When I first watched Prince-Sama all those years ago, I legitimately thought the poor girl was blind until it was established that no, she was not XD. It was the style of her eyes that threw me off at that time. So, I decided to make an AU out of this old misconception of mine!
In the first episode, Haruka mentions to Shibuya Tomochika that she had poor health as a child. Seeing as she as young, in this AU she was born legally blind. Not completely blind, just... legally blind. This is probably not the reason she had poor health, but it certainly contributed to it.
At the beginning of the series, she has a Golden Retriever Seeing Eye Dog named Hayate; yes, named after her idol Hayato-Sama.
She also has a long white cane with a red bottom; this means she is not completely blind. However, it is usually folded up in a purse or pocket and she only takes it out if it is truly needed. She wears sunglasses on sunny days.
Some things will not be true to real life. But when is anime ever?
Episode 1 synopsis below! It’s mostly the same as the original episode with changes to account for Haruka’s blindness, but that is because we must set the stage! (Spoiler: The ending is very different!) Ready, go!
Episode 1 synopsis
When Haruka begs the guard's to let her in, Hayate sits there making puppy eyes at them. She doesn’t grab the guard, but people watching coo at Hayate, same with the guard behind the one talking to Haruka. The guard then asks why a blind girl would even bother taking such a test for a prodigious school. She tries to defend herself and this is where Otoya steps in.
When Otoya starts talking to her and sees her eyes for the first time, he blushes thinking they look cute. He reaches out to pet Hayate, but then sees his vest and pulls back.
Haruka helped the lost girl by taking her around town until they found the child’s mother and retracing the child’s steps. Hayate helped to calm the girl down enough to get her to work with them.
Ren says his whole spiel, but then adds that are famous composers who have created music even with disabilities like Beethoven, so why couldn’t she take the test?
Haruka took the test in a specialized room, with previously set accommodations. A dictator read her test out loud to her, and for passage questions, she was given a brail booklet.
She met Tomo after the test; they were both released around the same time and Tomo immediately latched onto Haruka. They met outside the school before term started.
She had to keep asking Tomo what was happening during the entrance ceremony, who was more than happy to with over-exaggerated hand movements and sounds.
When Otoya recognizes her in the classroom, Haruka says ‘Oh! Based on your voice... you’re the first boy that helped me, right? Thank you!’
She asks to ‘see’ his face by tracing it with her fingers. Otoya agrees with a blush and fidgets his hands while she traces his face. He becomes even more embarrassed when she asks if he is okay because his face is really hot.
When Shinomiya jumps to latch onto Haruka, Hayate growls in warning pulling her away while Masato grabs her hand at the same time, but because of the unbalance of Hayate pulling, is unable to knock Otori into her place... So Shinomiya faceplants into the desks.
When talking about Elizabeth, he finally notices Hayate and immediately starts petting him, saying he is just like ‘his Eli’ while Hayate growls at him. Otoya pulls him off, berating him while Haruka begs him not to do such a thing because he’s working. When Shinomiya becomes confused, Masato points out his seeing dog vest. Shinomiya has a sudden realization and apologizes profusely.
Haruka notices the classmates negative perception of them. She clenches Hayate’s lead and says she’s going to sit back down. The others look at her confused.
When Ringo-Sensei comes in, Haruka sees a blurry image of him and assumes from the long hair he is a woman, even with the masculine sounding voice. She still becomes shocked when Tomo tells her he’s actually a man.
When Ringo comes close and slams on her desk, before he can say much Hayate growls and barks at him. That’s when he realizes Haruka is his blind student and his reprimand becomes less harsh.
Ringo has automatically labeled Haruka as weaker in his mind. This is going to color both his interactions with her and her perception of him, as well as lower the classes perception of her. He also mentions that the headmaster wishes to see her after class.
Hayate growls at people that get too close too quickly. He especially growled at Tomo when they first met but mellowed out around her when he realized she wasn’t a threat.
When Haruka says that they do not have a TV in her house, she also offhandedly mentions that she doesn’t really enjoy it that much.
During lunch, Tomo reads out the options to Haruka, who can not read the small text.
