Okay, so I don't think we have many fairy tales yet ripped off of, but in the next chapter we do!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
This chapter is another flashback with Kululu.
"DOWN WITH THE KERONIAN CONQUERER!" Peasants and people of all sorts had gathered outside of Kululu's castle, protesting. They didn't even seem to fear for their lives.
All they knew was that it was wrong for a Keronian to be in power.
Kululu was growing tired of their protests. Several attempts on his life had already been made.
How can I get my revenge if nobody will follow me? He knew what the protests came down to. It was his looks. They didn't care if he was evil at heart or if he was the best ruler ever. All they cared about was that he was an ugly Keronian.
All the guards that were supposed to protect the king had turned against him, joining the protests and throwing rocks at him when he tried to address the people.
Nothing was turning out right. If he even set foot out of the castle, the people tried to kill him.
Maybe... I just have to hide in here... Wait for the commotion to die down... Kululu hoped that would work.
So he bolted up the castle doors, locking himself inside. No servants were allowed in; nobody was allowed into his castle.
He made it his home of solitude and safety.
I-I'll be safe here... he told himself.
Nobody dare come close to the castle. They had heard the rumors of the evil soul who lived in it.
The people didn't like being ruled by a Keronian, but they were also afraid of him, due to his inventions. His inventions, they'd heard, had wiped out the royal family.
Kululu stayed locked up in his castle, until one day, when somebody finally approached it.
The people made room for him in their protests, almost as afraid of the traveler as they were of their dictator.
He was a traveling enchanter, a wizard with dark magic, someone looking for only the best shelter.
He barged past the locked gates, not caring about them. He knew if anybody refused his stay, he would just curse them. That's how he worked, cursing the people he didn't like.
He knocked on the large doors of the castle three times. "I'm a traveling wizard looking for shelter. May I come in? If you don't let me in, you'll have to face my wrath!" said the egomaniac.
On the other side of the door Kululu listened. To the shock of the people, he opened the doors, allowing the wizard inside to rest.
"Thanks," said the wizard.
"The dictator... Is he scared?" The people gasped in shock.
They didn't know if it was out of fear or kindness that he opened his doors. In reality, it was neither.
Kululu had opened his doors for a whole different reason - because he liked crushing people with a big ego. He opened his doors out of jerkiness.
He had a plan.
The wizard, who Kululu could now see was a salmon-colored Keronian, warmed his hands by the fire.
"Name's Tororo," he greeted. "Pu, pu, pu. Anywhere I can sit?"
"Of course." Kululu took a venomously sweet tone as he dragged up a chair with glue on it. It's been a while since I've had anyone to play with. Time to be a jerk till the end! Ku, ku, ku.
Tororo sit down, leaning back and getting comfortable, unaware he had just been glued to a chair.
Kululu started laughing, "Ku, ku, ku!"
"What's so funny?" Tororo asked, squirming around.
"Nothing." Kululu wiped a tear from his eye.
Tororo didn't seem pleased by the laughter. "I'm thirsty. Can I have something to drink?" he said.
"Of course.~" Kululu left to get the spicest drink he could find. He came back pretty quickly. "Be sure to drink up.~"
Tororo did, and after a moment, he screamed. "AAAAH!"
"Oh...? You don't like spicy drinks? My bad," he said. Tororo tried to get up to find water to cool his searing throat. His chair came up with him.
"Wh-what...? What's going on?"
"You didn't like glue on your chair? My bad again," Kululu laughed, "Ku, ku, ku."
"H-how dare you! I'm a great wizard, this is a great insult!" Tororo's face boiled with rage. "I curse people for just not letting me into their homes, so you have no idea what you're going to get."
"The only insult here is your face. Oh, actually, your smell too. Do you ever bathe?" Kululu put a hand over his nose and gagged.
Tororo tried to run over to him to throttle him. Kululu easily dodged, since a chair was now plastered to Tororo's butt.
