KuduEdogawa presents...

""Knighthood: The Spirit of the Knight""

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

==II==

The bright, spring morning sun crept over the canopy of that same forest, sending its rays into the magnificent glass windows of the large castle. He opened his eyes a bit and the blinding light hit him, he pulled his blanket over him, retreating into the darkness and paused. There's something different about this day..., yes, in fact, he's pretty sure it's a day that's too be celebrated. He gasped and kicked the blanket off the bed, got dressed, and ran for the door.

BAM!

His legs were faster than his hands, he had ran into the door before his hands could open it. He looked into the mirror on the wall, ooh, that is one ugly nose bleed. Regardless of his injuries, he opened the door and charged down the carpeted hall, down the stony, spiral staircase, past the sapphire-encrusted crystal door, charged down another more magnificently carpeted hallway, down another set of stairs, pushed open two large, wooden doors and came to the royal courtyard. He ran around the fountain, down the marble stairs, past his squire, who stopped him.

"Good morning, commander!"

"Oh, good morning Hiro, listen, I've got to go." He resumed his charge.

"Wait," Hiro yelled after him, "are you sure you don't want me to treat that nosebleed? And the Princess said that she wanted-"

"-nineteen bouquets of pink orchid!" The commander shouted back, opened the front gate of the castle and left. The squire scratched his head confusedly and went inside.

The commander kept running, ignoring the various "Good morning, commander," that the villagers gave him. He took out his pocket watch: seven o'clock. The princess will wake up in an hour and she will be absolutely furious if he didn't get her the nineteen bouquets of pink orchid. The commander ran past the baker ("Freshly baked onion bread!"), past the grocer shop owner ("Care for a few carrots, commander?"), past the flower dealer ("Daisies, roses, all sorts of flowers!"), past the post office, skidded, and went back to the flower dealer.

"Good morning, commander, what will it be this year? Nineteen bouquets?" The dealer asked.

"Yeah," the commander replied, looking at the cart. There's little pink blossoms, yellow daisies, purple roses, and a large amount of white orchids. "Nineteen bouquets of pink orchids."

The dealer, who was tying the white orchids together, stopped his work and repeated, "P-pink? I thought the princess wanted white orchids?"

"That's what I thought, but she wanted pink this year!"

"I haven't got pink anything," the dealer paused and pointed at the small pink blossoms, "save for those."

"Alright," the commander said, "I'll have nineteen bouquets of those."

The dealer prepared nineteen bouquets of the pink blossoms and handed to the commander, who took out his pocket watch again: two quarters till eight, he'll have time. And he ran again, past the grocer shop, past the baker, up the long, stony path leading to the castle, opened the castle gates, up the marble stairs, around the fountain, through the wide, wooden doors, up the stairs, and once again down the magnificently carpeted hallway of the second floor and halted in front of the crystal doors where Hattori was pacing back and forth, as he had done for the past seventeen years. And he waited.

Exactly at eight, a huge yawn escaped the room and the muffled sound of "Hattori?" brought the still-young knight into the princess' room.

"Where is Shinichi?" Came the muffled voice of his princess.

"The commander is waiting outside," came Hattori's reply. Did he imagine it, or did Hattori put an emphasis on 'commander'?

"Tell him to come in," the princess said.

A moment later, the sapphire-inhabited door opened and Hattori allowed Shinichi's entrance. Shinichi stepped into the room, the white decorations had been changed to pink the previous year, Ran was even thinking of changing her doors to pink. Shinichi closed the door behind him. He walked past the pink, hanging draping, came to the large pink bed and sat on the pink stool next to it. He removed eighteen bouquets of white orchids from a nearby vase--the one that Ran hid in twelve years ago--and placed the new flowers in.

"Well," Ran spoke first, "how was your morning? Com-man-der?" She teased.

"Oh, pleasantly hectic." Shinichi said.

"How so?" Ran asked and sat herself up in the bed.

"Come on, now. How could I ever be unhappy on your birthday?" The knight said. "Prin-cess?" He added.

Ran giggled; although she was mature on the outside, and have acquired the attitude and posture that a princess should have, she still feels childish in her heart, especially when she is with Shinichi. "Well," she said again, "isn't there anything you'd like to say to me?"

Shinichi smiled and edged the pink chair closer to the bed, he leaned forward and whispered "Happy birthday" in her ears. She giggled again, "And?"

Shinichi picked up the vase that was on the ground, "And look! Nineteen bouquets of fresh pink orchids!"

Ran looked at the flowers and sighed. "Shinichi..., I'm nineteen, I'm not stupid; I know these aren't orchids. And seriously, I don't care if you gave me presents or not. As a matter of fact, I would've been more mad if you lied to me instead."

Right, you don't care about presents yet you asked my squire to remind me...

"Will you forgive me then?" Shinichi asked innocently.

Ran smiled, "Oh, how could I not?"

