Princess Ouran-Chp8

The next day, Haruhi offered to bring in Count Kaoru’s breakfast. The least she could do for him after his bloody ordeal was to look after him as much as the doctor and Count Hikaru would allow her too. After all, the baby inside her is still her husband, and since she couldn’t love the one she want, she might as well make an effort and love the one she’s with. In order to do that, she had to make her Oka-sama feel better, and this was where the oni-neko root given by Nekozawa came in.

As she entered the room, she saw Count Kaoru having a slightly fitful sleep, moving here and there occasionally, as if she was having a bad dream. Flashbacks of her own nightmarish encounter with the creature rang in her mind, making her wonder what would Nekozawa’s reaction be if he were to ask of her mission, but that would be a matter settled later. She had important business to attend to. Haruhi put the tray of milk and bread on the table and reached over to caress Count Kaoru’s belly. If she were to try and love her baby fiancée, she might as well get a head start now.

Taking out the oni-neko root and a small bowl she smuggled from the kitchen out of her shirt, she filled the bowl with the milk from the jug and placed the root into the bowl. Almost immediately, the root began to come to life at the touch of the milk—catching Haruhi off guard—and made a sort of gurgling kitten-like sounds, moving its arms and legs like a baby would when it sees its mother. Seeing the oni-neko root moving like that made her thought of what she would do when the time came to take care of her future baby husband.

Carefully, she crept under the bed with the oni-neko root in the bowl of milk with her, taking care not to spill it. She moved it slightly where the Countess’ head may be and bit hard on her finger, drawing blood from it. As she put two drop of blood onto the root, she heard the family doctor and Count Hikaru coming in. She lay as quietly as possible so that they would not know where she was while she eavesdropped on their conversation.

“His temperature is down, sir. I cannot explain why, but it is.”

“But he still has a fever, does he not?”

“Yes, but it’s a good sign. It means his body is responding to the treatment. But, sir, if it’s alright with you, if you still want to continue with the engagement ceremony, I think it’s best if you perform it with your brother on bed. We don’t want to take any chances.”

“Listen to me, doctor. If you have to choose when the time comes, save the baby. My son will bear my beloved brother and my name and I know my brother would wish nothing else but the life of our son be spared. He is the last thing I want to lose, do you understand? Save him.”

Haruhi’s heart clenched as she heard those words before both the doctor and Count Hikaru left. Save the baby? Only the baby? What about his brother? What about Count Kaoru who had been carrying this baby for so long? What about him? Was his life so insignificant that he was expendable like the children in the cellar? How could he even decide and confirm her Oka-sama’s so-called wishes without even knowing how he truly felt about the wellbeing of himself and their child? How could he? Does he not love his brother as he claimed to be with all his heart and soul, enough to disown themselves from their previous Hitachiin lineage and marry each other despite the obvious taboo, and have been through so much trials and tribulations to conceive their little miracle child?

After making sure no one else was in the room, she crept out from under the bed and leaned on Count Kaoru’s belly, whispering to him, “My husband, my dear little husband. If you can hear me, things aren’t so good out here. But soon you’ll have to come out. You’ve made your ‘mother’ very sick, and you’ve made all the others around her worried for you and your ‘mother’. Though I’m in no position to say this, but your father isn’t one of the world’s greatest people either, and soon you’ll find out more disappointing things about him.

“I want to ask you one favour for when you come out, just one: don’t hurt him. You’ll meet him; he’s very pretty even though sometimes he is sad for many days at a time. You’ll see, when he smiles, you’ll love him. I know I did, and I still do. Listen, if you do what I say, I’ll make you a promise. I’ll be the best wife you’ll ever have, and I’ll take you to my kingdom and make you a prince. I promise you, a prince.”

As Maya left the room to let her Oka-sama rest, she made a solemn vow that she would try her best to convince Nekozawa to allow her to bring her baby husband along and make him a prince to rule alongside with her on her throne.

--:--

Count Kaoru’s recovery was miraculous. Her appetite has regained and her colour returned, getting much better as time went by. He was even well enough to actually get off bed and carry on with the engagement ceremony, although he still needed to move about with her trusty wheelchair. The doctor couldn’t understand it, but he was glad all the same that his treatment worked.

The engagement ceremony was a success altogether. With both the blessings from the priest and Renge-sama, Haruhi and Count Kaoru’s baby were officially engaged and the Counts Haruhi’s parents-in-law. Haruhi eyed at the engagement ring which was help put on by Count Hikaru and the other engagement ring worn as a necklace around Count Kaoru’s neck, reserved for her fiancée to wear it when he’s born. Everyone who had showed up at the previous engagement ceremony was there, including Mori who was the ring-bearer for the ceremony. Though her heart ached slightly at being unable to be engaged to him instead, she was happy all the same for having him to witness the ceremony. The only thing missing in the picture was her father. It’s been too long since she was in the Hitachiin Manor. He never came up the mountain to visit her, and she had not heard even a word or single news from him. It was as if she was totally cut out from the outside world and became a forgotten person in her village. She often wondered at times how and what he was doing without her, but to want to go down and visit him was out of the question.

She would have to live with the fact that she was no longer a member of the Fujioka family for good.

Mori had also been updating her about his undercover mission. It turned out that he and his fellow law-enforcer colleagues were almost having a breakthrough with the case as they managed to smuggled a couple of children from the cellars and keep them hidden with the team in their secret camp in the woods and the children were willing to testify against Count Hikaru. They even managed to convince some of the black market dealers’ errand boys to join in the testimony and when the time is right, they will arrest him and Kyouya and his men. He promised that when everything was over, he would try to find a home for Count Kaoru and his baby in his or Honey’s family estate so that she can both fulfill her duties as the Hitachiin’s daughter-in-law and be close to her father again as Ranka will be allowed visitations as he pleased.

Haruhi secretly looked forward to that and promised not to breathe a word and leave everything to him, swearing not to try and be a heroine and help him. So far, only Haruhi had the privilege to hear Mori spoke more than just replies to orders and commands, and she felt very lucky to see the side of Mori where no one else could, and she was not going to spoil blissful moments like these, even if it was just platonic sister-brother talk.

Later that night, after the ceremony, Haruhi was awakened by the familiar sounds of purring. It was no other than Nekozawa who standing over her bed. Haruhi’s heart thumped nervously at the sight of him, the incident still fresh in her mind.

“Your Oka-sama looks much better now, Your Highness, and that you are finally engaged with the little child in her. You must be relieved.”

“Yes, thank you,” Haruhi replied, her eyes not daring to meet Nekozawa’s. She wanted to keep her mouth shut about the incident, but her conscience beat her to it. “But things haven’t turned out so well.”

“No?” Nekozawa asked, surprised.

“I…I had an accident…”

“An accident, you say?”

“Yes…”

Haruhi shut her eyes tight, not wanting to look at Nekozawa any further, trying to prepare for what’s coming to her next. Nekozawa eyed at her suspiciously before calling out the winged kittens. As expected, only Belzenev flew out instead of the usual bunch, and from the tone of the grunt Nekozawa made, she knew he had expected much. Belzenev flew up to Nekozawa’s shoulder and mewed and hissed angrily at his ear. Haruhi could only assume that she was telling Nekozawa about the incident. Her heart raced even harder as Nekozawa’s face grew—if possible from his already secluded face—dark and angry.

“You broke the rules!” Nekozawa bellowed, pointing an accusing finger at her.

“It was only two slices of otoro,” Haruhi tried to explain. “I thought no one would notice…”

“It seems that we have made a mistake,” Nekozawa said as he took out the dagger she had kept wrapped and hidden under her pillow after retrieving it from the creature’s lair. Haruhi froze. Was he going to kill her with that?

“A mistake…?”

“You failed. You can never return.”

“But it was an accident!”

“You cannot return!” Nekozawa insisted, his voice much angrier than before. “You broke the rules, and therefore you must pay! The moon will be full in three days and there is nothing you can do about it. Your spirit will remain among humans forever. You’ll age like them, you’ll die like them, and your memory will fade in time. And we will vanish along with it. You will never see us again!”

Before Haruhi could stop him, Nekozawa had already disappeared into the shadows along with the dagger and her fairy friend. She knew she had chosen the wrong ending for the legend. She would never return to Ouran and she would never become the Princess she had longed for. And her baby husband would never become the Prince she had promised.

As she cried herself to sleep, she knew she had screwed up big time.

