A/N: This was an entry for a fanfiction competition of the Shall We Date All Otome Games Guys on Facebook.
The Rice ball Princess
I am… a rice ball. A ball of rice, filled with pickled plums. Though, I'm different from other rice balls. I have a consciousness, while other rice balls don't. And also unlike other rice balls, I wasn't shaped by human hands. Before becoming a rice ball, I wasn't made of dry rice and fresh plums, no, before this, I was a princess. I was a princess of a fairly unknown nation, so unknown, that even I don't remember its name. In fact, it might not even exist anymore.
Before becoming a rice ball, I was cursed and imprisoned in a dark place. An evil witch called Lekszi one day broke into our castle and cursed me, dooming me to imprisonment for hundred years, freezing my body in time. I was unable to grow, unable to eat, unable to sleep, unable to breathe, but I was alive. After those hundred years I would turn into a common modern dish.
And thus, I became a rice ball. A simple, expiring ball of rice.
But there is a way out of the curse, and that is, of course, the kiss of a royal prince. But I am just a simple rice ball, how am I going to be able to convince a prince to kiss me? I have no arms and legs, only my will. I cannot talk, I have no mouth, however, I am able to see, even without eyes.
When I 'woke up' from my hundred year of imprisonment, I opened my eyes to darkness. Different darkness than before, but still darkness, so I panicked. That was when I found out I had no arms and legs, and couldn't move at all.
After a while I calmed down, hearing voices in the near distance. I listened carefully, able to understand the language and listen in on their conversation.
'Hurry, his highness wants his morning rice ball as soon as he comes out of the shower." A deep manly voice yelled in a panic. Mere seconds later a bright light filled my vision. I blinked in pain, not used to the sight of light after all these years.
Then, a big human face appeared before me. The first human I saw after all these years was standing right before me, a thousand times bigger than what I remembered humans to be, and his hand was reaching out to me.
I tried to scream, forgetting I had no mouth and thus I could not make a sound. I tried to run away in fear, but none of my grains of rice decided to obey my wishes and stayed as quiet as any of the other rice balls around me, which I only just noticed.
The human hand lifted the plate on which I was lying and my field of vision started to waver, making me nauseous, though I could not throw up, since I had no stomach. I watched as a cart filled with other food came closer and I was placed between a few other dishes.
The other two rice balls beside me didn't seem to have a conscious, at least, I was not able to sense any kind of intelligence from them, they were just two balls of rice, made to be eaten.
That was when realization hit me, I was going to be eaten, just like those other two plain rice balls. I didn't even know if there was going to be a prince around who could kiss me so I would return back to my human form. And even if there was a prince, there was no way he was going to be kissing a rice ball.
As I was trying to accept my miserable fate, the big human was pushing the cart through the hallways towards a big dining room. Once there he place my plate, along with all the other dishes, on the table, and left again.
Not much later a handsome man with purple hair entered the room. He had an expressionless face, at which I could not stop staring, even without my eyes I saw how exceptionally handsome he was. His eyes wandered over the table and rested on me for a while. If I still had the ability to blush, I would be blushing harder than I had ever done before.
Then he turned his eyes away from me again, and I realized that he was just examining his breakfast, and that in place of a young, beautiful princess, he was a plain rice ball, one he was probably not even going to eat, because who eats rice balls for breakfast anyway?
And I seemed to be right, he slowly started eating all the other dishes, under the watching eye of another handsome man, who was obviously his personal butler.
After a little less than half an hour the purple haired man seemed to be done with his breakfast, since his butler started cleaning off the table. All empty plates were removed from the table, until only my plate was left. Strangely enough, the butler then left without another word, leaving the purple haired man, me, and the other two rice balls alone.
The purple haired man stared at us intently before slowly reaching out and picking up the rice ball on my left side. He slowly brought it to his lips, taking a small bite out of the top and chewing slowly, as if he was trying something he hadn't eaten before.
Then his eyes lighted up slightly, and he took a second, bigger bite. Soon the entire rice ball had disappeared into his mouth and he was happily chewing away.
If I had any blood I would have felt it draining from my face. There was no way around it, he was going to eat me. After all these years of imprisonment in the dark, this purple haired, handsome man, was going to eat me like he would eat any other rice ball.
In silence I watched as he reached out again, and took the rice ball on my right, repeating his previous process of taking a small bite at first, and then eating the rest of the rice ball without hesitation.