When Shou catches her card for him, he asks, rather rudely, what was up with her eyes, then saw Hayate. This is when Ren comes in and reprimands him for being rude to a lady.
After lunch she’s led by a teacher to the headmaster’s office. Saotome mostly wanted to explain accommodations she would be getting at the school, in account of her... deformity.
Haruka decides that she does not rather like the headmaster.
She would be getting things like a brail copy of the menus, special rooms for tests, dictators, extra help every Friday, a permanent ‘hall pass’ so she could ‘take care’ of Hayate easily, among other accommodations.
Saotome sees her disability as a PR grab; they have a blind student whom they are helping to succeed. The press will love it! He doesn’t really care about Haruka as a person.
He tells her he will be seeing her at the end of every week on Saturday to discuss how things went during the week, for he is a gracious headmaster. This is non-negotiable, so she agrees.
Hayate doesn’t like Shining Saotome.
Haruka arrives back at the room late; mostly because she was forced to find her own way because there was no one to help her.
Tomo helps her put away her belongings.
When telling the story of the first time she heard Hayato, Tomo points out that Hayate’s name is very similar. Haruka then explains that she got Hayate shortly after this experience and named the dog after Hayato. Tomo deadpans.
After Tomo leaves to get them drinks, Haruka only notices the cat because of it’s meowing. The cat gets close enough to Haruka to allow her to pet him and feel his body shape, while he touches noses with Hayate, who is also curious of this cat who doesn’t smell like a cat.
When Haruka feels around his collar, he tries to get her to come with him by trying to pull her hand while it’s grasping his collar. This fails. Multiple times.
He then tries to steal her handkerchief to get her to leave the room. Hayate, who thinks the weird cat is playing, instead takes it back out of his mouth, wagging his tail and falling into a playing position. The cat tries again, multiple times. This also fails.
Hayate’s vest has been taken off, so now he wants to play.
Exasperated, the cat soon just gives up and stays with them for the night. Haruka wouldn’t be able to tell easily if he left, and he doesn’t want her confused and wondering about his health!
How the opening, Orpheus Heart, would be changed for blind!Haruka.
The beginning with the boys would still be the same.
In the original, Haruka throws a pen and walks to the window. In this version, she would be sitting at a desk, turning off a voice recorder and tossing it onto the desk with a depressed face.
Hayate would place his head in her lap and she would pet it instead of getting up. Kuppuru would be laying on the desk.
Kuppuru would press a button on the recorder, and HAYATO's face would pop up, as kanji would scroll across the bottom - 'Now playing - Nanairo no Compass.'
Haruka would lean back into her chair, head falling back over the chair as she closed her eyes, Hayato appearing in her mind's eye and she would 'fall' into that pink water like world from the opening.
I like to think this is her ‘inner world’ from her minds eye - since she is legally blind and she sees mostly fuzzy outlines, this blend of color world is her inner world.
In the original, Kuppuru sends some papers flying and Haruka sees the boys faces on them. For obvious reasons, that would not be helpful here. Instead, inside her inner world, Haruka sees what she images her friends (those who support her-) to look like- including STARISH, Tomo, and her grandmother.
All of a sudden, she sees a boy in green that she’s never seen before - and he reaches out to her, physically taking her hand. Quickly leaving her inner world, she’s suddenly pulled past the piano to the open window and is suddenly flying.
Hayate followed her, and Cecil lets him fly with her as well.
It takes her merely a second to feel the wind in her hair and the feathers brushing past her skin, and she’s immediately smiling.
Hayate has his tounge out with a big doggy grin on his face.
She is being carried by the wind to the boys, and while the boys are doing their thing in the opening, they are all calling out her name as she passes them so she knows exactly who she’s passing.
Otoya and Tokiya tell her to reach out her hands - which she does, and they both push her high into the air. Hayate is pushed along by the wind.
And finally, as she turns back around, the notes for the song she previously could not find appear before her.
Here’s episode two!
When Tomo comes back with the drinks, she sees Hayate play with the mysterious cat. She asks in confusion where exactly the cat come from.
When Haruka tells her that it just appeared in the room and that she really wants to keep it, Tomo sighs and agrees reluctantly, but they MUST keep the cat hidden.