Princess Ouran-Chp7

Haruhi was awakened by the creaking noise the floor made and the soft rumbling sounds the mixture of cat and lion purrs. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, Nekozawa came into view, making a house call.

“You did not carry out the task,” Nekozawa said in a matter-of-fact way.

“No…” Haruhi replied apologetically, “Well, you see, there’s the engagement ceremony, and then my Oka-sama suddenly fell ill…”

“Bah!” Nekozawa waved her explanation away hastily. “That’s no excuse for negligence.”

“I apologize…”

A few seconds later, seeing that Haruhi was genuinely sorry and concerned for Count Kaoru’s health, Nekozawa sighed, materialized a doll that looked like a miniature wooden version of the statue in the gorge and handed it to Haruhi, saying, “Look, this is an oni-neko root. A plant that dreamt of being human. Put it under your Oka-sama’s bed in a bowl of fresh milk and give it two drops of blood each morning. That should do the trick.”

Haruhi brought the oni-neko root closer to her nose and smelt it. As usual it smelt of earth like Nekozawa, but was also mixed with the overpowering smell of ginger and manure. She grimaced and hid the root under her mattress.

“Now we have no time to waste,” Nekozawa said, getting back to business. “The full moon will be upon us soon. Here, take my pets to guide you through,” he said, calling forth a few of those winged kittens to her, “You are going to a very dangerous place, so be careful. The thing that slumbers there, it is not human.”

Haruhi gulped nervously. Not human? What kind of creature could be worse than a toad or Nekozawa, who was not so human himself?

Nekozawa then handed her an hourglass made of copper, with sand the colour of the moon’s light, and warned, “You will see a sumptuous feast before you but do not eat or drink anything displayed there. You hear me? Absolutely nothing!”

Haruhi nodded, but Nekozawa must have noticed the questioning eyes she was giving him because he said these words before he disappeared into the darkness:

“Your life depends on it.”

--:--

Mori, after lolling Haruhi to sleep, went to attend businesses of his own. After double-checking everything in the house and making sure everyone was sound asleep, he sneaked through the backdoor of the kitchen and made his way into the woods. In his pockets were copies of documents he made on the business transactions of slave trading. With his oil lamp in hand, he made a signal by covering and uncovering the light several times and paused between intervals before signaling again.

Sure enough, his tiny little blonde sweetheart came out with his little bunny plushie from his hiding place and they hugged and kissed each other like there was no tomorrow before they switched information and news and departing from each other reluctantly. Being the youngest member of the law-enforcing unit’s secret agents division alongside with his cousin and betrothed Mitsukuni Haninozuka (or Honey for short), he had volunteered to go undercover when his team was assigned to the case of Count Hikaru Hitachiin, suspected of being the mastermind behind countless smuggling of children from Africa and aborigines from parts of the Australia outback to be sold as slaves and cheap labour workers, and throughout his mission he had seen many of them who barely knew enough about the world being brutalized and sometimes even killed by the manhandling of the Count and Kyouya’s team. Honey had wanted to join him in his quest but Mori forbid him not only because he was already famous as an upholder of the law, but also for fear of anything happen to his beloved once any of their undercover mission go haywire, and that Honey’s combat expertise was much needed in the force to be abandoning on a dangerous undercover mission such as this.

Despite the lack of physical maturity, Honey was very well known for his abundant—almost superhuman—strength as he grew up in a combat military background with skills that would probably render Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Bruce Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Slyvester Stallone or any other known combat artists to shame, as likewise for Mori who grew up in a family of public servants. He and Mori were, like Haruhi in a way, engaged as soon as they were of age because Honey was born with hermaphroditic physique and it is this hermaphroditic physique that caused his growth in height and physical maturity to slow down to a snail’s pace. Usually such abnormalities within the Morinozuka and Haninozuka families (which occurs probably once every leap generation) are never able to have a lasting or normal marriage with women, thus they are usually married through male cousin-relations, and usually they would choose someone that is at least twice removed in the bloodline so as not to cause inbreeding. Since Mori and Honey are about 3 times removed, and they have been childhood friends since their dawn of time, it seemed right that the Morinozuka and Haninozuka families come to an agreement that they should be wed.

During the day, Mori would run the usual household errands for both the Counts, including babysitting Haruhi, and at night, he would work on preparing meals for the children in the cellar and helped call for carriages whenever there were transfers needed to be made. At the end of the day, when everything was said and done, he would go and report to his team which was camped out in the middle of the woods every chance he got to accumulate all the evidence they had for the day. To bring down a Count with millions of connections like him, they need all the evidence they can get and more.

He had counted on the Count trusting him to be just an errand boy who would do his biddings without questions and judgment and would easily be ignored as he was just a worker and nothing else, but he had not counted on having the Count’s future daughter-in-law to fall for him. He knew it was just puppy love of sorts, but his experience growing up with two elder female cousins who lived just right next door to his house told him that girls definitely mature much faster than boys emotionally, which is no wonder she had developed a crush for him.

He personally did not agree with matchmaking and arranged marriages (although his case was special and that he had loved Honey since before they were engaged), and certainly not the kind that Haruhi was going through, but he was in no position to question that. It was the way of their culture and his main focus is complete the mission.

Nothing more than that.

--:--

Haruhi was getting ready to get down to business. She took out the book from the bathroom cabinet and opened it. As usual, the pages began to fill up, but with words and pictures this time. There was a drawing of a weird-looking man who was bald, tall and gangly, with two dots for his eyes and huge mouth filled with ugly sharp teeth. His hands stretched and curled into the shape of circles and in them was a little girl drawing something on the wall on the left and the little girl standing in front of a doorway on the right, while between the man’s legs that were bent in the shape of an O, the little girl was facing three small lockers with keyholes ready for her key to fit in. the instructions on the next page went as followed:

Use the chalk to trace a door anywhere in your room. Once the door’s open, start the hourglass. Let the fairies guide you. Don’t eat or drink anything during your stay and come back before the last grain of sand falls.

Haruhi did just as the instruction gave her. She took out the chalk she had hidden under her pillow and looked around for a place wide enough to trace a door. She picked the wall her bed was leaning on and traced the shape of a door as straight as she could. To her surprise, a seam began to appear on the wall where the chalk marks were, forming a small gap that could open like a door. She slowly pushed it open and found herself staring down a long, gloomy hallway, with blood-red walls and tall, bone-like pillars along it. The floor was tiled in pink and white, like a checkerboard and she could occasionally hear low exhales of breath from down the hallway.

Haruhi took a deep breath and stepped into the hallway, leading the winged kittens behind her and taking the key in her nightclothes’ pocket. She upturned the hourglass so that the one with sand was on top. Not wanting to waste anymore time, she made her way down the hallway towards the sound of exhaling breath. Moments later, she saw in front of her a huge dining room like the ones in kings’ castles she read in her storybooks. Here, the ceiling above was concaved like a half circle, and sure enough, as mentioned by Nekozawa, there was a huge, long table laden with everything delicious and edible, from pot-roast to pumpkin pie to fruit salad, from fried chicken to baked fish and potatoes, from cherry-covered fruit cake to ice-cream to jugs upon jugs of all forms of drinks imaginable. Everything was there ready for the taking, but Nekozawa’s warning rang through her mind and she dare not touch them, tempting as they were.

At the main seat, there sat with its back facing the fireplace the creature that was depicted in the Book of Crossroads. Like the drawing, it was bald and skinny, tall and gangly-looking, with both of its hands on the table. Its face was bare save two holes for its eyes and a mouth that looked like the one she saw when one of the cooks was removing the scales from a catfish. It had skin hanging from his arms and face, and its bones were jutting out, including its ribs, as if it had not eaten for a very long time. Its hands were bony as well, with black fingernails to match, and between its hands laid a plate that had two tiny balls on it. Seeing that the creature did not react at her presence, she picked up the plate and saw that the balls were actually eyes. It finally came to her that the holes on its face were not eyes, but a pair of nostrils for it to breathe. So, if those were its eyes and it couldn’t see without them, where did they go on its face? She shuddered to think of it as she replaced the plate back between the creature’s hands.

It was when she looked up to see the mosaic on the ceiling and the shoes the size of children’s feet at one corner of the dining room that she knew the seriousness of the situation. According to the mosaic, it was a creature that did not eat normal food, but children’s flesh. Illustration of it grabbing children, stripping them and carving them with its dagger before stuffing them into its guts showed the fact that Nekozawa was right about it: it was not human. Haruhi got goose pimples and a chill went down her spine just thinking about what it would do to her. It was best to heed Nekozawa’s words for now.

