Chapter 2

AN: So, I figured since chapter 1 is more prologue than anything, I'd post chapter 2 now. Might wait til I get some of the later chapters more completely before I post chapter 3, though. We'll see what the overall interest is.

Disclaimer: Princess Tutu is still owned by someone else.

"Why are you a girl again?" Fakir asked, looking at the former duck in shock.

"Hu...Huuuuuuuuuh?!" she squeaked in reply. "What do you mean 'why?' Didn't you have something to do with this?"

"No, I didn't," he answered, his expression growing more concerned.

"But... how am I a girl?"

"If I knew that, why would I have asked?"

"Oh, right," she said, frowning. There was silence for quite a while. Ahiru seemed lost in thought while staring at the floor, while Fakir continued to watch her, the look on his face showing different levels of concern as his mind clearly raced.

"So, what should we do?" she asked, looking up at him.

Fakir seemed a bit surprised and turned his attention to the floor now. He thought for a bit, then looked back at the girl wrapped in his blankets. "Well, first we'd better find you something to wear," he said, looking a bit uncomfortable. "Then we can focus on figuring out what happened."

Ahiru smiled and nodded.

It took a lot of digging, but eventually Fakir managed to find an old dress Raetsel had left there for some reason that was about her size. He left her in his room to put it on and stood in the hallway thinking. "How is this possible? I'm positive I didn't write anything that could do this to her. But what other option is there?"

"Okay, I'm ready," he heard her say after a bit. He opened the door and started to walk in. There was something about seeing her as a girl again and seeing her wear a nicer dress like that. He thought he felt his heart skip a beat.

"No, what I am thinking? That's not..." he said to himself, his cheeks turning a bit red as he looked away from the now confused girl. Something about his reaction didn't feel completely...natural.

"Um... Fakir? Is something wrong?"

"No," he replied, finally looking at her again. "I mean, yes, we do have a problem, but..."

"So you really didn't write anything about me?" she asked, looking curious and a bit sad. Frankly her expression was rather cute...No! No it wasn't!

"No, I didn't write..." he began, but he suddenly stopped and looked very confused. He began muttering, "That can't be right."

"Wh-what can't?"

"I know for a fact I never wrote anything like that, but somehow I think I did. But I didn't! My...mind is a blur..."

Ahiru reacted in shock. "Wait, what?! You think you did and you think you didn't? That doesn't really make sense, Fakir..."

"I know," he replied, putting his hand on his forehead. "But I'm positive I didn't do this. I don't know why I'm thinking like this!"

"M-maybe you wrote it in your sleep or something!"

He frowned at her. "How is that even possible?"

"Uhh... Um, I dunno, it was just a suggestion!"

Fakir sighed. "Regardless, I don't see anything I wrote that would have done this around here. We need to find out what happened. Do you remember anything?"

"Not really," she answered, seeming deep in thought as she cocked her head toward the ceiling. "I remember waking up and thinking I was still a duck and then seeing that I wasn't. Does that help?"

"Ahiru..."

"I guess it doesn't, does it?" she sighed, looking dejectedly at the floor.

"Well, we won't find out anything just standing around here," Fakir said after a few moments, snapping her back to attention. "Come on, we need to investigate."

"Ah... all right!" she replied, smiling and following him out of the room. They got outside of Charon's and stopped in the street. Fakir seemed to be thinking once again and Ahiru looked up at him. "So, where are we going?"

"Well, if I didn't do this, and I really don't think I did," he added quietly, "there are only two possibilities I can come up with. Let's start by going to the clock tower."

"The clock tower?"

"I know. It's a long shot, but we need to check." Fakir began walking down the street.

Ahiru, however, stayed where she was, frowning a bit and watching him. "Um, Fakir?"

He stopped and turned back. "What is it?"

"I just..." she trailed off.

Fakir frowned. "You just what?"

"Nothing," she pouted.

"Then what are you standing there for?" he replied, looking a tad annoyed. "We need to get going."

She was quiet for a moment, until finally she spoke. "It's just that you don't seem very happy to see me as a girl again!" she exclaimed, looking at him angrily.

"What?" he replied, seeming very taken aback.

"You're acting all 'We need to find out how you became a girl and change you back!' You don't even act like you care!"

Fakir was at a loss for words for a few moments. "Look, can we talk about this later?"

"No! I wanna know why you're so set on fixing this now!"

He frowned and walked back toward her, stopping a few inches in front of her. Ahiru jumped a little and blushed. "Why is this so important to you?" he finally asked.

"Uhh... I-I dunno. Come to think of it, I can't really say why it's bothering me..."

"Really," he said, lowering his eyebrows.

"But it is, okay! So why aren't you... I dunno, happy?" She pouted a bit.

Fakir sighed. "We can discuss this later, all right?" he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She looked at it, a bit surprised. "What's worrying me right now is why this happened. If Drosslemeyer has somehow found a way to write another story, we really need to stop it, right?"

"Y-yeah, that's true, but..."

Fakir dropped his arm and frowned, looking at the ground. "It's not that I'm not happy. I'm honestly not sure what I'm feeling right now, and that's worrying me too. So I think we should save anything we need to say until we know what's going on, all right?"

Ahiru stared at him wide-eyed, remaining silent.

"What is it?!" Fakir finally exclaimed, turning a little red.

"You know, I'm not really sure how I'm feeling either," she replied, still looking at him curiously.

Fakir frowned. "See? It's happening to you, too! We need to go to the clock tower, okay?"

Ahiru nodded. "O-okay!" she replied, trotting after him. It was a bit of a walk to the tall tower in the center of the town. Neither of them had been there since the story had ended, which seemed like such a long time ago now. It was quite a climb to the top as well, and Ahiru noted as she huffed and puffed barely halfway to the top that she had never actually done this on her own power before.

Fakir stopped on a small landing and turned back, watching her clutch the wall as she tried to catch her breath. "Are you sure you're all right?" he asked a bit nervously.

"Y-yeah. I-I'm fine. Just have...haven't done this...in a while..." Ahiru took a deep breath and suddenly stood back up. "Okay, let's go!"

Fakir kept watching her nervously. "You're sure?"

"Yep! I can totally do this!"

"...Fakir, are we there yet?"

"It's just a few more flights..."

"Eeeehhhhh...."

Finally they reached the top landing, and Ahiru immediately sat down on the floor and sighed, still breathing heavily. "I always thought you had more energy than that," Fakir noted with a frown.

"I just... need a little time... is all," she panted.

"And that also worries me," he said quietly, starting to scan the room for any signs of something writing. The old device still sat there, covered in cobwebs and dust. Its levers and other devices still hung broken above it, attached to the clock's gears. Nothing was moving. Fakir began to investigate the walls, joined after a few moments by Ahiru, looking for any signs of a hidden room or another secret machine.

"I don't see anything, Fakir," she finally said after several minutes, staring intently at a knothole in the wall.

"I don't either," he replied, still frowning. "That rules out Drosslemeyer, for now, at least. I suppose that's a good thing."

"Yeah," Ahiru said with a laugh. "But, wait, if it's not Drosslemeyer, then who else could there be?"

Fakir kept frowning. "There's one other person we should talk to..."

"Hu-huh? There is?"

"Come on, let's go to the school."

"School? Really!?"

AN: ...Three guesses XD.