Sometimes, the old ways are better.
Yes, I've heard the Chairman has some state-of-the-art equipment in his
office at the top of the Ohtori tower. So what? It's not like I'd be
allowed up there. I'm just a first-year high school student - what interest
would he have in me? So I have to make the best of my own clunky telescope
that I've set up on the roof of the West dorm.
It's just as well, really. Planetariums are nice, but all they can display
is what they're programmed to... they show what is known. They can't
discover new things...
...things like this...
...now, since when did the Pleiades have *eight* stars?
==========
SEASON OF THE COMET
a Shojou Kakumei Utena fanfiction by Ukyou Kuonji
==========
Shojou Kakumei Utena is the creation and property of Chiho Saito and
Be-Papas. No infringement is intended
==========
I don't believe this... could there really be an eighth star up there?
There's no way my little telescope should be able to pick up something that
the big observatories have missed all these years... can there be?
I've got to get my camera attachment, and take a picture of this...
***
Gosh, it's been a while since I tried to hook this thing up. Good thing my
laptop's batteries have a good charge in them... that way, I can digitize
this photo and forward it for confirmation. I *have* to know what I've got,
here...
Okay... just a little more to the right... focus, focus... there, that's got
it. Point, click... and we might well have something.
I know, I know, I shouldn't get my hopes up. If nothing else, the Hubble
probably picked this up a long time ago: it just wasn't considered stop-press
news, so I never heard about it.
But all the same, I'm curious... just what am I looking at here?
Now where did I put the email address for the Royal Astronomical Society...?
Hope they can read my broken English... my grades are good, but it's only
high school level, after all...
***
It's amazing how long a day can go by when you're waiting for some important
news. The only class I could even remotely pay attention to was English, and
that only to correct the grammar errors in my letter to the RAS.
I have *got* to get back to the dorms and see if I can find it again...
whatever it is...
***
Okay, got the computer hooked up to the scope so I get a digital view
directly. Let's aim it back to the Pleiades... see if we can find it...
Oh, no... there's only seven of them again. What happened to it...?
Wait a minutes... there it is, over a few fractions of a degree. It's still
there... and it's moved! This is fantastic! Gotta take another picture...
All right... this has *got* to be something important...
***
Come onnn... damn, but these modem connections here at Ohtori can be so
*slow* sometimes... okay, there we go... and I've got a message from the RAS!
A comet! I've discovered a comet! They say they're working on the
calculations of its orbit, but they will keep me informed about...
...Comet Kanae...?
It has a name already? I thought I discovered it... shouldn't I get the
credit?
***
At least the Society is kind enough to explain. Seems our beloved chairman
has exercised his 'droit du seigneur' to the intellectual property of an
Ohtori student (me) for the sole purpose of naming my discovery (and yes, I
*am* on record as discovering Comet Kanae... thank the kami for small favors)
after his fiancee. A romantic gesture, sure, but couldn't the lovebird have
discovered his *own* comet? He's supposed to have all that equipment...
Of course, maybe I can take that as a moral victory. For all that machinery
he has in that huge tower, a puny freshman with a telescope and a computer
beat him to it. Ha! Take *that*, Mr. Chairman!
Besides, it's not like this is something I'm ever going to be able to point
out to my kids someday: "See that comet up there? Over by the Pleiades?
Your dad discovered that, way back in high school." Nope. According to the
Royal Astronomical Society, Comet Kanae's orbit takes it around the sun only
once every 20,736 years. Some romantic gesture; a quick flash through the
sky, and then it's gone for what might as well be forever. What does that
say about him and Kanae?
***
Anyway, I don't care what its name is... it's *my* comet, and I'm gonna keep
an eye on it. By now, I don't even need a telescope; you can just look up
into the sky and see it. It's a greyish smudge at the hem of Orion's tunic,
but it's there. I still prefer the view from the telescope, though, and
nightfall regularly finds me on the roof of the West Dorm, staring into the
sky.
Better into the sky than onto the quad, though. Now that it's visible to the
naked eye, the Chairman himself can be found walking around, arm-in-arm with
*my* comet's namesake. I can see them from my perch on the roof as he points
out stars, planets, and finally the comet, to her. If I train my scope onto
them, I bet I can see a moist sparkle in her eyes, and a dreamy smile on her
face: "Oh, Akio!"
I stare down at the two of them, scowling. I don't know what bugs me more;
that's he's squiring his Kanae around while I shiver alone atop the dorms, or
that he's pointing at *my* Kanae, acting like it was *his*. Where does he
get the right to...?
Oh, kuso... he's turned around. He sees me up here. I can see that glint in
his eye from all the way up here, and I don't need a telescope to know that
it's not a good sign.
I take the hint... I pack up and take everything back to my room as fast as
possible.
***
You won't find me on the roof these nights... much as I'd like to keep track
of my comet, I'm not going out if I see... Him... down there. Kami-sama, but
the Chairman gives me the creeps.
Besides, it's warmer inside, anyway... and I can keep tabs on it from the
Royal Observatory's website. Looks like Comet Kanae is venturing dangerously
close to the planet Venus...
***
It's gone.
Comet Kanae is gone. Vanished. Completely disappeared. I even go so far as
to lug my scope back onto the roof once again. The Chairman be damned, I
have to see this for myself.
There she is... Venus, the Morning Star. The comet should be somewhere
nearby, give or take a degree or two...
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And by now, it should be quite visible in the
sky, too... as close as it is to the sun and all... but the sky is utterly
blank.
Out on the quad, there are a handful of students running here and there.
Kyudou practice at dawn, it would appear. No sign of the Chairman.
Or of Kanae.
Either one.
==========
Just got to thinking how Akio promises to name a comet after his fiancee, but
after the Black Rose, she seems to disappear. So I decided to let Akio keep
his promise. It's not a bad metaphor; a brilliant light from a distance, but
nothing but ice and filth up close. A breif moment in the sky, and then...
gone. Of course, crashing into Venus leads to a whole other list of
speculations, but I don't know whether to get into *them*...
Comments always welcome... sooner or later, I gotta write something worth
posting on r.a.a.c. or fanfiction.net, ne? ^_^
Itsu mo,
Ucchan ^_^