Gun Princess Royale: Awakening the Princess, Book One

by Albert Ruckholdt

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because a happy Princess is a better Gun Princess. And a better Gun Princess makes your benefactors very happy people. It is a win-win situation for all involved, including you.”

  “Including me?” A twinge of dread darkened my thoughts. “What aren’t you telling me, Ghost?”

  “Thus far a great deal, I’m afraid because I too am in the dark. Think of me as a rule book for the game, but I am not the Game Master.”

  My dread remained steady. “Ghost, why am I in this body?”

  “Because your original human body suffered extensive damage in Limbo.”

  “Why?”

  The ghost was silent for a moment as though it were figuring out the context of my question.

  “You are asking, why was your body transported into Limbo?”

  “Yes.”

  Again it was silent for a considerable length of time before replying, “I do not know.”

  I exhaled loudly. “Then what do you know?”

  “I know that it was not expected.” The ghost paused as though in thought before continuing. “Having reviewed your memories of the experience, I can say that your trans-location into that Sliver in Limbo was something out of left field, if you’ll pardon the phrase. The Gun Princess who rescued you was clearly in an agitated state. Your hearing had collapsed by then, but I was able to read her lips.”

  I raised my chin slightly. “What did she say?”

  “What the frek just happened?”

  I blinked and swallowed in confusion. “Sorry?”

  “That is what she asked. What the frek just happened?”

  I swallowed again, and the dread I was feeling grew thicker. “So it was an accident?”

  “No, I do not think so. You see, there are significant failsafes in place to prevent the trans-location of an organic entity into Limbo. In order to have you dropped into a Sliver in Limbo would require overriding those precautions.”

  “So it wasn’t an accident?”

  “No. I am afraid to say that it was not.”

  I wasn’t feeling dread anymore, but feeling sick with fear. I began shivering repeatedly, and so I folded my arms tightly around me. “Someone wanted me dead….”

  The silence from Ghost added to the fear I’d succumbed too and my shivering grew worse.

  “No. I do not believe that is the case.”

  The sudden reply startled me.

  Ghost pressed on. “Had they wanted you dead, the Gun Princess would not have been transported along with you.”

  “Then why—”

  “I cannot be certain. But it would appear that someone intends to throw a spanner into the workings of Project Mirai. That is to say, they wish to make things difficult for House Elsis Novis and more interesting for them. It is quite possible they are simply having a bit of fun.”

  I wondered if I’d heard the ghost correctly. “Fun?”

  “Yes. However, if they wished for you to be dead, they could have achieved it at any time.”

  I found myself unable to breath or swallow and my vision grew hazy.

  Ghost then stated with conviction, “I do not believe they want you dead. I would stake my existence on that.”

  “Why me?” I whispered, surprised I could speak at all. “Why?”

  “I do not know. All I can tell you is that you have been chosen to represent House Elsis Novis in the Gun Princess Royale.”

  - II -

  “Who are they?” I asked fearfully.

  “They are your benefactors.”

  Swallowing a couple of times, I asked, “What can you tell me about them?”

  The ghost sounded crestfallen. “Unfortunately, I am restricted from telling you about them. There is a note in my archives stating, ‘Do not tell her about us’. Quote end quote.”

  “…what…?”

  “There are notes all over my archives to the same effect. Do not talk about this. Do not tell her about this. Keep your mouth shut about this. This makes my job bloody impossible.”

  “Ghost, this really doesn’t help or make me feel better.”

  “Agreed. However, I believe that with respect to House Elsis Novis, they will wish to meet with you in due time. That is, sooner rather than later.”

  Sitting on the wall, I turned and faced the island rather than the ocean. “You can’t tell me why I was thrown into Limbo. You can’t tell me about the people that saved me and gave me this body. And you can’t tell me why I was chosen to fight in the Gun Princess Royale. So what can you tell me?”

  “I can tell you that you passed the test.”

  “You mean The Game?”

  “Correct.”

  I remembered the score achieved by the White Princess, and a worrying thought crossed my mind.

  Is Shirohime involved in this too?

  I asked the ghost, “Was I the only one who was tested?”

  “I cannot say.”

  I snorted softly. “Let me guess. There’s another note?”

  “My sincere apologies, Princess.” The ghost was silent for a heartbeat. “Why do you ask?”

  I pressed my lips together for a moment and then shook my head faintly. “No. It’s nothing. Forget I asked.” I crossed my arms. “So I passed the test, and now I’m a supposed to participate in the Princess Royale as a Gun Princess. What exactly does that mean? What does that involve? And give me a good reason why I should agree to participate at all.”

  “Because Princess, I imagine that you want your original body back. Correct?”

  For some reason, perhaps because I was being bombarded with revelations from all corners of the court, and I was having trouble getting a bearing on my situation, I hadn’t even considered the possibility of getting my body back.

  “Is that possible?” I asked tentatively.

