The Strawberry and the Rapunzel
The job
The opening of the taverns door alerted all the occupants inside of the new arrivals.
They were the city guards of the Kingdom of Corona. They entered and walked directly to the bartender and slammed a wanted poster on the bar. Leaning over to look at it, the bartender raised his brow questioningly.
"Am I meant to know this person?" he asked nodding to the image on the poster, showing a hooded being with a handle of a weapon showing over their shoulder.
"Yes. We've heard word that this person has been sited around these parts and we are willing to pay any of you for information on this individual." The head soldier told all the patrons.
"How much?" someone called out.
The soldier pulled a bag straining with gold coins and before anyone could react, the person who called out walked over to them and snatched the bag out of the his hand.
"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" he questioned the individual, who simply pointed to the wanted poster.
The man looked at the poster, then at the person holding the bag of money, seeing that they had the same weapon handle showing over their shoulder.
"I believe you are looking for me." The individual spoke, reaching up and removing their hood, revealing to all that it was a woman underneath, with orange hair pulled into a ponytail that fell to the back of her knees.
"You revealed yourself without knowing why we were looking for you. Isn't that quite foolish of you?" he asked her.
"There is only two reasons someone would be willing to pay a hefty sum for information on me. I've either slept with their daughter, sister, mother, or they have need of my skills. And I certainly don't remember being chased out of any bed chambers by you." She explained to the soldier. "So… what do you need my skills for?"
Letting out a sigh, the soldier waved his men out the door and walked out as well, informing the woman to follow him. Once outside the soldier lead the woman and his men to a secluded area within the surrounded forest. Turning towards her, he spoke seriously.
"The king and queen have heard of your skills and are willing to pay as much as you want to find their missing daughter. The princess was just an infant when she was kidnapped from her cradle. From what the king and queen could remember, the kidnapper was an elderly lady with curly grey hair. She wore a cloak, so that was all they were able to see. Are you willing to use your skills and find the lost princess? Please, name your price." He practically pleaded by the end.
"My name is Ichigo and this is my price." Ichigo held up the bag of coins, before reaching in and taking out a couple of coins and throwing the bag to the soldier. "And when I find and return the princess, you can give that back."
She turned and started walking away, but was stopped by the soldier calling out to her.
"Wait!" turning towards the soldier, she raised an eyebrow before the man bent at the waist and said, "Thank you."
Giving a small smile, Ichigo gave a nod.
"Anytime." She said as she left the area.
XXXXX
Walking through the forest, Ichigo kept her ears open for anyone following her. Happy to conclude that there was no one, she kept to the path she had picked and arrived at a clearing.
Luckily for him, her contact was already waiting for her. The man had red hair tied up, tattoos instead of eyebrows and was sitting on the trunk of a tree that looked to have only recently been cut down.
"You better have the information I need Renji." She told him.
"Yeah, yeah, I have what you need." He informed her.
"Then hurry up and tell me." The impatience in her voice made it clear to Renji that he should give her what she wants.
"Okay… so when the queen was pregnant with the princess, she took sick to an illness that would have be dangerous to the baby and herself. The king, remembering stories of a flower with the ability to heal any sickness, sent his men out to search for this flower. They found it not long after, but what they didn't seem to notice or think about much was that there was some kind of weaved dome lying on its side next to the flower."
"Someone was trying to hide the flower." Ichigo didn't sound that surprised.
"Yeah, and they must have knocked it over in a hurry, meaning..." He was cut off once again by Ichigo.
"Meaning that this individual saw who took it and where they went?"
"Yeah, and listen to this. They put the flower in a bowl of water and had the queen drink it. The daughter was born some time later, nice and healthy, by the way. Though when she was born, instead of hazel coloured hair like her parents, the princess's hair was a golden blonde. She was kidnapped that same day, at night, while she and her parents were sleeping. They weren't even able to name her."
"That's why they call her the lost princess?" Ichigo asked.
"Yeah, and from what we know, the princess was taken because of the flower, which powers may now reside within her."
"Does the flower have the power to reverse aging?"
"I'd believe so, with its power of healing, aging will probably not matter. Why?" Renji was wondering what his old friend was thinking.
"The king and queen saw an old lady take their baby right?" receiving a nod, she continued. "Well if this old lady took the princess, then she could in fact look young, so I want you to inform the others to look out for a middle-aged woman with dark curly, wearing a cloak. The moment any sighting is had, send a message to me straight away."
"Very well… is there anything else?" Renji asked as he stood up and started to make his way out of the clearing.
"Wait!" Ichigo called out, stopping Renji in his tracks as she was suddenly standing in front of him with her hands planted firmly on his shoulders and looked at him with a serious expression.
"Yes?" he question as a drop of sweat started to run down the side of his head.
"How old is the princess?"
"About a week from now, the king and queen will be lighting and releasing the lanterns in the festival for the lost princess. It will be the eighteenth one, so the princess is currently eighteen." Renji told her as she released her hold on him with a disappointed look on her face.
"Damn." She spoke under her breath.
