What Is Not
a 8x150-word Revolutionary Girl Utena sesquidrabble set by sarahtheboring
In this set, one character is dropped from each story, never having existed. They do not inhabit the same story-universe; the narrator of one might not exist in one of the others. Notes follow.
What Is Not: Red
He practiced with Kyouichi nearly every day, even when there were other things to do. Sometimes he let Kyou win, but Kyou could tell, and got annoyed. Touga would smile, and Kyou's annoyed look would fade, and sleep until next time.
They were late getting home one afternoon, pedaling ahead of a coming rainstorm. Once they got moving again, Kyou didn't complain that Touga had stopped to look down at the church. They were home in a few more minutes and back to practicing.
"Have you met that new girl on the basketball team?" Saionji was looking the other way. "The tomboy."
"Why, are you interested?" His smile was slow and challenging. Which was probably why Saionji wasn't looking.
The kendo vice-captain scoffed. "I don't want her trying to join the team."
Touga tossed his hair over his shoulder and shrugged. "She's a girl. Enough said."
Saionji returned his smirk.
---
What Is Not: Green
Saionji Kyouichi is the most popular boy in at Ohtori Academy. He is the captain of the kendo team and president of the Student Council. Girls leave him unsigned love letters or surprise him in the hallway, blushing and twisting their fingers together nervously. Some he passes by, some he accepts. He enjoys their company well enough, and they treat him with nothing less than grateful worship. They pretend to be interested in kendo and the workings of the Council, trying to please him.
He practices kendo alone in the evenings, sometimes wishing that he'd taken up fencing with Miki and Juri instead. Afterward he meets his current girl in the greenhouse; Anthy waters her roses and doesn't bother them. They hardly notice her as they kiss without speaking.
He has never bothered to challenge Juri for the hand of the Rose Bride. There doesn't seem to be a point.
---
What Is Not: Orange
Arisugawa-sempai is flawless, but she doesn't need to mention that. It would be ludicrous, like gasping in awe at the sunrise. People still say it all the time, in their desperation to win her approval. Juri, my love, you are perfect. It's tiresome. That's how boys start, attempting to sway her by stating the obvious. By the time they've stopped mewling and found something else to talk about, she is sick of them.
The girls don't dare approach her; they've already heard that she has no use for them but as sparring targets. Yet they still join the fencing club in droves. It would be against school policy to bar them, so she ignores them. The boys love to tell her how much better she is than they are, with their lilting voices and coltish limbs, weak and fragile in their girlish clothes. She is better, and always will be.
---
What Is Not: Blue
His hands are graceful, and bring notes from the strings and hammers with mechanical precision. He is intimately familiar with the works of dozens of composers, and some like to quiz him on this. He always remembers; it is all stored in his mind, like art and history, like physics and geometry, like the minutes that he files after every meeting, neatly marked with proper notation.
He practices every day after class for forty minutes before going home. Students walking by will sometimes pause for a moment to listen before they continue down the hall. He has a regular but complex rotation of pieces, Chopin through Liszt and back again; few of the passers-by will hear the same song more than once.
He is equally kind and polite to all, and shows no favoritism. His smile is pleasant enough, but few love his eyes. No one can say exactly why.
---
What Is Not: Yellow
La Kiryuu is always up to the minute on fashion, although she spends her days in the Ohtori uniform. She does not care about school gossip, although she generates it sometimes, throwing parties more lavish than any other student could afford.
Everyone who's anyone is invited to these parties. Nanami does not discriminate. She keeps no inner circle of cronies. The world at large hears her opinions when she sees fit to share them. Arisugawa-sempai calls her unsophisticated. Nanami informs the world at large that the Council doesn't really do anything, does it. It's not as though anyone cares what they have to say. The other girls go back to their silly groups, giggling over the handsome kendo captain all over again. Nanami is certain that no one cares about what they have to say, either.
Her parents still call her Princess sometimes. A girl couldn't ask for anything more.
---
What Is Not: Lavender
Once upon a time there was a shining prince on a white horse. All the girls of the world were his princesses, and he swept to the rescue of each, for his courage and his heart were both limitless.
The princesses were so many and he was one, and he found himself growing tired. But as soon as he tried to rest, the people would come to him, crying for him to protect their daughters. So the prince got up, leaning on his sword, and went out again with determination in his eyes to slay another dragon.
So it went, year after year, until they called him one last time. He knew his strength was not enough, but the duty of a prince is to protect princesses. And the prince fell valiantly, fighting to the last, protecting the honor of the princess.
And there were no princes left on earth.
---
What Is Not: Violet
They never ask one another the most important question. When the wheel turns and they begin the story once again, once upon a time there was a prince, they never ask one another whether this might be the last time. If, indeed, they even believe that there will be a last time.
She knows her prince's body better than she knows the color of sunlight, knows how to make his breath catch in his throat more easily than drawing her own breath. They move in paths inscribed in the world like canyons carved out by rivers. This world is home. It is quiet, and hollow, and dead, and it is home.
She dies for him, comes back, and dies again. She knows the kiss of steel as well as she knows his lips. She never asks whether this will be the last time. The princes are all the same anyway.
---
What Is Not: White
After lunch, they sit on the hill for a while with the sun on their faces. Utena laughs when Wakaba finishes her story.
"Now, I told you my stupid kid story. You have to have one. It can't be worse than mine."
"Fine... When I was little, as you know, my parents passed away. And I... hid in an empty coffin after the funeral. I thought I had to die too. I hid in there for a few hours, but I didn't die. Obviously." She tries to laugh.
"What happened?"
"My aunt came for me, and we went home. I kept asking her why I didn't die." She is blushing now, and Wakaba doesn't want to hear the end. She tackles her friend, and between you-would-have-been-the-most-adorable-little-girl and oh-Utena-I-couldn't-live-if-you-died, lunchtime is over. They get up, brush the bits of grass off their skirts, and head back to class hand in hand.
Notes:
Red: Touga without Utena. I don't even know whether "Kyou" is a proper short form of "Kyouichi" - probably not - but it sneaked in.
Green: Saionji without Touga.
Orange: Juri without Shiori. This concept sparked the rest of the set. Without that weakness she's even more of a closet case...
Blue: Miki without Kozue. No garden, no innocence, no shining thing.
Yellow: Nanami without Touga. I have no idea where "La Kiryuu" came from. It just seemed like her.
Lavender: Dios without Anthy.
Violet: Anthy without Utena. Also works as a pre-series drabble, but more bleak if it never ends.
White: Utena without Akio. Or Anthy, for that matter.