The Prince And The Fox 1

Once upon a time, there lived a king named Gori…er I mean Akagi Tawanori who had seven handsome, adopted from birth sons. The eldest was Kogure, he was the most understanding of all the brothers and had always gave them full support.

Next there was the ever-cheerful Sendoh who liked to make fun of all his brothers especially his youngest brother, Hanamichi. Albeit he liked to evoke chaos among the siblings he was actually pretty harmless and cared deeply for each of them.

“Hana kun!!! Where are you hiding!!” Sendoh lovingly called for his youngest brother with a mischievous smile plastered on his face.

Then we have Mitsui, the most serious of all the siblings. He took things acutely and handled himself well though at times he did reveal his tender side to Kogure. There was something about him and this thing called pride though the truth was his past made him acted that way.

“Baka Sendoh! I’m trying to sleep here!!!,” Mitsui grumbled in a low tone, concurrently pulling the soft pillow to cover up his ears.

The forth son was Fujima, the one who possessed a pair of mesmerizing eyes and claimed to be the descendant of the Greek divinity due to his good looks. He was born with female qualities. Many royal bloods from other kingdoms tried to seduce him due to his looks. Some of them mistook him as a princess in man’s attire. Tough luck.

“ How dare you…*mumble*…call me ungraceful!!…*Tossing around wildly* I’m the most handsome guy in the land *mumble* *mumble* ” Fujima was having one of his dreams again.

Next in line was Kiyota or better known as Royal Monkey the 2^nd. His favorite pastime was to either brag about his superiority in front of his brothers and subjects or harassed Hanamichi if not being harassed himself.

“That stupid Red hair monkey!! I’m gonna get him for this!!” Kiyota Cursed in front of the mirror after looking at his face, which was scribbled with a goatee, pointed eyelashes, and a pair of circles around his eyes. He grudgingly held onto what seemed to be a piece of charcoal that he found lying on the floor.

Then there was Yohei, calm as can be but no one knew what was lurking under that nonchalant façade he wore. He was overly protective of his brothers and absolutely disliked to be ordered around.

Lastly, there was Hanamichi, the youngest of all the seven princes. He has fiery red hair and one couldn’t possibly miss it if they were to see the prince. They called him Royal Monkey the 1^st next to Kiyota owing to his loud, impudent and arrogant ‘Tensai’ behavior. Those were the visible qualities, common people saw in the prince but not his siblings. Well maybe some of his siblings. Once you get to know him better, he was actually a warm, easy going, loyal person and can be understanding if given a chance.

Hanamichi with a very pissed off expression on his face, all the while running away to avoid Sendoh, “Sick! Sick! Sick! I’m gonna slaughter that Akira!!”

 Hanamichi liked to play basketball in their Royal court since he was just a little kid. Sometimes, either Sendoh or Kiyota would accompany him in a dual match. The other would occasionally play with him. He swore to himself that he would wed whoever managed to defeat him in a one on one match other than his siblings. (Angel: You’re not into incest are you Hana kun? *smirk* Hana: Why you!! *) He didn’t announce it of course.

Playing with Sendoh was quite a challenge. Each time they played, Hana would end up loosing though he stubbornly denied it. Hana would either pretend that he was giving Sendoh a chance to beat him or picked up a fight with his brother after he accused Sendoh of making some intentional faults. Being the older ones, Sendoh just played along with his brother nonsensical act and kept smiling all the time. The same thing happened with Kiyota as his opponent. Since both were equally obstinate, none of em’ gave the other a chance.

So far, none of the villagers surpasses his talent. (Hana: No one beats Tensai!! Angel: You must be joking!) Some of them were scared when Hanamichi invited them to play with him and thus let him win every time. (Angel: I knew it! There’re all scared!! Hana: Hey!) They surely didn’t want to evoke his wrath. Winning is a great thing but if you win every time without any challenge is darn boring!

