Man, I'm in a very good mood today. I'm pretty sure that everyone whose seen Princess Tutu, knows that most of the music are actual classical pieces by different composers. Before watching Princess Tutu I liked classical music but I never really bothered to really look up names or famous pieces. I would just listen to whatever was on the radio. That's why, when I found that I fell in love with some of the music from Princess Tutu, I had no idea what some of the pieces were called. But recently, I've found a few, namely, Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens. For those who might not know where exactly this plays, it's the background music for much of episode 24. Not only that, I've been listening to a lot of that kind of music while writing my these chapters so it's really getting me in the mood for writing ;D
Sadly, around next week, I'm definitely going to have to cut down on the amount of writing I do because I really have to focus on a french ISU that's due after the break so...yeah.
The next day, Ahiru and Fakir had arrived to class together. Fakir had gone to do his stretches leaving Ahiru at the door. She made to go follow when a group of girls blocked her path.
"Who do you think you are? Sitting so close to him on your first day, walking to class together, we've even heard that you're living with him!" raged the girl who seemed to be the leader of the group. She had dark brown hair and deep red eyes. If Ahiru hadn't known any better, she would have thought that this girl was a crow.
"W-well, Fakir's just a really good friend of mine..." The crow-like girl snorted at her.
"Oh, nice try, but you're not going to fool us." The other girls around Ahiru nodded seriously and Ahiru began to shrink back against the closed door behind her. "You really need to learn your place, uh...whatever your name is."
"Her name is Ahiru." Pique and Lillie pushed their way through the group of girls and stood protectively in front of Ahiru. "And we're not going to let you pick on her."
"That's right!" Lillie pitched in enthusiastically.
"Guys!"
"Told you we'd protect you." Ahiru smiled gratefully. Her friends really did have her back. For a few moments, each group simply glared at each other, an intense staring contest of sorts. However, the crow-like girl had become fed up with it as it seemed they were at a stalemate and, with a 'humph' turned on her heel and went to her stretches. Ahiru let out a sigh of relief.
"Thanks a lot guys! But uh...did you guys happen to tell anyone that I was living with Fakir?" Ahiru's eyes shifted towards Lillie.
"Who? Us? No way!" Lillie defended herself halfheartedly. She was obviously enjoying her little slip of words. Of course, Pique knew the truth and crossed her arms. "What are you talking about? You practically yelled it out in the school yard."
"Did not." Just then, Miss Lorna entered the room and said, "Okay everyone! If you would all just take a seat for a moment."
"It seems that we have yet another new student joining our class today. Two in fact. However, I'm sure most of you already know them as they used to attend Kinkan academy. At the moment, no one knows whether or not they will be staying for a full year but for now, why don't we give them a warm welcome back. Rue! Mytho!"
Suddenly, the room was filled with whispers of amazement and surprise as the couple stepped out onto the floor. Then, they began to dance. Ahiru watched intently as this was the first time that Ahiru had actually seen the two dance a pas de deux while the Prince's heart was complete.
Despite their dances being beautiful back when the Prince was still heartless, they were even more beautiful now that he had all his emotions back. It was a dance of happiness, passion, and most of all, love. As Ahiru watched, she almost forgot of the dark situation at hand. It looked as if there was no trace at all of the presence of raven's blood. They looked as happy as they were when Mytho had chosen Rue as his princess.
But it seemed that Ahiru had spoken too soon. Even from where Ahiru was sitting, she saw, for a single moment, that Mytho's eyes had flashed red as he brought Rue up in a lift. At that moment, Mytho began screaming out in pain and collapsed, falling into unconsciousness. As such, Rue too, had fallen from the lift.
"Rue! Mytho!" Ahiru cried out. Ahiru looked to Fakir and he was just as concerned as she was.
"Marian! Go get the nurse!" Miss Lorna knelt down by Rue and Mytho gently inspected them. "Arg, they're both unconscious." It seemed that when Rue had fallen, she had hit her head on the floor. Miss Lorna gently took her hand and felt around Rue's head, searching for blood or a bump at the least.
Before long, the nurse arrived with help and carried both Mytho and Rue back to the nurse's room. Miss Lorna sighed as the nurse closed the door behind her and then turned to address her students. "Okay class, this would be a good time for me to lecture you all about the dangers of ballet and what to watch out for in order to keep yourselves from injury."
