Hello hello dear readers! Now some, if not most of you are wondering what the heck I'm doing making another story when I should be updating "Dame dame jan!" Don't fret, chapter 17 is already under construction but it will take a while since I'm combining two episodes for this chapter. So instead of just making you wait, I decided to start with my "Dame dame jan meets Grimm fairy tales" These are one shots based on the fairy tales by the brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm). I'm using the stories from the book, "The Complete First Edition: The Original Folk & Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm" which was translated and edited by Jack Zipes and illustrated by Andrea Dezsö. For various reasons, I won't be placing down all the stories (there are way too many of them) and I won't really be copying them word for word (to avoid plagiarism). But what I will do is to stick to the original plotline and integrate the characters of my "Dame dame jan!" story. These stories are of course, not linked to the "Dame dame jan!" series (like how the tenipuri episodes are not really linked to the original plotline of the Prince of Tennis series). I hope you enjoy these one shots and let me know what you think! ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the plotlines used in any of these one shots. The plotlines and stories are owned by the Grimm brothers. I used the book, "The Complete First Edition: The Original Folk & Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm" which was translated and edited by Jack Zipes and illustrated by Andrea Dezsö as reference. I do not own Prince of Tennis or any of their characters as well as their tennis moves. The only character I own is Meisha, as well as her tennis moves.
Briar Rose
A king and a queen couldn't have children, and they really wanted to have one.
"It would be nice to have a son or a daughter", queen Fuji tells her husband with a sad smile.
"Hm", king Tezuka nods sternly.
Then one day, while queen Fuji was bathing in a nearby lake, a crab crawled out of the water and turned to face the queen.
"Oh, I didn't think there would be crabs in this lake", queen Fuji says while looking at the crab interestingly.
"Queen Fuji, your wish will be soon fulfilled", the crab says, "You will have a daughter!" it exclaims.
And indeed, this is what happened. King Tezuka was so delighted even though he didn't show it at all. He organized a great feast to celebrate the birth of the princess and also invited the fairies who were living in his kingdom.
"Sire, we only have twelve golden plates for thirteen fairies", Arai Masashi, one of the servants, tells king Tezuka.
"Hmm, it would be insulting if we just left out one of the fairies. Maybe we should—" king Tezuka says and gets interrupted.
"Which fairy would be left out?" queen Fuji asks with a gentle smile.
"That would be fairy Mizuki, your highness", Arai says with a bow.
King Tezuka swears that he saw queen Fuji smile with an evil glint in her eye.
"Well, I'm sure that fairy will understand that we only have twelve golden plates. So let's just not invite him", queen Fuji says with a charming smile.
King Tezuka had a bad feeling about this but he didn't want to reprimand the queen so he agrees with her.
So the next day, the twelve fairies come to the feast: Oishi, Eiji, Taka, Inui, Momo, Kaidou, Yuuta, Horio, Kachiro, Katsuo, Tomoka, and Sakuno.
"King Tezuka and queen Fuji, thank you for inviting us", fairy Oishi says with a smile and a bow.
"I want to see your daughter nya!" fairy Eiji says enthusiastically as he flies over to the crib where the baby girl is sleeping.
The rest of the fairies do the same and coo at how cute the baby is.
"She's so small and plump", fairy Taka says with a gentle smile.
Fairy Inui starts to write on his notebook, "Rosy cheeks, no visible birth defects, no weight problems," he looks at the baby and sees her waking up, "Hm?"
"Oh, we must have been too noisy", fairy Katsuo says as he stares at the baby.
The baby girl stares at the twelve fairies with her big, dark, brown eyes.
"She's so cute, Sakuno!" fairy Tomoka starts to squeal.
Fairy Sakuno nods with a smile, "She'll grow up to be a beautiful maiden", she says softly.
"Heya! Look over here!" fairy Momo says and starts making funny faces.
The baby girl starts giggling happily.
Fairy Momo grins, "Hey! She likes it!" he says.
Fairy Kaidou just stares at her with his usual grumpy face. When the baby looked towards him, she stops giggling and just stares at him.
