Princess Tutu: Chapter of Repetition

Act 4: The story

Once upon a time, there was a man who died. His story was interrupted and the princess lost her heart, and with it also lost the gentle feeling with which she treated people and the memories of her gallant fight. And then, the pieces of the princess' heart, which were scattered throughout the town, searching for a place to go, settled in hearts that had been cracked. Some of those people whose hearts were possessed ended up having their own stories thrown into chaos.

Mytho was practicing in the ballet room. So far, no one had been down graded into the apprentice class but Mytho didn't want to push his luck and decided to try and get better so that he wouldn't have to be stuck in the apprentice class. Still, even though he wanted to practice, his thoughts kept roaming. As he looked out the window he saw Fakir. He was walking towards Ahiru who had a picnic basket in hand.

"Oh, I guess they're going on a picnic." Mytho sighed. Suddenly the door creaked open and Mytho turned from his practices.

"Hey, have you seen Ahiru?" It was Rue.
"Why?" Rue glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
"Because she went out somewhere without telling me."
"Are you sure it's any of your business if Ahiru wants to go out with her boyfriend?" Rue glared at him.
"Where did they go?"
"I don't know."
Rue folded her arms at Mytho and glared at him. With a 'Hmph!', she turned on her heel and left.
Mytho stared out the window and sighed. "Can't she just be happy for them?" Mytho shook his head and decided to call it a day.

As Mytho walked through the streets of Kinkan, he pondered to himself about whether or not he should tell Ahiru the truth about his true nature. However, a happy tune brought him out of his thoughts. Looking around, he spotted Marie standing beside a building.

"Reality has a shy nature. If you get close, it will hide away. Reality can't stand to be alone. If you keep it away it will chase after you. Could it be that you are confused about something?"

Mytho walked over to her. "Hello Miss Marie. There is something..." The two began to walk together. Mytho told her about his predicament and yet again, Marie answered in riddles.

"Wind kindles flames and shakes the treetops. But flame burns down trees."

"Hm...I don't think I understand. I'm sorry. Perhaps if I walk around and thought about it...in any case, thank you Miss Marie." Mytho ran off and wandered aimlessly while thinking about the riddle. Eventually, he came to a place where there were quite a few trees around and a single tree with violets blooming on it in the middle. Under it sat Ahiru and Fakir. "Ah, I found them." He watched from behind a tree as they talked with each other but then shook his head. "What in the world am I doing. This is an invasion of privacy." Mytho went back to the paved path and continued walking.

"Fakir...we're out of water. I'll go get more..." Ahiru stood and ran away with the empty bottle.

"Hey, Ahiru!" Fakir sighed and shook his head as he relaxed against the tree. It took Ahiru a while to find it, but eventually she found a spout sticking out of the ground and quickly filled her bottle. Then, she hurried back to Fakir. However, on her way back, she bumped into Mytho and tripped.

"Ow...oh, Ahiru?" Mytho said as he rubbed his arm.

"Sorry." Ahiru apologized as she got up.
"No it's fine, but are you okay? You should be careful!"
"I was trying to hurry back to Fakir."
"Fakir, huh? You really like him, don't you?"
"I don't know. I don't understand what 'like' is."

"What? You-" Just as Mytho was about to question her he noticed a cut on her leg. "Ahiru, you're hurt!"
"Oh..."
"Oh? You mean you didn't notice?"
"No...but I know what to do." Ahiru poured the water from the bottle onto her leg to clean it. But then she grumbled. "Oh, I guess I have to go get more water."
"Hey, I'll come with you."

With that, Ahiru led the way and Mytho followed. They had walked quite a ways until Mytho finally decided to ask, "Where are we getting water?"

Ahiru stopped and pointed to a cottage restaurant not too far from where they were. On the front was a large porch with a few round tables set up on one side. "Oh." Ahiru went up the steps of the porch and knocked on the door. A plump blue haired woman was there to greet her immediately.

