Damn. I dunno if I can out do that last chapter. This one will probably be boring compared to that one. I am planning to have another character or two show up in this chapter but... I dunno, the story will decide that for itself, I guess.

As far as the pairings go, by the way, just before you go jumping to conclusions, is currently undecided. To be completely honest, I was planning to make it Haruhi and Hikaru, and I know it seems to be currently –and very obviously– heading in that direction, but suddenly I'm not so sure that will end up being the case. Who knows what will happen next? I can confidently assure you that I don't. As I've said in almost every chapter so far, the story writes itself, and that's the key to a good story. However, it could just as easily have been Arai or Kasanoda who proclaimed their love to Haruhi in the hospital. Again, who knows? Oh yeah, and sorry about the chocolate cheese cake thing. I totally forgot that Haruhi doesn't like sweets. Eventually I'll edit that, but for now let's just say its sugar free or something.

Okay so I changed the story title just a little. I thought it was more fitting to add more fairytale subjects and stuff, and what do you know? It fits the story perfectly (excusing the fact that its so long, of course)! And hey, there's also a bit of Avatar: the Last Airbender element to this story too I've begun to notice… its very interesting how a lot of the shows I watch end up mixed into one story. I wonder what other elements will reveal themselves to me?

Well, here goes the freefall.

(P.S.: Oh! Oh! FYI, I've been editing the previous chapters and adding to certain scenes to make them more lengthy and less superficial, and so you can read the characters better, so if you care to, go back and reread stuff. I've only gotten up to chapter 5 or 6 so far, but be on the look out.)

Chapter 11

As they reentered the tent, Shigeo's face greeted them and relief flooded his features. "Thank the gods! Is the Lady well? What was it that ailed her so?" Immediately standing, he helped Tanjiro to lower Haruhi onto a pile of cushions that would support her if she were to lie back like a beanbag chair. Though she barely took notice, it was rather comfortable to be honest.

"We have not been told yet," the Prince replied as he sat close to Haruhi in order to be near if she needed anything, "but I think we should let the Lady rest before we ask for the details."

As the Monk kneeled before Haruhi with a frantic look on his face, he bowed his head and spoke with such submissive respect that it unsettled her even more than she already was. "Is there anything I can get you, my goddess? Anything at all?"

Immediately picking up on Haruhi's discomfort and reluctance to use her voice, Tanjiro glanced at her with a look that expressed a silent offer to speak for her if she allowed him to read her freely. To her own surprise, she was relieved for the offer and gave her consent in the form of appreciation, which she was sure he received when he turned to the Monk. "Perhaps something to eat and drink would be sufficient, and I don't think she approves of such royal treatment, my good Monk."

Shigeo sputtered, as if being told he was unable to treat her with the respect he thought she deserved confused him to the point that he didn't know how to react or what to do. But he caught on quickly. "Y-yes, of course!" And he dashed off.

Even though she did not once avert her gaze from the floor, Haruhi felt Tanjiro watching her as she hugged her knees and heaved a quivering sigh, which she did her best to steady as it came out. She was also aware of Isamu's presence nearby in the tent, and he too was watching her. Both men seemed to be surrounded by an air of concern for her. She had no doubt of how badly she must've scared everyone, but despite her trust in her new companions, she still wished it were the actual Tamaki and Hikaru by her side.

She was missing them terribly now, not to mention Kaoru, whose counterpart, Juro, she was very worried about. Even the real Kyouya's presence would have provided a world of comfort, and she had to wonder about Hunny and Mori and what their counterparts would be like if or when she met them. Most of all, she sorely missed her father, and even more so her deceased mother (the one who had raised her, not the Shinigami). Even though she felt she could not talk to them about anything that was happening in this alternative universe, it would still have been a relief to have them with her. But all she had was their counterparts.

More then ever, she began to wish that she could recognize who the voice who had uttered desperate words of love to her unconscious self belonged to. At that, her thoughts drifted to the car accident that had started this whole thing. She kept thinking of Hikaru, who had simply wanted to spend some alone time with her, and how he had been so honest about asking her permission for that time. Since that moment, none of the hosts ever just asked her for her time, not with her happiness in mind anyway. And of course Tamaki had to ruin it. It wasn't that he was jealous or trying to steal her away. She very much doubted that. No, he was just being the same old idiot that he always was every day. However, it had sparked a long harbored jealousy in Hikaru, who in turn reacted badly. Was it his fault that she had been hurt? She hated placing the blame on either of their heads, but if she ever got back to the real world, she would make them both apologize, not just to her, but to each other and everyone else who was worrying about her.

