Have a 'Hoppy' Easter everyone!
The town of Oberon was rather beautiful, but that was a given since it was so close to the re-established Fairy Realms. When King brought the realms back, the first thing he did was put the fear of god into the local human town and make it clear that attempting to exploit the fairies or assist anyone planning to do so would end badly.
However once a tentative peace had been established, the human leader of the once-village learned very quickly they stood to benefit more from working with the fairies and protecting the entrance than they did in going against them. The climate was always good, the crops grew without a hint of sickness and the tourist business caused a major boom in the population and allowed them to branch out until they were a respectable town, despite the slight difficulty in getting there.
Which was why one young female mayor had a brilliant idea to celebrate their coexistence with the Fairies.
And so the yearly Fairy festival was born. Tourists loved it and best of all so did the Fairies. Some even joined in on the fun, though there were strict rules about what was allowed.
Ichigo had heard about it from King, but it was one thing to hear about the yearly festival and another thing to see it. Everyone was dressed in brightly colored outfits, and quite a few even had fake wings that were often decorated like a butterfly or a moth.
You could tell the actual fairies from the humans, as there were often strings attached and no small amount of them were floating above the crowds, only to land at some stall or another that took their fancy.
And the center of the festival was the Fairy Monarch Contest, a tribute to King mostly. Men and women would participate in several different trials...such as beauty and a talent contest, and the finale was to try and represent the fairy race the most accurately to the older legends, which was the part the Fairies enjoyed the most.
Mainly because they were allowed to heckle those who tried to deviate from the theme.
With that in mind, and the fact she didn't have a set date to find King in the Fairy realm, she entered the contest.
She managed to successfully reach the finale, which was the part she was looking forward too most.
Everyone went with the light-hearted, prankster fairy theme because it was easier to do.
She went for something a bit more macabre and chilling.
Using the dress orb King had given her should she successfully challenge Ban and survive fifteen minutes, she walked onto the stage with a slightly darker pair of fake wings on her back. She took a deep breath and started to sing a haunting melody.
"Come little children
I'll take thee away..."
(If any of you have seen the movie "Hocus Pocus", then I you'll probably recognize the song "Come, Little Children". If not, I suggest looking it up...this is what Ichigo is singing.)
As Ichigo sang, her haunting melody seemed to enrapture the audience and gained the full attention of the fairies listening. She didn't noticed the approving expressions on their faces, as she was representing the darker tales of the fae from the old days perfectly. The song suited the theme, as it wasn't uncommon for faeries to spirit away young children to play forever in their realms. Some of the fairies watching were descendants of such tactics, and the changeling bloodline was still rather prevalent in the main line.
Some were even swaying slightly to the haunting theme which would have easily lured the unwary into the fae realms, never to be seen again.
The judges certainly noticed this, in particular the fact that the fairies were eagerly listening to the song and the way it was portrayed.
It seemed they had their winner for this year.
"I don't believe this! How did you win with such a boring song?" complained a girl with an overly elaborate costume.
Ichigo shook her head in amusement.
"You don't read the classics, do you? Everyone here was portraying the lighter hearted summer fairies...I was the only one to do the winter fae, which are much darker and more sinister in nature. There are plenty of stories of people and children in particular being spirited away. I know for a fact that changelings used to steal infants and replace them with their own kind, and that it was common to place wrought iron over the cribs and over the entrances of homes to ward off the fair folk and keep them out," said Ichigo.
"I must say, it was a pleasant change of pace," said a young woman with short blond hair.
Ichigo turned to look at her and had to do a doubletake.
"No way... are you Elaine, King-sensei's sister?" said Ichigo.
Elaine blinked.
"Do I know you?" she asked.
Ichigo grinned.
"I woke up your brother...and I accidentally revealed the fact your lover was in a hunter's prison because he annoyed the man arresting a random villain who happened to be paying for his drinks."
"Wait, you know where Ban is?" said Elaine. She had wondered why King was up so early.
"Last I checked, he was leaving Zaban city after the chairman let him hitch a ride during the exam. King told me to come here once I got my hunter license."
Elaine was clearly dubious.
"How do I know you've met my brother?"
"Hang on..." said Ichigo, before rummaging through her bag...and let out a cry of success.
Inside was an odd band of daggers held together by a loose string.
Elaine was slightly impressed...then it turned to shock as the string was cut and the daggers began to float before changing into a familiar spear, that promptly shifted back into pillow form.
"You...how do you have Chastiefol?!" she said.
"...Did King not explain I might be coming?" asked Ichigo.
Elaine was clearly pissed about not getting any warning. However the fact remained the Chastiefol wouldn't shift forms for just anyone, and now that she thought about it, King had returned to the forest without his sacred weapon.
She was just happy to see her brother that she hadn't thought about it.
"Do you mind staying in town for a bit while I have a chat with my brother?"
Ichigo had an impish expression on her face.
"Ask him where his spear went and imply you've seen multiple people with replicas of it and that you're wondering why he's missing his," said Ichigo.
Elaine's eyes gleaned with dark intent. She was going to give Ban and King such a tongue lashing if they didn't have a good explanation for this.
