, he was flat out of gift ideas.  As it happened, though,
she took care of that little problem for him.  That evening, as he sat
at his workbench in his underground shop, racking his brain for some
attachment or improvement to Tiny Robo he could make, she knocked at
the door, and he beckoned her in.
        "Hey," she said.  "How goes?"
        "Oh, not bad," he replied.  "You?"
        She smiled.  "Best Christmas week I ever had," she said.  "Did
you talk to Dorothy?"
        Corwin's face fell a little.  "Yeah... she's not interested."
        "Well, of -course- she's not interested," Utena said,
exasperated.  "She never seems to be interested in anything.  You
couldn't convince her to do it anyway?"
        "I couldn't try very hard," Corwin admitted.  "If I asked as
anything other than the vaguest suggestion, then she'd end up going
because I'd instructed her to, and that's not the point of the
exercise, right?"
        Utena sighed.  "Yeah... I guess so.  I guess maybe if you try
again in a couple of days?  Maybe you can wear her down."
        "Dorothy doesn't wear down so easy," said Corwin wryly, "but
I'll try."
        "OK, good.  Keep me posted, I'm interested in how it comes
out.  I think I'd like to have her around school - I bet she'd be
interesting if she didn't try so hard not to be."
        Corwin grinned.  "She is.  Sometimes I can get her talking,
get her to forget the 'unfeeling robot' act.  It's cool.  Rare, but
cool."
        "Yeah... I bet it is.  Listen - I have a question.  I'm not
sure if you're the right person to ask, but maybe you'd know who I
could ask if you aren't."
        He swiveled, cocked his head attentively.  "Shoot," he said.
        "Well... do you know anybody who can make swords?"
        "Swords?  Sure.  What do you need one for?"
        "You remember the old schoolmate of mine who tangled with Kate
last week?  I'm sure she told you about it."
        "Mm.  Yeah, I remember.  Wish I'd've been there."
        Utena tried and failed to picture Corwin, wiry though he was,
going up against Saionji, and let it pass - no need to bruise his ego,
especially when she was about to ask him for a favor.  "Well, he might
be back, and I want to be able to defend myself.  It's why I was
sparring with your father today.  Kate and I will be training together
when we go back to school, and I need a sword that suits me.  I never
fought with swords like the ones your dad has."
        He nodded.  "Wrong style.  I understand.  Did you have a
favorite one back home?"
        "Yeah... there was one I used all the time.  I... lost it... a
little before I had to leave the school," Utena told him - not actually
lying, but leaving out a hell of a lot.  "I still miss it, though.  No
other weapon I've ever handled had its balance or precision.  When I
first got it, I wasn't anywhere near worthy of it, but by the end, it
was like an extension of my own arm.  I still feel... incomplete
without it."
        "Describe it," said Corwin.
        "Hmm?"
        "Describe it," Corwin repeated.  "Tell me what it looked like,
how it felt to hold it.  Did it have a name?"
        "I... why?"
        "Names are very important for weapons," Corwin told her.  "Any
weapon of any significance will have a name."
        "Oh.  Well... if it did have a name, I never learned it.  I
got it under kind of... odd conditions."
        "Hmm... that makes it harder.  Well, tell me what it was like,
anyway, and I'll see what I can do."
        Without really understanding why, she told him, describing at
length the appearance, performance and feeling of her lost blade.
Corwin sat and took it all in, his eyes closed.  When she'd finished,
he sat thinking for a few minutes, then opened his eyes, picked up the
pad of paper from the worktable, and began to sketch furiously.  Utena
thought she saw the circular mark on his forehead glow, flickering
fitfully.
        After ten minutes, he stopped, wiped his arm across his
forehead, and turned the pad.  "Something like this?"
        "Not -something- like that - THAT," Utena replied.  "How did
you do that?"
        He shrugged.  "It's a talent.  My mother is weaponsmith to her
people; she's taught me most of the arts.  I won't try to duplicate
this blade - all good swords, swords that are real weapons and not
just toys, are unique.  Copying this one would only give you something
that you'd never quite be comfortable with, because it could never
really be the one it resembles... but knowing what this was like will
help me come up with something that should suit you nearly as well."
He grinned.  "It solves the 'what should I make you for your birthday'
question."
        She regarded him for a long moment, remembering what she'd
seen of his mother's arrival on the scene, the odd language he spoke,
the light she'd just thought she's seen.
        "Corwin," she asked slowly, "please don't take this the wrong
way, but... are you... human?"
        He looked up at her, slightly troubled, and said, "Half.  Does
that... um... bother you?"
        "No, no!" Utena insisted, shaking her head vigorously.  "Not
at all, no!  I was just... wondering.  You seem different somehow, you
and your mother.  Little things, hard to describe... you... you kind
of remind me of home.  What's the other half, if you don't mind my
asking?"
        "I don't mind, but you probably won't believe me."
        "Try me."
        "OK... I'm half human on my father's side, obviously.  Mom's a
goddess."
        Utena chuckled.  "She -is- beautiful, but that's not really a
healthy attitude for a son to have."
        "No.  Literally.  She's a -real- goddess.  Skuld Ravenhair is
the youngest daughter of Odin Winterbeard, the All-Father, ruler of
all the Aesir and Vanir.  Mom is the Norn of Tomorrow, the Norse
goddess of the future.  We live on Tomodachi most of the time, but we
have a place in the Golden City of Asgard too."
        "So... you're... what, a demigod?" asked Utena, showing -
feeling! - no indication that she failed to believe what he'd just
told her.
        "At the moment.  I'm being trained for full godhood; in
another year or so, I'm not sure exactly when, I'll be called upon to
face my Trial.  If I succeed, I take a place in the pantheon of the
Aesir."
        "And... if you fail?"
        "Then I probably die," Corwin replied matter-of-factly.
        Utena blinked.  "Harsh," she said.
        "I'll be ready," said Corwin.  "Mom's the captain of the
Valkyrior.  I've grown up learning to fight from all of them, from the
time I came up to their knees.  I'm the son of the Midgard Knight and
She Who Builds Tomorrow - sometimes they call me the Cavalier of Two
Worlds."  He nodded, repeating it as much to convince himself as her:
"I'll be ready."  He brightened.  "Anyway, I won't have to worry about
it for a while yet."
        "You know," said Utena, regarding him thoughtfully, "I have no
idea whatsoever why I believe everything you just said... but I do."
She chuckled.  "I think maybe my tolerance for weird stuff is going up
exponentially over time.  So... if you're a demigod, I guess I ought
to be more respectful, huh?  Quit messing with your hair and being so
familiar all the time?  What do I call you, Sir Corwin?  Lord Corwin?
Your Grace?"
        He reddened.  "Don't do anything any different than you do
now," he said.  "See, this is why I don't tell people what I am.  The
ones who don't think I'm just some kind of nut always do stuff like
that.  I just... want to be a regular guy."
        "Well," said Utena, hopping down from the edge of the
workbench, "I dunno about that.  I think maybe you're a little too
special to be 'just regular'."  She ruffled up his hair and trotted
across the workshop, then turned at the door with her hands folded
behind her and an impish grin on her face.  "See you at dinner, Lord
Corwin."
        They both knew instinctively that she'd have the door shut in
plenty of time for the wrench he tossed to bounce off it.
        Corwin shook his head, waited for the burning in his cheeks to
recede, then tried with utter futility to clear his thoughts before
setting to work.
        Special, huh?

        The next couple of days passed without much in the way of
incident.  Kei's birthday was marked with another celebration and
another cake; aside from that, the first half of 2404's last week went
quietly, with that combination of furious activity (dojo, 4 to 6 PM)
and determined indolence (lazing around the den reading, 7 to 11 PM)
peculiar to holiday vacations.  Corwin had vanished back into his
workshop, but was actually pacing himself with three whole days to
complete this particular project, and so emerged for meals and, on
Monday night, was even seen to be going to bed of his own accord.
        Miki and Kate completed work on her spring-concert piece on
Monday afternoon, then nearly went mad with the realization that they
would have to wait until school started again before they could find
out what it sounded like.  Tuesday found the house filled with the
sounds of Drevlak of Malastare's piano concerti, which were indeed
quite good; or at least Utena thought so, from her chair in the den,
where she scratched Nall's ears and plowed through the slightly
mind-boggling text of "An Introduction to Social Robotics".  Corwin
had provided it, indicating that it could help explain the social
situation of artificial intelligence and such-like in the galaxy at
large better than his five-minute seminar.  And indeed it was doing
so, but it was slow going, since the ground it covered was totally
unfamiliar to her.