The tent was silent as she brooded, with the exception of the people talking outside and the commotion of Shigeo trying to prepare for her a meal and drink. It wasn't until her emotions were starting to numb out that Tanjiro felt her forehead as if suspecting her of a fever, then put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently, bringing her back out of the depression of her thoughts.

"It will be alright," the Prince told her, giving her the warm smile Tamaki would usually flash her if she were in need of comfort, which –confusingly– both upset her more and calmed her down, "I have no idea of what's going on, but I feel safe in saying that it will be alright. It turned out okay this time, did it not?"

She turned her head to look at him, and then at Isamu, realizing that both of them really had no clue about what kind danger she had just been in, and she knew they deserved to know after being so kind to her. She sighed again before she decided to speak for the first time since she had come back from death's arms. Unfortunately, that met she would have to talk, in spite of how much she really didn't want to. "I... I'm not entirely sure I grasp it myself." Surprisingly, for whatever reason, using her voice again actually calmed her, as if it were a confirmation that she was really still alive and in existence.

"Grasp what?" Tanjiro asked gently, his tone and expression giving away that he was relieved to hear her voice again. He could probably estimate what he thought had happened from what her emotions were telling him, but there was no way he could guess the entire truth that way.

But as she opened her mouth to reply, she realized that he also had no clue that he was just a figment of her imagination, a copy of what was outside of her mind, and she hesitated. She wasn't so sure how he would take such knowledge, even if he did believe she was a goddess or Deva or whatever. She glanced away again as she tried to sum up the courage to start explaining.

"Please, tell me," he urged her, using soothing tones in the hopes of helping to subdue the discord within her enough that she would be able to talk more, "I'm here to listen. I want to hear what you have to say, and I promise you that nothing you can say would deter me." With each word it became increasingly obvious to her that he was utterly oblivious to the truth of her turmoil. All he really knew was that she felt exceedingly upset, and he was simply trying to find a means with which to help.

Haruhi grunted quietly in dismay. She really didn't want to chase her only companions of this world away, and she definitely did not want to be alone in this universe. She would have to explain in the simplest way possible, so she chose her next words as carefully as she dared. "Have you... ever thought of other dimensions such as alternate realities or parallel worlds, and… stuff like that?"

He looked at her with a curious expression, hungry for whatever information she was willing to spill. She had to give him credit for speaking the truth of wanting to listen to her at least. "I have heard of such things. They have never been discovered, but I would not be too surprised if they existed. …Though I would have to admit that I'd be impressed."

"Well..." She believed his claim that he would not be swayed to leave her side no matter what she told him, but she seriously doubted he'd believe some of it. For that, she could not blame him, or anyone else for that matter. How would you feel if someone told you that you weren't real? "You could say that I'm the proof."

His face actually lit up, as though he was happy to hear those words. "So there really is such a thing?" He breathed with excitement. "What is it like?"

She was almost surprised by that reaction, but it did give her hope. So she did her best to explain the real world and her life in as simple a way as possible. It actually turned out more like a mix between Greek mythology, Christianity, and Buddhism, which had not been her intention. She tried to keep the element of ordinary life in it as much as possible, but explaining such things to a figment of your own imagination might prove a bit daunting to anyone. She eventually got to the point where she explained about how she had lost her mother, how she had accidentally gotten herself mixed up in the Host Club, and then about how she ended up in this world and how she had a Shinigami guide to help her. She then went to the trouble of describing the most recent disaster that had almost befallen her. The only important detail she left out was the fact that this entire world was only inside her imagination at work.

Tanjiro didn't miss a beat. He clung to her every word, asked questions and made comments here and there, sometimes interrupting her with long-winded speeches or stories of his own in his excitement. Isamu, on the other hand, kept to himself. Whether the demon was listening or not as he stared into a corner of the room away from her and the Prince, she couldn't tell. As for Shigeo, all they heard of him was a few mess ups and curses from somewhere at the back of the tent.