One boring day, Hanamichi decided to take a stroll in the vicinity of his father’s castle. He was fed up with his life. There wasn’t anything that he could do other than facing incompetent opponents each day. His brothers were of no help either. Kogure, his eldest brother keeps reminding him about his responsibilities as a prince.

“Han kun! You can’t keep on doing this! You must learn how to control your temper…bla…bla…bla…ruin father’s reputation…bla…brain damage…bla…bla….Stop struggling!!” Kogure held Hanamichi by the waist to prevent him from beating the poor stable boy who refused to play ball with him.

He just didn’t like burdens! It doesn’t suit him. He was young and was supposed to enjoy life but being coped up in the castle all day long wasn’t his idea of having fun. He was tired of his life and there for settled on to seek for a little adventure on his own.

“I swear I’ll die out of boredom if I don’t leave now!!” Hanamichi thought silently. 

There was a dense forest filled with humongous trees and a diversity of flora and fauna near the castle. Not many people have the pluck to go off wondering alone in the solid woods because they were afraid of loosing their way. Rumors said that those who went never seemed to find their way home. Being the brave prince he was, Hana snuck his way out of the castle to determine his fate.

“Baka! Those guards didn’t even recognize me! He he he! The Tensai always gets away with problem.” A very happy Hanamichi proclaimed suddenly in front of the castle’s entrance with his hands akimbo. He disguised himself as the kingdoms stable boy, clad in only a shredded piece of clothing and a ragged cloak to cover up his face. The sudden proclamation from the prince caused his cloak to accidentally slip down and thus revealed his appearance much to the guards’ horror.

“Hey! It’s Prince Hanamichi!!” Said one of the soldiers.

“Huh? Wh…where?”

“It is he!! Catch him or King Gori (Akagi: I recent that!!) will have our heads!” Shouted another soldier.

“Eh?” Hanamichi eyes seemed to be popping out of their sockets. Not wanting to get caught, he fled for his life with a bunch of guard pursuing him from behind.

::: About a decade ago :::

The scene traveled to some hidden place somewhere deep in the forest where there were other living things unknown to humans. The place was deserted, there was no verdant surrounding, and everything seemed dead and abandoned.

Bones, destroyed mountains, deserted houses they were everywhere. There was civilization once but after The catastrophe, the one that was so horrible, no one dared looked back. They fled away in search for help. Some of them died in their little quest because they were not helping each other to overcome the fear.

Each was determined to find the cure, save their village and become the savior. They felt lost and betrayed, no one to trust and none to depend on. The enemies were too powerful for them to handle at that time.

The enemies called themselves The ‘Fox’, a group of rabid, relentless souls snatchers.

During that intense chaos, one particular, pregnant young women with long, raven hair was unable to get away, she was weak and failed to use her powers to protect her young ones. She could only shield herself and the unborn soul in her by turning invisible.

How she scorned herself for not nurturing her children the ability to turn invincible earlier. She was of warriors’ blood but even so, she was still a frail, helpless mother. In this kind of situation, any typical, loving mother would have bluntly sacrifice themselves for the sake of their young ones but not this one.

‘Forgive me my sons. If I interfere, I’ll die and so will your brother’ she hugged her unborn child protectively.

Two adorable creatures resembled a tiny fracture of her lovely feature. They died before her very eyes; bodies were being separated from souls. She cried, blamed herself for not saving them but then she regained her faith. She swore that the unborn child in her would one day seek revenge for what the monsters had done.

“I’ll avenge them! I will!! I swear!!” She absently kneaded her belly.

~back to Prince Hana~

“Eh?” Hanamichi eyes seemed to be popping out of their sockets. Not wanting to get caught, he fled for his life with a bunch of guard pursing him from behind. Hana ran like there was no tomorrow.

“ *pant* huh…*pant* huh…” Hanamichi stopped running when he saw no sign of the guards. After he regained his composure, his breathing became even and he just noticed that he had approached the village.

“Ah, It’s Prince Hanamichi!!” Someone shouted out of the blue.

