Sorry Germans, I stole your fairytale, don't start WW III please-
I learned about this in German class today and I was like, "Lmao oneshot idea, let's piss off some Germans by some random cultural thing I'm probably totally gonna miss without realizing it."
You're welcome :)
If you hate me for this just yell at me in German so I can feel threatened 'cuz your language is scary, plus the yelling makes it more terrifying- ~~~
My crew became wary as we approached the narrow part of the Rhein. We could crash at the smallest error from any person, and if that were to happen it'd be unlikely any of us would survive. The water was a vicious, roaring beast that gave my crew a rather difficult struggle to keep her steady. The darkness from the night provided us no aid in our quest, leaving several of my men to assume we would certainly crash.
However, as my men scattered here and there in the raging waters as the boat threw itself back and forth, a beautiful song being sung from a source unknown caused much of my crew suddenly pause. They seemed enchanted, even captivated, by the melody. I had to admit that even I found the singer's voice to be such a wonderous melody I wanted to hear it every day, but I was perhaps not so swayed as my men. We'd all heard the story of Lorelei causing shipwrecks from distracting crew members with her sweet song, but until tonight we had no reason to believe it was true.
"Do not allow yourselves to become distracted!! Man the ship!!" my voice bellowed, drowning out the voice for a few seconds, but still my demands seemed to fall on deaf ears. Not a single member of my crew resumed their tasks, and I knew I had to act quickly if I did not wish to be in a shipwreck. I made haste in racing to-
CRACK!!!
My body was abruptly thrusted backwards, and I fell off of my feet. Before I could recover from the shock of the sudden impact, I felt the ship begin to steadily sink to the river bed. After that, I only remember fragmented images of seeing my beautiful ship become meaningless, broken parts and being carried away swiftly by the river. I could faintly recall the screaming and shouting of my crew and some being sucked under the surface of the water, but the memories were not vivid enough to make much sense of it. I remember my vision going completely black as there was a throbbing pain to my head, and then there was nothingness.
~~~
I gasped and suddenly opened my eyes, adrenaline rushing through my entire body. I called out the names of some of my crewmates as I believed I was still in the horrible accident, though I quickly realized I was no longer in danger. The sky was now bright blue and the sun was up. There was soft grass beneath me, and there was a beautiful woman kneeling next to me. From the descriptions of her appearance that circulated faster than perhaps even the newspapers, I knew that this woman was Lorelei.
"You... you caused my crew to wreck!" I shouted before the girl could speak to me. I began to make the move to sit up, but with surprising strength she pushed me down.
"I merely sang by the river as I do every night I am lonely. What your crew did because I sang is not of consequence to me," Lorelei responded, her voice firm and yet gentle. Just as when she sang, it was a wonder to my ears that I momentarily forgot I was angry with her. However, I snapped out of it as quickly as I was entranced, now feeling even angrier than before.
"You have no right to say that! That crew was loyal to me and they were very hard workers. I paid them well and made sure to it that they were in good health, and now they are dead because of you!"
"It is not my fault your crew was distracted by my singing," Lorelei kept firm on her point no matter how much I argued with her. Eventually, I gave up on trying to convince her that she had indeed done something wrong, and instead I focused on trying to recover from the wound on my head. Lorelei had informed me that I hit my head on a rock and fell unconscious from the impact. I asked her how she had managed to recover my body from the river because of the sheer cliffs, but she did not answer no matter how much I pressed. What could she have to hide that she seemed to almost desperately want to keep secret?
"Lorelei, you have to tell me-"
"Lorelei is not my real name. It is the name for me that a man chose while telling my tale to others. They spread that name and so I have been known as Lorelei," the girl sighed, an almost defeated expression from the information she'd just given to me. Something about what she had just told me seemed to sadden her for whatever reason, though I did not know why. Perhaps she didn't want me to know.
"Then, what is your real name?" I asked. The girl seemed to pause momentarily, almost hesitate, before quickly burying her shock. I found it quite odd that she should worry of such a thing as hiding her reaction to my question, but I did not ask for explanation.
"My real name... is (Y/N). I've sung at the cliffs of the beautiful Rhein ever since my husband left for sea. It has been years, and he never returned... the police sent search boats and found evidence of a shipwreck. They abandoned the search and claimed him dead, but I know he is not. My beloved Shuichi will return to me," (Y/N) smiled widely at her own words, astonishing me. Typically those who said those words were truly the most miserable because they knew they were feeding themselves lies, but this woman truly believed it. She truly believed that she would see her husband one day, and it made me feel like she really might against all odds.
I took refuge in the nearest city and notified my boss of the horrible shipwreck and all my dead crew as soon as I could. I also found the time to visit (Y/N) a few times in the few weeks I was waiting for a new crew and ship to be assembled for me. The day before my departure, I decided that I would give (Y/N) one last visit before I would be away at sea.
When I arrived at (Y/N)'s cliff, I immediately knew something was wrong. I could see her silhouette in the distance hunched over something, perhaps someone {it was hard to tell from the distance}, which she held in her arms. However, I could hear her sobbing even when I was a great distance from her. A bit worried for my friend, I raced over to her side to see what the matter was.
It only took me a few moments to recognize that in her arms laid the corpse of Shuichi Saihara.
~~~ Word count: 1152
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Lookie I did a thing on the board of my last year's history teacher... lol. I hang out in her room during lunch and she trusts me enough to be in there alone so I left a message. I hope she left it up for her classes to read...