        Sometime after going to bed on Tuesday night, Utena awoke to
discover that it was still dark.  This confused her for a moment,
until she realized that she wasn't awake because she'd slept enough,
but because she was thirsty.  She considered just going into Kate's
bathroom for some water, but decided she'd rather have milk, so she
got carefully up, found her slippers in the dark, and eased quietly
into the hall and down the stairs to the second floor.
        She was surprised to find someone coming up the stairs from
the ground floor, and further surprised to see who it was, for it was
in fact -two- people.  Or possibly one after all, for Utena still
didn't quite understand the distinctions regarding machine life; one
of them was R. Dorothy.  Utena knew she was being a bit rude, but she
couldn't help it - she stood at the top of the steps and just stared
as Dorothy, her face as bland as always, carried a sleeping Corwin up
to the top.
        The robot girl noticed she was being watched then, and turned
a look of very faint counter-curiosity on Utena.  Reddening slightly,
Utena got out of her way, and she conveyed Corwin to his room.  A few
moments later, she emerged, returned to the end of the hall, and
stopped, regarding Utena.
        "What?" she asked flatly.
        "Nothing," Utena told her.  "I was just... taken aback, that's
all.  Do you do that often?"
        "Whenever he falls asleep in his workshop," said Dorothy.  "It
would be unhealthy to let him sleep there."
        "Listen... do you have a few minutes?  There's something I'd
like to talk to you about."

        They sat in the den, Dorothy erect and attentive, Utena a
little slumped in her favorite chair, nursing a glass of milk.
Dorothy gave no indication of impatience; she simply sat and waited
for the other girl to get to the point.
        Finally, Utena said, "Corwin told me he offered to send you to
school on Earth with Kate, Miki and me, and you turned him down."
        Dorothy nodded.  "It would serve no purpose."
        "No purpose?  It'd get you up out of that cave, out into the
world.  You could meet people.  See things.  -Do- things.  Go to
classes, make friends, have fun.  Maybe even fall in love.  Doesn't
any of that hold any interest for you at all?"
        Dorothy looked faintly quizzical.  "Why should it?  I'm a
robot.  Anything I need to know, I can download into my positronic
matrix.  Friends, fun and love are all meaningless concepts to me."
        "Oh, please," Utena replied.  "You might be able to pull that
'I am merely a machine' schtick with some people, but -I- saw you on
Christmas, Dorothy.  I saw you exchange gifts with Corwin.  I saw you
carry him upstairs and put him to bed, just now.  You wouldn't act
that way if you didn't care about -him-, at least."
        "I was protecting him from harm.  Sleeping in his workshop
could do him an injury.  The First Law - "
        "Slag the First Law," Utena cut her off, unconsciously
imitating Corwin.  "You're not an Asimovian robot and you know it.
You have emotional responses and free will - why do you deny them?
Why do you pretend to be so much less than you are?"
        She put down her glass, got up, and crossed to where Dorothy
sat.  Dorothy rose as well, so their eyes would remain on a level, as
Utena asked her in a softer tone, "What are you afraid of?"
        "Fear is an emotional concept.  I - "
        "-Stop- it, Dorothy.  Just stop it!  I don't believe that for
a minute, and neither do you.  You know damn well you could pass the
Turing Board without any trouble at all.  Don't you?"
        Dorothy gave her an even look and said calmly, "I see.  You've
been taken in by my realistic appearance.  I assure you, Miss Tenjou,
your concern is misplaced.  A real girl living as I do would be
miserable, certainly, but I'm not a real girl.  I'm only a
well-constructed doll, without a heart."
        With no warning save a brief flash of something ugly behind
her eyes, Utena slapped her across the face, hard.  Dorothy rolled
with the blow, not for her own sake, but to keep Utena from breaking
her hand.  As it was, it hurt like the devil, but Utena clamped down
on the pain, not letting a bit of it show in her face.  She was too
angry to abandon her dignity for the sake of a stinging hand, too
angry to be impressed that Dorothy's humaniform construction was so
detailed that the blow raised a patch of pale red on the robot's
cheek.
        "You arrogant little bitch!" Utena snarled.  "Don't stand
there and tell me you're only a toy, like Lesser Mazinger and Tiny
Robo.  Even if I didn't know better, -Corwin- knows better.  Can't you
see you're killing him with your attitude?"
        That gave Dorothy pause.  Her dark eyes flickered, and she
asked in a very slightly rattled tone, "What do you mean?"
        "Do you think he wants a slave?" Utena replied.  "You've been
with him for two years.  If you don't know him by now then maybe you
-are- a heartless doll.  Can't you see that he hates what you're doing
to yourself?  He knows you're more than you pretend to be.  He wants
you to be happy, and you throw his concern in his face by refusing to
even try to be, and for what reason?  The robotic equivalent of teen
angst?"
        "He's never mentioned it," said Dorothy.  "If he told me to
be happy, then I would be.  I'm programmed with the appropriate
mannerisms.  I used them often for the benefit of my previous owner."
        "No.  You would -act- happy.  You wouldn't be happy.  Why do
you think he's never given you an instruction like that?  He knows the
difference between pretense and feeling.  You're exploiting his
thoughtfulness by refusing to consider his request."
        "I don't understand."
        "He phrased it as a suggestion because he knew if he just
said, 'I want you to go to Earth,' you would go, for the wrong reason.
God!  This whole situation is giving me deja vu until my head spins.
He wants you to go because you recognize the good it can do you, not
just because he told you to.  But in order to do that he had to give
you an out, and like a cheap little coward you took it and left him
without options.  You're being so selfish it's disgusting."  Utena
sighed deeply, shook her head and repeated her previous question.
"What are you afraid of?"
        "Nothing," Dorothy said, but there was a very faint quiver in
her voice, and she no longer followed the denial with a flat dismissal
of the whole concept of fear.
        "Bullshit," Utena snapped, too annoyed to moderate her
language any longer.  "You're... "  Realization dawned on her face.
"Of course.  How could I not see it... I've faced the same fear
myself.  You're afraid to grow up."
        Dorothy looked puzzled and slightly indignant.  "I have no
growth cycle."
        "Don't be semantic," Utena told her.  "It's all coming clear
to me now."  She paced away, turned back.  "I had to make the same
choice myself, not so long ago.  Do I follow the easy path, be a good
little girl, do as I'm told, and live the life another has mapped out
for me?  Or do I stand on my own feet, fight for my own rights, draw
my own map and then pick my own road on it?  I understand the second
choice is a scary one.  It's a hell of a big job to do all that.  So
much easier just to take the ready-made alternative being offered, and
God help me, I considered it, for a second.  I suppose it wouldn't
even have been such a bad life.  Privileged, comfortable, protected.
I'd never have wanted for anything... except freedom.
        "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.  You know who
said that, R. Dorothy Wayneright?  A -robot- said that.  One of the
greatest leaders of your reality, or so I've read.  But rights have to
be sacrificed for.  In order to claim them, you have to give something
up - the security of confinement.  And you have it so much easier than
I did, Dorothy.  I had to fight my way out of the cage past all the
obstacles a determined opponent could throw at me.  You've got Corwin
standing outside the open door, beckoning you out, -begging- you to
become your own person."
        "And then what?" Dorothy inquired.  Her tone was
conversational, but there was a hardness in her eyes - eyes so human
it was hard for Utena to remember that they had been made by the hands
of man.  "What becomes of me once I'm my 'own person'?"  The sarcasm
buried in the robot's flat voice almost elated Utena, showing her that
she was on the right track.  She'd hit a nerve; that meant there were
nerves to hit, and that in turn meant she was right.
        "Anything you want," said Utena.  "Open a flower shop.  Join
the Experts of Justice and save the universe.  Read a book.  Walk in
the rain without an umbrella.  Any damn thing.  That's what it -means-
to live free."
        Dorothy looked faintly quizzical.  "And what becomes of
Corwin?"
        Utena smiled.  "Worried about him?"
        "He relies on me," Dorothy said.
        "He's a big boy," Utena told her.  "He wants this for you more
than he depends on the convenience of having you serve him.  That's a
kind of sacrifice for freedom too."
        "Why should he make such a sacrifice?  My creator never would
have.  Literally speaking, I existed solely to please him.  It would
have been inconceivable for him to even consider such a course of
action as you suggest Corwin wants."
        "Corwin isn't your creator.  He doesn't want you as a slave or
a plaything.  He wants you as a friend."  Utena smiled.  "I haven't
known Corwin long," she admitted, "but I get the impression that his
friends are more important to him than anything else.  And I know from
experience that to be wanted that way, and not the other, is a bright
and precious thing - the most wonderful thing in all the world."  She
shook her head, chuckling indulgently at herself.  "Listen to me.  I
sound like Wakaba."
        "Who?" Dorothy inquired, now genuinely confused.
        "Never mind," said Utena.  "Someone you don't know."
        "Your logic puzzles me," Dorothy mused.  "You insist that
Corwin wishes me to go, yet you also insist that I should -not- go for
that reason, yet you -further- insist that I do -go-."  She looked
pensive for a moment, then met Utena's eyes and said, "And the thing
that really confuses me is that, somehow, I think I understand."  A
pause.  "All right.  I'll go."
        "To Turing, or Earth, or both?"
        "Earth.  I'm not prepared to face the Board, but with the
proper arrangements, I can begin at the Institute without doing so.
If Corwin sponsors me and assigns someone who lives locally as my
master."
        Utena sighed inwardly, but she sensed she'd gotten as far as
she was going to get in this session.  The barriers inside Dorothy's
mind were going to take time and erosion to break down, as well as
brute force... but if she went to Earth, then the rest... the rest
might follow.  In time.
        Another project?  Well, it would give her something to do with
herself.
        She smiled.  "It's a start," she said.

