"The Case of the Raven's Daughter"
Dec. 20th, 2010 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amelia_petkovaHoly shit, I finally finished it. Here's my last fic for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
au_bingo. Thank you to everybody who gave me comments and feedback along the way; for the rest of you on my f-list who aren't so into fan fiction or the fandoms I was using, thanks for putting up with me rambling about this for almost half a year.
Title: The Case of the Raven’s Daughter
Fandom: Princess Tutu
Word Count: approx. 5,800
Summary: Ahiru is a private investigator who goes undercover at Kinkan Academy to investigate a student's disappearance. This being Princess Tutu, things naturally become more complicated.
Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu.
Author’s Notes: Written for the “Other: Detectives” square on my bingo card.
When you never know if you’ll wake up as a duck, it’s a good idea to keep a glass of water near your bed. Like that morning. When the day begins with flapping about until you return to human form—sans clothing, I might add—things tend to go downhill from there. Did I also mention that there’s also a special necklace I have to wear if I want to turn human again? Yeah, it’s that kind of curse.
Somebody knocked on the door. “Ahiru?” It was Edel, my boss at the detective agency downstairs from my apartment. “I need you in the office as soon as you’re up.”
“Just a minute.”
A young man was sitting in front of Edel’s desk when I entered. His skin was very pale and he had feather-like white hair. “Ahiru, meet our newest client,” she said. “Mytho, this is Ahiru. She’ll be assisting with the case.”
“Pleased to meet you,” I said. He smiled wanly, his hands clutched around a cup of coffee.
“Mytho is here in regards to a missing person’s case,” Edel informed me.
Mytho took a gulp of coffee and nodded. “It’s my girlfriend, Rue. She went missing two weeks ago. We’re both in the dance school at Kinkan Academy.”
I looked at the photo he presented. A young woman with dark hair dressed in a red leotard stood poised in the middle of a dance studio.
“Please excuse me for this,” I said to him, “but why come to us? Kinkan is a very prestigious school; surely there’s been an investigation.”
“The administration is so secretive. They say they’re looking into it but nothing’s been done! There are rumors that the police have been told to mind their own business. I don’t know what to do but I can’t just keep waiting.”
Edel reached across the desk and touched his hand. “We’ll set up an investigation. For now, go back to school and don’t tell anybody that you’ve been here. We’ll contact you soon.”
“Just find her.”
After he left the office, I shut the door. “Is there any evidence of murder?”
She shook her head. “Nothing to suggest life or death. There have been no traces whatsoever. Kinkan’s principal is named Drosselmeyer. Mytho wasn’t exaggerating how unhelpful he’s been since the disappearance took place.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised the students haven’t all left. What sort of investigation did you have in mind?”
“I was thinking of undercover.”
I looked at Edel. She began to smile. “Oh, no. No!”
“Come, Ahiru. You told me before that you have ballet experience.”
“Why do you think I became a detective instead? I’m a horrible dancer! Besides, I haven’t danced in years.”
“It will be a good chance for you to practice, then. I’ve already contacted the school as your mother. You’ll be enrolled in the dance department in two days.”
“Edel!”
“This is the only way to find out what’s happening,” she said.
“Fine.” I stood up.
“Where are you going, dear?”
“To buy ballet shoes.”
#
Two days later, I was the newest member of the apprentice ballet class in the dance school. Mytho stood on the other side of the room, not looking at me. Edel had sent a message telling him what we had planned so that he wouldn’t blow my cover. I stood at the barre with the rest of the class while the teacher, Neko-sensei, drilled us in the warm-up basics. I remembered those, at least.
I watched the other students present. I had examined Kinkan Academy’s roster before arriving and decided that the person behind Rue’s kidnapping was likely a classmate or instructor from the program. Still, I couldn’t yet rule out the other departments. This might take longer than I’d expected.
“Ahiru!” the teacher’s voice boomed out. “Would you care to explain to me why you are still in fifth position when we have moved on to the next part of the lesson?”
Everybody was watching. I blushed. “Sorry, Neko-sensei.”
“Apologies are useless in ballet; either you dance or you don’t. If you cannot even concentrate on the lesson…” steam came out of his ears and nose twitched “…you shall be forced to marry me!”
“She’s sorry, Neko-sensei!” Pique, one of the girls standing next to me, exclaimed. “She won’t do it again!”
“She’s just new here,” Lilie, who stood on my other side, added. “She’ll catch up!”
Neko-sensei ignored the class for several minutes, intent on grooming his whiskers.
“You have to be careful,” Pique whispered. “Neko-sensei is a grand teacher but he has a very short temper. If he catches you daydreaming in class again, you could end up engaged to him!”
“Thanks for the warning.”
#
I left my dorm room soon after dinner, while the other girls settled in for the night. My feet ached as I walked. Even the most experienced dancer’s feet hurt and I hadn’t practiced in at least a couple years. I couldn’t quite remember the last time I danced and had trouble recalling the name of the school where I had started.
Nobody else was out. I couldn’t believe that everyone settled in so early at night. Granted I didn’t have much experience with boarding schools but the entire place just felt odd.
Somebody hissed from by the boy’s dorm across the courtyard. “Ahiru!” It was Mytho.
I groaned as I hurried over. He stood out in the darkness like a sore thumb. “You shouldn’t be talking to me.”
“I won’t after this, I promise. Just…do you have any news?”
I was still annoyed but I felt sad for him. “Not yet; it’s too soon. I should have more luck in the next few days. You have to treat me like any other classmate, or the kidnapper might be tipped off.”
“Do you think Rue’s still alive?”
Why did he have to ask me that? “She’s alive until I learn anything that suggests otherwise.”
“Thank you! I’ll do better, I promise.” He gave me an unexpected hug and slipped into the building.
“Weird school, even weirder students,” I muttered. Tomorrow I’d start asking about the missing girl. I was a new student; it would be natural to show curiosity. With any luck, I’d find somebody who liked to gossip.
I turned the corner and stumbled into somebody who grabbed my wrist. I just barely kept myself from punching them. What was it with people at this place lurking around buildings?
“What are you doing over here?” the person asked.
It was Fakir, one of the other ballet students. Everybody knew about Fakir and everybody talked about him. Without even asking, so far I had found out that he didn’t really like anybody, was overprotective of Mytho, and was considered drop-dead gorgeous by approximately half of the female student body (the other half were attracted to Mytho). I’d gotten an earful at dinner from the girls telling me which one to favor.
“I—I was just exploring! I’m new here and I hadn’t had a chance to see much of the school yet. It’s really pretty.” Crap, I was such a bad liar. How had I managed to get a job as a detective? “So, what are you doing here?”
“Unlike you, I live in this building.”
Edel was going to pay for putting me in this position. “Wow, really? Well, it was nice meeting
you.”
“Just stay out of my way.” He glared and stalked into the dorm.
I grimaced. What a creepy person. I had just reached my room when Lilie and Pique, who shared the room next to mine, burst into the hallway.
“We saw everything!” Pique declared. “Here only a day and already you’re in a relationship with Fakir!”
“A midnight rendezvous is so romantic,” Lilie sighed.
I flushed. “It wasn’t anything like that!”
“Did he tell you how he feels?” Pique demanded.
“He hates me.”
Lilie swooned. “To deny your confession of love—it’s like a beautiful tragedy! Remember, Ahiru, just keep telling him how you feel. Even if he ignores you, you’re even cuter when you’re suffering.”