I felt the last minutes of my life tick away, and wondered if it would hurt to be eaten. Maybe I wouldn't even feel it once he sank his teeth into my soft grainy body. Maybe I wouldn't even feel him ripping away my pickled plum heart. In fact, maybe it would feel nice to be chewed on. Or I just wouldn't feel anything at all, and my soul would leave this body the moment he took a bite.
He reached out, and if I could swallow in fear, I would have done so. To my surprise I felt it once his fingers softly wrapped around my body. He lifted me from the plate, a little too fast to my liking, but I had no way to tell him my complaints.
I watched as he stared at me in glee, a soft smile gracing his perfect lips. Those same lips parted slowly, and he brought me closer to his mouth. I could almost feel his teeth sinking down in me when a voice interrupted us.
"Your Highness… Are you done yet? You have a meeting to attend with the other princes." My non-existent eyes shifted towards the source of the voice, and the man from before was standing in the door opening, an impatient look on his face.
A displease growl came from the purple haired man who was holding me. "Yes Jan, I am nearly done, just a minute." The man called Jan nodded and left again.
In the following moment of silence I suddenly realized that the man who was holding me, was a prince. A handsome young prince was holding me, and actually planning on placing me between his lips. Though not in the food way.
Panic spread through my grainy body as the prince shifted his attention back to me, that same smile on his face again. He let out a happy sigh. "Oh rice ball… You complete me." He brought me closer to his lips again, and softly placed a kiss against the place where one would have though my mouth to be.
The next moment the room was filled with a bright light, and I felt how all the grains were brought together, returning me to my human body. The pickled plum slowly shifted into a human heart, and with closed eyes I felt how my body grew to the right size.
With the first desperate breath I took, my heart suddenly started beating again, pumping blood through my cold body. I slowly opened my eyes, which seemed to be a little sticky, and blinked against the bright light that filled room, which was seemingly smaller than before.
A surprised gasp broke me out of my daze and I looked down, straight into the shocked face of the prince that brought me back to my human form. Joy filled my heart and without a second thought I hugged the surprised prince.
"Thank you! Thank you so much for breaking the curse!" I exclaimed, clinging to him, knowing that I was going to love this man for the rest of my life.
Then I heard another gasp, and turned my face to the door opening, seeing the same man from before. "Your Highness! Who is this woman? And why is she naked?!" The shock on his face quickly disappeared, and an angry expression replaced it as he walked over to us and peeled me off the prince.
I looked at the prince in confusion, but he was shaking his head. "I don't know Jan, I was going to eat my rice ball, and suddenly she was there instead of the rice ball."
I looked up at Jan to gauge his response, and only found him frowning at me. "I see… another one of those cursed girls. I'll put her with the others." He said, taking my arm in a painful grip. I panicked and looked back at the prince, but saw he was not paying any attention to me anymore.
Jan started dragging me off. I wanted to protest, after all, the prince had kissed me and allowed me to return to my human form. I was sure he loved me the way I loved him. But somehow my voice had been lost, and I had no strength left. All I could do was follow him to where my fate would be sealed.
He dragged me down a few sets of stairs, deeper and deeper into the castle. Now, the only light was coming off the various torches hanging on the walls.
Jan stopped in front of a heavy looking door and let go of me to unlock it. Once he opened it my curiosity got the better of me and I peeked inside. I found myself being stared at by dozens of eyes. The sight of their pale, weak bodies made me want to vomit, but before I could step away, I was being pushed inside, and I heard the door being locked behind me.
The… woman closest to me touched my leg. "Welcome…" She mumbled weakly. "To the place where you will die." Someone else said from the other end of the room. Fear took the better of me and I started pounding the door hysterically, calling out to Jan, the prince, anyone who would hear me. I didn't want to die this way, I would rather have stayed a rice ball and been eaten.
Meanwhile, Jan had made his way back upstairs and had found Prince Joshua in his chambers, preparing himself for the meeting. "I have placed her with the others." He reported, watching quietly as his master pulled himself into his pants.
When Prince Joshua only responded with a nod, Jan let out a sigh. "Your Highness, I highly advice you to stop kissing your rice balls, this has been the 43rd rice ball girl we have encountered. And they are getting fiercer each time. Even when I had arrived at the second to last floor, I could still hear her screams."
Prince Joshua only nodded in response. He knew he had to stop, this was getting out of hand, but somehow he would always end up kissing his last breakfast rice ball.