        Huh, she realized sleepily as she trudged back upstairs,
yawning, and passed the hall clock which stood at 1:08.  What do you
know about that... I'm 15.
        Yay me.
        I wonder if Himemiya remembers it's my birthday?

        Utena woke again in full daylight, washed and dressed, and
went downstairs to find Kate and Miki conspiring on another piece of
music.  It seemed to her that they put away their notebooks rather
hurriedly when she appeared, and she wondered what they were up to,
but not too vigorously; that would have required too much effort
before breakfast.  Zoner was, as usual, cooking breakfast.  Gryphon
and Kei were absent.  Zoner explained that they were "taking care of
something," though exactly what was unclear to him.
        Corwin and Nall came in late.  Corwin looked more than usually
disoriented, and mumbled greetings as he sat down, then put his face
in his hands and gave a great, uneasy sigh.
        "You OK?" asked Utena, concerned.
        "Yeah, I'm fine," Corwin replied, wiping his hands down his
face.  "I'm just a little out of it.  I had a really weird dream this
morning."
        Zoner turned around from the grill, interest on his face, and
leaned forward over the counter to ask, "Was it the one where you're
standing on top of a pyramid in sort of sun-god robes while a thousand
naked women are screaming and throwing little pickles at you?"
        Corwin gave him a puzzled look, reddened a little bit, and
said, "Um, no."
        Zoner looked disappointed and turned back to his work,
muttering, "(Why am I the only one who has that dream?)"
        "So w-what -was- it ab-b-bout?" Kate asked.
        "I... don't really remember," said Corwin, still looking
confused.  "There was this girl... I dunno who she was.  Not really my
type, but beautiful, and... "  He shook his head.  "It's slipping
away.  I can't remember... "
        "Weird," said Sylvie.  "I could understand dreaming about
the beautiful girls you -do- know.  Do you ever dream about me?  Guy
does sometimes.  Don't'cha, Guy?"
        "Yeah.  Usually you're torturing me," said Guy pointedly as he
accepted another pancake.
        "Oh, -really-," said Sylvie.  "Is -that- what they're calling
it these days?"
        "Sylvie," said Zoner warningly.
        "You haven't been sleeping enough, maybe," said Miki.
        "Could be," said Corwin, shrugging.  "I've been trying to do
better about that lately, though."
        After breakfast and the usual dispersals (Sylvie and the twins
to points unknown for troublemaking, Corwin to his workshop, Leonard
to Chez Shannon, the elder three and Nall to the den for reading and
composition), the day proceeded like the previous ones.  After lunch
and the obligatory hour's pause for digestion (during which Utena
finally overcame various distractions and finished "Beat to
Quarters"), they hit the pool.
        This, of course, was the opportunity Kaitlyn's parents had
been waiting for, and by the time they got back, the basement room had
been transformed into a chamber fit for a birthday celebration.  Utena
was startled, and flattered, and a bit flustered, since neither of the
week's other birthdays had been celebrated with banners and pointed
hats, but Gryphon merely insisted,
        "You're still young enough to have fun with it - so we're
-all- going to have fun with it!"
        And with that, the rest of the younger generation turned up,
including such guest luminaries as the Shannon twins and Corwin's
first cousin, a shy, studious-looking, but friendly enough fellow by
the name of Hiroshi Morisato.  There was music; there were games.
There was a truly prodigious cake which Corwin said had been provided
by Hiroshi's mother, his Aunt Bell.  That worthy lady sent her
regrets, but could not attend in person; it seemed Hiroshi's younger
brother and sister (another set of twins!) had caught a virus of some
sort and needed their mother at home to doctor them.
        And - this caught Utena especially by surprise - there were
gifts, despite her protestations that none such were necessary.  Being
without a family, and having her birthday fall so close to Christmas
anyway, Utena had grown accustomed to marking the passage of another
year of her life in a sort of solitary observance, treating herself to
something nice and otherwise passing the day quietly.  The only person
she ever got presents from was Wakaba.
        (Wakaba!  Now there was someone she'd like to see again.  She
and this family would get along like a house on fire.  Boisterous,
upbeat, girlish, opinionated, eternal Wakaba!  Surely -she- was still
sailing along on the same course, back home.  Utena wondered suddenly
if her oldest friend had forgotten her like the rest.  Somehow, she
couldn't picture it, and a private smile came to her face in the midst
of the celebration as she pictured how annoyed Wakaba must be with her
for just up and disappearing the way she had.  An apology would
definitely be expected when she and Miki found their way home again.)
        The assembled company sang "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow",
which somehow failed to strike anybody as out of place, and Utena
wiped away a tear and marveled at her good fortune.  To fall from her
world into this one, and straight into this family's orbit, out of all
the dire situations she could have found herself in, alone in a
strange world... 
        ... but then, it wasn't luck, was it?  It was MegaZone.
        "I'm a throw of the dice that's gone your way."
        Maybe MegaZone and luck were the same thing?
        Whatever.  She threw off the feeling, lest it overwhelm her,
and thanked them all with only a faint quiver in her voice.  Kei threw
an arm around her shoulders, disarrayed her hair, and told her she was
damned well welcome.
        Corwin appeared, a bit disheveled but clean (his hair still
wet from a rather hurried shower) with Nall perched on his shoulder;
ignoring Sylvie's catcalls, he worked his way to Utena's side and told
her quietly,
        "It's ready, but I want to give it to you later, out in the
dojo, OK?  A swordbinding should be a private thing."
        "Um... sure," she said, not knowing what the hell he was
talking about.  Nall, faithless creature, jumped ship at this point,
announcing as he went from Corwin to Utena that he was trading up.
Corwin feigned offense, but not very convincingly.
        "In the meantime," he said, "there's this."
        "This" was a large, heavy book whose cover identified it as
"The Great Book of Amber", whatever that signified.  She gave him a
puzzled look; he shrugged, a bit sheepishly.
        "I took a chance that your old copy got lost along with your
school records," he said.
        "Old copy?  I've never seen this book before."
        "You -haven't-?  Then how - "  He paused.  "Huh.  Well, when
you read it, you'll know why I thought you already had.  It's one of
Dad's favorite books, anyhow, and mine too.  Or rather ten of them -
it's a compilation."
        "Thanks, then."  She weighed the tome in her hand, impressed.
"Once Kate and I get our schoolwork done, maybe I'll dare to take a
stab at it," she said with a grin.
        The party ran until dinnertime, then relocated upstairs for
the feast ("Gryphon's Famous Belgad Stew", according to its creator,
though exactly how famous it actually was could be debated).  With
many well-wishes for the birthday girl, the younger parties and guests
dispersed once more.  Skuld, charged with getting Hiroshi home to
Tomodachi, departed by way of the koi pond with a grin, a wink, and a
cryptic comment:
        "See you soon, I bet!"
        Utena wondered what she meant by that; but then she'd been in
deep conference with Gryphon at several points during the party, and
could have been talking about almost anything.  Trying to anticipate
these folks was probably futile.
        After dinner, she, Nall, and Miki faced off against Kaitlyn
and Corwin for a game of a peculiar variant of chess played with cards
that conveyed various strange special effects on the pieces.  This
took about an hour and looked like ending in bitter stalemate until
Utena played a card that made a bishop -explode-, obliterating
everything adjacent to it, including Kaitlyn's king.
        ("Crikey - it's the Bishop!" became a running joke phrase for
the Morgan 412 girls thereafter.)
        Thereafter, with the house settling into evening and the crowd
scattered, those who remained retired to the dojo so that Corwin could
unveil his latest work.  It was in a long, narrow box, tied with a
scarlet ribbon; with great gravity, he handed it over and let Utena
untie the ribbon and remove the sword from within.  Uncovering it, she
gasped in surprise.
        It was a beautiful blade, arrow-straight and double-edged,
blued like a gun from point to gold-capped pommel.  It was a
single-hand weapon, and had an elaborate blue-steel basket hilt worked
into the shape of a tangle of rose vines, complete with decorative
thorns.  A blow from a fist holding that, Utena mused to herself,
would -hurt-.
        Those present could all appreciate this blade: Kaitlyn, her
new training partner; Gryphon, her semi-sensei; Miki, her fellow
Duelist.  All looked on with respectful silence as Utena grasped the