The winged kittens that flew behind her came up front, chirping with glee as they led her to another corner of the room, revealing a tall cabinet where there were three small lockers made of copper, silver and gold each on the upper level. They flew back and forth from the copper to the silver to the gold locker and back again until her blue-eyed winged kitten—whom she named Belzenev for reasons unknown even to her (she just thought it fitted her)—stopped at the silver locker and pointed at the keyhole excitedly. Haruhi took out the key from her pocket and inserted it into the keyhole.

When she was about to turn the key, instinct told her that this was not the locker she should open. She didn’t know why, but somehow something inside her told her that this was not the right one. She shifted her gaze towards the gold locker and shook her head again. Definitely a far cry than this silver locker, she thought and took out the key, putting it into the copper locker. As luck would have it, the key turned, unlocking the door and slipping it open. She slowly reached in and felt something velvet inside it. She then took hold of it and took it out, revealing something that was wrapped in expensive-looking red velvet. When she unwrapped it, it revealed a shiny dagger that shone brighter than any blade she had ever seen with a handle of welded gold and silver and the same design of surreal fire from the stone slab she saw in the labyrinth on it. She would’ve marveled at it even longer if she hadn’t been reminded by the kittens’ chirps that time was ticking and that the sand in the hourglass might run out sooner or later.

That was when she stopped short for a moment. She caught sight of her favourite snack: otoro or tuna belly readily sliced into bite-sized finger food served grandly on a china plate. She had not eaten much since the incident during the engagement ceremony and the sight of another one of her favourite foods fueled her hunger pangs. The kittens realized her intentions and shook their heads at her, telling her not to even think about it, but the otoro were simply too irresistible for her to ignore. She stole a look at the creature that was still sitting there without moving. Since it didn’t even see or react to any of her movements before, what’s a slice of missing otoro going to do? Not much difference, I’m sure, she thought.

Finally her weakness for otoro overcame the warnings of Nekozawa and the winged kittens. She waved them away and shooed them like one would do to a fly and took a slice of otoro from the plate. Unbeknownst to her, as soon as she popped the otoro into her mouth, the creature immediately came to life. It inhaled long and hard before reaching out to take its eyes on the plate, putting them into the holes on its palms. Holding up the back of its palms onto its face, it could see very clearly a little girl who was eating off one of the food from its dinner table. A very delicious-looking girl.

Haruhi was oblivious to what was going on behind her. All she could think of right now was popping another slice of expensive otoro into her mouth. Still thinking that there’s no harm done, she took another slice (waving the winged kittens away and wrestling it out of Belzenev who tried to take it out of her fingers in the process). As she popped it into her mouth and licked her fingers, she finally heard the commotion that was going on behind her. She spun round to see the creature alive and kicking and very much intent in turning her into a three-course meal. The other kittens were trying to protect her by keeping it busy and distracted, but ended up getting caught and eaten by it within seconds.

Haruhi’s survival mode kicked in. She quickly made a dash for it, running for her life towards where she last left the door open. Except this time, the door was slowly closing, signaling that she was running out of time. The last grain of sand was falling and the door was threatening to shut her in with the creature after her tail.

“No! No! Don’t close! I’m still here! NO!!”

Too late. The door had slammed shut. No matter how hard she pounded, it would not open for her. Even the seams that formed the door were gone. She had no choice but to draw another door. Out of nervousness, her chalk broke into half while she tried to draw. Belzenev, who was the last one standing, warned her that the creature was coming close. She could see it screeching bloody murder and moving as fast as its zombie-like body could towards her. There was no time to pick up the broken chalk. Climbing one of the pillars, she drew a door on the ceiling while praying hard not to get caught and become dinner as she could hear the creature coming closer and closer towards her.

Finally a door opened for her. Her blue-eyed friend flew up first before she struggled to climb up. More screeches echoed down the hallway as the creature realized that its meal was running away. She could hear its footsteps gaining momentum and coming closer towards her. She could almost feel its breath against her ankles. Belzenev helped her as best as she could by pulling at her sleeves, but a little winged kitten could only do so much.

It was a close call. Before the creature’s black finger nailed-hands could grab her, Haruhi managed to climb up into her bedroom and slam the door shut before it could climb in after her. She watched as the seams of the door disappeared as the creature pounded at it, trying to get in. Haruhi’s heart almost stopped at the horrific ordeal she went through. So horrifying it was that she almost forgot to breathe. As she sat back on the bed trying to catch her breath, she realized the severity of the situation she was in.

“I did something wrong now, didn’t I, Belzenev?”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Princess Ouran-Chp6

“Alright, Book of Crossroads. Show me what my next task is.”

Haruhi was in the bathroom as usual opening the Book of Crossroads, waiting to see what was in store for her. After her meeting with Nekozawa and the upcoming engagement ceremony, Haruhi was more determined to complete her mission and get the heck out of this manor. Especially when she had discovered a few skeletons in the Hitachiin Manor’s closets.

For example, after her meeting with Nekozawa and after eating the cheese Pedro gave her, she went down to the kitchen secretly to get herself a glass of water when she accidentally saw Count Hikaru, Kyouya and Mori talking in hushed tones with a few burly-looking men in black coats and hats through the gap of the door of the study. When she quietly followed behind them towards the warehouse, she realized that Count Hikaru actually kept dark-skinned children at the underground coal cellar right beneath the warehouse. Some of them were about Mori’s age or older, but most of them were almost the same age as she was. They were all wearing dog collars which were chained together with each other, forming a long line, and there were ropes tied around their wrists that were so tight they bled. They were shouted at harshly and were gagged to stop them from crying out loud and some were whipped, kicked and beaten when they tried to resist. All of them were pushed into a huge cage connected to several carriages before it was covered with a huge canvas and the carriage driven down the mountain.

Turned out that Count Hikaru led a double-life—a fashion designer/merchant by day and an illegal slave trader by night. Because the mountain where he lived was facing the sea, he would receive a steady supply of dark-skinned children from the black market that traveled by sea to be sold to his fellow high-classed friends as slaves or labour workers. Another interesting discovery was that although Mori participated in the trading, when Count Hikaru was not looking or when everyone was in bed, the so-called errand boy would go off secretly to the woods and hand information about the trading to a little blonde boy who looked no older than a 5-year-old with a pink bunny plushie tucked under his arm but dressed like law-enforcers. It seemed as if Mori was working undercover for them to try and bring down Count Hikaru and his illegal trades, like an informant of sorts.

Haruhi decided to keep the secret she knew to herself. The last thing she wanted to do was get Mori into trouble. She realized that somehow she had developed a fondness for the teenage errand boy that was more than just brotherly love. She would blush every time he approached and asked her if there was anything he could do for her. The feelings she was supposed to reserve for her future baby husband were blooming at the sight of him and her heart would race every time he did something nice for her. She knew that she should not have feelings like this. Mori was only working undercover and may leave as soon as Count Hikaru gets arrested by the law-enforcers—and she is the future Young Mistress, after all—but she couldn’t help it. The warm and fuzzy feeling hung about her whenever she was around Mori. Times without him around were lonely and at nights she often feared for his life whenever she heard him sneaking out of the house to pass another one of his information to the young boy.

Besides, the Counts would have her head for this if this ever went public, so she had no choice but to keep this little secret hidden deep within her heart.

As she took a deep breath to clear her mind, the pages began to fill up again. But this time, they were not covered with words or pictures. Instead, a slow, steady pattern of red swam across from both corners of them to the middle of the book, flowing down the spine like someone poured red dye on them. The red colour continued to spread through the rest of the pages, making a shape of a pair of butterfly wings and smelt horribly of sulfur and blood, and within the pages she could hear the faint sounds of a baby wailing, getting louder and louder by the second…

Haruhi quickly slammed the book shut. What does this mean? Is there something going to happen? Nekozawa did say something about the book showing her future, so what was the book trying to tell her?

“Haruhi? Haruhi-sama? Are you in there?”

Before she could figure out what was wrong, the sound of knocking on the bathroom door and Mori’s kind voice woke her from her concentration. She quickly hid the book back behind the bathroom cabinet and opened the door.

“What are you doing in there so long, Haruhi-sama?” Mori asked with a naughty gleam in his eye, though his face remained stoic as usual. Despite his expressionless face that can almost compare to the Shadow King Kyouya (that’s what she called him behind his back), his eyes were windows of his soul and she could easily tell what sort of emotion is really going on within him.