"Please don't tell me you were thinking of doing anything to her?" he asked of her.
"Seriously!? I may be known as a lady killer, but I haven't been with as many women as people think. It was one time and her father came in before anything could happen, and since I was still wearing my cloak on, he couldn't tell what I looked like. Now anytime someone wears a cloak and gets caught with a woman, everyone thinks it was me. I may be skilled at what I do… but it is annoying when my reputation with said skills is rivalled by my supposed reputation with women."
"So does Ichi-virgin not plan to do anything to the princess?" Renji asked with a smirk, only for it to change into a grimace as Ichigo's fist implanted itself into his abdomen.
"I wanted to know her age because I… because if I find her, I think telling her that she's the lost pincess and was kidnapped as a baby may not be something she would believe if the woman that took her raised her as her own. Knowing facts like this will get her to believe me more easily." Ichigo explained.
Renji released a sigh as he patted Ichigo on the shoulder and started to leave the clearing, calling out over his shoulder.
"I know, I was just messing with you. I'll spread the word to the others. You should probably do the job that put you in the Snugly Duckling in the first place while you wait for anything on the princess." Renji told her as he disappeared.
"Yeah, I've got to find the two criminals that stole the crown." Ichigo whispered to herself before letting out a sigh and following the actions of her contact and leaving the clearing.
XXXXX
It was the next day when while tracking the thieves that stole the crown, that she ran into two men. They looked identical, except for the placements of their scars and that one had a satchel hanging at his side.
"Move it!" one commanded as he pulled out a knife and held it in a threatening way.
'Oh, that's cute. He thinks that knife would make me move. Hang on, I think I've seen them before.' She thought as she realised that she had seen their wanted poster, and that they were the ones who stole the crown.
"What's in the satchel?" she asked them, not in the least bothered by the knife in her face.
"Nothing that matters to you." The one holding the satchel replied.
"Well… if that holds the stolen crown, then I think it does in fact matter to me." She informed them and the one without a knife pulled one out of the satchel.
"That was a big mistake on your part girly." One told her, stepping closer to her and chucking his knife from one hand to the other.
'Tch, amateurs.' She thought before a smile overtook her face as she reached behind her back and drew her own sword, unique to the lands she currently resided in.
It had a metre long one-sided curved blade with a black handle and hanging from that was a chain ran for the length of her entire arm. Between the handle and the blade was the guard in the shape of an oval with intricate carvings on it.
"It would seem you boys brought a knife to a sword fight." They both looked from her sword to each other before running into the forest, leaving Ichigo to watch as they ran out of her sight.
"Shit! Shouldn't just stand here." And with that she ran after them.
Luckily they weren't being careful and left lots of tracks for her to follow. After about five minutes of tracking, she found them at the edge of a cliff, looking at the tree hanging over the side. Taking a closer look, not enough for them to notice, she saw that the satchel was hanging from one of the tree's branches.
"Look, I didn't mean to throw the damn satchel, but that root came out of nowhere." The one that was originally holding the satchel explained to his twin, who held his knife at his sibling while pointing a finger at him.
"If you weren't my brother I'd-" he started to say but was cut off.
"You'd what?" his twin questioned.
"Maybe he'd throw you off the cliff." Ichigo decided to cut in. they both turned to her and saw that she had drawn her sword and held it in a casual but ready stance. "If you run now, I won't chase after you. My only worry is for the crown."
Making the smart decision, they sheathed their knives and ran away. Releasing a chuckle, Ichigo walked with amazing grace onto the tree and towards the satchel. She leaned down and grabbed the strap, bringing it up and hanging it on her shoulder, but not before checking that the crown was inside.
'Good.' She thought as she saw that the crown was still inside.
Looking up, she was surprised to see a white horse, bearing the symbol of Corona on its saddle. The look on the horse's face was one of anger as it, most likely a he, stalked onto the tree and right up to her face.
"Uh… hi." She spoke nervously, noticing his gaze move towards the satchel and back to her face. "Did you want this?"
At the nod of his head, she was about to explain why she had it when a cracking sound was heard. Looking for the source of the noise, the human and the horse saw that it was the tree trunk breaking. Looking at each other, they only had a moment to comprehend what was about to happen, when the rest of the tree broke.
Quickly grabbing hold of each other, they both screamed out as they fell. Ichigo hit her head hard on a part of the tree, knocking herself out.
EXTRA
Waiting for her mother's return, Rapunzel daydreamed of meeting someone, just like in her story books and falling in love.
Letting out a sigh, she looked towards her only friend and spoke softly.
"I hope one day I can find love. The kind of love that is written of in my books." Her friend placed his hand on hers in a show of comfort.
"Thank you."
XXXXX
[A.N.]
Yep, another story.
In the description, I won't for any of my stories mention if Ichigo is male or female, or if it is femslash or not.
I believe that since Rapunzel was raised away from society that she may not have been taught about how men and women who got together were normal, so she wouldn't think much about falling in love with another woman. After all, love is love to her.
Any questions, leave a review and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter.