az: Because I had this random image of another random fairytale parody. And Hero Vision 37 kinda spurred it further.

The Priestess and her Knight

Written by Izzu alias honou-no-izzu

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"Stop it! I don't like that!"

A small girl called Ayumi started crying as her pleas were not heard by the three older boys that appeared to be bullying her. Across the road, a young teenage girl happened to pass by and hurriedly chased the boys away. Sighing at the scene she had just witness, she gasped as she recognized the little girl.

"Ayumi-chan!"

Little Ayumi stopped crying immediately and looked up to her. As soon as she recognized her, she clung to her tightly as she cried again. Seeing this, the young woman blinked and knelt to comfort Ayumi.

"Ayumi-chan, is something wrong—?"

"I hate boys! They're all so bad!"

She cried in surprise. Sure, it would be understandable if Ayumi hate those kids who bullied her... but to call all of them as bad? She shook her head at the little girl.

"Surely it can't be like that. What did those boys earlier do to you? Not all boys are bad. Ayumi-chan's father is a boy too... right?"

Ayumi sniffed. "They said Ayumi was ugly. That my eyes were so small and close together... and my nose—"

She kissed Ayumi's cheeks as she dried her tears. "You're not ugly, dear. Someday you'll grow up and become beautiful. When that day comes, I bet those boys would regret saying all those things to you.

Ayumi smiled. "Can I become as beautiful as Nee-chan?"

She nodded as the girl grinned happily. "Can I also have my own knight like in that story you told me before?"

She blinked before realizing what the girl meant as she shrugged. "Perhaps. I believe there were still a lot of kind person like that knight in that story."

"Will you tell me that story again?"

It was so sudden that the request took her aback. But considering she was still waiting for her friend to meet her, she might as well entertain the little girl. It could perhaps lift the little girl's spirit for a bit.

xxx

It was a time of unrest for the small land under the wind; in which like the town we lived in, used to be such a peaceful and pleasant place to live in. But in recent times, some of the people on that land started doing bad things to others and wrecking havoc everywhere they can.

During those times, our hero was only a simple young man who was clueless to such things around him. Like most boys his age, he liked to play around and do anything as he pleased. But later, something had happened to him and he was placed under the care of good man who was as knightly as you can imagine! Our hero, grew to admire the man and vowed to someday be like him—to which, the older man had accepted him to be his apprentice. Together, they have helped protect the people of their land from bad people.

Until one day, both of them received a task to save someone. That someone happened to be kept imprisoned by someone who had been responsible for the incidents happening throughout the land. Without fear, both of them had entered the enemy's hideout to save that person—a young boy, who would later become our hero's comrade. The rescue was successful... but there was a bitter price to be paid. The mentor died while trying to protect our hero and the boy. Since then, both of them had taken the task of protecting the land from evil so that nobody would have to cry again.

But our hero was still not strong enough so throughout his mission to protect the land, he encountered many things; good and bad, while trying his best to protect the things important to him. During those times, he met a young maiden. It was not really love at first sight but like many young men on the land, he was a bit taken to her. The maiden was a beauty by her own right but also had her own strong personality, and they haven't managed to get along with each other. Both of them crossed paths numerous times as unfortunately, the maiden happened to be one of the daughters of our hero's enemy, the warlord who had lead to many grievances on the land. And later it turned out, was also the older sister of his comrade. But he did not let that bother him, as he believed that she had nothing to do with what her father did.

Sadly, fate did not side with him. One day, the maiden suddenly becomes a priestess of earth and now fighting them as their enemy. This pained both our hero and his comrade, the latter because he was fighting his own family and the former, for being a kind person who cared for both his comrade and the maiden. The battle onwards had been hard, as other enemies appeared before them and defeated by them. The enemy; who had been the maiden priestess and her family, had fallen during their last battle as the maiden was taken away by yet another new foe. A shadow cult who had been aiding her family to their evil deeds. Our heroes went to save her—at first failed, as many of their allies were hurt in the process. But later our knight had fought again to save the maiden and with his comrade, succeeded this time. All should have been well; our hero had finally grown to be so strong as the knight he aimed to be but even that had its own price. His comrade, the same person whom he and his mentor saved from the enemy before; was no longer around. His spirit had returned to earth as did some of his family members who had died.

Our knight never told anyone about this to his allies and he kept his sorrows to himself as he continued to protect the land as well as the maiden, his comrade's remaining relative. He never even told her of the truth about his comrade as well. The maiden had slept for a long time and when she had awakened, was very angry with our knight. Because of what she had done in the past, the knight had kept her confined in order to protect her. But the maiden didn't know that so one day, she tried to escape. So while trying to protect her, our knight accidentally let out the truth about her brother. The maiden; shocked at hearing the revelation, disappeared into the winds.

