"Where are you, you little brat?"

She has flattened herself to the floor, stilled her breathing so not even that pitiful sound can give her away. The polished wood is smooth and cool against her baby-soft cheek. 

"You've been a very bad girl!"

If she is still and quiet, she might not be found. The world spins beneath her like a merry-go-round out of control, able to fling her away.

"You know what bad girls like."

If she is not found, someone else might be. The floor is spinning; it cannot hold her. She stands, and her little bare feet pad softly across the wooden floor.

"Here I am, Daddy. I'm ready to play now."

He smiles, swings the child up into the air and around as she whimpers. "That's my girl. You want to make your Daddy happy, don't you? Say you like it."

"I like it, Daddy."

"That's my girl."

***

She leans against the school building. The night is dark and hot. She waits for a long-legged man. She does not have long to wait.

The headlights and the sound of the car precede Akio's entrance. He rises, hair swirling around his darkly handsome face. His fallen champion remains behind. "You summoned me," he states. "You, who are not a Duellist. Why?"

Kozue smiles crookedly. "I know who you are. I know what you're doing."

"Do you?" He raises an elegant brow. "What do you understand of the games that are being played around you?"

"The Student Council. You send them notes, and they Duel for you. They lost. You intend to force them to fight again." She pushes herself away from the wall, then falls back against it again. "My brother is on the Student Council."

"You are the musician's twin." His smile was charming and metallic. "But why did you call to me?"

Kozue unfastens the tie around her neck. "No one touches my brother but me."

"You are not qualified to replace him."

"Because my soul has truly given up?" His smile is mirrored in her eyes. "I will deliver him for you, to the Arena."

His long, delicate fingers brush along her baby-soft cheek. "And what do you gain?"

She tilts her head, presenting the length of her neck. "When this is done, your sister will never touch him again."

His mouth is burning cold against her flesh. "You offer us your body, in his place?"

"It's not the first time," she whispers.

From the car, Touga rises, his bare chest glowing in the moonlight. The air is thick and hot. Akio's lips are on her ear. "Then allow us to invite you into the world of our desire."

A discordant jangle, and Kozue's slim body pressed between the men, drowning out the memory of music. This is the sound of the Ends of the World.



Authors note:

In general, I don't approve of fanfic that adds child abuse and other such traumatic things to character backgrounds. It often seems to serve no purpose except for the author getting to make some character suffer (and possibly then be redeemed / fall in love with the object of the author's choice). But then, in most series, incestuous relations between the characters require a lot of stretching of character concepts. This is Utena, and things are different. Kozue's promiscuous tendencies and her sexual interest in her twin make her a *logical* candidate for having had a really nasty childhood. Something has twisted her. This is one possible explanation.