At 04:49 PM 8/1/00 -0400, DB Sommer wrote:
Once in a museum I saw a statue of Athena, smooth marble limbs,
wise countenance, infinite grace. Juri-sempai reminds me of that
statue a lot;
except for the hair. The statue didn't have hair as cool as Juri's.
Actually, in all seriousness, I've seen several statues of Athena that have
hair in a more or less identical style to Juri's. I've always wondered if
the choice of her hairstyle was deliberate because of that. Probably not,
yeah, but it's cool all the same.
She was sitting in the corner of the high school cafeteria,
head slightly bowed, middle knuckle of her index finger lightly
touching her chin. Alone, of course, and even though the
cafeteria was crowded for space, all the tables next to hers were
empty as well. Juri-sempai's got a reputation for being aloof,
and even dangerous to know, but I don't think it's deserved;
Sure, she poked a couple of people's eyes out in fencing practice, but
that's just because she was drunk at the time.
Miki was always trying to tell Juri that the answers to her problems
weren't in the bottom of a bottle, but she'd usually just scream at him; if
she was particularly drunk at the time, she'd call him "Kozue" and "love
muffin", and try to take his shirt off. It was all very disturbing.
And there was that time she
ran over a couple of the students with a car, but she's just a lousy driver
the same way others are lousy cooks; it wasn't her fault.
Then again, it wasn't surprising she was a lousy driver, as she'd only just
got her learner's permit. She was only sixteen, after all.
"Perceptive as always." I laughed softly; Juri-sempai likes
to go right to the point of a matter, whereas I always seem to
dance around it. Then I stopped laughing, because this was one
of those things I didn't want to think about, but couldn't avoid.
"Juri-sempai, will Himemiya-san... will she really do whatever
the one engaged to her asks?"
"Except for dancing the macarena: yes," Juri answered.
"Why not?"
"You've seen that dress she has to wear as the Rose Bride. You can't dance
a proper macarena in that. Too encumbering."
I didn't have anything to say to that. It was what I wanted
to know, of course, but the way she said it... it made it sound
so much worse. Dirty. I sometimes wonder about Juri-sempai's past,
because it would explain a lot if some boy had broken her heart
when she was younger.
Well, we don't know all of her past, but it seems... unlikely there was a
boy involved too. :)
Well, there was, she just wasn't interested in him in that way.
"Yes. He probably has. That's the kind of man he is."
Touga: Yeah, baby. I'm a slut and I know it.
He's too sexy for his shirt.
Of course it is. I knew that. But, hearing someone else
pronounce the judgement, especially Juri-sempai, forced me to
admit it fully to myself. It brought on other thoughts, just as
unwelcome; Himemiya-san was engaged to Saionji for a long time,
after all.
Yeah, but it's obvious from Saioji's dairy he doesn't think in those sort
of terms.
Saionji seems pretty pre-adolescent as far as those matters go.
In that he is better than Touga, even if he doesn't see it that
way.
Yeah, well, I know I wouldn't trust Touga to spend a few weeks in Wakaba's
dorm room without hanky-panky, which is apparently what happened with
Saionji. Unless we trust your fic, of course.
Freedom. That's what she wants. She wants to be free, to
make her beautiful music, to shine, without anyone telling her
what she can and can't do.
Perhaps, but not at your hands.
Kaoru Miki and the wonderful world of self-justification.
"You've beaten me before. I would have beaten Tenjou, but
for a trick of chance. Touga needed trickery to beat her." She
paused, and looked me up and down with a gaze that seemed to
penetrate to the core of me. "You could beat him, Miki."
True. It seemed when Miki is fully focused on a goal, he can achieve it.
Were he not so easy to distract,
That's his signature for defeat, just like it's Juri's that she never loses
clean to Utena in the way the others do.
he could conceivably have been the most
powerful of the duelists.
Most of the evidence seems to be that Juri's the strongest one.
"Neither have I. But it would fit." Juri-sempai looked
suddenly like I'd never seen her before; satisfied, yet unhappy
at being so. "All her reason for fighting was to meet her
prince again. Touga made her believe he could be her prince,
and then he betrayed her. So, what does she have left to fight
for?"