King took one look at his sister's expression and hid a wince.
"King, I've been meaning to ask this for a while now. Where is Chastiefol?"
King blinked.
"I found a decent replacement. One with fairy blood in her."
To be honest, he was tired of wandering around and wanted to retire. But in order to enjoy it he would have to find a replacement to act as the monarch. He didn't mind acting like a mayor of sorts within the realm, but there were still fairies out there that needed to be found and brought home.
Besides, he was tired of dealing with heroes and villains after his weapon or his power.
Elaine blinked, then glared at him.
"You found a potential Queen and failed to tell me?"
"To be fair, the odds of her actually passing the exam on the first try are extremely low," said King nervously. "Besides, according to our own laws she can't become the official Queen and take over until she's at least a hundred years old."
While fairies did live a considerably long time, even they had specific limits of how young their monarchs could be. The bare minimum was at least a hundred years, and that was pushing it for emergencies only, when the previous king or queen was already taken out.
Which meant Ichigo had plenty of time to work out her own powers and to learn her responsibilities without giving up completely on her human life, as it would take at least a century or two for her to be fully converted to a full fairy.
Or at the very least have her immediate family die of old age and give her a reason to move in with the fairies.
"So how did the contest go?" asked King.
"Funny thing really... a young woman about eleven or so won the whole thing because she did a pretty good representation of the darker side of faerie legends, rather than the bright ones that everyone tends to do each year," said Elaine evenly.
King blinked.
"Really?"
"You know the stories about the older generation spiriting away children and leaving behind changelings? She did a pretty good imitation of it with her song," said Elaine.
"Wish I could have seen it," said King.
"Here's the part I found the most fascinating...she recognized me immediately despite the fact we had never met before. And she knew about the fact Ban is my lover," said Elaine evenly.
King had a sudden ominous feeling.
"Of course that was only topped by the fact she had found a way to disguise Chastiefol as a series of daggers on a loose bit of string that she used like a belt..." said Elaine.
"Wait, Ichigo is here?!" said King in shock.
"And she has a hunter's license to boot, from this year," said Elaine.
"How... Of course, she had Gon with her. The exam doesn't care how you pass so long as you impress the proctors..." said King to himself.
"So why didn't you tell me about her sooner?" demanded Elaine.
"I didn't expect her to pass so early. I mean if she can survive the exam, then she'll be eligible to unlock her Nen and that means she's strong enough to handle the beginning phase of becoming a faerie," said King. "I was pretty much counting on her being a bit older before she passed the exam."
"So what are you planning to do now?"
"Awaken her Nen, then toss her into the sacred tree to start the succession process," said King.
"Oh...should I go get her then?" asked Elaine.
"Why not wait until after the festival. That way we get to have a bit of fun in case something goes wrong," said King.
Not that he thought it would, after all being accepted by Chastiefol was one of the major requirements, but things had been known to happen.
A few hours later...
Ichigo had an immediate reaction to seeing King, to Elaine's amusement.
She promptly glomped him.
"It's so good to see you!" she said cheerfully.
"So how did you pass the exam on the first try?" asked King. He was honestly interested, as it was extremely rare for that to happen.
"Mostly due to Gon, but also because the tests were actually pretty easy in hindsight. On an unrelated note, that Black List hunter was pretty unhappy learning he had Ban in his prison."
Considering the amount of damage Ban would do once he got bored enough to leave, that was rather understandable. If he wanted to leave, he would and damn what measures the hunters took on the matter.
So long as he didn't go on a killing spree most hunters were of the opinion to turn a blind eye.
It was easier for everyone.
Elaine was openly amused at the fact an eleven year old was hugging her brother.
"So what's this I hear about you doing a winter fairy for the festival?"
Ichigo grinned and twirled a bit, showing off her darker costume along with the wings.
"Like it? I wanted it to be a bit more subtle than the flashy colors that everyone else does."
King nodded in appreciation. Everyone went for the flashy colors, to make the festival a bit brighter, but the darker color tone and subtle themes was a nice change of pace. Plus it suited her natural coloring better.
"So what do we do now?"
"We're going to enjoy the remainder of the festival, then I'm going to throw you directly into training. Specifically the part that will make you an official hunter in the eyes of the association."
Ichigo perked up at that.
The rest of the festival was even more fun than normal, as the locals recognized King immediately and were all too happy to share interesting stories about the town with little to no prompting.
It was even more interesting meeting the various fairies around as, they took one look at the fact she had Chastiefol (in it's guardian beast form) following her instead of King and knew something was up.
Elaine found it amusing that it didn't take long for the fairies to realize that there was a potential queen in their midst, and that King was planning to hand over the reigns.
"By the way...where is Ban? I noticed the crystal I gave you activated, and yet he hasn't shown up yet," asked King.
"I have no idea. The chairman let him out in Zaban city after the exam was over, and last I heard he was planning to hit a bar or two. He mostly told me that the area you mentioned was where the new Fairy realms were before he disappeared," admitted Ichigo.
Elaine twitched. She was going to give her husband such a tongue-lashing.