"Ah! Customers? Welcome, welcome! I'm the owner and chef, Ebine!" She stepped aside to let the two in. "Why don't you sit down somewhere and I'll be right with you!"

"Uh, but we're not customers."
"...oh?"
"Yes, we're just here for water."
"Just...water?"
"Ye-" Just then Ahiru's stomach growled but she didn't pay any attention to it. Ebine, however, made quite a big deal of it. Pushing Ahiru and Mytho to their seats she hurried off to prepare food.
"You must be hungry! I'll just prepare a little something for you."
"But, we didn't bring any money."
"That's fine! Fine!" And with that, Ebine disappeared into her kitchen. As she left, Mytho noticed that his ring began to glow. A heart shard?


Back at the tree, Fakir waited patiently for Ahiru to come back. He was worried, though, that Ahiru hadn't returned yet. He let the sun on his face calm his nerves until something blocked out the sun. Looking up he saw Rue standing in front of him.

"Where's Ahiru?"
"Why do you want to know?"
Rue glared at him. "She said the word 'feeling' the other day."
Fakir's eyes widened for a moment. "What?"
"So, where did she go?"
"She went to go get water."
"Ha, by herself? You're quite the gentleman." Rue started walking again, off to search for Ahiru.
Fakir groaned to himself and got up. "Wait, I'm coming with you."

Ebine came out of her kitchen with two plates full of delicious looking food. "Go ahead, eat as much as you want!" As Ebine set the two plates down, almost immediately she went back to her kitchen. "Oh dear, I hardly think that will be enough!"

"Wait! We only needed water..." Mytho sighed and decided to try eating some of the food. It was cold. Trying a bit of all the dishes, he found that they were cold too, not to mention a bit bland. Looking across the table he saw Ahiru eating it up as if there was nothing wrong with it.

Soon enough, Ebine came back with another dish. Then another. And another. Each one was like the last. Tasteless and cold. Ebine kept coming back, pushing more and more food on them, however, Ahiru seemed to think it was fine.

Mytho stood up. "Ahiru, I'm going to go to the restroom. I'll be right back." On his way, he heard Ebine talking to herself.

"Dear, its been so long since we've had customers! I have to make sure I feed them a lot of good food. Dear, which one do you think would be tastier?" Mytho froze and out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a tombstone outside a window. It was all very suspicious but Mytho shook his head.

No, I can't jump to conclusions. But dangerous or not, we really do have to get out of here. Mytho went back to the table and held out a hand to Ahiru. "Ahiru, I really think we should head back. We can get water somewhere else." Ahiru nodded and took his hand. However, Mytho led her to the door rather hastily, making Ahiru trip over her feet. She waved her hands around and grabbed onto the mantle nearby. But in the process, Ahiru managed to knock over a small white box. "Sorry, Ahiru! I didn't mean to pull you so hard." Mytho leaned down to pick up the box when he noticed the recipe cards that had spilled out. "These recipes..."

"Oh, you're not leaving yet, are you?" Ebine stood before him.
"Yes, I'm afraid it's time for us to go."
"No, you can't leave! You have to eat more and more! You've barely eaten anything!"
"I'm very sorry but there's no way I could eat any more. I'm full." Ebine paused and then turned to Ahiru.
"Well how about you dear? You look like you could eat more. What do you say?"
"I guess."

Before he knew it Mytho found himself outside Ebine's restaurant. She was surprisingly strong. Mytho tried to get back in but the door had been locked. "Ahiru!" I can't let her stay in there by herself!

"Hehehe, the story is going into chaos again! A heart, too pure, that is possessed by a heart shard has been driven to madness. I wonder, what will you do about it, Prince Siegfried?"

As if answering Drosselmeyer's question, Mytho transformed. Ebine, thinking that someone was outside her restaurant, opened the door.

"Oh! A new customer?"
Shaking his head, Mytho said, "Dinnertime should be over now." Dancing in, Mytho's pink flowers lifted Ahiru up out of her chair and into the air. "Please, rest for now, Ahiru." Suddenly, Ahiru closed her eyes and laid herself down on the suspended bed of flowers.

