Written two years ago.
Disclaimer: I do not own Murder Princess.
Delusional
She found it strange; she had never paused to even ponder the bizarre occurrence between her and the girl whose body she currently resided in. In fact, she found it even stranger that the girl had initially and immediately looked passed the phenomena at the cliff... and then aggressively asked of her to save her kingdom using her body and identity, Princess Alita Forland. Perhaps such an oddity ensued due to the situation; Alita was desperate to save her kingdom and found Falis to be extremely capable of playing the role of savior and later, the determination to get back their own bodies made it seem almost impossible that it would not occur. But that didn't explain why Falis had immediately turned down Alita's plea for help, as if she fully accepted herself to be forever trapped in Alita's body. It also didn't explain why Alita never seemed to illicit any strange behavior at seeing herself in such a murderous fashion, nor why Falis never looked at her own body, now inhabited by Alita, and cringed at the site of it in a maid's outfit and that now also had more graceful and feminine gestures. You would assume one would continue to be utterly confused and flabbergasted at the fact they had switched bodies with someone else for possibly the rest of their lives, which now proved to be true since the destruction of Teoria. Or maybe now that Teoria was gone, they should be concerned that they'll never get their original bodies back. However, that was not the case for either Alita or Falis. To increase this level of oddity, Falis and Alita had only briefly displayed their surprise at having switched bodies; a few minutes of screams of astonishment from both girls was all that had been shared after awaking from their fall from the cliff.
Falis, the current Alita Forland with the notorious reputation of "Murder Princess" (a title she achieved because of her style of fighting when protecting the Forland kingdom) sighed.
It was strange indeed.
But now that she thought of it, she knew she was finally thinking about the situation rather than being ignorant of it.
"Good morning, Princess Alita," she heard Milano say.
Milano. Milano. The original Alita was now taking up the identity of her deceased maid, Milano Entolasia. Technically, she was in her body, which would entitle her as the new Falis... but "Milano" as well, to hide the entire body switch up. No one could know of their miraculous encounter. Alita Forland's blood curdling scream was the last thing Falis heard as the girl fell onto her at the sight of the forest's large guardian beast, hurling them off the cliff would never be discussed, nor would they dare to explain to anyone how the Princess of Forland Kingdom was suddenly so adept in combat and so fierce in her mannerisms. No one would ever know, save themselves, the butler of the Forland family, Jodo Entolasia, and Falis's lost-but-never-forgotten bounty hunting companions, Dominikov and Pete.
Falis furrowed her eyebrows. The whole matter between her and Alita's body switch had become rather confusing and frustrating after the destruction of Teoria. Honestly, she wished she had never pondered on the subject in the first place. So in light of that, she resolved to forget about the entire thing right then and there. But being confusing as it was, it latched onto to the core of her sanity: if she chose to forget, then she chose to be ignorant. This meant she was willing for the entire event to remain strange but unthought-of, therefore making it not strange, but normal.
But it wasn't normal! It was very strange...
This is an absolute failure.
Falis growled angrily and buried her face back into her pillow, failing to remember "Milano" was awakening her for another day as "Princess of the Forland Kingdom". It was like this every morning; she would be sprawled out on her bed, snoring away, and Milano would urge her to wake up causing Falis to grunt back at her, which in her own way meant she was hinting it was way too early to even move. However, this time she was not asleep and her disheveled noises had not been directed at Milano.
"Princess Alita! It is time to wake up!" Milano continued to barrage her body's inhabitor with this demand.
Falis winced at the name. She was Falis, goddammit! Yet.. Alita all the same. Sighing heavier than before, she turned her head, barely uncovering her right eye and opened it slowly, peaking up at Milano, the real Alita Forland. She let her eye travel up her body and paused to glare at her maid attire, then moved her eye to stare at her short purple hair and orange ribbon. She lingered a little on the soft shape of her face despite the fact Falis never let her own body look anything less than cold and sharp, it surprised her that the inhabitance of her body by another soul could change her appearance so much. Leaving the thought behind, she at last reached blue-green eyes. She wondered how her body's condition had changed with Alita in charge. In particular, she wondered if her body were still physically fit, not out of selfish reasoning, but because... well, Alita seemed to be the type of person to take care of her body in ways other than brutally beating it into pure, masculine fitness. And she would've thought more on it if she hadn't realized that the thought of Alita taking care of her body very well was just as strange as the entire matter she was currently concerned over.
Falis faintly blushed and turned her face back into her pillow.
"Princess Alita, how many times must I repeat myself? It. Is. Time. To. Wake. Up," Milano's voice reached her ears again.
Milano, Alita.
Falis was slowly becoming irritated with these names. She dutifully called Alita "Milano" to keep her identity up and also because she would feel weird calling someone else who had her body by her own name. It was like she had been cloned. But at this point, Falis was utterly puzzled by which name was the right name to call the girl. She wanted to use the right name; she needed it to be the right name, yet, she didn't fully understand why, she only knew of her growing confusion.