“Nothing. Just an upset stomach,” Haruhi smiled as innocent as possible, trying hard not faint at the sight of his drop-dead gorgeous eyes.

“Uh-huh,” Mori looked unconvinced, then said, “You better hurry and prepare yourself as soon as possible. The maids are preparing the water for your bath but you must hasten. The engagement ceremony is tonight, and Kyouya-san has given me strict orders to watch you tonight so that you would not repeat the previous incident again. I will have to personally bath and dress you, so no going out tonight, understand?”

Haruhi nodded, feeling her body steam from head to toe. Mori bathing and dressing her? Him seeing her naked? It was something she both dreaded and looked forward to.

“Daijobu, Haruhi-sama. I will not go overboard in my duties. Rest assure my next course of action is non-sensual.”

Needless to say, she couldn’t go anywhere, not even to have another sneak peek of the book. She was kept under Mori’s watchful eyes all day and she couldn’t go anywhere without having Mori stalking her, watching her every move. At least the bright side was that she got to have Mori all to herself instead of having to entertain Count Kaoru or do the household chores alone.

Later that night, dressed in the same (but new) beautiful suit Kyouya bought to replace the other, Haruhi made her grand appearance before dozens and dozens of guests who came to attend the ceremony. While they waited for Count Kaoru to get ready to come down and complete the ceremony, Count Hikaru led her around the living room, introducing her to each and every Duke, Duchess, Baron, Baroness, Lord, Lady and Sir he knew. Everyone either whispered to each other about their opinion of the new bride-to-be or reached over to shake hands and compliment on her directly. Meeting dozens upon dozens of strangers who are going to judge you and consider your position as the future Young Mistress Hitachiin sure somehow gave the ever calm, collected Haruhi the jitters, not to mention the pressure of meeting up everyone’s expectation of being the perfect bride to the future heir of a Count. Her stomach was doing the flip-flops and butterflies were ‘flying’ all over her insides as she prepared herself to be blessed by the priest together with her fiancée who still resides inside her future ‘mother-in-law’.

Suddenly there was a slight commotion upstairs. One of the maids rushed downstairs and called for Count Hikaru to go up. He excused himself and went up, leaving Haruhi to take care of the guests. But she was not about to be left in the dark as well, so she asked Kyouya to take over and went upstairs to see what was going on. She was shocked to see that the bed Count Kaoru was lying on was covered with blood and Count Kaoru was still bleeding like it would never stop. Count Hikaru quickly called for the family doctor while the maids quickly took the bloody sheets away.

After what seemed like forever, the doctor was finally able to stop the bleeding and stabilize her. As Haruhi and Mori sent the guests away and watched over Count Kaoru, she heard the hushed conversation between Count Hikaru and the doctor.

“It was hard work, but he’s stabilized now. Your brother needs uninterrupted rest for now, and I’d advise that he be kept sedated most of the time. The ceremony today proved to be stressful for him, coupled with the excitement and nervousness. He’s lucky it did not result to a miscarriage.”

“Thank you for the effort, doctor.”

“It is best too that only your workers tend to him. Your daughter-in-law should be allowed visits as little as possible. We do not want to traumatize your son any further.”

“Make him well, doctor. I don’t care how much it costs or how long it takes. Make him well.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Come, Haruhi-sama,” Mori said as he laid a hand on her shoulder, signaling her to leave. “We must let Kaoru-sama rest.”

Once inside the room, as Mori helped her change in her nightclothes, Haruhi began to shiver, not because of the cold, but because of fear. She was reminded of the sign the book tried to show her. Was that what it was trying to say? Is that what women have to go through whenever they’re having a baby? Would that happen to her once she got officially married with her baby husband and get pregnant? Her future looked even more bleak and scarier than it should.

“Don’t worry, Haruhi-sama,” Mori said as he stroked her back to comfort her. “Master Kaoru will get better soon, you’ll see. Having a baby is rather…complicated.”

“Then I’ll never have one,” Haruhi muttered.

“You’re a strong girl, Haruhi-sama. You’ll turn out just fine. Kaoru-sama’s body is just a little bit too weak to handle a baby, that’s all. After all, it is a slight oddity to be pregnant when you’re originally male. Off to bed, Haruhi-sama. I’ll tuck you in.”

Haruhi climbed up the bed and laid there while Mori pulled the blanket over her. She looked around, making sure that no one was around before braving herself to ask, “You’re helping the children in the cellars, aren’t you, by talking to the law-enforcers?”

Mori stopped short for a while, his face showing genuine shock and concern, “You…You saw?”

Haruhi nodded.

“Then you must know that Hikaru-sama is actually a very dangerous man.”

Another nod.

“Have…Have you told anyone?”

“No, I haven’t. I don’t want anything bad happen to you. You’re my friend, no, you’re like a brother to me…err…maybe more than that…”

Judging by Haruhi’s face that glowed almost as red as the freshest tomato you can find, Mori had pretty much figured out what she was trying to say. It was something he could not reciprocate, not with his current situation, and not with her status and life in the line. Besides, his heart belonged to another, and he could never accept her and love her as much as he loved that special someone. He reached over to hug her.

“Nor I to you. But you must understand…we are not meant to be. I’ve always treated you like a sister. Nothing more, nothing less. Besides, what with me being a double-agent…”

“I know…” Haruhi replied, though her eyes brimmed with tears as her heart broke into a million pieces. Rejection is often so hard to stomach.

“You are the future Young Mistress Hitachiin, and even though I may finally put Master Hikaru behind bars, your marriage with Master Kaoru’s son is still binding and cannot be broken. And I can’t take you as my bride. My heart belongs to another.”

“But I never wanted to marry him in the first place…He’s also just like a brother to me…With you, I…”

“It’s too late for regrets now. What’s done is done. There is no undoing it. Just remember, Haruhi-sama, that you’ll always be dear to my heart no matter what happens.”

Haruhi nodded. She knew all that. Though it hurts not able to be with the one you want, life was not all about fairytales in her storybooks and novels. Finally she wiped her tears and said, “Do you know a lullaby, Mori?”

“Only one,” Mori smiled a little as he helped dry her eyes with his sleeves, “but I don’t remember the words.”

“I don’t care. I still want to hear it. I just want to feel like a little girl again. Sing to me, please.”

And so he did. As he held Mori close to his chest, he hummed the old forgotten song his grandfather used to sing to him before bed, gently lolling his little future Young Mistress Hitachiin to sleep…

Princess Ouran-Chp5

Once upon a time, when the forest was young, it was home to creatures who were full of magic and wonder. They protected one another and slept in the shade of a colossal fig tree that grew on a hill near the manor. But now the tree is dying. Its branches are dry, its trunk old and twisted. A monstrous toad has settled in its roots and won’t let the tree thrive. You must put the three magic stones in the toad’s mouth and retrieve the golden key from inside his belly. Only then will the fig tree flourish again.

Haruhi fingered the three stones in the pouch before putting them back in. While she made here way into the mountain woods, she opened the book she took from behind the bathroom cabinet and sure enough, the pages began to fill themselves again with the words and pictures, revealing the drawing of a huge fig tree surrounded by magical creatures of every kind and a toad sitting underneath the tree, settling on its roots. She read the instructions and tried to gather herself together about the task she had in hand.

It didn’t take long for her to finally find the fig tree. As described in the book, the fig tree looked as if it had seen better days, like it had already been dead for more than the book described it to be. It was gnarled and twisted everywhere and there was not a single leaf on its withering branches. To make matters worse, it smelt like someone just dumped manure onto it. Right in the middle of the fig tree, there was a gaping hole that seemed hollow and looked like it was endless. Haruhi took that as a cue for her to go in and look for the toad the book was speaking about.

Haruhi knew she was going to get her beautiful suit dirty if she were to crawl into that hole with it—her black shoes was already beginning to cake with mud that were around the roots. After much contemplation, she decided to take off her coat and shirt, tie and shoes and hang them onto one of the fig tree’s branches, leaving only her undergarments on. Taking a deep breath, she went on all fours and started crawling into the hole, ready to start her mission.

Meanwhile, at the Hitachiin Manor, guests were starting to arrive in their carriages and were busy chitchatting with each other and the Counts and nibbling on finger foods while waiting for dinner to be served. The Counts received tons of praises and congrats from everyone in the room, and Renge-sama was definitely trying to collect as much praises as possible as well. Most of them knew about Kaoru’s predicament and their rather ‘eccentric’ relationship, but as long as they have good relations and ties with the most powerful siblings in the region, who cares if he married and impregnated his own brother? Such is the life of an aristocrat.

