Look, it's another disclaimer. I don't own any of these characters (unfortunately)
except for me. The Omnitheatre may be a © of the Boston Museum
of Science, I dunno.
Field Trip, Part Two
The bus trip was a considerably long one, but not long enough
for the cast to get so out of hand that they inflicted any
permanent damage on one another. A little before eleven the bus
pulled up to an absolutely huge museum and jerked to a stop.
The doors clattered open, and in regular schoolkid fashion,
the students stampeded out onto the glass-and-cement mosaic courtyard
of the museum. Two huge stone pillars supported a large carven
sign that read, approximately, "Ohtori Hakubutsukan." The entire cast
turned simultaniously to stare at Akio. He shrugged nonchalantly,
smirking.
Utena bent over to whisper in Anthy's ear. "Did you know that
your brother owned a museum?"
Anthy smiled. "No, Utena-sama."
"I thought you said you didn't know what sort of museum it was..."
Miki asked, shaking Kozue off his arm.
Akio waved a hand vaguely. "There must be thousands of museums
in Japan. Perhaps millions. How was I to know that it would be
this museum?" He then strode off toward the revolving
doors. He was followed by Utena, Wakaba, and Anthy; the Kaorus; Jury
and Shiori; Nanami and The Three; Mikage (by himself); and finally,
Saionji and Touga, the latter of which had his arm swung around
his companion's shoulder and was giggling to himself.
Akio pushed through the revolving doors and stopped to survey
the museum. He sighed. The last thing he had
wanted to do today was play babysitter to a group of emotionally
unstable teenagers.
"What's the matter, onii-sama?"
Akio smiled at the girl by his side. "Nothing, Anshi."
And to make matters worse, he couldn't come within ten feet of Utena without
his sister getting all territorial. The Dean made his way
over to the information desk, smiling seductively at the
receptionist. He presented a slip of paper. "I'm here with a
group of students from Ohtori Academy. We have reservations, I
believe."
The receptionist stared at him blankly for quite a long time, then
cleared her throat. "Hai, hai! Of course, Ohtori-sama." She smiled
politely. The receptionist knew Ohtori-sama because he
was the museum's curator, but she hadn't been aware that he
taught a class. She glanced at the paper. In World Literature,
no less! "I'll need all of your students over here, please."
Akio turned to the teenagers, who were pretty much gaping
in awe of how unimaginably huge the museum was. The
reception center alone was almost as big as the dueling arena,
and the ceiling rose more than two hundred feet off the floor.
Glass windows lined most of the walls and large
arched hallways lead off in several directions. The Dean
motioned to his "pupils" and arranged them in a line so they could
get their hands stamped. As each one filed by the desk, they
were handed two pieces of shiney, thick paper. "You each
get a free ticket to the laser show, which starts at two o'clock,
and a ticket to the Omnitheatre, which is currently playing 'The
Universe and Beyond'."
Akio blinked at her. "Omnitheatre?"
"Yes. It's sort of like a very large planetarium..."
A grin lit up the Dean's face. "Oh really?"
The receptionist dreamily continued stamping the student's hands,
leaning over the desk and resting her chin in her palm. "Yes,
it's actually quite impressive..." She occasionally missed
someone's hand and stamped their clothing, which did not
go over well with Saionji.
"My fuku! Dammit, I just had this dry-cleaned!"
Meanwhile, Touga had released his grip on Saionji
and was laying across the desk, trying to get the receptionist's
attention. "Did you know that your eyes shine like a sapphire
under the midsummer moon?" The receptionist turned and found
herself staring in the eyes of an extremely beautiful red-haired
man. Suddenly, she looked like she was trying to make a very
difficult decision.
The students finished getting their tickets and wandered off in
their separate directions. Saionji finally succeeded in dragging
Touga away from the receptionist (who looked like she needed
some help making up her mind). Kyouichi escorted Touga to
a bench and sat him down on it, taking a seat beside him. Touga's
head drooped ever couple of seconds as if he was falling asleep,
and he began to slide over sideways. Saionji put a hand on his
shoulder and shoved him gently back into postion, only causing him
to fall all the way off the bench. He slid onto the floor with
a suprised "Erf!"
"Whoops."
Touga sat up, blinking. "What the...?" He scrambled shakily to
his feet, grabbing the bench's arm for support. "Where
the hell are we? And what are we doing
here?!"
"We are in a museum. And as to what we are doing, I am afraid
I can't tell you that."
Touga sat back on the bench, rubbing his temples. "I feel like
someone just hit me with a sledgehammer."
"One of your sister's plots. Same difference."
For one of the first times in his life, Touga looked genuinely
worried. "I don't remember anything after the..." he groaned.
"Bread." He looked over at his green-haired friend. "Dare I ask?"
Saionji drew in a long breath. "You don't want to know."
