About Shiori and Ruka

Where would we be without Shiori, Takatsuki, Juri's "Best Friend", and secret love, Shiori Takatsuki, and the handsome and seductive Ruka Tsuchiya, Captain of the Fencing Team and Student Council Member? They make Juri's story what it is, and therefore, I've decided to provide some information on them as well! Enjoy!

~ShioriBara~

The majority of the two Ruka episodes are told from Arisugawa Juri's point of view. Ruka was a former student at Ohtori who was the captain of the fencing club and good friends with Juri. It was he who taught her how to fence, and she was his star pupil. He readily acknowledged that her talent with the sword far surpassed his, and hoped one day to bring out that potential to its fullest.

However, that was not to be.

Ruka was forced to leave Ohtori after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. The anime never goes in depth as to what the illness is, but it is clear that Ruka was hospitalized before he appears back at Ohtori in episode 28. In his absence, Juri was made interim fencing captain, and, as often happens with students who leave Ohtori, no one remembered that Ruka had ever been there. Except for Juri.

THE FOLLOWING ARE SUMMARIES OF EPISODES 28 AND 29 AND CONTAIN SPOILERS.

EPISODE 28

"Feelings I can never put into words. But my heart keeps on whispering. And then...there's you."

At the beginning of episode 28, Juri is teaching her normal fencing lesson when a mysterious stranger appears, asking to have the next duel. Warily, Juri accepts, and the onlooking spectators are shocked when they realize that the stranger has beaten Juri. With an expression half stunned, half angry, Juri says, "so it is you, Captain." Ruka then removes his fencing mask, smiling at her and replying, "You're the captain now, Arisugawa Juri."

At the Student Council meeting, Juri tells Nanami and Miki about Ruka and his illness and his subsequent leave from school. Ruka then appears in the doorway with a rose signet on his finger, claiming that he is recovering from his sickness and therefore has returned. All the members of the seitokai are shocked to see that Ruka is one of them, indicating that he was not a duelist before his return. Juri asks him what exactly he wants, and he replies that he merely wants to "savor the self-indulgent Academy lifestyle."

Juri soon sees what Ruka means, much to her own horror. As a new and rather mysterious student, he naturally has the attention of all the girls of the Academy. But Ruka doesn't just settle for any student. He chooses Takatsuki Shiori, Juri's former friend...and the one whom Juri secretly loves.

Crushed, Juri keeps her feelings to herself and instead asks to meet Ruka at "their place." "Their place" is a sort of wide balcony with a single long garden chair in the center of the floor and a wide view of the sky. It was here that Ruka passed down his fencing techniques to Juri. When Ruka arrives, Juri lashes out at Ruka, warning him to keep his hands off Shiori. He wonders why, and Juri cannot tell him what she means without betraying her own love for Shiori. Ruka merely shrugs and says he'll do what he likes. However, Juri soon finds out that all is not what it seems when she catches Ruka and Shiori at their moonlight meeting place in front of the Ohtori fountain. As they kiss, Ruka glances at Juri out of the corner of one eye and smiles.

"He knows. He knows...everything."

Ruka arranges a second midnight meeting with Shiori, but this time there is no romantic tryst involved. Touga meets Shiori, telling her that Ruka is going to take her "someplace wonderful." Exactly where is revealed when the Akio Car appears and Touga, Ruka, and Shiori go for a ride. Ruka promises Shiori that "The power of miracles" will be hers if she goes along with his plan. What plan that is is not mentioned, but it seems clear that the two are plotting something, against Utena and perhaps against Juri. The next day, Ruka and Shiori visit Anthy and Utena in the garden and Ruka challenges Utena to a duel.

Shiori acts as Ruka's Rose Bride for the duel, and he taunts Utena, saying that his skill with a sword is far better than hers. However, he does not do what Saionji and the other duelists did before: underestimate Utena. Utena realizes this as Ruka makes his move. He is indeed very good with a sword, lightning fast and sure in his strokes, and Utena is pushed back. However, as always, Dios comes down from the castle and Utena cuts the rose from Ruka's chest as Shiori slams into the wall of the duel arena in the Akio Car.

"We'll win next time, right? The power of miracles is ours for sure!"