"Give her back. Give back my customer!"
"Please won't you-" Suddenly, Mytho remembered what he did with Arikuimi. He tried dancing, just as the girl from his vision did, but it didn't work like it had for her. He then remembered when he'd thrust his sword into Arikuimi's heart. Perhaps that was the only way that Mytho could get through to them. Drawing his sword, he slowly approached Ebine, while speaking to her.

"What will you do when she doesn't want to eat anymore?"
"I'll just have her eat more." Ebine backed away.
"But why?"
"Because! Isn't happiness being able to eat lots of delicious food?" Ahiru's heart shard appeared behind her.
"Ah, so you are the one with the heart shard after all." Mytho said to himself. "You shouldn't be in her heart. Please, allow me to return you to your rightful home."
"Never! I'll never let you take her away." Ebine took another step back as a boat appeared under her feet. It turned around and floated away into the air. "I want her to eat and enjoy more delicious food!"
Mytho followed on his own cloud of flowers. "If you want her to enjoy your food, then why is it so cold? What feelings are you trying to hide?"
"Feelings? Yes...I remember the feelings I had back then. The talk was light and the food was delicious. I remember when I would ask my husband which dish would be tastier and he would tease me by saying 'you're not quite there yet.'" Ebine smiled softly and closed her eyes. "But...I was happy then. Now that he's no longer here to cook with me, I became so lonely. That's why I want to fill the stomachs of the people who go through all the trouble of coming to my restaurant with all the wonderful recipes my husband taught me."
I see, so that's what she meant when she was talking to herself. It was as if she was talking to her husband.
"You must be the feeling of loneliness then." Ebine fell to her knees and sobbed into her hands. Mytho took this opportunity and thrust his sword into her heart. When he pulled it out, the heart shard came out as well. Before she materialized into a shard, she waved goodbye to Ebine. "Sorry, I have to go now."

Ebine raised her head. "No! Don't go! I don't want to be alone again!"
Mytho knelt down in front of her and put his hand on her shoulder. "You'll be okay. You have the recipes that your husband left for you." Mytho handed her the recipe box. "I'm sure that he wants you to continue to make delicious food, with his recipes. I'm sure he wants you to be strong; strong enough to overcome this loneliness."
Clutching the recipe box, Ebine floated away on her boat and back to her restaurant. "Yes, I will make wonderful food. Hot and delicious food. Dear, I'll make a truly wonderful restaurant. Please, help me."

Mytho turned back to Ahiru as she began to stir. He helped her down from her bed in the air and returned the heart shard to her. He bowed and was about to take his leave when Ahiru spoke up. "Prince Siegfried, thank you very much." Mytho smiled at her and then ran off. Instead of running away, Mytho transformed back into a boy and hid behind Ebine's restaurant. He was about to come out of hiding and say something to Ahiru when Fakir and Rue came out of no where.

"What are you doing here?" Rue asked.
"Nothing."
"Well, what happened?"
"Prince Siegfried was here."
"Prince Siegfried?" repeated Rue.
"Ahiru, that's nothing more than a fairy tale." said Fakir.
Did he say that Prince Siegfried is just a fairy tale?

"He was given looks, courage, strength...but, the prince chased after the princess whose fate wasn't connected to his. The moment he confessed to her, he vanished in a flash of light." Vanish? Mytho wandered away from the restaurant. That can't be true...if Prince Siegfried is just a story, then what does that make me? A swan, isn't that right? Or...does that make me just a fairytale as well?

"Hehehe, the Prince's tale is a tragic one, you know? Stories shouldn't always have happy endings...with any luck, this one will end the way it was supposed to!"

To be continued.......

Phew! Chapter 4: Done! It took a while, huh? ^_^; Sorry if it doesn't seem to good. And also, I apologize if it starts getting repetitive soon. It'll be like this for a few chapters but I promise that it'll start changing in...3 chapters or so? ^_^; Apologies! Oh, and please comment!