"Oh, man..."
***
Utena, Anthy, and Wakaba had successfully been stamped and began
exploring the halls of the museum. They took a corridor
that lead off in an easterly direction and which branched into
many smaller hallways. A large sign that was labeled "Jewelry
Exhibit" pointed down one of them.
"Ooooh! Jewelry! C'mon, Utena! Let's go check it out!" Wakaba grabbed her
"boyfriend" by the wrist and made off down the hall with her.
Left to her own devices, Anthy wandered down the opposite corridor.
The hall Wakaba and Utena had gone down opened into a large, brighly
lit room. The walls were lined with glass cases and many other
cases stood in various positions around the room. Wakaba parked herself
in front of the largest case, pressing her nose up to the glass.
"They're so pretty..."
Lying on velvet cushions inside the case were necklaces and
earings and bracelets, all wrought with silver and encrusted with
precious stones. Wakaba clasped her hands.
"When I'm a famous star I'll be able to have as many jewels
as I want!" She bounced up and down. "Oooh, I can't wait!"
Utena stared sceptically at a matching set of pearl earings. "I dunno.
I've never really been interested in wearing a lot of jewelry. I don't
think it suits me very well."
Wakaba turned from the jewelry case and lept onto Utena's back,
throwing her arms around her friend's neck.
"Oh, Utena! You have such little faith in yourself! Don't you
know how wonderful you are?"
"Wakaba, please..."
"Oooh! Lookit those!" Wakaba steered Utena over to another case.
"Look at the beautiful rings! Oh, I wish I had one like that..."
Utena pulled her arm out from under Wakaba and regarded
her rose signet. "Oh, but you're perfectly happy with that
ring that your 'prince' gave you, right?" Wakaba said, snuggling
her around the neck. When Wakaba released her, Utena suddenly
remembered something.
"Hey, where's Himemiya?"
"I dunno. I guess she just went somewhere else..."
Just then, a museum attendant went rocketing past them, nearly
knocking the two girls over. He had a large assortment of nets
in his arms. "Hey, watch it!" Wakaba yelled from
atop her friend.
"I wonder what that's all about."
"Let's go see!" Wakaba hopped off Utena's back and the two
started off after the attendant, who had gone back the way
they came.
***
Utena jogged to keep up with her energetic friend, glancing
down the adjacent hall to see a half-dozen other attendants,
also armed with nets, running in the same direction. Utena
slammed into Wakaba, who had stopped abruptly.
"Ow! What--?" She looked down at the floor around them, which
appeared to be alive. On further inspection, she realized that
the tiled area was blanketed in about three hundred rodents.
In the midst of them, sat Anthy. Chu-Chu was on her shoulder
and she had a dozen or so mice and hamsters crawling all
over her. Wakaba resumed her place on Utena's back, this time
with a shriek of fear. Anthy waved to them.
"Oh, Utena-sama! Wakaba-san!"
Utena picked her way between the scrambling attendants over to
her Bride. "Himemiya, what are you doing?!"
Anthy smiled, closing her eyes. "They seemed so lonely, each
in their own little cage. I thought that they might like to
explore the museum a bit. And Chu-Chu doesn't like to see
other small animals imprisoned."
Utena groaned. "So you thought it would be nice to liberate
all of the museum's pets?"
"Of course not, Utena-sama!" Anthy smiled, pointing over to
the empty cages. "I left the reptiles where they were." A few
plexiglass habitats sat over near the cages, each with some
species of snake or lizard.
"Good thing..."
***
"If it cannot hatch from it's shell, the chick will die
without truely being born."
Two museum attendants glanced up from the incubation center to
see a pair of young men in military-style uniforms, standing
back to back. The young men were remarkably color-coordinated, one
red and the other green. Their expressions conveyed "superior" and "mildly
pissed off", respectively. The one who had spoken, the red-clad
one, smiled suavely at the female attendant. The male
attendant, like many of that sex when exposed to Touga, found
himself extremely jealous.
"So, you know a lot about chickens?"
"You could say that." The two men advanced to the incubation
table, which was comprised of a large plexiglass tray, filled
with wood shavings and lit by a heat lamp. A couple of eggs sat
in one corner and a bunch of chicks milled around, peeping. Saionji
picked up one of the chicks as Touga leaned over
the shavings and took the female attendant's hand in his. "I can
tell by the way you take care of these chicks that you would
make a wonderful mother." The attendant blushed, smiling.
"Oh, it's not difficult. I could teach you, if you'd like..."
"I would like that very much."
About this time, the male attendant decided that this had gone
on for quite long enough. He roughly grabbed the chick out of
Saionji's hand, plopped it back in the shavings, and came around
the table to personally escort them out.
"You're with that school field trip, aren't you? They've been
wreaking havoc all over the museum. Isn't it time you two should be
heading along to the laser show?"