“Good night.” I turned away.
“Sweet dreams, Ahiru!” they chorused as I shut the door.
#
I got up early next morning to report to Edel. The dorms had phones located only in the hall, where anybody walking by could hear you. With any luck, the other students wouldn’t wake up until I had finished.
“Ahiru, it’s so good to hear from you. How are things going?” Edel sounded wide awake. Didn’t that woman ever sleep?
“I haven’t been able to do much yet; spent yesterday acting like a good new student, worried about doing well in class. Mytho almost wrecked things once but he should back off now.”
“Any leads?”
A floorboard down the hall creaked. I kept quiet until no other sounds followed. “One of the other students seems suspicious of me but I doubt it’s for the right reason. Listen, I have to go. I’ll check in with you later. ”
“Take care.”
I hung up the phone just before Pique came out of her room, yawning. I smiled broadly. “Good morning!”
“You’re up early, Ahiru.”
“I was hoping to catch you before you and Lilie left for class. Can I walk with you? I’m still so new here and I bet the two of you know everything.”
Pique laughed. “It’s too bad you couldn’t ask us that yesterday—we might have been able to warn you about Neko-sensei.” She stuck her head back into the room. “Lilie, get up! Ahiru’s going to class with us.”
It wasn’t too hard to steer the conversation in the direction I wanted as we ate breakfast. I told them, “I almost wasn’t able to enroll here. My mother was so worried when she heard about that girl who disappeared. Is it true that nobody’s heard anything?”
Lilie shuddered dramatically. “Oh, Ahiru, I never thought you’d be interested in such creepy things! It’s just like a ghost story—nobody saw her disappear and there hasn’t been any news.”
“So aren’t you worried? What if whoever it is comes after the rest of us?”
Pique waved this off. “I doubt that will happen.”
Why on earth weren’t these girls scared out of their minds like any normal person? Possibly they were involved but I doubted that two such seemingly feather-brained girls could pull off such a scheme. They also didn’t seem ambitious enough to want to kill off the competition.
Lilie nudged me. “So, have you thought of any ways to get Fakir’s attention accidentally-on-purpose? Because we have a few suggestions.”
I couldn’t help blushing, damn it. “I told you, he’s not interested in me. By the way, is he always in such a bad mood?”
“He doesn’t like anybody except for Mytho, and even they argue often.”
“He doesn’t get along with Rue, either. He didn’t, I mean,” said Pique, clearly still thinking about their missing classmate.
Alarm bells started ringing in my head but I kept nibbling on my toast. “Really?”
Pique nodded. “They were always very close, and then Rue came along a few months ago. She and Mytho were together within a week.” She sighed theatrically, becoming distracted from the topic. “You should have heard the crying from Mytho’s other fans when they started to be seen together; none of us could concentrate in class for days. Neko-sensei was very upset. But they make such a beautiful couple!”
“She and Fakir never learned to get along, though?” I asked. Maybe he had a good reason to be suspicious of me, after all.
“They behaved around Mytho,” Pique assured me, “but you could tell they weren’t happy about it.”
It was difficult to decide whether or not to voice my next thought. “He must be happy that she’s gone, then.”
Lilie pursed her lips and twisted one of her enormous pigtails around her finger. “Not really. He’s the same kind of moody as he was before. He’s so dreamy.” She sighed, distracted.
“But now he keeps an even closer watch on Mytho,” Pique said.
Very interesting. Many of the people in my line of work were often driven to commit crimes out of jealousy. Was Fakir watching over Mytho because he had gotten Rue out of the way, or because he was worried that something else might happen? And if so, did he know who was behind it? It was surprising that Mytho had managed to get to Edel’s office and back, supposedly without anybody noticing.
“I know why Ahiru’s so curious,” Lilie said slyly, interrupting my thoughts. “It’s because she wants to know if she has a chance with Fakir!”
Oh, God. They would probably never shut up about this. “That’s not why I’m asking!”
“Sure, Ahiru,” both girls said together and got up to walk to class. “Make sure to share all the details of what doesn’t happen later.”
#
The second day of pretending to be a student didn’t go too much better than the first. I managed to avoid the threats of marrying Neko-sensei, but it was a near miss. One time I escaped only because a bird flew by and Neko-sensei hurt his head from hitting the window when he jumped at it.
I called Edel after dinner but after the phone rang multiple times, I heard a machine’s voice saying, “This number has been disconnected.” What the hell was going on? If I hadn’t been on an assignment that involved potentially murdered students, I would have left immediately.
As it was, I stormed out of the dorm. I was going to solve this mystery and go someplace where there weren’t gossiping neighbors, insane teachers, or boys who skulked about.
Rue was last seen in one of the dance studios on the second floor of the building. I made my way in that direction. The door had been left ajar and light came through the opening. I crept along the wall and looked in.
Mytho danced alone in the middle of the room. There wasn’t any music playing but he moved as though he could hear it. Of course he would come to the place where his girlfriend had disappeared.
The windows slammed open, nearly breaking the glass. Wind rushed through the opening. Mytho stopped dancing and stared into the night. I chose to remain hidden for the moment.
Large, dark feathers swept into the room. They skidded across the floor and one brushed Mytho’s face. He remained frozen.
Now a cloud of black feathers blew inside. When they separated, a woman dressed in a black tutu with a jagged skirt stood on the dance floor. Her hair was swept up to look like a raven’s tail.
She stepped forward. “Dance with me, Mytho.”
He finally spoke. “Rue?”
“Rue no longer exists. I am Princess Kraehe, the Raven King’s daughter.”
Mytho continued to hang back but wavered a little more with every passing moment. “What happened to you?”
“Father says that I must bring you to him, or else he will no longer love me. Your heart is the one he really wants.” She grasped his hands.
That was enough. I had no idea what had happened to this girl, but she wasn’t going to take another person with her. I slammed the door open the rest of the way. “Stop!”
Light blinded me. I couldn’t move. It felt as though feathers were brushing all over my body. The light faded and I glanced at the wall-length mirror. I was dressed like a prima ballerina in white from head to toe. There were even small wings attached to the back of my costume.
I stepped in between Mytho and Rue. “You can’t take him.”
Her dark eyes narrowed. “Princess Tutu. Father warned me that you would appear.” “I don’t care what you call me but enough is enough. You’re not taking any more students.” Mytho remained behind me. “Get out of here!” I told him.
She laughed. “Foolish girl. Nobody can fight the Raven King!” She spun around me and reached for Mytho.
A sword flashed. Princess Kraehe barely avoided having her hand cut off. Fakir held the sword, also dressed in black instead of his school uniform. He swung at her again and she jumped back.
I pushed Mytho out of the way and stepped in between the two enemies. “Stop that!”
“I don’t know who you are,” Fakir told me, “but I won’t let her harm anybody else.”
“She’s a victim and she’s obviously been brainwashed,” I snapped. “Get out of the way and let me do my job.”
The dark ballerina’s voice interrupted our argument. “Rue is nothing more than a memory. And I shall have what I came for.”
Rue swung her arm and an even stronger wind arose, breaking the windows and knocking us to the floor. When I could life my head again, only Fakir and I remained in the room. Mytho was gone.