"The best thing ever is it's permanent~! Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu laughed at his latest invention, permanent glue. That's what the brat gets for having such a big ego. And anyway, I'm not afraid of his so-called "curse." I know all magic is fake, anyway. Only science exists, and he doesn't look that smart to me. Kululu was unafraid of getting cursed as Tororo chased him throughout the castle.
Tororo hobbled all the way up to the second story, up to Kululu's balcony.
"Too slow." Kululu dodged as Tororo leaped at him and flew off the balcony into the mud, a crowd of people watching as the "great wizard" humiliated himself.
Everybody laughed, mostly Kululu.
"HOW DARE YOU! TAKE THIS GLUE OFF OF ME!" Tororo yelled from the ground. "I'll curse you... I'll double curse you! I'll give you the worst curse of them all!"
"Yeah, right. Magic doesn't exist, so there's no way you could curse me. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu laughed. He quickly ducked back into his castle before everybody threw rocks at him.
Tororo struggled to stand up, a chair still on his butt. He loudly knocked on the doors so Kululu would let him in again.
Ku, ku, ku. Doesn't even have a fake magic spell to open my doors. Pathetic, Kululu laughed to himself.
But Tororo kept banging.
The real curse must be this annoying banging. He's certainly tenacious. Kululu hadn't gotten much sleep in that week. Tororo had continuously been trying to get into his castle to curse him.
Kululu needed to stop the little bugger before he went insane. So in the middle of the night, he finally opened the door.
"Shut up! Just get out of here! I'm not letting you in again; you've already amused me!" Kululu yelled. No crowds were around; it was just Tororo and him.
But now that he had opened the doors, Tororo just smiled. He didn't try to get in; he just stared at Kululu.
"I didn't want to get inside, I just wanted to see you," Tororo told him.
"Ew. Gross," Kululu retorted.
"Pu, pu, pu... If you want to see gross, look in a mirror after I'm done with you..." His hands began to glow, and a beam from them shot at Kululu. "Magic around me, curse this horrible creature to be the ugliest thing in the known universe, as ugly as he is on the inside. Let it the spell only be broken if..." Tororo chuckled a bit. "If somebody loves him for the stupid vile jerk he is on the inside, and if he accepts their love in return! Pu, pu, pu!" he laughed. "Sorry, magic thing. I always have to add a clause that explains how to break a spell. It sucks."
Kululu boredly watched as the aura that had shot him encircled him.
Ku. So what kind of trick is he trying to pull? Is he going to say something like, "It didn't work because you're already ugly! Ooh, burn," and then pat himself on the back? What's going to happen? Kululu wondered how Tororo would excuse nothing happening.
Instead, he heard a loud cracking noise, a cracking of the so-called magic bubble around him. The spell was breaking; it wasn't working.
Ku. Even more priceless. His trick is backfiring. Kululu laughed more, but as he laughed, he grew taller and taller. He looked down at his hands. To his surprise, he saw that they were changing, growing bigger and more humanoid.
Wait... Wh-what's happening? Kululu wondered. My body is actually changing... Maybe he is using some sort of science to do this.
By the time the magic bubble had evaporated around him, he knew his body had changed. He was cold and large and felt hair on the top of his head.
"Wh-wh-what...?" Tororo seemed to be in shock.
Kululu felt around his face - he was clearly a human now. Frowning, he grabbed a mirror and looked into it, to see his new appearance.
"You changed me into a pretty boy!" Digusted and surprised, Kululu glared at Tororo.
"I didn't mean to! I tried to make you the ugliest thing ever! Not the prettiest! Th-the magic must have backfired because you were already so ugly that it changed you into something horribly attractive! ARGH! I didn't mean for this to backfire so badly!" Tororo just clutched at his head, horrified that he had helped someone.