Touga took a watch out of his breast pocket. "But
it doesn't start for almost three hours."
The attendant continued to edge them out the door. "Well, you
want to get a good seat, don't you?" He successfully planted them
in the hall and, grumbling, went back to his station.
Saionji rested a hand on his hip. "Well. That was impolite."
Touga stuck his head into the next door down, which opened into
a large display room. "Saionji, come look at this."
***
Mikage found himself in a large room full of, incidentally,
computers. A brass placard above the door read "Psychology Lab".
The twelfth-grader sat down at one of the computers, moving
the mouse around to get rid of the screen saver. An electronic
quiz popped up on the screen, entitled:
How to Know if You are Being Used
He frowned at it, and scrolled down.
People promise you things and then don't follow through. Check.
People are only nice to you when they want something. Check.
There is one person who controls most (if not all) of your actions.
Check.
You do this person's bidding all the time, no matter how
strange or abstract his bidding may seem. Check.
"Damn."
Mikage frowned deeper, scrolling down to the last question.
The reason for your subservience to this person is an idea
or being that does not really exist. In fact, you do not exist
either.
Mikage punched the escape button and stalked out of the room.
In a few moments, the screen saver reappeared. It sported
a myriad of spinning roses, and the words "Ohtori Hakubutsukan".
***
On the other side of the psychology lab, Nanami sat at a console,
her three lackeys hovering behind her.
"You're a B-type, right Nanami-sama?"
"And Touga-sama's an A-type, right?"
"I thought B-types and A-types didn't go well together..."
"Shut up, all of you!" Nanami snarled, clicking the
mouse buttons furiously. "This stupid thing can't be right!"
Across the screen were written the words "Love Test" in
bright pastel letters. She had typed in her and her onii-sama's
qualifications, and the test had come out negative. The small
window at the bottom read: "Incompatable. The two personality types
are controlling, manipulative, and frequently bordering on the
deranged. A match would not be recommended."
"Baka! How could you say that about my onii-sama?!" she shrieked, whacking the
computer.
Behind her, Keiko, Aiko, and Yuuko shared a glance, obviously
aware that it wasn't only Touga's personality that the computer
was analyzing.
"Nanami-sama, you're going to break it!"
She snorted. "What do I care? The stupid thing! It's
got to be broken anyway! Why else would it say that me and my
onii-sama weren't meant to be?"
Keiko had a very clear opinion of exactly what it meant,
but she sure as hell wasn't going to make it known. "Of course,
Nanami-sama. It must be broken."
Nanami glared back at them. "Oh, just shut up!" She stomped off towards
the door, her entourage following obediently behind.
***
In the middle of a large historical display room stood
Touga and Saionji, decked out in full traditional kendoist
garb, which they had taken off of the mannequins. The had also
appropriated the antique katanas from the wall display and were
standing in a sparring position. Before they could start, however,
a menacing strand of music sounded from nearby, obviously coming
from a rather cheap boom box. Katie lept out of the shadows,
a red construction-paper R pinned onto the front of her uniform.
"To protect the world from devestation!"
She was followed by a considerably less enthusiastic James. He
sidled over to her.
"But Katie, you're not Jessie!"
"No kidding, baka. Do I look like Jessie?"
"No..."
"Just say the line, James!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Katie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket! Blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
As if on cue, a horde of furry rodents went scurrying past the
door, followed by some very agitated attendants and Utena, carrying
Wakaba on her back. A few moments later, Anthy wandered by in
the same direction, stopping at the doorway.
"Ohayo, Saionji-sempai." She smiled.
Saionji smiled back. (Far away, mountains crumbled and the sea boiled.)
"Ohayo, Anshi." She waved and continued on her way.
The surreally peaceful moment was interrupted by James, who cried
excitedly, "Wow! You guys have the feminine clothing thing down
to perfection! Do you think you could give me a few pointers?"
Touga had to physically restrain the Green One from knocking
James into next month. The latter shrieked and hid behind
Katie.
Saionji, getting control of himself, shrugged Touga off. "Katie-san.
If you want your friend to survive this field trip, I suggest you keep
him away from me."
"Domo Sumimasen! Heh... Come on,
James..." She smiled nervously and shoved James out
the door.
Touga and Saionji resumed their battle.
***
Miki and Kozue had wandered into the Music and Arts Exhibit.
There was no piano, to Miki's dismay, but he had
succeeded in pinging out "The Sunlit Garden" on a set
of crystal glasses. Kozue had paid absolutely
no attention to the exhibit and was presently trying to
get a reluctant attendant into the broom closet. Miki, having
realized that he had left his sister alone with members
of the opposite sex for more than five minutes, frantically
began to search for her.
In another part of the exhibit, Jury and Shiori examined a
group of abstract paintings.
"What do you see in this painting, Shiori?"
