Vocaloid Tales: The Nutcracker

Chapter 11: The Fall of the Mouse King and Queen

Luka kept her arms extended freely as she preserved her sense of calm to maintain the illusion over the dolls. Such a massive spell could not be cast and forgotten – she needed to concentrate on her task.

Once she and Miku set off inside the castle, she would release it... by that point the chaos within the ranks of the mice would be enough to allow the dolls to storm the castle and try to defend it. Or so they all hoped. She was relying entirely on the military strategy of a yet untested general who'd ascended to her role quite by accident.

But as the loud roar of the "King of all Cats" scattered the first wave of mouse soldiers, she felt a strange sensation. Was she actually... eager for the fight?

'A faerie full of bloodlust... that is most unbecoming...'

"FORWARD!" Miku shouted as she tugged some more levers.

With a great jerking motion the cat reared back... leaping forward most impressively for being a gigantic metal toy. The sight of such a large creature pouncing seemed to have frightened the mice more than even the roar.

"Charge forward!" Meiko shouted to her army.

"No, no, the King of all Cats is going to destroy us all!"

Mice were not brave creatures... they liked fights they could win. Usually they relied on numbers. But a certain instinct took hold of them upon seeing their age old nemesis amongst them.

The wall of the castle grew closer...

"We don't have a ram for that door..." Meiko said in a low voice.

"Then we ram it!" Miku said.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!" the princess shouted, "We're riding the cat!"

"Then just hang on!" the pigtail girl shouted as the creature began to pick up speed.

"Miss Luka, please talk her out of this madness!"

But the princess's pleas fell on deaf ears as Luka gave her a calm smile. "Oh, I think it's a fine plan," she said, "I can't break the illusion yet to blast the door down anyway."

Luka tried not to laugh as the princess gulped and grabbed a large piece of metal. The girl could show some true bravery when called upon, but certain moments still made her jump back into being a sheltered child.

The faerie secured herself carefully as the cat approached ramming speed. The only person's fate she had any inkling of... was Kaito's. And only if he did what he was supposed to do.

Everything else was up to herself.

The stars told stories of the directions of all mortal lives, but until the events took place, that's all they were. Stories. Some of her kin believed them to be more than that – fixed and unchanging. But not Luka. More and more she saw them as warnings and chances, but just as malleable as clay.

She recalled that Gakupo was missing from her vision of Kaito's victory. She had an inkling of why now. She'd heard stories of outsiders consumed by magic, but having finally seen it happening in front of her to Miku gave her some insight as to how swiftly it happened and the nature of how it consumed them.

And how to save the person from themselves.

The great iron door buckled the second the cat crashed into it. Meiko let out a yelp, but Miku's focus was too high for her to relent. Luka maintained the illusion just a little longer as she saw the doll army reaching the doors. "The mice are starting to turn back to the castle..." Meiko said under her breath, "I should stay out here and make sure they don't get in there..."