A/N: There isn't a lot of wmatsui this chapter orz; but there's Yuiparu to make up for it I hope ; u ;. Anyhow, the plots pretty slow as of now, BUT I'LL MAKE SURE TO ADD WMATSUI IN THE NEXT CHAPTER. A LOT OF IT TOO ; U ; YES SO PLEASE KEEP READING <3. Anyhow, thanks to all those who commented and thought it was interesting, I shall try my hardest not to fail you ; ; It's mostly background stuff this chapter, so yeah, just wait for the next one for more wmatsui \ o /
also, I'll do replies next chapter, I just want to hurry and post this ; u ;
i. Glass
“Talk only when addressed to, but be concise. Always be polite and courteous, a slip of the tongue makes a dangerous mistake. Do not let your emotions show, enemies of the throne will take an advantage of any outward weakness – you will not be our weakness.”Jurina had lived by those rules since the moment she had been born.
She could recite the rules forward and backward, her own version of the holy commandments, having replayed them in her head over and over and over until even Haruka knew them by heart.
Her childhood was filled with words of stern rulings from her father with the occasional remarks from her quiet mother. Friends were political allies, not one she should pour her heart out to. Enemies were the ones trying to kill her. Everyone else, servants, guards, even the common people, merely existed to assist her in transferring the crown from her father’s hands to hers.
Choices in her life were not choices; she would rule after her parent’s death, marry an allied nation’s child whom her parents had already decided for, and shift the crown to the next in line for the throne. There were no mistakes in this plan, nothing that would let her stray from the outline of her life she existed only to fill and never alter.
Jurina had accepted it long ago.
And so, she sat at the military meeting next to her father as he and the captains of the royal army quarreled.
“It would be better to push them back altogether, leave the massacring nonsense, it would only stir to cause a war with the beasts,” the general, leader of the army, said. He glared tersely at a younger man who frowned as he jabbed at the border of their kingdom on the spread-out map with a long finger.
“The beasts are too close to the mining village and could easily overtake them if they wanted!” the younger man with a scar on his temple exclaimed, eyes narrowed in defiance. “Exterminating the creatures would be better than letting than wallow happily in our riches.”
She hated these meetings with a passion. They were boring, a talk with no end and no cause. Jurina itched with impatience, her leg bouncing imperceptibly as she thought of the mermaid and her beautiful eyes. She wanted to find the mermaid, wanted to talk to her – anything to know what life was like for a mystical beast.
“Why not just build a wall?”
It hadn’t occurred to Jurina that she had blurted those words out loud, though she immediately regretted it as her father glared at her, mouth a tight line in disapproval. Impatience had taken over for a brief moment, leading the works out of her mouth in a matter of seconds. She bowed her head to glare at the ground, hiding her face that flushed red with humiliation as she tried her best to ignore the airy chuckles that came from the captains of the army.
The younger man interjected with an amused, if not mocking, smile on his face, “With all due respect, Princess, but a
wall-“
“Is a grand idea.”
A new voice spoke.
The feminine voice contrasted wildly with the deep ragged ones of the other generals. It was more youthful, optimistic, and it belonged to a girl – the only one who had managed to rise through the ranks quicker than the general himself. She was an intelligent looking girl with pensive eyes, a small smile playing on her lips as she returned and pointed to the map.
“If we built a wall around the village, as the Princess suggested, would help fortify the mining town, would it not? Not to mention, additions of holes in the walls would make an excellent advantage over the creatures since we could place archers. This way, direct conflict is unneeded and casualties will be minimized.” The girl smiled at Jurina, “Excellent suggestion, your majesty.”
Jurina couldn’t help but break out into a large smile, nodding her head as if to thank the captain. The latter just kept smiling, eyes pointing out the smile of approval that showed openly on the King’s face.
“Yes, do as Captain Yokoyama says, she seems to have the most common sense out of all of you,” the King interjected, silencing the opened mouths of protests from the younger male captain who seethed with anger. He placed a hand on Jurina’s shoulder, heavy with pride and expectations, “And excellent job, Jurina.”
The smile on her face only grew larger.
***
The meeting wrapped up quickly as Scarface, as Jurina liked to call him, bristled with anger. He had almost kicked the door down in his departure after the King had left. The rest of the army captains trailed after him until only Yokoyama and Jurina remained.