#
Running, I staggered to a halt in a wooded area after passing several buildings. I couldn’t find any trace of the missing students. The light appeared again and I was redressed in the normal gray uniform. What was happening to me? And how was I supposed to solve a case when there was a sword-wielding student, a brainwashed victim, and new transformations that I couldn’t control? I wished that Edel was with me.
A branch cracked behind me. I shrieked. “Quack!” And there I was, turned into a duck again. Damn this happening whenever something surprised me! I looked around: it was only a squirrel that had hopped onto a dead tree branch.
All I had to do was pour water over myself. Piece of cake. I’d done it at least a hundred times before. I bundled my clothes up. Soon, I found one of the little ponds that dotted the campus and jumped in.
The feathers were still there. I was supposed to be a human now, not a duck! I splashed about, even staying below the surface as long as I could hold my breath, but it was no use.
Something wasn’t right. I peered at my reflection. My necklace was gone. I thought back: I’d been wearing it when I woke up in the morning and it had remained as part of my outfit when I changed into the ballerina costume. It must have come off during the fight.
I stuffed my clothing in between some nearby bushes and trudged back to the dance studio. The room was dark and Fakir had gone. I searched every inch, even among the bits of broken glass, but didn’t find my necklace anywhere. I was stuck.
#
Having to remain as a duck all of the next day was horrible. For one thing, I had a lack of opposable thumbs. Have you ever tried opening a door as a duck? The only advantage was that Neko-sensei couldn’t threaten to marry me when I did something wrong. Then again, who knew what he would do after I missed an entire day’s worth of classes? Cats didn’t eat ducks, right?
This undercover plan had gone to hell. When I finally changed back I planned to ditch the student act and hunt down this person Rue had called “Father.”
In the afternoon I returned to the pond where I’d hidden my things. Fakir leaned against a tree by its shore. My necklace dangled from his fingers. With any luck, he’d only noticed it lying around and wasn’t keeping it from me on purpose.
I hopped up onto the grass. “Quack.” I tugged at the necklace.
He laughed. I was amazed that he had any facial expression other than “cranky.” “You want something shiny? You’re acting more like a magpie than a duck. I guess you can have it.”
It took only a second to toss the pendant over my neck. He watched in bemusement as I jumped into the pond.
The world shifted. I now had a lack of feathers and was tall enough to look Fakir in the eye.
“Hi.”
His mouth opened and closed like a bird searching for breadcrumbs.
“Could you pass me my clothes?”
He fainted.
#
Fakir woke up just after I finished dressing. “You’re a duck,” he said.
“Not right now.”
“You can’t be as stupid as you act. You know what I meant.”
“It’s a curse,” I said.
“How did you end up cursed as a duck?”
I shrugged. “No idea. Something startled me one day, I ‘quacked’, and that was that. I have to be in water to change back. And I need the necklace too, apparently.”
“You’re also that ballerina from last night.”
“That one’s new to me; yesterday was the first time it happened.”
He stared. “But you’re a horrible dancer in class!”
“Thank you so much.”
“And you don’t know where the necklace came from?”
“Not a clue. Does your head hurt? I wasn’t able to catch you when you fainted.”
“It’s fine. What are you really doing here?”
I shouldn’t have told him. But he’d just seen me change from a duck into a human and hadn’t run off screaming or tried to kill me with that sword, so I took a chance. “I’m a detective. I’m supposed to be undercover investigating Rue’s disappearance. Mytho hired me. That’s why I tried to stop you from killing her.”
He drew back.
“What is it? If you know something, you might as well say it.”
He said nothing.
“Damn it, Fakir! I have a duty to find out what’s happened to that girl, my boss is missing, I’m turning into new…things with no warning, and I could really use some help!” I shouted.
“Shut up or somebody will hear. Do you know the story of ‘The Prince and the Raven?’”
“Never heard of it.”
“It’s a local thing. The principal’s ancestor was a writer. Once upon a time, there was a prince who fought a monster raven—“
“Fakir.”
“Yes?”
“Give me the short version.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. The prince defeated the monster raven but he couldn’t destroy it. In the story, the raven has a daughter. He sends her out to collect human hearts which will allow him to become strong enough to kill the prince.”
“So somebody decided to reenact the story, and is kidnapping students to kill them and take their hearts,” I said.
“That’s one possibility. Another is that there really is a monster raven.”
Was everybody at Kinkan wrong in the head? “That’s ridiculous. Monster ravens committing human sacrifice don’t really exist.”
“I used to think it was made up too, but how else do you explain what happened to Rue and Mytho? Also, allow me to remind you which one of us turns into a duck with the aid of jewelry and has selective amnesia,” Fakir said snippily.
“Shut up. I’m going to find out what’s happening and I’m not wasting any more time pretending to be a student. You should leave the campus, just to be safe.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “I’m coming with you.”
“You most certainly are not! I can take care of things—“
“Because you’ve done such a great job of that so far.”
“—and this ‘raven king’ has started kidnapping male students now, so you’re not safe.”
“I don’t think so.” He’d stopped mocking me and looked serious. “I think there’s something special about Mytho that whoever’s behind this wants.”
“He’s that special?”
“Can’t you tell?” Fakir seemed genuinely surprised. He shook his head. “You really are an idiot. Well then, where do you want to look?”
I pursed my lips. “You said that the principal’s ancestor wrote this raven story. Before she disappeared, my boss said there was something odd about the principal. Does anybody ever see him?”
“Almost never. He claims that he’s very busy running the school and doesn’t like to be bothered. Now that you mention it, nobody ever really talks about him.”
“And nobody thinks this is strange?”
“It is starting to seem odd.”
“Fine. I want to see the principal’s office.”
“You think that he’s behind this?”
“I’m not sure. But I do know that no school administrator, no matter how busy he is with paperwork, ignores the kinds of things that have been happening here.”
“I can show you how to get there.”
Fakir insisted that we stop by his dorm room so that he could get his sword out from under the bed.
“Does anybody know that you have that thing?” I asked.
“Nobody’s ever noticed it before.”
We didn’t see any students or faculty out and about. It felt as though we were the only two people on the campus. Fakir led the way to the building where Drosselmeyer worked and slept. Our steps echoed on the flagstones that paved the walkways.
I shivered. “I know this is a cliché but I have a bad feeling.”
We reached the building. Fakir paused, about to open the door. “You don’t mean that you want to turn back.”
“Keep going. It’s just that I feel sick all of a sudden.”
“Are you going to…change again?”
“I don’t know. Just show me where the office is.” The air seemed cold and I felt goosebumps crawling along my back.
Halfway down a hall, Fakir knocked on a door that looked perfectly ordinary. We didn’t hear anything on the other side. I turned the handle.
An old man with long white hair sat at a desk in an enormous room, scribbling away on a notepad. He didn’t look up. One whole wall was covered in red velvet curtains, the kind you would see in a theatre. Another wall contained a large fireplace with several burning logs. Facing the desk, we saw the tall back of a chair.
The unseen sitter pushed the chair back from the desk and turned around. “Hello, Ahiru,” Edel said.
“Edel? Oh thank goodness, you’re all right. I didn’t know what happened to you—“ I started towards her but Fakir held me back. “What’s the matter with you?” I demanded.
“Something’s wrong,” he said.
Drosselmeyer finally looked at us. “Very good, Fakir. You’re more perceptive than I planned. Have a seat.” He wrote a line in his notepad.