“Now, my good Count Hikaru, when can we see this little bride-to-be, eh?” one of the guests asked.

“Anytime soon,” Count Hikaru said. “My beloved brother has picked a very pretty dress for her to wear, which I bought it at her account, of course, and she should be getting ready now, I believe. Kyouya-san, would you mind calling the girl over? Dinner’s about to be served.”

“Yes, Master,” Kyouya bowed slightly and left the room. He gestured Mori and some maids to approach him and whispered, “Have you seen Fujioka-sama? Go fetch her. The Masters are waiting.”

“Yes, Kyouya-san. We’ll do it right away.”

While Mori and the maids looked for Haruhi, Haruhi was still in the hole, moving deeper and deeper into the tree in search of the toad the book spoke of. Inside, the walls were caked with mud on both sides and tiny roots dangled from the top and jutted out along with it. There was more mud on the ground in which she was crawling on and there were cockroaches as big as rocks creeping and crawling all over the place, including on her arms and legs, which she tried to flick off. The hole seemed like a never-ending tunnel that went on forever and ever with no end in sight.

No sooner she thought that she was going nowhere in this hole than she heard a croaking noise behind her. She turned around slowly to see the biggest toad that ever existed in the history of reptilian kind. It was almost as big as her pet dog and had skin the colour of clay. It had warts all over its body and its red eyes stared at her lazily, like she was someone whom it would not be bothered to be interested in. Haruhi knew this was her chance. It was now or never.

“Hey there, Mr. Toad. I’m Princess Ouran, and I’m not afraid of you.”

The toad croaked nonchalantly in reply.

“Are you not ashamed living down here, eating all the insects and growing fat while the tree dies?”

It didn’t seem like the toad was in the mood for negotiation, or for agreeing to eat the magic stones for that matter, because the only reply it gave her was a long flick of the tongue to catch a cockroach that fell on her hair, swallowing it and burping loudly at her face.

Judging by the stench, the toad seemed like it needed more than a breath mint to get rid of that impossibly inhuman smell.

Haruhi was caught off guard by the toad’s burp that she dropped the stones she had taken out of her pouch. When she hurried to pick them up, she accidentally picked up a cockroach that was curled up in a ball as soon as she touched it. That was when she realized that the toad was licking its lips when she was trying to remove the curled-up cockroach from her stones. Suddenly an idea came in mind. She waved the curled-up cockroach in front of the toad and replaced it back with her stones. She then held out the stones together with the cockroach for the toad to eat. The toad took the bait. Within seconds, it flicked out its tongue, grabbed the cockroach and the stones and swallowed them all in a gulp.

What happened next was beyond Haruhi’s expectation. Moments after the toad swallowed the stones, it began to twitch and fidget like it was in a seizure or something. Then it started puking everything it ate onto the muddy ground. It puked and puked and didn’t seem to stop. Eventually the toad ended up literally vomiting its insides out and all that was left of it was its clay-coloured skin.

Haruhi grimaced for a moment before noticing a shimmer of light within the insides the toad vomited out. A closer look told her that it was the key she was looking for. She picked it up slowly and saw that it was long and thin, almost like the bone of a middle finger, but much longer. The base of the key was a ruby-studded moon and shimmered slightly as it caught light.

The first task was done. It was time to go back to the manor.

When she finally came out of the hole, she noticed that the sky was getting dark and she could hear more and more carriages coming towards the manor. The pre-engagement party! She had almost forgotten about it! She had to get cleaned and get dressed as soon as possible before she ended up upsetting the Counts.

To her horror, her suit and tie were not where she had hung them. Instead they were lying there on a big puddle being totally soiled. They must have been blown off by the wind into the puddle when she was in the hole of the tree. To make matters even worse, it started to rain. She knew she was in deep trouble.

Needless to say, when she made her way back home, Mori was outside looking for her and was shocked to see her in that state. The guests would have to settle seeing Haruhi at another time during the real engagement ceremony for Count Hikaru did not want them or his beloved to see her looking worse than a ragamuffin and get upset over the dirtied dress, and he had to make an excuse to them saying that Haruhi was not feeling well and would not be joining the party. Count Hikaru told Mori to get rid of the dress before Count Kaoru sees it and ordered Kyouya to get a new dress of the exact same one that Haruhi soiled so that no one would be the wiser. And of course, as punishment, Haruhi was sent to bed without dinner.

Mori did not say anything as he helped Haruhi out of her dirty clothes and looked away while Haruhi dunked herself into the warm bath prepared for her, but Haruhi could tell that Mori was more than disapproving of her being out in the woods where there’s danger lurking about. Haruhi couldn’t help feeling guilty.

“Gomen…” Haruhi muttered as she lowered herself into the water until it was up to her chin.

“You shouldn’t have done that, you know,” Mori commented as he included her soiled undergarments into the laundry basket.

“I know. I shouldn’t be wandering around in the woods when I’m supposed to be in the house entertaining the guests.”

“You’re lucky Master only sent you off without dinner and not whip you on the spot or something. That suit meant a lot to Master Kaoru, and the last thing he wanted was his beloved twin to be upset. Besides, the mountain woods are not a place for a future Young Mistress like you to be roaming about. What if you come out worse than you are right now? What if you’re injured or eaten alive by the beasts out there? Master Kaoru would be more than disappointed if anything happened to you.”

Haruhi took in Mori’s nagging quietly, although it was the first time she heard Mori spoke that much. She knew that despite being an errand boy, he cared for her like a brother or a father would to their little girl. She could tell him where she had been and what she had been doing, and that she didn’t mean to get her suit dirty, but who would believe her anyway? She had a hard time believing it even now what she had just encountered.

“You’re even luckier Master Hikaru decided to cover up for you and get another new suit to hide the fact that they had to throw out the one you ruined. He didn’t want Master Kaoru to be sad and traumatize the Young Master inside him.”

“Gomene, Mori, honto ni,” Haruhi apologized, feeling rather bad about all this.

Mori looked quietly and stoicly at Haruhi for a few moments before he sighed and reached into his pocket to take out a piece of Swiss cheese he smuggled from the kitchen. “Here, this should last you till breakfast tomorrow.”

“Anno…Is Oka-sama disappointed about me?”

“If he finds out, yes.”

“More than Count Hikaru?”

“Pretty much. Excuse me, Haruhi-sama. Remember dry yourself well before bed,” Mori said as he left her alone in the bathroom to fend for herself.

Haruhi sighed guiltily. She didn’t mind disappointing Count Hikaru—he wasn’t much of a nice man and she never wanted to be here in the first place anyway—but disappointing her Oka-sama was the last thing on her mind. Count Kaoru was a very weak man and she shouldn’t be doing such things like this to make his condition any worse. But she had to complete her task and there was nothing she could do about it.

Soon, the familiar sounds of mewing came again as her winged friend flew in through the bathroom window. Throughout her whole ordeal of trying to endure whatever punishment the Count had to offer, she had kept the key clutched tightly in her hand in order to keep it hidden from them. She was sure they would not understand anyway if she told them the truth about where she had gone.

“I’ve got the key,” Haruhi said as she brandished the key at her winged friend. “Take me to the labyrinth.”

No sooner she said it than she found herself walking down the stairs of the gorge again wrapped in a bathing robe as her only clothing. As she fingered the key, she saw something new in the gorge. It was a carving on a slab of stone, which, when she watched closely, showed the form of a neko demon, a little girl and a baby in her arms surrounded by surreal fire etched at the edge of the stone slab. She was trying to guess which is who when…

“That’s me, and the little girl is you.”

Nekozawa’s voice echoing behind her shocked her out of her concentration. Haruhi was annoyed at Nekozawa’s habit of emerging in the shadows without warning.

“And the baby?”

“Ah, you’ve retrieved the key,” Nekozawa said, seemingly avoiding her question. “I’m glad. She believed in you from the very beginning. She’s so glad you succeeded.”

Haruhi could only assume that Nekozawa was talking about her winged friend held firmly in Nekozawa’s protective arms. She handed the key to him but he refused it.

“Keep the key. You’ll be needing it very soon. And this too…a piece of chalk.”

So saying, he materialized a piece of white chalk out of the midair and gave it to Haruhi. Haruhi quickly put both the key and the chalk in her bathing robe pockets.

