You know, I've only read one other fanfic that explored Saionji's character thoughly as this one did, and that would be a lovely fanfic called The Darker Shades of Green by Red Rose Touga.

You should really read it, it reminds me of this fic.

This is definitley one of the finest Saionji focused stories I've read. It's a real pity that it's now buried under pages of other stories of variable quality. The fic makes me depressed about what Saionji was like before he became violent as the victor and if he wanted to "save" Anthy much like Utena did after him. Now that we have an offical translation of the show in the US, we can notice little hints that Saionji hated the duels (mentioned by Miki in the same episode of his Akio Car duel), and that he was actually *ashamed* of his behavior. It's sad that there aren't enough stories like these that actually explore his character to balance out the OMG HE'S AN ABUSIVE ASSHOLE!11(this is from someone who once hated him strictly because of his tendancyto hit).

Even though it's hard to like Saionji in the series, you did a great job of persuading me to like him for this fic! I loved every second of it!

I really liked it. Not enough people address Anthy and Saionji before Utena. The only thing that concerns me is the time frame. Mikage was a hundred years before Saionji and when he came back he was a figment of Akio's imagination. Other than that, it was beautiful, with poignant imagery. I hadn't thought of sheathing the sword. All of it is very symbolic. I really enjoyed it.

Wonderful wonderful piece...Saionji and Mikage are two of my favorite Utena characters and you really did them justice. Beautiful prose and imagery as well. This is definitely going in my favorites!

Nemuro is not dead, Mikage was an exploited memory a shadow of Nemuoro so to speak.

Great story by the way well written and fascinating.

*gasp* I love this ! OMG I LOVE IT ! I'm inspired i have a little part for my fic on utena now...anyways it doesn't matter i love your fic it's wonderful be proud of yourself !

That would be beautiful... except do you mean "Saionji"? Also, Mikage couldn't duel because he was created when Nemuro died, if I'm correct. Besides that, great story.