My legs jerked and I couldn’t stop them. Somehow I was moved to another chair in front of the desk and sat down. Looking at Fakir’s face, I could tell that the same thing had happened to him. Even though I tried, I couldn’t get out.
Drosselmeyer noticed my struggles. “Ahiru, stop that. It won’t accomplish anything and you’ll only hurt yourself.” He turned to my boss. “Edel, you may sit again.” She folded herself into her chair, staring ahead.
“You’re the person who wrote ‘The Prince and the Raven,’ aren’t you?” Fakir asked. “It wasn’t some ancestor, it was you.”
“Oh, very good!” Drosselmeyer beamed at him. “I hadn’t planned on you figuring that out for at least a few more pages.”
“Are you the one who’s behind the disappearance? What have you done to Rue?” I asked.
He waved dismissively. “You don’t have to worry about her; she's fine.”
“Rue isn’t ‘fine.’ You kidnapped her and messed with her head. Now she thinks that she’s some monster’s daughter and you’ve involved Mytho as well!”
“She is a wonderful character, isn’t she?” he said, returning to writing as he spoke. “Very three-dimensional. I must confess that I hadn’t expected her to turn out nearly this well but then, I’ve always had a gift for scripting the villains in my story, if I may say so myself. She and Mytho turned out to be an excellent method for getting you here.”
“Mytho lured me to Kinkan on purpose?”
“Of course not. Don’t be more foolish than you have to.”
Fakir had been watching Drosselmeyer write. “You’re controlling all of us. Whatever you write comes to life; that’s how it works.”
“Exactly.” He looked up from the notepad briefly. “If I were reading another author’s work I would be annoyed with him for stopping the action to explain the backstory, but the opportunity is irresistible. An audience such as yourselves doesn’t come along every day.”
“Are we even real?” I asked. “Were we ever born, or did you just make us out of ink and paper?”
“You’re my creations, through and through,” he said. “You’re mostly human now of course, but you were a duck for a long time before you ever were a girl.”
I wanted to punch him but I couldn’t free myself from the chair. “So you just created fake memories? I never went to ballet school before, I never had the life I thought I did? You just change my shape because you feel like it?”
Drosselmeyer seemed surprised at my reaction. “I had to. Otherwise, there would have been no reasonable excuse to bring you here as a student. What good is a story without tragedy? Happiness is boring.”
“I think everybody else in this room would disagree with you.”
The past several minutes, Fakir had been ignored and had kept silent. Now with a jerk, he freed himself from his chair and lunged at Drosselmeyer.
“Oh now, that won’t do,” the old man tutted. Fakir was pushed back to the chair. He pulled out several pages covered with his handwriting. “Shall we move things along? I’ve had the conclusion in mind for days and I’m eager to see how it will play out.” Drosselmeyer wrote one more line and set down his pen. The curtains pulled back to reveal a stage, larger than the room should have been able to contain. On the stage there stood Rue/Princess Kraehe and Mytho, their limbs dangling like marionettes. Mytho had been dressed entirely in black and a small crown sat upon his head. He also held a sword. Several dozen raven puppets hung from the rafters.
The blinding light came and I was dressed as Princess Tutu once more. Fakir and I walked up to the stage, still unable to control our bodies. Mytho and Rue breathed but they showed no expressions. I could hear quiet but ominous music.
“And…begin!” Drosselmeyer said.
Mytho leaped forward and swung his sword. Fakir almost didn’t block it in time. The two of them began to fight, struggling back and forth across a section of the stage.
I had only moments to see this before Rue came at me. Black feathers sprang from her fingers and came at me like knives. Several of them cut my arms and back. We danced around one another, she trying to attack and I trying to keep out of reach. The raven puppets came loose from their strings and flew around the stage, driving at Fakir and I.
I couldn’t look away without being attacked but I could hear Drosselmeyer. The old man was laughing and clapping. “Excellent! This will be the greatest story I’ve ever written!” I wished that the ravens would attack him. Then we could see how much he liked it.
Fakir was shouting as he fought. “Mytho, stop it! You have to recognize me!” Mytho remained silent.
At last I grabbed Rue’s arms. The ravens beat me with their wings but I didn’t let go. “Try to stop this. You’re Rue, not Princess Kraehe. Drosselmeyer might have created us but you don’t have to be the villain just because he says so.”
Tears smeared the makeup on her face. “I’m a raven’s daughter. I don’t deserve to be loved.”
“The raven king was never your father. And Mytho loves you—you’re all he talked about whenever he was with me. Drosselmeyer could never have made that up completely.”
Since greeting us, Edel had said nothing. Now, I shouted to her, “Don’t let him do this to us! You can’t be happy like this. For all our sakes, do something!”
“No luck there, Princess Tutu,” Drosselmeyer said. “She’s the first character I ever created and I’ve had charge of her the longest.”
Edel slowly turned to me. She looked. Then, she turned to Drosselmeyer. She leaned over the desk and grabbed the papers.
“Stop that!” Drosselmeyer said. “I’ll write you out of the story, just see if I don’t.” He tried to take the papers back but she moved away too fast. He took up the pen, but it slipped from his fingers and fell beneath the desk.
She ran to the fireplace as Rue and I watched.
“I’m warning you. Stop that right now,” Drosselmeyer told her.
Edel shoved the notepad into the fire. It had barely started to burn when he caught up with her. He tried to pull the papers out. She grabbed them up and jumped into the heart of the fire.
“No!” I screamed. Rue held me up.
Drosselmeyer started to change. He glowed as though there was a fire beneath his skin. The colors of his clothing melted together. Before he could do anything, the fire in the hearth blazed up and there was nothing left of him but a pile of ash.
The ravens and the swords vanished. All four of us were dressed once more in the school uniforms. Mytho embraced Rue, laughing almost hysterically. He kept saying, “You’re back! It’s finally over.” Fakir watched them, looking uncharacteristically happy.
I went to the fireplace. Drosselmeyer’s ashes in a little heap and I kicked my foot through them. The fireplace was cold. I couldn’t see any sign of Edel or the papers. A stranger would never have known that she existed.
Somebody touched my shoulder. I turned around and saw the other three. “Do you think she regretted it?” I asked.
“No. She did it for you,” Fakir said.
Rue smiled and I saw how pretty she was for the first time. “Come on, let’s go outside. I want to see what’s changed.”
We left the building, Fakir and I holding hands.
#
Things at Kinkan Academy continued as normal the next day. It seemed as though nobody even noticed that the principal was gone. I wondered how much control Drosselmeyer has possessed over his creations by the time I arrived. Fakir and I sat in the sunlight outside the main dance studio. Through the glass windows, we could watch Mytho and Rue practicing a pas de deux.
“Do you think he was telling the truth, that he made all of us up?” Fakir asked.
“Who knows?” I lay back on the thick lawn. “But now, I think we’re more alive than he ever was.”
“I guess. Are you going to stay at Kinkan?”
“No. I really am a horrible dancer when I’m not Princess Tutu and I don’t care enough about dance to prove Drosselmeyer wrong on that count. What about you?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I like ballet but I’m not as passionate about it as Mytho and Rue. And I’ll never be half as good as them.”
I laughed. “They’re so focused on dance, I’m surprised they even have time to think about each other. I’m thinking of going back to the detective agency. Edel won’t be there but I think I could run it. It’s as much home as anywhere else.”
“How would you feel about having an assistant?” he asked.