Smirking at Shiori's statement, Ruka replies that "there won't be a next time. No matter how often we do it, the outcome will be the same." Then he states, "However, it's partly my Bride's fault that I lost." Shiori's face crumples and it is very clear she understands his statement as more than a simple act of blame. Ruka is breaking up with her.

EPISODE 29

"Believe in miracles...so that your wishes...come true..."

The next time we see Ruka it is in episode 29 with Shiori pulling on his sleeve, begging him to take her back. A crowd gathers around the scene, and the spectators include Utena and Juri. Ruka refuses, leaving Shiori weeping in the middle of the school courtyard. Utena goes straight to Juri, demanding that she do something and accusing her of not taking action when her friend is in trouble. Juri says she will have no part in this drama.

Ruka goes for a ride in the Akio Car with Akio and Touga, with Touga reprimanding him that he wasn't "nearly as good as your big mouth." Ruka replies that Utena is better than he is, but he has his own reasons for winning. Touga wonders what those are, and Ruka replies with the cryptic statement "There are no miracles. That's a statement of hers."

Apparently listening to Utena, Juri goes to Ruka to ask him to take Shiori back. Ruka accuses her of contradicting herself, then tells her he won't do it and begins listing all of Shiori's bad traits. This infuriates Juri and she tries to punch him. Ruka instead pushes her against the wall and teases bitterly, "I think I'll go out with you next." He then tries to kiss her while she struggles and she has to bite his lip in order to make him let her go. Before Juri can recover, however, Ruka holds up in his hand something he had snatched from her neck during the kiss...Juri's locket, with the picture of Shiori inside. When he lifts his foot to crush the locket, she slaps him.

Ruka simply looks tired and a little sorrowful and begins to walk to the door, saying that he'll make up with Shiori after all. Juri stops him. "Wait. Ruka. Duel with me. If I lose, I'll do whatever you want me to. But if I win..." The duel is not shown, and the next scene is of Ruka and Juri sitting in their "place" in the dusk. Ruka is standing, Juri sitting. Ruka praises Juri's talent and then tells there is someone he wants her to meet...

"Listen, can't you hear it? If your soul has not truly given up...you'll be able to hear this sound...running about the Ends of the World."

In the backseat of the Akio Car, Juri wonders why Ruka enjoys hurting Shiori so much. Ruka instead turns the conversation to the duels, saying that he and her combined can surely beat Utena. "A sacrifice must be made for a miracle to occur," he says simply. "Believe in miracles...so that your wishes come true." Juri snaps back "I don't care if my wishes don't come true. Even if I did obtain the power of miracles, the only thing I'd wish for is to free her from you." Adding that she won't let Ruka do whatever he wants anymore, she agrees to duel Utena.

Ruka is Juri's Rose Bride for the duel, but instead of sitting in the Akio Car, he stands inside the arena watching the duel, yelling commands to Juri. During the duel, scenes from Ruka and Juri's duel earlier are shown, juxtaposed with scenes from the present Juri/Utena duel. As Dios comes down from the castle, Utena's sword misses its intended target of the rose and instead cuts Juri's locket free. Juri stumbles forward, grasping for it as the locket snatters on the pavement of the arena. She stops then, picking the rose from her chest and throwing it on the ground. The bells toll. The duel is over.

Rain begins to fall, and through the gray downpour Ruka walks slowly to Juri, standing just a little to the left and behind her. "Juri, don't worry," he says. "Don't worry, Juri."

Through Nanami and Miki's dialogue in the next scene, which is at least a few days later, we learn that Ruka has stopped coming to school and that Juri is once more the fencing captain. During practice, one of the girls hurts her leg and Juri accompanies her to the hospital. She sees that the girl is taken care of and then starts walking down the hallway to the front door of the hospital. As she does so, the shadow play girls appear, pushing a medical supply cart and chattering about the boy who died in the hospital yesterday, the boy who knew how sick he was but forced himself to return to school anyway.

"There must be someone he loved in the Fencing Club...he was always saying he wanted to give the power of miracles to the one he loved, and that he wanted to free her.

The last scene of the episode is of Shiori watching Juri come out of the hospital and chasing after her as Juri walks slowly down the path back to Ohtori.