“Two tasks remain, and the moon is almost full. Be patient, Your Highness. Soon we’ll be strolling through the seven circular gardens of your palace.”

“How do I know what you say is true?” Haruhi asked, feeling a little bit skeptical and was reminded by Mori’s words about neko demons being tricksters.

“Now why would a poor little neko like me lie to you, hmm?”

As he disappeared into the darkness and sent her back to the bathroom within the next second, she didn’t know what to believe.

Princess Ouran-Chp4

“Haruhi-sama, time for your bath.”

Haruhi came at the call of Mori. So far, only the Counts Hikaru and Kaoru and Mori had the privilege to call her by name. The rest of the household servants, despite her insistence, continued to call her ‘Fujioka-sama’. She knew sooner or later, she was going to be called ‘Young Mistress’ and that she had to get used to being called by title, but she didn’t want instill fear on anybody. She just wanted to be their friend.

“Take a look and see what Master has bought you, Haruhi-sama.”

Haruhi looked at the suit that Mori helped take out from a silver box. It was slightly darker silver than the box itself and was finely sewn with the best silk thread the world has to offer. The white shirt inside was whiter than white and the dark silver coat felt velvety to the touch. It looked almost like those expensive suits rich people wear during galas, balls and dinner parties, and a complementary black tie came with the suit, with black shoes to match.

“There will be a pre-engagement party tonight thrown by Master Hikaru where everyone in his community would be able to witness his baby son’s bride-to-be. Of course, Renge-sama insisted that you wear boys’ attire for the party. Master Kaoru requested that Master Hikaru buy this suit to be worn for tonight. He thought it fit you, because you’re from the moon, but of course he personally would rather you wear a dress instead of this. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yes,” Haruhi replied half-heartedly. “Yes, it is.”

“You don’t seem happy, Haruhi-sama,” Mori noted, a concerned tone in his voice. “Don’t you like it?”

“Of course I like it,” Haruhi replied hurriedly, not wanting to upset her friend. “It’s really beautiful. Really.”

“Hm, I suppose you’re just nervous then. I understand. Off to bath now, Haruhi-sama, before the water gets cold.”

With that, Haruhi-sama was ushered to the bathroom and the door was closed behind her. When she made sure no one was outside the door, she quietly walked over to the bathroom cabinet where she kept the book hidden behind the gap. She opened the book to a particular page and waited. A few moments later, the page began to fill up by itself, like there was an invisible pen drawing and writing the contents out. First it was a picture of a tree, then words that spelled ‘tree’, ‘toad’, ‘stones’ and ‘fig’. One by one they appeared to make up a story.

“Haruhi? Haruhi-sama.”

Before she could read the words, there were knockings on the door. It was Mori, calling for her to hurry up.

“Do hasten, Haruhi-sama. Master Kaoru wants to see you in your new suit. He bets you’re going to look like a princess in it. Well, in this case, a prince.”

Princess… Haruhi was reminded of Nekozawa’s words of her being the Princess her father had been telling her in her tales. She went over to the mirror to look at her reflection. Nekozawa was right; there was a birthmark just right on top of the back of her left shoulder that was the shape of a crescent moon. There were small tiny full stop-sized moles that surrounded the birthmark, like stars surrounding the moon. She had sometimes dreamed of being a Princess like the fairy tales in her story books, but now that she was one, she didn’t know what else to think of.

“Princess, huh…?”

“Oh, Haruhi-chan, look at you. You are so beautiful.”

Haruhi, after her bath, put on the dress and came into Count Kaoru’s room as requested, and as expected, he was thrilled to see Haruhi looking the way he imagined she would look. Mori and a couple of maids were tending to him and they looked impressed as well at Haruhi’s get-up.

“Haruhi-sama, you look rather dashing in that suit,” Mori complimented with a small smile on his face.

“You agree too? Isn’t she a beauty?”

“She looks positively like an angel, Master, only she’d probably look better in a dress, if I may say so myself” one of the maids complimented, staring at the suit in eagerness.

“A future Countess is more like it,” Count Kaoru smiled and gestured Haruhi towards him. “Come here, child. Let me see you up close.”

“Yes, sir.”

Haruhi came closer to him. Count Kaoru fingered the tie and collar on her suit and stroke her hair, smiling weakly at her while rubbing his protruding belly with his other hand.

“Look, my son, your beautiful fiancé is all dressed up for you. You are going to have the most beautiful wife you’ve ever seen. Ne, Haruhi-chan?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You know sooner or later I’m going to be your ‘mother-in-law’ now, right? Almost like a new ‘mother’?”

“Yes, sir,” Haruhi nodded. As much as she liked Count Kaoru better than his twin, she didn’t really relinquish the idea of having him as a new ‘mother’ since she already had a real one. Well, if you could consider Ranka as one.

“How about getting a head-start by calling me ‘Oka-san’ then? Hmm? Is it alright with you?”

Oka-san? That’s how I call my mother, Haruhi thought, but she didn’t want to offend Count Kaoru, so she said timidly, “Can I call you…Oka-sama instead?”

Count Kaoru considered for a while, then replied, “I understand, dear. Sure, you can call me that. Mori, would you get some strawberries for Haruhi? Just a little starter before tonight’s dinner party. Make sure you don’t get your clothes dirty, Haruhi-chan.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Mori excused himself and took Haruhi by the shoulder, leading her down to the kitchen—earning a lot of praises by the servants in the process—and to the strawberry patch at the backyard, carrying an empty bowl in the process. Using the bowl, he walked about the patch surveying around, finding the best and ripe strawberries and putting them inside it. He knew Haruhi liked her strawberries fresh since she tasted it on her first day in the manor, and he wanted to give her the best of what he can offer as an errand boy. To him, Haruhi was more than just a future Young Mistress, she was like the sister he never had.

“Here you go, Haruhi-sama,” Mori said as he handed the bowl of freshly plucked strawberries to Haruhi.

“Arigato,” Haruhi said, then asked, “Mori, do you believe in neko demons?”

“Neko demons?” Mori echoed, paused for a while to think, then replied, “Not anymore. I’ve sort of stopped believing things that I used to believe when I was a child, unfortunately.”

“I saw a winged kitten last night, and I met a neko demon too.”

“Honto ka, Haruhi-sama? What does he look like?”

Haruhi described as best as possible what she saw on her encounter with Nekozawa.

“You know, my grandfather used to warn me about neko demons being tricksters and stuff…”

“Mori-san! Mori-san! We need you at the warehouse!” another errand boy suddenly called out from afar.

“Hai! Gomen, Haruhi-sama. Don’t ruin your suit.”

Mori made a dash off before Haruhi could promise to him not to ruin the suit. She took a look at the sky and decided that there was still more time before the pre-engagement dinner party.

It’s time to complete her first task.

Princess Ouran-Chp3

Another long day has passed and all Haruhi wanted to do right now is hole up in her room and enjoy a little alone time. She hurriedly changed into her night clothes and scrambled up on bed before grabbing one of her novels to read.

During her first hours in the manor, Kyouya took her directly into the study to meet up with the Count Hitachiin Bros. Count Hikaru Hitachiin looked like a no nonsense man, with dark strawberry-blonde hair and piercing gold eyes, and his voice was cold as ice. Count Kaoru Hitachiin, on the other hand, was a weak man. He grew his strawberry-blonde hair to let it run loosely on his shoulders, passing off as a pregnant woman and his skin seemed to be lacking of sun lately. His identical golden eyes looked tired, and he was sitting on a wheelchair beside his twin and husband with a belly that seemed like he had just swallowed a watermelon in whole. He looked almost kind, but he’s mostly drained. The pregnancy must be taking a toll on him, Haruhi thought as she tried hard not to stare too long at Count Kaoru. It’s not everyday you would see a pregnant man right in front of your eyes, you know. Haruhi couldn’t help shaking the feeling that Kaoru could almost pass off as a mirror female image of Count Hikaru, and if he hadn’t grew out his hair and was in this condition, she might not be able to tell which twin is which.

Count Kaoru didn’t talk much, but his eyes told her that she was more than welcome to be in the Hitachiin Manor and glad that she was his future daughter-in-law. Count Hikaru seemed slightly satisfied with the choice of bride that Renge-sama made, but didn’t seem too eager to want her in the family. It was as if her presence here to him was to merely keep his son alive and nothing else, and he would not hesitate to kick her out of the house and denounce her title as the Hitachiin daughter-in-law as soon as she served her purpose. After introducing herself, Haruhi was given some general ground rules by Count Hikaru while she stayed in the manor and was immediately ushered to her room by Kyouya. At least her room was a warm welcome for her; all her familiar things were there to keep her company. She understood now the reason why the strange men kept coming to take her things away.