Although this lecture would have been good for Ahiru to know, considering her clumsy nature, she couldn't help but ignore it. At the moment, all she could think about was Rue and Mytho and how his eyes had flashed red just before the incident. Every now and then, she would sneak glances at Fakir, only to see that he was thinking just as hard as she was.
The day seemed to pass by so slowly, but eventually, class had ended and Ahiru and Fakir met up outside of the lesson room. Once Ahiru was sure that no one was around to hear them, Ahiru asked him worriedly, "Fakir, earlier, you saw it too, right?"
"You mean Mytho's eyes? It was only for a second, but, yes."
"Then, I wasn't imagining things...oh, Fakir, what are we going to do! At this rate..."
"It's just as Rue said. Until she, or any of us, can figure out what's wrong with Mytho or how to help him, all we can do is watch. If he begins to do anything suspicious then we'll be there to stop him." Ahiru nodded in agreement, but still couldn't help but frown.
"So um, are you going to go check on Mytho and Rue?" Fakir nodded. "Ah, okay, I'll go with you."
When the two arrived at the nurse's office, Rue was sound asleep in one of the beds, and the nurse was seated beside her. "Oh, hello. Do you need anything?"
"No, we're just here to check up on our friends." Just then, Fakir noticed that only one of the two beds in the nurse's room was occupied, and Mytho was no where to be seen. "Excuse me, where is the boy that was also brought here, Mytho."
"Oh, the boy with the white hair? He woke up shortly after he was brought here so after I inspected him for any injuries I made him wait here for a while to make sure he was alright. Nothing seemed to be wrong with him so I let him go."
As soon as the nurse had finished speaking, Fakir was out the door. Ahiru smiled apologetically at the nurse and said, "Sorry about that. We needed to uh, talk with him. Um, please tell Rue that we came!" Ahiru ran out the door and caught up to Fakir.
"You don't think Mytho is..." Fakir only shook his head. "There's no way to know for sure. But we shouldn't take any chances. Let's split up." Ahiru nodded and once they were out in the yard, they went in different directions. Fakir headed in the direction of the dormitory while Ahiru stayed and searched the school grounds. Ahiru ran from building to building, desperately searching for any sign of Mytho.
When she got to the library, she felt a malicious presence from inside. When she stepped inside, Ahiru knew that he had to be there somewhere. She could just feel it. As Ahiru searched the building, she noted that not a single soul was currently in the building. It was like it had been abandoned. Ahiru was about to give up when she began hearing voices coming from another room.
"Could it be?" Ahiru rushed towards the noise. She ran down a dark hallway and listened carefully to the silence. As she passed one door, she could hear a quiet, menacing laughter coming from within. "That has to be it." Carefully, she pressed her ear against the door and listened.
"What are you laughing at?"
"You. Your pitiful heart is so full of such strong negative emotions. But, the most intense is...envy." I know that voice. It has to be Mytho. But the other one...is that...Autor?
"Excuse me?"
"Envy of the power that your cousin holds. The power that you so desperately wanted. Envy of Rue's love for me, and not you." Autor snorted at him.
"Oh I see now, you're just here to rub it all in my face now, aren't you?" Then, in a volume that Ahiru could just barely hear through the door, he added, "You all got your happy endings, now can't you just let me live in peace?"
"I can take all these hurtful emotions away you know."
"Oh really now?" Autor asked sarcastically.
"Yes. It's quite easy. I'll just relieve you of your pitiful heart." Suddenly, Ahiru heard a scream. No! Before Ahiru knew what was happening, she felt a familiar sensation consume her body. It felt much like when she transformed from girl to duck, yet it was different, and Ahiru remembered it so well.
She burst through the door in a grand jeté. Inside, it was a cramped room, each wall was lined with books from top to bottom and at the opposite side, stood Mytho over an unconscious Autor on the floor. Mytho turned around, startled, when he saw the beautiful prima donna, Princess Tutu, standing behind him.
"Prince, it has been a while, hasn't it?"
"T-tutu..." For a moment, the Prince's eyes returned to their original color, but quickly reverted back to their evil red. With a grunt, he turned back to Autor and reached down towards his chest.
"Please! Stop this, Prince!" Princess Tutu folded her hands over her heart and then reached out to him. "These cruel acts, the true you doesn't want this. You know, deep inside, that these feelings are not your own. That is why you are fighting so hard against your raven's blood."
Mytho only sneered at her. "That's true, the Prince doesn't want this. However, I do." He turned then, and all of a sudden, crow's feathers fluttered about him, and he was wearing the clothes that Ahiru had seen him in during her dream. Mytho drew his sword and raised it over his head.