  “Yes. Indeed. With the technology available to your benefactors, regenerating your organic body is indeed possible though I am quite certain it would take some time to do so.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it was quite extensively damaged. Have you forgotten? It is unable to support your life and so your mind was copied over to the Simulacrum body you now possess.” The ghost paused as though to take a breath. “I am certain that if you compete and win the Gun Princess Royale, your benefactors will regenerate your human body and return it to you, with whatever corrections are necessary to make you the man you wish to become.”

  “You mean…?”

  “Yes. You would be a man amongst men. A prince amongst princes, rather than the princess.”

  I swallowed hard as the cold chill of reality swept through me.

  - III -

  I sat on the ocean wall, keeping an ear out for the sound of security bots while listening to the ghost explain my situation.

  According to the ghost, my original human body was in the custody of House Elsis Novis, a noble family and one that I had never heard of before. Unable to sustain my life, it was kept in a stasis capsule pending regeneration. Why pending? Because I had yet to agree to anything. Though the plan had been complicated by the unfortunate accident I had suffered in Limbo, my mysterious benefactors still intended for me to compete in the Princess Royale.

  In other words, my body was being held for ransom.

  That part of the plan had never changed.

  The weird part was that I was expected to battle as a Gun Princess, and not a Princess Meister.

  In order to do so, my mind or neural map would be copied to the brain of the Gun Princess, whose unique – and the ghost did emphasize the word ‘unique’ – composition and design would allow her to survive within the realm of Limbo without suffering structural decay. At the completion of each match, hopefully ending in victory, my mind would then be mapped back to a Simulacrum that I would use in daily life, and the process would repeat each time I competed in the Gun Princess Royale.

  While that sounded well and good, there was a catch.

  Each time my mind transferred between bodi
es, the neural map would be corrupted. The amount of the corruption could be as low as point zero zero seven percent, but the ghost explained that over the course of the year the corruption would compound with each transfer, like compound interest on a savings account. Therefore, I had a choice to make, and so the ghost presented me with a few options.

  “The first option is to continue making use of the Simulacrum you inhabit now. I can arrange to have your condition explained medically by reputable doctors affiliated with the Telos Corporation. We can then choose one of two paths. The first path is to retain your secondary female characteristics, perform a few minor adjustments that would make you even more convincing, thereby convincing the Academy’s principal to have you temporarily continue attending school as a girl.”

  I swallowed and crossed my arms, however that reminded me of my new bosom so I changed my mind and placed my hands beside me on the ocean wall I was sitting on.

  The ghost continued its spiel. “The second path involves the reduction of your feminine attributes over a respectable and believable period of time, offering the explanation that you are on medical treatment for your condition. As we return you to your male form, we could even enhance it a little. However, during this time you would be attending Telos Academy as a male student.”

  That sounded good to me, though the idea of having breasts for too long a time wasn’t appealing, and there was no doubt I would be the topic of conversation upon passing. I could almost imagine what my fellow students would say about me, a boy with breasts, and Valjean would indubitably make the most of my condition to torment me. This would place Tobias in a difficult position, however, I had resolved that my friendship with him was a closed matter.

  “The second option, Princess, is to gift you with an entirely new Simulacrum body. Ronin Kassius would take a sudden leave of absence from Telos Academy, and you would return to it as a transfer student. We could arrange for your new body to be tall, dark, and handsome. In short, you would be giving Mister Praetor the Third a run for his money with the greatest of ease…oh, and that other boy too. What was his name…?”

  I considered that a very tempting proposition indeed, and could almost picture the look of envy on Tobias’s face. I also thought of Shirohime and wondered if I could sway her affections with superficial good looks, though in truth I wasn’t sure if that was something I wanted anymore. Certainly she was pretty, a goddess in my humble opinion, and every guy in school would be envious as Hell, but did I want a trophy girlfriend? Is that all she would be to me? I knew there was more to Shirohime than met the eye – Casquada had illuminated that fact – but was it a side to her or a past that I wanted to be involved with?

  After clearing my throat, and shaking my head inwardly to dispel my uncertain thoughts, I surprised myself by absently asking, “Is there a third option?”

  It was almost an offhand question, asked without a true desire to know. Or perhaps, it was my subconscious at work. I had all but made my choice, satisfied with option two, and the more I weighed it against option one, the more certain I became that it presented me with the best prospect of turning my high school life around for the better. Perhaps my situation did have a silver lining after all. Yet despite this, I’d gone and asked for another option, though I did not wait with baited breath.

  “Indeed there is,” the ghost answered. “However, it is matter of consideration for your benefactors and as such I am not at liberty to present it. You could say that option three is a fall back on options one and two.”

  “A fall back? You mean a contingency?”

  “Very much so.”

  I noticed I was biting my lower lip and hastily stopped. “Ghost, you mentioned the Telos Corporation. Why?”

  “Your benefactors have ties to the corporation that makes it easier for them to conduct business in this realm. In fact, they have ties to a great many institutions.”

  Its answer raised a question that I chose to set aside for now. “Ghost, my sister works for the Telos Corporation. Regardless of what option I choose, I have to consider how she will react. If I disappear, my sister will learn of it and she may start looking for me. If I choose to option one, and carry on living with this body, I don’t know if it’s possible to keep my condition, as you worded it, a secret from her.”