She just needs bitch-slapped by Wakaba. Then it'll all come into place for
her.
Wakaba learned that therapy technique by obsessively watching Saionji.
"It just gets me a little down," she said finally. I'm
surprised she even said that much, because I expected her to tell
me nothing's wrong, like she always does when I ask her this sort
of question. So, when she went on, I was really shocked. "A
girl like Tenjou, she's a special kind of person; she shouldn't
become one of the crowd just because some man hurt her. She
deserves better than a playboy like Touga. Much better."
Juri: Like me, were I into pink. But alas, it's a major turn-off for me.
No. It would never work out. At best we would be never more than friends.
Miki: But you'd still do her, right?
Juri: Oh, hell yeah, I just wouldn't want anything long-term.
And, suddenly, I knew, and it made so much sense that I
feel like a complete idiot for not realizing it before. Maybe
it was just the look on her face when she talked about Tenjou-
sempai, but I knew. I was certain. I'd bet almost anything on
it.
Ah ha! So Miki's figured out Juri is a Methodist. I knew she couldn't keep
it a secret for too long.
Actually, it's canonical that Juri is an Orthodox Jew. Seriously. It's
one of the art books. The one that's really hard to find; same one that
has the picture of Miki and Nanami as bride and groom. I swear this is all
true.
I could almost see her withdraw emotionally, like a turtle
into its shell. That definitely came out too eagerly. "I don't
have anything to make up to anyone," she said icily. "And
whether or not Tenjou fights again isn't really all that
important to me."
Miki: Ruka would approve of it.
Juri: Shh. You haven't met him yet. Won't happen for another two story
arcs.
Anyway, everyone knows that Ruka was just a horrible genetic freak made by
splicing Miki's genes with Touga's.
"There was an incident in the middle school cafeteria," said
one, a bright-eyed girl with her hair in two pigtails; a childish
style, I thought, for a high school girl. "Touga-sama tried to
kiss Tenjou Utena, that girl who wears the weird uniform, but
this other girl, who's her ex-lover or something, got jealous and
tried to stab him with a fork!"
Wakaba: Could have been worse. I could have asked him to take me on a ride
with him. :)
Yeah, in the Touga-Bike, with its attached sidecar.
"Strange girls," Juri-sempai said.
Miki said, "Not at all normal, like us members of the Student Council."
"Shut up, Miki," Juri retorted.
Miki nodded and clicked his stopwatch.
"What's with that stopwatch, anyway?" Juri asked.
In response, Miki clicked it again.
Juri, unable to take it anymore, snapped and beat him to death with a chair.
THE END
I watched her walk away. She walks beautifully.
Sometimes I wish she's wasn't gay, Miki thought. Perhaps he could start
wearing girl's clothes and make himself look like Kozue. Perhaps that would
draw Juri's attention.
Well, Utena said that if Kozue wore boy's clothing, she couldn't tell her
apart from Miki. So, the reverse is probably true...
He hadn't been expecting to meet her on the way to his
rendezvous, but attempted to make the best of it, as he did
everything. He liked to consider himself an optimist. If
nothing else, Arisugawa was aesthetically appealing, albeit
unattainable. Quite beyond even him, and he knew that from the
moment he met her; he'd never made a single advance towards her.
Really? I wouldn't picture Touga admitting that, even to himself. I would
have pictured him at least probing the waters to see if he was correct in
his assumption.
Touga: Want to go out for dinner tonight?
Juri: I'm a lesbian.
Touga: Okay.
He knew more about her than she probably thought he did,
things she didn't want anyone to know, especially someone like
him. If the need arose, he could use them against her, and
would not hesitate in the least to do so. The need had simply
not arisen yet.
Heh. It makes me wonder if he's dare if Ruka was still around. Touga did
seem to treat him with a measure of respect during the brief time they were
together .
The Ruka/Touga dynamic actually gets a bit more development in the manga
than it does in the anime. Then again, manga Touga is pretty different
from anime Touga. So's manga Ruka, for that matter.