“Captain Yokoyama, thank you for today,” Jurina blurted, a splash of red on her cheeks.
Yui only laughed, mirth evident in her eyes, “It’s not a problem, and it was merely the most logical choice.”
“Scarface didn’t look all too happy about it thought,” she mumbled, the blush on her cheeks growing as she heard the captain laugh.
“Scarface, that’s a good nickname-“
“Princess, there you are!” Haruka ran into the room, annoyance clear on her face as she glanced over Jurina with obvious disapproval. “You promised you would meet me outside your chambers as soon as the meeting was over.”
Haruka stopped in the middle of her rambling, eyes widened as she turned to stare at the captain instead of a befuddled Jurina.
“Yui! What are you doing here? I though you said you were going down to the southern border!”
“O-Oh, Haruka!” Yui backed up, an apologetic smile on her face as she looked away uneasily – obviously sheepish at being caught. “I was planning on surprising you,” she trailed off and stared at Jurina for help only to find her gone from the room.
“It seems like the Princess is gone.”
“What!” Haruka huffed angrily, annoyance visible on her face as she turned back to Yui who had braced herself with a punch or two. “She must be with that mermaid.”
Yui blinked open her clenched eyes, surprised, “Mermaid?”
***
It wasn’t a difficult task finding the room with the mermaid in it. The room had pulsed with barrier magic, buzzing softly as she whispered the words that would let her slide past with only a slight shock.
A slight smirk had appeared on Jurina’s face as she walked towards the large cage, virtually unchanged from the first time she had gazed upon it. The mermaid glared back, her large eyes narrowed considerable with nothing short of the thorniest hate she could muster. Even then, she took Jurina’s breath away at the beauty even anger brought to her evangelical features. The hum of magic filled her ears as she got closer to knock softly on the glass that separated her from the magical creature, fingers outstretched to knock the barrier-
“Don’t touch it,” a soft voice reverberated in her mind, somehow flooding her own thoughts.
"Put your hand down, touching the barrier will cause you to fall into shock, I have seen it happen before."Jurina jumped, shocked as she looked around the room, a deep frown replacing the characteristic smirk. The thoughts had come from somewhere, overriding her own senses with a soft, high-pitched voice that spoke with an unearthly accent. The girl's accent was clipped, dragging out strange parts of words and clipping the ends with a uplift of the voice. She looked around once more to make sure that no one was inside the room before staring at the mermaid with a look akin to amazement, “Is that your voice? How are you doing this?”
“Magic,” the voice replied tersely, laced with irritation.
“I know you humans are not the most intelligent creatures, but I have never expected such an idiotic one to be in possession of me.”Jurina frowned. Never had she been insulted in such a crude fashion, nevertheless by someone lowly in status as a captured prisoner traded from a different kingdom. But still, perhaps mermaids did not follow the same rigid structure of humans as uncultured as all mythical beasts were rumored to be. Well then, it would only be her right to put the creature back on track.
“Perhaps you do not know, but I am-“
“Matsui Jurina, princess of the Kingdom of Sakae.”
“Well, that is obvious-“
“Next in line for the throne; however, this makes no sense as you seem to not be able to sleep at night by yourself.” Jurina flushed red.
The mermaid sneered, it's lovely face replaced with something uglier.
"Perhaps then you would have the sense not to trap me in here - idiots, all you humans are the lowest creatures. What a ruler you would make, driving your kingdom into the ground before having a chance to even realize that the monsters you imagine in that unoccupied space is nothing merely but an illusion."Embarrassment flooded her from every pore of her body, scarlet painting her skin from her toes to the tips of her ears as she stared at the mocking smile grow on that damned mermaid's face. It was not as pretty as Jurina had originally thought, with that cold smile and lifeless eyes staring at her. She became angry, this wasn't what she expected - no, this was not she expected at all.
“Well you are a stupid fish trapped in an oversized fishbowl!”
Storming out of the room, her heart dropped as she heard the humorless chuckling of the mermaid behind her fall silent.
Topic: Fishbowl [Ongoing - WMatsui, Mayuki, YuiParu, Kojiyuu, etc] - i. Glass (Read 5732 times)