  After a lengthy pause, the ghost said, “I can state with reasonable confidence that your sister can be suitably convinced to co-operate.”

  I felt a chill run down my back, strangling my breath a little. “Convinced to co-operate. Do you mean threatened to co-operate.”

  “No. Not in the least.”

  “Then…then how…?”

  “Let us say it is best not to ask.”

  “Ghost—”

  “There is a note stuck in my archives that says, ‘Do not ask’.”

  “What—that again?”

  The ghost released a heavy sigh. “It is not my fault. Think of it as not having sufficient security access. If we did then I could tell you more. However, I can say that your sister is an understanding individual. She will not be an obstacle that must be overcome through brute force. At this stage, it is wisest if you focus on your situation, and leave peripheral matters to me and your benefactors. Well, mostly to your benefactors. I am just another cog in the great machine.”

  Movement in the corner of my eye drew my attention down the paved path running parallel beside the ocean wall. Shaped like three-foot tall bowling pins that employed effect-fields to float a few inches off the ground, a trio of security bots sped toward me though they were still a few hundred feet away.

  As I watched them, I thought crossed my mind and I latched onto it.

  “Ghost, you said you can access photronic networks, right?”

  “Correct.”

  “And you tapped into the school’s surveillance grid.”

  “I did indeed.”

  From my seated position, I pushed myself off the ocean wall and landed on the pavement not far from the snapped pole. “Could you access the security grid spying on the high school shoe lockers?”

  “I believe I can. May I ask why?”

  “I want to know who set me up with this uniform and the note daring me to go up to the rooftop.” Turning toward the approaching security bots, I raised my hands in surrender. “Can you do that for me, Ghost?”

  “Aye, Princess. Your wish is my command.”

  “And one more thing.”

  “Princess?”

  “I choose option two.”

  “Very good, Princess. I will make the necessary arrangements. Please be aware that it may be a week or more before your substitute body is ready.”

  “Do I get to choose its specifications?”

  “Most certainly.”

  My shoulders began to feel lighter, as though the burdens that had piled up consecutively upon them throughout the last few days were steadily being offloaded. For the first time in a while, my spirits began to rise, and truly began to see a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. However, I hadn’t forgotten that all this came at a price, and that sooner rather than later I would need to participate in the Gun Princess Royale.

  The security bots surrounded me, and I watched them deploy their shock batons. Each bot had two batons at its disposal, and I’d heard the charge wasn’t lethal but guaranteed to give a person a very bad headache. However, I’d also heard one boy recount that when he was shocked by a bot that caught him in a brawl with other students, the stun charge ran through his body and settled in his groin. He described it as being kneed in the balls by an angry girlfriend – something he clearly had experienced before.

  I had no intention of suffering his fate so I willingly surrendered to the security bots.

  My situation was complicated as it was without my making it worse, which was ironic as I was standing near the light pole I’d snapped in two mere minutes earlier.

  The bot in front of me approached me with its stun batons leading the way. “Identify yourself.”
r />   “Ronin Kassius, Class One-Cee. Student number four four six one five six.”

  The bot was silent for a while, and faint unease crept along my back.

  “Identity not confirmed.”

  “…what…?” I bowed my head toward the bot. “My name is Ronin Kassius. I’m a student of Class One-Cee.”

  “Profile match to Ronin Kassius, eighty-six percent. Voice match to Ronin Kassius failed. Conclusion, you are not Ronin Kassius.”

  “W—wait a minute. I can explain.” I swallowed quickly and whispered, “Ghost, what the Hell? Can you at least change my voice back?”

  “I am trying, Princess. A moment please.”

  “I don’t have a moment.”

  “Hardening your vocal cords is not as easy as softening them. You must be patient.”

  “I’m about to get my ass and boobs shocked—I’ll probably pee my panties—and you want me to be patient?”

  The security bots edged closer to me. “Ronin Kassius is male. You are clearly female. Conclusion: you are not Ronin Kassius. You have ten seconds to identify yourself.”

  I gaped at the bot, and tried keeping the other two in eyesight by quickly glancing at them. “Ghost? I’m in trouble here.”

  I didn’t believe that raising my dress and lowering my underwear to reveal my male genitalia would make a difference, especially since the ghost had admitted to making things more convincing down there. However, even if the bots concluded that I was male, they would not recognize me as Ronin Kassius.

  Again, swallowing fast, I blurted out, “I want to speak to someone in security. I demand the right to speak to a security officer.”

  The bots ceased encroaching upon me, and the bowling pin nearest to me stated, “Request acknowledged. A moment please.”

  “Princess, what do you want me to do—?”

  “Nothing,” I hissed out the corner of my mouth. “Do nothing.”

  Abruptly an ovoid display window flashed to life on the bellow of the security bot in front of me, and the face of a man with a security cap on his head peered at me. “Are you Ronin Kassius?”

  I cleared my throat nervously. “Ah, yes sir.”

  He glanced away for a moment. “You don’t look much like Ronin Kassius.”