"Princess Alita!" Milano sighed and inched closer to Falis's body.
Alita, Falis...
Alita calls me "Princess Alita" all the time though... no wait, she's 'Milano'...
A repeating mantra filled Falis's head.
Milano, Alita. Alita, Falis. Milano, Alita, Falis. Alita, Milano, Falis. Falis, Milano, Alita. Falis! Alita! FalisAlitaFalisAlita!
Falis screamed into her pillow; she couldn't take this anymore.
Milano, who had been deathly close to yanking the covers vigorously off of Falis, had stopped, her hands mid-air, and stared in shock at Falis's figure. Was something wrong with her?
"Princess Alita...?" she whispered, now worried.
"Falis," was the only response granted.
"... Huh?"
"Falis. My name is Falis, and you are Alita. Alita Forland," Falis clarified.
"Princess Alita.. We've been over this many times," Milano nervously chuckled, "I am Milano Entolasia, granddaughter of Jodo Entolasia, your maid. You are Alita Forland, princess of the Forland kingdom."
Falis twitched. She had heard these words countless times towards the beginning of her reign as princess. It had always proven to be useless to argue with Alita about anything. Either the girl had no confusion on the pressing matter within Falis's head, or Alita was a natural pro at "going with the flow". No one else in their right mind would be okay with having suddenly switched bodies for the rest of their lives with some random bounty hunter who could have beamed down on earth from planet Mars for all she cared, except Alita; Alita's only reasoning would have been her undying hope within anyone or anything, her ability to find the good in everything. She once more eyed the girl before her then shoved her head back into her pillow again and mumbled.
Yes, Alita... or "Milano" was making it rather difficult for Falis to properly calm her overbearing thought process. She was losing it, and she was losing it fast; everything in her overworking brain was jumbling up.
Milano, not having heard Falis's inaudible mutterings, pried at Falis to repeat herself and to explain what the hell was the matter with her. The answer was nothing short of strange to Milano.
"Alita," Falis stressed, "Since, I am indeed a princess," Falis paused to turn and face the other girl, "You will refer to me as I wish you to and accept whatever I deem your name to be."
Milano looked dumbfounded at the statement; she was taken aback and gaping at the girl. But her confusion didn't last for long, Alita had strong reason to keep things the way they were.
"And because you are the princess, I am referring to you as the princess of Forland Kingdom, Alita Forland." Or maybe she would wittingly respond and use the whole truth as her final answer.
She caught Falis's brow raise slightly. She smiled on the inside. Yes, that was exactly what she was doing.
To say Falis was surprised would have been an understatement. Falis was utterly bewildered. Granted she could never argue with the girl before her because of her kind demeanor and strong willed attitude... she had never heard the girl spout a true, almost sarcastic comeback. But Falis maintained an amused facade so as to not inflate whatever small ego Alita did have more so. She would just choose her words wisely.
"I knew you were a conservative, but honestly, Alita," Falis stressed the girl's real name again, "You are Alita Forland, not me."
Alita, who had begun to become slightly riled up by the names, was growing weary of this tirade. It gave her a headache; she knew what her real name was and she knew what her name had to be. How could Falis be so cruel as to forget that? They could not be who they once were anymore; their bodies were proof of that. She took a deep breath and tried to reason with Falis once again.
"As long as our bodies remain as they are, you are the princess and I am the maid," a twinge of sadness ladled her voice.
"And, so?"
Alita snapped her gaze up from the spot on the floor she was boring holes into. Had this turned into a kindergarten argument or something?
"So, what?"
Falis was slightly glad the girl had dropped formalities; she wouldn't let such a moment go to waste. She planned to change Alita's ways.
"So, what if our bodies don't remain as they are. What then?"
Alita was confused, "What are you talking about? You know that's not possible now that Teoria is gone."
Realizing she had no plan to begin with, Falis rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed, "Screw Teoria," she grumbled.
A light gasp was heard from her maid, "Alita! Such language..."
So much for dropping formalities. Falis decided to drop the topic for the remainder of the morning, as she found yet again that she could not come up with any idea that would be anywhere near being remotely worthy of Alita's time (she'd only negate it again). Instead, she opted to throw a rather childish facade to annoy the living day out of the maid and slacked off in anything she did, from getting her clothes dirty at breakfast to neglecting her princess duties.
Author Notes:
Blah. I confused myself a few times with the names, but I finally got it into a sensible presentation. Hopefully, you aren't too confused with the shift in names; it might really give you a headache at first, haha. But I have a good reason for it. It always bothered me how short the anime was that they could not elaborate on the identities of the two girls. So, I got the idea to make a story about it. And I needed something to relax my brain waves so that I can sleep soundly at night.