Shiori tilted her head, squinting. "Well, it's a bunch of
lines and blobs of paint, ne?" She smiled brightly.
Jury shook her head. "I mean, what do you see in it?"
Shiori looked blank.
"Well, I mean, I see the artist's suffering. The black lines
over here-- they're all jagged. And then as it goes into
cool blues and greens, it seems that the artist is being released from
his pain..."
Shiori stared at her for a moment, then turned her attention
back to the painting. "They sure are pretty lines, though!"
Jury sighed, and muttered to herself, "What do I see
in you, Shiori?"
"Kozue!" Miki searched around the large marble sculptures that
stood as a centerpiece. Suddenly, something soft and heavy
fell on top of him, flattening him to the ground. His onee-chan
giggled.
"Sorry, Micky!" She clambered off him, then collapsed to
the floor melodramatically. "Onii-chan, I think I hurt my ankle!
You're going to have to carry me!"
Miki groaned.
Jury pointed at the next picture. "Look, here I see that
the artist is suffering from a deep feeling, but she
can't express that feeling to anyone." Jury
sighed. She could identify.
"Hey, it looks just like a bunny!!"
***
With James firmly in hand, Katie slipped quietly away from
Saionji and Touga's battle. As soon as they were out of
earshot, she turned to James, talking to him while continuing
down the hall backwards.
"Are you out of your mind?"
James blinked innocently. "What do you mean?"
"Saionji is not the type of person you want to
mess with. He could have killed you!"
James squealed in fear. "Really?!"
"You don't even know." She suddenly backed into something
and stumbled. A metal item was jarred out of her pocket
and clattered to the floor. "Oops! Sorry!"
"Gomen nasai."
Katie recognised the abnormally deep voice and turned slowly.
"Uh... Akio...sama!"
The Dean smiled down at her. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, fine... Arigato!" She smiled back, willing James
to keep his mouth shut. Akio bent to pick up the thing
that had dropped from her pocket.
"What's this?" He held it to her. It was a calculator-sized
silver contraption, with a little blueish purple viewscreen
and a bunch of dials and buttons.
Katie took it. "Thanks. This's my T.A.D.P."
Akio looked vaguely interested. "T.A.D.P.?"
"Trans-Anime Dimensional Portal." She motioned to James, then
grabbed him around the shoulders and displayed him to Akio.
"This is James. I used the T.A.D.P. to bring him to Ohtori."
Akio nodded. "I see. I had noticed that he looked a bit... foreign?
The eyes and clothing." He took the construction-paper R
on Katie's shirt between two fingers, giving her a quizzical look.
"Rocket. Team... Rocket."
"I see. Well. I'm sure you students have lots more places
to explore." Katie nodded, grabbed James by the wrist, and
hurried off like the banshees were after her but she was
trying to pretend otherwise. Akio sighed. He wondered if there
was even one sane student in the entire school. But that blue-haired
kid was kind of cute...
***
At about twelve thirty, the students congregated in the
museum restaurant. Utena, Wakaba, Anthy, and the Dean
settled down in a booth with hamburgers. Wakaba spent
most of her time batting her eyelashes at Akio, who
was watching Utena serenely. Anthy smiled in her usual
quiet way, every so often shooting very un-Anthy-like
glances at her brother. Utena, completely oblivious
to all of this, scoffed down her burger and fries.
In another booth, Kozue and Shiori sat on one side of the
table and Miki and Jury sat on the other. Kozue and Shiori
were whispering to each other and giggling, and eventually
jumped up and ran off to the ladies room together with the
intention of giving each other makeovers. Miki and Jury simultaniously
sweatdropped.
"What do you say we lose them?"
Jury turned to her companion. "Miki, I'm surprised." She
grabbed him by the arm. "Let's make a run for it
before they can get back."
Katie slid into the seat next to Mikage, who was typing away
at his computer.
"Hiya! You look awfully lonely."
Mikage looked at her, then at James, who had sat down across
the table. The Rocket boy grinned cheerily. Mikage shut his
laptop and moved to a different table.
Katie frowned. "What a grouch."
At another table, Saionji was in the midst of a staring
contest with Chu-Chu. And losing, at that. He finally had to
turn his eyes away from the piercing gaze of Anthy's "friend."
Saionji growled irritably.
"You cheat, you stupid little... whatever you are!" He turned to
Touga imploringly. "There is no way something like that
could beat me unless it was cheating!"
Touga made an undefinable noise of agreement.
A couple of minutes later, Kozue and Shiori came out of
the bathroom, looking very... well... made-up. In unison, they
let out an enraged cry as they realized that both their companions
had fled. Kozue immediately suspected Anthy, but decided otherwise
when she saw that the girl was quite preoccupied with letting
a colony of ants into her brother's cheeseburger.
On to Part Three
Back to the Fanfic Page