Heartbroken as he had also failed to fulfill his promise to his comrade to protect the maiden, the knight had felt even more alone. Yet he still continued to protect the city as one child had sought his help. Everything seemed to go well as the knight and his friends pursued some of the new troublemakers that had terrorized the land, but our knight was still too kind. Without realizing his true enemy, the knight had been attacked unprepared. Everyone was devastated, but the next moment his comrade returned and both of them continued to protect the land from harm...

xxx

"But how did the knight's comrade come back? Didn't he disappear?"

She nodded. "The knight's comrade later explained that his sister, the priestess had sacrificed herself to revive him so that in return, he could save him from his unknown attacker in time."

Ayumi's eyes went wide as she chuckled. The little girl always gave her that reaction every time she told this story to her. Then again, it does sound like something fairy tales are prone to have.

"Then did the priestess died?"

"Yes, sadly."

Ayumi frowned. "That was so sad. They won't be able to see each other again." A pause before Ayumi spoke again. "But nee-chan! Do you think the priestess finally liked the knight?"

She froze. This was the first time the little girl had tried to talk about the priestess after the end of her story. It was so unexpected... she could not think clearly on how to answer her questions. But suddenly one came up and she shrugged.

"I... I guess, yes? The comrade had said as much... and I believed that some feeling should have been present in the priestess's heart. I think anyone would also do something just to see the knight be happy again."

Ayumi sighed. "I wished the priestess and the knight could be together..."

"Well, I guess it can't be helped."

Ayumi suddenly grinned. "I guess not all boys are bad. There must be some nice boys like that knight too! Thank you sis, I don't feel bad anymore!"

She smiled as she watched Ayumi hop off the bench and ran off across the park. Before she left, she could see Ayumi turning around and shouted, "Nee-chan! If the knight doesn't find anyone else like that priestess, tell him that he can look for Ayumi-chan too! Ayumi-chan will try to grow up to be like nee-chan and the priestess too!"

She laughed as she watched Ayumi leave, as another voice called her from behind.

"What was that about?"

She turned around and smiled at her friend. "It's nothing. Just a random story I cooked up to cheer a little kid. You can't imagine how some of the things that happened around us all this time can turn into some kind of fairy tale, especially after Akiko-chan explained what really happened to Philip-kun the other day."

Queen laughed. "Oh... you're still telling kids some made-up stories based on Sho-chan, aren't you?"

Elizabeth grinned. "Not to all kids. Just those who I felt needed to know that there are still some good people out there watching over them. Or for some other related reason. Besides, it's not completely made-up! I just picked up the main points and turned it into a shorter story."

Her friend laughed. "Are you sure it's not just another of your wishful thinking? I overheard some of the last bit of your conversation earlier..."

Elizabeth's eyes twinkled. "Don't you think so? Sho-chan did looked good with Sonozaki Wakana-san, once you set aside some other things about her—And also the fact that he still haven't had a girlfriend, bothered me. We need to do something about that, even Akiko-chan got paired up with Terui-kun!"

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The merriment clearly showing on Queen's face as Elizabeth laughed. "Oh you're so mischievous, my dear Elizabeth!"

"Isn't it? I know I'm a genius..."

Queen giggled. "That aside, we're late! We supposed to meet up with the others for the anniversary party! Heaven knows how many times we had this postponed! Come on! We'll plan about Sho-chan later then," she said as she dragged Elizabeth hurriedly towards their destination.

Mid-way, Elizabeth mused loudly.

"You know, what if Wakana-san did end up having some feelings towards Sho-chan in the end? And if Sho-chan also felt the same? Don't you think it was sad? Or romantic for them... in a sad way?"

Queen stopped running suddenly as she turned towards her friend. "Oh Elizabeth! That sounded like some of the endings on some of the old detective stories Sho-chan likes to read. When you said it like that... it sounded like Sho-chan was really so—"

"Hard-boiled?" Elizabeth ended her sentence as both of them stared at each other. But that did not last long as they burst into laughter.

Queen shook her head. "Nah, Sho-chan was cuter as he is right now. Hard-boiled or not, I don't want him to be sad again. Wakana-san wouldn't want that as well."

"Then we don't tell him," said Elizabeth as she giggled. "But it was kinda adorable, isn't it? Sho-chan's love life!"

"Didn't he like someone else before? That umm... Marina something, was it?"

"That's one-sided! Anyway later it turned out to be a nasty business so that doesn't count."

Queen giggled again.

'So what did you call that fairy tale story about Sho-chan's love life?"

Elizabeth grinned.

" 'The Priestess and her knight'. Did it sound cool?"

"Haha. We definitely cannot tell Sho-chan about this!"

"Don't you think so? But can't you imagine how red his face could be if he found out?"

"Haha! Silly Elizabeth, why do I love you so much about this?"

"Because both of us loved Shotaro so much."

"That is true..."

And both girls continued to giggle as they resumed their walk towards the agency. Meanwhile, back at the Narumi Detective Agency... a certain half-boiled detective kept sneezing non-stop.

"Aaah! Who's been talking about me behind my back!"

..

THE END