Akio
*~ Akio Ohtori ~*

Ahh, my dear Akio, where should we begin? Shall we start when you manipulated Kozue the first time? The second time? Or when you warped Miki beyond repair? Let's start... at the beginning.

First saga: Akio didn't really appear at all, except for the end when he mentioned the duel with Utena, Raison (reason). This duel was fought because Miki didn't understand why the Rose Bride was kept in submission against her will. He saw no logic, no reason if you will, for this; and therefore wanted to battle to free her. However, when he sees that she really doesn't mind being Utena's bride (when she cheers Utena on), that disturbs him in the critical moment of battle and he loses.

Second saga: Please remember that throughout this saga, it was Akio pulling Mikage's strings; so therefore everything Mikage did was because of Akio. At first I didn't rememeber what caused Kozue to join the Black Rose duellists, so I had to look back. It turns out that it's pure and simple jealousy -- Kozue is used to having all of her brother's attention to herself and no one else, and now Anthy comes along and he plays the piano with her much like he did before with his sister. She hates this, because it's breaking the fragile bond between them. So Akio exploits the feeling, and makes her battle Utena for possession of the Rose Bride so that she can kill her. Nice guy.

Third saga: Again, more with his sister. Touga comes into the Music Hall while Miki is playing, and chats idly about his playing. Then he asks if Miki can hear it, roaming about the Ends of the World. Miki hears a roar and quickly gets frantic, and Akio pulls up. So the four of them (Kozue also) take a ride in the Akio-car! Kozue explains to him that if he wants Anthy for himself, he'll have to get mean about it -- "If the whole world is getting dirty, then you have to too to get what you want." And then we are lead to understand that Akio seduces Miki.
Miki challenges Utena to a duel the next day, and they show up with Kozue as the Rose Bride.* They start to duel, and the Akio-car starts circling the Arena as it always does, but then on the second time around Kozue is in the car with Anthy, trying to persuade her to show Kozue her powers as a Rose Bride. She warns Miki not to look away from his battle, but he can't help it. He can't understand what Kozue is doing -- it's enough for her to flirt with guys that he doesn't like, but to flirt with the girl that he likes is just too much for him. Is distracts Miki once again and he loses. I'm really beginning to think that Kozue has no place in the Arena.

I know this was all a synopsis of Miki's duels, sorry. It just kind of drifted that way. But Akio is the reason that this webspage exists -- he is what corrupts Miki. Before the duels got serious, Miki was a sweet little boy that just had some family problems. By the end, Akio corrupts him badly, by exploiting memories of his sister, and making Anthy go out to mess him up further. It doesn't seem obvious at first, but if you think about it, it was because of Anthy's playing that Miki started thinking about the Rose Bride, and because of that, Kozue got angry with him. Anthy is Akio's pawn here, and she works on Miki with a ruthless efficency.**

* = I'll be cosplaying as Kozue the Rose Bride at Otakon 2000 with my bf as Miki, look for us!
** = yeah, so maybe that's not quite the right term to use. But it sounds cool.

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