I smiled. “I’m sure we can work something out.”
au_bingo. Thank you to everybody who gave me comments and feedback along the way; for the rest of you on my f-list who aren't so into fan fiction or the fandoms I was using, thanks for putting up with me rambling about this for almost half a year. Title: The Case of the Raven’s Daughter
Fandom: Princess Tutu
Word Count: approx. 5,800
Summary: Ahiru is a private investigator who goes undercover at Kinkan Academy to investigate a student's disappearance. This being Princess Tutu, things naturally become more complicated.
Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu.
Author’s Notes: Written for the “Other: Detectives” square on my bingo card.
When you never know if you’ll wake up as a duck, it’s a good idea to keep a glass of water near your bed. Like that morning. When the day begins with flapping about until you return to human form—sans clothing, I might add—things tend to go downhill from there. Did I also mention that there’s also a special necklace I have to wear if I want to turn human again? Yeah, it’s that kind of curse.
Somebody knocked on the door. “Ahiru?” It was Edel, my boss at the detective agency downstairs from my apartment. “I need you in the office as soon as you’re up.”
“Just a minute.”
A young man was sitting in front of Edel’s desk when I entered. His skin was very pale and he had feather-like white hair. “Ahiru, meet our newest client,” she said. “Mytho, this is Ahiru. She’ll be assisting with the case.”
“Pleased to meet you,” I said. He smiled wanly, his hands clutched around a cup of coffee.
“Mytho is here in regards to a missing person’s case,” Edel informed me.
Mytho took a gulp of coffee and nodded. “It’s my girlfriend, Rue. She went missing two weeks ago. We’re both in the dance school at Kinkan Academy.”
I looked at the photo he presented. A young woman with dark hair dressed in a red leotard stood poised in the middle of a dance studio.
“Please excuse me for this,” I said to him, “but why come to us? Kinkan is a very prestigious school; surely there’s been an investigation.”
“The administration is so secretive. They say they’re looking into it but nothing’s been done! There are rumors that the police have been told to mind their own business. I don’t know what to do but I can’t just keep waiting.”
Edel reached across the desk and touched his hand. “We’ll set up an investigation. For now, go back to school and don’t tell anybody that you’ve been here. We’ll contact you soon.”
“Just find her.”
After he left the office, I shut the door. “Is there any evidence of murder?”
She shook her head. “Nothing to suggest life or death. There have been no traces whatsoever. Kinkan’s principal is named Drosselmeyer. Mytho wasn’t exaggerating how unhelpful he’s been since the disappearance took place.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised the students haven’t all left. What sort of investigation did you have in mind?”
“I was thinking of undercover.”
I looked at Edel. She began to smile. “Oh, no. No!”
“Come, Ahiru. You told me before that you have ballet experience.”
“Why do you think I became a detective instead? I’m a horrible dancer! Besides, I haven’t danced in years.”
“It will be a good chance for you to practice, then. I’ve already contacted the school as your mother. You’ll be enrolled in the dance department in two days.”
“Edel!”
“This is the only way to find out what’s happening,” she said.
“Fine.” I stood up.
“Where are you going, dear?”
“To buy ballet shoes.”
Two days later, I was the newest member of the apprentice ballet class in the dance school. Mytho stood on the other side of the room, not looking at me. Edel had sent a message telling him what we had planned so that he wouldn’t blow my cover. I stood at the barre with the rest of the class while the teacher, Neko-sensei, drilled us in the warm-up basics. I remembered those, at least.
I watched the other students present. I had examined Kinkan Academy’s roster before arriving and decided that the person behind Rue’s kidnapping was likely a classmate or instructor from the program. Still, I couldn’t yet rule out the other departments. This might take longer than I’d expected.
“Ahiru!” the teacher’s voice boomed out. “Would you care to explain to me why you are still in fifth position when we have moved on to the next part of the lesson?”
Everybody was watching. I blushed. “Sorry, Neko-sensei.”
“Apologies are useless in ballet; either you dance or you don’t. If you cannot even concentrate on the lesson…” steam came out of his ears and nose twitched “…you shall be forced to marry me!”
“She’s sorry, Neko-sensei!” Pique, one of the girls standing next to me, exclaimed. “She won’t do it again!”
“She’s just new here,” Lilie, who stood on my other side, added. “She’ll catch up!”
Neko-sensei ignored the class for several minutes, intent on grooming his whiskers.
“You have to be careful,” Pique whispered. “Neko-sensei is a grand teacher but he has a very short temper. If he catches you daydreaming in class again, you could end up engaged to him!”
“Thanks for the warning.”
I left my dorm room soon after dinner, while the other girls settled in for the night. My feet ached as I walked. Even the most experienced dancer’s feet hurt and I hadn’t practiced in at least a couple years. I couldn’t quite remember the last time I danced and had trouble recalling the name of the school where I had started.
Nobody else was out. I couldn’t believe that everyone settled in so early at night. Granted I didn’t have much experience with boarding schools but the entire place just felt odd.
Somebody hissed from by the boy’s dorm across the courtyard. “Ahiru!” It was Mytho.
I groaned as I hurried over. He stood out in the darkness like a sore thumb. “You shouldn’t be talking to me.”
“I won’t after this, I promise. Just…do you have any news?”
I was still annoyed but I felt sad for him. “Not yet; it’s too soon. I should have more luck in the next few days. You have to treat me like any other classmate, or the kidnapper might be tipped off.”
“Do you think Rue’s still alive?”
Why did he have to ask me that? “She’s alive until I learn anything that suggests otherwise.”
“Thank you! I’ll do better, I promise.” He gave me an unexpected hug and slipped into the building.
“Weird school, even weirder students,” I muttered. Tomorrow I’d start asking about the missing girl. I was a new student; it would be natural to show curiosity. With any luck, I’d find somebody who liked to gossip.
I turned the corner and stumbled into somebody who grabbed my wrist. I just barely kept myself from punching them. What was it with people at this place lurking around buildings?
“What are you doing over here?” the person asked.
It was Fakir, one of the other ballet students. Everybody knew about Fakir and everybody talked about him. Without even asking, so far I had found out that he didn’t really like anybody, was overprotective of Mytho, and was considered drop-dead gorgeous by approximately half of the female student body (the other half were attracted to Mytho). I’d gotten an earful at dinner from the girls telling me which one to favor.
“I—I was just exploring! I’m new here and I hadn’t had a chance to see much of the school yet. It’s really pretty.” Crap, I was such a bad liar. How had I managed to get a job as a detective? “So, what are you doing here?”
“Unlike you, I live in this building.”
Edel was going to pay for putting me in this position. “Wow, really? Well, it was nice meeting
you.”
“Just stay out of my way.” He glared and stalked into the dorm.
I grimaced. What a creepy person. I had just reached my room when Lilie and Pique, who shared the room next to mine, burst into the hallway.
“We saw everything!” Pique declared. “Here only a day and already you’re in a relationship with Fakir!”
“A midnight rendezvous is so romantic,” Lilie sighed.
I flushed. “It wasn’t anything like that!”
“Did he tell you how he feels?” Pique demanded.
“He hates me.”
Lilie swooned. “To deny your confession of love—it’s like a beautiful tragedy! Remember, Ahiru, just keep telling him how you feel. Even if he ignores you, you’re even cuter when you’re suffering.”
“Good night.” I turned away.
“Sweet dreams, Ahiru!” they chorused as I shut the door.