Days in the manor was an adventure altogether. During her first week in the manor, she was quite rudely awakened by Kyouya stating that in order to promote better compatibility, Renge-sama made a house call in the middle of the night to say that Haruhi must go about dressing in masculine clothes so as to strengthen the unborn child’s spirit. Poor Haruhi had to be dragged groggily out of bed to the backyard to have her beautiful dark long tresses trimmed to resemble a boy’s hair cut and her wardrobe was immediately replaced with boys’ attire. She didn’t really mind the new hairdo—her hair needed a trim anyways—and she didn’t mind wearing boys’ clothes, as long as she had something to wear, but dragging her in the middle of Dreamland was not exactly very pleasing, not to mention finding yourself first with long flowing hair and then short-cropped one the next as soon as your brain is actually awake to figure out the whole damn thing.

Haruhi tried many attempts to look for the winged kitten she saw before, but to no avail. It was as if it just disappeared in the face of this earth. She tried everywhere but it was nowhere to be found. Sometimes she began to suspect that maybe it was all her imagination, that she really had been reading too many story books like her father nagged about. She wanted to try her luck in going to the labyrinth to look for it but the fear of getting lost again like before held her back, and she didn’t dare ask Mori to spare her some string to start her search, so she had to settle with getting along with everyone in the manor.

She got to know all the servants, maid, errand boys (Mori being one of her best friends) and the strange men, including Kyouya, in the household, and she familiarized herself with her surroundings better. Thanks to her haircut and sort of “bishounen” appearance, everyone thought their masters engaged their future Young Master to a man just as the way they married themselves, but her radiant smile and feminine voice broke all suspicions. She would occasionally help them tend the cattle, horses, sheep and chickens and join in with the cooks to make meals. Though the servants prefer that their future Young Mistress do something else rather than lowering herself with the commoners, but they appreciate her help all the same. The only person she was uneasy with was Count Hikaru. He was sort of an icy man who wouldn’t stand for any incompetence and insolence. Everything had to go his way or the highway, that’s how it’s done in the Hitachiin Manor. Count Hikaru didn’t seemed to mind Haruhi going about cleaning and cooking like a lower-class girl, most probably because he still viewed her more of a survival tool than an actual daughter-in-law, but sometimes Haruhi—even though she didn’t mind the chores—wished that he would forbade her from menial work once in a while. She was, after all, going to be the wife of his baby boy.

Despite the drawbacks, the most important thing was that she got to know Count Kaoru and her future husband a lot closer. Unlike his twin, Count Kaoru was more mature and level-headed and slightly nicer than him, and he revealed to her secretly that sometimes Count Hikaru can be a bit emotionally immature at times. Count Kaoru was in bed most of the day and could only move around on the wheelchair, so all Haruhi had to do to keep him entertained was to go to his bedroom and chat or play cards with him. Sometimes, when the baby is acting up inside Count Kaoru, Haruhi would tap lightly on his belly, whispering “My husband, my little husband” and tell him the Princess story or make up some fairy tale to calm him down. Although now, she treated Count Kaoru’s fetus as a baby brother, she knew that sooner or later she was going to treat him as her husband for years to come. She found it hard to believe that she was going to be engaged to a baby whose age is going to be 16 years younger than her. She had not even experience a first love yet, let alone being married. But there was nothing she could do but accept her fate. Times are harsh and they often called for desperate measures.

While Haruhi read her novel, she heard that familiar kitten sounds again. She knew what those sounds were. She looked around but saw nothing. She lowered down the light of her oil lamp and looked around again. Slowly but surely, she saw something peeking out from the foot of her bed. It was the winged kitten she had seen that fateful night when she first came to the mountain of Hitachiin Manor. It grinned with its naughty blue eyes shining under the pale light and its transparent wings shimmered under the moonlight that shone through her half-opened window. It flew out of its hiding place and settled onto the blanket where Haruhi’s knees were.

“You’re a rather interesting creature, aren’t you? Are you a fairy or something?” Haruhi asked.

The winged kitten mewed in reply, looking as if it was smiling at her like a kid who had a secret.

“Have you been watching me all this while? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I wanted to see you.”

The winged kitten suddenly flew up a few inches and made a gesture to follow it. Haruhi was surprised.

“Do you want me to go with you? Where? Outside?”

The winged kitten nodded and made its way out of the window. Haruhi wasted no time. She grabbed a coat and went out of her room, down the stairs and out of the manor quieter and faster than you can say “Rumpelstilskin”. She soon realized that the winged kitten was waiting for her at the labyrinth entrance. Haruhi took a gulp. She didn’t dare set foot into it, not like the last time. What if she got lost again? What if she couldn’t find her way back to the manor? Count Hikaru would definitely go off his rockers and Count Kaoru would be upset, and everyone in the manor would be unhappy…

The winged kitten’s urging mews threw every worry she had out of the window. She would figure out what has to be done later. Right now, she needed to know what the winged kitten wanted.

It soon led her all the way to the centre of the labyrinth where there was a gorge that led almost 10 feet down the earth by a long winding flight of stone steps. As she went down the stairs with the fairy, she saw that in the middle of the gorge, she saw a flat statue of the stone face creature she had seen in the entrance standing in the middle of a spiral crevice that was almost to the brim with rain water and dew. To be more exact, it was the full scale statue of the creature from head to toe, looking like something very out-worldly. It had the same facial features portrayed at the entrance and a body that stood almost twice her height and it was like one of those neko demons she had studied in books about ancient folklore. She had never seen statues or creatures like this, not even in her story books. On the walls of the gorge there were millions upon millions of vines and moss growing through every nook and cranny, like it had been growing there since the dawn of time.

The winged kitten took off and disappeared mysteriously into the darkness of the wall, leaving Haruhi to fend for herself in the dark, dripping gorge. Haruhi got a little nervous being left alone in there.

“Hello? Anybody here? Hello?”

“It’s you!”

Haruhi spun round at the raspy voice. She saw a tall creature—taller than Mori—moving towards her. As he came into the light, Haruhi found herself staring at the same creature that was portrayed by the statue, only that he was in the flesh and was walking and talking. His blonde fur all over his body was illuminated by the creeping moonlight and he had the smell of earth around him. His body was covered with moss and vines and tiny branches with leaves were sticking out of him. His eyes were almost evil-looking with slits for the pupils, and let out a menacing glow about it. His throat let out an occasional cat’s trill and purred as he circled around Haruhi at a respectable distance, rubbing his paws together like someone planning a plot. His feet made no sound as he walked, and his tail swoshed about with glee. Haruhi was speechless staring at this oddity, and above all else, afraid.

“Oh, it’s you, you have returned, my dear!” the creature said in his happy, raspy voice. Noticing that Haruhi looked petrified and backing away from him, he quickly calmed her down, “Oh please, do not be frightened, I beg you. Here, look.”

So saying, he produced a cloak from thin air and wrapped himself around it. His features slowly receded from his cat’s features and turned to a more human look. As Haruhi watched, she saw the half-man-half-cat transformed from its monstrous self into a very beautiful-looking man with blonde hair and blue eyes. Then something grew about his golden locks like a dark wig and immediately hid his beautiful face. He still looked menacing with that huge dark cloak and black hair, like one of the kids who played a dark black magic sorcerer in the school play back when she was still studying in a regular school, but at least it was less creepy than having a huge cat that walked on two legs hovering about you like prey. She soon stopped being afraid and braved herself to come nearer towards the creature.

“What’s with the get up?” Haruhi asked as she pointed at the cloak and wig.

“My transformation into human form leaves me vulnerable to human light,” the creature replied. “This is a magical gimmick to protect myself from such things.”

“Well, uh…my name is Haruhi Fujioka. What’s yours?”

“Me?” the creature asked, then huffed and replied, “I’ve had many names, old names that only the animals can pronounce. I am the Lord of all things feline. But for me to assimilate life in the human world in search for you, I am called Umehito Nekozawa, your most humble servant, Your Highness.”

Haruhi felt awkward looking at the creature who called himself Umehito Nekozawa bowing down at her, “No, I’m…”

“You are Princess Ouran, daughter of the king of Ouran, the Ethereal Realm . I do not expect you to remember anyway; it has been so many centuries since we last saw you.”