"Oh no! She's looking at Kaidou-senpai!" fairy Horio says looking a bit frantic.
"He looks grumpier than usual today, the baby might cry", fairy Kachiro says in worry.
"Oi, Viper! You shouldn't scare the baby, you just shouldn't", fairy Momo says as he shakes his head in disapproval.
Fairy Kaidou glares at fairy Momo, "What did you just call me?" he says angrily.
"Cut it out, you two! We're not here to watch you argue!" fairy Oishi reprimands, "We're here to celebrate the birth of, of…"he realizes that he doesn't know the name of the baby and looks towards king Tezuka and queen Fuji, "What name did you give her?" he asks.
"Princess Meisha", king Tezuka announces while queen Fuji smiles softly.
"We were going to name her 'Briar Rose' but 'Meisha' seemed to fit well, don't you think so too, Yuuta?" queen Fuji asks the silent fairy Yuuta.
Fairy Yuuta immediately looks away from the queen, "It sounds fine to me", he murmurs while he crosses his arms across his chest.
Fairy Oishi smiles and nods while the other fairies (except fairy Kaidou and Yuuta) happily try calling princess Meisha by her name. A few minutes later, they decide to settle down at the table to eat. Fairy Momo and Kaidou decided to fight over the last piece of turkey leg, fairy Horio kept repeating his two years of magic experience while fairy Katsuo and Kachiro pretended to listen. Fairy Tomoka kept gushing about a prince from a different country while fairy Sakuno giggles at her fairy friend. Fairy Yuuta kept glaring at queen Fuji while she continues to smile softly at him. The other fairies are happily talking with the king even if he continued to have the same stern expression. At the end of the celebration, the fairies line up to give the child some gifts.
"I will give princess Meisha the gift of virtue", fairy Oishi happily says as he waves his magic tennis racket over the baby.
"I will give her the gift of beauty!" fairy Eiji says as he energetically waves his magic tennis racket over the baby.
The others gave very splendid things as well. But right after the eleventh fairy had announced her gift, the thirteenth barges through the door—he seems quite angry that he had not been invited to the celebration.
"Since you didn't ask me to attend this celebration," fairy Mizuki cries out while flailing his magic racket, "I say to you that when your daughter turns fifteen, she will prick herself with—"
"Oh, who are you?" queen Fuji asks while looking as innocent as she could.
King Tezuka sighs at the queen's antics while fairy Mizuki looks quite insulted.
"Don't play dumb with me! Of course you know who I am! I'm—" fairy Mizuki exclaims.
"Kelp-head?" queen Fuji tilts her head to the side innocently.
The twelve fairies try their best not to laugh at their comrade.
"K-Kelp-head?" fairy Mizuki repeats in shock.
Baby Meisha starts giggling and flailing her arms.
"It seems that Meisha likes that name as well", queen Fuji smiles widely.
This comment just made fairy Mizuki even angrier, "I was going to make it fifteen but I changed my mind! When princess Meisha turns twelve, she will prick herself with a spindle and fall down dead!" he casts the spell upon baby Meisha then flies out the door.
Queen Fuji frowns and glares towards the door, where fairy Mizuki left. King Tezuka rubs the bridge of his nose in worry and aggravation.
"Do not worry your highness! I, fairy Horio, with two years of magic experience, still haven't given a gift yet", fairy Horio announces arrogantly.
The other fairies couldn't help but look at each other worriedly.
"The girl will not die!" fairy Horio waves his magic racket over baby Meisha, "She will fall into a deep sleep for one hundred years!" he exclaims.
"One hundred years!" fairy Tomoka exclaims.
"Isn't that too long?" fairy Sakuno questions him.
"Yeah, wouldn't she turn into a grandmother by then?" fairy Momo asks.
Fairy Katsuo and Kachiro sigh at their comrade's skills.
"Hey! It's just two years of magic experience, it's better than her dying! And besides, her age will be retained!" fairy Horio exclaims while defending his self.