I got up early next morning to report to Edel. The dorms had phones located only in the hall, where anybody walking by could hear you. With any luck, the other students wouldn’t wake up until I had finished.
“Ahiru, it’s so good to hear from you. How are things going?” Edel sounded wide awake. Didn’t that woman ever sleep?
“I haven’t been able to do much yet; spent yesterday acting like a good new student, worried about doing well in class. Mytho almost wrecked things once but he should back off now.”
“Any leads?”
A floorboard down the hall creaked. I kept quiet until no other sounds followed. “One of the other students seems suspicious of me but I doubt it’s for the right reason. Listen, I have to go. I’ll check in with you later. ”
“Take care.”
I hung up the phone just before Pique came out of her room, yawning. I smiled broadly. “Good morning!”
“You’re up early, Ahiru.”
“I was hoping to catch you before you and Lilie left for class. Can I walk with you? I’m still so new here and I bet the two of you know everything.”
Pique laughed. “It’s too bad you couldn’t ask us that yesterday—we might have been able to warn you about Neko-sensei.” She stuck her head back into the room. “Lilie, get up! Ahiru’s going to class with us.”
It wasn’t too hard to steer the conversation in the direction I wanted as we ate breakfast. I told them, “I almost wasn’t able to enroll here. My mother was so worried when she heard about that girl who disappeared. Is it true that nobody’s heard anything?”
Lilie shuddered dramatically. “Oh, Ahiru, I never thought you’d be interested in such creepy things! It’s just like a ghost story—nobody saw her disappear and there hasn’t been any news.”
“So aren’t you worried? What if whoever it is comes after the rest of us?”
Pique waved this off. “I doubt that will happen.”
Why on earth weren’t these girls scared out of their minds like any normal person? Possibly they were involved but I doubted that two such seemingly feather-brained girls could pull off such a scheme. They also didn’t seem ambitious enough to want to kill off the competition.
Lilie nudged me. “So, have you thought of any ways to get Fakir’s attention accidentally-on-purpose? Because we have a few suggestions.”
I couldn’t help blushing, damn it. “I told you, he’s not interested in me. By the way, is he always in such a bad mood?”
“He doesn’t like anybody except for Mytho, and even they argue often.”
“He doesn’t get along with Rue, either. He didn’t, I mean,” said Pique, clearly still thinking about their missing classmate.
Alarm bells started ringing in my head but I kept nibbling on my toast. “Really?”
Pique nodded. “They were always very close, and then Rue came along a few months ago. She and Mytho were together within a week.” She sighed theatrically, becoming distracted from the topic. “You should have heard the crying from Mytho’s other fans when they started to be seen together; none of us could concentrate in class for days. Neko-sensei was very upset. But they make such a beautiful couple!”
“She and Fakir never learned to get along, though?” I asked. Maybe he had a good reason to be suspicious of me, after all.
“They behaved around Mytho,” Pique assured me, “but you could tell they weren’t happy about it.”
It was difficult to decide whether or not to voice my next thought. “He must be happy that she’s gone, then.”
Lilie pursed her lips and twisted one of her enormous pigtails around her finger. “Not really. He’s the same kind of moody as he was before. He’s so dreamy.” She sighed, distracted.
“But now he keeps an even closer watch on Mytho,” Pique said.
Very interesting. Many of the people in my line of work were often driven to commit crimes out of jealousy. Was Fakir watching over Mytho because he had gotten Rue out of the way, or because he was worried that something else might happen? And if so, did he know who was behind it? It was surprising that Mytho had managed to get to Edel’s office and back, supposedly without anybody noticing.
“I know why Ahiru’s so curious,” Lilie said slyly, interrupting my thoughts. “It’s because she wants to know if she has a chance with Fakir!”
Oh, God. They would probably never shut up about this. “That’s not why I’m asking!”
“Sure, Ahiru,” both girls said together and got up to walk to class. “Make sure to share all the details of what doesn’t happen later.”
The second day of pretending to be a student didn’t go too much better than the first. I managed to avoid the threats of marrying Neko-sensei, but it was a near miss. One time I escaped only because a bird flew by and Neko-sensei hurt his head from hitting the window when he jumped at it.
I called Edel after dinner but after the phone rang multiple times, I heard a machine’s voice saying, “This number has been disconnected.” What the hell was going on? If I hadn’t been on an assignment that involved potentially murdered students, I would have left immediately.
As it was, I stormed out of the dorm. I was going to solve this mystery and go someplace where there weren’t gossiping neighbors, insane teachers, or boys who skulked about.
Rue was last seen in one of the dance studios on the second floor of the building. I made my way in that direction. The door had been left ajar and light came through the opening. I crept along the wall and looked in.
Mytho danced alone in the middle of the room. There wasn’t any music playing but he moved as though he could hear it. Of course he would come to the place where his girlfriend had disappeared.
The windows slammed open, nearly breaking the glass. Wind rushed through the opening. Mytho stopped dancing and stared into the night. I chose to remain hidden for the moment.
Large, dark feathers swept into the room. They skidded across the floor and one brushed Mytho’s face. He remained frozen.
Now a cloud of black feathers blew inside. When they separated, a woman dressed in a black tutu with a jagged skirt stood on the dance floor. Her hair was swept up to look like a raven’s tail.
She stepped forward. “Dance with me, Mytho.”
He finally spoke. “Rue?”
“Rue no longer exists. I am Princess Kraehe, the Raven King’s daughter.”
Mytho continued to hang back but wavered a little more with every passing moment. “What happened to you?”
“Father says that I must bring you to him, or else he will no longer love me. Your heart is the one he really wants.” She grasped his hands.
That was enough. I had no idea what had happened to this girl, but she wasn’t going to take another person with her. I slammed the door open the rest of the way. “Stop!”
Light blinded me. I couldn’t move. It felt as though feathers were brushing all over my body. The light faded and I glanced at the wall-length mirror. I was dressed like a prima ballerina in white from head to toe. There were even small wings attached to the back of my costume.
I stepped in between Mytho and Rue. “You can’t take him.”
Her dark eyes narrowed. “Princess Tutu. Father warned me that you would appear.” “I don’t care what you call me but enough is enough. You’re not taking any more students.” Mytho remained behind me. “Get out of here!” I told him.
She laughed. “Foolish girl. Nobody can fight the Raven King!” She spun around me and reached for Mytho.
A sword flashed. Princess Kraehe barely avoided having her hand cut off. Fakir held the sword, also dressed in black instead of his school uniform. He swung at her again and she jumped back.
I pushed Mytho out of the way and stepped in between the two enemies. “Stop that!”
“I don’t know who you are,” Fakir told me, “but I won’t let her harm anybody else.”
“She’s a victim and she’s obviously been brainwashed,” I snapped. “Get out of the way and let me do my job.”
The dark ballerina’s voice interrupted our argument. “Rue is nothing more than a memory. And I shall have what I came for.”
Rue swung her arm and an even stronger wind arose, breaking the windows and knocking us to the floor. When I could life my head again, only Fakir and I remained in the room. Mytho was gone.
Running, I staggered to a halt in a wooded area after passing several buildings. I couldn’t find any trace of the missing students. The light appeared again and I was redressed in the normal gray uniform. What was happening to me? And how was I supposed to solve a case when there was a sword-wielding student, a brainwashed victim, and new transformations that I couldn’t control? I wished that Edel was with me.