"Oh? So that talk of always having her by your side was
only that."
that?" (I think since it seems more of a question that statement,
especially given Touga's next line)
Ohh. Actual commentary.
What? Actual commentary, in a DB Sommer C&C? You jest.
"Of course. I don't mean to suggest otherwise. Though it
makes me wonder what such a playboy wants with the Power of
Dios."
"Why, power, of course."
Not quite true: More power would be a better way to phrase it, IMO.
Otherwise it seems as though he thinks he doesn't have any.
Considering how much more he knows about Ends of the World and the
situation at Ohtori then everyone else, perhaps he doesn't. The point is
made, though; will change.
"Isn't power why you want it as well, Arisugawa? Seize the
power to revolutionize the world with your own hands, and grant
the secret wish of your heart?"
Juri: No. I can knee you in the groin whenever I want.
Touga: I meant your other secret wish.
Juri: Shiori and the chocolate syrup?
Touga: Yes. That one.
Juri: I don't want them together, mind you. It's just that it's so hard
to find good chocolate syrup these days.
Touga: Of course not. I understand completely.
The possibility was there. Preparations needed to be made.
He pulled out his phone. "It's me. Yes, she's a sweet flower.
That's not what I'm calling about, though... oh. You surprise me
again; yes, I think it's time to bring her back. She may be
useful for the future... you'll take care of everything? Very
well."
heh. that would explain things, except why Akio would dance to Touga's
tune.
Because's Touga's just fugueing him anyway. :)
Suddenly, she's very cold, and very calm, like the smooth
top of an iceberg. But down below the surface, there's something
jagged and very, very dangerous, and you, you're just a little
wooden boat with a patchwork sail.
At least until you can get your hands on a black rose. :P
Poo. Utena didn't even need a sword to defeat her. :P
"You do know exactly whom you're speaking to, don't you?"
Wakaba: Campus lesbian?
Juri: Yes. And as we all know, that makes me the coolist person around, so
you'd better learn to jump when I tell you to.
Wakaba: How can you be the coolest person around when you can't even spell
"coolest" right?
Juri: Shut up and go bake me a pie.
"Like I said, I don't know much. But..." Suddenly, you're
rising to your feet. "I think things are going to be okay." You
clasp your hands to your breast, right over you heart. "Whatever
he took from her, she's going to get it back--I know she is!"
You're filled up with pride, and you know your eyes are probably
shining in a really embarrassing way. "Because there's nobody
cooler than my Utena-sama!"
heh. Pure Wakaba.
Especially Wakaba from the musical. :)
The sun is almost entirely gone behind the hills now, and
everything is red, red like the rose,
like a rose (sounds better to me. Especially since there are so many
different colored roses in the anime)
Gonna keep this the way it is, I'm afraid, because I like the phrasing much
better. It could also be said to refer to the specific red rose of the
mural on the wall before which Utena and Wakaba (and, in this, Wakaba and
Juri) hold their conversation in Episode 12.
Sorry. Getting silly. Anyway, so I'm
like, 'Thanks', and she just nods. Then I'm about to walk off,
but I stop, because she's kind of watching me, like she expects
something more, so I say, 'Why?' So she says, totally seriously,
'That uniform doesn't suit you at all.' Which is exactly what
Wakaba said. Isn't that weird? Anyway, you know how it went
after that--hey, do you know where the blade went? I'm pretty
sure it went over the side, but... man, I hope it wasn't a family
heirloom or something.
Wording seems off considering the blade was broken, not torn from her
grasp.
She's specifically referring to the blade of the sword, not to the hilt and
stub of blade she fought with after it was broken.
Overall reaction: Well, I like Juri, so of course I like this. Nice way to
get the various other's reaction and feedback as to the way they perceive
her.
I could probably write a whole series of these, just focusing on one
specific character from the perspective of three or four other characters.
As has been said, how we perceive people often says more about us than it
does about them.
The story flowed well and you seemed to get the voice of each of the
characters down to perfection. No grammar errors that I could detect.
That's because of my Mad Editing Skillz.
Nice work. Glad I finally got to it.
Thanks, and thank you for the commentary.
Ciao,
-Alan Harnum