“Daughter…? King of the Ouran the Ethereal Realm…? But that’s just a fairytale legend! I’m not the Princess! My father is a cross-dressing okama…”

“Bah!” Nekozawa waved away her words, as if they were all just excuses and lies. “You are not born of man, most certainly not by that gender-confused bisexual. It was the moon that bore you. Look at your left shoulder and you will find a mark that proves it.”

Haruhi glanced at where he was pointing. A mark? Now that was something she never noticed before.

“Your real father—known to the human world when he joined the search for you a few centuries ago as Tamaki Suoh—had us open portals all over the world to allow your return. This is the last of them. But we have to make sure that your essence is intact, that you have not become a mortal.”

Before she knew, Haruhi saw a huge red book in his hand together with a small pouch that felt slightly heavier than the usual money pouch she carried when she helped her mother do her groceries. Nekozawa handed it to her and said, “You must complete three tasks before the moon is full. This is the Book of Crossroads. Open it when you are alone and it will show you your future, show you what must be done.”

Haruhi opened the book tentatively, but to her surprise, the pages were empty. There was not a single word written on them and even the cover had no titles. When she looked inside the pouch, there were three stones that looked like rock sugar her father used to make sweet potato broth whenever she was sick.

“But there’s nothing on it…”

When she looked up, she found herself standing in her room near the window, the breeze blew through it and caressing gently onto her hair and skin instead of the cold, dreary gorge in the labyrinth. For a second she thought she was dreaming, but one look at the book and pouch that were still on her hands and her muddy shoes confirmed that she had not dreamt all this. It was real, and she had an important mission in hand.

Things get more and more curious by the minute.

Princess Ouran-Chp2

“Welcome to Hitachiin Manor, Haruhi Fujioka-sama.”

Haruhi was caught off guard as the strange man opened the door for her to come out. It was the first time he spoke since they left the village. As she got off tentatively, she found herself standing in front of a huge manor on the mountain outback. There was an enormous wooden warehouse just right beside the manor and a couple of stables for horses, a cattle ranch, and a sheep farm behind it. There are also a number of chickens pecking here and there on the ground that came from the little pen beside the stables. There were servants and maids and errand boys and girls going about their businesses, helping the strange man to unload the rest of the stuff that were taken from her room out of the carriage. At least she knew where she was: carried off from her nice, quaint village to the rich, isolated manor of the famous twin siblings Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, the one and only Counts in the entire region where she lived.

“Kyouya-san, shall I call the Master?” an errand boy asked while carrying Haruhi’s suitcase of clothes.

“No, Mori. I’ll do it,” the strange man replied, then turned to her and said, “Wait here, Fujioka-sama, while I call the Master.”

Haruhi watched as the strange man called Kyouya left her alone outside and went into the house. She watched as the servants gathered her belongings into the house, forgetting her presence momentarily. Why was she here? What was she doing here? Why was she taken away from her family to be here? Why didn’t her father stop Kyouya from taking her away? Why were the village people standing there doing nothing but watch her leave? Why wasn’t anyone willing to tell her anything? Why was she kept in the dark for so many years, only to find herself in a strange place without knowing head or tail what was going here and with more questions than answers? This was all very confusing for her.

Suddenly she heard a sound. More like a sound made from baby kittens or something. She turned around and saw something peering out from behind a rock. As she came in closer, the thing came into view. It looked like a newborn kitten that has just opened its sparkling blue eyes to the world, looking back at her naughtily.

The only difference it had compared to normal kittens was that it had some sort of film-like transparent wings sticking out of its back.

Haruhi’s eyes lit at the sight of it. It was the strangest oddity she had ever seen! Who had ever thought of a kitten with wings? It’s almost as bizarre as the stuff she read in storybooks! Without thinking, she quickly made a dash towards the rock to try and capture it. It slipped out of her grasp and flew further away from her reach, despite the fact that those wings looked as if it couldn’t support its master’s weight. She gave chase and soon found herself in front of a towering stone entrance. In the middle of that entrance was a symbol, or to be more exact, a stone face that showed features of a hideous cat with piercing evil eyes. If she’d thought any further, she might assume that it looked like the demons described in her storybooks.

The kitten sound brought her back to what she wanted to do in the first place. She quickly followed after the winged kitten which led her deeper into the stone entrance. There were stone walls around her that twisted and turned like a maze, and tall dark trees with its long branches hovered above her head like long, spidery fingers ready to snatch her up and eat her whole, with the dark night sky above her like a gaping mouth. Dead leaves and rocks crunch and crumble at each step she took and the night sounds did not seem very comforting either. Before she knew it, she was deep inside the maze and not knowing where she was anymore, the winged kitten gone out of sight.

“Fujioka-sama, you shouldn’t be in here.”

Haruhi spun round to see Mori, the errand boy, right behind her. Seeing him up close, she could tell that this tall stoic-faced teenage boy was someone who has a mind well beyond his age. With dark grey eyes and black hair, he definitely seemed like someone who had seen more troubles than a man of war. She shifted her gaze towards his wrist. There was a red string tied onto it and the rest of it led towards outside. Mori realized her staring and explained.

“It’s a fail-safe precaution. No one should be in here. This is The Labyrinth. This place has existed even before the manor was built. People who go in often don’t come out. Considered one of the Devil’s Playground.”

“Arigato,” Haruhi replied timidly.

“My name’s Takashi Morinozuka. Everybody else calls me Mori. Pleased to meet you, Fujioka-sama,” Mori said, nodding his head politely. Haruhi reciprocated.

“Can I know…why am I here?”

“Didn’t anyone tell you?” Mori asked in a slightly surprised tone, although his face remained stoic. Haruhi shook her head as a reply. Mori sighed quietly and said, “I suppose that’s what you get when you have Renge-sama to do the matchmaking. She’s just full of surprises. Come, Fujioka-sama, I’ll tell you everything on the way.”

“You can call me Haruhi.”

So, as Mori the errand boy led Haruhi out of the labyrinth with the help of the red string, he told her everything that was going on. It turns out that the Hitachiin brothers had a rather ‘colourful’ past: the twins, who were born three minutes apart, somehow developed feelings to each other and announced to the family that they would not marry anyone else but each other and when their parents decided against it, they apparently disowned themselves from the Hitachiin lineage and moved down to Haruhi’s region to start their own line of Hitachiin-s. Rumour has it that it is possible that before they left the Hitachiin manor back in their hometown, they murdered their parents and sent death threats and blackmails to the rest of the family tree not to look for them, although such rumours have never been confirmed. Both of them tried to have a child of their own and succeeded after 5 years of trying when a gypsy medicine woman gave the younger twin a remedy that allowed him to conceive.

Just when they were celebrating their good fortune, Renge-sama suddenly came to their door with a vision and had made a prediction for the Hitachiin brothers: Kaoru, who was currently with their child, will give birth to a stillborn son unless they were to hurry and match-make and immediately engage him with someone who has the physical and spiritual compatibility with him while he is still pregnant. It was something very unorthodox and out of the ordinary—bizarre, even—but the Hitachiin brothers had wanted a child for years, and although they were not very superstitious, they would not take any chances. They immediately gave the order for Renge-sama to find a suitable daughter-in-law for them, and that was where Haruhi came in.

“You see, Haruhi-sama, you are chosen by Renge-sama because you are compatible with our future Young Master. Our young Master will be born under the constellation of the sun and you are born under the constellation of the moon. A perfect match. At least that’s what she says.”

“Then…why didn’t anyone tell me about something this important?”

“I think maybe they didn’t want to tell you because they thought you weren’t old enough to understand all this. Getting engaged and married in a situation like this, and at your age, is not exactly a walk in the park, I can tell you that.”

Haruhi couldn’t agree more towards this statement.

Soon, they both got out of the labyrinth with Kyouya and his other strange men looking at them in disapproval. Kyouya went forward and took Haruhi by the shoulders.

“I’ll take it from here, Mori. You go make sure that Fujioka-sama’s room is ready.”

“Yes, Kyouya-san,” Mori replied, then turned to Haruhi and nodded courtly with a hint of reassurance before leaving. Haruhi nodded as well and allowed Kyouya to lead into the manor. It was done and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She was no longer Haruhi Fujioka, but the future Young Mistress Haruhi Hitachiin, and she will be living out the rest of her life on the mountains in her new home.

And her new family.

As she walked in with Kyouya to face her fate, the blue-eyed winged kitten perched quietly on the stone entrance and watched.