The villagers stopped briefly what they were doing to witness what the commotion was all about. They never actually met the prince in person but since Hanamichi was famous for his bloodshot hair. Most of them were gawking at the prince. An old lady was seen to stop momentarily in front of a fishmonger stall with a limping fish in her hands. A barber unintentionally shaved a clear path in the middle of his clients’ head.

“Hey, watch it!!” The man brushed off the hair that had fallen onto the bridge of his nose, careful not to let it slip into his eyes. The man then ran his hand on his head to discover a very smooth pathway.

“Oh, my God!!!! What have you done to my hair!!!”

A man, pretending to be blind, sitting at the corner of the busy market just had to open his eyelids due to the abrupt silence around him. A group of kids were gazing at the incident with large eyes. They practically stopped playing and blink a few times.

“What…where…why is everyone so quiet?” The not-exactly-blind man turned his head from side to side to figure out what was going on. The crowds were blocking his view.

“Uh…hey, get your butt off of my face!!” The not-exactly-blind man shrieked.

“P…P…Prince Hanamichi?” Someone dared himself or herself to speak.

“It’s the ‘Monkey’ prince!!” Proclaimed another bluntly with incredulous tone.

‘Huh? Monkey prince?’ Hana mentally processed the information and eventually his mind recognized it as an insult. (Angel: You’re so slow Hana! :P ho ho)

Hanamichi sharp earshot caught the person addressing him as ‘Monkey'. He spun himself around, with a very crossed expression to search for the source, totally ignoring the tailing soldiers. After all, they were still far away. His speed was amazingly fast that none could catch up with him.

~~At a distance~~

”Are you …’pant’…sure he went this way?” The head soldier questioned his men. He was all puffed and perspiring.

“I don’t know captain, I thought his Highness went THIS way!” One of the soldiers confidently pointed out to the opposite direction.

“No! He went this way!” Another soldier with a bow in his hands lifted his chin up and pursed his lips to point straight ahead.

A soldier who was sprawled on the dirt ground with his thumb pointed skyward, weakly said, “Um…I think he went that way”

All the others, “ …*sweat drop*…”

~~Back at the village~~

“Who dare called the Tensai a Monkey!! Show yourself!!” Hana demanded sternly.

He squeezed himself among the crowds. Not exactly hard to wade it coz’ they respectfully gave way to him and finally directed him to the scared, crouching man. The man covered his head tightly with his trembling hands, silently regretted what he just said. The people around him were staring at his every move, like he was some kind of a new addition to the human species.

A boy pulled on his mother’s sleeve and whispered excitedly,” Momma! Momma! Is he really the ‘Monkey’ prince you were talking about?!”

Hanamichi heard that, he quickly spun around, ignoring the frightened man in front of him.. His burning eyes focused on the small boy. If it weren’t for his mother standing behind him, the threatening gaze would have shoved the boy backward, right to the wall.

“There he is! Catch him men!!” Hanagata said loudly, pointing his fingers at Hanamichi who was ready to strangled the poor boy.

Hanamichi kept on running, ignoring the awe struck villagers. Hanamichi promptly dropped his shredded cloak to make it easier for him to flee.

“*Sigh* I didn’t know the rag was so heavy!” Hanamichi mumbled under his breath while frantically working his feet as fast as he could.

“Gang way!! The Tensai is having a special parade here!!”

He occasionally looked behind his back towards the soldiers until suddenly he collided with some guy who was back facing him. The guy was bent down to pick up his already fallen silver coins.

“Wahhhh!! Uuuff!” They collided as soon as the guy straightened himself up. Prince Hanamichi was about to turn his head back to its original position when ‘Bam!!’,

Hanamichi lost his footing and fell down with his face kissing the ground; his hands and feet were sprawled widely and the poor guy was sent tumbling a few good meters ahead of Hanamichi with his head stuck in a pool of mud. His silver coins were scattered all over the place. The guy’s hands were wildly trembling, trying his hardest to pull himself out of the mud. (Angel: Ho Ho Ho What a mess! :p Hana: YOU wrote it!!)

To be continue

Chapter 2

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