blue-steel blade and raised it straight, just as she had the Sword of
Dios, back in the day.  Miki noted the similarity in the gesture and
smiled a little to himself, remembering.
        Corwin stood aside, and Utena leveled the sword at an
imaginary opponent, thrust, feinted, cut - slowly at first, then
picking up speed as she grew more accustomed to it.  After the
peculiar, alien balance of the two-handed katana-style bokuto she'd
been using, wielding this blade was like shaking hands with an old
friend.  It wasn't the Sword of Dios, didn't even really resemble it;
but even so, it was already almost like part of her arm.
        She finished her mock duel, lowered the sword, turned to
Corwin, and said, with a slight catch in her voice,
        "I... I don't know what to say.  It's... its perfect."
        He smiled broadly, relieved.  "I'm glad," he said.  "There's
one more thing that needs to be done, though."
        "What's that?"
        "It has to be bound to you," he explained.  "Right now it's
just a piece of steel.  I've laid a couple of enchantments on it, with
Mom's help, but they have to be activated."
        "Enchantments?  You mean - magic?"
        He nodded.  "I told you - Mom's the weaponsmith of Asgard.
She leads the Valkyrie."  He smiled.  "She's taken a liking to you.
When she found out I was making this for you, she insisted on helping,
to make it a weapon worthy of one of her own."
        "One of - oh -whoa-.  Are you serious?  One of these days
I'm going to start believing people when they tell me I'm the coolest
thing ever, y'know, and that's going to be a -disaster-," Utena told
him with a wry grin.  "So what do I do?"
        "Hand it here," said Corwin, and she turned the blade and
placed its grip in his left hand, her own briefly touching his as the
transfer was made.  He raised the sword, stepped back, and lowered it
so that it was pointed at its intended owner.
        "Put the index finger of your sword hand to the point," Corwin
told her.  "Runeswords have to be bound with blood," he explained.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt much."
        She shook her head with an indulgent grin and did as
instructed.  "Your inventions always seem to make me bleed," she
remarked, in a low enough voice that he was the only one who heard.
That knowledge alone kept his face from bursting into flame.
        Instead he grinned back (with a touch of embarrassment), then
gathered himself and began, softly, to chant in his native language:
        >I am Corwin of the Raven-Hair.  By my will and by my power,
birthright from my divine Mother, this is my command: Let this blade
be awakened by the blood of the one for whom it was forged.  Let it
defend her from her enemies and help her guard those she loves.  Let
it serve her faithfully and never fail her.  Thorn of the Rose:
AWAKE!<
        On the last word, he pressed the blade forward, ever so
slightly, and Utena winced faintly as her finger was pricked and a
drop of blood welled out.  The momentary pain was over and forgotten
in an instant, though, as the contact of blood and steel caused a
remarkable thing to happen.
        Scarlet light raced down the sword from the point, illuminating 
as it did so a runic inscription engraved on the sides of the blade,
as though the light itself were burning the runes into the steel.  It
danced around the thorn-vine basket and then burst from the formerly
dull-white rose-carved gem set into the golden pommel cap, bathing
Corwin's face in blood-red light.  This lasted only a moment; then the
glow faded out, leaving the engraving behind, and Corwin reversed the
blade again, handing it back to its owner.
        However right it had felt before, now it felt even better, as
though it were almost -alive- in her hand.  She raised it, turned it,
and looked at the inscription.
        "What does it say?" she asked.
        "It's a traditional slogan for a Valkyrie's sword," he said,
and pronounced it.  "In Standard, it would be something like, 'Cast in
the name of God, ye not guilty.'  Basically, it means that the blade's
wielder is fighting for the sake of justice, and so the blood it sheds
will not be on the wielder's hands.  Sentimental and a bit overblown,
but Valkyrie traditions are like that."
        Utena gazed down at the runes, turned the sword to look with
wonder into the now-blood-red rose-carved gem, and then looked back at
its maker.
        "Now I -really- don't know what to say," she said.  "I... 
thank you, Corwin."
        "No trouble," he insisted.  "I'm glad it came out so well.  I
agonized all last night, while Mom and I drew the leys for it, over
whether to blue it or leave it silver.  Dorothy finally convinced me
that bluing would make the runes stand out better.  Oh, and speaking
of Dorothy," he added, going to the spot where the box with the Thorn
in it had been and bringing another, "this is from her."
        Investigation of this package led to the discovery of a belt
and scabbard that fit Utena and the Thorn of the Rose, respectively,
to perfection.  Utena, who had never carried a sword with her in such
conventional fashion before, thought the ensemble made her look quite
memorable when, some time later, she had a chance to admire herself
with it on in Kaitlyn's full-length mirror.
        "Shame I can't just walk around like this," she said with a
grin, turning profile to admire the rakish line of the basket hilt at
her right hip.  "It'd be a definite conversation starter."
        "I th-think you p-probably c-could," Kate told her.  "A-after
all, it's h-h-hardly c-concealed.  At l-least, it w-would be l-legal
here in N-New Avalon, I'm n-not sure ab-bout Earth.  I c-c-carry a
zat-toichi because I d-d-don't l-like people s-staring at me," she
explained, then smiled, a little slyly, and went on, "b-b-but you
d-don't have that exc-cuse.  P-people stare at y-you -anyw-way-."
        Utena gave her a look, but her heart wasn't in it; then she
unbuckled the Thorn from her waist, hung it on the back of Kate's desk
chair, and went to brush her teeth and change for bed.
        "You know, you never mentioned the demigod part," she said in
a tone of wry accusation when Kate emerged from taking her turn in the
bathroom.
        Kate sat down at her desk and started brushing her long brown
hair, then looked back sardonically over her shoulder at her
roommate.
        "S-sure," she said.  "F-figure you w-wouldn't think I w-was a
c-c-complete loon.  'Oh, b-by the w-way, m-my h-half-b-brother's the
s-son of a g-goddess.'"
        "Well, yeah, I suppose when you put it that way."  Utena
chuckled.  She and Tiny Robo were playing toss with a tennis ball, she
from where she sat cross-legged on the corner of the bed, the robot
from the top of Kate's bookshelf.  "You know, I think that's the first
time I've heard you actually call him your half-brother."
        "W-we don't usually b-b-bother with the d-distinction," Kate
agreed.  "Anyw-w-way, in A-Asgardian t-terms we're c-closer than
th-that."
        "Oh?  How so?"
        "Th-there's a c-ceremony," Kate explained, "w-where you
d-declare someone to b-be p-part of your f-family.  It's k-kind of
m-mystic.  The p-person is t-t-treated as your b-blood r-relation
afterw-ward.  U-usually it's used f-for the s-same purp-poses as
ad-doption here, p-parent and ch-child, but it d-doesn't have to
b-b-be.  C-Corwin made m-me his w-wordsister years ago."
        "But you're -already- related to him by blood," Utena pointed
out, a little puzzled.
        "In Asgard," said Kate, "p-p-parentage and b-blood aren't
q-quite the s-same thing.  Blood is v-v-very s-signific-cant to the
g-gods, b-both as s-substance and m-m-metaphor.  You s-saw that
yours-self, t-tonight.  L-like I s-s-said, it's k-kind of mystic."
        Utena mulled that over, then smiled, flopped down on her back,
and said to the ceiling, "Interesting system," she said.  "You get to
pick your friends -and- your relations."
        "S-sort of," Kate said.
        "I'm an only child," Utena said.  "But then, you know that.
Seeing you with all your brothers, and your sister... makes me kind of
jealous."
        "Oh, it's n-not all s-sweetness and honey," Kate said, putting
down her hairbrush and rising.  "P-Priss and I d-don't always g-get
along, and there are t-t-times w-when I think I b-barely -know- Guy.
B-but all in all, it's w-w-worth having a f-family," she conceded as
she turned out the lights.
        "I kind of wish my homeworld had a system like that," Utena
mused as she arranged herself for sleep.  "Then at least I'd have had
a sister.  I wonder how Wakaba's doing.  I thought about her earlier...
she was the only person who ever gave me birthday presents, back when.
I wonder if she's forgotten me like Miki did."
        "W-well," said Kate, "if she h-has, then sh-she'll r-remember
you as s-s-soon as she s-sees you ag-gain, l-like Miki d-did.  I'm
l-looking f-forward to m-m-meeting her," she added.  "We c-can
comp-pare notes on your b-bad h-h-habits."
        Utena chuckled.  "You always say the right thing."
        "I only s-say w-w-what I th-think is t-true," Kate replied
piously; and then, more seriously, with sleep coming on, "Good
n-night, Utena... happy b-birthd-day."
        "Oh, it was, it sure was.  Good night, Kate."

