Anissina's First Failed Invention

DISCLAIMER: Kyo Kara Maoh is obviously not mine.

"I'm finally finished!" Anissina proclaimed to herself. She let out a sigh and her shoulders relaxed a little. At least those tiring days were over.

Anissina von Karbelnikoff was the best inventor in the Covenant Castle, or at least she'd like to think so. She loved thinking of new things to create, often making Gwendal her test subject, and the others if he wasn't around. The thing was, her creations seemed to actually do more harm than good. This was obviously something for people in the castle to worry about.

The noble was holding her latest invention in her hands at the moment, inspecting and examining it, making sure nothing was misplaced. For some reason, she had a good feeling about this machine. A feeling that it was… somehow different. She smiled at the thought. She was proud of herself.

On top of her palms laid the "How-much-do-you-love-me-kun". This creation of hers was designed to measure how much a person loves someone. It was red and shaped like a heart, with two antennas attached on one edge. It had a screen that would display the percentage of how much love they felt towards the person. Its size was that of a hand, so not to attract too much attention.

For a moment or two, she wondered what could have motivated her to construct such thing. What was her purpose? Did she make it out of boredom? Or was there some kind of deep meaning behind her actions? She still didn't know, but she decided not to care anymore. Thinking about this was a waste of time compared to what she would be doing in a matter of minutes.

"And now, for my guinea pig. Gwendal!" She smirked as she exited her laboratory.

Gwendal shivered. He knew what was coming for him. Well, who wouldn't. Almost every time Anissina had called him, it would be for him to test her latest creations. He simply couldn't refuse, for it may lead to bigger problems he didn't want to ponder about.

However this time, it was different. He had an eerie feeling about this one… not that he wasn't scared about trying any of her inventions. It just didn't feel the same as usual. He felt like this particular invention would unleash to the world his darkest secrets. He felt that this invention would scar his life in some way, like this invention was the worst invention Anissina could've made. His intuition told him to hide from Anissina, until he was sure she'd find a different test subject. This time, he just had to refuse.

"Where are you heading brother?"

Gwendal happened to run into Wolfram and His Highness, Yuri. How unlucky of him, he thought to himself. What if they thought he was running away and slacking off from his duties? He didn't want that of course.

"To the garden, away from Anissina. Why else?" he confessed, not wanting to give them the wrong idea.

"I thought maybe you'd want to take a break from your duties… so you could spend some time practicing your knitting skills. Anissina told me you had a long – emphasis on the word "long"- way to go." Yuri answered, oblivious to the annoyed look on Gwendal's face. Then he continued, "That's okay though. I'm glad you'll finally get to do something you enjoy doing." The black-eyed mazoku grinned.

Though Gwendal was slightly disturbed, he shook it off.

"Please do not tell her off my whereabouts." He asked of the pair.

"We won't." Wolfram, who was quiet for almost the whole conversation, assured him. He seemed to be quite in a good mood today. Was it because he and Yuri were holding hands and spending some time alone with each other before he saw them?

That question was left unanswered. Gwendal had to hide now, for the clock was ticking, and Anissina would soon come searching this place.

Gwendal then left the two and started walking again. Little did he know that there was another person, besides his brother and the Maoh, who had heard his little secret.

Anissina walked the hallways of the castle. Fifteen minutes passed and she still couldn't find Gwendal.

"Is he hiding from me?" she questioned herself. She was too preoccupied that she almost bumped into Greta, Yuri and Wolfram's adopted daughter.

Greta had always admired Anissina for her strong and independent personality. This was why she would almost always be with Anissina, if not with her parents. The king's daughter always said she'd like to grow up to be just like Anissina. And they couldn't persuade her otherwise. She was Anissina's little apprentice.

"Have you seen Gwendal, Greta?"

Greta was uneasy after Anissina had asked. She was silent, nervous you could say. Anisinna suspected that the little girl knew something she wasn't telling her. And she knew that it was about Gwendal.

"Do you know where Gwendal is?" she pressed.

"I...I don't know if I'm allowed to say." Greta finally answered. Yes, she knew where Gwendal was, for she was at a close enough range to hear their conversation a while ago. She wasn't sure though, if she heard him tell them that it was a secret.

"You can trust me, you know."Anissina said reassuringly.

"No! It's not that I don't trust you Anissina..." Greta paused, "...it's just that Gwendal is hiding from you. And I don't think he wants to be found."

"So he is hiding from me…". A sly smile played across Anissina's face.

"This is going to be interesting."

Thirty minutes after he hid, Gwendal finally gave up and and rose from his hiding spot.

"What am I thinking?" he said out loud. "This is probably the same as all the other inventions that woman had made."

He started walking back to his office. He was going to finish signing those papers, invention or no invention.

Anissina finally spotted Gwendal, thanks to Greta, who finally gave in and told her his hiding spot a few minutes ago. He was in the garden, probably walking back to his office. She thought about calling his attention but decided otherwise. Maybe it was better if he would not know.

She took a deep breath and pointed the antennas toward Gwendal. She waited patiently as the "How-much-do-you-love-me-kun" tried to read him. The numbers on its screen were changing rapidly. It finally stopped after a few seconds.

The machine's screen displayed the "100%". Anissina was wide-eyed and her mouth dropped. She was stunned at what the machine was presenting her.

"How… how could… this be?" she accidentally said it too loud. Gwendal sensed her presence and stopped walking to turn to her.

"Anissina?" he called out, a look of worry and concern shown on his face, though still serious. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." she muttered right away. She turned her back at him and started walking away.

She shook her head in disbelief.

"This…can't be real." she told herself.

"This must be my first failed invention." Anissina came up with a conclusion.

"I must have done something wrong..."

But the truth was, there wasn't anything wrong with it.

Clarification: The "How-much-do-you-love-me-kun" did NOT fail. Anissina just couldn't believe that Gwendal did love her. So she thought of it as her first failed invention. I repeat, That invention did NOT fail. :)

Thank you for taking time to read this story! I hope you liked it. Please review. :)