King Tezuka sighs, "What's done is done. The best we can do now is to avoid the event from happening", he says and calls for the servants, "From this day on, all spindles are banned from my kingdom", he announces.
The servants got to the task right away. One by one, spindle after spindle they are either burned down or hidden away and never to see the light of day.
After several years, princess Meisha grew up and became marvelously beautiful but awful at directions. She could never get back to her own room without a servant escorting her. On the day she turned twelve, the king and queen had gone out, so she was left completely alone in the palace since all the servants accompanied them.
"I know mother and father told me to stay put in my room until they return but I'm so bored!" princess Meisha complains as she gets off her bed, "There are still so many places in this palace that I haven't explored yet", she says to herself as her eyes sparkle in glee.
So she wandered all over the place just as she pleased—with no servants insisting on accompanying her. She eventually came to an old tower where she found a narrow staircase. She got curious and decided to climb the stairs. She stops in front of a small door with a yellow key stuck in the lock. She turns the key and the door springs open. She goes into the little room where an old woman is spinning flax.
"Why hello child, do you want to assist a poor old lady?" the old woman, who kind of resembles fairy Mizuki, says with a weary voice.
Princess Meisha just stares at the old woman innocently with her big dark brown eyes.
The old woman seemed to have smirked, "I bet you've never seen anyone spinning flax before, have you?" she says.
"Gee, old lady, how long have you been up here?" princess Meisha suddenly asks, "Your hair looks so slimy now", she stares at the old woman's hair, "They look like kelp or something", she says as she sticks her tongue out in disgust.
An anger vein appears on the old woman's forehead, "Who are you calling a kelp-head!" the old woman yells at her angrily.
Princess Meisha raises her brow, "No one did", she smirks, "But it's a pretty befitting name for you, old lady", she taunts.
"You little brat!" the old woman yells out and throws the spindle she was using towards princess Meisha.
Unfortunately, princess Meisha was given the gift of speedy reflexes by fairy Inui, so she catches the spindle. She pricks herself and falls down into a deep sleep.
The old woman seemed to look surprised for a while before biting the nail of her thumb in disappointment, "It didn't go exactly as how I predicted it", she sighs and smirks, "Oh well, the end result is the same anyway."
Just at that moment, the king and queen returned to the palace with their entire courtly retinue, and everybody and everything began to fall asleep—the horses in the stable, the pigeons on the roof, the dogs in the courtyard, and the flies on the wall. Even the fire flickering in the hearth became quiet and fell asleep. The roast stopped sizzling, and the cook, who was just about to pull the kitchen boy's hair, let him go, and the maid, who was plucking the feathers of a hen, let it drop and fell asleep. And a hedge of thorns sprouted around the entire castle and grew higher and higher until it was impossible to see the castle anymore. Years later, there were princes who heard about the beautiful Meisha, and they came and wanted to rescue her, but they couldn't penetrate the hedge. It was as though the thorns clung tightly together like hands, and the princes got stuck there and died miserable deaths. All this continued for many, many years until one day a prince from the country of Tenisu came riding through the country.
"Why is there a big hedge of thorns in this country?" prince Ryoma asks himself with a raised brow—criticizing the hedge of thorns at a distance.
An old, err, I mean, coach Ryuuzaki sees the prince looking at the hedge of thorns. She approaches him, "You must be new here. People here believe that a castle is standing right behind that hedge of thorns", she says.
Prince Ryoma looks at coach Ryuuzaki blankly but you could see that he's listening.
Coach Ryuuzaki continues, "They also say that a gorgeous princess is sleeping inside that castle with her entire royal household. My grandfather told me that many princes had come and had wanted to penetrate the hedge", she shakes her head with a sigh, "But they got stuck in the thorns and died. The poor princes", she says with another sigh.
"Hmm", prince Ryoma muses with a smirk, "Mada mada dane", he says confidently before looking towards the hedge of thorns, "I'm going to go through that hedge easily", his smirk widens.
"To rescue the beautiful princess?" coach Ryuuzaki asks with a raised brow.