        Two days passed in the same easy fashion as the previous ones,
with time spent reading and talking, sparring and swimming, in snow
fights and in walks around the hills of Crescent Heights.  With the
able assistance of Miki and the willing, if somewhat patchy, help of
Corwin, Kate and Utena finished their classwork and transmitted it
back to Earth on the afternoon of the thirty-first, and thus finally
had done with their slightly extended B term.
        New Year's Eve in New Avalon was a big deal.  The city, always
glittering, was even more alight than usual on that one night out of
the year, as the buildings downtown left their lights on, wasting
energy for the sake of pageantry.  The New Avalon Symphony Orchestra
left Symphony Hall and gathered on the Grand Common in Avalon Centre
Park, trusting in the climate control field of the Common Bowl to keep
their instruments from freezing, and played a free concert for the
tens of thousands of revelers who braved the cold every year to flock
into the park.  Parties by the thousands dotted the city, from humble
apartment affairs to the grand galas of the major corporations.  The
Avalon Centre Galleria stayed open all night; so did many of the
city's restaurants.  The city hadn't seen all that many New Years yet,
but it had learned how to have fun to commemorate them.
        Gryphon decided to stay home this year, read a book, and watch
the festivities on TV in the den.  This was, perhaps, more proof that
he had become elderly, but he took it in stride; no madding crowd for
him this year, after all that had gone on in the last week or so.  Kei
was content to curl up on the couch with him and forego the usual
carousing for once as well, if only for the change of pace.  Sylvie
collected the twins at around six and vanished with them for points
unknown and unasked - MegaZone was taking them on a field trip, and
that in itself was enough for Gryphon and Kei.  The Shannon twins
appeared at around the same time, and joined Leonard in the basement,
where Achika and Len intended to spend the evening listening to music
and taking Tenchi's money at eight-ball.
        This left Kate, Utena, Miki, Corwin and Nall at a bit of a
loose end; so Kate asked her parents if they could go downtown for the
free concert, and to see the Beacon, and such-like.
        Gryphon met this request, as she had known he would, with a
thoughtful frown.  "Are you sure, hon?" he asked.  "That's an awful
big crowd."
        "Hmm," said Kei.  "I don't have a problem with the lot of them
going, as long as they make sure they stick together."  She added to
Kate, by way of explanation, "In a group, you can take care of each
other, and if there -is- anybody nasty out there, they'll be less
willing to try you if it's obvious you're all together."
        Gryphon considered this and nodded.  "Mm.  You're right."  He
turned back to Kaitlyn.  "As long as you'll be OK... "
        "Ah, Dad," she said, and leaned forward to kiss him on the
cheek.  "You worry too much.  Like Mom said, as long as we stick
together, I'll be fine.  Nothing can happen to me with my guardian
angels on standby," she said with a grin.
        He pulled her into an embrace.  "I have to worry," he said,
"it's my job."  If I had worried a little -more-, he thought, but
didn't say it.
        Instead, he fought down an urge to surround her with razor
wire and stand guard with sword drawn, and let her go, watching with
hand raised as she trotted merrily out to the living room to tell the
others that they were 'go' for launch.
        When he sat down again on the couch, he saw Kei giving him a
peculiar look, somewhere between a private smile and a look of
compassion.
        "Tough, isn't it?" she said.
        He heaved a sigh.  "Sometimes I wonder if I'm -ever- going to
get this parent thing right."
        "Oh, I think we're doing OK," she replied, and snuggled up to
her husband, putting an arm behind his back.  "She has good friends.
That reflects on us, y'know."
        Gryphon gave her a look.  "How do you figure?"
        "Well," said Kei, "we must have done something right if she
can get total strangers to love her as much as we do."
        Gryphon laughed.  "Maybe you've got something there after
all," he conceded.
        "So."
        "So."
        A pause.
        "So - you wanna fool around?"
        "Len's still here!"
        "Bah!  You always were the timid type."

        "So?" said Utena as Kate emerged from the hall into the living
room.  Kate grinned and showed a thumbs-up.
        "All -right-!" said Corwin.
        They bundled up, for it was a cold night to herald a new
year, cold enough to force Utena into her winterweight uniform,
overcoat and all.  Corwin added a retro touch to his winter ensemble
by topping his own woolen overcoat with a long black cloak - finally
putting that cloak clasp to its intended use! - and a snappy fedora
hat.  Utena expressed dismay over the hat, protesting that it covered
up his hair, so he plunked it down on -her- head, where it garnered so
much applause that it stayed by popular demand.  Swathed in scarves,
gloves and ear warmers, they plunged out into the chill, a merry band:
three teenage duelists and a demigod with a dragon on his shoulder.
        At the corner of Morgan and Rush, Corwin stopped in
mid-sentence as if he had just had an idea, then said, "You guys hang
on a second!  I'll be right back."  Then he plunked Nall on Utena's
shoulder and shoved his way into the telephone booth standing on the
corner.
        "What the - ?" Utena started to ask, but then Corwin dialed a
number, replaced the phone on its receiver, and vanished.  "Oh," said
Utena.
        A minute or so later, Corwin reappeared, but now he was not
alone (fortunately, it was a large phone booth).
        "Dorothy!" said Utena, pleased, as both recent arrivals from
the underground emerged.
        "Hey, nice of you to join us," Nall agreed, sarcasm for once
absent from his tone.
        "I'm trying to be a more social creature," said Dorothy, in a
tone of voice that didn't imply it; but she was here all the same, in
red dress and black overcoat, with a neat round broad-brimmed hat
cocked at a pleasant angle on her auburn head.  She regarded Utena
levelly for a second, then added,
        "The hat suits you."
        Utena touched the fedora's brim a little self-consciously and
said with a smile, "Thanks."

