This choice: It's Haru, portrayed as an evil and condescending princess. • Go Back...Chapter #8In Which Ann Has to Eat Eleven Children by: Silverhammer   Akira started on his long, peril fraught journey to the giant ornate castle...
[Look up stuff about bugs, write a scene of Akira fighting the crap out of some giant bugs later. -F]
Finally arriving after much hardship, including having his shirt ripped off and thus revealing his amazing abs to the world, Akira slipped under the giant door and crept inside.
---
“Her dedication to her craft is astonishing,” Yusuke muttered dryly.
“This is one of the more recent files,” Makoto said in defense of their absent friend. “She may legitimately be planning to add these scenes later.”
“My abs are indeed amazing,” Akira confirmed with a nod.
Ann flicked him in the ear.
---
The inside of the gigantic castle was as beautiful as it was imposing, with golden floors and walls, and jewel-encrusted furniture everywhere.
“Wow,” Akira said, taking everything in. “This definitely qualifies as something 'worthwhile.' Just a tiny portion of this stuff could keep LeBlanc in business for the rest of our lives.”
He rubbed his hands eagerly. “Welp! Time to steal from the proportionately giant castle in the sky! No way that's going to end badly for anyone!”
Just as he said that, the floor started shaking rhythmically as the castle's giant owner approached. Acting quickly, Akira hid behind a chair leg just in time to see a five hundred foot tall girl with fluffy hair and an ornate gown stomp into the room.
The giantess took an experimental sniff, able to tell already that something was amiss.
“Fee, fi, fo, fum! I smell the blood of...”
She sniffed again.
“Wait... is that... coffee? Oh, it smells delightful! Now that I think about it, I could go for a cup of good coffee. I wonder if...”
“Haru-chan!” Another booming voice called out from the other room. “Stay in character! We're supposed to be evil, condescending princesses!”
“Sorry, Mako-chan!” Princess Haru apologized to her bossy friend.
---
“Bossy?!” Makoto exclaimed, glaring at the laptop. “I am not bossy!”
The others looked around the room awkwardly.
“I'm not!” Makoto insisted. “Akira, tell them I'm not bossy!”
“What happens next, Ryuji?” Akira asked, changing the topic.
---
Taking Princess Makoto's admonishment to heart, Princess Haru took a deep breath and let loose a wicked cackle, sitting down at the chair Akira was hiding behind. The adventurer got as low to the floor as he could, mindful of the giant bare feet before him that could spell his doom if the giantess made an errant movement.
The evil princess placed her hands on a black and green crystal ball and uttered a chant she had many a time before. “Oh great and powerful oracle, ensnared in our crystal prison and bound to our whims! Tell me what I wish to know!”
Within the crystal ball, the fog started to part as a meek, ghostly girl with thick glasses and long flowing hair looked back at her, trying to keep the contempt for her wicked captors from showing on her face.
“How m-may I help, Princess Haru?”
“Let's see,” Princess Haru tried to remember what she was supposed to ask. “First of all, Mako-chan... I mean, Princess Makoto, wants to know if the growing army of Shibuya poses any threat to us?”
“Not after she stomped on their houses and forced half the population to work as her foot servants,” the oracle said. “She can leave them alone. In fact, she should totally leave them alone. N-no more hurting the tinies. It won't end well for the th-three of you.”
“That oracle's not the boss of me!” a third voice called out. “They didn't give me enough crepes for my monthly tribute! I asked for three thousand, and they gave me two thousand, nine hundred, and eighty nine! That means I have to eat eleven children!”
“Ann has to eat eleven children, Haru-chan,” Princess Makoto informed her imperiously. “Our hands are tied.”
The oracle winced. More people from the neighboring tiny village would feel the wrath of these wicked giantesses, and she was powerless to stop it.
---
“Wait, why are the three of us evil?!” Ann demanded.
“Art is a reflection of its artist,” Yusuke said, thinking aloud. “Perhaps she feels intimidated by the three of you?”
“Maybe I am a little too stern with her,” Makoto admitted, thinking back on some of her more lecture-heavy conversations with the young hacker. “But she really should stay out of government databases! And Ann and Haru-chan have been nothing but kind to her!”
“I'm actually flattered that she's including me in a story, considering I haven't known her as long as the rest of you,” Haru said. She frowned. “I'm concerned that my evil giant princess seems to be the dumb one, though.”
“At least you don't eat children,” Ann grumbled.
---
“Let's see, what else,” Princess Haru pondered, trying to remember everything she wanted to ask the Oracle today. “I was going to ask if I was still the fairest maiden in the kingdom, but I know you'll just say yes to that after that time you didn't and I dragged you out of the crystal and kept you in my shoe for a week. So instead, I'll ask...”
Haru took another sniff of the air again.
“What smells like coffee? Seriously, it smells delicious! I want to find whatever it is and put it in my stomach right now!”
At her feet, Akira swallowed in horror. Never had he regretted working and living in a coffee shop more than this day.
“Um... I made some earlier!” the oracle lied. “I had some beans lying around in the crystal prison, and, well, even the all knowing mystical Oracle needs a pick me up! Right?”
If it had been Princess Makoto's turn to consult with the oracle, she'd have asked where her tiny prisoner found beans, and proceed to pick the lie apart, find the tiny Akira, and subject him to tortures unimaginable. Princess Haru, for her part, was simply put out that the oracle didn't share.
“Save some for me next time!” Princess Haru demanded haughtily. “I am your princess and your better, and you should know to do that!”
“Y-yes, princess,” the oracle said meekly.
“Are you done yet, Haru-chan?” Princess Makoto asked. “Because we need to decide what to do with these two thieves and their cat that broke in last night. If you want to call dibs on one of them as a tiny servant, you need to hurry! Ann's getting hungry!”
“The blonde one looks tasty!” Princess Ann pointed out.
“Coming!” Princess Haru said, quickly rising from her chair and exiting the room.
---
“Seriously! Why am I a cannibal?!” Ann demanded.
“You did bite Ryuji that one time, Lady Ann,” Morgana pointed out.
“That wasn't out of hunger, that was out of anger!” Ann insisted.
“ANYway,” Ryuji said, continuing to read the story as he rubbed a phantom bite wound on his arm.
---
A long moment after the evil giantess left, the oracle spoke again.
“It's alright. She's gone. You can come out now.”
Realizing she was talking to him, Akira stepped out from behind the chair leg and climbed up the long, ornate tablecloth, reaching the table top and finding a crystal ball with a smiling if tired looking girl trapped within.
“Hi! I'm the Almighty Oracle! But you can call me Futaba. A-are you here to rescue me?”
Akira shrugged. “I am now.”
“Great!” Futaba cheered. “But it won't be easy.”
She gestured towards the base of the crystal, which had three locks on it.
“Listen well, coffee-smelling boy of the delicious abs. There are three magical keys that will free me from my prison,” Futaba said, getting into character as an almighty Oracle. “Each of the evil princesses has one. Princess Haru wears hers around her neck. Princess Ann has fashioned hers into a hair ornament. I... don't know where Princess Makoto keeps hers. You'll have to steal them, but don't let the giants spot you! As you no doubt can guess, they don't take kindly to thieves.”
Akira nodded. While he originally came here searching for treasure so his guardian wouldn't kick him out, he couldn't turn down a cute girl in need.
“I'll save you, Futaba,” he promised as he put his hand on the glass. Futaba returned the gesture with a smile. After a long moment, Akira steeled his courage and climbed down the table, heading for the door the evil giantess just walked through.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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