A branch cracked behind me. I shrieked. “Quack!” And there I was, turned into a duck again. Damn this happening whenever something surprised me! I looked around: it was only a squirrel that had hopped onto a dead tree branch.
All I had to do was pour water over myself. Piece of cake. I’d done it at least a hundred times before. I bundled my clothes up. Soon, I found one of the little ponds that dotted the campus and jumped in.
The feathers were still there. I was supposed to be a human now, not a duck! I splashed about, even staying below the surface as long as I could hold my breath, but it was no use.
Something wasn’t right. I peered at my reflection. My necklace was gone. I thought back: I’d been wearing it when I woke up in the morning and it had remained as part of my outfit when I changed into the ballerina costume. It must have come off during the fight.
I stuffed my clothing in between some nearby bushes and trudged back to the dance studio. The room was dark and Fakir had gone. I searched every inch, even among the bits of broken glass, but didn’t find my necklace anywhere. I was stuck.
Having to remain as a duck all of the next day was horrible. For one thing, I had a lack of opposable thumbs. Have you ever tried opening a door as a duck? The only advantage was that Neko-sensei couldn’t threaten to marry me when I did something wrong. Then again, who knew what he would do after I missed an entire day’s worth of classes? Cats didn’t eat ducks, right?
This undercover plan had gone to hell. When I finally changed back I planned to ditch the student act and hunt down this person Rue had called “Father.”
In the afternoon I returned to the pond where I’d hidden my things. Fakir leaned against a tree by its shore. My necklace dangled from his fingers. With any luck, he’d only noticed it lying around and wasn’t keeping it from me on purpose.
I hopped up onto the grass. “Quack.” I tugged at the necklace.
He laughed. I was amazed that he had any facial expression other than “cranky.” “You want something shiny? You’re acting more like a magpie than a duck. I guess you can have it.”
It took only a second to toss the pendant over my neck. He watched in bemusement as I jumped into the pond.
The world shifted. I now had a lack of feathers and was tall enough to look Fakir in the eye.
“Hi.”
His mouth opened and closed like a bird searching for breadcrumbs.
“Could you pass me my clothes?”
He fainted.
Fakir woke up just after I finished dressing. “You’re a duck,” he said.
“Not right now.”
“You can’t be as stupid as you act. You know what I meant.”
“It’s a curse,” I said.
“How did you end up cursed as a duck?”
I shrugged. “No idea. Something startled me one day, I ‘quacked’, and that was that. I have to be in water to change back. And I need the necklace too, apparently.”
“You’re also that ballerina from last night.”
“That one’s new to me; yesterday was the first time it happened.”
He stared. “But you’re a horrible dancer in class!”
“Thank you so much.”
“And you don’t know where the necklace came from?”
“Not a clue. Does your head hurt? I wasn’t able to catch you when you fainted.”
“It’s fine. What are you really doing here?”
I shouldn’t have told him. But he’d just seen me change from a duck into a human and hadn’t run off screaming or tried to kill me with that sword, so I took a chance. “I’m a detective. I’m supposed to be undercover investigating Rue’s disappearance. Mytho hired me. That’s why I tried to stop you from killing her.”
He drew back.
“What is it? If you know something, you might as well say it.”
He said nothing.
“Damn it, Fakir! I have a duty to find out what’s happened to that girl, my boss is missing, I’m turning into new…things with no warning, and I could really use some help!” I shouted.
“Shut up or somebody will hear. Do you know the story of ‘The Prince and the Raven?’”
“Never heard of it.”
“It’s a local thing. The principal’s ancestor was a writer. Once upon a time, there was a prince who fought a monster raven—“
“Fakir.”
“Yes?”
“Give me the short version.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. The prince defeated the monster raven but he couldn’t destroy it. In the story, the raven has a daughter. He sends her out to collect human hearts which will allow him to become strong enough to kill the prince.”
“So somebody decided to reenact the story, and is kidnapping students to kill them and take their hearts,” I said.
“That’s one possibility. Another is that there really is a monster raven.”
Was everybody at Kinkan wrong in the head? “That’s ridiculous. Monster ravens committing human sacrifice don’t really exist.”
“I used to think it was made up too, but how else do you explain what happened to Rue and Mytho? Also, allow me to remind you which one of us turns into a duck with the aid of jewelry and has selective amnesia,” Fakir said snippily.
“Shut up. I’m going to find out what’s happening and I’m not wasting any more time pretending to be a student. You should leave the campus, just to be safe.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “I’m coming with you.”
“You most certainly are not! I can take care of things—“
“Because you’ve done such a great job of that so far.”
“—and this ‘raven king’ has started kidnapping male students now, so you’re not safe.”
“I don’t think so.” He’d stopped mocking me and looked serious. “I think there’s something special about Mytho that whoever’s behind this wants.”
“He’s that special?”
“Can’t you tell?” Fakir seemed genuinely surprised. He shook his head. “You really are an idiot. Well then, where do you want to look?”
I pursed my lips. “You said that the principal’s ancestor wrote this raven story. Before she disappeared, my boss said there was something odd about the principal. Does anybody ever see him?”
“Almost never. He claims that he’s very busy running the school and doesn’t like to be bothered. Now that you mention it, nobody ever really talks about him.”
“And nobody thinks this is strange?”
“It is starting to seem odd.”
“Fine. I want to see the principal’s office.”
“You think that he’s behind this?”
“I’m not sure. But I do know that no school administrator, no matter how busy he is with paperwork, ignores the kinds of things that have been happening here.”
“I can show you how to get there.”
Fakir insisted that we stop by his dorm room so that he could get his sword out from under the bed.
“Does anybody know that you have that thing?” I asked.
“Nobody’s ever noticed it before.”
We didn’t see any students or faculty out and about. It felt as though we were the only two people on the campus. Fakir led the way to the building where Drosselmeyer worked and slept. Our steps echoed on the flagstones that paved the walkways.
I shivered. “I know this is a cliché but I have a bad feeling.”
We reached the building. Fakir paused, about to open the door. “You don’t mean that you want to turn back.”
“Keep going. It’s just that I feel sick all of a sudden.”
“Are you going to…change again?”
“I don’t know. Just show me where the office is.” The air seemed cold and I felt goosebumps crawling along my back.
Halfway down a hall, Fakir knocked on a door that looked perfectly ordinary. We didn’t hear anything on the other side. I turned the handle.
An old man with long white hair sat at a desk in an enormous room, scribbling away on a notepad. He didn’t look up. One whole wall was covered in red velvet curtains, the kind you would see in a theatre. Another wall contained a large fireplace with several burning logs. Facing the desk, we saw the tall back of a chair.
The unseen sitter pushed the chair back from the desk and turned around. “Hello, Ahiru,” Edel said.
“Edel? Oh thank goodness, you’re all right. I didn’t know what happened to you—“ I started towards her but Fakir held me back. “What’s the matter with you?” I demanded.
“Something’s wrong,” he said.
Drosselmeyer finally looked at us. “Very good, Fakir. You’re more perceptive than I planned. Have a seat.” He wrote a line in his notepad.
My legs jerked and I couldn’t stop them. Somehow I was moved to another chair in front of the desk and sat down. Looking at Fakir’s face, I could tell that the same thing had happened to him. Even though I tried, I couldn’t get out.