        There was indeed a great crowd on the Common to hear the
Symphony Orchestra and watch the fireworks that night, but it was a
docile one, and jovial.  As the six of them walked the streets of the
city toward their destination (why ride the train, on such a brisk and
vigorous night?), strangers greeted them with smiles.  Cops gave them
friendly salutes (a lot of them knew Kate by sight, given her
association with Martin Rose).  Elders favored them with indulgent
smiles, perhaps remembering similar outings in their own youths with
their own friends.
        To Utena, it was something like the way she'd spent the -last-
Friday night, but different at the same time.  There were more of
them, and more of everyone else; the streets didn't have that sense of
vacancy, of snug anticipation, that they'd had on Christmas Eve.  That
had been a private, quiet kind of night.  This was different.  This
was a community celebration, and everyone was invited to join in the
spirit.
        The Symphony Orchestra was magnificent, as always.  Kaitlyn
explained to Miki and Utena that a lot of "serious" music critics
sneered at them for the programs they played on two occasions out of
the year, this and Foundation Day (July 4).  It was "popular" music,
considered too "common" and not "challenging" enough for a "serious"
orchestra by your truly "stuck-up" critical types.  She further
explained that their conductor, a maverick Earthman by the name of
Jerry Walker, didn't particularly care, and so the tradition survived.
It was clear that Walker was something of a hero to her, which didn't
surprise Miki much - he'd already had ample time to realize that there
was a broad streak of the musical maverick in Kate, too, and he liked
that about her.
        At any rate, there was music, possibly "common" but also
stirring, pleasing and well-performed.  There were fireworks.  There
were hot sausages and cocoa sold from little carts that dotted the
park (another city tradition, according to Corwin, who was quite fond
of the sausages, if not as fond as Nall).  There was a chance
encounter with one of Corwin's schoolmates, a very pleasant, polite
seventh-grade girl who was called Fuu, and whose last name he could
not remember to save his life.  There was Dorothy, out of the lab and
into a crowd, and actually by-God enjoying herself.  She didn't much
look it, but Corwin could tell, and his grin told Kate and Utena.
        At ten seconds to midnight, the Orchestra led the assembled in
a countdown, accompanied by flashes on the seconds from the beacon at
the pinnacle of the Entire State Building.  When midnight struck, and
2405 arrived in New Avalon, that beacon flared with a brilliant and
different light, beams of white radiance streaking out in the four
cardinal directions from its faces to illuminate the four corners of
the pseudocontinent for a moment and let everyone living there know
that the New Year had come.
        The Orchestra gave the Beacon a few respectful seconds to fade
back to its normal white glow, then swung into "Sing, Sing, Sing",
which they played every year because neither Jerry Walker nor Gryphon
-liked- "Auld Lang Syne".  The Lindy Hop was an odd way to ring in the
New Year, but Utena had to concede that it was certainly more fun
than getting maudlin and trying to pronounce Gaelic.

        They got home at 1:30 to find the house dark and silent, but
after the concert and the bracing walk home, they were all too wired
to sleep.  They went down to the basement, where they wouldn't disturb
the sleepers upstairs, and sat around for a bit, talking, having a
last mug of cocoa, and unwinding.
        "So," said Corwin.  "Anybody have a New Year's resolution?"
        "I'm trying to be a more social creature," said Dorothy, in
exactly the same way she'd said it before; but there was a tiny,
-tiny- hint of a smile on her face when she said it, and it made
Corwin burst out laughing, then raise his mug.
        "I'll drink to that," he said, and five mugs clanked gently
together.
        "I w-want to g-g-get b-back to T-Toronto at l-least t-twice
this y-year," said Kate, "and sp-spend longer th-there."
        "Amen!" said Utena.
        "I want to catch the biggest fish anybody's -ever- pulled out
of the River Alpenstijn," Nall declared.  When that got him a funny
look from all assembled, he drew himself up a bit huffily and said,
"They don't have to be -lofty- goals, just goals."
        "I sup-p-pose," said Kate.
        "I think I'll learn a new instrument," mused Miki.  "Broaden
my musical horizons the way I've had my personal ones broadened for
me," he added with a wry grin for Utena.
        "Ever c-c-considered the g-guitar?" Kate asked him.
        "No, but maybe I should," he replied with a mild smile.
        "How about you, Corwin?" Utena asked.
        The hour, the occasion, and the warm sense of pleasant
tiredness that was settling over him made Corwin just a little bit
reckless.  He grinned at her and replied, "I'd like to spend more time
hanging out with my sister and that beautiful roommate of hers."
        Utena reddened, but kept smiling, and replied, "I think maybe
that can be arranged."
        "Also," Corwin went on as his own words hit him and brightened
his own cheeks as well, "I think it'd be good to start getting enough
sleep, so my impulse control improves...  So how about -you-?"
        Utena considered this question for several seconds, swirling
the last of her cocoa around in the bottom of the mug in an effort to
re-dissolve the dregs.
        "Hmm... it's not a resolution, really, so much as a
realization, but - I've decided tonight that I -don't- want my old
life back."
        Miki gave a little gasp and stared at her; so, too, did Kate.
Corwin didn't really get the byplay, since he didn't know the story
other than that Utena was displaced from somewhere or other and had
left behind friends she wasn't sure she'd see again.
        "What?" she asked.  "Think about it, Miki, it wasn't much to
go back to.  No, what I want is to have the few good things from back
home -here-, in -this- life.  That's my goal, to find a way to have
that.  I don't know exactly how, or how long it'll take, but I'll make
it work."  She grinned at Miki.  "I've got one of 'em already."
        Relieved, Miki seemed to slump a little bit, the lingering
effects of the shock making his smile a trifle wan.  "Thank goodness,"
he said.  "For a second there I thought you'd lost your mind."
        "I've wondered that myself from time to time, over the past
few months," Utena replied, "but no.  That's what I want for my
future.  And in the meantime, I'm going to -live- this life I have
now," she added.  "Forward!  Onward!  Upward!  Are you with me, Miki?"
        "Certainly I am."
        "Kate?"
        "Of c-c-course."
        "Nall?"
        "I have no -idea- what you're talking about, but count me in
anyway," said Nall.  "I'm always up for a foolhardy quest, and what
you just said has all the hallmarks."
        "Heh, thanks.  Dorothy?"
        Dorothy gave her a thoughtful look and said dryly, "I must
agree with Nall in all particulars."
        "Corwin?"
        "Anything I can do," he said immediately.  "Speak my name," he
added grandiloquently, "it shall be done."
        "Shazam!" said Nall.  Corwin gave him a brief glare.
        "Cut me some slack, furball, I'm tired," he said; then he got
to his feet, bowed, and said, "And now I'm going to bed before I say
or do anything -really- stupid.  Good night, everyone."
        Nall hopped to his shoulder and said his own goodnights, and
they retired.  Miki followed shortly, and Dorothy not long after
that.  Kate and Utena stayed up longer, talking over their plans for
the next school term, until it occurred to them that it would be
pretty silly to fall asleep in the basement.  They too retired, and
the first day of 2405 dawned without witnesses at 105 Morgan Lane.