"Prince! Stop!" Quickly, without thinking, she leaped in between Mytho and Autor. As his sword began to fall down on his target, Mytho seemed to falter and his blade stopped in mid-air, a few inches above Princess Tutu's head. Princess Tutu gasped as saw Mytho's eyes flicker from red to gold.
"Please," he begged. "Don't...don't hurt Tut-Ahiru." Suddenly, reluctantly though, he dropped his sword and collapsed, returning to his normal self. Princess Tutu was quick to catch him, but his weight was too much for her, so she laid him down gently on the floor, still cradling him. As she did this, she returned to being Ahiru and began to panic. Autor and Mytho were both unconscious and Ahiru had no idea what to do. So, she simply sat there and watched as Mytho grimaced in his sleep. "Oh, Mytho..." Mytho, you're fighting really hard, aren't you...
Ahiru sat in silence for a good long while. Since there was no one in the library when she came in, she decided to wait until Mytho woke up before she did anything, in case he woke up while she was gone. But, to Ahiru's relief, she soon heard the muffled creak of the library door opening.
"Mytho? Ahiru?" A voice called.
"Fakir!?" Ahiru called back. Shortly, the door opened and Fakir stepped in. "Ahiru! What-?"
Ahiru frowned. "Mytho...he tried to..." Then, Fakir noticed Autor's unconscious body lying behind Ahiru.
"He tried to take Autor's heart, didn't he?" Ahiru nodded. "So why didn't he?"
"Well, um," Ahiru brought her hand to the pendant at her neck. "It looks like this pendant also gives me the power to turn into Princess Tutu."
Fakir frowned. "The more that happens, the more I'm starting to suspect that Drosselmeyer is behind all of this." Ahiru cringed at the thought of Drosselmeyer attempting to throw the story into tragedy again. Suddenly, Fakir approached her and scooped Mytho up into his arms. "Fakir?"
"Go check up on Rue. I'll take Mytho to his room."
"But, what about Autor?"
"He'll be fine. He should wake up soon. With any luck, he won't remember what happened." Ahiru nodded and followed him out, but stopped to cast a concerned glance at Autor before closing the door behind her.
When Ahiru got to the nurse's room, Rue was just getting ready to leave. She seemed so relieved once she saw Ahiru come through the door. "Ahiru! Where's Mytho?"
"He's...okay now. Fakir is bringing him to his room." Rue became sober and said, "He tried to take someone's heart, didn't he?" Ahiru nodded. "Why...after we were all so happy...what should we do Ahiru?" Rue asked despairingly.
For a moment, Ahiru didn't know what to say, but, when she remembered that she had transformed into Princess Tutu not too long ago, she decided to think of what she would say. "Well, I think, right about now, Princess Tutu would say, 'This is a fight that is also being fought inside the Prince. So, all we can do right now, is believe in the Prince, believe that he can over come it. As the people who care about him, we must simply do all we can to help, even if it's just to believe.', or something like that."
Rue seemed astounded by Ahiru's sudden burst of wisdom but in the end, found herself chuckling. "You're right, Ahiru. Thank you." Ahiru beamed with pride that she was able to cheer her friend up and then held her hand out for her to take. "C'mon Rue. I'll walk with you back to the dormitory." Rue smiled slightly and took Ahiru's hand
When Rue and Ahiru reached the dormitory, the sun was already setting and Fakir was just leaving. "Well, Rue, we'll see you tomorrow!" Ahiru said as she waved goodbye. From there, Ahiru walked alongside Fakir back to their house.
Mytho sat at his window seat, staring idly up at the moonlit sky. "Hm, curse that Tutu...I wonder if that heart would have tasted good, a heart full of emotion..." Mytho stared at his faint reflection in the window, his red eyes staring back at him. "But, no matter. I suppose at the moment, any heart will do. However, these normal hearts are rather plain, and bland. I think I'd rather like to finally have a taste of a pure, untainted heart." Mytho chuckled quietly to himself as he licked his fingers of the small traces of blood on his hands.
Well, there's chapter 5 for you! Oooh, where did Mytho get the stuff from! Uh, well I hope you liked this chapter. Please feel free to review and comment. They're always appreciated. ^_^
Oh yes, and Merry Late Christmas to everyone! And a happy boxing day. For the next week, I'll be focusing more on my ISU so I probably won't get much written. So, if I don't get anything posted by New years, 'Happy New Years!' everyone!