They then come up with the name Kuppuru together. Tomo tells her she’ll go with her to the local pet shop to get supplies for Kuppuru after class tomorrow. ‘You need a lot of things to care for a cat, Haru-Chan!’
Before they go to sleep for the night, Tomo helps Haruka write a letter for her grandmother. Haruka told her what she wanted to write, and Tomo wrote it for her.
Haruka believes the rule about no romance to be excessive and not needed, but is not bothered by it. After all, who would want to love a blind girl like her?
Hayate, sensing her distress, puts his head on her foot to provide comfort.
Haruka was bullied as a child due to her blindness. She has low self confidence, but it caused to become opinionated, but she is still inherently kind. Even if those opinions are kept to herself.
She also notes that they specifically say ‘love between the two sexes is outlawed.’ So what about love between the same gender? Is that not apart of the rule? Haruka thinks it’s a little stupid.
Ringo-Sensei ends up reading his lot drawings out loud, accounting for Haruka.
When Ringo-Sensei goes to pick a person to play piano, he glosses over Haruka, saying he would have picked her, but she wouldn’t be able to play it. ‘You understand, don’t you Nanami-Chan? It would be a little bit difficult for you, see?’
Haruka gets very frustrated and upset at his comment, but doesn’t disagree. She clenches her hands in her lap, and her friends look at her worriedly.
The class starts making rude comments, about how a girl like her should have never been allowed in the school. ‘What was the headmaster thinking?’ ‘She definitely cheated her way in.’ ‘No way, someone paid for her to get in.’ ‘I bet she can’t even play any instruments.’
Otoya and Tomo step in and tell them off, while Haruka says nothing. Ringo quiets the class and picks another student to play the piece.
Lunch comes, and it’s raining. Haruka leaves the class immediately, and doesn’t wait for her friends. She’s lost her appetite, and orders Hayate to take her outside near the lake.
The rain does well to drown out her tears of frustration. Hayate is whining and trying to get her to pet him.
Kuppuru finds them first. He jumps onto Haruka’s lap with a sad meow and she starts petting them both. She smiles self-deprecatingly at them, saying that maybe she really shouldn’t be at this school.
That’s when Otoya finds her, placing his jacket over head and saying ‘that’s not true at all!’
After leading them to the gazebo (Kuppuru hangs out on Haruka’s shoulders) Haruka says wasn’t he embarrassed to have a useless composer.
Otoya keeps denying the cruel things she keeps saying about herself, things like she’s a failure and she doesn’t belong here, saying that it was all wrong and encouraging her.
During her tirade, Kuppuru kept licking her face and Hayate her hand.
Haruka finally breaks and tells him her grievances - beside her grandmother, no one has ever stayed or cared to listen.
She’s frustrated with Ringo-Sensei and wishes he would just treat her like a normal student. She may be blind but she doesn’t need special treatment! She’s just as competent as any other student!
She explains that she does know how to play- she just learns music differently from all of them. She’s angry with the class for their insensitive comments.
She’s also frustrated with herself for being so weak. She’s used to this kind of treatment, she should be used to it by now. But that doesn’t make it easier.
Otoya does the best he can to comfort her, but is also stupefied because he doesn’t know how to respond to some of this. Haruka appreciates it.
He then has a grand idea - they can make a pitch to Ringo-Sensei about his treatment of her. If they work together surely their teacher will listen! He was incredibly enthusiastic about it.
It was Haruka’s turn to be stupefied. But then she smiled and agreed. They spend the rest of lunch together in the gazebo writing the pitch.
The end of the day comes. Tomo asks Haruka if she’s ready to go. Haruka asks her wait outside for just a little bit. Tomo is confused, but waits outside the door.
Otoya and Haruka confront Ringo. Ringo is confused why they stayed late. Otoya starts, so Haruka could gather her courage.
Haruka tells that she’s frustated with Ringo’s treatment of her. She may be blind, but she is just like any other student. She does not like being treated differently by Ringo. She tells Ringo that yes, she can play, she just learns it a different way. She is upset with him for calling her our like he has. It makes her feel like she doesn’t belong in this school.