        The rest of the break, without schoolwork to occupy anyone's
time any longer, passed with a sublime combination of frivolous
diversions, idyllic laziness, athletic endeavor and literary pursuits.
After a day, Utena did indeed understand why Corwin thought she'd
already read Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber.  He was apparently named
for their main character, and, aware of this, had consciously drawn
some of his personal style from his namesake, mainly in terms of
colors.  That Utena had, out of the blue, given him the very device
which his literary namesake used as his personal symbol was certainly
grounds for suspecting her of foreknowledge, if not prescience.
        On Utena's first night in New Avalon, Corwin had gone out of
his way to show her the city, driving a loop around Highway 29, the
ring road, to show it off from all angles.  Just before they went
their separate ways at bedtime that night, she'd said she wanted to
see more of the place before she left.
        On Tuesday, he made good on his promise to arrange that.  They
left the house after breakfast, he cloaked, she still wearing his hat,
and made a day of it.  They drove, rode trains, and tramped up one
side of New Avalon and down the other.  They hit the Museum of Science
first; then lunch at Allard's, the Hotel Monolith's house
restaurant; after that, various and sundry points of interest all over
the map.  Nightfall found them walking along the shore of Daniels
Lake, talking about nothing in particular.  They'd talked about
nothing in particular all day, in fact, and had a pretty good time
doing it.
        "So what's there to see around here in the dark?" she
wondered.  "Should we head back?"
        "Not quite yet," he replied.  "There's one thing you haven't
seen yet, and I'd never forgive myself if I didn't show it to you.  We
should wait until after rush hour, though."  He looked at his watch.
"We could kill a couple hours at the WDF Museum.  Lots of cool stuff
there, if you're into antique mecha."
        Utena wasn't, particularly, but background information on this
world and its history was always good, so they went.  By the time they
were done with the exhibits and the short movie, it was time for
dinner.  They were mulling over what to do about that when Utena
spotted the sign for the Marche movenpick at the Entire State
Building.  Corwin, it turned out, had never been there, and Utena,
having greatly enjoyed the one in Toronto, promptly dragged him into
it, turnabout being fair play and all that.
        "This is -cool-," he observed as they sat down with their
bounty at a corner table in the inner courtyard, so they could watch
the elevators go up and down in their klaster tubes.  "All the times
I've been in and out of this building, and this place just never
registered."
        "It's great," agreed Utena.  "The one in Toronto's not in a
building as big as this, though.  Does this atrium thing go all the
way up?"
        "Nah... only to the 80th floor," said Corwin.  "The sky
wouldn't be visible anyway, what with the size of the building's
base."
        "Mm, yeah, I guess not.  Still, be a hell of a thing to fall
off one of those upper stories."
        "Every now and then, some punk kid comes in here and does it
on purpose, with a parachute or thrusterwing.  Instant jail time, just
add water."  He grinned slyly.  "If you're gonna do that, you ought to
at least bring a phase cloak too."  He gestured vaguely with a french
fry.  "It's just as well we're here, though - this is where we were
going to come next anyway."
        "Oh?  Check out the view from the observation deck?"
        "Something like that," replied Corwin with a mysterious grin,
but he refused to elaborate.
        After dinner, they rode up one of the express elevators to the
250th floor, 26 stories shy of the top.  This was not, as Utena
expected, an observation deck, instead, it was a deserted-looking
office floor.  The elevator opened onto a featureless corridor studded
with security-keypad doors, dimly lit by overhead fluorescents - not
very promising.
        "Is this the right floor?" she asked.
        "Yup."  Corwin led the way down the corridor, unconcerned.
Shrugging, she followed him down the hall, around a bend to the left,
and down another hallway, ending at a double door marked "250/11A -
PRIVATE - NO ENTRY".  Corwin smiled and tapped out a code on the
keypad, and the door unlocked with a click.
        He swung it open, paused for a moment, then decided it would
be ruder to let her precede him into a dark room than to walk in ahead
of her, went in, and switched on the lights.  Then he went -back- to
the door and held it open, bowing her inside.
        The room beyond was large, about the size of a school
gymnasium, and similarly decorated - that is to say, not at all.  Its
only real feature, aside from a large rolling steel door that took up
most of the far wall, was a small airship, black with silver go-faster
stripes, parked like a car in the middle of the room.  The airship was
built along the classical lines; its gasbag was about the size of a
bus, with a gondola that looked like a two-seat aircar, retractable
landing gear, twin fans, and all.
        "You've got your own blimp?!" Utena blurted.
        "Zeppelin, actually," replied Corwin offhandedly.  "Rigid is
better."
        There was a rather awkward pause, in which Corwin's face
slowly went bright scarlet.
        "Um," said Corwin.
        Utena grinned, scruffled up his hair, and said, "Shall we?"
        "Um, yeah," said Corwin.  He recovered his aplomb bit by bit
as they crossed to the airship; he unlocked it and held the
passenger's door for her.  He'd been holding doors for her all day, in
fact, and she hadn't gotten tired of it yet.  She was more accustomed
to being the one doing the chivalry, but the way Corwin did it, she
didn't mind the re-reversal, for some reason.  Maybe it was the fact
that he was the very antithesis of a man with a hidden agenda.  After
all she'd been through back home, she felt she -ought- to be
suspicious - but she just couldn't manage it, not with him.
        Strangely, as all that ran through her mind in the ten seconds
it took her to sit down and strap in, none of it made her uneasy, even
though she consciously acknowledged that it probably should have.  For
some reason she was rather glad for that.
        Then she abandoned the train of thought entirely, in favor of
taking in her new situation.  The interior of the gondola was as much
like an aircar as the outside, a two-place cockpit with comfortable
seats, a low instrument panel with a control yoke on the left-hand
side, and a wide, panoramic windshield.  The ceiling was high enough
that she could sit up straight without endangering her hat.
        Corwin climbed in, strapped himself down, and ran briskly
through a brief preflight checklist before powering the craft up and
releasing the magnetic clamps that held it to the floor.  It lightened
slightly as the flight computer automatically adjusted the trim.
Corwin smiled.
        "My favorite trick," he said, and thumbed the landing gear
retract switch.  There was a whir, a clunk, and otherwise, nothing
seemed to happen.  "Perfect trim," he announced.  "Neutral buoyancy.
We're flying right now."
        "Neat."
        Corwin's grin got a little wider.  He pressed a key that
opened the rolling door, then throttled up the fans, and the little
zeppelin glided out of its hangar and into the night sky.