Drosselmeyer noticed my struggles. “Ahiru, stop that. It won’t accomplish anything and you’ll only hurt yourself.” He turned to my boss. “Edel, you may sit again.” She folded herself into her chair, staring ahead.
“You’re the person who wrote ‘The Prince and the Raven,’ aren’t you?” Fakir asked. “It wasn’t some ancestor, it was you.”
“Oh, very good!” Drosselmeyer beamed at him. “I hadn’t planned on you figuring that out for at least a few more pages.”
“Are you the one who’s behind the disappearance? What have you done to Rue?” I asked.
He waved dismissively. “You don’t have to worry about her; she's fine.”
“Rue isn’t ‘fine.’ You kidnapped her and messed with her head. Now she thinks that she’s some monster’s daughter and you’ve involved Mytho as well!”
“She is a wonderful character, isn’t she?” he said, returning to writing as he spoke. “Very three-dimensional. I must confess that I hadn’t expected her to turn out nearly this well but then, I’ve always had a gift for scripting the villains in my story, if I may say so myself. She and Mytho turned out to be an excellent method for getting you here.”
“Mytho lured me to Kinkan on purpose?”
“Of course not. Don’t be more foolish than you have to.”
Fakir had been watching Drosselmeyer write. “You’re controlling all of us. Whatever you write comes to life; that’s how it works.”
“Exactly.” He looked up from the notepad briefly. “If I were reading another author’s work I would be annoyed with him for stopping the action to explain the backstory, but the opportunity is irresistible. An audience such as yourselves doesn’t come along every day.”
“Are we even real?” I asked. “Were we ever born, or did you just make us out of ink and paper?”
“You’re my creations, through and through,” he said. “You’re mostly human now of course, but you were a duck for a long time before you ever were a girl.”
I wanted to punch him but I couldn’t free myself from the chair. “So you just created fake memories? I never went to ballet school before, I never had the life I thought I did? You just change my shape because you feel like it?”
Drosselmeyer seemed surprised at my reaction. “I had to. Otherwise, there would have been no reasonable excuse to bring you here as a student. What good is a story without tragedy? Happiness is boring.”
“I think everybody else in this room would disagree with you.”
The past several minutes, Fakir had been ignored and had kept silent. Now with a jerk, he freed himself from his chair and lunged at Drosselmeyer.
“Oh now, that won’t do,” the old man tutted. Fakir was pushed back to the chair. He pulled out several pages covered with his handwriting. “Shall we move things along? I’ve had the conclusion in mind for days and I’m eager to see how it will play out.” Drosselmeyer wrote one more line and set down his pen. The curtains pulled back to reveal a stage, larger than the room should have been able to contain. On the stage there stood Rue/Princess Kraehe and Mytho, their limbs dangling like marionettes. Mytho had been dressed entirely in black and a small crown sat upon his head. He also held a sword. Several dozen raven puppets hung from the rafters.
The blinding light came and I was dressed as Princess Tutu once more. Fakir and I walked up to the stage, still unable to control our bodies. Mytho and Rue breathed but they showed no expressions. I could hear quiet but ominous music.
“And…begin!” Drosselmeyer said.
Mytho leaped forward and swung his sword. Fakir almost didn’t block it in time. The two of them began to fight, struggling back and forth across a section of the stage.
I had only moments to see this before Rue came at me. Black feathers sprang from her fingers and came at me like knives. Several of them cut my arms and back. We danced around one another, she trying to attack and I trying to keep out of reach. The raven puppets came loose from their strings and flew around the stage, driving at Fakir and I.
I couldn’t look away without being attacked but I could hear Drosselmeyer. The old man was laughing and clapping. “Excellent! This will be the greatest story I’ve ever written!” I wished that the ravens would attack him. Then we could see how much he liked it.
Fakir was shouting as he fought. “Mytho, stop it! You have to recognize me!” Mytho remained silent.
At last I grabbed Rue’s arms. The ravens beat me with their wings but I didn’t let go. “Try to stop this. You’re Rue, not Princess Kraehe. Drosselmeyer might have created us but you don’t have to be the villain just because he says so.”
Tears smeared the makeup on her face. “I’m a raven’s daughter. I don’t deserve to be loved.”
“The raven king was never your father. And Mytho loves you—you’re all he talked about whenever he was with me. Drosselmeyer could never have made that up completely.”
Since greeting us, Edel had said nothing. Now, I shouted to her, “Don’t let him do this to us! You can’t be happy like this. For all our sakes, do something!”
“No luck there, Princess Tutu,” Drosselmeyer said. “She’s the first character I ever created and I’ve had charge of her the longest.”
Edel slowly turned to me. She looked. Then, she turned to Drosselmeyer. She leaned over the desk and grabbed the papers.
“Stop that!” Drosselmeyer said. “I’ll write you out of the story, just see if I don’t.” He tried to take the papers back but she moved away too fast. He took up the pen, but it slipped from his fingers and fell beneath the desk.
She ran to the fireplace as Rue and I watched.
“I’m warning you. Stop that right now,” Drosselmeyer told her.
Edel shoved the notepad into the fire. It had barely started to burn when he caught up with her. He tried to pull the papers out. She grabbed them up and jumped into the heart of the fire.
“No!” I screamed. Rue held me up.
Drosselmeyer started to change. He glowed as though there was a fire beneath his skin. The colors of his clothing melted together. Before he could do anything, the fire in the hearth blazed up and there was nothing left of him but a pile of ash.
The ravens and the swords vanished. All four of us were dressed once more in the school uniforms. Mytho embraced Rue, laughing almost hysterically. He kept saying, “You’re back! It’s finally over.” Fakir watched them, looking uncharacteristically happy.
I went to the fireplace. Drosselmeyer’s ashes in a little heap and I kicked my foot through them. The fireplace was cold. I couldn’t see any sign of Edel or the papers. A stranger would never have known that she existed.
Somebody touched my shoulder. I turned around and saw the other three. “Do you think she regretted it?” I asked.
“No. She did it for you,” Fakir said.
Rue smiled and I saw how pretty she was for the first time. “Come on, let’s go outside. I want to see what’s changed.”
We left the building, Fakir and I holding hands.
Things at Kinkan Academy continued as normal the next day. It seemed as though nobody even noticed that the principal was gone. I wondered how much control Drosselmeyer has possessed over his creations by the time I arrived. Fakir and I sat in the sunlight outside the main dance studio. Through the glass windows, we could watch Mytho and Rue practicing a pas de deux.
“Do you think he was telling the truth, that he made all of us up?” Fakir asked.
“Who knows?” I lay back on the thick lawn. “But now, I think we’re more alive than he ever was.”
“I guess. Are you going to stay at Kinkan?”
“No. I really am a horrible dancer when I’m not Princess Tutu and I don’t care enough about dance to prove Drosselmeyer wrong on that count. What about you?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I like ballet but I’m not as passionate about it as Mytho and Rue. And I’ll never be half as good as them.”
I laughed. “They’re so focused on dance, I’m surprised they even have time to think about each other. I’m thinking of going back to the detective agency. Edel won’t be there but I think I could run it. It’s as much home as anywhere else.”
“How would you feel about having an assistant?” he asked.
I smiled. “I’m sure we can work something out.”
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-14 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-14 05:10 pm (UTC)I had way too much fun visualizing Fakir hitting the ground with a definite THUD after seeing Ahiru transform.