Ringo is a little gobsmacked by their hot takes. He blinks a few times, before he laughs deeply. Haruka and Otoya are shocked by his reaction, but before they can assume anything, he calls out to them. He wasn’t laughing because he thought their proposal was stupid. He’s laughing because they are the first students ever willing to tell him off. Most are too scared to because he’s a professional and could even stop them from ever debuting. He’s laughing from shock, and that he never expected such a hot take to come from them in particular.
He apologizes for his treatment of Haruka. He admits he may been laying it on too thick; he also admits to thinking that she would be inherently weaker than the rest, and that reflected in his treatment of her. He promises to do better, and if she feels he isn’t doing good enough, to tell him. After all, as a pro he’s always striving to be better. Plus, he didn’t want to hurt his adorable students!
Haruka decides she can like him in the future.
Haruka asks if he could give her two copies of the sheet music. He replies sure, but is confused why. She says she’ll prove to the class by the end of the week that she can perform. He smiles and pats her back in encouragement - and immediately pulls back when Hayate growls and lunges forward just a bit. ‘I’ll just keep my encouragement over here then... haha...’ Haruka reprimands Hayate.
However, he reminds them that she also needs to write a song, so maybe she could- Haruka cuts him off, saying she will get it done all this week.
When they leave the room, it turns out Tomo had been listening in the whole time, and she jumps on Haruka when she gets out and congratulates her on standing up to their teacher.
When she starts to lead Haruka away for the pet stop, Otoya asks if he can tag along. Tomo sticks her tongue out at him and says its a girl only event. A jealous Tomo just pushes them quickly out the school while a Otoya goes to try and write some lyrics.
She takes Haruka, Kurrupu, and Hayate to the pet shop. They get things like a fancy litter box, bowls and food, toys and treats.
Haruka makes an additional stop to get one copy of the sheet music transcribed into braille.
Tomo asks if she was going to do that anyway, why get two copies? Haruka explains that it would take too long for the music to be transcribed to learn it in one week, so Tomo would be helping her learn until it was ready! Tomo laughed fakely, realizing that she wasn’t being given a choice in the matter. The cat even has the gal to seemingly laugh at her!
Tomochika spends the rest of that day helping Haruka learn the song verse by verse by either telling her the note pattern or singing it for her, but soon she needs to sleep.
So late at night Haruka begins working on the composition for Otoya. He said he would have some lyrics by the next day, so she needs something too! But... she’s never written music, not really. She’s improvised on the piano, but simply letting music flow when playing is not the same as intentionally writing it out.
Her voice recorder sits at her desk seemingly staring straight at her, with scrapped melodies filling it’s memory. Haruka... just can’t seem to write a song.
Tears blur her vision even more than it already is. She just can’t do anything right, can she? She can’t learn a song and she can’t compose one either. Her useless pride got the better of her.
She falls asleep like this, the exhaustion having got to her.
When she wakes up from the dream about her grandmother, she walks over their open balcony, recorder in hand. She looks to the moon, hits record, and she sings her heart out into a brand new melody.
Otoki, who had been walking around to find inspiration, heard the melody and wandered over to the source - only to come across Nanami. It becomes a Romeo and Juliet moment, just with lots of blushing and without the confession and death.
When Otoya sings, Haruka doesn’t stop starring at him. Otoya asks if something is wrong. She replies no, its just that his singing is beautiful. Otoya thanks her, but is then confused when she says that when he sings, it’s like she can see him clearly, the warmth of soft flames accompanying his music. It’s like the world is bathed in a patchwork of red jewels that refract the light into beautiful rainbows.
Working together, they manage to get their song, BRAND NEW MELODY, done by the end of the week. With both Tomochika’s and Otoya’s help and the braille music sheet retrieved in the middle of the week, Haruka even managed to learn the piano piece, just in the nick of time.
She plays it for the class, eyes closed the entire time for the flex on her class. At the end, the class sits in stunned silence, and Ringo-Sensei is the first to clap for her. And quickly, the rest of the class joins, Tomo and Otoya being the loudest.
Insert Maji LOVE 1000% here! That’s the end of episode 2! I know it seems like episode 2 and 3 were combined, but I’ve plans... big plans!