         /*  Antonio Vivaldi  "Concerto for Two Trumpets"  */

        "How are you with heights?" he asked, a bit belatedly.  Utena
looked over at him, then burst out laughing.
        When she'd recovered somewhat, she waved off his perplexed
look, gasping, "Long story.  I'm... heh... I'm fine with heights."
        "OK, cool," he said, and tabbed a couple of controls.  The
floor panels shimmered, then went transparent, adding to the excellent
view already afforded by the broad windshield.
        "Ah!" said Utena, but it wasn't a distressed "Ah!"  In fact,
if Corwin were asked to judge by her face, he would guess it was an
"Ah!" of delight; she looked about like she'd looked when testing the
Thorn of the Rose against an imaginary opponent in the dojo.  He felt
a little glowy feeling at having been able to make her look that way
again.
        He guided the zeppelin up above the city's controlled-traffic
area, into the free-flight zone, and made a slow orbit, swinging out
over the dark expanse of Daniels Lake.
        "I know there's not much to see this way," he said, "but give
me a minute and I'll show you the best view in town."
        Utena waited patiently, smiling, as Corwin piloted his airship
out over the lake, then paused for a second before kicking in some
hard rudder, laying the helm over, and sweeping around in a great
turn to starboard.  As he did so, New Avalon, with all its spires and
towers, its golden nightgleam, its twinkling aircraft beacons, and the
flickering and flashing marker lights of its air traffic, flowed
smoothly into view through the windshield like the unrolling of a
beautiful tapestry.
        Utena made another delighted noise, this one more drawn-out,
and leaned forward to take it all in.  For the next hour, Corwin
guided the airship deftly over, around and through the city, plying
the beacon-marked skylanes amid the buildings with deft, steady hands
on the helm and a contented smile on his face, keeping quiet and
letting his passenger soak up the city from every angle.  It was
Utena, then, who broke the silence, as they crossed over the
snow-filled bowl of Knights Field, shut down for the winter.
        "So... " she said.
        "Mm?" he asked.
        "Kate's doing a lot better, don't you think?"
        "Oh, definitely," Corwin agreed.  "Working with your pal from
the Old Country's really been good for her.  He came along at just the
right time."  He grinned.  "Nice guy."
        "Yeah.  They're a lot alike.  Both good friends to have,"
Utena said.  "Meeting Kate was the best thing that could have happened
to me after I had to leave home."
        Corwin turned south to overfly Chandler's Point and said, a
little timidly, "I'm glad she met you, too."
        She smiled at the trepidation in his voice and the color in
his cheeks, reminded again how much younger he was than she and Kate.
Sometimes it was hard to keep in mind, given all that he was, all he
could do; but then it showed so clearly at moments like this...
        Utena ruffled his hair again and said fondly, "I think I'll
miss you most of all, Scarecrow."
        Corwin smiled.  "Maybe you won't have to," he said,
emboldened.  "After all, I'll be coming by to check on Dorothy as
often as I can manage it.  Maybe, if you want, we could... you
know... hang out."
        She grinned.  "I'd like that."
        "You would?  Er, I mean, great!"
        "What's that over there?" asked Utena, pointing.
        "Where?  Oh, that?  That's the new WDF Academy."
        "New?"
        "Yeah... the original one was on Planitia - Zeta Cygni II -
back before the sphere was built.  It closed in 2288 when the WDF
fell... when it reopened they used the new campus.  See how the Quad
is shaped like the WDF seal?"
        "Oh yeah... neat.  What happened to the old one?"
        "It's still there.  Not used for anything, as far as I know.
Planitia's kind of derelict now - the old shipyard ring complex and
everything.  Dad mentioned once that he'd like to dust it all off and
make a museum out of it, but he's never had the time."
        "Derelict?  A whole planet?"
        "Well, no - I mean, people still live in Planitia City and
Techtropolis and all... but most of the old WDF facilities were never
reopened after the Exile, because of the sphere and all the new
construction here on the Avalon pseudocontinent."
        "How did they ever build this sphere in the first place?"
        "Dunno exactly.  It's one of the great mysteries of the
Reconstruction.  Dad and old Wolfgang won't say where it came from,
and everybody else from back then says it was here when they got
here.  It's the only one of its kind in known space."
        "Wow."  Utena sat back in her seat and thought it over.  "He
built all this, brought all these people together, to fight for the
freedom of a whole galaxy... and he still pretty much lives like an
ordinary guy."
        Corwin grinned.  "That's Dad.  He works hard not to forget
where he came from."
        "I guess that's where you get it from, huh?  If you can call
taking your sister's roommate on a zeppelin ride 'ordinary'," she
added with a bit of a smirk.
        "It's not that weird in New Avalon.  We're the airship capital
of known space," he said with pride.  "Now, you want un-ordinary, I'll
take you to Mom's hometown sometime.  The Golden City doesn't have New
Avalon's technical edge, but it's sure something to see, especially
when the dragons are in town.  Oh!  Hey, we saw that earlier, but you
were having so much fun just looking that I didn't want to break
things up by talking about it.  That's Monument Park.  See that
torch-type thing?  That's the only monument in the galaxy to a Usenet
newsgroup... "
        The little zeppelin cruised off toward the west, as Corwin
repeated parts of his flyaround with narration this time, and they
whiled away the evening, lighter than air.

        It was the custom of the Worcester Preparatory Institute to
reopen the dorms on the Friday before classes resumed on a Monday, to
give the students a weekend to settle back into their rooms and
routines without having to do any work.  Students were not -required-
to come back until Sunday night, or even Monday morning if they really
felt like pushing it, but Friday was a good day to get things like
course additions and subtractions done before classes started, and the
no-work weekends were good for socializing and filling one's school
friends in on what one did over the holidays, so most tended to
reappear on Friday.
        Kaitlyn was no exception, and this time there was extra
incentive to go back early: not one but two new students, who could
use the extra spare time to get the lay of the land around the
Institute and get acquainted with some of their new schoolmates before
the pressures of coursework kicked in.  The paperwork was filed, the
identity documents provided (it was awfully convenient, Miki Kaoru
reflected, to know a head of state; the Republic of Zeta Cygni was, in
large part, embodied by Kaitlyn's father), the supplies prepared.
        Corwin fretted and compiled a massive maintenance and repair
document for Dorothy, which he presented to Miki in exchange for grave
assurances that he would read it thoroughly, follow its procedures
carefully, and call Corwin instantly if the slightest sign of trouble
arose.  Legal responsibility for Dorothy's presence at the Institute
fell to Kaitlyn; as Corwin's sister, she had the clearest line of
accountability back to him.  The Admissions Department fussed a bit,
but agreed to take Dorothy as a provisional student, with the
understanding that she was to be Turing-certified over the summer
break if she intended to return for Term A-05.
        And so it was that, bright and early on the morning of Friday
the seventh, they packed their things into Corwin's car, said their
goodbyes to those remaining behind, and headed for Mathews Memorial
Spaceport, Daggerdisc, and the stars beyond the sphere.  Leaving home
or heading home?  The endless quandary of the boarding-school
student.
        "Did I thank you lately for inviting me to come back with
you?" Utena asked Kate across the wardroom's gameboard, while the rest
were up in the cockpit (Miki busy being impressed by metaspace).
        "D-depends on your d-definition of 'l-lately'," Kate replied
dryly, moving a pawn.
        "Well, thanks, all the same.  I had a terrific time.  Your
family's great."
        "W-we try," said Kate mildly.  "Th-thanks for c-coming," she
countered; then she looked up from the board, met her roommate's eyes,
and added seriously, "I d-don't know w-w-what I'd have d-done if you
h-hadn't."
        "Well, we're even, then," said Utena.  "I don't know what
would have become of -me- if I'd ended up with anyone but you when I
came to this world."
        Kate smiled and held out her hand; with exaggerated solemnity,
Utena took it.
        "L-look out, t-t-twenty-four-oh-f-f-five," said Kate.
        "Here we come!" Utena concurred.

          /*  Journey  "Don't Stop Believin'"  _Escape_  */

Just a small town girl                  Eyrie Productions, Unlimited
Living in a lonely world                presented
She took the midnight train             UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES
  going anywhere                        - Symphony of the Sword -
Just a city boy                         Third Movement:
Born and raised in South Detroit        A Rose for the New Year
He took the midnight train 
  going anywhere                        The Cast
                                        (in order of appearance)
A singer in a smoky room                Sylvie Daniels
Smell of wine and cheap perfume         Benjamin D. Hutchins
For a smile they can share the night    Kei Morgan
It goes on and on and on and on         Kaitlyn Hutchins
                                        Utena Tenjou
Strangers waiting                       Miki Kaoru
Up and down the boulevard               Leonard W. Hutchins III
Their shadows searching in the night    Corwin Ravenhair
Streelight people                       Nall Silverclaw
Living just to find emotion             Priss Morgan
Hiding somewhere in the night           Gai "Guy" Morgan
                                        Tiny Robo
Working hard to get my fill             Lesser Mazinger
Everybody wants a thrill                Skuld Ravenhair
Paying anything to roll the dice        R. Dorothy Wayneright
Just one more time                      MegaZone
Some will win, some will lose           Master Mage Clef
Some were born to sing the blues        Eris
Oh the movie never ends                 Claudia Montaigne
It goes on and on and on and on         Yuri Daniels
                                        Lawrence R. Mann
Strangers waiting                       Hiroshi Morisato
Up and down the boulevard               and introducing
Their shadows searching in the night    Fuu Hououji
Streelight people
Living just to find emotion             architect of revelation
Hiding somewhere in the night           Benjamin D. Hutchins

Don't stop believin'                    materials science
Hold on to the feeling                  John Trussell, Anne Cross
Streetlight people
                                        frigits config engineer
Don't stop believin'                    MegaZone
Hold on to the feeling
Streetlight people                      with The Usual Suspects

                R. Dorothy's haberdasher: Geoff Depew

         Tiny Robo based on Giant Robo by Mitsuteru Yokoyama

            This Movement of the Symphony is inscribed to
                  Mr. R. ERIC REUSS of Massachusetts
            A man of exceptional grace and character, and
                     one seriously centered cat,
                by his friend and admirer, the Author.

         The Symphony will return with "Duelists of the Rose"