A/N: I have posted this fic here before, but I took it down to re-write it a but as I wasn't entirely satisfied with it. The ending has been changed a bit and the spelling and grammar has been fixed up. Still, if you see any mistakes, feel free to point them out. :) C&C is appreciated, flames will be ignored and/or laughed at.

THE PRINCESS AND THE DRAGON

She had followed Niida to the temple. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was looking for Chigusa as everyone knew how obsessed he was with her. No one had really believed the rumors he had spread about how they were dating as Chigusa despised him just as the rest of the girls in school, and everyone knew that she was head over heels in love with Sugimura, but boredom had caused them to spread the rumor and gossip about the supposed couple.

Mitsuko knew all about rumors as she was a regular victim of them. They said that she sold her body, stole other girls' boyfriends and things like that. Mitsuko snorted at those silly rumors. Selling her body? She used sex to get what she wanted, but what was wrong with that? Everyone had to do what they could to get where they wanted.

Stealing other girls' boyfriends? Hah! She didn't have to steal them as they came willingly. She had never understood why the girls got mad at her and called her a bitch when they should be yelling at their boyfriends for being cheating bastards.

Mitsuko had early learned that you had to help yourself, because no one is going to do it for you. No one can save you but yourself. She wasn't bitter over the fact. No, she was actually glad that she had been early introduced to the hardships in life. At least now she wasn't naive like Megumi, or weak like Noriko.

She despised them. Pretty, perfect girls waiting for their knights in shining armor to come and save them from the dangers in life. Didn't they know that fairytales weren't for real? That there were no princes or princesses, but only dragons?

She shook her head at their ignorance. At least she knew the truth. She knew that she was on her own, and that fact didn't bother her. Alone was strong, right? She didn't need anyone else as she didn't trust them. The only one who deserved her trust was Chigusa, but she also knew that the other girl was too smart to ever trust her. That's why Mitsuko loved her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of screaming and she just managed to duck down behind the bushes before Niida came running through the woods with an enraged Chigusa chasing after him, knife in her hand. Mitsuko watched it all with a strange sense of pride over Chigusa's bravery.

'Silly boy,' she thought with a smirk. 'You messed with the wrong girl. Boys don't understand that girls can be dragons too.'

She watched in fascination as Chigusa ended Niida's life. Death fascinated her. How easy it was to kill someone, to take someone's life and then just walk away like nothing had happened. The lives she had taken so far had all been for a purpose though. She didn't want to get her hands dirty when she didn't need to.

Megumi had died because Mitsuko had needed her hiding-place. Megumi had herself to blame anyway. She was a naive girl, way too friendly for her own good. And Hirono had been a threat to Mitsuko's life and she'd had a weapon Mitsuko needed.

But Chigusa needed to die. Mitsuko knew this. Chigusa was a threat, not only a threat to Mitsuko's life, but also a threat to her views on life. Chigusa was a princess if there ever was one. Not a princess like in the fairytales Mitsuko had been so obsessed with when she was a little girl. Her mother had always read them to her before she got sick and then Mitsuko had read them to her mother. No, Chigusa wasn't a princess who sat around in her castle and waited for Prince Charming to come and save her from the dragon. She was a strong princess who went out to take on the dragon herself.

As Mitsuko got to her feet, Chigusa quickly spun around and faced her, a look of fear mixed with exhaustion and determination on her face. The smirk on Mitsuko's face slowly widened as she raised the gun in her hand and aimed it at Chigusa.

The shots rang out after the other girl as she ran off, but Mitsuko knew she had hit her at least twice. And from the way Chigusa had been stumbling and clutching her sides Mitsuko knew she had been wounded badly. She wouldn't get far and without help she would die.

In this world not even the strongest of princessess survived the dragons.

B END /B