"Not really", he says bluntly, "She's been sleeping for years, right?" he asks coach.
Coach Ryuuzaki nods.
"Then she must be an old hag by now", he shrugs, "But sure, I guess I'll also wake her. She would definitely reward me with a feast. I'm getting kind of hungry anyway", he says as he makes his way towards the hedge of thorns—leaving coach Ryuuzaki gaping at him in disbelief and probably thinking about how rude and different the prince of Tenisu is.
When the prince came to the hedge of thorns, they turned into flowers and separated to make a path for him. As he went through them, the flowers turned back into thorns.
Prince Ryoma smirks, "See? Easy", he says and continues his way towards the castle.
Once he reached the castle, he saw that the horses were sleeping in the courtyard and there were various hunting dogs. The pigeons were perched on the roof with their heads tucked beneath their wings. When he entered the palace, even the flies were sleeping, as was the fire in the kitchen along with the cook and the maid. The prince paused a bit and thought about taking some food from the kitchen since he was getting hungrier by the minute. But he remembered the old, err, coach Ryuuzaki saying that it has been years, so all the food has probably rot by now. So he continued walking until he saw the entire royal household with the king and the queen lying asleep. Everything was so quiet that he could hear himself breathe.
"The king and queen don't look old. So this spell made them retain their age then" he concludes with a nod, "So the princess might not be an old hag." He continues to walk a bit more and sees an old tower. "It looks like a place for the princess to be sleeping in", he says as he heads towards the tower.
He doesn't feel like rescuing her but he's curious as to what she looks like since a lot of princes were dumb enough to die trying to save her. She must be at least worth looking at. He climbs up the narrow staircase and reaches a little room. There he sees the princess lying asleep. His eyes widen in surprise—astounded by her beauty. He walks closer and bends down beside her to look at her closely. He couldn't help but stare at her for a while.
"She looks around my age", he says and smirks, "but shorter", he says in amusement. He ponders on what to do for a while before sighing, "I guess I'll have to wake her up", he reaches out his right hand towards her face, "Oi, wake up", he says rudely and flicks her forehead hard. In the original tale, this doesn't wake the princess up but a kiss was not necessarily the only way to wake her up.
"Ouch!" princess Meisha cries out as she sits up and rubs her forehead with her hands.
Prince Ryoma smirks, obviously liking the reaction the princess showed. Their eyes meet and they stare at each other for a while.
Meanwhile, after princess Meisha woke up, the king, queen, the entire royal household, the horses, the dogs, the pigeons on the roof, the flies on the walls, and the fire woke up as well. The fire flared up and cooked the meat until it began to sizzle again. The cook gave the kitchen boy a box on the ear while the maid finished plucking the chicken. Then the wedding of the prince with the princess was celebrated in great splendor, and they lived happily to the end of their days—well, that's what's supposed to happen, but unfortunately, things just don't go the way they should.
Princess Meisha is the first to snap out of her daze, "Who are you and why did you flick my forehead?" she screams out angrily at him.
Prince Ryoma, after snapping out of his daze, smirks at her effort of looking threatening, "I am the prince of Tenisu, Ryoma", he introduces himself formally before widening his smirk, "And I flicked your forehead so you'd wake up from your long sleep, princess sleepy head", he says with a light tone.
Princess Meisha raises her brow at him, "Well, thank you I guess?" she wasn't really sure if she should be thanking him but he doesn't look like he's lying. She ignores the sleepy head remark and grins at him, "I am the princess of this country, Meisha. It's nice to meet you, prince", she says cheerfully.
Prince Ryoma blushes and looks away—unsure as to why he's reacting this way. While princess Meisha continues to grin at him. The king and queen eventually found them in the tower. They held a great feast for the prince since he kept saying he was hungry. There were no promises of marriage since they were still too young for that but they formed an alliance with the Tenisu kingdom. Prince Ryoma and princess Meisha argued often but they were inseparable and they understood each other very well. They visited each other's kingdoms often. Who knows? They might eventually grow to like each other but that is for another tale.
THE END
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