Shinichi took out his pocket watch and looked at it, "Well, I'd better go, gotta train. You'd better get dressed too, all the maids are wondering how they should decorate the dining hall." Shinichi patted Ran's head and left the room.

He stepped out of the crystal doors and back again into the well-decorated hallway, he was just about to leave when Hattori stopped him.

"Shinichi," Hattori said, it wasn't in a very friendly voice. "What are you trying to do?"

"What am I trying to do?" Shinichi repeated.

"Don't jest, you know perfectly well what I mean: For the past seventeen years I have been like a brother to Ran. I'll hear of it if you try to do anything to her..., and mind this: so will the King." Hattori is almost threatening Shinichi.

"W-what do you mean 'do anything to her'?" Shinichi said. "We're best friends, that's all." But Shinichi knew this wasn't entirely true, ever since a few years ago Shinichi and Ran have moved officially past the best friends stage. Some might say they're closer than even blood-related brother and sister.

"Don't think I'll let you off just because you're com-man-der." He said the last word with a mocking voice, apparently their conversation was overheard by him.

Just then, a call for Hattori came from within the room, and Hattori left, leaving Shinichi entirely clueless about Hattori's sudden change of attitude. Ever since that evening, Hattori's also been like Shinichi's older brother and taught him everything he knew about being a knight and Shinichi really looked up to him, but this sudden change is just too unnatural.

Shinichi headed for the training ground, but the new soldiers, under the supervision of his squire, had already started practicing.

"Well?" Hiro said when he saw Shinichi's approach.

"Well what?" Shinichi said, shielding his eyes from the blazing hot sun.

"What did you and your princess talk about that made you be late to your training?" Hiro said, nudging his commander.

"Do you so sincerely want me to slice you up in half?" Shinichi threatened.

"Alright, I'll shut up. But-"

"I thought you were gonna shut up?"

Hiro shrugged. "Just wanted to remind you that her dinner's at five..., you know, gotta remind you with that poor memory of yours."

"You know perfectly well that I only forget things about myself," Shinichi said. He turned to shout at the training soldiers, "You hit like a woman, Toro! Hit harder!!"

~*~

The sun has begun to sunk, turning the sky a dark purple. Guests were beginning to arrive in glamorous carriages and the guests are lead by servants through the candle-lit corridor and into the large ballroom. Shinichi paced around the dining room, greeting some of the more important guests, including a foreign king of Diima. Shinichi was dressed in a deep-blue tuxedo with yellow stitches of orchids on the back. His armor was beneath this well-made tuxedo, and his father sword at his side. At six o'clock, Ran entered the ballroom in her pink, strapless gown, her beauty stunning every guest in the room.

She walked gracefully to her seat by the long dining table and raised her goblet. "Thank you all for coming to my nineteenth birthday, I would like you all to enjoy the feast, dance all you can and wish that you would have a pleasant evening." She then drank from her goblet and the guests did the same.

The king then appeared behind the princess, some people made movements to bow, but the king raised his hand and stopped them. "I just wanted to give out another important announcement concerning a promotion. As of this moment, commander Kudo Shinichi will be the general of my kingdom, of Beika."

People's eye sights were placed on Shinichi and everyone cheered and clapped. From the dining table, Ran smiled at her childhood friend and clapped the hardest of everyone. No one had the time to notice that in a corner of the room, Hattori sulked and left the feast.

The feast continued for a hour and people slowly proceeded to the ballroom. Shinichi was forced to dance one dance after another with various duchesses and baronesses. When at last there seemed to be no more women that wanted to dance, Shinichi exited through the golden-framed glass door and went into the royal garden. There were a few people chatting here and there, giggling now and then. Shinichi walked slowly into that same, old forest. When at last it was too dark to see anything, the guests all went inside and people could care less about the princess walking into the forest also, tracing Shinichi's footsteps. Shinichi sat beneath a rather large tree--the tree where they had first met.

"Time certainly passed, huh?" Ran walked up to him.

"Yeah," Shinichi said, leaning his head on the trunk of the tree, allowing the moonlight to shoot through gaps in the leaves, emitting the silvery rays on his face.

"Shinichi?" Ran said, sitting down next to him.

"Get up, your dress will get dirty." Shinichi stood up and pulled her princess up. Slightly unbalanced, Ran stumbled closer to the general, their face close to each other. Shinichi examined the princess' face and the moonlight reflecting in her eyes. "You are so beautiful..." The general pulled her closer to him and Ran rested her hands on his chest. A slow and romantic song played by the orchestra traveled into the forest, Shinichi moved his face down and their eyes closed as their lips met. Shinichi embraced his princess as they kissed for what seemed like eternity until the lights of dawn separated them.

==============================================================================

Yeah, yeah, I know that I made Heiji really un-Heiji-ish...

I don't know when clocks and lamps were invented, so let's just assume that "Beika" is a well-developed kingdom, eh?

Coming to chapter three: A foreign prince whose goal is Ran, and the disturbing truth about Shinichi's parents' assassination.