She could see that she couldn't completely hide everything from the empathic Prince, but thankfully he did not push her. Either he had forgotten amid the fervor, or he had decided there were some things that he was not capable of understanding and as such were better left unsaid. She very much appreciated the respect for her privacy that she was usually deprived of in the real world.

"Hey," it was then that Shigeo finally returned from wherever it was he had vanished to, "I just had a revelation." In his hands, he came bearing a round wooden tray of plastic teacups and glass bowls of ramen, which he placed on a rug in the middle of the room where everyone was seated.

Tanjiro was in the middle of bombarding Haruhi with questions about how similar he and everyone else he knew were similar to the people in her world –Isamu lying comfortably across from them with a stoic expression as he listened, inputting his own occasional questions and comments whenever he felt it appropriate– when the fun and games came to a grinding halt. All three of them turned to the Monk with varying degrees of curiosity in their expressions.

"What about?" Tanjiro asked, adopting a tone of seriousness that almost didn't seem to fit his normally aloof and princely features. It almost seemed as if he were expecting bad news to come from Shigeo's mouth.

Haruhi had almost forgotten about her recent plight, but seeing the face of her father in someone she didn't even know brought everything rushing back. Almost immediately she became depressed again, though not quite as intensely to her relief. Although she was not particularly famished for food or drink, she took one of the cups of green tea and took a sip of the sweet beverage anyway as the conversation continued.

"I've been doing some serious thinking," he announced as he took his appointed seat of prophet and fortune teller, "And after hearing the Lady Deva's story, I have come to the conclusion that the prophesy made by the Oracle of Kotoko about a Lord Deva may not have been entirely false after all."

Haruhi glanced at the Monk briefly as she took another sip of her ice tea, making note of his claim to have heard the entire conversation between herself, Tanjiro, and Isamu. She didn't entirely believe him, but somehow, she couldn't find room to doubt him either.

"What the hell are you talking about, you stupid Monk?" Isamu scoffed rudely, apparently unafraid and unashamed to make his disbelief in Shigeo's abilities known. "Everyone knows that Prophesy like the back of their hand. At no point whatsoever does it even hint at the idea that there could be two Devas, and not to burst your bubble or anything with whatever bizarre fantasies you may have as an okama, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that our girl here is definitely not male, nor does she have any 'extra parts'."

She couldn't help it. It was an involuntary reaction. As soon as the demon's explanation about just how confident he was about his knowledge of her gender reached her ears, the sip of ice tea she had just taken instantly gushed back out of her mouth in a long auburn spray of liquid like that of a geyser, and without meaning to aim it that way, it ended up landing right in the Monk's face, but she skipped the apology and went straight to screaming at Isamu as a small blush of humiliation crept into her cheeks. "And just HOW in the HELL would YOU know THAT?!"

"Why does it matter so much to you?!" Isamu screamed back without missing a beat. "I'm a demon, not a human, there's a difference! It's the same as looking at a tree or an animal; it holds no pleasure for me! At least my hormones are in check, unlike a human!"

She must have punched him pretty hard, because not only did he howl in pain and cringe away from her, but there was a bump forming on top of another large bump in the spot she had struck. Maybe she should apologize or feel badly, but she couldn't help how satisfying it felt to make him cower before her after what he had just announced to the world. "That's no excuse! My privacy should be mine, and mine only, regardless of how anyone else feels about it! All I've ever asked is that you respect that! Is that so hard?! Now I'm pretty sure that the kitsune didn't let you peek, so when and how did you see me?!"

It wasn't hard to see that Isamu wanted badly to answer if only to say his peace get her the hell off his back, but for whatever reason, he grudgingly held his tongue and turned away with a look of anguish burning in his eyes. She almost believed that what he was saying was true, but coming from someone who looked and sounded identical to Hikaru (and wasn't Kaoru), it just didn't register with her as real, and the way he looked and acted now reminded her with a sharp pang of the real older twin. That aside, getting caught in her underwear was one thing. It was quite another to be caught totally naked, and that's not counting being mocked for it, but it wasn't so much that she was worried about what he had seen. It was the nature of how he had come to see her in such light.