"Ku, wow, you sure do suck," Kululu told him. He tried to pretend that he was happy with what had happened, just to rub it in Tororo's face, but in reality he didn't like what had happened one bit. Yuck. I'm some weird Pekoponian. What do I do now? He was unused to his new form, and unused to a mirror not cracking when he saw himself. "Are you going to change me back?" he wondered, hoping Tororo would take the magic away. If you can't, I'll just make a ray gun to make me back into a Keronian.
"I can't. There's only one way to change back. True love, remember?" Tororo reminded him. "I'm just going to leave and pretend this mistake never happened. Maybe you'll dislike it. Pu, pu, pu! I hope you do!" Tororo waddled a way to search for a magic powerful enough to remove the chair from his butt.
Kululu groaned in annoyance.
His ray guns wouldn't do anything to his appearance. He remained a pretty boy, and could do nothing about it.
Maybe he had been cursed, after all.
He was so annoyed even that he went to his balcony to think. He expected rocks to be thrown at him, but instead, the people froze.
"Who are you?" they asked.
"Your ruler, who else?" he responded. They threw down their protest signs.
"You must have taken out that awful, disgusting keronian. We will gladly follow you anywhere," they vowed. "Someone as good-looking as you must have a wonderful heart."
Wow, talk about shallow. They're only judging me on my looks. Life doesn't work like that! Good-looking people might not have good hearts, and bad looking people aren't necessarily evil. Life isn't some stupid fairy tale, Kululu thought to himself. Then he suddenly realized that the people were following him.
Wait... I've conquered their hearts finally? Does that mean... this appearance is useful? ...Yes... I am a pretty boy now... Nobody can refuse me as long as I look good. That's the lesson I've just learned.
Kululu smiled. "I am honored by your allegiance. We have a lot to do, my subjects."
The subjects smiled at him and bowed.
Kululu was back in power of his kingdom.
I suppose it's not necessary to go back to the old me, then. Manipulating peoples' hearts is much more useful than being disliked based on first appearances.
He knew one thing though from the lesson he learned: The best-looking people were the most evil at heart.
He would never trust anybody who looked as fabulous as he.
Years passed, and Kululu built his army to be stronger and stronger so that he could finally attack the Third Kingdom that had wronged him.
He would kill everybody who had been there. The queen, the king, the princess. They would all die.
His appearance had been quite useful. Sometimes annoying at the constant suitor requests. But very useful.
The day had finally arrived for his attack. He made sure the army was in the best condition.
"It's time to kill them and take the land that will soon be ours!"
The battle had gone well. Well enough. He had killed Queen Aki with his own hands, but as he had murdered her, the princess had gotten away. The prince, too, had fled the castle.
He ordered people to find her, but none returned with her whereabouts. She had escaped.
"If people can't do something right, you have to do it yourself," he sighed. He began to make a new invention, something that the people would probably confuse again as magic - a mirror that could show him anything he desired.
"If somebody says this is a magic mirror, I'm going to puke," he gagged as he made the magic mirror.
After a week, it was ready, and he was ready to find the royal siblings he had lost.
"Show me Prince Fuyuki," he ordered. An image appeared of Fuyuki dressed in normal clothes, boarding a boat, to travel the open seas. "Peculiar. Ku, where's his sister?" Kululu knew lots of boats suffered accidents on the open sea. He didn't even need to follow Fuyuki; the kid would just die on his own.
But Natsumi... He wanted to kill her, he wanted her dead. He knew of her cruelty towards Keronians, and he had never forgiven her for crying at the sight of his face.
"Show me Princess Natsumi!" A new image appeared, one of Natsumi dressed in a fine gown, modeling in front of some crystals that reflected her appearance.
He knew enough geography to know where she was. She was in the castle in the Kingdom of Justice.
"So... She fled to the fourth kingdom, huh? Ku, ku, ku... Suits me well. I needed more kingdoms to add to my empire..." Kululu smiled as he saw Natsumi. "This changes nothing. I'll still be able to kill her. And I swear that I will... I will get my revenge."
He laughed wickedly as Natsumi remained blissfully unaware of his plans.