She noted how neither the Monk nor Tanjiro made a move to put an end to the sudden quarreling. She could guess with confidence that the Monk did nothing because he didn't want to incur the wrath of the Deva upon himself. The Prince, however, she could never figure out how to read. Though he looked concerned, he simply sat there watching her as though trying to calculate what she would do next, but his reason why was as mysterious as he was. Maybe, with his empathic power, he knew how she felt and thought the demon deserved retribution, despite that he would have delivered it differently. Maybe, to a degree, he felt the same way as the Monk. A multitude of things could have been the reason, but at the moment, she couldn't care less. She wanted to hear what Isamu had to say for himself. "Tell me!"

"The processing of slaves," Tanjiro announced suddenly, making Haruhi look at him and Isamu flinch at his words, "While you were within the Tonnerre Trading Facilities of Fuannai. Was it then?"

It was then that she finally understood what was going on in the Crowned Prince's head. It wasn't herself that he had been empathizing with. It was Isamu. How long had he known? "What processing?" She asked Tanjiro directly, her voice suddenly taking on a calm tone.

"If you don't know, then be glad," the Prince answered grimly, "The details can get grisly and I don't think you're ready to know yet, so I'll skip straight to the point. Almost any race of male or female that goes through it consciously will almost certainly never be the same again. Depending on what kind of person does the processing and what degree or type of processing is done, it can be cruel and painful since they consider you no more than produce, and it's not always done in isolation. I'm going to go ahead and guess that yours was done in the open, and that because Isamu decided to put on a female form, he was forced to undergo the female processing, which can usually be more brutal than what males go through."

She had no idea what it was like to have empathy, but that he could deduce that much just by experiencing and reading emotions told her that he knew what he was talking about. With that, her rage melted away and she turned back to Isamu, unsure now of what to feel. "Is that true?"

The demon hesitated, and she saw a twinge of pain flash across his eyes, the kind of pain that came when he was thinking of his brother. "…I didn't tell you because Juro wouldn't have. He would have never said anything just so you could keep your sense of innocence, but I think he's become way too soft after losing Rein, and since you know now, I might as well tell you regardless of what he would want." He somehow found the courage to look her in the eye. "Remember how you were preaching about how precious your virginity was? Well, you might as well have said goodbye to it when you were taken by the Tonnerre Trading Cavalry. Among all others, their processing exploits everything. No virgin is left untouched."

A surge of multiple emotions of varying degrees coursed through her until she was feeling everything and nothing at the same time. Her heart began to race again –almost jumping out of her chest– and she could feel her blood pumping so fast it almost made her dizzy. The sound of it pounding in her ears like the deafening ring of a large bell made her temples throb with pain. There was a deep churning of her stomach, as though there were something boiling deep within her soul that urgently needed to be unleashed. She was almost shaking from the physical reaction. Hot tears stung her eyes, but this too was only a physical reaction. There was no emotion attached to the salty stream that trickled down her cheeks.

Her thoughts were racing as well, but it seemed to her to happen much slower that it probably was. Though it hardly registered, she noticed the looks and a few exchanged words of awe and utter shock from the three men around her, but whatever their individual reactions, they went ignored. It occurred to her that if this universe was really all in her mind, she had power here. She had the power to do and change whatever she desired whenever she pleased. She could very possibly possess more power than anyone she could dream up in this world of fantasies. Maybe all she had to do was channel her feelings and use them to shape this reality to her will.

With her mind set, she was faintly aware of her body moving by itself to stand close to Isamu. It was almost like an out-of-body experience, except that she was looking out at the world from the eyes of her physical form despite being almost completely detached; a dream, but not a dream. Someone new entered the tent and said something, but she couldn't hear the voices of anyone around her anymore, nor could she see them. She was only aware of their existence and the changes in their energy. Gathering power from the well of energy and emotions that had built up within her, she closed her eyes and let the desire for change consume her.

That was the last thing she remembered.

Okay, maybe I can out do myself. Sort of.

By the way, dreamer_nobody979, I'm gonna take you up on your suggestion to make Haruhi pretend to be a boy. I got stuck in the middle of this chapter and it was just the push I needed to get going. In fact, it gave me a BRAIN BLAST of an idea, so THANK YOU!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!! Please, if anyone else has a suggestion, don't be afraid to tell me. I get stuck kinda often, so suggestions might be a HUGE help! Also, don't be disappointed if I don't use your suggestion. It very well might come into play a little later (plus I tend to edit a lot, so as unlikely as it might be, it's possible that you'll change something in a past chapter), so you're not wasting your time, I promise.

Anyway, please don't forget to review!